BU - RE - SU

By Tenshi no Ai

(C) Square Enix

X. -Blaze-

-0-

Another day, another battle.

Beowulf sighed in frustration as he surveyed Dolbodar Swamp. As a hunter, he had learned to avoid confrontations with monsters unless it was to his advantage. But no, now that he was traveling with Ramza's party everything in the wilds between towns just loved to swarm around them. Humans, monsters, humans working with monsters...hell, a bush had smacked him the other day. He didn't care that it was actually a sentient monster; it looked like the local foliage and it actually attacked him. Caterpillars fell out of its branches when it wound up one leafy appendage and thwacked him with it. For over a decade he had studied aspects of magic the common person couldn't even imagine, and yet nothing was as surreal as being abused by a smiling plant.

Exhaling heavily through gritted teeth, he tried not to think about it any longer. But...a bush!

Silent as ever, Reis approached his side. "Beowulf, are you alright?" she asked, gently touching his forearm. He shook his head and continued to study the assorted enemies that dared to challenge them this time. "It's about the other day, isn't it?"

"Mm."

"It really was a monster. You're a hunter, you should know these sort of things."

At the implied insult, he turned his attention away from the murky swampland to give her an affronted look. "It isn't as if I had any reason to hunt down plant life before," he said defensively.

"Of course." Smiling, she patted his arm, which was all the physical interaction he could expect while the rest of the group was around. "After this, we'll be in Limberry. We could use some rest from the last few days, don't you think?"

He smiled at her attempt to cheer him up and replied, "You're right. Well, let's focus on the battle then."

As battles went, Beowulf would later think, it started out like many others. There was an assortment of gobbledegucks, squidmen, and morbols, as well as a very out-of-place male summoner. It was that last one that had everyone confused, but in the scheme of things it paled in comparison to phony saints, Lucavi, and foreigners from other dimensions appearing in Ivalice and running to Zarghidas, which was where the rumors had placed Cloud and the reason why they were crossing this godforsaken swamp in the first place. The monsters worried everyone more than the lone summoner, and since these were low-tier monsters compared to their vastly superior skills they weren't all that worried to begin with. All the summoners the party had come across knew no more than how to summon the lesser guardian spirits, and it took forever for that to happen anyway. So, as per Ramza's orders, they attacked the monsters first.

That was the only mistake they needed to make.

After one morbol's moist flesh hardened into chalky-gray stone, Beowulf turned to see how Reis was doing. The dragoner was a fair distance ahead, holding her place on one of the dry patches of land with remarkable fortitude as she charred one goblin with a blast of fire. The sight of her expelling the elements made him bristle in discomfort, but he made a valiant attempt to reason with himself. It's better that she can fight. After all, it could be worse. She could be stuck in a position where I can't help her, where the only person she can depend on is herself. What would she do then, if she doesn't have her powers?

Seconds after he thought that, Beowulf noticed the summoner was a wee bit too close to Reis for comfort just as the mage finished his incantation with a name:

"Bahamut!"

When Beowulf had been a Temple Knight, the Church had given him all the resources necessary in learning the different magical paths one could traverse. He'd never gotten farther than summoning a moogle, but just the same he knew about Bahamut, the King of Monsters, the dragon god who dwelt far beyond the heavens. Summons were nothing more than afterimages, wisps of mana held into the preceived idea of the guardian beast in question with nothing more than a magi's concentration. It was through the elder mage known as a caller that Shiva and Ifrit and even Bahamut would agree to lower themselves and appear in the physical realm, but those mages had long been regulated to literature while summoners took all the glory. The Church didn't like the idea of humans calling forth beasts of power comparable to lesser gods...or saints.

Yet, there was something a little off about this summoner, whom the monsters saw as a friend.

"Reis!" Beowulf yelled, trying to get her attention so that she would get out of the summon's trajectory, but she seemed frozen to the spot. Splintered wings shimmered into existence behind the summoner, quickly followed by the rest of Bahamut's spindly body rippling into place. The color of its hide filled into the translucent outline, the deep, dusky purple formidable against the dull gray sky that always covered the Limberrian swamp. Bahamut threw its head back in a pretense of a roar, flapping its wings once to propel its image high above the swamp. Eyes as deep as the moonless night stared down, and Beowulf could only watch in growing horror as Reis only looked up in response.

Blue flames rushed out of the dragon god's mouth, its breath igniting the gaseous air that rose from the swamp and causing the entire land mass Reis had been standing on to erupt in flames. Bahamut circled the area, breathing its destructive mega flare all the while, and to the stunned hunter it appeared as if it was trying to fan the flames with its gigantic wings, the summon in turn summoning a whirlwind blaze to utterly consume its lone prey. That something purported to be noble by the ancient texts would have the audacity to be so cruel when it was nothing more than a halfway effective doppelganger snapped Beowulf out of his shock. He did the only thing he could do under the circumstances.

He ran straight into the inferno.

Later, he would realize that he had been instinctively shielding himself with his mana reserves as he barrelled through the flames. He might have survived without it, after all Reis had, but he would've been in no position to help her as she needed. As it was, the fire bit into him mercilessly, going far deeper than just his clothes or body. He choked down his cry of pain and clenched his eyes shut, groping blindly into the heart of the blaze. Only the thought that Reis had to be suffering worse kept him going.

The pain stopped, the resulting calm like ice water after a trek through the desert. A few steps before him was Reis, kneeling with her back to him. He walked up to her, intending to heal her, but just as he reached her she stood up and stared into the sky, where Bahamut hovered placidly before them. Suddenly, she gasped. "W-what do you mean?" she cried out just as the phantom beast dissipated.

"Reis?" Crossing the last step to her, he wrapped his arms around her waist, not caring that there may have been enemies still around. A shot rang out like a thunderclap, felling the summoner, the sudden noise causing her to tense. When she realized what had happened, she sagged against him in exposed relief. With tiredness worming its way through his body, Beowulf lowered the both of them to the ground, trying to support her as the adrenaline seeped from his body.

"He talked to me," she breathed, her fingers digging into his thighs with surprising strength. "He said, 'I accept you.' But I don't understand...I'm not a summoner..." The pitiful tone she employed as she whimpered out the last statement made Beowulf frown. He stroked her hair with one hand and murmured something about how it didn't matter what an image said, even though the phantoms the summoners created had never been able to talk.

It didn't matter what Bahamut said, even if they had knowledge of another dragon with the same dusky purple hide.

-End to Blaze-

Sorry, I'm a Bahamut fangirl. :) Bahamut seems to get his kicks challenging heroes for the right to summon him, but since FFT's summons are a throwaway compared to other FF games he's probably bored. There should've been more references to FFIV since it has his best appearance, but it just wouldn't fit!

If you've taken a glance at my bio lately, you may have noticed that there are updates on the FE fics but none on the FFT side. Right now I have very little interest in FFT, and so after this series is done I'll be taking a break from this section. I still intend to finish what I have left in my planned list, but after that I'll stop bloating up this section and explore other fandoms. It's been a great almost-two years, but it's time to move on. Though, I would still love to continue UFC.

Reviewers!

No, TruebornChaos, I did understand. I was just making a comment. Bah, sorry.
You should definitely play Fire Emblem. It's at least on par with FFT, and in some ways far more enjoyable (particularly the characterization of all the PCs).

Hi, raitei! Your review had me smiling. There are only two things that can truly help one's writing: writing more and reading more.
Let's see...I'm going to focus on FE7 because it's the one I'm playing now. If you want information regarding my upcoming FE fics, please read my planned list in my bio. Though, I'll tell you that I'll probably have my Fiora-centric story up first.