by: Amisha N. Smith
Heh heh, how many of you are enjoying this as much as I am? Finally, time for some real action! Two battles happening at once! Let the mayhem commence! Aw, why the hell am I wasting your time with this introduction? Let's do this, already!
Final Fantasy: Quest of the Elements
Chapter Four
Zidane fought to keep his balance as the Hilda Guarde shook uncontrollably under the vicious onslaught of the abadon swarm. Garnet grabbed onto his arm as she too fought to stay on her feet. Zidane knew that she had to be terrified; not just for them, but for their daughter as well. If the abadon swarm killed them here, who would be left to rescue their daughter from Kuja? "Whoooaaaaaahhh!", King Puck exclaimed as he lost his balance and rolled forward on the ground for four feet before slamming head-first into a wall. "Ow", he said weakly as he fell on his back.
"Your majesty!", Freya cried as she rushed to her monarch's side. She gently lifted him from the ground. "Are you alright?", she asked in a concerned voice.
"Y-yeah", Puck replied with a withered smile. "Don't worry, Freya. I didn't hurt myself. I'm lucky I only hit my head." Suddenly the door on the far side of the wall burst open and in rushed Steiner, flanked by half a dozen knights. "Your majesties! We are under attack!", he yelled urgently.
"Oh, ya think?", Zidane snapped sarcastically.
"Quick! Man the cannons!", Garnet commanded. "Blast those cockroaches out of the sky!" Steiner saluted and he and his knights ran to the turrets on the side of the ship. "Hey, wait for me!", Puck called out as he ran after the knights, only to be abruptly stopped by Freya grabbing his arm.
"Just where do you think you're going?", Freya asked Puck sternly.
"To help out with the cannons!", Puck replied. "C'mon, even I can handle something like that!"
"Out of the question!", Freya snapped. "You will stay by my side. Understand?" Puck folded his arms and began to sulk. "Why does everyone else but me get to do all the cool stuff?", he pouted.
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"Quickly! Step it up, girls!", Beatrice commanded as she helped the female knights load the cannons on the west side of the ship. "We must get rid of those abadon as quickly as possible! The king and queen are counting on us and the princess needs us!" When the last shell was finally loaded the women took their positions behind the canons. "Okay! Target wherever you think your shot will do the most damage!", Beatrice said. "Let's try to take out as many of those bugs as we can in one shot! Get ready! Aim!…
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"Fire!", yelled Steiner. The male knights on the east side of the ship immediately opened fire with their cannons, taking out a substantial number of the abadon on their first shot. "Good work, men!", Steiner said, taking pleasure in seeing so many abadon literally explode and fall from the sky. He heard explosions erupting from the other side of the ship and knew his fiancée was taking care of business from the turrets on the west side. Go get 'em, Beatrice! Give them hell!, Steiner thought with a smile.
"Sir! We're reloading now!", one of the knights reported as he and the other subordinates reloaded their cannons. "Oh! Erm, good!", Steiner said, snapping himself back to attention. "Come on, men! Let's clear these bugs out of here, pronto!" Suddenly a deafeningly loud explosion erupted from outside of the Hilda Guarde and the entire ship rumbled and shook "What on Gaia was that?", Steiner yelled as he tried to keep his balance.
"Sir! Look!", yelled one of the subordinate knights, pointing upward. Steiner looked up and saw that a giant indent was protruding inward on the sturdy metal side of the ship. "Oh my God!", Steiner said in horror. "They're…"
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"…ramming into the ship! Suicide style!", Beatrice exclaimed as she saw the many indents caused by the abadon willing to give their lives to destroy the Hilda Guarde and everyone in it. "They're actually destroying themselves in order to bring down our ship!"
"Mam! The Hilda Guarde has taken a large amount of damage!", one of the subordinate female knights reported. "We can't take much more!"
"Then get busy!", Beatrice ordered sternly. "Double your efforts! Do whatever you can to blast those cockroaches to hell! We have to destroy them before they destroy us!"
"Yes mam!", the knights said in unison as they started firing their cannons. They took out a large number of abadon, but Beatrice knew it wasn't nearly enough, as most of the bugs that were left were charging into the Hilda Guarde, ramming it head-first at full speed. At this rate, their ship would be scrap metal and they will all be dead before long. This isn't how abadon normally act!, Beatrice thought to herself. Abadon rarely attack unless provoked, threatened, or protecting territory, and even then they're seldom so adamant on destroying their enemy that they're willing to deliberately die doing it! This just doesn't make any sense! Another loud explosion ensued from somewhere on the ship and the entire bulk of the Hilda Guarde started to tremble wildly. Beatrice closed her eyes and said a sincere, ten second prayer.
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"Whoa!", Zidane cried as he tried his best to stay on his feet. "What was that explosion? It's like the bugs came armed with cannons of their own or something!" Suddenly he saw he was being approached hurriedly by a lone knight. "Uh-oh, here comes the bad news", Puck said with dread.
"Your majesties!", the knight said breathlessly as he stopped in front of Zidane and saluted. "I must request that you and your friends follow me to the royal passenger room! It is no longer safe here!"
"We take it the battle isn't going too well?", Garnet said anxiously."I'm afraid not, my queen", the knight replied apologetically. "The abadon are counter-attacking by ramming into our ship at full force! They are destroying themselves and trying to take us down with them!"
"N-no way!", Puck said incredulously. "I can't believe it! See, Freya? If I had been allowed to man the turrets, I'd have shredded those bugs long before now!"
"Enough, King Puck", Freya snapped. "Sir knight, please show us to the royal passenger room." "Right this way, mam. Follow me", the knight responded. Zidane, Garnet, Freya, and the sulking Puck all began to follow the knight. "Hey, wait a minute", Zidane said as he abruptly stopped. "Where's Vivi?" Everyone looked around and saw the black mage walking swiftly in the opposite direction.
"Hey, Vivi! Not that way!", Zidane called out to him. To the king's astonishment, Vivi just kept right on walking. There was a purposeful gait in his stride, as if he was not only on his way to do something, but he was hell-bent on doing it as well. "Vivi! Where are you going?", Garnet called out.
"To put an end to our bug problem once and for all", Vivi replied as he rounded a corner and was out of sight. His friends looked after him in silence for a few seconds, a silence which Puck broke with a low whistle. "Somethin' tells me that Vivi's about to use his magic to kick some serious bug boo-tay!", he said delightedly; just before rushing off in the direction Vivi went.
"Your majesty! Come back here at once!", Freya yelled, knowing even as she said it that her demand would be to no avail. Puck never listened to her
"Not a chance!", Puck replied as he ran off. "There's no way I'm missing this!" Freya growled in utter frustration. "That… that immature… Aaaurrghhh! How on Gaia did we ever agree that he would make a good king?"
"Don't sweat it, Freya", Zidane said reassuringly. "We'll just follow the royal pain-in-the-ass and make sure nothing bad happens to him. Besides, Vivi might need out help, so it's best if we follow him anyway."
"I agree", Garnet replied. "We can't let Vivi face those bugs alone. He may need us at his side. He must feel so desperate right now. All he wants is to get Viva back."
"Yeah, I know the feeling", Zidane said solemnly, thinking about Nova. "Let's just hope Vivi's magic is powerful enough to actually get rid of those stinkin' insects."
"Your majesties! I must protest against this course of action!", the knight pleaded. "It's too dangerous!"
"Noted", Queen Garnet replied in an iron voice. "But we're still going. Vivi's our friend." And with that, Zidane, Garnet, and Freya rushed off to follow Vivi and Puck.
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Viva's in that forest! That has to be true!, Vivi thought as he neared the door to the balcony. That's why they're trying so hard to stop us! They don't want us to find our children! Vivi stepped out on the balcony, staff in hand, and glared at the hundreds of abadon surrounding and ramming into their ship. Well they're not gonna succeed, he thought with fierce determination. Nothing's gonna keep us from finding our children! I'll see to that! Some of the abadon who discovered Vivi dove straight for him at breakneck speed, screaming their intentions to rip him to shreds. You would never have known by looking at Vivi that the shrieks of the charging abadon chilled him to the bone. The black mage held up his staff and uttered an incantation. His staff began to glow a black light and the skies thundered and grew dark-gray and cloudy. He then waved his staff in one sweeping motion and the skies clapped and roared as seemingly hundreds of huge bolts of lightning rained down from the sky, striking the abadon and making them literally explode into gooey green slime on contact. The abadon seemed to panic. They flew frantically about, many of them crashing into each other, as they tried unsuccessfully to avoid Vivi's powerful thundaga attack. But it was to no avail, for pretty soon even the abadon that gave up and tried to flee were cut down by Vivi's magic, leaving no survivors among them. "Whew", Vivi said as he wiped the sweat from his brow. He looked at the skies around the Hilda Guarde and observed with satisfaction that they were, as of now, abadon free. "Glad that's over."
"Holy crap", he heard a voice behind him say. Vivi turned around and saw Zidane, Garnet, Freya, and Puck standing behind him, looking at him in amazement. "That… was the most… kick-ass thing I've ever seen", Puck said in wonderment.
Vivi looked down and shuffled his feet, embarrassed. "I… uh… it was nothing", he said, somewhat meekly.
"Nothing?", Zidane said. "You gotta be kidding me! I have to agree with Puck on this one! That kicked all kinds of ass!" Zidane walked over and gave his best friend a playful slap on his back. "Man, I'm glad you're on our side!", he exclaimed with a grin. That only seemed to embarrass Vivi more, and Garnet just shook her head and smiled. Vivi was, hands down, the most powerful known sorcerer in the world. It amazed her that someone with so much power can remain so humble and shy. Their conversation was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Steiner and Beatrice walking towards them on the balcony.
"All the bugs are gone", Beatrice reported. "They've all been destroyed. We're in the clear."
"Yes, thanks to you, Master Vivi", Steiner added with a respectful salute. "You truly are legendary amongst the mages. Your power knows no rivalry."
Vivi rubbed the back of his neck. "Um, thank you", he replied. "Um… since the bugs are gone, shouldn't we be landing so we can look for Viva and Nova?"
"Yeah!", Zidane replied, suddenly serious as a heart attack. "We'll definitely want to find them before that giant abadon queen does!"
"I've already given the order", Beatrice replied. "The ship is being prepared for landing as we speak."
"Good", Freya said solemnly. "Now we have only two more bugs to deal with; the giant abadon and Kuja."
"Indeed", Queen Garnet said in a voice that could have frozen a sand scorpion. "And I vow that if that villain has done anything to our daughters, I'll make what Vivi did to those abadon look like nothing compared to what I will do to him."
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"Whoa!", Nova cried as she dove to the side, just missing being sliced in half by one of the abadon queen's scythes. She immediately countered by slashing her blade viciously at the abandon's claw, slicing a huge chunk of it off. The abadon reared back and roared in pain. But it's agony was not over yet. Viva followed up Nova's attack by assaulting the bug with a blizzard spell. Her attack hit dead on target, and the abadon roared in pain and rage.
"Ha! This giant grasshopper ain't no threat!", Nova declared, already tasting victory. "Let's just gut the overgrown cockroach and be done with it!"
"Don't be too overconfident, princess", Kuja reprimanded her coolly. "You've barely put a scratch on it. All you've really managed to do is piss it off tremendously."
Nova glared back at Kuja, who was standing behind her and regarding the action with his arms folded. "That's a lotta lip coming from someone who hasn't made a move since the fight began", she snapped. Kuja responded with a chuckle. "I'm just watching to see how well you two can fare in a real battle", he stated.
"Nova! Look out!", Viva yelled. Without taking any time to look, Nova jumped backwards just in time to once again barely miss being cut down by the abandon's claw. "Yikes! That was a little too close!", Nova exclaimed.
"You're far from out of danger, princess", Kuja stated. "If you would just pay attention, you would notice that the abadon is about to use magic." The girls looked at the abadon and saw tiny strings of lightning were starting to crawl all around it's body.
"Oh no! It's about to use thunder!", Viva cried.
"Actually, it looks more like it's about to use thundara", Kuja replied.
"Take cover!", Nova yelled. But it was too late. Even as she screamed a huge bolt of lightning shot forward from the abadon straight for them… and struck nothing but an invisible orb of air that seemed to surround the girls. The invisible orb seemed to shine and absorb the thundara attack that hit it. And as if that didn't stun and confuse the girls enough, the abadon was suddenly hit with what seemed to be a thundara attack just as vicious as the one it tried to hit Nova and Viva with. The abadon queen roared in pain, confusion, and surprise as it spread it's wings, jumped into the air, and took off gliding through the trees. About a minute passed by before Nova finally found her voice.
"Um, what the hell just happened?", she asked, looking at Viva. "I thought for sure we were toast. Didn't that abadon use a thundara spell on us?"
"Yes, it did", Kuja said as he walked over to the girls. "And yes, you would have been toast, if I hadn't saved your cute little asses by casting a reflect spell on the both of you. Perhaps this will serve as a lesson to you about not being overconfident and keeping your eyes on your foe."
"Bite me", Nova snarled angrily. Kuja was really beginning to get on her nerves.
"Um… g-guys?", Viva interrupted. She was pointing upwards and forwards and even her voice was trembling. "I… uh… I think we gotta problem." Kuja and Nova looked in the direction she was pointing and saw the abadon queen was diving down towards them at full speed.
"Don't worry, girls", Kuja said as he stepped confidently forward. "I'll take care of this." He lazily stretched his arms and legs, turned towards his silver dragon, and gave a slight nod. The dragon understood it's master's command. It turned towards the abadon, opened it's mouth, and shot something straight at the bug. A bright flash of light ensued, followed by a large swirling vortex of ice and wind surrounding the abadon queen. The giant insect only had time to halfway scream before it was literally frozen solid. The now-dead monster, still traveling through the air, flew over the heads of Kuja and the girls before crashing into a tree and shattering to tiny frozen bits. Nova and Viva's jaws dropped as they looked at the pieces of their deceased foe littering the ground, thanks to the dragon's deadly blizzaga attack. "Well, that's that", Kuja said as he petted his dragon proudly. "Now we can hopefully continue our journey unimpeded."
"Wow! That was awesome!", Viva exclaimed in wonderment. Nova said nothing. She definitely thought what Kuja's dragon did kicked serious ass, but she'd be drawn and quartered through hell before she ever admitted it to his face. "Yeah, whatever", she said with her arms folded. "Well, now that our abadon problem has been taken care of, do you think now would be a good time to tell us just where the hell you plan on taking us?"
Kuja sighed and shook his head. "Don't you like surprises?", he asked.
"I think I've had more than enough surprises already, thank you", Nova replied in a steely voice.
At that very instant a large, dark form leaped over their heads in a swift blur and landed about five feet away from them. It turned around, lowered it's head, and growled savagely. It was the most fearsome sight Nova and Viva had ever seen. It's head was that of a grotesque hellhound. It's enormous violet-colored body had four huge muscular legs and paws like an overgrown wildcat. Unbelievably large, black horns protruded from it's head, and it's tail looked like a cross between a cruel looking black whip and a thick shark's tail. It's glowing yellow eyes studied them like a bulldog regarding a huge slab of steak. "What… the hell… is that?", Nova asked fearfully.
"I believe it is called a behemoth", Kuja replied tensely.
"Is it gonna eat us?", Viva asked, terrified.
"Let's just put it this way", Kuja said, backing up. "If I were you, I really wouldn't waste time asking it if it was going to eat us." That was the last thing that was said before all three of them turned and jumped onto the back of the dragon. "Fly, my beast! Fly!", Kuja commanded. The dragon spread it's wings and jumped into the air. But not fast enough. Before the dragon was five feet over the ground the behemoth had jumped onto one of the dragon's hind feet and was trying to drag it back down. The dragon roared and flew erratically through the trees, trying to shake the unwelcome hitchhiker off. But it was to no avail. The behemoth was hell-bent on seeing to it that none of them escaped.
"Dammit! That monster is serious!", Kuja said grimly as he tried to direct his dragon as best as he could through the maze of trees. Nova and Viva said nothing. They just clung for dear life to the back of the dragon and prayed they'd get out of this alive. The dragon finally broke through the trees and was flying over an unbelievably deep and large canyon. Nova could see that there was a river far below, although as high up as they were, it looked like a blue lace of shoestring. There was a flimsy wooden bridge stretched across the chasm. It looked deserted, like no one had crossed it in years, which was a good thing, because it also looked terribly unstable. "Hang on, ladies!", Kuja said as they flew over the large chasm, the dragon all the while trying to shake itself free of the behemoth. They were almost across the chasm when the dragon jerked to a sudden stop and started roaring in rage. Kuja looked back and saw that the behemoth was hanging on to the wooden bridge and trying it's best to use it's newfound leverage to pull them back. "Oh, for the love of…", Kuja grumbled.
"Okay, enough is enough", Nova growled. She drew one of her daggers and crawled down to the dragon's hind leg. The behemoth saw her and snapped at her, barely missing her leg. "Take this, you ugly, deformed mutt!", she yelled as she buried the sharp tip of her dagger into the monster's claw. The monster roared in pain and anger and reached up with it's muzzle, trying one last time to maul Nova. It missed her and buried it's fangs into the dragon's heel. That was all the dragon could stand. Kuja's beast roared and kicked out strongly with it's powerful hind leg, shaking itself free of the behemoth once and for all. Unfortunately, the behemoth was not the only one it freed itself of, and Nova suddenly found herself, thanks to the dragon's sudden defensive move, to be plummeting hundreds of feet with the behemoth to the river below. The shock of being suddenly dismounted in mid-air had not yet left Nova when she started to realize that she was going to die. She thought she heard Viva call out to her. Or maybe it was Kuja? She couldn't be sure, as sound itself seemed to leave her and everything seemed to be happening in a blur in slow motion, as if she was falling through murky water.
A few seconds went by before she felt wetness blowing past the hairlines on the side of her head, and she realized the reason her vision was blurry was because she had tears in her eyes.
There's no escape for me this time, Nova thought to herself. I am truly dead.