Usual Disclaimers apply. You know what is and is not mine.  Do I still have to write this part?  It's getting old… Oh well.

Luca's Redemption – Chapter Eleven

Maroux's Story – Part VI

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Battle Over, More Recruited

Location: The Valley of the Departed

And as soon as she said that, her arms flung to my direction, and not in a good way.  Pahn and I leaped to the side, missing the tentacles by mere inches.  I drew Questor, leaped forward and sliced the demon's abdomen.  She shrieked, but before she could counter, Ronnie countered with a Hate Rune fireball.  The fireball struck in the beast's face, and she nearly toppled back, but her tentacles proved to be a very good foundation.  The zombie lady was distracted, both hands trying to treat her face.  We all noticed and did a special 4 combo.  That's right, we spontaneously came up with:

Unexpected Turn of Events Resulting In An ATK!!!!!

Heh… Actually, it was later named:

Quadragon ATK!!!!

There! Much better… First, we all circled the enemy.  Then, I drew Questor and readied to attack, while Ronnie gathered a big fireball in each hand and Pahn and Eikei got into a stance.  Pahn and Eikei leaped up at the creature's face, and pounded like King Kong to his chest.  After the beating receded, and they were falling, but they used one of vampire's tentacles to jump off of and get back to it's face.  Meanwhile, Ronnie readied her fireballs and fired.  I split my chakram into two pieces and threw them.  Each half caught a fireball, and then continued to hurdle at the beast's head.  Eikei and Pahn were in front of the vampire's face again, and got ready to attack.  They spun around, caught on half of my chakram each on their fists, and bashed the enemy's face.

The beast shrieked, this time really falling backward.  Her tentacles rose from the ground one by one, and soon they all were out, resulting in the beast actually landing hard on the ground.  Light pierced through the beast and after a blinding explosion of light, it dissolved.

"Phew," we all sighed.  Slowly, the thick mist and fog lifted, and the Valley of The Departed was slowly becoming visible.  The dead grass suddenly breathed into life it's lush green color, old dead trees also grew their leaves back and the Sun.  Ahh, yes.  The Sunlight gently wrapping around all the plants, illuminating absolute warmth.  The place easily mistaken for Hell was unmistakably Heaven now.

Seeing all of this is probably why Ronnie was reminded of Kirke: "Oh God! Where's Kirke?! Where's Kirke?! My love…"

"I'm right here, sweetie.  Could you help me up?" Kirke was lying down where the creature had melted away.  We all rushed to him.  He was covered in some kind of slimy goo.

"You were eaten by that thing I'm guessing?" I asked.

"Yeah… And it sure as Hell wasn't pretty…" Kirke joked.

Ronnie breathed a sigh of relief, before a few tears streamed down her cheeks.  "I… I thought I'd lost you… I was so… worried, I…" Before she could finish, Kirke hushed her and gave her a light kiss on the nose.  Ronnie looked at him, and breathed another sigh of relief, this time looking cheerful.  It was over now, and we all were relieved, cheerful, tired to name a few emotions.

"I guess that's what ate those girls eh?" Eikei said.

"Yeah… And I'm guessing that's why a simple Neclordia got so powerful… Too bad we couldn't save those poor town girls…"

Hands popped up from the ground and grabbed at our ankles.

"Eeeek!" Ronnie wailed.

Then, the head of a girl popped up.  "HEY! Help us!!" the girl said.

We all dug up the ground, and surely enough found the missing girls.  They were all alive.  They were weak after being used as a battery by the Super Neclordia, but alive nonetheless.  We took them back to town to get treated.  I advised Dr. Robert, since I knew him and he was a good doctor.

After Dr. Robert treated each one of them, we escorted the girls to their home.  The Doctor just advised that they get rest, and the Doc's hut was too small to house them all, so he decided they were better off with their loved ones anyway.  So, family members cried because their thought-to-be lost ones came home.  Husbands, wives, children all were so happy to see their loved ones come back.

By the time we were all finished with the last of the patients, it was already late afternoon and the sun was setting.  We all sat down and had a talk.

"So, what happened with you guys?" The Doc asked.

--The screen blackens, and the elapsed time it took to tell the story passed by in no time—

"So that's what happened… What an adventure, eh?"

"Sure was…" I replied.

"Well, it's been a long couple of days. Why don't we all go out for a banquet!" Kirke advised.

"Yeah… Yeah! Why not?! We got a bunch of potch from the old vampire hag, why don't we use it?" Ronnie added.

We all cheered and headed for the expensive restaurant down the road from the inn.  We booked a room and ordered, literally, a ton of food.  All being extremely expensive and accompanied by fine wine.

Ah, it was quite the feast.  We all were eating, dancing to the hired band's music and singing along totally off tune, but with heart.

A few hours passed by… And not to mention the finest few hours I or anyone has had in a while.  We reached the clinic, and all sat down.

"Listen Maroux; there's no way we can thank you enough for what you did," Ronnie said.

"And you helped us out too.  It was a great adventure the five of us had, eh?" Pahn added.

"Is there anything we could do to help?" Eikei offered.

"Well… Actually, I was kinda looking for recruits and stuff."

"Recruits? Whatever for?" Kirke asked.

--And again the screen fades, and Maroux explained everything that had happened—

"Hey, sounds like fun! You guys coming along?!  Maroux, count us in!" Ronnie said.

===Ronnie Bell recruited!===

===Kirke recruited!===

"Whaddaya say, Pahn?!  I'll go where you go." Eikei said.

"What the heck! Count us in!"

===Pahn recruited!===

===Eikei recruited!===

"So, where is this Luca?" Kirke asked.

"What're you talking about? He's right in—"

I was interrupted when Dr. Robert barged into the room.  The look on his face wasn't reassuring, in fact he looked pale: "Trouble!! I went into Luca's room! But… I knew I shouldn't have left him alone!  What was I thinking?!"

"What? What is it?! What are you talking about, Doc?!" I demanded to know.

"He isn't here, Maroux!! He's not here!!"

Right before I reacted to what he had just said, the door swung open and in came Ayuko, staggering, barely standing up.  She was covered in blood and wounds.

"AYUKO!!!"

Just before she hit the ground, I ran and caught her.  Dr. Robert also came to her side.  Ayuko barely managed to talk before she feinted: "Go…go now… Before… 'it'…comes… please…… hurry……. go… before…. It's too late….please………"

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Ooh… And it'll be a week before I update unfortunately… Sorry to leave y'all high and dry.  Just wait for Chapter Twelve, Ayuko's Story Part I.  And it'll be in Ayuko's 1st person point of view in Ayuko's Story!  See ya next time!