Hi, this might take a while to update because I have a paper cut right underneath my right middle finger and that finger is my main typing finger. (Yes, I still chicken peck, and I do it with my two middle fingers, but I'm considerable fast for not typing properly.) So this chapter might just take a while to roll out, but hopefully I'll finish it faster than I usually do. Without further ado, onward.
The face that stared into Tidus was undoubtedly that of General Barogen, but something was not quite right. The general's eyes did not seem to quite fit his normal attitude. Instead of the cold menacing glare that was usually in his eyes, Tidus saw a glance that spoke of great satisfaction and anticipation, as if enjoying the strangle hold he had on the man beneath him. Regardless of what the general was thinking at that moment, Tidus knew one thing for sure, the general had him in a lock that allowed no air whatsoever to pass through, and he was not letting go.
At first Tidus was surprised and groggy from the instant confusion, he tried to think straight, but his mind was racing. Finally he managed to get a logical solution for escape. He aimed a vicious kick at the general's left knee, hoping to make him slip. All this managed to accomplish however, was make the general lift him off the ground.
Under normal circumstances, a fight between the general and Tidus would have been absolutely no contest, but a few complications occurred against Tidus. For one, he had just taken part in a huge battle, one that the general decided to leave himself out from the fighting. Two, Tidus had just woken up, and three, a tendon felt like it had almost been severed in his left shoulder from the garuda bite.
The general was holding him in air while began walking away from the campsite, away from the others, away from safety. Tidus was beginning to feel a pain in his lungs, and his head began to throb. Panic set in, and his body began to jerk involuntarily. His body was constantly throwing itself around, using up what little oxygen he had left.
His random spasms were not in vain though. He was lucky enough to throw the general off his balance. The general stepped backward and stumbled over a large rock. For no more than a half-second air was allowed to pass through his windpipe as the general loosened his grip.
His body tried to yell, gasp, and exhale all at the same time. What resulted was an incredibly loud gargle. It wasn't very much, but it was enough to wake the lightest sleeper of the group, Paine.
She woke up and turned to see a large man holding a violently jerking body by the neck.
Tidus's vision was beginning to fade around the edges, and his head was pounding intensely. His face was turning purple and his eyes began to bulge. He saw something stirring in the distance but couldn't even begin to think of what it was. The only thing he could concentrate on was the eyes. Those triumphant eyes seemed so distant, it bothered him. He could have sworn he had seen the exact same eyes before, not on the general but someone else. Even as his brain began to dim, and his vision blurred, instead of the fear of death, his oxygen-deprived mind could only think of the eyes.
Paine rose to her feet softly and reached for her the knife she kept hidden inthe removableheel of her boot. It was a small knife, tiny really, not much longer her hand, but the blade would be long enough to pierce the man's skull through the temple and reach his brain.
Tidus was but a second away from permenant memory loss from his suffocating brain cells when Paine finally appeared behind General Barogen. Before even realized she was there, an inch and a half long blade was inserted inside his cranium via his temple. The general, along with Tidus crumpled to the ground in a heap.
Tidus lay on the ground, gulping in sweet air. His vision returned to him and his brain rushed back into regular thinking patterns. The rest of the group woke up and came to see what was going on.
"You okay brotha?" Wakka asked upon seeing Tidus on the ground with little color in his face, massaging his throat. Tidus gave a feeble thumbs up and rose to his feet unsteadily. His lungs burned from the lack of air and his head was still pounding like never before. He had to guzzle down two potions to repair his crushed windpipe before he could even talk.
It was then Auron noticed something, Jecht's presence was back in his mind again, trying to get his attention. "I know, I'll tell them later." he thought to Jehct, and told them all to go back to sleep.
The sun rose beautifully the following morning, but besides the sun, there was nothing beautiful about it.
On the ground beneath them where the bloodiest battle since the macina wars had happened lay nothing but carnage. Bodies littered the ground, some brutally mangled, even lay some who were still alive, but unconscious.
Rikku gave a silent thanks for not having to be part of the clean-up crew. They were forced to leave before word of the General Barogen's murder got around, otherwise they could be labeled as traitors, and it's never a good idea for your own people to believe you betrayed them while your on a quest to save the world.
The Paladin Bunny was ready to run about an hour before noon. After a few words to commanding officers they were off once again. Jehct's army had done their job, and done it well. They encountered no resistance along Djose. The Moonflow caused a major problem though. Seymour's last army, the one he planned to send to finish off Mushroom Rock. Was going to be crossing the Moon flow at the same time they were. Trying to fight through it, was suicide.
"Not good," said Tidus, clearly irritated, what do we do now?
"I suggest finding another route" answered Lulu. Tidus gave her the "No duh" look and looked for a path away from the old shoopuff crossing. Moonflow village was out of the question, it was definitely overrun by fiends. That left the only option of heading out to sea, and driving up the Moonflow river to hopefully find a way back onto land before running into Seymour's army.
(For some reason I can't put down web adresses on this site. So just go , andon the toolbar on the right click on FFX. Then scroll down to World Map on that same toolbar. This is the map I use whenever I need to know the geography for Spira. So when I describe the charecters route to Guadosalem, use it. If you don't look at it, you probably will have no idea how or where they are going. Hope it helps!)
Tidus made a turn east off of Djose and into the sea. Amazingly enough, the hover actually handled it's self pretty well on the water, but for how much it costs, it most definitely should.
They headed up the coast at a new speed record for the water. The Paladin Bunny was as graceful as a drunk ape through the water, blasting through and over the waves making it feel like a really, really old rollercoaster. They finally reached the Moonflow River, which was, much to everyone's great relief, calm. The hover glided effortlessly over the water and upstream to the second tributary on the North Side. Here they turned north and headedup to a sandy beach where they finally got back on dry land.
It was here they encountered their first resistance. It was light resistance, nothing that couldn't be taken out a by a hit from Wakka's World Champion, or Tidus couldn't simply run over.
Fighting from the hover, was rather strange. The hover was only equipped with only gun ports, but Lulu quickly modified these into flow blown door ways with a few nasty Firaga spells.
After running north a little ways They came to a small hilly border, which they crossed, and emerged onto a huge plain right smack in the middle of Spira. (I urge you to use the map, you will have a MUCH better idea of what I am talking about.)
The plain was crawling with fiends. Seymour's grand defence, nearly everything that wasn't trying to destroy Mushroom Rock, was here.
"This is probably a bad time to say this," said Auron, "but the reason Jehct wasn't fighting, and General Barogen betrayed us, was because Yu Yevon has allied with Seymour, and he has been possessing those of us that are dead, which apparently the general was. That means Tidus and I are very liable to this risk, so if you see either of us doing anything strange..." he looked at Tidus, "or at least, stranger, than usual, tell the other immediately."
Lulu just shook her head, as did Kimahri, Wakka scratched his head, Rikku let out a short gasp, Yuna put her hand to her head, and Paine just tilted her head back against the wall. (Head, head, head, and head)
Tidus pulled up an onboard map, and turned on a route across the great plain. It lead straight into the pit of demon spawn, Guadosalem. He gripped the throttles of the Paladin Bunny, and prepared to face the countless fiends that lay across the plain ahead.
Tidus then finally realized why the eyes of the General had caught his attention. They had been the same eyes he had seen on Jehct, just before they had faught him inside Sin.
Yup Yup!, nother bigabig fight battle. (Wow, that was the single worst grammar of have used since... EVER!) Anyway I estimate, ohhhh around 1 to 367 chapters till the end. My estimate of 5 more chapters about 5 chapters ago was waaaaaaay off. But I'm not gonna tell you how many more because that wouldn't be fair to me, or you. Not to mention that I'm not really quite sure. Anyway, thanks to Grim Reaper ummmm, "pulls up E-mail, searches for review notification E-mail from Fanfic". Ahh yes, GrimReaper10000. Yeah, thanks for the review, u r awesome!
Unfortunately Fanfic was down on Sunday night so I didn't get a chance to finally update this til now. Bye!