Howdy folks. Here I am with chapter 26 and, as I promised, it's finally the big battle with the Anamorphous Gel. More then that though. I've added a, hopefully, unexpected twist on the ending.
Tidus: Yeah, it better be unaccepted. Seeing as how it took you so long to put out.
V: Well, I'll admit that it isn't as long as I wanted it to be but it's still pretty good.
T: Hurry up then and get on with the chapter. Everyone has been waiting so long to read it but they can't because you keep rambling.
V: Fine then. Let's get this chapter started!
Chapter 26: No Time to RunTidus moved as fast as he could but he knew he couldn't run forever. He was already beginning to tire and one look over to Yuna showed that she wasn't fairing much better. If he continued like this then he would completely run out of strength and wouldn't be able to defend himself against the pursuing Amorphous Gel. He had only one choice left. Fight. But he couldn't put Yuna in harms way. Even if Tidus could fight, she didn't have a weapon to defend herself. He had to get her away first.
A way to do that came a short distance up the path. There was a small opening in the thick growth that looked to be just big enough for Yuna to get through without any difficulty. With the path being too small for the fiend to easily follow, Tidus was hoping that it would bediscouraged from following her. With Yuna out of harm's way, he would have a better chance of defeating the creature.
"Take that pathway up ahead." Tidus said, pointing towards the small opening. Yuna knew what his intensions were and a look of worry appeared on her face. "Don't worry." Tidus said. "I know what I'm doing."
Yuna looked at him just a moment longer before letting go of his hand and slipping through the thick growth. The Amorphous Gel tried to follow but the thick and sharp thorns that grew on the branches of most of the crystalline trees hurt it too much for it to continue through. All this did was give Tidus enough time to draw his sword back out and catch his breath a little. Before the fiend had could pull itself back out of the small pathway, Tidus attacked it with his sword. He wanted to get its attention before it even had a chance of getting through to Yuna. Tidus jumped back to avoid any counter attacks as soon as his sword cut through it. He became worried though when he noticed that the injury he had inflicted on it was already healing.
"This is going to be harder then I thought." Tidus said to himself as he prepared for another attack.
He ran to the side to avoid a bolt of lightning as the monster attacked and was barely able to stumble aside as it tried to squish him flat.
"That's not fair." Tidus panted as he dodged out of the way of another attack. He charged forward and sliced his blade through the fiend but again his attempts were futile as the Amorphous Gel healed itself again.
Tidus couldn't go on much longer. His constant dodging of the monster's attacks as well as his own attempts to cut down the monster were draining the remaining strength he had. His movements became more and more sluggish and he was soon being hit by the fiend's elemental attacks. As he stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, the fiend took advantage of his weakened state and rose above him crush him. Tidus tried his best to get up on his feet to get out of the way but he didn't have enough energy to do it.
The only thing that saved him wasthe blitzball that slammed into the back of the creature and stole its attention before it had a chance to finish him.
"You okay?" Wakka's voice drifted over to him.
Tidus just lifted his arm up as high as he could to show that he was. He didn't want to say anything and have the attention of the Amorphous Gel back on him.
"Are you really alright?"
Tidus opened his eyes to see Yuna standing above him. "Yuna? What are you doing here?"
"Do you really think I'd abandon you?" She asked as she knelt beside him to take a closer look at his injuries. "Do you hurt anywhere?"
"No. I'm just tired." He tried to push himself but dropped back down to the ground.
"Don't strain yourself." Yuna said as she helped him up onto his feet. "Come on, we need to get to a safer place."
"What the hell is that thing!" Zen said as he finally caught up with the rest of the group.
"Trouble." Auron said as he pulled out his own sword. "You'd better get out of here."
"What? There's no way I'm gonna run from a fight that you're all in." Zen said as he pulled his metal plated gloves on.
"Oh boy. This isn't going to end well." Rikku muttered. There was no way Zen was going to be able to fight this fiend with the weapon he had.
Everyone was shocked as Zen ran right up to the fiend and slammed his fist against its malleable side. His hand sunk into the Amorphous Gel and quickly became stuck.
"Zen, oui eteud!" Rikku yelled out as she ran towards him. She drewher dagger and started slicing away at the gel around Zen's hand. "What in the world were you thinking?"
As she worked frantically, the pieces she sliced from the monster fell to the ground and melted into a rotten goo. With one final slice, she was able to free Zen from the fiend but lost her dagger within the Amorphous Gel at the same time.
The both of them stood there and watched as the blade slowly disintegrated as it sunk further and further into the fiend. Zen got enough of his senses back to move Rikku and himself out of the way before a lightning bolt struck where the both of them had been standing.
"Well now what do we do?" Zen asked as they ran back to Wakka and Auron.
"Thanks Rikku." Wakka said.
"Huh? Thanks for what?"
"You showed us how we can defeat this fiend." Auron said
"Defeat it? How? Our attacks didn't do anything." Zen said as he took off his useless gloves.
"Rikku was the only one able to hurt it." Auron explained. "The pieces of the fiend she sliced off didn't heal. If we can cut it down, then we have a better chance of defeating it."
To prove his point, Auron ran up to the fiend and sliced a large chunk from the mass before retreating back to a safer distance. The piece fell to the ground and turned into a rotten goo before sinking into the ground.
"Do you know how to use a sword?" Auron asked Zen.
"Who, me? Uh…yeah…I think I do."
"Then go around and get Tidus's sword." Auron said while pointing towards the other side of the Amorphous Gel. "We'll attack from over here and you attack from the other side to try and confuse it."
"Okay. Got it." Zen hurried off around the fiend. It saw him though and was about to crush him until Auron sliced off another piece of it and got its attention.
Zen called out Tidus's name as he came close to them but he came to a sudden stop when he saw Titus's condition. "Whoa man, what happened to you?"
"Nothing. I'm just tired." Tidus sighed as looked up to his friend.
It was obvious that he wasn't though. The lightning attack the fiend had used had hurt him more then he had realized and Yuna was trying her best to heal and bandage the burns on his arm's and legs. Zen couldn't understand why Tidus wasn't feeling any pain. Maybe he was just too tired.
"Hey Tidus, I need to borrow your sword."
"My sword? Why?" Tidus sounded very weak and he was having trouble sitting up while Yuna dressed his injuries.
"It's part of Auron's plan." Zen tried to explain. "You've got to trust me."
Tidus just nodded his head and pointed to where his weapon was still laying on the ground. "I hope you know how to use it." Tidus said.
"Yeah." Zen replied as he picked up the sword. "Me too."
Zen looked behind himself and saw that the fiend was advancing on Rikku and the others. He charged in and slashed his sword across the creature. He only cut off a small piece but it was enough to get its attention. It whirled around and started after Zen but Rikku and Auron attacked from the other side.
Slowly, more and more was cut from the Amorphous Gel and it became smaller and smaller but it was still not detoured. It attacked with the same amount of vigor while the others became tired and more sluggish.
"I can't go on much longer." Rikku whined as she retreated after another attack.
"I'm afraid I have to agree with you." Auron said as he watched Zen attack from the other side.
By this time the Amorphous Gel was only about a third of its original size but it still would not give up.
"We need more help." Rikku said as she charged in for another attack "Where's Kimahri when you need him?"She slid to a halt when she heard a familiar roar from up above.
She looked up to see the missing Ronso balanced a branch of one of the towering crystalline trees. There was nothing she could do but stand there in complete silence as she watched Kimahri leap from the tree and come straight down over the fiend, lance first. The Ronso's weapon sliced through the gelatinous outer layer and impaled the small, solid center. Kimahri fell through the Amorphous Gel,the fiend'ssolid center still stuck on the end on his lance. What remained of the monster started twitching and convulsing before it turned into a rotten goop and dropped onto Kimahri.
"Eek!" Rikku jumped back to avoid getting any of the spreading rotten gel from touching her.
"Kimahri!" Yuna called out happily when she saw her missing friend. The Ronso slowly made his way over to her and knelt down before her. "Thank you so much Kimahri." Yuna said. "You saved us all."
"Uhh." Zen came up to them with one hand over his stomach, and the other over his nose and mouth. "Kimahri, you really stink."
The Ronso glared at the blitzer and growled. Zen took the not-too-subtle hint and moved farther away from them.
"Hey, great job." Wakka said as he and the others came up. "You really saved our butts back there." Kimahri just nodded. "Come on," Wakka started as he lightly placed a hand on the Ronso's shoulder, "let's get ya cleaned up before this stuff dries inyour fur."
Kimahri nodded again and stood up.
"Follow me." Rikku said as she took the lead. "I know where a close by river is."
"Better go with them Wakka." Zen said. "Don't want her to get lost again."
V: Hurray! They won!
T: Why are you so exited? You wrote it. Shouldn't you have already known what was going to happen?
V: yeah I knew. I just like saying it. (starts singing)They won. They won. They won. They won.
T: Will you stop that! It's getting annoying.
V: I know. That's why I'm doing it. (starts singing again)
T: Ahh! (covers ears) I've gotta get out of here!
V: Don't bother. All the doors are locked. You can't escape.
T: Damn. She's right. Now what am I going to do?
V: Come on. Take it like a man.
T: But I don't want to.
V: Well everyone, so long. I've got to find more ways to annoy Tidus. See you all later.
T: Oh-no.
End Transmission