Disclaimer: I don't own starocean... i wish i did.
The two made their way through the streets of Peterny towards the west end. It was less crowded than the day before and definately no thugs who thought they could take on someone who looked like he could destroy a planet. All in all, they made it safely to the workshop. Fayt walked in with a freezing Maria just behind. Eliza came up like she was high on something, bouncing off the walls, literally.
"Fayt! Hi!"
She said in an overly hyper tone.
"Hey, Eliza, is my sword ready?"
Fayt asked smiling.
"Sure! BOYT! SWORD!"
One of the workers nodded and took a carefully wrapped object from a shelf and handed it to Fayt. Fayt unwrapped it and took out the gleaming blade. Mithril, the hardest, sharpest known material known in the galaxy. It was light weight as well, letting Fayt use it with ease. Fayt took a while to admire the blade, before sheathing it.
"Alright, thanks guys. I'll be back after about a week. Here's this month's pay."
Fayt tossed a leather bag onto the table. It landed with a chink. Eliza was the first one to open it. She looked up smiling.
"Thank you for your business!"
She bowed, before running back into the workshop. Fayt sighed, but at least she gets the job done. Strange that Misty was not here. Fayt left the workshop and headed north. Maria was walking right next to him, shivering.
"I told you that it was going to get cold. Here."
Fayt took off his coat and drapped it on her. Maria looked at him with a puzzled look.
"Won't you be cold?"
"I'm fine, at least better than you."
"What's that suppose to mean?"
"It means what i said. Come on, let's go."
Fayt pulled Maria by the hand they waded through the market place which had suddenly sprouted more people. Maria felt the warmth of both Fayt's coat and his hand, which made her blush. His scent was still fresh on the coat and Maria wanted to savour this very moment, for there may not another. The two finally made their way to the North gate and left the busy town of Peterny.
It road was a slight up hill but they had no problems with that. Fayt let go of Maria's hand as he unslung his bag and took out a small device the size of his palm.
"What's that?"
Maria asked.
"This? Oh, it's a small device i created that acts like a GPS they used on Earth a long time ago. However, this does not need a satelite to tell me where i am. It takes information from the geography, do some simple calculations and provide me with my exact coordiantes, with an error of point one."
"Really? That's quite useful, however, does it have a map?"
"It takes the information for a fifty mile radius and generates its own, here, let me show you."
Fayt pressed a button and the device hummed to life. It took about two seconds before the map was displayed. Fayt took out a map of the area that he had drawn before. Comparing the two, Maria found very little differences.
"That's amazing! What did you use?"
"Oh, just a couple of things, like strong magnetic pulse generators, a jewel of refuge and some other parts i thought may come in handy."
Fayt replied, pocketing the drawn map. With Maria calmed down from her excitment over this new technology, the two made their way north, following the map that the device had drawn up.
They crossed a couple of creatures along the way, but they managed to get rid of them without a hassle. It was already mid-day when they decided to take a rest and according to the device's calculations, they were about three quarters the way. Fayt rested against the tree they chose to rest by and took out a flask. He unscrewed the cap and took a swing from it. He offered some to Maria.
"Thanks."
Maria said, taking the flask and drinking from it. The warm water drenched her parched throat and it was exactly what she needed. She passed the flask back to Fayt, who screwed the cap back and kept it in his bag. Maria got up, unable to sit down for long and stretched.
"So Fayt, you still haven't told me everything about you."
She turned around and faced him.
"Everything?"
"Yes. About your past, about your accomplishments, everything."
"Well, i don't really have much of a history."
Fayt confessed, which was true. His life consisted of nagging parents, studies, nagging Sophia, basketball and computer games, eating, sleeping and showering.
"Well, let's start with your free time then, what do you do during your free time?"
"My free time? Let's see, either lazing around, playing computer games or shooting some hoops."
Fayt smiled as he thought back of those days.
"That's boring, you know."
"Well, that's what i do during my free time and you wanted to know. Now why is it always about me? What about you? I don't know anything about you besides the Alteration gene, your connection with my father's work, being Quark's captain and being the same age as me."
Fayt folded his arms. Maria pondered on that for awhile.
"I didn't?"
"Nope."
"Well, alright. But let's do this, you give me a bit about you and i give you a bit about me, how about that?"
"Sounds fair, so you owe me about two information about you."
"Two?"
"Yeah, one for last night and one for just now."
Maria counted with her fingers.
"I guess your right. Well, what do you want to know?"
"Let's start with your free time."
"My free time? I read."
"Is that all?"
"Yeah."
Maria smiled.
"I grew up on a Quark ship so i never really did most of whatever you did, you know."
"Sorry. Alright, next question. Why did you learn to fight?"
"To protect myself of course. I learnt fighting styles from Mirage while Lancar taught me how to shoot."
"Oh right. I guess that sums it."
Fayt got up and yawned. Maria felt quite disappointed but at least they had a lengthy conversation. Suddenly, Fayt pushed her down. Maria was surprised by this and she blushed furiously, being so close to Fayt.
"Fayt, what's wr-"
She stopped in mid-sentence. Fayt's face was contorted with pain. His back felt wet. She took a look and saw that he was bleeding from his back.
"Fayt!"
She screamed. He pushed himself off of her and took out his sword, though it pained him to do so. Maria saw the attacker, a giant winged monstrosity that Maria thought she would never see again. An excutioner. The giant beast flapped its wings as it roared. It stood ten times taller than Fayt and Maria knew that this was only a smaller versions of those that attacked Earth.
Fayt steadied his weapon but it still swayed. Maria could only look at the battle helplessly, her own body afraid of the dark creature that loomed right in front of them. Fayt charged forward, sword poised. The winged behemoth tried to cut him with its sharp claws but Fayt side stepped the attack, and using this chance, he jumped onto the enemy's hand.
He did not hesitate as he ran up the arm, across the shoulder till he was right on the excutioner's head. Summoning all of his might, Fayt plunged the sword deep into the excutioner's head. The giant screeched out in pain, trying to use it's claws to reach Fayt, but Fayt stabbed the creature a couple of times, causing it to screech out a horrible scream.
Still, it stood after those attacks. Fayt jumped from its head, cutting downwards as he headed towards the ground down the giant's chest. Black blood gushed out from the wounds like a stream. Just as Fayt touched the ground, he disappeared, reappearing behind the enemy, a dark energy swirling around his blade with symbols encircling it.
Fayt swung the blade across the creature's back, cutting it into half. The two parts fell to the ground with a giant thud, no longer moving. Fayt stood there, drenched in the black liquid, his eyes were not focused. Maria snapped back to reality. She got up and hurried to Fayt. His wound was serious.
"Fayt..."
She called out his name as she approached him, but he did not answer. His eyes were blank, but his face suddenly turned to anger, his blade steadied again. A screech came from behind Maria. She turned around to see that there was another one. This time, Maria would not just stay quiet. She drew her gun and fired shots a the beast. The energy bullets pierced the skin but did not cause the creature to even flinch.
"Tsk."
Maria gritted her teeth as she charged forward. She dodged the first couple of strikes and managed to kick the creature hard enough to make it fall. Still, it was not enough. She was about to charge once again, when a clawed hand stopped her.
That black armoured clawed looked awefully familiar. The swordsman drew his blade and cut downwards once, though more than ten feet away from the enemy. An invisible, yet present, shockwave flew towards the excutioner, cutting the ground as it sailed through the air. It cut through the creature, not just creating a clean cut, but a giant hole exploded in the creaute's abdomen. Albel Nox turned to face Maria.
"Learn your place, maggot. Take care of him."
Albel pointed to Fayt who still stood with his sword ready. Maria did not understand the situation and why Albel would be here, but she nodded and went over to Fayt. She managed to get him to drop his weapon, but causing him to fall unconscious as well. She caught him in her arms and cradled him close. Nel suddenly appeared next to Albel.
"Another one?"
She said, dusting her clothes. Maria could see that not one, but ten more excutioners were heading towards them. Suddenly dark clothed people who wore the same uniforms as Nel appeared around Maria, swords, daggers all drawn. Clair stood beside Maria without her even noticing it.
"Is Fayt alright?"
Clair asked.
"No, his wounds are serious. Nel, what am i to do? He needs help, now!"
Clair could tell that Maria was losing it.
"Maria, get a grip. Now let the medic take care of this."
A dark clothed girl knelt next to Maria and took a look at Fayt's wound.
"He needs to get to the castle."
She said.
"Alright, let's get back then. Nel, you're in charge here."
"Understood. Just get Fayt back to safety."
Nel gave a thumbs up. Adray appeared next to Nel.
"Why didn't someone call me up for some action?"
"Because you were snoring like a pig."
Albel snorted. Soon, the skies were filled with dragons. The dragon brigade under the new command of Albel had arrived. Albel signaled for two of the dragon riders to aid Fayt. The excutioners were not easy foe and ten were just too many. Twenty was exaggerating, but apparently, that ten just multiplied itself and now stood thirty excutioners. Clair forced Maria to ride with the dragon rider. Fayt was already on the other dragon and on his way to the castle.
"But you can't face them alone!"
Maria protested.
"But we will try. Fayt is important to all of us. He saved our lives before and now we have a debt to repay him. Go! Fayt needs you more than anyone!"
Clair pushed Maria onto the dragon and the rider sent to dragon into the air. Soon, a loud clash rang throughout the hills as the battle waged on with an enemy that didn't die.
AN: My apologizes as at first, i could only remember the black and dragon brigade, totally forgetting the storm brigade. So i had to do some changes, and you have to twist your imagination slightly. Be prepared to twist it extremely later. Loads of OCs. Oh yeah, i actually forgot that it was suppose to be closing into winter and had to do some adjustments. I totally forgot and thought it was summer.