Thunder was rumbling in the sky, lightning made hot white streaks through the clouds, casting light onto the two warriors. Rain pelted down onto them relentlessly, washing out the small puddles of blood which stained Burmecia's stone streets. General Beatrix was one of those standing tall amongst the wreckage, her eye glinting with determination to do what would be best for her country. She was staring fiercely at her opponent, who had surprised her by practically coming back from the dead.
Opposite her stood Sir Frato, bathed in a blue aura, a bright light compared to the blues and greys of the city which lay in ruins. His eyes burned with an intense rage, a will to bring some justice in his homes and slay the one who had taken so many innocent lives. He would put an end to the murder, an end to the destruction, an end to the madness.
The two were staring at each other once again, daring the other to make the first attack. This time, Beatrix decided to take the initiative as she lunged at Frato with her sword held back ready to swing. She attempted to slash Frato in a horizontal motion, but Frato blocked the attack easily. Beatrix brought her sword back to try a different attack, and Frato attempted to counter by thrusting his lance forwards. Beatrix was just quick enough to manage to block this counter and she tried to hit Frato at his other side. Frato blocked again and the two began exchanging blows, each successfully blocking each others attacks.
Eventually, Beatrix tried a vertical cut which Frato blocked, but she didn't bring her blade back immediately. Instead Beatrix pushed down, starting a deadlock between the two warriors. Beatrix expecting things to go similarly to the last time she tried this, and force Frato down to the ground. She was shocked to find that Frato was actually managing to force her back ever so slowly, that he was actually overpowering her this time round. Frato then decided that the deadlock was just a waste of his strength and resorted to his previous tactic and kicked Beatrix in the ribs a second time. Beatrix felt the pain of the kick and hunched over in reaction to the attack.
Frato followed up on this opening and swung his lance down at Beatrix's spine. The attack connected and Beatrix gave a short yelp before falling down face-first to the floor. Moving in for the kill, Frato lifted his lance ready to impale Beatrix and thrust his lance down towards the ground. Beatrix was too quick though as she rolled out of the way of the lethal blow and got hastily back onto her feet.
The two didn't even give each other time to breathe. They lashed out at each other once again, trading blows and blocking each others strikes. Frato took another swing at Beatrix, who jumped back in time to dodge the blow. Beatrix then decided that their physical confrontation was too even and backed off to set a distance between them.
Frato noted Beatrix's position and figured she would try to use her magic again and he began charging up energy for an attack of his own. Red energy gathered around the tip of his spear at a slightly faster rate than it usually did. Evidently the power of trance was affected his dragon knight techniques as well. Beatrix saw Frato charging up his spell and began charging up some blue energy in her sword. Frato finished powering up his attack and pointed his lance at Beatrix before chanting "Cherry Blossom!" Red petals flooded out of his lance and flew towards Beatrix before setting alight, creating a powerful beam of fire.
The attack eventually subsided, and Frato was disappointed to see Beatrix still standing. In fact, the attack barely touched her, as Beatrix had managed to cast her spell in time. A transparent, blue sphere had covered Beatrix and protected her from the blast. The blue shell faded, although the magic was still affecting her as she was covered with an eerie blue glow.
Beatrix then decided to take the offensive and began preparing another one of her abilities. Her sword began to give a bright yellow glow and give off small blue sparks. Frato took a defensive stance as she charged towards him and brought down her mighty blade, unleashing her special attack. Frato sidestepped just in time to avoid being struck by an intense beam of lightning that Beatrix's attack had generated. Beatrix gave a little curse before lifting her sword up again and taking a defensive stance.
There was brief second where the two looked at each other's eyes, remaining in their defensive stances, trying to intimidate each other. This short stare-down was broken by Frato who lunged at Beatrix and unleashed a series of swings and strikes. Beatrix blocked them all and managed to try and counter with a couple of her attacks, but not to any avail. The two continued exchanging blows until Beatrix jumped back once again to evade one of Frato's attacks.
Not wanting to give Beatrix another chance to cast one of her spells, Frato charged after her and swung at her once again. Frato thought that if he kept this strictly to a physical confrontation, it would be possible for him to win. Another set of blocked slashes and strikes ensued; until Beatrix managed to deflect one of Frato's attempted slashes and successfully countered with a slash of her own. Frato grunted in pain as he was cut across his chest a second time, this time a slightly deeper cut appearing on his chest. He was knocked backwards onto his rump from the attack. Frato sprang back to his feet and backed off in order to try and properly check his wound and heal himself if necessary.
Frato had made a vital mistake. He had inadvertently given Beatrix the time she needed to prepare one of her powerful knight abilities. As Frato began charging up green and white energy in his spear to replace the now faded effects of Rei's Wind on himself; Beatrix began charging up a bright blue energy at the centre of her sword, near the handle of her weapon. Frato glanced at Beatrix in time to see a bright blue and white flash come towards him.
Pain filled the whole of Frato's upper body and he fell back onto the stone street. The blue aura of trance in his body flashed and faded away, leaving the motionless form of Frato lying on the ground. Beatrix gave a small smile of satisfaction before turning to leave.
A great white dragon burst through the magical emblem and flew straight towards the nearest group of mages. The mages were torn apart by the vicious dragon before it faded into a puff of smoke. Lion-heart was thankful that his attack had created a way out for the citizens. Many of them were already taking the opportunity and running down past the two dead mages to get away from the other two groups of mages coming towards them.
Lion-heart leapt up onto the rooftop behind him, he refused to leave whilst there will still citizens in danger. Many were still trying to make their way to the open road leading west as they had unfortunately been nearer to the street leading to the east of the city. Besides, Frato would be here soon, and two Dragon Knights would prove a far better match for these mages than one.
The black mages were closing in. Lion-heart began preparing another Dragon Knight attack to see if he could take out another group of the mages. Fireballs were thrown directly at the frantic group of citizens, desperate to get away from these demons. Screams and cries could be heard through the street as several unlucky Burmecians were hit by the magical blasts.
After an agonising minute passed, Lion-heart had charged as spell as wasted no time in blasting the mages with a round of "Dragon's Breath". The magical white Dragon head fired blue blasts at the groups of mages, causing many of them to topple over. Yet this wasn't enough, a few of the mages hadn't been hit with the attack and continued to march towards him, chanting "KILL!" as they prepared deadly fire spells in their hands.
More screams, more cries, more deaths. Lion-heart cursed as he began to prepare a third Dragon Knight attack. "Where are you Frato?" Lion-heart asked as energy gathered at the tip of his lance. He was almost ready to unleash his attack when one of the black mage's spells was fired straight at him. Lion-heart saw the spell coming and hopped away to dodge it. He successfully evaded the attack, but somehow managed to misjudge his landing position as his feet dangled dangerously over the edge of the back of the rooftop. He couldn't keep his balance and fell backwards. His attempt to try and grab the roof and climb back up failed as he got not keep his grip on the slippery rooftop, especially with one hand.
He fell down through the air and landed with a painful thump onto the stone floor. Lion-heart was still conscious, but discovered an agonising pain in his left thigh when he tried to stand up. He thought he had broken a bone. He managed to get himself upright and leaned on his spear for balance, but as he tried to move forwards his left leg buckled and he collapsed.
Lion-heart prayed that Frato would come to help him soon...
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 9, okay? The only thing I own in this story is Sir Frato and the name of Lion-heart, nothing else.
Author's Notes: I'm beginning to wonder why this story is much less popular than The Sentinel. Maybe because there isn't as much to argue about, or people are too lazy to review this story. All constructive comments are welcome, so please let me know what you think.
Dazz Combo: I'm glad you enjoyed the battle; I just hope you enjoyed the conclusion! I might take another look at your story when I get time and catch up on all the other stories I need to finish reading. Also, are you going to update your Big Brother story?