Hi everyone! Yes, it's another update! And pretty quick, too! And to think, I had you all worried that this one would be late… oh well, thank you to all those who reviewed and gave me their thoughts and opinions. Much appreciated. Well, it seems that everyone likes Feizhi! I'm surprised how popular her appearance was. And just for that, she stars once again in this chapter! But first, to those reviewers…

Unclever Title: Ah, thank you for correcting my poor use of the word "mayhap". It shall not be used again by those of Xian birth. I honestly never knew that. My knowledge of that sort of stuff is rather meagre. But oh well. It shall be kept in thy mind! Glad you like Feizhi, and don't worry about the boulders. Said boulders are to be seen in this chapter of thy story, lol.

Corycian Muse: Yes, you're right, she doesn't get enough development, does she? It was partly inspired by your making her a major character in your own fic, but I had been planning on including her for a long time before hand, anyway. Heh, yes, Ivan did seem right for the ringbearer part… but that's beside the point. Dunno if I can be cruel to Hsu, but I'll do my best… or maybe I'll be merciful, and let him go free… we'll see. Still, even ignoring the large ocean problem, I wouldn't recommend going to my retail store, anyway. It's a craphole, we just sell garbage, don't waste your hardearned (or ill-gotten if that be the case) dollars (or pounds as you brits use… I think) on our worthless merchandise during the pointless x-mas season. Save yourself, run away! But, um, yes… there's more to a review reply than complaining about where I work… which I do often. Ah well, thank you for reviewing anyway, oh queen of GS fandom, whose skills doth surpass mine own in every conceivable way, ye mistress of Corycia… (just ignore that, I'm in a funny mood today!)

Mercury Gold: Hey, don't worry about the time taken in reviewing. It was in before the next update, so that's good enough for me. Glad you like the whole Feizhi thing (another one!) Well, hope the wait didn't literally kill you… the update wasn't too long, was it? Ah well, hope you enjoy it all. Thank for reviewing!

Spirit Seer: Thank you! I do my best. Yes, Feizhi shall stay with the crew, but not for only for a couple of chaps. Glad you like her, she didn't really get much development in the game, so I plan to give her some! Heh, that LotR bit at the end was just something random that popped into my head. I think I read a parody once of LotR by the GS crew somewhere on the site. Can't remember where now, though. Heh, this one might seem a tad childish, but then maybe that might just be me. Anyhoo, thank you as always for your review and critiques and all!

Floran Black: Even though you reviewed chap 2, I'm assuming you'll read up to here. You make a good point about that history stuff. In my defence I can say only that I was younger and less experienced then. Might go back someday and change that. Well, thanx for your review!

Kd7sov: Cool, glad you liked that part! That word (Kiuan) was just something I pulled out of nowhere, I don't think it was really anything that actually means anything whatsoever. Thanks for that constructive criticism you mentioned the last sentence bit. I'll go back and polish them up when I get the time. That thing that Kraden said about the Psynergy Stones was a reference to (I think) chapter 3 WAY back when he mentined that the stone could turn normal people into adepts or something. I don't remember the specifics of what I wrote there, even though I should, but oh well. Yes, Gaia is pretty cool, isn't it? I can't remember if you learn it in the game at approximately that point, but it matter not too much I guess. Yes, I also wondered about the landslide bit. I considered writing it from their PoV, but I couldn't come up with anything. I figured it might be a combination of Felix using earthquake and Alex using water Psynergy in some way to loosen boulders. Maybe. Who knows? Yes, into the mines… of Altin! As per usual, appreciate your feedback!

SpasticDjinn: Ahh…. My favourite slightly psychopathic evildoer. As for your request… I'll see what pain I can inflict. I have hypothesised the possibility of highly testosterised carnivorous hamsters being used to dismember him slowly and painfully, plus the creative use of sharp cooking utensils, but… we'll see what happens, lol. Anything you can add shall be used to the utmost of its abilities!

GoldenSunGeek: Thank you, yes Feizhi shall stay! And I shall continue writing, you need not fear! Hope this wasn't too long for ya. And don't worry about that little idea… you'll see the first few hints surface in here…

ElementalSpirit1: Ah, cool. Another person who likes the way I added Feizhi… she seems to be popular. Yes, I kept it as Hsu in stead of Ulmoch, which I don't like. Besides, Hsu sounds more oriental, while Ulmoch doesn't. I think.Yes, verily, there shall be more battles! There are three major ones in here! Hope you are satisfied! Hope the wait wasn't too long. Thanx, of course, for your review.

A/N: Okay, then. So, like I said, Feizhi shall tag along for the mines, due to everyone's insistence that it be so. Not a one of you said she shouldn't. You see, reviews have power! Use it wisely, my friends…

So, hope you like this chapter and all that. Now get reading!

Disclaimer: Bah, what do you think?

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

THE MINES OF ALTIN

When Isaac and his companions, accompanied by Feizhi, arrived in the mining town of Altin, he saw immediately what the girl from Xian had mean when she said they couldn't possibly get through the mine. As Ivan had explained, Altin was a town that thrived, and depended upon entirely, its mining industry. By selling stone, valuable metals and rare ores and gems, the townspeople had made a steady, thriving trade beaten only by Xian's silks. Ivan and Master Hammet had come here regularly to purchase goods which they then sold for a good profit in other towns such as Kalay and Tolbi, so he knew the town well, but had never known about the mines rumoured secret passages to the other side of the mountains.

The town itself was gouged out of a massive crater in both the mountain side and the ground beneath it. Isaac saw that this hole was in fact a giant quarry, steadily rising up to ground level in ever widening concentric circles. All along the edges of this quarry were many homes and buildings, some built out of wood, others from holes dug in the ground. Ivan had already informed them the entrances to the Mines of Altin were at the lower levels of the city, and hence the quarry.

But the entire pit, and all the townhouses within it, had been completely flooded with water. All but the uppermost two buildings had now been submerged. The two wooden buildings were what appeared to be the town sanctum and the double story inn. All around, a massive tent city had sprung up, and what must have been the town's entire population were milling about the shores of this newly formed lake. How could so much water have flooded out Altin? There were no nearby lakes or rivers, the ocean was miles away, and there had been no rainfall over the last few days, certainly not a torrential downpour that would be necessary to fill up this gigantic basin. Isaac didn't even believe that it was possible for there to be that much rainfall in any one spot. And somewhere, beneath that half mile or so of deep water, were the mines that they had intended to reach.

"It is just as I foresaw!" Feizhi said. "A town full of water, surrounded by a city of tents!"

"This is even more hopeless than that stupid alpine crossing." Garet muttered as he surveyed the situation. "How are we meant to get through this?"

"When you said that Altin was flooded," Ivan said to Feizhi, his purple eyes surveyed the scene. "I couldn't possibly have imagined that it was this bad!"

"Where could all this water have possibly come from?" Mia spoke softly.

"You lot new in Altin?" a deep, gruff voice asked from behind them. They turned to see a burly, bearded fellow, obviously one of the town's miners, standing behind them. Despite the situation, he seemed to be in good spirits.

"Yes, we are." Isaac replied. "What exactly happened here?"

"Well, nuthin' but a major disaster!" the miner grinned in a friendly way. "Guess we must look a lot like one o' them coastal towns, huh?"

"I'll say!" Garet interjected. "I've never seen so much water in one spot like this in all my life!"

"Nuthin' gets past you!" the miner noted, stroking his beard. "All this happened the day after all those gems fell from the sky!"

"Gems from the sky?" Ivan asked. He could only have been referring to the Psynergy Stones blasted from Mount Aleph.

"Yeah, you remember those things? Shame no one was able to find one to keep, they all just seemed to vanish. Anyhow, after that, these strange creatures appeared and started spewing water out into our town."

"Monsters made all this water!" Mia exclaimed. "Where are they now?"

"Right over there." The miner pointed across the artificial lake to the other side where they could see a blue-frog like creature emitting a steady stream of water into the flood before it. "No one knows quite what the heck it is, or where it came from, but it just keeps on spitting out water." Isaac noticed now that the monster, whatever it was or once had been, was in fact glowing with Psynergy as it generated water out of nothing like Mia.

"Some of the lads reckon they look a lot like them guardian statues found deep in the mines." The miner continued. "Where all that water comes from, no one round here knows. Just seems to be makin' it out of nothing. No ones able to move it. Everyone who gets close just cops a blast of water right in the face that sends 'em flying back, then it goes right back to flooding us out. There seems to be nuthin' we can do."

"That's awful…" Mia murmured.

"My vision showed no way to help." Feihi said with a hint of sadness.

"You said there were more of these things, but I can only see one." Isaac said. "Where are the others?"

"There're two others in the actual mines themselves, where they first appeared." The miner told him as he gazed at the seemingly unstoppable, water-spewing monster. "Some of the lads found 'em while they were working in there, trying to flood the place out. Monsters probably drowned in there, and if so, good riddance. Just that one came out to terrorise us. If only someone could find a way to kill 'em, then hopefully the water should just dry out. Otherwise… we might have to think about leaving…"

Isaac wasn't exactly sure about that. He remembered that Feizhi had said that the sunlight wouldn't dry this flood out. But then, if this flood was created with Psynergy-formed water, then maybe slaying the beast might just…

"Hey, Mia. Where are you going?" Ivan suddenly asked. Mia was stomping off, away from the shocked miner and around the flood's edge towards the monster, where it stood pouring forth its unending supply of water.

"I'm going to put a stop to this thing." The Water Adept called out over her shoulder, while the others hurried to follow her.

"Yeah, let's take out this thing! Garet declared eagerly.

"That miner said they looked like some guardian statues they found." Isaac mused. "I wonder what he meant by that…"

"I think we'll have to ask about that later on." Ivan replied. "Meanwhile, I think we should just see if we can get rid of it."

As they approached the water beasts, Isaac got a good look at it. It was rather frog-like in appearance, but its body certainly didn't look like it had been a statue. It was a blackish dark blue, with red spikes protruding from its back and thighs. It had unintelligent, mad looking red eyes and its hide was rough and scaly, not smooth and slimy like a real frogs. It was huge and very heavy looking and even taller than Garet was.

As soon as they approached it, the thick stream of water stopped gushing out of its froglike mouth, and the light blue glow of Psynergy about its body that was only visible to Adept's eyes vanished. It turned to look at them with animalistic eyes, as though considering them. Mia raised her staff in front of her, and Isaac realised she was preparing to deflect or freeze any blasts of water with her Psynergy if it attacked them.

There was no one nearby, the people of Altin were all clustered away on the opposite shore from the monster, but none the less they would see any Psynergy they used and no doubt be puzzled. But the beast, perhaps sensing their not inconsiderable powers, turned around and bounded away frog-like from them towards a nearby cave. As it bounced, it landed heavily on the ground, causing it to shake violently with each landing.

"Woah, that's one heavy creature!" Garet remarked as the ground vibrated beneath him.

"That's not anywhere near as serious as what Isaac can generate without even trying." Ivan said.

"No, but it is a lot worse than any creature that size should be able to create simply by jumping." Isaac responded. "As though it were made of stone…"

"Never mind about that now." Mia spoke up. "It's trapped in there! Let's get it!"

"Yes, Mia!" Feizhi agreed. "Let us fight it together!"

"You two seem a little eager to take it on." Isaac noted.

"Well, I can't stand by and watch as innocent people are driven out of their homes." she told them in a chilly voice. "It's a healer's job to help people in need; however she has to do it."

"We should all do our part to help out these people." Feizhi said.

They entered the dark, damp cave, and found the water beast standing at the end, facing them and with no place to run. They had it now. It was quite clearly prepared to defend itself.

Its wide open mouth opened to reveal rows of razor sharp teeth, before the beast used Psynergy and from somewhere deep inside itself, water formed, gushing out at them. Mia raised her Ankh, glowing light-blue with Psynergy, and the water froze into ice before reaching them, shattering as it fell to the ground.

Immediately, Ivan raised his Shaman's Rod, and blasted a bolt of lightning right at the creature, sending searing electricity down its throat. Standing still, momentarily dazed, the creature suddenly exploded in flames as Garet raised a hand and cast a powerful, new Psynergy, creating a flaming explosion, actually inside the beast.

Isaac raised his hand, and a powerful stone spike rent itself from the ground beneath the beast, and drove itself up into its unprotected belly. As watery blood began to trickle down out of the wound, the creature's frog-like legs gave way under its weight, driving its body further down. The monster gave one last, gurgling cry, and then died. Its body then suddenly solidified into stone, leaving only a broken statue behind.

"Did we kill it?" Ivan asked.

"Looks pretty dead to me." Garet shrugged. "It sure ain't alive at least." He gave the stone statue a little kick to be sure.

"Wow!" Feizhi gasped, impressed. "You really are powerful warriors! Especially you, Isaac!"

"Uh, thank you!" Isaac replied a little embarrassed. "Hey, Mia, now that this thing is dead, shouldn't all the water it spewed out as well disappear as well?"

"I think so." Mia replied. "When an Adept of the Mercury Clan creates water out of nothing with their Psynergy, it is somehow bound to their life force. The water created is somehow not real, so it doesn't taste good, or even quench your thirst. Without the life force necessary to sustain its existence, the water should just vanish."

"Well, let's go see then!" Garet suggested, and the tall, spiky haired Fire Adept left he cave to view Altin. Isaac and the others followed suite to see for themselves.

Outside, they found that the water level had now dropped to about half of it previous level, leaving the larger, outer rim of the town of Altin unsubmerged once more. Already dozens of people had descended upon the town again, searching homes and cleaning up the mess left behind. Fortunately, nobody was paying any attention to them, or the point where the water best should have been, for now.

"Hey, the mine's opening is reachable now!" Garet exclaimed. At a point just a few metres above the new water level, was a squarish hole in the side of the cliff leading deep into the ground. From the mine entrance ran two parallel steel tracks that Isaac assumed were the "cart tracks" that Ivan had described to them when telling them about his previous trips to Altin with Master Hammet.

"You did it, warriors!" Feizhi exclaimed gleefully, clapping her hands together, "Well done!"

"I guess we'll have to go in there if we want to get to the other side of these mountains." Isaac said.

"Wait a second, the lower half of the town s till flooded!" Ivan pointed out. "That means that we should only be able to reach the upper levels of the mine!"

"Well, that's great," Garet began sarcastically, "except we need to find a way to get to the lower levels to reach this supposed passageway."

"Wait, did not the miner say that there were more of the water beasts inside the mines?" Feizhi asked, reminding them.

"So, we'll have to go in there and kill the rest of them just to drain the mines of water?" Garet realised. "Doesn't sound too hard, that last one didn't put up much of a fight."

"Well, I think it's a good thing to do, just out of the kindness of our hearts." Mia declared. "Helping the people of Altin as they are. Working hard for the benefit of others is the greatest act of nobility, that's what I always say."

"We don't seem to have any choice, anyway." Ivan stated. "If we want to go after Saturos and Menardi."

"Well, then," Isaac started, "let's go in." While the townspeople were busy fussing over their homes and belongings, Isaac and his companions entered the mines of Altin unnoticed. As they made their way through the rocky caverns, it grew progressively darker until it became necessary for Garet to light a torch with his Psynergy. They made their way through silently, save for the sound of their footsteps echoing in the dark caverns ahead of them. They weren't sure of what they were going to find inside these mines, so they tried to make little noise, to prevent them from being noticed by whatever may have been in there.

Although the passage branched off in several directions at a number of points, they followed the mine cart tracks along the main route as it sloped steadily down, deeper into the mountains. After what felt like hours, but was probably no more then a half hour, Ivan stopped and whispered, "Wait, do you hear that?"

They all stopped and listened.

"I hear it, too." Feizhi said softly.

Soon, Isaac heard it too. The sound of splashing water echoing up the mine caverns. Isaac was sure that could only be one thing. Images of that water beast from outside the mine filled his head. None of them needed to read minds to know what the rest was thinking. They went on cautiously, weapons drawn. Eventually, they reached the lowest accessible point, where the water level was. They couldn't get any closer to their goal now. Now, they had to find the water beast and kill it to get any further. They followed the sound along the caverns, turning off to leave the rail cart track behind them as they pursued the noise deeper into the gut rock. After a while of walking, Garet started complaining.

"We've been walking for ages!" he moaned. "We just keep getting deeper and deeper."

"Just keep quiet, Garet." Isaac warned his impatient friend. "I'm sure we're almost there."

"Hey, I think we may have found a way to get there quickly." Ivan told the others. "Look, a mine cart!"

There, ahead of them, a new set of mine cart tracks began, with a steel mine cart right there at the start.

"Ivan, are you suggesting we ride down in that?" Mia asked. The tracks did go down at a steady slope.

"Sure, why not?" the short Wind Adept shrugged. "We'll get there quicker."

"What about the noise?" Isaac warned. "Wouldn't that attract the monsters?"

"Ah, bring 'em on!" Garet scoffed. "We can take 'em!" He gripped his battle-axe before him for effect and smirked.

"Aside from Garet's bluster," Mia began with a glower to the taller, muscle bound Adept, who simply ignored the white robed healer, "we haven't seen any monsters in here any way. We should be fine."

"You are quite right, Mia." Feizhi said. "This mine was just flooded, they would not have returned so quickly!"

"Well, let's hope in and see where it takes us!" Isaac shrugged. All five of them managed to, with some difficulty, all fit in the metal cart, which held just enough room for them all. For some reason, Isaac found Feizhi jostling to sit next to him. Once they were all on, he set it into motion, and the cart rolled down the slope on it's parallel steel tracks, and soon they were hurtling down the stone passageway full throttle, the still air of the mine rushing against their faces, the rocky walls a mere blur about them. It was while they were going at full speed that Isaac suddenly wondered with a feeling of dread just how they were going to stop. Fortunately, just before the words formed on his tongue, the surface levelled out and the cart rolled gently to a smooth stop.

They were now in a large cavern, half filled with water. The mine cart had stopped on a large ledge just above water level, although it wasn't to remain that way for long. On the far side across the deep water on another ledge, sat another frog-like water beast, a living statue as it were, steadily guzzling out water from its mouth into the ever deepening pool.

"Hey, weren't these things supposed to originally be 'guardian statues'?" Garet asked as he clambered out of the mine cart. "Because they're not doing a very good job of it."

"I don't think they were ever meant to guard the people of Altin." Ivan replied gravely as he joined Garet. "I'm guessing they were originally built to guard something else altogether."

"The magic gems falling from the sky have filled them with evil." Feizhi told them. "I can sense it within them." She left the cart with Mia and joined them.

"I don't care what they guard; they aren't going to be harming any more townspeople." Mia declared as she stood by Isaac, brushing coal dust off of her white dress with light blue patterns on it.

"You dedication to helping overs is honourable, Mia." Feizhi said to the Mercury Adept. "I admire that about you."

"Thank you, Feizhi!" she smiled in delight. "I admire you, too. You're so strong, and skilful!"

"Ladies, please, we're about to engage in a life or death battle, here!" Garet said, interrupting their conversation.

The water beast across from them was still sitting there, spitting out a thick stream of water formed by Psynergy. Water Psynergy. If it was in any way aware of their arrival, it gave no indication of it. It was in exactly the same position it had been in when they had first arrived, for all the world as though the four Adepts across from it didn't exist.

"I will fight alongside you, warriors!" Feizhi declared in a strong tone. "This evil thing should not be allowed to live!"

"With that Kung Fu of yours, I'd be glad to have you ad our side!" Garet said with a smile. He then began to focus his Psynergy, the air about him warming as sparks and flames crackled within the palms of his hands. "Let's see what this thing's made of!" he spoke through clenched teeth.

He raise his hands palm outward towards the monster, gathering his power and focusing intense heat and flame before him. By now, the water beast had ceased its water guzzling to stare at him with a look of blank stupidity.

Garet unleashed his attack, a powerful column of fire like a heatwave blasting towards the creature. Reacting with a speed unbecoming of its appearance, the water beasts opened its mouth and shot out a powerful blast of Psynergetically formed water right back at him. The two opposing forces collided with one another midway, sending steam and shockwaves out and causing the flood of water to ripple violently beneath. But the powerful jet of water steadily pushed back Garet's fiery onslaught until it was only just held back by the burly Mars Adept.

"I can't hold it back!" he shouted out. He should have known better than to expect fire to compete well against water.

"I've got it!" Mia called back, raising her Angelic Ankh in front of her and focusing her Psynergy through it, causing the orb to brightly glow blue. Before her, the jet of water suddenly froze into ice. It broke off and fell to the water with a splash, sinking below the surface. Garet let his fire attack vanish.

Ivan quickly joined her, unleashing a powerful bolt of lightning at the monster and shocking it into a pause, preventing it from launching a counter-attack. The blast of thunder from it echoed loudly down the mines corridors. Sensing an opportunity to attack, Isaac raised his hand, and large chunks of rock tore themselves from the roof and fell heavily downwards.

Recovering faster than the Venus Adept would have expected; the water best leapt out of the way of the rocky avalanche before it crashed down, and into the large, deep pool of water with a large splash, swimming down to safety.

"We've got it, now!" Ivan crowed, pointing his rod at the water. He unleashed several bright, powerful bolts of liquid plasma into the water. Beneath the surface, the water beasts roared in pain as it was electrocuted.

Immediately after Ivan ceased his attack, the creature began kicking its legs behind it and swam quickly for the surface.

"You aren't getting away that easily." Mia growled icily. She raised her hand above the water, and her Psynergy froze a thick sheet of ice over where the water beast was just about to leave. It slammed heavily into the underside, causing a large crack to appear, and floated back.

"Quick, Ivan! Hit it again!" Isaac shouted.

Powerful bolts of lightning Psynergy arced from the Wind Adept's Shaman's Rod to the water, but it seemed it already had another idea. As Psynergy formed about the monster beneath the surface, a thick sheet of ice suddenly formed atop the water above it, where Ivan's lightning bolt exploded harmlessly.

Before any of the other Adept's had a chance to react, the water beast then quickly swam up and out of the water between the two blocks of ice and landed straight for Ivan. Isaac was only barely able to use his Orb of Force to shove the small Jupiter Adept out of the way before he was crushed beneath its considerable weight.

The ground trembled as it landed heavily, Ivan skidding to a halt out of its way. Feizhi jumped at it with her fighting staff, landing a hard blow atop its head. The Water Beasts didn't so much as flinch from the strike. She tied several kicks and punches, but it's tough, leathery hide absorbed them all without any apparent effect.

Turning its attention to the young Xian fighter, the beast opened its mouth to unleash a water blast, when Feizhi, a look of fright upon her face, shielded herself with her hands.

"Eek!" A powerful blast of bright white lightning flew from her hands and struck the beasts, sending it back several steps. Eyes closed tight, Feizhi sent several more blasts towards it, then finally stopped and opened her eyes.

"Did I get it?" The water beast had been severely injured, large burns covering its body, watery blood leaking out all over.

Garet then appeared, lunging for the monster with his battle-axe, fire spewing forth from his hand. The fire rolled harmlessly of the creature's wet skin, and then it retaliated by throwing Garet back with a powerful jet of water before the Mars Adept was able to use his ace on it.

As Garet slammed into a rocky wall with a grunt, Isaac pointed his outstretched palm towards the beast, forming a powerful Ragnarok with his Psynergy. A phantom blade of glowing white light, made of pure Psynergetic energy shot out at the monster, exploding on its bulk with a brilliant white flash sending off sparks of energy. As the light faded, it revealed a wounded and bleeding water beast glaring at Isaac and readying for another assault.

At that moment, Mia appeared at his side and from her hand, shards of sharp, little icicles formed, flying into the creature's hide and embedding themselves within, drawing out some of the monster's watery blood.

Not wasting a second, Isaac raised his hand and a pointed stone spire broke of from the roof and impaled the water beasts in the back of the neck. The creature collapsed, groaned in agony for a moment, then died.

"All right, we got him!" Garet cheered as he rejoined the others, clutching his bruised chest.

The water beast solidified into stone, returning to its original statue form.

"It nearly got me, though." Ivan muttered as he joined them.

"I better take a look at you, Ivan, but after I've healed Garet." Mia told him. "He took a heavy blow."

"Relax, I'm fine." Garet replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I've taken worse blows before." Mia refused to accept his answer, and deliberately cupped his face in her hands and focused her Ply ability into him. Instantly, the bruises on his chest began to fade as they healed. Behind them, the stone statue they had just killed began to break and crumble apart.

"What was that I did?" Feizhi asked in confusion, staring at her hands with uncertainty in her purple eyes.

"You created lightning with you Psynergy." Ivan explained.

"But how did I do it? I've never done that before!"

"I can teach you." Ivan offered. "Remember, you're a Jupiter Adept like me, so I could probably show you a lot of new tricks. I could even teach you how to read minds!"

She smiled at him, letting her hands hang down again. "Thank you, warrior, that would be very nice. Would you like to help me, Isaac?"

"It's probably better that you let Ivan do it." He replied. "An Earth Adept can't show you much about Wind Psynergy."

"Oh." She frowned slightly, and then looked away.

What was that all about? He wondered.

Once Garet was fixed, Mia quickly checked Ivan, decided he was fine, and they readied themselves to begin moving again. All around them, the water level sunk down as the water formed by Psynergy vanished without the life-force of its creator to maintain it. Soon, the entire chamber was empty and the echoes of the draining water in other parts of the mine ceased.

"Let's get moving." Isaac suggested. "We can get down to the lower parts now. We should be getting close to the shaft that leads to the other side of the mountains."

They made their way down to the bottom of the pit that only minutes before had been full of water. They could now access new tunnels that led even deeper into the mine. They wandered down the dark passage from some time before they came to yet another set of mine cart tracks, with a mine cart conveniently resting nearby at the beginning. There were three separate ways that they could go, but they all agreed to follow the mine cart tracks as they followed the main route and had the greatest chance of taking them to the desired exit.

Riding the steel cart like before, they quickly and speedily rolled along the parallel tracks. When they reached the end, the found they had two ways to go. There was another passage that continued on deeper off to the side, while opposite that the room they were in opened out into a large pit, the bottom of which levelled out to show two opposing passageways with another mine cart track running between them.

"I'm beginning to think we might be lost." Garet said slowly, looking around.

"Which way do we go?" Mia asked.

"That way seemed to follow on from the path we were just following," Ivan pointed out to the passage to their side, "but down there seems to be one of the main routes. It probably links up with other parts of the mine. Hmm… Isaac, what do you think?"

Isaac looked around and considered their options. "I'm not sure." He admitted with a shrug. "I've lost all sense of direction, and I can't feel the earth's surface from this deep." He paused for a moment, stroking his chin in thought. Which way to go?

"That way." Feizhi declared without the slightest hint of doubt, pointing to the passage off to the side, away from the pit.

"How can you be so sure?" Ivan asked.

"It's another vision, isn't it?" Mia guessed. "You've seen where it is we have to go, haven't you?"

"You know me too well, Mia!" she replied, smiling sweetly. "Yes, that is the way. If we go this way, then our path to freedom will open."

"Well, whatever you say." Garet shrugged, beginning down the rocky passage. "Let's see where this goes." It was too dark to see to the end, even with the added light of Garet's torch, but as they made their way down, they quickly discovered what the end looked like. It was a dead end.

It seemed that the miners had apparently given up on this particular dig. A nearby sign seemed to indicate it was dangerous and unstable here.

'Caution! Fragile earth, do not dig here, tunnel may collapse.' it read.

"Well, that's great!" Garet exclaimed sarcastically. "We came all this way and it's a dead end!"

"I don't understand." Feizhi said softly, in total confusion. "My vision said the way would open if we went down this tunnel. My visions are never wrong, I don't understand!"

Garet kicked a nearby wall in frustration. "Are we ever gonna get out of here?"

"Garet, be careful there…" Isaac cautioned his rash friend, looking carefully at the fragile rockwork. He could feel it in the earth that it wasn't holding together very well. Heck, he could see it wasn't holding out well!

"What?" Garet asked. "I'm just saying! What if the rest of the mine had dead ends like this?" Above the rock cracked a little more.

"Never mind." Isaac said hurriedly. "Let's just get out of here!" The ceiling broke a little more, showering them in dust. It was only seconds from collapse.

"Run!" he shouted, before turning heel and sprinting full pelt down the corridor, with the others right beside him. Behind them, a large crash was heard, echoing down the corridor. Isaac risked a look behind him. Behind them, a large boulder was rolling right behind them, and quickly gaining speed! At this rate, they couldn't possibly hope to outrun it. The end of the corridor was just ahead. If they could just keep out of the boulders reach a little further…

Exiting the dangerous tunnel, Isaac leapt to the side and out of harms way, accompanied by Mia and Feizhi. Behind them, Garet and Ivan leapt out of the way likewise on the opposite side.

There was a rush of air a split second after he landed as the boulder passed them by, rolling of their little edge, and into the pit below with the new cart tracks. A moment's silence hung in the air, then an incredibly loud crash was heard as the boulder collided with the ground at high speed, with the chamber shaking violently and echoes confusing the noise they heard.

Isaac sat there for a few seconds as the echoes of the noise faded, then turned to face the others. He was about to open his mouth to say something to Garet, when a bone-chilling roar was heard, shattering the silence and echoing loudly down the solitary mine tunnels.

"What was that?" Mia whispered fearfully, her blue eyes looking into Isaac's blue pupils. Feizhi screeched slightly, and clung on to his arm and hid behind his back as though looking for protection.

Can't she protect herself? He thought. Isaac shrugged silently in response to Mia's question, and crept to the edge to look over the side, followed closely by a clinging Feizhi and Mia. There was a huge hole in the ground where the cart tracks used to run, sinking deep into the darkness.

"I don't like the sound of that!" Garet moaned, looking over.

"Sounds like another water beast." Ivan commented as he joined the Fire Adept. "But it's a lot louder than those other ones…"

"We'd better check it out." Isaac declared. "We don't want it coming up behind us at some point. Besides, if the tunnel to the other side is still submerged, we'll need to kill it."

"You are a very brave warrior, Isaac." Feizhi said admiringly. Mia glanced at her and she coughed slightly, and then said, "But that must be the right way. My vision said that the corridor would open up the way to the exit… and it did. Sort of."

"And nearly got us killed for it!" Garet snapped, and then sighed. "But that's the thing with prophecies and visions and things, isn't it? They never quite turn out the way you expect them too."

"Indeed." Ivan nodded.

"Well, we can't just leave it there!" Mia added. "What if it floods out the people of Altin again? We can't let that happen!"

They hopped down, and stood at the edge of the gaping hole, looking down. They could faintly make out the bottom in the torchlight. About level with the rocky rubble that now served as the ground floor of the hole was another passageway. The steel mine cart tracks, now bent down and mangled out of shape, served as a makeshift ladder as they climbed down and began following the newly discovered passage of the mine. None of them could understand how it had been made if the miners of Altin hadn't dug this far, but they soon discovered something else even more interesting and perplexing. The passageway ahead was made out of smooth, carved white stone that reflected the light well as they made their way further down. This was indeed a big secret of the mine. Who would have made all this, and why?
They rounded a corner and found what it was that must have been making that noise. At the far end, was a massive water beast, a living statue. But this one was bigger and more ferocious looking that the other two. Along either side, nearby, were two pedestals for the other two living statues that they had already killed. Which made this third one the last one. The four Adepts readied their weapons. Unlike the other two, this one wasn't pouring out water for some reason, but simply sitting there as though waiting.

"So, I guess this is where those guardian statues they found originated." Ivan said.

"Yes, I think this is the last one." Mia added. "Whatever those guardian statues have done since coming to life, we're putting to an end."

"Well said, Mia!" Feizhi said, twirling her fighting staff before her.

"Careful." Isaac cautioned. "This one's a lot bigger and feels stronger. It'll be a tougher fight."

Just like the others, this one made no opening move against them, but simply looked at them as though curious as to what they might do. Isaac made the first attack. He raised his left hand ahead of him and formed a powerful Ragnarok which blasted into the creature with a brilliantly bright blast.

Even before his eyes had time to clear the white after-image from them, Garet had raised his hands and formed a powerful, fiery vortex about the creature. But although Garet's Fire Psynergy was strong, it seemed to be no match fro the living statue's Water Psynergy, and as it quenched the flames about it with water formed out of the air, it emerges unscathed.

Then it counter-attacked. Opening its wide, frog-like mouth, a huge jetting stream of water shot out. Halfway towards them, the creature used its Psynergy, and the column of water split into five separate jets, each travelling in a different direction. Towards a different Adept.

Before Isaac or any of the others could make a move, each of the five water bursts slammed into their chests heavily, sending them flying back. As Isaac slid to a stop on the carved stone floor, he looked up to see the water beast now preparing another powerful attack. Several large blue balls of water came out of its mouth, guided towards them by Psynergy.

The monster released the clear blue orbs as they hurtled towards them, but Isaac was still too winded to make a move just yet. Mia was the first to recover. Getting up, she raised her Angelic Ankh, and the balls froze to ice as they crashed to the ground, shattering into tiny fragments. She then stepped forward to face her adversary. Ivan raced to join her, followed by Feizhi, whipping up a whirlwind with his Wind Psynergy and showering his enemy with the shards of ice on the floor, while Feizhi raised her hands, and unleashed blasts of lightning without knowing exactly what she was doing.

Getting up, Isaac wondered why Garet hadn't joined in the fight. He looked over and realised why. Being a Fire Adept, Garet had taken that attack worse than the others, and lay on his back severely injured. Isaac rushed over to check on his friend. He'd been knocked down and hurt, but it wasn't too serious, after all. Isaac hurriedly cast Cure, the healing ability passed on to Venus Adepts, and his Psynergy began healing Garet's wounds.

Behind him, he heard the battle continue. There was the sound of ice shattering and water splashing then all that was drowned out by the thunder of one of Ivan's lightning bolts. Or maybe it was Feizhi's. One he was finished, Garet got up, and thanked Isaac as he got ready to attack once again.

For some reason, Ivan was now lying injured on his side and Mia was next to him, using her power, Ply to heal him. Feizhi was fending of the living statue with her fighting staff, agilely dodging and jumping around to avoid its attacks.

"Take care of that monster while I heal Ivan!" Mia shouted.

"I've got it!" Garet responded as he generated a powerful fireball with his Psynergy before him. The water beast ignored Mia as it turned to face Garet, who unleashed dozens of small fireballs in all directions that changed direction and homed in on the living statue before them.

The water beast's natural reaction was to blast the tiny fireballs out of existence with well aimed blasts of water from its mouth.

Which served as the perfect distraction, Isaac realised. While the creature was busy blasting the fireballs out of existence, a few of them flaming harmlessly of its wet, leathery hide, Isaac reached out with his Psynergy to the stone ground beneath it. He cast the most powerful ability he knew of. The powerful Venus attack, called Gaia.

The stone gave up its energy with a bright, golden glow, broken rock floating up and slamming into the monster that suddenly found itself trapped in the beam of light as Gaia took effect. Before the living statue knew what was happening, the stone exploded in a brilliant burst of light as the earth shattered in an uncontrollable cataclysm of destructive energy.

When the light cleared a clearly injured and near defeated monster lay before them, severely burned and profusely bleeding. It turned to regard Feizhi, who was standing closest. Giving a shriek, she raised her hands, and blasts of white lightning lanced from her hands assaulting the statue, and driving it to the ground.

Garet immediately rushed past him and buried his large battle axe it its head, killing it. Defeated, the water beast returned back to its original stone form, and Garet was only just able to remove his axe before it became trapped in the stone.

"We did it, Isaac!" Garet crowed in celebration. "We beat the last water beast!"

"You fought very well, warrior." Feizhi nodded, breathing heavily with exertion.

"I wonder why Altin's statues turned into monsters." Ivan mused as he sat back up, healed again. "I mean, if they weren't living things to begin with, how could the power of Psynergy stones bring them to life and make them do these things? Doesn't that seem kind of strange?"

"Yes, that is kind of odd." Isaac nodded in agreement.

"And why is this room all strangely tiled, with statues built in it?" the Wind Adept went on.

"Maybe it's a ruin from the Lost Age?" Isaac guessed.

"I feel that these guardian statues were created long ago." Feizhi said, looking to the defeated water beast, cracking and crumbling apart.

"But what are they for?" Garet questioned as he too looked at them. The statue broke apart into dust, revealing hidden behind it along the wall a red enamelled treasure chest. They hadn't seen it upon first entering, hidden just behind the water beast, and in the heat of battle, they hadn't noticed it.

"Hey look, there's treasure chest behind it!" Ivan exclaimed, pointing.

"I guess that it must be all related to these ruins, buried deep in the mine…" Mia murmured, looking around with her blue eyes.

"I guess so…" Garet figured with a shrug of his broad shoulders. "Let's see what they were guarding that was so important."

"I'm already one step ahead of you!" Isaac responded as he walked up to the chest and opened it up. Inside there was a small, smooth polished gem that had the same Psynergetic resonance that he had felt with the Catch Beads and the Orb of Force. Clearly, it was a Psynergy item, but what did it do?

Isaac took it out, and looked at it.

"What is it?" Garet asked.

"That's what I'm about to find out." Isaac replied as he held it in front of him. Focusing his mind, he generated a small amount of Psynergy with his weary bones, and channelled it into the item. Nothing happened. Not like the orb of Force, that simply released its effect when touched with Psynergy. Maybe it was more like the Catch Beads, and also needed a target to focus on before it could make something happen.

Isaac continued channelling his Psynergy through the gem, and now targeted it at the treasure chest. To Isaac's surprise, it began levitating! Isaac was capable of making small, lightweight items such as stones and clumps of straw hover with his mind, but anything heavier required far too much effort and strength. This let him do the same thing to heavier objects with only a fraction of the energy.

"Hey, that could come in handy!" Ivan noted, as he looked at the effects of the gem in Isaac's hand.

"We could use it to lift all sorts of things, like rocks and boulders…" Isaac mused, as ideas came into his head.

"I feel we should try using it further on in the mine." Feizhi suggested. "We are getting near to the other side."

"Let's go then." Isaac told them, as he pocketed the lifting gem, allowing the chest to fall to the floor. "I don't know how long we've been here for, but we should probably get going. After all, this detour had given us a serious delay."

They quickly moved off, and left the mysterious carved ruins behind them, delving deeper into Altin's mine. As they got closer to their exit, they encountered several large boulders blocking the floor, probably loosened by the water, but with the Lift Gem, as they had come to call it, they easily bypassed them. After and hour or two of walking along the man-made tunnels, they finally saw a glimpse of natural light. Sunlight! And Ivan informed them he could feel fresh air ahead!

They rushed ahead, and burst out of the mine in the side of the mountain. They were outside at last! In the late afternoon sun, they found themselves on the other side of the mountains. Saturos and Menardi's attempts to stop them had failed. There seemed nothing more to do, but camp there for the night.

"Ah, it's good to be out of there!" Garet sighed. The others agreed with him.

"Tomorrow, we make for Lama Temple." Isaac told them after a moment of enjoying the freedom of the surface. "We'll need to stop for rest and supplies, most especially water. We are, after all, about to cross a desert next, if we're going to catch up on Saturos and Menardi."

"And do not forget we must rescue Hsu along the way from the danger that he is in." Feizhi reminded them.

"That's right, we can't forget about him!" Mia said.

"All right then, tomorrow, it's Lama Temple, seeing if we can help Hsu along the way." Isaac decided.

"While we are there, we must visit Master Hama." Feizhi said.

"Sounds like a good idea, what's this Master Hama like?" he asked.

"My master is very wise and knowing." she smiled. "Very skilled in the ways of Chi. Master Hama will be able to help Hsu, if we can not."

"Hama…" Ivan mused. "That sounds kind of familiar… I wonder if I've heard it somewhere before…"

"You would have." Feizhi replied. "Master Hama is very famous."

"No, I don't think it's because of fame…" He shrugged. "I'm sure it's nothing. Probably just my imagination."

They settled down to camp along the mountain side, ready to travel to Lama Temple the next day.

A/N: And that's the end of that chapter. Hope you liked it! Did you appreciate Feizhi's inclusion? Was it fun enough for you? Next chapter will be her last. She'll leave the group and they shall go on again as four. But not without first having a bit more fun! Ivan is going to teach Feizhi some fancy Jupiter tricks!

Will she be able to learn to read minds? Control her lightning and wind summoning? Or will this diabolical knowledge be used by her for ill purposes? And who is this Hama character? What will happen? Will I continue to ask rhetorical questions? Will you ever get any answers? Will my next update be soon? To find out, you'll have to read the next chapter! So, if you feel led in anyway to leave a review and impart your thoughts upon me… well, go ahead. If not, well… that's up to you, I guess. Still, it'd be a shame for me not to hear from y'all…

NOW, I might not update soonish due to work commitments… I'll try to, but I make no promises… Adios Amigos.