Tidus and Wakka stood over in the corner as Stree faced off against the three-headed beast. The only one making any noise was Cerebur, growling softly. Suddenly, the three heads barked at once, and leapt forward.
Stree reacted at once, guessing where the three heads would attack, and trying to dodge them. He was successful with the first two, but Cerebus caught him, slamming him backward into a wall. He retaliated, swiping his sword at Cerebur, but missed cleanly. Cerebal snapped at him, but Stree saw it coming, and slapped the dog in the side of his face, causing a yelp. Cerberus jumped back, then came forward again, all heads snapping in the same direction. Stree tried to jump up out of the qway, but Cerberus reared up on their hind legs and Cerebus and Cerebur caught him, one leg each, and slammed him to the ground. He tried to get away, but Cerebal brought his head in close, and light started to form in his mouth.
"Oh shit," said Stree, doubling his efforts to get away. When he realized he couldn't he curled himself up into a ball, as the dog head's attack, Howl, blasted straight at him. A high pitched scream punched through his head, making him yell in pain. Immobilized from pain, the other two heads released their grip and joined in with howls of their own. After a few minutes of it, Stree lay unmoving on the ground. Cerberus stopped, and turned away. Only Cerebus looked back.
"You put up more of a fight last time, Marked One," he said, turning his head away. They had gotten to the door when they heard a crackling sound behind them. They turned their head and found Stree standing their, flames dancing all over his body, across his sword and knife, and leaping into the air.
"I'm not finished yet," growled Stree, his voice a few octaves lower than normal. He screamed and threw his arms out, causing flames to explode in every direction, and leapt forward, his sword raised. He threw his knife while in mid-air, aiming straight at Cerbur, then punched his sword through Cerebal's throat. He came to land in front of Cerebus, his sword pointed at the dog's eye. "Are you?" not taking his eyes off the head, he reached over and pulled the knife out of Cerebur's head.
Cerebus laughed. "You win, Marked One. You have gotten a lot stronger this past year."
"You don't know the half of it," replied Stree, letting the flames surrounding him die down to nothingness.
"If you'll excuse me, I must heal my brothers. Then we shall get down to finding your missing companion."
"Get to it, then." Stree turned and placed his weapons back in their places, then walked over to where Wakka and Tidus stood silently. "We'll be going to find the mage in a couple of minutes. Then we can get out of here."
"So that, dog…thing is coming with us?" asked Tidus.
Stree nodded. "He wont betray us."
"How do you know, eh?" shot Wakka. "That thing would probably rip our heads off for fun."
"They won't. Cerberus is a loyal being. If you treat it with kindness and respect, it will protect you for as long as it can."
"I don't trust it," stated Wakka.
"Shall we go?" asked Cerebus.
"Lead the way."
The three men and Cerberus walked through endless corridors, taking out random fiends as they came.
"Hey, doggy, how much longer is this gonna take?" asked Wakka.
"Not much longer. And please refrain from referring to us as 'doggy'," replied Cerebal, shaking his head.
Suddenly, the group heard a thump, then a yell.
"Oh, shit," said Stree, rushing forward. He got to a window, and looked in, only to see three men standing around Lulu, trying to grab her, clearly intent on having their collective way with her, despite the fact that she did not want it.
Remembering the way Tidus had used Kam in their earlier times, Stree felt rage bubbling up inside him. "You must calm down, Marked One," said Cerebus.
"Not this time," said Stree quietly. He stepped back, and slammed his booted foot straight through the heavy double doors, splintering the wood into tiny fragments.
"I don't think she wants what you do, boys," growled Stree, his voice lowering to a dangerous level, and flames rising out of his body.
The three men laughed and started to move toward Stree, but stopped when they saw Tidus, Wakka, and Cerberus come walking through the remains of the doorway. The severe look Wakka was giving them would have been more than enough to make anyone cower in fear, but the three barely seemed to notice it. Stree handed Wakka his knife and gun, then moved over to the side. The other three spread out, and waited for the three to make the first move.
The one in the middle whistled, and three separate sets of doors opened up, and dozens of other men piled into the room.
"Ah, screw this," said Wakka, and jumped forward, stabbing the knife straight through the first one unlucky enough to be in his way. He threw the man backwards, and kept moving forward, towards Lulu. Stree and Tidus followed suit, slashing and hacking their way through the crowd, while Cerberus stayed back a bit, and Cerbur and Cerebus protected Cerebal, as he worked on magic spells to make the fight a little easier. Cerebus and Cerebur barked loudly as they ripped apart any poor soul who came too close, while Stree jumped high up into the air, and slmmed his sword down onto the ground, knocking everyone – including Tidus and Wakka – away. He stood back up and spun around, splitting several people in half, while Tidus grabbed hs sword and jammed it straight through the throat of another. Wakka moved around the side of the room, shooting anyone who got close to Lulu. He reached her and turned around, spraying bullets all over the place. He then saw the three men who were there originally trying to flee. Growling, Wakka threw the gun as hard as he could at the first one, knocking him out cold. He then grabbed a piece of wood lying on the floor, and ran straight at the other two.
Meanwhile, Cerberus had found themselves in a spot of bother. Five men at once were hitting at them, and they were steadily getting pushed back. "Counter Rockets, my brothers!" shouted Cerebus, and the three of them, sent pulses of light spraying out in all directions, annihilating everyone in close range to them. Then Cerberus put their tail up, and a beam of light shot up into the air, and blasted straight into Lulu. She then stood up, and, as if in fury mode, started casting random attack magic spells at anyone she saw. With the three men, Lulu, and Cerberus ripping people apart, the battle was over in little over a few minutes. By the time it was over, only one person was left alive, and Wakka was throttling him to find out why he and Lulu had been kidnapped.
"Who did this?" he yelled, choking the man.
"Us," replied the man, smirking despite the fact that his face was turning blue.
"Who made you!" shouted Wakka. The man stayed completely silent.
"Wakka," said Stree, calm and flameless now. "Move. I can make him talk."
He walked over to the man, and knelt down next to where he lay on the ground, breathing heavily. "You think you're gonna have any more luck than he did?"
"Luck is nothing," replied Stree. He slowly slid the knife he had gotten back out of its sheath, and held it close to the man's face. Then he moved the blade down to his groin. "The real question is, do you want to ever have children?"
The man gulped visibly, but stayed quiet.
"Guess that's a no," said Stree, pressing the blade down – hard.
The man whimpered, then screamed in pain.
"Tell me what we want to know, or I cut the other one off as well."
The man, crying softly, still said nothing.
"Fine." Stree slashed again, causing the man to scream even louder.
"I think I'm going to throw up," said Lulu, turning from the room.
The man calmed down a little. "Now you got nothing."
"Wanna bet?" asked Stree. He moved his arm, and brought to rest on the tip of one of the man's fingers. "You have ten of these. And ten toes to. We can do this for a long time."
"I'll die of blood loss first," laughed the man. Strre nodded once, then brought his hand up, flames erupting from it, and punched him straight into the groin. The man screamed like a ten year old girl.
"Cauterize the wound. Now you won't."
"Argh! Oh god, I'll tell you! Just stop please!"
"Alright. So tell us."
"It was some big guy. He had this big sword on his arm, instead of a hand. Didn't tell us his name. Said we were the second test. I don't know, but we were getting paid heaps for it, so we didn't ask question, ya know? Come on, that's all I know, please."
Stree nodded again, than ran the blade over the man throats silencing him quickly. "All right. Let's get out of here."