Red Mage 04- Yes, Samos is in deep trouble. He is now a pawn, and therefore, basically evil. Mwahahahahaha. Ok, I have no clue what cortosis is and I'm fairly certain the knowledge will both shock, horrify, and traumatize me. Lay it on! Glad you received my e-mail and I hope that some of those powers I thought up (even though they are all really bad) can be of some help to you. Hehe, shoes. Yea, I figured Samos should have more powers that are offensive at his disposal. After all, log nog is a Sage, so he should have a complete understanding of Green Eco. You are not the king of sappy romance. I am. You are the king, however, of a great many things, the list of which would be longer than your chapters. I really hope that the Star Wars influence isn't too bad, because I had fun basically plagiarizing it, but now I don't want to have its awesomeness in my story. It would shock people. What happens next? Oh not too much. Jak goes through the Temple, gets medieval on some ass, gets his ass kicked a few times, Torqueo is trained in the ways of death and Keira gets all sad before unveiling her new invention.
animedragongirl- I'm just glad you reviewed. I was afraid that I had chased you away with my writing and typing skills. Or lack thereof. Glad my plot is holding up, and I hope you enjoyed the fight scene. This chapter is what you requested, the Red Eco Temple. I am happy to say that this one will be much better than the last. Which really isn't saying much. I hope you can update soon: I need a good laugh that I can only get from reading a chapter of The Jak And Daxter Prank War.
Burning Challenges and Burning Hatred
"Jak, please le me come with you," Keira whispered to Jak as the two of them stood by the Warp Gate. Jak shook his head no as he pulled Keira's body even closer to him: there was no way he was going to allow Keira to go back. Benedict had nearly killed her last time twice: who knew what that guy would do if he saw them together again?
"But Jak, I need to go! You guys wrecked the transporters you were supposed to take during your fight, and now the only way to cross the Lava Tube is by Zoomer. And I did notice a Trans-Pad as I was arguing with Benedict, so I can bring it there and power up the heat shield with the seventy five Power Cells we have." Jak shook his head again and pointed to himself, saying with his actions that he would not let Keira go back there and that he would do it himself. "Jak…" Keira said with a small pout. Jak's eyes widened, Keira was about to say something that would make him let her go, she always did when she got that look in her eye or spoke in that voice, that voice with its mysterious undercurrent of "I'm going to win this fight."
"I'm the only one that knows how to use the heat shield and I'm not gonna tell you," Keira said with a grin. Jak sighed, defeated, and glowered at her in a playful way.
He sat down on the bed, emotionally drained from the days trials. First there had been nearly losing Keira, something unbearable in its own right. Then there was the argument with Benedict that had followed, not to mention the fight. Then that slime had the audacity to try to use Keira as a shield. Jak shuddered as he thought back to that moment…
Benedict struggled to sit up as Jak approached him. He scurried backwards as Jak came nearer and nearer. Benedict wanted to run away and hide from those eye, but he would not give Jak the satisfaction. Jak looked down at Benedict as he drew closer, his eyes literally a blue fire through the dust rising up from the mess that the two of them had made. He stopped walking and pitied the poor soul that had immersed itself in darkness and hatred in exchange for power. Jak had no doubt that if Benedict lived, and if his power continued to grow at the pace that it had, then he would soon undoubtedly be the stronger of the two. That didn't stop Jak from feeling sorry. The elf in front of him had allowed Gol to twist and distort his sense of reality until he became evil himself. Jak wondered briefly what Gol could have said to Benedict, but then decided it really didn't matter; Benedict knew what Gol was. Jak turned on his red Eco Saber and stared down at the elf that had such a burning agony in his soul. Jak gazed into the dark brown pools of hate and anger that had once held laughter and happiness and saw a wave of yellow pass into the whites just as the brown parts turned dark black. After what seemed like an eternity to the both of them, Jak telekinetically spoke to Benedict.
"You are powerful, but that is your greatest weakness. The flaw of power is arrogance," Jak said as he raised his Saber. Benedict's eyes widened as he responded verbally.
"You hesitate; the flaw of compassion," Jak suddenly noticed Benedict's metal hand was open as if to grab something. He spun around and snatched the flying Saber that had been aimed at his heart and held it and the red one up to Benedict's neck as he crossed them into a scissor fashion. Benedict's eyes widened in fear as he realized Jak was going to kill him. He raised his real hand and a ball of Dark Eco formed. He aimed it at Keira and Jak's eyes widened in fear.
"The instant I see you move, I fire, and she dies Jak." Benedict snarled. Jak looked in horror at the elf that had once protected Keira to the best of his ability now use her life as if it was nothing.
Jak backed off and Benedict's eyes narrowed in malicious delight as he suddenly launched at ball in Keira's direction. Jak threw down both his and Benedict's Eco Sabers and rushed in, selflessly taking the hit that was meant for her…
Jak still was in shock over that. Benedict had been happy that he had found a way to stop Jak, and he didn't even care that the way to stop Jak was in the form of the elf that he had at some point in his life loved.
Said elf walked over to Jak now, watching him close his eyes and screw up his face in a pained expression. "Jak…" Keira whispered again but this time in a comforting manner. Jak turned his head away, Keira was going to tell him that he hadn't had a choice.
"Well I did!" Jak thought to himself. "I could have just knocked him out, I didn't have to go and cut the poor guy's leg off." Jak's body began shaking as images of Benedict after defeat flooded his mind…
Benedict went flying back from the impact of Jak's blow and landed on his backside as Jak leapt up and landed on his chest, breaking more than a couple of ribs. Benedict moaned and saw a piece of rock sticking out of the ground. He grabbed it and tried to thrust the club-like weapon through Jak's chest. Jak grabbed it out of Benedict's hands and thrust it into the base of his left leg. Benedict screamed and pulled it out, succeeding in nothing but severing his leg off and having it roll into the lava. Benedict's mangled body followed it very shortly afterward.
Jak looked on in horror as one of his former best friends started screaming in agony while blood gushed from the wound at his hip. Benedict looked up at Jak from the sand he was in and Jak saw that Benedict was truly gone; the whites of his eyes were yellow and the dark brown had darkened to cold black.
Jak just backed off, staring, transfixed, at Benedict. "I loved you like you were my brother, Benedict." Jak thought.
It appeared that Benedict was still conscious, because his transformed eyes focused on Jak. "I hate you!" Benedict screamed as Jak continued to back away, unable to tear his eyes away from this hideous spectacle. Benedict's clothing blew into the lava river and ignited. Suddenly Benedict burst into flames and starts screaming. Jak looked on in horror as Benedict became engulfed in flames. Jak couldn't watch him as he struggled to climb the embankment, covered in flames. Benedict slid back down closer to the lava and closed his eyes…
Jak shook his head frantically to clear it of Benedict's last moment: his hair gone, his skin charred and cut open everywhere, and his eyes evil.
Keira became concerned as Jak turned away from her. "We have to go back there eventually Jak." Jak nodded, she was right. But he didn't want her to see what had happened to Benedict. She was spared thinking about him because she had no idea what he had looked like.
Jak's body began shaking as he tried to hold back the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes. He blinked them back as he tried to compose himself. He hadn't cried when he had fallen into that Wumpbee nest when he was only nine, even if his skin had looked like Braille writing afterwards. He hadn't cried two years later when that wild Croca-dog had bitten him. He hadn't cried when that Lurker Bear had attacked Daxter and Keira while they were on the beach last year. And he wouldn't cry now.
Almost as though she could read his thoughts, Keira scooted closer to Jak and pulled his head around so that it was resting in her shoulder. "It's okay to cry, Jak," Keira whispered into his ear.
That one comment would prove to be that straw that broke the camel's emotional back.
Jak cried into Keira's shoulder, no longer feeling guilty or embarrassed as sobs wracked through his body. Keira's eye moistened and she, too, cried. The two of them wept shamelessly, for all the blood that had been spilt, for all the lives that had been lost, and most of all, for the loss of the innocence of a boy.
After what felt like an eternity, Jak composed himself enough to stop crying. It had felt like painfully ripping a splinter out; the worst was over, and now the healing could begin. As tears continued to stream down Keira's face, Jak pushed himself off her shoulder and reversed the roles. Keira wrapped her arms around Jak's shoulders and linked them behind his back and Jak smiled softly. He began to rub Keira's back. True, it was a little rough and awkward at first, but eventually his inexperienced patting gave way to a gentle rub.
Keira smiled as she felt Jak caress her back and her tears began to ebb. She sighed as she leaned more of her weight on his until she was practically sitting in his lap. She scooted around in his lap so that she was sitting side-saddle style on him. As they released each other, they locked gazes. Jak lost himself in Keira's emerald eyes as she was transfixed by his turquoise orbs. He pulled her back closer into him as he stared up at her. His eyes darted down for a spilt second to look at her mouth before flying back up to her eyes. He mentally gulped as a mischievous twinkle sparked in Keira's eyes. She leaned forward , her mouth moving closer to his. Jak's brain fogged as her arms once again snaked around back and he did the same to her. Their chests touched at the same time their foreheads did. Keira leaned in even further until their noses touched. Both of them took a deep breath, excited and terrified at the same time, as their mouths got so close that they could feel the breath from the other's nose on their moist lips.
An earth shaking crash suddenly rocked the house as a massive explosion sounded outside. Jak was launched forward, hitting his forehead on her chin as they fell off the bed. Jak spun around in the air so that his body took the brunt of the fall. He scrambled to his feet after Keira got up off him and the two of them went outside.
A mushroom cloud was rising in the distance and they took off to see what was going on. After winding through the maze of streets for a few minutes, Jak simply picked Keira up and flew into the air. They landed in a street square and saw a quartet of Lurker Trolls terrorizing the village. A building had been knocked down, hence the previous explosion and mushroom cloud.
Jak lunged forward and prepared to engage the Trolls. Even without his weapons, it was going to be difficult: Lurker Trolls were known for being incredibly tough to bring down. Their puke green skin, though it was organic, was not only harder than elfin metal, but the Trolls could also morph their hands into various weapons and shields. Jak pushed Keira behind a building to hide her before he ran in and tried to take the Trolls by surprise. They spotted him and roared. Even though his element of surprise was no longer available, Jak continued to run in. As they got about fifteen feet apart and man suddenly appeared in the middle as if from nowhere. Whoever the man was, his face was not turned toward Jak, and he had his left hand on his katana. Jak looked this person up and down. Although he was not very big, there was a palpable sense of authority and power that radiated from this man.
The mysterious figure drew his weapon and leapt towards the Trolls. One of them punched straight down and the figure dodged to the outside and stuck his sword right through the Troll's arm. He leapt up and his blade carved through the skin and bone of the Trolls with ease. As he neared the shoulder, one simple flick caused the katana simply to go right through the joint, and with a bloodcurdling shriek, the arm hit the ground. The man stood with one foot on each of the Troll's shoulders as the beast clutched at the hole where an arm had been about thirty seconds before. The man flipped his blade around so he was holding it knife style and plunging it straight down through the top of the Troll's head.
The troll slumped over, dead, and another one charged it. It didn't get more than two steps before the man flung his sword at it and cut its head right off. Although it was now dead, the man was now without a weapon. Which is what Jak thought until he saw the katana swerve in the air so that it came back to the man that had throw it like a boomerang.
The two remaining Trolls bellowed as they charged at the same time. What the man did next completely astounded Jak and Keira, who had come out of hiding to make sure Jak was alright. Needless to say, she was surprised to see him just standing there. She was even more shocked to see another person fighting Lurkers, Trolls no less.
The man's blade retained the reddish-orange color of Precursor metal, but it had transformed from a katana into a falchion. The blade had grown from two to six feet in length and two to eight inches in width. The figure leapt up and split one of the Trolls in half- from the head to the hips. Jak's eyes widened as the last Troll transformed his hand into a massive seven foot long sword. The man tightened his grip on his blade again and it at once seemed to melt into another form. This time it became a two pronged sword; two blades coming out of the hilt with a break in the middle. As the Troll swung his sword straight down, the man caught it in his blade. Jak was mildly surprised when the sword didn't simply break in two. But then something the man did changed that. He split his arms apart and his sword simply became two new ones.
Jak's eyes widened as the man simply sliced the head off the Troll. He then put his blades together, remade the two-pronged sword and finally put it back to being a katana. He turned around and Jak instantly recognized the face of his master, Sett. As he opened his mouth to talk, Sett looked away as another explosion sounded. He pulled out his sword and threw it again, decapitating a couple of Scouts that began streaming in with other various Lurker types.
"Jak, get out of here. Samos told me about the Temple. You have to get there. And take the girl with you." Jak began to shake his head, not wanting to leave his teacher here alone to battle all these Lurkers. As he threw his transformed falchion at another incoming score, Sett called to him again. "Jak, that's an order." Jak frowned for a second before nodding and taking off with Keira. He landed in the hut and looked for Daxter.
"Hey buddy, where ya been?" Daxter asked as he was grabbed by Jak and sent through a Warp Gate. "What was that about? We've been here. And where's Keira?" Jak sighed before realizing Daxter was right- Keira was nowhere in sight. As he prepared to jump back through the Warp Gate to look for her, she came bounding out.
"Sorry about that Jak. I needed to transfer the Zoomer here." Jak nodded in understanding, but Daxter just scratched his head.
"What are you guys talkin' about?" Jak just sighed and Keira explained as they walked down the tunnel to the Lava Tube. The first thing Jak noticed was Benedict's corpse was gone. As he went over and examined it, he noticed that it didn't slide into the lava. Jak felt trepidation as he realized that there was now a very good possibility that Benedict was still alive.
He went back to Keira, who was fiddling with the Zoomer. Daxter was grinning as he stared at her bent over form and Jak looked at him questioningly. He looked at Keira's figure, but didn't see anything that would make him stare. He shook his head as Daxter simply said he was too young. Keira straightened up and turned around, a grin plastered on her face.
"Ha ha! Alright! With these additional Power Cells I should be able to supply the heat shield with enough power to stand up to this lava! But the shield still has a limit. It will now withstand temperatures up to eight hundred degrees, but no more, so keep an eye on your gauge. I don't want to think about what those temperatures would do to your Zoomer if the shield gives out." she finished quietly.
Daxter agreed. "Yeah, the heat… WHAT? The Zoomer? Hey! What about us? Couldn't we look for a safer route to the Red Eco Temple?"
"Look, this is the only way there. And there are bound to be cooling vents, so you can use them to keep the temperature down. We're counting on you Jak!" Keira said as she gave him a hug. Jak hugged her back before he mounted the Zoomer, and with one last look at her, he took off.
Jak went in pretty much a straight line down the Lava Tube,. Which thankfully wasn't riddled with side passages. After a while, Jak noticed that it seemed to be much cooler, because the magma was forming into solid rock. He checked the temperature map and saw that although it was one thousand degrees Fahrenheit, there was a nice cooling vent coming up. As Jak flew through it, he watched with almost boyish joy as his heat shield gauge went down. After driving for a bit, the path became eve more solid and began to rise up, making a narrow passageway. Jak struggled to keep the Zoomer on top of the rock, because at the bottom of either side was flowing lava, and Jak had no doubt that his heat shield would not last forever if he fell.
As Jak dodged massive sandstone columns, he wondered why the Precursors couldn't just scan him to see if he was evil. It would be great if he just placed his eye or something in a scanner and the Oracle said, "Okay, you're not evil, here ya go." Wishful thinking, Jak thought as he rotated the Zoomer sideways as the ceiling got lower.
When Jak had to bunch up his shoulders, he started to get worried that there might have been a cave in, and the Temple might not be accessible. Fortunately, this was not the case. The passage suddenly widened into a huge chamber. There was an odd machine in the middle that looked like a large column with branches sticking out. Each of the four sections had two glowing orbs on them. Jak backed his Zoomer away and fired one of his Yellow Eco charges at a ball. It exploded, and a ball on the side of a wall lit up. Figuring that the only way to continue would be to detonate all of the balls, that was exactly what Jak did.
As the wall opened, Jak shot through. Luckily, there was a cooling vent that practically reset his heat shield, for which he was grateful; it had been getting in the red zone. As if the Precursors had just felt like giving him a hard time, Jak spotted a red sphere encased in a black outline covered in spikes. He dodged, ducked, and weaved through the spheres, certain that contact with one of them would mean a horribly painful death. As the last of them were cleared, Jak spotted an end in the path approaching and he gunned the motor. As he shot off, Jak landed his Zoomer neatly on a road that seemed to be made out of Precursor metal. The roads intertwined and locked, and some of them emptied into a pool of lava. After he was done with them, Jak started to hope that the end was near. He was starting to feel the strain of having to drive at eighty miles an hour and still have lightning quick reflexes. And his wish was granted. At last, at long last, the Temple entrance loomed into view and Jak shot for it.
Jak got off the Zoomer, breathing heavily. Although it was partly due to the excitement and exhilaration of the high velocity tunnel he had just gone through, it was mostly from the heat. He hadn't really noticed because of the heat shield, but this place was hot. Jak got off the parked Zoomer, sweat dripping down his face. He and Daxter panted as they walked up top the massive doors that signaled that this was indeed the entrance to the Red Eco Temple. There were two holes in the doors and Jak stuck his hands into each of them. He Channeled Red Eco in and pulled them open. He was surprised; they opened with relative ease. Jak entered the Temple at the invitation of the deep voice that Jak by now recognized as the one belonging to the Oracle. As the doors slammed shut, he felt a mixture of trepidation and animation. On the one hand, this was the last of these Precursor be damned Temples and he was sure to gain a lot of experienced and power in here. On the other hand, he was sure to have a number of experiences where he would be lucky to escape with his life.
As Jak entered the Temple, he saw that it was near the Lava Tube for a reason: there were lava flows everywhere. He walked up the stairs in front of him, and received quite a shock when flames suddenly gushed out of the side of a wall. He ducked down, feeling his hair. It seemed that some of it had been burned right off. He looked over at Daxter, whose eyes were wide and who looked like he was ripe for a heart attack.
Three statues that looked very similar to the ones from the Yellow Eco Temple were waiting for Jak as he got to the top. Instead of Yellow Eco, these shot a beam of Red Eco. Jak reflected all of the beams back so they hit the caster, and the heads of the statues exploded. Jak entered another room, this one with a pit of lava separating his side of the room from the other. Jak smirked and simply flew across the lava, landed on the other side of the room, and opened the door. Jak entered the next room and climbed onto the middle platform. As three blobs oozed out of the ground, Jak was taken aback. The balls suddenly burst into flames and lunged at him. Jak ducked to avoid the second one and performed a handstand to dodge the second. The third one got him right in the chest and burned a hole through the shirt. Jak dropped to his knees as he felt his skin; it was blistered and oozing a strange pus. He quickly Channeled Green Eco into it and was relieved when the flow of pus stopped and the wound closed up.
Jak stood up and let the two remaining balls of goop attack. He ducked at the last second and they collided. Rather than cancel each other out or explode, they simply became one really big pile of grayish goop. Jak fired a beam of Yellow Eco at it and killed it. He looked around and saw two torches. Figuring that they were like the ones from the Yellow E co Temple, Jak shot two small balls of Yellow Eco at them and they burst into flames. A hidden door opened. Unfortunately, it opened up right underneath Jak's feet.
As soon as Jak landed he summoned a small ball of Yellow Eco to light up the room. What he saw made him nearly faint with fear: the entire place was covered in bats. The walls, the ceiling, everywhere he looked was covered in those flying rats. Jak quickly expanded his ball of Eco into a Blade and summoned another from nothing as the bats charged. Jak hacked and slashed in every direction, frantically trying to avoid them touching him. After the three hundredth bat or so (he had honestly lost count), Jak put his Blades away and took out some of the food that Keira had given him. After eating one of the sandwiches and drinking a container of iced juice, Jak felt much better. After some complaining from Daxter, Jak pulled out a second sandwich and cut it in half. As Daxter munched away, Jak tried to figure out where to go next. As far as he could tell, he was in a giant empty room.
Jak spotted a suit of armor decorating a wall. He went to investigate; he was fairly certain that the armor hadn't been there a few seconds ago. Suddenly the armor sprang to life and began attacking him. Jak calmly deflected the blows and shot a blast of Yellow Eco right at it. The Eco easily melted away the majority of the armor, and the rest of it went limp when the main body was destroyed. Jak looked around for a way out, but didn't see any new openings.
"Jak, why don't you just blow a frikkin hole in the wall already?" Jak shrugged; he had serious doubts that doing something like that would actually work in a temple designed and built by the Precursors themselves. To make his friend happy, Jak shot a ball of Yellow Eco at a wall and was amazed to see it punch through the entire wall. He crawled through it and saw a pillar of flame in the center. Out of it rose a small black ball that suddenly sprouted a body of flame. Jak dodged and weaved through the attacks that the body sent at him and sent a beam of Yellow Eco right through the black ball. It was apparently the life force of the flame, because with the death of the ball, the entire body of fire dissipated.
After Jak prodded the ball with his foot to make sure it was dead, Jak headed in the door and went off on the right side. Suddenly a piece of the floor he was standing on rose into the air. It led him to a shaded wall that looked quite like the one Jak had punched a hole through before. Jak didn't want to waste any more Yellow Eco incase he needed it later, so he chose to instead Channel Red Eco and punch through the wall. The entire side of the room gave way under the force of the blow that Jak had throw, and a new room came into view.
As Jak stepped into the room he heard numerous shrieks coming from nowhere in particular. His mind simply refused to believe what it saw as sections of the floor itself rose up out of the ground. They sprouted small gleaming bits of metal on every side and flew at Jak. Jak summoned a ball of Yellow Eco in each hand and punched the floor tiles as they rose up and charged him. Eventually one broke through and made a gash on his arm. Jak summoned two more balls of Eco onto his feet and rose into the air. His limbs flashed and flailed as he tried desperately to defend himself while ignoring the stabbing pains in his arm. Finally, when all of the tiles of the room were gone, Jak lowered himself back down to the ground. Now that he could get a clear look at his surroundings, Jak saw a single torch. He shot a ball of Yellow Eco at it and it ignited.
A hole opened up in the floor and Jak slid down a long tunnel. As the next room approached, a wall of fire lit up the end, cutting Jak off. Jak thought quickly and summoned two very small Eco Blades, keeping them to only about the size of daggers. He flipped them around so they were being held knife style and dug them into the metal he was on. Fortunately, the metal was that of the Precursor type, and eventually he came to a stop before his feet were singed off.
As Jak let out a sigh of relief, the section of the slide he was on gave in and he plummeted down. He looked down to see a pit of boiling lava waiting for him. Jak flipped on his Blue Eco Box, but he realized with a jolt that he was no out. He helplessly fell as the lava got closer and closer…
"I don't know what to do Hatu…" Keira sighed as her shoulders drooped. Hatu frowned; it wasn't like Keira to be depressed, she was usually very chipper.
"Keira, you have to tell Jak," Hatu urged: it wasn't healthy for her to bottle her emotions up like that. She let out a faint smile.
"No, not that. I just feel so useless!" She burst out, unable to contain it any longer.
"Keira, you-" Hatu tried to make her feel better, but she cut him off.
"And Jak is doing all the work and having all the fun." Hatu smirked at her definition of the word 'fun'. "And I'm stuck here doing absolutely nothing. I haven't helped him at all! All I've done is cause trouble with him and Benedict."
"Keira, he-"
"And now Jak is out there risking his life while I'm here doing noth-"
"That's enough Keira!" Wartstal said, a little sharply. He had heard her and had let her get some of her emotions out in the open, but she was going to far. "You have been a great help. You made the Zoomer, all of it's modifications, and those Eco Boxes. And if you want an idea for a new invention, you could…" Wartstal began whispering in her ear. Hatu smirked as his sensitive hearing picked up every word Wartstal said. His eyes widened at the ingenuity of his brother. He almost laughed at the way Keira's eyes lit up as he went on.
"Oh Wartstal, you're a genius!" Keira exclaimed as she pulled the Regenerator into a bone-crushing hug. She took off towards her room and closed the door. Hatu enjoyed a hearty laugh at the sight of his brother's face. For all his posture, Hatu was sure Wartstal was blushing under all that fur.
Jak Channeled Red Eco into his hand and dug them into the rock surrounding him. He winced as his fingertips got a severe beating but tried to ignore it. He came to a stop inches above the lava and felt heat go by his feet as a lava bubble burst. He quickly climbed up the wall and heaved himself up onto a new platform. He looked back at the lava before shuddering and starting down a new path.
Jak saw a deep glow and sped up, hoping that he was reaching the end of the Temple. A small part of him knew he wasn't (no Temple was this short) but he was still disappointed when he saw a new room. He leapt across a new lava pool onto a pillar. As it started to crumble, Jak jumped onto the other platform where a door was and went in. Fire began shooting out of holes in the wall and the floor and Jak had to leap and twirl to avoid becoming barbequed. As he reached the other side of the room he simply kicked through the door and stumbled into the next room.
As Jak stepped forward a wall of flame shot up, blocking off his path. Jak started to panic but regained enough sense not to allow this minor setback to keep him from completing the Temple. He simply went in another direction and walked forward until another fire wall cut him off. It took about five minutes, but Jak finally made it through the room. It wouldn't have taken him so long of he hadn't had to contend with both statues that had spun around while shooting fireballs and bats made of flame that he had had to shoot down.
Jak saw a blue block in front of the door and finally all of the frustration he had been through in the Temple showed. Instead of just pushing it out of his way, Jak picked it up and hurled it across the room where it slammed into a wall. Two small dragons crawled out of holes in the wall and skulked toward Jak. He summoned two Eco Blades and disposed of them fairly easily. The problem came when more arrived and he h\began having to dodge not only fire breath, but also claw attacks from the ones that got too close. Eventually Jak realized that they would overpower him and stuck his two Blades into the floor. He spun around rapidly, causing his Blades to cut a hole in the floor. The dragons followed, eager for a new meal of deep fried elf. Jak shot a Yellow Eco Grenade into the hole and saw a river of blood and body parts begin to flow out of the hole. He turned and ran down a tunnel as more came. As they entered the tunnel, Jak pressed his body against a wall and held his breath as they all went by him. When the last one had past, Jak caved the ceiling in and turned around. He went down the other side of the subway and arrived at yet another door. He took a deep breath before opening it, but he needn't have worried; a wonderful sight met his eyes: The Oracle of Red Eco
Jak arrived at the next to last room of the Temple for what he sincerely wished would be the last time. As usual, the Oracle lit up and the entire room seemed to glow, this time with a red light.
"Greetings, brave warrior. Once again, you have survived tests and trials the likes of which a majority of your kind have never seen before, and once again, your bravery shall be rewarded. Step into the light, and receive a new power." Jak obediently stepped into the light and felt the familiar stinging feeling as a beam shot out of the eyes of the Oracle.
"Well done hero. As a remedy to your desire, I shall give you the advice you seek. Seek the pure light, for within its blaze, the answers reside." Jak nodded before he and Daxter bowed to the Oracle. "Take care warrior, the one that resides in the next room is powerful indeed. You will need every ounce of power you can muster to overcome him." Jak nodded once more and took the Power Cells from the Oracle. As it powered down, Jak was thrust though the door by an unknown force.
As he stood up, Jak saw that he was no longer the Temple, per se. He was now in the very heart of the volcano. He stepped forward and suddenly a humongous monster rose up from the lava. Jak's jaw dropped as he saw how big it was. It looked to be about fifty feet tall, every inch of it covered in an armor that was probably at least half a foot thick.
Jak rolled to the side as the monstrosity curled up into a ball and rolled right for him. It turned around and let out a mighty roar, and an idea suddenly occurred to Jak. Despite Daxter's warnings and the horrible breath, Jak jumped into the monster's jaw and began firing Yellow Eco Grenades everywhere. He quickly realized that although he was causing the beast great pain, he was very likely to be killed if he stayed inside much longer. A glow from one area of the mouth caught Jak's attention. He realized what it was about a second before it hit him and he hastily erected a shield.
One might have thought the beast had coughed up a green glowy hairball, but in reality, Jak was launched from the monster's mouth as it sent a torrent of flames out. Although he was dripping with spit and slime, Jak was relatively pleased with himself as he watched the beats keel over. His smile vanished when he saw it get back up. It roared in fury this time and simply began blowing fire everywhere in an attempt to kill the Channeler. Jak leapt out of the way as it rolled towards him once more. As he fired another beam of Yellow Eco, Jak realized that he had just used up the last of his Eco. He was nervous now; how in the name of all that was holy was he supposed to kill this thing without Eco? Suddenly a deep voice resonated throughout the chamber.
"Warrior, now is the time. I grant you your power back." Four beams of Eco shot out of the ground and hit their respective Boxes. Jak grinned at his friend; he might be able to win this fight if he played his cards correctly. Jak summoned a Eco Blade and ran at the beast. As he reached it, he jumped straight up and landed on its face. He summoned another Blade and welded them together to create the giant one. He slammed it straight into the monster's eye and it let out a horrible shriek as it died. Jak watched as it stop breathing and he put his Blade away. Suddenly a scratching sound caught his attention. He turned around and watched the body of the beast roll towards the lava and sink in. It let out one last shriek before the chamber went silent. Suddenly, something happened that rendered Daxter speechless for a split second. After he got his voice back, Daxter said something along the lines of what Jak had been thinking.
"Oh what the fu-" Jak flew away as the giant serpent that had risen out of the lava let out a shriek and cut Daxter off. "-is this?" was apparently the end of what Daxter had been going to say, and Jak agreed with him wholeheartedly agreed as his new opponent unraveled its body.
Jak stared at his new foe. A giant dragon was flying in the air, its body at least a hundred feet long. Its body was covered in scales of a bright red color. It had no legs, but two powerful triple-jointed forearms easily three times the size of Jak's body were about fifteen feet below its head. Its wingspan easily encompassed thirty feet. Its eyes were a bright yellow, but very small. It's two mouths, a smaller one above the main mouth, had about forty teeth each. Three horns on each side of its head stuck out straight to the side, then diagonally, then straight up. A bright blue jewel was centered in the forehead above the eyes. As the monster caught sight of Jak it let out another roar. Jak stood tall and summoned two Blades, each about four feet long instead of the traditional two and a half feet. He flipped on his Blue Eco Box so he would have free reign of his motion. He leapt up and the two of them rushed towards each other.
The dragon brought its taloned fists in with all the strength it had at its disposal. Though Jak dodged it by diving straight under it, he was blown about slightly by a small wind that erupted from the force behind the blow. Jak struck out with both of his Blades, and was rewarded with a pain filled shriek from his opponent as he slipped them in between the armored sections of the dragon into the soft fleshy under part of the arm.
The Channeler dodged to the right, barrel rolling out of the way as the enormous beast tried simply to swallow him whole. Snarling out of frustration that it had missed, the dragon turned around, trying to get the elf back into his sight. Too bad for the dragon that all it accomplished was to give Jak another chance to strike him.
Jak slipped past the dragon's point of view and once again sliced his swords through the skin of the monstrous being. He noticed with some satisfaction that this mythic dragon did not have healing powers. An easy way to tell this was by striking and seeing that the flesh did not close back up. The dragon then did something that Jak had thought impossible, it began rotating in the air. As he struggled to keep himself on the dragon, Jak simply stuck both his Blades in, causing another fresh roar and even more intense bucking. Jak was thrown off and the dragon hit him with its considerably long vertebrae.
Jak's body slammed into the ground and sank into the rock, leaving behind a lovely imprint of his body. He quickly summoned his Blades again and took off once more towards his airborne foe. The dragon roared and blew a massive blast of fire at the elf. Jak hastily banked to the right in an attempt to keep his skin brunt free. Although he dodged the fire itself, the heat from it was enough to singe the material of his left pant leg three inches or so above his knee. He winced and retaliated by whipping his two Eco Blades back and forth a few times, sending waves of Yellow Eco streaking towards the beast. They connected on several places, causing the dragon to snarl in a slight amount of pain, but it did not lose his focus upon the battle, and was soon coming back at the Channeler, bringing them both back into melee range, where it took the prize for strength, while Jak settled for speed.
However, however speedy the adolescent might have been, he did not always get off free, as a couple of times the dragon got a blow in, which usually sent Jak flying back out of range.
Jak growled in frustration; he was running out of Green Eco, and this thing seemed invincible. Granted, he had hurt it. A lot. But it seemed to be going just as strong as before. After some minutes of exchanging blows, they split apart and simply moved about in a circle, each one formulating their next move.
As they reentered melee range, Jak once again brought both falchions in from the sides, a move that the dragon blocked with the scales of a single forearm as it attempted to retaliate against Jak by lashing out with the other limb.
Jak, however, simply turned his Eco Box off and allowed gravity to take hold of him. This not only successfully put him out of range of the attack, but also let him score a minor hit upon the arm as it passed over it. He then turned off his Yellow Eco Box and flipped on his Red one. He landed on he head of the dragon above the mouth and began hammering away at the teeth, successfully dislodging four of them. The dragon snarled and opened the second mouth and shot out a blast of flames. It did this with such a speed that Jak was taken by surprise, and he foolishly decided to hold his hands out.
Jak was thrown back by the sheer force of the breath, but was amazed when he felt no burning at all. He opened his eyes and saw that he had two balls of flames, one in each hand. He looked in astonishment as he realized that the red fire was in fact a type of Red Eco. He Formed the two balls together and stuck his arms out. A massive blast of fire, even larger than the one the dragon had spewed out. Said beast was astonished as the puny elf slammed it back into the rock. It snarled and shot out two blasts of flames, one from each mouth. Jak dodged them as he headed back down to the ground. He stuck out his hands again and as the flames touched his hands it became normal Red Eco again. He then refilled his Box to maximum and then gathered the rest into a flame ball. He realized that to let it go now would succeed in only the dragon dodging it, so he flew up to meet it.
A pump of the dragon's wings propelled it out of harms way as Jak launched a fire blast, and put him a position to strike at the Channeler from the side. Jak dodged and launched a flurry of attacks that drove the dragon away before it could truly capitalize upon the uncompromising position Jak had placed himself in. About three seconds passed before they were at each other's throats yet again. Jak blasted forward, willing himself to move as fast as he possibly could, and angled himself straight for where he thought the dragon's heart was most likely located. However, it was not destined to be the deathblow of the fight, as the dragon's own razor fast movements forced him to hit a different spot, causing Jak to become suspicious that that was indeed the spot where he needed to hit the dragon.
Jak brought both of its blades together in a cross slash type maneuver, and the scream that followed was to be expected, as the dragon had just lost the three fingers on one of its hands. With a roar that could have been heard for miles if there had been anyone around to hear it, the dragon whirled down to face Jak, who quickly realized just how much he had angered his foe. He also realized that before he was killed by the rage of the dragon, he should take evasive action.
A couple of minutes later, deciding that this tactic was going nowhere fast, Jak decided to change his tactics. He spun around and threw a Yellow Eco spear attack in the dragon's face. The beast pulled up at the last possible moment, and simply swallowed the attack before unleashing a massive Yellow Eco blast out of its second mouth. Jak's eyes widened as he narrowly dodged it, although his shirt was ripped to shreds from the sheer wind that the attack picked up.
Jak decided that it was now or never and he waited patiently by a wall for the dragon to charge. When it did, Jak darted away and the dragon smashed into the wall. He landed on the ground and charged up two balls of Eco, one Red and one Yellow. As the dragon charged, Jak unleashed a massive blast of Yellow Eco at the same time a bright red flamethrower was shot out. The two attacks hit the dragon head on and a massive explosion seemed to shake the foundations of the volcano itself. When the dust cleared, Jak was horrified to see the dragon, quite enraged, and definitely hurt, but still very much alive.
It was then that the dragon made a critical mistake. It became so enraged at this elf that it shot a beam of Red and Yellow Eco at Jak.
Jak stretched out his hands and caught the attacks, Channeling them back so that they would recharge all the energy he had used up and then some. He gathered all of his energy once again, but this time combined both his Yellow and Red Eco powers into only one ball. As he poured more and more energy into it, the energy became harder to contain. When he was done emptying all his power, it was taking every ounce of determination he had not to let it explode. He flew up to the dragon and landed right on the nose of the main mouth. Predictably, it opened up the second one to blow him away and Jak quickly threw his ball of energy inside the beast.
A massive orb of light exploded outwards, a light so pure and absolute that it seared Jak's vision, even though his eyes were closed. The blast also had the effect of disintegrating the majority of Jak's clothing, so that he was left with only the cloth under his armor, and a very showing pair of shorts that ended about five inches past his waist. The Channeler landed on the hard floor, beaten and exhausted, but alive.
The same could also be said of the dragon, who fell to the ground as well. It was bleeding severely, since all of its skin had been ripped away by the attack that had exploded out of its chest.
As the dragon let out a final shriek and died, a treasure chest and a Warp Gate rose out of the lava. Jak crawled over to the chest and opened it. Inside were a pair of gloves that looked as if they were made out of bronze. He pulled them on, and noticed how they seemed to be made especially for him. He heaved his battered body through the Warp Gate, sure that after Keira analyzed them, she would discover a whole new realm of powers that they contained…
Meanwhile, at Gol and Maia's Citadel…
"Torqueo, I am pleased you are making a speedy recovery." Maia said as she entered his room.
"Why are two Scouts with you Master? I would not dream of attacking you, and if I did, they wouldn't last a second." Maia's eyes widened in shock as Torqueo said this; the Lurkers had been silent. Her question was answered when he turned around and knelt down- his Precursorian eye was in the back of his head, and that was apparently how he had seen them.
"What is your bidding Master? What do you desire?" Maia smirked at his choice of words, she desired a certain elf that she had not seen in years.
"Well, seeing as how Jak was able to snatch Keira away from you, and seeing as how he was smiling when we found him observing your fried body, and seeing as how he defeated you using Channeling powers, I thought I should take a more active role in your education. You see," Maia continued as she began floating down the hallway with Torqueo one step behind her, "you've been using your powers mostly by reflex. I will train you to know and use the subtleties of Dark Eco." Torqueo nodded and leered, his desire for greater power growing again.
Hey! Sorry this took so long, I've been trying to find a new job, not to mention looking all weekend at what colleges to attend. So, let me know what you guys think, because I really hope that this chapter was a lot better than the one with the Green Eco Temple. I still have nightmares about how I could have spewed out such horrible writing, even by my bad standards. Anyway, please review. Oh, and in case your guessing who Maia wants, good luck, I saved that for a few chapters later. If you want to guess, be my guest, but I haven't even introduced him yet.