Chapter 2: Fighting for Pride
As planned, Leon, Precis, and Adonis stopped by their spaceship to pick up their weapons before going on to the Sanctuary of Linga to clear the place of the monsters. There was definitely a sense of urgency from the three, but at the same time they were also excited; they knew that for the first time in a while, they were going to be in a real-life fight. But they also clearly knew of the level of fighting skills that they possessed, which gave them plenty of confidence going in.
"Alright, here they are!" Precis exclaimed, going through their baggage in order to retrieve all of their weapons. "Here's your sword, Leon… and this is yours, Adonis… and… yep, here's my phase gun!"
"Thanks." Leon said, lifting the Simple Sword that he had received from his combat class, then turning around to ask Precis a question. "You know Precis, you've certainly come a long way from your bobot-using days, huh?"
"Bobot? What are you talking about?" Adonis asked, unaware of Precis' battle experiences from the past. "Is that some kind of custom weapon she used to fight?"
"Yeah, I guess you can call it that, heh." Leon replied, with a little smirk on his face. "It's a mini robot that she made herself that fights for her."
"A mini robot? She FOUGHT with a robot? HAHAHAH!" Adonis bursted into laughter, finding the matter downright hilarious. "I guess you can't expect a chick to defend herself in a more conventional way, eh?"
BOOM! Out of nowhere, a loud sound of explosion immediately sent Adonis down on his butt, leaving him to hopelessly stare at a small crater that was on the ground near his crotch area.
"…" Adonis fell immediately silent, letting out a big gulp.
"Adonis! If I were you, I'd watch what I say from now on! And yup, make no mistake, I DID aim there." Precis assured with a evil grin on his face, aiming her phase gun straight at her 'target'. "This is the Ronixis II - Special Edition Phase Gun that I helped to develop couple months ago, and I modified it to the most utmost precision… it never misses its target… so make sure I never have to miss on purpose again, hmm?"
"OKAY OKAY! Just put away THE GUN! Sheesh!" Adonis pleaded with a sweatdrop, definitely not taking the threat for granted. "Can't a guy just joke around? Gee, you're so violent…"
"Yeah, seriously Precis… don't be so oversensitive!" Leon sympathized with Adonis, scratching his head. "Besides, what I said is true, and it DOES seem a little ridiculous to someone who hasn't seen it before, doesn't it?"
"Ahh, just shush!" Precis crossed her arms, clearly not amused. "You're not exactly in a position to criticize someone about their choice of weapon now, are you, Mr. sword newbie?"
"Hey, watch it now! You'd be surprised to see how much I've improved over the last few months! Claude's taught me some excellent techniques and I've mastered 'em." Leon protested, quite confident of his new skills. "So I'm no newbie, you hear?"
"Hah, well, she DOES have a point, you know." Adonis laughed, staring at Leon with quite a bemused look on his face. "I'm really not sure if you're ready to actually use your sword in a real-life battle situation, from what I've seen in training."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Leon retorted sharply, shaking his fist and challenging Adonis. "Come on then, I'll show you what I mean! Spar with me!"
"Dude, don't bother. What's the record now, 27-0?" Adonis smirked, continuing to tease Leon and not taking his challenge seriously. "And you haven't even actually hit me yet either. Maybe you should just stick to your heraldric arts!"
"Why you… cocky bastard!" Leon pulled up his sleeve, fuming and taking couple of steps towards Adonis in a challenging manner. Due to the way he was raised as a 'child genius' and how his personality was in general, he absolutely loathed his skills or capabilities being questioned in any manner. Though at the same time, he was also irritated by the fact that there was quite a bit of truth to Adonis' claims…
"Okay, quit it, you two! We have to go to the sanctuary now, remember? Save your chitchat for later!" Precis intervened, having seen quite enough and breaking up the squabble before it got out of hand. "And Leon, if you want to show us your skill, do it against the monsters, okay?"
"Pshhh… fine." Leon muttered, giving a cut eye to Adonis before walking away. "Just you wait."
"Oh, I'm definitely looking forward to it!" Adonis exclaimed, who always got a kick out of Leon's overreaction whenever he teased him.
"Okay then, off we go!" Precis said, running ahead of the two boys towards the direction of Sanctuary of Linga.
Meanwhile, in Bowman's Pharmacy, Elise walked over to her father with a sad look on her face, pulling on his long pharmacist's coat to get his attention.
"Daddy… when is big brother Leon coming back to play?" Elise asked, her face looking like it's about to burst into tears.
"He'll be back, honey. He just has some business to take care of. You stay put until he gets back, okay? He'll return soon enough." Bowman tried to assure her daughter, his mind definitely focused moreso on treating the injured patients. "Okay, time to go back to your room, sweetheart. Daddy's gotta get back to his work!"
"…" Elise fell silent, giving her father a rather annoyed look before going out to the back room and leaving through the back door. After thinking for a bit, she took a deep breath, as if she was about to yell out something…
"COME ON BUNNY!" Elise yelled, and after 30 or so seconds, a gigantic bunny appeared out of nowhere in a cloud of smoke. This was the same bunny that Claude and gang found on their journey 4 years ago, assisting the party by carrying them on his back and taking them anywhere throughout the continent at incredible speed. After their journey, Bunny was passed on to Elise as sort of a pet that she could play and hang out with, since both Bowman and Nineh were almost always busy with their work.
"Okay Bunny, let's go follow big brother!" Elise hopped on his back and ordered the Bunny, who heeded her command and started hopping towards the Sanctuary of Linga at a rapid pace. While all this was happening, Bowman and Nineh were both busy attending to their patients, completely oblivious to what her mischievious young daughter was up to…
Leon and gang entered the Sanctuary of Linga, a dark, reddish cave that wasn't too far away from Linga. It had kept pretty much the same appearance as it did four years ago, with its mainly rocky interior being complemented by patches of various plants and herbs throughout the cave. The same quiet, eerie atmosphere had also remained, giving a not-so-pleasant feeling to anyone who dared to enter this cave for whatever reasons (If the threat of monster wasn't enough already, that is).
"Whoa, this is no sanctuary, man. This place gives me the creeps!" Adonis muttered, completely taken by surprise by what he had seen.
"It's an animal and vegetation sanctuary. What did you think we meant? A cathedral? Geez." Leon shook his head, before going on to give Adonis a brief description of the caves. "But 4 years ago, many of the plants and animals taking residence in here turned into monsters and have caused much havoc in the nearby towns and villages. To put it simply, this place is infested with all kinds of monsters, so keep your eye out at all times."
"I have no idea what happened 4 years ago, but if this place is known to be infested with monsters, why did those people from earlier go there in the first place? Didn't they know that it's dangerous here?" Adonis asked, not sure of the reasons why the adventurers from earlier had entered the caves.
"Well, they probably took the risk to search for the rare herbs that grow in this place." Precis informed him, while looking around to re-acquaint herself with the surroundings. "Rare herbs like Dillwhip and Clarisage can all be found here… legend has it that the legendary herb, metox, grows here too!"
"Only Dill I know is pickles… and I've never heard of this Clari-tox or whatever it's called… sounds like strong shit, though." Adonis shrugged, clearly showing no knowledge or interest towards the subject. "Whatever, let's just go kill those monsters."
"Yeah. Alright, this path up ahead leads to the inner area." Precis told him, leading the way since was more familiar with the caves than Leon was. "Let's go."
"Oooh… this cave looks scary…" Elise mumbled, clearly intimidated by the sight of the dark caves. "But you'll protect me… right, Bunny?" She asked Bunny, whispering against one of his big ears while petting his forehead gently.
"meuf!" Bunny nodded while making a soft noise, assuring her that he would protect her at all costs. For whatever reason, this bunny had developed the ability to understand human speech; which wasn't THAT extraordinary when you consider everything else that had happened to wildlife on the Planet Expel over the last 5 years or so...
"Okee, let's goooo!" Elise yelled, commanding the Bunny to continue on into the caves.
"Uh, Precis, honest question, don't get offended…" Leon hesitantly asked, being extra careful not to offend Precis after what he saw with Adonis earlier. "So why did you decide to start using a phase gun, anyway? You fought pretty well with Bobot in the past… so why change?"
"Well, first things first, I was the head researcher for developing this thing… it's a prototype, so I wanted to test this baby to see its potential and downfalls!" Precis explained, admiring her latest invention with quite a bit of pride. "And as for the second reason, well… current Federation Laws prohibit me from using Bobot now… they said that the Bobot's AI was starting to get dangerously close to the level of human intelligence, and that there was a possibility that it may achieve a mind of its own…"
"Yeah, I can see how something like that has the potential to become really dangerous…" Leon said in thought. "I guess it was reaching the level of technology that we weren't ready to handle."
"I suppose. I'm still kind of ticked off about the whole thing, though…" Precis muttered with an unpleasant look, turning back to Leon to ask him something as well. "Okay, I have a question for you too! Why did you decide to start using a sword? I mean, you had pretty much mastered your heraldric arts and all…"
"Well, our previous battles in the past made me realize that there are both pros and cons to all the combat styles." Leon explained his motives, unsheathing his sword to take a couple of practice swings. "For example, heraldric arts is powerful, but is at a disadvantage when you're fighting alone since your need time for the incantation… so I took up sword arts to make up for that downfall."
"That makes sense I guess. And I'm sure you're not all THAT bad…" Precis shrugged. "I mean, you have an excellent teacher and everything… sigh … I wonder what Claude's up to now…" Precis sighed deeply, clearly not having completely gotten over her first-ever crush.
"Heh, I dunno… to me, he doesn't really look ready for real combat…" Adonis stared at Leon with a slight smirk, still not convinced of his abilities.
"Hey, shut up already! Don't gloat cuz you may be a little better than I am with the sword!" Leon retorted, taking offense once again to Adonis' remarks.
"A little? HAHAHA! Gee, you sure are funny, that's for sure." Adonis laughed cockily, finding Leon's claims absolutely hilarious. After he had finished laughing, Adonis turned back to angry Leon with a suggestion. "Alright then, here's an idea… the first monster we come across, you fight it alone, how about that?"
"Hah, fine! The monsters in this cave are next to no challenge." Leon accepted the challenge confidently, anxious to prove himself to both Adonis and Precis. "As a matter of fact, I can take care of them all by myself, too!"
"Boy, you sure are confident!" Adonis grinned, suddenly pointing above Leon with his arms crossed. "Well, let's start with that one, then."
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Leon asked, confused by what Adonis had just said and totally oblivious to his surroundings.
"The one that's about to jump from the above on you, o mighty swordsmen." Adonis remarked sarcastically while rolling his eyes and stepping back. A giant fellworm suddenly fell from the ceiling of the cave, dropping right behind Leon.
"AHHH!" Leon yelled, taken completely by surprise with the ambush. Leon immediately unsheathed his sword and started swinging away at the Fellworm rather sloppily, overcome by nerves and fear. The Fellworm easily squirmed past Leon's irratic and predictable slashes, sliding towards Leon's feet and causing him to fall down. With Leon down and vulnerable, the Fellworm jumped at him with its Teeth wide open in order to rip him apart.
"UGGH… why you… SHADOW BOLT!" Leon acted in desperation as he thrusted his palm forward, blasting a small but quick energy bolt towards the attacking Fellworm. The Fellworm got knocked back by the Shadow Bolt Spell in a heap of smoke, completely fried to death.
"huff... huff"Leon breathed heavily as he stood back up to his feet, his body shaking a bit from all the rush. He wiped the sweat off his forehead, embarrassed by the performance that he had just shown.
"Whoa now, I thought you're going to show us your sword skills, not your heraldric arts…" Adonis scolded Leon, giving him a 'I told you so' look. "And did I just see 5 sword slashes through thin air, or was I mistaken?
"Err… shut up! That was not fair!" Leon retorted immediately, trying to find an excuse. "I wasn't ready for it yet! It ambushed me!"
"Hah, well, I thought YOU'RE the one that said 'keep your eye out at all times', but oookay!" Adonis replied in a sarcastic tone while walking away. "Cool spell, though."
"Why you!" Leon yelled out furiously, angry not only at Adonis for making a joke out of him, but also at himself…
"Alright, enough! Let's just go to the innermost area and kill the head monster already, okay? Geez, you guys are so annoying, fighting like this all the time…" Precis claimed with a sigh, walking ahead towards the inner area.
"Hey, I'm just motivating my one and only best friend here! Heh… Don't put it so harshly!" Adonis replied, turning around to grin and wink at Leon before running after Precis. "You know I'm just kidding around, right, buddy?"
"Errr…" Leon muttered while running after them, determined to redeem himself as soon as possible.
The path to the inner lair was surprisingly calm and uneventful, and the group did not meet any other monsters in their way. They however saw many monsters killed already, presumably by whatever the head honcho of the cave was. Most of the dead monsters were either squished or bitten into, and the evidence left behind showed that the culprit was definitely much bigger than they were. Taking caution, the group eventually reached their destination.
"This is the inner lair…" Precis said, having an nostalgic moment while looking around the area that was brighter red than the other parts of the cave they had come through. "I remember this is close to where we found the Dillwhip 4 years ago, with Claude and the rest."
"I remember the rumour saying that this was the entrance to the Daemoneum…" Leon said in thought, examining the surroundings. "Considering how spooky this place looks, I can see how that one started."
"Yeah, it does seems a little far-fetched…" Adonis casually said, though he quickly turned around alertly after noticing something in front of them approaching them slowly "I do see ugly, overgrown rabbits, though, so maybe there's some truth to the rumour?"
Before both Leon and Precis could ask what Adonis meant, a group of 3 Gigantic Rabbits appeared in front of them, definitely looking to make a meal out of the three friends. The rabbits suddenly all jumped high in the air, splitting into their battle formation with each of them preying on one person each.
"Monsters!" Precis yelled, as she immediately took out her phase gun to ready herself for the battle. "Okay, be careful, guys!" She added, as the possessed rabbits all jumped at their target.
Though the rabbits looked intimidating and full of conviction, Leon, Precis and Adonis all went into their battle stances without much hesitation, all having been in battle situations before. Leon and Precis of course had plenty of experience from their adventures in Expel, Nede and Edifice, while Adonis had gone through many Federation operations during his time spent in internship. Adonis in particular looked almost playful while approaching the rabbits, knowing full well of his capabilities compared to theirs.
"Heh, what's with jumping so predictably?" Adonis asked with a rather cockish grin, as he easily sidestepped the rabbit's attempt at stomping on him. After sidestepping couple more of the stomps and examining the timing, he immediately jumped above the rabbit as soon as he sidestepped the attack. "HIYAA! HEAD SPLITTER!" Adonis pulled his sword back while coming down at the rabbit that was just bouncing back up from the ground, as he swung the sword downwards to effortlessly slice the monster in half
Meanwhile, Precis ran around the rabbit that was attacking her, dodging all the attempts of the monster biting and stomping at her. She jumped behind one of the big rocks that was lying around to buy some time, as she turned on the optic scope on her phase gun to aim at the rabbit's legs. She knew that disabling the rabbit's legs would render it helpless, and make it much easier to kill. "Let's see what this baby can do!" She yelled, pulling on the trigger to shoot a sharp, narrow beam of laser at the target. "AIMING DEVICE!" The laser beam precisely nailed the lower left leg of the rabbit, sending it tumbling to the ground and unable to get up.
"HAA!" Adonis yelled, arriving at a blinding speed to slash the rabbit that Precis took down in half. Adonis proudly dusted himself off, smiled and gave a wink to Precis. "Hey, hope you don't mind me finishing it off!"
"Not at all! That was great, Adonis!" Precis smiled back, impressed with Adonis' fighting ability. She then turned around to where the last rabbit, wondering about her other friend in action. "How's Leon doing?"
Though Adonis and Precis made their fights almost effortless, Leon had quite a bit of trouble dealing with his opponent. While he knew that his abilities with the sword were more than adequate to deal with his enemy, this was still one of his first real fights and he was in fact still quite nervous. He also badly wanted to prove his worth to his friends this time around, which excited him further and caused him to act with his emotion rather than his brain. All these factors caused him to rush into the battle mentally unprepared, and his consequent lack of result only helped to infuriate him further.
"Ugh… Hwah!" Leon yelled, flustered by his inability to hit the rabbit. "Damn! Stay still, vermins!"
"Yo, having trouble?" Adonis asked while tapping his foot, clearly seeing that Leon was struggling against the monster. "We're coming to help, man!"
"Stay back!" Leon snapped back sharply, coldly rejecting the offer. "I can do this on my own!"
"You sure?" Adonis asked, amused by the situation. "It might take forever from what I'm seeing, though… and I AM getting hungry here… just use your heraldric arts and you'll get it over with!" Adonis continually teased, sitting down and getting comfortable.
"NO!" Leon yelled, dodging the rabbit's attack and counter-attacking with his sword with little result once again. "I can do this with my sword! Just watch!"
"Hey, let him do it." Precis told Adonis, her face turning serious. "This must be the whole male pride thing… I know he'll take it out eventually. Let's just wait."
"Aight, fine." Adonis shrugged and agreed, closing his eyes and laying back. "But if this takes any longer than 10 minutes, I'm ordering pizza…"
"Hwah! Eyyaa!" Leon kept slashing away at the monster mindlessly, not even coming closing to hitting it. The frustration and fatigue started to mount, only making the situation worse. "Huff... Damn…" Leon muttered under his heavy breath, still refusing to give up.
Suddenly, as Leon was continuing to struggle, something rushed in at a rapid speed from the entrance of the inner area to interrupt the battle. Leon, Precis, Adonis, and even the monster all momentarily stopped to see what had arrived. When the dust settled, a large, plump bunny appeared, with a small young girl riding on his back.
"BIG BROTHER!" Elise yelled with a big smile, jumping off the rabbit to trot towards Leon. "I finally found you!"
"ELISE? What are you doing HERE?" Leon yelled in great surprise, immediately shielding Elise from any potential harm from the monster. "Stay back! This monster's really dangerous!"
"Whoa, how did the munchkin get here?" Adonis asked with a surprised look, immediately coming out of his relaxed state. "And what's that thing she's riding on?"
"That's Bunny… Dr. Bowman must have given it to her as a pet…" Precis said, rushing towards Elise to protect her. "Anyways, come on! We have to get her out of harm's way!"
"Bad bunnies! Go away!" Elise yelled with a big frown on her face, trotting past Leon between his legs and confronting the rabbit all by herself. Before anybody could act, she took out two pills from her pocket, tossing them at the Rabbit to spark an blast of greenish mist. The rabbit wailed, rolling back in pain with its skin tone turning purple.
"That's… Dr. Bowman's pills!" Precis yelled, as she stared at the rabbit rolling in pain. "Gee, do they still not have childproof bottles here on Expel?"
"VERY responsible parents, I see… keeping poisonous pills within a kids' reach!" Adonis joked, as he and others turned around to leave. "Well, it'll just probably wither and die now, let's get out of here."
However, before they could leave, the rabbit gathered itself to lunge at the party for its final attack, with a big roar. Adonis and Precis quickly turned around to defend themselves, but the monster was jumping towards Elise, with the two having no time to intervene.
"!" Adonis and Precis reacted, knowing that they had reacted too late. "No! Elise!"
"… Uhhh… WAAA!" Elise bursted into tears as the angry rabbit descended at her, covering herself helplessly with her arms…
" BLADE OF FURY!" Leon yelled, appearing in front of Elise to perform a smooth upwards swing in a circular motion with his sword. With the rabbit knocked off its feet, Leon continued in one motion to swing the sword back downwards then thrusting it to impale the rabbit violently. The rabbit slowly slumped down and fell, lifeless.
"huff… are you okay, Elise?" Leon asked, out of breath. "You're not hurt, right?"
"…I'm fine, big brother!" Elise replied happily, giving him a hug. "Thank you for protecting me from the evil bunny!"
"Hey, not bad, even though you needed the kid to help you with that explosive stuff." Adonis told Leon while giving him a tap on the back, impressed with the technique that he had just used. "You took it out pretty well… before any of us could react, too. You can be OK once you focus and not run around like a headless chicken..."
"Ugh, don't mock me! It was nothing." Leon retorted, nudging his friend out of the way and attending back to Elise. "Anyways, Elise, what are you doing here? Don't you know that this place is dangerous? Where's your mama and papa?"
"They're back home!" Elise replied innocently, honestly thinking that she had done nothing wrong. "I just came here to play with you"
"sigh Are you kidding me?" Leon slapped his forehead in disbelief, shaking his head. "Dr. Bowman REALLY needs a babysitter…"
"Anyways, let's get back. Our business here is…." Precis began to walk towards the exit, but before they could reach the exit, another evil bunny appeared; one bigger than than the three of the previous ones.
"WAIT! One more! That must be the monsters' leader!" Adonis yelled out, quickly backing into his ready stance to fight. "WATCH OUT!"
"AHHH!" Elise yelled as the gigantic bunny jumped high up in the air, with the group having very little room to maneuver out of the way.
"CROSS SLASH!" A voice came out of nowhere, as a cross-shaped blur suddenly went through the bunny, slicing it into four pieces while it was still in mid-air. A dark figure with two long attachments on his back descended while sheathing back his twin sword, landing gracefully on his feet.
"…Ashton?" Precis yelled in surprise, immediately recognizing the figure.
"Brother Ashton?" Elise mumbled, also well aware of whom the person was.
"! Ashton!" Leon and Precis both yelled, hustling ahead to greet their old friend. "It's you!"
"Leon? PRECIS?" Ashton reacted in disbelief, just as if not more surprised than the two were.
"So what are you doing here?" Ashton asked Precis with a big smile, obviously happy to see his long-time love once again. "It's so good to see you! I didn't know you were coming!"
"Yeah Sorry, I wanted to surprise everyone." Precis told him, giving Ashton a heartful hug. "You haven't changed a bit, Ashton!"
"Who's that?" Adonis asked while the two embraced each other, feeling a bit lost with the situation. "And what's with those monsters on his back?"
"That's Ashton. And don't ask about the dragons, it's a long story, I'll tell you later." Leon replied, with a slight smirk. "And he's one of our friends that we met 4 years ago. Him and Precis are kinda… involved, I guess you can say."
"Heh, really?" Adonis exclaimed, as he approached Ashton to introduce himself. "Hey, I'm Adonis Klein. Nice to meet ya. I'm Leon's friend from Earth."
"Hey, Nice to meet you!" Ashton greeted him back nicely as he always does, offering him a handshake. "You seem like an excellent swordsmen."
"Yeah, You could say I'm pretty good. Anyways, I got one question, if you don't mind." Adonis shook his hand, then pulling him slightly to ask him a question quietly against his ear. "So how you ever get freaky with those things, if you know what I'm saying… They must kinda get in the way, huh? I guess Precis thinks they're kinky… didn't know she was into something like that!"
"Huh? Hmmm… well…" Ashton blushed shyly, caught off guard with the situation and quite embarrassed.
"ADONIS!" Precis immediately kicked Adonis away, definitely having heard the entire question. "Don't mind the idiot, Ashton. Anyways, we'll all talk later… let's get out of here first! I've had enough of this place."
"Yeah." Leon agreed, taking a breath of relief, dusting himself off and heading towards the exit. "That definitely looks like the last of them. Let's go back to Linga for now and think about how to deal with the monster problem."