Chapter 4
The first thing they did upon arrival back in the city was to head to the local hot springs. As any girl would acknowledge, the cleansing feeling of a hot spring was always good for a stress reliever. It didn't hurt that it also soothed their muscles.
The four paid the attendant the necessary fee to use the hot spring and quickly jumped in. After removing their armor, of course.
They sat around and just relaxed, as they had planned on doing, for quite some time before voices from the female side of the hot spring attracted their attention.
"Woohoo! Cannonball!"
Following that proclamation, a loud splash was heard, along with the screams of several angry girls.
"Damn it! Jasmine! What was that for?!" one particular voice seemed to rise higher than the screaming of the other girls.
"Oh relax. She's just having some fun," a second voice chimed in.
"That's no excuse to cannonball into a freaking hot spring and causing the hot water to splash us!"
A loud thud came after that retort, followed by a third voice's moan of pain. "Owwwww! You big meanie! You didn't have to hit me, ya know?"
"That's what you get for doing stupid things, Jasmine!" the first voice replied.
Deciding to alert them to their presence (separated by a large fence to prevent any peeking incidents, of course), Vaan called out, "Hey is that you and your clan, Jordan?"
The bickering from the other side stopped.
Two heads appeared over the top of the fence. It was Jocelyn and Jackie, the twin viera sisters. "Hey, it's those idiot Outlanders!" one head called back down to her side of the fence.
"Don't be so rude, Jacquelyn," the second twin chastised. Turning back towards the boys, she greeted them with a smile, "Hey boys."
"Hey Jocelyn," they replied slowly, sinking down into the water until only their heads remained above the water.
"What you hidin' for, boys?" Jackie asked lecherously.
Jocelyn giggled and covered her mouth with her hand. "Don't tease them like that, Jacquelyn."
Two more heads popped up above the fence.
"Hey boys," Jordan waved.
Jasmine, the Archer, echoed Jordan's movements.
"Fancy meeting you four here, eh?" Jordan asked with a smile on her face as she stared down at the boys, who were becoming increasingly red. "Maybe we should stop staring. They might die of embarrassment!" the blond Soldier called out.
"But I just got up here!" Jasmine whined.
Turning to face her clanmate, Jordan bopped a fist on Jasmine's head, causing the girl to fall down with a yelp and a crash.
"We'll let you get back to your bath, boys," Jordan said before disappearing back to her side.
The silence in the boys' side of the hot spring continued, despite the raucous laughing and shouting on the girls' side.
"...Wanna get out now?" Vaan asked.
Three heads nodded so quickly it looked like they were bobbleheads. The four dashed out of the hot spring and quickly got dressed.
The embarrassment from being seen by the girls was shared by all four, and they silently agreed to never bring it up again.
-
Night came quickly, along with a festival.
"What's this festival about?" Ramza shouted to Montblanc, as he wouldn't have been heard otherwise.
"What?!" Montblanc shouted back.
"What's this festival about?!"
"Celebrating, kupo!" Montblanc returned as loudly as he could.
It didn't help that Vaan was adding to the noise by cheering loudly about the festival, despite the fact that he too had no idea what this was about. But hey, who cared? A festival was a festival.
Entering a restaurant along the side of the street, the outside noises were cut off, replaced by the low murmuring of the patrons.
Gesturing four people at the waiter, Montblanc told his friends, "Every year, the people of Cyril have a competition, kupo. A swordsmanship competition. Any job that uses a sword can join the competition. You end up fighting several opponents one-on-one, and if you win, you get a really awesome prize, I heard, kupo. Of course, your opponents will be strong, so you might want to wait until next year, kupo," Montblanc directed his last sentence at Ramza.
The four sat down at a dimly lighted table near the back. The waiter handed them the menus and left, leaving the four to ponder on what they wanted to eat in silence.
"The people celebrate the beginning of the competition, and the end of the competition. As you know, this is the festival for the beginning."
Any more mention of the competition did not come up again during dinner, until they received their desserts.
"Where do I sign up?" Ramza asked.
Montblanc smirked. He knew Ramza would join anyway, if only for the experience. "There'll be an official at the Clan Building."
"Stop, thief!" A voice called out, and all four boys turned to look at the commotion. A man wearing a Magus Robe was seen dashing out the doors of the restaurant. "That was Black Mage Dolce!" the same voice yelled in despair.
The four boys looked at each other before dashing out after the man. All four had seen the wanted poster in the pub of Black Mage Dolce, a man who was wanted for dangerous magic use and several assorted misdemeanors. However, he was most famous for his habit of eating and running.
Due to the massive crowd, tracking Dolce and moving to catch up to him was very difficult.
"Montblanc, jump on my shoulder and see if you can spot him!" Ramza shouted down at the short (compared to a human) moogle. The boy, having worn heavy armor for quite some time, had built up his strength and endurance, so having a moogle on his shoulders was nothing to him.
"Kupo!" the moogle yelled as he leapt atop Ramza. "I see him, kupo!"
Vaan and Marche followed the Ramza, who was following Montblanc's directions.
"That way! No, this way! Here! Left! The alley!"
Eventually, the group chased Dolce all the way to the forests surrounding the village.
"Damn kids!" the older man muttered loudly. Turning around abruptly, he declared loudly, "I declare an engagement!"
The judge appeared and waved his arm, signaling the beginning of the match.
"Fira!"
A large blast of fire leapt out of the man's hands, right at the four boys, causing them to scatter.
"Ha! You kids are no match for me!"
Marche returned the man's taunt by firing an arrow, but the man jumped to the side.
Letting loose a fierce roar, Ramza hefted his Silver Sword and swung down at Dolce. Again, the experienced Black Mage sidestepped the attack and quickly followed it up by placing his palm on Ramza's exposed side.
"See ya, kid," he grinned. "Fira!"
Ramza was immediately engulfed in a sea of flames.
"One down, three more to go," Dolce crowed.
Marche stepped up his attacks and fired a string of arrows, some using Boost and some without. The agile Black Mage dodged most of the missiles and negligently cast a few Fire's on some of the arrows that were harder to avoid.
Behind Dolce, Montblanc prepared to fire his own spell. "Blizzard!"
The moogle's voice caught him off guard for a moment, causing Dolce to just avoid being impaled upon a giant chunk of ice.
Another voice spoke up. "Steal: Gil."
He turned his head towards the voice, and noticed that his money pouch was gone!
"Damn Thieves!" he cursed. That money was to be used for another delicious dinner!
Vaan jumped back with a grin on his face. "Success!"
However, the grin quickly disappeared from his face as Dolce threw his hand at Vaan and shouted, "Fira!"
Being a Thief meant that he was quite quick, but even then, the intensity of the attack gave Vaan trouble dodging. Rather, the burst of fire clipped him in the right arm, rendering him useless for any more pickpocketing.
The white-haired boy cursed loudly, something which did not happen very often.
Dolce, seeing that his attack was a success, prepared for another attack when he was reminded that he had two more opponents to worry about.
Montblanc had fired another Blizzard spell at Dolce, who was about to finish Vaan off. His ice spell had successfully stopped Dolce from attacking and forced him to move away. Suddenly, a thought struck Montblanc. 'How does he have so much stamina and MP? He's already used about three Fira's and three Fire's!'
"I see you're wondering about how I still have so much stamina left in me, right ya moogle?" Dolce leered.
Montblanc, surprised at having his mind read (not literally), flinched, and Dolce laughed loudly.
"You guys are too easy to predict!"
"Oh yeah? Then predict this!" Marche shouted as he finally used his new move. "Blackout!"
A black arrow that seemed to be made of shadows formed in Marche's hand. Firing the arrow, the projectile flew true and slammed right into Dolce. Like it did to Vaan the previous day, the arrow sunk into Dolce's chest without a sound.
"Shit!" Dolce cursed. Of all the days for him to not have any eyedrops!
"Finish him off quickly!"
"Right, kupo. Thunder!" A bolt of lightning smashed into Dolce, eliciting a sharp scream from him.
"Engagement over," the judge declared. Waving his hand, Vaan's burnt hand was healed, while Ramza was brought back to life. Dolce was healed too, although just barely. He was healed enough so that he wouldn't die, but he was going to be in a lot of pain over the next few days.
"Capture of the criminal Dolce successful. Your reward," the judge continued. Handing over a large sack of gil, which they later found out was 4600 gil to be exact, the judge then disappeared with Dolce in tow.
"Cool." Vaan's voice drifted over to the two members of the clan that were unharmed during the engagement.
-
Having signed up for the Cyril Swordsmanship Competition the day after, Ramza then headed towards the training ground, where he planned on practicing and sparring as much as he could to get better. He only had a week to train for the competition, and he had already seen several stronger-looking competitors wandering the streets.
It didn't help the matter that he was defeated so quickly by Dolce. Even though Dolce was a mage, he still shoudn't have underestimated the man's power. It was that flaw that led to him being roasted within the first thirty seconds of the engagement,
Marche and Vaan both volunteered to spar with him, so that he could practice his moves on them. Even though practicing special abilities on people in a controlled environment seemed like a good idea, it actually did nothing in terms of mastering the ability, as there was no adrenaline nor any surprises. Despite this, Ramza reckoned that practicing his Speedbreak wouldn't hurt, as he may figure out the best way to utilize such a technique. He even asked Montblanc to fire spells at him randomly (although a bit underpowered), so that he could practice dodging while wearing heavy armor.
It wasn't long before the week was up.
-
The tournament was taking place in an arena. To be specific, it was the arena where Clan Outlander and Clan Femme Fetale first fought. The arena, which was a big but usually empty place, was packed with people today as they awaited the yearly competition. Vendors were everywhere, shouting out the names of their goods as they tried to coerce people into buying their wares. There were also several betting stations set up around the area as people came to bet on whichever competitor they thought would win.
Normally, the majority of the people would bet on the previous year's winner, but this year, the person had not signed up. Therefore, bets were scattered everywhere from "that tough Fighter dude" to "that hot viera chick".
As Ramza headed down to the waiting area for the contestants, Vaan, Marche, and Montblanc headed up into the stands to look for seats that would give them a good view of the fight.
As luck would have it, they were spotted by none other than Jasmine of the Femme Fetales. She called out with her hands cupped around her mouth, "Hey Marche! Vaan! Montblanc! Over here!" She gestured at a few seats that were near the rest of her group.
Marching over, they plopped down on the uncomfortable seats.
"Jordan's competing too?" Marche asked.
"Yeah!" Jasmine replied. "Jamie too!"
"Jordan's gonna wipe the floor with your friend," Jackie taunted.
Jocelyn grabbed her staff and smacked Jackie in the head with it. "She means no ill will. She's not right in the head. Please forgive her," the viera White Mage apologized in her twin's stead.
"And who's fault is it that I'm not 'right in the head', huh?!" Jackie asked Jocelyn as she rubbed the bump on her head. "Crazy psycho b-..." Jackie's mumblings trailed off, although it was obvious that she was continuing to curse her sister.
Vaan found it funny, which was apparent when he had to slap his hand against his mouth to prevent the laughter from escaping.
The group slowly quieted down when an announcer appeared in the middle of the arena. It was an aged nu mou with grayish skin and a lot of wrinkles.
"Welcome to the 312nd Cyril Swordsmanship Competition! As many of you already know, the competitors are competing for a magnificent prize, which will be revealed to the winner only. There are 96 competitors. Matches will start off with a qualifier, where eight people will be fighting in the arena at one time. This means there'll be twelve qualifying matches.
"The last two to remain in each qualifier will move onto the first round, where the two will do battle with the winners of two other qualifiers. This means there'll be six competitors in each match in the first round. There will be four matches total for this round.
"Again, the last two to remain will move onto the third round. Here, they will fight against the winners of the other branch. This means four people will be fighting in the third round.
"The two winners of the third round will fight the each other in a one-on-one battle for the prize and the honor of being the 312nd champion of the Cyril Swordsmanship Competition. All competitors will be healed in between rounds by the judge. Now that all of that is out of the way, let us begin the first round!"
Eight competitors marched out of the waiting area into the center platform, where the battle would take place. The platform, which was shaped like a square, was soon occupied by the contestants. It was a good thing that the platform was pretty large, or the eight competitors would be packed too tight to swing their swords around.
"You are eliminated if you are killed, if you surrender, if you use items, if you are kicked out of the ring, or if you are unconscious. All injured parties will be healed for the next round. Begin!" the judge commanded.
The eight competitors immediately started to attack each other. One moment, they were all standing there, the next, everything was a blur. Pretty soon, the first person was eliminated. It was a human Soldier. The man looked to be in his thirties, which meant that he had started with a different job when he first started. As the Soldier was the basis of the short-range jobs, it meant that he was either an Archer or Hunter, or he was a type of mage. Mage seemed to be most likely, as he was eliminated pretty quickly.
Two more dropped like flies, having been, literally, kicked out of the ring.
With five people remaining, it left more room for them to maneuver themselves and utilize their techniques.
"Air Render!" one man shouted and punched the air with his free hand. A bangaa Warrior was punched out of the ring by the blast of air, leaving only four. Each competitor took a corner of the square platform, eyes darting back and forth from one enemy to another, trying to detect who would make the first move.
The audience held their breaths as the four competitors continued to stand there in silence.
"Air Blast!" The Fighter standing in the top right corner slashed his sword, releasing a wide blast of air.
The other three ducked under the attack before retaliating.
"Body Slam!" The bangaa who had been standing in the bottom right corner charged at the Fighter and rammed his much larger body into the other competitor. The Fighter was sent flying right over the edge, but through some act of godly intervention, the Fighter managed to stab his sword into the arena, halting his ejection from the ring.
The bangaa had turned away the moment he saw the Fighter fly over the ring, assuming that he would be eliminated. As a result, it brought a great look of surprise on his face when he heard a voice shout, "Beatdown!" from behind him.
The Fighter had quickly recovered from his near elimination before deciding to take out the bangaa with an attack while he was distracted. His attack slashed straight down the tall bangaa's back, releasing a spurt of blood.
A viera Fencer stabbed her rapier forward, shouting, "Nighthawk!" A projectile erupted from her weapon, aimed right at the back of the Fighter, who leaped to the right. Unfortunately, he leaped right into the path of the fourth competitor: a bangaa Gladiator. A quick stab at the chest, and the Fighter was downed.
"Winners!" the judge announced.
All injured parties were healed and teleported to the waiting room.
The crowd clapped loudly and cheered, having seen an entertaining match.
Following that, eight more people appeared from the waiting room.
-
Nine hours passed by quickly, and the Cyril Swordsmanship Competition was only on its seventh qualifying match. So far, neither Jordan, Jamie, nor Ramza had fought yet.
The sixth battle just ended, with the two winners being a Paladin and a Defender. Both had jobs that specialized in defense, so it was no surprise when the two waited for the other six competitors to take each other out before finishing off the remainder. It helped that any attacks against them were always blocked, or if not blocked, did very little damage to them.
The competition was halted for today, as it was getting late. The judge had announced that the seventh match would start at noon tomorrow, so both the Outlanders and the Femme Fetales had some time to relax. Or train, as Ramza had insisted on doing.
Vaan and Marche quickly forced a halt in this thinking when they dragged him with Montblanc to accompany the Femme Fetales for a night of partying.
Arriving at the pub, they quickly ordered drinks. They started off with lighter drinks. As in, drinks that would not give them a huge migraine the next morning. As the night progressed, the light drinks were replaced by alcohol, and soon, a red-faced Ramza was on the table top, arm draped over Jordan (who was on the table with Ramza), singing a song as loudly as he could.
The rest of the bar joined in after a few verses, and soon, the entire pub was filled with the loud bellowing of a bunch of drunkards who wished they could sing.
This continued for the rest of the night, or at least what was left of it.
-
A/N: Swords in Cyril, mission 264, is a dispatch mission for Fencers only, but I changed to allow any job that used a variant of swords. Greatswords, broadswords, knightswords, rapiers, katanas, knives, blades, etc. I thought this would be a fun mission to write about, since I've always wished that it was a normal battle mission.
On another note, I just realized of all my stories, this is my best planned story. I have lots of ideas I want to implement, most of which will take a lot of time to get to. At the same time, this is also my worst planned story, since I am just picking random missions to do until they reach the point where I can implement my better ideas. It mostly includes introducing some new characters, and following the story line (somewhat).
-
List of all the places in FF Tactics Advance:
Cyril: Busy town. The monster bank is on its outskirts. Ramsen Armory, The Prancing Chocobo
Sphrom: Bangaa mountain town. Home to the prison.
Bervenia Palace: Capital of Ivalice.
Muscadet: Mainly viera town hidden deep in the woods.
Cadoan: Nu mou town. The seat of knowledge and alchemy.
Baguba Port: Moogle town with a large mercantile airship port.
Nubswood: Deep, dark forest. Popular hideout for thieves.
Giza Plains: Rolling grassy plains. Muscmaloi grows here.
Kudik Peaks: Towering peaks. Home to an endangered tiger.
Uladon Bog: Deep and dangerous bogland dotted with islands.
Jeraw Sands: Hot sands blow in this largest desert in Ivalce
Lutia Pass: Much-traveled pass, with the occasional roadshop.
Koringwood: Refreshing wood filled with ambient pure magic.
Ulei River: Largest River in Ivalice. Winds through swamplands.
Aisenfield: Plains where the thirteen knights of legend fought.
Roda Volcano: Volcano asleep for 300 years. Recently active.
Eluut Sands: Dangerous desert home to many fiends and treasure.
Nargal Cave: A cool wind blows from inside this cave. An ancient city is said to sleep in its depths.
Salikawood: The chirping of birds can always be heard here. An abandoned keep stands in the middle of the wood.
Delia Dunes: Desert area famous for its barking sands. Said to be formed from a celestial beast's bones.
Gotor Sands: Desert famous for its mirages and red chocobos.
Ozmonfield: Gently rolling plains with occasional insect plagues.
Deti Plains: Flatlands of yellow sand and red earth. Amber can often be found here among the rocks.
Siena Gorge: Deep valley. A source of amber, like Deti Plains.
Materiwood: Lush green forest famous for its materite ore.
Tubola Cave: These caves were once mined for their mythril.
Jagd Dorsa: Lawless jagd. A deserted town.
Jagd Helje: Lawless jagd where ghostly voices are heard.
Jagd Ahli: Lawless jagd destroyed by its own wild magic.
Ambervale: Beautiful valley where rocks glow amber. The kings of Ivalice had a summer palace here.