I was up early the next morning, going around poking everyone awake. For once, it felt nice to be the one annoying the heck out of everyone. Not to mention Noishe had dared me to.
"...eh? What is it, Noishe?" The green and white protozoan whined several times, then mimed sleeping, rolling over on his back and shutting his eyes. I blinked. "Do you think I should go to sleep now?"
"Whine!" Noishe then rolled over and mimed poking something. Unconsciously, I copied him, poking the air in attempts to figure out his message.
"Poking something..." A growl. "No, someone...sleeping?" Noishe barked and wagged his tail, repeating his previous actions. "Noishe, I'm not going to go around poking them now. Maybe later."
"Bark!" Noishe drew a circle on the ground with one of his paws, and then added little lines radiating off it. He then pointed at the sky. I looked down at the shape, then at the night sky, then at Noishe.
"Silly dog, the moon doesn't have rays..." Noishe whined and put his paws over his eyes, frustrated. Sighing, I tried again to put together what the arshis was telling me. "Poking someone sleeping...full moon?" Another growl. Noishe gave me a hopeless look, then pointed to the fire, and then to the circle. Looking down again at it, the message clicked. "Poking someone awake in the morning?"
"Bark bark! Woof! Whine." The protozoan got to his feet and yipped happily, tail wagging. I chuckled, and rubbed Noishe's chest.
"Interesting idea, but...I'm not going to run the risk of getting killed..." Noishe snorted, and gave me a strange look with his little black eyes. It seemed to say 'What? Scared of a couple half-asleep idiots?' I sweatdropped. "Noishe..."
Sighing, he once more drew something in the dirt. Squinting in the dim light of the fire, I made out X-R-I-E E-Y. "What the heck, Noishe?" The protozoan whined again.
About that time, Kratos came over looking for his customary pillow. He almost stepped on the words Noishe had written, but stopped abruptly when I yelled and Noishe snapped at him.
"Noishe! What is with you?" Kratos exclaimed, quickly stepping out of range of the bared fangs. "You've never been so violent towards me..."
"Sorry Kratos, but you almost stepped on his message." I said, shoving back at the big dog as Noishe slowly calmed. "What does that mean?" Kratos looked at the rough words on the ground.
"Xrie ey? Noishe..." Kratos looked the arshis square in the eyes. "What are you up to?" Noishe whined innocently.
"Hello, Kratos...what's it mean?"
"Xrie ey...it means 'Dare you' in angelic." I glanced up at Noishe and gave him a dirty look.
"Damn you, mutt...you can't put it in English, you just have to spell it out in angelic..."
And so here I was, poking my victims awake. Well, all except for Kratos, who didn't need sleep anyway and who'd made Noishe tell him what was going on. Colette went first. After three well-placed pokes in ticklish spots, she woke up laughing.
"What's going on?" she asked, once she'd quit giggling and taken stock of her surroundings. I shrugged.
"You could call it a dare." I supposed, and moved on to Raine. After a few very soft pokes I leaned over and yelled into her ear, "RAINE! I FOUND A 4,000 YEAR OLD ROCK WITH MARKS IN IT!" She popped up faster then I'd ever thought for a human (but then again, she was a halfy...) and grabbed the front of my shirt.
"WHERE'S THE ROCK? I MUST STUDY IT!" Damn, now the Professor was hyper. And she was strangling me with her death-grip on my shirt.
"There is...no rock...Professor...air...!" Raine released my shirt and sat back yawning sleepily as I massaged my throat. "Sheesh, are you always like that in the morning?"
"Why are you waking us up so early, anyway?" Raine muttered, rubbing her eyes. I sighed as I moved on to Genis.
"It's kinda complicated...let's just say it involves the rules behind angelic dares..." From off on the sidelines near a fallen stone pillar, Kratos smirked and Noishe barked evilly.
Anyway, on to Genis. I gave him a few hard pokes in the stomach and he popped right up. "Hey! Stop that!"
"Yeek!" I ducked away from the spiked end of his kendama to cower behind a still-sleepy Raine. Martel, but the kid was grumpy in the morning...anywho, that just left Lloyd as my last victim. Sighing, I walked over to the red-clad swordsman and picked up a water flask, remembering Kratos' words from our first encounter.
"Kratos, don't. I'll yell for Lloyd, I swear I will."
"Go ahead. He sleeps like a log."
"Sleeps like a log, eh?" I muttered to myself. Leaning down, I gently poked Lloyd in the chest, and then kicked him in the side. When that didn't work, I took the contents of the water flask and poured it down his nose. Now that worked as an effective wakeup call.
"ACKPTH!" Lloyd shot up, coughing and sputtering as he tried to clear the water from his nose. Covering my mouth, I tried to muffle my giggling, but it didn't work. Not to mention the others were laughing too. Looking around, Lloyd decided to settle the blame on the most obvious cause of his distress- me. "Hey! What the hell was that for!"
"Lloyd...sorry..." I grinned. "But, if you want someone to blame..." I pointed over at Noishe, who was doing a dog version of laughing. "Go for him. He dared me to do it."
"What? Noishe!" The protozoan's ears shot up in alarm as Lloyd came charging over. Yelping, the big mutt took off with a certain someone hot on his rear, while Kratos merely watched with something akin to amusement. All in all, it was an extremely entertaining morning.
Roughly 30 minutes later...
The campsite was cleaned up, and we all trudged up the steps to a smallish altar in the middle of a walkway. Someone pointed out the slit in the stone (I forget who...I just know that it wasn't me) that was for the map. Raine stuck it in, an oracle stone came up, Colette stuck her hand on it...and a section of the wall in front of us rolled away. While the others oohed and aahed over it, I went right through the door into a dark and rather drafty stone hallway. The Wind Seal was one of those things that tended to grate on your nerves after a bit, and I just wanted to get it over with.
"Wow, it sure is windy in here." Lloyd commented as he stepped inside, followed by the others. I sighed.
"Well, that would be a given, Lloyd. The Fire Seal was hot, and the Light Seal dealt with a lot of sunlight...and now the Wind Seal is windy. How about that!" Rawr, sarcasm. I think I scared them all with it. "Anyway, I will now be your own personal tourguide for this giant royal tomb, so listen up and you might not get sporked on a spike trap or ten."
"Sporked?" Lloyd asked, confused.
"Spike traps?" Genis shivered, looking nervous.
"Yay! We get our own tourguide!" Colette grinned happily. The blonde may have been a fighter who'd saved my ass on more than one occasion, but methinks she was still an airhead at heart. Moving on...
"How do you know the layout of this place?" Raine asked, curious. I shrugged. A little bit of truth right now couldn't hurt.
"I've been in here quite a bit, actually...we're supposed to light torches so we can read the plaques, buuuut that's just too much of a hassle for me. Since I know what all the damn things say, we can just proceed right to the seal room." Everybody looked relieved but Genis.
"Do we still have to go through the spike traps?" He asked, sounding nervous. I nodded cheerfully.
"Yup, sure do! Don't worry though," I added, patting the little mage on the head. "You're short enough that you should be able to duck under most of them."
"Oh, good- wait a minute! I am NOT short! Hey!" Genis yelled after me, but I was already quickly jogging down the hall with my dagger out. Once we went through a first hall of spike traps, monsters lurked directly beyond...
It took a few minutes for everyone to inch their way through the twin spike traps that popped randomly out of the walls. I, myself, just got down on the floor and crawled, snickering every so often as I heard someone yelping behind me after nearly being impaled by the sharp things. Genis walked under the traps, Raine and Kratos had to duck... Colette flew over 'em, and Lloyd was an idiot who insisted on dashing straight through. No such luck.
"You're a moron, y'know that?" I growled at him after waiting five minutes with the rest of the group as Lloyd emerged from the hallway, panting and covered with scratches. "I tell you to duck, and what do you do? Ask where the stupid feathered things are! Goddess Lloyd, who'd you get your brains from!" He paused a moment, apparently thinking.
"I dunno. I think my dad..."
From somewhere behind me I think Kratos had a heart attack, managing to cover it up with a coughing fit. "Mr. Kratos, are you alright?" Colette asked innocently.
"I'm fine...just fine...dust in the air." Kratos muttered, shaking his head and stalking off, rounding a corner to head up some stairs. I let him go. Doubtless he'd been in here more times then I had, not to mention if he got attacked he could kick ass and run. Still, the others stared after him.
"What's eating him?" Lloyd asked. I growled silently, cursing. Martel, Kratos would give his whole facade away before we even got to Disc Two! Oh well, time to cover up as best I could.
"You heard him," I replied, reaching over to grab the ribbons on the back of Lloyd's shirt and drag him along. "He's got dust allergies. Now let's go already." With Lloyd squawking his protests and the others sweatdropping, we followed Kratos up the steps to the second level.
Up here we encountered a squadron of three Gold Skeletons. It was a simple matter to dissect them: Lloyd just smacked into them with a newly-acquired Beast attack and shattered their bones all over the place. Then Genis and Kratos cast stuff like Wind Blade to further scatter and destroy the bones, while I ran around stabbing the skulls lying on the floor. I did save a few choice rib bones to tuck into my pack for Noishe, though. The mutt deserved a reward for carting me around all over Sylvarant. Once that was done, we grabbed whatever spoils we could (Mmm, green quartz. Tastes yummy in stew, really) and moved on down the hall.
Here we encountered a lighted torch and plaque, which Raine obviously had to read and study and get all nuts over. Sighing, the three guys dragged her off the wall, under a spike trap, and down the hall past another one of those pesky traps. Geez, the rulers of the Balacruf Dynasty must have been paranoid or something, what with all the traps in their tomb. It was rather freaky. Anyway, we then encountered a door in the wall, shut tight and unbudgable.
"Great, now we're stuck." Lloyd muttered bitterly as he shoved at the door. Reaching over, I grabbed the Sorcerer's Ring and proceeded to light the two torches on either side of the door. Grating heavily, it slid open amongst Raine's delighted squeals and the others with their muted exclamations. Grinning evilly, I returned the ring to Lloyd.
"See? We ain't stuck anymore." He took the ring, still somewhat amazed and no doubt wondering how the heck the door opened.
"Well, let's go!" Genis said, starting up the stairs. I shook my head.
"Hang on, short stuff. We need to change the function of the Ring first, there's a wind puzzle at the top." I pointed out, dragging Lloyd down some stairs as he tried to free himself from my grip. Whoever made Lloyd's outfit had now earned themselves a gigantic hug, those white ribbons were damn useful in dragging the poor guy from place to place. Mwahahaha.
"I'm not short! Stop calling me that!" Genis fumed, following after his sister, Kratos, and Colette down the stairs. I, meanwhile, had succeeded in dragging the future Eternal Swordsman down and over to the Sorcerer's Ring device, where I finally released him.
"You've got to stop doing that," Lloyd muttered, rubbing his neck. "You're going to kill me someday."
"If I do, it'll be by accident and then I'll commit hara kiri afterwards, okie?" I replied, half-serious. "Now change the stupid ring so we can kill Iapyx."
"Kill who?" Raine asked, going into fanatical ruin-mode. "Is he the guardian here? What's his weakness? Do you have a strategy?" I shrank back against the wall, overwhelmed.
"Geez...in order, yes he is, he doesn't have one, and yes I do. Some space please, Professor?" Raine stepped back, looking a little disappointed that she couldn't get any more information. Huffing a sigh, I jumped when a blast of air hit the back of my neck. "EEP!"
"Hahaha! That's for pulling me around by the neck!" Lloyd laughed evilly, holding up the Sorcerer's Ring. Turning, I glared daggers.
"You're lucky my skills haven't improved too much, you-"
"If we've accomplished our goal for this part of the temple, shall we go?" Kratos asked, breaking into our little altercation. "I do not believe we have all day to mess around in here."
"He's right. Come on, let's go." Raine said, grabbing Lloyd and shepherding Genis and Colette in front of her.
"Professor! Not you too..." Lloyd moaned as he was once more dragged along by his ribbons. "I swear I'm going to cut these off..."
"Mmhm. Good luck with that." I snickered, ducking past the Professor and Kratos to bound up the stairs into the next room.
Stepping into the next room, I automatically groaned. I hated this puzzle more than anything in Symphonia, even Zelos Wilder. (That in itself was a scary thought.) In the middle of the room were five pinwheels, which had to be blown in a certain order for the door leading up to the altar to open. Usually, I could never get past this without my trusty guide, but this time...maybe I could remember it...? If not, we were sunk, and we'd have to go around lighting all those torches to read the stupid plaques again and then try to figure out the riddle. Angst.
"Having trouble?" Raine stepped up beside me to examine the pinwheels. I sighed, shook my head, and then started pacing the room.
"Trouble? Oh, no, it'll come to me in a minute or so...I think..."
Pace, pace, pace.
Red, green, yellow, white, blue? No, I think that leads to a chest...
Pace, pace, pace.
Blue, red, yellow, white, green? Ack, that's not it either...that just leads to another chest...
Pace, pace, pace.
Dammit, why can't I remember this! Maybe I should try shooting the pinwheels in color order...color order?
"...I think I've got it!" I exclaimed, halting on the spot and spinning around to point at Lloyd. "Shoot the pinwheels in this order- red, yellow, green, white, and then blue!"
"Are you sure that's right?" Raine asked, ever-skeptical. "Maybe we should go back and read those plaques just to make sure..."
"Oh, c'mon Professor. Emily's been right about everything so far, I don't think she'd screw us up now." Lloyd countered, and set to blowing the pinwheels with the Sorcerer's Ring while I stood by and bit my nails nervously. "Besides, you probably just want to study those plaques anyway."
Man, I sure hope you're right about that, Lloyd...I really do...
"..Green..." Whish! "..White.." Woosh! "..and then blue." Swash! Lloyd blew a last puff of air with the Ring and then stepped back to admire his work. The five pinwheels spun wildly for a moment...and nothing happened.
"Damn. I didn't remember it correctly." I hissed, lightly smacking my head against the wall. So absorbed in my agony was I, I didn't notice the door in the back of the wall slide open. That is, until Colette started yelling at me from the stairwell.
"Emily! C'mon! The door's open!"
"It is?" I jerked my head up lightning-fast and stared in disbelief at the passage. I remembered the combination without my notes... "YES! I REMEMBERED THE COMBINATION WITHOUT MY NOTES!" I shrieked, jumping around the room for joy. However, my personal breakthrough didn't last long as a sudden feeling of being alone swept over me, and I dashed up the stairwell to join the others in facing Iapyx.
Thankfully, they were waiting for me at the top of the steps, not quite to the altar. "What were you yelling about down there?" Lloyd asked, confused. "Did something attack?"
"Hunh? Oh, no, nothing like that." I said, embarrassed. "I...just yell stuff...when I'm really happy..."
"Oh..."
"Moving on to our next subject, how should we go about defeating this guardian?" Raine asked, suddenly reminding me very strongly of an army commander. Frowning, I decided to fall back on old tactics for the time being.
"Well, you all should find this pretty simple to execute." I said, pointing fingers at everybody except Lloyd and Raine. "You guys, stay in the back and cast spells. Lotsa spells. Love the earth spells. Kratos, you also have to heal. Make that your top priority. Raine," My eyes turned to her. "You also have to make healing your main objective." She nodded.
"When isn't it? Don't worry, I'll keep you all in shape."
"Goodie." I turned to Lloyd. "As for you and me, our part is simple. While the others are in the back casting and whatnot, we get to run up and try to beat the snot out of Iapyx. Got it?" Lloyd frowned.
"I think so. We just go up and hit him, right?"
"That's the ticket." I grinned, faking cheerfulness as I clapped him on the shoulder and then exited out the stairs onto the top of the Balacruf Mausoleum.
The wind all but slapped me in the face as I stepped out and started walking towards the altar, shaking. I didn't want to be in the front lines pounding on this boss, my feeble little brain couldn't comprehend the terror. My teeth started chattering as we got closer to the dreaded altar, and my hand shook as I reached for my dagger.
"Hey, are you cold?" Genis asked, giving me a strange look. I nodded.
"Yeah, a little... Don't worry, I'll warm up when the fight starts. Remember Genis, earth spells."
"I know, I know..." The little halfy scowled, turning away and pulling out his kendama, absently playing with it. I sighed, hugged myself once in an effort to stop shaking, and then turned my attention back to the altar, which by now had a weird glow coming from it. That meant trouble...
"I sense mana...powerful mana is coming out!" Yay, Genis. Tell us all something we don't know, eh?
I may have been mildly prepared, but this was nothing like the game. There was a loud screech, and then Iapyx appeared in a gust of wind, striking out at those nearest him with his talons. Lloyd and I quickly shielded ourselves, while the others ran for cover in the back of the line. So far, this was going well.
"Lloyd, Beast is a good idea. Spam it!" I yelled over at him, ducking a swipe from the birdlike guardian and managing to score a hit on one of his legs. It was only a scratch, however, and Iapyx didn't seem to be affected in the least. Screeching, he flapped his wings hard and rained razor-edged feathers down on us. Crap! Feather Shoot! I blocked as best I could with my dagger, trying to protect my head. Seconds later, my forearms were scored with numerous thin cuts, like papercuts to the extreme. A stray feather also got under my guard and sliced across my right cheek, causing blood to drip down my face. That was pleasant.
"BEAST!" Lloyd slammed into Iapyx as he started to charge up a spell, knocking the green bird over onto the ground. He lay there stunned for a moment, and Lloyd started to carve up the giant bird like no tomorrow, going for his head and chest. Wiping off some blood, I ran over and managed to stab the guardian a few times in his wing before one of those beady yellow eyes popped open and Iapyx squawked, thrusting outwards with his injured wings. Lloyd and I were both thrust back, he falling on the ground and me with the breath knocked out of me. As the avian guardian shakily regained his feet, a cry rang out from the back lines. Actually, make that two cries.
"Stalagmite!"
"Angel Feathers!"
A whirlwind of pinkish feathery halos rushed past us, striking Iapyx upside the head and slicing through his feathers, making him resemble a half-plucked turkey. Almost directly in conjunction to Colette's attack, seconds later hundreds of rock spires erupted from underneath the turkey, jabbing him and throwing him into the air.
As Iapyx came down, Lloyd dashed up and slashed down at the falling guardian, slamming into him with his attack. "TIGER BLADE!" The result was a giant gaping wound in the avian's side, spurting out blood and covering the twin-bladed swordsman with it. Iapyx screeched and lashed out with his razor feathers, but it wasn't much use against the tough leather armor.
"Stone Blast!" Kratos' spell jolted the guardian back up into the air just as he touched the ground, and the giant green bird screamed, clearly dying. Drenched in blood and barely managing to stay aloft on his ravaged wings, Iapyx didn't look quite so threatening anymore. Recovering my Hydra Dagger and wiping some blood from the cut on my face, I charged the avian and ducked a weak swipe from his talons. Taking aim, I moved under his guard and stabbed the dagger up under one of his wing joints before ripping it all down the length of his side, the sharp crystal blade easily slicing through layers of muscle and feathers.
Iapyx screeched weakly and lurched forward towards the ground, having lost control of one of his wings. As Lloyd hacked and slashed away at the guardian's back half, Kratos suddenly dashed up and brought his sword down right on the turkey's head, cleaving it in two. Iapyx now was clearly dead, with his brains scattered all over the stone floor and blood all over our clothing, except for the spellcasters who'd stayed safe and clean in the back of the line. Noting the gore I was covered in, I suddenly grimaced- a bath was now an order. Immediately.
While the others grabbed whatever goods they could scavenge from the fading guardian's corpse, I cleaned my dagger on a patch of feathers and put it away, before finding a path of clean ground to sit down and wipe some more dried blood off my face. As my arm pulled away, I frowned. There was a strange whitish tinge to my skin, visible even through the blood from the wounds on my arms.
Could it be? I wondered to myself, further examining my arms. So much blood loss...by all accounts I should be unconscious by now. Why haven't I-
A sudden sharp twinge in my chest made me look down, and my eyes widened. The Demon's Heart was throbbing hard and visibly, I could actually see it pulsating against my skin, just like a miniature heart. The sight was revolting; I turned away as fast as I could and closed my eyes. Still, I could feel it, sucking strength from my body just to keep me alive and conscious. Though, what happens when I run out of energy? Blinking, I panted weakly and called for Raine.
"I'm coming! Goodness, what-" Raine stared at my abnormally pale complexion, and immediately started charging up a strong First Aid spell. I was zapped twice in quick succession, and then made to swallow an apple gel. That was thoroughly disgusting.
During that time, Remiel came down and gave Colette her angelic power boost (I saw this and felt like making Remiel eat his hat. Dammit, the Tower of Salvation couldn't come fast enough!), much to everyone's delight. Afterwards, I was able to get up with Raine's help and file down the stairs with the rest of them out of the tomb. I sighed, plodding along with a sense of dread as we ducked the spike traps and came down into the front hall. The minute we got outside, Colette would-
"HALT!"
I froze, barely unable to believe my ears. What in the name of Nebilim was she doing here! This was the hard path, dammit! Sheena wasn't supposed to jump you in the Wind Temple! Turning, I gulped as I recognized the familiar purple-clad form of the ninja assassin in the hallway behind us, with little paper cards out and everything. Damn, but she really was out to kill you in the game. I suddenly wished I had a lawyer, I'd sue just to get out of this whole mess.
"You, Chosen of Mana! Pre-" I stepped forward towards Sheena with my hands up, and cut her off halfway in her little rant.
"Hello Sheena. Yes, I know," I sighed, smirking slightly at the look of shock on her face. "Stupid Chosen, prepare to die, I shall now fight you and give you paper cuts with my evil magic notecards-" I got a growl for that. Wow, she seemed to be rather protective of her little magic bookmarks. "However, I ain't fighting this one, sorry, so could you like, go away and fight us tomorrow or something?" Methinks I just broke the Guinness World Record for Receiving The Most Stares In An Unusual Circumstance. Sheena stared at me, my companions stared at me, and I had the feeling that even my own consciousness was doing some heavy-duty death glares. Dammit, it would be nice to learn when to keep my mouth shut... Though I suspected that was a talent I didn't get from my parents. Must not run in the family.
"Whaddya mean you're not fighting this one?" Lloyd yelled from the back of the line, roughly around the same time Sheena recovered from her initial shock and charged, yelling her usual battle cry.
"Prepare to die!" Dude, if I was going to prepare to die then I wouldn't be here. Stepping to the side, I ducked and stuck my foot out- and Sheena actually fell over it. Ohmigosh. The hallway suddenly got very quiet, it seemed like even the wind had stopped blowing.
Blinking in surprise that my trick had actually worked, I snapped out of it and quickly stepped on Sheena's back, planting one foot firmly at the base of her neck. At the same time, I reached for my dagger and carefully placed it near her throat. "So, ya gonna give up and go away, or do I have to incapacitate you?"
"Mmmphsoihoit!" Sheena yelled something into the floor, and it didn't sound very nice. Frowning, I felt my Heart give a little twinge as it detected another source of mana approaching. A powerful source. Looking over my shoulder, I felt my eyes shrink to the size of pinpricks as a guardian demon glared down at me, flexing its talons.
"Oh, shit..."
WHACK! Next thing I knew, I was flying into the wall as the demon backhanded me off Sheena, rather hard. My back slammed into the stone, and I hit my head in the process before slumping down to the ground, dazed and totally out of it. My Hydra Dagger had gone skittering off somewhere in the process, leaving me defenseless and unable to do anything but watch the fuzzy scene before me, in which the party went ahead and started to beat the crap out of Sheena and that damn guardian. I watched spells, weapons, and people fly, thinking fuzzily for a moment that I was back home watching this all unfold on the TV, only that the focus was bad and the whole thing was sideways. That is, until Lloyd hit the wall beside me with a yelp. He got up saying some things I was sure Dirk didn't teach him, recollected his swords and went back to pounding on Sheena and her magic fortune cookie papers.
Sometime after that, I heard a yell of "First Aid" and the familiar green light surrounded me. Oh yay, someone'd finally got it through their skull that I was lying there half dead watching the whole fight. Gee, I sure was needing a lot of healing today... Slowly getting up and rubbing the back of my head, I took a quick look at the battle and then began scanning the area for my dagger. Dammit, where is it...? A light blue gleam from the floor caught my eye. The Hydra Dagger was almost directly behind where Sheena and Lloyd were fighting.
"Why me?" I growled, slowly weaving my way through the combatants. Everything was still kinda fuzzy, as my brain was still recovering from being thrown against a stone wall and then hitting the ground equally hard. Skirting the edge of the area where Kratos, Colette, and Genis were pounding away on the lightning guardian, I carefully slunk into the area behind Sheena, gesturing frantically at Lloyd to keep her busy.
The bonehead, of course, didn't get it. "Speak up! What's wrong?" He yelled, parrying a swipe from Sheena and her cards. The ninja assassin in question looked over her shoulder, saw me, and snarled.
"You! You shall pay!"
"Sorry lady, I'm out of change!" I stammered, scooping up my dagger and bringing it forward to block as Sheena lunged forward, clearly intending to pay me back for tripping her earlier. Shrinking back against the wall, I prepared to engage one very angry ninja when-
"Demon Fang!" The shockwave hit the back of Sheena's knees, and she tripped again, falling hard on the floor. I took this opportunity to run over her (quite literally) to safety.
From the right of us, the guardian that the others had been facing gave a last shriek and then disintegrated, defeated. Cleaning their weapons (and in Colette's case, drawing in her wings), the other half of the party rejoined Lloyd and in near the front door in staring down Sheena, who was now extremely dirty and covered in footprints, courtesy of me.
"Ugh..." Sheena peeled herself off the floor and gave us all a dirty look. "I swear... I'll get you next time!" Poof! There was a puff of smoke and she was gone. There was also another moment of silence, before...
"Dang, I wish I could do that."
----------
Afterwards, we filed out of the Balacruf Mausoleum, tired, dirty, slightly injured, but triumphant. Another seal was down, that made one more to go. Fun fun fun. One more seal until hell broke loose.
"Colette, what's wrong?" Fwump. I winced as Colette fell forward and Lloyd caught her. It was an automatic reflex. "Professor, it's Colette's Toxicosis!"
Ah, yes. It's the evil Cruxis Crystal evolving further and sucking out Colette's energy. Words fail me.
Out of consideration for the others and their limited knowledge, I pretended to act concerned. Like some people, I was not a huge Colette fan, so if she happened to die I could care less. Therefore, I was slightly thrilled when Lloyd dropped Colette and she got a cut, sadist that I am.
"Ohmigosh! Colette, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" Lloyd gasped, fussing over Colette as Genis smacked him in the head.
"Lloyd! You idiot! How could you drop her?"
"I..I'm okay, really." Colette said, hesitantly. Lloyd and Genis stared at her like she was crazy.
"You've got to be kidding!" Genis exclaimed. Colette shook her head.
"I'm fine. It doesn't hurt..."
"WHAT!" Lloyd yelped along with Genis. "But your hand! Look how much you're bleeding!"
"Um... it doesn't hurt much. Ehehehe..." Colette giggled weakly as she rose unsteadily from the ground. From off on the sidelines, I smacked my forehead. Idiot girl, someone had to teach her the proper way to keep a secret. Heck, everybody here should learn the ways of secret-keeping, if they wanted to keep going at this rate. I was mildly surprised nobody'd guessed anything yet, but once we hit that stupid Tower... My brain hurt just thinking about it.
"Well then, I guess we'll stay here for the night." Raine's voice broke into my musings. "Colette needs to rest, and I daresay that the rest of us need to as well."
"Hear, hear." I said, walking down the steps towards our previous campsite from last night. "Genis, get out the bread, methinks we're having more sandwiches tonight..."