Disclaimer- I don't own Final Fantasy or the characters in this story. And now for something random: CHEESE PANTS!
Damien- Well, after that chainsaw fiasco last week, Krimson had to be shipped off to the hospital for severe lacerations, and as I suspect, decreased mental ability. So it's just me here, alone with nothing but peace and quiet.
Krimson- Hiya!
Damien- (pause) What the hell are you doing here?
Krimson- I'm here to introduce the story.
Damien- You nearly killed yourself!
Krimson- Meh.
Damien- What do you mean 'meh'? Three active chainsaws came down on you when you tripped while juggling them.
Krimson- Meh.
Damien- You lost five gallons of blood! The human body doesn't even hold that much.
Krimson- Meh.
Damien- Your right arm was cut clean off!
Krimson- This is Chapter 9: A Fight with a God.
Damien- MAKE SENSE DAMN YOU!
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The psychotically large dragon was standing in front of them assessing its next meal. Its breath had a red tint whenever it exhaled.
Zidane, Kuja and Lani placed themselves between the others and the dragon.
"What is this thing?" Zidane asked, unsheathing the Ultima Weapon.
"Giganos, the largest dragon in existence." Kuja prepared his magic.
"Is it some sort of zombie?" Lani asked, taking out her axe.
"He's from the same plane of existence as Necron was." Kuja explained. "He's not a zombie per say, but he has similar powers and abilities."
"So how do we kill it?" Zidane asked.
"You two hack at his legs. I'll aim for the head."
They both nodded in agreement. Kuja charged up a Flare attack while Zidane and Lani ran parallel to each other headed to Giganos' front legs. Kuja launched his attack and it hit the dragon right between the eyes. Zidane and Lani took the opportunity to attack while he was distracted. They gave their strongest battle cries and jumped at Giganos' front left leg, ready to slash away as needed and give Kuja enough time to use another attack.
"FOOLS." Zidane and Lani were thrown back as Giganos swiped at them with his powerful legs, sending them flying back towards the huddled Black Mages.
"He can talk?" Zidane said, after he picked himself back up.
"Of coarse he can." Kuja said. After everything they've seen, this shouldn't surprise Zidane at all.
Mikoto turned to face the Black Mages. "Everyone! They need help! It's a zombie, so if you use your strongest fire attacks we can hurt it!"
"No!" Kuja protested. "If you attack, he'll just retaliate! You won't last a second against him."
A furious battle cry let out as Lani ran with her axe low and at her side. She headed for the same leg again but she kept her center of balance low. As Giganos' leg came out to swipe her away, she jumped over it and made contact with her target. Her axe dug deep into the dragon's front left leg. Blood started to seep out from the wound. Lani brought her axe back for another strike when Giganos brushed her aside as if she was no more than a fly.
As Lani was sent tumbling back towards Kuja, Zidane ran at Giganos' leg where it was bleeding, intent on making the wound bigger. He ran with the Ultima Weapon at his side ready to jump like Lani was. As he approached, Giganos simply lifted his left leg putting it out of Zidane's reach. Zidane skidded to a stop and Giganos brought his leg back down on him. Zidane rolled out of the way at the last second and corrected himself by jumping onto the dragon's leg and he sunk the Ultima Weapon into the pre-existing wound. It went in with enough force that it sliced past the loose fitting muscles and went into the bone. Giganos roared in pain as Zidane swung his weapon around from its fixed position, cutting away at the extra muscle. Giganos brought his left up to his mouth and inhaled. Zidane, using his intuition, pulled his weapon out ad jumped off the leg, narrowly avoiding the red breath that Giganos blew upon his leg where Zidane had just been.
Zidane ran to a safer point away from the dragon. He gave a thumbs up behind him to Kuja, who was helping Lani to her feet. They smiled back, knowing that they could win.
But Zidane saw their faces turn from looks of joy to ones of fear as Giganos stopped blowing on his leg. The gaping wound that had once been there was now healed and the leg was back to its original dark pink. Giganos laughed at the heroes as his leg slammed into the ground.
"FOOLISH MORTALS!" his voice boomed. "I COME FROM THE UNDERWORLD. YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO WIN. EVEN IF THE ANGELS OF TERRA ARE FIGHTING ME YOU STILL HAVE NO CHANCE!"
Zidane stood in a defensive stance with the Ultima Weapon in front of him as he asked "How do you know about the Angels of Terra?"
"I HAVE SEEN YOUR EXPLIOTS. I HAVE SEEN YOUR BATTLES. I KNOW FAR MORE THAN YOU REALIZE ZIDANE. I AM A GOD!"
"How do you-" Zidane was cut off.
"I DO NOT NEED TO EXPLAIN MYSELF TO THE LIKES OF YOU!" came the response, followed closely by a trail of red smoke as Giganos blew the corrupting vapor from his mouth. Zidane narrowly avoided it and had been forced to retreat back to where Kuja and Lani were standing.
"This is hopeless." Lani said. "He can just heal himself whenever we attack and his defenses are too strong for an all out assault. How do we kill him?"
While the others stood, stunned at the sudden turn of events, Kuja acted quickly and gathered his energy into his palms. He ran clockwise around the beast from the Underworld as more and more energy flowed into his hands. As his spell reached completion, it glowed a soft blue in Kuja's hands. When he was far enough behind Giganos' head he let the energy flow out of his hands and into the back of Giganos' neck.
"HOLY!"
The chains of holy light surrounded the mighty dragon and pierced the sinewy tissue of his "skin". Giganos roared in pain. The aftermath left him with a missing chunk of muscle from the back of his head. "DAMN YOU!"
"Why don't heal it with that magic breath of yours?" Kuja asked smugly.
"I WILL SEND YOU TO THE DARKEST REACHES OF HELL!" Giganos cried as he charged at Kuja with more speed than should have been possible. Kuja stood his ground as the gaping maw raced towards him. Kuja raised his hand over his head as Giganos came close enough. The giant dragon bit down on Kuja, scooping plenty of dirt along with him.
"No." Zidane whispered from far away. Despite the distance, he and the others had seen everything. Kuja had been eaten whole by the monster in front of them. Zidane clenched his eyes shut to fight back his tears. "KUJA!" he yelled.
"Yes?"
Zidane turned around and saw Kuja standing next to Mikoto, who looked unsurprised as ever.
"How-" Zidane started.
"Teleported." came the answer.
"What?" Lani asked.
"I teleported myself at the last second."
"Like after our fight with Necron." Zidane realized.
"Exactly. All he got was a mouth full of dirt." Kuja said pointing over at Giganos, who was just beginning to realize what had happened. He spat out the dirt he had in his mouth and growled in hatred and embarrassment.
"So, does everyone know what to do now?" Kuja asked everyone. He just got blank stares back. Kuja rolled his eyes. "He can't heal the areas that his breath can't reach, so if we attack his back we can kill him."
"The problem is getting on his back." Zidane said.
"Well, I can use long range magic, Zidane can use acrobatics to climb up his leg, and I assume Miss Lani is strong enough to climb up his leg on her own." Kuja showed his more affectionate side while talking to Lani as he did with all women.
"Just watch me." Lani said.
"What about me?" came a voice from behind them. They turned and saw Mikoto had unsheathed the knife from her boot.
"Mikoto, you're not strong enough to fight something like this." Zidane said.
"Are you forgetting that I'm also an Angel of Terra?"
"No, but you don't have enough battle experience. Stay back with the Black Mages."
Giganos' rage had reached its boiling point and he let out an ear shattering roar of hatred and bloodlust as he charged at the heroes.
"Get ready." Kuja said. Zidane stood with the Ultima Weapon ready behind him, Lani had her axe in both hands out in front of her, while Kuja stood with his arms bent at his sides. They were ready to charge when Mikoto suddenly blew passed them, running with reckless abandon at the stampeding monster before them.
"Mikoto!" Zidane and Kuja yelled. They both took off after her. Lani took off as soon as she noticed that the two Genomes were running.
She's going to get herself killed. Zidane thought.
This is going too far Mikoto. Kuja thought.
I can't let her get killed. Zidane thought.
I won't let her die. Kuja thought.
A blinding light surrounded the two of them as they ran. It was so bright that Lani had to stop running and shield her eyes. When the light dissipated, Zidane was glowing a bright pink and Kuja was glowing a bright red. They had tranced. Zidane kept running but Kuja was hovering a few inches off the ground. Mikoto continued running but turned and smiled at the both of them, then turned back to face her enemy.
"That was her plan the whole time!" Kuja said to Zidane as they kept moving.
"She tried to get us to trance by risking her life?"
Kuja nodded. "I'll kill her when we're done with this."
"Same here."
They turned to look at Giganos as he let out a roar of pain. Mikoto had side stepped his attack and managed to make a rather deep cut in his right front leg. She continued running and leapt onto the dragon's back leg and started climbing.
While Giganos was distracted with the gash in his leg, Zidane used the Ultima Weapon to pole vault on the dragon's nose and climbed up his face. He quickly ran to the back of Giganos' neck and started to attack. Mikoto ran to his side after dragging her knife along the length of Giganos' back. They started to attack in perfect unison.
Kuja had gone back and grabbed Lani. While she hung onto Kuja's arm with one of her own, she had her other arm gripping her axe, ready to come down on Giganos when they were in position. Kuja flew over Giganos' head and held Lani in position. They were twenty feet over the dragon's head. Kuja nodded at Lani who nodded back. Kuja let go of her and flew so he would land behind his siblings. Lani dropped straight down. "HEADS UP!" she yelled at Zidane and Mikoto. As they heard her they stepped back just in time. Lani came down with her axe striking Giganos' head with enough force to shatter a rock.
Lani continued to chop away at the dragon's hide while Zidane and Mikoto continued slicing away at what they could. Kuja cast Flare and Flare Star where he could. Giganos flailed wildly, trying to get his attackers off of his back.
"This isn't enough!" Kuja yelled at the others. "Hit him harder!"
As soon as he said it, a Firaga spell was cast in the middle of Giganos' back, followed by another, then two more. Then his entire back was covered in flame. Kuja looked over and saw that the Black Mages were lined up in a semi circle with Mr. 288 in the middle leading the attack. "Ready." Mr. 288 commanded. The Black Mages all gathered their Firaga attacks in their hands. "Fire!" The Black Mages attacked with enough heat to melt a mountain.
The pain coming from all sides was enough to drop Giganos to his knees. He saw no other choice and pulled his wings out and tried to fly away. As he started to lift off Kuja turned to Zidane.
"We need to finish this now!" he yelled.
"Agreed." Zidane said. He turned to the women and nodded. Lani took her axe and swiped it across a section of Giganos' neck exposing a thin membrane of muscle. Mikoto sliced away at the last bit of muscle and exposed the base of Giganos' skull. They both got out of the way as Zidane and Kuja stood side by side concentrating on their strongest attacks.
They extended one hand each as they powered up their strongest spells.
"ULTIMA!"
"GRAND LETHAL!"
Humongous explosions went off as spears of pure energy lanced the skull of the God of the Undead. The spells both attacked Giganos' brain directly. The strength of the attacks were enough to destroy it almost instantly.
With his brain destroyed, Giganos was finally killed. He started to plummet to the ground when Zidane realized how high up they were.
"Guys! We're above the Iifa Tree!"
They all looked over and sure enough, they were easily more than five hundred feet above the Tree of Life. A light grew around Zidane and he faded out of trance, but he noticed that Kuja was still glowing red.
"Kuja," Zidane said, "You take Lani and Mikoto and fly off of here."
"What about you? You'll die if you stay here."
"I'll be fine. Besides, I don't think you can carry all of us."
Kuja saw the ground approaching fast. "Are you sure?"
"I got passed all of those vines in the Iifa Tree, didn't I?"
Kuja nodded and took Mikoto and Lani's hands.
"Zidane…" Mikoto said.
"I'll be fine Mikoto. Don't worry."
"Zidane." Lani said. "You still owe me that favor."
"I know Lani. I intend to pay you back in full."
Kuja lifted off the back of the dead god with Mikoto and Lani in hand.
As Zidane fell he sighed and strapped the Ultima Weapon to his back. He took out the Mythril Dagger and looked at the dragon wing on his left. Maybe I should have gone with them, he thought.
At the same time Kuja was putting Mikoto and Lani on the ground just as his trance faded. By traveling at an angel, he had managed to fly faster than Giganos' body while maintaining a level of safety in his flight. The Black Mages ran up to them as fast as they could. After looking around one of them asked "Where's Zidane?" Mikoto pointed to Giganos' falling corpse. They all looked up and watched as it got closer and closer to the ground until it landed with a thunderous crash.
"Zidane!" many of them yelled. Lani and Mikoto looked on in disbelief.
Kuja looked up and smiled. "He's up there." he told the others.
Sure enough, Zidane was floating down at a rapid, yet controlled pace. He had torn away a section of the wing and created a makeshift parachute. He landed right next to Giganos' corpse and put the wing down. "YEEAAAAHHHH!" he yelled as he raised his fists above his head in victory and he ran to the others.
Everyone ran up to meet him and crowded around him. Mikoto gave him the biggest hug she could while Kuja clasped his shoulder and Lani gave him a big friendly slap on the back. The Black Mages all cheered for him.
Despite the cheers and the joyous attitude, Zidane couldn't help but feel sad.
How much longer was it going to be before he saw Dagger again?
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Krimson- My best chapter ever.
Damien- I'll admit, it was good.
Krimson- Now I need to go take a nap for a few days.
Damien- Come on, it wasn't that hard.
Krimson- Someone like me writing more than 2000 words in five hours? That's a hell of an accomplishment.
Damien- Oh, you're being overly dramat- (head gets turned into a giant cherry)
Krimson- Darn ADD.
Damien- Mff hm hmm mmf! (What the hell jerk?)
Krimson- Yeah, I have my fun.
Damien- Mmm gmmf gff mmm! (I'm gonna kill you!)
Krimson- That means 'Please Read and Review".
Damien- Mmm mffmm mmffgmm! (You lying bastard!)