A/N: After many an interruption, as well as a hectic first week back at class, the chapter is finished and up! A special thank you to FierceDeityMask for dragging his exhausted brain through my writing to edit it. :) Another special thank you for Sylveon0902 for several awesome ideas that I may be using later in the story. And finally, a mass thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! Enjoy this next one! :D
"Almost there, Whitefall Town should be right through that opening," Anna sighed in relief.
Natalie glanced around, "Weird that there aren't any monsters around, you'd think there would be quite a few hanging around the cave opening; I wonder where they all are?"
Matt shivered as a cold wind blew through the cave and rustled the party's clothing and hair, "Maybe the wind is what keeps them away? At least there isn't some huge monster waiting for us, like there usually is."
As if in response, the crystalline structures growing near the cave exit suddenly shifted and rose out of the ground on the back of what looked like a massive stone tortoise. The creature had jagged yellow crystals for eyes and a large, round, blue stone with a swirl was set in the middle of its back. With one earth-shaking stomp, several crystal-embedded stones floated out of the ground to flank the behemoth that now barred the cave's exit. For the moment, the creature seemed to merely be watching the party, but it was clear that any forward movement would lead to it attacking them.
Matt chuckled nervously, "Oops, looks like I spoke a little too soon."
"You don't say?" Lance said sarcastically, getting into a battle stance.
Anna gulped, "I don't remember hearing anything about a giant crystal monster being here. What can we do to hurt a moving pile of rocks?"
"Explosives usually work well and sometimes water or ice does, too," Natalie replied. "Though, something feels a bit off here; that thing is radiating mana. If we can find out what kind of magic it uses, then maybe we can use the opposite to do some extra damage?"
Lance began rattling out a series of instructions for the team, "We'll need to feel out its attacks, first. Anna: your bow won't be much help against the big guy, but I bet you can knock out the Bits floating next to it. Matt: you and I are going to run point as usual. Try slashing at it and don't get stepped on. Natalie: you're on support for now, once we figure out what kind of magic this thing does, you can try some spells on it. Is everyone ready?"
The rest of the party nodded. Anna slipped back, and clambered up a nearby boulder to get a higher vantage point. Natalie stayed where she was standing and began casting a Barrier spell to defend them from magical damage. Matt and Lance charged side-by-side straight at the Crystal Golem. The monster let out a low grumble and raised one stone leg to crush the pair only for the two to dodge out of the way and roll up on either side of the boss. The massive foot slammed into the ground where they had been standing. A thick sheet of ice formed where the foot struck before shattering and sending shards of razor sharp ice spraying out. Natalie noticed the effect, and launched a large Fireball at the monster's shoulder causing a chunk of stone to break off and the creature to stagger back half a step.
From her vantage point, Anna picked off the two floating crystals with a couple of well-placed arrows. She saw when Natalie launched the spell and noticed that the massive colored stone on its back flashed from blue to yellow. Before she could call out this change to the three below, Matt swung his Heaven's Gate in a mighty slash. The sword bit deep into the creature's leg before Matt yanked it back out and jumped back to dodge another stomp. A Yellow Bit formed out of the ground to intercept Lance's attack and the creature's crystal flashed again, this time from yellow to red.
"Guys, every time you hit it, the crystal on its back changes color! It went from blue to yellow and now it's red!" Anna shouted down.
Natalie had seen the crystal change and heard Anna's warning, but had already launched another Fireball spell at the golem. This time, instead of taking off a chunk of the creature, the slash Matt had made in its leg sealed up. "Damn it, it healed that time," she cursed. The mage cast a quick Healmore spell on Matt and Lance to fix the cuts they had received from the monster's initial ice attack.
Lance made a running leap and landed on a crystal halfway up the golem's right leg. Reaching into the ammo pouch at his waist, the gunner fished out a hand bomb and wedged it in between the crystal and the stone of the leg before diving off again. A split second after Lance hit the ground, an explosion echoed through the cavern and shards of stone showered off the monster's leg leaving a small crater in the appendage. The large crystal on the golem's back shifted to blue again.
"It looks like the golem cycles through three colors, changing every time we do damage to it," Natalie called. "It goes from blue, which is ice, to yellow, which, I assume, is lightning, and finally, to red, which is fire."
"Got it," Matt shouted back, dodging another freezing blow. "Anna and Natalie, can you two yell out what color the crystal is when it changes?"
"Sure thing, it's blue right now," Anna called back. "We'd better avoid any multi-hit attacks while we fight this thing," She spotted another Bit form out of the ground behind Matt and snapped off another arrow to destroy it.
Natalie launched a single bolt of lightning, but only glanced across the golem's back. "Darn, just barely nicked the thing," she grumbled before raising her voice again, "The crystal is yellow now!"
Anna watched as Lance rolled out of the way of a sparking stone tail and fired a bullet into the creature's face. She called out the change from yellow to red, but noted there were no new Bits to take out and thought bitterly, "I can't do anything to it, I can only call out when someone else makes a hit and knock down the bits when they appear. If only I had more elemental attacks than just Ivy." A snatch of conversation from the day before floated into her head at the thought.
"…He can't cast large spells of pure magic like I can, but he can channel magic through his weapon for some offensive strikes…" Natalie's brief explanation of Matt's elemental attacks echoed in Anna's mind, and her green eye's widened in remembrance. A yelp from Matt followed by Natalie calling out another shift, this time from red to blue, snapped Anna out of her thoughts. Looking down over the battle still going on, the archer noted that, once again, no new Bits had appeared, but Matt had been thrown into the wall by the golem's leg having been unable to completely dodge the counter-attack for his latest swipe. Judging by the smoke surrounding the crater, the golem's blow had been a fire attack. Natalie was already casting a Heal spell on the groaning swordsman while Lance climbed up the boss' leg onto its back to plant another bomb before sliding off, dodging the resulting blast and landing next to Matt who was getting to his feet. Lifting her bow up and nocking an arrow, Anna called out a shift to blue and began concentrating on focusing magic into the arrow she held against the bowstring.
Natalie glanced around in alarm at sensing a fluctuation in mana near where Anna was perched only to realize the source was the archer herself. As the mage watched wide-eyed, lightning sparked around the arrow's head just before Anna let it fly towards the Crystal Golem's face. The missile hit its mark right between the beast's eyes and yellow lightning crackled about the creature's head causing it to rear back in surprise. The behemoth let out a grumbling bellow and its crystal changed to yellow again.
"Sweet, it worked!" Anna exclaimed in surprised glee. "The crystal is yellow again!" Her excitement morphed to horror as she watched the greatly weakened golem begin a last-ditch, enraged charge towards Lance and Matt.
There was not enough time for the two to get clear and the monster slammed into them. The force sent both men flying into the wall where they slid down and crumpled to the ground. The golem grumbled again before turning on Natalie who stood alone halfway between where Matt and Lance were slumped and where Anna was perched. The stone giant started toward Natalie, shrugging off the blast of ice the mage sent its way.
Anna got down on one knee, and forced a massive amount of mana from her palm into the stone at her feet, willing an old friend to answer her call. A glowing ring of white runes appeared in between Natalie and the charging creature. A flash of light illuminated the cavern and blinded the two fighters.
Natalie blinked to adjust her eyes back to the darkness after the sudden flash and stared in incomprehension at the sight before her. Mighty Oak had appeared out of nowhere and was grappling the now weak Crystal Golem. The tangle lasted only a few seconds before the massive wooden guardian flung the equally massive Crystal Golem to the floor and brought a wooden arm down across the fallen creature's back. The powerful blow split the color-changing crystal embedded in the back of monster into two pieces and with a final groan, the Crystal Golem fell silent. Mighty Oak vanished into small green sparkles a moment later. A sudden hush fell across the cave broken only by Anna's soft panting from the sudden expense of mana.
Natalie stayed staring at the spot Mighty Oak had just been standing at then turned her stare to where Anna was slumped on the boulder. Snapping out of her shock, the mage raced over to where Matt and Lance were still crumpled, held her staff over them, and began healing their injuries. A few tense moments passed while the mage worked before the pair simultaneously opened their eyes and sprang to their feet, weapons at the ready. They lowered their arms again in confusion upon the sight of the Crystal Golem lying in a crater across the room and turned to stare in question at Natalie. The mage gave an unhelpful shrug in response to their stares and gestured over to where Anna still lay attempting to get her breathing evened out.
"You okay, Anna?" Lance called over in concern.
The ranger didn't sit up, but wearily lifted a hand to wave back, "I'll be fine, just gimme a minute." Her hand flopped back down on her stomach.
Natalie turned back to face Matt and Lance, "Anything still hurting? That was one heck of a crash you two had."
"I'm good," Matt replied. Lance nodded his agreement, but kept his eyes on Anna. "Let's go loot that walking mine! I bet it has some awesome gems we can pry off!" Matt cheered, bounding over to the fallen golem. He immediately wedged his sword under a ruby and began working the precious stone out of the fallen monster.
Natalie shook her head in fond exasperation, "He flies headfirst into a wall and instead of taking few seconds to recoup, what does he do; runs over to find some loot. Never mind that Heaven's Gate isn't a crowbar"
Lance smirked briefly as they heard another cheer from Matt before he finally took his eyes off Anna who was just sitting up. He turned a piercing gaze on Natalie, "What happened after Matt and I were knocked out? That thing was weakened, but I somehow doubt you and Anna managed to get enough physical force to make a crater that huge."
The mage shrugged, "I'm not really sure. One second I'm about to be flattened by it, and the next that Guardian of Greenwood, Mighty Oak, was throwing it to the ground. You'll have to ask Anna for details." She smiled a greeting to Anna as the girl walked over to them, "And here she is now! How're you feeling? You looked pretty done in there."
Anna gave her a wry smile, "I felt pretty done in. I've never used that much mana at once, before, nor have I ever summoned. Frankly, I'm surprised it worked. I'm okay now, though, just a little tired."
"So you summoned Mighty Oak to help?" Lance asked. "And you've never summoned before? You're lucky you didn't lose control of your magic and hurt yourself, or brought the cave down around us."
Anna bristled, missing the veiled concern in his comment, "Well, it was that or let Natz become a pancake. I wasn't planning on doing any summoning until I'd worked my magic up some, but it was the only thing I could think of at the time. Sorry for helping."
Natalie quickly cut in before Lance could retaliate, "Well, I for one am glad you did. We'd all be dead right now if you hadn't." Throwing a warning look to Lance as he opened his mouth again, "It's not like she's some complete noob when it comes to magic, Lance; nothing went wrong, so let it go. I can help you with summoning, if you want, Anna." She added to the ranger.
Anna's green eyes lit up, "You'd do that? Thank you!"
By this point, Matt had finished combing the pile of rocks that was the Crystal Golem and returned with several gemstones and a small sack filled with gold. While Lance stowed the loot, Matt grinned around the group, "Now, let's get the heck outta here! Maybe we can book a room at the inn in Whitefall once Anna finishes checking whatever it is she needs to check."
Natalie blinked having forgotten the reason Anna was with them in the first place, "That's right, I forgot we're just escorting you to Whitefall. What is it you needed to check on, again?"
A brief flicker of sadness crossed Anna's face at the reminder of the upcoming parting before she shoved the thought away and crossed her arms, "Someone stole the Greenwood Jewel around the same time you guys were stealing from the store. There are two other Jewels; one at Whitefall, and one at Goldenbrick. I need to check if Whitefall's Jewel is still there. If it is, then I'll request security be increased around it. If it isn't, well, I don't really want to think about what that might mean."
Lance nodded in understanding, "I get it. You want to make sure that the theft of the Greenwood Jewel was just an isolated case." He frowned then, "What's so important about these Jewels, anyway?"
Anna's expression darkened, "My village has a legend that if you gather the three Jewels, a great calamity will strike." She shook herself, "Now let's head out of this stupid cave and I'll check the Whitefall altar." The others nodded and they stepped towards the exit.
Five steps had been taken when the exit was sealed off by a glowing barrier that was so pale a blue it was almost white. The four travelers froze and stared at the sudden obstruction. A soft hum filled the air and a flash of light from behind the party made them whirl around, weapons out. Hovering a few feet off of the ground before the shocked group was a white cat unlike any cat they had ever seen before. Aside from the intense, ethereal light coming from it, the cat had arms and legs and deep, blue eyes that stared the party down with an ancient gaze. The four immediately felt a chill unrelated to cold air of the cave. Anna went pale and gulped, having a sinking suspicion of what floated before them.
"What the hell is that cat-thing? How is it floating like that?" Matt asked no-one in particular.
Lance leveled his gunblade at it, "Who cares? I bet it's what formed the barrier, so let's just take it out." He fired a bullet at the glowing cat. A split second before contact, the floating cat seemed to phase in and out of sight in a strange blur and the bullet continued on its trajectory to dig into the cave wall behind the creature. His red eyes widened in shock and slight fear at the unnatural motion of the creature before them. "How did it do that?" he gasped.
Before one of the other three could answer him, the floating cat lifted one glowing arm and gestured almost carelessly at the gunner. An echoing voice spoke in the party's minds, "The end of your rule is nearing, disgusting humans. Catkind shall inherit the earth once more!" A beam of light burst up, grazing Lance and sending him flying through the air to crash to the ground where he lay coughing, a trickle of blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.
"Lance!" Natalie screamed, and cast the most powerful healing spell she could muster at the moment on the hacking gunner.
Anna trembled, staring at the powerful foe before them, "Guys, we are in no way ready to fight this enemy. Just try to survive!"
Ancient, echoing laughter filled their minds as the glowing cat lifted its arms once more.
Matt leapt towards Natalie as a glow appeared beneath her. "Watch out!" he yelled desperately, shoving the mage out of the way of the beam, taking a glancing hit from the pillar of light. Matt twisted in mid-air to land in a crouch in front of Natalie, his teeth bared in a protective snarl at the powerful cat-creature.
Anna threw herself into a one handed back-spring to dodge a third light beam. She snapped off a Piercing Shot when she landed, but the floating cat merely dodged it in the same manner it had Lance's bullet.
The cat stared impassively at the four humans before its muzzle twisted in a mocking smile, "These are the best fighters your disgusting species has to offer? Pathetic." With the insult still echoing in the party's minds, the glowing cat disappeared in a flash of light, leaving behind two floating blue crystals with runic snowflakes etched into their surfaces to deal with the wounded party.
Matt let out an uncharacteristic and almost feral growl, causing the two women to jump slightly, "Natalie, see to Lance; Anna and I will take care of these ice cubes."
Natalie glanced over to Anna, who was still quite pale, but the archer nodded, "Lance needs as much help as he can get right now, we'll deal with these two."
The mage turned and ran over to their fallen friend, staff glowing as she worked on healing his wounds. "If only we hadn't just fought that huge golem, I'd have more than enough power to heal Lance and help fight," Natalie thought, blinking back tears as she healed a nasty magic burn along Lance's side. The gunner's protective armor had been burned through by the powerful holy magic and didn't repair the way it normally would have from healing.
Matt slammed his sword into the ground and a column of fire engulfed one of the Blue Crystals, melting it with a hiss of steam. The swordsman glared with icy blue eyes at the remaining puddle. At the same time, Anna launched another one of her new spark arrows at the second Blue Crystal. The monster didn't quite die, but lightning crackled over its surface, stunning the creature long enough for Matt to slice it in half with a blindingly fast slash.
Silence fell over the cave once more and the barrier blocking the exit vanished with a flash. Matt led the way over to where Natalie was still healing Lance, and stood off to the side with his arms crossed and his face set in a stony scowl. Anna stood just behind him watching in concern as the heavenly white glow of Natalie's magic faltered before fading out completely. Matt's expression melted into concern. Lance's face was still twisted with pain, but the magic burns had been healed.
Natalie panted and sat back, "I don't have any magic left. Anna, can you finish up?"
Anna wordlessly pulled out her ocarina and played the healing melody. Lance's pained features eased and he opened his eyes to stare at the ring of worried faces hovering over him. He blinked a few times before he accepted the hand Matt offered him and was pulled to his feet. He swayed as his head swam, but was steady again after a few seconds.
What was that glowing figure just now? We couldn't even hit it, and its light magic packs way more punch than anything I've ever seen, short of Natz's Judgement." Lance asked wide-eyed.
Matt shook his head, "And it didn't even bother attacking us directly, as if it were just messing around with us."
Anna swallowed heavily, "I think I know what that was. We better hurry to where the Whitefall Jewel is at."
Matt helped Natalie up and the shell-shocked and battered party finally made their way out of the Crystal Caverns into the drifting snow of Whitefall Town.
A/N: And there we have it! Two major fights later, and they are out of the Crystal Caverns at last! Writing the Crystal Golem fight, trying to keep the crystal shifts in order, was a nightmare. Never again. XP And what was that floating feline menace with *gasp* four legs?!
On a side note, chapters may or may not be slower in coming. I am back in college now and while I don't think I'll be having too much trouble with the classes, they will still have to take priority over this fanfic should it come to that.