Suzu scanned the never ending darkness, looking for any sign of an oncoming attack, not just with his eyes but with every instinct he had. It was quiet, too quiet and that silence grated on every section of his being. He took another deep breath and led his team further into the pit they were following. He was scared; they all were. But he had to hide his fear more than any other person on his team. If Ryu, Kayden or Kaidia saw his panic, it might cause them to overreact to a situation. The squad was relying on him for direction and any sign of weakness would be noted.

Suzu had cursed internally when he discovered that he was not only the leader but who exactly was in his squad; the two gunblade specialists, also known as the resident problem children of G-Garden, as well as the slightly timid firearm specialist. 'Perfect…Both Kayden and Kaidia lack any sense of guidance and control. How am I supposed to keep them in line if the entire staff and Headmaster can't! It's a good thing the Commander can deal with them, but they don't seem to respect anyone!'

Suzu was not stupid. The Commander picked favourites, and during a meeting with his superior, it had become obvious to the favoured boy that Verauan was practically gloating that three of his favourites were not only attempting the SeeD exam, but were together in one squad. He wanted them to help each other; to graduate and become an efficient fighting team of Seed. Suzu still wondered why the two were so favoured by the Commander of Galbadia Garden. All they did was practically master the Gunblade and other than that, they were normal. But Verauan respected their nerve, and practically allowed them to wonder at will. 'I'm surprised they haven't tried anything yet…maybe this day won't be so bad.'

Since the surprise attack on 'his' group by the large snake-like creatures, he had been watching his surroundings, and as they ran, on quiet feet, through the caves, he directed their next turn with a wave of his hand; right, left, right, straight, left, left and onwards through the almost pitch dark cave.

He was trying to maintain his grip on his group, as well as observing the remote he held and watching the corridors ahead for an attack. Every few feet he would look down, checking their present location on the map of the cave as well as their final location. He could have easily made Ryu the one to look at the map device, but he was clinging to his shotgun so steadfast that Suzu was nearly sure that the machine would be smashed in this desperate hands. Kayden possessed the only other locator; if something happened to the first, then their only means of survival rested in the hands of the impulsive Gunblader.

They hit a wall and, without thought, he waved them to the left. All direction had been lost in the confusing circling caves, and it reminded the cadet of the Tomb of the Unknown King, where everything looked the same on the inside, and it was nearly impossible to find the correct path of which would return the stranded students to their destination. As they encountered yet another corridor exactly like the one before he wondered whether or not this whole cavern was a massive circle, with them constantly striking the same point over and over.

'Calm down," Suzu mentally told himself. "Panicking is only going to alarm the others. A good leader keeps track of his emotions, and doesn't show them to his group. The Commander said I would be a good leader, and just to listen to instinct. I've done well so far…I killed the Anacondaur, but that doesn't excuse the fact that I nearly killed Kaidia in the process. She got out of the way though. I just hope she doesn't hold too much of a grudge.'

He had not meant to release the weapon when he had, but instinct had been ahead of his thoughts and he had nearly struck down a team mate in his haste. 'But Kaidia should have known better then to be that close to one of those things, especially without warning her comrades. She could have gotten hurt on her own!'

"Look out!" A voice yelled from behind.

He instinctively rolled on the ground and dodged an over head shot of sheen of golden stars before dodging another spell just before it hit him. The sickly green cloud hit just above his head, and he was up against the wall. From the corner of his vision, he noted Ryu fall to his knees and Kayden turning almost as green as the colour dominating the most recent enemies leaves.

Four Funguars stood behind the entire group. 'Great… first Anacondaurs and now Funguars.' He thought.

Their golden orange bodies swayed in unison despite no breeze existing in the cave. Following up their bodies were patterns of dark green leaves dominating the lower half, with one opening being a mouth. Suzu knew that the Funguars had razor sharp teeth that were only hidden by the creatures' leaf like mouth. The continuing pattern surrounding the mushroom monsters' lower body was only meant to confuse its normal hunting targets of the exact location of its dangerous mouth.

The body continued up in a tubular formation, with beady eyes on opposite sides of the creatures' body. With its eyes placed so far apart, nearly parallel on opposite sides of the monsters' head, their inner vision could not possibly be complete. They could only see to either side of their heads, not directly ahead of them.

This was why, that when confronted with an enemy, the Funguar would never attack head on, but would rely on peripheral vision to start an assault of their target; either as a magic spell, directed at a male target, or a physical attack directed at a female. The only reason they swayed so rhythmically was so that they could get a sense of what lay directly ahead of them.

The eight beady eyes seemed almost focused on the side of the cave instead of on his team, or what remained of it. Kayden had been poisoned and seemed to grow paler every moment he moved, and Ryu was taking a badly timed nap. That only left himself and Kaidia.

Nearly overshadowing their primitive eyes was a mushroom like hat, which covered the top quarter of their heads. The colours went from dark green in the center with flickers of colours towards the outsides. Usually, the male Funguars had the brightest colours on their plume, to attract a mate in order to spawn the next generation.

He cursed once more and rolled off the corner of the cave he was on, as two directed a dark green cloud in his direction. It hit where he had been just seconds before he moved, but then he realized that could not move further, and before he could do anything to prevent it, the world seemed almost to become clouded in a haze of sickly green smoke. He struggled in its midst, but every second he inhaled, he felt himself getting weaker and weaker. Now, as the moments ticked by, it was like his body was being weighed down by thousands of pounds of pressure, and his eye lids grew heavy, despite his struggles to keep them from falling.

Slowly, the Mushroom creatures turned on her. Their beady eyes glowed faintly in the light of the cave, and focused on her. She could almost sense their gloating as the last of her team mates fell victim to their dangerous spells. They saw her as the weakest of the party; unable to defend herself from their physical attacks. 'And if the entire group targets me with their laser attacks….'

She concentrated as there was only moments until the creatures decided on how to attack her. They were slowly moving in their swaying fashion to surround her, and as the first dove in to attack, she found the spell she was looking for. She dodged its monstrous mouth, and quickly cast out the magic to her defence.

A blue shimmer surrounded her glowing from and a semi-ovular shape cascaded itself in front of her. As her vision was cut off from the monsters, the spell solidified into a seemingly physical barrier, before vanishing, however, she could still sense the magic surrounding her. It was invisible to everyone else in the vicinity; sort of a trump card if she were to face a close ranged opponent.

The creature's attack bounced off the invisible liquid barrier with a minimal amount of pain for her, and the blast forced the mushroom creature to stumble back. The lead Funguar hissed in anger, seemingly furious at not being able to cause any significant damage to the last fighter, and fell back to rejoin its group of two. The final one was off to one side, seemingly lost, having been too slow to rejoin its brethren.

She did not wait; as the creatures moved for another assault she charged, moving from her position at the center of the group to the mushroom that was most cut off from them. As it reared up to bite down on whatever it could get its sharp and dangerous teeth into, she brought her Gunblade down and triggered into it, the shot barely echoed down the cave, being smothered by the mushroom's body. Black green blood sprouted out from where she sliced down and followed out the path of the bullet. The beady eyes widened as its primitive brain interpreted pain and it hissed weakly at her, as its blood dripped out of it. The Funguar was not dead; only badly injured and out of the fight, for the meantime.

The three to her left screamed in anger as their companion fell to the floor, dying in its own blood. That hit had been a luck shot; the creature hadn't known where she was, and she had attacked it from behind as the confused creature tried to gain a semblance of her direction. It had been facing the wall instead of her and thus was not prepared for her to attack. That was the danger of fighting Funguars; despite the eyes, you could never be sure of where their front was.

A white light ruined her attempt to finish off the downed enemy, and she broke off the attack and rolled with her sword out of the way of the shimmering light. The luminous brilliance streaked down and broke through several inches of the cave floor just where she had been a moment before. Even with her protect spell, getting hit with the painful laser attack was not something she wanted to do.

As she stopped her roll, a second light broke forth from one of the creatures and Kaidia was forced to dodge again, continuing towards the blocked corner of the wall. Once more, the light smacked down just to the left of where she had been, barely missing her by inches. Kaidia looked over her shoulder. The next attack would corner her, with no where to go but up. But as they continued their swaying approach, it was becoming unlikely that she could escape the net they were setting up. She doubted that she was physically strong enough to completely reflect the beam if it came directly at her and, unfortunately, evasion was now out of the question. If they cornered her, all would just shoot at once and there was little chance she could miss all three attacks.

Kaidia rose to her feet and readied for the assault. If she had to be forced into the corner, she could at least be on her feet for it, and would not need to take the precious moments it took for to gain her footing.

The third Funguar hissed and it shot at her too, and Kaidia gripped the handle of the Gunblade placing her left hand at a lower position, half kneeling to absorb the assured impact. The blunt edge of her sword caught the monster's beam of light, forcing her backwards as the sparks hit her weapon instead of her. The force behind that attack alone caused her to stumble backwards into the very section of the cave she did not wish to be, but at least she was on her feet.

Now having her cornered in the cavern, the mushroom monsters seemed to hiss in satisfaction. 'Great… I run into the only smart Funguars! Hyne really does hate me.'

They all began to slowly approach her. If all three Funguars shot her at the same moment, even with the strong spell she had cast to her defence, it definitely would be enough to injure her to the point where she would be helpless against a final attack. All three were facing her now; she could barely pick up a difference in the swaying pattern as their eyes gained a focus on her. 'So there is a way to tell which direction they're facing.' She thought to herself as she took in this information. 'I need to surprise them, but I need an accomplice. Not Ryu, that's for sure. Suzu I can't trust and he's too far away. That only leaves Kayden.'

The slight difference she had just picked up on opened and revealed sharp pointed dagger like teeth in the three monsters she was facing against. She concentrated again while slowly slipping her Gunblade into its carrier right across her back. For her plan to work, Kaidia could not be holding onto her weapon as it was just too heavy. Quickly, the spell she needed first rose ahead in her mind and Kaidia locked down on it and the second magical energy she would need to escape this situation.

Kaidia had been told she had a quick reaction time for spells, but she only had a second to cast both. Finding the curative spell that would bring Kayden around, she brought it forth from her mind and directed it right towards the second Gunblader. A blue light began to shine underneath Kayden before a white light engulfed his being. For the moment, she had vision of him, the cloud of green surrounding Kayden, flickered and then vanished as her Esuna magic began to ebb at the effects of the poison.

Not a moment later, their opened mouths began to shimmer as a deadly light began to swell in the dark cavities of their mouths. The mushrooms were hunting; getting ready to bring down a large and troublesome prey with a joint attack. Kaidia did not appreciate being their only target, and, just before the light hit her, she summoned forth her last spell. As the laser rushed towards her, a gust of wind, unheard of in the caves, blew up from beneath her and threw her towards the top of the cave, just avoiding the lasers as they hit the wall where she had been standing. The wind died a moment later, as if it had never existed.

They hissed in anger; their beady eyes had missed the quickly moving spell and now they did not know where their enemy was. It was as though she had vanished right in front of them. They had been temporarily blinded by their own attack, and the swaying quickened as they tried to get a sense of where their enemy had vanished off to. It did not seem to occur to any of their primitive brains to simply look up.

She looked down and met Kayden's surprised gaze, directed up at her location as she clung to the roof of the cave. Kaidia nodded to his unasked question in his almost amused gaze. Yes she was fine; yes she would join in his attack and no, her strange location was NOT funny.

Behind them, Kayden, on silent feet crept forward, his gunblade held low. Before Kaidia let go she reached into her mind and cast a second spell at Ryu. Of Suzu and Ryu, she trusted the gun specialist more, as he had not almost killed her during the last attack. He was nervous, but when presented with the option, she would take him over their blood thirsty 'leader.'

The spell circled around the sleeping dark-blonde haired boy beginning to wake him from his nap. Ryu stirred and she raised a finger to her lips, beckoning him to stay quiet, and he stared at her in response. Kaidia was sure that she would not live this one down for quite awhile. Kayden would see to that.

With that done, she nodded at Kayden. There were now three fighters up, and only three Funguars left. It was now time for stealth instead of brute power. As long as the boys were quiet, the Funguars would stay focused on looking for their lost meal, and she was nowhere near where anyone expected her to be. Their beady eyes were searching the walls, looking for an enclave that she could have dodged into. Their angry hisses were telling her that they were not successful in finding her.

Letting go of the ledge she held in one hand, she unsheathed her blade, and steadied it, holding it to the roof with one hand resting on its hilt. It was hard for her to hold the gun sword with one hand alone; it was far too heavy for her to wield properly as the Hyperion style stated.

Earlier in her instruction at Galbadia Garden, her weapons master noted that she would be small for her age, and would never be physically strong enough to use her blade as it was intended, even if it were the lighter modeled Hyperion in comparison to the bulky revolver styled gunblade. So instead of insisting she take up a new weapon, he simply changed her stance to make it possible for her to attack with the weapon balanced in two hands. He had also warned her about using a single-handed attack. If she did trigger it too often, it might cause her wrist to break under the strain of the bullet traveling the length of the gunblade.

Kayden now switched from his silent evasive attack as he closed in on the enemy, to a charge, she let go. At the same moment as his trigger went off into the one to the furthest right, she dropped down and skewered the lead monster right through its soft head and embedded her sword to the center of its unprotected body. It died instantly as her sword skewered through its central brain.

Before the third one could attack either of them, it screamed in pain as a round of bullets embedded into the back of its head, sending flickers of dark green blood at the two. Kayden yanked his blade free of the dead creature, and without a thought attacked the third. Kaidia resorted to just slicing through what was left of the Funguar she had killed to free her sword.

The last creature dodged Kayden's attack, but was shot once more in the head by the sheen of bullets that left Ryu's dangerous rifle. Before it could decide who to attack, Kaidia fainted at it, forcing it to instinctively dodge to the right, where Kayden was waiting for it and the second sound of his Gunblade triggering filled the air.

"Everyone okay?" Ryu asked, approaching her and Kayden.

"Just peachy." Kay answered for both of them.

Kaidia nodded quietly to his question, concentrating on waking up and curing their 'leader.' Suzu jumped and was on his feet and in an attack stance before it dawned on him that there was nothing left to attack. With nothing better to do, he approached the group.

"What happened?" he questioned.

"The Funguars are dead, Sir." Kayden answered.

"How?"

"Kaidia, Ryu and I killed them."

"And no one decided to let me help?" Suzu demanded in a hot tone.

'With you throwing your shuriken around like that you expected us too?' Kaidia mentally answered. 'You could have killed me!'

"Well?"

"Sir, you were too far away to have assisted with the Funguars, and by the time you would have recovered from the poison and the sleep spell, the fight would have ended." Kaidia answered.

"Fine." He said. "Let's move out. We're near our final location. Keep quiet, no matter what."

"Yes, Sir." She, Kayden and Ryu chorused together.

With that the order in the group was re-established. He was in the lead once more, followed closely by Ryu, and at a further distance herself and Kayden. Suzu had placed the Gunblade cadets at the back of the group to discourage pursuit, and because of their quick reaction time to an attack, they would be the best in intercepting a surprise attack.

The entire group had disposed of the monsters bodies, in case their route was used by their human enemies and the monsters discovered. Once again, Squad A was traveling at his direction through the deepest dark of the cavern. He directed them once more with the wave of a hand, now watching the locater device more closely then before. The team was close to their final destination and she would not be the reason that this attack failed.