Final Fantasy: Rise of Despair
SBS:
Biggoron: Just who could this figure be that Matt is fighting?
Me: Well you'll know for sure who it is next chapter, but you might be able to figure it out after reading this one if you're a good detective or something.
Biggoron: Are all the Racemasters reluctant to join at first?
Me: Casey didn't hesitate to join.
When we last left off, the party had arrived at the Academy of Magic Arts and has thus met the Racemaster of the nu mous. While most of the party toured the Academy, the other two Racemasters tried to convince Cole to come with them to no avail. Now the Black Army is attempting a two front war, and Matt is combating an unknown assailant. Can they emerge victorious?
Before we move on, I can now confirm that I will be writing a prequel to this story. Although that project is likely a long ways off even after I finish this story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy: Tactics Advance, I do own the plot and characters.
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Shock and Awe
Kate and a few of the teachers were out front already, facing down the large army charging toward them. "Kate are you sure about this?"
"Yes." Kate said emotionlessly.
"I mean, there're only a hand full of us." Another teacher said.
"Unless you want them to stab their weapons in to your guts and wrench them around your innards while being strangled in a torture room…" Kate started saying while the other teachers paled at each vivid description. "… and forcing you to watch your blood ooze out then I suggest you fight." Kate finished, not even fazed at what she said.
"Ugh…" The teachers moaned. Kate drew her tulwar saber and then pointed it at the oncoming army. "Fight." She said bluntly.
"Gooooo!" A teacher shouted. This proved to be more rallying since the teachers started running down the stairs, Kate leading the way. Kate then leaped from halfway up the stairs all the way down towards the army.
"Here they come!" Many black soldiers prepared their weapons as Kate came flying down.
"Dragon Force." Kate became covered in a yellow aura shaped like a dragon's head before it was absorbed in to her body. "Angel whisper." Kate's body glowed white for a moment before the aura disappeared. "Hiyah!" Kate landed and swung her saber horizontally and easily cleaved through the black soldiers in front of her before she broke out in to several sword combos.
"Meteor!" An alchemist summoned a large meteor to crush a number of black soldiers. "Gah!" That's when an arrow pierced him in the chest.
"Look out!" Someone shouted as a hailstorm of arrows began falling towards the teachers. A white blur and a dark purple blur dashed by the teachers and swept them away before the arrows could pierce them. "Huh?"
"It's alright, back up is here." Harris said as he set down the three teachers he grabbed. "Full-life!" Harris used his white magic to revive the recently killed alchemist.
"Who are you?" One of the two teachers Heidi grabbed asked her.
"Friends." Heidi said before drawing her katana and rushing towards the black army.
"Sonic Boom!" Hunter fired an arrow that let out a massive sound blast once it hit a black soldier in the head, thus killing him and his surrounding allies.
"Soil Evidence!" Syack slammed a foot in to the ground and caused numerous rocks to erupt from the ground and batter several black soldiers to death.
"Saint Cross!" Harris cleared away a number of black soldiers surrounding him. Harris then spun around, impaled two soldiers behind him, gut kicked three that approached him, and then almost literally danced his way through a large number of black soldiers. "Hmmm… as expected, this Kate girl is pretty good."
"Get her!"
"…" Kate said nothing and simply slashed two soldiers at once before doing a barrel roll flip over top of three soldiers at once. "Twister." Kate caused a large whirlwind to encircle about ten black soldiers at once and slice them repeatedly right before a spell from one of the teachers finished them off. Several more tried to jump Kate from above and all around her. "Blow up." Kate's body glowed orange in color before a fiery explosion ensued.
"Gaaaaaaaaahhhh!" Several soldiers were roasted alive by the explosion. Kate seemed to be dead at first, but a white aura revived her, albeit a tad burnt. Kate then dashed at three black soldiers, cleaved two of them and then grabbed a paladin with her free hand.
"Drain touch." Kate said.
"AAAAAAUUUUUUUGGGHHHH!!!" The paladin tried to get Kate's hand off of him, but to no avail as purple energy traveled down Kate's arm and healed her injuries while the paladin seemed to wither up like a raisin.
Meanwhile…
"That little guy sure has an attitude…" One black soldier said, exasperated.
"He's coming this way!" One shouted in fear.
"DIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!" Brently threw five Molotov cocktails at those two soldiers and several others, roasting them alive.
"He's leaving the school wide open, so let's go!" A black soldier rallied several black soldiers that Brently bypassed in his blind fury and charged the gates of the school.
"Shiva!"
"Gwaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!" Black soldiers started shouting in agony as a row of icicles came erupting through the ranks of the many black soldiers.
"What the heck?"
"Fire breath!" A stream of flame then came out of the door and fried any remaining black soldiers.
"Looks like we got here just in time." Adam said as he drew his sword. "Hmm… I'm a touch concerned about Brently's methods of fighting the enemy."
"You're concerned about him?" Laura asked as she drew her rapier.
"I suppose we could go check on him for you." Gilbert said.
"That won't be a problem for us." Mendoza said.
"Fine then, we'll handle things here." Kyle said.
"Let's go guys!" Monty shouted. "Fire shot!" Monty fired a few fireballs at the oncoming black soldiers while Gilbert prepared a spell.
"Meteor!" Gilbert called down a large meteor and bowled a path through a few black soldiers.
"Now!" Several concealed ninjas and assassins tried to jump Gilbert from above.
"Wild Swing!" Mendoza jumped above Gilbert while swinging his blade around and easily deflected all of the assailants.
"Titan!" Laura summoned titan, who then ripped out a gigantic boulder from the ground and hurled it at the black army. Right before he disappeared he opened his mouth and spit out enough soil to repair the hole he left in the ground.
"Bangaa CRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!" Kyle shouted really loudly and sent out a sonic wave that caused several black soldiers to fall to their knees. "If I'm correct I'm smelling over 4,000 soldiers." Kyle said.
"More like 5,000 Kyle." Adam corrected while he staved off twenty fighters at once before dashing through them. "And… I'm getting a strange feeling."
"Like what?" Laura asked as she pierced through one soldier without looking.
"Someone very powerful." Adam said gravely as someone tried to attack him from behind only for him to duck and stabbed backwards in to the soldier's stomach.
"…" Kyle looked onward as he thrust his lance through two soldiers standing in front of him.
Meanwhile…
Matt and the cloaked figure were circling around the room, never keeping their eyes of the other. "…"
"Not much of a talker are you?" Matt asked with a smile as he prepped his gun.
"…" The figure still said nothing as he prepared his weapons.
"Alright then… Haste!" Matt cast haste on himself as the figure dashed at Matt. Matt raised his gunblade in defense. The figure thrust his right tonfa blade, while Matt spun his gunblade clockwise. After striking the tonfa to the right, Matt spun to his backside and attempted to add momentum to his horizontal swing.
"!" The figure quickly dived forward and avoided the swing. He rolled back up in to an upright position and did a cross-block in time to avoid a vertical slice from Matt. The two began swinging and stabbing their weapons at each other at a rapid pace, dodging, ducking, slicing, and all manner of attacking and dodging took place in only a few seconds. The two finally dashed past each other. "…"
"Grr…" Matt stroked the cut on his cheek without even flinching. "Okay… even under the influence of haste, this guy is still able to keep up with me." Matt quickly turned and open fired with his gunblade.
"…" The figure ran circles around the room, even running along the walls and dodging the gunfire. The figure then kicked off of the walls and jumped well above the room. "!!!" Much to the surprise of the figure, Matt had leaped towards the figure with his blades wide open.
"Flamethrower!" A humongous blast of flame enveloped the cloaked figure and sent him sprawling in to the floor in flames. "Ha ha h-ACK!!!" Matt suddenly found himself struck by a purple wave of energy that left a cut on Matt's torso and sent him slamming in to one of the walls. "What the… WHOA!" Matt dodged to the side to avoid what looked like purple darts of mana.
"…" The figure was thrusting his weapons rapidly that was sending out the multiple darts of mana.
"Mog Lance!" Matt responded by thrusting his own weapon rapidly and sending out yellow lances made from mana at the figure, the two of them canceling each other's attacks. "Mog Axe!" Matt performed a variation of mog lance, but this time by swinging his sword and sending a yellow arc of mana at his opponent. The figure responded by performing a cross slash with his weapons. "Crud!" The X shaped energy was reduced to a single wave once it overtook Matt's wave, but still advanced.
"…" The figure watched as his wave traveled on. "!" Much to the figure's surprise, Matt jumped at it, slashed his way through it and lost no momentum as he flew towards the figure.
CLANG
The two of their weapons were locked, both of them struggling to overpower the over. "Grrr… I may not be taking this seriously enough."
Meanwhile…
"The attacks on the school itself have slowed down." Casey said as he ushered some students through some trap door in the library.
"The others are keeping them busy from the outside." Cole pointed out.
KABOOM
"Or not." Casey said.
"Help! Some of them are inside the school!" A student cried out. "Gah!" He cried as an arrow suddenly protruded from his chest.
"Get them!"
"Not so fast… Bio!" Cole pointed a palm at the soldiers coming through the hallway, all of them suddenly found themselves covered in green globs that burst and forced them to inhale poisonous gas.
"Gack… ack… ACK!" Some of the black soldiers snapped their spines from the lacerations.
"Revive." Casey pressed a palm against the dead student. A green aura covered the student and he was promptly revived.
"The others… are… in the gardens…" The student said.
"Right. Meet me their Casey." Cole said as he teleported out of the library.
"On it." Casey said as he rushed down the hallway with all of his speed.
Meanwhile…
"Perish!" Heidi disappeared from the sight of the black soldiers in front of her.
"Hey, did you see something up the cliff wall?" A soldier asked. Heidi then reappeared, having run half way up a canyon wall, leaped off, and then rained down arrows on the below crowd of black soldiers. "Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"Ha! Hiyah! Ha!" Harris slashed his way through over a dozen black soldiers before sheathing his swords while performing a saint cross attack. Harris then held his arms in front of his chest as Heidi's foot made contact with them. "Go!" Harris then pushed his arms forward with all his strength, and sent Heidi rocketing through a line of black soldiers with her katana drawn.
"Gwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaackkkkk!!!"
"Tempest!" Syack called a large lightning storm that fried a number of black soldiers.
"Go my pets!" An enemy beastmaster sent a large pack of red panthers and coeurls to attack the teachers.
"Sidewinder!" Hunter dived forward, turned to the side, and then fired an arrow that pierced through a large number of red panthers in a row and dropped them all to the ground. "Ha ha!"
"Sic him!"
"Whoa!" Hunter narrowly avoided getting jumped by a coeurl that promptly started charging a blaster attack. A gray ball of energy flew forward at Hunter, Hunter dodged to the side only for a teacher to get hit and promptly turned to stone. "Crud."
"Esuna!" Harris took notice of this and cured the teacher as three coeurls came up behind him. One sunk its teeth in to Harris' left leg, another sunk his teeth in to his right shoulder, and the final one sunk his teeth in to Harris' left forearm.
"Ha!" The beastmaster laughed.
"Prominence!" Syack caused numerous fissures to open up and send flames through a large number of black soldiers, including the beastmaster.
"You know something…" Harris said, apparently not fazed by the coeurls still biting in to him.
"What?" Kate asked as she used shadowflare on a few soldiers.
"This stings…" Harris said. "Saint Cross!" Harris then killed the coeurls in one blast of his saint cross attack.
Meanwhile…
"Whew… anger-management at work." Brently sighed. He was on a ledge halfway up the canyon wall as he watched the black army charge onwards. "Well, this doesn't concern me. I'm satisfied." Brently said. "Say… is it getting hot?"
"Giga flare!"
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!" Suddenly Brently was caught in the middle of a fierce explosion and flung to the ground way below him. "Ooooooogggg…" Brently groaned.
"Ha ha ha… you think you can just perform a hit and run? I think not." Someone said to Brently.
"Who… do you think… you're dealing with?" Brently coughed out.
"I know exactly who you are Brently the joker." The man that Brently now saw was a nu mou said. "I know that you are a thief, that you travel Ivalice for what's left of the country's treasures, and I even know who you once were." The nu mou said.
"!!!" Brently's eyes popped open at this.
"Yes, you used to be quite well known, you used to belong to the family of… whoa!" The nu mou narrowly ducked a dagger thrown by Brently.
"If there's one thing that annoys me more than being called short… it's what you were about to say. If you even think about saying it again, I'll kill you." Brently hissed.
"Oh… did I strike a nerve? Good! Then perish!" The sage raised his hands above him, and from behind him came a vampire, a thundrake, a coeurl, red cap, a lilith, an Ahriman, a toughskin, a masterberry, and a jawbreaker. "I hope you're ready to face me."
"Bring it!" Brently shouted as he drew several knives from under his sleeve. The coeurl was the first to lunge at him, Brently leaped above it and embedded knives in to its back. "Gah!" Brently got rammed in the chest by the ahriman right to where the red cap was waiting.
"Tee hee hee!" The red cap threw a punch that Brently narrowly dodged, however it did leave a giant crack in the ground. Brently then stabbed the red cap in the back with his knife.
"…" The masterberry was right behind him ready to stab its knife in to Brently when Brently redirected the knife with his own. Brently then leaped away, leaving a Molotov cocktail behind to fry the masterberry.
"Groar!" The Thundrake flew up to Brently and then slammed him in to the ground with both fists.
"GAH!" The spot Brently landed in was now a giant crater with the lilith crawling in to it. "Ooooooggg… yipe!" Brently leaped out of the way just in time to avoid the lilith from bringing her tail down on top of him. "I'm good." Brently gasped. "GAAAAAHHHH!!!" Brently screamed in agony when he felt a knife penetrate him from behind. Brently then fell forward on to his face with the still alive yet burnt masterberry standing above him. "Damn it…" Brently cursed.
"Ha ha ha ha… to think I didn't even need to help with that." The sage laughed as he used raise on the red cap and coeurl. "You didn't honestly think you could take down the strongest monsters I had at my disposal did you?" The sage asked. "Any last words?"
"Go to hell…" Brently spat.
"So rude…" The nu mou said. "He's all yours." The nu mou told his monsters. Besides the masterberry, all of the monsters approached Brently slowly, drooling for their meal.
"Not today!"
"Huh?" Brently looked up and then found himself scooped up. "Whoa!"
"Fire sword!"
"Fire shot!"
"Firaga!"
"Mendoza?" Brently finally realized who was holding him over his shoulder. He also noticed that Mendoza held a fire sword that grew much larger.
"Wild Swing!" Mendoza spun around swinging his large fire sword, eventually creating a whirlwind of fire that blew back the monsters, and even killed the masterberry, coeurl, and red cap.
"Ice shot!" Matt fired several icicles in to the vampire's back.
"Greased Bolt!" Mendoza followed this up with a quick dash by the vampire and thus finishing it off.
"Who the heck are you?" The nu mou asked, trying to keep a calm composure.
"We're his back-up." Gilbert told him.
"Oh…I know you." The nu mou said. "Heh heh heh… this will be easy. You stand before the great and powerful Colonel Ical!" Ical shouted proudly.
"Oh great…" Monty sighed.
"You guys… can't… beat him…" Brently said weakly.
"We can try." Mendoza said confidently.
"We aren't the same as when we fought that last Colonel… um… what was his name again?" Gilbert asked.
"Um… Chad?" Monty guessed.
"Charlie?" Mendoza guessed.
"Er… Ch… Ch…" Gilbert started thinking.
"Oh just shut up!" Ical shouted.
Meanwhile…
"Ha!" Matt shouted angrily as the two of them clashed weapons once again. This time the force the weapons striking each other created a massive sonic boom that sent the two of them sliding backwards. "Blizzaja!!!" Matt created a massive pillar of ice that enveloped the cloaked figure, the pillar reached from the top to the bottom of the room and even still spread out so that ice covered the entire room.
"GRRRRRAAAAHHHH!!!" The cloaked figure seemed to shatter the pillar with sheer brute force, and sent ice flying everywhere, falling around the room like snow. The figure held his tonfas at his sides and the barrels on the tonfas started open firing.
"Whoa!" Matt spun his blade around to deflect each bullet that came flying at him. The figure then put together the ends of the handle and combined his weapon in to one larger, scissor-like blade. The blade glowed purple in color before he charged at Matt.
"Mog peek!" Matt focused his vision intently. "Mog rush!" Matt then rushed at the cloaked figure and swung his blade with incredible force. The two weapons clashed with explosive force. A massive boom rang through the room and shattered the stain-glass windows, sending ice and sparkling shards of stain-glass falling through the room. "Okay… no more games." Matt thought.
Meanwhile…
"Ha ha ha! Die!" A bangaa warrior raised his sword above the head of a young nu mou student, ready to strike him down, when all of a sudden his sword caught something. "Huh?"
"Leave my students out of this." Cole threatened. Holding his sapere aude rod under the hilt of the sword so that the warrior couldn't swing it. Cole placed a finger on the bangaa's back. "Fire!"
"Gaaaaaaaaa!!!" The bangaa then burst in to flames and was reduced to ash. Cole turned around and pointed a palm in front of him. "Freezeblink!" Immediately icicles rose up from underneath all the black soldiers and impaled them.
"Sheesh, you couldn't save any for me?" Casey asked as he came in to the gardens.
"Not the time for levity Casey, I should ask what took you."
"Had to deal with some lackeys on the way. And we have more trouble."
"What?" Cole asked.
"There are several reinforcements of about 1,500 men at both fronts ready to strike once they get word of either front failing. And if my senses are accurate…"
"Both groups will be tired from fighting the initial attack." Cole finished. "Great… where's Matt when we need him?"
"I would like to know what's keeping him. He only went after one guy." Casey said.
"Bah! Forget it. Let's finish up our business on the inside and make for the other fronts later." Cole said as he vanished.
"Never does me the courtesy of teleporting me." Casey sighed as he ran off.
Meanwhile…
"Augh!" An unforeseen rush attack hit Heidi from behind. But before the fighter could finish the job, Harris grabbed him around the neck and lifted him up with a single hand above the ground.
"This will be… your final mistake." Harris said darkly to the fighter. Harris then squeezed and crushed the fighter's neck as if it were a toothpick. "You alright?" Harris asked.
"Yeah… I'm fine." Heidi said as she picked up her katana.
"Sonic missle!" Hunter tied together three arrows again and sent them flying, emitting a wave of sound as it flew.
"Star cross!" Syack called upon a holy star that swept the battlefield with holy energy, killing several and nearly killing several more soldiers.
"Hmmm…" Kate pondered the situation with a still bored or emotionless glance as she slashed through soldiers. "This is far too easy." Kate said.
"You're calling this easy?" A teacher asked Kate. "I mean, even those guys that are helping us look like they're getting tired."
"I believe there are far more to come." Kate said as she cast thundaga on a group of black soldiers.
Meanwhile…
"Let's go!" Gilbert shouted. Mendoza charged ahead with his sword drawn while the onslaught of monsters charged at him. "Flare!" Gilbert aimed a flare spell at the toughskin and fried him instantly.
"Take this!" Monty aimed his gun at the ahriman and shot him down with a few bullets.
"Giga flare!" Ical aimed a giga flare spell at both Monty and Gilbert, but before the explosion occurred, both of them moved safely out of the way.
"Wild swing!" Mendoza slashed away at the jawbreaker, lilith, and thundrake, causing them to back away a little bit.
"Fire shot!" Monty took down the lilith with a fireball from his gun while Mendoza stabbed his blade through the jawbreaker's head.
"Seems my help is needed. Rai…" Ical started to use his raise spell when,
"Blizzaga!"
"Hmph!" Ical hopped out of the way of a bunch of large icicles that were about to impale him.
"Hold still will ya!" Mendoza shouted at the thundrake that was dodging and throwing its claws at Mendoza, giving Mendoza a hard time to find an opening.
"Stopshot!" Monty fired a shot at the thundrake that caused it to be frozen in time.
"Beatdown!" Mendoza then used an ultra-powerful swing to kill the thundrake in one hit. "Hang on Gilbert!" Mendoza ran for Gilbert, who was locking hands with Ical, both of them trying to overpower the other's mana.
"Ha ha ha… you think you can beat me?" Ical asked as he was starting to clearly gain the edge.
"Grrrr…"
"Blitz!" Mendoza used an aimed swing that struck Ical lightly and allowed Gilbert to gain the edge.
"Gah!" Ical went sprawling backwards. "Bio!" This time Ical called upon green blobs to animate on the bodies of our three heroes.
"Huh?" The three weren't wondering about this for long, soon the globs exploded and enveloped them in poison gas.
"Ha ha ha ha! Giga flare!" This time Ical began gathering up mana around the three of them.
"Flare! GAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!" Gilbert managed to caste flare, but as soon as he did, giga flare exploded and sent the three flying in to canyon walls burnt and bruised.
"Gah!" Ical was hurt by the flare spell, but not near as badly as he hurt the other three. "Don't you see? You fools can't win!" Ical shouted.
"Yes… we… can…" Mendoza cringed as he stood up.
"Aero!" Ical tried to hit Mendoza with an aero spell only for it to miss its mark.
"Silenshot!" Monty fired a bullet at Ical, who simply dodged it and a sword attack from Mendoza, promptly thrusting his mace in to Mendoza's gut and then slamming him in the side of the head. "Water!" Ical then cast water on Monty and caused Monty to collapse after water exploded around him.
"Meteor!" Gilbert cast meteor without the incantation, and sent a large meteor falling towards Ical.
"Ha! That's child's play. Giga Flare!" Ical caused the meteor to explode before it even came close to him. "Drain!"
"Gah!" Light purple energy flew from Gilbert and healed some of Ical's injuries. "Ha ha ha ha ha!"
"Gotcha!" Mendoza leaped behind Ical and grabbed him under the arms.
"What?"
"Eat this!" Monty shot Ical several times as Mendoza held him.
"Gah! Gah! Gah!" Ical cried with each bullet. "Why… won't you… three… stay down?"
"Meteor!"
"Going up!"
"NOOOO!!!" Ical cried. Mendoza spun around and around and hurled Ical at the oncoming meteor. "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" Ical cried right before he struck the meteor.
KAAAAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM
The meteor shattered to pieces once Ical struck it. Ical fell to the ground battered and bloodied, not moving.
"Did we…do it?" Monty asked.
"I don't believe it…" Brently said. "I couldn't beat this guy, and yet these three did it." Brently thought.
"Yes!" Mendoza shouted.
"Not… yet…" Ical gasped.
"Huh? But how?" Gilbert asked.
"Even… if… it… kills me… I'll… take… you down…" Ical gasped. Ical coughed out blood as he held his mace above his head. "Breath of life, light my mace and sing within light…"
"Hey… isn't this incantation the same as… CRAP!!!" Monty shouted.
"He's… pouring all of his mana in to it… and I mean all of it!" Gilbert gasped in fear.
"ULTIMA BLOW!!!" Ical struck the ground with his glowing mace, soon a huge amount of mana exploded. Once the light died down, Brently, Monty, Mendoza, and Gilbert were all unconscious, and Ical was dead in the middle of a gigantic crater.
"Good timing on your part Laura." Kyle sighed.
"Ugh… I had to lend carbuncle some of my mana to protect those guys." Laura moaned. She herself was lying face-down on the ground.
"She's used too much mana." Adam said.
"Fortunately, there are no more enemies." Kyle said as he and Adam picked up our unconscious heroes. Adam then stopped abruptly.
"Oh… no…" Adam said.
"What?" Laura asked.
"Reinforcements are coming!" Adam shouted as another large army appeared in the distance.
"But we won't be able to fight all of them with just the two of us." Kyle said.
"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
"Hm?" Adam and Kyle looked up to see some figure diving from high up in the air. "WHOA!" They all jumped back as Casey dived for the earth.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Casey slammed both feet and hands in to the ground and a massive tremor traveled forward, leveling the entire army in its way. "Normally I like to have a little fun, but I am starting to get annoyed."
"Wait… you mean you could have done that with ANY of the previous armies you battled?" Laura asked.
"Yes. Why do you ask?" Casey asked.
"Augh…"
Meanwhile…
"Heh… heh…" Hunter was catching his breath as Harris just wiped out the remaining soldiers. "Whew… all over…"
"I hope so…" Syack gasped.
"Hmmmm…" Harris looked on, even he seemed somewhat tired. "It's not over." Harris said as he drew his swords.
"What!" Heidi gasped. Indeed, about 2,000 men appeared from the distance. "Great…" Heidi sighed.
"They're already launching an attack!" The summoning instructor shouted. Archers, gunners, and various mages were preparing numerous attacks before finally launching their attacks at the party.
"Force Shield!" Cole suddenly appeared in front of our heroes and teachers and held his arms wide open as a purple shield of mana expanded and deflected every attack launched at them.
"Whoa! What was that?" Hunter asked. The army stopped charging immediately when they saw the mana shield and looked at the one who created it.
"That was an original spell I created, a near perfect defense." Cole explained. "Now stand back my teachers, and watch the headmaster at work." Cole held his hands in front of him, gathering his mana. Eventually he spun his hands around as if stroking a sphere as a glowing blue and orange sphere formed in his hands. "DEMOLITION!!!" Cole then rolled the ball as if it were a bowling ball as it grew larger and larger.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!" The ball tore up the earth as it traveled and crushed the black army members it rolled over them. When the ball disappeared, the earth was leveled, and the black army was crushed.
"And that… was another original spell." Cole said.
"Enough magic power to level mountains and cause tidal waves…" Heidi thought as she watched Cole pass by.
"Heh… as expected of the nu mou racemaster." Harris thought. Cole started up the steps to the school before he stopped and turned to everyone.
"Come, I need to find Matt and see what's keeping him." Cole said.
Meanwhile…
Matt and the figure were still continuing their intense close combat battle occasionally getting distance between them and using long-range attacks. "Chocobo Rush!" Matt created a stampede of Chocobos out of thin air to rush the figure. The figure's, now scissor-like, blade closed and formed a very broad side to the sword that he held up like a shield, withstanding the stampede.
"…" The figure looked around when the stampede finally disappeared, realizing that Matt was nowhere to be seen. "!" The figure then noticed four Molotov cocktails falling around him.
"Fireshot!" Matt fired four fireballs, one at each Molotov cocktail as he gave a cocky smile.
"!!!" The figure was caught in a fiery explosion. "Damn him!!!" The figure thought as the flames scorched him. The figure separated his weapons and prepared for a secondary strike.
"Mog Axe!" The figure got hit by a yellow arc of mana before, "Mog attack!" Matt quickly came up and slammed the figure in to the far wall. "Mog rush!" Matt's gun blade opened up and a glowing orange bullet flew towards the figure. Once it struck him…
KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
"How's that for a bang?" Matt asked. The smoke cleared, and the figure was kneeling on the ground, his cloak burnt pretty badly and his breathing could be easily heard.
"You…" The figure growled.
"Oh so now you say something?" Matt asked.
"Damn you… I underestimated you… you bastard…" The figure spat.
"Wait… HE was underestimating ME?" Matt thought, very surprised by this statement.
"I'd love to continue this fight… but you had to do this much damage to me didn't you?" The figure asked hatefully.
"You're not going anywhere." Matt said as he aimed his gunblade again.
"The next we meet, I WILL kill you!!!" The figure said as he sunk in to the ground as if turning in to black ooze.
"Mog Rush!" Matt once again fired an exploding bullet.
KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
The smoke cleared and the figure was nowhere to be seen. "Grrr… he got away." Matt said. "Ow… man that guy was strong." Matt winced as his wounds finally caught up to him.
"Well this is just fantastic Matt."
"Huh?" Matt turned around to find Cole, Harris, Heidi, Hunter, Kate, and Syack walking in to the room, most of them marveling at the mess. "What?" Matt asked.
"You go chasing after one person, and you make a mess of the finest training room in this school." Cole griped. "And do you realize the fight is over?" Cole asked.
"Hey, I do have a perfectly good reason for this." Matt said as he walked up to them.
"Explain later, just help me clean this up." Cole said.
"Just you guys?" Syack asked.
"Fine." Matt said. Matt locked his left hand with Cole's right, the two closed their eyes and began chanting something at the same time.
"We who bend the flow of time join in mana and hand, now restore this room as it was before upon our command… REVERSE!!!" Matt and Cole pointed their free palms at the room, and slowly the room seemed to put itself back together until it was finally back to the way it was.
"How did you do that?" Hunter asked.
"We simply returned the room to the way it was before I arrived in here." Matt said.
"But how?" Syack asked.
"Most time spells to that powerful a degree require several time mages to perform, but we are powerful enough to only need the two of us." Cole explained.
"That's… pretty amazing." Heidi commented.
"I'm tired now…" Cole said. "Matt, let's find Casey so we can talk. The rest of you should probably find your allys."
"If you say so." Harris said. Everyone except for Harris and Heidi turned to leave the room, after they left the room, Harris turned to Heidi, and then the two turned to look at the room. "Heidi… you haven't told them yet have you?"
"No… I didn't think it was imperative." Heidi said. "After all, I don't think even you suspected the Black Army would find this school in the first place." Heidi said.
"True… I guess this is a lesson to both of us then." Harris sighed.
"To never underestimate our enemy." Heidi said.
"Exactly."
"I'll tell them the next chance I get."
"Good idea." The two then turned and left the room.
Later…
"Ouch!" Mendoza shouted. Mendoza, Gilbert, Monty, and Brently were in beds in the infirmary with other injured people with Harris and Heidi keeping them company.
"Come on… we're good to go…" Monty said, that's when Heidi touched him. "Ouch!"
"Look, even though I AND the academies' finest white mages healed you, you four have still suffered from some decently heavy mana damage. So you need some bed rest." Harris said.
"Aw man… this would have been a great opportunity to escape." Brently whined.
"I must say Gilbert, you three did a good job. To fight one of the colonels and win." Heidi said.
"Very well done you three. Well done indeed." Harris said as he tightened Brently's bandages.
"How do you think Matt and Casey are doing Harris?" Heidi asked.
"I couldn't begin to guess." Harris said.
Meanwhile…
"Cole, I'll ask again. Please come with us." Casey said. The three Racemasters were back in Cole's office.
"Casey…"
"Please Cole, we need you. I mean after all, I did just fight someone that was a match for me even." Matt said.
"Hmmmmmm…" Cole closed his eyes, thinking long and hard. After several minutes, "My friends… I…"
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Okey-dokey, I'm going to be evil and end the chapter right here. Next chapter will be another peek in to the black army, then a misadventure chapter, then another interlude, and then we get back here. Sound okay to you guys ? P