Chapter 23: Father-Son Bonding
We met Bugenhagen at an oversized metal door, one which looked rather out of place here in Cosmo Canyon. I peered at the door curiously, but shrugged, turning my attention to Bugen and the two figures standing near him.
"Ho Ho Hoooo." The wizened old geezer laughed. "Shall we go? All right. Come in, come in."
"Wait... Spike's coming along?" One of the two figures standing near Bugen asked, and I actually turned to look at them.
"Oh, great. The mother-hen strikes back." I snapped, realizing that it was Adrian who'd spoken up.
"No, this is too dangerous." He returned, turning to look at Bugenhagen. "I'll not allow him to go."
Xenor, the other figure, shook his head, looking rather annoyed.
"Shepard, cease your whining." The Vortigaunt snapped. "Whether you like it or not, Spike is perfectly capable of making his own decisions and defending himself. He has as much of a right as we do to follow the Elder."
You can always tell when Xenor is annoyed; it's the only time that he ever addresses anyone by their actual name.
The ex-SOLDIER looked abashed for several brief seconds, before recovering, and opened his mouth to make a response, when Cloud cut him off.
"I don't know what you think about Spike's abilities, but he has proven himself to be an able fighter, and one who I'd trust to watch my back any day." He glared, looking briefly more like the Cloud I'd first met back in Midgar, before he'd began to open up with the rest of AVALANCHE.
Shepard seemed to hesitate at the glare, frowning.
"I have a right to say whether or not he comes." He countered.
"And I have a right to say whether or not I listen to your over-protectiveness." I hissed. "I'm going."
"Even if I wasn't going before, I am now." Adrian declared, giving me the evil-eye.
"I don't know him. He's some strange man that insists on stalking me." I stage whispered to Red, who chuckled softly.
Bugen had watched the exchange with a look of amusement, but now that we were stopping, he turned to a stack of boxes, and flipped, what I assumed, was a hidden switch.
The large metal doors opened, with a very nasty grating sound that told me that there was much rust somewhere along the line. Once fully opened, I saw that on the other side of the large doors, was a cave.
"That was anti-climatic." I muttered.
'Maybe what you're meant to see is somewhere in the cave, kupo.' Montblanc suggested.
Gee, thanks Montblanc, I would never have figured that out.
'My pleasure, kupo.'
I was being sarcastic.
'So was I, kupo.'
Great, the voices in my head are back-talking me.
Shaking my head clear, I made the first step into the cave, before pausing.
"Hey? Aren't you going with us, Grandpa?" Red asked.
"What are you crazy?" Bugen asked, in good humour. "It's dangerous in there. I told you that! You think an old man like me should go first? I'll be right behind you."
"And Adrian and Xenor?" I asked, having gotten the impression that they were coming with us.
"Will be coming with us. A few extra blades never hurt anyone."
Except for the monsters. I mused.
The inside of the cave was dimly lit, and it took several seconds for my eyes to adjust to the lighting. When they had, I was glad I hadn't decided to try exploring beforehand; else I probably would have fallen off the edge.
"Jeez, warn someone about the drop next time, will ya?" I muttered, glaring at the drop in question.
"My apologies, it's been a while since I've let people unfamiliar with these caves into this place." The old man waved aside my sarcasm.
The only way down, was a rope, which led to another ledge, where you had to grab yet another rope and slide down it to yet another ledge. And repeat… Several times.
Red, being unable to use the rope, used his agility to simply jump from ledge to ledge, until at long last, we reached the bottom. The whole time, I looked wistfully at Bugenhagen's floating ball. That thing would have made this journey considerably easier.
At ground level, was a single archway, which happened to be the only available exit without backtracking. Just looking through the archway, I could tell that that was where the danger of the place lurked.
Apparently, so could Cloud, because one look, and his hand twitched, moving to rest on the hilt of his Buster Sword. Adrian took it one step further and pulled his gunblade free from his back and rested it on his shoulder.
I could now see the design for the Ex-SOLDIER's weapon. It was a long, silver blade, with the hilt being a similar design to a pump-action shotgun... I'd say a Remington 870 or whatever it was, but it looked like the ammunition was stored within a magazine fixed to the underside of the weapon. I was all of a sudden feeling very relieved that I wasn't likely to be on the wrong end of that weapon any time soon.
"I'm going to assume that the nasties aren't going to welcome us with open arms." I muttered, double checking my Materia one last time before it was too late.
My current stock of Materia was made up of: the Essential Three (apparently the title for the basic three elementals, fire, ice and thunder), a mid-level Restore Materia (Restore being one half of the Critical Two apparently, the other being Revive Materia), and an Enemy Skill Materia. Oh, and not to forget my apparently sarcastic Moogle's Materia.
You can tell that my specialty is in melee combat. I only had the basics, and even then not even all of them. Apparently, apart from the Essential Three and the Critical Two, there was the Support Four, which consisted of Esuna, Time, Dispel and Protective.
Yeesh, I learnt all of that from Cloud, who had made a point of telling all of AVALANCHE at some point. It was the basic system which all of SOLDIER followed. Every SOLDIER operative had to have the Essential Three and the Critical Two at all times, the Support Four being the optional stuff that generally served to make life easier, but was not quite as important. Usually, it was the dedicated spell-casters that had the Support Four, and if the spell-casters were unable to use the Esuna, then that was where actually using the items came in handy.
The reason Cloud told us this was clear, it was a system that worked. The reason even melee combatants were required to have the Essential Three was because, if they came across something that wasn't very easy to kill by hitting it, then it generally had a weakness to one of those three elements. The Critical Two was also very obvious. They save lives, enough said. I haven't got the Revive Materia yet because I haven't seen any available to be claimed by me yet. Apparently, as well as being critical, it was also a hard-to-come-by Materia. Rare enough that not even the resident Materia Hunter had acquired one. For now, Phoenix Downs will have to do, but a Revive is one of the goals I have. Same goes to about half of the members of AVALANCHE if memory serves.
But enough on Materia and its various categories… yes, there are more, but by the time Cloud reached that point in the lecture, I'd fallen asleep. I am so glad that he was never a school teacher; school tends to be boring enough without him droning on and on.
Overall point, I was good to go.
"So, what is this place?" I asked, raising an eyebrow ridge.
Apparently my voice went unheard. While I'd been double checking my Materia, everyone had exited the cave, leaving me to speak to myself like a total prat.
"Hey, wait for me!" I called out, sprinting out of the exit.
Thankfully, they had only just exited, so I caught up with the group quickly enough. The new cave was dimly lit, and didn't look safe, even if you excluded the monsters which were doing a fine job of being invisible at that moment in time. They were out there, something about the place gave me a bad feeling, one which I'd come to associate with large amounts of monsters. The only apparent exception to that would be the scorpion swarm of death back in Midgar. Apparently, over-sized insects didn't trigger my danger senses. Or else they just hadn't developed at the time, hard to say without looking for another scorpion swarm of death, something that I planned on not doing, any time soon.
Ok, so I'm stretching the truth. I just remember that this place was crawling with nasties from back home, and that Bugenhagen asked me and Cloud to join him and Red, after mentioning that it was dangerous. That implies monster danger, not 'oops, the ceiling just collapsed on me' danger.
From where we were stood, I could see that this cave was a maze. And the exit was… nowhere in sight, even from our elevated position. Great, and here I was lamenting about how we needed more mazes in our lives.
That was sarcasm, by the way.
A glance at Adrian and Xenor showed that the pair had taken up protective positions either side of Bugen.
"So why are you two here anyway?" I asked.
"I am here, because I am long over-due to show my respects." Xenor sort of avoided the question. "The 'over-protective mother-hen' is here as extra protection for the Elder Bugenhagen."
Adrian snorted at the nick-name that he'd been given.
"You'd do well not to underestimate the monsters down here." The ex-SOLDIER grunted. "These aren't your garden variety creatures."
"And we aren't your garden variety travellers either." Cloud felt the need to point out. "We can take care of ourselves."
"I doubt that I'd have made it home without Cloud and Spike's assistance." Red added.
Best not mention that there have been a number of close calls, such as the over-grown snake in the marsh south of Choco Bill's farm, or that we were almost condemned to Coral Prison.
Adrian seemed to shrug the words aside. Miserable git, he doesn't want to acknowledge that I don't need to be mother-henned.
We started to move along one of the various paths in order to find the way forwards, Bugen claiming to have forgotten the way, due to his age. Senile old coot… if he couldn't remember the way, why have us walking around in a dangerous cave? Hoping we'd magically find the way?
I really hoped he'd remember the way.
This was especially true when several forms seemed to fade into existence around us. They looked like skeletons, only they were purple, yes, their bones were purple, clad in a beige cloth with dark grey cowls and holding spears. The single feather attached to each skull gave these floating spirits a tribal look.
"Gis." Red snarled, teeth mashing together.
Ah, so that's why they had a tribal look, they were in fact part of the tribe that had attacked Cosmo Canyon, so long ago.
I pulled Talon free from its sheath, gripping it tightly as I rolled my eyes over each Gi. There were a couple dozen of them, all armed with spears. And this ability of theirs to appear out of thin air gave them an edge in ambushing us, making them a dangerous foe.
One of the Gis thrust its spear at Cloud, who side-stepped the blow and gored it with the Buster Sword, before pivoting around the floating spirit, yanking the blade free and using his momentum to slice through a second Gi.
Adrian took Cloud's actions as a signal to begin his own assault. His shotgunblade was stabbed into the ribcage of the Gi nearest to him and he pulled the trigger, releasing a powerful blast that essentially disintegrated what was left of the Gi, before slicing sideward, cutting through another of the floating spirits, pumping the shotgun even as he did so. After he'd cut down the Gi unfortunate enough to be in his path, Shepard twisted his body around, redirecting the direction his blade flew, without loosing any of its momentum, pulling the trigger as it passed a nearby Gi, destroying it, and even as the blade continued on its path, Adrian pumped the next shell into the chamber.
Adrian Shepard was quite literally a hurricane of destruction. I was not going anywhere near him during a battle, not if I could help it.
I didn't get a chance to observe how Red was doing against the Gis, because a couple of them somehow got it into their heads that I was an easy target. I was sorry to disappoint them… wait, no I wasn't, I felt a small sense of satisfaction that I disappointed them in their beliefs that I was an easy target.
The one nearest to me felt the wraith of my inner pyromaniac, as I decided that I'd never actually used my Enemy Skill Materia, so therefore, it was time to at least test out how well it worked.
I have to say that using a magical flamethrower was very satisfying, though it felt extremely weird having the flames come shooting out of my mouth! I'm a Chinese Water Dragon, not a sodding Fire Drake; do I look like a fire breathing dragon? Well, when I'm not casting Flame Thrower at least.
I could have done without the Gi screaming as it burnt, it had a very high pitched scream and my ears were left ringing in the aftermath.
The second Gi thrust its spear at me, and I ducked under the crude wooden stick with a sharp piece of rock on the end. The spirit must have used too much force when it stabbed at me though, because it clearly lost its balance. Never one to let such an opportunity go to waste, I levelled my gunblade at the skull and fired. Bone shrapnel flew in all directions as the Gi Spirit lost its head over being so easily beaten.
Must resist urge to say something incredibly lame.
"Don't lose your head over something so trivial." I smirked.
Ok, so I was never any good at stopping my impulsive urges to be lame.
The rest of the Gi's body seemed to fade from existence, clearly in awe of my wit, or lack, thereof.
I was forced to refocus my attention when a third Gi decided that it would rather take its chances in a fight against me rather than Cloud, Red or Adrian 'the Hurricane' Shepard.
I'm noticing a pattern with these Gi spirits. All they seem to be capable of is stabbing motions. Well, ok, with a spear as poor as the ones that the Gis seemed to be using, that was understandable, but it was getting a little too easy to defend myself. Where's the challenge?
A quick side-step and an upward slash from my gunblade, and Gi number three was dead… deader… what is the term for killing something that's technically already dead?
I must have been thinking on this strange paradox of killing dead things a little too intently, because when I looked up, a fourth had already come to replace the one that I had seemingly only just defeated. Grunting, I tried to slash at this new one, but this Gi seemed to have learnt something from the defeat of its predecessors and managed to avoid my blade and then managed to grab it, with surprising strength, keeping me from being able to follow up with a second attack.
"Get off!" I snarled, trying to pull my gunblade back to myself. "Mine! Let go!"
Clearly the Gi begged to differ, and screeched at me with its banshee wail in response to my commands. I hate that scream, it seriously hurts my ears.
The floating spirit made a mistake though, and the end of the blade eventually came into a position where it was pointing at the Gi's torso, letting me pull the trigger to pump the drat thing full of lead. The spirit shuddered at each pull of the trigger, screeching at me some more, but still refused to let go.
Fine, it was asking for a dose of something-ara. I have three elements at my disposal, and I have the ability to ara each of them, be it blizzara, thundara or fira. Since I'd already burnt something, much to the dismay of my eardrums, it was time to let loose the fury of some thunder…
Only I never got a chance, because right as I began to start focusing on the spell, ready to use it, a stream of green lightning arced forwards, accompanied by a yell of 'to the void with you!' and completely disintegrated the Gi.
Well that was a shocking development.
Blinking, I turned to look at Xenor, who gave a small wave on noticing that I was giving him a sour look. That hadn't been what I'd had in mind.
"And you couldn't have saved my eardrums from the screaming of that thing earlier?" I asked him, rhetorically.
"This one got much amusement from watching you play tug-of-war with a screaming Gi." Xenor shrugged; relaxing from the stance he'd been in when he'd fired the electricity at the spirit.
"So glad I can amuse you so." I muttered sarcastically.
The Vortigaunt seemed to laugh at me, before checking that all of the other Gis were defeated. They were, and everyone was unhurt, though Shepard was glaring at everything in general as if expecting more of them to appear.
They probably were, though if the majority were as dumb as most of the ones that had just attacked us were, then I really don't see what the big deal is with these Gis, unless they'd had mass numbers on their side. That's a point, for all we know, those dozen we just wiped out were the advance party, testing our defences and capabilities.
Send the stupid, weak and all-round expendable and use them to test the foe, that way, the strong and mighty and all-round not expendable have an even greater chance of destroying the foe. Clever bastards, at least, that was assuming that my theory was indeed correct.
Knowing my luck, I just sounded all intelligent only to be completely wrong, and these Gis are just going to swarm us, one after the other.
"Let's not stand around for too long, lest we're attacked by more Gis." Bugen spoke up, voice void of laughter.
I suppose that to be laughing in the aftermath of a battle would be in poor taste, even if we were the victors. And the topic was one that I wouldn't laugh at either.
"We need to find a switch that will open up this part of the wall in order to continue." Bugen continued, gesturing at the wall behind him.
"A switch?" Cloud asked; arms crossed. "I'm going to wager a guess that this switch will be hidden."
The old man nodded.
"Hidden, but not so hidden that we'll never find it." He answered. "You see the small cracks in the walls? The switch is hidden within one of those cracks. The difficulty is in finding which crack, whilst being weary of further attacks by the Gi spirits."
"It'd be quicker to split up." Red mused. "That way we can check more of the cracks in a shorter span of time."
"Wouldn't that leave us open to attack from the Gi?" Adrian countered.
"We'd hardly be spreading ourselves that thin." I countered the counter. "And I'd like continue as quickly as we can without rushing."
Rushing would only get us killed after all.
Shepard frowned, but couldn't seem to find the words to argue against us. After several brisk seconds, he nodded, albeit reluctantly.
"Fine. Xenor, Bugenhagen, stay here. Everyone else, let's start searching those cracks."
The Ex-SOLDIER gave a grimace as he said that, for whatever reason, but seemed to shake some cobwebs from his mind and moved towards the walls, doing his part.
I drifted over to some of the cracks and shoved my arm inside, searching for any hint of a hidden switch. After a couple of failures, Montblanc spoke up.
'Would you like some help, kupo?'
'What can you do?' Spike answered before I had a chance to.
'For starters, I can be summoned, unlike you, kupo, so I can lend a couple of extra hands.'
But can you defend yourself if the Gi decide to attack? I asked.
'Did you never wonder what I did that allowed me the honour of becoming a summon-entity?'
I never actually thought about it. I confessed.
'I was the Moogle Knight, kupo.' Montblanc stated, sounding very proud of himself.
Moogle Knight?
'Usually Moogles are only very good at spell-casting or ranged classes.' The Moogle explained. 'But I was the first Moogle to become a melee combatant, and in order to make up for the natural shortcoming that all Moogles have in regards to physical strength, I emphasised on fighting using my size and speed to my advantage, kupo. It was my actions that created the Moogle Knights. That's also the reason that Montblanc is a very popular name amongst Moogles.'
That's pretty interesting. I admitted.
Ok, he's convinced me that he can actually help out and not have to rely on us to defend him. And I know that as a low-level summon, I can keep him summoned for a reasonable length of time, though this would be my first time summoning just Montblanc, with no Boko along for the ride.
Gathering the energy, I willed Montblanc into existence, making sure to not accidently summon his chocobo companion while at it. Useful as Boko can be, in these caves, short of a kamikaze attack, he'd be rather useless.
Releasing the energy, Montblanc appeared, fading into existence in a manner similar to the Gi, only rather than a floating skeleton; it was a Moogle, clad in clothing that looked like it had cost a fair sum, and that was even without it being behemoth leather (I'm never going to get over how much that cost me).
To be exact, Montblanc was a lavender furred Moogle with brown eyes, and a fairly relaxed stance. He was wearing a dark coat that reached his knees, with yellow lining and black leggings. On his shoulders were two pauldrons, a dull grey in colour. Beneath his coat, he wore a leather cuirass, and he wore what I could only think to call shin-pads, even though they looked more like they wore cut off from a full set of leg armour.
A sword resting in a sheath that hung from a thick leather belt. From what I could see of the sword, it was similar in shape to Tidus' Brotherhood sword.
Despite his size, he did look the part of a fighter.
He didn't look like a knight though. Then again, in my minds eye, I tend to see knights as being people encased in full plate mail, and the enemy tending to need to use can openers in order to actually get at the knight in question.
As if he could read my thoughts, Montblanc frowned at me.
"My priority was speed, kupo. If I'd worn plate mail, I'd be about as fast as a drunken Mu, kupo."
"I know, I know. Just stereotypical images in my mind. But isn't a leather cuirass leaving yourself rather under-protected?"
"My coat has chain-mail sown into it, kupo. The leather is a secondary piece of armour."
"Ah, that makes sense." I nodded. "But enough discussing the finer points of your armour, we still need to find that switch."
The Moogle Knight nodded and turned to start searching down a part of this maze that nobody had searched yet.
Even with the extra help, it still took the lot of us the better part of half an hour to find the switch to open the wall, and by that point, we'd split far enough apart that we weren't much help for each other if any of us were attacked.
Regrettably, it was by that point that the Gi decided that it was time for a rematch, and that this time; they would play with each of alone. Granted a few of us were close enough to be able to help each other, but that still meant that we were divided into two or three groups, and each group winded up fighting against roughly the same number of Gi spirits as what had attacked the group as a whole last time.
When this occurred, I had been near Red, and Montblanc, having realized what had happened, had quickly come to help us. This left us three, versus twenty-four or so Gis. Red had tilted his head slightly at the sight of Montblanc, but didn't ask any questions, either recognising him as the Moogle that had been riding Boko for a kamikaze attack back on Mount Condor, or else deciding that now wasn't the time to ask.
"So, we take eight each?" I joked, bringing my gunblade up to a defensive stance.
"That would be fair." Red nodded, hackles raised.
Judging from the feeling of static in the air around Red, he was preparing a spell to kick start this party. Well, in truth, it wasn't a spell he fired off at the Gi spirits. Oh no, it was much better than that. Instead, he summoned Ifrit. Hell hath no fury like a fire demon summoned.
Ifrit slammed to the ground, after bursting out of said ground, somehow not leaving a whooping great hole in his wake, and stretched, evil grin on his face. Swinging his massive fist, flames appeared, incinerating a number of the Gi, before the giant fire demon tensed, ready to unleash his main attack.
"Go get them, big, mean and ugly!" I cheered.
Apparently, Ifrit heard me, because he hesitated, giving me a sour look, eye twitching.
"Oh, thank you Spike. Now I'm going to have to put up with him ranting for an hour." Red muttered, sourly. "Just what I always wanted."
"I had no idea Ifrit was vain." I admitted, staring at the still twitching Ifrit.
"Nor did I, kupo, and I've known him for several millennia." Montblanc added. "I think you're the first person to ever have the guts to say something like that, kupo."
If anything, Ifrit's twitching increased. As the Gi seemed to recover from the shock of Ifrit having incinerated a number of them, they began to advance, pausing once again when Ifrit slammed a fist to the ground, completely crushing one of them.
"Just Hellfire the lot of them and dismiss." Red told Ifrit, who glared at me before doing so, incinerating a large number of the Gi spirits.
Shortly after, he vanished, continuing to glare at me the entire time. Jeez, considering that he's a great big fire demon, he is certainly rather sensitive, isn't he?
With Ifrit gone, the Gi decided that in all honestly, they'd delayed long enough and began to swarm towards us.
Cursing, I stabbed Talon into the nearest Gi and fired repeatedly, destroying a Gi that had been somewhere behind the impaled one. With that done, I wrenched my weapon free and swung it around to decapitate another Gi that had tried to sneak up on me. With its skull missing, the rest of the spirit vanished in defeat. I was then forced to duck under a stab from the spear of yet another Gi. While I had the chance, I grabbed the spear as it was still over me, and yanked it from the obviously surprised Gi's grip. I discarded the spear in the most efficient manner possible; I threw the drat thing at a Gi that had yet to get within range of any melee attacks. The spear stabbed through the skull, and the Gi, spear still embedded in it, vanished, taking my improvised weapon with it.
The Gi that I had stolen the spear from started to shriek in outrage, but I didn't give it a chance to do so for longer than a couple of seconds. While I was momentarily in the clear, I checked to see whether either of the other two needed any help. Red didn't, making good use of his Materia after every couple of attacks.
The star of this fight was clearly Montblanc though. If the display I was seeing was how he fought before he became a summon entity, then I'm not surprised that he was the one that founded the Moogle Knights.
The Moogle was a whirlwind of motion, never staying in one spot long enough to actually look at him properly.
Yoda, eat your heart out; Montblanc here is the new undisputed champion of bad-ass vertically challenged people. Seriously, Montblanc's fighting reminds me of Yoda's fight in Episode 2, only when I see Montblanc fight, it doesn't make me laugh at the scene, it makes me think 'oh wow, I had this badass living in my head'. One moment he was on the ground, stabbing through one of the Gis, the next he was spinning through the air, cutting down any of the spirits that happened to be in his path.
I can see what he meant by emphasising his speed.
Of course, the Gis didn't appreciate my standing around appreciating the badassery of Montblanc, and began to renew their attack. Grunting, I was forced to renew my own defence, and started to cut through them, cursing several times as I saw no end to the swarm.
How many were there left?
No time to count, just time to defend myself and that was it. Stab, slash, stab, stab, slice, and dodge, bang-bang-bang, duck, kick, parry, slash…
It all became a blur in my mind. One very and big nasty blur.
At a slight break in the action, I paused, eying the Gi swarm. Wait a second…
"Have we even cut their numbers down?" I asked, leaning to the side to avoid being skewered by a spear thrust.
The Gi that had tried to stab me was promptly destroyed by a good healthy dose of Fira.
Red rolled his eyes across the scene, panting slightly.
"No. If anything, there are more of them than when we started." He grumbled.
"I don't suppose Ifrit can come out and do another round of mass destruction, could he?" I asked.
"Not happening." Red cursed. "I'm drained."
Well, he had been using magic in battle more often than I had, so yes, until he got an Ether, he was probably too drained to bring out a summon for even one big attack.
"Besides which, he's still whining about how you called him ugly."
'In future, please refrain from insulting the giant beasts that are summoned to help us.' Spike, ever helpful, decided to offer the most wonderful advice ever.
Up yours.
As you can clearly see, I wasn't feeling very appreciative of this advice.
"Maybe we should try to fight our way to the others. Strength in numbers." I grunted.
"And how do we get to them without leading this swarm to them?" Red asked, whilst launching a Thundara at a group of Gis clumped a little too close together.
"Because I'll stay and hold them off, kupo." Montblanc spoke up, changing his stance to a more defensive one.
"You sure?" I asked, firing at a random Gi.
"Of course." Montblanc nodded. "It's not like I can die, kupo. If my physical body is injured fatally, I just return to your mind and recuperate. You won't be able to summon me for a length of time, but otherwise, no harm done, kupo."
"Ok, you've made your point." I agreed. "No harm done, and in the long run, it works for the best."
"Then we shall run on the count of 3." Red growled, casting another Fira.
"Right… 1." I began, readying myself for the run.
"2." Red continued, tensing.
"3!" I finished, casting Beta on the small group of Gi that were blocking the direction we wanted to run through.
The spell did the job of clearing our path, and both Red and I charged, leaving Montblanc to hold them off. As we turned the corner, I heard the Moogle's war cry of 'KUPO!' and the sounds of him doing more of his ass kicking badassery.
Yeah, as I had said before: Yoda, eat your heart out.
Thanks to Red's nose and the fact that he could use it even while running as fast as we were, we found our way to where everyone had parted ways, leaving Bugenhagen and Xenor whilst we checked cracks for switches. Though about halfway there, I started to hear the shotgun blasts from Adrian's gunblade and the cackle of Xenor's lightning blasts, or whatever the attack was called, so Red's nose was rendered obsolete compared to our ears, but we still wouldn't have reached that point if it weren't for his nose.
Everyone seemed to be waiting for us, in between smiting down Gi spirits. Adrian had decided to forgo using his shotgun blasts by that point, and was using his blade as a regular claymore. Either he was having ammo issues, or else the fact that he'd been forced into close proximity to Cloud and Xenor meant that he was unwilling to risk it, lest he accidently blast one of his allies.
Xenor unleashed a blast of his green electricity and it flew over my shoulder, almost giving me a heart attack, before I realized that he hadn't been aiming for me but at a Gi that had tried to attack us from behind.
"Get behind me!" Adrian shouted, resting his blade on his shoulder and holding one of his hands out in a strange manner.
A subconscious part of me realized that this was how Shepard focused his more powerful spells, and I sped up, sliding to a halt behind him.
Once the Ex-SOLDIER had confirmed that we were all behind him, he swung his arm towards the swarm of Gi and released the built up magical energies. At first nothing happened, and then I heard a bark, as if from a dog. Looking to the side, I spotted the source. A strange dog like animal stepped out from around a corner, followed closely by a large humanoid being, with a wide-brimmed hat.
Wait, was that Yojimbo?
Indeed, Adrian Shepard had just summoned the mercenary Aeon from Final Fantasy X. I seriously hoped that I wouldn't be forced to pay a small fortune just to get him to do anything.
"Kick their arses." Adrian growled, making a sweeping gesture to the mass of Gi.
The samurai looking summon nodded, holding one of his hands out in a familiar position, and a spark ignited into a flame around his hands. After a brief pause, a blade came out of a small vortex in the ground and leapt straight into Yojimbo's hands, where it ignited.
Now armed, all Yojimbo did was charge at the swarm, spinning at the last second before the blade connected, adding some extra momentum to the swing. On connecting, the blade released a large bout of destructive energy, and I was forced to throw my arm over my face.
Once I was able to look again, I did so and gaped at the absence of any of the Gi. That one attack had wiped out the lot of them.
'Yojimbo always was powerful, kupo. But he usually only takes a fight seriously when faced with such numbers, or is facing a foe who is clearly very powerful.' Monblanc's voice spoke up.
Eh, when did you return? I asked, accepting Montblanc's explanation for what it was: pointing out that Yojimbo is only any good as a last resort.
'Just now, kupo. You wouldn't have felt it with the backlash from that attack though. I'm fine, I dismissed myself before I could be overwhelmed, kupo.'
Nice to hear. Never know when I might need to summon the badass Moogle.
I looked up in time to see Yojimbo raise his sword in a salute before dismissing himself, and I turned to face Adrian, who looked rather pale.
"You alright?" I asked.
"I'll be fine." He grunted, pulling out a bottle of Ether and chugging it down like there was no tomorrow.
Once he'd finished the Ether, I could see that some of the colour had already returned to face, so I turned to look at Red, who'd moved to stand before Bugen.
"What is this place?" The lupine asked.
Bugen gave his hearty Santa laugh before turning to face Red, gracing him with an answer.
"Everyone here is a ghost of the Gi tribe." Bugen announced. "Killed in a certain battle."
"A certain battle…?" Red asked in confusion.
"The vengeful spirits of the Gi didn't didn't disappear, and couldn't return to the lifestream…" Bugen continued. "We still have far to go. Ho ho hoooo."
Within that last sentence was a hidden message to leave the topic for the moment, so Red didn't further his enquiries. Shaking my head, frowning, I entered into the next part of the cave and stopped, eyes wide.
"There's lava down here?" I asked, loudly.
"Indeed, so mind your step, young one, lest we lose you to a most embarrassing death." Xenor felt the need to say as he walked past me.
Seriously, is this an underground volcano or something? Lava people, molten magma, or whatever you want to call it. I'll be thankful to leave this place, because knowing my luck, if I hang around, I'm going to be thrown off the edge and into the lava.
Yes, a most embarrassing death, considering my other choices. Though I'd rather live than die, so I think I'll just avoid any edges for now.
Xenor turned around and I noticed that all of his eyes widened as he glanced at Cloud. I turned to try and see what had Xenor looking shocked but saw nothing. Well, I saw nothing until Cloud just randomly dropped to the floor, dead.
Ok, what the hell?
It took several seconds for me to figure out what had happened, and once I realized, I sniggered, looking at the space where Cloud's ghost was likely staring at his body in confusion.
"Cloud, how could you let yourself have Doom cast on you?" I laughed at the dead blond's expense. "Though I must thank you for waiting until I was looking before you dropped dead."
Pulling out a Phoenix Down, I applied it to the corpse, quickly backpedalling as Cloud sat up sharply, gasping as his body began to work again. It's an unpleasant experience, and I should know.
"You shouldn't mock the dead like that. I don't poke fun at you when you're the dead one." Cloud frowned at me.
"You've never seen me dead." I pointed out, quietly so that Shepard wouldn't hear. "One time you're in a completely different part of the Shinra building, the next time I died was after you were committed to Corel Desert, and me, Red and Yuffie were trying to avoid a similar fate. And the fight with the Turks, you were off fighting a completely different group of Turks."
Cloud hesitated a second.
"You've only died three times?" He asked, looking irritated.
"Well, I died three or four times against the Turks, but it was in the same fight so…"
"Lucky bastard." Cloud groaned. "Since we left Midgar I've been killed by a giant snake, that Jenova creature Sephiroth left for us, and I was killed by a lucky hit from some mugger in Coral Desert. Never mind the being petrified multiple times."
"You have my sympathies." I grunted, helping him up.
"And for your information, I wasn't aware that anything had cast Doom on me." Cloud grumbled.
"That's the whole point." Red mused. "It's supposed to be a silent kill, set to go off at inconvenient times. If Adrian hadn't summoned Yojimbo, then that Doom would have been a crippling blow for us."
"That figures." I muttered.
Shaking my head, I continued down the pathway, making sure to keep my distance from the edge. Lava is a non-revivable death, after all, there's nothing left to revive.
The rest of the travel through this cave went uneventfully. We weren't even attacked here. By the time we reached the end of the cave, Bugen felt it was time to expand on what he'd already told us so far.
"As you can see, this cave leads to the back of Cosmo Canyon." He said. "It was unfortunate that the Gi were larger than us. If they attacked through here, we wouldn't have stood a chance."
Red was silent, listening intently.
"Let's move on." Bugen nodded.
The next cave looked similar, until we reached a fork in the cave, where we had a choice of numerous narrow tunnels to go through. The Elder of Cosmo Canyon frowned, obviously trying to remember which one we should go through.
"This one." He eventually said, pointing at a tunnel that looked no different from the rest. Going through, we found an over-sized spider web blocking our path.
"Well, the spiders down here have been busy." Cloud mused, readying his blade.
Without warning Cloud hacked at the web, cutting it down with all the grace of a blind lumber-jack.
"Idiot!" I snarled. "We don't know what made that web. I'd rather not piss off a mutant spider reject!"
"You mean like that one." Red asked, nodding his head towards a very very big spider.
"Yes, exactly like that one." I smiled, before freeing my gunblade from its sheath. "Arse-fecking…"
"Language." Both of my guardians chanted, looking at me in annoyance.
Rolling my eyes, I took another look at the spider and shuddered.
"I'm so glad that I'm not arachnophobic." I grunted.
"Strangely enough, so am I." Red commented dryly.
Ok, so have a pissed off giant green spider that wants to kill us. Can we just offer Cloud as a sacrifice as he was the one that destroyed the web?
Judging from the fact that the spider just swiped at me, leaving a nasty welt on my right arm, well, all signs point to a big fat no. However, the fight didn't turn into a long battle like I'd expected.
Adrian apparently hated spiders, because he just ran in, stabbed his blade into the spider's gut, and pulled the trigger. And as if that wasn't enough,hepumped another shell into the chamber and fired again… And again.
There wasn't much left of the spider after Adrian was finished with it. Grumbling to himself, the Ex-SOLDIER stormed up to Cloud and towered over the shorter ex-SOLDIER, fire burning in his eyes.
"Never do that again!" He bellowed. "I hate spiders!"
Leaning back, Cloud grimaced and nodded. Shepard seemed to accept this and stormed back to his position beside Bugen, who gave a Santa laugh.
"Spike." Cloud spoke up, getting my attention. "Your guardian is a nut-job."
"Screw you Strife!"
"Least I'm not scared of spiders."
"I dare you to live through what I have and not be scared of them! Too many legs to be natural…"
"Piss off."
"Can't you just feel the testosterone in the air?" I asked sarcastically.
Red nodded sagely.
"I think Adrian feels threatened by this new, young upstart." He grinned. "Reminds him that he's getting old."
"Nanaki, I am not getting old! I'm in my prime!"
"And there's your evidence. He get's overly defensive."
Avoiding any more spider webs and edges that led to lava pits, the group advanced to the exit of this cavern and paused as Red enquired further about this cave and the battle that took place here.
"This warrior went through the cave, all alone." Bugenhagen told us. "Fighting attackers one after another…"
Red stepped forwards, looking thoughtful as ever.
"Grandpa… That warrior…" he began to ask.
Bugen gave his trademark Santa laugh, cutting off whatever Red had to say, and gestured at the exit.
"We're almost there." He finally said.
Deciding that we weren't going to get anything further out of him at the moment, we exited into a smaller cavern, and what looked to be a dead end. At the opposite end of the cavern from us was a large statue of a demonic looking face.
"That is one ugly looking statue. I can see why it was locked away down here." I remarked, smirking.
Bugen gave a sound of confusion and moved to the front of the group so that he could see what we were talking about. When he caught sight of the statue, his eyes widened in horrified fascination.
"What is this….?" He asked himself sounding horrified.
"Grandpa, is he…!?" Red began to ask, but was cut off.
"After death… The ghosts of the Gi… Like stagnant air… This… can't be!" Bugen shook his head.
At his words, the statue began to move, the mouth forming a malicious grin as it leered down at us.
Everyone gasped, taking a step back and readying their methods of attack. I myself had my gunblade out and ready, staring at this moving statue. After several seconds, the statue began to look less like rock, and more like a Gi spirit that was pulling itself from a wall.
Cloud, ever the leader, tensed himself and spoke up, realizing that we had a moment or two before the Gi spirit was able to fight.
"Red, Spike, get ready." He called out.
"Now wait a second, I'm fighting as well." Shepard grunted, his own gunblade ready.
"The hell you are." I snapped.
"Spike's right." Cloud jumped to my defence. "We've fought as a group before, whereas you and Xenor are an unknown factor. We don't know how to fight around you and your combat style, while we can fight as a cohesive team."
"Besides, somebody needs to protect Grandpa." Red pointed out, diplomatically.
Adrian's eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to argue, but a combination of Xenor's hand resting itself on his shoulder, calming him, and the Gi fully emerging from its previous form as a statue forced him to stop.
"Here it comes!" I called out, bringing Cloud's attention back to the Gi.
"What intelligence level do you give it?" Cloud asked, in a tone that almost sounded like he was joking.
"Oh easily a B." I answered.
"Oh, the best kind of foe." Red snarled. "Easily tricked."
Let me explain. As a group, we, as in AVALANCHE, had worked on several strategies. One of the things we worked on was the intelligence level of monsters. 'A' meant sentient or at least understood English, 'B' meant it couldn't understand what was being said, but was intelligent enough to figure out patterns in combat, so if we kept on shouting the names of spells, it'd eventually figure out the pattern, in which case, we'd start saying the spells names, but use a different spell, which confused the foe and sometimes led to some innovative traps.
Needless to say, 'C' grade intelligence meant it was just an average dumbass monster.
The Gi was larger then all the Gi we'd killed previously. Much larger. And that was considering the fact that it was missing everything from the waist down, leaving its spine hanging in the air as it floated above the ground. This Gi didn't wear a cowl, but instead wore an intricate headdress, covered his feathers, marking him as either the shaman or the chieftain of the Gi tribe. He wore also wore a light green cape, and some strange medallion. And lastly, his spear was much better designed then those of its lesser brethren. Rather than being a stone on a stick, this one had a jagged red blade on the end of a metal pole. The opposite end of the blade was covered in feathers.
The Gi Chieftain snapped its fingers, and two flames appeared out of the air and floated around the Gi like a pair of moths to the light.
For several tense seconds, nobody moved, but then Cloud thrust a palm out and released a large amount of magical energies. Shortly after, ice began to form, and with the ice came Shiva.
"Hit and run." Cloud ordered Shiva, who nodded and proceeded to make the ice surge towards the Gi like a tidal wave.
The ice surrounded the Gi and hardened, before shattering, all of the shards flying, each a lethal weapon. Once her attack was over, Shiva dismissed herself, leaving us to face the Gi that was now giving a loud roar in a deep, guttural tone.
At least it wasn't the banshee wail of the smaller Gi.
As a bonus, the two fireballs had been destroyed by the Diamond Dust, so whatever they were good for could never be discovered, unless the Gi managed to summon another pair.
While the Gi was distracted, I took the opportunity to move in attack. After the first slash, the Gi seemed to realize that yelling never did anyone any good and started to defend itself, its spear moving to parry my blows. After I managed to get a third slash in, the Gi decided that it since it wasn't fast enough to defend itself properly, it may as well just take the hits and focus on hitting me instead.
I managed to bring my gunblade up in time to parry the strike, but the force of it almost made me drop my weapon, and I would have had I not thrown myself in the direction that the force of the hit would have sent my blade flying. Reaching out, my palm connected with the ground first, allowing me to vault even further from the Gi and land on my feet.
Ok, this thing is strong. Not so strong that I'll have to focus on dodging each and every attack, but certainly strong enough that I'll need to change my fighting style, as in, I was going to need to use both hands to hold my gunblade.
Sighing, I shifted my feet into an actual stance and placed my right hand underneath my left, griping onto the handle.
In my minds eye, I recognised the stance as that used by Squall in Final Fantasy VIII, but then I also had a flash of white in my mind before I heard Shepard's voice telling me that it was the Shinaré style. Good for power, but the most focused on aspect of the stance was defence, allowing the user to defend them self with the least amount of effort.
Yeah, I prefer my usual laid back stance; it feels more comfortable and is harder to read the moves of. That and it leaves my other hand free to punch or do whatever with. But alas, desperate times, ey? Besides which, with this thing, I doubt it'll have any better of a time reading my moves even if I told it what I was doing in advance.
Raising my gunblade so that it was horizontal over my shoulder, but not resting on it, I bent low and moved in towards the Gi. About halfway to the oversized spirit, I began to swing the blade in an overhead arc. I judged the distance properly, and as I reached the Gi, the gunblade connected.
No time to follow up the attack, since the Gi was already swinging its spear in retaliation. Jumping back out of its range, I focused on my Materia and built up the energies required.
"Blizzara." I grunted, and watched in satisfaction as the freak of nature was blasted by several icicles.
Red followed up in the attack with a Fira and then Cloud joined in with a Thundara. Whether or not it was planned, the order of the attacks made it worse for the Gi as the fire had melted the ice but didn't evaporate the water, and then, just as with the Air Buster way back when, thunder meets water on Gi equals much pain for the Gi.
The Gi roared in pain and started to move towards Red, readying its spear. Red saw it coming and moved out of the way, but the Gi kept on following Red, clearly wanting to do at least some damage before moving onto better things.
In an effort to distract it, I launched several salvos of plain old fire at the Gi. By the fifth fireball, the Gi finally turned to a new target, namely me. Smirking, I gave it the finger and watched as it gave its bellow.
I wonder if it realized that I'd insulted it.
The Gi approached, and I moved backwards, keeping my eye on it rather than turn and lose track of where it was. After a while, I fired several shots at it, figuring that it was a nice, safe way to annoy it some more. And if the Gi happened to die, which was doubtful, them power to me.
Eventually, my back hit a wall. Sensing that I was cornered, the Gi approached even more rapidly and reared its spear arm back. Frowning, I watched the Gi as it did so, waiting. It thrust its spear forwards with enough force to skewer me.
I decided I was having none of that, and jumped up the wall and then off the wall sending me flying over the Gi's head, which a took the opportunity to slash at. And as an added bonus, the spear jammed itself into the wall and got stuck, leaving me a chance to do what I do best.
Point and laugh. Loudly.
Another scream from the Gi, and Cloud joined me as we mindlessly hacked at the currently helpless Gi while Red barraged it with Thundara after Thundara. However, all good things had to come to an end, and thus, so did this. The Gi managed to get its spear unstuck from the wall, and swung its other arm around, managing to connect with Cloud's face.
The blond staggered back, with a grunt, and I took several steps back, frowning at the Gi as it tried for take two of impaling me.
Only it was interrupted by a blue beam on energy that collided with it. Cloud had certainly gotten the timing down with his Blade Beam.
Shaking off the shock of being hurt in such a manner, the Gi began to hurl Fira after Fira and Cloud and me.
Swearing, I managed to avoid the worst of the barrage, but the moment one of the spells hit me, every spell after it managed to connect, sending me to the floor, cursing my ill fortune. Looking up, I could see that Cloud had managed to avoid all but the last Fira sent his way, and managed to counter with a Blizzara.
When the Gi managed to dodge the spell, we knew that it had learnt which spell did what, so we did the natural thing to do in such a situation.
"Thundara." Cloud grunted.
The Gi made a move that would have dodged the thunder spell, but in the end it only put itself further into the path of Cloud's Fira, burning it.
Chuckling at the sounds of confusion from the Gi, I cast Cura on myself and stood up, taking in the scene. Red was sending spell after spell at the Gi, which served to further annoy the spirit. Cloud was busy avoiding the Gi's spear. After a brief struggle, Cloud managed to push the Gi away from himself, and positioned himself to renew his attack.
"Red!" I called out. "We'll distract it, prepare to finish it!"
I heard a shouted affirmative.
Readying myself, I took a place at Cloud's side and we looked at the Gi.
"I don't like that spear." He commented, idly.
"No." I agreed. "It's an ugly abomination."
The Gi roared again and we both charged. Cloud ducked under a vicious swing from the spear and jammed his sword into the Gi's ribs. While the Gi was distracted by the over-sized sword stuck in its ribs, I grabbed the arm that was holding the spear and twisted it into an arm-lock.
"Red, NOW!" I yelled.
I watched as Red charged towards us, a red glow surrounding him. He collided with the Gi and the energy from the Blood Fang limit amplified the power behind the attack, sending the Gi flying.
Yet I was still holding its arm.
Blinking, I stared at the arm in confusion, as it dropped its spear and hung limp. I was about to drop the thing and check on whether or not the Gi was beaten, when the arm suddenly made a grab for me.
Yelping, I threw the arm into the air and cast Blizzara on it, watching as it was frozen solid while still in the air. It hit the ground.
It shattered.
As if it sensed the complete destruction of its arm, the Gi gave a loud roar and smashed its remaining fist into Red, who slid back with a yelp. Then it followed through with a Fira to Cloud's face, sending him to the ground.
Cursing, I charged in, swinging Talon. Again I timed it right and managed to hit it, this time on its still existent arm. A loud growl emitted from the Gi and it managed to grab me, and quite literally toss me over its shoulder like I was just a nuisance.
Getting to his feet, Red growled at the Gi and bent low, before releasing another limit. This time, rather than charging at the Gi, the room went dark. For a moment I was left wondering whether anything was going to happen, but then the room was lit up by bright bursts of power that kept slamming into the Gi.
When the room finally turned to normal, the Gi dropped to the floor and seemed to slowly fade into nothing.
Well, a Stardust Ray finish… hell of a way to end it. When did he learn to use Stardust ray anyway?
Once on my feet, I flipped my gunblade in the usual after-battle victory session and sheathed it, watching from the corner of my eye as Red howled his victory and Cloud spun his blade around, before he too returned his weapon to its harness.
"That was epic." I commented.
As if it had been waiting for the death of the Gi, the wall where the statue had stood crumbled, revealing an exit to the outside world.
"Thank you, Cloud, Spike. Because of you, we survived." Beganhagen spoke up, clearly impressed. "Nanaki, you have grown strong, too."
"Oh yeah?" Red asked, small smile tugging at his lips.
"Now I know that it wasn't a mistake bringing you here…" The old man continued. "Come, I have something I want to show you. Right over here."
He began to move through the new exit, and everyone followed.
Outside, night had fallen. Red hopped up onto several rocks and looked up at the top of the cliff that took up the majority of the view, a small gasp exiting his lips.
"This is…"
Began came up so that he was stood nearby, and began talking.
"…The warrior who fought against the Gi." He nodded. "He kept them from taking even one step into Cosmo Canton But he was never able to return to town…
The Elder moved closer and pointed at the statue on top of the cliff, looking serious.
"Look, Nanaki. Look at your father, at the warrior, Seto."
"That…" Red gasped. "That's…. Seto…?"
"Seto continued to fight the Gi tribe here." Bugen informed us. "…To protect this Canyon. Even after the Gi's poisonous arrows turned his body to stone…. Even after they ran away… Seto, continued to protect us. And he continues to protect us, even now."
"Even now…" Red repeated softly, looking up at his father.
""You thought that he was a coward and ran away. But he, alone, risked his life to protect Cosmo Canyon. That is your father, Seto."
"That…. That is Seto?" Red mumbled, turning to Bugenhagen.
"Did mother know?"
Bugan gave his Santa laugh before answering.
"She knew." He said. "The two of them make me promise to keep this cave shut. They asked me to seal it myself and not tell a soul. They said we should forget about this cave."
Red was silent, head bowed.
Bugen turned to Cloud and I, and I noticed that Adrian and Xenor were absent for the first time.
"Cloud, Spike… Would you…"
"Of course." I interrupted, guessing what he was asking. "Let's go Cloud."
The blond nodded, and we both turned and walked back into the cave where we'd fought the Gi. Both Adrian and Xenor were there, waiting for us. They seemed to expect the absence of Bugen and Red, for they didn't ask anything about it. Shepard did give us an odd look though.
At first I thought nothing of it, but when Xenor's elbow connected with Adrian's ribs, I knew something was up.
Adrian cleared his throat and looked at us.
"I owe you two an apology." He admitted. "Mostly you, Spike, but you as well Strife."
Both Cloud and myself gave the Ex-SOLDIER a look of confusion, and he sighed before elaborating.
"I underestimated your fighting abilities. I figured neither of you had any business coming down here when you hadn't the strength to defend yourself. I was wrong, both of you, and Nanaki as well, you've shown me that you are more than capable. Hell, I'm shocked you even got a picture perfect Shinaré Stance, when you so adamantly told me that you never planned on using it."
"So you won't act like a mother-hen anymore?" I asked, hopefully.
"Screw that, kid!" Shepard spat. "If you come home with any more permanent scarring, I'll stop you from ever leaving the Canyon, even if I have to chain you to a rock myself!"
"Oh for the love off..." I muttered, throwing my arms in the air.
Xenor started laughing at my plight and Cloud managed a small smirk before grunting.
"Better you than me."
"And what is that bandage on your arm?" Shepard asked, pointing. "That wasn't there earlier!"
"Oh, that's just covering my new tattoo." I grinned, enjoying the look of shock on Adrian's face.
"A tattoo?! I didn't give you permission to have a tattoo!"
"It's my body!"
"And I'm one of your legal guardians until you reach 18, which won't be for a couple of years yet, kid! So I get a say over what you do to yourself and getting a tattoo is one of them!"
"I repeat, my body, not yours! I can do what I like to it, so long as it ain't emo-cutting or suicide or drugs, all three of which I wouldn't do anyway!"
Xenor continued to laugh at me and the mother-hen, and Cloud just sat there sniggering at me.
"Xenor, back me up!" Shepard called out to the Vortigaunt.
"No, Xenor is on my side!" I countered.
Xenor just continued laughing at us.
AN:::
First off, hope you all had a good Christmas. Yes, it's a tad late to say it, but this is my first update of the New Year, my New Year's Resolution being to try and make the whole season's idea work, so sue me.
For a picture of Montblanc, look for the link in my profile.
One thing I have to say about this chapter. I don't like it. I felt like during the (Gi Nattak or whatever it was) called fight, I emphasised on Spike a little too much. I'll try to avoid that in future, so put down those pitchforks. Problem was, I had all these cool scenes in my mind, but I couldn't get them to actually fit in with the rest of the fight. And if people start complaining that Spike fights a little too well, remember that story-wise, Spike has had at least a couple of months of proverbial 'off-screen' time. Possibly more.
Hey, I suppose I should be thankful that I had Red deal the finishing blow with his limit, rather than the previously planned Spike learns a new limit that ends the fight.
And yes, I say 'off-screen' moments, because I don't write what Spike does every second of every day. Such off-screen moments include might include why Spike's enemy skill Materia actually has enemy skills to it. I'm not about to describe what might well have been a small battle that lasted two seconds for the sake of saying 'I know can cast magic breath/trine/whatever'. Bosses make an exception, but some skills would likely leave no body left if hit by, so not all skills are learnt through being attacked by them. As time goes, Spike's enemy skill Materia will just begin learning skills by itself. Actually witnessing a skill auto learns that particular skill, but otherwise, I really can't justify Spike learning the likes of Shadow Flare and actually having a body left if it hit him. And White Wind and Big Guard? I can't actually justify having the team cast manipulate on a monster to learn a skill? How would they even know that the monster even has said learnable skills? They hardly have a strategy guide to peak at.
And while you're here, in my profile, I have written down a rant. This rant involves an issue that, well, has me ranting. If you want to read the full thing, just go to my profile, but the summery:
I do not tolerate being told that my spellings are wrong just because I didn't write a word in the American way. I'm British, and I'm proud of it. I will not write in the American style of English, especially not when I'm told, in such an oh-so subtle manner, that because I'm writing it in Queen's English, that my spelling is shit.
I'll say no more, as I would probably end up writing pages upon pages off my rant on the subject. If I have a genuine typo, then it's ok to point it out, but having every single word spelt in the British way criticized as a typo is not ok. It's downright insulting. That's all I'll say on the matter.