I'm terribly sorry about the long wait and the shortness of this chapter, but my freshmen year of college has just started, and I didn't have the available time to produce a full chapter in a decent timeframe. Hope you guys can forgive me this time.

Strangely enough, Cyril found himself quite ill at ease with the appearance of another Sentinel. While he was glad the one currently entering the area in a powerful whirlwind was not Helios, Cyril would have honestly preferred to have encountered Theron; the Sentinel of Ice didn't talk much, but that was far more tolerable than Cyril's other compatriots.

Then again, perhaps he was rushing to unfair conclusions. He had not talked with Xandra at length; maybe their upcoming meeting wouldn't be quite as bad as Cyril was thinking it would be.

As it was, Cyril and Amy were simply watching Xandra's sudden arrival from their ledge above the dark, rocky cavern they had discovered but a few minutes earlier. It would have been quite the coincidence, had Cyril not found this particular cave by following the aura of dark energy emanating from it. After all, as a Sentinel, there was no reason why Xandra could not do the same.

Regardless, Cyril could only watch as Xandra's Gale Stream gradually brought her body into the mortal realm. Well, that and answer Amy's curious questions.

"Really? Another Sentinel? Which one? Are they as powerful as you? And they are our allies for sure, right?"

"Yes, really. This Sentinel happens to be our only female member, Xandra. She manipulates wind and is probably more powerful than me through experience alone, as she has been a Sentinel for much longer than I. As for allies, we are indeed. However, that in no way means she will be friendly."

His last remark earned a frown from Amy as she watched the last bits of Xandra's form come into existence. The dying winds that had marked her entry caused the woman's dark hair to billow about her for a moment, adding a bit more flair to Amy's initial impression of the Sentinel, who happened to be facing the duo.

"My God, she's gorgeous!"

While he would not have expressed it quite so openly or loudly as Amy had, Cyril could only agree as he witnessed another Sentinel besides himself without their helmet for the first time. Xandra was indeed more beautiful than he had expected. From what little of her brash personalitly he had seen in Valhalla, Cyril had been expecting a more... brusque appearance.

"Indeed, she is quite beautiful..."

His agreement earned a sharp glance from Amy, though she refrained from saying anything aloud.

You fool, you aren't supposed to agree with me...

As Amy's initial exclamation was quite loud, Xandra immediately raised her emerald gaze to its origin. There was no expression of recognition on her face when she laid eyes on Cyril, but that was to be expected; she had only ever seen him in his complete armor. On the other hand, she now had more simpletons to explain things to...

"Alright you peons, if what you just saw wasn't clue enough, I am-"

Seeing the irritation already etched on her face, Cyril decided to spare Xandra her introduction. "That won't be necessary Xandra. I know you well enough."

There was brief flicker of surprise on Xandra's face, but she managed to subdue it rather quickly. After all, it was easy enough to identify the man above her. Only three men knew of her identity. Theron would never be out of his armor, and he probably wouldn't have said a word anyway. Helios' gruff and (according to Xandra) obnoxious voice was easy to recognize, and the man above her did not sound like that. The only remaining option was Chrysaor.

"Chrysaor, what a coincidence. I did not expect to encounter another Sentinel so early. I never would have recognized you, seeing as how you look nothing like I expected you to..."

Beginning the slight descent to the level where Xandra was standing, Cyril urged Amy to follow him down as he answered. "I could say the same for you. We both made assumptions about the other's appearance that were apparently wrong."

"Oh? I'm almost afraid to ask what you thought of me."

"Nothing bad. You're simply more captivating than I had imagined."

While most girl's would have been flattered, Xandra already had full confidence in how gorgeous she was. That being the case, she saw Cyril's words as simple fact. Only Amy had to grit her teeth as Cyril complimented the new arrival.

"Well, even I must admit that you aren't quite as undesirable as I imagined you would be."

Instead of getting offended, Cyril simply accepted what was probably a compliment on Xandra's part. "Regardless, I assume you're here for the same reason we are?"

"If you mean the source of questionable energy flowing forth from this cave, then yes. Speaking of which, who is this? She hardly looks useful."

Amy glared at the taller woman venomously, but she refrained from defending herself. For one, she was not keen on arguing with a being that was supposedly even stronger than Cyril. Second, she was kind of hoping that Cyril would defend her himself...

She was actually kind of hoping that Cyril would even get angry over her, but perhaps that was expecting a little too much. After all, Cyril was still his usual collected self. "Amy is young, yes, but I assure you that she is a very capable individual, Xandra. She has proven herself in my company already."

Xandra usually would have said something snarky about this, but she stopped herself when an image of Link flashed through her mind. Who was she to judge the mortal companion Chrysaor was traveling with? After all, she could hardly say that Link had proven himself in her company...

"Very well. I'll trust your judgment on that. After all, I can hardly say the same for the person accompanying me..."

Hearing that Xandra of all people, who was the most aloof individual Cyril had ever known outside of Theron, had a companion was shocking. Despite his best efforts, Cyril couldn't keep a look of genuine surprise and incredulity from crossing his face. "You... have a traveling companion?"

The expression on Cyril's face earned a frown from Xandra. "Yes. Is that so hard to believe? I am not so uncouth that I can't secure companions of my own."

"I didn't mean to say that you couldn't... merely that I thought you wouldn't. I didn't think you enjoyed company..."

The severe expression on Xandra's face intensified. "The only company I'm not enjoying right now is yours. In fact, why don't you stay out here with your diminutive sidekick so that I may investigate this phenomena alone?"

At this point Amy finally threw caution to the wind. This new woman was irritating her. "Just a minute, we were here first-!"

Cyril's hand on her shoulder stopped Amy short. He simply shook his head at her before facing Xandra again. "You know as well as I do that should we discover the Catalyst here or anywhere else, it is likely to be protected by supernatural forces. It'd be best to investigate this source of dark energy together. Our powers combined are much stronger than they are alone."

Even though she had full confidence in her ability to handle things alone, Xandra was by no means an illogical person. She could not truthfully say that Chrysaor was mistaken. Two Sentinels were indeed much more powerful than one. "Fine. But keep your little friend in check. I can only handle so much annoyance."

With that Xandra turned on her heel and marched towards the dim entrance to the cave the trio sought to investigate, leaving Amy to fume behind her as Cyril summoned his armor.

"Who does that woman think she is?! I don't care if she's a Sentinel, I'll-!"

Cyril once again stopped the girl with a hand on the shoulder. "Let it go Amy. There's no point in getting mad. You couldn't do anything to her regardless of how mad you are."

"You could."

"I'm not going to fight another Sentinel Amy..."

"Come on, be a man and defend me!"

Cyril directed a stern glare in Amy's direction before donning his helmet. That was answer enough for her, though it didn't stop her from pouting, ever so subtly.

With nothing else to say to each other over the matter, Cyril and Amy followed Xandra into the cave, conflicted over what they thought would be the death of them; the unknown enemy, or her.

While Tira would have loved to lounge around in the river she had found for a few hours, both sides of her knew that it was dangerous to stay too long in one spot. It was highly likely that Hilde had discovered her escape by now, and the redhead had no doubt sent her soldiers to look for Tira. In fact, the princess herself may be out and about, searching high and low for the assassin who had escaped her fortress.

Of course, there was no way they would catch Tira; she had literally walked right past most of the guards on her way out of the castle. How could they expect to find her in the woods?

Either way, after her unfortunate encounter with Ashlotte, Tira was not otherwise harassed by anyone, giving her plenty of time to wash most of the filth and blood from her clothing. Of course, there was nothing she could do about the gashes and tears in the crimson attire, or, now that she thought about it, how wet it was.

She had no desire to traipse about the forest in wet clothing...

Do you think we can just sit around and wait for it to dry? That might be a little dangerous...

It'll take hours to be comfortably dry. We can't wait that long. We need to move sooner than later.

But it'll be really gross to move around all wet and stuff...

Look, we're in the middle of the woods, and we don't plan to be spotted. Let's just throw our boots on and go.

But, to go through the woods stark naked like that... it's so shameless! And what if we get stuck by thorns in really sensitive areas?

Since Tira's gloomy side was currently in control of her body, she simply rolled her eyes and grabbed her boots of the ground. They were caked in blood on the outside, but since the inside was clean enough, Tira hadn't bothered washing them. Therefore, they were dry enough to walk in without her feeling uncomfortable.

Hey, wait a minute! Can we at least put our underwear on? That's not too much to ask is it?!

With a sigh, Tira decided to accommodate her other self's misguided desire for modesty. Her underwear was wet too, yes, but it was a small price to pay to keep her counterpart in line.

Still, even then it was not as if she was conforming to social norms. With nothing but boots and underwear on, Tira was still virtually naked. Even her torso was completely exposed, but somehow none of this dawned on her jolly side. She was completely satisfied with the sparse amount of clothing she currently had on. Probably because she was too dense to realize that her modesty was hardly being preserved at all.

Either way, Tira didn't want to carry her wet clothes close to her body, since that'd hardly be any different from wearing them... In an effort to avoid that, she decided to wrap her garments around her ring blade, so that she could carry both simultaneously. As for her gauntlets, she had no choice but to go ahead and wear those too, further solidifying the image of a very strange and very naked girl running about in the woods. To keep it from snagging on branches as much, Tira went ahead and put her long hair back into pigtails as well. While it was subconscious by now, she made sure they were both equal in length and position. Had she realized she was doing this, she probably would have been flustered.

When she finally finished getting ready, ironically by staying half-naked, Tira was struck with confusion; where exactly was she going to go? She had no particular goal in mind, but she needed some sort of direction to follow... she needed a rough idea of what she wanted to do now.

Where should we go anyway? We can't really just roam around blindly...

Well, we could, but that's not exactly a good plan, right?

Right. So... what do we want to do from now on? We could easily just go around killing people wherever we went, but...

Seems kinda stale at the moment, right? Hmm... oh, I know! Let's go back home!

The word 'home' had an entirely different meaning for Tira than it did for normal people. She didn't remember anything about her actual birthplace, or what she considered her hometown. The only place she would have considered home was where she had been raised by the Birds of Passage... but that place had a lot of bad memories... why did she want to go there? Even if it was only one part of her...

Yet, Tira found that even her gloomy side was not entirely opposed to the idea. Returning to the place she considered home would be... interesting, to say the least. She wasn't sure if she actually required closure of some sort, but Tira had always felt that the way her time ended with the Birds of Passage had left her incomplete somehow. As if it wasn't the ending she was supposed to have had. Maybe going back would put the long buried feeling at ease.

Alright, it's probably a terrible idea, but I guess there's no reason not to. But first we have to get our bearings... and probably let our clothes dry. I'm certainly not leaving the forest naked.

Oh, good. For a minute there I thought you actually would...

How could you possibly know yourself that poorly?

Wasn't it you who said we might as well be two different people?

With no response for that, Tira's gloomy side decided to ignore the question, instead beginning her long and very interesting trek through the woods, providing a very exclusive show for the animals that resided there.

While Amy was too far gone to regret her decision to follow Cyril at this point, there were still some things about her adventure with him that drove her mad. One of them was the unfortunate need to dive into unsavory caves that were damp, cold, and slick with what was probably waste from bats. Whether or not she was happy to be accompanying Cyril, she could have done without the location.

"What makes you so certain that the Catalyst is in a place like this? Couldn't it just as well be in field of flowers or something? Or maybe next to a pretty lake?"

Cyril tried to see the expression of bitterness on Amy's face, but since the girl was in front of him he couldn't. He had elected to follow Amy from behind, so that if anything attacked them, she would be protected by both him and Xandra. "It is entirely possible that the Catalyst is somewhere pleasant, but if is being actively protected by some force, than it is more likely to be somewhere like this, don't you think?"

Amy sighed, unable to refute Cyril's logic in that regard. She had read plenty of adventure novels during her long, dull days in Wallachia Castle, and she knew better than anyone that important items were located in dungeons or other hard to reach locations. "Yes, well it would be nice to beat the odds for once..."

With nothing to say to that, considering that he agreed, Cyril stayed silent as he followed up the rear of his little unit. Xandra had not spoken a word since entering the cave, seeking only to locate the source of the dark energy that had brought her here. It was obvious that she was irritated, but Cyril could not quite imagine why. It wasn't as if he or Amy had managed to earn her ire yet... though maybe they really had. From what little he knew about her, Cyril knew that Xandra was a very easy person to agitate.

While he was confident in his ability to handle his fellow Sentinel, Cyril wanted to stay on Xandra's good side, since any fight between them would be catastrophic. Then again, he didn't think Xandra would actually fight him, regardless of how much he or Amy irritated her. They were on the same side, after all.

Then again, he knew very little about the woman's disposition. For all he knew Xandra could blow a fuse and do something crazy. In the end he would just have to hope that it didn't come to that.

Either way, the atmosphere was much too tense for Cyril's liking. He had to do something before anything bad happened. "Xandra, you said you had a companion of your own. Why did you let him accompany you? You said yourself that he had not proven himself very useful to you yet."

While Cyril's desire for conversation was more than a little irritating to Xandra, she found that it was not all that hard to criticize Link, even if, to herself, it was jest as much as truth. "He's a pitifully meek, clueless individual who asks too many questions of me and never keeps his own annoying sidekick in check. Which sort of reminds me of you two, really."

While Amy looked like she wanted to stab the Sentinel in front of her, Cyril merely smiled. He was much better at deflecting insults than most. "Perhaps, but I imagine that he isn't quite as handsome as I am, and his sidekick isn't nearly as cute as my own."

Despite being happy to receive a compliment, Amy nevertheless directed a glare at Cyril for labeling her as his sidekick. He could have at least used a less degrading title.

Surprisingly, Xandra seemed amused by Cyril's response rather than irritated. She even cracked the slightest of smiles. "I unfortunately must agree with you there. He does not quite fit my tastes, and your companion is, though I regret saying it, far less obnoxious than his. A little."

Cyril imagined that Amy would have a lot of ranting to do when they were alone later, because the look on her face said she was holding in many nasty and unpleasant retorts. A little wary of that vitriol, Cyril coulnd't help but wonder how advanced Amy's knowledge of cursing was. Girls like her usually seemed more refined than most, but if pushed the wrong way they often revealed a much less regal side of themselves. Cyril was almost positive that Amy had one.

"So then, if he is so useless and his sidekick so annoying, why let him accompany you? You could easily abandon him at any time. In fact, you seem to have done so already, since he isn't here."

Though her attention was focused in front of her to avoid any missteps, Xandra's voice was loud enough, or perhaps just sharp enough, to be heard regardless. "You ask too many questions Chrysaor."

"You may call me Cyril instead, you know. As for your companion, it sounds like you brought him along for an impractical reason altogether..."

Stopping in her tracks to level an angry glare at her fellow Sentinel, Xandra gave an all too accurate response. "What right do you have to make such an assumption, Cyril? Are you not doing the same? Clearly that girl with you serves no practical purpose in your mission. You mean to tell me that you have not allowed her to accompany you for impractical reasons as well?"

Far beyond angry at this point, Amy was more than ready to say something, but Cyril once again cut her off. The poor girl really couldn't get a word in edgewise, though it was probably to her benefit. "I didn't mean to offend you Xandra. I didn't say it was a bad thing. There is nothing wrong with simply wanting company to travel with. Valhalla was a lonely place."

Xandra scoffed at that, though internally she couldn't completely deny it. "Are you trying to imply that such a pathetic human emotion would affect me? Don't be ridiculous."

Rolling her crimson eyes at what she thought was obvious denial, Amy decided to ignore her companions as best she could, instead focusing on her surroundings. The cave they were exploring was steadily growing more spacious, and from her current location among one particular rough pathway, she could see a lot of water in some lower areas. They had left the entrance far behind several minutes ago, but nevertheless ambient sunlight was pouring in from somewhere below her that Amy couldn't see, accompanied by the sound of running water.

"This cave isn't quite what I was expecting..."

Her remark went unanswered as the trio of explorers descended a small makeshift set of rocky stairs. Cyril found it suspicious that the surface they used did indeed look like rough stairs; more like a purposeful innovation than an accident. The notion that the stairs had been crafted became even more prominent as he laid eyes on what was further below them.

A large, roughly circular stone platform resided in the middle of a large pool of water, with no bridges or other attachments to speak of. Beyond the platform was a huge opening in the cave wall that allowed sunlight into the area, though the chunks of sharp stone protruding from the top and bottom of the gap made the image seem more threatening than it should have been. Either way, it was obvious that the platform was not a natural formation, and that was more than enough to convince Cyril that they were on the right track.

"That platform likely has some significance to whatever creatures live here."

Hopping from stone to stone, somehow managing to avoid slipping on the wet surfaces, Xandra nodded in agreement. "Indeed. Though there doesn't seem to be anything of note about it..."

"We should investigate it anyway, just in case there is something about it not immediately obvious to the naked eye."

Amy looked at the platform from as many angles as she could, but didn't see any way of getting to it aside from swimming. "Surely you don't expect us to swim over there..."

"Of course not. Xandra and I can easily make the jump. You can either wait on this end, or I'll simply carry you over. Whatever you prefer."

Not waiting to find out what her companions were going to do, Xandra funneled her powers into a powerful leap that sent her clear across the water separating her from the platform in need of investigating. This jump was accompanied by a powerful wind that nearly blew Amy off of her feet, but luckily Cyril was standing close enough to hold her up.

"Assuming that a Sentinel's abilities are somewhat similar in nature, am I going to be electrocuted if I accompany you over there?"

Cyril could see why that was a valid concern, but he was slightly miffed that Amy didn't believe him to be more cautious. He wouldn't even suggest taking her with him if it would harm her. "I assure you that you will not be harmed in any way, aside from a possible jarring landing on the other side. Unlike Xandra, I cannot slow my descent in midair. Still, I'll be careful enough to avoid really hurting you, so don't worry about that."

Amy noted, not for the first time, that Cyril was not the best when it came to actually assuring people. Maybe it was because it was because he was too technical in his explanations? Still, she had seen enough of Cyril in action to know that he would keep her safe both in and out of battle, so Amy had no doubts about Cyril's sincerity in this matter, whether it was well translated or not.

"If you say so. Whenever you're ready."

With Amy's consent gained, Cyril gently lifted the girl into his arms, careful to avoid poking her with the sharper edges of his armor. "Alright, hang on."

There was really no need to tell her that, but Amy did as she was told without retort, hoping that their landing wouldn't be too hard. She had quite the delicate constitution after all.

Then again, the liftoff wasn't much better. Cyril took off from the ground with a jolt that made Amy's teeth rattle, though she again chose to withhold her complaints. She was sure Cyril was doing his best to take it easy. After all, true to his word, Amy suffered no shocks of electricity, and at least the brief flight through the air was comfortable. Of course, she had the landing to look forward to...

Much to her dismay, her prediction of a rough landing was entirely accurate: with her in his arms, Cyril could not roll to mitigate the force of his impact, though, granted, if he were by himself, he'd hardly need to. As it was, he had no choice but to plant his feet firmly into the ground, leading to more than a few cracks in the stone, and what felt like a few in Amy's own bones, though she was sure that her body was just exaggerating.

Hoping that he hadn't jarred her too badly, Cyril set Amy down as gently as he could, acknowledging in hindsight that he could have asked Xandra to soften the landing for them. Then again, his fellow Sentinel surely knew that as well, and there was no need for him to have actually asked her; she could have done so of her own accord. Perhaps she was still irritated over his comment earlier?

Still, there was no need to further aggravate her by asking, and apparently Amy wasn't going to say anything either, instead occupying herself with shaking some of the newfound soreness from her legs.

Having had a little more time to analyze the immediate area than her cohorts, Xandra was the first to express her dismay. "There's nothing here. Nothing obvious at any rate."

Cyril examined the immediate area himself, noting that, for the most part, Xandra was right. It seemed to be nothing more than a large, circular outcropping of stone. But it was too smooth, too rounded to be a natural occurrence. He was convinced that it held some significance.

Upon further investigation of the floor itself, he noticed that it was discolored in many places, in splotches of color ranging from scarlet red to nearly black. If he had to make an educated guess, Cyril would identify the discoloration as blood.

"On the contrary, if this really is the cave where those lizards originated from..."

Before Cyril could finish, Xandra cut in with a questioning tone. "Lizards?"

"We came here because I traced the dark energies of some humanoid reptilian monsters that attacked a village back to this place. As I was saying, if this is where they originated from, then this place is probably some sort of feeding ground."

Xandra did not look entirely convinced of 'humanoid reptilian monsters', but she decided that Cyril was unlikely to make up something like that just to fool with her. Besides, surely there were stranger things than that about the world...

"Despite my initial skepticism at that entire sentence, I'll take your word for it..."

Before either Sentinel could continue, Amy cut in, casting a questioning look at Xandra. "Hold on; you're here because you sensed the same dark energy Cyril did; but clearly you didn't encounter the same monsters we did, so how did you...?"

Not one to enjoy explaining herself, Xandra nevertheless did so, figuring that Amy would likely not accept silence as an answer. "My sensory abilities surpass all of the other Sentinels, since I have a more direct connection to worldly energies than they. That's all. Now, as I was saying, if you killed all of these monsters before coming here, perhaps there are none left. How large was the group that attacked?"

Amy was a little mad to be cut off, but figured she could say nothing considering that she had done the same to Xandra. That being the case, Cyril chose to answer instead. "Quite large. An exact guess is impossible, but well over two dozen, at least. Who knows how many there might be left?"

With all of the time she had spent reading books in her solitude at Wallachia, Amy actually had some knowledgeable input here. "Well, reptiles don't travel in groups to begin with, at least not naturally. That being the case, we can't make an assumption for either outcome. Maybe there's hundreds more, or maybe we eradicated them all back at the town. Clearly they aren't following any of nature's laws..."

The mention of such laws being broken caused Xandra to bristle. "Abominations then..."

Cyril refrained from pointing out that Xandra was herself in defiance of nature's laws by her mere existence, if only because he had no wish to antagonize her. Besides, for Xandra, such a thing would be far beyond a mere insult; such words could actually turn them into enemies instead of allies.

"All of that aside, we should try to find some sort of clue regarding these creature's origins. It could have something to do with the Catalyst."

Xandra crossed his arms. "It just as well could have nothing to do with it at all."

"Do you have any better leads to follow?"

With little else to say to that, Xandra simply stayed quiet. She could actually sense some other disturbances in the world at the moment, but she was already here, so why not investigate while the situation was at hand?

With no dissent from her, Cyril wondered what exactly he should do to continue his search of this place. What exactly should he be looking for?

Now that the group had fallen into silence, Amy decided to glance around the cave again, to entertain herself if nothing else. It occurred to her that she hadn't decided to see how tall the cavern was, and her curiosity wouldn't let that rest, so without a second thought the petite redhead glanced above the group; much to their good fortune.

"Cyril, above us!"

Cyril and Xandra looked up just in time to see a large, rather frilly lizard man leaping down at them from the ceiling, two nasty looking hand axes in tow. It would have landed right on top of them had Amy not spotted the thing, leading the entire trio to successfully back step to a safe distance as the creature crashed onto the platform with them.

Instead of wasting any time asking questions or simply staring at the thing, Xandra thrusted her right arm at the beast, launching a narrow blade of wind at the reptile's torso. Her quick reaction caught the beast completely off guard, since it had expected its arrival to frighten its foes. With no time to react itself, Xandra's attack tore a small hole clean through its torso.

While this would have ended the fight immediately under normal circumstances, Xandra's attack had apparently hit nothing vital, and the lizard man seemed more angered than truly hurt.

Somewhat irked that her Wind Javelin had failed to kill the beast, Xandra launched another one, but aimed for the reptile's head this time. Unfortunately it was prepared this time, and her magical attack was sidestepped.

Cyril was honestly surprised that the monster was smart enough to dodge an invisible attack; perhaps its intelligence was higher than he had assumed?

Still, there was no point in standing around and wondering about it when he could be assisting his fellow Sentinel, so Cyril wasted no time in drawing Naegling and rushing his new enemy with moderate speed. To his surprise, the lizard was actually fast enough to dodge him, as its powerful legs launched the beast several yards to the side of Cyril's swing.

The monster further proved its quickness by subsequently launching itself right back at Cyril, using it's head as a makeshift battering ram. Instead of dodging it, even though he had plenty of time to do so, Cyril simply dug his feet into the ground and braced himself. The enemy crashed into his raised arms with what would have been bone-crushing force, but against a Sentinel, all it did was hurt itself, which was obvious enough as the lizard man reeled back in a daze.

Of course, Cyril had not escaped damage himself, but only because the arm that had been hurt by Gungnir was still vulnerable. Trying to take advantage of his enemy's unstable state, Cyril thrusted Naegling at the beast, but it once again surprised him by blocking the attack with its own weapons, displaying a remarkable ability to recover.

Seeking a different approach, he drew Naegling back to him and swung it again in an overhead fashion. Normally he wouldn't resist to such obvious tactics, but Cyril wanted to test his foe's fighting ability. How well did it react to different attacks?

As he found out, quite well indeed. Instead of foolishly trying to block the overhead swing or make a wide and therefore slow swing of its own, the lizard performed a quick counter by ramming the hilt of one of its axes into Cyril's stomach, causing the Sentinel to stumble back a few steps.

It was obvious that the reptile wished to continue its assault, but its rush at Cyril was interrupted by the unexpected jab of a rapier at its legs. Using Cyril's body to obscure the lizard's sight of her, Amy had slid low into the field to stab the enemy in the legs. Still, it was minute damage at best, and did nothing more than lead the monster to retreat a few steps.

Talking was left completely aside in the face of this new predicament. Cyril had full confidence in their ability to beat their solitary enemy, but if more of this caliber showed up? Then they might be in trouble.

Having stopped at the inn fairly early thanks to Siegfried's fatigue, Ivy was nowhere near tired as she lay in the inn room's only bed, her back to her newest traveling companion.

While she herself wasn't tired, she could tell that Siegfried had not been exaggerating about himself, as his breathing had long since evened out into a steady, rhythmic tune that signaled the nature of his deep sleep.

To be honest the situation was worrisome. Ivy knew that Siegfried had much more stamina than he was currently exhibiting, so he was either sick, or Soul Calibur was somehow affecting him. She wanted to know the cause, but didn't think Siegfried trusted her with the Sword at the moment.

Now she had two reasons to be awake; fretting over that, and the simple fact that she was not yet tired.

However, this state of things did not last long, as she suddenly heard Siegfried thrashing about behind her. By the time she managed to turn to see what was going on, the man was halfway out the door, Soul Calibur in tow. Needless to say, the evening had just gotten much more interesting. Whether it was in a good way or a bad one, was still to be discovered.

Either way, Ivy wasted no time in getting dresses somewhat appropriately to follow Siegfried into the rapidly waning light of the outside. This was her chance to learn something new about the Spirit Sword, because whatever was happening to Siegfried was certainly not normal.

I know this chapter is short, and I'm sorry for that. But my Freshmen year of college hit me like a freight train, and I just don't have time to crank out a chapter of normal length right now since my first paper is coming up. That explains the wait as well; I hope you guys can understand.