I do not own Dragon Quest VIII or any of its characters.
Earning Your Path
Kane sidestepped a handful of razor-sharp feathers, fired from the wings of a mecha-mynah. The feathers stabbed into the ground behind him and he lunged.
"Your sword won't cut metal!" Marik warned Kane.
"Nope, it sure won't," Kane said, even as he leapt into the air over another barrage, slashing hard with both hands as he fell.
With a metallic screech, the blade rent the mecha-mynah's metal body apart, the gears and machinery inside grinding against each other before bursting apart as the mechanical bird hit the ground. A mole holding a long shovel leapt at him, but he turned, slashing it aside, then turned again, slashing a waist-high cat with white and tan stripes up across the face. As the cat hit the ground, Marik passed him, slashing a pair of moles and a dracky.
Everyone looked around just as Yangus crushed a dracky between his club and the ground leaving the area clear. Valentina had told them that Kalderasha had switched from using a crystal ball to a glass ball, which was why his fortune telling abilities had been failing lately, and had asked them to find a real crystal ball. She'd mentioned he'd thrown the last one he'd had into the waterfall, so they'd started with a cave system the waterfall fell into. King Trode and Medea had waited outaide, and the three that could fight had entered the cave about twenty minutes ago. So far, they'd made it maybe a hundred feet up a stone bridge reaching from the mouth of the first cavern into a tunnel deeper into the cave and had been swarmed.
"That was some welcome," Kane mused.
"Nuffin we can't 'andle, right guv?" Yangus asked, looking to Marik.
Marik nodded. "Agreed."
Kane nodded in agreement as his Hellhound walked over, blood coating the fur around its mouth and a dracky between its teeth, though it spat the dead bat out as it reached him, Kane scratching behind its ear for a moment.
They all turned, heading deeper into the cave. As they travelled, a handful of moles burst from the ground intermitantly, and a mecha-mynah rounded a corner at a fork in the path, but all of them were dealt with easily enough without there being a massive swarm. After a few moments, the tunnel sloped deeper into the ground, then levelled out where a pair of mecha-mynahs lie collapsed into metal balls on the ground. Just as they reached the bottom of the slope, the birds's feet, heads, and wings burst from their bodies and they flipped themselves over, rushing toward Kane and the others. However, this time, Kane stepped forward, sword pulled back.
"Out of the way," Kane growled.
Flames roared along his blade and his strike tore through both of the mechanical birds, the flames softening their metal bodies before his blade carved through the weakened metal, destroying both. As their broken pieces bounced across the ground, Yangus gaped at Kane.
"Wot the 'ell wazzat?" Yangus asked.
"Kane's a mage as well as swordsman," Marik explained. "He can combine some of his spells with his swordplay."
"So could you, if you had ever payed attwntion when I was trying to teach you," Kane said, just as a mole burst out of the ground off to the side, only for Kane to wave a hand, a fist-sized fireball flashing over and exploding against it, killing it.
"'ow and I just findin' out yer a bleedin' mage?" Yangus asked.
"Because I don't always show it off," Kane said. "Let's go. I can hear the waterfall."
Yangus sighed, nodding, and he and Marik followed Kane through the last stretch of tunnel to a huge cavern. A stone bridge extended from the tunnel to the waterfall that fell from the roof of the cavern before them. below the bridge, more than a hundred feet below, was water, a fatal fall even for it being water. However, there was something even more important to them than the risk of a fatal fall. There was a crystal ball, one with a lightly pinkish hue, floating over the ground before the waterfall.
"That's too easy," Kane shook his head slowly, adjusting his shield and readying his sword. "It's a trap."
"Not everything is a trap," Marik argued, walking forward with him, Yangus behind them.
Just as they reached out for the crystal ball, something massive and red burst out of the waterfall, laughing.
"Surprise, surprise!" the massive, fish creature said, its voice slurred slightly.
It had a pair of powerfully-built arms, a fish tail, red scales over most of its body, white scales along its stomach and the underside of its tail, large fangs, huge, orange fins on the sides of its head and one running front-to-back over its head, orange webbing for its fingers, large black claws, and an orange tail fin sitting sideways on the end of its tail.
"Meet Geyzer!" the merman said, pronouncing its name as the word for an elderly man, his voice fitting the word. "I am the master of this waterfall! Oh, how long it's been! How many people have gone and come! Ten long years and more I've waited! Ten years, I tell you! All the time hoping for the left one...I mean, the right one to come!"
Kane frowned.
"But enough with the introductions!" the merman continued. "Now for the troment of muth! Does this brystal call...er, crystal ball belong to you?"
"No," Kane said. "But we're taking it."
"No," Geyzer said. "I'm waiting for the owner!"
"Your wait's over," Kane said. "We're taking it. We need it."
"Douch it and tie," the merman warned incorrectly. "Er, touch it and die."
Kane sighed, drawing his sword. "Then we'll fight you for it."
Geyzer narrowed his eyes, then shot forward, his left arms swiping at Kane. Kane ducked under it, slashing up at him but Geyzer flipped out of the way, then caught Yangus's club. He hurled him away, then backhanded Marik. Kane leapt forward again, flames rolling along his blade, and when Geyzer avoided the blade, the flames rolled off of it and scortched a trail across his torso. Geyzer shouted in pain, retreating, only for Marik to chase him, slashing him across the torso. Again Geyzer shouted in pain, then grabbed Marik by the torso, hurling him at Kane. Kane ducked out of the way, then charged alongside Yangus. Geyzer slashed at them, but Kane darted forward, using his right forearm to block Geyzer's left arm and his shield to block Geyzer's right. Then, Yangus stepped off of Kane's shoulder and swung downward with all his might. The club slammed into the scar on Geyzer's head, and Geyzer howled in pain, retreating.
"The pain, the pain!" Geyzer shrieked, clutching at his head. "Oh, my old wound! Ever since I got this, I've not been right quite. And it's all because of this accursed ball's owner!" He stopped, looking to Kane and the others. "What do you need it for?"
"We're hunting someone, and we know a fortuneteller who can use this to tell us where to find him," Kane said.
"Oh!" Geyzer's face screwed up in frustration and pain for a moment. "Just take it! But if you happen to see its owner, tell him this from me. DON'T THROW THINGS IN THE FALLWATER! ! !" Then, Geyzer turned and retreated into the waterfall again.
Kane nodded and took the crystal ball, passing it to Marik. Marik slipped it into his bag and they all turned and made their way back out of the cave. Hopefully this fortune teller could give them the lead they needed.
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