Sorry for the cliffhanger last time... was too good a chance to refuse! Anywhoo, It would be rude to leave Amalia/Ashe waiting to be rescued any longer! Onward!
Chapter 5: As the Current Flows
[ No Music For Now (NMFN)]
Traveling through the Waterways, the Rats, Ghosts, and Garchimacera monsters approached us, yet never ventured too near. They were too scared of Steele. Heck, I was scared of Steele. The guy just gave off an aura of power and intimidation walking around. I felt that, were he to feel like doing so, he could crush all of us and walk away without breaking a sweat or ruffling that cloak of his. I still thought he seemed familiar, though, as if I knew him from somewhere. If only I could build the courage to remove his cloak's hood...
As we approached the area where we were to meet Ashe, a faint noise made Ace and my ears twitch, being as they were more sensitive. It was the sound of metal clanking, like armor, and the unmistakable sound of swords clashing with other swords and shields. Our battle was near. Fortunately, it wasn't too difficult in the game. That meant that with our current power, it would be a snap to eliminate the Archadian soldiers ahead. I stopped the group to explain what was about to happen.
"Alright, there's going to be some Archadian soldiers chasing a silvery blonde haired woman. She will call herself Amalia, but don't tell her that you know it isn't. We cannot let her fall or be captured. Got it?" Everyone nodded, but Balthier had his doubts.
"Saving damsels in distress is fine and all, but why this one in particular?" Typical sky pirate, wondering how it helps him to do something for someone else. I couldn't resist rolling my eyes.
"She is a key character in getting you to your treasures. Also, she is important in other ways I will let you discover for yourself." Good, he's accepting it. Just then, Steele speaks for the first time.
"I believe you. This world will have need of her." He spoke in a kind of monotone, with just a hint at the emotion of concern. "Therefore, I will help you in any way I can." With that, he lowered his hood. My jaw dropped as I beheld a silver furred fox head, with moderately sized spiky hair and dark grey eyes. He wore a collar like necklace and the pupils of his eyes were slitted both horizontally and vertically, resulting in a crossed appearance. One bang of his hair covered his right eye, effectively hiding it from view. I knew he felt familiar.
"Silver!... or is it Grey Steele still?" This must have been one of my subconsciously selected allies, Silver Foxx, along with his alter ego Grey Steele.
"I am both in one, you may call me either name." He smiled, and the bang shifted to cover his left eye, revealing his right eye to actually be a light grey color that shone with compassion and humor. His voice also gained full emotion, revealing a halting accent that sounded vaguely like Oriental, yet English was clearly his first language.
"I-I'm glad you could help, now we need to go or we'll miss saving our target." They all nodded. "Right, then. Let's go!"
[Music theme: Dearly Beloved, NeoS remix]
We quickly rushed onward, stopping just before the gate to where we'd save her to use the crystal, then rushed in. The soldiers had dispatched Ashe's bodyguards, and she stood cornered, sword drawn and shield up as she stood against a cliff.
"Over here! I'll catch you!" I waved my arms then held them out for her to jump in them. She hesitated, probably not certain whether to trust such a strange character as me, then decided that I was better than capture. She jumped, and crashed into me, narrowly avoiding impaling me with her sword. Man, Vaan must have been pretty strong to catch her. She must have weighed 250 pounds! Enough on her weight, though, the soldiers had jumped over the side and closed the gates to surround us. Quickly, commands fell from my mouth, even though no one had elected me leader.
"Ace, Balthier, do what you do best! Silver, defend her! I will be dealing with the leader."
"When did I ever do anything different?" Balthier wasn't much for taking orders, but he complied well enough.
"You got it, Fox Boy!" Ace got the message and he was on all fours, his blade was at the ready. I assumed that was his preferred fighting stance.
"I would be honored to assist." Steele was back, and the boxes glowed, at the ready, as he lifted himself off the ground.
The soldier Comander laughed. "You think you can take me, boy? I don't care what you are, I, Commander Tonberry 'Leeroy' Jenkins, have never lost my prey, and that woman is it!" He pulled out a greatsword, and brandished it at me, looking very inexperienced. I rolled my eyes, and got into a fighting stance. He was so pathetic, I wouldn't even need a weapon to defeat him.
The six other soldiers took on Ace and Balthier, with Steele blasting any Archadian that got too close with psionic blasts, and Ashe/Amalia taking a breather from her long run from these soldiers. Ace cut through two soldiers, then mule kicked (or is it wolf kicked?) a soldier who got too close behind him. The soldier stumbled, then was knocked flat on his butt with a shot to the head from Balthier. The next two hefted their swords, and rushed in to engage Ace from behind and hold him down, but he threw them off with a snarl.
Meanwhile, Commander Jenkins swung his sword deceptively fast in a horizontal motion, forcing me to step back out of range. As it passed for the next swing, a vertical chop, I smirked and stepped to the side, deftly avoiding the blow as it splashed into the ground and stuck in the stone. I then stepped in as he was trying to yank his weapon free and gave him a swift one-two punch combo on his face, then his body. This caused him to stumble, which I then used to space a neat side kick into his abdominal area. The metal crumpled under the blow, and he was sent flying into the wall, where he fell and crumbled down, seemingly unconscious.
As I turned around, Steele finished his business with the last of the soldiers, crushing the armor until it was a twisted ball. No blood escaped, however, and he pitched it deep into the waterways, where a clang and a surprised 'squeak!' signified that a dire rat was caught off guard by this action.
[End music]
I turned to Amalia, internally glad Steele was my ally, and began to see to her. "Are you OK?"
She turned to me with a somewhat annoyed look."I'm fine. I appreciate what you have done, but now I must get going."
Needless to say, my eyebrows shot up at this brush off, but I persisted. "Look, the way out is dangerous, and you're not at full strength. How about we stick together and get out of here that way. Now, what was your name?" As if I needed to know, but charades must be kept.
"Amalia." She thought about my offer, then nodded. "Fine. But once we escape, it's over."
And so we headed deeper in.
We walked into the next room, where I remembered the flans would attack us. As I drew my diamond sword and looked up at the ceiling where they were coming from, I cursed myself for not learning Fire, or its kanji, Kaji. The flans dropped down, and we all began to prepare for battle again.
[Music theme: Hunter's Chance, Nobuo Uematsu, FF9]
In all, four MASSIVE flan creatures dropped from the ceiling. I swung at one, only to realize the gash I made quickly repaired itself. These creatures really were made of gelatin, after all. Realizing force alone was not enough, I began to cast one of my Kanji. A seal appeared on my blade, containing the sign for Spirit. When it finished manifesting, the Diamond blade shifted, now it glen a grey Mist. "Spirit Steel: Kami Blade". My MP and Stamina both began dropping steadily, this was going to be something to work on later. However, this time when the flan charged, I sidestepped and cut it, and the amorph melted, its form scrambled. "Amorph Bane Cutter"
The others were also finding ways to hurt the blobs. Ashe was slicing away at one of them, and it steadily healed slower until it couldn't heal at all and simply fell apart, melting like mine had.
Silver was out, and blasting another with psychic energy. When that didn't completely do it, he created two psionic blades and rapidly slashed away at it until it was too scrambled to remain conscious, so it, too, melted. And so there was one left.
Ace and Balthier seemed to be working together against this one. Eventually Ace lost patience on wearing it down, and grabbed Balthier's weapon out of his hands, much to the sky pirate's detestment. Ace then ran up to the Flan, jumped over it, and as he did, he shot it in a completly straight line up one side and down the other, then threw the gun as the monster exploded at Balthier, who somehow caught it without too much difficulty. "Blazing Finisher: Shot Flare." We all stared at Ace in amazement for the nonchalance with which he treated Balthier's weapon and the ferocity of his angry outburst at this simple creature.
"Wow..." I expected it least, since Tim tended to be mostly calm in situations, as well as patient. "I guess that's it for them, though..."
[End music]
We continued, relatively unhindered, into the overflow cloacoa area where the Firemane I killed was supposed to confront us and slow us down enough to get us caught. Instead, I heard clanking armor come from upstairs, and a full group of sixteen soldiers marched in. Libra estimated them to be about level 14, not too tough, but there were more coming, as well as the fact that Amalia and Balthier were not up to that level of power yet. Ace, Silver, and I readied our weapons, prepared to defend the two others to our last. Thus, the real fight began.
[Music theme: Battle against Cedric (actual song name unknown), Motoi Sakuraba ToG]
The fighting was tense and very difficult, even with our overwhelming strength their nubers put us in very dangerous situations. Fortunately, Amalia kept supplying potions whenever we got injured, so we were able to fight for quite a while. Tim bit and clawed and slashed anyone who got even close to him; it would seem like his feral instincts were kicking in. My own instincts were there, but I was able to suppress them mostly. However, I did snarl and claw one man who dared to attempt attacking me from behind and touched one of my tails. Like I said, mostly.
Silver, on the other hand, was calm, cool, and collected as he shifted seamlessly between himself and Steele, balancing ruthless psychic shot attacks with up-close-and-personal fist and blade strikes, making him seem a lord of the battlefield with his graceful dancelike movements. It would seem that while Silver was stronger physically, Steele was more capable as a ranged psychic fighter, making his graceful balance between both egos all the more necessary and awe-commanding in mastery.
I, on the other hand, was down and dirty, using my platinum dagger to stab soldiers and slit throats as well as my diamond sword to block and deal greater damage. An occasional Chi spell kept them from overwhelming me, but the steady MP and Stamina drain was becoming apparent. We couldn't hold out much longer like this. It seemed as if they had sent the entire platoon Archadia assigned to Rabanastre to catch us.
Eventually, Amalia ran out of potions, and conveniently, that was when Vayne walked in. The prettyboy jerkface just smirked as he commanded his men to regroup behind him. I knew escape was impossible now, but a smirk slowly grew across my face as I remembered who that would lead us to. Therefore, I struggled surprisingly little as they dragged us away and took our equipment from us, though I did growl at the man as he removed Saving Grace from my hip. I kept the Dusk Shard well hidden in my jacket, and they did not discover it even in a thorough search.
And so, we wound up in Nalbina Dungeons anyhow...
Oh my! Whatn an extensive chapter full of battles! Those of you who've played (I know most of you have, but even I read about games I've never played) know what's coming: Barheim and Basch! Those of you who don't, you are doomed to remain clueless until I post next time! *gives signature sly fox smile* heheheheh... anywhoo, 'Till next time!