Well, this chapter signals the end of the tournament, as well as introducing another of the main characters. Sorry for the somewhat late update, but a combination of resuming my job and being quite sick for the past day or two really put a damper on both my free time and enthusiasm.
Book I, Part I: Mortal Conflict - A Hero's Challenge
Chapter VI: All Or Nothing
"Ladies and gentlemen! This is the moment you've all been waiting for! We began this grand championship with a total of sixty-four fighters, but now we are down to only two! These two fighters have shown themselves worthy to compete in the final round!"
The crowd roars at the last words from the announcer, eager to see the beginning of the final match.
"I will now re-introduce you to our two combatants! The first has shown remarkable persistence and agility, moving through the rounds with powerful melee attacks and spells. Please give a round of applause for Benji Powell!"
(Play: Eternity -Band Member Performance- (Ben's Theme) - Matsueda, Eguchi; Final Fantasy X-2)
Striding out into the arena, I hold my swords up in triumph of having made it this far as the crowd cheers on, before taking my place at the left side of the arena.
"Our second fighter, hailing from the Thunder Plains, has shown incredible strength and skill, taking down opponents with often astounding ease and grace. Give a round of applause for Angel!"
(End: Eternity -Band Member Performance- (Ben's Theme) - Matsueda, Eguchi; Final Fantasy X-2)
(Play: Angel Main Theme (The Sanctuary Extended Remix) (Angel's Theme) - Darling Violetta, Angel)
Stepping into the arena after me is an older man, looking to be in his 20's, and dressed in an entirely black outfit. A long, black duster covers up a long pair of black pants and black shirt, the coat stopping at around his knees. His short, brown hair accompanies an almost apathetic look, mixed with one of curiosity. I quickly recognize him as the person I saw fighting in the fourth round, before my match with Amy.
"Here goes nothing," I mutter, taking a fighting stance, Angel mimicking the action on the other side of the arena. The entire arena seems to quiet, as the referee signals the beginning of the final match.
(End: Angel Main Theme (The Sanctuary Extended Remix) (Angel's Theme) - Darling Violetta, Angel)
(Play: Liberi Fatali - Nobuo Uematsu, Final Fantasy VIII)
Two blades are in Angel's hands in a second, both identical blades with a blue gleam about them. Wasting no time, I make the first move.
"Haste!"
Instantly, I can feel my reflexes quicken, my speed increasing greatly as I prepare for my next strike.
"Cloak of Shadows!"
Darkening the entire area, I take the opportunity to charge Angel, who still hasn't moved an inch. As I bring the sword in my right hand down, Angel's left sword snakes in and blocks, knocking the sword aside and slashing outward in a quick movement. The cut goes just beside my arm, and I stab out with the left sword only to find Angel moving around the attack. A quick slash from Angel catches the chain mail covering my shirt, ripping into the metal material and rending it partially. Backing away, I watch as the area brightens, noticing that Angel has barely moved the entire time.
"Firaga!"
My spell blasts towards Angel, who suddenly leaps into the air, higher than I've seen anyone leap before. On his way down, Angel points a sword towards me, calling up magical energies of his own.
"Fira!"
The spell catches me off guard, exploding on my chest and burning parts of my shirt and arms. Quickly, I raise a Shell around me to absorb the brunt of any more magical attacks, before engaging Angel in melee combat once again.
An overhead strike is parried by Angel, causing me to duck in order to avoid a retaliatory horizontal slash. Stabbing out with both swords, Angel suddenly snaps them out wide, nearly gutting me as I leap back to dodge the strikes. A Blizzard spell fires into Angel's chest, but doesn't seem to slow him as he continues to attack, a quick combo of horizontal and vertical strikes putting me back on the defensive.
'I need a plan...'
"Blizzaga!"
Aiming carefully, I target not Angel, but the ground underneath him, frosting it over in a thick layer of ice in the hopes of stopping his attacks on the now-slippery ground. Angel just aims a Fira at the ground, melting the ice in a manner of moments before turning back to me.
"Watera!"
A burst of water explodes on my swords as I cross them in a block, shielding me from the magical liquid.
"Blizzara!"
The second spell, however, breaks my guard, the ice from the spell knocking my swords aside before slamming into my stomach.
"Thundara!"
A lightning bolt suddenly hits me from above, jolting me even worse due to the soaking from the Watera spell. Regaining my balance, I see Angel standing still, white energy glowing around his swords as he holds them out to his side.
"Swords of Heaven!"
The white energy from Angel's swords suddenly flashes outward as Angel takes to the air, the energy boosting him into the sky to hover there. Quickly, Angel slashes both swords outward, the white energy forming into two blades of light that slam into me, pushing me to the ground with two long cuts in my shirt and chest. Angel lands softly on the ground, pressing the seeming advantage by charging at me as I get back to my feet. A sweep kick nearly takes him off his feet, however, and a side kick gives me a moment to recover.
"Blizzaga!"
Quickly, I launch another Blizzaga, aiming at Angel's chest this time with the burst of frost. He takes the attack full-on, grunting in pain, but otherwise unaffected.
'What is this guy made of...?'
"Fated Circle!"
Spinning in place, the circular energy wave flies at Angel, who deftly rolls under the attack, coming up with a rising slash aimed at my side. As I spin, my hasty block is shattered, one of my swords flying out wide as the second drops, leaving me wide open as Angel kicks me in the chest. The attack sends me completely off my feet, skidding across the dirt some to cough up dust and spit.
Placing a hand over my now-certainly bruised chest, I get back to my feet, bringing a Protect spell up as well as Angel rushes in again. Instead of meeting me, however, he leaps over me, causing me to spin 180 degrees and come face to face with a wide swing of both of his swords. Quickly, I block the attack, stepping back as Angel strikes again.
"Blizzara!"
The attack takes the form of a burst of ice instead of an icicle this time, slamming into my hand and cutting it with many small shards of ice. Dropping my sword out of pain, I raise the other just in time to block another overhead swing. Before another attack can be made by either of us, however, the arena erupts in noise. Not cheers, but screams. Angel and I both stop immediately, looking around for the source of the disruption. We don't have to look far.
(End: Liberi Fatali - Nobuo Uematsu, Final Fantasy VIII)
Entering from all four sides of the main arena are fiends, but very strange looking fiends, even for monsters. Some are smaller fiends, slightly larger than a human with a completely red body. Three sharp-looking claws extend from each of its bulky hands, and the left hand grips a crude wooden club of some sort. Where its mouth should be, there is none, the face simply continuing to extend down to almost the bottom of its neck, and two tusk-like protrusions stick out from either side of its face.
The second type of fiend looks somewhat like the first, but nearly twice the size with a bluish body. Instead of a wooden club, a powerful-looking warhammer is held in its left hand, and a sort of shoulder and chest armor covers its upper body.
The final type of fiend is some sort of wraith, translucent with a reddish tint to its body. Somewhere in between the size of the other two fiends, it hovers above the ground, two-pronged claws extending from each of its hands. The glowing purple eyes of the fiend seem to shimmer with magic as well.
There are probably three dozen of the fiends in all, and I can already see most of the guards rushing to drive the creatures off.
"I think its safe to say that the tournament's now over..." I mutter, picking my other sword up from the ground.
"Yeah," Angel replies, beginning to run towards the closest fiend, one of the smaller ones. Taking a moment to cast a Curaga on myself, the spell healing the wounds from the fight as well as restoring some of my energy, I aim a palm at the fiend that Angel is now engaging.
"Scan!"
Bloodfiend
HP: 8,492/8,492
MP: 1,295/1,295
–Guard–
Fire: Immune
Ice: None
Lightning: None
Water: None
Holy: None
Dark: None
Non-Elemental: None
Status: None
As the information enters my mind, the process taking only a second to absorb and understand, I charge a spell in my right hand, aiming at the same fiend.
"Waterga!"
The spell explodes in the face of the fiend, disorienting it enough to where Angel can get in a clean attack. A moment later, the fiend's head falls from its body, cleanly cut by one of Angel's blades. Instead of bursting into pyreflies, however, the fiend turns into wisps of black energy, which fade away slowly. Having no time to contemplate it, I turn back to the fight, watching as the fiends engage the guards. Focusing again, I turn to one of the wraith-like fiends, calling up the energies of a Scan spell again.
Elder Voidwalker
HP: 16,386/16,386
MP: 7,195/7,195
–Guard–
Fire: None
Ice: None
Lightning: None
Water: None
Holy: None
Dark: Immune
Non-Elemental: Half
Status: None
The targeted fiend turns to me, and black energy swirls around its hand before lancing at me in a beam, draining away my magical energy and causing a stabbing sensation to spread over my body for an instant. The guards open fire with rifles, the bullets having no effect on the ethereal fiend, before several of the Bloodfiends engage the guards, who valiantly begin to try and defend themselves with their rifles in melee.
"Looks like you could use a hand," a voice says, before a figure runs out from one of the entrances. "Shin-Zantetsu!"
Moving faster than the eye can see, the figure slashes rapidly at several of the fiends assaulting the guards, ending up behind the line of fiends. The fiends simply fall apart, bursting into trails of energy as the guards stand up, nodding thanks and running to assault another smaller group of the fiends.
The figure is revealed as Darius, who, instead of his typical coat, is garbed in what appears to be the Samurai dressphere. A black and red colored shirt and pants adorn his body, the left sleeve of the shirt completely removed. Both parts of the garment also allow full freedom of motion. A shield of some sort covers his entire left arm from the elbow down, spiked near the end to allow for offensive attacks in a desperate situation. In his right hand is an elegant great katana, serrated near the end of the blade.
"For once, I'm glad to see you, Darius," I say, Angel and I meeting up with Darius and assaulting another of the larger, blue fiends as a group.
"Can't say the feeling's mutual," he says, chuckling slightly and stabbing out at the fiend. While Darius and Angel tie the creature up in melee combat, I take the opportunity to use a Scan spell on this one, the third and final type of fiend.
Deathbringer
HP: 25,396/33,514
MP: 3,915/3,915
–Guard–
Fire: Half
Ice: None
Lightning: Half
Water: None
Holy: None
Dark: None
Non-Elemental: None
Status: None
The creature, now identified as a Deathbringer, roars, slamming its warhammer into the ground. A wave of lightning blasts from the ground, shocking Angel and Darius, the former twitching slightly and jerking back, dazed from the attack. Darius seems unaffected, slashing hard into the fiend's chest, before getting slammed with the warhammer and sent flying away. He quickly recovers, however, righting himself in the air and skidding across the ground before running back towards the fray.
"Doublecast: Flare!"
Aiming carefully, I blast a powerful beam of energy at the fiend, scorching its body with the first skill, before the second connects, literally burning it alive with the non-elemental energy. As I look around, I can see that the guards have managed to keep the fiends away from the crowd, and are forcing them back slowly. Several guards lie dead, however, their bodies scattered around the arena.
"Kyuuten no Kanshiki!"
The arena instantly brightens as energy gathers in the air, forming into the image of a gate. A large lock is on the front of the gate, which then breaks, sending a wave of light from the gate down towards the arena. As the energy engulfs all of the fiends, explosions of energy erupt from each fiend stricken. When the smoke clears, most of the fiends are fading away into trails of dark energy, and the few that survived are being destroyed by the remaining guards.
"Ben!"
Turning quickly, I can see Yuna and the others approaching, Darius and Angel also walking back over to meet with the rest of us.
"Yuna! You guys okay?" I yell, earning a nod from everyone.
"Yeah, we're fine. Everyone seems to be okay, but..."
"What were those things?" I say, cutting her off. "I have absolutely no idea. Any clue, Darius, Angel?"
"I've never seen them before," Darius says, putting his sword away.
"Same here," Angel replies.
"One other thing...why didn't they become pyreflies like all the other fiends?" I ask, looking around. "They just...melted, or something..."
"Maybe they weren't fiends?" Tidus suggests.
"Maybe...but I'm leaning towards fiend right now. Who knows, though..." I mutter, shaking my head. "Anyone have a plan?"
"Plan?" Darius says, stepping away some. "We don't even know what these things were. We can't really make much of a plan, now can we?"
"But we can't just sit here and do nothing either, right?" I counter, looking over. Darius looks silently at me for a moment, before sighing out of exasperation.
"Alright, alright, I'll see if I can find out anything. But I'm not making any promises, got it?"
"Sure. And...thanks," I say. Darius sighs, shaking his head and shrugging, before getting in one last remark.
"Just remember one thing. I'm not doing this out of charity. You owe me. Saving you was a freebie."
"What now?" Rikku asks, turning to Yuna.
"We could go back to the Celsius. Maybe Shinra knows something about whatever these things were," Yuna says.
"Sounds good to me," I say, nodding, before turning to Angel. "Coming?" Angel pauses for a moment, putting both of his swords away, before nodding.
"Alright."
Without any further hesitation, all of us head out of the arena, headed back to the airship to try and gather information.
Well, now that that's over with, allow me to give a small bit of information about Angel.
Angel is based off of the main character from the show of the same name, created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt. My way of saying that I don't own him, in other words. During most of this story (the parts here being the only exception), Angel was played by Daniel Wesley Rydell, as stated earlier.
And now begins the first 'side-quest' of sorts in the story. As always, please read and review.