Chapter 28
Mortal Enemies
The Lionheart sought to end the fight quickly. With the apparition of Bahamut's wings appearing from his back, he shot at Ultimecia as her own raven wings carried her over the ring of blue fire. Squall determinedly swung at her more than a dozen times, each strike firm, every trigger pull measured. The gunblade was chambered for Esthari pulse ammo and a clean hit would blow a hole through Ultimecia, Sorceress or not.
Though she weaved out of his line each time, giving mocking laughs as she did so – just as she had in the future. Concentrating energy into Lionheart, Squall swung underhand, a white line following the tip as though he had cut through the fabric of time and space itself. Ultimecia merely moved backward a wingbeat to avoid the blade, but an instant later, the 'cut' imploded toward her with a thunderous bang. She was knocked out of the sky like a shot bird, hurtling back to the deck.
Ultimecia quickly regained herself, seemingly unfazed as she evaded Squall's follow-up onslaught, yet her gown and skin had been singed. She fashioned two orbs of deep purple, throwing them at Squall. He rebutted them with ease, but Ultimecia took the opportunity to gain distance. A clear object appeared in one of Ultimecia's clawed hands, and Squall realised what it was when she magically enlarged it.
Magicite!
'Bahamut belongs at Tiamat's side!' she cried fervently.
Squall felt Ultimecia's attempt to draw Bahamut from him, and it might have worked against a lesser or weakened GF. Bahamut knew Ultimecia could only trap a GF if it were in its incorporeal form, and so immediately appeared below Squall, who fell unsteadily onto his back and almost dropped Lionheart.
Ultimecia looked fearless as the dragon GF glowered at her. Squall glanced at the magicite at her neck, the faint trace of Leviathan's blue leading him to assume that the Demon of the Deep was still wreaking havoc on the western fleet. Bahamut had long awaited the opportunity to liberate Tiamat from Ultimecia's control, in addition to Leviathan. This would be his best chance.
Don't worry about me! Squall transmitted to his GF, his grip around its neck more secure. Killing her and freeing your brethren is all that matters!
'Know your place before me, wyvern!' Ultimecia taunted.
She summoned a giant lance to fill the space between her and Bahamut. Her creation moved to impale Bahamut's chest, but the GF knocked it asunder with a swipe of one mighty claw. His maw opened wide, revealing rows of gleaming fangs capable of running the slender Sorceress through. A line of blue fire came from within.
Ultimecia cocooned herself in a mauve sphere of protection. As soon as the flame abated, she swiftly flew sidelong, launching more exploding orbs at Bahamut's head and jerking him back. Bahamut roared again with fury before converging on Ultimecia, and she nimbly spun out of the way.
'Pitiful! she jeered. 'I shall have your skull smouldering in a cauldron, along with Tiamat's!'
Kauldron, Squall noted. She was speaking in that unique accent he would never forget, how she had spoken in the future.
He chanced a glance down to the circle of fire. Zhang was on the ground, a deep wound across his abdomen. Liu stood against Christophe alone, his jian surrounded in flame, almost veiling him from view in his flurry of cutting strikes.
I've gotta help them! he told Bahamut.
His GF wordlessly cast augmentation and levitation spells on Squall, Bahamut's broad wings coming before them in a protective curtain as Ultimecia took the opportunity to fire more orbs. Bahamut took the impact as Squall left his back, immediately descending toward the flames.
Squall immediately realised Christophe was not drawing upon Tiamat's power, apparently offering the young SeeDs a fighting chance of victory. His gunblade somewhat resembled his old Twinlance, which had originally belonged to Cid, bestowed upon him when he had formally accepted the role of Garden Commander. Twinlance morphed into Punishment once Squall had gained Diablos' full respect, and was currently hanging on the wall of his office. Except Christophe's gunblade was the length of a greatsword.
Yet Squall could tell Christophe was probing Liu, waiting for the first opening, keeping the flaming jian at bay with little effort. The rookie Neo-SeeD could not hope to prevail. Christophe was far more experienced and was naturally stronger with his great girth. When Liu attempted another thrust, Christophe simply slid one twin blade down the flat of Liu's jian and ran the rookie through completely, the ends of the twin blades protruding from his lower back.
'No!' Squall cried from above, just before he reached them.
His eyes on Squall, Christophe retracted the smeared obsidian blades from the young Neo-SeeD, Liu's twitching body crumpling to the deck. Squall landed back within the circle of blue flames, which were burning just as strongly as before. Liu was likely dead, completely motionless. Zhang, with a hand stemming his entrails, tried to back up to the wall of fire. Squall gave one brisk glance skyward and saw Bahamut and Ultimecia still battled furiously, moving farther away. He was not worried; Bahamut would not go down easily.
'You raised your cubs well; I gave them a fair chance of felling me,' Christophe said, taking a two-handed stance with his great gunblade. 'And to think single combat with the Lionheart is something I believed could only happen in the Netherworld. Come forth!'
If Christophe's honour would not allow him to possess an unfair advantage over an opponent, then this might be the opening Squall needed. If he could defeat Christophe, Tiamat could be freed. He doubted that Ultimecia could hold her own against the combined power of Bahamut and Tiamat, even with Leviathan.
Raising Lionheart, the SeeD leader allowed the larger Knight to attack first, parrying the firm but swift strokes. Then he countered with a myriad of his own. With the last, Squall swung downwardly, the blade's descent slowed after Christophe met it in its arc. Squall ambitiously pulled the trigger, but the 'muzzle' at the blade's end was high, the pulse round bouncing from atop the shoulder plate of Christophe's armour, which Squall realised was magically strengthened. He did not have many rounds left in the magazine, and there would be no chance to reload. Christophe's seamless transition from parry to cut almost knocked Squall's weapon from his hand. As Squall suspected, the obsidian gunblade was loaded with blanks.
A fork of lightning struck Christophe, and Squall saw that Zhang's hand was outstretched. Despite his injury, the rookie had got to his knees. Squall launched a new swirl of continuous slashes. Zhang joined the fray with his nunchucks, his free hand on his abdomen as he sought to get within Christophe's blades. Squall moved to Christophe's side, pressing the bigger gunblade wielder to the wall of flames.
With a desperation move, Christophe fired a small flare at the rookie. Zhang screamed as he hit the ground, smoke coming from his cauterised flesh. If Christophe had had more time to charge the flare, Zhang would have been blown apart. Squall swung at the big man again, firing his last pulse round at his head, but the blade was knocked aside at the last moment, the shot harmlessly passing through the flames. Christophe contemptuously sent him reeling with a strong kick.
'Let us end this, Lionheart!' he said.
A roar from Bahamut signified the GF was approaching them. They both looked up, spotting Bahamut and the winged form of Ultimecia a distance behind him.
Then there was a noise of something else travelling at impossible speed, cutting through all other sounds of battle. A shooting star tore through the dark canopy of cloud, heading right for Ultimecia. The Sorceress was so affixed on Bahamut that she did not see its approach until the last second. The meteor struck Ultimecia with such an impact that it smote her from the sky, sending her far from the battle.
Rinoa's unmistakable blue form appeared in the sky in her place. Her raven hair flowed in the ocean breeze and her heavenly wings flapped rhythmically, shining in the dull light. The receding sound of the shooting star as it disappeared over the southwestern horizon was replaced by cheers from the SeeDs and cadets. Sighting her Knight, Rinoa glided down to Squall's side, Bahamut landing behind her. Rinoa coolly surveyed Leo, summoning Sacred and Minotaur to appear either side of her. Then, she knelt by the writhing Zhang, deftly running a hand over his seethed flesh.
'Who the hell is this guy?' Sacred scoffed.
'He does not belong here,' Minotaur remarked. 'A fiend from the future, perhaps?'
Squall stepped forward. 'Do you still wish to fight, Leonidas?'
Christophe spoke evenly. 'You know, Lionheart, it is fitting that we are both named for the Children of Griever. Until we meet again.'
The big man backed up, Tiamat taking form from a midnight blue light at his feet, materialising with Leo on his back. With a strong downbeat, they were flying southwest in pursuit of Ultimecia. Bahamut made the ring of fire disappear. When Squall turned, he saw that Rinoa had already healed Zhang's burns. She was kneeling by Liu's body, her head on his chest.
'Is he alive?'
'Barely,' Rinoa said.
She closed her eyes, and in a short time Liu was completely recovered, the wound absent save for the blood that stained his top. The rookie gasped, looking around at the scene of the battle and grasping for his sword. Then he looked at Rinoa.
'It's okay, Liu,' Rinoa said gently. 'You're safe now.'
The Esthari had called for a retreat from Battleship Island, and the last of the soldiers were being pursued to the edge of the deck by the SeeDs and cadets. Squall knelt at the side of his Sorceress, taking her hand, his finger pressing the Griever ring he had let her keep long ago.
'You were right on time,' he told her.
The battle went well for the main Esthari force. The westerners put up staunch resistance. Despite reports that the Garlands and Rangers were on the verge of defeating the vanguard, under Memnon's command the main column had begun to push the bulk of the Galbadians back toward their capital. The Torama Fang and the Knight of Quistis were reported to be somewhere within this multi-coloured mass of warriors. Rain now pelleted the field as the battle raged on into the afternoon.
The Esthari were troubled the most by the Galbadian chocobo cavalry. Every military had poured money into chocobo breeding and cavalry schools following the emergence of a new melee era. The invaders had been unable to match the westerner's cavalry in having to cross the estuary to the south, the majority of their own chocobos lost with the Dollet force. Every time Memnon's force made a salient through the Galbadian lines, two converging lines of chocobos riders would slow his advance, making their gains minimal unless he summoned Doomtrain to rocket into them in a broad curve. Even then, the Galbadians had learned from Timber not to charge him in an unbroken line, the riders now moving in a wave formation. Resultantly, Doomtrain could only plough into a fraction of westerners with a single pass.
Memnon could hear Sorceress Selphie wreaking havoc somewhere on the battle theatre, Colonel Vlahos having bade her to join the main force, but not to submit to Memnon's command. Word had reached him that Vlahos had engaged the Bloodhound south of his position, and that the Thunderstroke had fallen, the location of Quetzalcoatl unknown.
The General assumed that the young Lieutenant Pandemona had killed Raijin. She had defeated Ramuh at the Thunder Plains and drawn him into magicite, or so Memnon had heard. It would not surprise him if she had done the same with a weakened Quetzalcoatl. Pandemona's face had been vaguely familiar to Memnon when she had been commended after Timber, but he could not place her.
He was untroubled when the Cyclone took out the victorious Valkyrs. There were not enough airships remaining to make a huge dent on the shielded Galbadians, and the outcome of the battle would be decided on the ground. He had anticipated a repeat of the Cyclone's infamous feat at Balamb, albeit on a smaller scale. That destruction had consumed Pandemonium's complete energy, leaving her insignificant for the remainder of the battle.
Memnon spotted someone in a SeeD uniform from behind, barking orders to the Galbadians. Of course, Caraway would have hired SeeDs to bolster his regular army. From her ethnicity and her stature, he knew it to be Xu Figaro. Balambi women were passable to him with their slight bodies, and despite bordering on middle age, the Torama Fang was a fine example. She was barely five feet tall, with small breasts and narrow hips. Memnon hungrily took in the shape of her slim olive legs before he summoned Doomtrain to announce his presence.
There was an onrushing noise as his terrible GF snaked from the sky, causing Xu to look up in alarm. As he suspected, her own GF came to her aid. Cerberus was ready, effectively derailing the speeding Doomtrain by crashing into him from the side. Memnon quickly recalled his GF and bore down on the veteran SeeD, who detached from a group of startled Galbadian grunts and approached him without concern, her trademark weapons in each hand. One long, one short.
'Stay outta this!' she called. 'I've got him!'
Her carrying voice was full and assured for such a diminutive fighter. As the Lionheart's second-in-command and one of the first SeeDs, she was not to be taken lightly.
'Sabin's waited a long time for this, you son of a bitch!'
Memnon gave a low rumble of a laugh. 'That meathead was sent on his way! Kill me if you can, Torama Fang!'
The Liontamer met the Torama Fang's offense with his sickle sword and bore into those determined, slanted eyes with his own black pools. Memnon was a head higher than the SeeD and almost double her weight. Though she moved fluidly and had coiled power in narrow limbs that were half the girth of his own. They were around the same age, and their experience in battle was matched. They pressed one another back and forth for a time, locked within their own private battle. The foot soldiers around them continued the greater battle, the Galbadians not disobeying Figaro's command to not interfere, and the Esthari knowing that Memnon did not desire nor need their help.
His gaze never left her's the entire time. Eventually, when he had her jian caught within his khopesh, he was able to disarm her. Memnon quickly kicked the weapon aside. She changed her stance and brought her bishou around in front of her, drawing a sai with her left. In response, Memnon gave her that low laugh again. Figaro had the fang-like dagger held facing the ground as she avoided the arcs of his blade, waiting for the right time to strike. Twice she nimbly darted forward, aiming for Memnon's neck. Twice he stopped her hopeful stab with a burly forearm.
The second time she struck his cheekbone with her sai, but Memnon gave no outward sign of pain as he felt the bone break. The Empress would restore it. He feinted so that she might attempt a third stab. When she did, Memnon brought his blade in parallel with his torso, the tip facing forward, and her unarmoured abdomen was impaled on it, if only by a few inches.
The Torama Fang's mouth parted in shock. She reflexively tried to pull away from a stiff elbow strike but was not fast enough. Stunned, she staggered back, and Memnon cut cleanly through her throat. Her lifeblood gushed down her SeeD blouse. She continued trying to back away, dropping her weapons and placing both hands on her neck. Memnon contemptuously stared down at her as she lost her footing, his only regret being that she would die so quickly. Cerberus could do nothing for her.
'Tell Sabin and Cid that I send my regards,' he sneered.
Cerberus did not wait for his summoner to die. He took his physical form over the fading Xu in an instant. Lights appeared in all three of his mouths, but Doomtrain had risen out of the earth to spirit Memnon away.