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Book II, Part II: Outbreak - Convergence
Chapter IX: Encroachment
Tetsuya, as a SeeD, was no stranger to the idea of allegiances shifting like the wind. As a mercenary group, today's allies could be tomorrow's enemies or vice versa for any members of Garden, and in the early days of the organization such things were commonplace.
That knowledge did not lend him any peace of mind as he walked down the halls of the mansion with the woman who'd tried to kill him in the recent past.
"You look so tense," she purred, the faint smirk still gracing her features as she matched him step for step even in her heels. The box containing the necklace rested firmly in her hands, held gently against her body as she walked. "Surely you're not still bitter about our little scuffle?"
He spared a glance around him for the dozenth time since leaving the auction room, seeing Naoki's reassuring presence at the front of the line along with the numerous security guards around and behind him. "Lady, if it were up to me? I'd have snatched that box and ran the moment I saw you coming up to that stage."
His eyes narrowed as his voice lowered further. "I know what that thing is, and what it does. But this is a mission, and like it or not it's my job to make sure you get out of here in one piece."
"Such gallantry," Kirce remarked, giving him a sickeningly sweet yet false smile. "I dare say I've never felt so safe before."
"Oi, oi," a dark-haired man behind Kirce said, shaking his head and throwing up his hands in a semblance of an exasperated shrug. "Lay off the flirting, will ya, Kirce? Gonna make me lose the dinner I just ate here..."
She threw an eyeroll at Tetsuya that the man couldn't see, sighing dramatically as she glanced back. "Shut up, Kyo." The man's tan coat shook as he chuckled, but he obligingly went silent at her request, shoving hands back into the pockets of his black pants. She turned back to Tetsuya with a simpering look, met only by the decidedly-flat stare of the SeeD beside her. "See what I put up with?"
"My heart just bleeds," Tetsuya droned, not caring much for the woman's theatrics. "Just pay attention, would you? Trying to make sure you don't get killed here. Lot of people would want that thing if they knew what it was...hell, even if they didn't, given what you just paid for it."
"They'd never have the chance," she said matter-of-factly, as casually as if they were discussing the weather. "Kyocera here is...rather skilled, you could say. And of course, you know what I can do."
Tetsuya's eyes narrowed at the verbal jab, and he resisted the urge to touch the now-healed spot where she'd punctured his lung the last time they'd encountered each other. "Of course," he said, holding up an arm to bring the group to a halt as Naoki headed through the door at the end of the hallway to check the outside. A few tense seconds went by as Naoki and the crew with him performed a sweep of the outside, confirming Kirce's transportation as they did so before radioing back to the rest of the security team.
"Outside is clear," Tetsuya heard through his earpiece, Naoki's voice ringing clearly through the device. "Bring the package."
"Let's move," Tetsuya said, stepping in front of Kirce and moving through the door along with another member of the team. Kirce and Kyocera fell in behind them, each flanked on a side by more security personnel, and they moved swiftly outside as the last of the detail followed them out. A dark-colored SUV was parked outside the doors with one rear door swung open, tinted windows mostly shielding the driver from view in evening light that was just beginning to dim towards sunset.
"Ready to go?" a woman's voice called from inside the vehicle as Kirce clambered inside on the rear passenger side, with Kyocera moving around to the front passenger side once the door had closed. Tetsuya could faintly hear Kirce talking within, but couldn't make out any words over the noise around him and the sound of Kyocera's door opening and closing. Another signal came from the security at the gates over the earpiece, signaling that their exit appeared to be clear, and Tetsuya tapped lightly on the driver's window before giving a thumbs-up to the woman driving. He caught a faint smile from inside through the colored glass before the vehicle rumbled to life, slowly starting to pull out of the rear driveway as Naoki and Tetsuya met back up.
"Well...that went as well as it could've," Tetsuya said, glancing over at his comrade. "Just gotta check back in with the hosts and finish clearing the guests out, and we'll be good to go."
"The evening was, dare I say it, enjoyable?" Naoki said with a smile, looking around. "It's not often that you get to mingle with royalty, after all."
"Yeah, I'll pass on any more of that for a while," Tetsuya replied, chuckling. "My blood isn't blue enough for this."
Naoki laughed as he and Tetsuya walked back inside, shutting the doors behind them before carefully and surreptitiously checking for anyone following or listening in on their conversation. Once they were satisfied, Tetsuya slipped the GLD from his pocket and keyed it to a specific short-range frequency that he knew wouldn't be detected by the security protocols.
"Bravo to Alpha," he said quietly, slipping into a side hallway along with Naoki, who took up a watch position beside him. "Package dropped, black SUV, leaving back gates now. Three known hostiles - one confirmed alchemist. Kirce Valtroux," he added, quickly rattling off the spelling of the name and license plate of the vehicle before looking around himself again.
"Copy," Ben's voice came back just as quietly, no trace of nervousness within it. "We'll take it from here. Alpha out."
"And...it's go time."
Ben nodded to Connor as the Balamb SeeD started the engine of their car, slipping easily out of the side street they were parked on and heading down the street. They had managed to requisition a rather powerful vehicle from SeeD's stockpile, a sleek black two-door sportscar that blended in well with the futuristic city around them. Despite appearances, the car was modified heavily for durability, making it heavier than normal as well as fairly resistant to both bullets and most low to medium-tier magic. Connor had much more practical driving experience than Ben when it came to SeeD missions, so he had taken the wheel with no complaints from the squad leader. Ben's own job would be more simplistic, but potentially harder by far - stopping the vehicle with the Philosopher's Stone and making sure they reclaimed it by any means necessary.
Their approach left them a clear sight line to the back of the palatial grounds, moving on the street just behind it where the rear gate exited. He'd planned it so that hopefully, they would spot the vehicle just as it left the auction, and was rewarded for his trouble by the sight of the black SUV in question pulling out of the premises some distance ahead. Too far ahead of him to get plates just yet, but he was certain that was their mark.
"Looks like them," he said to Connor, who nodded in silent agreement. "Let's tail them a bit, see if they head for less-dense streets."
Connor didn't reply, but made sure to maintain a decent distance between them and the black vehicle ahead as he drove. Ben kept a close watch on the vehicle ahead, running through what Tetsuya had relayed to him as he rode. Three confirmed hostiles, possibly more in the SUV, and the leader of which was a known Flame and Lightning Alchemist...not the best match for him, he knew, though he was reasonably sure he could take her on if it came to it given his experience fighting Katanas and Darius. What he was less sure of was whether he could do the same while outnumbered potentially two-to-one or more.
"When we disable them," Ben started, glancing over at Connor, "I want to have you take on Kirce. I'll handle anyone else in that car if you can keep her occupied."
"I'd have thought you'd want the big boss," Connor said, quirking an eyebrow as he drove.
"She's a Flame Alchemist, I'm an Ice Alchemist," Ben said with a shrug. "Not the best matchup for me, even if I have sparred with Katanas a few times. You're a heavy combat-type like Tetsuya, right?"
"More or less."
"Then you're better suited to it, I think. Plus, you said you have Ifrit - that'll help keep the heat off you, so to speak."
"That was terrible," Connor said, glancing over for an instant.
"Of course it was," Ben said with a grin. "Any idea where they seem to be going?"
"Not yet. They've stayed on this road so far, so they might be heading straight out of town. It's basically the main road out of the city if I remember right."
"Traffic's thinning out a bit," Ben noticed, looking around as they came up to a red light. They were still a few cars back from the SUV with their target, but Ben didn't want to make a move in the middle of traffic just yet if he could avoid it.
"Shit - think they noticed us," Connor spat suddenly, causing Ben's eyes to snap back to the now-green light just in time to see the larger vehicle whip around the car in front of it and take off down the street without warning.
"Looks like we're moving - floor it!" Ben said, feeling the acceleration press him back into the seat as Connor did just that. The sportscar slung itself around the cars in front of it with impressive agility as Connor revved the engine in pursuit, one hand on the wheel while the other fumbled briefly with something at his waist. He finally unholstered the pistol he was wearing and started lowering the driver's side window so that he could shoot from it if needed, while Ben started preparing magic even as he unbuckled his seatbelt.
No sooner had he slung the belt from his shoulder than gunshots clanged off the car's hood, one snapping into the windshield and sending small cracks splintering from the point of impact with the reinforced glass. The next few bullets smashed into a Protect around the car instead as Ben concentrated, and Connor's arm rose out the window as he started to return fire.
"They're shooting at us," Kyocera noted from the front seat, his calm voice at odds with the sudden tension in the vehicle. He threw a fresh magazine into the pistol in his hand, craning his neck for a moment to look back at the pursuing vehicle.
"No shit," the woman in the driver's seat piped up, glancing in the rear view mirror. "Any more brilliant observations you want to share?"
"We're still a long way from the base," Kyocera said without hesitation, earning a frustrated sigh from the driver. "Can't you make this thing go any faster, Alice?"
"I'm driving a top-heavy car through the biggest city on the continent and running red lights to try and get away from SeeD," she shot back, annoyed. "If you want to die, I can go a little faster, maybe?"
"Calm down," Kirce's voice said from the backseat, her arms folded. She didn't move from her relaxed posture, merely looking over at the person beside her in the backseat. "Galan, be a dear, would you?"
The white-haired man beside her nodded lightly, rolling down the window beside him and leaning out of the window as a Protect shell shimmered around him courtesy of Kirce. His hand glowed with alchemical light as he gestured, and a series of sharp daggers of strange black metal flowed into existence around it in a blink. He flicked his hand and sent the daggers flying towards the car behind them, several reflecting off the car's own defensive magic and a few missing the tires as he tried to disable their pursuers. The car backed off for a moment, dropping back a few dozen feet to get some distance to better react with, and he continued to materialize and propel the ebony-colored weapons in an attempt to let them gain some ground.
Rapid-fire shots of Kyocera's pistol joined the mix a few seconds later, and the car fell back even further as it weaved to try and break his sight line. It couldn't get too far out of the way thanks to the occasional oncoming traffic, and Kyocera emptied the magazine a second time into the magical barrier before ducking back in to reload.
"There's only two of 'em," he mentioned as he dug in his coat pockets for another magazine.
"Then we'll get out of town and deal with them there," Kirce said. "The four of us will be more than a match for two SeeD, especially now that I have the Stone in hand."
Connor's pistol barked as he popped off more shots towards the leading vehicle, now quite a bit further away than he cared to be. The sudden appearance of those metal daggers or...whatever they were was proving annoying, and he was being careful not to let them get too clear of a shot at his front tires. Popping one at this speed wouldn't be a pleasant experience, even though he was skilled enough that he was fairly sure he could deal with it.
"That guy in the front is starting to piss me off," Ben grumbled, leaning back in the window as his Protect faded away. "Can't get a good angle on him from in here..."
"I can't get close enough to do anything about it with that other guy throwing spikes at us, either," Connor added, sounding equally frustrated. "Don't you have an assault rifle or something you can use?"
"Have you seen my firearms scores?" Ben retorted, almost scoffing at the thought. "Like that would do me any good..."
"Great...so much for any real weaponry," Connor snarked, awkwardly starting to reload his pistol with one hand. Ben looked around at the rapidly-passing buildings for a few seconds in thought, then glanced back over at Connor.
"I'll see if I can give you a chance to get in close," he said, reaching for the sheathed Diviner beside him as he refreshed his protective magic.
"And how are you gonna do that?" Connor asked, right before Ben started to lever himself out of the window until he was sitting on the window sill with his feet on the seat.
"Don't worry about that! Just drive!" he yelled over the rushing wind, pushing himself further up until he got his feet on the window sill and hopped onto the roof of the car with junction-aided dexterity.
"Wait, what the hell are you doing?" Connor yelled as Ben steadied himself, right before he felt the car suddenly lurch for a moment. He caught a glimpse of dark blue and silver in the air off to the right as he sped along, and suddenly realized that his squad leader had not only leapt to the buildings lining the street, but was running horizontally along the sides of them like gravity didn't quite exist for him anymore.
Not only that, he was outpacing Connor's car.
He glanced at the speedometer for a moment, then back to where his fellow SeeD was calmly ignoring the laws of physics at a speed that frankly concerned him.
"What the hell is he doing?"
The words had a lot less anger and a lot more confusion than they did a few seconds ago.
Wind whipped around Ben's face as he ran, keeping track of both Connor's car and the SUV he was chasing as he sprinted along the side of the buildings from his new orientation. Seeing the world while staring down at the street was an unusual and novel experience, but he'd gotten plenty of practice with unusual orientations in combat while training with Etchel. The Grim Angel just loved to attack from odd angles, and it seemed sometimes like he was more comfortable upside-down than right side up. Whatever the case, Ben was thankful for it now - without that, he wasn't sure he'd have been able to pull off what he was currently doing.
It seemed like the traffic around them had thinned to a minimum, he noticed as he moved. They were only seeing a few cars around them on the road now, which was assuredly a good thing given the speeds they were moving at. He wasn't sure, but he thought they were heading towards the road leading out of Esthar and towards the only two major landmarks outside of the city - Tear's Point and the Sorceress Memorial. If the alchemist's group was leading them outside of town, so much the better. The SeeD officers would both be able to use their full arsenals without civilians around in that case, so long as they could disable the vehicle they were chasing first.
He gauged where the car would be as he prepared to move, speeding up even further and getting ahead of even the SUV from his vantage point before suddenly springing off from the side of the building and towards the vehicle itself. There was a brief second or two of weightlessness as he realized he was a bit off in his leap, and he kicked off of nothing as his reiatsu pulsed beneath his feet, changing his direction in an instant and sending him hurtling back towards his target of the car's roof. Metal crunched under his feet as he slammed onto the vehicle and instantly arrested his motion with a brief burst of Gravity magic over his body.
"Shoot him!" someone yelled from inside the car, and the same man who had been shooting from the front seat before popped out with his pistol raised. A bullet slammed into his Protect from mere inches away with a loud 'bang' and smell of gunpowder, and his Diviner flashed out and nearly took the man's head off as he leaned back awkwardly to avoid it. The man slid back in the car an instant later, another bullet blowing a hole in the roof and pinging off his shield, and Ben vaulted down to the hood of the car and twisted to face the two front seat occupants.
'Driver needs to go first - they might crash, but there's no one really around to get mixed up in it if they do...'
He pulled the sword back, preparing to stab through the windshield even as the man's pistol rose again., only to have the driver's arm snap up to stop her passenger from shooting.
"Don't!"
The same woman's voice cried out an instant before she slammed on the brakes, jolting him and causing him to nearly fall from the hood before he grabbed on with his free hand, only to be thrown back the other way as she hit the gas again and caused his momentum to abruptly reverse. He turned his tumble towards the windshield into a flip back onto the top of the car once again before starting to spin around and try to stab through the roof to hit the driver from above.
"You'll break the windshield, idiot!"
"He was going to do that anyway!"
The momentary arguing he heard was quickly cut off as the roof of the vehicle suddenly started to shift under his feet, the metal converting into a field of spikes that rose up under him in a brief flare of alchemic light. He deftly crawled back, sticking his body to the roof with Gravity magic again as he stood up to his full height on the moving vehicle, and the spikes turned to stab towards him as he glanced back towards Connor.
The Balamb SeeD had indeed managed to get closer by using Ben's distraction, and the pistol in his hand cracked several more times as Ben sliced out at the spikes. Two shots cracked and then shattered the back glass on the SUV's trunk door, and another tagged the man who had been throwing knives at them in the arm as he quickly recoiled inside the vehicle's window once again. Ben hadn't noticed him lean out to get a better angle of attack, and he was silently thankful that Connor was helping to cover him in the moment. The spikes halted in their approach, and Ben took another quick estimation in his mind before leaping from the SUV back towards their own car. His feet slammed home with a crunch of metal underneath as he dented the roof, magically locking himself back in place and spinning around again.
He absently noticed them pass the city limits sign as they barreled down the highway, sheathing his sword again and calling magic back up into his hands. A quick glance inside showed him that Connor seemed to be reloading his pistol again, and he let fly with a bolt of Thunder magic that arced over the car ahead of him before grounding out through the tires. Blizzard magic followed a moment later, sending a jagged shard of ice slamming into the rear door of the SUV and impaling it with a loud crash of tearing metal.
Movement from the left side of the car caught his eye, and he saw a long piece of what looked like metal extend from the car's window. He blinked for a moment, not sure if he was seeing things or not, but his eyes widened in shock when the same man from before leaned out of the window and leveled a long tube in their direction.
"Is that a -"
"RPG!" Connor yelled from inside the car, right before a loud 'whump' and burst of fire and smoke exploded from the missile launcher in the man's hands. Ben lurched as Connor slammed the brakes and swerved, and he only had a split-second to react when he realized the evasion wouldn't be enough.
That was enough time for him, though.
Connor heard a loud burst of noise that sounded like rushing wind and felt the car shake again around him right before the incoming rocket-propelled grenade seemed to vanish from its mid-air flight. A loud explosion erupted from off to the side of the road a heartbeat later, and he blinked in surprise as Ben seemed to materialize from nowhere beside his car, running fast enough to keep pace with him just beside the driver's door.
"That was close...you good?" Ben yelled over the sounds of wind around them, looking decidedly more serious than Connor had seen him be earlier.
"Yeah," Connor yelled back, trying to ignore the strangeness of what he was seeing at the moment. Ben nodded, his jaw clenched and face set in a tight look of irritation.
"I'm done playing with these assholes. See if you can hit their left side tires. I'm gonna shred the right side."
Without waiting for an answer, he vanished from sight again with the same sound as before as Connor leaned his head and arm out the window. One, two, then three shots rang out before he finally struck his target, causing a loud bang from the back left tire as pieces of it started to tear away and the car tilted to one side on the damaged tire as the driver swerved briefly before regaining control. Even as chunks of rubber started to bounce off the front of the sportscar from the damage Connor had done, Ben reappeared on the passenger side of the car and sliced out with the sword in his hand at the back right tire. It tore apart in spectacular fashion, and the car instantly slowed as the driver hit the brakes to try and keep from losing control. The sharp drop in speed was the only thing that kept it from outright crashing and flipping on its two damaged tires, but the car still swerved and shed speed rapidly as it left the road and slid onto the grassy plains bordering them. One tire was shredded and another reduced to nothing more than the rim, and Connor hit the brakes as he flew past where their target had skidded off the road. A trail of smoke drifted up from his tires as the rubber squealed against the roadway beneath it, and Ben reappeared nearby once again to skid to a halt alongside the car as Connor finally brought it to a stop. He looked at Ben for a second before shutting the car off and shoving the door open, eyes locked on the disabled vehicle which was now dislodging all of its occupants onto the Estharian plains with haste.
"Kirce is the target - she's the leader, and probably has the Stone on her," Ben said, eyes narrowing as they approached. "I'm going to deal with anyone else she's got with her and then back you up."
"I'll keep her busy, don't worry," Connor replied confidently, pulling his gunblade from his side. The pair of SeeD sized up their targets as they walked - Kirce was immediately identifiable by her dark hair and face, but none of the other three were familiar to either SeeD. The information they'd been able to glean from OSIRIS was mostly limited to Kirce herself, with little information about any known associates, so they were basically walking in blind with regards to what her trio of companions were capable of.
Ben didn't see any weapons on any of the three, which was somewhat unusual but not unheard of - if all of them were alchemists, weapons were quite possibly optional. Their attire was varied, but mostly suited for colder weather fitting with the general Trabian and Estharian climate. The man who had been shooting at him from the front seat sported a long tan coat with a high-collared black shirt and pants, along with a white sash belted around his waist that seemed to have some kind of papers tucked inside. The woman beside him with long, wavy blond hair that he recognized as the driver was covered in a black fur coat that stretched down towards her knees, worn over a white sweater and long black skirt. The only one he hadn't seen properly was the second man standing near Kirce, a thickly-muscled man with short and spiky white hair and a scar running across the brow above his left eye. He had on a thick green bomber jacket over a gray tank top and tan pants, and Ben assumed he'd been the one throwing the strange metallic spikes at Connor's car that he'd noticed once during the chase.
"Kirce Valtroux, I presume," Ben called, folding his arms and stopping a few dozen feet away from the group - close enough to attack, far enough to react. "I believe you've got something I'm after."
Kirce's brow furrowed as she frowned, scowling at Ben and Connor. "And what if I do? I wasn't aware SeeD was in the habit of double-crossing its clients."
"Clients?" Ben asked, letting a confused look fall across his face. "What clients? Those faux-royalty you were hobnobbing with before you left the city? Please. As if I'd need to bother myself with figureheads like them to pull off something like this. That little trinket of yours is like a beacon for any alchemist with half a brain, you know."
He gestured across at the entire group, seemingly unconcerned with the lot of them as if they were simply beneath him. "And power like that doesn't belong in the hands of a group as pitiful as yours. It would be wasted by someone with your...meager intellect."
"Meager?" Kirce hissed, eyes narrowing. "Know your place, you arrogant little worm. You're the one outnumbered and hopelessly outmatched here."
"It doesn't matter how many maggots are in front of me," Ben replied coolly. "Insects are easy enough to crush."
He didn't catch the look that Connor gave him, but his fellow SeeD chose not to say anything himself, simply wondering exactly what his squad leader was aiming for. If it was intimidation, it wasn't hitting the mark in his eyes - he could say what he wanted, but Connor didn't see Ben as a particularly intimidating person with his stature and demeanor.
"I'm not sure you understand who you're dealing with, little boy," Kirce spat, instantly fuming. "But if you want to try and play hardball with me, the Dragon's Breath Alchemist? I'll make sure those words wind up on your tombstone."
"Oh my, the Dragon's Breath Alchemist? You say that like it's supposed to be important...never heard of you," Ben said with a grin. "I'm not in the business of keeping track of small time crooks."
Connor suddenly realized exactly what Ben was doing - he wasn't trying to intimidate her at all. He was goading her, trying to get a rise out of her so that she'd make a mistake. He kept the gunblade drawn, but didn't say or do anything for the moment. If Kirce decided to make a move, he might have a window of opportunity if she was too focused on Ben's mockery to pay him any attention. His eyes were drawn to one of the men nearby as he stomped nearer to Kirce, gesturing angrily at Ben as he moved.
"Oi - the hell do you mean, small time crooks?!" the tan-coated man shouted, looking offended.
"Exactly what I said, moron," Ben shot back with a smirk. "Are you deaf as well as incompetent? Must be, if you're following someone as brain-dead as the lizard girl over here." He gestured vaguely in Kirce's direction, enjoying the look on her face as he chuckled. Even from the distance he was at, Ben could almost imagine seeing steam coming out of Kirce's ears as her face flushed red in anger.
"I'll roast you for that, you...you peasant!"
The smirk on his face widened.
"Bingo."
He'd spent enough time around Darius to learn how to needle people with words - Hyne knew the Lightning Alchemist had gotten under his skin enough over the months they'd been training and working together. It had only taken him a minute to figure out that Kirce probably had a temper, and it was even more trivial to decide to just start mocking her until she flew off the handle. She still had a Philosopher's Stone, but he figured if he riled her up enough she might just forget to even use it...and she definitely wouldn't be thinking straight enough to try and fight Connor if she was dead set on killing him first.
He never thought he'd have a reason to thank Darius for being...well, himself, not to mention Etchel to a lesser extent, but fate was strange like that.
The clap of Kirce's hands brought him back to reality as she sent a torrent of flame at him, but Connor leapt into action before he could make a move to do anything about the attack himself. His gunblade rose and fell rapidly, and the edge exuded a burst of fire that slammed home into Kirce's attack and caused the entire area in front of them to detonate as the attacks collided. Ben smiled as he disappeared into a flash step under cover of the flames and smoke, reappearing behind Kirce in the blink of an eye and kicking her backwards towards Connor.
"Kirce!"
"Focus, Kyo!" the blond woman shouted, her own transmutation circle glowing as she started to prepare to use her alchemy.
She didn't get the chance.
Ben's hand touched the ground before she could complete her transmutation, and he dumped mana into the earth in an immense burst of alteration. The ground around them rippled and rose, an earthen wall forming in a semicircle behind him and cutting them off from Kirce and Connor even as the ground before him rumbled and began to undulate. The three alchemists in front of him tried to keep their balance as the ground drove them bodily away from their leader along with their disabled vehicle, pushing them along with a river-like flow of earth until both Ben and his enemies were more or less isolated from their respective allies.
"Kyo, what the hell was that...?" the woman asked, looking around as she realized just how far they'd traveled in so quick a span of time.
"Looks like we've got a bigger fight on our hands than we thought, Alice," the man with the coat mused, slipping the garment from his body and tossing it away as he flexed his hands. "Galan, you in?"
The white-haired man nodded, gesturing and causing a series of long spears to pop into existence around himself in a glow of alchemical light. They weren't sure just what to expect from the young man in front of them, but judging from the size of the transmutation he'd just performed, it seemed like he wasn't to be underestimated.
Ben just grinned, slowly dragging his Diviner from its sheath and settling into his stance as he felt the adrenaline flowing through his body. He almost felt like he was back in Spira at the tournament he'd attended just before he came to Gaia, fighting opponents with no clue as to what they could really do. Now, though, he was excited to see what he could really do now as well after his training.
"Come on, then - I'll even be nice enough to give you the first move," he taunted, letting the sword rest on his shoulder as he held his hand out invitingly. The spears around the large man flew at him in the blink of an eye, and he threw his thoughts aside as he dove into battle with the trio of alchemists.