Trials of the Valiant Chapter 29
By The RPGenius
A giant curved blade sprang from the ground toward Sleeris’s shell. It sliced straight through the Zodiac Monster of Cancer’s armored body, cutting the shell in half and leaving Sleeris screaming in pain and shock. The pieces of the armor that had shielded the hideous monster against all previous attacks now lay in shattered pieces on the ground. Underneath was a twisted, frail purple body that looked almost too withered to possibly support the rest of it.
Agrias allowed herself a small, relieved smile.
“Agrias, you are a genius,” Ramza said grinning.
Sleeris roared and charged. Without its armor, it moved considerably faster. But not fast enough to make any sort of difference. As it came to Ramza, it swung its huge claw down to crush his skull.
It never reached its target, however, as Agrias’s shield raised to block it. As the claw made a low gonging sound against the raised shield, Ramza thrust his sword into the twisted body of Sleeris.
It was like cutting through butter. Sleeris’s body was soft and weak, and the sword had no trouble penetrating the skin and stabbing straight through. Sleeris screamed in agony.
Ramza pulled his sword out and thrust again. And again and again. Over and over he plunged his weapon into the monster’s soft flesh until Sleeris collapsed to the ground.
“It…can’t be…I cannot be…beaten…” came Sleeris’s shocked cry from the ground. “Very well, Beoulve…you win…but you shall be destroyed nonetheless!”
And with that, Sleeris was gone in an explosion of dark energy.
***
It was over.
Ramza let the Ragnarok drop from his weary hands. Breathing heavily, he turned to look at Agrias, gratitude and love in his eyes. She looked back at him and smiled. They embraced one another.
“Brother?” came Alma’s shaking voice.
Ramza looked to see Alma staring further into the cave, eyes wide. Ramza frowned and turned his eyes to where she was looking.
Standing further back in the cave were seven Ultima Demons.
“Oh, no,” Ramza said, breaking the embrace with Agrias and grabbing his sword from the ground.
Agrias followed his eyes and saw the demons as well. Her face tightened. “I count seven Ultima Demons, Ramza,” she said quietly.
Ramza nodded. In its final moments, Sleeris must have called these monsters forth to do what it couldn’t.
“Agrias, get out of here. Alma, you too,” Ramza said evenly, not taking his eyes off the new foes.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Ramza, you’ll be slaughtered alone,” Agrias said, gripping her sword tightly.
“And if you stay, the three of us will be,” Ramza countered. “We can’t win by fighting and we can’t outrun these things. But I can hold them off for long enough for you to escape.”
“I’m not leaving you, Ramza,” Agrias insisted.
“I’m not going, either,” Alma agreed.
The Ultima Demons stepped forward as one. Their wings folded back as they prepared to fight.
Ramza dashed forward to attack them before they could him. “GO, you two!” he yelled angrily.
“Not happening, Ramza!” Agrias called as she charged as well.
But before they could reach their foes, they heard a small, squeaky voice yell from further behind the demons, “Kupo! Kill Ramza enemy!”
And suddenly, there were moogles everywhere. The thirty moogles that Magop had guiding Ramza and Agrias before, all armed with some form of crude weapon, swarmed the demons and began attacking from all angles.
The demons were fearsome creatures, but they could not fight against so many at once. For each moogle they could take out, another five seemed to take his place. In addition, the demons could not risk taking the time to concentrate on casting any spells.
Several moogles were even climbing up the backs of the demons and stabbing them with small, crude, yet very sharp knives. And once Ramza, Alma, and Agrias joined the fray, the demons’ fates were sealed.
One by one, the Ultima Demons fell from the repeated, vicious attacks of their small enemies. Finally, the last fell to its knees and slumped to the ground.
***
A few hours later...
The moogles had been kind enough to provide Ramza with enough medicine that they'd stolen off of Sleeris's troops to fully heal all his friends. Mustadio had looked over Worker 8 and repaired the robot to functioning status. They had all exchanged their stories of what had happened outside and inside the cave.
The moogles had performed a small ritual for those that they had lost while fighting the Ultima Demons. Each dead moogle's body had become a Spirit Crystal, and each crystal had been taken solemnly down to lie with the horde of other crystals deeper in the cave.
Now Magop approached Ramza.
"Kupo. Ramza, Ramza's friends leaving?" he inquired.
Ramza nodded. "Thank you for all your help, Magop. But I'm worried about your moogles. Syldreth's soldiers are still in this cave, and there are probably a lot of them. Will you be okay?"
"Ramza no worry, kupo. Bad humans stupid, get lost easy. Moogles stay away until humans gone," Magop reassured him.
"Still, it might be safer if you were to find another place to live," Ramza said. "Perhaps you could come back to the surface?"
Magop frowned. "No, kupo. Other humans not like you, not like your friends. Other humans bad, greedy, evil. Not enough Ramza's on surface world, kupo. We stay."
Ramza knew that there was truth to Magop's words, and did not try any further to persuade the old moogle. Magop turned away, and lead his moogles back into the cave.
Ramza turned back to his group. Everyone watched him expectantly. In their eyes Ramza could see loyalty, trust, friendship, and, in Agrias's eyes, love.
He smiled and realized, not for the first time, how incredibly lucky he was to have these people as allies and friends.
He climbed up on Boco's back and helped Agrias up next to him. Then Ramza gave the order to move out.