Legend of the Seven Swords Chapter 3
"Who Are You?"
By Ybrik Metaknight
Scott Winters woke up clutching his prized Dragon Whisker at the foot of a craps table. Ever since learning the art of the Dragon Knight, he had used a spear when training to be any type of warrior. He was more than a bit confused at this latest complication in his life: he didn’t know where the hell he was. What’s more, his eyes had been blinded by the flash from that sword of Ramza’s. As much as he admired his leader, who he had been with since being hired by the noble to help hunt down the Death Corps at the end of the Fifty Years’ War, Scott always found himself wondering what Ramza had gotten him and his friends into.
A few feet away, Scott's sister Alexis regained consciousness as she did almost everything: quickly and forcefully. Alex's swords had been thrown in different directions following the brilliant, other-worldly explosion of light from Ramza's Ragnarok. She picked up all three ninja's blades, the Kogo knife, the Iga knife, and her lucky Sasuke knife, and searched around the middle deck of the Blackjack. She spied her brother doing the same thing she was, looking just as puzzled as she was.
“What’re you looking for?” she asked her sibling.
“Well,” he began, “I can’t find Rebecca anywhere, and Lloyd seems missing as well.”
“Well then, let’s find your girlfriend and your best friend, okay?” Alexis told her big brother. Funny, she thought. I’m younger than he is, but I’m always a step ahead of him. She was always the one helping him find who he was, what he should do with his life, and where those closest to him fit into his life. She had been with Ramza in the beginning, all the way from the Gariland Academy. It had been her suggestion that Ramza recruit her brother and his friend, Rebecca Gray, after most of his original squad either was killed or resigned following one early mission against the Death Corps. Ever since then, the three had always been a crucial part of Ramza’s team. Now, here she was again, helping him find two of the most important people in his life, after her, that is.
They found Lloyd not too far from the exit of their part of the ship, still unconscious. Alexis thought back to when Ramza had recruited him. It was right after the early team had battled Wiegraf Folles for the first time. Lloyd Wright had been coerced into fighting for the Death Corps, but Ramza had agreed to let him redeem himself by fighting for his squad of fighters. Naturally, Lloyd, always a follower, leaped at the chance to fight alongside his childhood friend, Scott. From that time forward, he had trained diligently to master as many types of magic as he could, and was thus the best mage in all of Ramza’s troops.
“Hey Alex, he’s not awake yet,” Scott told his sister. “Would you mind waiting with him while I find Becca?”
“Of course not,” Alexis replied. “Once he wakes up, we’ll come find you and help, if necessary.” In truth, she had been hoping that she would have been able to be alone with Lloyd when he woke up, so this gave her the perfect opportunity. She wanted to try to discuss their feelings for each other with him. Every time she tried before, he’d always avoided the issue. She simply couldn’t understand why she couldn’t talk to him, why she was so reluctant to do this while she could always do anything else without even thinking. They had formed their relationship only a few months after the Lion War fully broke out. He was the first man she’d really liked since Neil Chambers, her first love. She met Neil on Ramza’s squad at the Gariland Academy, but he was killed on their third mission together. Ever since then, she had been reluctant to get close to anyone else, even Rad, whom she still found a bit attractive. But no, she and Lloyd had started to like each other that night in Warjilis when…
“Oh, my head,” Lloyd said, sitting up. “This whole crossing dimensions thing can be a real bi—oh hi, Alex.”
“Hey there,” she returned. ‘Hey there!?’ What the hell was that? I can be such a dumbass sometimes! Now he’ll never take me seriously! She shook these thoughts from her head and asked, “How do you know that we just went to another dimension again?”
“Oh! Uh, I just, have a, um, feeling about it,” he answered her. “It felt just like it did when we went to Murond Death City from that monastery basement.” He quickly cast a simple White Magic spell on himself to take care of his sudden headache, then turned to ask Alexis another question. “Hey Alex, where’s your brother? And everyone else, for that matter?”
“Well, Scott just went to the top deck to look for Rebecca, and everyone else seems to be missing,” she answered. “Hey, we need to talk about u—”
“Yeah, it can wait until after we find everyone else,” he interrupted, once again skirting the topic. “I think we should make sure everybody else is okay before we help Scotty look for Becca,” he added quickly.
“Um, right,” Alexis hesitantly agreed. Damn him! He always changes the subject on me! Maybe he doesn’t really like me. Well then, who needs him, or anyone else? I’ll just. . .
“Hey, you all right?” Lloyd interrupted her flustered thoughts. When she nodded, he continued, “Then, let’s find our way around this heap of scrap wood and look for our other teammates.”
So, they looked around the floor they were on one last time, and, finding no one, proceeded down a ladder to the level beneath them, which was the lowest level of this once-flying casino. Why does this thing look like a casino? Alexis wondered as she and Lloyd found and awoke Beowulf, then Agrias. And how did such an airship (or any airship for that matter) get into the Graveyard of Airships? And what could possibly have done this kind of damage to a vehicle this size? And who—ah, I’m thinking too hard again! I really need to stop doing that. Now my head hurts! She broke off this mental nonsense as she and Lloyd retraced their steps back up to the surface deck of the mysterious Blackjack—I guess the owner of this thing painted that name on the side—where Scott stood waiting with Orlandu.
“Hey Scott,” Lloyd said, causing his best friend to turn and look at him. “Did you find Rebecca yet?”
“Well, sorta,” Scott answered. “Orlandu here told me that she and Ramza are out looking for anyone else from our group that might have somehow materialized outside of the ship.”
“Yes, Ramza thought that it might be a good idea to scout out the nearby terrain as well,” Orlandu added. “And I offered to stay behind until the rest of you woke up, so Rebecca decided to go along and keep Ramza company.”
“Plus, she probably wanted to find what elemental abilities she could use, being such a skilled geomancer,” Alexis noted, remembering that her brother’s girlfriend was not only quite skilled in the art of summoning, but could also use earth magic and items very proficiently. “Oh, by the way, Agrias and Beowulf are both awake down below.”
“Good, I hoped that they might be,” a voice said from the direction of the rope ladder leading to the ground. All heads turned to see their leader, Ramza, return to the deck, followed by a beautiful young blonde in summoner’s robes. “And we, by the way, found no one else, meaning that more than half of our number, Meliadoul, Mustadio, Rafa, Malak, Reis, Rad, Alicia, Cloud, and Alma, are still missing,” He added, summing up their current situation.
“And we couldn’t go very far with this thick mist everywhere,” Rebecca said as Agrias and Beowulf came out of the airship. “But we did notice two things: first, that the town to the northeast of us, which you can barely even make out, has a castle and a thunderstorm hovering over that never moves.”
“And what else did you notice, Becca?” Scott inquired, moving closer to her.
“Well, the other thing we found was that this mist has just now begun to dissipate,” she replied, “and at a rather fast rate, at that.”
“We hope that it will only be a few minutes until we can see through it,” Ramza added to her summary.
Pulling a weathered photograph out of her pocket, Agrias advanced toward Ramza and spoke up. “Ramza, Beowulf and I found this picture laying on the floor near a wall we passed on our way up here. It was in a shattered picture frame, so I took it out,” she told him as she handed him the picture. Ramza studied the picture, and saw two people, a man and a woman, both with whitish-blond hair. The man wore a trench coat, and the woman he held in his arms wore a simple cloth suit that one such as a thief might wear. He wondered what this picture meant, if these were the owners of this airship, and was about to say something when Beowulf broke his thoughts.
“Hey look, everyone! The mist has cleared significantly and we can see much farther!” Beowulf exclaimed. Then, pointing to the northwest, he added, “And there’s another airship off in that direction!”
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“No, Terra! Watch out!” Edgar mumbled in his sleep. “The behemoth’s gonna…” Then he woke up with a start.
“Gonna what, brother?” Sabin teased Edgar as he sat up, catching his breath, for he had been panting. “Eat her? Have tea with her? Read her bedtime stories?”
“Shut up, you,” Edgar said, glaring at his brother. He’d been having this dream nearly every night for the past month. His feelings for Terra just kept getting stronger and stronger, and so this dream kept getting more and more vicious. He just never could make it to the end of it, though… “I’ll be fine. Where, where are we?” the young king asked as he looked around the deck of the Falcon, where he woke up. Seeing nothing but desert, and large amounts of mist off in the distance, he shot a questioning look at Sabin.
“I’m afraid I really don’t know. I just woke up a few minutes before you,” Sabin answered Edgar’s perplexed stare. “We could be somewhere within Figaro’s lands, but I’ve never seen that much mist anywhere, much less near a desert.”
“Nor have I,” a voice said from the direction of the ladder leading from downstairs. Edgar and Sabin turned to see Setzer climbing out, followed by Cyan. “And I’ve been all over the world, but I’ve never seen such a place as this.”
“Whilst thou slept, Setzer and I came up here and looked around,” Cyan said, with his archaic tongue. “And if thou wilt look over yon, to the west, thou shalt see a large crater surrounded by several smaller canyons.”
Edgar and Sabin looked in the direction in which the noble knight pointed, and, sure enough, saw exactly what their 46-year-old companion described.
“It looks…almost like a very large tree was uprooted there,” Edgar speculated.
“Maybe we should go check it out,” Sabin suggested.
“Locke and Celes went to do just that,” Setzer answered him. “And Terra’s downstairs, attending to the last of Shadow’s wounds. I swear, that man is so stubborn that he refuses to remain hurt for long.”
“And what of Relm, Gau, and Mog?” Edgar wondered aloud.
“They were not anywhere to be found when we all awoke,” Setzer answered him.
“We know not whither they hath gone,” Cyan commented, with a tinge of worry in his voice. All present knew how much Gau meant to the older knight. Gau was Cyan’s only family, since Kefka’s poison had killed his wife and son four years ago.
“Hey, cheer up, Cyan,” Sabin attempted to lift the spirits of the honorable knight. “Gau is a very talented young man. I’m sure he’ll have no problem defending himself and anyone else around him.”
“Mayhap thou’rt right,” Cyan admitted as Locke and Celes climbed back aboard the Falcon. “I think that I have done right by the lad, and—Locke, Celes!” he broke off as he spied the lovers. “What hast thou discovered?”
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Downstairs, in a guest bedroom that Setzer had added onto the Falcon, Terra poured one final potion on Shadow’s last wound, a gash across his stomach. As she watched the wound close, she expected the ninja to call out, to verbally wince at the burning sensation. However, to her surprise (or perhaps not), the assassin remained silent. His dog Interceptor simply whined a bit at the sizzling sound.
“There, how’s that?” Terra asked, allowing her maternal side to take over, as Shadow pulled his shirt back over his chest.
“…Much better. Thank you, Terra,” Shadow finally grumbled, not wishing to appear unable to do something on his own, but also reluctant to hurt the girl’s feelings. Terra was, after all, one of the few people on this team that Shadow could actually tolerate.
“Well then, let’s go up to the others and find out what has happened to us,” Terra said, climbing the ladder to the deck. Shadow followed, with Interceptor in tow.
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“What did you say?!?!?” Setzer nearly screamed at Locke.
“He said that he thought he saw your old airship, the Blackjack, or at least its wrecked remains, over to the east,” Celes reiterated on behalf of her beloved treasure hunter, as Terra, Shadow, and Interceptor climbed up to the deck.
“I know what he said, stupid!” Setzer snapped at her angrily. “I just don’t believe that it’s true, that’s all.”
“Don’t you dare speak to her that way!” Locke defended Celes. “She only answered your question.”
“You stay out of this, Cole.”
“Bring it on, Gabbiani.”
“Both of you, calm down,” Sabin interjected, jumping between the two angry men. “We can’t start killing each other now, especially not before we figure out what the hell’s going on around here.”
Changing the subject so as to cool down the brewing confrontation, ever-inquisitive Edgar asked Locke, “What else did you say, about the rain and the mist?”
“Oh yeah,” Locke began. “There’s a castle town to the northeast with a constant rainstorm over it, and most of the mist seems to be clearing up, see?”
“Well then, let’s go check out that airship,” Setzer said, to no one in particular.
“Well, it couldn’t hurt,” Terra said when everyone looked around, dumbfounded. “We might as well go check it out.”
She never ceases to amaze me, Edgar thought as he watched Terra follow Setzer off of the airship. He then followed her as well, as the others did him.
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As Ramza led his group away from the Blackjack, he began thinking about his sister. Where could Alma be? Why isn’t she here, after all I did to get her back? What happened to us anyway? Oh well, no use in asking questions I can’t find answers to right now. I should be focusing on the matter at hand, this new world and our missing companions. As these thoughts ran through his mind, Ramza didn’t even notice Agrias coming towards him.
“Ramza,” the young holy knight began, “what do you plan to do when we reach the other airship?”
“I don’t know. Why are you asking me this?” Ramza replied, returning to reality from the world of his own thoughts.
“Oh, it’s nothing. I was just wondering what your plans were on this, and I’m not the only one,” Agrias answered his query, gesturing to the six people just a short ways behind them. Everyone still accounted for had come along for the investigation. Ramza noticed Scott and Rebecca pleasantly chatting a few feet from him. Orlandu and Beowulf were discussing how to teach each other different sword spells, as they were always interested in expanding their fighting ability. Bringing up the rear of the entourage, Lloyd and Alexis seemed absorbed in thought.
I wonder what’s so funny to Lloyd? He has a very…sinister…grin on his face. Oh well, probably just some of his ordinary perverted thoughts, Ramza thought, casting aside any other possibilities. “Well, I thought we might just check out this other airship and then play it by ea—ow!” Before Ramza had the opportunity to complete his thought, his arm had been nicked by a razor sharp…playing card?
“Where did you get that ship you came out of?!?” a man who seemed strangely familiar to Ramza practically screamed at him. Before Ramza could answer, the man in the trench coat began attacking him again. Well, talking’s not gonna get me anywhere, Ramza thought, drawing one of his two Ragnaroks. He simply used it to deflect the man’s rather odd projectiles, choosing to gamble on the idea that he would eventually tire, come to his senses and talk things over. Agrias, however, had another plan of attack in mind. She drew her Excalibur and, with a sudden burst of speed, sliced at the back of the man with the white hair, connecting with—another sword, a scimitar.
“No one tries to slice my friends in the back!” cried another woman who had snuck up behind Agrias. “Or my name isn’t Celes Che—re,” the other woman paused, as did Agrias, when they got a look at each other.
It’s like looking in the mirror, Agrias thought as she noticed the other warrior’s long blond hair, her soft facial features, her suit of armor, her fighting stance. “Well, as long as we are identical to one another, we might as well make this a fair fight,” Agrias said, drawing an Aegis Shield instead of her second sword, the Save the Queen.
“Sounds fine to me,” the other woman, Celes, replied, smirking as she drew an identical shield from her back. The two women locked swords as Agrias’s companions began running towards the two skirmishes.
“Hold on, Agrias, Ramza,” Beowulf yelled as he and Orlandu ran up to them, swords drawn. However, two other men stepped in their paths.
“Thou shalt not do unto mine friends what thou wouldst not have me do unto thee,” the older of the two men stated in an archaic tongue, drawing a katana and grasping it with two hands. Obliging the warrior, Orlandu did the same with his Chirijiraden, leaving his Excalibur in its sheath.
“Well, we might as well do this like true warriors,” the other man said.
“Indeed,” Beowulf answered.
“I am Edgar Figaro, ruler of the desert kingdom of Figaro,” the regal-looking warrior said, bowing to Beowulf.
“And I am Beowulf Kadmus, Temple Knight of Lionel,” Beowulf answered, bowing to Edgar in turn.
The two warriors then backed away from one another very quickly. Edgar drew his Excalibur, a longer blade than swords of the same name possessed by other combatants on the same battlefield, then gulped as he saw the size of the sword Beowulf drew. The Chaos Blade was nearly three times as wide as Edgar’s sword, twice as thick, and just as long. Edgar shook away his fear as they swung their blades at one another. Upon impact, however, Edgar’s reservations proved quite reasonable, as his weapon was knocked away from him upon first contact with Beowulf’s. Jumping back once again, Edgar simply said, “Okay, time to get serious.” Then, pulling his cape back a little more, he pulled an object from his utility belt and pressed a button on the tool, causing it to flash brightly. While Beowulf was temporarily stunned and blinded, Edgar grabbed his Aura Lance, which was also strapped onto his belt, and made sure that his Dragoon Boots were securely strapped to his feet. Then, grasping the dragon’s horn hanging from his neck, the crafty king quickly hopped up into the air, coming down and bouncing off the ground with his boots. As Beowulf regained his vision, he discovered it was his turn to gulp with worry.
“Oh, shit,” he said as he saw Edgar soar into the air and out of sight.
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Meanwhile, a bit further away, Shadow, Locke, Terra, and Sabin ran to catch up with their allies in attacking this strange group that climbed out of the Blackjack. They saw four people at the top of the next hill from where they were. Two of them, a male knight and a female ninja ran towards them, weapons drawn.
Without questioning a thing, Shadow ran towards the female ninja, drawing his Striker and his Stunner. He practically pounced on her, but she rolled out of his way, slashing at his back as she did so. Even though it barely grazed him, it hurt like hell, for her Kogo knife came dangerously close to reopening a wound that had not yet fully healed. He felt like screaming out in pain, but instead returned her slash in kind with a slash of his own. As he blindly lashed out in a pain-induced frenzy, he didn’t expect to actually hit her, but his Stunner connected with her stomach, quickly drawing a neat line of blood across her lower torso. This also temporarily paralyzed her, giving Shadow a chance to recover for a moment. Suddenly, Interceptor lunged forward from behind his owner and began to attack the young woman. No longer stunned, the ninja kicked her left leg hard, causing the dog to lose his grip on her shin and go flying, landing a few feet away with slight injuries. Turning her attention back to Shadow, the girl threw three shurikens in his direction. Although two of them missed him, the third star found a home deep in Shadow’s left shoulder. Enraged, the older ninja threw three of his own projectiles at his opponent. The first star lodged itself in the younger ninja’s right thigh (now both of her legs were injured), the second lobbed off a bit of her hair but otherwise missed her, and the third shuriken hit her right forearm, rendering her throwing arm useless, although it didn’t go very deep.
Shadow backed away from her and pulled an X-potion out of his belt. He then proceeded to pull out the shuriken and pour the X-potion into his various wounds, quickly healing them. He felt triumphant as he looked at his opponent. She was unable to remove the shurikens from her body, as the bleeding would be too severe for her to last much longer without medical attention. But what was this? She looked up to the top of the hill and nodded at someone. Shadow looked up to see to whom this gesture was directed and saw a young man dressed in multicolored robes. He had spent enough time in Thamasa during his youth to know that this indicated that the young man was a mage of the highest order. His eyes darted back to the female ninja, who was now yanking the shurikens from both spots on her body, causing blood to spurt from the wounds. What the hell is she doing? Shadow thought. She’ll bleed to death in a matter of minutes! Then he heard the spell being cast from atop the hill.
“Mighty breeze, heal from the sky! Cure 4!” the mage cried out. Suddenly, a bright blue hemisphere surrounded the ninja, instantly closing all of her wounds and revitalizing her.
What the hell!? I thought magic no longer existed! Where are we? Ah, well, back to the fight. Shadow, drinking the last of the X-potion, was revitalized himself, and resumed fighting the young woman, sword to sword.
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As Locke watched Shadow pounce towards the female ninja, he barely had time to think, Who are these people, how did they get a hold of the blackjack…and why are we attacking them? before a knight running alongside the ninja broke away from her and ran towards him. Naturally, Locke panicked, as his Graedus dirk was no match for the knight’s Defender sword, which was now leaving its sheath as its owner began to run toward him. Then, Edgar’s Excalibur came flying over the hill from the other side and lodged itself, hilt up, between two stones near Locke.
What the hell? Why did Edgar’s sword just come flying—no matter. I can use it against this knight. As Locke pulled the sword from the stone, one amusing thought ran through his mind. I should be king! As he smiled at the idea, he saw Edgar, off in the distance, shooting up in the air, apparently executing a jump attack. Simultaneously, he heard the knight say something after stopping only a few yards away from him.
“Layer upon layer, make your mark now! Haste!” the knight yelled. Locke watched in fascination as the air around the knight distorted with a blue light. Not one to miss an opportunity, Locke ran right up next to the knight, so that he too reaped the benefits of the haste spell.
It’s true! If you get near enough to someone being affected by certain types of magic spells, you can be affected as well! Even with this added speed, I don’t have time to think about why he can cast magic. I’m sure I’ll find out eventually.
This action apparently enraged the knight, who used his burst of speed to slash at Locke. However, a thief hit by a haste spell is always faster than a knight hit by one, so Locke easily avoided the thrust.
“Why have you attacked us!?” the knight yelled, making more quick stabs at Locke, some met by Locke’s sword skills, which, although slightly inferior to the knight’s, were up to the task of defending him.
“To be honest, I’m not quite sure,” Locke admitted, parrying the knight’s thrust. “You see, a member of our team owns that airship over there, or at least he did until it was destroyed by a man named Kefka. It just mysteriously disappeared after that, and now we find it, with you people coming out of it.”
“And so you decided to attack us?”
“It wasn’t my decision. Setzer, the owner, took it upon himself to attack that blond man over there, and we Returners support each other.” Locke’s sword arm was getting tired, and he knew that he’d have to end this soon. He whirled around to dodge another of the knight’s thrusts. As he did so, he secretly drew his Graedus and slipped it into a hidden sheath sewn into his right sleeve, and then finished his turn to meet the knight’s Defender with the Excalibur. The two blades locked, sending sparks flying. “Besides, you and that ninja over there” he gestured towards the battle between the two ninjas by nodding his head in that direction “attacked me and my friend, Shadow.”
“My sister and I,” the knight began, obviously referring to the girl fighting Shadow, “attacked the two of you because we wanted to take the first strike. It was Alexis’ idea, not mine.”
The thief and the knight were now both straining to overtake one another, but maintained a mutual desire to talk things out before fighting. However, now the fight was begun, and they had to finish it. Locke suddenly jumped back, causing the knight to fall forward, losing his footing a bit. Annoyed at this trickery, the knight lunged at Locke, swinging his Defender as if he were to split the thief in two. However, Locke decided to make his move then and there. In one fluid motion, he strongly deflected the knight’s sword with a right-handed thrust of his own sword, then switched the sword to his left hand, drew the dirk from his sleeve, and feigned with it. He achieved the desired effect. His opponent, surprised by the sudden move, swayed his entire body away from the dagger, putting his sword right in front of Locke’s face. Completing his plan, the treasure hunter quickly discarded his two weapons and snatched the Defender from the knight’s hand, evoking a look of further shock. The knight fell onto his back, giving Locke the chance to point at him with his own sword, trapping him.
“Now that I, Locke Cole, have won this match, and have things under control, maybe you’d like to tell me exactly what is going on.” The thief grinned as he gloated.
Returning the look with a smirk of his own, the knight merely replied, “‘Won’? Scott Winters is not defeated so easily.” As Scott rolled away from bladepoint and into a standing point, it was Locke’s turn to be surprised. He then drew a spear from a concealed place on the back of his armor, which caused Locke to curse himself for having missed the weapon. Grinning once more, Scott added, “Down in a minute!” and leaped into the air, out of sight.
Instead of gulping and swearing, Locke did the only logical thing. He ran.
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Rebecca glanced to Lloyd at her side, silently requesting that he watch her back. When his returning look showed her his compliance, she began to cast a spell on the two people rushing towards them, a muscular man dressed like a monk and a striking green-haired woman drawing her sword.
She’ll never cast that in time, thought Lloyd as he watched Rebecca gather her magical energy for the summon spell. But maybe…I’ve been wanting to try something new with some of my time magic. It’s worth a shot, anyways.
Lloyd began to draw magic energy into his body, seemingly stopping time as he did so. Screaming the words, “Time, help us act without delay! Quick Cast!” he shot all of his stored time magic into Rebecca, returning time to normal. This new spell caused Rebecca to accumulate her magic at an alarming rate. She suddenly had enough energy to cast her spell.
Without thinking, Rebecca yelled out, “King of flames, burn to cinders! Ifrit!” and the sky turned red.
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As the sky turned crimson with fire, Sabin grabbed Terra’s arm, nearly yanking it out of its socket as he pulled her to a stop. “Look at that! It’s almost like the sky’s bleeding! Could that be caused by that woman’s spell?” Sabin yelled over the noise of the battle and roar of the flames now erupting from the clouds above, as a gigantic horned creature began to emerge from the heavens.
“I don’t know!” Terra yelled back. “I suppose it cou—” she broke off as her face twisted with the shock of what she saw. “By the goddesses, it’s Ifrit!” She yelled at Sabin, pointing in the direction of the summoned monster, a moment before a wall of flame slammed into the two of them.
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Up in the sky, Scott encountered a fellow dragoon as his magic jumping abilities kept him temporarily suspended in air. This new lancer was dressed in fine, regal-looking clothes, complete with a cape. He also had a belt with a number of tools on it. The man’s shoes were glowing, artificially producing the same effect as the dragon spirit used by lancers such as Scott. The two jumpers, hovering in the sweltering, now-scarlet air, locked glances and simultaneously thrust their spears at one another. As they did so, each man swerved just enough to avoid the other’s lunge.
Damn, thought Edgar. Whoever this guy is, he’s good, probably a lot better than me. His moves show a visual flair that mine lack, the king admitted to himself. A display such as that can only come from years of specialized training and experience.
Scott merely gritted his teeth and continued to fight the man floating before him. He had gotten so caught up in the battle that he didn’t notice his dragon spirit dying down, didn’t notice his body getting rapidly heavier. However, by the time he saw himself falling, he noticed that his opponent’s shoes ceased to gleam. The two men were now falling pretty evenly, aiming themselves toward their targets.
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Locke ran as fast as he could in an attempt to escape the impact of a man landing on top of him from far above. Not looking where he was going, Locke literally ran into another knight, causing both to fall down.
“Are you trying to distract me from this battle by tackling me!?” the knight exclaimed. “You won’t take advantage of Beowulf Kadmus so easily!” he added right before bringing his monstrous sword down to Locke’s side.
“Holy shit! That sword’s freakin’ huge! Are you some kinda executioner or something?” Locke jumped from his position with terror. Leaving the Excalibur on the ground, he opted instead to use his speed to his advantage and simply dodge Beowulf’s attacks. First a strike across Locke’s chest (or what would have been his chest, had he not squirmed out of the way at the last instant), and then a swing back across to the side the blade had started on. Neither combatant was expecting the next turn of events, as they were slammed hard from above and stabbed with the blades of spears, nearly killing both men. The two lancers, one a king and the other a knight of the highest caliber, glared at each other before lunging slightly away from Locke and Beowulf to continue a battle the two of them had clearly started in the air. Recovering quickly, Locke got up and whipped out a Wing Edge to begin throwing at Scott. As Locke moved a bit closer to Edgar to get a better angle with his projectile, Beowulf saw his chance.
Gathering all the anger, rage, and pain developed from his near fatal injuries, he reached within himself and tapped into a dark energy source. “Shock!” he bellowed, following up his scream with an explosive release of his negative emotions upon Edgar and Locke, causing both men to fall on their faces with pain. Scott looked on at his two now-crippled opponents, shocked to see them still breathing.
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Freya Crescent usually liked the rainy mornings of Burmecia. Of course, she usually wasn’t woken up by a guard pounding on her door.
“Lady Freya! Lady Freya! Come quick!” the guard cried out. She ran to the door and flung it open, still in her nightgown.
“What is it!?” the honored dragon knight inquired.
“A battle of epic proportions is taking place between here and the former site of Cleyra!” the guard exclaimed.
“OK, OK, I’ll be right out,” Freya finally gave in, dismissing the guard. Although she knew that particular guard tended to exaggerate a bit, she also knew that a serious problem could be developing. Ten minutes later, she was fully armored and ready to go. Heading out to the courtyard of the newly rebuilt castle, she said to the dragoons gathered there, “All right. Let’s go.” Just before they left on their chocobos, she grabbed a nearby moogle so that she could easily communicate with her old allies once out in the field.
Five minutes after leaving the town gates, the perpetual rain of Burmecia and the residual Mist were clear, and Freya could see two airships in the distance. Quickening the speed of her chocobo, she raced to the site between the two, where she could see between ten and twenty people fighting. As she neared the battle, she slowed her chocobo to a halt, observing the grandest battle she had seen since Kuja’s defeat. A few pairs of combatants were locked in a steel-to-steel blade battle, while others used battle techniques such as the jump technique so familiar to Burmecian soldiers. Still others were using other fighting techniques and slinging spells every which way. She quickly wrote out a brief message on a sheet of paper she had with her, and then turned to the moogle clinging with fear to her back.
“Can you do me a favor?” she asked the frightened furry creature. It nodded weakly. Freya continued, “Take this note, and fly as fast as you can to Lindblum and give it to Regent Cid, or whoever you can find that is in charge. Do you understand?” The moogle again shook his head in affirmation, this time with more confidence. He then took the note from her and flew off as fast as his tiny wings could carry him.
“I hope that message reaches someone that can help,” Freya muttered to herself. Then, as her fellow lancers came up behind her, she issued one simple order before leading them full speed toward the battle taking place:
“CHARGE!!!”
.
“Can’t we all just get along?”
--Jack Nicholson (as the president) in Mars Attacks