The Sorceress War Part I, Chapter IX
AN:
Uh, I forgot if Behemoths absorbed or were resistant against Holy spells or
not. If so, well, oops on my part then.
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"Why is it every Independence Day you three
psychopaths get into a bottle rocket war? I'm -- Whoa! -- Julia Heartilly
was that aimed at me?! Epsilon... you put that Roman Candle down!
Okay, Andraia, put down that M-1000... NOW. This isn't funny anymore
guys... stop it!"
-- Sergeant Celeste Trepe
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Salt Lake Outskirts, 05:00 hours.
Raine jumped up to her feet in alarm as she heard a familiar voice through the
silence of the early morning, causing the sleeping Julia to fall down on her back
to the hard ground below. Before the tired soldiers had time to yell at
Raine for moving, she heard the voice as well, along with a deep, primeval
roar. That roar could only belong to a towering Behemoth, and Esthar was
famous for bringing monsters into the battlefield to support their own
soldiers. Now Zion, Celeste, and Lancer had heard it as well,
and each grabbed their own weapons that were sitting on the ground next to them
to prepare for the battle to come. He knew Esthar would try something,
and now he was going to see just what it was they planned. Raine on
the other hand, felt slightly disappointed in herself for thinking the
Estharians wouldn't find them, and now finding out she was horribly
wrong. She trotted over to her soldiers, and tapped each one on the
shoulder to wake them up.
"Epsilon, Edea, Corin, everyone!" Raine ordered in a hushed but
stressed voice, waking each one up, "Get up! We have a problem!"
At once, the rest of the team bolted upright at the sound of her voice, knowing
that something was seriously wrong. They too now heard the calling roar
of the beast over one of the large inclines of rock around them.
They grabbed their weapons, knowing it was an Esthar search group, or maybe
just one person controlling the massive Behemoth monster. Raine on the
other hand could tell the owner of the commanding voice was none other than
Satori, the person who took down the whole Pack when they were first trying to
escape the Esthar Presidential Palace.
Raine drew out her katana as she saw the dark-haired general walk over the top
of the small hill which had been masking the Wolves from view. Satori
smirked as she saw them, finally pleased with herself that she had found them
after a long night of searching. She snapped her fingers, and the
towering, muscular Behemoth slowly trotted over the hill as well, eying its
future pray carefully. Before Satori dispatched the beast, she looked
directly at Raine.
"As you can see the price for escaping Esthar's prisons is death!"
she smirked, pulling out her sais, "Now see if you can survive the
Behemoth's rage. If you do, you'll feel the true power of my skills, you
pathetic excuse of a commander!"
At that point, Satori ordered the beast to kill. It arched it head to the
brightening sky and let out a loud, low roar. It began to run down
the steep hill at top speed, careening towards the first human he saw,
Zion. To try and stop the raging beast, Zion shot a long burst of bullets
out of his gunarm towards the Behemoths shoulders, hoping to slow it
down. Instead, he made it even more angry, and the beast picked up
charging speed. Before Zion could leap out of the way, the Behemoth used
its long horns to toss Zion up in the air as if he were a rag doll. The
soldier came crashing back down to the ground, and clutched his sides in
pain.
To draw the Behemoth's attention away from Zion, Epsilon
fired a shotgun blast into the beast's hindquarters. The Behemoth
instantly turned around to face its new attacker. It clawed at the rocky
ground for a moment before taking off at a full speed charge towards the
sniper. Taking this time to help Zion, Julia rushed over to his side and poured
a potion over his wounds. They both stood back up to face the beast
again.
Epsilon ducked out of the way in the nick of time, just before the Behemoth's
large claws hit him over the head. Before the beast could stop its
attack, it crushed a small boulder that had been sitting just behind Epsilon
before the sniper jumped out of the way. The monster roared as
Epsilon began to run out of its attack path. The large Behemoth was hit
in shock as Edea casted a Flare towards it. Heat rippled through its
body, and angered the raging monster even more. In a counter move,
the dragon-like monster sent a large sphere of energy from its mouth into
Edea's stomach. The sorceress was thrown back against a wall of
rock, and fell unconscious. Lily rushed over and used a
phoenix-down on her, rousing her back to the battle. Edea casted a Curaga
on herself and prepared to enter the battle again, just as the Behemoth began
attack Corin.
The beast's claws sliced across Corin's chest, leaving a trail of scarlet blood
running down his white shirt. Lilliana summoned her own beast into
battle now, calling forth from her summons, Maduin, the demon warrior of Holy
energy. Appearing from a white ray shot down from Heaven, Maduin appeared
on the battlefield. Human-like in appearance, but having looks similar to
Ifrit, Maduin struck fear and intimidation to anything that stood before
him. He casted a Holy against the Behemoth, who turned around to face the
new threat.
Satori marveled at the fact that there were summoners in her presence.
They were long thought extinct ages ago. Summoners had been used in the
past as powerful warriors by Centran armies, but when Centra ceased to be, the
summoners were supposedly rumored to have died out with lack of war. She
would definitely have to report this to her superiors when she returned.
The Behemoth used its claws to strike Maduin against his left arm, however only
a minor indent was caused, and no blood had been spilt. Maduin used his
own claws to strike the beast along its face, leaving a large scrape along its
left eye, blinding it on that side. After casting yet another Holy,
Maduin felt his master allowing him to return to his realm above. He
disappeared into another flash of light, and went back up into the Heavenly
abyss above.
The beast turned its attention to Lancer this time, sending another sphere of
energy out towards the young warrior. He jumped to his side, but the
sphere impacted itself on his leg, causing him to fall down on his back.
Andraia was near him, and casted a Cura on his leg before the monster had a
chance to charge again. The two soldiers ran to the side as the Behemoth
started to run towards them. They heard the cracking of a whip, and
looked up. Celeste had her whip coiled around the beast leg, and it
tripped over itself onto the ground. Before it could get back up,
Julia flipped onto the beast's back. The monster tried to stand back up,
but Julia dug her staff into the beast's spine. It roared in anguish as
Julia forced a hole open in its skin. She pulled out her last grenade and
shoved it into her makeshift hole. She leapt off as soon as she pulled
the pin.
Seeing the excited but scared look on her face, the rest of the team ducked for
cover. As it started to charge her again, its back exploded, leaving a
large gap in its side. It was instantly killed, and dropped down to the
ground with a violent collapse. Raine frowned as Behemoth gore splattered
against her trenchcoat, and gave Julia a large frown.
"Thank you Heartilly, I just had that cleaned!" Raine yelled,
then turned to Lilliana and Andraia. "Heal the group, Satori's going
to attack us!"
The two mages did so, and Satori slid down the same hill the Behemoth had not
long before. She still held her silver sais in her hands, and attacked
the nearest target she could find. She swung two large, quick slashes
towards Julia's head. She was able to jump back and dodge the two
attacks, then swung her own staff back at Satori, who blocked the attack with
her sais.
Virados stood on a small cliff overlooking the battle. With an angry face
he called out to his minion, "Satori, watch your target!!"
Satori obeyed, and kicked Julia down to the ground. For some reason, she
left the black mage there, and moved on to another victim. Satori dodged
a gunshot from Epsilon, and kicked him in the stomach once she got closer to
him. He fell back to the ground, but quickly got back up. Before
she could attack again, Corin punched her across the face, causing her to
stumble back some. She casted Shock Break again, sending a large beam of
white light across the battlefield. Some were able to dodge it and jump
to safety behind rock outcroppings. Corin, Epsilon, Celeste, Zion, and
Edea on the other hand, suffered the blow of the blast, falling into KO
states. Raine ordered the others to cure them, and charged towards
Satori.
As Epsilon got back up, he just had to yell out a phrase before Raine reached
Satori, "You know, you were pretty cute until you started to attack
us, babe! Despite what you think, it's a turn off!"
Satori flipped him the finger, and turned to Raine just as she
approached. Raine slashed five swift times at Satori's neck, and to her
dismay, Satori blocked all of them with her two sais. Raine then tried to
elbow her in the face, but ended up dodging two attacks from the Esthar
general. Raine ducked as Satori tried to roundhouse kick the woman in the
face. Using that opportunity, Raine sweep kicked Satori in the leg which
held all her weight. Satori fell to the ground, and rolled to the side as
Raine struck downwards with her katana, missing Satori and hitting the rocky
terrain below her. Satori jumped back up, and slashed at Raine
seven times with her sais, Raine was just able to block all of
them. Raine felt the same power surge running through her body, the
same surge she felt when she and Satori first fought within the palace. It
wasn't a new form of limit break to her, the power seemed to appear when she
had adrenaline coursing through her veins or was angered in some way. Not
like usual limit breaks worked, they only appeared if you were badly damaged.
"I'm going to make you suffer for the injury you gave me back in the
palace, Leonhart!" yelled out Satori, raising her sais again,
motioning for Raine to attack her again.
Satori frowned as Julia and Lancer started to run to flank Raine and give her
support, running up from the healing party. Satori noted that the
Wolf Pack was almost back at full strength, and was going to be rushing her in
full force soon. That would be a large disadvantage for her.
She had taken on many soldiers at once, but these soldiers were stronger than
most. She was running low on energy as well, and wasn't sure if she could
cast another Shock Break or not.
Julia casted a Fira towards her, but Satori was able to roll out of the way
just in time. She felt a Shell being cast on her, and looked up to
Virados. He urged her to fight on. Satori slashed twice at Lancer,
who used both ends of his spear to deflect the blows. She jumped up and
tried to kick Raine in the face again, but the Alpha Wolf stepped back and
dodged the kick. Satori slashed down at Julia with one of her sais, which
was deflected by the brunette's bladed quarterstaff. Julia attacked
back, using both ends of her staff to strike down at the general at least six
times. Satori continued to block all attacks, and focus back to
Raine. She swung her sais back towards the leader, who could block all
but one, causing Satori to leave a gash in the soldier's arm. She smiled
happily, but accidentally left her guard down.
A powerful Blizzaga spell caught her off guard, even damaging through her
Shell, causing her to be thrown back onto the ground. Edea
approached them now, and aimed her chain gun at Satori's head.
Before Edea could fire, Satori flung one of her sais like a throwing knife into
Edea's shoulder, causing her to drop the gun. Julia countered by casting
another Fira at her, but only caused minor burns through the protective spell
around her. Lancer helped Edea by pulling out the sai that was embedded
in her shoulder and before too much blood could leak out of the wound, he
poured a potion over her. Raine looked down at Satori, who was still on
the ground, with a look of anger. She had hurt another Wolf, and now she
was going to feel pain. Raine swept her leg back and kicked
Satori hard under the jaw, a soft blue light emitting from her foot as she did
so. Satori was flung backwards, instantly becoming unconscious by the
force of the kick.
Shocking to the Pack as they approached her, Satori began to levitate up into
the air, her sais following her. Virados summoned her into the air, and
the two warriors of Esthar vanished into thin air. Edea knew the spell he
had used though. It was a spell should couldn't cast herself, but she had
seen it before. Warp, it was the ability to transfer from one location to
the other. It worked well as an escape from an unfavorable battle.
The other Wolves looked stunned however. Before questions could be asked,
Raine spotted the Galbadian naval boat coming quite near. It would only
be a matter of minutes before they could be rescued. She was glad, the
Pack had had enough fighting for the past few hours, and needed time to heal
themselves.
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AN: The Vagrant boat looks almost exactly like the White SeeD ship,
only a bit bigger. Both Galbadian ships remember?
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The
Vagrant, 13:00 hours:
Raine stared off the side of the ship, gazing into the
endless oceans below. Edea always said she had eyes the color of the sea,
and she supposed the sorceress was right. Both her eyes and the sea had
that same deep blue sapphire color. She sighed, and glanced briefly back
towards the cabin area, then turned back to the waters. The team had been
asleep for the duration of the travel so far. She didn't blame them
though, they were so exhausted that they could probably sleep for an entire 24
hours. Only herself and Lancer were awake. Lancer was eating his
lunch in the food room the captain had set up for them, trying to get some of
his energy back. She looked up to the sky and closed her eyes,
letting the warm sun bathe over her face. They were very fortunate that
all of the Wolves had made it out of Esthar alive and pretty much
unscathed. So very fortunate... had Raine lost one member of her
team, she would have shoved her katana down Colonel Reinhart's throat
herself. As she inhaled the salty sea air, she thought how shocking
it really was that they had made it out while completing the mission. She
still couldn't really believe what had happened in the past few
days. She was used to having several missions, but it seemed her
unit was out more than any other lately. It was amazing what her soldiers
could accomplish, even if they were already sore from missions in the past.
A tap on her shoulder made her come out of her train of thought. She
turned around to see the captain of the boat. She saluted him, and he
returned it. He was in his mid-30's with dark short hair and stubble on
his jaw. He spoke to her then, "Major Leonhart, I'm glad your unit
made it out okay. My crew can drop the Wolf Pack off at one of two
places. Either Timber or Balamb, which will it be?"
"Timber please. Thank you for the extraction sir, I hope this won't
put you behind schedule," Raine replied, hoping she didn't upset the
captain for this inconvenient change of events.
He smiled in return, "Think nothing of it Major. I'm just glad
you and your soldiers made it out all right. If you'll excuse me, I'll go
inform the bridge of the destination."
She nodded and smiled in thanks as he turned away from her and ascended up the
ladder towards the bridge area. She turned back towards the waters and
sighed heavily. She just hoped they wouldn't have another mission when
they returned.
***
Lancer happily munched down another part of an apple and propped his feet up
against a nearby oak windowsill. He watched out the window at the
churning sea below the large vessel the team was in. He grabbed another
piece of fruit from the platter of food the crew had set up, this was sure to
be his favorite room for awhile. He felt slightly disappointed in himself
though. He knew his contract with the Wolves wouldn't last to drastically
long, and he was becoming friends with them. He knew it was already going
to sadden him if he left now, but if things continued as they were, he felt he
couldn't bear to leave them. They were surprisingly fun to be around,
unlike most units who had battle dedicated hard-asses as members, and he never
seemed to have much fun with them.
The door opened and Celeste came in. She sat down across from him at the
table and opened the book she had been reading. He eyed her
curiously. A slender figure, shoulder length blonde hair, and deep blue
eyes made her seem like someone who wouldn't be that intimidating. But
once he saw her out in the field, he changed his mind. She was in
reality, very deadly and very covert in her attacks; and that was a lethal
combination. Wanting to know more about her the person, and not her as a
warrior, he struck up a conversation.
"What brings you in here? It's nice outside, so I figured once
everyone was up they'd go out there." He said, causing her to look up from
her book.
"Why, do you want me to go?" Celeste asked, a hint of worry
creeping in her voice.
Lancer looked a bit shocked, and hoped he hadn't sounded to gruff a second ago,
"N-no! It's okay if you want to stay, I was just wondering. Sorry if
I sounded a bit mean."
"No, it's okay." Celeste replied looking towards him, "I just
couldn't stand Julia and Andraia's snoring any longer."
He laughed at that, "Yeah, I understand. Epsilon and Corin are
exactly the same way. That's why I'm here. Well... that and the
food."
She smiled at him, then looked a bit coyly in his direction. She even
appeared a bit nervous in the eyes as he gazed towards her. She scratched
the back of her head and spoke, "U-uh... I'm not very good at what I'm
about to say, so bear with me. Would you like to.. uh-- I mean, would you
want to on our off time, say go to a movie with me or dinner or something?"
He wasn't expecting that. He looked a bit shocked for a moment, then
smirked, "Did you just ask me out?"
"I'm sorry, you don't have to if you don't want to. Or was it you
who wanted to ask me out?" Celeste replied truthfully, smiling at her last
comment.
Lancer smiled happily, almost giddily, "Sure I'll go out with you! I'd
like that... I really would. That is if we ever get off time.."
"We'd damn well better or I'll be hella pissed," Celeste said,
"I'm sore enough as it is. I don't need another mission!"
The two heard a masculine cry for food from outside the door, and three sets of
rushing footsteps following it. The males had arrived, and were
hungry. Corin, Epsilon and Zion came rushing in, and grabbed several
handfuls of food from the table and began to munch it down. The
three sat down at the table and waved at the two blondes as they continued to
eat. Celeste stood up with a disgusted look on her face. Humph!
Some people sure smelled the food when they woke up.
"If you'll excuse me guys. It's become a bit crowded in
here," Celeste said, picking up her book and excused herself,
"Catch you later!"
The four men waved good-bye and grabbed more food. Lancer looked out the
window again happily, and Corin asked him what was up. He placed his feet
back on the windowsill and smiled back mischievously.
"Why, I just got a date with the hottest girl in the Pack guys.
That's the matter."
Epsilon and Corin raised an eyebrow. Epsilon looked at him funny, "You
got a date with Julia.. or Raine?"
"What?!" Zion burst out, shocked.
"Dude, all the girls are hot. Which one man?" Corin
asked, crossing his arms, "And it better not be Lilliana or I'll hit you so
hard."
"Hey, at least I know who Zion and Corin like. Anyways, it's
Celeste," Lancer said proudly. "Hey, why don't you two go
ask out Lily and Julia?"
Corin looked to Zion and the two burst out laughing. Corin answered for
the both of them, "Lancer, my man, I'll tell you why. The two
of them may be hot, and they may have awesome personalities usually, but the
truth of the matter is this: the two scare us completely shitless
sometimes."
****
Two
Hours Later:
Raine walked back up onto the main deck. She had been asleep for a good
hour, and was surprised to see the coast of Galbadia visible on the
horizon. Timber's buildings were visible as well, and she knew it
wouldn't be much longer until they could drive back home to Deling.
As she walked up the ramp from the cabins to the deck she stretched out her
muscles as far as they would let her. The sleep she had gotten had healed
her, and she felt awake for the first time in the past day. As she felt
the sea breeze blow in her face, she tightened her trenchcoat closer to her
body and walked over to the side of the boat. Julia, who had been awake
for a few minutes, approached her from the other side of the ship.
"Hello my sista'! You look refreshed, what's up?" Julia asked,
jumping up onto the side of the boat, letting her legs dangle over the
side. This caused some crew members to glare at her for such a stunt, but
she paid them no mind.
Raine smiled and replied, "I tell you, a good rest is like an
elixir. I feel tons better! So... what mischief have you been up to
while I've been out of it?"
"Well now, let's see..." Julia began, thinking of what she had been
doing in the last hour or so, "Oh yeah! Celeste finally asked Lancer
out, and he accepted! It's about time she got torn away from that
computer of hers and gone chasing after some man!"
"Uh huh," Raine interrupted, "You of course being the expert on
that subject. Anyways, good for Celeste. I could tell those two
would have gotten together eventually. But what about you
yourself, have you asked out Zion yet?"
Julia glared, "No, and I don't plan to for awhile. I want to get to
know him better first. And just what do you mean by 'the expert of that
subject'?! You need to go ask out someone or somethin'! Of course
the only Wolf Pack guy who still doesn't have a crush is Epsilon... and he
isn't your type."
"What about Corin?"
"Nah, he's into Lilliana. And yes, she knows. She's just
making him wait to torture him a little bit first. But as for what I've
been doing... well, I made Edea listen to Ozzy Osborne and Metallica until
she cracked. Hey, you know what we should do once we get some off
time? Another bottle rocket war! We've haven't done that in a long
time!" Julia said excitedly, starting to switch from subject to
subject, something she usually did when she was hyper.
"Oh yeah, we haven't had a bottle rocket war in what? A week?
It's not Independence Day so just wait until then!" Raine said
sarcastically, "And why do you do these things to Edea? She's a
Sorceress for God's sake, she's going to Ice Strike you one of these days if
you keep it up!"
"Hey, she asks for everything I do to her! Besides, she needs to
learn to loosen up! And like I'm really scared of the big bad Sorceress
who fell off her bunk bed this morning." Julia said, and started to
walk down to the food cabin, "See ya later, Rainy Day Girl, I'm gonna go
grab some food!"
Raine waved good-bye and shook her head at Julia's usual antics. Julia
and Edea had fought like cats and dogs for years, and Raine wasn't even going
to bother to try and stop them now. But there was one thing on
Raine's mind that she couldn't stop thinking about. That power that
she emitted in the Palace and the same power she felt when they were fighting
Satori. She had never felt anything like that before in her life,
and the feeling seemed to amplify her muscle and limit break strength.
While most of the feeling had worn off now, she still felt a bit stronger than
she used to before, which was probably how she recovered from the mission so
quickly. What was even stranger was the mark it had left on
her. She looked at her left arm when she slid down her coat. The
cross or sword was still there, but instead of being blue like it was before,
it was now brown like a birthmark. If any of the Wolves asked, she
would have to pass it off as a tattoo. Though she didn't know the meaning
of the mark yet, she made a promise to herself to find out just what it was.
She walked over to the food room and opened the door, and yelled out loud
enough so the rest of the Pack that was out on the deck heard her too,
"Okay team, Timber's getting awful close now! Get your stuff
together! Equipment check in ten minutes!"
With that, the team members stopped whatever they were doing and started back
towards the cabin areas where they had left their belongings. Raine
smiled a bit as Andraia and Corin exclaimed happily about how they were finally
going to return to 'Mother Galbadia'. They could get emotional
about their homeland if they were away to long. Raine understood, even
though she had spent most of her life in Galbadia, a part of her still missed
her home in Caran, which was now nothing but rubble.
That thought triggered a realization. Thirteen years ago her home had been
destroyed by a young magic user no more than twelve or thirteen years
old. If her memory had served her correctly, he had long red hair and
snow white wings that let him fly or hover above the village to save himself
from harm. When she was in the Palace after she had injured Satori,
she called upon a man named Virados to aid her. He also had red
hair and white wings, and like the boy, had casted an Ultima with amazing
ease. Raine felt her head spin for a moment as she realized that she had
re-encountered the person who had destroyed her family and friends over a
decade ago. The boy's words still rang out clearly in her mind.
"Bring me the Shaduna!"
She thought on this for a moment. She didn't know what exactly the
Shaduna was, but it was human according to Virados. It must have been a
person of great power or importance, and no one in Caran was that powerful of a
fighter. The highest rank anyone in the village could receive was Count,
and they were relatively very weak in terms of world government.
But she had been successful in tearing a hole through six inches of reinforced
steel that made up the Palace floors and killing two soldiers while slicing Satori's
side open, all in just one strike. That limit break was a complete
mystery to her, and so was the Shaduna. Maybe she was the Shaduna?
But then that would have made her the reason that her hometown was destroyed in
the first place.
She
wrapped her arms around herself at the disturbing thoughts. She would
certainly have to research what the Shaduna was once she got the chance.
Dismissing these thoughts until a later date, she walked down into the cabins
as well and began to prepare for the Wolves journey home. She could then
clear her mind back at the Zeta Headquarters, and then decide if she should go
after Virados or not.
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