Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Birth of the Bahamut ❯ Two Battles, One Freed ( Chapter 8 )

Chapter 8: Two Battles, One Freed.

The party deep within the system of tunnels had been travelling for what seemed like forever. They slipped quietly though the dank, moist caves, slaying those few guards that they came across. Red was trying to get a scent of the enemy that he knew was waiting around any corner but all he could smell was the pungent, unwashed fumes of the gnomes. And then he could smell it. The dark evil tones struck him full force, making Red keel over in surprise. Such evil! Such evil that he thought never existed. Red immediately twisted to the side. He felt a jarring wrench as he fell to the ground, and whoosh of air as one great claw, sliced past him. "Cloud! Company!" He barked.

Yuffie and Cloud looked at each other for a moment, then burst into action, tearing around a corner, sword and battle-cross unsheathed. Cloud knew that his sword was of agonizingly little use in the cramped tunnels so he relied on his magic. He called upon the power of his fire materia and he felt the aura of heat extend from the small globe on his sword. Cloud called out, "Red! To the side now!" And as he saw the stocky canine dive to the side, Cloud let the searing heat slash towards the monster for a moment. The fire slammed into the monster and the party could see it's ghastly form. It's skin was a sickly green, meshes with black scales. Standing on either two or four legs, the behemoth easily weighed the combined weight of Cloud and Red XIII. In addition to its scythe-like claws, a single horn protruded grotesquely out of the beast's head, it's tip dripping a sizzling black poison.

The party stood in horror at the sight of the beast and it took advantage of their shock, the beast leapt towards Cloud, but at the last moment turned towards Yuffie hoping to catch her by surprise. That was a mistake. The small ninja flipped her Conformer up, moving with blinding speed as she cut to the side of the lethal mass and slashed his sides. Her Conformer tore apart the rock hard scales of the beast, but her combination of strikes was cut short as she clutched her arm, the sprayed blood had scalded her! The beast slid to a stop but before it could turn around and begin to do some real damage, Cloud and Red XIII stepped in.

Moving in tandem, Red and Cloud began a deadly dance of death, slashing, cutting and lashing out with magical force that was empowered by their own special talent of casting. The beast moved back as fast as it could, trying to escape the scathing blow. Soon it had moved into a larger chamber. That was another mistake. Now Cloud's sword could come into play, and play it did, the sword wove a path of light through the ancient monster and its scarlet blood rained down upon the cave walls, whether any hit Cloud or not, nobody knew, so fast was he moving. But the young fighter could not keep this up for too long, knowing that he must conserve his energy, he took one last swing and stepped back to let a whirlwind of fiery death throw itself upon the beast. Red's claws tore a tattoo of death deep into the hide of the beast. And before it could do anything, Red leapt up and tore the poison horn from the ghastly head. He bared his teeth, not even daring to breathe as he twisted once more, bringing his body to the level of the unprotected belly of the beast. He swung his head savagely and the horn split the soft flesh of the belly. The poison sizzled as it caused an immediate reaction to the beast.

The death cries were heard by the foul being known as Belios and he cursed the three who had managed to slay it. All of his other creations were on the move, but he knew that he had fanned them too far out, they would not return in time. He knew that he must rely upon his own powers. Belios looked up, wondering once again, whether or not his last pawn would be sufficient for the task he had assigned it. But he feared that it would not.

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The dragon never knew what hit it. He had been streaking upwards, straining to reach his goal and it was a surprise when they collided. Two streaks, one of purest white, and one of darkest black, slammed into each other with the power of an exploding star. Thanu, who was wreathed in blackness, cried out in pain as Synnoria's sharp teeth bit into his unprotected neck and it was only the unreal instincts of the true Bahamut that saved him. He twisted to the side and gave a heave, freeing his neck from the sharp teeth of Synnoria. He growled deep in his throat and lunged toward the bird, aiming for the small man riding on top. His dagger-like teeth streaked for the man, threatening to swallow him whole.

But Kayin was ready for such a move and was in fact, waiting for it. He stretched out his hands, and calling upon his ethereal powers, Kayin struck with his powerful magic. "Ice 4!" He cried. Shards of ice four feet long, materialized out of Kayin's outstretched hands and slammed into the open mouth of Thanu/Bahamut before the dragon had even realized he had been duped. His vision exploded in pain and he fell. His wings twitching with muscular spasms. And even as he tried to get away, Synnoria and Kayin were after him. Thanu careened through the air and he searched through Bahamut's ancient mind, searching for something to do. Then he found something.

The dragon went limp and Synnoria knew that the time was now. She pumped her wings harder, trying to reach the dragon that Kayin wanted to kill so much. Within meters now of the dragon, Synnoria opened her powerful jaws. She pushed forward; fighting for the few inches that would bring the limp dragon's throat between her widespread jaws. She noticed that the head of the dragon was being buffeted by the wind, and was now pointing towards her but she paid it no heed. Her goal was so close!

"Synnoria! Watch out!" Kayin cried, the dragon's eyes opened suddenly he yelled his warning to the bird. But he knew that it was too late and he huddled down into the protective feathers her back. Synnoria looked up just in time to see the white ball of energy explode from the dragon's mouth and…explode in the air behind her as she teleported by. Synnoria opened her own mouth and the song burst outwards with the power of her anger. It didn't miss and hit the dragon full in the face, Thanu was shot back, already sliding into unconsciousness. But Bahamut now took over; he was one of the higher beings of the spiritual realm. Superior to Synnoria, Bahamut was even still worried for his life. So he improvised, Bahamut's wings snapped out and they caught the wind, pushing him to the side and upwards of Synnoria before she even knew what was happening. He had to get Kayin to understand!

Kayin heard the deep resonance of another voice in his mind, it penetrated his raging need to avenge his father and the redness that tinged his vision slowly receded. Suddenly he could understand the words of the deep voice. "-Must cease at once! Your destiny is no longer entwined with me!" Kayin looked towards the source of the voice and he saw the great dragon, just above him, no longer pure black but a myriad of colors ranging from brown to green to gray. The dragon circled slowly, eyeing the berserk bird. Kayin quickly calmed Synnoria down as he opened his mind outwards to communicate once again.

"And why do you say that?" Kayin queried. In reply, the great dragon chuckled mirthlessly. He glided lower until he was beside the young boy and Synnoria. Kayin got a chance to look at the dragon closely and he saw that the hard scales were of a beautiful iridescence. The moisture in the air literally sparkled off of the dragon-scales but even so, Kayin could see mars in the skin, scales that were bent out of shape or missing altogether.

"For my body was once accompanied by another, one who is now unconscious. I could not help but attack you for I was being controlled by this other and he likewise, was being controlled by someone else, someone far more sinister. But enough of that…I have known you for a long time, child. And I know enough of the ways of the world that you still have a great deal of time to grow and accept the death of your father. Ah…Shoji…he was a good man…" Bahamut tapered off at this point, lapsing into long ago memories. Kayin, astounded that this great beast knew his father, pressed him on. "Oh yes, as I was saying. You must not take vengeance for your father Shoji on this body for we are only the instruments. I can not hold my power on my body for much longer so I will finish with this. Your destiny lies below, you must hurry! Your friend's are in the direst of emergencies!" And then, without warning, Bahamut heaved his wings and winged off to the side, trying to put as much distance between the child and himself until such time that Thanu would wake again and Bahamut would be helpless in his own body again.

Watching the powerful dragon speed away, Kayin could only reflect on his words. He grabbed the long smooth feathers of Synnoria and gave the mental command to move down into the tunnel to his destiny. As Synnoria dipped, Kayin knew somehow that he would have to fight that mysterious dragon again and he pondered. Should he possibly hold back his desire for vengeance? Could he?

Bahamut was right when he said that his friend's had been in the direst of emergencies. Cloud stood on one knee, bleeding from several gashes. He leaned on his sword wearily. Yuffie was in far worse shape, lying on the ground behind Cloud; she was huddled within herself, arm clutching a deep cut tightly. He conformer lay on the ground a few feet in front of her. Finally, Red XIII stood alone, several cuts and abrasions littering his ragged coat of fur. But he stood, snarling menacingly at the beast that had burs out of the very walls of the tight tunnels, bring a horde of it's minions. The trio had fought viciously but Cloud's huge sword was of little use in the cramped tunnels, and Yuffie was the first to go down as they swarmed over her before she had even realized what was happening. Shea was able to fight but with magic, she was unable to do much. Only Red was able to fight back effectively, his magic tore through the minions but the shield of the large beast was incredibly strong and Red XIII hadn't been able to break through it yet. He knew that the shield was only effective against magic for he had managed to sink his teeth in a few times, but he didn't have the outright strength to make that a viable plan. Luckily, his dazzling speed made him a near impossible target for the beast and his minions and he was able to slash through the enemies while desperately trying to think of a plan.

Red noticed that the lumbering beast was mostly staying put and Red looked up to see a massive stalactite was positioned right above the beast. Not pausing to admire the eerie luck of this event, Red through a bolt of magic at the ceiling. The energy slammed into the stalactite and it shook alarmingly, but didn't fall, however, a split opened up throughout the diameter of the heavy rock. Red cursed, knowing that he needed to rest, but prepared himself for another bolt. Unfortunately the beast followed the path of the bolt and saw the danger in its position. It began to move slowly out of the way. Red threw the bolt of energy.

"Hum…" The young ninja said, moaning audibly, Yuffie pushed herself onto her knees. She had only a vague memory of the wall exploding beside her and then everything had gone black. Yuffie looked up and instantly took in what was happening. She saw the flash of light as the energy hit the cavern ceiling, and also saw the giant beast lumbering out of the way. Red was collapsed on the ground a few feet away. "Oh no!" Yuffie realized that if the beast got out of the way, then they would be easy pickings for it. She grabber her conformer and hurled it with all of her strength, hoping her desperate aim was true. She maneuvered in front of the beast at the same time. She saw that he would get out of the way of the falling stalactite so she leapt, hoping to push him back.

It was. The conformer sliced through the air and collided with the left knee of the monster and kept on going. It gruesomely ripped through its leg, tearing it off, and black blood spewed everywhere. The beast itself gave a roar of pain and collapsed and because of the Shea's push, the beast fell backwards. Just in time for the falling stalactite to embed itself deep into the chest of the beast. This time, the roar of the beast was no more than a gurgle. As blood pumped out of its oily body in dark spurts, the beast died. "Thank God!" Said Yuffie, crawling to her feet. She dug in her pockets and pulled out a flask of shining blue liquid. "This megalixer ought to help!" Yuffie raised the bottle high and immediately, a blue-white mist began to suffuse over Red and Cloud. It replenished them as quickly as it disappeared and Cloud and Red were standing up once more, ready for battle.

"AAGH! They destroy everything I throw at them! How can this be?!" Belios threw his crystal to the ground, gaining some small satisfaction at its destruction. And it was true, revitalized from the megalixer, the trio were tearing through all opposition, getting closer and closer with every passing moment. "It seems that the final confrontation may not be avoided, but I still have a few tricks up my sleeve!" With that Belios walked into the forest. The trees shrouded his body but he was faintly visible as he kneeled down and pulled a brightly glowing jewel out of a chest. "Oh yes, a few tricks indeed…" At the same time, the Highwind was speeding towards the cave, Each person on board hoping that they would be there in time.