Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Akagi Sphere ❯ Chapter 8: Jumbo sized Cactuar!!!! ( Chapter 8 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: SDI Hypervelocity 
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Hentai | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 03.05.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.3K | Visits: 156 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Hentai | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 03.05.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.3K | Visits: 156 | Status: Completed
Chapter 8: Jumbo sized Cactuar!!!!
The cave was neatly kept and brightly lit, a place easy to get through. Brown stone bricks lined the walls, floors and ceilings, making neat paths, It wasn’t too bad of a place, not exactly what they pictured.
“Ready?” Gippal looked over to Baralai,
“Yes.”
“What about you?” Gippal looked down at Benzo standing beside him.
The boy nodded hastily “Uh-huh”
With little time left, they made a mad dash through the corridors, managing to avoid most fiends.
That was until they reached Two Cactuars that were determined to stand in there way.
“Hey! Move!” Gippal shouted, the only thing he got in response was a 1000 needles sprayed into his chest, he lifted his hands to block his face but only found it hurted even more when they struck his arms. “Ow! You little--!” Before Gippal could even make a move against it the second Cactuar ran up to him, jumping up and kicking him in the face with more strength then a body that small should have had.
Baralai equipped his rod, seeing that they had no choice he went after one of the green creatures retreating back to a safe distance and drove one of the bladed edges in to the ground in front of it, it’s ran into the staff and fell. “Persistent.”
Gippal shot off a quick burst fire from his cannon, knocking the second small creature to the ground, but almost as quickly as it had fallen it jumped onto it’s feet and began to leap around, jumping high enough to ram Baralai with the thick orange spikes on it’s head. With a small wince Baralai knocked away with the dull side of the staff. “What’s with these things!” Gippal growled in annoyance, they didn’t have time for this! He pointed the barrel of his canon up in to air, firing a large steel orb in to the air that exploded right next to the two in a large flash. Which was enough to startle and drive the Cactuar away.
They watched two run off, jumping down a small ledge that lay just a head. The ledge wasn’t big, about only 5 or 6 feet drop down, the ground was covered in sand making them suspect that it was covering up a deeper gap. Gippal and Baralai climbed down, since this was the only place their path could continue from.
Benzo didn‘t follow.
“You coming?” Gippal looking back at him, just barely noticing that he wasn‘t being followed anymore.
Benzo shook his head, though it wasn‘t really clear why he was staying behind. “Nah, just bring him back with you.” They didn’t need his help, they had brought back the other nine gate keepers, they could just as easily get the tenth.
! - ! - !
They walked through the sand covered passage with out any problems, finding it easy enough “Gippal, what do you think this fiend is?” Baralai finally asked after a moment of walking in silence.
“I don’t know.” Gippal shrugged, his fingers playing nervously with each other. “It must be big if it’s causing all of these problems.”
“Hmm…” Baralai nodded, his head tilting back enough for him to look at the ceiling, something he always did when he was unsure or worried about something. “If this fails... you think we can handle it?”
Gippal looked at him, he didn’t seem too worried, but his voice sounded like he was. “You worry too much.”
“Maybe you don’t--“Baralai stopped, coming to a complete haul.
Gippal immediately noticed “What’s wrong?”
“Do you... hear something?” Baralai asked, he was the first to hear an increasingly growing sound, similar to rushing water... Gippal looked down at his feet, the sand was starting to rise, it was pouring out from holes in the walls along the path. “Those Cactuar! They set a trap, come on!”
Gippal and Baralai took off running, but after a few seconds the sand had risen up to their knees, they found it increasingly harder to move let alone run.
The sand was quickly rising higher meaning they had do something before they were above their heads, so thinking fast Baralai reached up and grabbed on to a protruding platform. “Come on! This way!” He climbed on to a small ledge, pausing to reach back and help Gippal, jumping from one protruding platform to the next. Then climbing up to another one higher, making another jump to a ledge, then finally to the other side of the passage.
Baralai turned back and reached out to pull in Gippal who was about to fall just short because of the heavy weapon. “Whoa!” He fell off balance as soon as he landed, falling in to Baralai’s arms. A fall turned in to an embrace, maybe out of relief Gippal pulled him closer laying his head on his shoulder. “Mmmm…..I could get used to this.”
Baralai looked down on him chastising. “Gippal.”
Gippal gestured that he was just kidding “Alright, alright, let’s go.” and with a sigh, he let go, pulling himself away to move on.
It was only a few feet until their path stopped another ledge with a considerably larger gap between this side and the next one, the fall seemed hazardous to endeavor. But they didn’t have to, a small Cactuar was sitting near the edge straddling it‘s knees and rocking softly. This one looked different from all the Cactuar in the cave, lighter with a less menacing expression, it had to be Frailea.
“Hey.” Baralai knelt down behind the small Cactuar “Your mother’s really worried about you, she needs your help.” he said in a soft, friendly voice. That seemed to catch it’s interest. the Cactuar turned around, slowly standing up.
! - ! - !
! - !- !
Gatekeeper No. 10
Name: Frailea
! - ! - !
Bad cactuars can't
put on a good face...
Hint: Open wide!
! - ! - !
HP 10
Strength 6/10
Agility 3/10
! - ! - !
Two more Cactuars joined him, apparently his ’friends.’ This one would be a problem. ‘Oh man, you can‘t even tell them apart.’ “Can we switch?” Gippal asked nervously. Baralai only shook his head, reminding him that it was his turn, and offered him his own gun, which was better then nothing.
It at first glance it would have been impossible to tell them apart, but upon closer inspection the other two Cactuars were a little darker then Frailea. And of course ’Bad Cactuars couldn’t put on a good face.’ Frailea being a good Cactuar, had a wide mouth, the other two had a certain wicked smile. But it still wasn’t easy to tell them apart. Especially when the spell got started.
“Oh great.” Gippal aimed both guns carefully, looking at each Cactuar as carefully as he could before they changed places. Finally he found the right one after a few seconds of study, his eyes following as rapidly Frailea switched places and waited for it. A soon as it hit the center, Gippal fired both guns, knocking it back. But it changed before he could hit it again, making him accidentally hit one of the fake Cactuars with the second pistol. It retaliated with a spray of needles that Gippal easily avoided with a side step. By the time he regained his position he lost Frailea again, making him look around hastily for the right Cactuar. “Come on...”
“Just wait, you’ll see him.” Baralai called over them the side.
Gippal took his advice, focusing on the center position and watching the slot machine like pattern of Cactuars.
‘Ok, that’s fake, that’s fake--’ his mind called out, then he fired both guns, hitting the right one just as it emerged in to the middle spot. This time he counted, the rhyme, one fake, one fake, fire. As soon as he hit it, he didn’t give it chance to move before he shot the last bullet needed to take it down.
! - ! - !
“Wow, I guess that means you win.” Baralai reclaimed his pistol, holstering it in it‘s usual spot. “4 to 5,even though you cheated in Gagazet.”
“Really?” Gippal gave him a small kiss as he returned his own gun back into his waist band. “No one said you couldn’t use more then those handguns...Great...what is it now?”... An oddly strange sound broke up their conversation, strange yet familiar, almost like... “Baralai, please don’t tell me that sound was what I thought it was...”
Baralai sighed, standing side by side with Gippal “Unfortunately I think it was, I think you made them mad Gippal.” With a deep breath and a wordless signal, he and Gippal slowly turned around just in time to see roughly 30 Cactuars gathered behind them, all of them were jumping around wildly. In front of them Frailea was starting to jump around too, though it wasn’t clear why.
Gippal looked over at Frailea with his eyes narrowed “Wow, you really are hanging around the wrong crowd don‘t you?” More of them started to come from behind Frailea, surrounding... “You think he can get his friends to stop?” Gippal lifted his cannon,
“Not really.” Baralai looked around as more and more of them emerged, figuring Frailea was going along with it.
The Cactuar all rushed past them, going over the ledge in a stamped, taking Frailea with them. With Gate Keeper powers flowing a bright, yellow light shined upward, and a much, much larger Cactuar emerged from over the edge.
Jumbo Cactuar was created from all of the rough Cactuar mixing together, two Cactuar that didn’t merge with the rest emerged from over the ledge, joining it in the fight.
“Alright! If they want to fight, we’ll fight.” Gippal seemed a little too anxious, more angered from all the annoyment then anxious. Baralai equipped his double bladed rod, holding it just behind him as he used his scan ability. “It shouldn’t be too hard.” he said, peering down in the canyon with a trailing voice after something caught his eye bellow. “Heym Frailea is down there.”
Then this problem could be solved easily. “I’ll handle this.” Baralai volunteered himself, getting into stance “You go ahead.”
Gippal nodded in agreement with no time to was, running past the giant Cactuar, just barely slipping past before diving over board.
“Your in my way, I’ll have to finish this quickly.” Baralai lifted the rod above his head using his glint attack, spinning it around on nimble fingers until it‘s form was nothing more then a distorted blur of speed. A blue light radiated outward from the blades, and cutting all of the enemies with the aura streak. With his speed and agility he was able attack again before the Cactuars could. He used the rod to attack on of the smaller ones, bringing the edge down from above his head. It jumped out of the way with a flail of his arms, firing a 1000 needles at him at close range.
Baralai stumbled back with a smile grunt, shaking off some of the thin needles. ’...’ His right hand started to glow with white light, from a spell he cast. Baralai clinching his fingers into a fist then charged forward fearlessly and striking the large Cactuar with a strong punch in the chest. The attack wasn’t a physical one, but one on it’s MP which had been greatly reduced.
The second small Cactuar kicked him in the face while he was in close range, the thorns hurt more then the kick itself did. Baralai countered with an slash from his staff while the Cactuar was still in the air, knocking it back toward the edge just short of the cliff. Close but not quite.
The larger Cactuar lifted it’s foot, and before he could notice it stomped on him, sending him face down smashed into the ground hard enough to knock the air from his lungs. With a gasp of air he crawled backwards and stumbled on to his feet a few feet away when he was a safe distance. By the time he refocused he saw the two smaller Cactuars jumping back and forth in a strange manner. ’Uh?’ He tried to attack one, and missed, each attack following that one failed, he couldn’t hit it! “Alright, I’ll try a different approach.”
Baralai held the staff behind his back, letting his other hand extend outward while he crouched lightly in a sifted stance. Jumbo Cactuar jumped in to the air with a rush of upward generated wind, landing face down on top of Baralai, he easily took the blow with no time or room to avoid. Taking instead the opportunity to attack, he ran at the Jumbo Cactuar, wielding the bladed weapon like a master.
He lifted his free hand above his head in overdrive, casting a mixture of thunder and water spells. “Rain!” A thick rain came from the ceiling a torrent of electrified drops that pierced like needles, strong enough to erode through the floors. The two smaller Cactuars were defeated after a few seconds in the downpour, falling back in a sparking, wet green mass on the ground, but Jumbo Cactuar was still standing. It countered with a spray of needles much larger and more potent then regular Cactuars.
Shaking more of the spines from him as quickly as possible, Baralai reached for his holstered pistol, using drill shot. Three special bullets fired, the first two burrowing into it’s thick skin first, and the then firing the needle headed bullet, sending it falling down on it’s back in the large gorge. “...” With his enemy defeated, Baralai immediately ran over to edge...“Gippal? How are you doing down there?”
Gippal reached up and pulled himself to the top of the gaping hole with the Cactuar under his arm firmly. “ I got it, let’s go.”
! - ! - !
The three of them, plus a Cactuar, emerged from the cave back into the familiar settings of Cactuar nation. The sands were blowing around wildly making visibility limited, the ground was shaking harder then ever, and the monsters were coming with stronger numbers.
The 10th Cactuar joined in with the others as soon as it saw what was happening, after a quick overview with each other, they grouped into a quick circle. All together they began doing a dance this time complete with lots of bright lights. A seal with a large Cactuar in the center appeared, unleashing an enormous tornado that pulled in tons of sand being carrying in the air or along the ground. It shot forward in to the crowd of fiends and in to the central expanse where their source lay.
! - ! - !
Gippal forced his head out from under the sand, shaking away the dust from his hair with a series of spits and coughs. Next pushing his hands to the surface to wiping away the rest of the sand from his face, at a moment like this he was glad he had a patch over one of his eyes. “Baralai?! Baralai!” Gippal looked around frantically as he forced his body to the surface, the other Cactus’s were half buried in sand as well, the gate keepers were just emerging from the center of an imprinted crest at the tornado’s origin point where the sand was highest.
“Baralai!!”
Rising to his feet, he quickly looked around for his missing friend, feeling the damage to him from the winds that just tore through the area. The rumbling stopped, and there were no remands of any fiends left, all had been carried away by the last attack.
‘Where is he...?!’ Baralai’s mind started racing, his first panicked though was that maybe Baralai had been carried away by...“Baralai!!...Baralai?”
He felt a great sense of relief when he saw Baralai rise from the sand, his arms wrapped around Benzo with the boy clinched tightly to his chest. Baralai had used himself to cover Benzo, keeping the child safe, though not with out filling every possible part of his body with a thick layer of sand. “Ow, that hurted.’
Gippal rushed across the uneven ground towards him, nearly sending them both tumbling off balance when he just short of dived on to him and hugged him tightly. After all they were sent falling to the ground, it was just a little bit too much weight. “I was soooo, worried!” Gippal shouted.
Baralai coughed, shaking the sand from his hair. “It will take more then that.”
“Get off me!” Benzo squeezed out between the two, looked around at the Cactuar and planted cactus , All of them seemed to be alright, except…..
“Mar nela!!!!”
Benzo ran to the Cactus, she was brown and limp, sagging heavily. The boy grabbed on to the thorny creature, shaking her, trying wake her up, to get any sign of life.... It was no use, there was nothing left to awaken, nothing left to revive. She’d given more then she could to fight off those fiends, it wasn’t clear how she held out that long
With a deep breath Benzo dropped to his knees, still clinching the dead plant “She used everything she had to save this place.” His tone was saddened and his body was tense, as depressing as this was he wouldn’t allow himself to cry, why should he? She saved Cactuar nation, and quite possibly all of them.
“Are you alright?” Baralai placed a comforting hand on the boy’s shoulder. “...??”
Beep, beep, beep...
In a wail of sirens the watcher Machina Pikket flew to them at top speed with a great emergency. It stopped just short of Gippal’s head, making him flinch and nearly fall “What’s the big--”
“A Large fiend is attacking the camp!!” It few around in a jittery and twitchy motion, it‘s AI overloading with haste and panic. “They can’t hold it off! Everything and everyone--”
“What?! We gotta stop that thing!” Gippal was the first one to run for the half buried hover, Baralai stopped him though.
“Hold on, just wait a moment!” Baralai grabbed him by the shoulder to make sure he was listening. “If what ever it is can‘t be stopped by the 100 people at base camp then it’s foolish to just run into a fight that dangerous. I agree we can’t waste any time but we should at lest make sure we’re as prepared as possible.”
A small amount of rational thinking left in Gippal’s mind told him he was still injured from the whole ordeal that happened before. Baralai was right, he had to be prepared... “Alright.”
Converting /tmp/phpIn7TJ0 to /dev/stdout
The cave was neatly kept and brightly lit, a place easy to get through. Brown stone bricks lined the walls, floors and ceilings, making neat paths, It wasn’t too bad of a place, not exactly what they pictured.
“Ready?” Gippal looked over to Baralai,
“Yes.”
“What about you?” Gippal looked down at Benzo standing beside him.
The boy nodded hastily “Uh-huh”
With little time left, they made a mad dash through the corridors, managing to avoid most fiends.
That was until they reached Two Cactuars that were determined to stand in there way.
“Hey! Move!” Gippal shouted, the only thing he got in response was a 1000 needles sprayed into his chest, he lifted his hands to block his face but only found it hurted even more when they struck his arms. “Ow! You little--!” Before Gippal could even make a move against it the second Cactuar ran up to him, jumping up and kicking him in the face with more strength then a body that small should have had.
Baralai equipped his rod, seeing that they had no choice he went after one of the green creatures retreating back to a safe distance and drove one of the bladed edges in to the ground in front of it, it’s ran into the staff and fell. “Persistent.”
Gippal shot off a quick burst fire from his cannon, knocking the second small creature to the ground, but almost as quickly as it had fallen it jumped onto it’s feet and began to leap around, jumping high enough to ram Baralai with the thick orange spikes on it’s head. With a small wince Baralai knocked away with the dull side of the staff. “What’s with these things!” Gippal growled in annoyance, they didn’t have time for this! He pointed the barrel of his canon up in to air, firing a large steel orb in to the air that exploded right next to the two in a large flash. Which was enough to startle and drive the Cactuar away.
They watched two run off, jumping down a small ledge that lay just a head. The ledge wasn’t big, about only 5 or 6 feet drop down, the ground was covered in sand making them suspect that it was covering up a deeper gap. Gippal and Baralai climbed down, since this was the only place their path could continue from.
Benzo didn‘t follow.
“You coming?” Gippal looking back at him, just barely noticing that he wasn‘t being followed anymore.
Benzo shook his head, though it wasn‘t really clear why he was staying behind. “Nah, just bring him back with you.” They didn’t need his help, they had brought back the other nine gate keepers, they could just as easily get the tenth.
! - ! - !
They walked through the sand covered passage with out any problems, finding it easy enough “Gippal, what do you think this fiend is?” Baralai finally asked after a moment of walking in silence.
“I don’t know.” Gippal shrugged, his fingers playing nervously with each other. “It must be big if it’s causing all of these problems.”
“Hmm…” Baralai nodded, his head tilting back enough for him to look at the ceiling, something he always did when he was unsure or worried about something. “If this fails... you think we can handle it?”
Gippal looked at him, he didn’t seem too worried, but his voice sounded like he was. “You worry too much.”
“Maybe you don’t--“Baralai stopped, coming to a complete haul.
Gippal immediately noticed “What’s wrong?”
“Do you... hear something?” Baralai asked, he was the first to hear an increasingly growing sound, similar to rushing water... Gippal looked down at his feet, the sand was starting to rise, it was pouring out from holes in the walls along the path. “Those Cactuar! They set a trap, come on!”
Gippal and Baralai took off running, but after a few seconds the sand had risen up to their knees, they found it increasingly harder to move let alone run.
The sand was quickly rising higher meaning they had do something before they were above their heads, so thinking fast Baralai reached up and grabbed on to a protruding platform. “Come on! This way!” He climbed on to a small ledge, pausing to reach back and help Gippal, jumping from one protruding platform to the next. Then climbing up to another one higher, making another jump to a ledge, then finally to the other side of the passage.
Baralai turned back and reached out to pull in Gippal who was about to fall just short because of the heavy weapon. “Whoa!” He fell off balance as soon as he landed, falling in to Baralai’s arms. A fall turned in to an embrace, maybe out of relief Gippal pulled him closer laying his head on his shoulder. “Mmmm…..I could get used to this.”
Baralai looked down on him chastising. “Gippal.”
Gippal gestured that he was just kidding “Alright, alright, let’s go.” and with a sigh, he let go, pulling himself away to move on.
It was only a few feet until their path stopped another ledge with a considerably larger gap between this side and the next one, the fall seemed hazardous to endeavor. But they didn’t have to, a small Cactuar was sitting near the edge straddling it‘s knees and rocking softly. This one looked different from all the Cactuar in the cave, lighter with a less menacing expression, it had to be Frailea.
“Hey.” Baralai knelt down behind the small Cactuar “Your mother’s really worried about you, she needs your help.” he said in a soft, friendly voice. That seemed to catch it’s interest. the Cactuar turned around, slowly standing up.
! - ! - !
! - !- !
Gatekeeper No. 10
Name: Frailea
! - ! - !
Bad cactuars can't
put on a good face...
Hint: Open wide!
! - ! - !
HP 10
Strength 6/10
Agility 3/10
! - ! - !
Two more Cactuars joined him, apparently his ’friends.’ This one would be a problem. ‘Oh man, you can‘t even tell them apart.’ “Can we switch?” Gippal asked nervously. Baralai only shook his head, reminding him that it was his turn, and offered him his own gun, which was better then nothing.
It at first glance it would have been impossible to tell them apart, but upon closer inspection the other two Cactuars were a little darker then Frailea. And of course ’Bad Cactuars couldn’t put on a good face.’ Frailea being a good Cactuar, had a wide mouth, the other two had a certain wicked smile. But it still wasn’t easy to tell them apart. Especially when the spell got started.
“Oh great.” Gippal aimed both guns carefully, looking at each Cactuar as carefully as he could before they changed places. Finally he found the right one after a few seconds of study, his eyes following as rapidly Frailea switched places and waited for it. A soon as it hit the center, Gippal fired both guns, knocking it back. But it changed before he could hit it again, making him accidentally hit one of the fake Cactuars with the second pistol. It retaliated with a spray of needles that Gippal easily avoided with a side step. By the time he regained his position he lost Frailea again, making him look around hastily for the right Cactuar. “Come on...”
“Just wait, you’ll see him.” Baralai called over them the side.
Gippal took his advice, focusing on the center position and watching the slot machine like pattern of Cactuars.
‘Ok, that’s fake, that’s fake--’ his mind called out, then he fired both guns, hitting the right one just as it emerged in to the middle spot. This time he counted, the rhyme, one fake, one fake, fire. As soon as he hit it, he didn’t give it chance to move before he shot the last bullet needed to take it down.
! - ! - !
“Wow, I guess that means you win.” Baralai reclaimed his pistol, holstering it in it‘s usual spot. “4 to 5,even though you cheated in Gagazet.”
“Really?” Gippal gave him a small kiss as he returned his own gun back into his waist band. “No one said you couldn’t use more then those handguns...Great...what is it now?”... An oddly strange sound broke up their conversation, strange yet familiar, almost like... “Baralai, please don’t tell me that sound was what I thought it was...”
Baralai sighed, standing side by side with Gippal “Unfortunately I think it was, I think you made them mad Gippal.” With a deep breath and a wordless signal, he and Gippal slowly turned around just in time to see roughly 30 Cactuars gathered behind them, all of them were jumping around wildly. In front of them Frailea was starting to jump around too, though it wasn’t clear why.
Gippal looked over at Frailea with his eyes narrowed “Wow, you really are hanging around the wrong crowd don‘t you?” More of them started to come from behind Frailea, surrounding... “You think he can get his friends to stop?” Gippal lifted his cannon,
“Not really.” Baralai looked around as more and more of them emerged, figuring Frailea was going along with it.
The Cactuar all rushed past them, going over the ledge in a stamped, taking Frailea with them. With Gate Keeper powers flowing a bright, yellow light shined upward, and a much, much larger Cactuar emerged from over the edge.
Jumbo Cactuar was created from all of the rough Cactuar mixing together, two Cactuar that didn’t merge with the rest emerged from over the ledge, joining it in the fight.
“Alright! If they want to fight, we’ll fight.” Gippal seemed a little too anxious, more angered from all the annoyment then anxious. Baralai equipped his double bladed rod, holding it just behind him as he used his scan ability. “It shouldn’t be too hard.” he said, peering down in the canyon with a trailing voice after something caught his eye bellow. “Heym Frailea is down there.”
Then this problem could be solved easily. “I’ll handle this.” Baralai volunteered himself, getting into stance “You go ahead.”
Gippal nodded in agreement with no time to was, running past the giant Cactuar, just barely slipping past before diving over board.
“Your in my way, I’ll have to finish this quickly.” Baralai lifted the rod above his head using his glint attack, spinning it around on nimble fingers until it‘s form was nothing more then a distorted blur of speed. A blue light radiated outward from the blades, and cutting all of the enemies with the aura streak. With his speed and agility he was able attack again before the Cactuars could. He used the rod to attack on of the smaller ones, bringing the edge down from above his head. It jumped out of the way with a flail of his arms, firing a 1000 needles at him at close range.
Baralai stumbled back with a smile grunt, shaking off some of the thin needles. ’...’ His right hand started to glow with white light, from a spell he cast. Baralai clinching his fingers into a fist then charged forward fearlessly and striking the large Cactuar with a strong punch in the chest. The attack wasn’t a physical one, but one on it’s MP which had been greatly reduced.
The second small Cactuar kicked him in the face while he was in close range, the thorns hurt more then the kick itself did. Baralai countered with an slash from his staff while the Cactuar was still in the air, knocking it back toward the edge just short of the cliff. Close but not quite.
The larger Cactuar lifted it’s foot, and before he could notice it stomped on him, sending him face down smashed into the ground hard enough to knock the air from his lungs. With a gasp of air he crawled backwards and stumbled on to his feet a few feet away when he was a safe distance. By the time he refocused he saw the two smaller Cactuars jumping back and forth in a strange manner. ’Uh?’ He tried to attack one, and missed, each attack following that one failed, he couldn’t hit it! “Alright, I’ll try a different approach.”
Baralai held the staff behind his back, letting his other hand extend outward while he crouched lightly in a sifted stance. Jumbo Cactuar jumped in to the air with a rush of upward generated wind, landing face down on top of Baralai, he easily took the blow with no time or room to avoid. Taking instead the opportunity to attack, he ran at the Jumbo Cactuar, wielding the bladed weapon like a master.
He lifted his free hand above his head in overdrive, casting a mixture of thunder and water spells. “Rain!” A thick rain came from the ceiling a torrent of electrified drops that pierced like needles, strong enough to erode through the floors. The two smaller Cactuars were defeated after a few seconds in the downpour, falling back in a sparking, wet green mass on the ground, but Jumbo Cactuar was still standing. It countered with a spray of needles much larger and more potent then regular Cactuars.
Shaking more of the spines from him as quickly as possible, Baralai reached for his holstered pistol, using drill shot. Three special bullets fired, the first two burrowing into it’s thick skin first, and the then firing the needle headed bullet, sending it falling down on it’s back in the large gorge. “...” With his enemy defeated, Baralai immediately ran over to edge...“Gippal? How are you doing down there?”
Gippal reached up and pulled himself to the top of the gaping hole with the Cactuar under his arm firmly. “ I got it, let’s go.”
! - ! - !
The three of them, plus a Cactuar, emerged from the cave back into the familiar settings of Cactuar nation. The sands were blowing around wildly making visibility limited, the ground was shaking harder then ever, and the monsters were coming with stronger numbers.
The 10th Cactuar joined in with the others as soon as it saw what was happening, after a quick overview with each other, they grouped into a quick circle. All together they began doing a dance this time complete with lots of bright lights. A seal with a large Cactuar in the center appeared, unleashing an enormous tornado that pulled in tons of sand being carrying in the air or along the ground. It shot forward in to the crowd of fiends and in to the central expanse where their source lay.
! - ! - !
Gippal forced his head out from under the sand, shaking away the dust from his hair with a series of spits and coughs. Next pushing his hands to the surface to wiping away the rest of the sand from his face, at a moment like this he was glad he had a patch over one of his eyes. “Baralai?! Baralai!” Gippal looked around frantically as he forced his body to the surface, the other Cactus’s were half buried in sand as well, the gate keepers were just emerging from the center of an imprinted crest at the tornado’s origin point where the sand was highest.
“Baralai!!”
Rising to his feet, he quickly looked around for his missing friend, feeling the damage to him from the winds that just tore through the area. The rumbling stopped, and there were no remands of any fiends left, all had been carried away by the last attack.
‘Where is he...?!’ Baralai’s mind started racing, his first panicked though was that maybe Baralai had been carried away by...“Baralai!!...Baralai?”
He felt a great sense of relief when he saw Baralai rise from the sand, his arms wrapped around Benzo with the boy clinched tightly to his chest. Baralai had used himself to cover Benzo, keeping the child safe, though not with out filling every possible part of his body with a thick layer of sand. “Ow, that hurted.’
Gippal rushed across the uneven ground towards him, nearly sending them both tumbling off balance when he just short of dived on to him and hugged him tightly. After all they were sent falling to the ground, it was just a little bit too much weight. “I was soooo, worried!” Gippal shouted.
Baralai coughed, shaking the sand from his hair. “It will take more then that.”
“Get off me!” Benzo squeezed out between the two, looked around at the Cactuar and planted cactus , All of them seemed to be alright, except…..
“Mar nela!!!!”
Benzo ran to the Cactus, she was brown and limp, sagging heavily. The boy grabbed on to the thorny creature, shaking her, trying wake her up, to get any sign of life.... It was no use, there was nothing left to awaken, nothing left to revive. She’d given more then she could to fight off those fiends, it wasn’t clear how she held out that long
With a deep breath Benzo dropped to his knees, still clinching the dead plant “She used everything she had to save this place.” His tone was saddened and his body was tense, as depressing as this was he wouldn’t allow himself to cry, why should he? She saved Cactuar nation, and quite possibly all of them.
“Are you alright?” Baralai placed a comforting hand on the boy’s shoulder. “...??”
Beep, beep, beep...
In a wail of sirens the watcher Machina Pikket flew to them at top speed with a great emergency. It stopped just short of Gippal’s head, making him flinch and nearly fall “What’s the big--”
“A Large fiend is attacking the camp!!” It few around in a jittery and twitchy motion, it‘s AI overloading with haste and panic. “They can’t hold it off! Everything and everyone--”
“What?! We gotta stop that thing!” Gippal was the first one to run for the half buried hover, Baralai stopped him though.
“Hold on, just wait a moment!” Baralai grabbed him by the shoulder to make sure he was listening. “If what ever it is can‘t be stopped by the 100 people at base camp then it’s foolish to just run into a fight that dangerous. I agree we can’t waste any time but we should at lest make sure we’re as prepared as possible.”
A small amount of rational thinking left in Gippal’s mind told him he was still injured from the whole ordeal that happened before. Baralai was right, he had to be prepared... “Alright.”
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