Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Akagi Sphere ❯ Chapter 14: Spira’s last battle: Part 2 ( Chapter 15 )
[ 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: 4.1K | Visits: 131 | 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: 4.1K | Visits: 131 | Status: Completed
Chapter 14: Spira’s last battle: Part 2
Yevon slowly drifted towards them with the same slow and erratic movements, it was going after either Jecht or Tidus, all of this depended on which one of them it was actually going for. If they sent back the wrong one, the hole would remain open, Yevon would eventually kill them in there weakened stated and would never be stopped. So it all came down to on choice, and it was up to Shuyin.
“You have to chose, we don’t have much time!” Braska prompted him to make his choice, judging from Yevon’s distance and closing in speed they had 10 seconds at the most.
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Shuyin looked around nervously, he didn‘t want to do this, he really didn‘t want to do this! “What if I chose the wrong one?!”
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Tidus shrugged unknowingly, “What if you chose the right one.”
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“I-I can’t deicide.” Shuyin’s mind raced, he was never faced with this type of decision. If he sent Jecht back his decision would be heavily biased towards his love for Tidus, what if that didn‘t work?. But if he sent Tidus back and it didn’t work...
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“Yes you can!” Braska tried to encourage but his voice came out unintentionally forceful, he couldn’t help it, they didn’t have time...
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Tidus sighed, looking up seriously at the identical man. “Shu, Just chose.” Tidus told him, he wouldn’t hold it against him if it didn’t work, he just hoped Shuyin understood that.
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Shuyi n stared at Tidus...then lowered his head, not moving until the last second. He ran towards Tidus, wrapping his arms around the boy and hugging him as tightly, pulling him in to a kiss. Knowing what was happening, Tidus kissed back, his arms making there away around Shuyin‘s back. It was quite possibly the best kiss he’d ever had, there was so much energy flowing through it that Tidus knew he wasn’t imagining. His body glowed in the yellow aura of Shuyin’s power, Pireflies drifting through his body in a ghost like manner... and he felt every bit of it. He could also feel Yu Yevon’s claws digging into his back.
Seeing that the choice had been made, Inoringo finished the process with what little strength he’d had left. With the combination surrounding, Tidus faded in Shuyin’s arms, leaving him standing there alone, with no trace of Yevon to be found.
! - ! - !
“It’s gaining power! If we can’t stop it from absorbing Pireflies, we won‘t be able to stop it at all!” Paine shouted over the howl of wind driving past them as the Celsius raced through the air after the Epitaph. It had regained it’s power at lest 10 fold by now, not to mention grown a whole lot larger nearly one and a half the size of the ship.
The Pireflies stopped flowing in to the demon, drifting of their own accord.... With out Yevon’s power, it could draw them in nor use it.
That was the good news, but unfortunately, it was still faster then them, and had gained a good lead. Now flying over the city of Bevelle, a red been was charging in it‘s open mouth.
“Oh no! Brother, quick shoot it!” Rikku yelled, crouching down low on the deck to keep from slipping to far in either direction.
“No Go! If we fire from here, we’ll hit the temple.” Brother declined
“It’s going to hit the temple!” Rikku replied, “You have to do risk it!”
From behind the temple a ship rose, a Bevelle army ship, they wouldn‘t have to make that decision. On the deck were none other then Gippal and Baralai, and they were close enough to the demon to fire the guns with out striking anything else. And that’s just what it did, blazing two machine guns mounted on the in to it’s open mouth. The didn’t hit, The Epitaph rolled to the side just enough to evade the line of fire, but a much more accurate drill shot from Baralai did, dispelling the laser in a quick flash of red and driving the demon back with a scorched mouth.
“Hey! It’s Gippal! And Baralai!” Rikku shouted excitedly.
“Good timing!” Yuna cheered.
“Need some help?” Gippal give a quick mock salute to the girls and lifted his cannon towards the demon with one hand.
“We have to get it away from Bevelle!” Baralai drove his staff into the ground before him, using it to keep himself steady as he firing more drill shots from his pistol.
The army ship was black with a round body, flat top and the engines laying in front of the boosters in the tail. On the sides near the front were two machine guns mounted, more weapons held inside. The ship lined up beside the Celsius and both ships fired quickly calibrated and targeted guns at it. For a moment the consecutive fire it looked ineffective, but the Epitaph began to flee again, meaning it could only mean it hurt.
It was faster then both of their ships, it was already at the City limits while they were only half way across Bevelle‘s radius. The Epitaph turned back towards them and beat it’s wings furiously. A swirl of howling wind formed in to a tornado that rush strait at them, ripping out any part of Bevelle in it’s way, and the more it destroyed the dark and more visible it became . With both sets of guns still firing, they were able to disperse the tornado before it hit them.
“Oh man!” Baralai clinched his head and shouted nervously. “No, no, no!” He couldn’t help but feel disappointed when he starred at the dug through trail of destruction left behind.
Two more closely tied tornados came driving toward them, much to Bevelle’s and the lives in it’s path’s expense, working separately the two airships where barely able to disburse them with the winds dawning over them.
“Finally, we’re out of the city!” Baralai slumped with a small sigh of relief, he couldn‘t help but look back disheartened at the sections taken out by just two attacks.
“It’s heading towards Dosje temple” Paine called over two the ship working in their concession.
“We have until to blow this thing up!” Brother called from the bridge, arming the missiles now that they were safely out of residential areas and over the bare rocky terrain in-between. The Bevelle army ship did the same.
A narrowly long rocket fired from the army airship, but a well placed laser from the backwards flying demon took care of that. The Celsius fired off two missile directly afterwords the Epitaph stopped in mid flight. Flapping the large wings once more to send a wave of wind that destroyed the two attacks, but it’s pause allowed both ships to catch up.
Both ships to a different side along the demon, to close to fire anything heavier then the guns. Yuna use a cheap shot bullet, that hit the right wing and going through it’s defenses, While Baralai, used drill shot to do the same. The ships on the other hand had to break through with continuous fire from the guns.
Paine changed to the gun mage, using a garment grid that allowed her to use her warrior abilities. She charged a Armor break in to a bullet, giving it’s properties an orange glow, then striking it directly in the head with the piercing shot. It caused a few Pireflies started to escape from the creature.
“HOLD ON!!!” Brother shouted, pulling the ship in to a sudden drop downwards to avoid a red ay from the Demon’s mouth. It ended up grazing over the top of the deck despite his best attempt to completely avoid, creating a strong blast along the ship‘s noise and a wave of flames that almost knocked the girls off. But it didn’t do to much to the armor since it could be compared to a bullet burn.
Gippal used Power Break, pacing a foot back to account for recoil when firing a bright red beam with a sporadically flicker to it into the at the demon‘s chest. It roared loudly, taking a foreseeable dip in elevation from that attack. Epitaph countered, pulling both of it’s out stretched hands back and thrust them forward, sending a shockwave of electrified of air that traveled over the ship similar to a ripple spreading over water. Though the attack didn‘t appear very strong it hurted anyone outside the protection of their respective ships, good thing for Gippal and Baralai, there were rails in place to keep them from falling. “Nhadala, Any damage?” Gippal called out to the cockpit through one of the external microphones, she was the one piloting the ship.
“Not to the shields, but it almost fried our controls.”
The Epitaph turned back forward and shot forward, gaining speed to getting ahead of the two ships that had come dangerously. “Don’t count on getting away that easily!” Gippal tilted the cannon completely upright, green embers spewing outwards as a mortar was shot out, landing the demon in the back in an explosion of more emerald flames and loud screeches. “I think we have a weak spot!”
“No Missiles! Too close to the Dosje Temple!” Brother shouted loudly through the speakers, loud enough for his voice to echo off the canyon walls bellow them, it was back to guns.
The began to fly backwards, a red light shining from it‘s clawed hands cuffed before it‘s torso, the red light was followed by a considerably large red beam ray that devoured the Celsius completely.
“Can they survive something like that!?” Baralai cast a protect spell over the whole Celsius, he was quite possibly the only person in Spira with enough skill to do so. He did it effectively too, surrounded by the blue light of the spell the Celsius elevated out from the beam, smoking amd missing a few pieces, but still flying.
“Hey! Are you guys Ok?” Gippal called over, watching Yuna, Rikku and Paine make it to their feet smoldering as just as much as the ship.
“Ow!” Rikku shouted, picking up the blast gun from the ground.
Paine growled in evident anger as she dusted away any stray molecules in her hair “I’m alright, but that thing wont be.”.
“It’s getting awayyyyy!!!!!!” Brother shouted. “Quick, Shinra, What should we do?”
“Um, ………I’m just a kid.”
“NAAAAA!!!!”
The Epitaph over the temple in question, sensing that there were Pireflies inside the. It was greedy, that was it’s weakness, it was clear now that the fiend was heading for the place that had a substantial number of Pireflies good enough to absorb. It began to charge a crimson blast in it’s mouth, now that it wasn’t moving, they easily caught up to it.
The Celsius and the army ship began firing the machine guns again, Gippal aiming the cannon strait in to the air. Firing an intensely bright white flare into the sky that erupted on it’s back with white flames. Because of either the bright light or the attack itself, the ray in it’s mouth fired off course. Hitting the canyon instead behind the gray structure instead and sending a rain of boulders and flames descending over the temple.
Baralai fired used his pistol and a few well placed drill shots to destroy the rocks, Gippal using the Glatting gun on his own weapon to try in assist. But they could only take out so many with out missing or causing damage when they tried not to. “We have to get this thing away from here!” Gippal yelled down to Nhadala. On his command the army ship moved in front of the Epitaph and over the Temple, firing the dual machine guns directly at it’s head, along with another Power Break in the form of an flickering yellow from Gippal.
As expected the large demon came after them. The ship glided sideways away from the canyon wall and when it was over mushroom rock road it backed away from the temple as bait, but the chasing monster was swift , bringing Baralai and Gippal face to face with the yellow skinned Epitaph. “Man...that thing is so huge.” Gippal started to draw Energy in to the cannon, watching a red light form in the demon’s mouth. being up close was the only way to realize how large it actually was, with more Pireflies it could rival Sin.
Baralai held on tightly to his embedded staff and expended his hand toward it. “Flare!” A rush of intense Flames devoured the demon’s torso from Baralai’s Flare spell, but it wasn’t enough to stop the beam in it’s mouth from firing. A very thin red beam swept along the deck, followed by an un proportionately large pillar of flames that threw the both of them flying backwards, almost off the vessel. The front of the airship tipped downward nearly in to a nosedive, but it was able to recover and regain balance.
“Damnit!” Gippal frantically padded out the flames on his left shoulder, holding his badly burned torso as he stumbled back to the center along with Baralai at his side.
“No!!!“ The demon grabbed on to the noise of the ship, it’s claws digging into the hull just in front of the two, pulling the ship downward. Taking hold of his staff again, Baralai began to cast another spell. “Holy!” The thick rays of light came shining down from the sky, knocking the demon back and forcing it to release the ship “Nhadala? Are we alright?”
“Not really! That last attack cut right through to the cockpit, those claws didn‘t help, and that explosion took some things out.”
“Can we still fly?” Gippal asked, dropping down to one knee with the heavy weapon sagging off of his left shoulder. The smoke rising out of the holes created by the demon’s claws couldn’t be a good thing.
“Yes... Not very long though, even shorter if we keep going at full speed.”
Gippal gave a small look over to Baralai who shared that same thought, it was just as well, they had rushed headfirst in to this fight already weak from their last, they wouldn‘t be of use for much longer. “Alright, just go as long as you can.”
They didn’t notice that were heading right over the Mihen High Road. It was filled with people, and on top of that, there was a hidden cave under the High Road, fill to the brim with Pireflies. Of course that's where it was headed!
With Epitaph’s high speed it had gotten there before they did, a ray already charged in it’s mouth powerful enough to make the air around it distort. If that attack penetrated deep enough the whole place could sink in on itself , especially in such a central location, it seemed that this was the end of the High Road…….. Until Cid’s ship arose from some place buried in the old road, Maroda and Rin already on the rounded deck. A volley of small missiles fired from the side in a trail of white smoke, lining up it’s chest and trailing into it’s open mouth, taking the charged attack with it.
“What are you guys doing here?!” Yuna asked in mild surprise and excitement, they had just come in the nick of time.
“Saving the High Road of course.” Maroda’s hands posed on his hips, his head tilted upward with a playful arrogance.
“You look like you needed help.” Rin gave wave and a light grin, lifting a riffle with a few bulky attachments to it. One of them was a box laying under the barrel with three dipswitches on either side, his finger slipped upward enough to flip one of the switches before pulling the trigger and firing a incisionitory white ray at the demon. The white ray was like wielding a long sword, it was combined with gun fire from all three ships along with it‘s passengers.
Pireflies started to rise from it’s body, causing the howling demon to shrink and grew weaker. Seeing that it wouldn’t get anywhere staying here, the Demon retreated.
It was much slower now, enough for them to catch up with it. Cid’s ship came from the right, the Celsius from the left and Nhadala from behind. They were to close to each other for the ships themselves to actually fire anything since they would surely hit one another, but the positive side to it was that it, it was 6 too 1.
Yuna began using Quick trigger, aiming for the demon’s head, while Rikku kept firing with the blast gun and Paine used Armor break. Baralai was close enough to cast Mighty Guard on all of them while Gippal fired the attack he’d been charging. “You guys better get out of the way!” Gippal place a foot back as he fired, a large white ray that was bigger then the Cannon it self and hard to use and keep himself from flying over the side of the ship at the same time. It struck the demon on the side of it‘s stomach, almost forcing it to crash in to the Celsius along side.
It roared out loudly, the yellow scales blackened and bloody.
Rin continued to fire the white rays, thrusting the particle sword in to the injured part of it’s side enough to draw a stream of blood from the wound. Maroda relied on spells with his monk skills, casting a Thundaga spell that sent a large pillar of golden lighting streaming down on it’s back and caused it to lose a considerable amount of altitude.
“We’re coming over water!” Brother yelled.
“Everybody! Move Back!” On Buddy’s command, all three ships pulled away as soon as they came over the ocean of water, drift a considerable distance.
“Oh man, we’re not going to make it to shore.” Gippal dropped down to one knee again, leaning against the cannon. “I don’t wanna crash over water, I’m to tired to swim.”
The Epitaph fired another ray, sweeping it over all three ships.
“Alright, time blow this thing out of the sky!” Cid howled with excitement, firing out every bit of artillery he had. A stream of missiles came from under the deck on both sides, leaving countless white streaks of smoke behind. The Bevelle Army ship followed suit and launched some considerably bigger missiles, about 10 or 12 of narrow rockets.
“KaBOOM!!” A very excited Brother dropped 6 large canisters from the bottom of the Celsisus in rapid succession, all of them Radars miles, which dropped it’s shell and released in to a replicating swarm that looked like 6 thousand.
All three ships pulled back even farther as the jungle of missiles strike at the same time, growing into a massive explosion, ear deafening, overpoweringly bright one that that swept back waves of water in all direction with huge, white streaking, shockwaves.
But, it wasn’t over yet, the Epitaph had a final attack if you could call it that. It was essentially a mirror, that’s what it was made of and that’s what it did, so as the mirror shattered it reflected the explosion back with a lot more power.
Suddenly the explosion started to spread outward at a freighting rate, it was coming back at them. Incinerating anything in it’s path.
“What the--” Gippal watched as the fiery maelstrom coming closer, that’s when they all realized that they needed to move. “Oh...my god...”
All three ships turned and headed back for land at full speed, with the burning explosion chasing after them so close that they could barely see from the light. “We won’t make it!” Maroda shouted, noticing it was coming to fast. “We have to stop that thing!”
“How?!” Rikku shouted over the loud eruption.
“Water!!” Baralai called out, his answer couldn‘t be heard, so he just cast the spell. The large Bubble of water was absorbed in to the flames, they needed more, a lot more, their ship was halfway in.
Yuna, Rikku and Paine changed from the Gunner to the Black Mage, doing the same and casting an army of Water spells. Maroda joined in too, and soon they had a wall of water standing against the explosion. Fighting it back and slowing it down with each spell, it had already evaporated enough water to create a hurricane.
The fiery storm slowed to a stop and died off, just as they got over land. The Bevelle army ship was already smoking badly, an explosion being heard audibly from engine room, the only reason it had made it here already was because it had been carried on the force of the explosion. So finally the ship gave out and made a sharp decent to the ground, luckily landing on it‘s side and not the noise.
Gippal grabbed Baralai just as he was about to fall, he in turn head on to his staff... After nearly being knocked out by the impact and managing to keep balance as the ship slowed to a stop, half of it in flames.
Gippal allowed himself to slide down to the ground, catching Baralai who fell trying to unwedge his staff.
Baralai smirked with a sigh of relief, “Thanks.” He showed his graduate with a small kiss on Gippal‘s cheek.
Gippal dropped to the ground, his back falling against the upturned hull of the ship. “This as been one hell of the week. What, we helped save the world, 2 times.”
“2 and a half if you count Angra Mainyu.” Baralai allowed himself to fall into Gippal‘s lap, nearly passing out from his own weakness.
“A half? Why a half?”
“I don’t know, it seemed like a half .”
“Well the big mirror thing had to be another 1. Give it another 10 minutes and it would have another Sin.”
“That would be a half.” Baralai his eyes drifting closed and his head inanely falling back to Gippal‘s shoulder.
“Why?”
“Summoner Braska, remember ?”
“Oh yeah, So that make it an even 3.” Gippal seemed satisfied with himself, watching the rest of the sun rise over the ocean of Kilika‘s coast as if they hadn’t just crashed and nearly fell to their deaths on several occasions during which. “Baralai.”
“Huh?”
Gippal rested his head back against the ruined ship, his gaze drifting up to the sky. “It’s over, don’t worry about it. You can fall asleep.”
Baralai was too weak to really protest, but his will wouldn’t let him sleep. “Are you sure...?”
“I got you, don’t worry about it.”
“Gippal....you can barely walk.”
“You underestimate me.” Gippal laughed. “You worry to much...just go to sleep.”
“...Hn.”
! - ! - !
Converting /tmp/phpWDbbiU to /dev/stdout
Yevon slowly drifted towards them with the same slow and erratic movements, it was going after either Jecht or Tidus, all of this depended on which one of them it was actually going for. If they sent back the wrong one, the hole would remain open, Yevon would eventually kill them in there weakened stated and would never be stopped. So it all came down to on choice, and it was up to Shuyin.
“You have to chose, we don’t have much time!” Braska prompted him to make his choice, judging from Yevon’s distance and closing in speed they had 10 seconds at the most.
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Shuyin looked around nervously, he didn‘t want to do this, he really didn‘t want to do this! “What if I chose the wrong one?!”
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Tidus shrugged unknowingly, “What if you chose the right one.”
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“I-I can’t deicide.” Shuyin’s mind raced, he was never faced with this type of decision. If he sent Jecht back his decision would be heavily biased towards his love for Tidus, what if that didn‘t work?. But if he sent Tidus back and it didn’t work...
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“Yes you can!” Braska tried to encourage but his voice came out unintentionally forceful, he couldn’t help it, they didn’t have time...
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Tidus sighed, looking up seriously at the identical man. “Shu, Just chose.” Tidus told him, he wouldn’t hold it against him if it didn’t work, he just hoped Shuyin understood that.
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Shuyi n stared at Tidus...then lowered his head, not moving until the last second. He ran towards Tidus, wrapping his arms around the boy and hugging him as tightly, pulling him in to a kiss. Knowing what was happening, Tidus kissed back, his arms making there away around Shuyin‘s back. It was quite possibly the best kiss he’d ever had, there was so much energy flowing through it that Tidus knew he wasn’t imagining. His body glowed in the yellow aura of Shuyin’s power, Pireflies drifting through his body in a ghost like manner... and he felt every bit of it. He could also feel Yu Yevon’s claws digging into his back.
Seeing that the choice had been made, Inoringo finished the process with what little strength he’d had left. With the combination surrounding, Tidus faded in Shuyin’s arms, leaving him standing there alone, with no trace of Yevon to be found.
! - ! - !
“It’s gaining power! If we can’t stop it from absorbing Pireflies, we won‘t be able to stop it at all!” Paine shouted over the howl of wind driving past them as the Celsius raced through the air after the Epitaph. It had regained it’s power at lest 10 fold by now, not to mention grown a whole lot larger nearly one and a half the size of the ship.
The Pireflies stopped flowing in to the demon, drifting of their own accord.... With out Yevon’s power, it could draw them in nor use it.
That was the good news, but unfortunately, it was still faster then them, and had gained a good lead. Now flying over the city of Bevelle, a red been was charging in it‘s open mouth.
“Oh no! Brother, quick shoot it!” Rikku yelled, crouching down low on the deck to keep from slipping to far in either direction.
“No Go! If we fire from here, we’ll hit the temple.” Brother declined
“It’s going to hit the temple!” Rikku replied, “You have to do risk it!”
From behind the temple a ship rose, a Bevelle army ship, they wouldn‘t have to make that decision. On the deck were none other then Gippal and Baralai, and they were close enough to the demon to fire the guns with out striking anything else. And that’s just what it did, blazing two machine guns mounted on the in to it’s open mouth. The didn’t hit, The Epitaph rolled to the side just enough to evade the line of fire, but a much more accurate drill shot from Baralai did, dispelling the laser in a quick flash of red and driving the demon back with a scorched mouth.
“Hey! It’s Gippal! And Baralai!” Rikku shouted excitedly.
“Good timing!” Yuna cheered.
“Need some help?” Gippal give a quick mock salute to the girls and lifted his cannon towards the demon with one hand.
“We have to get it away from Bevelle!” Baralai drove his staff into the ground before him, using it to keep himself steady as he firing more drill shots from his pistol.
The army ship was black with a round body, flat top and the engines laying in front of the boosters in the tail. On the sides near the front were two machine guns mounted, more weapons held inside. The ship lined up beside the Celsius and both ships fired quickly calibrated and targeted guns at it. For a moment the consecutive fire it looked ineffective, but the Epitaph began to flee again, meaning it could only mean it hurt.
It was faster then both of their ships, it was already at the City limits while they were only half way across Bevelle‘s radius. The Epitaph turned back towards them and beat it’s wings furiously. A swirl of howling wind formed in to a tornado that rush strait at them, ripping out any part of Bevelle in it’s way, and the more it destroyed the dark and more visible it became . With both sets of guns still firing, they were able to disperse the tornado before it hit them.
“Oh man!” Baralai clinched his head and shouted nervously. “No, no, no!” He couldn’t help but feel disappointed when he starred at the dug through trail of destruction left behind.
Two more closely tied tornados came driving toward them, much to Bevelle’s and the lives in it’s path’s expense, working separately the two airships where barely able to disburse them with the winds dawning over them.
“Finally, we’re out of the city!” Baralai slumped with a small sigh of relief, he couldn‘t help but look back disheartened at the sections taken out by just two attacks.
“It’s heading towards Dosje temple” Paine called over two the ship working in their concession.
“We have until to blow this thing up!” Brother called from the bridge, arming the missiles now that they were safely out of residential areas and over the bare rocky terrain in-between. The Bevelle army ship did the same.
A narrowly long rocket fired from the army airship, but a well placed laser from the backwards flying demon took care of that. The Celsius fired off two missile directly afterwords the Epitaph stopped in mid flight. Flapping the large wings once more to send a wave of wind that destroyed the two attacks, but it’s pause allowed both ships to catch up.
Both ships to a different side along the demon, to close to fire anything heavier then the guns. Yuna use a cheap shot bullet, that hit the right wing and going through it’s defenses, While Baralai, used drill shot to do the same. The ships on the other hand had to break through with continuous fire from the guns.
Paine changed to the gun mage, using a garment grid that allowed her to use her warrior abilities. She charged a Armor break in to a bullet, giving it’s properties an orange glow, then striking it directly in the head with the piercing shot. It caused a few Pireflies started to escape from the creature.
“HOLD ON!!!” Brother shouted, pulling the ship in to a sudden drop downwards to avoid a red ay from the Demon’s mouth. It ended up grazing over the top of the deck despite his best attempt to completely avoid, creating a strong blast along the ship‘s noise and a wave of flames that almost knocked the girls off. But it didn’t do to much to the armor since it could be compared to a bullet burn.
Gippal used Power Break, pacing a foot back to account for recoil when firing a bright red beam with a sporadically flicker to it into the at the demon‘s chest. It roared loudly, taking a foreseeable dip in elevation from that attack. Epitaph countered, pulling both of it’s out stretched hands back and thrust them forward, sending a shockwave of electrified of air that traveled over the ship similar to a ripple spreading over water. Though the attack didn‘t appear very strong it hurted anyone outside the protection of their respective ships, good thing for Gippal and Baralai, there were rails in place to keep them from falling. “Nhadala, Any damage?” Gippal called out to the cockpit through one of the external microphones, she was the one piloting the ship.
“Not to the shields, but it almost fried our controls.”
The Epitaph turned back forward and shot forward, gaining speed to getting ahead of the two ships that had come dangerously. “Don’t count on getting away that easily!” Gippal tilted the cannon completely upright, green embers spewing outwards as a mortar was shot out, landing the demon in the back in an explosion of more emerald flames and loud screeches. “I think we have a weak spot!”
“No Missiles! Too close to the Dosje Temple!” Brother shouted loudly through the speakers, loud enough for his voice to echo off the canyon walls bellow them, it was back to guns.
The began to fly backwards, a red light shining from it‘s clawed hands cuffed before it‘s torso, the red light was followed by a considerably large red beam ray that devoured the Celsius completely.
“Can they survive something like that!?” Baralai cast a protect spell over the whole Celsius, he was quite possibly the only person in Spira with enough skill to do so. He did it effectively too, surrounded by the blue light of the spell the Celsius elevated out from the beam, smoking amd missing a few pieces, but still flying.
“Hey! Are you guys Ok?” Gippal called over, watching Yuna, Rikku and Paine make it to their feet smoldering as just as much as the ship.
“Ow!” Rikku shouted, picking up the blast gun from the ground.
Paine growled in evident anger as she dusted away any stray molecules in her hair “I’m alright, but that thing wont be.”.
“It’s getting awayyyyy!!!!!!” Brother shouted. “Quick, Shinra, What should we do?”
“Um, ………I’m just a kid.”
“NAAAAA!!!!”
The Epitaph over the temple in question, sensing that there were Pireflies inside the. It was greedy, that was it’s weakness, it was clear now that the fiend was heading for the place that had a substantial number of Pireflies good enough to absorb. It began to charge a crimson blast in it’s mouth, now that it wasn’t moving, they easily caught up to it.
The Celsius and the army ship began firing the machine guns again, Gippal aiming the cannon strait in to the air. Firing an intensely bright white flare into the sky that erupted on it’s back with white flames. Because of either the bright light or the attack itself, the ray in it’s mouth fired off course. Hitting the canyon instead behind the gray structure instead and sending a rain of boulders and flames descending over the temple.
Baralai fired used his pistol and a few well placed drill shots to destroy the rocks, Gippal using the Glatting gun on his own weapon to try in assist. But they could only take out so many with out missing or causing damage when they tried not to. “We have to get this thing away from here!” Gippal yelled down to Nhadala. On his command the army ship moved in front of the Epitaph and over the Temple, firing the dual machine guns directly at it’s head, along with another Power Break in the form of an flickering yellow from Gippal.
As expected the large demon came after them. The ship glided sideways away from the canyon wall and when it was over mushroom rock road it backed away from the temple as bait, but the chasing monster was swift , bringing Baralai and Gippal face to face with the yellow skinned Epitaph. “Man...that thing is so huge.” Gippal started to draw Energy in to the cannon, watching a red light form in the demon’s mouth. being up close was the only way to realize how large it actually was, with more Pireflies it could rival Sin.
Baralai held on tightly to his embedded staff and expended his hand toward it. “Flare!” A rush of intense Flames devoured the demon’s torso from Baralai’s Flare spell, but it wasn’t enough to stop the beam in it’s mouth from firing. A very thin red beam swept along the deck, followed by an un proportionately large pillar of flames that threw the both of them flying backwards, almost off the vessel. The front of the airship tipped downward nearly in to a nosedive, but it was able to recover and regain balance.
“Damnit!” Gippal frantically padded out the flames on his left shoulder, holding his badly burned torso as he stumbled back to the center along with Baralai at his side.
“No!!!“ The demon grabbed on to the noise of the ship, it’s claws digging into the hull just in front of the two, pulling the ship downward. Taking hold of his staff again, Baralai began to cast another spell. “Holy!” The thick rays of light came shining down from the sky, knocking the demon back and forcing it to release the ship “Nhadala? Are we alright?”
“Not really! That last attack cut right through to the cockpit, those claws didn‘t help, and that explosion took some things out.”
“Can we still fly?” Gippal asked, dropping down to one knee with the heavy weapon sagging off of his left shoulder. The smoke rising out of the holes created by the demon’s claws couldn’t be a good thing.
“Yes... Not very long though, even shorter if we keep going at full speed.”
Gippal gave a small look over to Baralai who shared that same thought, it was just as well, they had rushed headfirst in to this fight already weak from their last, they wouldn‘t be of use for much longer. “Alright, just go as long as you can.”
They didn’t notice that were heading right over the Mihen High Road. It was filled with people, and on top of that, there was a hidden cave under the High Road, fill to the brim with Pireflies. Of course that's where it was headed!
With Epitaph’s high speed it had gotten there before they did, a ray already charged in it’s mouth powerful enough to make the air around it distort. If that attack penetrated deep enough the whole place could sink in on itself , especially in such a central location, it seemed that this was the end of the High Road…….. Until Cid’s ship arose from some place buried in the old road, Maroda and Rin already on the rounded deck. A volley of small missiles fired from the side in a trail of white smoke, lining up it’s chest and trailing into it’s open mouth, taking the charged attack with it.
“What are you guys doing here?!” Yuna asked in mild surprise and excitement, they had just come in the nick of time.
“Saving the High Road of course.” Maroda’s hands posed on his hips, his head tilted upward with a playful arrogance.
“You look like you needed help.” Rin gave wave and a light grin, lifting a riffle with a few bulky attachments to it. One of them was a box laying under the barrel with three dipswitches on either side, his finger slipped upward enough to flip one of the switches before pulling the trigger and firing a incisionitory white ray at the demon. The white ray was like wielding a long sword, it was combined with gun fire from all three ships along with it‘s passengers.
Pireflies started to rise from it’s body, causing the howling demon to shrink and grew weaker. Seeing that it wouldn’t get anywhere staying here, the Demon retreated.
It was much slower now, enough for them to catch up with it. Cid’s ship came from the right, the Celsius from the left and Nhadala from behind. They were to close to each other for the ships themselves to actually fire anything since they would surely hit one another, but the positive side to it was that it, it was 6 too 1.
Yuna began using Quick trigger, aiming for the demon’s head, while Rikku kept firing with the blast gun and Paine used Armor break. Baralai was close enough to cast Mighty Guard on all of them while Gippal fired the attack he’d been charging. “You guys better get out of the way!” Gippal place a foot back as he fired, a large white ray that was bigger then the Cannon it self and hard to use and keep himself from flying over the side of the ship at the same time. It struck the demon on the side of it‘s stomach, almost forcing it to crash in to the Celsius along side.
It roared out loudly, the yellow scales blackened and bloody.
Rin continued to fire the white rays, thrusting the particle sword in to the injured part of it’s side enough to draw a stream of blood from the wound. Maroda relied on spells with his monk skills, casting a Thundaga spell that sent a large pillar of golden lighting streaming down on it’s back and caused it to lose a considerable amount of altitude.
“We’re coming over water!” Brother yelled.
“Everybody! Move Back!” On Buddy’s command, all three ships pulled away as soon as they came over the ocean of water, drift a considerable distance.
“Oh man, we’re not going to make it to shore.” Gippal dropped down to one knee again, leaning against the cannon. “I don’t wanna crash over water, I’m to tired to swim.”
The Epitaph fired another ray, sweeping it over all three ships.
“Alright, time blow this thing out of the sky!” Cid howled with excitement, firing out every bit of artillery he had. A stream of missiles came from under the deck on both sides, leaving countless white streaks of smoke behind. The Bevelle Army ship followed suit and launched some considerably bigger missiles, about 10 or 12 of narrow rockets.
“KaBOOM!!” A very excited Brother dropped 6 large canisters from the bottom of the Celsisus in rapid succession, all of them Radars miles, which dropped it’s shell and released in to a replicating swarm that looked like 6 thousand.
All three ships pulled back even farther as the jungle of missiles strike at the same time, growing into a massive explosion, ear deafening, overpoweringly bright one that that swept back waves of water in all direction with huge, white streaking, shockwaves.
But, it wasn’t over yet, the Epitaph had a final attack if you could call it that. It was essentially a mirror, that’s what it was made of and that’s what it did, so as the mirror shattered it reflected the explosion back with a lot more power.
Suddenly the explosion started to spread outward at a freighting rate, it was coming back at them. Incinerating anything in it’s path.
“What the--” Gippal watched as the fiery maelstrom coming closer, that’s when they all realized that they needed to move. “Oh...my god...”
All three ships turned and headed back for land at full speed, with the burning explosion chasing after them so close that they could barely see from the light. “We won’t make it!” Maroda shouted, noticing it was coming to fast. “We have to stop that thing!”
“How?!” Rikku shouted over the loud eruption.
“Water!!” Baralai called out, his answer couldn‘t be heard, so he just cast the spell. The large Bubble of water was absorbed in to the flames, they needed more, a lot more, their ship was halfway in.
Yuna, Rikku and Paine changed from the Gunner to the Black Mage, doing the same and casting an army of Water spells. Maroda joined in too, and soon they had a wall of water standing against the explosion. Fighting it back and slowing it down with each spell, it had already evaporated enough water to create a hurricane.
The fiery storm slowed to a stop and died off, just as they got over land. The Bevelle army ship was already smoking badly, an explosion being heard audibly from engine room, the only reason it had made it here already was because it had been carried on the force of the explosion. So finally the ship gave out and made a sharp decent to the ground, luckily landing on it‘s side and not the noise.
Gippal grabbed Baralai just as he was about to fall, he in turn head on to his staff... After nearly being knocked out by the impact and managing to keep balance as the ship slowed to a stop, half of it in flames.
Gippal allowed himself to slide down to the ground, catching Baralai who fell trying to unwedge his staff.
Baralai smirked with a sigh of relief, “Thanks.” He showed his graduate with a small kiss on Gippal‘s cheek.
Gippal dropped to the ground, his back falling against the upturned hull of the ship. “This as been one hell of the week. What, we helped save the world, 2 times.”
“2 and a half if you count Angra Mainyu.” Baralai allowed himself to fall into Gippal‘s lap, nearly passing out from his own weakness.
“A half? Why a half?”
“I don’t know, it seemed like a half .”
“Well the big mirror thing had to be another 1. Give it another 10 minutes and it would have another Sin.”
“That would be a half.” Baralai his eyes drifting closed and his head inanely falling back to Gippal‘s shoulder.
“Why?”
“Summoner Braska, remember ?”
“Oh yeah, So that make it an even 3.” Gippal seemed satisfied with himself, watching the rest of the sun rise over the ocean of Kilika‘s coast as if they hadn’t just crashed and nearly fell to their deaths on several occasions during which. “Baralai.”
“Huh?”
Gippal rested his head back against the ruined ship, his gaze drifting up to the sky. “It’s over, don’t worry about it. You can fall asleep.”
Baralai was too weak to really protest, but his will wouldn’t let him sleep. “Are you sure...?”
“I got you, don’t worry about it.”
“Gippal....you can barely walk.”
“You underestimate me.” Gippal laughed. “You worry to much...just go to sleep.”
“...Hn.”
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