The beast was far more horrible than what they had expected from the guardian's earlier description. Frozen in fright, all but Khalidah blankly stared as the Gnasher raised its gigantic head and roared to the heavens. The sound cut through the early evening skies for miles around.
Citizens of the two closest settlements heard the monster's bellowing voice and the disturbing silence that followed. Some survivors of Takkar panicked and ran back to their town's shrine, dreading the return of the creature. Others remained at the shattered gates of their community, hoping that Lord Leo and his party had not become the next meal of the Gnasher. In Nota, the roar was much more faint and most townspeople barely paid heed to it before continuing with their daily tasks, unaware of the danger...
"FOOLS!" the orange-robed priest upon the long, scaly back of the monstrous reptile boomed, "YOU SHALL SOON FEEL THE RAW POWER WHICH WIPED THAT CITY FROM THE FACE OF LUNAR!"
The Cannon Thug who perched behind him brandished his weapon and chuckled. Both he and his companion were currently covered with the splashy effects of the Gnasher at feeding time back in Takkar.
As a cool breeze swept across the landscape where only a few moments ago the members of Leo's group had been fighting amongst themselves, Alisia Dragoon shivered in fright as she stood aghast of the sheer size of the beast. Jean, her arms limply holding her bladed fans, stared straight at the titanic mouth of the Gnasher, lined with huge, sharp blade-like teeth still bearing crimson stains and chunks of mangled (once human) flesh between them. Even the knight Leo couldn't believe his eyes: a creature at least as big as a dragon was now eyeing him and his friends as if they were its next meal. The four animal companions were already hiding behind each of the humanoid heroes.
Khalidah, however, was looking straight into the Gnasher's eyes. She had hoped that it would recognize who and what she was and perhaps be intimidated. However, the tall woman could only see a familiar dark haze clouding its orbs. She glanced at the two villains upon its tough hide and realized that the massive, yellow-skinned, tyrannosaurus-like Gnasher was not completely acting on its own will. That explained why the damage it did in Takkar was so 'complete'...and, unfortunately, why it would be near impossible to incapacitate it without at least mortally wounding it.
The guardian placed one foot in front of another and went into a fighting stance, her Mystery Star at the ready in her right hand. Her shredded cape billowed in the wind.
"Wake up!" Khalidah snapped to her allies standing in the grassy field. Each of them nearly jumped at her voice.
"Gn... gnasher?" Alisia stammered, pointing at the bloodstained monster.
Khali nodded and spoke swiftly as Leo unsheathed his silver sharion.
"It is currently possessed and under their control... look at its eyes... they are going to instruct it to keep attacking until it's dead. I fear we must kill it to stop the horror of that city from happening again."
The Gnasher roared again. The Cult Priest chanted a little in a foreign tongue.
Khalidah went on.
"Above all, avoid the mouth at all costs... it is large enough to swallow a person whole if it didn't have such a vicious, flesh-ripping eating style. The arms are weak and minor obstacles. The legs are large enough to crush you so watch them as well if you stay close. The tail is deadly and much quicker than the usual lumbering style of the creature itself. Keep moving and try to find a weak spot... its outer hide is unnaturally tough!"
"None of your plans will work, Lord Leo! Your only destiny now is as a meal for this invincible creature!" the Cannon Thug shouted as the Gnasher started to run towards them. The feathery-winged minion motioned to his weapon and spoke to the priest, "Let's see how well these... what were they called again?"
"Pulse Vulcans."
"Yeah, let's see how well these Pulse Vulcans that they recovered in those ruins are at incinerating heroes!" he finished with a smirk.
"Scatter!" the half-beast yelled. The group promptly dispersed in several different directions.
Alisia flung a bolt of electrical energy at the monster as she ran to the west, Whisp flying beside her. Her strike glanced off the rump of the Gnasher and diverted its attention for a moment. Unfortunately, it also diverted the Cannon Thug's attention. The winged miscreant took to the air and launched a deadly energy projectile from his weapon at the thunder sorceress.
The red-haired girl cursed loudly and dove to the ground, rolling away as the Ball O' Fire threw itself into the blast's path. He shrunk in magnitude for awhile after absorbing the attack.
The diversionary bolt didn't faze the Gnasher, whom the Cult Priest was directing after those known adversaries of Zophar, namely Leo and Jean, which were both heading in an easterly direction.
As the priest laughed, the barbed tail of the Gnasher snaked out and slashed at their retreating forms. Leo just barely avoided the appendage, only having his cape ripped up. The dancer, trying to flip over the living blade, received two nasty slashes across her lower back and legs. Jean screamed in pain, but kept running as soon as she touched down from her jump.
Chirper and Eindon by now had run a long ways around the Gnasher to the north. The little creatures knew not to mess with something that huge and dangerous unless they could find a weak point easily accessible to them. Frye hovered above them, trying to exhale fireballs at the priest from behind while the creature's tail was occupied with Leo...
...Until he heard Jean yell.
At that sound, Frye immediately soared toward her. As she was now slowed by injury, she performed a sluggish yet still graceful Dopple Dance to confuse the beast with a mirror image. The small green dragon scooped the dancer up and flew past the now close and flailing arms of the Gnasher. The giant yellow and purple reptile lunged with a growl at the spinning image of Jean and found itself smashing its head into the ground with its teeth sunk into nothing but dirt.
It howled in pain as Leo ran in close and slashed it several times on the back of the outstretched head and neck. The former White Knight of Althena parried the tail as it flew past and retreated.
As he ran, Leo cast a Rock Riot towards the Gnasher, hoping to soften its thick skull with the huge boulders that burst from the ground and flew at the creature. Still slightly dazed, the monster took the first two slabs in the face and barely evaded the third, only having it glance off the scales near the priest's sitting position.
The half-breed was surprised when another form almost ran over him, going in the exact opposite direction.
With her bluish-purple mane flying wildly above her tan cape, Khalidah ran straight at one of the Gnasher's huge back limbs. The creature saw her coming and snapped with its massive jaws. The taste of warm flesh was again missing... Khali's bladed gemstone spun and scraped across its muzzle as the young woman rammed into its right leg. She proceeded to rapidly punch and kick the limb with her extraordinary physical strength, then slammed a powerful Foi technique into the mangled appendage as she ran away.
The Gnasher howled and collapsed to the well-trodden grass and soil for a few moments. The Cult Priest was furious.
Meanwhile, Alisia and Whisp had been defending against the barrage from the Cannon Thug. The former was sporting many scorch marks on her arms, legs and outfit as the fire elemental weakly burned at a very small size. Whisp couldn't absorb too much more of the rapid-fire assault without actually being hurt.
A familiar battle roar greeted her ears as she dodged another strike. Her blue eyes quickly moved toward the darkening sky to see her dragon friend and Jean flying at the Thug from behind. The dancer, her bloodied legs wrapped tightly around the airborne reptile's strong frame, hurled her fans with a cry.
The winged warrior moaned in agony as his wings were sliced severely. He fired once at Frye and then barely was able to glide to the back of the Gnasher as it stood back up.
Khalidah was now with her organic companions from the satellite ruin, watching as Leo continued to bombard the beast with earth-based spells. She was also working on attacking from long range, hurling Foi and the Mystery Star in between moments in which she tried her weak Res technique on the several glancing slashes that she had received from the arms of the Gnasher during her attack run.
It looked like Leo knew what to do from her example. As the Cannon Thug concentrated on blasting the other girls (who seemed to be regrouping), the knight focussed on keeping the titanic creature busy by slamming Rock Riots, Earth Fangs and an occasional Flash Blade into its lower jaw and 'good' leg. Khali's attacks were directed at the back of its neck, an area that had already been injured by Leo's earlier spells.
The Cult Priest screamed in the same foreign tongue from before the fight as his monstrous steed was gradually being worn down and covered with fresh blood... however, this time the vermilion mist was mostly its OWN life fluid.
The Gnasher stopped momentarily... and received a fang-smashing Rock Viper to the mouth. It bellowed even louder than before and promptly spun. Its barbed tail whipped through Leo's armor and across his chest, leaving a vile red smile. As it turned, its non-mangled leg kicked outwards and caught both Leo and his sword. The blade lodged in between the muscles of the limb.
"Argh!" he cried out as he was slammed into the ground. His left arm felt oddly numb... probably broken by the tremendous force of the creature's bulk. The beast probably was stronger than Khalidah...
The monster seemed insane now. Frenzying, it rushed at the guardian of Azura and nearly impaled her upon his spiky tail. Her arm was sliced badly as it raked its fangs at her with another bite.
Barely able to notice that Chirper and Eindon had apparently vanished, she leapt past the Gnasher's deadly mouth and tried to manipulate Leo's blade as it hung from the spurting limb of the monster.
Whisp flew close to the creature's eyes, trying to confuse both it and the two riders. Khali took the opportunity to kick Leo's sword hard enough to dislodge it, grab its handle and tear several long slashes into the tough hide, severing a few tendons and ligaments.
The Cannon Thug changed his target and began to take aim at the strange woman. She painfully ran as his blasts riddled the ground behind her.
Leo was shakily rising to his feet as a fleeing Khali tossed his sword to the dusty ground near him. He barely could lift it as he held his darkening cloak against his wound.
The Gnasher tried to turn again and found that its legs had sustained too much damage. An awful crunching noise was emitted as it fell to its knees and whipped its tail around again.
Alisia and Jean finished a quick conversation and both began to concentrate. The animal-friend chanted and held her arms forward as the green-haired dancer spun rapidly on one wounded leg.
Jean's mirror image-creating step was followed by a spread of her fans. The image ran around the monster to divert the two villains. The real dancer hurled a group of shiny needles towards the monster as she twirled on her toes.
"Hah!"
Alisia yelled as a cone of concentrated electrical bolts was emitted from her palms. Her waistcloth and hair blew about as the charge passed through her body accompanied by a sudden gust of wind.
The needles were engulfed in Thunder magic. Each tiny projectile assaulted the thrashing, bloody hulk of the Gnasher, as well as its two passengers. The priest raised some sort of magical barrier for protection, but the formerly winged warrior was fatally pierced by the combination of skills.
Muttering as his life essence flowed from his body, the Cannon Thug gurgled to his companion.
"Hail DarkStar... VULCANO!"
He fired his enhanced blaster straight up in a long, powerful stream...but it never seemed to come down. The Thug dropped to the ground as the Gnasher spun on its crumpled knees.
The tail flew by Jean, Alisia and Frye again, slicing them all. Alisia's leather armor was already pierced while Jean's outfit was slowly turning from white to red. The dragon was only slightly clipped.
In horrible pain, the half-beast Leo summoned and hurled another magical boulder, cracking the lower jaw of the Gnasher quite powerfully. The creature's mouth looked surprisingly crueler as the bottom half hung strangely, perhaps dislocated.
"I'm... *cough*... so sick of that tail," Jean gurgled as she and Alisia stood there, bleeding.
A split second later, the barbed tentacle of bladed death suddenly stopped its assault and lay motionless in front of them.
"Then let's remove it!" Alisia exclaimed as she manifested LightningFang.
Both women wearily dove at the extension with their blade and fans. The cutting was surprisingly easy, and within seconds the spiky scythe-like tail lay in the dirt.
Whisp and a weakening Frye bombarded the Gnasher's head with flames as a yell could be heard across the battlefield. The giant organic weakly roared as another electrified needle suddenly dug deeply into the back of its skull, resulting in a spurting opening.
"HURRY! IT'S VULNERABLE!" Khalidah screeched as she approached from the far side.
Something yellow and fluffy was rapidly crawling up the back of the Gnasher. The rodent Eindon, who happened to be hiding in the grass near Khalidah's present condition, squeaked wildly as Chirper launched himself at the Cult Priest.
Khali watched in amazement as one of a Chirper's natural abilities was displayed... a Gra technique. Waves of gravity forces assaulted the remaining enemy as Chirper screeched at close proximity to the priest. The attack was not very powerful (it was a baby Chirper after all) but it upset the precarious perch of the miscreant enough to bowl him over and down to the grasses below.
He emitted a heart-stopping scream as the convulsing... and now uncontrolled... Gnasher rolled over and crushed his form before climbing back to its knees.
Leo had run to the sides of Alisia and Jean and was about to hurl one finishing spell when the Cannon Thug's final attack finished.
Torrents of energy rained down upon the entire battlefield, blasting crater-like holes in the pulverized prairie. Whisp was now trailing Khalidah as she ran amongst the deadly downpour toward her companions. Eindon remained well out of range until the fireworks stopped.
The Gnasher itself was barely feeling any of the nearby explosions in its current condition.
One beam slammed into the ground amongst Leo, Jean and Alisia, throwing them all to the ground again. The two females shrieked in pain. Frye and Chirper safely escaped harm.
Rolling in pain, Alisia slowly looked up and gasped.
The monster was not dead... and was in the process of making one final lunge with its shattered maw.
The pile of heroes tried to stand... but only got halfway up when a powerful force sent them rolling quite a large distance. Unfortunately, they crashed into quite a deep crater from the Vulcano strike. Leo quickly crawled to his feet and out of the hole to see that Khalidah, with Whisp at her shoulder, had shoved them out of the way of the Gnasher's bite.
He couldn't believe his eyes as the huge mouth slammed down on top of them amidst a huge dust cloud.
"Khalidah! Whisp!" he yelled as he ran (or stumbled) towards the back of the Gnasher's head. He found Eindon nearby, spraying poison a little too late at the creature. The lizard was apparently still breathing.
But not for long...
As the upper jaw came crashing down on Khalidah and Whisp, the female warrior immediately leapt TOWARD its throat and slammed her Foi techniques into the hanging lower jaw. Leo's previous attacks had indeed dislocated it, and her quick blow literally broke it. The bloody teeth flew away from her as the lower section of the Gnasher's mouth collided with the ground and bent BACKWARDS. She noticed abruptly that the beast's barbed tail was upon the ground there. The top of the maw was still lowering and she immediately snatched the scythe-like blade and threw it directly at the Gnasher's head region. The sound of bones cracking was heard in the wet and humid area 'in' the mouth. Whisp flew into the new opening and burned his way through... into its brain.
The dust cloud that Leo had seen was due to the dying Gnasher's head hitting the grassy ground, then bouncing when Khali smashed its skull.
After her second attack, Khalidah dropped to the ground and tried to roll as the top of the organic fiend's head was raised.
Unfortunately, she didn't have enough time to get out. The broken fangs slammed down while she was still mostly underneath the jaw. Luck was on her side though. Her left leg was sticking out under collapsed beast's mouth slightly above the knee. The shattered teeth were wedged around it, leaving her lying on her stomach but immobile 'inside' the Gnasher. At least they hadn't landed on and severed her limb. She also had a little room above her head.
The guardian of Azura was in bad shape though. The extreme strains that she had endured in the fight were bringing unconsciousness soon. Whisp returned from his impersonation of a fiery pinball in the Gnasher's brain and illuminated the 'room'.
It looked worse than Takkar... dark, hot and wet, with fleshy pieces hanging everywhere and blood-stains all over the drool-covered roof. There were horrid drips of fluid everywhere.
Sighing, Khalidah suddenly had a strange feeling within her mind. She remembered a moment from the past when her mentor explained how the people of her home 'world' had inherent magical abilities, yet never could learn new spells. She understood it well then...
...Yet why did she suddenly feel like another one had popped in her mind? Chants for an unknown technique manifested in her waning consciousness...
"GIFOI!" she yelled and a large beam of fiery energy flew from her barely raised palm. The powerful stream flew into the same hole that the tail had broken open. The spiked appendage fell to the ground near her form from where it was lodged.
Whisp watched as Khali moaned and collapsed forward, out cold from exhaustion. The fire elemental decided to stay with her till she woke up... if she was to wake up...