Gwyn yawned loudly as he sat on Nall's scaly white hide in behind Hiro. Kuyo was perched behind his old form, her brightly-colored hair almost glowing amidst the darkness.
"You're tired, Gwyn? If you've been asleep since we were both attacked this morning, I'd imagine you've already had enough rest," the female warrior remarked with a grin.
The old half-beast turned his head and chuckled.
"I am an old man after all... reading and sleeping are my two favorite pastimes now."
Hiro had to smile as he listened to the friendly conversation between the two.
"You're not that old Gramps... if you were willing and able to explore the Blue Spire with me when we first found Lucia, you certainly have some adventurous drive still in you."
Gwyn glanced back at his grandson and replied, "Hm... I never did properly scold you for running around the Dragon Ruins that day."
Kuyo giggled while they bantered. She looked around the dark-haired young man to see the White Dragon's face momentarily glancing back... possibly with a wink. She smiled in response.
She laughed inwardly, glad to see her charms had already worked well on this world... particularly in being able to befriend a dragon.
The scantily clad sword wielder then gazed at the silent woman furthest forward on Nall's back.
Kuyo thought to herself, "Possibly found her in the Blue Spire... nice little tongue slip there, Hiro. Maybe I won't have to wait to hear the whole tale. I'd best watch her though... there seems to be an enormous amount of power within her."
She rejoined the conversation.
Lucia, however, was uneasily quiet as she sat in front of Hiro. The Guardian of the Blue Star shivered and pulled her wrap tightly around her slender body. Night had already fallen around them as they flew north in hopes of catching up with the evil ones who attacked Larpa.
Questions entered her mind as the trio chatted.
"Could the Dark Scimitar have been discovered when I was on my previous voyage to Lunar?" she thought to herself. "Did my mission to stop Zophar blind me from the danger that awaited on the Blue Star?"
She looked quickly back at Hiro, Gwyn and Kuyo. She couldn't let humanity suffer again for her mistakes... Hiro had already almost lost his grandfather, and so many towns and villages had endured painful losses with the arrivals of both evils to Lunar.
The Blue Star shone brilliantly as the dragon soared past Dalton and toward the Forest of Illusion.
Lucia continued to sadly wonder.
"The power of humanity was able to pierce the darkness of Zophar with a burning light of justice... but will the same power be enough to conquer the Scimitar?" she thought to herself.
And where was the mysterious fifth dragon... the supposed guardian of the blade?
She heard Kuyo laugh again in the background.
A strange, blasphemous thought entered her mind: Why had Althena left her to guard and revive the Blue Star if such a device was hidden there? Could the Dark Scimitar have been sealed away in its own dimension as both Zophar and the dark dragon had been once before? And if so... why had the Goddess not done just that?
Nall, trailed by two brightly colored streams of blue and green hair from his riders, slowed his flight somewhat as he passed halfway over the forest.
His voice thundered out over the loud yet calming noise of his flapping wings.
"I can't see them, guys. Shall we keep going north and do you want to return to the Star Dragon?"
Hiro glanced about the area below them. The woods were enshrouded with darkness and quiet except for what appeared to be rhythmic pounding of drums.
Nall, looking back at the quartet on his hide, responded to Hiro's inquisitive look.
"Goblins. They've been very active lately, though I'm not sure if they hit a town yet."
Lucia spoke, "Continue north, Nall. If we can't follow them then perhaps we shall find some tracks or traces of their escape route."
She was surprised to hear snoring behind her. Gwyn had fallen asleep.
"Now what?" Kuyo quested from the rear of the group.
Hiro answered, "We're going to head north a little more. I think we should fly towards Nota. It's very late and, as you can see, Gramps already conked out. I think it'd be safer to find an inn to sleep at rather than try the tower. I'm sure the rest of us can last a little while longer though, so we might as well pass Takkar."
Lucia promptly realized that she had told the Star Dragon to watch the Blue Spire as well as his home. There was a distinct possibility that he wouldn't be there.
"Fine," she stated in agreement. Kuyo nodded from the rear.
Nall consented and started flying in a northwesterly direction... until he heard Lucia and Hiro gasp. His ears shifted as he turned and watched Hiro unsheathe Althena's blade... it was shimmering slightly with a pale glow.
"What does this mean? It never did that before!" Hiro exclaimed, feeling a distinct charge flowing through his body as he held the handle of the sword.
"Perhaps it means we're on the right track," Kuyo remarked, checking her own blade for scratches.
Lucia thought to herself.
"Or the sword's mirror is close..."
Somewhere to the northwest of Nall's position flew one of the recovery parties from the attack on Zaback. The mission had started earlier was well on its way to being a complete success... barring some interference from the mages who inhabited Neo-Vane nearby.
Fortunately for the cult's warriors, the metallic DemonFly that had accompanied their sortie was amazingly resistant to magic. The insect-like machine cut through those foolish enough to stay behind and defend their city quite easily.
Their wings making almost undetectable noise, a horde of Fly-Boys, with a Cannon Angel in the lead, flew back toward the Mystic Ruins from a southerly direction. Each carried a strong black net in one arm... a black lattice that contained three or four squirming Boomba Kids. The living bombs limbs' endlessly shifted as they were carried through the cold night air.
At the side of the winged general flew the DemonFly. Its pale metallic frame moderately reflected the light of the Blue Star in the encompassing darkness of night. It emitted a continuous, though relatively soft, buzzing sound as it darted through the air.
The Cannon Angel wearily led his troops onward, hoping that there'd be no more mishaps along the way. In two separate occurrences one of his men had to drop a net of fidgeting explosives when one of their fuses lit.
The ocean muffled the large explosion quite well... though he wished he could drop the Boombas on a city.
When Althena's sword stopped glowing so brightly, Nall happened to be flying over the waters to the west of Takkar. No one was able to see the wreck of the city or the titanic corpse north of it in the extreme darkness of night.
Kuyo herself was yawning as Hiro rubbed his eyes. Lucia was about the only one still alert, as even the White Dragon himself was tiring fast.
Her eyes fluttered as the brisk low atmosphere surged past. The blackness was not helping her see anything.
Suddenly, the guardian noticed something pale and metallic on the horizon... amidst a group of barely discernable black shapes.
"Nall! Hiro!" she exclaimed, shaking the shoulder of the latter as he almost dozed off.
"Wha... what's wrong, Lucia?" he wearily asked as he pushed her extremely long mane out of his face.
With one pale hand, she pointed to the forms.
"Nall... let's intercept them, whatever they are," Hiro spoke.
The dragon rumbled, "Good... a little action should keep as awake for awhile longer."
As they approached, Hiro awakened his aged grandfather.
"Gramps... I woke you up cause we may be having a fight in a second. If so, hold on tight."
Kuyo, suddenly fully aware of the situation, muttered softly to the others.
"What's that buzzing sound?"
The DemonFly beeped wildly and turned south to face the oncoming dragon.
Motioning with his weapon, the Cannon Angel commanded his fellow fliers in a strong tone.
"We expected to have to deal with the dragons at some point or another. You already know the plan! Follow it through and meet back at base when the coast is clear. GO!"
The Fly-Boys indeed knew what they were supposed to do. The majority of them turned north and was to follow the coastline to the west. In case the trackers were able to break through their defense and pursue them rather than the ones who deliberately scattered in every direction, this primary 'convoy' was not to lead the seekers back to the Mystic Ruins.
A handful of the winged creatures followed their general and his robotic 'pet'. A few others dispersed wildly.
Nall exhaled a stream of lightning at the group who flew at him. Hiro, Lucia and Kuyo all carefully stood up and readied themselves.
The mechanized insect was a lot larger than Lucia had thought it was. Unfortunately, the machine was also much faster than its huge frame suggested. It dipped under Nall's strike and continued to approach.
The bolt vaporized a pair of Fly-Boys... and ignited their cargo.
"WHOA!" Hiro exclaimed as he watched the miscreants explode. His yellow cape billowed behind his form as he let his boomerang fly.
Twelve of the remaining fifteen flying soldiers swarmed all around Nall and began to pepper both him and his riders with projectiles. The Cannon Angel hovered a distance away with two sheepish Fly-Boys... mostly due to the fact that they carried the Boomba Kid nets for all of the attackers now. Their tiny wings were strained by the effort of holding onto the meshed sacks without jarring them too violently.
The powerful gusts threatened to knock off all of those who were mounted on the White Dragon's back (except perhaps Gwyn, who didn't even try to get up). Nall himself performed several evasive maneuvers as he tried to evade the stinging blasts of the adversaries. However, he couldn't move too much without threatening the safety of his riders.
"Watch it, Hiro!" Kuyo bellowed as she leapt toward him.
The young man ducked as a Fly-Boy darted in close, trying to club him with his weapon. The neon green-haired woman was all he connected with... though he didn't expect the coupling to be between his chest and her sword. She flung the corpse off the side of the dragon.
Hiro stood back and thanked her. Kuyo only winked in return. They both began to rapidly fling boomerangs and black flaming daggers at the attackers.
Lucia, meanwhile, only occasionally assisted with a Spark Cannon to a Fly-Boy. Her attention was on the robotic pest, which Nall was constantly trying to nail with his Dragon Bolt.
The DemonFly had not done much in the context of actually attacking just yet. It merely seemed to be keeping the dragon's focus squarely on itself. Of course, this was keeping Nall from flying steadily as he expected a counterattack at any moment. He was surprised as one of his bolts hit dead on... and was mostly reflected into the night sky by the shimmering hide of the insect.
"Ooh!" Gwyn mumbled as his little hat nearly flew off due to a sudden shift in Nall's posture. All that the old man was doing was healing any of the defenders, including the dragon himself, when the Fly-Boys weapons found their mark.
By now, the main group of Boomba Kid-carriers was out of sight. The diversion had been a grand success...
...though a shadowy figure watched both their escape route and the battle in the air from a vantage point on the coast line.
The shade was unseen by any of them, however...
The number of attackers had dwindled to five when the DemonFly buzzed loudly. Nall screeched in warning as beams of burning energy flew out of openings on its metal frame. One particularly vicious blast flew straight at the dragon's head, forcing him to dart very quickly in one direction.
"NALL!!!" Hiro and Kuyo yelled in unison as they were flipped off of the White Dragon's hide and began to free fall.
"Hiro!" Lucia shouted, alerting Nall to his blunder. She had gripped tightly to his neck when the dodging tactic was performed. Gwyn somehow also held on by wedging his cane underneath one of Nall's scales earlier in the battle.
The Cannon Angel laughed heartily as the dragon took a laser to the shoulder and painfully dove for the falling humans.
Hiro grabbed the woman's hand as she fell slightly below him. They were holding onto each other tightly as they plummeted, almost screaming in horror as the dark ground far below gradually approached.
Without warning, they found themselves crashing hard atop Nall's paw. The huge dragon brought them close to his face to check that they hadn't passed out from lack of oxygen... and was rewarded by a quick kiss on his nose by a thankful Kuyo.
With a smirk and fresh determination, Nall surged back into the higher atmosphere, spewing out bolts in unison with Lucia to take out the remaining Fly-Boy nuisances before confronting the DemonFly.
As he leveled out, the White Dragon carefully placed Hiro and Kuyo on his flank. Lucia immediately hugged her love and they kissed momentarily.
The metal creature flew right in front of Nall's face and buzzed a high pitched whine as a ten foot long steel stinger jutted out from its abdomen. Bladed shafts extended from openings under its wings simultaneously.
"Hold on, lovebirds!" Nall thundered as he struck the abomination with his claws. By now he realized that either magic or his breath weapon was not very effective against the machine. He relied on a direct approach.
The four humanoids on his muscular back held on as tightly as they could while the two large flying beasts assaulted each other.
Nall found the DemonFly to be quite a flighty adversary, constantly calculating wind speeds and resistance as he slashed back at the dragon.
"Ohhh..." Gwyn groaned as Nall dove and rose in quick succession for about the fifth time in a row.
"Easy there, Grandpa," Kuyo started, her face tone starting to match her hair color.
Even Lucia was soon looking squeamish as the fantastic brawl in the skies continued.
Off to one side hovered the trio of flying warriors.
The Cannon Angel leader snickered to his two guards and decided to give an advantage to his mechanized ally in the mostly even struggle. He pointed his weapon at Nall's tail and fired.
The blast only barely clipped the dragon's tail, but it startled him long enough to lose his concentration.
With a powerful surge forward, the DemonFly successfully ducked Nall's latest swipe and plunged its huge stinger into his chest.
"ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!" Nall roared in pain, as the lance penetrated his hide and a tremendous shock flowed throughout his body.
The DemonFly, already damaged heavily by the powerful blows of the White Dragon, emitted a few sparks and bobbed in delight as it hovered in the sky.
In agonizing pain, Nall felt the paralysis of the monster's attack begin to sap his strength. He spread his wings as far as he could and began to glide, trying to stay steady as he felt his riders stand again.
"Hiro... Lucia... you have to destroy it... quickly... I won't be able... to fly much longer..." he rumbled uneasily.
"Kill them!" the winged general ordered, totally forgetting about the 'packages' that his fellow fliers wearily hoisted. The three of them absent-mindedly flew closer to the heroes.
The damaged DemonFly hovered toward the foursome on the dragon's back, blades first.
Hiro and Kuyo stood in front of Lucia and Gwyn with their swords drawn. The DemonFly steadily approached...
A bladed projection tried to remove Lucia's head. The limb of metal death was fortunately deflected by Althena's sword.
The DemonFly sparked more as a wave of dark energy was emitted by a swing of Kuyo's sword. The surge flew forth and impacted with one of the machine's rapidly beating wings.
"Gotcha!" the woman shrieked with delight, assisting the guardian of the Blue Star back up to her feet.
Hiro parried the stinger of the mecha-insect and responded with a deep gash across its abdomen.
By now the mechanical monster was hovering uneasily... almost as unsteadily as Nall who was gradually flying down toward the ground.
The two sword carriers had punished it with their 'sharp' skills when it came close. Both knew that it had a strange resistance to magical arts... that was the primary reason why Lucia was not casting any spells (she also didn't wish to injure the dropping Nall).
Energy projectiles narrowly missed Kuyo as she dropped and slid across the dragon's scales... but rose to find the three winged warriors right in front of her pale form, their weapons at the ready.
"This creature is fantastic, but it could use a few adjustments... too bad you heroes aren't going to be around to test them out!" the Cannon Angel shouted, charging his weapon as he floated right next to her.
He didn't see Gwyn reach up with his wooden staff and slam the visor of one of the Fly-Boys' helmets down. As the minion dazily tried to restore his sight, Hiro snatched the nearby net and began to twirl it over his head.
Lucia cast a single Plasma Shock towards the sky behind the flying creatures. Waves of fantastic blue energy, exploded in a violently colorful display. The force of the blast disrupted the DemonFly's optics... as well as confused the other enemies...
...and ignited a Boomba Kid in Hiro's pack. Hiro noticed it and flung the packed explosive beings toward the metal creature.
"Catch!" he yelled.
It also gave Kuyo a chance to manifest a flaming knife in her free hand. Two loud noises interrupted her before she threw it though...
The first was the explosion created as Hiro's net collided with the DemonFly. The machine was scattered into a large number of fizzling fragments that showered all of them. A particularly nasty chunk embedded itself into Nall's wing and he cried out in a weakened roar.
The second was the release of the Angel's powered blast. Kuyo had no reason to dodge as the shrapnel from the automated monstrosity slammed into the blinded Fly-Boy and created a domino effect.
All three winged miscreants crashed into each other and began to plummet. The general's shot, unfortunately, clipped both Lucia and the same injured wing of the White Dragon.
Nall was nearly delirious now from both the paralysis and the pain.
Also hurting quite considerably, Lucia raised her hand and summoned the healing Love of Althena... though for Nall and not for herself.
Wearily, Hiro and Gwyn looked down as the three adversaries were entangled in each other's limbs and, after a few moments of desperate struggle, the folds of the net too.
Kuyo looked at the pained expression of the dragon and her companions... then let the dagger fly with feelings of rage in her mind.
The falling net caught on fire as the blade passed through it... soon igniting all the enclosed Boomba Kids.
The Cannon Angel stopped struggling for a moment and saw first the sea rapidly coming up to meet them... then the lit fuses.
"AAAAAAAAHHH!!!" he screamed a few seconds before he and his companions hit the water.
Weakened, Lucia had already stopped casting her spells... even if she'd healed Nall's wing enough the White Dragon would continue to fall... and the descent was too rapid to stop now with her drained powers.
The sound of the scream prompted her to turn and see the ensuing explosion right as the fliers impacted with the surface of the sea.
Though none of her fellow riders could see it from the direction she was facing, the brief light from the explosion illuminated a vile smirk on Kuyo's face.
"Foolish failures," she thought to herself.
Hiro began to look for a safe place to crash land as Gwyn caught the expression on the face of his grandson's love. He raised one white eyebrow.
"We're dropping too fast, right?"
She somberly nodded, then sat down and sighed.
Hiro quickly perched in front of Lucia, his yellow cape billowing above his head as the dragon went down. Lucia wrapped her arms around his waist.
The old half-beast wedged his staff under the scales again. Kuyo, half-wishing that she was next to Hiro instead, just grabbed the white drake's hide as tightly as her bracer-covered arms could hold.
"We're in for one rough landing...!" Hiro shouted.
Fortunately, as Lucia eased some of the pain in his once majestic wing, Nall had been trying to fight the shock of the DemonFly's stinger. He was able to turn toward the east as he rapidly dropped through the sky... passing over the dead Gnasher... and ended up above the mountainous region northeast of Takkar.
However, a nasty sting in his body caused him to roar in pain as he tried to slow his fall with his large wings. The monstrous sound reverberated loudly off the peaks and valleys... suddenly awakening and enraging a swarm of Banshee Fowls who lived in the trees at the foot of the highlands.
The four riders tried to defend themselves as the skull-headed birds assaulted them and their mount... but they didn't have the chance.
Nall slammed into the wooded region on a large plateau of the region... a mountainous terrain also known as Bandit Butte.
The crash sent Hiro and his comrades flying into either the trees or the hard rocky ground. All of them were unconscious...
The White Dragon himself rolled onto his back, crushed a few trees and groaned. A light surrounded his body and he transformed into his 'dragon-cat' shape before passing out, purring in pain.
Ten minutes later... several dark figures tip-toed up to each of their fallen forms. With no sign of the huge creature that spooked their 'pets' to be found, the shades quietly snatched up Hiro, Gwyn, Kuyo and Lucia. The winged cat was quite a find as well, so Nall was placed in a sack and carried over the shoulder of one of the figures.
A snicker could be heard from one of the dark persons as the party (and unconscious cargo) melted into the shadows.