"Whoa!"
Kuyo hit the floor and slid as a giant pincer-claw snapped at her body. Evasion was the only tactic she currently had available to her.
The Evil Eye was certainly capable of keeping an eye on each of the heroes. However, the only ones who were attempting any sort of offense were the boy with the yellow cape and the bright-haired girl. It easily repelled such futile attacks with its tentacles and claws.
Hiro and Kuyo were wearing themselves out quickly. As both had already been both assaulted and running around recently (as well as still fatigued from the previous night's battle) they certainly could not keep the monster's attention focused on them for long. Physically striking the creature's tough hide with fists or kicks was barely affecting it and it was too dangerous to go for the eyes.
Gwyn glanced back at Lucia before he tried to back up the other duo. He was the only one with any sort of weapon... but a plain wooden staff couldn't possibly do any real damage. Still, it was better than nothing... if he was quick enough to dart in and strike (which Gwyn wasn't).
The guardian watched the lop-sided battle sadly. There was very little chance that Hiro and company could defeat such a beast without any weapons or magic. She felt particularly useless as she would probably be a less versatile fighter than even Gwyn.
Glancing about the rest of the chamber as Hiro, Kuyo and Gwyn were whipped repeatedly by the Evil Eye's tentacles, Lucia took in the surroundings. Bandits covered the 'seating area' above the pit they were trapped inside. They cheered and taunted in amusement as the fight continued, occasionally throwing rocks or other small objects at the combatants. Many were either yelling or staring right back at her.
Looking away, Lucia noticed a few notable characters. The man who apparently led these scoundrels had all three swords in his possession now. He smirked bemusedly as he stood at the edge of the well.
She gasped as she saw Nall in dragon-cat form atop one bench near the precipice. Near him sat a middle-aged man in a purple robe... a wizard of some sort apparently. It appeared that the mage was examining the wounded dragon. His expression was one of annoyance. Banshee Fowls perched on seats around them.
For a brief second, Lucia caught the sight of Nall's left eye opening and closing quickly. Perhaps he was aware of the situation...
She didn't have time to continue the thought as the Evil Eye had just finished slamming Hiro into the wall of the pit and slithered toward her. Kuyo was currently ON TOP of the beast, her arms wrapped around the 'neck' of one of the smaller heads. The other was trying to bite and rip her off but the young woman was still quite agile at dodging. The second reptilian stump-head ended up nipping into the flesh of its 'brother' several times. Gwyn was at Hiro's side.
Lucia watched in horror as it approached. Both pincers lunged at her and pinned her against the wall. The fact that the mandibles were stuck in the stone behind her was the only reason that her torso wasn't crushed, yet she couldn't get away.
The Dusk Blades roared in laughter as they watched both females flailing about either on or in front of the cave's guard.
Hiro saw Lucia's plight and rushed past his grandfather to try and dash to the front of the Evil Eye's form. With the creature stuck, he had a chance of going for the weak eyeballs.
The bandits began to yell warnings toward the monster (even though it certainly couldn't understand them). Their frequency of throwing small rocks and garbage increased; however, they were aiming solely for the prisoners now.
"Geez..." Kuyo blurted out as the head that she wasn't gripping tried to come at her from above. It opened its fanged mouth wide and dropped rapidly at her. She abandoned her perch just before two thing smashed it: a quite sizable stone thrown from a bandit and the second head. It collapsed and convulsed slightly atop the monster's back.
Despite that good fortune, Gwyn found Kuyo laying atop him in a few moments. The warrior woman had been slapped by the beast's tendrils and sent flying.
"Ohhh... sorry Grandpa!" she exclaimed, helping the old man to his feet. Both were quite bruised by now.
Gwyn nodded and coughed.
"We need a break... soon..."
It so happened that Gwyn's request was answered almost immediately.
As Hiro surged across the dusty stone floor, one Dusk Blade in the arena grabbed an item off of his fellow thief and flung it at Hiro. The thing happened to be a blue and white boomerang. The first knave (and quite a few others around him) immediately slapped the second around for such a stupid act.
The young hero grinned slightly amidst his feign. His weapon rebounded off of the ground, flew slightly and then hit the floor with a high-pitched sound. Hiro scooped it up and threw it at the monster's right pincer-arm.
It connected and spun deeply into the limb before returning to Hiro's palm. Roaring in pain, the Evil Eye finally was able to wrench its arms free and turned to face Hiro.
Lucia ducked as the left claw flew at her head and ran around behind the creature.
Almost simultaneously, Nall took the advantage of the confusion erupting throughout the higher area.
The magician looked up as Galdor admonished the foolish bandit... and turned his head back down in shock. The feline had just leapt into the pit, its little wings beating fiercely.
A word was uttered, "Sucker!"
Surprised, the wizard realized that if this winged cat could indeed talk then it must be a dragon. Not wanting to lose such a prize, he stepped off the edge and surprisingly didn't fall.
Two Banshee Fowls accompanied him as he levitated down to the arena's bottom.
Galdor turned to see what was going on and yelled loudly over the din of the chamber.
"GET BACK UP HERE YOU FOOL!"
The wizard ignored him, intent on recovering the cat.
Throwing his hands up in disgust, the bandit leader couldn't believe that any of this was happening. Hiro's boomerang entered the seating area and almost took his head off as Galdor stood there. He growled fiercely and readied himself with the shining sword.
Nall painfully flew down to Lucia, almost crashing several times into the floor. The guardian caught his weary form and cradled him in her arms as she moved toward Gwyn's side.
For the first time, Lucia noticed the wide-open exit in the cave wall. It was considerably dark inside, but what really stopped her from running down it (other than the danger her friends were still in) was the uncomfortably familiar feeling that was emanating from it.
By now, both snake-minds of the creature had recovered. Particles of glowing energy slowly (due to the dazed nature of one head) began to gather between them as they leaned forward.
Kuyo had re-engaged the Evil Eye already, but at the sight of this oncoming strike both she and Hiro retreated, trying to stay out of the path of its primary eye.
The dark-haired young man repeatedly tried to sink his boomerang into the monstrosity's main eyeball but its limbs batted the swirling weapon away each time.
The Dusk Blades cheered again... all except Galdor who was watching the flying trio getting very close to two of the prisoners near the exit.
The figure hidden just inside the mouth of the tunnel breathed deeply as it watched the fight.
Very close to where it stood, Lucia was backing away from the wizard and the Banshee Fowls. The floating man had a ball of flame hovering above his outstretched palms.
"Give me the dragon, girl. You can't escape anyway," he chortled and then glared at her.
Lucia and Nall continued to retreat from him. They shuffled past the opening and soon were quite a distance away.
The magician continued to slowly follow, finally cornering her as he hovered very closely to the charging Evil Eye.
The shade glanced at the other characters. The old beast-man was cowering in another corner, watching his grandson and the other young woman run about frantically. They apparently were trying to keep the huge beast from aiming directly at any of them.
Lastly, its gaze was focused on the bunches of thieves higher in the cave. The chieftain was the only one making no movement or noise as he stood towering over his minions with a blade ready.
"Now?"
The figure tensed up, still looking at the bandit boss.
"I really don't need to recover it yet... I know a spell like that... as I said, now?"
A brief pause in its speech.
"Okay!" the voice finished as it raised both of its arms above its head.
A booming sound like the crash of thunder echoed throughout the cavernous chamber.
The magician stopped approaching Lucia immediately. Galdor and his henchmen stopped cheering. The Banshee Fowls squawked wildly. Gwyn glanced about for the source of the noise. Nall meowed a warning to his carrier. About the only ones who didn't show any interest were Hiro, Kuyo and the Evil Eye (who were all too engrossed in each other to show interest).
"GIGA THUNDER!"
It was a mystical sounding female voice that yelled the phrase... but it was impossible to determine where it had come from due to the deafening cacophony resounding off the curved stone walls.
Galdor dove to the floor as the effects of the spell were emitted.
Bursts of electrical energy exploded from the floor in a number of locations... one of which was just underneath the hovering sorcerer. Simultaneously, a powerful bolt of lightning surged down from the darkness of the arena's high ceiling above each of these thundering discharges.
The purple-robed wizard didn't know what happened as his life essence was shocked out of his body. A blood-curdling scream was released from his lips as the energy caused him to spasm, convulse and eventually collapse dead on the floor after he crashed there.
Lucia's pendant chimed softly as it landed near his form.
The behemoth received a pair of thunderbolts to its huge frame. It endured great pain and released the charging Aqua Blast off target... right towards the ledge that the Dusk Blades were gathered on.
By this time, Lucia and Nall had crouched in the same corner as Gwyn, Hiro and Kuyo.
"Who in Althena's name cast that?!" Gwyn exclaimed as the torrents continued around them.
Hiro and Lucia looked at Nall.
"What?" the white cat responded. "First, I'm too weak to do anything but talk. Second, that was a girl's voice. Do you think I sound like a girl?!"
"Well, in that form..." Hiro started.
"You kinda do," Kuyo continued.
Nall glared at them.
"It wasn't me!"
The feline didn't have a chance to continue when a loud cracking somehow pierced the sound of the thunder 'storm'.
The Evil Eye's Aqua Blast attack consisted of a long, wide stream of high-speed light particles reflected through the lens of its primary sight organ. This was originally intended to annihilate the four intruders.
When the monster's aim was disrupted by pain, it thrashed all of its limbs, tentacles and heads about... and released the deadly wave directly at the seating area.
Bandits and skull-headed birds screamed in agony as they were vaporized by the searing white heat. But that was not the only result... the power held by the particles smashed into the entire seating area and caused it to collapse inwardly. The robbers who still lived found themselves amongst a lot of rubble at the bottom of the now widened pit.
There was another side effect to the chaos that had been unleashed.
As Hiro and company watched the Evil Eye and the Banshee Fowls recover they noticed a sort of confusion evident on their actions for a few seconds...
...Until they noticed the highwaymen picking themselves up... at which point they started to frenzy. The flock of fowl began to dive and peck at anything moving... including the Evil Eye itself. The large beast flailed its tentacles and pincers at the definitely surprised thieves.
"Wait a minute," Gwyn started, "if all of them were somehow controlled by that wizard (since it appears he's dead)... then perhaps the curse he put on us is gone too!"
Lucia stood up, raised one hand toward the ceiling and chanted.
An unfortunate black-suited man received a beam of burning blue energy to his stomach.
Grinning evilly, Kuyo rose to her feet and manifested a pair of black flame-engulfed daggers.
"Good."
A free-for-all had developed as the monsters and thieves fought amongst themselves. The heroes decided to escape while they were all occupied. Hiro and his party may have had their magic restored but they were still quite tired from the battle and earlier events already... and no amount of healing was going to change that. Rest was needed.
Lucia promptly recovered her pendant as the others fended off the few unoccupied attackers.
"Let's get out of here... I think we disrupted their operations quite a bit," Hiro remarked as the foursome (plus Nall of course) ran for the tunnel opening.
"You're not out just yet, boy!"
The towering Galdor was standing beside the dark exit path. GlitterEdge and Althena's sword were in his hands and pointed directly at the former prisoners. Two Dusk Blades flanked him with throwing daggers at the ready.
"The Dusk Blades will continue to exist as long as I live... and that will not be changed this day!" Galdor yelled, raising GlitterEdge.
The inherent magic of the sword surged forth, showering electrical bolts on Hiro and Gwyn. The latter dropped to one knee and attempted some hurried healing litanies. The former hurled his Cross Boomerang skill just as Kuyo released her knives.
Galdor guffawed as the 'rang and one dagger bounced off of his dark suit of mail. The last blade sunk into an unprotected region of his arm. He groaned and raised Althena's sacred sword in the other hand. Healing light surrounded his form and closed the wound.
"Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha! Infinite power in just two swords! I am unstoppable!" the leader exclaimed, readying the lightning blade again.
"Nothing is without weakness!" responded a familiar voice... the same one that had yelled the name of that devastating spell before. It came from the passageway behind Galdor...
Hiro took care of a bandit who was sneaking up behind his friends as a lithe figure emerged from the portal. It looked like a woman with a strange red outfit and light-reddish hair. She had long, pointed ears and possibly a horn jutting out of her forehead, but Hiro didn't have the time to take a detailed look due to two factors: the battles around him and the fact that she started spinning in place... somewhat similarly to a dancer.
Beating off a few Dusk Blades who tried to rush through them toward the exit, Kuyo leapt backwards to avoid the wide slash that Galdor swung at her.
Off balance, Galdor barely noticed the female form that began to rapidly spin and run around him, slashing numerous times with a pair of short swords. Both of the blades he was holding were knocked out of his grasp when the deadly dance was over. His armor was severely damaged by the assault as well.
Lucia picked up Althena's sword and tossed it promptly to Hiro. Kuyo recovered GlitterEdge and awaited Galdor's next attack.
"Who... *pant* ...are you? It doesn't... *pant* ...matter... I still have one magic sword left!" he exclaimed, holding up Kuyo's sword.
The dark armored woman simply smirked as he pointed it at her and yelled.
"Hah!" Galdor laughed... and suddenly found that he no longer had the strength to lift the blade.
The strange girl engaged the master's guards and easily dispatched them.
"Wh... what is happening... to me...?!" coughed Galdor.
Kuyo giggled.
"Oh, you've learned about one of the defensive powers of my sword... life draining... was it good for you?"
"Ugh..." he gurgled as he collapsed, drained of most of his will to fight.
Kuyo grabbed her original sword and looked back at the continuing chaos.
"Guess this is the end of the Dusk Blades... good riddance!"
"C'Mon! We've got to get out of here!" announced the odd newcomer who had by now raced into the shadows of the tunnel.
Still covered in wounds and carrying Nall, Lucia followed with Gwyn at her side.
Hiro and Kuyo brought up the rear, each with their swords ready to deal with anyone following them out of the cavernous hideout.
The frenzy was nearly over by the time they reached the other end of the exit passage.
Still weak, Galdor barely crawled to his feet and glared into the blackness filling the portal.
"This... this will not be the end of us..."
A hideous roar was emitted directly behind him. Slowly turning around, the bandit leader was terrified to see the VERY irate Evil Eye crawling towards his position.
He screamed as it leapt pincers first at him.