VG Rumble

"We're definitely on the right track," Luke said, pointing to the cart tracks above. "If we follow these tracks to the end we'll find the factory the Husks are being produced from." Even though Luke didn't show it, both Warren and Karana could tell he was glad they were OK.

Something dripped onto Luke's cheek. He wiped it off with his finger and smelled it. It was still warm and smelled salty, like a tear. Luke looked up at the ceiling that stretched upward for miles.

"Karana, use your fire to give me some light."

Karana cupped her hand and created a ball of fire in her palm that lit up the area.

Luke turned to Warren. "Warren, can you see anything up there?"

Warren used his enhanced sight and looked toward the ceiling. Without taking his eyes away from the ceiling he said, "I see a nook in the wall up there. Something's sitting in it."

"Is it a monster?" Luke asked.

Warren squinted a little. "No, it looks like... Raven?"

Luke's eyes widened. "What?"

"Raven's up there, and she looks like she's crying."

Luke looked up and searched for the nook Warren was talking about. When he found it he went over to the wall and pulled out some of his knives. When he started tying rope onto the knives Karana asked, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to help her down," Luke told her. "Keep the fire going, I'll need the light to see where I'm going."

He plunged the first knife into the wall and started to climb. He had tied rope to four knives, and the rope was tied around his waist. If he fell, the rope would prevent him from walling all the way down. When he used the fourth knife he pulled on the rope for the first knife and jerked it out of the wall. He repeated the process until he at the nook.

Raven

Don't worry, they'll find you. They're probably already searching for you. I huddled against the wall, trying to convince myself that everything would be fine but other thoughts crept up on me. What if they're all dead? What if they think I'm dead. I was the last out of the cart after all.

My eyes began to fill with tears and I allowed them to fall, crying softly over the edge. The scrape of metal against rock reached my ears. Scrape. Scrape. Scrape. I looked up, staring around the cavern. Scrape. It was coming from over the cliff.

Wiping the tears from my eyes roughly, I shuffled further from the edge and pulled the mace from my belt. Scrape. Scrape. I held my stance but my body, stiff and exhausted, began to shake and I dared not look over the edge to see what was coming. What creature had claws sharp enough to climb up a rock face?

"Raven?" Startled, I stumbled a step.

"Luke?" I asked. "Luke is that you, where are you?"

"Come to the edge," he urged and cautiously I took a small step forward and knelt down, putting the mace back in its holder. Creeping closer, I found the edge and amidst the rocks, I found one of his hands. He squeezed my own gently and I laughed in pure relief.

"Okay, you're going to have to trust me. Turn around and lower yourself over the edge."

"Okay. I trust you." I crawled in a tight circle, scratching my knees against the cavern floor and then began to move back, pressing my chest against the rock and struggling to find a hold on the rock.

Once Raven had lowered herself onto Luke's back he said, "Hold on tight," and started climbing down the face of the wall. It was harder this time because he could only use three knives at once without using them as footholds. He was even more careful going down than when he was going down because he had someone on his back.

After ten minutes of climbing he finally made it to the bottom. He didn't have time to wedge his knives from the wall before Raven threw her arms around his body. Luke was caught by surprise. "Raven?"

Her whole body shook as she quietly sobbed into Luke's chest. "Oh, Luke. I was so scared, I didn't know if any of you had survived. I thought I was going to die in this place, and... and..." Her sobbing became stronger and made it difficult to understand what she was saying.

Luke wrapped one arm around her body and stroked her hair with the other. He made made comforting hushing noises and said, "It's OK, you're safe now. We're all safe."

Karana

I smiled at the two. You couldn't help but notice that they were closer, especially when Raven was crying into him as he held her...

Now just to find Izuki and Ilum, and get the hell out of here.

Raven

"All safe..." I sniffed and looked over Luke's shoulder at the faces that flickered by the light of Karana's fire. "But, is Ilum still at the entrance and where's Izuki?" Panic registered in my mind again and I clutched at Luke's shirt in fear. "What if they're hurt, what if..."

"We'll find them, don't worry," Luke soothed, steadily running his fingers through my hair and brushing it away from my face.

"You're right," I admitted with a teary smile. I drew back and rubbed the tears from my eyes before throwing myself forward again to wrap my arms around Karana and then Warren.

"I'm glad you're safe," Karana said, struggling to smile but her eyes were sad.

"We'll find them," I echoed Luke's words.

"But how?" Warren wondered. I tried to think of a way but nothing would come and then -

"Can you feel that?" I asked.

"Feel..."

"It feels sad," I said. "I think I can sense Izuki."

(i missed the random encounter... my bad)

<Izuki>

I stayed up there until I heard shuffling, distorted voices.

That was the others, right? They had found me at last!

I jumped down to the ground, though whatever I ran into... was barely humanoid, and definately not friendly. One of them scuffled towards me, fork-like weapon in hand. I flipped back out of the way, and bringing my hands together with all the bravery I could master I shot a ball of void at one of them, jumping with a squeak as it missed and shattered a rock behind it.

The thing giggled, a crisp sound that reminded me of a goats laughter.

I launched forward, skidding past fast enough to grab one by the head and use it to lift myself into the air. The thing fell to the ground beneath my weight. It's companion sped towards me with more force than it could control. I grabbed it and swung it round until i had enough momentum to fling it into the wall.

I looked up at my safe perch. Safe. I liked that idea.

I used the wall to kick myself up as high as I could go and crossed my legs around a beam of metal, hanging down whilst the soft buzz of blood-rush calmed me down again.

It was just a matter of waiting until someone found me... Though next time, i vowed, i wouldn't be letting go of the beam until i was certain it was for a 'someone' instead of 'something'.

Izuki gained level 2 Void!


Current Abilities:

Ilum:
Level 3 Ice
Level 1 Fire
Level 1 Gravity (Advanced)
Level 1 Burst of Strength (Skill)

Karana:
Level 2 Fire
Level 3 Lightning
Level 1 Ice
Level 1 Meteor (Advanced)
Level 2 Burst of Speed (Skill)

Raven:
Level 3 Healing
Level 1 Water
Level 1 Holy (Advanced)
Level 1 Empathy (Skill)

Warren:
Level 3 Wind
Level 1 Lightning
Level 1 Time (Advanced)
Level 1 Enhanced Sight (Skill)

Luke:
Level 3 Lightning
Level 1 Void
Level 1 Earth (Advanced)
Level 2 Shadow (Skill)
Leviathan (Summon)

Izuki:
Level 2 Void
Level 1 Unlock (Skill)

Luke looked suspicious. "You can sense her?" he asked.

"I'm not exactly sure how, but I certainly feels like Izuki," Raven said.

"Well, we're not doing her any good standing around and debating," Warren said. "I say we go look for her."

Luke nodded. "I agree. Raven, lead the way."

"OK." Raven led the group through a few tunnels before they came to a small room with a steel beam in the middle to hold up the ceiling. There were two Kobloids lying on the ground, dead. "I think she's somewhere in this room," Raven said.

Warren looked around. "I don't see her."

Karana started calling, "Izuki! Where are you?"

"Karana?" Everyone looked up to see Izuki clinging to the steel beam. She slid down and immediately clung onto Karana's body. "I was so scared!"

Karana stroked the child's hair. "It's OK, Izuki. We're here now."

"Luke was right," she said. "Being a hero can be scary."

"You did good waiting for us, Izuki," Luke said.

She looked at him then. That was the first time he called her by her real name instead of just 'kid.'

He continued, "We have to keep going. Ilum may be waiting for us further into the mines, as well as our enemies."


An hour passed and it seemed they were still no closer to their objective than when they stepped foot into the mines. They emerged from a tunnel onto a large cliff edge platform. Before them was the bridge over the chasm where they were attacked and separated.

"Did we just go in a big circle?" Warren asked.

Luke turned and said, "Let's try another rou-" he stopped, staring at the tunnel they had just came from.

Everyone else looked and gasped. The tunnel was glowing with a fiery orange light that kept growing and growing. They could hear the sound of large feet getting closer. The Esper that attacked them on the bridge emerged from the tunnel. To make things even worse, that tunnel was the only exit.


--Boss Battle!--

x1 Ifrit

Battle Length: 10 posts

Karana

Oh, great! It was back!

"Move!" I tackled Izuki, taking her to the ground with me as Warren, Luke, and Raven managed to get to the other side of the tunnel. That creature would have run us over otherwise.

It was huge! It would draw a lot of attention if we didn't hurry up and kill that thing.

Let's see...fight fire with water. Fight fire with water!

I remembered my fall; I had summoned ice to make it slick and smooth so I wouldn't get hurt worse!

I held out my hands and growled as that same cold glass began to form on the creature's joints and claws.

"Somebody hit it!" I screamed as it lashed out at us again.

"Somebody hit it!"

Luke took out his throwing knives and threw them at all the joints Karana had used her magic on. The knives slid into the creature's body. Ifirit roared and fire exploded from its body, melting the ice almost instantly.

It's no use, if we're going to use ice against it we'll need more than that, Luke thought. He shouted to Karana and Raven, "I'll distract it, use your ice and water magic!"

Luke delved his magic into the ground like he had during the fight with Laviathan. Using his earth magic his threw a large boulder at the creature. Immediately after his knees were weak and he suddenly found himself out of breath.

Warren

Luke fell before me, breathless. It must have been his magic!

"Don't drain yourself now, idiot!" I shouted as I fired bolt after bolt of my lightning at the creature while Karana and Raven tried to immobilize it with ice.

Raven

I stepped forward to offer Luke my hand as he slipped to his knees and he accepted it gratefully as we looked across at the creature writhing amongst the debris of the boulder.

"Keep hitting it!" Izuki exclaimed and I nodded, returning to shooting water directly into the stream of ice that issued from Karana's hands so that it froze and expanded, striking the creature hard.

"I don't think this is working," Warren warned as the beast shook its body, scattering the rocks and then merely flinched with each wave of electricity as if it were only a slight annoyance. It began to advance towards us.

"Anyone have another plan?" Karana asked.

<Izuki>

I jumped in two long leaps to the wall, where i climbed up the rocks with ease, listening to the electrtic attacks and shattering ice that formed an abstract but certain beat. I did my best to launch myself across the roof as far as I could, from pillar to stone until I started to slip.

This one had to work.

I formed a ball of this new Void thing in my hands and forced it as hard as I could into the roof, causing much of it to shatter.

The plan was to make it crash down on the monsters head, slow it down in it's track, maybe give it a concussion. When I fell down I shoved one dagger into one of its eyes and threw the other. Before I could tell whether it hit or not I realised that when rocks came tumbling, I shouldn't be beneath them.

This was potentially problematic.

I did my best to skip and avoid the rocks, until I crumbled to the ground with an alarming pain striking through my head.

Not good, not good. Not good!

Raven

"Izuki!" I shouted as the rocks began to come crashing down. I started to run towards her and felt some force holding me back but I shook it away, too intent on saving Izuki, too determined that I would reach her before she was completely buried.

"Raven wait, you can't help her!" Luke shouted as the first of the rocks smashed into my shoulder, sending me stumbling forwards but that was okay, that was closer to Izuki who now lay on the floor, not moving. So many rocks, so many rocks. I reached her and wrapped my arms around her, shielding her with my body. Then I looked up as I started to stand and saw the rocks above us. Too many rocks.

And time stopped. Quite literally apparently. Warren described it to me later but I still find it hard to conceive. Time stopped; it froze, leaving only Warren with the ability to move. And so he used a strong blast of wind to throw us back against the wall of the cavern and then time began again and I watched, confused, as a great mass of rocks fell, burying only air.

Warren

I smiled. That had been interesting! And fun! I could stop time, now!

I gasped when I suddenly felt weak, the world swaying, my knees giving out. I groaned as I plopped down roughly, and put my head between my knees.

Oh my God...what just happened to me? Was it...was it that spell?



*Note: this is fun! I love controlling two characters!

Karana

Whoa. What happened? One moment, Raven and Izuki were first in line for death by being crushed, then they were up against the opposite wall, and Warren collapsed...

Great! What a predicament!

I rushed forward, throwing disks of white-hot flame as the creature turned on Warren. I had to get to him, to protect him. Luke would probably be fine; he was already on his feet again, even if shakily.