Final Althanas VXII: The Crystal Is Still Here

[Kupo!]

(Open to those I recruited in the thread Let's do something stupid.)

"Tim, no!" the moogle shouted to the tiny yellow Yan. The sheep like companion of Duke the moogle skipped merrily along the path of Corone, and was blissfully unaware of the cart that was about ot run the Yan, Tim, over. The driver noticed Tim at the last moment, and pulled on the reigns alarming the horses to whinny violently stamping their hooves and rising to their legs kicking outwards. Mortified by the turn of events that were playing out before him, Tim jumped back, his fur sticking up in all angles as he took a deep breath, and the words of the moogle were nothing more than a breeze on the wind as Tim let out a massive gust of wind, blowing the horse, the carriage, and the driver off the path and into the sky; cart and all.

With a sickening slap to his face by his own hand, Duke let his stubby furry fingers grip tight into his skin as he pulled downwards. Tim, looking quite proud of himself for the deed he had done, turned to Duke, skipping happily with his tongue hanging out to the side of his goofy little face. "Kipo! Did you see me vanquish the monster?" Duke felt his darker half come to the for, and he was about to wrap his hands around Tim's neck, but the little green guy bounced in the way, doing a half spin, shuffling his legs, and then springing into the air shouting, "BOI!" into the sky.

"NO!" Duke shouted to this friend in the sky. "I don't encourage this kind of stupid behavior!" Duke let his tiny wings flutter behind him as he rose into the air trying to see if he could find where the man flew to. "Oh man, kupo." Duke muttered. "I hope you didn't snort him into the sea..." Duke landed next to Tim, and sighed as he began to walk towards the city he was supposed to meet the stranger with clues to the round guy.

The round guy was the only person Duke had any connection to Tim for, a being of such ultimate power he had no other way to describe him than this. He was round, and he was a guy. He floated in the air, and was a big jerk. Of course, Duke never met the guy, and had only what Tim said to him to go off of. Which in all honesty shouldn't be very much, but Duke didn't think so far ahead figuring most likely he would only get a headache.

Looking at his rag tag group of friends he could only smile. Despite they were all dysfunctional in their own ways, they were his family. Duke had people who loved and cared for him, something he never had in his life as a moogle who sat and listened to adventurers. He was grateful each day to be with them, but usually half way through the sun's course over the time he regretted ever leaving his post.

With happy thoughts ahead Duke walked next to his friends and let the whole incident just fly out of his mind. If he didn't he was quite sure he would have gone insane. And we can't have that now can we?

"Kipo! I'm hungry!" Tim whined. The little green guy bounced excitedly.

"BOI!" He shouted jumping in the air.

"No, forget it! Not until town!" Duke bellowed back.

"Kipo!" Tim muttered under his breath. Duke looked at him in shock.

"Kupo! Don't say such filthy words!"

"Boi!" Tim stuck his tongue out at the little green guy with the 'pssbbbttt' sound coming from the raspberry he gave. "BOI!"

"KUPO!"

"KIPO!"

"Kupo-po!"

"Kipo!"

"Boi!"

"Doink!" They all stopped shouting profanity at each other, looking at the turtle in the dirty brown robe holding that creepy lantern and rusty knife. He shoved the knife forward, and nodded with is beady yellow eyes. Duke leaned closer to the little green guy and Tim the Yan.

"I think we should get to town..." They both nodded to him, and for the rest of the trip they walked in silence.

[Siren]

Siren was idling away on a pier, just soaking up the sun and salt air. She'd just gotten off her latest ship, had a little money, and was looking forward to a night or two of debauchery before finding another ship to do what she did best. Or maybe she'd head further inland. In a characteristic and highly sketchy and stereotypical dark corner of the dingy tavern she'd had her first (and maybe second...and third...and fifth...) on-shore ale in, she'd heard tell of a Man. A Man in Radasanth. A Floaty Man in Radasanth. A Floaty Man in Radasanth who knew about a Thing. A Floaty Man in Radasanth who knew about a Thing of Great Power and Awesomeness.

It sounded like fun. Really, really sketchy fun. And that was exactly what Siren did best.

She opened her big silver eyes to take in the vast turquoise expanse of the bay, and she sighed gently, letting her eyes almost absorb the shade and reflect her general sense of serenity. Maybe she'd just sit here. The waves crashed gently, soothingly, upon the dingy beach, the sun embraced every curve of her body and the wind caressed her face with the same gentle passion of a lover. Sure, the pier wasn't half as comfortable as a down bed, or even a hemp rope hammock, but she was on that pier on her terms, and her terms exactly.

She could have groaned. How hard it was to ignore that call! And if she followed the sketchy advice to find the sketchy man with the sketchy (but potentially awesome) object of immense power...who knew when she'd next be able to breathe that air?

With another, almost aggravated sigh, the half-mer sat up and stretched out. That was when she saw something out of the corner of her vision. And if she had EVER seen anything sketchy - and having been a hooker at one point of her life, she knew sketchy inside and OUT - that was it.

The nature of this sketchy thing was that it was blue. And roughly box-like. And it was HOVERING near her, just within arm's reach, if she leaned for it. Forget sketchy, that was weird.

She stared at it for a minute. And it stared back. It had a blurry picture on it, and some numbers and letters. So she stared at it some more. And it stared back. Finally, her innate porpoise curiosity won out over her 'that is the WEIRDEST thing EVER' reaction, and she reached out to grab it and see what it was.

And then she felt really strange.

Maybe it was because her outfit was different. Before, she'd had on a loose green shirt that had more or less covered everything, a breezy pair of pants, and a comfy old pair of boots. Her hair had been down so that the breeze could play with the locks and make them shine their true colors.

Not anymore.

Now, she was dressed in a very tight pale blue shirt that covered MOST of her boobs and NOTHING else, a mini skirt, and no shoes. Her hair was also in a thick ponytail, and from that fell braids and beading and loose strands, and she was NOT COOL with that.

"What the &#^^?" She blinked. Those were NOT normal sounds. "*#@!$! $#*^! $#*&! @$*%! AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGG!" Why the *#&# wasn't she able to swear anymore? Why the *#&* was she being censored?

"UGH!" With a frustrated huff, she turned her attention to the &#@#ed blue panel that hovered in front of her.

The picture was of her. She didn't know who had the TIME to do a picture of her, but it was just beyond sketchy. The box read


Siren:
Level 1 Red Mage
HP: 25
MP: 20
Gil:65

"Huh?" Red mage? Mage? She didn't have magic.

"I don't have magic!" she told the box. But the box didn't care. It just stared at her.

At the side of the box there were tabs. Items - two potions (good for 100 of those weird HP things a piece), a spear, and her clothes. Speaking of clothes...there was an appearance tab, and she opened that up. She didn't really mind the top, but the skirt was going to be a pain in her censored @$$.

The first options were to have no garments. Running around naked sounded pretty hot, so she chose those options...only to find herself in minimal, but still present, undergarments.

Her full lips pursed irritably, and she pulled the brassiere up...but across her bare boobs...there was a broad black bar.

"Censored again! UGH! Boobs aren't fun if you can't see them!" she complained to the box. But the box didn't care. It just stared at her.

"Ugh..." So she put the tight little top back on, and selected a hip-hugging pair of skin-tight tan capri style pants. The hair styles, unfortunately, all sucked, so she wound up with the ridiculous style she'd been given when the box first touched her.

Then she checked out her magic. She had two spells, apparently, somehow. "Cure," whatever the *#&# that did, and "Sea Punch."

"That sounds like some AWESOME booze..." Still, she didn't like having a crappy hair style, so she had to find a way to get back to normal.

The last tab had a map, and it showed where she was, and had Radasanth highlighted. So it looked like she was going there, to find the Dude with the Thing.

"This is so sketchy," she told the screen as she stood up to go and hope at the end of her quest she'd be a free woman again. But the box didn't care. It just stared at her. And then it disappeared, but for how long...who knew?

[Lasair Anubail]

Lasair Anubail felt her heart pounding erratically in her chest. The caged bird that it had turned into began fluttering uncontrollably as she felt the shake of adrenaline flowing through her every limb. Her fingers practically trembled as they longed to grip something, to swing something, to just plain do something. She couldn’t remember the last time she had ever felt this way, but it might have been that time she was fighting for Imperial, or maybe when she was kidnapped. Then again it could have been that gunfight that took place outside of her home not too long ago. Oh, or the time she broke into the Ceann Cath’s house when she was little! The point is, well, she couldn’t really remember what her point was anymore. So she might as well just get on with the damn story.

It began only a few minutes ago when Lasair had been walking along a path, an everyday normal path that almost any traveller could take. It was dirt and rock and surrounded by green on either side that seemed to flourish despite the traffic that went to and fro. Then all of a sudden, completely out of nowhere this thing she’d never seen before just jumped out from a bush and decided to attack her. She had no idea why, she’d never done anything to it and she had nothing of real value she could offer it anyway. Not that the giant thing seemed interested in doing anything but eating her.

As for the thing itself, well, it started off relatively small, round and red with cute little lapping flames coming off its head of orange and yellow. Unfortunately, the more her plushies hit the damn thing the bigger it got and the name of it kind of concerned her. Right now her three plushies were currently surrounding the big ball with sharp looking teeth and keeping it away from her while trying not to touch it. Also how she got the name of it concerned her a bit too. It just kind of floated above its head in white lettering that became clearer every time one of her plushies focused an attack on it. And it happened to be called a Bomb. Bombs went boom, she’d made a few and had in her possession a few ice bombs that she’d synthesized. So, if this thing followed the rule of a bomb, it was probably going to explode but when? When it got too big? How did she know when it got too big? She needed to finish this thing off soon or else her and her plushies might just go boom, boom.

“Lasair, can you please hurry up and find a way to kill this thing?”

Biting down on her lower lip, the small Fae slipped her rucksack from her shoulders and began rustling through it. Ahead of her, her twelve inch plushie of Tristram narrowly avoided being crispied by a flying ball of flame.

Flame.

That’s it!

The thing was made of fire. She possessed ice bombs. She could extinguish its fire by throwing some water on it. Ha, take that chemistry teacher!

Wrapping her slender fingers around a cool piece of crystal, Lasair pulled it out and took two seconds to stare at the blue, fist sized sphere before standing up.

“Plushies, behind me!”

Immediately they backed away from the monster, Godhand running as if the dragons of Eadhochas chased after him. Above him, Tristram and Avery flew, their little wings pumping to push them as fast as possible. Once as they came towards her, she tossed the crystal in her hand at the monster. It smacked him in the side of his head and he let out a loud rumble and shook himself and then began to shiver instead of grow. He was going to explode. The crystal below it cracked open and from it spewed forth five large icicles. They shot up into the creature, piercing it right through. Opening its large mouth all the way the creature fell to the ground, bouncing, once, twice, three times before it just disappeared in front of her.

Blinking, Lasair looked at the place the monster had been. Her three plushies peeked out from behind her, Tristram and Avery each at one shoulder while Godhand casually leaned against her bare ankle. As if the odd monster wasn’t enough, strange music began to play from seemingly nowhere, completely surrounding her. Uncontrollably, Lasair did a quick spin and then came out holding her hand in front of her and holding her fingers like it was a gun. Then she stuck her tongue out and winked. As suddenly as it came, the music ended and left her standing there. Then before her eyes a screen popped up.


Lasair Anubail
Level 1 Blue Mage
HP: 22
MP: 12
Gil: 15

“Wow, that’s so weird. What’s a Blue Mage?”

Then the screen vanished and Lasair found herself wearing completely different clothes than she had before.

“Hey, what happened to my dress!?”

Her light blue dress had been replaced by a tight pair of leather pants and a rather revealing top that basically just covered the bare essentials of her chest as it crossed over them and disappeared behind her back. Her hair had also changed and instead of being completely down it was braided and filled with beads and feather that well, kind of made it look good but jingled a lot when she moved.

“I feel...kind of exposed.” Lasair said as she looked down at her bare stomach and the slight golden tint her skin had.

“Yeah but you look pretty hot.”

She blinked as she looked over at Avery who was now flying ahead of her and admiring her new outfit. And if I’m not mistaken your breasts have even gotten bi—”

His sentence got cut off as both Godhand and Tristram attacked him from two different angles, knocking him to the ground. Ignoring them, she checked out her outfit some more and realized there was a holster on her hip. Curious, she wrapped her fingers around the object in it and pulled out a pistol.

“Oh, Godhand, look a gun!”

The three of them stopped fighting and looked over at her holding the weapon in her small hands, a weapon clearly too big for her to properly handle.

“Yeah, uh... you should probably holster that sweety.” She did as he said. “Good girl, now uh, why don’t we keep heading towards Radasanth?.”

“Sure, apparently I should be meeting with some strange floating man about a power relic or object of some kind that I need to quest for.”

All three of them blinked at her.

“What floating guy? And how do you know this?” Tristram demanded.

“Oh, that text over there said so.”

She pointed to the road in front of them and sure enough there laid floating text slowly beginning to disappear directing her towards Radasanth to meet some floating man about an item of immense power. Smiling, she picked her rucksack up and began skipping towards the city.

[Tainted Bushido]

Blade slashed across the air when the person who held it fell back. A cry escaped the air as the blade's victim fell in a heap of dust. The shadow fell to the ground while the swordsman gestured for another one and laughed, "Is that all you got? I thought you wanted to kill me!"

The warrior stood with his coat flapping gently in the wind. Both of his blades were drawn as he held his ground. Behind him was another swordsman, holding onto one of his own blades, the sword shaking slightly either in excitement or fear. The startled swordsman stood firm against the other shades before he brought his sword about in a clumsy slash. His mentor looked over his shoulder before he spoke, "You know why we came here right?"

"Yes, to get a cure to this curse..." The younger swordsman said firmly.

"Well, I'm sorry, I won't be able to see you on to Radasanth, you're gonna have to leave me with these jokers," The man said.

For a moment the warrior at his side looked at the man before he said, "You can't leave me alone! I haven't been on my own outside of Akashima ever! I barely know trade speak!"

"Not my problem..."


ENTER NAME!
_________
A B C D E F G H I J K |SYMBOL |
L M N O P Q R S T U V ========
W X Y Z < > ? / ! . , |CAPITAL|
_______________ ---------
|SUBMIT|CANCEL|
---------------

"Not my problem Taka! You have to go on without me. I'll catch up sooner or later," The older man grinned before he became a whirlwind cutting through the shadowy forms that attacked them.

"You're sure you'll be alright?" Taka asked apprehensively.

"Sure, it's only a cut scene after all."

"A, what?"

"Just go!"

Taka ran through the forest tired, hungry, and probably even a bit dehydrated too. He ran down the road towards the edge of Concordia forest he saw it finally, like a savior. The sun beamed down radiantly, piercing the thick canopy of the forest as he continued forward, almost as a drowning man clinging to its savior. There in the distance, he could see the sprawling metropolis that was Radasanth, where the seer could tell him where the Tears of the Nameless Maiden were. He was searching for the ancient artifact that could cleanse a body of any impurity, including his taint.

Moving forward he was in a dreamlike state, merely setting one foot before the other, Taka continued on. Oblivious to what was around him, even when a small blue box followed him, and slowly began filling with text.


Drk Knght
Level 1
HP: 35
MP: 10
Gil: 15
1 Tent
I. Brst plte
Wood Swrd

[Kupo!]

Duke walked along the trodden path with a carelessness most moogles were known for. His empty mind was free of thought as he just kept himself moving forward to see this guru who knew about the round guy. Whoever he was he had to have the information he needed. What exactly the information he needed was never crossed his tiny mind, but it was important, of that he was positive.

As he turned around he felt a very surreal feeling wash over his body, he suddenly had a deeper desire to take a shower. But as his tiny moogle paws rubbed all over his body he did not find fur he was expecting, but instead some rough cloth. Looking downwards he found himself dressed hap haphazardly in an attire completely odd to him. His synthesis kit was missing, his giant red satchel was gone. Replaced was a pair of black boots, brown pants, and a white button up shirt. Where his bag used to be was now a sword, and where his pom-pom was now rested...no wait, false alarm. It was still a pom-pom.

Sighing in relief his pom-pom had gone nowhere he looked around. The world was the same, nothing out of the ordinary. There were a couple of tiny imps walking around the road towards him side by side, laughing and cackling. Duke looked away from them and nearly banged his tiny head into a blue box that hovered before him.


Mog Knight
HP: 20
MP: 12
Gil: 45
Leather Tunic/Short Sword

"Huh?" Duke asked to the world around him. "What in the great Kupo's name?" He turned to walk away, but felt a force block his passage. A gentle humming noise was beginning to fill his ears as he turned around. The Imps stood before him now, at least five paces away, laughing wildly. "Can I help you?"

Without warning the Imp on the left charged forward, his dagger laid low as it slammed downwards at the moogle. Duke dodged the attack, feeling the wind of the blow pass by his whiskers. "HOLY *&^ KUPO! TIM! GET OVER HERE!" But Duke cried out in vain. He had no idea why but as he turned around he saw none of his friends near him. "Tim?" Duke called out again.

The other Imp dived forward, knocking the tiny moogle over and onto the ground, laughing as his free hand grabbed a few shiny shells from his pocket. -5 Gil

Duke lifted his tiny frame up and felt weak, but he felt nothing serious. He turned back to the two imps. A startling realization came upon him that he was alone. Suddenly his tiny moogle world came crashing down, and he felt a fear he didn't know he could experience. He was alone, without anyone.

He no longer had Tim and his stupid antics near him. No little green guy to lift his spirits. Even his scary turtle friend wasn't around to scare the kupo nuts out of him. No he was totally - "ACK!" Duke dodged another attack from the first imp. "Okay, I'm alone, and these two things are going to kill me for no reason....why are they going back into a Congo line? That doesn't seem technically sound, kupo..." The imps laughed wildly and Duke shrugged before he drew his blade. "Okay, my turn, guess I'll just ATTACK!"

His moogle hands gripped the blade tightly as he ran forward with sword in hand, and as his feet carried him one step in front of the other the view of his foes was first clear, before he suddenly could see just their torso, then their legs, then their feet and, "Oumphh!" the ground. He tripped in his run and didn't succeed in the attack.

Realizing his options were limited, Duke scampered back to his feet and back where he started. "I have no clue what to do...so let's go with what I know kupo!" With a new determination he gripped his sword tightly and cried out an ancient moogle battle cry that caused his foes to stop for a brief moment.

"I NEED HELP, KUPO! SOMEBODY KUPO-ING GET THEIR KUPO @$$ OVER HERE NOW, KUPO!" And his tiny feet fled in the opposite direction of his foe, a few shiny shells falling out of his pockets. -4 gil

[Lasair Anubail]

“You know, Lasair, it might not be that great an idea to listen to floating text that randomly appears out of nowhere and directs you towards a man that seemingly floats in the air with information about an item of immense power you’ll probably kill yourself trying to get.” Godhand said as he sat perched upon her shoulder, surveying the dirt road and the swaying grass before them for any signs of danger.

It was certainly a beautiful day. The sun shone brightly high above them, occasionally hidden by the lone white, fluffy cloud that appeared as if from nowhere. Once and again wind raced along the ground, stirring up little clouds of dust and swaying the long grass on either side of the road in a gentle and hypnotizing manner.

“I don’t see why. The text was directing me and we were heading to Radasanth anyway.”

Godhand sighed. “Yeah, but some weird stuff is happening now. I mean, you’re new outfit—”

“Which looks %^@#!*& hot on you.” Avery interrupted. “Hey, why can’t I swear? $#!&! What the #@**? Oh come on, I can’t even say #@**? This is such bull$#!&!”

Clearing his throat, Godhand ignored the other plushie, knowing that pounding his head in would not allow him to get his point across to Lasair.

“But really, sweetheart, there’s some strange stuff happening. And now there’s even a box following you around with those weird numbers in them. It just doesn’t seem right.”

Tristram decided now would be a good time jump in. “I agree. This is like the time you wandered into that desolate town overrun with an evil God that tried to literally eat your soul.”

“It is not!” Lasair said defiantly, pouting as she turned her head and looked at Tristram, perched upon her other shoulder. “No one is trying to eat my soul right now, no ghosts have popped out of inanimate objects and I’m sure I could leave if I really wanted to.”

Before any of them could argue further, a cry cut through the air and stopped Lasair in her tracks.

“Someone is calling for help. Lasair to the rescue!”

None of her plushies had a chance to interject, for Lasair went racing off ahead in the direction the voice had come from. Her now booted feet slammed into the dirt and stone road, kicking up dust and debris as she ran. Ahead she could just made out what appeared to be a small little...thing that seemed kind of cuddly fighting what looked like two ugly things that seemed not so cuddly. In fact they were some real kind of ugly things that were an odd purple colour. They had leathery looking skin with little wings on their backs and daggers in their hands. Certainly they were up to no good and that poor little cuddly thing probably needed some help.

“I’m coming cute, cuddly thing!”

Once she got close to the little guy—who was only about a foot smaller than her now that she was close enough to see—an odd buzzing sounded through her ears then she found herself standing beside him. Her gun was drawn and held in her two, small hands and her plushies remained beside her. Tristram and Avery each flew slightly behind one of her shoulders and Godhand sat upon her right shoulder. Before she could do anything, one of the imps suddenly sprinted forward, dagger in hand. Letting out a small and high pitched squeal, Lasair barely dodged the attack as the dagger came whizzing by her hip.

miss

“All right, my turn.”

Stepping forward, Lasair focused on one of the creatures, watching as the little name thing appeared above its head again: Imp. Well, these Imps weren’t going to last for very long. Levelling her gun on one, she pulled the trigger and as the blast rang out, the poor Fae was sent skidding backwards, tripping over her own feet. The only reason she didn’t fall was because Tristram and Avery happened to keep her standing up right by pushing against her back to keep her balance. Stumbling up beside the—oh, he was a Mog Knight named Kupo according to his box—Lasair turned back towards the little dancing Imps.

–7 HP

“Your turn little Mog thing, kick his butt in!”

[Siren]

Normally, if she was going over land, Siren spent an unnecessary amount of time lost. She was a sea creature; on the water she never lost her way.

But all of these trees and grasslands and big rocky things protruded out of the ground just all looked so #*?%ing the same to her.

But the sketchy blue box had come through for her in ways she hadn't expected. Oh yes...it had a map function. All Corone was laid out before her in a kind of mist, and a little green light hovered over her position. A little red one hovered over where she was supposed to be. And that meant she always knew she was headed the right way. And for some reason...she was running.

She was almost there when all of a sudden, tense music started up around her and two scrappy little bat-winged critters were bobbing around in a row. The text above their heads called them "Imps." Whatever that meant. All she knew is that the music was going to get really old, really fast. And for some reason, her spear was in hand, even though she hadn't taken it out.

Suddenly, one of the little critters lunged forward and punched her. It hurt, but it didn't do any visible damage.

-4 HP

It did piss her off. "All right, you $#@?^*!s, let's see how you like..." She almost just lunged at it with her spear, but a box popped up in front of her. "What the #*!&?"


Attack
Defend
Item
Magic

Well...sure, she'd see that Magic option. If it worked.


Cure 6 MP
Sea Punch 7 MP

She chose Sea Punch, and a small orb of water lashed out at the offender, hitting it dead on. It staggered back, and then the other one jumped at her, hitting her square on, without so much as leaving a welt.

"*@$^?!#!" Siren tried to whack at the critter, but was completely frozen. The one she'd hit leapt at her, grabbing a couple of shiny things.

-7 HP, -5 Gil

Finally, it was her turn again, and she jumped at the one she'd splashed...but it jumped away. And so another round commenced. And rather than go through all the details, it was...

Hit! Steal! Sea Punch!

And one of the Imps vanished in a puff of nothingness.

-4 HP, -4 Gil

HP remaining: 10
MP remaining: 6
Gil remaining: 56

[Tainted Bushido]

Deliriously he moved forward slowly as one foot practically dragged in front of the other. He was tired, he was drained, and further he wasn't sure how much farther it was till this Radasanth. However, as the cries of the helpless pierced the fog that was his mind he saw the situation before him. A lone woman stood against rather impish creatures, and without an idea of what to call them, Imp they were.

Stepping forward to stand beside the woman, he drew his blade, letting the resounding noise of steel upon steel focus his mind before he narrowed his eyes. He had so many options available to him; he couldn’t afford not to help the woman. Compassion dictated that he not abandon her.


Attack
Defend
Item
Magic
=>Darkness

A soft smirk lit up his face while he focused on the creatures before him. With a casual twirl the Katana was caught and his hand slid along the blade, his tainted blood dripping down the blade before he focused his willpower into it. His body took on a darker aura, suffused with the power of his curse. He then brought the Katana back and prepared to unleash it, before he swung a wave of force going outward from him.

Darkness deals 6 Damage to Taka!
Darkness deals 3 Damage to Imp!

The imp hit by the blow seemed to falter as the Ronin focused on the creature. Seeing the Ronin and the fact it was now outnumbered, half dead and not likely to survive it ran, forcing Taka to chase after it sword drawn. As he slid to a halt he saw the imp join with two others. Sliding to a halt he narrowed his eyes as he chocked up on the hilt of his sword, just as his sensei had taught him, preparing to cleave through one.

On either side of him was a small plush animal that looked like a cross between a bear and a small fairy. Atop its head was a small ball that topped an antenna. To his right was some Fae, this much he could tell, though she seemed scantily clad, almost erotically so. Had he been a lesser man he might have been distracted by the appalling garb, but his mind barely registered that these two were there, and instead focused on the impish creatures before him.

His voice came out darkly as he said, "Prepare for the afterlife cretins, may Emma-O give you just judgment."

[Kupo!]

Duke took a few moments to really think about what exactly was going on. So far, he lost all his friends, was being attacked by maniacal laughing imps, and to top it off there were woman dressed in clothing that made his pom pom stand tall and erect. (Think about it...)

He shrugged as he stood next to the crazy woman with all the dolls, dolls he suddenly felt the need to have. But pushing those thoughts away he focused himself. "Hey, blue box!" He shouted looking at his options. "Uh, Kupo...I don't see Flee."

Can't Escape!

"No seriously, I want to get the [KUPO!] out of here."

Can't Escape!

Duke tapped his foot a few moments in irritation, cried to an uncaring god, and turned to leave.

Can't Escape!

"WHY CAN'T I LEAVE KUPO! THIS [KUPO!]-ING insane! Seriously, kupo!" As Duke shouted to the blue box, an Imp ran right up to him, took a swing, and hit the moogle square on the noggin with the hilt of his blade.

-5HP

"OW! WHAT THE [KUPO!]!!! Seriously!" The other Imp came charging over to him, slamming his blade into Duke and taking his shiny rocks.

-7HP
-5 GIL

Duke breathed heavily as his body heaved, the blue box showing his HP in the yellow. His brain thought about it a little and he realized that whatever the hell HP meant it was linked into his life. It was as if the points reflected how many hits he could take. Like a hit point tracker.

-6 HP

The Imps charged in again, one being easily dispatched by Duke's savior, but the other taking him down into the dangerous yellow zone. He gripped his blade and ran forward, but as his tiny moogle feet carried him he tripped and fell again.

"This is getting ridonculously old..." Duke mumbled into the dirt. He slowly got up, returned to his Congo line with the hot chick and dolls, and shrugged. "I'm fresh out of ideas, you got any?"


HP: 2
MP: 12
Gil: 41

[Siren]

All right, I have steel on my side!

To say that Siren was happy to see the mysterious swordsman was an understatement, she'd been getting her @$$ kicked. With the samurai in the fray, the live imp turned tail and ran, which gave the half-mer a chance to breathe at last, but before she could thank him, he ran off after the thing, and right into a Fae with breast augmentation and...a toddler in a costume?

Whatever, it was three on two, and so she meandered up to make it four on two...but found herself blocked from joining by her blue box.

Can't join party.

"What the #*@!? This thing was picking on me, too!"

Can't join party.

"You suck." Since she wasn't being allowed to help out in the fight, Siren kicked a boulder at the side of the path, then sat down on it, elbows on her knees and fists supporting her head while she sulked.

"Feh. This #*@!*&% sucks." She grabbed for the little blue box to see if there was anything she could do, and in her magic tab she found that she had just enough MP, whatever the #%^^ that was, to cast Cure. Well, she only had 10 HP, which she guessed were the box's way of telling her how dead she was, so she cast that, and instantly was all better.

"This is so stupid. What the #%^^ is going on here?"

She sighed, leaned back, and watched the fight progress.


HP: 25
MP: 0
Gil: 56

[Lasair Anubail]

It was quite obvious to Lasair that the little mod knight did not want to be in this battle. He kept trying to run away from it. He never really got anywhere though. His little legs moved, running in one spot and kicking up a small amount of dust, but oddly enough he never travelled anywhere. Plus every time he did little words appeared telling him he couldn’t escape. He didn’t listen though. He kept trying and those little Imps kept attacking him. They were bringing his HP down dangerously low, though she really had no idea what would happen if they got to 0, she didn’t really want to find out.

“Be strong little Mog, we will perverse!”

Wrapping her fingers a little tighter around her gun, Lasair was just about to charge in and shoot off another one when another Imp appeared. Which was great, they could always use more of the annoying little suckers. The bouncing little purple demon was followed by a man in odd clothing with cute little slanted eyes! Oh, she’d heard of people like him but she couldn’t remember the region he came from. He was a little cutie too!

“Oh, oh... ideas, idea... I have one!”

Grabbing her rucksack, Lasair began digging around within the contents, searching through the never-ending space as quickly as she could. Finally, she pulled out a vial of liquid, holding it triumphantly in her hand.

“Ah-hah! Wound be Gone!”

Item, potion.

“Eh? It’s not a potion!” She yelled at the writing, “It’s Wound be Gone, I made it and invented it myself, therefore I get to name it. Not you and your floating little words!”

They didn’t appear to be listening to her though. Scrunching her face up into a scowl and swallowing her synthesizing pride, Lasair turned towards Mog. Oddly enough she couldn’t walk over to him, it wouldn’t let her. She appeared to be stuck in this one place unless she was attacking. So how was she going to give him the Wound be Gone? Maybe if she tossed it at him and he caught it. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.

“Mog, butt’s up!”

Bringing her arm back, Lasair tossed the bottle at the cute little guy. He turned, but he didn’t catch it, instead little sparkly things rained down all over him, including a few bubbles.

+50 HP

“Yay!”

Jumping up and down, the little Fae turned back to the battle just in time to watch an Imp charge towards her. Letting out a small squeal, she could do nothing as it lashed it’s blade across her mid section.

- 6 HP

“Owwie, owwie, owwie!”

Wiping away a tear from the corner of her eye, Lasair glared down at the little Imp. “Now you’ve made me angry!”

Jumping forward, she levelled her gun on the little guy once more and let off another round that sent her skidding backwards. Like before her plushies saved her from falling. Unfortunately, the little Imp didn’t die though, but it appeared she did some kind of damage to it.

– 6 HP