Chapter Seventeen: Big Things! Moving On!

"HA HA HA HAAA!" Yun (or rather, the beetle controlling him) cackled, barely managing to stagger to his feet once more. "You humans are so fun to play with!" He then looked at his hands. "And what luck! This human knows much magic! Like this little spell... DEMONIC CRYSTAL!" Lightning shot from his hands, causing crystals to shoot across the ground towards the two Linas and the now awake thief. "This is fun!"

"Crap!" cried Lina again, dodging and throwing more spells. She wouldn't last forever... and there were too many people around for a Dragon Slave... or were there? "Screw it," she mumbled, before yelling, "Everybody! Try to cover me! And RUN!" With that, she began chanting her favourite spell.

Taking the command quite literally, Ren leapt for Lina in an attempt to 'cover' her. And in that second, Lina stepped forward, making Ren fall flat on his face.

"What the?" asked the bug which was controlling Yun. Then it noticed the energy radiating from the redhaired sorceress. "ARE CRAZY, HUMAN?" it yelled.

"DRAAAAGONNNN SLAAAAVE!" shouted Lina, her spell squarely targeting those bugs... as well as most of her travelling buddies.

The stinger released its hold on Yun, and the beetle took to the sky, clicking with fear. It couldn't, however, escape the blast. And, like its companions, it was vaporized out of existence. Yun came back to reality, only to be hit in the face with the force of the Dragon Slave. He could feel three of his ribs crack, and hit the ground. He then blacked out from loss of energy.

Ninoa saw the blast coming and did what she deemed appropriate: put on a blindfold and accepted the oncoming blast. Luckily for her, it only caused extreme damage to her, not fatal damage. There she stood, obviously singed and charred. She coughed up a bit of smoke and then looked around to see if anyone else had survived. She then saw multiple images of Naga doing her laugh....

Ninoa woke up a few minutes later. With her head in the ground, and her butt in the air.

Geltro and Copy-Lina, having gone straight up to escape the bugs, looked down and saw the blast rising to meet them. They clutched each other in terror.

"Oh CRAAAAAAAAAAP!"

The shockwave impacted with the bottom of the Raywing sphere, rocketing it even higher into the sky. Geltro, sadly, was still on the bottom, crushed between the redhead and the bottom curve of the sphere by the G-forces.

Copy-Lina, looking down, saw the forest fade by distance into a mere green splotch, as the curvature of the planet came into view. I can see Zephelia from here.

Geltro, for his part, was looking up, and somehow the blue sky fading to star-filled black was not the comforting coming of dusk. "We have a problem."

Wow! thought Copy-Lina as the world continued to grow smaller and smaller beneath her. It looks almost like a map, or something. Wait. That makes sense. Anyway, I've been there, and there, and I think there....

She clambered over to one side to gain a closer view of the steadily shrinking Kataart Mountains, planting a knee in Geltro's gut as she went. Whoa, those mountains are way over THERE? How far did we travel thanks to that Lyssa person and her portal, anyway? Where is that jungle we just came from, by the way? I can't see it anymore. Wow, is that Saillune? I wonder what it's like there.... As she often did while thinking furiously about one subject, her question for Geltro was about something completely different. "So how long until we start going DOWN again?"

Geltro struggled and flailed under the weight of the larger girl. "If you'd *mmph* if you'd stop CRUSHING ME, I might be able to guide the spell down."

Geltro grouched quietly to himself as the two untangled themselves. By the time they'd managed to be sitting separately, the ball had begun to descend.

Geltro concentrated carefully. "I don't know how long I can hold this together, so I'm gonna put us down soft as soon as I can. That means I'm NOT gonna be aiming for anywhere in particular, other than down. You have a problem with that?"

"WHAAAAT? You mean you can't just put us back down with everybody else?" Copy-Lina looked annoyed. "But what if they go off and find the Power of Command before we can catch up to them?" She sat down cross-legged at the bottom of the sphere of air and glared at the scruffy little thief. "You've gotta be able to do better than that!"

"Well excuse me for not being the all-powerful sorcery genius Lina Inverse, or even a reasonable fascimile!" Geltro snapped cruelly.

Copy-Lina's face grew red. She opened her mouth as if to snarl a response, but nothing came out.

"Right now it's about all I can do to stop us plummeting to our deaths, and even that's hard with you YELLING IN MY EAR." The spell wobbled, and Geltro shut up for a moment to concentrate on it. "You want us to land back with the others, you gotta steer us yourself. I don't have the power to spare."

The redhead leaned back into the curve of the sphere, staring at her boots. Steer the spell herself? Right in the middle of that accursed time of the month? Not a chance....

The long downward journey continued in silence. Finally, solid ground was under their feet once more. No sooner had Geltro dissolved the Raywing spell, however, than Copy-Lina began hiking away from him. "The others're this way, I think," she said brusquely. "You coming?"

Geltro shrugged. "I've nowhere better to be." With that said, he began to follow the sorceress.

"What happened?" Oni asked Thorn. "I can hear the attack from here."

"The girl Lina, she Dragon Slaved," replied the old woman.

Oni smiled. "What a little fireball. Well," he said as he stood up. "Shall we go and collect our prize from the heroes?"

Thorn nodded. "Invisibility and inaudibility I place upon you," she said, weaving the spells. "I shall begin the attack, since my spells are most visible. Come in from the opposite side while their backs are to you. Strike for the most dangerous people first."

"Where do I fit in to this plan?" asked Froard.

"I have an idea," said Oni. "Froard, have you ever become a dragon or demon before?"

The changeling thought about it. "Not that I remember."

Oni bent down in front of him, smiling under his mask. "Well, you're about to."

It was not too hard for the group to find each other and get together. Well... at least, not to find the bard anyway. Even in the dimming light, Arcius' ability to blend in with the surroundings was none to negative.

He waved to the tattered, battered, semi-scorched people of the group. He looked surprisingly unscathed and rather cheerful. "That was terribly interesting! Is everyone alright?" Arcius studied the group. "Whatever have we done to merit such an unjust attack?" He pointed at Yun. "Is this your doing? You seemed to recognize what was going on. Not that it is important or anything, but there are a few people who have issues with people dragging them into things that are none of their business." The bard smiled. "Do explain, young Master."

"Just 'cause I'm new, you think I did this? Like I said, you're all simple minds.... But that's beside the point." The badly damaged boy struggled to his feet. "This was the doing of that great evil I was telling you about. The dark hell lizard, Oni."

"Who?" asked everyone at once.

Yun went SD, and fell to the ground again. "How stupid are you people?" he asked as he stood up again. Everyone stared at him blankly. "You mean you haven't run into him?" Yun asked. "You haven't even heard about him?" Everyone looked at each other, then back at the boy. "YOU MEAN TO TELL ME YOU HAVEN'T HEARD OF THE DISASTER OF GONRERA VILLAGE?"

"Oh. That." Arcius shook his head sagely. "Why did you not just say so. If you recall, a culprit was never actually named in that incident, as the only survivors were either cataconic or insane." The bard shrugged. "Most people just assume it was a village that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and attributed it to one of the Mazoku Lords who was active at that time."

"That's one of the many mistakes historians have made about that incident," said Yun coldly. "Another mistake they made was that not every one who did survive went insane. There was one survivor that made it through with his sanity intact, but he lost a lot more." Yun looked up at the sky, which was now turning to dusk. "He's toying with us. To him, we're only little dolls that he feels he can do anything he wants to." Yun then sat down and groaned with pain at his cracked ribs.

"Are you alright, young master?" asked Arcius, a twinge of concern in his cultured voice.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," said the boy. "I'm fine." He then turned to Lina. "Oni won't be bothering us for a while, so are you ready to hear the story Lazar never got to finish?"

"Sure," said Lina with a sigh. "Why not? My life is confusing enough, what's a little more confusion between friends?"

"So glad to see you're so enthusiastic," Yun muttered. "Listen up now, kiddies, like grandma said-"

"I think the old guy told me about a Great Lord that cheated some old sorcerer, right? I remember that much," finished Lina.

"What? He only got that far? Well then, this is gonna take a while." Yun cleared his throat, and began. "So the Lord cheated the old wizard, and he placed a curse on him, claiming that his royal blood would die with him. The Lord laughed it off, and did not remember those words until his first child was born. On the evening his wife gave birth... instead of a normal human child, out of his wife's womb came a beast that was a mix of dragon, demon, and man. The Lord's hair went white when he first saw his child, and his wife almost didn't survive.

"So as not to be the laughingstock of the rich world, the Lord told his wife that the child had died. When that was taken care of, the rich fool secretly offered anyone their weight in gold for years to come if they would take care of the monster child. Couldn't just kill it; that wouldn't be proper, you know.

"My teacher, Lazar, accepted the job without pay, and took the child to his home on the Calabast Isle. Lazar's wife had lost her own baby at birth, and they both took care of the new one, acting as if he was their own son, naming him Shin-tal.

"Shin grew up to be a master of magic, and a happy boy, until the day he was rummaging through their library and found that his real parents were still alive, and that his rich father had abandoned him. He went mad, flew into a fit of rage, and in his anger, attacked the mainland's prize fishing town, Gonrera Village." Yun stopped and closed his eyes. "On that day, he called out to the heavens that his true name was Oni, the demon hell lizard, and that the anger that flowed through his veins would never end.

"But now the story takes another turn. You see, Oni has discovered that the demon part of his body is strong... so strong, in fact, that it's killing the other parts of him. He now is on a quest to find an old relic, know as the Eye of Zar. It is said that this magical talisman contains a lot of magical energy, and in the hands of such evil....

"Lazar and myself agreed we would not let that happen. That's why we've been searching for you, Lina, because Oni has grown so strong that we think only you can help us. At least that's what Lazar said. So how 'bout it, Lina? You up for a challenge?"

Lina crossed her arms over her chest, one eyebrow raised at Yun. "What will you give me for my help? You know... I don't LIKE danger or anything like that." And with that, she waited for a reply.

Yun scratched his head, wondering what to offer her for her help. Then it hit him, and he smiled. "Oh, not much, just directions to the cave of Ganoron." Lina's eyes grew to the size of soup plates. Yun's smile grew at her reaction. "Oh yes, you'd like that, wouldn't you? Directions to the resting place of the endless treasure of King Ganoron the III."

"You... know where the cave of Ganoron is?" Lina finally spit out.

"Know where it is? Miss Inverse, I've been there personally!" His fingers danced in the air, and a giant image appeared before the group, a somewhat transparent picture of a cave. "I've entered, and seen the riches of the mountain!" The picture changed to mountains of gold, jewels, silver, and anything else one could hide in a cave that size. Lina began to drool at just the sight of the riches. "Yes, Lina. You help me and my master, and I'll tell you where the cave is located! What do you say?"

Lina's eyes sparkled happily. "For... WAIT! How do I know you're not lying?" she asked him, hands on hips. Her face was suddenly poking right into his. She pointed one finger at him. "Give me proof... and I may just help you!"

"Jeez... tough crowd, tough crowd," Yun muttered to himself. "O.k., you want proof? Take a look at this!" He dug into his pocket, and pulled out one gold coin.

"So? It's a coin," said Lina, glancing to the coin, then back to Yun.

The boy sweatdropped, and then smacked her on the head. "Maybe if you had looked closer, you would have noticed that it's a five Gano piece! The very currency of the Ganoron family! You can't find this stuff anywhere!"

Again, Lina's eyes sparkled. "Alright! Deal! But... only if you're not lying... and you KNOW what'll happen to you if you're lying!" Lina looked at Yun, eyes narrowing. "Get it?"

Ninoa, not knowing where exactly she was, pulled her head out of the sand and saw Lina standing with arms crossed in the distance. "Lina-sama!" Ninoa shouted while running towards her. She then abruptly tripped over something and fell on her face as the onlookers sweatdropped.

Ren awoke suddenly, due to the fact the someone had tripped over his head. "Ow.... Don't do that, okay?" He rubbed his temples and hopped to his feet, then helped Ninoa to her feet as well. "You okay?" the large man mumbled. He then proceeded to stretch, thusly producing loud popping and cracking noises with his bones. "AH...."

Sai appeared, slowly walking towards the group. When he was close enough to hear and see what was going on, he stopped. "Interesting... the cave of Ganoron, eh? Nice to know how to get there." He yawned slightly and looked over the group.

"So, Master Yun." Arcius popped up, looking none the worse for the wear, considering the amount of destruction in the surroundings. "Do you have any idea where this Oni is currently? If he is whom we encountered earlier, then it would seem that he is interested in something or someone in our group here." The bard shrugged. "Or he is trying to manipulate us into doing his dirty work by herding us somewhere. Either way, it is obvious we should be moving on." He looked to Lina, the leader. "If it is alright with you, Lady Inverse, may we begin our journey as soon as the rest arrive?"

"Yeah, sure," Lina replied, a little shocked at the 'Lady' part. Usually she was called a little girl.... "Anyway, we should all get some sleep. That way, we can leave bright and early tomorrow and get this over with." Crossing her arms, she glanced over the group. "Who takes first watch?"

Ninoa smiled and then spoke out, "ME! Oh, and Sai-sama!" She got a happy yet mischievous look on her face as she thought to herself, I can then finally get some time alone with him... hee hee!

Sai was a bit surprised when Ninoa volunteered them. He looked at her curiously, then went deep into thought. After a few seconds, he smiled faintly. "Um... sure. I would be happy to take first watch with Ninoa." He thought to himself, This is the chance I was looking for. I won't waste it!

"Just remember, you love birds," said Yun, "he's out there, and I don't think he'll stay quiet for long." He turned back to Arcius. "He loves getting into his jobs."

"His jobs?" asked the bard.

"Yep," replied Yun. "He used to freelance; you know, raise hell for the right price. But lately, he's only open to one client, himself." Yun pointed at Arcius. "And I believe he's after the artifact you have, my colorful friend."

Arcius merely smiled. "Truly?" It was a smile of almost... satisfaction. "How terribly droll. But," the bard patted Yun on the shoulder. "Since you know him and his ways, you should most definitely take second watch. You and... Lord Rennzoku here. I believe the pair of you will make a good team. And lastly, I believe it would boost morale if our esteemed leader, Lady Inverse, and her companion, would show us how true heroes are by taking third watch."

Lina nodded, suddenly too tired to fight. It had been a long day... a LONG day. Her eyes were feeling heavy.... NO, NOT HERE! her mind screamed. But it was too late; she fell asleep standing up... and fell right onto Gourry.

Sometime during the night, the tropical shrubbery shook in signal that a beast or person was trampling lethargically through it. It was rightly so, as Rill stumbled out of the thicker torrid wood.

His feet moved slowly and slid lazily on the ground, as if unable to lift themselves completely. His arms swung at his sides like dead weights. All of the usual grace and vivacity seemed zapped from him.

As the dim light fell upon his form, anyone who raised a head to spy him would see that in the brunt of the attack, he had not made it out unscathed. Bits and pieces of sticks and leaves collected in his hair and clothing. Numerous cuts and bruises freckled his normally flawless skin.

With hardly a sound, he came nigh and abruptly fell to his knees. Then with a dull thud, he collapsed and lay as the dead, motionless and stiff, and almost completely silent.

One step, followed by another, followed by another.... Copy-Lina stared fixedly at the ground in front of her boots as she tromped onwards. Her solid, dependable boots made a satisfying crunching noise as they stomped squarely down on creepers and similar things underfoot. They were nothing whatsoever like those silly pink slippers she'd been wearing earlier today, which had let her feel every pebble or twig she stepped on, and ripped half the time besides. Sure, they'd been charmingly (read: sickeningly) cute, but were utterly ridiculous as hiking gear.

The redhead sighed, and once again tried not to look behind her at the thief who she assumed was still following her. He had the oddest way of dissolving into the shadows, such that she was never quite sure he was there, even when she did look.

Truth be told, she owed him one. If it wasn't for his Raywing spell, she'd have been hit by a point- blank Dragon Slave. True, there were a few magic- repelling charms and such sewed into her clothing... but nothing even remotely able to absorb or deflect such an insanely powerful spell. If the thief hadn't launched both of them high into the air, she'd be little more than a smear on the ground.

She wasn't used to this. She'd always been utterly self-reliant, owing nothing to anybody. Hopefully he wouldn't realize that he'd saved her life... and hopefully he wouldn't demand anything in return. At least not until the day after tomorrow, when she'd once again be able to fry him crispy if he suggested anything too unpleasant....

The voice of the thief in question drifted forward. "You move through the forest like a crashing elephant. This is all a clever trick to lure bandits to loot, I'll bet."

He dares to compare me to an elephant?! Why that grimy little... filthy little... flea-ridden little....

As Copy-Lina fumed, several minutes passed in silence. Then Geltro's voice arose again. "We're coming up to a river. Don't step in it. It goes more or less in the direction we want, and it will be easier to see with the light coming through the break in the trees. I think we should follow it."

If Geltro hadn't warned her about the river, the girl might well have pitched face-first into it, for all the attention she was paying to her surroundings. She stopped abruptly and squinted, trying to figure out what exactly she was looking at.

Long after sunset by now, with the moon nowhere in sight, the only light around came from the stars. For some reason, neither she nor the thief felt like expending their magical energy on a Lighting spell, no matter how much easier it would make their journey.

It did seem to be a little lighter right in front of where she was standing. And the sound of rushing water was strong. And it didn't look much like yet more of the vines and patches of leaf mould she'd been walking through for the past who knows how long....

Once she was sure it was a river in front of her and not a trick of the light... er, dark, she turned and began following the river's edge. No sooner had she taken a step than the little thief hissed at her, "Wrong way!" A growl rising in her throat, she did an about-face and stormed off along the riverbank, stepping on every twig she could make out just to annoy her silent companion.

Unknown to either Copy-Lina or Geltro, there was ANOTHER figure following them, slipping from shadow to shadow.

It had been a while since this figure had seen any of the people he'd been tailing in the underground city, and since one of the two people just HAPPENED to be a certain copy-redhead, he couldn't pass up the chance to follow... mostly out of curiousity, but that was mixed in with something else too....

As Geltro followed Copy-Lina, he thought to himself. Perhaps I shouldn't be so hard on her. She was smart enough not to use a light spell and completely give away our position, anyway. Now, this river will take us to the coast, and we can follow the shoreline back to the beach where we were camped. I wonder if the others are still there, or if we'll have to track them.

An hour of river following later, with nothing unusual occuring, Geltro found his mind wandering. So why am I returning to that lot? Am I just leading this 'Copy' back to the group? Or am I going back myself? If the first, why do I care? She's just another fool in a world of fools, she wouldn't be missed. Plus, I'm making a big effort to walk back to a trap! What kind of idiot am I turning into?

Some time later, with the sky beginning to lighten, the two could see a glimmer of the sea through the trees. And what reason do I have for going back myself? I could have spent this night just as easily looking for a nice, ripe, rich town to play with. Instead I walk all night trying to get back to a camp full of rag-tag wierdos and misfits.

Geltro's feet stopped at the edge of the sea, and he looked out at the crashing waves.

Misfits.

The redhead stifled a yawn. Walking all night hadn't done much to improve her mood; right now, she wanted almost nothing more than to crash somewhere and snooze for a good twelve hours or so. In fact, the only thing she wanted more than sleep was to catch up with the rest of the group before they abandoned her completely to find that Power of Command. Which was why she was still walking instead of snoring.

"Hey," she said finally, and yawned again. "You think we're close to the others? They can't be too far from the sea, can they?"

Nothing but silence greeted her words. "Hey. You there?" Still no answer. She stopped walking, and tried to scan the beach behind her. Was that the thief, or just a clump of rocks? Or was it a palm tree? She rubbed her bleary eyes and tried again, with no greater success. It didn't help that her eyelids sneakily closed themselves whenever she wasn't concentrating fiercely on staying awake.

Finally, she decided on a course of action. Bending down, she scooped up a loose handful of pebbles and sand. "Hey! I asked you a question!" she yelled, while hurling the detritus towards where she hoped her companion would be.

"Ow!" "Ouch!" She grinned, quite pleased with herself. Ah, results! Hold it, she thought, suddenly confused. TWO voices?

Geltro's eyes widened. Damn, how did he sneak up on me? I was tired, leading a crashing elephant, and absorbed in thinking stupid thoughts, that's how. Stupid stupid stupid! The little thief dove behind some driftwood for cover, drawing his curved knife. He quickly looked around for the source of the other voice.

Eric rubbed his head, wincing. "You know, you COULD have done something ELSE to discover me," he said, stepping out of the shadows of some nearby trees. "It would have been less painful."

"If I had discovered you, you would be dead already. Why are you here, archer?" Geltro frowned at Eric from where he was crouched behind a log.

Eric smirked at Geltro. "Well, it WOULD have been less painful," he said, before turning to Copy-Lina.

"Hey, it's Mister Crossbowman!" she exclaimed, after trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes. Several times. "Haven't seen you for a while. Shoulda known you couldn't keep yourself from stalking me."

"Yeah, I've been gone for a bit; had to get a new crossbow since my last one was broken," he said, smiling. Looking her up and down, he said, "You look as good as the last time I saw you, except tired. Long night?"

"You... have noooo... idea." She yawned again. "Man, the others had better still be around when we catch up to them. If I find out they've already left to find my treasure I'll...." Another yawn cut her sentence off in the middle.

Eric blinked. "Would you like me to carry you back to your friends? That way you could rest a bit," he said, while thinking, Why in the name of the gods did I say that!? I'm in for a lot of pain....

He waited for the undoubtedly painful reply... and waited... and waited. Finally he was answered, once and for all, by a faint snore... she'd fallen asleep on her feet.

Geltro frowned at Copy-Lina's sleeping form, and sighed. "At least she waited until you showed up to drop." He spoke to Eric. "I've been worried for the last hour and a half she'd pass out and I'D have to carry her." The small boy sized up Eric with a thoughtful eye. "Oh yes, you're much better build to lug dead weight than me."

Geltro looked up and down the coast. Finally, he seemed to decide on a direction. "This way to the camp," he pointed. As they began to travel, he asked Eric a question. "What brings you out here anyway? You crushing on Red here, as she seems to think?"

Eric picked Copy-Lina up, supporting her back with one arm and placing the other behind her knees. Geltro's question brought a slight blush to his face, and he said nothing.

The snores grew louder, and while in the midst of what seemed to be a faintly disturbing dream, Copy-Lina mumbled something and flailed her arms about, almost whapping poor Eric in the face. He moved his head back just enough to avoid being hit, a puzzled look on his face. "I wonder what she's dreaming about...."

"Food and money, most likely. That's mostly what they think about when they're awake, anyway." Geltro picked his way along behind the archer carefully, making no sound as he walked.

"Gwah," the girl mumbled softly, shifting around in Eric's arms. "No... please...."

If anyone was able to look within her mind and watch her dreams, they would be faced with flames... sheets of flames, on all sides, the air hot and harsh, painful to breathe... crackling, snapping noises everywhere, wooden beams shattering from the heat, fiery teeth, fiery jaws being snapped shut. And red eyes glaring in condemnation... a familiar voice... my voice. Smug, hard, in perfect control; "You... don't... belong...."

She whimpered and rolled over; as best she could, anyway, while being held in someone's arms. Slowly she calmed down, and slept from then on with something approaching peace.

After some time, the small boy spoke again. "Tell me when you get tired and I'll take over with her."

Eric shook his head. "No need... she's really quite light." Geltro shrugged as if to say 'suit yourself'. "And I don't think it's food and money she's dreaming about... she'd be smiling if it was." He then looked down as Copy-Lina calmed down in his arms. "No... it seemed more like a nightmare."

They continued on in silence for a few moments, before Eric asked, "How'd you end up all the way out here, and where are they others?"

"Out in this part of the world by means of some kind of magic short cut. I don't know the details. This far from camp by the other red-head's temper. We should get to camp about dawn, at this rate. If any others survived the blast, that is."

Eric re-hoisted the sleeping girl; while she wasn't exactly heavy in his opinion, carrying her for so long was certainly beginning to tire him out. The silent thief was still somewhere nearby; it was hard to tell, as that one had a habit of sticking to the shadows. The sun wasn't very high yet, either, which provided the boy with lots and lots of shadows to work with.

While tromping through the tropical underbrush, one such shadow nearly proved to be the crossbow-wielding warrior's undoing. His foot caught on something large and solid, and he very nearly pitched forward, flinging the girl into the air... luckily, he managed to keep his balance, and she didn't show any signs of being woken up by the misstep.

Eric glanced down, wondering what he could have tripped over. To his surprise, it was human- shaped... with a purple tail and ears....

The human-shaped creature sucked in a ragged breath and began coughing harshly. Wherever the foot had struck him, it hadn't struck gently, inciting a short coughing fit. At length, he paused, and, groaning, tried to curl up tight, his tail coiling about at his ankles. The groan hushed to a whimper, and again Rill's form was horridly still.

Geltro looked down. "Oh, it's that purple thing. I suppose we ought to bring it along. Vu Vrimer!" he cast, and a 7' tall, roughly man-shaped mass formed itself from the forest floor. Geltro inspected it, then pulled a few sharp sticks loose from the arms and cast them aside.

"Hold out your arms like this," the thief ordered, demonstrating with his own arms in a cradle. When the golem had done so, Geltro tied his cloak across them as a makeshift hammock, and wrestled the injured near-man into it. "Good. Now follow me." Geltro began towards the encampment again, the homunculus shambling along behind.

In the early light of dawn, Arcius studied the small, sleeping group. He supposed it was just as well that nothing had come in the night. The bard imagined that Lina was probably even more fearsome when rudely aroused from slumber.

The group had grown noticably smaller, which was a neutral thing, as in the good and bad aspects were of the same magnitude. The other Lina had not returned yet. Pity. She was an interesting character. He needed a title for her, something to distinguish her from the true Lina in song. He smiled to himself as he strummed his lute softly. Lady Inverse for the true Lina, and... hmm... Elske Inverse? Mahal Inverse? Ameno Inverse? Ghali Inverse? The bard's smile broadened. This was something to work with, should the false Lina show again.

He tossed a branch on the small fire and sat back, waiting for the rest to arise.

Soon, though, his trained bardish ears heard a faint sound coming from the south. A quick glance revealed the false red-head in question approaching, being carried by one man and flanked by another, as well as by a golem carring the strange purple-tailed boy. The girl was asleep, and the others obviously wished they were.

Eric spotted the firelight through the woods. "We're almost there... I can see the light from their fire."

As he said that, he looked down at the sleeping red-head in his arms, and smiled a bit... but it wasn't much of a smile. Dark rings had formed under his bloodshot eyes, but he wouldn't say anything of it. After all, he'd probably never get a chance to do this again...

Sighing, he passed through the last few trees, noting that the lavishly dressed sentry had noticed them... he was too tired to remember his name. He then gently put Copy-Lina down on the ground, took off his cloak and placed it over her, like a blanket. Then, without further ado, he fell face first into the ground beside her, snoring lightly as he fell.

From the darkness of the waves, the moon lighting the bubbling foam, the roar of the surf echoed across the beach. The white of the water seemed like raging stars careening over a black canvas.

The brilliance of true stars bore down upon the murky ocean and their illumination cast suddenly over several figures darting along the waters with the ease one has rushing over land. They appeared strange; blurred, as their movements whisked too quick to be seen.

A dozen of these mysterious beings ran up the sands on swift, silent feet. Steeling among the shadows as they approached the fire of the small group, they paid no mind to the figures surrounding the flame, did not seem to care if any watched their progress.

Presently, they amassed around a form lying within the makeshift hammock supported by a Golem. Words which were not words were instantly spoken as they crowded. Alien voices that sounded crystalline and beautiful. The song of whales and depths of blue ocean.

Hands, white and ghostly, reached out and caressed Rill's form. Heads bowed close to him, they captured his lips and kissed his wounds. There came weeping then, of Rill and of his visitors.

Even in the dim they could be seen to be beautiful creatures. Much like Rill, with long ears and serpentine tails. Stunning of face and body, their forms wrapped in banners of woven pearl to make up their clothing, hair flowing down to their ankles.

Graceful, as they were in everything, they lifted Rill into their arms and began to carry him off, their fair faces jeweled with silver tears and radiant smiles. Some turned abruptly and jumped toward the fire, flickering orange light playing over their fine physiques, hissing and spitting at the companions.

And then they were gone, back to the ocean, leaving nothing more than the gulp and suck of the waters where they had been.

A soft snore... a yawn... gathering something warm and blankety around herself... rolling over to get more comfortable and inadvertently ending up with a hard, lumpy seashell right under her shoulder....

Copy-Lina woke up. Slowly. With lots of grumbling. She finally sat up, stretching, and blinked at the brightness of the early morning sky. Yawning again, she noticed the cloak covering her. A quick glance revealed that yes, it was the one that belonged to Eric, who was incidentally stretched out beside her and snoring merrily. A quick smile crossed her face. Then she slowly got to her feet, muttering a few choice words at the ache in her legs.

That's what ya get for walking all night, she reminded herself, and began stretching to take the edge off her muscles' protests. Then she got back to the serious business of trotting over to the still-smoldering campfire and seeing if there was any food to be found.

To her disgust, Copy-Lina found no food whatsoever. She did, however, find a bard. And a large golem-creature, standing off to one side of the clearing, as if wondering what to do with itself. Guess that'll have to do instead.

The others were all still sleeping, rolled up in their cloaks or in hastily-erected tents. There didn't seem to be nearly as many people around as there were yesterday. She didn't know if this was a good thing, or a bad thing. Fewer potential allies... but fewer competitors for the treasures to be found at this quest's end.

Too bad the real Lina Inverse wasn't among the missing persons. That was one complication she really didn't need in her life right now. One extremely powerful and potentially life- threatening complication. Just looking over at the size of the massive crater to be found nearby... thinking of the number of trees reduced to ash in an instant... realizing that yes, the sand at the bottom of the crater had been fused into glass.... Copy-Lina could never have produced a Dragon Slave as powerful as that.

This train of thought was starting to depress her, so she immediately resolved to stop thinking about it. Instead, she...

...well, she was going to think about her new group of companions, from the scruffy thief to the strange purple one to the bard sitting on the other side of the campfire, lute in hand and caught up in plucking a barely audible melody from its strings, to Mister Crossbow to Real Lina to the blond guy to that weird newcomer kid to all the other strangers she was going to have to learn to get along with sooner or later. But a massive yawn managed to completely overtake her cognitive facilities with the realization that she'd been up for ages yesterday, and had only gotten a few hours worth of sleep so far.

Eric's cloak was still back over there, lying in a pile next to him... but her legs still hurt, and there was a nice, warm fire right here. Too much trouble to move, she decided, so she just wrapped her own grey cloak about herself, curled up on the sandy ground, and dozed off once more.

Eric's eyes opened again. Although tired, his body was telling him it was time to get up. Cursing a bit, he stood up and wiped sand off of his face, before looking around. Noting Copy-Lina had gone to the fire... and also noting the lack of food... he retrieved his cloak from where it lay discarded upon the ground and made his way towards the water, unslinging his crossbow as he moved.

Fifteen minutes later, he was contentedly roasting quarrel-pierced fish over the fire, poking them every now and then to make sure they weren't burning.

Noticing a glimmer of movement reflected on the tip of his loaded arrow, Eric whirled. Nothing. He shrugged, turning back to his business...

Only to be met on the other side. "ReeeOOOORRRRR!!!" came a scream from the large form in mid-air, leaping for him. It was... a very hungry Renzzoku.

Eric, thinking quickly, raised his hand and shouted, "Dark Claw!" hoping to nail the big dragon-warrior with devastating magic energy. Well, he nailed him alright, but not with anything devastating by any stretch of the imagination. Renzzoku was sent flying backwards into the sand by a focused stream of... daisies?

"Gentlemen, please." The bard looked up from his musings. "Do be somewhat more considerate of the others." He gestured to the sleeping forms that lay around the fire. "It was a very taxing night, last night, and I feel that sleep will be the best balm for their troubles. If you are hungry, there is a vast, bountiful ocean behind you, just teeming with food." He strummed a calm melody on his lute. "If it is a confrontation or action you seek... pray, be patient, for the opening gambit has been played. Once we resume our noble undertaking, I suspect that we shall encounter his next move on the road. Probably in the late morning, around the time for our noonday break." He paused, considering something. "Unless, of course, we face a villain with no sense of timing." Shrugging, he smiled. "As soon as the others arise, we shall again set upon our noble path to destiny."

Despite all the noise, the red-headed girl managed to stay asleep. However, as Eric sat down again to tend to his roasting fish, the tip of her nose twitched... then twitched again. Somehow she managed to make the unconscious decision that they didn't quite smell done yet, so she kept right on snoring.

It wasn't that much longer until they WERE done. Reaching over, Eric gently shook Copy-Lina on the shoulder. "Pssst, wake up, breakfast is ready...."

Instantly she sprang awake. "Fooood!" Diving forward, she snatched up one of the fish from the fire.

And dropped it almost instantly. "Ouch! Oooh! Hot!" She blew on her hands for a few seconds, then picked up the fish again, a little more cautiously this time. A few massive chomps later, and it was gone. Two more quickly met their fate in a similar way.

She darted forward to grab yet another fish, but Eric was suddenly in the way. "Hey, leave some for the rest of us!"

The crossbowman found himself the recipient of a glare, frightening in its intensity. A low growl came from the girl's throat, and her upper lip was pulled up to expose sharp fangs. He backed away slowly.

Once she'd got her fish, she sat down on a small pile of daisies (daisies? Where the heck did they come from?) and nibbled at it delicately. Well, delicately for her, at any rate.

Ninoa looked around after she stretched. She saw Copy-Lina and Eric, Ren elsewhere, and everyone else sleeping or sitting by the fire. She smiled at the group and then wondered where Sai was. She then looked down to see the blanket she was sleeping under was now covering Sai... in fact, it appeared they were sleeping together... under the same blanket.

She blushed.

Then Ninoa noticed the red-head sitting there, eating a fish, and looking at the both of them with one eyebrow raised. And she blushed again.

Copy-Lina couldn't understand it. Why're they just sitting or lying there? she wondered. With all this fish over here, you'd think they'd all be rushing over here with intent to eat. Oh well, more for me!

The real Lina, despite being soundly asleep, caught a whiff of something tempting. Of its own volition, her nose sniffed the air. FOOOOOOOODDDDDDD! her mind screamed, and her eyes popped open. She sat up, still half-asleep and zombie-like, and in a monotone voice said, "Food. Where's mine?"

Geltro HAD been trying to catch some much-needed sleep, but had been wholly unable due to loud eating. Sitting up, he swept the whole camp with an evil look capable of stripping paint. Satisfied the troupe was aware of his displeasure, he pulled a container from his cloak. Unscrewing the top, he shook some of the rattling contents out into one hand, and ate it. Whatever it was, it seemed to require a lot of chewing.

Yun watched the others slowly awaken from sleep, and rise from their beds at the smell of cooking fish. He was watching the girl called Ninoa and her friend. "Cute couple," he said to himself. He looked over from his seat high in a tree at the newcomer roasting breakfast, and making the mistake of waking the other Lina.

Yun sighed to himself, and glared at his partner, Ren. "Some help. I've been up all night watching for Oni, and this guy falls asleep an hour after we're posted." He sighed again. "So much for Lina taking third watch. I couldn't even wake her." Yun looked off at the horizon. "What's Oni up to? He should have sent something to annoy us by now. Oh well, better get some fish before it's gone," he said, leaping to the ground from the tree.

"What IS this?" an unfamiliar voice said.

Those who were awake looked up from their food. Somehow, unnoticed in the general scramble for food, a strange woman had strolled into the camp. She was an attractive lady, wearing an outfit which consisted of a pair of black pants, matching boots, a short-sleeved blouse, and what appeared to be a short, white apron. Her blond hair was tied back with a blue bow.

She was holding and examining one of the fish that had been cooking, which immediately got almost everyone's attention. Some strange lady had just waltzed into camp and dared to touch their precious food!

She looked up from the fish, a disappointed look on her face. "How sad," she said, tossing the fish away. "Such a fine group of travellers haveing to rely on such meager fare." She began to walk away.

"A pardon, my Lady," Arcius' voice carried smoothly above the sounds of struggle - Eric was trying to keep Copy-Lina from tackling the stranger. "But may I inquire as to whom you might be?"

She paused. "I am Petal. I smelled the food and I was curious as to your fare." She shrugged. "It was as pitiful as I suspected."

Now it was Copy-Lina's turn to hold Eric back.

The real Lina gave Petal a hard look. "And just why are you concerned about OUR food?" She folded her arms across her chest.

Petal smiled, and whistled sharply. Coming down the beach was a small horse-drawn wagon. "Business."

"Business?" The entire group glared at Petal suspiciously as the wagon pulled up.

A big man with a dour expression stepped down from the wagon. He was dressed in the same style as Petal, only his shirt was red. He glared at Petal. "Why do I have to tend the wagon?"

"Hush!" she hissed at him. "You'll scare the customers." Turing back to the party, she smiled. "This is my associate, Kui."

She took a step forward. Her voice changed tone and pitch, becoming like a carnival barker. "Together, we would like to offer you fine travellers a chance to experience the magnificence of Zeiglemeier's Famous Cooking Duel! I am Petal, trained in the cooking secrets of lands beyond the Demon Sea!"

As she was speaking, Kui was busy at the cart, unfolding one of the sides to reveal a full range of cooking utensils - pots, pans, stirrers, and more. He slid out another section of the cart to form a working table.

"I am the greatest chef in the entire land! Yet, this incompetent oaf," Petal whipped her hand to point at Kui. A spoon flew and whacked him in the back of the head. Ignoring her companion's glare, she continued. "Thinks that that title belongs to him!" She sniffed contemptously. "Which of us is better?" She smiled brightly. "For a small sum, YOU can decide! He and I shall face off in the most secret form of combat known to man - the cooking duel!" Her voice began to crescendo.

On the other side of the wagon, Kui had pulled out a similar setup. He pulled out a set of shelves that ran behind the work table. Arranged upon the shelves were all manner of vegetables and spice containers.

"Blades shall sing, pots shall clang, and the area shall resound with the sound of the chopping board as he and I prepare our finest meal!!" Her voice went quiet. "And then... we shall serve the results to you, and let YOU decide! For a mere five gold pieces, we shall prepare you not one, but two full feasts! How about it?" She smiled winningly.

"MORE FOOOOOD!!" screamed Ren as he flew at the wagon, knocking it over. He proceeded to pick it up and dump its contents all over the newcomers in an attempt to get at the edible stuff. Finally, Dragon-boy found it. "MMph... GLOMPH," came the muffled noises issuing from what could only be assumed was his mouth, as he was now coated in food and other assorted objects.

"OUR CART!!" Petal wailed, sinking to her knees.

Next to her Kui looked furious. He took a step forward. "You..." he growled, holding a cleaver. "I'll...."

He didn't finish the sentence, as Petal grabbed him by the collar and dragged him over to Lina. "Look what that idiot did! He destroyed our livelihood! Do you have any idea how much it cost to build that? I demand that you fix it! Or buy me a new one!"

Kui still looked furious. He pulled Petal out of the way and growled at Lina. "I'll make you pay...."

Petal pulled Kui out of the way. "Look, moron. They're an adventuring party, can't you tell? If you start something, they'll kill us! Stick to the plan." Turning back to Lina, she gave an apologetic smile. "Don't mind him. He hasn't won the duel in awhile." Instantly, her face transformed. "All we were going to do was fix you nice folk a big breakfast for a little bit of money." She sniffed and a tear rolled down her cheek. "And you went and destroyed our sole means of earning an honest living." She buried her hands in her face and began to weep in earnest.

Behind her, Kui looked very uncomfortable. He took a step forward and patted her on the shoulder. "There, there. It'll be alright," he said softly. "You will help us out, won't you?" He looked pleadingly at the group.

"Wh-WHAT?" cried Lina. What the heck was going on? One minute she was going for fish, and the next... WHO WERE THESE PEOPLE? Getting herself out of their reach, she crossed her arms over her chest... which seemed to inflate ever so slightly.... "Alright, who wants what, and for what price," she said. Lina wasn't free!

Geltro just silently shook his head with disdain, and continued to eat his gorp.

"Miss Lina," Ninoa said, figuring out what was going on after Lina raised her voice. "Please don't get too angry. You do know what happens when you do, right?" She then looked down at Lina's chest....

Lina yelped. Looking down, she saw one of the most horrid things... her greatest desire, horribly twisted... her breasts were getting so large, they were dragging her to the ground. Quickly forgetting her anger, she was flung back as they dissapeared. "CRAP!" she exclaimed, stomping around... which only made things worse again.

"For a price?!?" Both Petal and Kui looked taken aback. "YOU are the ones who destroyed our cart! That cart cost us a thousand gold! It was our only way of making a living!" Kui said, somewhat offended.

Petal looked up, with a slightly calculating expression. "We'll throw in breakfast for free if you'll compensate us."

Lina pointed, eyeing down the two. "Alright! A free meal I can take! BUT it must be by my standards!" Then, putting her hands on her hips, she stared them down. "I don't owe you anything. That guy over there trashed your cart, not me."

Arcius laughed softly as he watched the confrontation. The pair of strangers would not starve; they were chefs in a part of the land that was full of game and harvest. The loss of their cart might set the pair back, but such a thing would only make them stronger. However, the best thing was turning out to be the wonderful tale of Lina he was getting. And the poor girl wondered why she had such a bad reputation.

"Come along, Petal." With a sad expression, Kui patted Petal on the shoulder. "It looks as if charity is beyond these folk." He watched as Lina suddenly staggered again, under the weight of her chest. "And it looks like they are diseased. We wouldn't want to catch that."

Petal nodded and began to walk away. "Your free breakfast is right over there." She pointed at the fish she had tossed to the ground earlier. It looked as if someone had stepped on it and driven it partly into the ground. "We don't do charity either."

Eric, not too happy about the nasty comments about his cooking, plus his lack of sleep, was extremely volatile. The 'diseased' comment just pushed him over the top. Walking very calmly over to Petal and Kui, he looked at both of them, his face a mask of neutrality.

"Well, what do you want?" Petal sniffed disdainfully.

Calmly, Eric placed a hand on Petal's forehead, and his other one on Kui's. Neither of them knew what was coming. Copy-Lina, who already knew from experience what was about to happen, said, "Wait, don't...!"

But, alas, it was too late.

"HURT!"

The spell quickly found the pain threshold of each of its victims, and promptly went over it. Kui immediately howled in pain, howled with a volume that was surprising. The big man staggered and reached out for Eric. Instead, he lost his balance and fell to the ground. Petal gave Eric a blank look, cocking her head as though she were going to ask him what he had just done. Seconds later, she gave a sharp cry and slumped to the ground. "That will teach you." Eric said calmly.

"That was terribly nice," Briar commented to no one in particular. She was sitting on the ground where she had been awoken by the sound of arguments. "Are we going to solve their problems by turning them into breakfast as well?"

"Well done. It's so nice to meet one who loves to dish out pain as much as I do," came a dark, sinister voice from above them. A huge fireball fell from the sky, exploding in Eric's face. Everyone looked up in surprise. Standing in a nearby tree was a huge, cloaked figure, red eyes peering down at them.

"Oni!" yelled Yun, his eyes wide with fear and anger.

"Hiya, worm. How've you been?" chuckled Oni. He leaped down from the tree, and overlooked the whole group, his eyes landing on Lina. "Miss Inverse," he said warmly, bowing. "I do believe this is the first time we've meet face to face."

"So you're Oni, huh?" said Lina, standing up to address the nine foot tall intruder. "You're a big guy, aren't you?"

"Aren't you observant," muttered Oni. He looked her over. "So you're the only one who can stop me, hm? You don't look very powerful, like Lazar said you are, but I guess it's a mistake most of your enemies make. So I'll have to kill you here where you stand so you can't mess with my plans."

Lina fell back, then, her crimson eyes narrowed. "Sorry, pal, I don't go down so easy!" she replied, getting into a fighting stance, and staying strong. She wouldn't give up for anyone!

"How heroic," Oni commented. "Now you die! FLAME WAVE!"

Lina dived for it, knowing that it would be useless to run. "Ow!" she screamed as the powerful spell caught her on the leg. "Bastard!" she yelled at him in fustration, before standing up again, her leg bleeding a bit. "Flare Arrow!" she called out, before casting "LEVITATION!" Then, hovering in the air and holding her hands together, she cast a "Fire Ball!" directly at Oni.

Eric, for his part, was still conscious, despite the fact that he was badly burnt, bleeding, and had a slight headache from Oni's surprise attack. As the others scrambled to get out of the way of Oni's spell, he raised his hand and shouted, "DARK CLAW!"

This time, instead of daisies, fate decided to conjure two extra-large kegs of explosives into existence. One of these was sent hurtling at Oni, who, looking down, was quite surprised when it rammed into him and exploded. The other, unfortunately for Eric, went straight up, and came straight back down. This just isn't my day, he thought glumly just as the keg hit.

Luckily, just as Oni's Flame Wave was cast, Ren's body had been encased in a two to three foot thick protective layer of meat, vegetables, and other edible objects. Unluckily, because of the spell, all of the food got overcooked. This made Ren mad.

Ren stood, eyes narrowing on Oni. "You...." The sound came rumbling from his throat in an unnatural pitch. The hackles on his neck rose, and his face was contorted with rage. Two double-edged short swords slid from their sheaths as pure hatred pulsed through his body. He turned his gaze to the demon again, and delivered a proclamation in an eerily reverberating voice. "Now you die."

Figuring the fight was now well underway and the beast-thing would be far too busy dealing with the powerful mages and the huge barbarian, Geltro decided now would be a good time to get involved. "Shadow Snap," Geltro whispered, slinging a throwing knife into Oni's shadow. With any luck, he wouldn't notice long enough to allow the others to get in some cheap shots.

As Renzzoku was speaking, one of the blackened figures at his feet twitched and jerkily rose. The twisted and burned body of Petal rose, head lolling to one side. "Wrong, dearie." The cracked, tortured sound bore no resemblance to Petal's smooth voice. "Our living! YOU destroyed our living!" The thing's head lolled over to the other side. "Now you'll suffer and die!"

Geltro was hiding behind the ruins of the wagon when the zombies rose. He pondered the situation to himself. "Hmm. If I get rid of those, the goon can take on the monster without being distracted, but I lose the element of surprise. Decisions, decisions."

Ninoa didn't know what exactly to do. Things were happening too fast, what with demons and zombies popping up everywhere. Out of desperation, she cast a spell.... "SHADOW WAVE!" she shouted, and little magical daggers fired in multiple directions, catching shadows as they stuck into the ground.

"There, now the bad guys can't move," she announced her simple logic.

Unfortunately, there was one small setback... the good guys couldn't move either. "Oops."

Silently, Geltro cursed all amateurs everywhere. Then he grabbed a still-burning piece of fireballed wagon and waved it over his shadow, freeing himself.

Oni stood there, trying to free himself too, but to no avail. Finally, he gave up and yelled something quite strange. "Thorn! Oni! I can't move! Help me!"

"So much for the element of confusion!" yelled Kui. "Thorn? Get this stupid disguise off of me!"

"As you wish," said Petal. The two corpses that had just rose from the dirt began to melt, their features sagging and dripping like candle wax, until their true faces were revealed. It was Oni, the real one this time, and some old crone the others had never seen before!

Copy-Lina, sensing an opening, leaped at the real Oni, only to get a massive fist in her face. "Children. Thinking they can do anything."

Ow ow ow! Being whapped in the face by a giant monster wasn't exactly Copy-Lina's idea of a fun time. Leaning against a convenient palm tree, she held her head, trying to stop it from ringing like a bell. The sounds of battle raged around her.

Oni walked away from the girl and over to the other Oni, and flashed a simple light spell over his shadow. "Thanks, big guy!" the second Oni said.

Oni looked at his double, then smashed him over the head. "Fool! You gave away our surprise! I should kill you for that!" Oni then turned to the frozen heroes. "But I have better business to attend to, so consider this your lucky day."

"Huh? There's two of you?" came Gourry's voice.

Oni looked at him, growled, and then rushed at the blond swordsman, sinking a massive fist into his stomach. "I don't tolerate stupidity! SO SHUT YOUR MOUTH!"

It was just then that Oni felt someone grasp his ankle. Looking down, he saw a severely charred, maimed, and very much in pain Eric. Growling, Oni turned around and stamped on his hand. "And what do you think you... huh?" the big demon had time to say, just before the pain struck...

...and the flat of a blade found home on his skull. Oni had failed to notice that Ren had still been standing next to the fire and was therefore unaffected by the shadow-trapping spell. So the big demon became one of the lucky few to meet Akasha, Ren's sword. She's very allergic to light, and so she found the patch of shade where Oni was standing nice and comfy.

But before another stroke could be made, the encroaching day forced her back into the sheath on her master's back. Ren sneered, "Lucky bastard," and took several steps back before turning to deal with the other attackers. "You clean up here." Again the twin swords leapt from their places, eager for the taste of blood. They almost seemed to call out for a challenge.

The 'other' Oni gulped, looking for an escape. He found none. "Oh crap...."

The old woman didn't seem slowed the least by Ninoa's shadow-trapping spell. She stepped back and smiled at the little girl. It was the kind of hideous smile only a ancient, withered crone could give - the kind of smile that made small children cry. "Thank you, dearie," Thorn said. "Allow me to finish the job." She pointed a hand at Ninoa. "DARK CLAW!" Unlike Eric's particular version of the spell, Thorn's version produced black spheres of energy, spheres which would produce not even the smallest amount of light that might aid the target.

Well, it was around that time that Ninoa prayed to whatever deity she believed in at the time and hoped for a miracle. "Lighting!" she cried out in desperation. A ball of light appeared before her and steadily got larger... and larger...

She had just barely enough time to dissolve her shadow and get free, but not enough to totally dodge the Dark Claw spell... or the eventual explosion of her own "Light" spell. Falling to the side, she had a dizzied look on her face as she lay there, charred.

Sai watched in horror as Ninoa fell over. Quickly, he cast a light spell just big enough to dispel his shadow. The moment he was free, with tears leaking from his eyes, he ran as fast as he could to Ninoa's side. He knelt down and gently touched her head.

The young ninja then turned to glare at the crone who had done this to Ninoa. "Why... you... MONSTER!" He held up one of his hands. "I will not allow you to touch her!" Power began to gather in his outstretched hand. "Blam Blazer!" A beam of light shot directly at Thorn.

The old woman was incredibly spry for her age. She sprang out of the spell's path. "Fool!" she cackled. "If you desire her so bad, then join her in hell!" She began to chant a spell.

But before she could cast it, another person joined the fight. "Dither Bolt!" shouted Briar, loosing the spell as the old woman backed up. "Gotcha!"

Thorn held a palm up; Briar's spell splashed harmlessly off of it. "Bram Gush!" the old woman said, in swift retaliation. A blast of wind streaked out at Briar. "Break." The spell shattered into a dozen smaller bolts.

Briar, who had dodged out of the way of the large bolt, was caught off-guard and was struck by three of the smaller bolts. They slammed her into a tree with a loud crash.

Now that Thorn had gotten rid of one attacker, she could turn to other things. "Froard," yelled the old woman. "If you don't do anything useful, you will wish that I had left you to the mercy of these people when I finish with you!"

Realizing that sitting where he was wasn't going to help, and knowing for certain that going up against the big monster-thing was suicide, Geltro opted for a different approach. "Flare Bit!" The spell was about as damaging as hitting Oni with an empty sack, but that wasn't the point. The space between the thief and the beast filled with thick, black, obscuring smoke.

Under this cover, Geltro made a break for the woods. From there, he could spell-attack while still being relatively hidden. On his way, though, he noticed a target of opportunity. The real ghoul is busy fighting, and the doppelganger is just standing there, he thought to himself. Didn't he say he couldn't free himself from a simple shadow snap? How... convenient. So as he ran, Geltro pointed his hands at the shapeshifter. "DISFANG!" As the vicious shadow-dragon rushed to attack the doppleganger, Geltro continued to head for the woods.

Froard shook himself off, dusting the dirt from his body. He then saw the shadow coming for him. "CRAP!" he yelled, trying to run away from the spell. The dragon slashed into his leg, and nothing the shapeshifter did could get rid of it.

"Fool!" yelled Oni. "Just change!"

"But boss! It'll still be attacking me!" Froard whined. "OW!" The dragon had just gotten in a particularly vicious bite.

"If you don't pull your head out of your ass and think right, I'll give you something to whine about!"

While the dragon continued its painful attack, Froard thought for a moment, and then it hit him like one of Oni's fists. He began sparking with bright light, and his features began to change. His skin turned from a scaly green to red, and his body began to erupt in in flames. He was a Fire Spirit, and his shadow was now gone. As was the shadow dragon.

"Now get that kid in the woods!" ordered Oni. Froard nodded, despite the pain of his wounds, and rushed off, leaving burning craters in his steps.

"As for the rest of you," Oni growled, "where is it? Where is the Saber? Tell me now and I'll let you live, more or less."

Copy-Lina recognized that voice. With a bit of a smirk, she straightened up and stepped forward. Well, more like lurched forward... she hadn't quite recovered yet. Still, despite the ache in her head, she whipped out her sword and pointed it triumphantly at the giant demon guy. "Ha! We'll never tell you where the Saber is!" Mainly because we don't know. At least, I don't. "We'll fight to the finish! Right, guys?"

Dead silence. "Uh... guys?"

"Of course we shall!" The gaudy figure of the bard materialied next to Copy-Lina (approximately three inches out of the reach of her sword), rapier drawn. "To the death! For without us, there shall be none to bear the burden of our quest!" His voice boomed. "Victory shall be ours!" Arcius' eyes were narrowed and there was a vicious grin on his face.

"How inspiring," responded Oni. "I thought I could take you all, but I don't know," he said, pointing to Arcius. "Your inspiring speech has made me see the light. I think maybe we should hug now." With these words, Oni vanished, leaving a swirl of dust in his place.

Arcius suddenly felt huge arms wrap around his body. They then tensed and started to crush him, forcing him to drop his rapier. "Where is it?!" demeaned Oni, becoming visible again. Copy-Lina raised her sword, and had it knocked from her hand by Oni's tail. "I thought you'd learn the first time, you mindless clone," Oni commented as his tail whacked her upside the head.

The force of the blow made her black out momentarily. She was barely able to stay on her feet, and while she was still conscious she did her best to stagger over to a palm tree to lean on. She ended up missing the tree completely and crashing to the ground. It was nice and comfy there. For a few seconds... or was it minutes?... all she had to worry about was that throbbing pain in her head.

It was a bit annoying, she realized while floating in a kind of nebulous coma-space, that her sword had gotten itself quite solidly lost. Well, here she was, in serious pain, unable to use her magic, and now weaponless. Boy, could she ever contribute to this fight scene now.

Now turning back to the bard, Oni growled, "Tell Uncle Oni where it is, and maybe I won't cripple you!" Arcius face turned red as the monster squeezed harder.

Somehow or another, Arcius found breath to laugh. The sound was startling, since it was a laugh of humor, rather the desperate laughter normally found in a fight. It was cut short, as Oni decided he wasn't squeezing hard enough. "Tell... you?" Arcius grinned, despite the situation he was in. "My ignorant little puppet.... How fearsomely you bluster, ignorant of the strings that control you. How amusing."

"Astral BREAK!" Arcius' mirth was justified as Froard's badly-injured body crashed to the ground beside him. It seems walking into the woods as a fire spirit, to attack a master of stealth who is also quite adept at spirit magic, turns out to be tactically unsound.

It would have been easy enough for Geltro to hide from Froard in the woods, but the smoke and noise from the burning trees made staying concealed completely effortless. It was child's play to chant the powerful spell while the shapeshifter was blinded and deafened by the fire he made himself. And the thief was still hidden, ready to strike unexpectedly.

Having a seriously injured fire spirit slam into the dirt beside you would usually be enough to wake people up from even the deepest unconsciousness. However, when you factor serious head trauma into things, it's no wonder that it took Copy-Lina a minute or so to open her eyes.

Once that particular hurdle was overcome, though, she struggled to her feet once more. Sure, her legs were somewhat wobbly, her vision flashed white every couple of seconds because of her splitting headache, and she still couldn't find her sword, but dangit, she had to be good for something.

"Ouch..." mumbled Froard, taking his elf form again.

Oni's eye began to twitch at the stupidity of his shapeshifter ally. "Moron," he grumbled to himself. He kicked Froard, who would have flied a mile or so if not for a coconut tree in his way. "Now where were we? Oh yes! I was killing you!" he said, squeezing harder. "You're a strong little man, aren't you? A normal weakling would have given up long ago. You would have made a great lackey, you know, but you're too good for that, aren't you?"

"What... was your first... guess?" Arcius managed to say with a smile.

Oni's eye went blood red, and his hands went to the bard's head, crushing it just enough to hear him grunt with pain. "TALK!" he yelled. Before Arcius could even think of a comeback, Oni tossed him into the air, grabbed him by his ankle, and began to smash him into the ground like he was a club. The others could only watch as the hell lizard proceeded to bash up Arcius. Oni then stopped his temper tantrum, and picked up the badly bruised bard by the neck of his shirt. "Look," he said, now as calm as a monk at peace, "I'm a reasonable hellspawn! You tell me where the Saber is, and not only will I stop, I let the others live! What do you say? We're both bad guys, we can work this out."

"Sounds... reasonable." Arcius opened a swollen eye and peered dazedly at Oni. "Could you set me down first?"

"You're not in the postion to call shots, my battered friend," replied Oni, snarling. "And what makes you think you can stand?" Without hesitation, however, Oni dropped Arcius to the sandy ground. "But if we can get to the point, there you go. I'm waiting."

Charred, blackened, peeved, and suffering from a mild headache, Eric slowly got to his feet. "Would somebody shut this blowhard up; he's giving me a headache," he said as he pulled out his new crossbow, somehow unharmed, and aimed it at Oni.

Hey, Mister Crossbowman is still okay, thought Copy-Lina. He was looking a little the worse for wear, but it seemed his fighting spirit was as strong as ever. Now if she could just find her sword, she'd join him.

Finally she spotted her shiny new blade, half-buried in the sand right at the feet of that big demon dude. Arrggh. And it seemed that Mister Big Evil Demon Dude was standing menacingly over Arcius. PANIC!

Suddenly, she began to jump up and down and yell. "People, ya GOTTA stop that evil guy! If he kills our bard, then WHO'S GONNA WRITE A BALLAD ABOUT ME? I mean, us?"

She was really agitated now, her arms flailing; but strangely she seemed just as angry at her own allies as at the enemy. "You guys, instead of just standin' around, DO SOMETHING! If we all attack 'im at once, we can get 'im! Go Eric go! Get that evil Oni guy, and get 'im good!" Really getting into the spirit of things, she bent down and scooped up a convenient rock, which she hurled directly at Oni's head.

Thorn had been holding her own against Sai and Ninoa, who had recovered enough to rejoin the fray. Their fight had been pretty spectacular. Not because of any amount of massively distructive magical energy that had been thrown around, but because no one had been able to actually do anything. Thorn, for all of her appearance of an old lady, dodged spells left and right; Sai, with his unearthly speed, did the same, but made it look as if the spell hadn't even been aimed at him. Ninoa lacked the speed of the other two, but her defensive spells didn't look as if they were scratched.

Despite the ineffective combat, Thorn had succeeded admirably at what she had been trying to do -- lure the pair of them away from the main group. In their effort to defeat the old woman, neither Sai nor Ninoa had noticed that they were now out of eyesight of the camp.

The three came to a lull; they watched each other warily, using the moment to catch their breath. "Well, dearies," Thorn croaked. "Is that the best you can do? I hope not." She forced a hideous smile. "Because you're a hundred years too young if it is."

Oni lifted his hand and snatched Copy-Lina's rock in his palm. "How futile," he responded. In one quick movement, he shot the rock at Eric's crossbow, knocking it from his hands. "As for you," he said, "calling people names is not nice. You must be taught a lesson."

As if in response to copy-Lina's call, Geltro began casting Wind Brid spells at Oni from concealment. Not the most potent spell, the magic strike was less damaging than a flare arrow. Against Oni, this was rather like poking him with a stick. At least the thief was trying. Luckily, Wind Brid was an invisible attack, so Geltro maintained his concealment.

"How stupid are you people?" Oni asked, responding to the hidden thief's attack. "Nice choice of heroes you got here, Yun," said Oni, turning to face the boy. Yun only sneered at this remark. "You and Lazar are still nothing but weak fools. Thinking I can be stopped. You know the only reason I've left you alive is for sport, but now you and the geezer are too weak to do even that." Oni pointed at Yun. "How many ribs of yours got broken when Miss Inverse cast her little fixer upper, hum?" He flicked his pointer finger, and Yun fell to the ground, griping his side and cringing with pain. "That's why you haven't attacked yet, huh?"

Lina's eyes widened as she looked at the injured Yun. Is that what she had done?! Well, crap. "Fine fine... blame things on me," she said calmly, walking slowly in front of the boy. "But I doubt you'll be able to hurt him anymore... because you'll have to get through me. I'm sure you know what I can do, though I really DON'T wanna be fighting right now." She sighed, brushing back her fiery hair. Then, looking back, she yelled. "Come on guys! Anyone a healer?!"

Copy-Lina stepped forward. "I WOULD try to help," she said, "but I'm kinda having trouble using magic right about now. It's... uh... that time of the... you know." Despite being all banged up from meeting Oni's fists head-on once too often, she looked genuinely sorry that she wasn't able to help the poor boy lying on the ground in such obvious pain. Then she remembered something. "Hey, what about that priestess lady? Filia, was her name? She did a great job fixing up Mister Crossbowman back in those caverns yesterday. Is she still around somewhere?" she asked Lina.

"I don't think so... I haven't seen her," said Lina, looking a little worried. Then she grumbled, glaring at her 'twin'. "You can't even TRY to heal him? I'm a little busy; I'm sure you have some of your magic back by now!" she snapped. Then she got into a battle stance, glaring daggers at Oni.

"Well, I could TRY," muttered Copy-Lina, then knelt down next to Yun and held her hands out over the boy. If you looked really, really hard, you could see the faintest of faint glows coming from her hands, as she concentrated so hard that her forehead scrunched up. It didn't make all that much of a difference.

"But that's neither here nor there," snarled Oni. He drew his sword, a nine foot saber, and pointed it tip first at Eric. "Now about that lesson, my idiotic hero. Do you care to take on the powers of Red Blade?" As he spoke these words, Oni began to glow with a dark aura, and his eyes went red with anger.

Eric just smirked at Oni. "Give your posturing a break, please? I don't care who you are," he said, stepping forward and putting his hand on the sabre. "But you can still feel pain, so why don't you just... HURT!" he said, casting the pain-giving spell.

The pain shot into Oni's left arm. He growled with fury, and his temper blasted through the roof. His other hand curled into a fist and shot the bowman right in the mouth. "How DARE you! You'll DIE now, you heroic bag of dragon dung! FIRE BALL!" The explosion caught Eric off guard, and he sailed through the air. Oni then lifted his sword and yelled "HELL FURY!" His saber caught fire as he stabbed in into the ground. A giant eruption of flames and rocks erupted from the ground, hitting Eric square on. A cloud of ash and soot filled the sky once the eruption was over. "He HURT me," Oni said to himself. He spun around, letting his left arm go limp, and faced the others. "I don't have time for more heroics! So STAY where you ARE!" He replaced his saber in its holster, kneeled down, and lifted Arcius up with his good arm. "Talk," he said in a dry voice. "Where is the saber? Last chance, Archie."

Suddenly, Eric's pain spell became a full body effect. Intense pain streaked throughout Oni's body. The mazoku sank to the ground in front of Arcius, who was now standing quite well on his own.

The bard shook his head at the writhing form of Oni. "I have heard that using magic while under the effect of another spell sometimes causes the spells to go haywire. But it happens so rarely... what good fortune to be able to see such a thing."

Arcius looked up at Eric. The crossbowman looked surprised. He had stumbled back in surprise at Oni's fast move. Being off balance had saved him; the fireball had ended up being mostly concussive and had thrown him into the air. The same went for the hell fury spell; the explosion from the ground had cushioned his fall enough that he actually landed on his feet. All in all, it was a most remarkable coincidence.

Eric, despite avoiding a good part of Oni's attack, was in bad shape anyway. Wordlessly, he collapsed to the ground. The moment Copy-Lina saw him fall, she stopped attempting to heal Yun and rushed towards the crossbow-wielding warrior. So Lina bent down, slowly taking her copy's place, and began healing Yun with much, much greater effect.

Geltro, still concealed in the woods, watched the proceedings with interest. Healing, eh? Not a trick I ever got the hang of.

"Now, villain," Arcius said simply, moving so Oni was between him and Eric and Copy-Lina. "You have grown rather annoying." Oni growled and tensed, preparing to lunge at the bard, despite the pain he was enduring. "No." Arcius pointed a finger at Oni, as though scolding a child. The bard's eyes narrowed, giving his face an almost evil cast.

"YOU DIE!" Oni screamed and began his lunge.

The hell lizard's howl echoed through the clearing.

"Ouch." Arcius shook his head in sympathy. "I was wondering where that had fallen to." The bard's rapier had been buried in the sand from where he had dropped it. It was now buried in the left side of Oni's chest with the point jutting from Oni's back. When Oni had begun his lunge, he had unwittingly stepped on the end of the sword, flipping it up. At the same time, he had slipped on the sand, falling directly onto the point of the sword.

Arcius studied the mazoku. "It would seem that your luck has run out, Oni. One of your henchmen has fallen, and the other faces too much opposition to help you." With a glittering smile, the bard hopped back. "And even worse, you have just destroyed both Mahal and Lady Inverse's lunch. I believe they have both Dragon Slave'd people even for looking at their food. Imagine what they do to people who destroy their food." At this, Lina began grinning... very... evilly.

Ren, who had finally managed to stop mourning over lost food, lifted Eric's limp form and gently hefted him over one shoulder. He would stay out of this. He had no desire to get in the way of another attack from that red-haired sorceress. The Deimos Dragon glanced quickly at Lina, blinked several times, and signaled for everyone else to get the hell out of the way. "Uh.... Bard... I'd move if I were you," he beckoned, taking long backwards strides and searching fervently for a place to hide.

Lina's copy trotted alongside the big Dimos Dragon as he carried Eric away. "Hey, thanks; Ren, was it?" She was glad that this big guy had taken on the job of getting Eric away from Ground Zero. Goodness knows SHE couldn't lift him, not even if she was at full health. Now, if she only had her magic back, a simple levitation spell would've taken care of everything. She growled to herself about the fundamental injustice of the system. How come only women had to worry about losing their powers once a month? It wasn't fair!

And that's not all she was angry about. Her stomach was growling again, even though she'd had all those fish just a short time ago, and the sight of all that charred and overcooked food was just too much for her to take. Wanting to take out some of her aggression, she pelted Oni with another rock. This one bounced lightly off the top of his helmet. Well, it was the thought that counted....

Seeing copy-Lina's frustration, Ren decided to be helpful again. As he set Eric down behind a sturdy looking tree, he dug into his pocket and produced a handful of nasty looking caltrops. "Here," he said, handing her the four-pronged metal objects. "Throw these, they'll hurt more."

"Yay!" She spent the next few seconds enthusiastically tossing the sharp pointy things in Oni's direction, missing completely every time.

Oni glared at her, growling with rage. His eyes shifted back to the gash in his chest, which seemed to weep with dark blue demon blood. He lifted his right hand and touched the wound, as if to make sure it was there. He then began to snicker, which caught Arcius's attention.

"Do you find something amusing, 'my battered friend?'" asked the bard, doing the best impression of the hell lizard he could muster. Oni merely looked up, snickered, and flicked some of the dark blue glob of his blood onto Arcius's cheek. No sooner had it touched his face than the bard screamed out in pain, his hands flying to his face as he crashed to the ground.

Oni burst into peals of laughter at the sight of this. "Mollusk!" he yelled at the bard, who now sported a nasty burn on his right side of his face. "Like I told you, I AM a weapon! I thirst for blood! I have mastered millions of weapons, and," he said as he pulled the bard's rapier from his chest, "my blood is like the magma that flows through this earth!" Lina gasped at what she saw. The sword looked as if it had been dipped in acid.

"As for my luck," Oni said, digging into his pack, "it never runs out! It's just beginning!" The hell lizard pulled a blue-green stone out from his pack, the very stone he had used to torture Lazar earlier. It began to glow and pulse with life. "YES!" he yelled. "You feel your other half, don't you? It's near! Bring it before me! NOW!"

A giant whirlwind began to circle the camp, tossing trees and people aside like rag dolls. A loud humming could be heard, and in an instant, the Saber appeared before Oni, glowing with an eerie aura.

Oni laughed as he reached out and grabbed the saber. He looked it over, and grinned under his mask. "It's real, alright! Not some little fake to throw me off!"

"How can you tell?" asked the bard, still on his knees.

"Because the saber itself is not what I want! I want what's INSIDE it!" Oni turned back to his cohorts. "Froard! Thorn! It's time we leave! I don't think we're wanted here anymore!" And with that they were gone. Except for the still-blowing wind, it was almost as if there hadn't been a battle here at all.

Lina's eyes turned wide as her hair flew around her violently. "Wh-What the hell was that?" she asked, staring at the spot where they'd been standing.

"Ano... Lina-sama," came a voice from behind her. It was the long absent Ninoa, fresh from being beaten nearly unconscious by Thorn. "Could you tell me what I missed?"

Lina just sweatdropped, turning towards the other girl. "Let's just say... ya had to be there," she said simply, slowly getting over the shock.

"Huh! I thought for sure the whole place was gonna be blown up!" said Copy-Lina, jogging up to where Lina and Ninoa were standing. "Great; that means my sword is still okay!" She began rooting around in the sand; it wasn't long before she was once again gleefully brandishing three feet of shiny steel.

"Aaah!" she cried in horror, once she'd taken a good look at the blade. "It's scratched!" True enough, there was a deep gouge near the tip of the sword. "Oni must've stepped on it or something!" With her brow furrowed, and one hand clenched in a fist, she snarled, "He's not gonna get away with this!" Despite her annoyance, one part of her was thinking, Lucky that my sword didn't meet the same fate as Arcius's rapier. She'd much rather be wielding a slightly scratched blade than one that had been eaten away by acid.

Lina sweatdropped, and then announced, "The thing we need to do now is figure out a way to get rid of that Oni guy for good. He's gonna make a big mess, otherwise." She sighed, placing one gloved hand on her forehead. "Why me?"

Sai smirked at Lina's comment. "Well, Miss Lina... no one can determine why, but hey, things could be worse, right? That was a good question, though; how are we going to get rid of Oni?" He turned to face the assembled company. "Anyone have any ideas?"

"I got an idea!" announced Copy-Lina, still steamed over her scratched sword. "Let's tar-and-feather him! No, better, let's boil him in oil!"

Ren blinked, seeing a chance to commit his good deed for next week in advance. "I could... beat his little head in?" he said cheerfully, pulling an Oni the Hell Lizard ™ doll out of his vest and whacking it enthusiastically.

Lina sweatdropped at all the responses, her head falling in defeat. "This RPG never could go long without some sort of comic relief," she sighed.

Sai sighed as well. "Well, I can tell we are going to get this job done in no time." Rolling his eyes, he just stood there, listening to everyone's suggestions. With his arms folded across his chest, he closed his eyes, pondering what to do next.

Copy-Lina paused momentarily in her litany of fun things to do to Oni, and looked over at Yun. "Hey, the kid's looking a lot better," she said to Lina. "Better than he would if I'd been healing him... uh... I mean... 'cause I don't have my magic right now. Yup, that's it." Then she glowered at the original Lina a bit. Was this... jealousy?

"Of course!" Lina exclaimed, winking. "I'm the cutest, and the best at magic! Did you ever have any doubts?" She put all her own fears aside, determined to deal with problems as they arose from now on.

Geltro slunk out of the woods, looking around suspiciously as if he expected Oni and company to show up suddenly. The thief wandered over to the point where the hell lizard had vanished, and spat on the ground. "He thinks he's so special because he can make holes in the landscape and rot swords with his guts. If I'd wanted that sword, I could have taken it from you and been a thousand leagues away before you knew it was gone."

Arcius stood up slowly, taking measure of the group. He seemed surprisingly well, considering the punishment he had taken at Oni's hand. In fact, he seemed to be highly amused by something. "There is something we can do now. We can move on when the injured are taken care of. I strongly suspect that Oni is going to be rather enraged when he figures it out."

Geltro cast a curious look at Arcius. "'Figures it out?' You go and do something clever we should know about, bard?" When he realized that the bard's only answer was a smug grin, the boy stomped around the area, beginning to salvage what he could from the 'camp' and the burning wagon.

"Oooh, we could feed 'im to giant killer squids... or we could toss 'im off a really big cliff... or we could cover 'im with honey and dump 'im on an anthill...." Copy-Lina was really having fun with this whole 'how to get rid of Oni' business.

"And just where do you plan on going to, bard?" Briar asked as she dusted herself off. "Is anyone still hurt? I have some small skill as a healer."

"I think Lina took care of this kid over here," Copy-Lina said helpfully, pointing at Yun, who seemed mostly healed up, but was still unconscious. "But Mister Crossbowman I think is a bit the worse for wear." As if to verify this statement, the charred and beaten young (handsome, intelligent, witty... uh... nevermind) crossbow-wielding man groaned a bit. "And I'm not sure the world is supposed to ring like a bell every few seconds, or flash white like that, but I'll deal." Getting hit in the head repeatedly by various parts of a Hell Lizard's anatomy isn't as much fun as you'd think. "FIRE ants," she then elaborated.

Lina glowered at the injured Eric. "Ack, don't tell me I have to heal you too. Who do I look like, Sylphiel?" she asked, a little annoyed.

Briar knelt next to Eric. "Ouch," she said with a wince, looking him over. She held her hands out and he felt the warmth of a healing spell wash over his injuries. "You just don't know when to quit, do you?" She smiled softly. "Not necessarily a bad thing."

Geltro paused for a moment in his scavenging and grimaced. "I haven't had enough sleep for this. I'm not being paid enough, either. If I manage to get out of this without being EATEN, I'm gonna demand a hazard bonus."

Copy-Lina blinked. "We're getting PAID?"

A nasty grin split Geltro's dirt-caked face. "I'm getting paid. You don't negotiate a good deal, it's not my problem."

Getting paid.... For a moment, a delightful vision flashed in front of Copy-Lina's eyes. No, wait, that was the splitting headache. Severe head trauma aside, she was briefly lost in imagining a world, a glorious world, where she was being paid to find treasure... sacks of gold being showered on her while she beat up bandits and liberated their loot, keeping all of it for herself too, of course... earning a fat monthly salary just for trashing dungeons and making off with their treasure....

Then reality kicked in. That kind of job just didn't exist. What, exactly, was the little thief being paid to DO? And just WHO was paying him, anyway? She quickly decided not to ask, and even wondered if she should keep an eye on him. Naah, she decided. It wasn't really her problem, now was it?

Stomping past Yun, Geltro fixed the young boy with a glare. "You wouldn't care to tell us any weak points the drooling fortress has, would you? We seem to be a bit short on siege engines right now. If there's some poison he's vulnerable to, now would be a good time to tell me."

"I think we should try fire ants!" Lina's clone piped up again. "They can be REALLY nasty!"

Ninoa coughed, trying to gain everyone's attention. "Um, could we please talk about some more important matters, like making our way on this quest... we seem to have NO IDEA WHERE WE'RE GOING!" she yelled out to the group, since people were still involved in discussing various interesting things to do to Oni. "And," she said, almost as an afterthought, "where's Gourry?"

Lina blinked. "G-Gourry," she said softly. She'd noticed he wasn't there, but she hadn't wanted to acknowledge it. He'd promised he wouldn't leave her! He'd said he would protect her forever! She felt tears welling up in her eyes, but she quickly shook them away. "Dammit! Stupid jellyfish for brains probably got lost!" she said... hopefully?

Copy-Lina tried to think back to the last time she'd seen the big blond swordsman. Had it been before or after Lina's massive Dragon Slave? After, she finally remembered. He had been there for the fight with Oni, the beginning of it anyway. But later on.... Oni had disappeared, that old lady had disappeared, that strange creature that pretended to be Oni and then a fire spirit and then an elf had disappeared... and Gourry had disappeared. "Um," she said tentatively, "what if... what if Oni kidnapped him?"

Lina's eyes widened as she fell to her knees. Could she take this again? Surely this wasn't true.... "DAMN!" she cried, punching the ground, cracking it with the force of her anger. "Damn that Gourry," she said to herself, as tears filled her eyes.

Copy-Lina looked a bit distressed, seeing what effect her hypothesis had had on Lina. "Um, er, don't worry, I bet he just got lost, though! Yeah that's it. Lost. Bet he's wandering through the jungle right now, wondering where the action is." But, she wondered, would that be better or worse?

Geltro wasn't paying attention to all this, being occupied with what he was doing. The thief paced out a measurement around the place from where Oni had disappeared. Seemingly satisfied, he began digging a magic circle into the ground with a stick. Eventually he finished. Tossing the stick aside, he raised his hands to begin chanting a spell.

Briar cast him an odd look, and Geltro grinned back. "Arcius says the goon might come back. I'm going to leave something unpleasant waiting for him." The dirty thief began his spell.

Eric's eyes opened slowly. "Uhhh.... I feel like I've been trampled underneath a stampede of horses," he groaned, trying to sit up.

Briar put her hands on his shoulders. "You should rest for a little bit longer; you took quite a beating," she said.

Nodding, he lay back down. "I feel more like I was in the way than anything else," he said, staring up into the sky.

"At least you DAMAGED Oni. A bit," muttered Copy-Lina. "I just kinda stood there and annoyed him." Then she smiled a bit. Eric was looking better already.

With that, Lina's clone sheathed her woefully scratched sword, and turned to Ninoa. "I agree with you," she said. Pitching her voice a bit louder, she announced to the whole group, "I think we should get moving, too. The whole reason I'm here is because I wanna find that Power of Command... and any treasure that might, um, fall into my hands along the way. Oh, and getting Oni back for scratching my sword! And, well, since the odds of finding loot on a random beach in the middle of nowhere are kinda slim, I think we should continue our quest."

"Yes, we should indeed move on. If Oni seeks what we seek," Arcius said, "and it is likely he does, then likely, he knows where the next piece of the puzzle is." The bard adjusted his lute. "We head north and east. In the northen part of the lands of Elmekia, according to the legends, lies the portal to the lands known as the Old Country. Somewhere within those fabled lands lies another seal to be broken."

As he continued speaking, Arcius seemed troubled. "There was another foe, back in the undercity of Kytares. A man who wielded a blade that is the reverse of Lord Gourry's Sword of Light. I imagine that, like Oni and Ysmaren, he seeks the same thing we do." The bard plucked a string. "At any rate, let us go."

"Gaia GRAZE!" Geltro finished his spell, and the magic circle he'd drawn pulsed with power. Dark clouds of black energy swirled inwards, manifesting the form of a frightening demon. The dirty little boy addressed the monster in a surprisingly commanding tone. "You will wait here for three days for the one called Oni." Geltro proceeded to describe Oni in detail. "If he shows up, kill him. After that, or if he doesn't show up in the three days, you are banished back to the place from where you came." Satisfied, Geltro slouched over to where Arcius was waiting. "I'm done, let's go."

Meanwhile, off on the other side of the jungle, Thorn cast a glare that caused Froard to shiver and asked, "Where is our fearless leader?"

"He's in the cave, and we're not supposed to bother him! So stay out!" said the changeling with as much courage as he could muster.

The old woman looked over at the cave near their campsite, from which strange blue and red lights shone like rays of sun. "What could he possibly be doing in there?" Thorn asked herself.

"Yes!" Oni commented to himself. He sat hunched over a stone slab, working his mischief. What remained of the saber laid on the ground behind him, nothing more than scrap metal now.

Oni pulled the blue-green stone from his pack, and set it on the slab. In his other hand, he held a new, identical-looking stone, and under his mask, he was smiling. "Now... to make you both one!" he comented to himself. He picked up the other stone and proceeded to piece them together.

A lound siren noise rose as a tiny tornado formed around Oni. His grin was now a full-blown smile of pure evil. "YES!" he yelled.

Suddenly, the new stone began to shake and pulse. "What?" the hell lizard asked in shock. He then realized what was wrong, and his grin slipped from his face, to be replaced by a scowl. "Great," he said as the stone exploded with the force of a fire bomb.

"What the hell was that?" yelled Froard. Both he and Thorn had heard the explosion, and now nasty black smoke was billowing out from the mouth of the cave.

Oni suddenly emerged from the cave, his skin blackened, with shards of the fake stone stuck in his left eye. "How I hate booby traps," he commented.

Metcliff looked around at the destruction around him. It felt good being responsible for it. There were now none who stood between him and the Holy Sword of Flagoon.

He hadn't needed to go quite that far, but he'd needed to vent. After the events in the undercity of Kytares... Damn that giant! Damn that bard! The next time he encountered either of them, they were going to die by his hand.

He scowled as he marched to where the blade was resting. His arm still throbbed from where he had been cut. It was healing slowly. He had been in a daze when he had been unceremoniously kicked into the gutter and left for dead. Their mistake. He couldn't die, not yet. Rosa, he thought. He had forced himself out of the gutter and had dragged his body through the city by his will alone. He had stumbled past a smirking statue and left that accursed place behind.

Before him, the Holy Sword glowed with a faint, pale illumination. He smiled. "There you are. Ninoa and her motley band of fools have two of the swords. I have two." A smile came to his face. "And she seems to have found the perfect place to place the soul of my beloved!" He began to laugh, the sound echoing around him.

De'Esem smiled to himself. Everything was going as planned; the various pieces moved to his will.

That the sword Deimos was housed in a temple was fortuitous; a fitting place for to raise the dead. The sword was the last remaining seal needed to reveal the tower. In a separate place within the same temple lay another item of power, the last shard of the Eye of Zar.

Certainly, there was reason for all of the pieces - the heroes, the lesser mazoku, the fallen champion, and the giantess - to be there. The only question left was which pieces would fall.