"No, it's not," Squall agreed. He was leading her out into the Preserve, looking for a quiet place where they wouldn't disturb anyone. Or break anything important.
He was half-hoping they'd run into a monster, or a violent wild animal, while they were out here, but if not, he had a plan for where to find some.
"So then why ... are we here?" she asked, frowning. "I don't ..."
She stopped to lean against a tree. At least they weren't in that house any more. That house with mean people who said awful things about Jono, but she couldn't yell at them, because the mutants there needed the mean people, and furthermore, if she started yelling now, she'd just set things on fire.
"I don't know what I did to you," she said, carefully. "I really, honestly don't."
"We'll talk about it later," Squall told her. "Right now, you need to let off some steam."
In Garden, the Training Center was always open, any time of day or night, for cadets to go kill monsters. It was a great way to relieve stress -- but Rinoa hadn't grown up with that, and wouldn't recognize the feeling of needing it.
Squall stepped away from her, put a hand to his forehead, and was surrounded by a green light... but nothing happened, at least not right away.
"BIG BROTHER," boomed a voice from the forest behind Rinoa. "DO YOU THINK SHE WANTS TO PLAY?!"
"i think she needs to, whatever she wants," a softer voice replied. A short man-bull stepped out of the shadows and grinned at Rinoa, cracking his knuckles.
"I -- I don't understand," she said. "I don't want to hurt your GFs."
That was the sane part of her talking. Some larger part of her was cracking its own knuckles.
Which was why she fired off a Float spell at each Brother. They were Earth elementals. You needed to keep them from touching the ground, if you wanted to stop them from regenerating health.
Not that she was seriously thinking about fighting them. They were Squall's allies. This was insane.
"You need to attack something," Squall told her. He pulled a G-Returner -- which would revive them if they were defeated -- out of his pocket to show her he was prepared.
"don't attack us if you don't want to," the smaller Brother told her. "it'll make the fight go faster."
"I DON'T LIKE FLOATING!" the larger one growled. He lifted his heavy iron mace and swung it at her.
She had been glancing at Squall, and so she was nearly caught unawares by Sacred's mace. She spotted it from the corner of her eye, and held up an arm to deflect the blow.
It wasn't her arm that took the brunt of the hit; it was a wing, pushing back hard, as the other struggled to lift her into the air.
The blow still connected, and sent her reeling. She fell, nearly sprawling on the ground until her wings got enough lift to let her hover in the air.
Before she had even wiped the blood out of her eyes, she had cast a Tornado at the larger Brother.
There was something sinful in how good that felt. There had to be.
Sacred -- the younger but larger of the two -- growled at the winds buffeted him. He held his arms up to shield his face, but couldn't do much against the onslaught. Wind was the Brothers' greatest weakness.
Minotaur, the smaller, older Brother, got caught by the edge of the whirlwind and thrown through the forest. He snorted and came charging back at Rinoa, horns-first, as soon as he found his feet.
Everyone who had seen the Brothers in action knew that, despite his size, the smaller one was the greater threat.
She needed to be out of the range of those horns. There was no question about that. So she lifted herself up into the air, just high enough that he couldn't reach.
From there, she could send a Holy at him, to see if it would slow him down. In fact, now would be a good time to see what kind of a time lag there was, between her being able to cast spells. How quickly could she queue up the next Holy, after that?
She didn't have to fly very high to be out of Minotaur's reach -- he was shorter than she was, after all. He weathered the Holy, but was starting to hurt. Until the Float wore off, they were especially vulnerable.
Sacred, meanwhile, had gotten to his feet after the Tornado and ripped a huge boulder out of the ground to throw at Rinoa.
Rinoa had been too focused on firing off the second Holy, at Minotaur -- the lights sweeping up around him and exploding, oh, so beautiful -- and not paying enough attention to defense. When she was the Sorceress, she never cared about defense. She wanted to make things hurt, and it was so easy.
Which meant that she didn't see the boulder in nearly enough time to dodge very well, and it smashed straight into her torso. The force knocked her out of the sky, and she landed with an unsightly oomph on the hard earth.
She lifted her head and hissed at Sacred, focusing hard on him until a yellow-ish orange light began to coalesce around him. Rays shot out from his midsection. Flare should teach him manners.
It looked like fire, but it wasn't. Sacred might not be aflame, but he was hurting pretty badly. The Float wore off, though, so he was starting to gain some strength back from the earth below him.
And speaking of things below other things, the ground beneath Rinoa's feet shuddered and lurched. Minotaur had burrowed underneath her, and was lifting the chunk of dirt and rock she was standing on. He adjusted the weight on his shoulders one more time, and then with a mighty heave threw it, with Rinoa still on top, hundreds of feet into the air.
There was enough hang-time for the two Brothers to rochambeau for the finishing toss. Sacred -- with his "always choose rock" strategy -- lost, of course, so he was the throw-ee and the tiny Minotaur the throw-er in their fastball special of Brotherly Love. The chunk of earth, now falling downward again, met Sacred flying up towards it, and it all exploded in a shower of dirt and pain.
Rinoa landed hard, an unmoving pile of dirt and bruises. For a moment, she was sure that she couldn't move, and even more certain that she didn't want to try. One of her legs didn't look right at all, and so much of her hurt. She could just lie here and --
And what? Let them win?!
Fuck that.
Rinoa pushed herself onto all fours, spitting out a fair amount of blood as she did so. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered, at this moment, but making those bastards pay.
She might not be able to get to her feet, but she was a motherfucking Sorceress, and she didn't need to stand in order to make these Brothers sorry they were ever born.
She closed her eyes and concentrated, hard, letting as much power out as she dared. When she heard the familiar roar of the cosmos, she smiled. She opened her eyes in time to see the gigantic Meteors slam into the two Brothers, over and over again.
It felt wonderful. And when it looked like both of them were teetering over, that was when she let herself slump to the ground again.
The breathing might be helped by the potion, Rinoa realized foggily. And so she swigged some of the --
Oh, dammit.
"I hate X-Potions," she sulked, spitting some of it back out reflexively. "They taste like something died and then came back to life just long enough to puke them back up."
Just because she was feeling better didn't mean she was in the mood not to be childish about this.
He was half-hoping they'd run into a monster, or a violent wild animal, while they were out here, but if not, he had a plan for where to find some.
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She stopped to lean against a tree. At least they weren't in that house any more. That house with mean people who said awful things about Jono, but she couldn't yell at them, because the mutants there needed the mean people, and furthermore, if she started yelling now, she'd just set things on fire.
"I don't know what I did to you," she said, carefully. "I really, honestly don't."
Reply
In Garden, the Training Center was always open, any time of day or night, for cadets to go kill monsters. It was a great way to relieve stress -- but Rinoa hadn't grown up with that, and wouldn't recognize the feeling of needing it.
Squall stepped away from her, put a hand to his forehead, and was surrounded by a green light... but nothing happened, at least not right away.
"BIG BROTHER," boomed a voice from the forest behind Rinoa. "DO YOU THINK SHE WANTS TO PLAY?!"
"i think she needs to, whatever she wants," a softer voice replied. A short man-bull stepped out of the shadows and grinned at Rinoa, cracking his knuckles.
Reply
"I -- I don't understand," she said. "I don't want to hurt your GFs."
That was the sane part of her talking. Some larger part of her was cracking its own knuckles.
Which was why she fired off a Float spell at each Brother. They were Earth elementals. You needed to keep them from touching the ground, if you wanted to stop them from regenerating health.
Not that she was seriously thinking about fighting them. They were Squall's allies. This was insane.
Reply
"don't attack us if you don't want to," the smaller Brother told her. "it'll make the fight go faster."
"I DON'T LIKE FLOATING!" the larger one growled. He lifted his heavy iron mace and swung it at her.
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It wasn't her arm that took the brunt of the hit; it was a wing, pushing back hard, as the other struggled to lift her into the air.
The blow still connected, and sent her reeling. She fell, nearly sprawling on the ground until her wings got enough lift to let her hover in the air.
Before she had even wiped the blood out of her eyes, she had cast a Tornado at the larger Brother.
There was something sinful in how good that felt. There had to be.
Reply
Minotaur, the smaller, older Brother, got caught by the edge of the whirlwind and thrown through the forest. He snorted and came charging back at Rinoa, horns-first, as soon as he found his feet.
Reply
She needed to be out of the range of those horns. There was no question about that. So she lifted herself up into the air, just high enough that he couldn't reach.
From there, she could send a Holy at him, to see if it would slow him down. In fact, now would be a good time to see what kind of a time lag there was, between her being able to cast spells. How quickly could she queue up the next Holy, after that?
Reply
Sacred, meanwhile, had gotten to his feet after the Tornado and ripped a huge boulder out of the ground to throw at Rinoa.
Reply
Which meant that she didn't see the boulder in nearly enough time to dodge very well, and it smashed straight into her torso. The force knocked her out of the sky, and she landed with an unsightly oomph on the hard earth.
She lifted her head and hissed at Sacred, focusing hard on him until a yellow-ish orange light began to coalesce around him. Rays shot out from his midsection. Flare should teach him manners.
Reply
And speaking of things below other things, the ground beneath Rinoa's feet shuddered and lurched. Minotaur had burrowed underneath her, and was lifting the chunk of dirt and rock she was standing on. He adjusted the weight on his shoulders one more time, and then with a mighty heave threw it, with Rinoa still on top, hundreds of feet into the air.
There was enough hang-time for the two Brothers to rochambeau for the finishing toss. Sacred -- with his "always choose rock" strategy -- lost, of course, so he was the throw-ee and the tiny Minotaur the throw-er in their fastball special of Brotherly Love. The chunk of earth, now falling downward again, met Sacred flying up towards it, and it all exploded in a shower of dirt and pain.
Reply
And what? Let them win?!
Fuck that.
Rinoa pushed herself onto all fours, spitting out a fair amount of blood as she did so. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered, at this moment, but making those bastards pay.
She might not be able to get to her feet, but she was a motherfucking Sorceress, and she didn't need to stand in order to make these Brothers sorry they were ever born.
She closed her eyes and concentrated, hard, letting as much power out as she dared. When she heard the familiar roar of the cosmos, she smiled. She opened her eyes in time to see the gigantic Meteors slam into the two Brothers, over and over again.
It felt wonderful. And when it looked like both of them were teetering over, that was when she let herself slump to the ground again.
Reply
"...THE BROTHERS, DEFEATED AGAIN?"
"...it... is an honor... to serve you..."
As they disappeared, Squall stepped forward with a bit of a smirk and tossed Rinoa an X-Potion. "Feel better?"
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"... think so?" she said, weakly. "That was ..."
Hang on. First, she had to remember how to breathe. Then, she needed to drink the potion. Then, she'd be able to have a conversation.
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Oh, dammit.
"I hate X-Potions," she sulked, spitting some of it back out reflexively. "They taste like something died and then came back to life just long enough to puke them back up."
Just because she was feeling better didn't mean she was in the mood not to be childish about this.
Reply
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