Final Fantasy [Begins]

[Shadow Wolf]

Jin

Jin was staring at Kite with a confused look. He didn’t know if to be surprised, amused, or simply serious about what was going on. Sure, he was the one who noticed the weird stone and made Markus go through a struggle just to pick it up, but he didn’t know that this would already create him so much trouble. Not only does he has a death warrant from Eden in case this item proves to be harmful, but now he also has a guy blurting at him for the very item. Still, what confused him the most was that, although there was a more pressing issue at hand (finding a way out), the guy who didn’t said a word during the previous scouting session is the very guy who is currently arguing with him over such a mild issue.

He was already regretting picking up the crystal…

But as he was lost in his own thoughts, he didn’t notice as the guy tried to take the crystal away from him, tumbling in the process and making both of them fall into the floor. The crystal fell out of Jin’s hand and rolled a bit before touching Alex’s sneaker. She picked it up as the gleam in her eyes began to shine once again.

She was about to ask Jin if she could keep it, but as her eyes shifted from the crystal to Jin’s whereabouts, her gleam transformed into a surprised look as she noticed the consequences of the previous struggle. Not just her, Markus, Nova, and Bellaevis were also surprised at what just happened.

Jin smashed his head quite hard as he fell into the floor; and his mind was thrown into a state of confusion for a few seconds.

What happened? Oh yeah… Kite tried to take the crystal… so troublesome… my head…

It wasn’t until his train of thoughts had finally stopped that he finally noticed the unpleasant aura around him. He could not move his mouth as there was something else blocking his lips from moving. When he found out what was it, his mind was thrown into a state of shock as his body struggled a bit to push Kite out of the way. After both men fell down into the floor, Jin had the misfortune of having Kite’s lips fall right into his own lips. And after finally pushing Kite out of the way and rise as he ignored his headache to clean his mouth, he noticed as pretty much everyone else shared the same shocked look that he had in his face.

As he rose to his feet while holding his head with his right hand, he gave Kite an angry stare before turning around to look for the crystal. Alex felt a bit intimidated as she saw Jin with such a scary look. She was about to say sorry and give him the crystal, but before she could say anything, Jin opened his mouth.

“You can keep it for now. I noticed your eyes shining as you looked at it.” His angry look was already gone. “Plus this has caused me enough trouble for a lifetime.”

“OK” A smile appeared in her face.

"Let's move". Eden did not want to waste anymore time.

"Yeah" Jin began to walk as his mind wanted to forget what just happened, though he knew that this was going to be carved in everyone’s head for a while.

___________

This is not a good day.

Jin managed to rise to his feet after the weird vision that went through his mind. His right arm was now in pain as he felt something burn in it. His main concern, however, was not his own pain, but how everyone else was doing.

Everyone seemed to be pulling themselves together after the fal’Cie made its move. With everything OK, his attention turned into the only thing that was not OK…

“It’s moving!”

And in less than a minute, the fal'Cie was inside everyone's head not once, but twice.

The shock was to be expected. Everyone witnessed as their former teammate was now a terrifying monster and now they had no choice but to defeat it.

Eden charged towards the creature as she readied her blade to deliver the first blow. The monster did not hesitate to launch the first strike towards her. Eden’s experience and prowess as a soldier were easily noticed as she managed to evade the monster’s claw with relative ease. She was about ready to strike the creature... yet the Cie’th somehow managed to evade Eden’s strike. Taking advantage of this, the monster took the chance to swing its other claw towards Eden.

The creature missed its target once again.

The claws of the creature found themselves unable to pass through something. Not only were they blocked, but were also mildly bent and pushed aside. The creature noticed the object used to block its strike: a spinning blunt object at the hands of Jin.

“You’re on my way” Eden gave Jin a look of disapproval.

“You’re not alone” Jin ignored her stare as he stopped the tonfa from spinning.

“He’s right.” Markus was also standing in front of Eden, ready to block the monster’s strikes.

“Look out” Alex voice managed to reach the team on the frontline with enough time for them to make a move. Eden and Markus rolled away from the attack. Jin however, had to suffer the consequences of his inexperience with Cie’th. He managed to use both arms to protect himself, but the force of the monster’s arm was enough to send him flying to the wall. He released a cry of pain as his body crashed against the wall, falling into the ground shortly after.

“Jin!” Nova shouted as he went to his aid.

“Ugh” Jin managed to pull himself together even though he was in pain.

“How are you still alive?” Nova was surprised to see Jin surviving a blow at point-blank range. He had clearly taken a strong blow from the monster and was nicely stopped by a solid wall, yet he managed to rise to his feet.

“I thought this would hurt more.” His eyes were hinting confusion and surprise even though his back reminded him that the wounds of the previous battle were still there.

“Jin!” This time, it was the voice of Markus reaching his ears… “Nova!” followed almost instantly by Alex’s and Kite’s voices respectively.

It took them a bit too long to realize that the Cie’th was not planning to sit idly while they wondered how Jin is still on his feet. As the red eye -now glowing- was focused on Jin’s figure, a shape began to take form just above the creature’s skull. What seemed to be a short blue beam at first was now a spear like object made of ice flying towards them.

Not wanting to make the same mistake again, this time, his body moved on its own to push both him and Nova aside. The Ice projectile, barely scraping Jin’s jacket, continued its way to the wall, creating a crack in it just before crumbling into pieces. As he picked himself up yet again, he realized that he had somehow provoked the monster to attack him. How did he know? That red eye was still focused on him.

“That was close.” Nova saw once again the crack in the wall as he rose to his feet. “Watch out Jin, he may also want to k-“Jin’s eyes stared at Nova with discomfort at what he was about to say.

“You two, focus!” It was clear that Markus was at one time, boss of these two young men, for both of them did not hesitate to concentrate on the more important task.

And as their eyes shifted back to the battle at hand, they both could not help but be impressed at what happened next.

Taking advantage of the distraction of the Cie’th, both Markus and Eden swept in. Knowing that the monster would instantly protect its eye, Eden, with a boost from Markus, jumped towards the creature while her blade collided with the next possible weak spot: its skull.

It was a good choice.

The Cie’th released a cry as Eden’s blade collided through creature’s skull, leaving a visible crack in it and shattering some of the crystals protuberating from the skull in the process.

“Hehehe, it looks like we have a chance.” Nova readied his sword as he propped Jin to help both Eden and Markus.

“Yeah… Let’s go” Jin said as he felt his body ready to withstand another hit.

______


Why do I feel like I suck at writing battle scenes.... tag everyone.