"But why were the Mazoku attacking? How could they have known when the Oracle would come to see Lina?" Gourry asked.
"Chosen One, thank goodness you are safe," The lone priest called out.
"Yeah, no thanks to him," Lloyd muttered, with Gourry nodding.
"Chosen one, you must be tired from your last battle, but today the Oracle has come. You must receive it at all costs or--"
"Sylvarant is doomed," she finished for the man. "Yeah yeah, I get it already." She sighed before standing up and leaning on her staff. "But how are we supposed to do this when I'm so damn tired?" She snapped.
"I believe I have a solution for that," the Red haired man spoke up for the first time in a while. Lina glanced at him then looked down at the ground.
"Who are you, anyway?" She asked him. Everyone in the clearing turned to look at him.
"I am Kratos, a mercenary," He told them simply.
"And you want us to hire your services," Lina replied, turning her eyes towards him.
"That is correct,"
"How much?"
"All I require is a share of any spoils we would receive on our journey," he started. "How many chances would one get to join the legendary Chosen on her journey of World Regeneration?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"So you're after fame, then?" Lloyd asked.
Kratos merely shrugged. "If you want think about it that way," he said.
"Well then, let's get going," Lloyd said, standing up. "What was this about a test, though? I don't want to do any kind of test..." he said.
Lina rolled her eyes. "Relax, brat. It's not like school," she said. Kratos looked from Lina to Lloyd, with one of his eyes twitching. "It's more like a trial of sorts, to see if I am worthy or something," she said. "No one was ever clear on what I'd be doing, exactly,"
"So it's some kind of dungeon, then?" Lloyd asked, excitedly. "Well let's get going already! We don't want to be late,"
Kratos' eye twitched again. "We? There will be no 'We'," he said, finitely. "If the battle we had with that man was enough to tire you for so long, you wouldn't last a minute in here,"
Lloyd frowned. "What the hell are you talking about? We don't exactly need you to come with us," Lloyd said angrily. Lina sighed and crossed her arms, leaving her staff to stand on it's own.(Lloyd had long given up figuring out how she did that long ago)
"He's right. We don't know what to expect in here. There could be monsters ten times worse than this giant," She said.
"And that means it would be safer for you to go alone with some complete stranger?" Lloyd asked with a hurt look.
"He never even broke a sweat while fighting that man," Lina said. "And I know I can trust him."
"You should listen to your sister, Lloyd. She's been training with the priests for this for a while."
Lloyd looked at him in surprise.
"How did you know my name?" Lloyd asked with suspicion. Kratos motioned towards Gourry.
"Your friend here mentioned them before we disabled this man," he said quickly.
"Chosen one, do not forget that the Oracle will only wait one day," the forgotten priest interjected. "And the day is already half over. You must make your choice as to who will go with you, as they will not be able to join you later," he said.
"Alright," Lina said finally. "Kratos and Gourry are coming with me. Lloyd, you can come provided you behave and promise to do what either of us, that INCLUDES Kratos, tells you what to do." Lloyd opened his mouth to protest, and Kratos raised a brow in surprise while Lina raised her hand to stop any comments. "You must realize, Lloyd, that he has years of battle experience on you, and today is the first day you've used anything more than a wooden sword on anything other than a training dummy," she said. "Any advice he or Gourry can offer you, think of it, Okay?" she said seriously. Lloyd sighed and his body sagged. "Fine, whatever, sis." He said. He glared at Kratos, causing the man to roll his eyes in amusement.
"Lina, Gourry, if you would please, I need to have a few words with Lloyd," he said. The two nodded and left towards the chapel with the priest while Kratos turned to Lloyd.” So that was your first serious fight," Kratos said. Lloyd stiffened, giving off a false look of machismo while crossing his arms to imitate Kratos.
"Yeah, what of it?" He asked with a voice of indifference. Kratos merely rolled his eyes again, suppressing an amused smile.
"Your style is self-taught, is it not?" He asked seriously.
"Yeah, most of it is what I've seen other people do and some stuff I made up to go with the fact that I use two swords instead of one," he nodded.
"I see," Kratos said. He walked over to Lloyd and handed him a small booklet. Lloyd looked at it in confusion as Kratos walked away.
"Sword mastery...for dummies?" he blinked at the odd title and then growled at the implication.
"Don't dawdle, Lloyd," Kratos called out, no hint of amusement in his voice.
Lloyd growled as he ran towards the entrance to the chapel. Kratos was standing beside a circular shape in the ground that had a strange symbol in the center.
There was a blue light glowing around the edges. "Come on, it will deactivate in thirty seconds," Kratos said as he stepped onto it...and promptly vanished. Lloyd took one last look at the priest then walked over to the device in the ground as he felt a strange sensation he'd never felt before.
His field of vision went completely white as he felt himself being folded and shifted in ways he'd never thought possible. It wasn't painful, just...unsettling.
When Lloyd's vision finally started clearing up, he saw the rest of his group standing in front of him. When he moved forward to join them, he realized that they were all...
See other episodes by Master Roy
(Posted Tue, 25 Apr 2006 08:11)
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