Final Fantasy

CHAPTER 13 - ARC 4: RING OF FIRE

Once they were ready to leave-- after making one last run through town for anything that would help them-- the heroes were led to the northern gates of Crescent Lake. The great steel doors were pulled open, but the hordes of monsters were held at bay. Just as they used their magic to defend the city, the sages extended that magical barrier to forge a path towards Mt. Gulg. However, even with their strength the path would only make it halfway, after that the heroes were on their own.

The air was hot, as if it were a cloudless sky on a summer day. Even the monsters felt it. As the heroes stepped out of the barrier's reach, there were less monsters in the way, the fires of the mountain too close for comfort. Those that remained were still formidable opponents however, large beastly types that didn't seem to mind the sweltering temperatures.

Ava's thunder was powerful enough to deal with the majority, but Conner, Ben and Emily had gotten so used to fighting mindless monsters that it wasn't much trouble for them either. What worried them most was getting tired and slipping up, but every time they thought about that they were reminded of Bruce's death, and then the adrenaline kept them going.

With laser focus on their goal, and precision like a bulldozer, the heroes neared their destination. Mt. Gulg was a single inactive volcano that rested in the center of its own lake to the west of Crescent Lake. The locals of Crescent Lake referred to it as the Ring of Fire-- it was a circular moat filled with boiling water that surrounded the mountain. But though it had been inactive for many years, now its sides cracked and bled lava, streams of fire spilling out into the lake.

As they stood at the water's edge, the monster hoards too afraid to get close, the heroes were alone. But it wasn't silent, they could hear the raging screams of the Fiend of Fire from within the caves under Mt. Gulg. The Fiend of Fire was angered, having woken 200 years earlier than she'd wanted, and she could most likely feel the defeat of her ally, the Lich. She wouldn't be happy seeing the heroes reach her so soon after.

But right now what mattered was crossing the boiling water.

"Any ideas?" Ben asked.

"Something I grabbed in town," Conner answered, pulling something out of his pocket. "Before we left and we were asking around for anything useful, I was given this." He opened his palm to show the others a toy canoe. It looked like it could fit four people... if they were all an inch tall.

"Um... That helps, how?" Ben asked.

Ava simply gave Conner a skeptical look, but Emily knew right away what it was.

"A pocket boat!" she exclaimed. "That should help."

Now Ben gave her a weird look. "Again... How?"

Emily rolled her eyes. "I guess they aren't used much outside of Crescent Lake these days, but they used to be all over. A pocket boat is a spell crafted boat that grows to actual size when activated. It's fragile though, and can only be used a few times before it's just structurally unsound and collapses in on itself."