Gallantry and Hesitation (A Final Fantasy Tactics fanfiction)

Chapter IV

   During Akademy instruction, cadets are given a crash course in weapons’ training. I had learned that weapon training is imperative for a cadet to know all types of weapon inside and out, especially when it is regarded to specialty weapons. Knowing a specialty weapon and what it can do can make or break a battle.

   Such is the case with Blaster pistols. Blaster guns are usually a common weapon, however, the various types of ammunition is the key factor in what makes a Blaster gun so effective. Take for example the Bolt Gun used against Sir Laguna; the elemental ammunition has a “type” level based on the power of the discharge from “Type-0” gauge to “Type-13” gauge. “Type-12” is the rarest to manufacture by human hands, and anything “Type-9” to “Type-12” is lethal. “Type-13” however, is rumored to only be magically manufactured by the Construct mage automatons under Goug Machine City in Lionel. “Type-13” ammunition will not kill the target, but will cause such agony upon such target would have wished it were dead upon discharge; “Type-13” has been rumored to totally disfigure the target into an elemental “zombie” with such continuous pain and torture inflicted, that the target’s own mind becomes muddled and confused.

   Blaster Pistol ammunition draws within the open elementals in nature and harnesses that power within the chemical liquid structure held in the shells. The more potent the liquid compound made by the chemist, the stronger the discharge. Our instructor told us that many of today’s chemists aren’t as skilled to create the necessary compound to make anything past a “Type-7”.

   Case in point, Laguna was shot with at least a “Type-5” gauge, something very out of the ordinary for a bartender to have. The discharge was enough to send his heavily armored frame nearly fifteen feet and clear through a few tables and chairs. The patrons all scattered and disappeared outside the bar, leaving just us four and the armed bartender. Reina and Tavin went over to assist Laguna and get him to his feet, where I took front and center and stared the bartender dead in the eye.        

   I told Tavin and Reina to take the smoldering Laguna out and away from the tavern.  I then turned my attention to the bartender.

  “Bartender, we are Knights from Eagrose Castle dispatched to Dorter on official business from Duke Larg. You are ordered by the command of Gallione to state the meaning of your hostility!”

   The bartender looked back at me with an icy stare. “Your companion is sticking his nose into matters that don’t concern him. I advise you all to leave this pub before you get hurt.” He then reached into his satchel and pulled out a blue shell, a “Type-6” gauge, and loaded it into the Blaster.

   “By the civil order of Duke Larg… I advise you to keep your weapon lowered.” I was worried against the magic I was potentially facing, but I told myself to stand firm. That confidence immediately diminished when the bartender raised the Blaster and took aim down the barrel. All at once, the trigger was pulled and a loud electrical current erupted from the gun in my general direction, to which I had the common sense to duck out of the way. An enormous wave of electricity fired past me into the pub wall, blasting a hole nearly ten feet in diameter.

   The bartender reached into his satchel again and pulled out a red capsule this time, a “Type-9”! I couldn’t have any fear within my being, so I lunged toward the bartender and tackled him to the floor before he could load the gauge into the chamber. The shell flew from his hands and bounced several feet away from us, and subsequently rolled under a liquor cabinet. Much to my dismay, the bartender took a couple of cheap shots to my head with the gun, and rolled me away. He then proceeded to make his way on his hands and knees to the liquor cabinet in search of the deadly casing, and I followed him. With a flying leap, I lunged myself, armor and all, upon the bartender. With all the weight upon him, I crushed him and knocked a moment of hesitation out of him, and I took advantage of the second of time to climb ahead of him, and reach under the cabinet to grab the gauge.