The Fantasy Games (Final Fantasy Fanfiction)

Chapter Nine: A Summoner's Duty

"Protect!"

Whirling around and crouching with her hands raised she watched as a massive purple-clawed paw collided with her blue barrier. Pain flared through her bones and muscles as she kept up the defensive shield. The sheer force of the blow caused her to fly backwards despite her attempts to stand her ground and a cry of agony escaped her lips as she felt her form collide harshly with the trunk of a tree. Her vision blurred slightly as she raised a hand to the back of her sore head, feeling something warm and sticky. There was no mistaking the red liquid on her fingertips as she took her hand away or that the three large blurred lines heading for her were extremely sharp claws.

Ignoring the pain she rolled to the side as the trunk of the tree took the full damage of the fiend's attack, wood splintering and bits of debris flying through the air. She muttered a small curative spell, feeling her wound heal slightly and leaving only a small throbbing sensation at the back of her head. She took a deep breath through her nose trying to calm her racing heart as she stood up to face the fiend before her.

Her vision sharpened and returned to normal allowing her to study the fiend properly. Her mouth fell open in surprised horror and her stomach dropped when the name echoed in her mind.

Behemoth.

Giant claws, deep purple fur, a yellow straight-spiked mane and beady black eyes completed its appearance. The fiend loomed above her as it stood on its hind legs, practically blocking out her whole view of the sky and made another swipe at her. She jumped back without thinking and continued to duck and dodge its strong advances as she tried to come up with a plan of getting out of the situation alive.

A growl crawled up her throat as she jumped high over his large paw, twisting her body in mid-air to perform a safe landing in a crouch. "A pair of guns would be super right about now, Paine!" she yelled in the hopes of her mentor hearing her from the safety of the hotel in the Capitol.

The colourful language about to explode from her mouth that would make Isaaru gasp was cut off as two paws came at her from both sides. Making a split-second decision, she jumped to the right, kicking off the trunk of a tree and flying towards the behemoth's bent head. She managed to catch the fiend's snout with her foot in a strong kick as she fell past making the fiend cry out in both fury and annoyance. She rolled as her feet touched the ground in order to soften the fall and immediately returned to her ready position in a crouch.

The behemoth reared its head back and roared in frustration as Yuna dodged another one of its strong attempts to massacre her. She watched as it tensed its shoulders, crouched slightly and bent its head before straightening up in one swift movement.

Yuna heard the loud crackling noise and saw the flash of blinding light, but it was too late to cast a protective magical spell as the lightning pierced her body. Her screams echoed through the virtual gaming field as the electricity shocked her agonisingly. She fell to the ground, curling up into a ball as her body began to spasm uncontrollably and screams clawed their way out of her throat rapidly until her voice was hoarse and mouth was dry.

She struggled weakly to try and get to her feet as the large monster grew closer, but fell straight back down, groaning in agony as another wave of pain coursed through her body. Another crackle resounded and a brilliant blinding light in the sky before pain pierced through every pore in her body and caused her insides to feel as though they were exploding repeatedly. Despite the hoarseness of her throat her screams reverberated clearly in the open air as she squeezed her eyes shut through the torture.

She forced her eyes open and her limbs to move as she tried to drag herself away from the approaching beast but every movement sent pain through her body. Her head fell onto the forest floor as her body went limp. But she simply didn't care about it, she didn't care about anything anymore; she just wanted the pain to end, to escape these games, to be reunited with her twin...