With the battle against the morphs fresh in their memory, Luke, Quana and Patrick follow the pegasus girl Yuko back to her home. They cannot be prepared for what they are about to see...
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Chapter 5: Zunanma
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Morphs...to think that they had actually fought against morphs like in the old stories. Luke still wasn't sure if he could completely believe it, but there was no doubt that those creatures were the very same. On top of that suddenly they met this strange girl who wasn't even human—a zunanma she called herself? He had never heard of anything like that in any stories he read. And now they were following her back to her village. He wondered if this was really a good idea or not. It could easily be a trap.
"So where is this home of yours, Yuko?" he heard Quana ask the mage, curiosity clear in her tone. At least it seemed she wasn't as concerned as Luke was or if she was, she was good at hiding it.
"Hidden in the dense forests and Thickets of Valor," Yuko replied. She stopped walking and turned to the others, "Under normal circumstances I would have had to leave you after you spotted me, or just fled without explanation and hope you left." She cast her gaze downwards, "I might be in serious trouble for even alerting you to our presence."
"So your people prefer to keep to themselves out of fear of being persecuted?" Luke guessed. "Well you don't have to worry about that from the three of us. Sure, we've never seen anything like you before but that doesn't mean we're going to judge right off the bat." he said.
"There's only three of us; there's not much we can do against an entire group of people to begin with, so we're really not a threat to you," Patrick interjected. "I'm sure your people will understand that much, at least. And if they're worried we'll tell...well, to be frank, no one would really believe us."
Yuko managed a smile. "Thanks." She then turned around and began to lead them on the way once agian.
"So what are Zunanma anyway?" Quana asked.
"I... can't really say yet. I need to hear what everyone says about what's going on when we get there. Not much farther now," Yuko replied.
"This is definitely a ways off of any trail. You'd have to be hopelessly lost to wander out this farm," Or have to know what you're looking for, Luke noted to himself.
"Well here we are!" Yuko announced as she brushed aside some large foliage blocking their way. The trio were surprised when they feasted their eyes on a village as plain as day right in front of them. It was a quaint, quiet village, with the buildings constructed out of wood and leaves to help them blend in. They could spy several animal-like beings roaming about, presumably going about their days. More zunanma, Luke surmised.
"Wow..." he uttered in slight awe.
"Those buildings are so big!" Quana remarked. "Especially compared to our dinky little houses back home."
Their voices attracted the attention of several of the zunanma. Most of them just stared at the humans entereing their midst and soem cast angry glares at Yuko, who shrank back and tried to hide behind her wings.
Before any serious protests could be lodged a red bird zunanma with a huge beak in the middle of his face and wearing brown mage's robes approached the group. He easily pushed Yuko's wings aside and spoke, <Yuko, what have you done? Why are these Beorc here? Were you watching them and got spotted?> He cast and agry glare and them and revealed an old magic tome from the folds of his robe, <Are you their captive?>
<No!> Yuko's voice carried a strong protest to it, <We were attacked by morphs.> Yuko produced a handful of the dust she had gathered from the battlefield and showed it to the bird Zunanma, who took it to examine.
<This does look like morph dust.> He cast his gaze back at the other zunanma, <I'll have to speak to the elders later but for now you should bring these beorc back to our home, it will help prevent any incidents.>
Yuko sighed in relief and turned back to the other beorc, who were just watching, trying and failing to follow the conversation. "This is my father, Koran Terada. Just follow us back to our house and we can talk more there."
"Are you sure that's alright? They don't seem too pleased to see us," Luke commented, noticing all the angry stares being sent their way. It was a bit unsettling in a way, actually.
"Mom and dad will get everyone calmed down. The appearance of the morphs will likely redirect their attention," Yuko assured them as her father led them to a relatively large building in the village. The entrance looked like a storefront for magic objects, tomes and staves were stacked on the walls with alchemy sets on the store counter and doors leading farther into the house.
"This is not a good situation," Koran spoke in the common tongue. "Your presence here is serious but the appearance of morphs is even more so. Please wait here while we speak with my wife. Yuko please come with me." He motioned for his daughter to follow him.
"It'll be fine," Yuko tried to assure them before they vanished through the doors behind the counter.
Once the trio of humans was left alone, they turned to each other to carry out their own conversation. "There were a lot of things I was expecting when we came to Valor, but I didn't see any of this coming," Luke admitted, surprise still evident in his tone. Part of him still didn't really believe that all of this was happening to them.
"No one back home would ever believe us about any of this even if we told them," Patrick restated from earlier. "That's probably a good thing, though. I don't think these people would want too many outsiders visiting their village." He didn't blame them for that; some people would cause nothing but chaos and pain; slavers especially would love to come here. The sick dastards that they are.
"You have to admit though, this place is really beautiful. I'm envious!" Quana remarked. "These people must be really close with nature if they've managed to live like this for who knows how long." She wondered just what they had named this settlement.
Yuko emerged into the living area behind the storefront and was immediaely appraoched by a white horse zunanma in white cleric's robes who hugged her. Unlike Yuko her face looked much more like a real horse's face, her muzzle taking up a much larger portion of her face and her eyes close the sides of her face.
<Yuko, are you alright?!> She asked.
<I'm fine mom,> Yuko assured her, hugging the horse zunanma back.
Koran smiled and hugged his wife and daughter briefly before separating. <Seisu, I know you're happy to see Yuko but right now we have more pressing matters to see to.> He held up the handful of morph dust he had retrieved from Yuko.
<Morps dust?> Seisu took a pinch of the substance form her husband.
<Yes! Some beorc and I were attacked by morphs and... I brought them back here once we destroyed them,> Yuko admitted, her hooves shuffling on the floor.
<Normally I would reprimand you for this, young lady, but in light of the appearance of the morphs we may need their help if we wish to avoid exposure,> Seisu replied. <I supposed we should invite them into our home.>
"You think Yuko's getting into trouble for taking us here?" Quana wondered. If that was the case, she really did feel bad for taking her up on her offer. If it caused so much trouble, then why did she offer it so readily?
"It's possible; the people here probably don't want to be exposed to outsiders so Yuko bringing us here might have broken some kind of law they have or something," Luke stated thoughtfully. Though he didn't think she'd be so impulsive, especially without a good reason.
Their conversation was interrupted by the return of Yuko and her parents. Upon seeing that Yuko's mother was a horse zunanma a light went off in Patrick's head, "Oh, that explains it!"
Luke seemed to come to a similar conclusion as he chuckled. "Yes, now I can see why Yuko is a pegasus as well," he commented. Her mother was a horse and her father a bird. It was definitely interesting, to say the least. Quana elbowed the both of them, rolling her eyes.
"At least try to be respectful, you two," she remarked. Honestly, boys. Sometimes they were just too easily fascinated.
Yuko and her mother giggled. "Yes that’s why I'm a pegasus, and the only one in fact," Yuko said.
"It's because of the dark magic lingering on Valor that she was able to be conceived, and why her snout is so small." Seisu playfully prodded her daughter’s snout
"Mom!" Yuko flinched away but smiled. "This is my mom, Seisu."
"I'll leave you to get acquainted. I need to go see the elders. Please don't leave the house until I return," Koran said as he headed for the door.
"As long as we're here, come into the family room," Seisu offered.
"Thank you for your hospitality," Luke answered with a smile. He and his friends entered the home, led by the two women. "We're sorry for all of this trouble, though. We honestly didn't have any idea that people actually lived on Valor," he admitted.
"That's why our kind settled here," Seisu replied. "I can get you some food and water if you like," she offered.
"That would be appreciated, thank you," the tactician replied.
The family room could be described as quaint. There were two sofas adjacent to each other with a small end table in between them, no doubt for the sake of entertaining guests. There were some plants in the room, mostly for decoration's sake to give the place a more natural feel.
Seisu smiled and disappeared into what they could assume was the kitchen as they call took their seats.
"So... while we wait is there anything you want me to talk about?" Yuko asked.
"I have a few questions I wouldn't mind having answered. Like for example, how do you and your people seem to know so much about the morphs and just the outside world in general? I assume your people haven't left Valor in ages so your knowledge of world history is honestly a bit surprising," Luke admitted.
"Well to be honest most of our knowledge of your world comes from a visitor who came to our island about 120 years ago, right after the battle between the Lycians and the morphs," Yuko replied.
"So we're not the first humans to visit this place," Quana mused thoughtfully. "Though I wonder who it could have been. If they came here so soon after that battle was over, then maybe it was one of the Lycian warriors who was fighting against the morphs."
"If that's the case, that would be amazing," Luke admitted.
"He wasn't Lycian, in fact he never spoke about his past," Seisu said as she returned with a pitcher of water and some bread and butter. "I'm not sure what you want so this is all I could think of," she admitted. "As for the visitor, he was named Renault. The only thing he ever said about himself is that he joined the Lycians to get rid of the morphs so he could have some peace on Valor but he was only a part of their army for their final battle. He stumbled across our city and he decided to live out his days here. Though he never spoke of his past he told us much about Elibe while he lived here."
"Renault?! History remembers him as a very ambiguious man. No one knows where he went after the battle. It seems now we know," Luke remarked, surprise clear in his voice. "It's said that he was somehow connected to Nergal and wanted revenge but there's really not too much of anything to go off of. His past is a complete mystery to history's pages."
"And even to ours." Seisu nodded.
Yuko nodded, "As for our people, we came from a world called Tellius 800 years ago. The Zunanma were the first people who evolved on that world and we worshipped the goddess Ashunera. However the Zunanma began to fracture into tribes who adopted different philosophies for life: The Beorc, children of knowledge who look like you; and the Laguz, children of strength who took on animalistic features in their human form and can become full animals to unleash all their ferocity."
Seisu took over, "Some of our ancestors rejected the notion of needing to choose one philosophy over the other and fled as the fighting between Beorc and Laguz escalated. We ventured through a portal called the 'outrealm gate' and found ourselves in this world while your nations were still young. We chose to settle on Valor because it lacked any developed civilization so we could live in secrecy and peace."
"That's absolutely fascinating," Luke admitted in slight awe, an expression of contemplation on his face. From a scientific standpoint, such a notion was outlandish and farfetched, but then again the world worked in ways they couldn't hope to fully comprehend. What reason had he not to believe them?
"Ashunera, the goddess of dawn. She's not a goddess commonly worshipped here in Elibe, but she does have her followers. Most people here belong to the Elimine church instead," Quana commented. "Saint Elimine was one of the heroes of the Scouring. It's said that she ascended into the heavens after dying as a martyr and the church was named after her honor."
"As far as we know, Ashunera does not exist on this world," Seisu said. "But word of her did spread from us as we traveled the land. There may be mention of humanoid animals in your myths that reference our first arrivals in this world."
"I'll have to look into that later," Luke admitted. He wondered if any of his history books held any information on such a thing. "Though our primary purpose in coming here was to head to the Dragon's Gate; I wanted to visit the place where that battle occurred to see if I could glean anything useful from the tactics used by the Lycian strategist. The man was a genius of war, no doubt."
"Renault spoke of him briefly. Though he didn't say what he thought of the tactics that were used," Seisu noted.
"Our history speaks highly of him. Not a single one of the Lycian band was lost in battle under his guidance. It's said countries were even willing to go to war to have him become their own strategist," Luke explained. "That's the sort of greatness that I aspire to."
"That's a high aspiration," Yuko said.
"It is, but I'm willing to work for it,” Luke replied with a grin.
"It's good to see such ambition in a young man," Seisu noted. She gafve a slight wink to Yuko that went unnoticed by the others.
The conversation was interrupted when the front door of the house opened and Koran's voice came to them, "I'm back."
"Did everything go well? We'd hate to have caused an uproar..." Quana spoke up. They didn't mean to disturb the peace of this village, but with all that was going on, they would probably need all the help they could get.
Koran sighed, "You're fortunate that the appearance of the morphs have outweighed your discovery of this place." Seeing the shocked look on Patrick's face Koran added, "You wouldn't be in any danger it's just that the elders wouldn't have any idea how to handle this. As it stands the morphs present a threat to us because their master's intentions are most likely more sinister than yours."
"We honestly had no intentions of coming here at all. We only found this place because your daughter was kind enough to offer asylum after we fought off the morphs," Luke explained.
"I couldn't just leave them out there to be ambushed again!" Yuko spoke up.
"I wouldn't expect any less of you," Koran told his daughter as he ruffled her hair. "For now the elders need to decide what to do about this stuation. For the moment they are going to wait and see if the morphs will appear again. Until then you may spend the night with us," Koran offered.
"Thank you, sir," the tactician replied with a grateful smile.
"You're welcome, but I should say that I am doing this less out of altruism and more to avoid causing panic in town. But don't misunderstand me. I hold no ill will towards you as I do not know you but..." He smiled at Yuko, "My daughter likes you and that's enough for me."
"You may sleep in here. Do you have bedrolls?" Seisu asked
"Yes, ma'am, we'll situate ourselves." Patrick spoke up. "Don't you worry about us!" He didn't want to cause any more trouble for these people than they already had.
"You should be fine. I will have to make more for supper tonight though," Koran commented.
As the two older Zunanma left, Yuko stayed seated on the couch. She watched the three friends setting up their sleeping area, after Patrick removed his heavy armor. After a moment she asked, "What is the rest of Elibe like?"
"The rest of Elibe? Well…it's all pretty different," Luke replied. "It'd take a bit of time to describe it all to you. There's Lycia, Bern, Sacae, Ilia, Eturia. All of the countries are pretty different from each other, too, so it'd be difficult to talk about it all in one sitting."
"Where do the three of you come from?" Yuko asked.
"We all come from Lycia. Luke and I came from Pherae but Patrick came from Ostia." Quana decided to answer for her this time, deciding to get a bit more involved in the conversation.
"What is lycia like? What are the people like?" Yuko sat forwards, her interest piqued.
"It's a pretty nice place. The people tend to be kind." Quana said with a smile. "Lycia used to be a bunch of different territories that was ruled by a council of marquesses, but after Lord Roy and Lady Lilina of the Bern War married, they united it into a single kingdom. The current king is their grandson."
"We never heard about the war. Some of our people sensed conflict but we stayed out of everything, as always," Yuko replied. "Have you travelled much?"
"I wouldn't say we're the most well-traveled people around, but we've been around most of Lycia," Patrick spoke up. "Though we haven't really been outside of Lycia before, so honestly, this is our first trip to a foreign land."
"OK." Yuko stood up, "Well I should go help dad with supper, I hope you don't mind staying here."
"We'll be fine." Luke said with a reassuring smile. "We know how to take care of ourselves, don't worry." Sometimes he wondered if these people were so used to coddling themselves that they ended up coddling visitors, too.
The next day, Yuko found herself perched on the top of a tree above her village. She stared, out at the distant shoe, able to see it thanks to the vision inherited from her father. "I want to go with them," she said aloud as she leaned back against the tip of the trunk. Her gaze lowered to observe he layout of valor.
Yuko blinked and squinted. There were figures near the ruins of the dragon's gate. She spread her wings and flew to a tree closer to the ege of the forest, lowering herself below the tree line to avoid being spotted. Once at the edge of the forest she carefully peered out. She could just make out about two dozen shapes, all of them with pale skin and jet black hair. "Morphs!" she whispered in alarm before she turned around and sped through the air back to her home.
Meanwhile, Luke, Quana and Patrick had just finished getting ready for the day. They had a restful night's sleep thanks to the hospitality of the zunanma, but they did plan on setting out towards the Dragon's Gate before noon.
"It's almost a shame we have to leave so soon," Quana commented. "It's such a nice little village, I'd like to see more of it. Oh well." They did come here with an original purpose in mind and they didn't want to overstay their welcome. Especially if people were still uncomfortable with them around.
"We would appreciate you going to Dragon's Gate, if only to see if there are any more morphs in the area," Koran said from where he sat on the couch, a book in his talon-like hands. "They may not be especially powerful but we do not want whoever is controlling them to find out about our home."
"We'll keep an eye out for any more Morphs that might be running about. It's disturbing to think someone is using them again after so long," Luke admitted with a frown. Who was using them, though, and why?
Further conversation was forestalled when Yuko burst in. "Morphs! By the dragon's gate!" she panted, her wings drooping from her rapid flight back.
Luke blinked in surprise at this announcement before he frowned deeply. "Well I guess that answers that question," he muttered. "Looks like we've got another fight on our hands..."
"And now they're at the Dragon's Gate? I wonder just what they're doing there," Patrick remarked.
"Regardless they st be dealt with," Koran said before he turned to his daughter, "I assume you want to go with them."
Yuko nodded, "They've seen me already, and I want to stop them."
"Very well." Koran turned back to the three visitors, "Yuko will accompany you to the dragon's gate. Please don't let her get hurt."
"We'll protect her," Luke said with a grin. "And we'll clean up those Morphs, too, so don't worry about them. Before the day is through, they'll all return to the dust they came from."
"Thank you," Koran said.
"We should go. Dad, can I take an elthunder tome?" Yuko asked.
"Considering the danger to our home, I'll let you have one without charge this time." Koran nodded.
"Thanks dad," Yuko gave her dad a hug then darted into the store entrance to fish out the tome.
"Our equipment should be good enough to handle the Morphs for now, I'm sure it'll hold," Luke commented, going over some things in his head. Yes, most weaponry would get brittle with age and eventually break if used too often, but their weapons were still in good shape. They didn't need to worry about that quite yet.
"That's good," Koran said.
"OK I'm ready, I'll lead," Yuko called from the entrance.
"Alright then, let's go!" Luke said with a nod. He had no problem with letting Yuko take the lead for now, but he'd take command when the battle actually started. He knew quite a bit about tactics, so he wanted to make sure their four-man squad would be able to handle such a large group.
As they emerged from the forest, the four of them spotted the scattered morphs on the field in front of them. "Here we are, I don't know what kind of forces there are.”
"Alright, we should all stay near each other for this fight." Luke said, looking to his companions. "There's only four of us, so we can't afford to go off on our own here. Patrick, I need you to stay up out front. You'll be our heavy hitter and our primary defense. It seems most of the enemies are melee fighters, so you should be alright. Quana, you're going to stay towards the back and attack from afar. Leave repelling incoming attacks to us - you should focus on feathering them. Yuko, you and I will serve as the auxiliary fighters. You're a bit more capable of handling yourself in close range than Quana is, and with your wings you'll be able to evade attacks a bit easier. We'll finish off anyone that Patrick wounds enough and protect Quana at the same time." he explained out the formation and strategy for the coming battle. "Since we don't want any of these Morphs to know about the village, our mission is to rout every single one of them. Don't let a single one get away alive."
"Good strategy. Let me know if you spot any archers or wind mages," Yuko added.
"I'll do my best to snipe them down if I see them!" Quana said, preparing her bow and notching an arrow. "Now let's take these freaks of nature out!"
One of the morphs, armed with a lance, noticed them and gave a hollow cry as it charged at the group. "I guess they saw us!" Patrick commented as he stepped to take the blow, the morph’s lance just striking off his armor.
Luke was quick to step in, sending out a blast of fire to damage the lancer. Quana finished the creature off with an arrow to the throat, but this only served to alert the rest of the morphs to the presence of intruders.
Yuko managed to fry one that came too close with her elthunder tome. "We might need to move forwards to get rid of all of them," she called out.
The tactician nodded in agreement. "I think you're right, but remember the plan to stick together!" he ordered. Patrick nodded himself and proceeded forward towards the entrance of the Dragon's Gate. Two swordsmen attempted to intercept him, but he managed to bash them both away with powerful lance stabs. Yuko and Quana were quick to finish them off.
"About 20 more left," Yuko commented. She launched a lightning bolt at a nearby morph, but missed.
"We're lucky they don't seem to be too powerful individually, otherwise we really would be in a lot more trouble," Quana commented to herself as she feathered the morph Yuko had previously missed.
An arrow flew in to their ranks and Struck yuko in the arm, coming out the other sde, she cried out in pain and tried to pull it out, only to flinch in pain
"It's barbed, don't try to pull it back," Luke said.
"Then what do I do?" Yuko asked.
"Here," Luke took his sword and cu the shaft from the arrow, "Do you have anything to heal that?"
Yuko nodded, "An herb."
"OK, then just bear this," he grabbed the front of the arrow and carefully pulled the broken end through.
"Thank you," Yuko said as she applied the herb the wound.
With Yuko's wound healed, Luke returned his attention to the battle at hand. Quana had slayed the archer that hit Yuko, and now was making sure to snipe off anyone that Patrick hit in order to finish them off. The knight, for his part, played the role of a tank well enough. He took a few scratches and minor hits here and there, but it was nothing that caused any outrageous concerns. Yuko didn't waste any time in charging up her magic for the next strike, vaporising a lancer morph that was charging at them.
"Phew....how many more left are there?" Patrick wondered, beginning to grow a bit fatigued from his efforts. He didn't have a problem with throwing his weight around, but there were so many enemies.
"As long as there's more than one!" Yuko took a hit from a myrmidon and retaliated with a bolt from her elthunder tome. Luke stepped in and cut the myrmidon down with his sword.
Patrick decided he would just take a very long nap once this was over before he impaled a morph on the end of his lance with extreme prejudice. As the body dissolved into dust, he was forced to defend himself when a blast of fire came his way from a morph mage. "Tch."
Yuko spotted the mage and lashed out with her thunder tome, easily striking the creature in the side. One of Quana's arrows finished it off.
"I think we're almost done," Luke said, glancing carefully around the battlefield. "But they should have some kind of commander..." He found it odd they didn't see one that looked like they were calling the shots.
Near the entrance to Dragon's gate two figures stood, both clad in the robes and armor of a war monk, one in orange the other in pale green, with an axe and healing staff attached to each of their back.
"Ahh Manfed, are these the remains we were looking for?" the one in green asked as he knelt over a small pile of ancient dust in the entrance of the ruins.
"According to what we were told, they are, James," the war monk in orange, named Manfred, replied to his partner and brother. "Let's gather them up and move on. There's still other materials to collect for Blanche."
"Yes, lets. Hmm?" James looked up, "We appear to have company Manfred."
"Hm?" Manfred glanced outside himself and frowned a bit. "So it seems, James. How interesting."
"But we can't stick around. Here," he snapped his fingers and a hooded sniper appeared.
"I have a message from lord Nergal: I await you at dread isle. I have a message from lord Nergal: I await you at dread isle. I have a message from lord Nergal..." The being repeated endlessly.
"Yes, this was one of the original morphs that Blanche managed to resurrect...sadly, it completely lacks anything in terms of intelligence, free will or even a conscious. It can fight, but it's really nothing more than a glorified tape recorder," Manfred commented. "And it's not even as strong as it was way back in the day. Oh well. It doesn't matter so long as it can kill those intruders. We have other things we need to do."
"Yes we do." James nodded as he finished scooping the dust they had found into his bag. "Let's depart."
"Yes, let's," Manfred agreed, taking a staff from his back. It glowed brightly and with a flash of light, both men disappeared, leaving the soulless morph sniper to finish the job.
"What was that?" Yuko saw the bright flash near the dragon's gate but her momentary distraction allowed a lancer to get past Patrick and slash her across the chest. Yuko retaliated with two bolts of lightning and blew it apart.
"I have no idea, but I think there's someone there." Luke remarked with a small frown. An answer to his question came when an arrow flew past his head, missing him - albeit barely. "Woah! Yeah, I think it's probably an enemy!"
"That was a bolt from a ballista, there must be one set up nearby," Quana observed. Yuko shuddered at the thought.
"We definitely don't want to be hit with one of those," Patrick mused. Even with his heavy armor, a ballista bolt would hurt quite a bit. "We better get to it and take out that archer and quick!"
"Agreed." It was times like this Luke wished he had a Meteor tome. It would be so much easier to attack someone from that distance.
"I can't fly until he's done shooting," Yuko said. "And... I think I need to pull back out of his range."
"Just stick by me, I'll keep you safe," the tactician said with grin in her direction. It was true that the ballista really threw off his strategy, but they could make up for it by just staying close together instead.
"Oh, OK," Yuko blushed slightly but moved to stand by Luke.
As they moved forwards another bolt flew right at Luke and Yuko. On a reflex, Yuko tackled Luke to the ground, causing the bolt to fly over them and bury itself in the ground.
The young man was quick to recover, but he couldn't help but marvel at the irony. "I thought I was supposed to protect you," he commented with an amused chuckle.
"Well I can't just let you be a big shield," Yuko replied as she got up to continue the fight.
"Yeah, that's Patrick's job." Quana remarked jokingly as she feathered one more morph from a distance. The aforementioned knight only rolled his eyes, used to her darker sense of humor.
"We're getting closer to that sniper...Let's hope we can take him out quickly enough," Patrick commented.
"If we can't we should get in close and surround it so it can't attack," Luke called out as he and Yuko blasted a morph with fire and lightning.
"Sounds like a plan to me!" Quana remarked. Getting up close and personal would make it hard for the morph to attack them.
"We should be almost done," Yuko added as they sped to cross a bridge that separated them from the ballista.
"Do you think we could try and break the ballista?" Patrick asked, looking to Luke for confirmation.
"We could try, but it'd be easier just to kill the morph," Luke replied. "Let's get ready; I can see the guy from here."
As they approached the morph it stepped away from the ballista and approached Patrick. Once it was close enough they heard it's non-stop babbling. "I have a message from lord Nergal: I await you at the Dread Isle. I have a message from lord Nergal: I await you at the Dread Isle. I have a message..." As it notched an arrow and let it fly at Patrick.
Patrick couldn't dodge the arrow in time and it hit him, actually managing to make him shout in pain as it drilled into his side. Quana was quick to return fire, launching an arrow back at the morph man.
"Just what's that thing talking about?" Luke wondered with a frown. There had to be some kind of reasoning behind the man's repeating that single message over and over. Is that what it meant to be a Morph? Nothing more than a soulless tool?
"Let's do what you suggested and get in close," Yuko said as she pulled away from Luke's side and flew right in to the morph's face and shoved her hand, charged with elthuder, close to its body, which blew a hole through its body, but the morph was still standing.
Luke took his sword and darted forward before he jumped up and viciously cleaved downwards, leaving a long gash on the morph's body. However, it still managed to stay standing, almost as if it couldn't register the pain its body was without a doubt in. "Damn...just what kind of inhuman abomination is this?" the tactican had to wonder.
"I thought we already knew that," yuko countered. Quana and Patrick, despite the pain from the arrow shot, managed to get in close and surround the morph.
Seemingly confused, the morph sniper notched an arrow to its steel bow and pointed it at Yuko, or rather over her shoulder. It turned to face Luke only to be met with the same dilemma, then Patrick and finally Quana. It kept turning to face each of them but never could level an arrow at them due to the way it had to hold its bow, all the while repeating its phrase in the same cold monotone voice. "I have a message from lord Nergal: I await you at the Dread Isle..."
"Let's finish this..." Patrick remarked. Without waiting for an invitation, he charged forward, stabbing his lance towards the morph, aiming to end its existence.
The morph still did not die, forcing Yuke and Luke to blast it with fire and lightning. Patrick stabbed at it again and finally the morphs crumble dto dust with one last line. "I bring a... message... fro........"
"Phew...that was too close..." Quana admitted with a sigh. "I think that's the last of them."
"Out here. There might be more inside," Yuko stated as she turned to see the worn entrance of the Dragon's Gate carved into the mountainside.
"That is a decent possibility." Luke agreed. "So we better be prepared once we head inside. Though just what are the morphs doing here? We never got an answer to that question." It was worrisome, to say the least. Who had sent these creatures here and for what purpose? It was a mystery.
"We might find out once we head in," Patrick pointed out.",
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