SS Story Time || Wolves & Demons

AxSyss was in the card shop soon after arriving in the desert town of Camoa. Wait, am I referring to myself in the third person again? There was a young Nu Mou behind the counter selling law insertion and nullification cards. Nu Mou have a bipedal sea cow appearance along with their heightened intellect. This particular Nu Mou, Neslin, used alchemy to create his patented law cards.
“AxSyss, I thought you were set for cards.” He gave me a smug look. One that showed he was reading me. He was powerful, and this look made my brightly tanned skin seeth.
“I came for gossip. Word is that Clan Infernus is in town.” I ran my slim fingers through my darkened red hair.
“Yeah, their leader just bought cards from me. Said he was headed to the Giza Plains.”
“Oh yeah?” I said more to my self than to Neslin, “Hope he’s ready.”
“What are you planning, AxSyss?”
“To take Rez down, of course.” I turned to leave and called back, “Just don’t forget to close up tonight. ‘Kay, Nes?” I left before he said anything else and headed southward to the Giza Plains.

Using my Chocobo Feather, I arrived in seconds to see a tall, dark-clad ninja slay a Lemura. With the snake woman beheaded, he sheathed his still-bloodied blades.
“Yo! Arezetzo!”
“AxSyss,” That’s my best friend, Arezetzo. He’s also the leader of Clan (Rank 1 in 1000) Infernus. He lowered his mask to reveal a look of exasperation, “What in the hell are you doing here?”
“That’s easy. Heard you were in town. It’s always so hard to find you.” My face twisted into a grim smirk as I drew my weapons the Venus Blade and Atmos Blade. The Venus blade is a sword centered around strength, with it’s curved edge and thin blade, and The Atmos Blade seemed to be pure air and plasma energy. My class was as a fighter, although I did briefly become a ninja to gain the ability to wield two blades at once.
“I’m starting to feel glad I was too lazy to dismiss the Judge.” He drew his weapons Asura and Heaven’s Cloud. Both very strong swords on their own, and completely warranting death when paired. A ninja’s weapons are based on elements and ether. Asura was a weapon of fire, and Heaven’s Cloud was one of oblivion.
It was a 4x4 battle meaning four units on each side. Along with the obvious choice of myself; I chose my Moogle time mage, Montblanc; my Bangaa dragoon, Terse; and my Viera assassin, Ritsuko. Arezetzo didn’t surprise me with his picks though. He himself was a ninja, he also chose three other Bangaas. A templar, dragoon, and gladiator. His clan was all about power, and those hostile reptiles had it. The Judge began the battle and positioned his armored Chocobo far from the blast range. Rez being the fastest, he was able to pull the first move. His mask went back up and his cold, calculating eyes fell on Ritsuko. Those bunny-eared Vieras are the fastest race in all of Ivalice, she was only a little intimidated by his speed. He made for her, but I cut him off with a slash of the sword. I crossed my blades in the air at Rez, sending a ripple of dense air at him. This ability was called Air Render, and it is easily the most reliable of abilities that I have. Rez was thrown back, but what I didn’t see was his dragoon vaulting with his spear and crashing down upon me. I was just barely able to avoid being impaled, but the aftershock of the attack hit me harder than the initial motion did. Montblanc cast his Haste spell on Ritsuko so she could outpace Rez. She sped behind him, believing he hadn’t known much better and tried her Doom ability. It should kill any enemy in that one strike, except that she couldn’t move. He had used his Fire Whip Jutsu on her, binding her arms. His templar impaled her with his silver spear, downing her at once. The templar then urned his glassy eyes towards me. He used his extended reach to make an attempt to impale myself as well, but I easily sidestepped it. I slowly moved my swords around at my sides to keep balance as I twirled around his pike. When my back was to him, My right sword caught one end of he spear, making him unable to bring it back rest. With my left blade primed, I used an ability titled Beatdown. This ability channels all of my strength into a single attack. The templar’s armor shattered and he was down.
Fighting ceased for a short while. With one member down on each clan, I pulled back to regroup. I am currently a fighter class, but I do have some experience as an illusionist. And Rez has been very... Um, braggadocio about his abilities. His ninja skills along with his interchangeable fighter and black mage skills. I figured it’d be easier if I took him on, and even then he still outclasses me. Even with my higher level. It’s be best if I took him on and left Montblanc and Terse to his Bangaa warriors. Montblanc was a powerful black mage before he became a time mage, and Terse is a powerful dragoon with multiple breath magic attacks. Terse used his Jump ability as an opening attack and bringing him to Rez’s dragoon. Except the opposing dragoon had the same idea. They clashed in midair and fell to the earth together. He used his Bangaa Cry breath magic and Terse countered with the same attack. The sonic waves clashed and belted out, creating a low-high variation in the air. The sound was very obnoxious because no one had ever used a sound-based attack to counter a sound-based attack. At least not until now. Terse and his opponent were strong, strong enough to cancel each other out, they cycled through the breath magics unendingly. From sound to fire to ice to thunder to sound again. Montblanc went after the Gladiator, using his small size and superior speed to stay at a safe distance while raining down powerful black magic. Assuming brass and chain-mail was conductive, he cast all sorts of thunder at him. He was just able to cast Thundaga, the strongest thunder magic there is, around three times. It’s pretty hard to evade thunder bolts while wearing gladiator armor. The gladiator was on his knees, and Montblanc was out of Mana. Montblanc was also too far from the gladiator to reach him in a timely manner. He didn’t have enough Mana to Quicken himself so that he could reach his opponent faster, and he definitely didn’t have enough Mana to cast Haste to at least speed up his feet. The gladiator would be able to use a potion and Montblanc would be in trouble. Ethers are hard to come by, so I can’t restore his Mana. I’ll have to wait until it replenishes. Meanwhile, I had been dealing with Rez.
“This is fun, yeah?”
“You know it,” He swung his blade in my general direction and used his Blitz ability to land a precisely placed knee in my sternum. “And it’ll be better when I win.” He cast Earth Tomb Jutsu, as he called it, and it slowed me down too much. I wouldn’t be able to dodge his next attack. Montblanc was totally drained of Mana, and I didn’t have anymore Chocobo Feathers. I looked over at Terse to see that he had defeated the other dragoon and sustained a significant amount of damage. I grinned, but only for a short moment. I turned to see Montblanc felled by a swipe of the Flametongue spellblade. After Montblanc was down, the gladiator drank an X-Potion and restored 150HP. I had one too, but I couldn’t use it because I was too slow. I wouldn’t make it in time. I was glad to see Terse take one though. Rez used a normal attack to attack. Both swings of the swords were critical hits. I had no chance.
As leader, I could still see what was going on in the battle from the Judges point of view even though I’m out of the fray. Terse wouldn’t be able to take Rez and his gladiator, he had to minus the gladiator before adding in the ninja sorcerer. But Terse was smarter than the average Bangaa, he Jumped and, while airborne, used his Ice Breath ability. It fanned out to Rez and his gladiator, but it wasn’t good enough. Rez used his Beatdown ability to drop Terse in a single hit.
“And that’s how the demons do it, Ax.”

“And that’s how the demons do it, Alstyn.” Dakoda’s curly blonde hair bounced around as he boasted his victory. We had been playing Final Fantasy Tactics together for a long time now.
“Wolf Pack will have you guys soon. I can taste it.” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Your taste buds must be screwed up, ‘cuz I soooo outclass and outrank you.” The bell rang and it was time to leave. I got on the bus formulating a plot to overcome him and his lizard people.