Soul of the Mountain

As they walked down lights lit up, welcoming them to the true second dungeon, covered in rocks and stones, plants grew from the walls and dirt covered over everything. At first look their was a large open area, that led down three paths at the sides. Before they could venture down any of them, some of the rocks from the floor started to shake, coming to life as they pieced themselves together, looking some what human shaped and a red glow at the face where the eyes would be.

"One fight right into another." Vixen let out an exhausted breath before reading her bow.

"These wont be so easy, they are made out of solid rock and stone, we need to be smart about where we hit them and if you're going to hit, hit hard." Fenix gave out clear instructions on how they could beat them, it seemed obvious that fire wouldn't work on these guys. All they could do is hit them hard and fast, this was going to put a lot on Art and Fenix, but Tophuu jumped in first, calling his Skull Mutt out and rushing in with the first solid blow. He was ready to go and wanted to help out more in this battle, as did the others, so they set the others up as best they could to support them. Fenix rushed in with a series of kicks starting from the leg and spinning, rising up the Golem with a tornado kick. Art came in next, a second sword appearing in his hand as he followed Fenixs lead and spun around, slicing at it and taking large chunks of it out.

"I am gonna need to sharpen my swords up after this fight." A smirk coming over his face as they continued in their assault on it. Tophuu didn't have as much attack power but him and the Skull Mutt continued in their attack, the Mutt whipping around and hitting it with its long boned tail, while Tophu struck it over and over with his fists, pulling back and hitting it with the heaviest blow he could and even going as far as to head butt it to do damage to it. Meekle was standing back buffing them but it wasn't enough, they needed another hand to help them, Vixens arrows continuing to bounce off and Razah going through her spells to find something that she could use without burning through all her magical power.

Meekle rushed in, "Inner Curse, Demon Claw." Large black shadows formed over his hands, making them giant claws, he attacked at the one Tophuu was going at and slashed down, making a large gash in it before he continued like a beast himself, one claw after another coming down on the Golem. Art got hit by the Golem himself because he got distracted watching Meekle fight, he thought it was so cool and wondered why he hadn't done that before.

"Ready Fenix?" Art hit the floor and rolled into a sword stance, his body crouching, his right knee bent forward while his left leg stretched back, as if he was getting ready to shoot forward.

"Oh you know it. Combo attack." Fenix jumped back and got in a similar position, except his hands fell to his side, his claws out and ready for slicing.

"Dynamite Rush." Both of them shouting out as they shot in and hit it full force and pacing each other in the air, landing in a combat stance. Everyone else watched, Vixen's eyebrow lifting and her head shaking as she covered her face with her hand. "I can't believe we are friends."

"I thought it was kind of cool." Razah countered to Vixen's joke. The two felt over joyed at first but you could see the disappointing in their face when they heard what Vixen said. Meekle had continued clawing at the monster till it went to its digital form and the hands faded away like smoke.

"Hey Meekle, why didn't you tell anyone you could do something so cool?" Art rushed over watching the smoke fade, a bit sad he didn't get to admire the form.

Meekles face dropped, "I was afraid, its a curse I put on myself. I didn't know what would happen." His arms shook a bit at the thoughts. It was an understandable fear, especially when you have a moved with demon in the name, but still everyone thought it was pretty cool.

"I get it, the first time I did it, I worried I wouldn't change back either." Fenix patted him on the shoulder to show his understanding of the situation. They took a moment before they started looking down each of the halls, all of which led to dead ends but they were starting to get use to that. At the end of each hall was a large dip in the floor with some kind of magical sensory attached into it. They met back in the open area and knew that they had to put the large boulders that were there into the dips.

"Finally an easy puzzle to deal with." Vixen was let out a soft breath and smiled at this, they had been through so much it was nice to have something that seemed so straight forward.

They started pushing one over and down the hall and into the dip of the floor and as it set in it quickly vanished, all of them in wonder as they shrugged and headed back to do the next one, only to see the one they just pushed back in the main room. Vixen's smile quickly left her as it did everyone else.

"It would seem that there is a trick to it. Maybe we have to put them in the right room?" Fenix examined them and looked for clues to which one they would go to.

"Why don't we just take the same one to reach room till it stays? Then we will know which one it goes to." Art suggested to the rest of them. They agreed and started rolling it down, but the second one was no good either, they thought they had it as they pushed it into the third one but it still went back to the beginning. Frustration running high now as Fenix snapped his fingers.

"What if we have to do them all at the same time?" None of them liked that thought, they weren't light and would take some time to move that way, not to mention having to time it. They went two to each one, Art and Razah, Meekle and Tophuu and Vixen and Fenix all started pushing down the hall, trying to get it all at the same time, but it wasn't quite that easy as Vixen and Fenix got there before everyone else. They tried again, this time standing at the entrance of each path and counting a three, two, one and go before pushing them as hard as they could down. That seemed to fail as well as Meekle and Tophuu's stopped to soon. Art bent over and growled a bit, scratching at his head as he got more and more annoyed with each try. This time they all pushed them to the edge and held there, all of them taking a breath and starting to shout.

"Is everyone ready." Razah raised her voice so it would echo through the tunnel and to the others.

"Ready."

"Ready." Came from both of the other tunnels as they shouted out, counting down from three. As they got to one they all pushed as they latched and heard a rumbling noise, they all quickly rushed back to the main room to see the center wall start to crumble before them showing another path to go down. As much as they wanted to celebrate they felt like it was just to soon for that as some of the rocks started to shake and come together again.

This fight went quicker than the last, having Meekle help out from the start as they crushed and crumbled the Golems apart. They started moving forward, seeing more plant monsters as they moved forward through the large winding tunnel that led them deeper into the mountain. Soon they came to a room at the end of it, it was clean and had walls and stone floors, at the far end stood a large double door that wouldn't budge no matter how much they pulled and pushed at it. Beside the door were two large statues that looked a lot like the hero statue they saw outside in the city. They looked for switches on the floor, thinking that maybe they had to set the statues on them to open the door but there was no luck, they wondered if they somehow missed a key or something along the way, which Fenix counterpointed with the fact that there was no lock on the door, stating that it had to somehow be magical.

They started messing with the statues, seeing if the arms would move or maybe his legs but nothing worked as they started move them around more and more. Fenixs however stood looking at the door and rubbing at his chin as they all tried to find a way to open it.

"We have to turn them." Excitement escaped Fenix's mouth as he started pushed them back against the wall and turning them towards the door. "Don't you see, the art work on the door is the hint, it is a battle going on but there is no hero. You have to turn them to add them into the art work and make him a part of it." He seemed so excited and the others shrugged, figuring it couldn't hurt to try. A latching sound was made as they got it all in place and the doors popped open just enough for them to know it work. They started patting Fenix on the shoulder and back, letting him know how good he did and how much they appreciated him, even if his tangents could get out of hand, without him they would have had much more trouble in this world.

The doors opened up, revealing a large open room that looked like an oasis, a beautiful white stone crawled up the walls and beautiful trees bloomed out of the ponds that were at each corner of the room. In the middle stood what looked like a large tree but it was made of stone, moss crew up it and it started to move, it had a face carved into it that burned a bright red and yellow color and it had long arms that grew from it like branches from a tree. The stone of it was white and brown, giving it a more tree look to it and it stomped forward with its large trunk foot and gave a bellowing roar to them as it reached up and ripped one of the long branches from its head and swung it around like a sword.

As beautiful as the room was their eyes were focused on the beast, the Minotroll seeming so small in comparison to this giant beast. They couldn't begin to figure out how they were going to fight it as their weapons shook in their hands and their breathing slowed. Meekle started in with his curse buffs, adding a new one to Art and Fenix that now had a boost to their critical rates, which would give them more chances to do large amounts of damage with a single hit, if they land a critical attack. Razah got a magic boost this time, making her magic damage do more but making her defense drop while this was going, she would have to be careful to avoid the Petrified Ent. Vixen got a speed boost from him and Tophuu got an attack up boost, this gave them all better odds as they slowly moved in, no one in a rush after the last boss battle.

"Vixen, can you set as many of those exploding traps as possible?" Art turned to her, he had a look in his eye that said he had a plan for this one. "And Razah, I want you to hit it with those black holes as much as you can. We got to take it out in chunks. Tophuu, well, you're good at breaking things so, just go nuts alright." Tophuu gave him a wink and thumbs up, his face scaring the others with how excited he looked about this one. They all gave a nod to each other, they had their mission, they were working as a team now, rather than as six individuals like they were before, they had one goal, take down the boss.

Vixen rushed around, distracting it with her arrows as well as setting traps, she was still limited to four before her magic hit zero but over time that would come back, she decided to use a mana potion and set four more, making a total of eight through out the room. Razah cast her spell over and over, chipping away at the health of the boss as much as she could for now, while Meekle used his new self cursing power and rushed in to do close combat with the others. Tophuu called forth his large ShelledBoar and jumped on its back as they started to ram into it and Fenix and Art were with Meekle on close combat, slashing and hacking away at the legs of the Petrified Ent.

With its size came a large health bar as well and chipping away at it just wasn't doing it, as it stomped about and swung its large stick at them. They were doing good at dodging but what came next none of them saw coming. It took in a big breath, pulling them all in, Meekle grabbed the floor quick and reached out but couldn't grab Art and Fenix in time as they were pulled into the mouth of the beast. He stomped about and hit some of the explosive traps and took damage but still he continued his rampage through the room before he quickly let a large breath out, the two not coming out with it, but rather a white powder that they tried to dodge but Meekle was in no position to run as it hit him and he started turning to stone. Vixen, Razah and Tophuu left in horror as they looked around, they were the only three left and they had no idea what to do, or if the others were even alive. They felt defeated and try as they might, the fight felt lost, till the boss fell back and squirmed, a chunk of its health falling.

Art and Fenix found themselves inside the Petrified Ent, it was crawling with bugs that they fought and as they climbed up the body of it they found a red orb that floated inside the end and decided to start attacking it. Taking turns Fenix jabbed at it and Art swung and hit it as hard as he could.

"Wolf Strike." Fenix called out, blasting it with every skill he could, draining himself.

"Dragon Claw Slash." Art wasn't going to let Fenix get the best of it, they started competing till the hand of the large boss reached inside its own mouth and grabbed them, pulling them out and tossing them across the room.

"You guys are alive." Razah's voice was bitter sweet as they got their first glimpse of Meekle. Art and Fenixs didn't stop there, they rushed in, Fenix pouring something over Meekle as they did.

"Don't let up now guys." Art cheered them on, trying to raise their spirits as Meekle started turning back, his face stuck in a shocked look for a moment as he tried to figure out what just happened. It felt like time had simply stopped for him for a few moments, he tried not to think about it as he got to his feet and heard Arts words, he rushed, following their lead as Art and Fenix started climbing the boss trying to get back inside of him. Vixen looked at them like they were totally insane, they had to have lost it, but she played along, remembering the health dropping before and realizing it had to be them who did it. She started gaining the attention of the Ent, shooting at it with flaming arrows, not for damage but hoping it would bother it enough to come after her, leading it over the other traps. Razah helped her, staying close to her side and hitting it with small attacks that wouldn't take as much magic.

As the explosions went off on the ground the Ent shook and they held on as best they could and Tophuu decided to join in on the fun as the boar rushed him and he jumped, climbing up with them now. They crawled into its mouth and fell onto a platform, it was a large open space and they had to jump from platform to platform to get back to the orb, fighting back the monster bugs that crawled around inside of it and then straight to the orb attacking it with all they had. The Ent raging on the outside, making it hard for them to continue attacks, they kept falling and having to climb back up. Its hand started reaching in for them again as Art jumped down the others got thrown from the beast. Art climbed back up and started in on it.

"Twin Slash, Dragon Claw, Slashing Wings, Piercing Strike." He let off combo after combo, his swords hitting it as hard as he could possibly muster. The others watched as it started to crumble and scream out. Art didn't let up, he couldn't, he could feel just how close he was, every strike counting in this moment, he ran out of magic and continued swinging, one attack after the other, not taking the chance to regain his mana, his health was low, he hadn't realized how much damage he took when he was thrown out of the mouth.

In an attempt to stop Art the Petrified Ent reached both hands into it and started trying to grab at him, Art fell back quick, his health dropping a bit more from fall damage, but it seemed he leveled at some point in the dungeon and had a new skill. He took a mana potion and hoped that this would do it, he ran at the wall, his foot hitting it as he ran up and pushed off far below the orb, "Rising Strike." He burst forward like a bullet, spinning in the air, his sword pointed out and a blue light of energy spiraling from the tip of it as he connected, he let out a scream as he pushed it, his magic meter falling as he did so. Finally it started cracking, his sword piercing into it and suddenly smashing through it along with him. The Ent started to fall apart with Art in mid air, could now be seen by the party, he looked like a shooting star for a moment before he started falling back towards the ground, his body giving off a blinking red light to show how low his health was.

Razah ran towards him and shouted out her sunlight spell, not able to do much healing but it was enough to keep him alive as he hit the floor, all of them letting out a breath of relief to see he made it. Arts hands shot into the air as he laid on his back and he cheered, celebrating another win for them, while where the boss once stood only a floating piece of the seal was left. After Meekle grabbed it from the air the blue light came from the center of the room, just as before and they all smiled and looked around, they were all tired and not ready to move yet. While Art rested, the others took a look around the room, trying to find anything that would help, it seemed to be empty, all of them wondering where all the cool items were that usually would be in dungeons.

"Remember, we are still early in the game, maybe those will come later, we just have to keep moving forward, nothing we get now will be all that great pretty soon anyways." Fenix was worried more wishing about things in the game would bring on more changes and urged them not to do that. It was a small fear he had but after everything that happened they didn't need anymore surprises and agreed that they would try not to say things that could change the game anymore.

Soon they gathered themselves and headed into the light with the second piece of the seal, this one looking more like a piece of a lizard face with a eye on it. They found themselves at the shrine opening and looked around, it was bright as could be at as they looked around, nothing seemed to change but they were soon met by one of the Harpies.

"You must leave here, the Legion is in the town looking for you, it seems they knew where to look next for the seal and many in town have told them that others were looking for the opening." No one brave enough to stand against the Legion, as they were all just towns people trying to lead a simple life. Five other Harpies showed up, "We will fly you out of the city." They had done a lot of work and gotten to know the Harpies in town over the last few weeks, they were glad they had or they might not have helped them in this moment.

They were flown out of the city and over to Peddle Town, this was a common flight path for the Harpies and they hoped they were high enough for the Legion not to see them.

"Even though we were high you shouldn't stay here long, they might find you soon. Your best bet is to head to the port town and cross the sea, that will make it harder for them to find out." One of the Harpies said as she pointed the way towards the town.

"Why did you help us?" Vixen was still curious, she wanted to know.

"You were all very kind and we hate the Legion, others might bow to their power but they need to be stopped, that is part of your quest, is it not?" One of them was more than happy to answer her on this. They all smiled and looked around at each other before giving them a solid nod.

"We will get rid of them one day soon, hopefully." Vixen continued, she really wanted a world of peace for all, not just for them. That was part of the reason they took this quest, sure they were just cpus but still, they had brought them to life with their thoughts and wants and now they were people they knew and friends to them all, ones that risked themselves to help them. They all agreed they would one day take down the Legion, that's what made them all want to train and work so hard. With that said the Harpies took their leave and the rest found a small Inn to stay at for a while and lay low to catch their breath and eat. They all sat around talking about what they should do next.

"I saw we cross the sea, I mean there has to be a seal over their too, right?" Art looked around at them, hoping they would agree.

"But what if we are missing some from over here?" Fenix answered back with his own question.

"Then we can always come back, its not a one way trip." Vixen agreeing that it was best to gain some ground and get the Legion off their back.

"But we don't know what is over there, what if we aren't ready for what's on the other side?" Meekle put in a good point.

"No, that doesn't matter, we need to get out of here and away soon, the Legion is all over us and we need some breathing room. What ever is over their we will find a way to handle, even if we have to train some more. They aren't gonna drop us in the middle of no where." Art argued back, seeming to take this more serious, it was nice for them, seeing this side of him and him trying to do what was best for the team.

"I agree we leave to the other place. Maybe I can find some cool fish buddies on the way." Tophuu acting silly but having the best intentions on agreeing with the leave. Still his comments made some of them worry that he was just thinking of the cool things he could see and not the dangers of what could be ahead of them.

"I would also like to go, I want to get away from the Legion." Razah sounded worried, her voice was still trembling, thinking of how she almost lost so many friends at the boss, only to be met with the Legion when they got out of the dungeon was scary to her. With that thought on all their minds they agreed it was best to leave.

They got a quick rest and packed up all their stuff in the middle of the night and headed out of Peddle town for now and to the Port Town. It was easy to get out of the town and they headed straight there, the road was a bit more lively on monsters but nothing they couldn't deal with as they headed to the coast and soon came to the town, it had a large sign over it that read "Last Fantasy" in big blue letters. The sun was just creeping up as they got there and they were greeted by a man standing near the sign, dressed in all white cloths and looking very cleaned up.

"Ah, welcome travelers to Last Fantasy, a destination so hard to leave, beautiful sights and people and lots of great food, it will make you never want to leave."

"Why does this sound so familiar?" Fenix asked as he stared at the sign a bit longer than the others.

"Oh, just a word away from an old game is all." Art looked back at him, waving him on.

"Ya, that's it. Seems like some company would have had an issue with that." They both laughed a bit as they headed into the clean streets and ocean air, the main street was lined with shacks selling stuff and the ocean was a beautiful view with boats bobbing up and down at the harbor.