Ch 4: Tragedy

“Oh, c’mon! I know you can do better!” Meru is pacing back and forth in front of Albert shaking her head in shame. “Again!”

“What’s…” Albert struggles to say what Meru taught him, a simple phrase…what’s up. “U…how are you doing today?”

Meru screams and has her hands on her head wanting to pull her hair out in frustration due to the rate of the lessons of Albert’s progression in casual speech…zero. Meru points at Albert angrily. “Say it again! And this time, don’t add any fancy words! Else you're getting it!”

Albert sighs and hangs his head down. “How long must I endure in this useless lecture of speaking casually? There is only so much one can tolerate with these so-called instructions before they are driven to mental insanity.”

Meru sighs exasperatingly. “Until you stop talking like a smarty pants!”

Shana laughs. She’s been enjoying watching Meru teaching Albert how to talk with great pleasure. In the beginning, she tried to help Albert off but decided that this was a lot more fun to do…watch. (They’ve been at it for quite some time now…I wonder when Meru will give up?)

Albert tries to leave the room to escape Meru’s lessons of “education” but Meru stops him by standing at the door. A crewman walks by and he quickly asks, “Aren’t we at Rouge yet…? Please say in a couple of minutes.”

The crewman turns to Albert and responds, “Commodore Puler said that we would not be arriving at our destination for a couple of more hours.”

Albert's hope of escaping was shattered and his voice showed his despair. “Oh…thank you for your assistance.”

The crewman nods and walks off doing whatever he was doing before he was interrupted by Albert. Meru goes over to the bed and leaps onto it. She sighs again.

“Somehow I don’t think this is working…” Meru thought out loud. “I’ll have to try a different approach…”

“I’m standing right here, Meru,” Albert said.

“Huh? Crap.” She gets into a sitting position on her bed and puts her arms behind her head, swinging her legs back and forth. “Guess I’ll let ya do whatever. I’ll get you to talk like me if it’s the last thing I do!”

“Thank you for understanding Meru.”

Meru turns her head away and pouts. “Whatever.”

Albert walks out. “I think I’m going to go out for some air.”

“I think I will too. It’s getting a little stuffy in here,” Shana leaves as well, leaving Meru all alone in the room.

She looks around and sees that there was nothing exciting to do in the room. “I guess that might be a good idea…”

--

Kongol extends a hand with some medicinal herbs in them. “Haschel use.”

“Thanks Kongol.” Haschel grabs them and starts applying them to his legs. It stung a little but nothing that the Master of the Rouge Art couldn’t handle. He may be old, but he still had the strength and endurance of any strong young man like Albert. “Do you think Amory is still looking for me?”

Kongol stopped looking around and turned to Haschel. “Kongol see her but she not see Kongol.”

Haschel sighs and finishes applying the herbs. “Guess she is…”

Kongol knelt down next to Haschel and took a look at his wound. It seemed to be working pretty quickly. “Haschel better?”

Haschel starts moving around his legs and then bounces up into the air. “Now that you mention it, yes…I feel great!” He starts kicking rapidly and breaks a small tree with a powerful thrust kick. “What kind of herbs did you get? These are fantastic!”

“Ones that you humans not know of,” Kongol replied. He looked around again and drew his axe from his belt. “Can Haschel move and fight?”

Haschel looked at Kongol strangely and figured out his plan. “Fight? You’re not thinking of taking on Amory, are you?”

“Yes. It been long time since Kongol fight seriously. It fun.”

“That girl’s dangerous…we can’t take her lightly.”

“We go.” Kongol started moving deep into the forest to find his opponent of well-known strength.

Haschel reluctantly follows. “Soa…please make sure we don’t get screwed.”

--

Meru is hanging out on the deck of the ship. She suddenly sees something that catches her eye and goes over to investigate. She raises her hand above her eyes and squints. She starts waving frantically with her other hand. “Hey! I can see land!”

“You mean you just noticed, Meru?” Shana asks.

Meru looks at Shana in confusion. “What? When did you see it?”

“A couple of minutes ago. You were too busy admiring the new floor of the Fury.”

Meru puts her hands behind her head in a relaxed manner. “Well, can I help it if it looks that pretty like me?”

Shana smiles a fake one towards Meru and stares at the upcoming continent. (Please be safe, Haschel. Kongol.)

A couple of minutes later, they made it to port and headed into town. Nothing had changed much except that there were a lot more people now. It was like a tourist spot but the main attraction was Haschel’s Rouge school. It seemed to be attracting people from all over Endiness.

“Shana? Is that you?” A woman asks. She was a short pudgy woman with a knapsack wrapped around her back.

Shana looked at the woman and then slowly recognized who her old friend was. “Martel! It’s so good to see you!” Shana hugs her. “Did the Stardust we gave you help you?”

“Of course!” Martel takes out a pouch and opens it. Inside, there is a red dust powder. “The Stardust is an excellent herbal remedy for the sick…it can cure all sorts of diseases! It’s the power of the stars…that’s why it’s called Stardust!”

“Amazing,” Meru exclaimed. She snaps her fingers. “I had no idea…I would’ve kept it had I known that!”

“Meru.” Albert scolds.

“Uh…I meant that I would’ve helped people with it?”

“Well, Martel…have you seen Haschel or Kongol around lately?” Shana asks, ignoring Albert and Meru. “We’re looking for them.”

Martel thinks about it for a second and then points towards the mountains. “I think that…Haschel and Kongol are up training on the cliff. Their lesson to the children should’ve just about finished.”

“Thanks for the help!” Shana waved to Albert and Meru to follow her. “It’s been good to see you! Hope to see you again!”

Martel waves goodbye as the trio headed up to the training spot. To their surprise, no one was there. They noticed the cut railing and went over to examine it.

“This wood’s been cut pretty good…” Meru marveled. “I’d say it was done recently.”

“Then, Haschel and Kongol might be in trouble!” Shana said, starting to look around. “We have to hurry up and find them before they get hurt!”

Albert puts a hand on Shana’s shoulder to calm her down. “Just calm down, Shana. We’re all worried as much as you are but don’t let it get to you. If we’re all flustered when we meet our enemy, we might lose sight of our goal.”

Shana looks at Albert and nods slowly. “Right, thanks Albert.”

Albert points towards the forests below. “I’d say Haschel would most likely be in that forest below the cliff. He might’ve fallen from here.”

“Do you think he would survive a fall?” Shana wonders.

“Of course! That old geezer is made up more than brittle bones even at his age!” Meru jokes.

Albert starts to run down the mountain and into the forest. “Let’s not waste time.”

Shana and Meru quickly follow after him.

--

Kongol moved a tree branch and then pointed towards the port of Rouge. “Kongol see houses near sand.”

“Alright! We made it!” Haschel and Kongol quickly run out of the forest and down the beach to the familiar territory that they felt safe in. As soon as they arrived though, they saw a girl talking with some of the locals, a girl they did not want to see.

“There they are! You don’t have to worry about finding my master now!” She jumps happily over to Kongol and Haschel and stops right in front of them. “Silly me! I almost killed you but luckily, you Dragoons are built much tougher than I thought…but, now, I can finally complete my mission! Two birds with one stone!”

(Knowing her, she wouldn’t care about the townspeople…) Haschel thought as he assumed a fighting stance. Kongol tightened his grip on his axe. (We’ll have to try and get a reasonable distance away from the village and then we can fight at full strength.)

Haschel starts to run back down the beach towards the forest. “Kongol! Follow me quickly!”

Kongol steps back a little and starts to run when he was a considerable distance from her.

Amory smiles. “Cat and mouse! Meeeow!” She chases after them with lightning speed and catches up to them in no time. She jumps in the air and then releases the locks on her blades.

”Kongol! Above!” Haschel yells.

Kongol quickly raises his axe above his head to block the incoming chain blade while Haschel backflips to escape the other blade’s thrust. Amory lands in the sand and then starts spinning with her arms extended. Kongol and Haschel both jump back to dodge the blade cyclone and prepare for their next attack.

Amory stops spinning and starts walking strangely, a little dizzy from the spin. She starts swaying back and forth prompting both Haschel and Kongol to rush her while her sense of balance was distorted. However, Amory was only pretending and both of her blades lunged towards their targets. Haschel moves his head to the side to dodge and swung his fist. Amory easily jumped over it and landed on Kongol’s shoulder. Kongol tries hitting her away with his left hand but she jumps away like an expert acrobatic.

As she’s in the air, she spins like mad and her chain blades surge forward into the ground. Haschel and Kongol both jump back as the chain blades come from underneath the sand. Amory then lands in the water on both of her tippy toes and retracts the chain blades. “Hm, this is getting me nowhere…” Amory put a finger to her lip thinking of something.

Kongol charges forward with his axe in the air hoping to catch her off guard. She continues to think as a big Giganto was about to hit her full force. She nimbly dodges at the last second and then spins around.

Cold chains suddenly wrap around Kongol as he stops, ensnared in Amory’s trap. The blades pierce his armor causing him to bellow in pain.

“Kongol!” Haschel runs forward to help his friend but is abruptly stopped when Amory spins around, using Kongol as a bludgeon. She nails Haschel in the side with Kongol and releases the chains’ grip on the Giganto. They crash into the sand and it starts flying everywhere.

“Gotcha!” Amory squeals.

Haschel rolls over and holds his side. (Damn...we’re sitting chickens…)

Amory smiles as she spins her blades around in a dance and then hurls them both at the hurt Rouge teacher and Giganto. Right when the blades were going to strike the hurt duo, they are suddenly hit by two quick flashes into the sand.

Haschel turns to look at what happened and sees Shana with her bow out. “Shana!”

Albert and Meru come out of the forest and charges towards Amory. She tries to pull them towards her but the arrows that Shana had fired had nailed them firmly into the sand. Amory jumps into the air to dodge Albert’s thrust and puts both of her feet on his spear. She then raises her bracelet to block Meru’s incoming blow.

Metal strikes metal and wakes up Kongol in a flash.

“Where…?” He looks around and sees Meru, Amory, and Albert in a lockdown of weapons. He feels a slight pain in his chest that Amory had pierced but it was nothing life-threatening. Kongol sees Haschel right next to him with Shana tending to his rib injury.

“Shana.”

“Kongol, are you alright?” She asks.

“I fine. I go help King Albert and girl.”

“Hey, I have a name you know!” Meru calls. “It’s Meru!”

Kongol rushes forward and jumps into the air with the axe head lowered down for the finishing blow. Amory closes her eyes fearful of what was coming to next but then heard a clash of metal and several thuds into the sand. She slowly opens her eyes and sees a black-haired person wearing thirteen swords on his back and waist.

“Ritzen!”

Albert and Meru took a look at their new attacker. He was the one who had knocked them both away including Kongol with ease. He had thirteen swords strapped to his waist and back in a pair fashion: four swords protruding from his back, four carried on his waist belt, two strapped directly to his belt vertically, two in a slanted fashion on the back of his waist and a giant sword protruding vertically from behind his head.

(Holy crap, that’s a lot of swords…) Meru thought, looking at each one individually. They each had their own unique design and looked like they could slice and dice anything in a flash. Meru got up and raised her hammer in a defensive stance. Albert and Kongol had also gotten up with their weapons raised.

Ritzen’s gruff voice sounds from his face mask covering his mouth. “You’re always getting into trouble, aren’t you, Amory?”

“But you saved me!!” Amory was about to wrap her arms around Ritzen’s waist in a thankful hug but was fearful of getting poked by the sheathes of the sword. So, she just hugged his arm. “Thank you Ritzy!”

Ritzen shakes her off of his arm quickly and looks at his opponents. “This isn’t the time for that.”

Amory played with her fingers in shame. “Sorry…”

“The last five Dragoons…” Ritzen smiles, changing his sword stance with one blade on his waist and one over his back. “I’ll end your lives here.” He surges forward towards Albert and Meru. The sand explodes with every step he takes towards them.

(So fast!) Albert thinks. He raises his spear to block Ritzen’s vertical attack. Meru swings her hammer only to have it blocked by Ritzen’s other blade. He swings his entire body around to throw away both the Wind and the Water Dragoon and almost cuts their legs with the swords still strapped to his body.

Albert and Meru slide across the sand and stop in front of Haschel, Kongol, and Shana. Their backs were on fire but he didn’t manage to hurt them.

“You two okay?” Haschel asks getting in front of them.

“Yeah,” Albert said as he got up. “He’s too strong. At our current state, I don’t think we can take him on by ourselves. We’re going to need some serious firepower.”

“It’s five against two!” Meru exclaimed. “There’s no way we should run! Let’s just go into our Dragoon forms and beat this guy!”

Shana finishes her treatment and gets up. “It’d probably be the best idea. Kongol, can you transform?”

Kongol gets up and touches his wound. It didn’t hurt much now thanks to Shana’s help. “Yes. Kongol can.”

“Finally!” Meru slams her hammer into the ground. “Time to transform!” A blue light starts to emanate from her chest as she does. The others also had their respective colors and powers emanating from their bodies as well with the exception of Shana.

Amory runs forward to try and stop the group’s transformation but Ritzen stops her. “But Ritzy! You know how strong they get when they transform!”

“It’s no problem.”

Amory looks confused for a second as she watches the Dragoons finish their transformation.

“What’s going on?!” Meru asks. Her familiar Dragoon armor was still there but there were some more pieces of armor; some shoulder guards, another breastplate, and some funky boots. They were made out of a crimson material which almost looked like the Red-Eyed Dragoon Armor but was lighter in color.

Albert and Haschel also suffered from the same effects; their armor had changed drastically. Haschel’s gloves were bigger and his armor had more plates on it. Albert’s headband had become like a bandana and his armor color changed from a dark green to a turquoise color.

Kongol seemed to be the only one unaffected. His armor had remained the same.

“Did you know about this Ritzen?” Amory asks.

He nods.

Meru tries to try out her newfound powers but nothing happens. A voice from inside her head starts communicating with her through the armor. ‘You who used to wield the Blue-Sea Dragoon Spirit…you are not fit to rule this new power in your current state…’

‘What are you talking about?! I was chosen by him to use his power!’

‘That may be so…but I am much different than he. I am much stronger. If you think you are up to the task, come to the Undersea Passage. I will test your strength there.’

‘You bet I will!’

Meru suddenly felt her Dragoon power degenerating until the armor just disappeared; the same for Albert and Haschel. It seemed that they had suffered the same fate as Meru and lost their Dragoon power. Kongol was the only one who was still in Dragoon form and unaffected by the new transformation of the Dragoon’s powers.

“I can’t believe that our Dragoons won’t help us…” Albert thought. “Looks like our only option is to run now…hopefully, Puler and the others have the Fury ready to sail immediately.”

“But, if we try to run, they’ll just chase after us!” Meru points out.

Albert hangs his head down and grips onto his spear. “Looks like we have no choice…”

Everyone except Kongol looks to him. “It’s risky…but Kongol, could you please try to stall them while we get on the Fury? Once the ship starts sailing, you can fly onto the Fury and this’ll be over with.”

Kongol quietly contemplated this and then slowly nodded. “Understood. Kongol do.”

“Thanks.” Albert starts running back. “C’mon everyone! We have to go!”

Haschel pats Kongol on the shoulder. “Good luck, friend.” He runs after Albert. Shana and Meru both wait a little and then go.

“Don’t die on us!” Meru called. She started to run faster and not look back. She prayed to Soa that he would live.

“You can do it!” Shana said.

Kongol squares off with Ritzen as they both took a step forward.

“Amory. Do not interfere.” Ritzen sheathes the swords that he was carrying and then drew out two of the ones on his waist. They were a pair of the same blades, the only pair that was evident to Kongol.

(Brother…protect me!) Kongol flies forward at Ritzen and then straight up when he was about to strike Ritzen. He then starts to focus on channeling his Dragoon power into his axe. Slowly, it gains power until the entire blade is surging with power. He flies down with his energy attack in the air to strike Ritzen from above.

Ritzen easily jumps back before Kongol’s attack. Kongol strikes the ground with immense force and releases a second attack into the sand. “Grand Stream!” The ground starts splitting into two and surges towards Ritzen who was about to land from his leap backwards. Ritzen starts spinning his swords and then slams them into the ground right as the attack was about to hit him.

--

Shana and the others had finally reached the Queen Fury and found Puler talking with Kayla outside of the boat.

“Puler! We have to go! Now!” Albert gasps. He runs straight into the boat and onto the deck so that he could see how Kongol was doing. It took a split second for Puler and Kayla to react and they quickly ran into the boat, following after the others.

“Crew! Time to set sail! On the double!” Puler yells. All of the sailors on the Fury started working and the boat started to sail out of Rouge port.

Albert and the others made it to the deck and saw the Grand Stream attack end. Ritzen was still standing with his blades piercing the sand. Somehow, his blades had stopped Kongol’s attack.

“Kongol! Come on!” Albert yells to his Giganto friend.

Kongol quickly flies towards the Fury which had started to set sail.

“Amory. Don’t let him get away,” Ritzen said.

“About time!” Amory swung both of her blades towards Kongol. Both chain blades were right next to him. It seemed like she missed.

“Yes!” Albert raises a fist in the air.

The chain blades then start to act on their own and wrap about Kongol’s waist and pull him down into the water.

“Kongol!” Haschel cries.

Ritzen slowly pulls out of two of his back blades, one was shaped almost like a scimitar but the cross guard had split into three bars over the hilt and the other was a familiar blade that all of the Dragoons recognized.

“The Dragon Buster?!” Meru exclaimed. “That should’ve been destroyed with Melbu Frahma’s defeat!”

Ritzen charges forward towards Kongol who had broken free of Amory’s chains. It was too late to try and escape so he raises his axe in the air and then swings it as Ritzen strikes.

“KONGOL!!” Shana screams.

--

A/N: Sorry for not updating this one for awhile…I’ve had the hardest time just trying to think what I wanted to do for certain parts of this fic…but I finally got it! Expect sooner updates since I am on the groove! Thanks for reading!