melodiesoflife | On That Day, Five Years Ago - Black Water

On the bright side, Cloud hadn't thrown up when the ship went down. Of all the things that went wrong that day, at least the fortitude of his stomach remained intact.

He'd braced himself for impact and after that it was fuzzy. Dream and memory intermingled. When he and the other Heroes blacked out and later he wouldn't be able to recall which parts actually happened and which were just projected assumption. He even thought he saw Zack running around on the deck trying to help, as absurd as that mental image of a chocobo trying to help keep an airship in flight was.

The next thing he was aware of was the feeling of thick water lapping against the side of his head. That and a sense of cloying scruffiness around his face. Grunting, he pushed himself up to sitting, half in and half out of some water. The dry ground wasn't very much so, more mud. Looking around blearily he could make out shapes moving in the fog around him. Things slipped into focus bit by bit from there. This was a swamp of some sort, or a marsh, whatever. Same difference.

Next he noticed three bodies laying near him; Reno, Johnny and another he knew was a fellow Hero but didn't really know by name. Dylan or something? His mind more latched onto the fact that the way they were laying was that it was almost like Johnny and Reno were reaching for each other.

The last thing to shuffle into focus were the shapes moving in the distance. They were a bit far off, too far, hopefully, to see or smell or hear them...but there were Malboros sloshing through the marshwater and mud in every direction.

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Johnny stood over Cloud and read the paper, not quite sure what to make of it. He looked to the crystal, then to his teammates. When he saw Cloud's hand reach for it,. he didn't get in the way, but he did reach out a hand to stop him.

"Yo, you sure you wanna be doin' that so fast? You sure we can trust this?"

The overwhelming emotion cast on the room certainly didn't make the crystal an totally attractive offering.

"Do we have a choice?" Reno asked. Palitutu was a manipulative bitch, but her research was pretty sound. He didn't know who "H.S." was, but it seemed like they'd done a lot of work to make this.

"We did all that work making weird advanced jobs, so it's totally possible," Reno pointed out. Never mind the fact that the red crystal was incredibly alluring... He couldn't keep his eyes off of it.

"It's called Savior of World -- we need that!"

Thoroughly convinced, Reno (recklessly) grabbed the crystal.

When Reno and Cloud grabbed the Crystal, nothing happened for a moment. But that didn't last.

Its light flickered and ere long the darkness that covered the barracks swirled around them, as if the negative emotions were taking shape. A wave of energy pulsed from the Crystal and threw Reno and Cloud away as the darkness swirled around it and slowly took form, an entity being born before their every eyes.

It was small at the beginning, but as more darkness was drawn to the Crystal, it grew. At first it was human sized and looked like a humanoid made of shadows, but ere long it was ten times the size of a human and had the features of a monster-- Big enough that it broke through the ceiling without trying. Two gigantic shadowy daggers appeared in the hands of the creature and the Savior of World crystals rested upon its forehead, like a jewel.

BOSS BATTLE: Calamity Beast
An mindless entity bent on destroying everything, born from the hatred and malice of past Heroes of Light mixed with the power of the Calamity. When Esdham was overtaken by Calamity Ghosts, the spirits of past Heroes of Light lingered amongst them and one in particular fed on the negative emotions that haunted the deceased. A formless evil, the accumulation of all this hatred and malice was awakened by the presence of living Heroes of Light and was given a physical form through the power of the Savior of World crystal.

Following its awakening, the Calamity Beast swung wildly all around, bringing the barracks down in only a few blows. Whilst it didn't attack the Heroes of Light just yet, they ran the obvious risk of being crushed by the collapsing walls and ceiling.

They didn't have time to deal with this beast right now. Thanks to being half Dragoon at the moment, Johnny wouldn't have too much trouble avoiding falling debris, but he couldn't be too sure about Reno and Cloud. He darted towards them on the way out of the falling building.

"C'mon! We need to lead it outside!"

While escaping, Johnny used Spirit Surge in order to get ready for the fight.

Scrambling back to his feet, Cloud just stared at the creature as it manifested. Not in shock, but more in annoyance. "OH COME ON!" Couldn't they have nice things? Please? Sure everything was going to shit, but couldn't they at least have this moment without having to complicate it?

He wasn't going to argue with Johnny about running, especially with the ceiling about to come down on them. He ran ahead, quickly mulling over what he could use that would get them that crystal back. They couldn't risk losing it. Not if they wanted to undo....all of this.

When they got outside he forced himself to calm down, and did so by humming a song that he'd been working on since one of the early trips to the chocobo forest. Under the Apple Tree would boost the trio a bit, not just their status but also their conviction in getting that crystal back.

Reno skidded across the floor as he was thrown back from the power of the creature. He got up soon enough, feeling the shaking of the building as well as that of the beast's approach.

"Dammit!" He scrambled up and out, using his hands to balance him until he was able to run. Because right now, running was the only viable option. "DAMMIT!"

Maybe Johnny was right. Maybe he shouldn't touch weird crystals in creepy ruins.

The difference between what was considered the outside or the inside of the barracks grew very thin ere long. Once the Calamity Beast was done swing wildly, the barracks were exposed to the sky and little was left of the walls. But by running out, at least the three Heroes of Light had managed to avoid being crushed alive by the debris.

And ere long, the Calamity Beast laid its eyes upon Cloud. It swung its massive daggers at Cloud, in an attempt to smash him away as if he were a vulgar rock. It ignored Reno and Johnny entirely, though they risked being hit by the swing of the blows if they remained too close to Cloud.

In the hopes of getting some of the heat off of Cloud, Johnny used Mirage Dive to summon up two clones, sending one left and one right of the beast. Hopefully he could keep it distracted and give his compatriots time to attack.

Cloud kept up his humming as best he could as he drew his sword. He always knew this would be a problem being a front line fighter, how to keep a bardsong going while he was fighting. But he did his best as he turned his blade and flipped open his shield to defend against the assault. If he could withstand this then maybe he could push back with his own attack. But would he be able to last that long? Would an opening even present itself.

"KWEH~" A familiar Chocobo's cry rang out from overhead, and then there was a golden flurry of feathers as Zack flew into the scene, delivering a heavy flurry of kicks to the monster's face!

"Oh no you don't!" Reno wasn't sure what that song was, but he really wanted that damn crystal. And seeing Cloud's resolve just made him more eager to get it back.

Reno spun from his retreat and went on the offensive, using a Smoke Bomb to duck under the Calamity Beast's swings and jut his magrod swiftly into its sternum.

On That Day, Five Years Ago - Black Water - Misery Marsh near Esdham

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BOSS BATTLE: CALAMITY BEAST

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