melodiesoflife | The Shopkeeper's Daughter: Act 2

Ales couldn't help but feel utterly useless during the battle. Without any sort of tools larger than a magnifying glass and not fighting skills of his own, what could he do but just watch his teammates get ensnared by the plants and attempt to give some advice?

But then the young boy with the yellow hair cast the fire spell and the plant recoiled quickly into the ground. Of course! What else to destroy an evil plant than by setting it on fire?

"Cloud!" That was his name, right? "Keep using your fire magic! The vines will clear out if you do that!"

Of course! Ashelia coughed and spluttered, but did hear Cloud's shout as he cast his spell. "F-fire!" she managed to get out, extending one hand towards the flower beside her. It recoiled, a screech coming from somewhere deep inside its petals, as it shrunk away into nothing. The queen, eyes red and streaming with tears borne of the noxious pollen, reached out a hand for Sparks to grab, but her vision was becoming blurrier and blurrier by the second. Soon, darkness would close in completely.

For Luffy and Yuffie's part, they may have felt as if their vitality were steadily declining, poisoned somehow by the flower's pollen.

Elsewhere, all along the field, more bulbs began to spring from under the dirt, sprouting more and more flowers. The all looked toward the Heroes, screeching and shaking in a disturbing unison.

He set Yuffie to her feet, wiping at his own eyes as he could still make out the world before him. He's suffered being poisoned before, but that still didn't mean his eyes weren't stinging in pain.

Clenching his fists, his feet growing heavier with every step, the lad mustered what strength he could into his arms as he took a swing at the nearest bulb. Though in pain, the glare in his eyes spoke with greater volume than his words can currently do. He has the look of resolve, an undying will, the sort of stare a tiger holds once it has picked out its prey.

The balled up fist comes down hard, clocking the bulb overhead as he growls angrily in frustration. Teeth soon sink down into the fleshy plant, gnawing once more at the territorial vegetation that surrounds them.

Once her feet touched the ground she turned back towards the fight. She couldn't see but Yuffie had trained her other senses to work when she was sightless. It came in handy when sneaking around in the dark.

She brought her fan of blades from her side and focused on the sounds around her. With each movement of the vines she heard the earth shift. She was able to tune out the other heroes and With a swift motion she threw her daggers, hitting the vines just as they exited the earth.

"Like blinding me will help you." She felt like she was talking to herself but for Yuffie that was a normal feeling.

Swooping in, Sparks grabs Ashelia by the wrist and pulls her away from the vines. It won't be a comfortable ride, but he quickly gets her out of immediate danger, and sets her down a few yards away, near Ales. It was probably only a matter of time until it caught up to her and the others, though, so Sparks needed to do something, fast.

Oh, right. Magic. Sparks often forgets that's even a thing he can do now, since he recently gained a fire spell. However, it requires him to get up close and personal with the vines, instead of safely taking care of them from the air while on his rocket horse.

He really missed his guns.

Sparks tells Mercury to stay in the air, and take off with Ales and Ashelia if need be. Grumbling to himself, he jumps down and casts Flame Tongue, his robot fists alighting with magical fire. He stares at it for a moment.

"...Weird."

Hopefully it would work. Sparks dashed forth towards the shrieking plant, aiming a flaming punch towards the thickest vine he could spot.

At first, Cloud feels hopeless as he slings his flames around. He's striking them down where he hits them, but with more growing as he goes he wonders if he'll be able to keep up. Will they just keep coming until he runs out of energy and collapses?

Hearing the sounds of the fight behind him, he looks back and the sight of his allies continuing to fight is heartening. Everyone is doing their best to fight their way through. None of them want to simply lay down and admit defeat. And then there's Sparks, leaping in to try to save everyone. Cloud can't help but imagine Zack would do the same if he were here.

And in that case he can't give up either! He lets loose another burst of fire and rushes to Luffy's side, jabbing the masticated plant with his staff before offering the other young man his shoulder. "We need to get out of the middle of this. We can't let them surround us."

Ales jumped down from the small boulder he was standing on to yell at his teammates; now that they were gaining some sort of advantage over the vines, he could spare a few moments to check up on Ashe.

She didn't look too good. The plants must have sprayed her with something terrible, and she was lying on the ground, barely attempting to move from the spot. "Hey, can you hear me?" He hoped she was conscious enough to answer, or else he'd really regret not having stocked up on medicine instead of tools before traveling.

"I...I'm fine..." Ashelia sputtered, breathing deeply to get some fresh out into her lungs. She was disoriented, what with Sparks' somewhat rough rescue, but she was no worse for wear, physically. She'll take it.

She blinked several times, shaking her head. This feeling... It was somewhat familiar. "I've been blinded. Give me a moment." She slowed her breathing, concentrating. She put one hand over her eyes. "Esuna."

Ashelia squinted in the suddenly bright light, thankful her guess had been correct. "There we are." She looked around before climbing to her feet, surveying the battlefield. "It's certainly greener."

The queen wasn't wrong. The bulbs had sprouted everywhere. Yuffie, Luffy and the others were in danger of being completely surrounded. Movement on the other side of the plateau caught Ashelia's eye; she gasped when she saw what it was.

Rising slowly from under the dirt was a large, bulbous...pod? It swayed in the wind for a moment before bursting open, light violet petals revealed from underneath the green, fleshy surface.

Ashelia looked down at Ales. "I should think our target has been revealed."

She wasn't sure what was happening because her vision was still a little fuzzy but after rubbing her eyes a little longer she was finally able to see.

"What is THAT!" Yuffie was pointing at the pod with her mouth hanging wide open. She also stopped paying attention to the plants around her.

Sparks was trying to keep up with the amount of blossoms trying to open up on the vines near him, hitting each one with fiery punches. But it wasn't getting him very far, and keeping the spell going repeatedly was more draining that he thought. When he hears Yuffie shout, he makes the mistake of turning to look - opening himself up to a blast of pollen in the face. Coughing and rubbing his eyes, Sparks backs away from the plant.

"Dangit. Look away for one second..."

At least he got a glimpse of what it was the ninja girl had pointed at. Whatever it was, that was probably what they needed to go after. Except when he goes to run toward it and dodge the other bulbs, Sparks only makes it a handful of paces when he starts to slow down. Poison was pretty nasty.

"Ugh. What'd that thing hit me with...?"

Putting a hand to Cloud's shoulder, Luffy props himself up and follows while leaving his gnawed on opponent in the dirt. It's as they pass that he sees the bulb through his hazy vision, his bloodshot eyes glaring at the plant as he pushes off of his savior to approach the large horticultural aggressor.

"Spiky-hair! Get Yuffie out of here! We need those seeds-!!"

Spinning around, yelling in all directions to try and get the attention of those past his vision, Luffy calls out to the rest of the party as his body begins to succumb to the poison. He can feel the weight take his arms, struggling with sheer willpower to keep his fists raised.

"Hit it with everything we've got! I'll keep it distracted!"

Where his arms had started to crumble and grow weary, his legs could still summon enough to draw the focus of the creature. Darting towards the bulb, Luffy gets himself close enough to swing a kick at the plant, growling as he does so in hopes of keeping it on him rather than his crew.

"Stupid veg! That's what you get for hitting my ninja!!"

Cloud wasn't sure about leaving Luffy, but he wasn't a white mage and there wasn't much more he could do than just ask him if he was alright. But if it came to keeping that thief of a girl safe, he had the spells to do that. He lent his shoulder to Luffy as long as he needed it, but as soon as the fighter ran towards the fray, Cloud made for Yuffie.

Again he used his sleeve to shroud himself from the pollen flying about, but there was only so much he could do. Carefully, he sent off blasts of flame at the plants surrounding Yuffie. He didn't want to hit her, so he took extra time to aim. This was going much slower than he would have liked. "Yuffie! Did you find any seeds?"

Finally reaching the ninja he turned to stand at her side, slightly in front of her. He was in no position to defend her, but he could at least keep her covered until she was ready to fight again. He eyed the greater plant as it emerged; it looked like they'd have to use all of their combined strength to put it down. He was ready.

"Keep setting those smaller ones on fire!" If the fighters took their eyes off of them, Ales was sure the plants could easily overrun them.

He then turned to Ashe. "You can heal yourself? Think you can also help the others?" They all looked terrible, but if one of them had the ability to cure poison, there might be a chance for everyone to get away from this alive.

She heard Cloud before she saw the fuzzy pointy hair in view. She could feel the flames from his spell and trusted him not to hit her. They might have argued when the first met but she couldn't deny that she kind of liked him; at least he wasn't a SOLDIER.

Yuffie rummaged around in her pocket with her free hand. Her other hand was still rubbing at her eyes as she tried to see.

"Is this it?" It was a small thing and at the time she picked it up it looked like a seed. She really hadn't had the time to figure it out and before she could ask they were attacked. Even if it wasn't the seed she thought it looked cool so she took it.

The vines seemed to be less of a problem than before, as whatever the plant was seemed to be occupied by propagating the bulbs. The main body of the plant just sat there, swaying in the breeze, seemingly satisfied at its job in coating the plateau with its pollen. It didn't even react when Luffy kicked it - bent over a bit, but popped right back up again. It didn't make a move against him, either.

The movement was slowing down all over the plateau. As the air became more and more filled with pollen, the flowers stopped spouting it out. Bulbs still broke ground, but were slower to bloom. It was as if the monster knew that the Heroes could only last so much longer, poisoned as they were.

"Ignore the bulbs - attack the main body!" Ashelia called, launching an Esuna spell at Luffy. it wouldn't take long for him to get poisoned again, though, and while she was focused on dispeling the poison, she wouldn't be able to heal wounds. "Marshal, take to the skies! Luffy or Yuffie, ride with him if you can. Cloud, put everything you have into your Fire spells, I'll keep you safe! Just burn it!"

The spell works for a moment, keeping eyes clear long enough for him to see the main body before him. It's a flash in the pan, the passing of an instant, the brief moment fleeting for him to know what his next move should be.

"TAKE YUFFIE AND GO!"

Luffy raises a thumb to his teeth, biting down hard on the tip to blow into the bone. He knew his powers had been robbed from him, but something in the back of his mind kept itching for him to make the last ditch effort. Screaming between gritted teeth, the pirate begins to glow red as his whole body is soon covered in steam, like that of a boiling kettle.

"GEAR.. THIRD!"

His limit break hits, just before his eyes go narrow from the sting of pollen now crowding his vision.

"CLOUD-!!" Luffy sends a fist backwards, the limb stretching like a cord of rubber as it comes within a few feet of the blonde-haired teammate. "SET MY FIST ON FIRE! DO IT NOW!"

Orders were being shouted every which way, but Cloud forced himself to focus. Protect the seeds, beat this monster. All they had to do was get rid of this thing and they'd be in the clear. Sparks was the paladin, he could handle the protection side of things. Cloud was a black mage and his job was damage.

He's skeptical about Luffy's command, expecting that throwing his fire at the monster directly would make more sense but it looked like he was preparing something strong. How was his body doing that? In any case, he'd seen members of SOLDIER using Elemental materia to enhance their attacks. Was he trying for something similar? He had to trust him.

"FIRE!" Gripping his staff with both hands, he felt the power surge through him. He took a step forward and thrust the arcane tool forward, propelling that burning energy into Luffy's hand.

Good, good. Ales kept telling himself. It looked like his party members had some sort of formation going on, thanks to Lady Ashe's commands. He edged closers towards the battlefield as the smaller monsters were being defeated, hoping to help out in some way.

Right then, he saw Cloud throw a ball of fire right at Luffy. Was he aiming at a bulb? No, he was actually aiming at him!

"What are you doing?!" He managed to get out, but not before it hit Luffy's hand.

Yuffie finally clears her vision and watches the scene in front of her. It was hard to believe but then again she was watching it happen. Her mouth hung open as her eyes followed Luffy's stretching arm until her eyes landed on his fist, which was now on fire.

"Kinda seems like over kill don't you think." She tossed the thing in her hand in the air and then tucked it into her pocket. She figured she would ask if it was a rock or a seed when they were done with this mess.

When the sting hits his fist, his initial reaction causes him to bite down on his thumb harder. With the piercing teeth tearing into his digit, Luffy draws in a long breath of air to inflate the hand in which he bites. The clenched hand expands out like a balloon, growing large and stretching out from all sides as he continues to push air into the limb.

With a growl, the lighted arm begins to draw back at great speed. The flame keeps and burns his hand as it comes flying back towards him. In mid-flight, the air from his bitten hand shifts, causing his torso to grow large before cyphering into his now blazing punch.

"GIGANTO PISTOL!"

The screaming attack of flame and fury rockets towards the plant, covering enough size to not only slam into the vines but to the bulb as well. His punch was more like a wall, an anger-fueled bulldozer of flame that struck the exposed plant with the kiss of fire and the full rush of his called upon strength.

"Luff - Cloud, no!" Ashelia called out, reaching out to them. The boy is mad! She looked down at Ales, dumbfounded. Was he seeing what she was seeing?

The plant was indeed literally bulldozed by Luffy's onslaught. An ear-piercing shriek echoed from under the dirt as what was left of the main body was engulfed in flames. The smaller bulbs and vines all around the plateau began shaking violently, whipping around and spewing the last of their pollen in their death throes.

Ashelia took a step back, breathing out a gasp of surprise. What...was that? She snapped out of it just long enough to send a Water spell Luffy's way, just in case he was still on fire. The queen looked back down at Ales, again dumbfounded. Did he just see what she just saw?

When the fire subsides and the smoke finally vanishes around the rubber pirate, the youthful monk no longer is standing before them. Where once a man stood, the party will find a what appears to be a child-like resemblance to Luffy. Panting heavily, the shrunken lad tries to regain the use of his lungs while heavy, rapid breaths fill his smaller chest with air.

His voice, when he speaks, has drastically changed. Sounding more like a pipsqueak than ever, he turns around while holding a hand to the hat atop his sized-down head.

"That.. That was a close one.."

He blinks curiously at his burnt hand, staring at it for a moment before he realizes why it's been charred a deep black.

".. OWWW~!! MY HAND!!"

Ales stood dumbstruck, unable to speak due to being surprised that his stupid antic actually worked.

He glanced up at Ashe the same time she looked at him. This actually happened. Luffy defeated the monster in one fell blow, while everyone else was struggling to survive the plant's toxins. As annoying that boy was, Ales now had learned why not to antagonize him.

This awe was interrupted by Luffy's new appearance and his panicking over his burnt hand. What was he thinking, of course setting his hand on fire would do this!

Ales ran over to Luffy's side. "Are you alright? What happened to you?!" At least now it was possible for both of them to look at each other's faces while standing.

Yuffie walked over, staring in disbelief at the miniature Luffy. One hand came to rest on Luffy's head as she smiled down at him. "Your so small!"

She was happy that the thing was gone and that he helped. Before he had a chance to get angry she moved her hand. "Thanks cap." With that she walked over to Cloud and held out the thing she found.

"I think I only found a small pebble."

Cloud was likewise watching in awe. He wasn't entirely sure what happened. He was familiar with the concept of limit breaks but he'd never seen one go off up close like that. And now that the attack was dealt he was worried about the change that had overtaken the pirate.

"I didn't hurt you did I?" He looked at Ashe, "I'm sorry. I thought I was just enhancing his attack."

As concerned as he was about Luffy, Yuffie was still pretty good at imposing herself into the situation, "Oh, uh, I see." He had no clue what was going on in that scramble. He's a little sad that she didn't actually have the seeds after all.

The Shopkeeper's Daughter: Act 2

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