Tales of Legendia AU - "Treasure Hunting," part 2

"I told you there'd be treasure!" Norma practically sang as the stone wall slammed shut behind them.

"I don't see anything," Walter said mildly, frowning back at the door before forward. The way ahead was pitch black, and it was only the cracks in the wall behind them that provided the passageway any light at all.

"There's a secret passage, Wally -- that means there's treasure!"

Walter leveled an unimpressed look at his shorter traveling companion, who promptly ignored him in favor of taking a few steps forward. She had called upon her eres a little bit so there was a little more light. "Or there's a death trap that's waiting for us," he suggested, his own fingertips glowing as he followed after her.

"You are such a worrywa-- aaaaah--!" There was a short blur of blue as Norma suddenly disappeared into the darkness.

"Norma!" The shout came unbidden, and Walter's throat ached a little as he covered the short distance between them with a running jump. His fingers immediately found Norma's wrist, and he hissed as he crawled closer to the hole Norma had fallen into.

"Ow, ow, ow! Not so hard, Wally!"

"Not now, Norma." He growled, trying to get decent footing so he could pull the girl out of the hole. Norma had luckily grabbed the edge before she could fall into whatever oblivion the darkness covered up, but there didn’t seem to be any way she could help him with his task.

It took several tense moments in the dark before Walter’s feet found purchase on the uneven stones beneath him, and he carefully pulled Norma to safety. “Be more careful,” the Ferines wheezed, coughing onto the back of one hand as he began to stand.

“I wasn’t not being careful,” protested Norma, stumbling to her feet and staggering a few feet in the direction they had come from. “How was I supposed to know tha-- aaaaaah!”

Walter had a little more warning for this pitfall than the last; the rocks had at least scraped against each other as they fell away, and he lunged from a kneeling position towards Norma. Even in the absolute darkness, he was able to find Norma’s fingers clutching the stone, and he quickly grabbed at her wrists.

“W-- Wally--” Norma gasped, her arms already aching from the first fall.

“Not now, Norma,” Walter repeated his earlier words, flat on his stomach this time around and scrabbling for a way to pull the girl up.

For a moment, there were only sounds of rubber scraping against stone and heavy breathing.

Then, “Wally, this thing isn’t gonna hold.”

There was a tense silence.

“What?”

Disbelief colored the exclamation, and Walter avoided coughing down on his friend by turning his head away. But it was quickly becoming obvious what Norma was talking about: the stones underneath him were sinking and falling away.

“Does this count as a death trap?!”

Walter would have answered with some angry words, but he was already falling by then.

Tales of Legendia Another!AU - Royal Automaton battle (gee, I wonder why?)

Stop trying to get up again.

Senel repeated the mantra over and over as he knocked the Ferines to the ground, avoiding a boot to the fact as he grabbed hold of one leg and swung him. His hair stood on end as he felt the far effects of a lightning eres striking the royal automaton, but he had to ignore the sensation as Walter came rushing at him again.

Damn it, I don’t have time for this!

“I have to see Shirley!” The young man didn’t realize he had said anything aloud until he saw Walter’s jaw clench tightly—then he was forced to dodge an incoming flurry of punches.

“You’ll never touch the Merines again, you filth!”

The rampant hatred that Walter displayed was nothing new; Senel had been on the receiving end of these punches more than once. Only now, he was on much better grounds to fight the Ferines, the blessings of the two Nerifes clashing as iron and crystal eres clashed against each other.

How the hell is he controlling that automaton and fighting at the same time?

The automata were controlled by the crystal they had taken from the Man-Eating Ruins, and this one—large as it was—couldn’t have been much different in that respect. But Walter didn’t seem to have the crystal this time, so…

Senel managed to knock the other eren down with a Beast eres, grabbing Walter’s leg to throw him a good distance away. Actually, the blond didn’t look very good; he must not have recovered from the other beating he had taken earlier.

There was a curse-elemental eres from Norma, followed closely by another from Grune. Walter seemed to writhe even as he tried to stand up again, and Senel briefly hesitated before slamming the other back down with a Beast Impact.

Does he … have his teriques on that thing?

He didn’t know much about the Ferines’ teriques; he had barely seen the ones that Shirley and Stella could produce, and the only others were unfortunately seen in combat. But he had seen the black wings that were Walter’s teriques enough to recognize them—and he didn’t see anything like that on the automaton.

Inside it, then?

Senel stomped down his foot as Walter tried to sweep kick, stopping the kick before he could lose his balance. A punch downward was barely avoided by the blond, and Senel found himself dashing forward to try and stop him before he got back to his feet. Unlike their last battle, Senel found himself with the speed advantage, and a spin kick sent his opponent reeling backwards again.

Stop trying to get up.

If he could take care of Walter here, the automaton would stop working. Chloe, Moses, and Jay weren’t doing much damage against it, and they could barely provide cover for Grune, Norma, and Will in this situation.

Distracted by his inner thoughts, Senel barely managed to recognize the flare of a flame eres before a Flame Blade sparked around him. He dove out of the way, spinning around to see the other fighter climbing to his feet.

Senel hissed as launched into a flurry of punches, managing to slam one fist into Walter’s face to make him stagger. The Ferines man wasn’t even attacking anymore, barely able to stay standing under the barrage—and soon, simply failing to do that.

Stay down, damn it!

And amazingly, this time, he did.

In the distance, the royal automaton tipped over—much to the others’ delight, going by Norma’s loud cheering. Senel panted, slowly nearing the fallen man and nudging him with his foot.

There was a twitch, but that was it.

“Is he alive, Coolidge?” Chloe rubbed sweat from her face as she approached, looking down at him.

“…Yeah.” Senel looked uncertain about what to do about the situation; he was far too used to Walter getting up and running away. If he wasn’t even saying anything anymore… “Barely.”

“We can’t stand around, Senel.” Always the voice of reason, Will was quickly approaching to collect the two iron erens. “Let’s go.”

Senel spared another terse glance down at the unconscious blond. Trying to protect Shirley, huh? “Yeah. Let’s finish this.”

You’re a fool, Walter. You don’t even know what you’re protecting her from.