"These are some very interesting mutations," Tinuviel tapped her chin in thought as she regarded the twisted trees. "I wonder if this is connected to the general lack of life in this region." The elf girl was trailing along behind the rest of them.
"You know, having these extra numbers and everything is all fine and good," Xalan started. "But it's slowing us down significantly."
"Yeah, it took us forever to pass that carriage," Xina agreed. "What was his problem anyway? I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his skull."
"We were outrunning his horses, three of us are quiet obviously NOT human, and we can quite obviously handle a fight. I'd say that those are all reasons to be some what worried."
"Out of curiousity, what is it like living here?" Everybody looked a little confused at Tinuviel's statement.
"Trees can't talk Tinuviel," Xina half-growled.
"Those warts look pretty bad, do they give you any pain?" Tinuviel's question was followed by a loud, pained roar. Everybody face faulted. "That's an ugly club, why don't you use something better made?"
"How come all these people manage to come at us downwind all the time?" Xalan asked, frustrated.
"Smash annoying elf!"
"Annoying elf - ?" Jol pushed her out of the way as the trolls tree trunk club crashed down to the ground. "Hey Jol...would you be careful....you're destroying all these plants!"
Several more trolls stood behind the first one and started to shamble around him.
"Flare Lance!"
"Hell Blast!"
The first two trolls fell under the power of the two spells, and the rest of the attackers hesitated. They looked doubtfully at the charred and drained corpses of there fellows and at the small humanoids they were being told to attack.
"Kill little ones!! Ma'gluks say kill!" The trolls again started shambling forward, one of them slashed down with one of the trees they were using as clubs. Xalan caught it in his hand and almost absent mindedly diverted it to the side and then held it in place.
"Weakling let go of club!!" the troll complained. Xalan arched an eyebrow.
"If you really want me to," he let go sending the troll flying backwards into his companions.
Jolrael, after showing Tinuviel a lovely; to a normal person this could be translated as twisted, diseased, and mutated; patch of what might have been bamboo at one time, leaped up and stopped in mid-air. One of the trolls took a moment to scratch its head in confusion at the human that refused to fall from the air. Then two of his comrades had their throats slit by that floating human's blade.
Val considered taking dragon form, but since he didn't really have time to get out of his clothes, and didn't have any spares, he settled for magic.
"Umm....Fireball," the spell burst in the middle of three trolls covering the trolls around them with soot from the charred creatures.
"Disfang!" Xina watched wide-eyed as the shadow dragon wrapped about the troll's shadow and started tearing it apart. Then she smiled viciously.
"Bamu Rod!!" Amethyst slashed with the fire whip as trolls tried to move towards her. Xalan meanwhile had given up on his staff and was settling for pulling the trolls down to his level and snapping their necks with his mazoku-blood strength. Whenever a troll got too close, Val used similar tactics, while Jol took a more airborne approach with his levitation aided leaps.
Basically, they were slowly but surely decimating the trolls. Xina zipped by through the lines, with her sword drawn.
"Hey what do you think you're doing!?" Val shouted. Then Xina found a troll's shadow and melded into it. "What is she.." Then the troll started convulsing as cuts appeared on its body and a shadow blade extended in and out of its shadow. The troll finally fell forward, and as its shadow vanished, Xina was deposited unceremoniously back in to the physical world.
"Ouch, have to work on...." she watched wide-eyed as a troll club began to descend toward her. Then it was ripped to pieces as Jolrael passed by, a second troll was wrapped in a tongue of flame and burned to a crisp. Xina wasted no more time trying to find another shadow.
Things travelled downhill from there, for the trolls at least.
"So how's that for..."
"DON'T DO THAT AGAIN!!" Xalan shouted, obviously frightened. Xina took a moment to get over the surprise of her brother yelling and then glared.
"Like hell I won't!" she snapped. "Stop treating me like a damn baby, I'm faster than you, I'm almost as strong..."
"I'm not saying don't fight," he interrupted, receiving another glare. "But don't act so stupid about it."
"Stupid?" she snapped. "Stupid!" She shrugged him off and went off into the twisted wood, chin raised arrogantly.
"Him and that dragon," she muttered. "I don't need their help, thinking I'm so weak." She sniffed the air and grumbled some more. "What are you doing here?" At least it wasn't Janus, she didn't think that she was under control enough to maintain her veil.
"He's just worried about you," Amethyst said.
"Well, he doesn't have anything to worry about," Xina snapped. "I can handle myself, and I just proved it." Amethyst sat down next to her.
"You left the lines," the chimera pointed out. She was speaking in that tone she adopted when they sparred, it always reminded Xina slightly of her father's ever critical and sarcastic speech patterns. "When you needed support we had to ignore our fronts. If they had been something more than trolls, we would have been in trouble."
"I don't want to be like Tinuviel," she said quietly. "I don't want to NEED help..."
"Everybody needs help," Amethyst laughed. "Even such defenders of justice as us!" The last was not a joke, and Xina wondered how some one who was obviously skilled in battle was so naive. "Instead of sparring, how about next time we try something to help you learn about strategy."
"What do you suggest?" An illusion appeared in front of the cheerful chimera, a board of squares with the intricately crafted images of warriors and wizards. Xina recognized two of the pieces as her mother's human form, and noted the staff wielding man next to her on either side of the board. Filia held either end of the rear ranks. The front rank was a row of eight blonde swordsman baring a resemblance to Jol. In the center the queen and king seemed to have been reversed in order. Zelgadis stood in the queen's position, and a small dark-haired young woman stood in the king's position.
"How's chess?"
"Is that...?" Xina pointed to the staff-wielder with purple hair like her own red-streaked covering.
"The bishop? That's your father," Amethyst said.
"How do you..."
"I didn't know what he looked like, my father showed me how to make this illusion. That's my mother." She pointed to a black-haired young woman in the queen's position.
"Can you make it bigger?" Xina asked.
"Sure, why not," Amethyst shrugged. The board vanished and a large illusion of a smiling Xellos stood before them with closed eyes. Xina stood up and walked around it. Then the image bent forward waggled a finger, its lips moving silently and one of the eyes opening to form a secretive wink.
"Did you do that?" Xina asked as the illusion returned to normal.
"No I didn't," Amethyst answered nervously. "Let's go back to the others, okay?"
"Sure," Xina said as the illusion faded away. "Hey Amethyst..."
"Yes, Xina-san?"
"Thanks, you're not as bad as I thought," she said. Amethyst brightened visibly.
"Your welcome, Xina-san."
"That must have taken a lot of effort."
"Its...worth it..." the other panted.
"How is it worth it, you hold yourself here in limbo, give her false hope, and neglect her brother. Nothing but pain all around. You should pass on."
"Thanks for your advice, but I think I'll hang around a while longer."
"What can you gain from it?"
"Sore wa himitsu desu."