Page 86 - RKJ 2019 Online Flip Version

Crystal Shard bearers. “That hallway is home
Gilded Disaster
by Shree Panda
"Tell me again," Bartz said slowly, "why we are
coming to this dank, dark little cave in the
middle of a mountain range again?"
"Because this old seadog lost all of our
Gil!" Faris growled, taking a peek inside the
cavern. It appeared to be made of a red brick,
and while it wasn't all that dank at all, dark was
a very apt description. "All of our hard-earned,
scavenged Gil!" Galuf had been holding onto
the money they had while they were in
Drakenvale, but when they came out, all the
Gil was gone. And they were not going back
there.
"I told you, it's not a problem!" Galuf said,
raising his hands at the steaming pirate.
"Besides, we need a little side venture until the
wind drake is healed up so we can visit Sage
Ghido, eh?"
"I swear, old man, if you get Lenna and the rest
of us killed--" Faris's eye was twitching; the
purple-haired pirate captain did not approve of
this venture in the least, not especially when
her sweet little sister was at risk.
"Faris... I can handle myself," Lenna
assured her. "Galuf, where did you say this Gil
was, again?”
Galuf pointed to a small, narrow hallway in
the cavern. “In there. There’s literally piles and
piles of Gil just sitting there, waiting to be
picked up. There’s, ahem, just one catch.”
“…What catch would that be?” Bartz
asked, not liking where this was going in the
least.
The king of Bal gave a rather sheepish
smile, taking a step back from his fellowship of
to a rather vicious species of turtle, and if you
step in there and go scooping up the Gil, they’ll
be bound to beat you up. The further in you go,
the more likely you’ll be attacked. Why, we
have so many tales about them in Bal, and
they are some of the worst creatures to ever
exist.”
“You are joking, Galuf,” Bartz said, his
voice flat as he took a step towards Galuf.
“After all that we’ve been through, you want us
to replace our money by invading the homes of
monstrous turtles.”
Lenna quickly stepped in between the two
of them, her hands out to push the two men
away from each other. “Let’s not get into a fight
amongst ourselves. Galuf, you said there were
lots of tales about it. Can you tell us if any of
those tales spoke of a weakness?”
At Lenna’s behest, Bartz took a step back
as Galuf frowned. “Well, let’s see… we call
them the Gil Turtle because of where they live,
and they really hate cold temperatures and can
easily freeze to death, which is why they’re
settled here and not anywhere else. They have
a shell so hard that even the strongest of
blades just bounce right off, and when
desperate, they rip the earth apart. They’re
rumored to come from hell, so far deep that not
even the holiest of magic can harm them, and
they can counter just about every attack that is
thrown with deadly accuracy and toxins drip
from its mouth, a mere touch can poison even
the strongest of men.”
The other two stared at Galuf as Faris
rummaged through their equipment. There was
an unexpected advantage to carting the
Crystal Shards around with them: their magical
aura had enchanted the bags with infinite
space, and with the Wind Crystal in tow, they
were light as a feather as well. “Let’s get
dressed. We’re gonna need all the help we can
get.”
Several Protect, Blink, Haste, and Float spells
later, the newly-equipped fellowship, having
only nursery tales of the Gil Turtle to go on,
cautiously entered the cavern.
Galuf had been quite unhappy when he
remembered that they hadn’t recovered many
Earth Crystal shards, and therefore he was the
most limited on what he could do. The
Dragoon, Samurai, and Dancer Shards were
all physical, and he was out of the Chemist’s
ingredients. In the end, he picked the Samurai
Shard due to how quickly he was able to read
the enemy’s movements and evade them, but
kept the Chemist Shard on hand to heal them
in case they got poisoned. Besides, he looked
completely ridiculous in the Dancer outfit, and
as a Samurai, he could wear the shiny golden
armor pieces befitting a king that he had
recently purchased.
The others had had it easier, with nice
magical shards that they could depend upon
and forgoing the physical-based ones for now.
Of course all of them had taken the three Elven
Mantles they’d had (Galuf wanted one, but
they needed it more) as well as the magical
apparel Sage’s Miter and Gaia Gear to keep
them safe.
Faris picked the Fire Crystal’s Bard Shard,
understanding that the ‘Requiem’ song could
destroy even the strongest of undead
monsters, but kept the Ninja Shard on hand for
its ability to cast false images of herself. She
was still a pirate, after all, and no turtle was
going to get the best of her!
Bartz had immediately donned the Wind
Crystal’s Black Mage Shard and a Blizzard
Rod, eager to play with the most powerful of
Ice Magics, Blizzaga. But he still kept the
White Mage Shard just in case the Gil Turtle
got a good hit off on one of them.
And quiet, calm Lenna, after casting Float
and Haste spells with the Time Mage Shard,
had chosen the Water Crystal’s Summoner
Shard, her gentle voice coaxing the Golem