Episode 35 Triplicate: Round Two!

The doors finally finish sliding open, and in the haze of smoke and steam, a long, dark figure can be seen staring out at them, flames flaring from its head.

The haze of steam clears suddenly, revealing a long, winding figure of a dragon, red-scaled with a pair of bright yellow eyes and flames flying from its nostrils.

“A Fire Triplicate…?” Ryuu mutters.

“It seems like all the Triplicates correspond to a certain element,” Arai says. “This one’s fire, the Cursed Sanctuary one must’ve been darkness.”

“Hm…” Ryuu growls, as he raises his flaming sword, “I guess I’ll just have to put this fire out with one of my own!”

Arai wipes a stream of sweat off from his forehead. “Boy…all this steam is really starting to make it hot in here! It’s like a sauna!”

Kunai nods, wiping sweat off his own forehead as well. “The temperature in here is skyrocketing! We ought to finish this Triplicate quick, or we’ll die from the heat!”

Ryuu leaps forward, dodging agilely as the Triplicate swings its spiked tail at him. He jumps into the air and with a wide arc, swings his sword and hits the Triplicate on the side. The Triplicate suddenly bucks, sending Ryuu flying off into the air, and shoots a blast of fire after him.

“Ryuu!” Kunai cries out loud. He sends a Steely flying after Ryuu, intercepting the blast of fire, and cutting it cleanly in half. Ryuu lands on the ground, his face covered in soot.

Ryuu glances over at Kunai, nodding. “Thanks, I owe ya one!” He leaps after the Triplicate again, just as it spits out another flamethrower at Ryuu. He cuts the flamethrower with his own sword, disintegrating the blast of fire.

Kunai leaps into the air after Ryuu, creating a large shuriken in his hands. He then fires it straight at the Triplicate, watching as it revolves quickly in the air and strikes the Triplicate in its face.

The Triplicate turns angrily to Kunai and sends a flamethrower his way. Kunai quickly reacts, casting Dark Sight and allowing the blast to go straight through him. Kunai lands on the ground heavily, returning back from the shadows.

Arai steps forward and waves his Dark Ritual, sending a blast of ice flying towards the Triplicate. However, it quickly melts in the air, and then becomes steam before even reaching the ground.

Arai stares in surprise at his failed attack. “So it’s that hot in here, eh…”

Ryuu lunges forward and chases after the Triplicate, leaping onto its tail and scurrying up its back. The Triplicate turns and twists angrily as Ryuu approaches it. Ryuu then finally reaches its head, and thrusts his sword forward with a shout, digging it deeper and deeper into the back of its head.

The Triplicate shrieks in pain as Ryuu withdraws his sword, but the wound quickly heals over itself, replacing the open skin with a new set of scales.

Ryuu’s eyes widen in alarm, and he gives a yell as the bucking Triplicate throws him off. Ryuu flies into the air, and Kunai quickly weaves a thick web of silk, placing it under Ryuu to break his fall.

Ryuu lands on the spider web, smirking slightly. “Heh, now I owe ya two, Kunai. You’re starting to even get better than me these days!”

“Get out of the way!” Kunai shouts, throwing himself and Ryuu out of the way as the Triplicate sends another flamethrower after them. It crashes into the stone wall, scorching the already blackened stone.

The Triplicate turns to follow after Kunai and Ryuu, spitting flames from its mouth as it does so. Arai hurriedly forms a spear of lightning in his arm, and throws it flying into the air after the Triplicate.

It strikes the Triplicate on the side, forcing it to turn to Arai in anger. Ryuu leaps after its flailing tail, and plants a deep cut into it, slicing off several of the spikes on its tail.

Kunai dashes from side to side as the Triplicate continues to flail around, causing small earthquakes on the ground while it chases after Arai, who is running and leaping, easily avoiding the Triplicates attacks.

Kunai bends over panting slightly, staring up at the hulking form of the Triplicate. He reaches to the Steelys by his side, and notices that they are nearly gone. “Damn…I’m almost out of stars. If only I can hit the Triplicate and paralyze it! I need to aim for its vertebrae…”

Lava suddenly rises from the ground, exploding from underneath in large fountains. Several geysers of lava suddenly explode from underneath the ground around Kunai.

Kunai stares around in surprise as the streams of lava surround him. Ryuu dashes forward, pulling Kunai out of harm’s way. “Kunai! What do you think you’re doing, standing around still like that?!”

“Sorry, I was coming up with a plan…” Kunai mutters.

Ryuu glances at Kunai. “You got a plan?”

“Yeah,” Kunai answers, “I’ve got one. Listen, we’ve gotta aim for its vertebrae, if we can just paralyze it…it won’t be able to move at all!”

“Nice one,” Ryuu replies, considering the idea for a moment. “Okay, here’s the thing. You’re the only one out of us who can shoot projectiles. You aim for its back. Arai and I’ll distract the Triplicate while you do so.”

“You sure?” Kunai asks. “It’s getting pretty hot as it is…”

“Tch, I’m sure,” Ryuu growls, “A little fire’s nothing to me. Heh, I practically breathe fire anyway!”

Kunai turns, running around the cave towards the Triplicate’s back. “Okay, it can’t see me if it’s eyes are on Ryuu and Arai…but even if it can’t see me, it’ll notice me soon enough if I keep hitting it on the back! So I’ve gotta finish this off quick…”

Kunai pulls his arm back and sends a Steely flying into the air. It strikes the Triplicate on the back, bouncing off one of its scales and landing in a pool of lava.

Kunai leaps aside as another jet of lava explodes from the ground underneath him. “Ugh…missed.”

Ryuu pushes Arai aside and raises his own sword, slicing apart another blast of fire. He turns to Arai. “Listen up, Arai! We’ve gotta distract this thing as long as possible! So for the time being, we’ve gotta keep hitting it as hard as we can to keep its attention on us!”

“Right!” Aria answers. He raises his own Dark Ritual, and converts it into a spear of lightning. Ryuu nods, thrusting his sword forward.

“Okay! On three…one, two, three!” Ryuu cries, as he and Arai strike at once, sending a blast of lightning and fire into the Triplicate’s face.

The Triplicate growls in pain and anger as the blast makes contact with it. It then roars again and spits several balls of fire into the air after Ryuu and Arai.

The two of them dash aside, avoiding the small blasts of fire. Ivy runs forward towards them, bending over Ryuu and Arai. “You two all right? Here, I’ll cast Heal for you!” A soft green light momentarily hovers around the three of them.

Kunai jumps aside again, narrowly avoiding another geyser of fire and molten lava. He pants heavily, wiping soot off his face. Kunai draws another Steely, drawing his breath slowly. He then fires again, sending the Steely flying after the Triplicate.

The Steely hits the Triplicate in the back of its head, causing it to turn around immediately. Kunai’s eyes widen as he notices this. “Oh crap! I got its attention!”

Ryuu glances up as the Triplicate turns its head. “Ugh! It’s got its focus on Kunai now!”

“Get ready, Arai!” Ryuu growls, as he and Arai combine weapons again, sending another shocking blast of lightning and fire at the Triplicate.

The blast strikes the Triplicate from the back, causing it to shriek in surprise and avert its attention back on Ryuu and Arai. “Okay! We’ve got its ugly eyes back on us now!” Ryuu growls.

He leaps into the air, swinging his sword wildly and implanting several deep cuts in the Triplicate’s snout. He then lands, just barely avoiding a full blast of its flamethrower.

Arai turns to Ivy suddenly. “Hey, Ivy, can I see your staff for a moment?”

Ivy blinks in surprise. “Huh? Yeah, sure, if you want…”

Arai nods, thanking Ivy under his breath as he turns, holding both his Dark Ritual and Ivy’s Thorns in both hands. He then runs forward, creating two spears of lightning in each hand. He dashes forward and hurls both spears after the Triplicate, striking it on both sides of its head.

Arai hands Ivy back her Thorns, stepping aside to pull them both out of the circumference of a large fiery geyser of lava.

Kunai draws another Steely, panting from the effort of leaping out of the reach of the lava geysers. He wipes his forehead, as a new screen of steam covers the air. “Damn…it’s getting hard to see!”

Kunai wipes his forehead again, and narrows his eyes, squinting at the form of the Triplicate. “Okay! Third time’s the charm, right?” He throws the Steely, and hears a loud clink as it bounces off the Triplicate’s scales and falls to the floor, burned to a crisp in the lava.

Kunai sighs. “Guess not.”

Ryuu dashes aside, hopping to avoid a flamethrower from the Triplicate and a blast from the underground lava geysers at once. He turns to stare at Kunai, who is standing alone behind the Triplicate. “Hurry up, Kunai…even I can’t keep this up forever…”

Kunai reaches for another Steely, and raises it, narrowing his eyes in all the haze of steam. “Ugh…it’s getting way too hard to see in this!” He clenches his teeth, digging his feet deep into the soft stone floor.

Kunai then leaps into the air, flying over the Triplicate’s back and double jumps to an angle high arching high above the Triplicate. He fires the Steely, sending it deep into the Triplicate’s back.

“Got it!” Kunai cries out loud. The Triplicate suddenly turns and sends a flamethrower in rage after Kunai.

Kunai gasps out loud, quickly leaping out of the way of the blast of fire. He lands with a thud next to Ryuu, Arai, and Ivy. He looks up at the Steely still planted in the Triplicate’s back. “What gives? It didn’t get paralyzed?”

“The Steely must not have been planted deep enough,” Ryuu growls. “Now get out of the way! You’re not supposed to be here!”

Kunai nods, sprinting away from the group. However, as he does so, the Triplicate sends another gusty blast of fire after him. Kunai does not notice, and Ivy gives a shout in alarm.

Ryuu and Arai both start in surprise as she runs forward. “Ivy! Where are you going?!” Arai cries after her.

Ivy suddenly leaps forward, wrapping her arms around Kunai and pushing him to the ground, meanwhile taking the full blast from the Triplicate herself.

Kunai, Ryuu, Arai all shout in shock as she lands. Kunai pries Ivy off of him, laying her on the floor in front of him. He bends over her, staring into her face, where her eyes have closed. He grabs her wrist and feels it anxiously. “She’s already losing a lot of warmth…”

“Kunai!” Arai shouts, running over to the two of them. “Ryuu says to get out of the way! Destroying the Triplicate comes first…you have to do your part! Don’t worry, I’ll take care of Ivy.”

“Are…you sure?” Kunai gasps.

“Yeah! Now go!” Arai yells.

Kunai nods in agreement. “Right!” He reaches to his side for another Steely, and gasps again in surprise. “Last Steely…”

Ryuu dashes across to the other side of the chamber from Kunai, Arai, and Ivy. He shouts loudly, attempting to draw the Triplicate’s attention. When it does not turn, Ryuu growls frustratingly.

He picks up a large rock from the ground and throws it, striking the Triplicate on the side with a loud thud. “Hey you ugly piece of crap! Over here!”

The Triplicate turns to Ryuu with a slight hiss, drawing its breath and spitting out a devastating flamethrower at Ryuu.

Ryuu raises his sword, ducking and curling up to take the complete blow. He slowly glances up at the Triplicate and at Kunai as the blast of flames engulfs him. ‘Come on, Kunai…’

Kunai slowly draws a deep breath, staring up at the Triplicate. “You bastard…you hit Ivy! Now’s my last chance…I better make this work this time!”

Kunai leaps into the air, dodging a trail of flamethrowers as the Triplicate turns its eyes back to him. Kunai then double jumps again, forming the same arc as before. He then throws a Steely plummeting straight down into the Triplicate’s back, watching as it plunges straight down penetrating the Triplicate’s scales with a loud clash.

The Triplicate suddenly roars in pain, and twists around in the air angrily, until it falls to the ground with a loud earth shattering thud.

Ryuu leaps forward, dodging several spits of flame from the ground. He meets Arai and Kunai as they stand watching the paralyzed Triplicate.

“All right, Kunai. Nice work! Now all’s that left is to finish this ugly thing!” Ryuu cries.

Kunai nods, a deadly expression on his face. He takes off Myou suddenly, and instead equips the old, battered Gephart Ryuu had given him. “Okay. Let’s do this!”

Arai and Ryuu nod, standing on either side of Kunai. “We’ll help give you the extra firepower you’ll need to finish this thing off,” Ryuu says.

As one, both Ryuu and Arai swing their weapons, emitting a strong blast of lightning and fire at the same time. Kunai propels himself forward, mixing his own Gephart with the blasts of lightning and fire.

He rockets forward, his Gephart outstretched and headed straight for the Triplicate. Kunai finally makes contact, slamming hard into the eye of the Triplicate with a loud explosion.

Kunai leaps backwards as the explosion from the contact rocks the cave, shaking it and causing the floor to rumble and the ceiling and walls to shake violently.

Ryuu glares up as several large pieces of rock fall from the sky. “This place is gonna collapse!”

Kunai glances around worriedly, slightly panicking. “What do we do?! Ivy’s unconscious, there’s no one to cast Mystic Door and we don’t have any scrolls…we’re stuck in here!”

“This is bad,” Ryuu growls, staring up at the ceiling.

Suddenly, a large part of the ceiling collapses, revealing the bright sky outside. Kunai, Ryuu, and Arai gasp out loud as a loud humming comes from outside the hole.

They stare up as Private Alvin emerges from a small green helicopter hovering near the hole. Alvin lets fall a rope ladder from high above, and Ryuu and Arai immediately dash forward, grabbing onto the rope ladder and ascending it into the helicopter above.

Kunai follows after them, carrying Ivy’s limp body by the shoulders and grabbing onto the rope ladder. Ryuu helps pull him aboard as the helicopter ascends higher into the sky and the cave below them erupts in flames and collapses under the earthquake.

“We heard you’d gone this way and thought you might need some help!” Private Alvin explains as Ryuu, Arai, and Kunai come aboard the helicopter. Just outside, the larger ship that the four of them had helped rebuild is floating in the sky, awaiting the helicopter.

Kunai sighs loudly, laying Ivy on the floor, his own body still shaking violently. He wipes some soot of his face, staring down at her.

Ryuu suddenly strides over to Kunai, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. “Kunai, you know what happened, right? She’s been attacked by another Paradox.”

Next Time: Episode 36 To The Skies Again, A Fate Decided!

Kunai: No…I can’t believe it…Ivy’s…

Arai: Let’s just head to Ludibrium and try to figure things out.

Ryuu: This is a very bad situation.

Private Alvin: I’m sorry, but the girl is…

Episode 36 To The Skies Again, A Fate Decided! coming soon!