Island Challenge: An Unexpected Development

The elected champions of Salamander Shade allowed themselves to marvel at the natural wonder of Galuna Island, the mixture of color that shifted between the sapphire blues of the ocean from which they had arrived to the shoreline of warm, golden sand and the thick, lush flora of the woods, and sounds from the local fauna doing absolute wonders for their sense of tranquility. And yet they knew to not allow themselves to be distracted. The Island may appear to be serene, but they knew all too well what it's true nature would be. This was the Grand Magic Games and no vacation trip. Stepping off of the boat and on to the docks of the island they offered their thanks to the captain and took off. As the boat began to leave the general area of the island, the games would appear to have begun as a great Jutsu Shiki Barrier began to take form around the smaller mass of land, trapping them and the inhabitants within its boundaries. Their instructions were clear, the only means off of the Island was through the woods and towards the temple. The company of mages began their march towards and through the forest, all with the exception for the carefree Seraphine, whom was captivated by the rise of the barrier, marveling at the amount and extent of power must be dedicated to it. A tug on the hem of her robe snapped out her daze. She looked down to see what appeared to be a very young person, clad in full-body armor. "Forgive me, Serah. I'm coming."

The mage known as Serah Doll shook her head in a mixture of annoyance and amusement. "Seems like we are the only ones in the area." Spoke the seemingly young girl, crossing her arms over her chest and tapped her armor with a finger. "I wouldn't linger for long. We need to make it up to the temple before the others."

The armored elder man, Albus chuckled at Serah's eagerness. "Well, I do believe that there is no real rush. It may be a competition, but there is no haste in when and how to handle our obstacles." Albus spoke, his voice booming and brimming with authority. "What's more, if we are too hasty, there might be more obstacles than mere traps and wildlife ahead of us."

Lastly, there was Satura, a young redhead of a woman who kept the quickest pace of the entire group. "Come now, you lazy toads. I will not have our scores be befuddled by tardiness. Many tasks shall be ahead of us, and I would see us conquer them all." She spoke calmly and with determination as she trudged ahead, through the seemingly endless foliage, with her comrades close at her heel. All while going their journey through the thick and lush jungle, the lack of excitement or obstacles started to get to Satura's mood. "This is too easy. Why isn't there any challenges yet... Seraphine, why don't you preform for us? You know, lighten the mood, give us something to focus on?" Seraphine would prove happy to oblige with her comrade's wish, humming to herself a bit to work up a rhythm. "Home is behind, a new world ahead. And there are many paths to tread-♪" She sang on as they continued forward, keeping to the hymn, and as they did, they became less and less aware of their surroundings and became more focused on the songs of Ms. Eden, all while some joined in with her as they snapped up the lyrics.

The song continued without end, and the members did indeed find their spirits lifted. Then there was this other sound as the song died down and a small humming took its place, which led for Serah to take notice of something. A faint whistle which grew increasingly stronger. "That's a nice little tune there, Seraphine. I didn't know that you could whistle though." Seraphine had this look on her face as if she just realized something awful. "That's... That's not me..." She muttered as she began to look to her comrades, all of which seemed just as confused as herself. Seraphine began to take in the surroundings in greater detail, trying ot figure out the sound. A loud whistle to her right drew her attention as she saw a couple of colorful birds sitting on a branch, tweeting all while bearing their gazes down upon them. As they did this, Seraphine realized that her vision became all the more blurry, colors became more prominent and strange shadows began to dance around her. Fearing the worst, she clasped her hands over her ears and slowly backed up to her comrades. "Friends, we should hurry out of here. I don't trust the looks on those avians."

Serah looked towards where Seraphine held her gaze. The issue became clear as she realized her vision was starting to get less focused when more and more birds arrived to sing their song, and her sight almost seemed to act like a whacky kaleidoscope. "Guys, we should hurry away from here!" Was all she managed to get out before she started to run, her comrades just following along, not questioning her. However, soon they too would begin to experience twisted sights and visions, visions which only grew stronger together with the pursuing birds' song. Serah's vision became an endless blur of shaded shapes and obnoxiously bright colors, only able to keep a straight path as she heard Satura running ahead of her, constantly calling out her position. Seraphine started to get frightened. While she kept on running, heeding the words of Satura, she couldn't help but feel anxious about the whole situation. She knew somewhere in her head that this lack of proper vision she had could not be permanent as the GMG would never be able to recover their reputation from such a thing, but the rest of her panicking over the empty black void she now saw, unable to comprehend her surroundings by sight anymore. The darkness enveloped her, unable to reach out or wipe it away, no matter how strong she made her light. The only constant she knew now was the sound of birds, Satura, and their magical presence, without which she surely would have been lost. It was then that she noticed something. One signature was lacking, or rather, was far behind them. She recognized it as Albus'. "Satura, Serah! Albus!" She cried out.

The two women turned around, barely able to see anymore, but they could feel the lacking magical presence of Albus, something which worried them as he usually had a pretty strong one. Serah was about to move back when Satura hurried past her. "Just get yourselves out of here! I'll take care of Albus!" Not hesitating, not questoning, Seraphine and Serah continued to run ahead, now forcing the birds to split up in two groups, which served to lessen the strength of the hallucinations. She would so claim that it was part of the plan later. Her visions were weakening, but they were still very strong in her eyes. Around her was no longer a forest, but rather a haunting image of her past. Buildings in ruin, people fleeing with soundless screams, and endless fiends, howling their contention for this destruction, all while the voices of her parents screamed at them from behind. Tears streaming down her face, she kept to her task, knowing that this wasn't real, couldn't be real, but most of all she didn't want it to be real. She slided over to Albus, a man who was shivering on his knees, hands clasped over his face and sobbing. Satura had never seen him like this before, and she trembled to know imagine what kind of vision had brought the battle-hardened man so low. "Come here, big guy!" She said as she took him in a grip and began to haul him away from their location and towards their comrades. "We ain't leaving anyone behind!"

Albus was too much in his own realm to comprehend her voice, much less realize what she was doing with him. All he knew now was the horrors before him. He couldn't even bring himself to properly describe them. They were moving yet not. Could that even be counted as moving? The best he could think of was a mixture of teeth, shadows and the worst kind of fever dreams. These monstrosities closed in on him, whispering the most horrid of things to him. The dragon-like senses had always been considered a blessing, but now they proved very much to be a curse. "Thanks" to his enhanced hearing, the sounds of the birds only proved to provide far worse results for him, only empowering his visions as the haunting song was ever so louder to him. After an eternity within the mercy of his haunted dreams, he slowly began to come to his senses. The song was gone, and was now replaced by screams of terror. He suddenly felt himself being flung into the air and constricted by something very powerful. Screaming out of fear that the monsters had gotten a hold of him, he then came to his senses as he began to feel a bit helpless, yet in a far more real sense of the worlds. Gone were the fiends, and in their place were colossal vines that constricted and held them all in place. "What... What is going on?" he shouted. "About time to came to your senses, Satura shouted back, with a slight bit of humor. "MInd trying to get me down from here? I think there is something special about these vines. I can't move."

"Trading one foe for another, huh?" Seraphine spoke back with snark. "My barrier is keeping me from being paralyzed like you Satura, but that doesn't really give me any opportunity to break free, not with my puny strength. I guess that leaves..." Seraphine spoke as she began as she began to conjure up two orbs of starfire to burn away the vines which held her and Satura in their grasp. The vines swiftly contorted, burned and let go as they burned to a crisp. Albus and Serah answered in kind as they too began to break free from their bonds. Albus expelled a short-ranged and potent wave of light which dried out the vines, making them wither and die or retreat. Serah with her immense strength granted by her armor allowed her to reach out for her katanas, a weapon which had served her well many times before and would do so just as well now. She slashed and sliced away at the vines, cutting them to shreds as she was allowed to be let free. Thanks to her full-body enveloping armor, she had luckily not been affected by the vines paralyzing properties. "Is everyone alright?" Serah asked once she was free.

Satura stood in the corner and gently stretched and moved her limbs around. "Just about, just a bit stiff right now." she spoke. "Whacky stuff going on this year, huh? Can't believe that they would put us through something that horrifying. All the same, we should be safe now, I hope."

Albus took many long and ragged breaths as he attempted to ease his anxiety. "We'd better be." he spoke with a soft growl. "I'll have a good talk with the judges about what they can put their contestants through after this." Seraphine came up to him and placed her hand on his forehead, chanting a short melody, seemingly aiding to ease his racing mind. "Better?" SHe asked him sweetly. He couldn't help but smile over her sincere sweetness and the lack of more fiends in his mind. "Very much so. A thousand thanks, Ms. Eden."

After a few minutes of simply talking through their visions in order to calm their nerves, they continued on the path laid out before them as they approached their destination; The temple. "Rather humble for a place of worship, don't you think? I mean, it's big, but it does look quite worse for wear." Seraphine spoke, feeling saddened over the deteriorating state of this monument.

"It's just a building, Ms. Eden." Albus spoke up with a hand on her shoulder. "Buildings are made and they are razed, either by mortal hand or time. What matters is that the principles which saw this construction built yet survives. Come now, we can't allow ourselves to fall short now, not after all this hardship."

The mages made their way through the temple door, or rather, the archway, leading up to a long, winding and empty corridor. Not a single one of them took a step forward. "Seems too easy, doesn't it?" Serah spoke, which was responded to by a united nod of agreement. "So... How will we approach this?"

"Allow me to be useful for once." Satura spoke with a bit of pride as well as a hint of cynicism and bitterness. "Yatagarasu's Wish: Templar Crusaders!" She cried out as half an army of shining knights of light took form around her. "Advance!" Satura shouted as the knights took a formation of three, one directing its shield to the left, another to the right and the third one towards the roof. And sure enough, the obstacle wasn't far ahead. After the knights came to a certain point, a wall of spikes appeared and attempted to impale the crusader, which also would prove to be an effort in vain as the knight simply held back the spikes with seemingly little effort beyond skidding across the floor a few inches. "Seems like we have our problem solver right here, she spoke with glee. WIth a couple of cheers from her teammates, they proceeded forward, leaving a knight to cover for each mass of spikes that appeared, clearing a nice path for them to take to the room which the corridor was leading towards. When they entered, the remaining crusaders she had brought out were suddenly dispelled and they found themselves before a pool of water, and a large opening upwards. "Alright, I am completely lost here." Satura spoke with annoyance clear in her voice.

Serah stepped forward to try and inspect the area and looking into the water. "Albus, think you could jet us up to the top?" Serah asked. "No can do. Like you saw with Satura's soldiers, magic is unusable here. We'll have to figure this out ourselves." He answered. Serah sighed, but then came upon a peculiar sight at the bottom of the pool. "There is something down there. Something glimmering." She spoke and backed up a bit. There is something down there, something I can only guess we're supposed to get. But for that, we need to lower the water levels. Come on everyone, try and find soemthing that may help us."

A couple of minutes went by until, by complete accident, Seraphine stepped upon a pressure plate which caused the water to disappear, thus lowering down. She stepped off of it and realized that the water was rising up again. After gathering up the team and discussing their plan,

The ancient cogs and bolts churned as the door swung open, revealing four mages that hastily made their way out of the area room which rose increasingly higher in its water levels, some gasping for air and other coughing up certain amounts of the grimy water. The tall chromatic haired Seraphine held her attention on her comrades as she wrung water out of her hair. "Well... That was certainly unpleasant." She spoke, trying to sound cheery despite the somber looks on her friend's faces.

"Unpleasant!?" The short Serah exclaimed, shivering in her boots. "We almost drowned, not to mention the cold water! You might be all fine and dandy, but I just so happen to be CLAD IN METAL! I think hypothermia is quite imminent for me, not to mention Albus. Speaking of which, Albus, be a dear and grant us some heat, will ya?" She spoke as she removed her helmet from her head, revealing the face of what appeared to be a young seven-year-old girl.

"If only. My magic appears to do us little good at the moment. Maybe we are still within range of the nullification room." replied the heavily golden-armored elder man he spoke as he undid the clasps of his armor, letting them fall off of his body, trying to gather up some heat from the natural sun and air. He turned around to get a look of the area when he finally took notice of the group of four ahead of them, one of which already had her had resting on her blade. "To arms!" He cried out as he raised his gauntlet-clad fists. Satura was the quickest to react to his call. At a moment's notice, she had positioned herself beside Albus, fists in the air and ready for combat, her comrades right behind her with Serah having her palm resting upon one of her katana's hilt and Seraphine in the rear, ready to offer support to anyone who required it. "Seems like we weren't fast enough," Satura spoke loudly enough for the opposing mages to hear. "How unfortunate. Stay where you are, mages. We want no beef with you yet, but we are not afraid of conflict if you encourage it. Remain on your end, we will keep to ours, and no harm needs to come to anything or anyone."

Agnes' eyes narrowed as she glared daggers at the rival group, she knew the goal of this challenge was not to fight the other teams but surely the guild masters would not place them all on the same island at the same time and not expect a conflict or two to arise. She tightened her grip on her swords handle, "Tch! As if I would find anything to fear from such a motley crew without the ability to use magic." She spoke with fake confidence as she remembered the colorful characters that littered her own team.

"Come on, Agnes. They said they don't want to fight and we shouldn't waste any more time. We want to get a good score, right?" Morgan was the first to speak up, tugging on Agnes' shirt with hopes of pulling the taller woman back but doubted she'd be able to if the swordswoman stood her ground.

Agnes shrugged the red-haired girl off, removing her hand from her hilt and stand up straight to shake her arm from Morgan's weak grasp. She looked up to the old man who seemed to be the leader of the group, recognizing him as a fellow Bosconian, "You there, old one! You too hail from Bosco, yes? You are certainly a long way from home, From which town or village do you come from?" She spoke in the native Bosconian tongue. "I hail from Perchting along the coast." She continued without a care in the world if any of her teammates understood her.

Ebisu gives a small smirk to the group of girls, “Hey there Salamanders, come here often?” He said with a laugh as he walked over to a statue near him. “As much as I would like to chat and get to know each other, I think it’s best if we focus on trying to get this statue moving.” He gestured to the other man and nodded to the ther side of the statue as he bent down and put his hands inside the natural inlets on the statue and prepared to lift.

Taikuri nodded to the older man and began to walk to the other side of the statue, doing his best to try and lift it up. “Easier said then done. How are we gonna do this if we can’t even lift this.” Taikuri said with heavy breath as he leaned against the statue. He bent down to look at the bottom of the statue, spying that it’s form flushed with the temple ground. “There’s not even room for us to try and jam something under it to get it to slide. We have to lift it up somehow to get that to happen.”

Albus was about to respond when Satura spoke in hushed whispers: "Pft, weaklings." before lowering her fists and approaching another stature on the far opposite end of the temple. "Albus, help me out, will ya?". Albus remained in place, turning his attention to the opposing team, speaking in his native tongue. "A fine home. I'm from Koln, by the southern border." His gaze then lingered towards Ebisu, a man whom had left quite the impression on him from the games of last year. He pondered the words he wanted to say yet found them all lacking. With no words coming to mind, he eventually turned around to assist his team with the stature. Believing it to be an easy effort, he snuck his fingers into whatever inlets the stature offered and began to lift. Or he would have if it wasn't because the statue felt like it weighed like an entire city.

"Are you two not going to help!?" Satura cried out as her face started to redden from the effort. Serah shook her head. "My armor doesn't work here, remember? I am barely able to carry it as it stands, much less a statue like that to boot." Serah spoke solemnly, feeling currently useless to aid in the obstacle. A hand was laid upon her shoulder, that of Seraphine. "Serah, we may not be as physically capable as the two of them, but wouldn't it be a shame to leave our comrades in the dust and lean back ourselves? Whatever amount it may offer, isn't it our obligation towards our team to do our best?" She spoke as she walked up to do her best effort as well, with Serah close behind, muttering something about being talked to like a child. Even with all their efforts combined, and no matter their angle of approach, there seemed to be no means of making the stature budge. "Alright, stop stop stop!" Satura shouted as the group ceased their efforts, breathing out and shaking loose their aching joints and limbs. Satura turned to her opponents, to see them having similar obstacles as them, though they seemed to take a different approach. With a grumpy look on her features over their own failure, she cried out: "Ey, any luck on your end?"

Agnes dug the blade of her sword into the ground in hopes of using it as a lever to help push up the large statue, withdrawing and sheathing the blade once she realized that would not work. "No, the statues is too heavy. Even the ones that are cracked and broken are above our ability to carry." Agnes said, crossing her arms and never taking her eyes off the statue as if hoping that everything would click into place any moment now.

"Man, If only we still had Genbu, he could have carried this thing on his back no problem if he was his true size. How can they expect us to carry this by ourselves? I mean, I have like, no muscles. Even if we could lift it I wouldn't be doing half the work you guys would be doing." Morgan said with a hint of despair in her voice as she dropped into a squat and brought her knees up to her chest with a loud sigh.

"Stop whining, I'm trying to think..." Agnes said as she turned to face Albus and his team before turning to her own. "We can't do this...not by ourselves..." She said in a near whisper as she brought up her index finger to her bottom lip. She then turned to Ebisu and Taikuri, "What if we aren't supposed to do this by ourselves? Maybe I'm over thinking things but they got here right after we did. At first, I thought it was just bad luck that would run into another team right as we were at the final challenge but what if this was how things were supposed to be from the start? Do you remember the exact wording we were given when they explained the final challenge?" She spoke out loud for everyone to hear.

Taikuri piped up, interjecting before anyone else could. "They said its weight we would not be able to carry by traditional means...but that could mean a number of things. But given the fact that we were all placed on the same island, I believe that we were all placed on this island to overcome this challenge in particular." Taikuri says and he crosses his arms over his chest, pondering the means to which they could overcome the sheer weight of this statue. Then Ebisu comes up beside him and places his arm over the smaller man whom was his teammate. "Well that's easy then! Why don't we just try and do it together? If we can't do it with just our team why don't we try and lift it with the other team? Why else would they put us all on the same location, when in the past years they have always separated us to evaluate us without outside influences of the other teams." He said as he gestured his hand out towards the old man of Salamander Shade. "What do you say Albus, you remember me right? Think you and your team can trust us long enough so we can work together and move this statue?"

Albus turned his attention away from the statue and towards the voice, a small grin spreading across his face as he recognized it as Ebisu's. Albus looked towards his team as he began to take steps towards the opposing team, with much vulgar protest coming from Satura and hands raised as to show that he meant no harm for certain, for while he was incapable of magical feats, it didn't keep him from being able to potentially pummel their faces in with his fists. "I ask that you pardon the lady's coarse choice of words and do not forsake this opportunity. It has been made clear to us both that we can't move these obstacles by our own natural measures. I will stand at the side of you and yours in this endeavor, Ebisu. I trust that my comrades will do the same." He spoke without ever looking back. Albus stood still, awaiting his friends' response. It was not swift, nor was it delayed. Within minutes, the rest of Salamander Shade stood beside him, ready to do the necessary task. "I do not like this, but I see no other chance for us to succeed," Serah spoke.

Satura nodded her displeased agreement. "I will not lie and say that I am happy with this arrangement, but I am not a blind woman. Yet know this, worthy opponents, if you stab us in the back, there will be hell to pay in the competitions to come," she spoke with great distaste. Seraphine, on the other hand, appeared no worse for wear over this arrangement. As a matter of fact, she seemed downright pleased and happy, as if she just thought she was about to earn herself some brand new friends. "I see this as a great opportunity, and I humbly thank you for allowing us to offer aid. Hopefully, this may lead to stronger bonds and better battles ahead of us." She spoke with a slight bounce in her voice and a wide grin on her face.

"It would not be the first time in my life that enemies have become allies, temporary as it may be." She spoke her part and then silently walked over to the statue, waiting for the others to join with Ebisu and Taikuri and attempt to lift together what they could not alone.

Morgan got into position, knowing she'd have to try extra hard to carry her share of the statue's weight. She knew the height difference between all of them would also make carrying the statue a difficult task for all of them. "Alright, we just gotta believe we can do this. There's no way eight people can't lift this thing up...right?" Morgan allowed her own concern to come out toward the end of what she intended to be a motivating speech.

Once everyone had gotten into position, they counted to three before using all their might to lift the large stone statue from the ground. The small bugs that had made their home under the statue scattered as they lifted it from the ground. With just a few tries the taller of the group had managed to lift the statue up to their shoulders where they could better hold the weight while the shorter of them kept their hands high to continue to bear what weight they could. Once they all felt they could comfortably carry the statue without risk of dropping it on any of their teammates or their new temporary allies they began to walk the statue. One foot in front of the other the sun had risen high in the sky by the time they exited the jungle. The foliage giving way to a fiery orange sunset. The dispel magic of the statue having knocked broken a hole in the barrier that kept them off the beach until the completed the challenge. Once they had reached the beach they sat the large stone object down onto the soft sand, watching it sink a bit as they stepped away but ultimately settling on its new home.

"I guess this is it," Agnes said as the looked out at the boats in the water that would be their trip home before they had to meet tomorrow in Crocus for the next challenge where their new allies would once again become enemies. "I certainly hope you don't think your help here today will see us go easy on you in the matches over the next few days." She spoke with a somewhat smug tone as she adjusted her glasses and moved to stand solely with her own teammates.