I couldn't let another volley like that happen. These monsters weren't letting up, but they'd been scatterbrained mostly. The last attack was just unlucky; the three of them happened to move one after another and land their hits side by side right along the route I was dodging. It wouldn't have been as big a deal if it hadn't been for what type of monsters they were. Two of the three were Chimera and their leader, the third monster was a weapon. I counted my blessings when the battle started that it was just an Atma Weapon, just a sort of smaller, weaker version of the likes of Ultima Weapon or Omega Weapon. Still, I think it was just a bit much for one person to handle.


While I was thinking to myself, another Quake came my way. Ducking and rolling got me right in the face of one of the two Chimeras and I had to do some tricky acrobatics to miss its lion head's jaws. The distance only led the Chimera's reptile head to use Aqua Breath. I still had to count myself lucky. Because this Chimera was launching attacks, the other one only stood around growling and Atma Weapon was just charging up some energy attack. I did some guesswork and figured it was going to be a doozy. Whatever it was, I wanted to use it. With that in mind, I kept at it with the Chimera that was attacking me. I just needed to bait them both long enough. Atma Weapon was definitely locking on to me so all I needed was the right timing. I wasn't really my strong suit, but it ended up working. When I turned to gauge the energy attack one last time, I took too long because I saw that it was about to complete. Just then, the Chimera swiped at me, knocking me back just in time to take some beam of light right down through all four heads. It went down hard and I used the fancy light show to move on the other Chimera, tagging it in the lion's head with my tonfa.



As the light died down, I took stock of the situation. One monster down and the other Chimera unable to use one head, but the Atma Weapon was still at full. Maybe I could do a reverse of what I did before. Atma Weapon looked like it was charging another one of those energy moves so I just needed the Chimera to do something to it first. Since it couldn't use the lion, the Chimera switched to its hawk head, casting magic instead. Magic wasn't going to stop Atma. In fact, nothing the thing did was going to stop the weapon. I needed it to slow it down instead and that meant I'd need its tail. With it using magic, it wasn't about to help me with that so while Atma charged, I'd only have that much time to get it to focus on it.


It's spells came incessantly, but they were slow. I'd need to use Ifrit again, but at least I wouldn't need a full summon. As it cast a Waterga at me, I returned with Fira and bathed the both of us in steam. Through the fog, I managed to find it and take out the hawk and even move into the ram head. My next move was to feign more attacks to lure it out. If it thought I was too difficult to hit, it might just consider using its tail. Lady luck must have taken pity on me because that's exactly what it did. All I had to do was bait it some more. It followed me, trying desperately to bite into me. My footwork was good enough to keep at a safe distance and I managed to back my way towards Atma. As soon as I knew I was in range, I ducked out of the way and the Chimera fed Atma a big dose of its poison, debilitating it. It was my chance; without any teammates around and the two of them so close together, I didn't have to worry about using Mad Rush. The surge of power and speed hit me all at once and I made full use of it. Dashing right for them, I swiped at them over and over with my tonfa. The added strength increased the damage output and both of them were taken down before long.


I took a huge breath after I saw them collapse. Berserk was still in effect and made it difficult for me to relax, but I knew I was safe for the time being. Riding out Ifrit's ability until it wore off, I let my mind wander. It was also a way to remind myself of what had happened. My memory wasn't exactly doing me any favours.


“How could you not know what a Garden is?” The girl I was traveling with at the time asked.


It was surprising. The two of us had found each other some time ago and were wandering around the barren landscape. We'd been trying to see if we could recognise where we were, but both of us were having memory problems. Even so, the girl we ended up finding had our amnesia in a bad way. She couldn't even remember what a Garden was or a Moomba.


“You need to use your GFs more carefully, miss. Those things are great in a pinch, but man do they mess with your brain.” I still remembered telling her.


And that only made things more confusing. She didn't know what those were, either. In fact, I think the only thing she did know was about gunblades, but even that didn't make sense the way she was talking about it.


“She said she's been out here a while, didn't she? Maybe she was forced to use her GFs. We can't blame her. The monsters out here are strong.”


“You got a point. If we're messed up this bad, just think how rough she's had it. We did find her after seeing that crazy thing you talked about showed up. I'm just glad it didn't see us.”


“I still can't believe she fought it and lived.”


“Well, no point dawdling.” I said, standing up with a good stretch, “I'm back to normal and those two don't look like they're going to find themselves anytime soon.”