Attacked
VG Shrink
chapter 8
by
copier
· original author:
tinylelouch
Everything was covered in the darkness of night. Stars shone brightly in the dark sky as the wildlife of Gran Pulse began to find their resting places for the evening. L’Cie were no different, the group of Lightning, Sazh, Snow, Vanille, Fang, and Hope had set up camp in the valley near the Archylte Steppe. The girl’s of the team were currently asleep, the guys were on watch. Even at night Gran Pulse was as dangerous as possible. The terrain was tough, the monsters, tougher. Especially for Hope, the youngest and most inexperienced of his fellow L’Cie. The power he held was undeniable though. His friends trusted him enough to leave him on watch.
Hope gave a yawn, bored from the inactivity during his watch. Snow and Sazh were each at separate entrances doing the same duty he was, and likely having the same boredom he was. At first the party was under constant attack by the native Pulse monsters, but each encounter only made them stronger; and now, few monsters dared cross their path. It was still best to be ready though, hence the guard duty. Hope understood all that, it didn’t do anything to reduce the boredom though. He leaned against a tree staring over the mountains, faintly spotting the form of Titan dozens of miles away. The bored thoughts turned to his newly found friends, who without them he would’ve never been where he was today.
Sazh and Snow were each respectable men. Although with Snow Hope was still a little uneasy, his mother’s death was almost directly caused by that man. To an extent the young lad still blamed the man for it, but he now knew Snow was a good guy and deeply regretted what had occurred that day. Fang was someone he admired too, remarkably beautiful and yet as much of a warrior as Lightning. Vanille he often thought about, during the course of their journey together Hope and Vanille had become essentially best friends, always keeping the other going. Last was Lightning, the beauty who taught Hope how to survive and fight. Each of these people had made Hope into the person he was now, a stronger person. He would cherish these feelings forever.
His gaze shifted to his brand. If it wasn’t for this thing I’d have never met them…The mark of L’Cie glowed as he focused on it, as it always did. It was this mark that gave Hope all of his powers, what made him more than human. There was once a time when I cursed this thing…Now I’m almost grateful for it. He released his focus on the mark on his hand, yet the glow it had did not vanish.
“Huh?” Hope removed his glove to look at his hand; its glow had grown darker than its usually green aura, the brand changing shape slightly. This usually meant one thing, “Times running out…” The boredom Hope was experiencing moments ago was replaced with a sense of melancholy. Less time to head to Oerba…and then what? No one knew what would come after their journey, or even if it would be a success. They didn’t even know if they would ever see one another again. It pained Hope to think he might be unable to see the friends he’d finally made.
Some bushes in the distance rustled, Hope stood braced himself for battle. Right on cue a small group of three of Pulse’s wolf-like creatures stepped from the bushes, fangs bared. The young man gave a look to his still-glowing hand, then looked to the wolves with a determined look. “You guys picked the wrong moment to mess with me…”
The wolves were weaklings; Hope didn’t even need to draw his weapon. He aimed his palm at the leader of the beasts, charging up a Firaga spell to end them. When he released it, it wasn’t a Fire spell that came out; it wasn’t even an attack spell. Truth be told, Hope didn’t know what it was. He just felt its power come over him along with his foes. The beasts appeared as offset as their prey. All four of them looked around expectantly; it seemed as if they all realized at the same time what was happening too. The land around them was growing! No…it was more accurate to say they were shrinking. The valley loomed further and further up as the grass quickly got big enough to cover Hope’s ankles, and then his knees.
With all of them nearing a fifth of their size, Hope about a foot tall, the beasts realized what was going on; but in their simple minds they only knew one thing for certain. Their prey was responsible for it. All three began running towards Hope with all their might. Hope pulled out his Boomerang to ready himself. The shrinking effect continued though, and in the minutes it took for the wolves to reach Hope the grass that once surrounded his feet was like a forest. The tree-like grass stood a couple hundred feet up in the sky. This was bad, on all sides were places the wolves could be, and they were good enough hunters to know it.
Hope gritted his teeth, eyes on his brand. I can’t risk another spell…it might just make things worse! But he wasn’t a very physical fighter. In the terrain Hope might actually lose if all he could resort to was his boomerang. But his friends never gave up, and neither did Hope. He readied himself to fight off the wolves when they arrived. Adrenaline pumped through the L’Cie’s veins, his senses heightened. It seemed as if every blade of grass for miles on end was rustling with the sound of movement, the wolves were impossible to detect.
Crack
The sound of a twig snapping behind him, Hope turned around just in time for a wolf to lunge at him. His boomerang held back the fangs rather well. The feral beast and L’Cie were nearly face to face, ready to fight to the death in this forest of grass. Hope raised a leg to kick it off just as the other two wolves to appear in the air. The kick sent one off by it quickly regained itself and joined its companions in attacking the young man. Hope didn’t falter, he continued trying to fight off the wolves with his weapon; but they had the advantage, and small wounds were quickly gathering all over the shrunken L’Cie. Pretty soon he was panting from exhaustion, and the wolves seemed to grin at him as they back away into the grass for another attack. Hope could follow their movements since he knew where they started at. The loud booms of normal-sized creatures moving around made it harder, but the L’Cie found the chance to attack and threw his boomerang. The forest of grass cleared away for several dozen meters from the weapon, revealing the two wolves who managed to avoid getting hit. The third died from the blow it received. Both forces stared at one another in the clearing, Hope felt his strength dwindling. The wolves were still more than strong though, and sensing the weakened prey they lunged for a direct attack. Hope braced himself for the fangs to dig into his body.
A never ending shadow engulfed everything...
BOOM
That was that, Hope stared in disbelief at what had just happened. The wolves that were so close to killing him were dead, crushed beneath the foot of something at normal size. It was a relief to see the foot belonged to someone human, even if the footwear they wore was large enough to be its own mountain. The person rose an endless number of feet into the air, probably big enough to even start thinking miles. So big they probably didn’t even realize they just crushed two monsters and saved Hope’s life. In fact, past their ankles they started becoming little more than a blur. The person was a girl, that much he was certain of (Mainly because their chest prevented him from seeing their face.) The overall figure was clear though, as was the person itself.
The one who unknowingly saved Hope was….
Hope gave a yawn, bored from the inactivity during his watch. Snow and Sazh were each at separate entrances doing the same duty he was, and likely having the same boredom he was. At first the party was under constant attack by the native Pulse monsters, but each encounter only made them stronger; and now, few monsters dared cross their path. It was still best to be ready though, hence the guard duty. Hope understood all that, it didn’t do anything to reduce the boredom though. He leaned against a tree staring over the mountains, faintly spotting the form of Titan dozens of miles away. The bored thoughts turned to his newly found friends, who without them he would’ve never been where he was today.
Sazh and Snow were each respectable men. Although with Snow Hope was still a little uneasy, his mother’s death was almost directly caused by that man. To an extent the young lad still blamed the man for it, but he now knew Snow was a good guy and deeply regretted what had occurred that day. Fang was someone he admired too, remarkably beautiful and yet as much of a warrior as Lightning. Vanille he often thought about, during the course of their journey together Hope and Vanille had become essentially best friends, always keeping the other going. Last was Lightning, the beauty who taught Hope how to survive and fight. Each of these people had made Hope into the person he was now, a stronger person. He would cherish these feelings forever.
His gaze shifted to his brand. If it wasn’t for this thing I’d have never met them…The mark of L’Cie glowed as he focused on it, as it always did. It was this mark that gave Hope all of his powers, what made him more than human. There was once a time when I cursed this thing…Now I’m almost grateful for it. He released his focus on the mark on his hand, yet the glow it had did not vanish.
“Huh?” Hope removed his glove to look at his hand; its glow had grown darker than its usually green aura, the brand changing shape slightly. This usually meant one thing, “Times running out…” The boredom Hope was experiencing moments ago was replaced with a sense of melancholy. Less time to head to Oerba…and then what? No one knew what would come after their journey, or even if it would be a success. They didn’t even know if they would ever see one another again. It pained Hope to think he might be unable to see the friends he’d finally made.
Some bushes in the distance rustled, Hope stood braced himself for battle. Right on cue a small group of three of Pulse’s wolf-like creatures stepped from the bushes, fangs bared. The young man gave a look to his still-glowing hand, then looked to the wolves with a determined look. “You guys picked the wrong moment to mess with me…”
The wolves were weaklings; Hope didn’t even need to draw his weapon. He aimed his palm at the leader of the beasts, charging up a Firaga spell to end them. When he released it, it wasn’t a Fire spell that came out; it wasn’t even an attack spell. Truth be told, Hope didn’t know what it was. He just felt its power come over him along with his foes. The beasts appeared as offset as their prey. All four of them looked around expectantly; it seemed as if they all realized at the same time what was happening too. The land around them was growing! No…it was more accurate to say they were shrinking. The valley loomed further and further up as the grass quickly got big enough to cover Hope’s ankles, and then his knees.
With all of them nearing a fifth of their size, Hope about a foot tall, the beasts realized what was going on; but in their simple minds they only knew one thing for certain. Their prey was responsible for it. All three began running towards Hope with all their might. Hope pulled out his Boomerang to ready himself. The shrinking effect continued though, and in the minutes it took for the wolves to reach Hope the grass that once surrounded his feet was like a forest. The tree-like grass stood a couple hundred feet up in the sky. This was bad, on all sides were places the wolves could be, and they were good enough hunters to know it.
Hope gritted his teeth, eyes on his brand. I can’t risk another spell…it might just make things worse! But he wasn’t a very physical fighter. In the terrain Hope might actually lose if all he could resort to was his boomerang. But his friends never gave up, and neither did Hope. He readied himself to fight off the wolves when they arrived. Adrenaline pumped through the L’Cie’s veins, his senses heightened. It seemed as if every blade of grass for miles on end was rustling with the sound of movement, the wolves were impossible to detect.
Crack
The sound of a twig snapping behind him, Hope turned around just in time for a wolf to lunge at him. His boomerang held back the fangs rather well. The feral beast and L’Cie were nearly face to face, ready to fight to the death in this forest of grass. Hope raised a leg to kick it off just as the other two wolves to appear in the air. The kick sent one off by it quickly regained itself and joined its companions in attacking the young man. Hope didn’t falter, he continued trying to fight off the wolves with his weapon; but they had the advantage, and small wounds were quickly gathering all over the shrunken L’Cie. Pretty soon he was panting from exhaustion, and the wolves seemed to grin at him as they back away into the grass for another attack. Hope could follow their movements since he knew where they started at. The loud booms of normal-sized creatures moving around made it harder, but the L’Cie found the chance to attack and threw his boomerang. The forest of grass cleared away for several dozen meters from the weapon, revealing the two wolves who managed to avoid getting hit. The third died from the blow it received. Both forces stared at one another in the clearing, Hope felt his strength dwindling. The wolves were still more than strong though, and sensing the weakened prey they lunged for a direct attack. Hope braced himself for the fangs to dig into his body.
A never ending shadow engulfed everything...
BOOM
That was that, Hope stared in disbelief at what had just happened. The wolves that were so close to killing him were dead, crushed beneath the foot of something at normal size. It was a relief to see the foot belonged to someone human, even if the footwear they wore was large enough to be its own mountain. The person rose an endless number of feet into the air, probably big enough to even start thinking miles. So big they probably didn’t even realize they just crushed two monsters and saved Hope’s life. In fact, past their ankles they started becoming little more than a blur. The person was a girl, that much he was certain of (Mainly because their chest prevented him from seeing their face.) The overall figure was clear though, as was the person itself.
The one who unknowingly saved Hope was….
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March 13, 2025
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