Work Text:
"Soooo," Jack said, drawing it out. "You guys remember how I told Mother I wanted a puppy, like, a year ago?"
The Behemoth apparently understood him and took offense to being compared to something so non-threatening. It's triangular ears pinned flat against its head. The fins that were tucked under its mane flared upwards, and the skin of its snout pinched up as it bared its massive canines. It's glowing yellow eyes flared, and it let out a roar so loud that it blew the ends of Jack's hair and his mantle back. Flecks of spittle and old, rotten pieces of nastiness that it had previously snacked on were thrown from its mouth in his direction.
"Yeah. Forget that. Chocobo chick it is."
A small, sweet giggle came from where he had last seen Cinque, but he didn't take his eyes off the beast to glance at her again. "That's funny!" she called to him in her slow, kind of vacant way of talking. "Maybe you can get Ace-aroni to hatch you one."
"Focus, you two!" King yelled.
Jack finally spotted Cinque on the other side of the Behemeth as she flanked it, dragging her mace behind her like it didn't weigh half of what it actually did. The sharp spike on the end of its enormous head scraped on the ground and bore a trail wherever she ran. As soon as she was close enough to the Behemoth's back leg, she leaned all of her weight back on her heels and hefted her mace off the ground. Its counterweight kept her from toppling over.
She spun around once, twice, gaining momentum. Dust and debris on the cave floor was picked up, collecting together until she looked like a real tornado trailing closer and closer to the creature. Finally, when she was ready, she let out a mighty yell that broke her voice. She cracked her mace against the joint of the Behemoth's leg, following through the swing.
He expected bones to shatter under the metal the way that they usually did when Cinque landed a hit. He expected a loud crunch, and he also kind of expected a bit of blood and guts to come out too. The Behemoth's leg was knocked in and it slipped for a second, but that seemed like all that happened. The thing planted its foot again and didn't look like it was favoring its leg at all.
The Behemoth's neck twisted, thick muscles rippling as it peered over its shoulder at her. It lashed its tail to sweep anybody that might have been behind it, but Cinque wisely hopped out of the range. She tilted her head to the side.
"Uh-ooooh," she lilted, and uh-oh was right.
If Cinque's attacks didn't even hurt it, let alone stagger or stun it, they were in for a fight. Jack didn't want his classmates to know he was nervous, though, so he forced down the doubt in his mind until he could lock it up tight.
"You . . . You mean to tell me that didn't do anything?!" Cater shrieked. She looked down in horror at the single Magicite pistol in her hands. "What the heck are we supposed to do then?!"
The Behemoth turned its attention to him, Cater, and King.
Jack didn't get a chance to answer with something witty. The Behemoth lunged at the three of them. Cater and King dove in opposite directions, fanning out to either side of him, but Jack locked on and waited. When it ran close enough to draw back for a devastating swipe, he reacted. Lightning fast, he ducked beneath its meaty paw and landed two quick swats with his sword - one up and across the flesh of its forearm, and the other down across its face.
The skin was extremely tough, like cutting through a diamond instead of butter. His slashes had been hard, and they would've leveled a normal creature. But to a Behemoth of that size they were superficial. He wasn't even sure if they had been deep enough to draw blood. He was lucky the Behemoth still retreated with a hissing sound of irritation rather than try to clock him with another strike.
"Hey! I think I got its eyes to water!" he called, hoping to lighten the mood, even if it was just for a second. "That's good, right?"
"This isn't the time for jokes, Jack!" Cater answered.
The Behemoth went after him again with its heavy claws while Cater and King shot ineffectually at it from each side. Jack raised his sword and parried its paw to the side, but the impact was so hard that it sent pins and needles down his entire arm. He gasped and nearly dropped his sword, falling back before it could try again. He had to pause to shake his hands out and regain some of the feeling.
The Behemoth dove at King next, and Jack offered him credit - he really tried to stand his ground. He fired round after round into its face, but it was like his bullets were paper balls. They either deflected straight off the leathery skin, unable to penetrate it, or they embedded into the topmost layer, not doing real damage. When the guns clicked empty, King's determined face fell, red eyes blowing wide. He dodged to the side, but the Behemoth lowered its head and gored upwards with its spindly, curling horns.
The bone pierced near King's hip and came out the other side by his spine. Blood sprayed outwards from the wound. He was folded over the Behemoth's horn and he dropped his guns, instinctively grabbing for the thing jammed into his skin. His mouth fell open but all his breath was pushed out of him, and a tense wheeze left his throat. He coughed whatever minuscule air was left in his lungs, and blood burst from his mouth, spattering down his chin. Then he went limp. The Behemoth lashed its face from side to side like a dog tearing apart a toy, and King was slung from the end of the horn and thrown to the rocky cave floor a few feet away.
He landed hard, unable to even catch himself. He rolled once and remained still, face down on the hard cave ground.
"King?" Cinque called. She glared at the Behemoth's rear. "Okay, now I'm mad!" she said. As the Behemoth honed in on Cater and Jack, Cinque popped her hip to lean the pole of her mace against herself. She lifted her pointer finger in the air and traced some kind of random-looking pattern in the air, back and forth, back and forth. Her tongue protruded from her mouth while she concentrated. It looked like she was doing math.
"We're not in geometry class right now," Jack teased, and Cinque flapped her hand in his direction.
"Shhhh!" she hissed. "Yes, we are. I'm calculating!"
The Behemoth prowled forward with a throaty growl, low to the ground. Cater leveled her Magicite pistol, and the end of it charged with a blue orb of Blizzaga energy. She willed as much power into it as she could muster until her arms trembled trying hold it, and as the Behemoth bore down on her, she released the charge. The strength of it knocked her backwards, and she backpedaled furiously to keep her feet underneath her.
The spell soared through the air, exploding in the Behemoth's face and over its shoulders. A layer of frost immediately covered its skin and its horns, drying and cracking every bit of moisture into something brittle. Spears of ice jutted out from the center and pierced into its newly enfeebled flesh, stabbing into its shoulders and arms. It also took several massive cuts to its face that unfortunately missed its eye, but Cater's attack at least drew blood. The Behemoth thrashed back and forth violently, its movements slowed from the freezer burn, and then it let out a massive roar that was so loud it shook some stalagmites from the ceiling.
Jack found his next opening.
He slid in close and cut for the horns. To his relief, the Blizzaga allowed his blade cut right through the frost, shattering them in a shower of ice and bone. The Behemoth let out something like a bark, then a strangely high-pitched whine that released its pain.
Cater loaded another shot and aimed it. "I'm doing that again!" she yelled. "Get ready, Jack!" The end of her Magicite pistol charged again, but the Behemoth ran towards her, enraged at the one to cause it pain. She screamed and released the shot before it was ready, then skirted to the side. The small blur of Blizzard collided with its belly, but it was too weak. The Behemoth didn't even flinch.
It chased her and raised its paw, stomping down on her from above. The pads slapped onto the stone, and Cater disappeared under it with a hoarse cry that suddenly cut off. When it lifted its paw she was dazed but still alive, eyes blinking rapidly as she tried desperately to hold on to her consciousness. The Behemoth lowered its head and opened its massive jaws, clamping down on either side of her ribs. It tore its face to the side, and Cater jerked then was still. Blood dashed over the stone and over the Behemoth's face and lips.
"Okay! I got it!" Cinque finally called. She got a running start and then leapt into the air higher than Jack thought was possible with such a big weapon, but she lifted it easily. Her trajectory carried her over the top of the Behemoth, and he realized that's what she had been calculating. She brought both hands together and arced the mace over her head, her back arching to generate more power. As she plummeted down on the Behemoth, she let out a high-pitched grunt of exertion.
She brought her mace down on the bones right between its hips, where the tail jutted out from its back. The metal thwacked against its body, and the crunch Jack had missed on her first swing echoed through the caves. The Behemoth wailed. Its back legs and tail crumpled.
Cinque landed clumsily, having to run to keep herself upright. She finally ground to a halt by leaning on her toes and pinwheeling her arms until she caught her balance, and she and Jack regrouped to assess the Behemoth. It actually looked hurt, and was struggling to skitter to its feet. The strike had done what her first couldn't, and its tail as well as its back leg - the one she had tried to demolish earlier - remained limp and dead as it crawled upright. Still, as soon as it recovered, it dragged itself towards her on three legs. She readied her next swing, bringing her mace up by her shoulder and rolling it around like a baseball player.
The Behemoth lunged. Or at least, Jack thought it did. Cinque was fooled as well. She released her swing, but right before the blow connected with its snout, the Behemoth swept its body to the side, keeping itself out of her range. Its tail was limp, but the momentum still whirled it around. The spikes on it lashed across Cinque's throat. She couldn't even scream as she went down.
The Behemoth turned towards Jack and pounced. He barely slid to the side, and its leather skin brushed against his face and side as it passed. It spun around again, and Jack ducked beneath its tail. It swiped with its right paw, then its left, and Jack scuttled backwards out of range. It opened its jaws and snapped at him, and its teeth clicked together mere inches from his face when he barely managed to hurl himself out of the way.
It was getting desperate. More feral.
He couldn't parry or block. With how strong the Behemoth was, he'd only get hurt in the process and open himself up to a counter attack. He was forced to continue dodging over and over, but he couldn't find an opening to slash at it in retaliation. The Behemoth limped on its broken leg and tried to dive on top of him. He dropped to the ground and the Behemoth landed awkwardly. Jack rolled out from under its belly, cutting upwards, but he couldn't manage to get enough power behind it to break the skin.
He wasn't sure how long he danced with the Behemoth, but he was getting tired. His muscles were starting to burn, and his breath was coming shorter and shorter the more winded he became. The Behemoth was getting tired too, its shattered leg affecting its movement. Upon its next swing of its claws, an unfortunate split-second hesitation from Jack was all that it needed. He didn't dodge in time, and the force of a freight train slapped into his back as one of its massive paws connected. He was thrown off his feet and knocked to the ground.
Jack crawled to his feet with a groan. He needed a new strategy, but he didn't have any ideas.
Until he eyed the Behemoth and its wounded leg.
He saw blood, and he saw something else. He saw a red, swirling aura tinged with a bit of black that circled around the wound, dissipating in the air.
It was shedding phantoma, its very life essence.
A half-desperate, horrible idea entered his mind. He and his classmates harvested the phantoma from the creatures they killed by manipulating and withdrawing it, absorbing it into themselves. He imagined he could do the same thing to himself - manipulate his life essence into a single, all-powerful attack.
It was a really reckless idea considering he had never tried it before and had no idea what it would even do to him. But he didn't feel as though he had any other choice. He sent his sword away for just a moment and concentrated, focusing his attention inward the same way he focused when he withdrew another entity's phantoma. What was previously invisible to him gradually appeared blurry around his silhouette in a dim grey, then became sharper and more deep in color until it was solidified. Jack drew the phantoma from within his very soul and aura, and its warmth radiated outwards from his body. His hair billowed gently around him, and his nerves tingled with the raw sensation of power. He imagined pouring reserves of energy into it from every part of his body.
It suddenly felt like all the pressure in the cave had dropped to the floor, and a wave of dizziness crashed over Jack before he could brace for it. His heart strained inside of his chest, suddenly beating so hard that he could only gasp and clutch at it. His vision darkened at the edges, and a different heaviness than the heaviness of exhaustion pressed down upon him. He staggered back, then forward, desperate to stay on his feet.
When he felt it was ready he called his sword and imbued his sword with the power that he had amassed. His body was so heavy he couldn't even lift it, and the point dug into the ground while the blade glowed a violent crimson. With a loud cry that tore the rest of the air from his burning throat, he slashed as hard as he could.
The blade's wave cut completely through the Behemoth's throat. He wished he could've watched, but as soon as the attack left him, he collapsed to a knee, fist pressed to the dirt to keep himself upright. He heard a gurgle. Heard the sound of dripping. Two loud thuds.
He fell on his side facing the severed head of the dead beast, and the rest of its phantoma aura surrounded it. Jack didn't have the energy to reach fully towards it. He stretched his violently shaking fingers in its direction, and that was enough. The phantoma was drawn to his aura, and as soon as he harvested it, he felt fractionally better. His ears stopped ringing, and the darkness wasn't closing in anymore, just stuck where it was. But he wasn't out of the woods.
The Behemoth was gone, but his friends would be too if he didn't move fast enough. All he wanted to do was close his eyes and just go to sleep. He had sacrificed every ounce of his power without thinking of the consequences, and now he couldn't do anything else.
He touched his finger to the COMM in his ear.
"J-Jack to Class Zero," he said, and he didn't even realize his teeth had been chattering until the stutter came out. It made him realize how cold the rest of his body was. "Emergency tr-" He had to pause to suck in a breath, and it caught in his throat. He coughed violently, each contraction of his diaphragm tearing through him. "Em, emergency transmission. Anybody there?"
"This is Deuce," Deuce's light voice was the best sound he could've asked for, as melodic as her flute. "Go ahead, Jack. I copy."
"I . . . I need help."