Final Fantasy VII: Lifestream - Book 3: Pursuit

NINE

We didn't have to wait long.

As Jessie, Aerith, Biggs, and I crouched behind the mound of rock to the left of the road, we watched as Cloud waited expectantly for the Shinra advance force right out in the open. They'd spot him as soon as they came around the bend—which was the idea, of course. After a few minutes, we suddenly heard the sound of boots on concrete, humming engines, and the thudding of heavy feet hitting the ground. As they got closer to our position, Jessie gave each of us one of her raspberries and held one herself as well, her fingers on the pin.

Not long after that, the advance force finally came into view. It was made up, as far as I could tell, of about twenty grunts both normal and elite, fifteen mechs including sweepers, cutters, and moth slashers, and ten soldiers of different kinds. There were regular troops, ones holding riot shields, others carrying grenades, and two officers. And trundling alongside them, one on the right of the group and one on the left, were the two devil riders. I gazed at them intently.

The riders themselves wore black suits of armor with spiked helms that completely hid their faces except for their bright yellow eyes. I was glad for that. They each carried a huge iron hammer with a long reach and sat confidently on their mounts. As for the lizards, they were huge, easily twenty feet long, with bright red scales and sharp black claws on their feet. Their teeth were like razors, and they had purple horns from their snouts down to their necks. They also had two bigger white horns curving out from the sides of their heads.

As soon as they saw Cloud standing in the middle of the road, the entire column came to a halt. The officers were, conveniently for us, at the front, and they motioned to the others, who took aim at Cloud but didn't fire yet. He just stood there, calm and casual as if he didn't have a dozen rifles or more all aimed at him at once, and for just a moment, the two officers looked uncertainly at each other. I couldn't help being amused at how he'd caught them off guard.

"Outta the way!" one of the officers ordered.

Cloud slowly reached back, drew Buster, and spun it around with a flourish. "You first. Get lost, asshole."

The guy brought up his rifle. "Drop the weapon!"

"Not happening," Cloud retorted.

"We're an elite Shinra strike force," the officer sneered. "You gonna try and stop us all by yourself, hotshot?"

Cloud smirked. "No."

Right then, the four of us all threw our raspberries over the mound and into the midst of the Shinra ranks. They clattered to the pavement, then exploded a second later, scattering troops and grunts like rag dolls and tearing several of the mechs apart. And in the midst of the chaos, I flicked my wrists to unsheath the mythril claws of my gloves and leapt over the rocks and into the fray. Jessie flipped forward over the mound, drew her weapons while upside down in midair, switched them on in a single fluid motion, and landed next to me.

"Great entrance, Jessie!" I told her as I pummeled the nearest grunt with a blinding barrage of punches.

She laughed. "Thanks! Kinda liked it myself!"

Hitting the glowing white circle on the back of her right glove, she started moving faster, darting from one enemy to the next so quickly I could barely keep up. Jessie was a blur of motion as she cut and slashed with what looked like two curved, bright orange energy blades. And at the same time, Biggs and Aerith climbed over the rocks, laying into the crowd with deafening blasts of gunfire and tempests of magical energy. Cloud charged at the two officers while Barret and the others sprang in from the other side and closed the noose.

"Shit!" the officer swore. "Take 'em down! Take—"

He never got to finish. Cloud saw to that, overpowering him with a trio of quick, sharp slashes while I sent another grunt flying into one of his allies with a high roundhouse kick, knocking them both down. The air was filled with gunfire as the soldiers, grunts, and sweepers all tried to shoot us. We just kept moving, though, staying a step ahead of them as much as we could, and with them clustered so closely together, they often wound up hitting each other instead of us.