THE ZODIAC WAR
^ _ ` a b c d e f g h i

Chapter 31: The Final Duel

The two faced each other a few paces apart, gunblades drawn in their own styles. Seifer's grin turned into a ferocious smirk as he spoke, "So, what's the wager on who wins?"

Squall smirked back as his ethereal body and voice relaxed into a semi-physical form, "Why a wager?"

"Well, now that I'm a brave and you're a big GF, how do I know I'll win this fight? And what do I get besides getting junctioned to you're annoying butt?"

Squall sighed knowing all too well what he was going to hear next.

"You stole my dream, Squall, you know that!" Seifer yelled.

Squall knew this was also a feint. Seifer knew about what happens to a knight and a sorceress when they bond. It would be unlike Seifer to simply say 'yes'.

Seifer read Squall's silence as an uncertain answer. "The least you can do is give me your dream....hell....I need some form of aspiration. So....I'll ask again.....what's the wager?"

"Hmmmm......you beat me....you get Lionheart and my dream.....to become the best member of SeeD in history. And we leave..."

Seifer knew that was a lie. Rinoa wouldn't let Squall just walk away from aiding the braves in the War. Plus the fact that SeeD had no purpose now that there was no more sorceress in existence. Besides, that wasn't what Seifer wanted either.

"What makes you so sure I'll win? What do you get if you win?"

The ball was in Squall's court now. What did they want? All he wanted was to be with Rinoa, alone. But he knew they needed a strong warrior to become a powerful GF, someone to look after them. He didn't like it that Seifer was the greatest choice, but what other option was there? He knew GFs can't junction to people outside this era. They had to take other forms, like magicite or materia or crystals, something Griever just couldn't do immediately.

"We junction to you, whether you like it or not, and we fight with you in the Zodiac War."

"Ha! That's it!? That's all you want, huh? Okay Squall, you're on!"

The two made a ready stance and charged, gunblades high, a large clash sounded as the two blades glided and scraped edge to edge. Seifer was the first to break off the lock, he swept his foot out to trip Squall who jumped to counter.

"The shopkeep was right....we did need to watch out for the black-clad man with the gunblade...." Sephiroth observed.

Squall swung the butt of his gunblade, aiming for Seifer's head, who ducked and rammed Squall in the chest. The hit seemed to knock the wind out of Squall, but he didn't appear affected by it, and rolled to the side, gunblade ready.

Not a moment too soon as a wild gunblade swipe was headed straight at his face. A loud clang kept his senses in check as he parried the blow into an offensive position. His hands moved in a quick blur to disable and knock Seifer's gunblade out of his hand, but Seifer pulled back the attack and gave an overhead strike.

Squall raised both ends of his blade to block the attack, and when it struck, Squall used the weight of the blow to flip Seifer onto the ground, pulling him down along with the strike.

Rolling back onto his feet, Squall charged down at Seifer, who at this point drew his Hyperion upward to fend off the blow.

Another clash sounded at the two pieces of steel ground at each other's edges.

Using the strength in his legs, Seifer pushed Squall off of him and got back on his feet. Then with a quick pirouette Seifer performed his Demon Slice attack at Squall.

The cut caught Squall off-guard, although his blade blocked most of the damage, it had knocked him back to the ground again.

"Get up!" Seifer yelled.

Squall's eyes narrowed, and fell into a state of combat-awareness. Quickly, in a full kip Squall leapt to his feet, gunblade still at the ready.

Suddenly Seifer lowered his gunblade and beckoned Squall.

This was all it took. Squall, now fully offensive, charged with his gunblade and jumped.

The blades clashed.....and shattered.

Squall and Seifer looked at each other, dumbfounded and shocked at what had just happened. Both still clung to their hilts, now only just that, staring at a pile of steel shards.

"Hmph.....draw....." Seifer said with contempt.

"....Yeah....." Squall replied.

"So....I guess the bet's off then.....no wager...." Squall resigned.

"Uh-uh, puberty-boy....you don't get off that easy."

Squall quietly groaned. He knew what was coming next.

Seifer turned and looked at Squall with a half-smirk, half-snarl, not quite sure he liked his outcome either.

".....Hmph...fine...you can junction to me....but I still get your dream....and as for you're gunblade.....heh..." he laughed.

Suddenly Rinoa, transposed herself out of Squall and looked at the broken gunblade pieces.

"If you're going to be a Brave, Seifer, you need a weapon." Rinoa tut-tutted.

"....Duh..." Seifer snorted.

Rinoa then raised her arms high and the mess that was the gunblades and the hilts entered a large orb of light.

"Well, what are you waiting for, dummy, grab it!" Rinoa said to Seifer.

Seifer grasped what he thought looked like a hilt and pulled out a strange looking gunblade. It looked somewhat like the Lionheart, but with a semi-automatic magnum attached to it.

"Hmm....this isn't my gunblade...!" Seifer complained.

"No...it's both yours and Squall's. He doesn't need his anymore, but you do, to fight. This gunblade is called Griever's Blade, it's stronger than either Lionheart or Hyperion, and it's a lot more powerful."

"Okay....I'm gonna have fun with this thing!" he grinned connively.

Squall turned to Rinoa and spoke, "We'd better junction to him before he goes on a monster killing spree!"

On to Chapter 32 >>>>

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