Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia.

The two stood off against one another; hands resting on their respective weapons, both ready to make the first move, yet not quite prepared to initiate the conflict.

Finally, Lloyd drew his swords and charged forward, blades drawn back, poised to strike.

The young ninja leapt back, avoiding his blows with deft agility and throwing her cards out to cut into his outstretched arm, missing by inches when he stepped back, pulling himself into a defensive stance.

Despite the fact that they had already started fighting the two were hesitant to escalate the battle, being as they were in the middle of a town with children and animals milling about. After a few moments Lloyd relaxed, sheathing his swords. "We'll do this another time." He spoke begrudgingly.

Sheena kept her expression stoic as she watched his movements, obviously expecting an underhanded move from him. "Fine."

With that short exchange the red-clad youth turned his back on her, calmly walking away from the impromptu battle.

Lloyd had booked it out of the town as soon as possible; despite her apparent good character the fact remained that the young assassin was just that; an assassin. He had immediately re-arranged his pack with his new purchases and set off to the East in the direction of Asgard.

On the way to Asgard he found himself fighting more bandits than even the amount found in the desert near the mountain trail, and of better trained quality as well. The dwarven-raised teen had come to realize that for some reason the enemies in the desert were stronger than the ones near Iselia and the enemies past the Ossa trail were even stronger than that; at first he had thought that perhaps it was because of the Desians, but with a ranch near here as well, and with an even crueler leader than the green-haired guy back near the forest according to the locals he had started getting worried, leading to something he never would have thought he'd do without being assigned it by the professor; Homework.

Lloyd grimaced in consternation as he wrote down info on the most recently encountered group of enemies in his most recent purchase; a crude brown book with a tacky sticker with the words 'Monster book' on the front.

He scratched down a description of an egg-bear. "Brown hair... Scratch that, fur. Brown eyes. Big claws; yellow-white. Fangs..." He pondered for a moment on whether or not the large spiky teeth it had were called fangs or not. "Or are they just teeth...? Eh." He shrugged and wrote down both. "Now, do we call the bandits monsters, they're dressed mostly the same, so..."

He looked up when he noticed a shadow looming over him and realized that he had walked down a small slope into someones campsite, as evidenced by the massive caravan and bearded man beaming at him. "Nova's caravan!" He grinned, putting away the book. "Hey, old man!" He waved as he greeted said man.

"Young mister... Lloyd, was it?" He greeted with a faint Trietan accent. "How have you been on your adventures?"

"Great!" He scratched the back of his head and tried to focus on his current objective. "Hey, Nova. Could you tell me how far East I have to go until I reach Asgard?" He queried happily.

"Asgard...?" The turbaned man blinked at the brunet youth. "Lloyd, you've gone past Asgard, you're approaching the mountains South-East of the Balacruf mausoleum, Asgard is to the South-West!" He boomed out, laughing at the red-clad young man.

"Aw, man!" He cringed. "Well, I don't suppose you've seen the Chosen's group, have you?" He asked hopefully.

"Ay! Back when we were crossing the Ossa trail we bumped into a group calling themselves the chosen's group." He replied helpfully, frowning slightly. "Rude bunch, 'specially that red-haired fellow."

Lloyd blinked and reasoned to himself that perhaps Kratos had spoken for the group; the guy did seem like a dick. "Yeah, I don't like that guy either, did they say where they were going?"

"Palmacosta." He answered shortly, interest obviously drawn elsewhere. "Was that a monster record book I saw you writing in as you came over here?" He asked eagerly, face alight in anticipation.

"Ah, yeah." He blinked at the man's enthusiasm and nodded. "But, why so interested?"

"Not in the monsters, but I was wondering..." He trailed off as though gathering his courage. "Have you seen a large, shining bird?"

Lloyd blinked once more. "Like... A hawk?" He asked unsurely, eyebrows scrunched in confusion. "'Cause, yeah, I've seen a fair few!"

"No, not hawks or native birds; something else, a woman traveling with another group earlier called it 'Aska'." the childish man pouted, put-out by the fact that he had not yet received confirmation on his hopes.

Lloyd mentally filed away the word 'Native' as something to look up later and shook his head. "No, sorry. If I see it I'll let you know." 'If I can find you.' He added mentally, and doubtfully.

"Thank you, Lloyd. I hope all goes well for you." With that the older man patted him on the back and headed back over to his caravan.

"Hey, before you go," He turned at Lloyd's words, raising a thick, bushy eyebrow in curiosity. "Do you have a dictionary?"

His amused smile was hidden by his massive beard as he nodded. "Ay, we've got a spare. Take it." He offered as he climbed the ladder to his caravan and reached around to the side of the door, feeling around before pulling out a thick, worn leather book. "You need it." He quipped.

"Thanks." Lloyd smiled gratefully. "I owe you one."

The bearded, hairy man chuckled once more into his hand and shook his head at the youth's attitude. "You be careful out there, Lloyd."

With that the two parted, Lloyd heading South-West to Asgard and Nova absently wondering where the silver haired elf boy previously with the red-clad youth had gotten to.

It took nearly two hours to get to Asgard, including a brief detour in which Lloyd was informed that the only way for him to get to Palmacosta was to either become a member of the travel agency, join a tour or go by sea. Finally, however, he arrived at the city of 'the seal of wind', according to the perky girl at the front entrance wearing a bright red stetson 'cowboy' hat.

He'd been walking for just a few minutes looking around for a general store and the priest when he found the stairs leading up to said seal of wind. It took him just two minutes to scale the massive flight of stairs and in that time he noticed a group of men dressed religiously and a man with gray hair, a mustache and a bright red face. "I'm telling you, we have no choice!" Said man shouted, glaring at a group of young, raggedly dressed individuals.

"We're not letting you sacrifice Aisha!" One of them, a red haired bandana wearing youth dressed in a bright purple sleeveless shirt shouted, returning the other man's glare.

"If we don't sacrifice the girl, it'll destroy the town, it'll kill us all! It's my responsibility as mayor to ensure that that doesn't happen!" The newly revealed mayor blustered, frowning heavily.

"Then kill the monster, destroy the dais, do something!" The other boy, a spectacle wearing dark-haired lad dressed in green shouted.

Lloyd stepped closer to them and looked between the two groups. "What's going on?" He queried, confused.

The mayor turned his ire on the new entrant into the argument. "None of your business, outsider!"

"Mayor! Mind your tongue!" One of the elder priests said reprovingly, shutting the mayor up. "Every year Asgard has to sacrifice a young maiden from the town in order to appease the spirit of the wind seal, otherwise it will destroy the entirety of Asgard." He spoke, looking down as he did so.

Lloyd stared at the balding man with bushy eyebrows. "That's horrible! Why haven't you tried to stop this?"

The mayor butted in, glare stern once more. "We can't! It's too powerful!" He bemoaned.

"So they're going to kill Aisha!" The red-haired youth spoke once more.

The entirety of the other party looked away ashamedly at that statement, even the mayor unable to refute the statement.

"I don't know why you can't just kill it, I'll help." Lloyd volunteered, staring at the assembled group before him.

"IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE!" The mayor repeated through grit teeth, glaring at the youth. "It's a spirit, THE spirit in the wind seal! We can't hope to beat that!"

"You won't know until you try!" Lloyd argued.

"If we try, we'll all die. Just don't interfere!" With those final words the mayor walked away, completely ignoring the words of protest behind him.

"I apologize for the mayor's behaviour," The elder priest started, frowning. "The whole town is under duress from the events involving the spirit of the seal of wind." He explained mournfully.

"That's... okay." Lloyd replied, befuddled. "I just don't understand why he won't fight."

"Because he's a coward!" The red-haired youth spoke from the side. "And I'm not going to let Aisha die!"

Lloyd stared after the youth as he walked away. "I've gotta go." He said to the priests distractedly, walking away from the dais.

Lloyd wasn't sure what he was doing, staring at the ritual with the rest of the despondent townspeople. Despite his attempts to talk the girl, Aisha, out of performing the ritual she was intent on ensuring the safety of the rest of the town with her sacrifice.

Thus leading up to this moment, staring up at the girl as she stepped from point to point on the massive slab of stone, dancing across from corner to corner.

He wasn't just going to stand by however, no, he had a plan... of sorts. Apparently the monster appeared directly in the center of the seal before it took the girls, so by focusing on that point he would see it when it emerged and be able to strike; He wasn't sure how well he could fight against a spirit of wind, but he couldn't just stand by while an innocent girl was dragged to her death by a monster.

He straightened as the girl finished the ritual, pressing a staff down into the center of the seal and summoning the monster.

And that was most assuredly what it was, hovering above the seal, it hunched over the girl at over three times the height of a regular human being with thick talons for fingers and a large, crescent-shaped blade where it's feet should be, it glared down at the girl with putrid orange-yellow coloured eyes, it's body a sickly purple-white colour. "I have come for the girl." It spoke without a mouth.

Despite not having much of a point of reference Lloyd felt the words echo in his mind and instinctively knew; "That's not a summon!" He yelled, drawing his blades and jumping up onto the dais, charging straight for it.

The monster, not expecting resistance, was taken by surprise and with a strangled mental yell was pushed away from the girl by a dual wing of his blades that cut deep gashes into thin skin.

With a yell of; "Beast!" He send it reeling, tumbling end-over-end across the stone to fall off the seal and into the stone wall separating the seal grounds and the steep cliff.

Lloyd had been fighting on his own for quite a while, and had in turn gained experience in pressing the advantage and preparing for battle, in gaining the advantage and using his initiative, so with another cry of; "Double Demon Fang!" He sent two waves of blue energy flying across the terrain to collide with the dust-obscured fiend, releasing another strangled yell.

The red-clad youth hadn't realized just how fast he had progressed battle-wise, fighting entire groups by himself and taking down monsters far beyond his own level, to the point that his current level was almost incomparable with his level in Iselia, so when he released another wave of; "Demon Fang's!" hoping to gain an advantage and keep it off guard he didn't realize that it had already died, the Double Demon Fang released tearing away at it's exposed torso and tearing straight it's fragile body.

Perhaps if it had had time to take to the air and gather it's mana it could have released it's own techniques and reinforced itself and things may have turned out differently, but as is he only realized that he could stop firing off mana like a cannon when one of his attacks went straight through the wall, releasing a wave of navy-blue fire into the air to dissipate into the wind.

The gobsmacked townspeople stared at the dwarven-raised young man as he stood straight once more, staring on with narrowed eyes, prepared for a comeback that would never come.

Lloyd only relaxed when he saw it's bloody remains slowly fading into strange motes of light, vanishing into the atmosphere. "It's over."