Chapter 29: Welcome to the Revolution...
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The two-headed dragon had caught Celes by surprise. She hadn't even
expected Sascha and Akfek to know about their revolution, let alone try
and quench it so quickly.

She looked at the huge dragon that towered above the top of the airship.
It had reinforcements, more airships, and ground troops. Even if they
could find some way to get the people in town to fight on their side,
which was doubtful, they were still outnumbered in both land and air.

Sascha and Akfek were good strategists, fitting opponents for a Runic
Knight... if she ever reached them.

The others jumped on board. "We have to get these airships into the air."

"Are you crazy? We can't beat them..."

"Yes we can. They're using the new type of airships, the one with
balloons. You're a archer, fire some arrows. Since we have no balloon,
they are going to have a harder time taking us out..."

"We hope! Get that dragon off..."

"I ALWAYS get the easy jobs." Celes complained.

She turned to face the monster. "Alright, tall, dark, and scaly, let's
see how fast you can fly."

She jumped off the side of the airship; the dragon took to the skies. Now
freed of the excess weight, both airships lifted off at the same time.

The dragon swooped down, and Celes rolled to the side. The dragon landed
and breathed fire from one head and acid from the other. Celes dodged and
looked the monster over. Its entire back was covered with spikes; no
chance of a back attack. Six hands with four claws on each, probably
poisonous.

She heard the first boomings of airships above, not even wanting to know
what was happening to the Enterprise and Falcon up there. The Big Whale
had strong, durable armor and was in little danger.

"This'll be fun..." She dashed in, speed being her most important asset.
She stabbed.

Blood spewed out.

"Shit!" She dodged to the side. Her sword had been mostly eaten away. The
blood was corrosive. And she really liked that sword, her second
favorite. "You'll pay for that..."

The dragon seemed to laugh; at least, one head seemed to laugh.

"Alright! ULTIMA!"

Both heads reeled back, but that seemed to be all the damage it had done.
This thing was powerful.

Celes cast spell after spell at it. "MERTON! ULTIMA! METEO! ICE 3! FIRE 3!
LIT 3!" She kept casting until she had no magic power left.

A horrendous crash. One of the enemy airships crashed to the ground, it's
balloon deflated.

She rushed at the dragon, stabbing until there was no blade left. She
backed down the street, using whatever she could find as a weapon, but
whenever she broke through the skin, it was immediately destroyed.

She was backed into an alley and caught against the wall. She looked
around, the wall behind her was too high to try and scale. She was
trapped. Looking around for some sort of weapon, she cried out, "I'm going
down fighting!"

Both dragon heads laughed, and prepared for a death blow.

"Say 'chocobo'," Rydia's voice rang out.

Called chocobos attacked the dragon. It couldn't turn around to attack
Rydia. It ended up spinning its tail to knock down the buildings. Celes
escaped, and Rydia called Bahamut to take on the thing. Bahamut was able
to lop off one of the monster's heads before he was called away. Rydia
didn't want him to get too hurt, because if he died, she died too. Her
other magic was of little use against the dragon, but she was able to use
her whip around it's remaining neck. It tried to back away, but couldn't
escape Rydia's whip.

"Hold him steady, I'm gonna get him good." Celes came out of the inn with
Dragoon Boots on and a spear in hand.

"Dragoon Jump!" she called out as she jumped high into the air.

She reached the peak of her jump and caught a glimpse of the air battle.
Three of the enemy airships had been destroyed. The Falcon had a large
hole in it. The Enterprise had a smaller hole. The Big Whale was none the
worse.

She came down at a screaming pace. The spear plunged through the spikes of
the back, through the scales, through the bones, and stuck in. Celes,
meanwhile, had leapt off the dragon with a startling backflip.

The dragon cried out in pain. Then, it started to shake voilently. It
expanded as if it were a huge bubble, and then exploded.

Meanwhile, the air battle having gone bad for the Empire, the airships
retreated. The airships bombed the ground forces until they retreated, not
taking a single life.

Celes' Revolutioners had won, but not without a price. A few townspeople
had been killed by the falling debris and the dragon attack. The Big Whale
had a large horizontal line in it, where another airship had flown against
it. The Falcon was barely operational as it landed, and the Enterprise
would take at least a week to fix up the holes in it.

They had taken a huge hit, but had survived the first onslaught of the
Empire.

*****

Celes looked out the window of the inn. Some people were happy that they
had been liberated from Sascha's and Akfek's Empire. Most were mad that,
due to Celes, people had died and their town now looked like Mobliz had
after the Light of Judgement hit it.

Rydia and the others were out organizing the cleanup. The best workers
were Rydia's called monsters, who had already fixed the Enterprise, and
were working on the Falcon, Big Whale, and the hardest hit areas of town.

And Celes Chere wondered if what she was doing was right...