| Slayers |
| Episode 14: Navigation! An Invitation to Sairaag! |
| With a brilliant flash of light, an explosion ensues, spewing smoke everywhere. Out of the clearing smoke comes two travelers, sprinting as fast as they can, running from something. Lina and Gourry have obviously gotten themselves into some kind of trouble, once again. Although the day is sunny, it's apparently not clear from chaos. As Lina and Gourry run, hair and cape blowing in the wind, spears shoot at them from the nearby bushes, grates spring up to stop them, but they keep going at a steady pace. All of a sudden, they're both caught by a single trap - the simplest one, which leaves them hanging from one foot by a rope tied to a tree. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Boy, did we blow it..." Lina comments. Bandits spring out of the bushes, laughing at them jeeringly for falling for the simplest trap after evading all the others. "Just lay off!" Lina yelled. "We got burnt out from the last few days of you chasing us!" "Well, now you have someone to give you your focus back!" the lead bandit said, and Vrumugun appeared in front of Lina's face hovering upside-down in the air so that she saw him at the right angle. Lina was amazed that Vrumugun was still alive, but understood why they'd been chased by bandits for so long. "Looks like we've got another unwelcome visitor," Gourry said, as Zangulus made his return entrance as well. "Well, isn't this a nice sight?" he taunted. "Young lady. Gourry." Lina through a fit over the fact that Vrumugun and Zangulus were both still alive, but it didn't do any good. Zangulus promptly cut the rope that Lina and Gourry were hanging from, saying that fighting someone hanging upside down would not be honorable. "Now, this is better. Draw your sword!" Zangulus declared, getting ready to duel Gourry himself. "Oh, would you just give it a rest?!" Lina protested, annoyed. Vrumugun ignored the entire charade, landing neatly on the ground. "Now, will you come with us to Sairaag?" he asked, just as he had proposed the previous time they'd met. Lina rudely declined, calling Vrumugun a "creepy old wizard". "If we want to go to Sairaag or anywhere else, we'll go ourselves!" she proclaimed, standing firmly by her decision. Even Gourry looked strangely sure that Lina was making the right decision. She demanded to know why Vrumugun and Zangulus kept chasing after them. "Simply because our mission is to take you to Sairaag," Vrumugun stated with apathy. "To that end, we choose the most efficient means." Zangulus agreed, and the bandits surrounding the two warriors began circling a little. Force was presumably the only way they planned to achieve their mission's goal. "Oh, you were planning to do it this way from the start," Lina accused. She gave Gourry the signal, and he drew his sword. A moment of tense silence followed, with the opponents eyeing one another. Gourry met Zangulus's eye, and their swords gleamed menacingly. Suddenly, there was a very loud growling sound heard - Lina's stomach; everyone responded to this with disbelief. "I'm really hungry..." Lina complained. Gourry nodded. "OK, then we should..." They eyed their opponents with seriousness, and Zangulus and the bandits tensed up in response. "RETREAT!" Lina yelled. With that, they ran away backwards, leaving a trail of smoke as they went. The lead bandit was furious that Lina and Gourry had backed out on the fight. "After them!" he yelled to the other bandits, pointing in the direction that the Slayers had run. They ran off after the trail in hot pursuit. "Ridiculous," Zangulus stated. He and Vrumugun seemed to have a plan of their own to catch up. Up on a tall cliff, Amelia stood on the ledge. "Where could Miss Lina have gone? And I brought so much stuff, too." The huge bag she carried was filled with food of all kinds; acting as a backpack on her shoulders, it appeared almost as big as Amelia. Far below, a trail of smoke is seen going extremely fast through a forest area. "Oh! That must be them!" Amelia declared. As Lina and Gourry ran from the gaining bandits, Amelia caught their attention by yelling down to them from the cliff, which was a very short distance away. "Food!" Lina shouted in delight, and cast a Levitation spell to get to her treasure. Gourry gasped to wait for him, and grabbed onto Lina's cape although she clearly intended to get the food to herself. "You won't escape!" the bandits yelled. Lina is seen pulling on her collar; apparently, she's choking. She's very high up, but below her, every single bandit was either levitating in the air, or pulling down and adding more weight at the very bottom. "CUT IT OUT!" she protested. Amelia, noticing that Lina was in trouble, did what Lina most feared - leaping down with the food. In a brilliant fiasco, Amelia leaped down to the rescue... and landed her foot directly in Lina's face. With an awkward yelp, the entire procession crashed down to the ground, food flying everywhere. Amelia got to her feet, looked around, and then, realizing where she was, proclaimed, "Victory!" For below her, defeated, was every single bandit that had been chasing Lina and Gourry. However, at the very bottom - was Lina, with a footprint mark on her face. "I've had it with her...." she sighed, pouting. A little later, the three companions journey through a forest... although it doesn't seem to be a very happy party. Lina and Gourry walk further in front, with Lina walking in a rather obvious slump, but Gourry still standing up straight. A noticeable distance away is Amelia, reading a map. "Um... looks like the next town is just over those mountains," she says, breaking the silence. "Let's go straight and had for the summit." Amelia looks up at the completely silent response, and is greeted with only the sight of the backs of her companions' heads. Lina and Gourry are completely ignoring her. "Um... Miss Lina?" Amelia asked, tentatively. "Lina!" she says again, with a bit more effort. "I'm listening," Lina states. Suddenly, she turns around, and her exaggeratedly angry, evil face fills up the whole screen while Amela, reduced to a tiny frightened speck, is scared to death in the corner. "Why do you think I'm plodding along like this?!" Lina demands. Amelia looks back with an extremely nervous face, and the top of her face is blue. "You're scaring me!" she says. "Amelia, listen to me," Gourry says, advising her not to talk to Lina. When Amelia doesn't understand, Gourry simply says, "It's hard on her. I understand the sort of pain she feels." Still walking unknowingly behind, Amelia is then greeted by Lina's sarcasm. "Hint number one: Because of those wanted posters, there's no village or town Gourry and I can risk getting close to. Hint number two: We gave you all our money to buy food with." "Oh, I see," nods Amelia understandingly. "And then I went and ruined ALL the food, right?" she finishes, spreading her arms out widely to indicate her point and smiling widely and happily. Awkward moment. .Silence. Everyone stops. Lina's stomach growls immensely loudly, and Amelia and Gourry back away in caution. Drawing his finger across his neck, Gourry says solemnly, "Farewell, Amelia". Lina's screams of frustration and anger are heard throughout the entire forest, and she suddenly snaps in a fury. Grabbing Amelia in a fierce headlock, she yells, "SO, IF YOU UNDERSTAND, JUST SHUT UP AND WALK!" She then pulls on Amelia's head, as if trying to yank it off. "PEOPLE GET SORTA CRANKY WHEN THEY'RE HUNGRY!" As Lina tries yet another position, Amelia yells, "I understand!" Lina counters, "SO, SHUT UP!" "Quiet!" Gourry suddenly says, surprisingly. Lina looks around in confusion, and then sniffs the air. "I smell something good. Something delicious," Lina says, still sitting on Amelia. "We're so hungry we're hallucinating!" Gourry responds brightly. "Still, I don't mind." "Hallucinating a smell?" Amelia adds. "But I can smell something good, too." She goes on to say that it's either roast chicken, turkey, or quail, and that it's extremely well prepared." Lina and Gourry sniff the air again, getting more excited about the prospect each time. Suddenly, they both realize. "Over there!" they shout simultaneously, pointing towards a nearby cave. Inside the cave, the lead bandit is seen roasting some delicious-cooking chicken over the fire. It's quite obviously a trap, and the bandit muttered to himself about luring them there, and then trapping them. As he fans the smell outside the cave, the Slayers are lured in. Gourry and Lina appear to be in a trance, their eyes closed but their noses alert; Amelia appears to be the only one acting normally. "Wow, this is a really deep cave," she commented. "I wonder how far it goes?" Finally, they arrive at the destination. Beneath two bright lights, the lead bandit is seen in a comical costume representing the colonel from Kentucky Fried Chicken, and in his hands, on the plate - is the chicken itself, elegantly prepared. "There it is!" Lina and Gourry shout, completely controlled by hunger. "Don't! It's a trap!" Amelia yelled, showing intelligence for once, but her cries fell on deaf ears. "Chow time!" they shout in unison, sprinting as fast as they can for the chicken. The bandit's disguise slipped off his face, and he was clearly worried about how fast they were approaching. Lina and Gourry both uttered unearthly possessed laughs that echoed lowly as they raced for their desperate meal. Vrumugun, appearing overhead, shouted "Golem!", holding out his hand. Instantly, the ground below began to shape into golems made of rock, and many of the golems blocked the warriors' way, but they were too hungry to care. With amazing strength, they both plowed through the golems, making them fly everywhere in pieces, destroyed. They increased their speed even more. "Food! Food! Food! Food!" they chanted, as they crushed the remains of the golems under their feet. Sweat appeared on the bandit's forehead. "H-hold on!" he managed. "I don't like that weird look in their eyes! Help!" Abandoning all pretenses, he throws the chicken aside, as well as the disguise, and makes a break for his life out of the cave in the other direction. Lina and Gourry both act like none of this has happened, their eyes only seeing the chicken. They ran right past Vrumugun, who was now on the ground, but still had his hand out in the "Golem" gesture. While Vrumugun stared forward seriously in the foreground, Lina and Gourry struggled for possession of the food in the background, each one pulling hard to get their way. "Haven't you ever heard of ladies first?!" Lina yelled. "Who's a lady? If you went first, you wouldn't even leave me the bones!" retorted Gourry. Vrumugun, eyeing the Slayers, but not letting any emotion come into his face, brought his hand back so that it only extended in front of him, cupping his fingers gently but strongly. A blue ball of energy formed in his hand for a second, and then it exploded. Lina and Gourry had now given up trying to get the chicken from each other, and were now trying to bite the meat off opposite sides of the chicken directly. Suddenly, the entire cave started to shake. Amelia looked backwards in curiosity. As it turned out, a huge boulder was rolling in their direction from the way they'd come in, though how it got there was a mystery. As Vrumugun levitated upwards and teleported away in the background, however, it was clear that he was the cause. Amelia let out a startled sound, and then ran in the other direction. Lina and Gourry, both still eating the chicken, looked up at the sound of Amelia, and saw the huge boulder. A second later, all three of them were running for their lives in the other direction. Well, except for Gourry - it seemed that he'd gotten the privilege of having the chicken all for himself in the confusion. "Agh! Gourry, that's my chicken!" Lina complained, shouting for him to give it back. However, just at that moment, since Gourry was the farthest behind, the rock crushed him, and he was flattened, stuck to the rock. As the rock spun, he still was crushed over and over. Lina had a comment for this - "Oh, no! My chicken's ruined!" "Never mind that!" Amelia yelled back, as the two continued to run. Outside, the green, beautiful, clear landscape gave no indication of the chaos that was occurring on that day. Then, a rumbling that shook everywhere indicated what was going on. The boulder, leaving the cave, bumped up some sort of incline, and was hurtled into the air. Lina and Amelia, running, also found themselves landing in a heap on the ground, with Gourry still attached to the rock. However, just as Lina and Amelia were grimacing from the pain of landing, they were in for a nasty surprise when they looked up - the huge boulder was about to crush them! They screamed; they didn't have enough time to get out of the way. Lina, fortunately, was a quick thinker. Casting a Dug Haut as fast as she could, the earth spell made a rock spike jut out of the ground, impaling the rock in the air. Gourry, his legs stuck to the boulder, and his arms trying to climb down the rock spike, sighed, dropping his arms at his predicament. Lina wiped her brow at the effort. Finally, it was over. "You..." Gourry started. "Miss Lina, look out!" Amelia cut in. A dozen Freeze Arrows were flying down from the sky at the redheaded sorceress, and Lina fumbled wildly to get out of the way. As the attacks hit the ground, the resulting shockwave caused the boulder and the spike to fall over, nearly crushing Lina and Amelia, but trapping a dazed Gourry underneath once again. Vrumugun, high above, chuckled lightly to himself. "Oh, he really won't give up!" Lina complained. His emotionlessness regained, the hooded sorcerer held out his hand ominously once again. "Flare Arrow!" Lina yelled, firing her attack straight at her opponent. The attack sizzled harmlessly to nothing against some sort of shield in front of Vrumugun. "No good. I have no power at all when I'm this hungry!" Lina muttered sheepishly to herself. Vrumugun, in turn, charged up another Freeze Arrow attack, and another powerful barrage rained down. Amelia held up Gourry as a shield, while Lina dodged out of the way again. Gourry, sadly, had been turned to ice. "Miss Lina! Mr. Gourry's heavy!" Amelia complained as she dragged the swordsman by one foot on the ground while she ran. "Miss Lina! Please help me out here!" Lina stopped, turning around, seeing Vrumugun hovering overhead, chasing after them and charging another attack. "Diem Wing!" the sorceress shouted, as Vrumugun shot more arrows of ice. The wind blew strongly into Vrumugun's attack, causing a fierce explosion in which smoke blew everywhere. As the smoke cleared, Lina and Amelia could be seen running with amazing speed as they both dragged Gourry along the ground in a hasty retreat. "Miss Lina, all you're doing is running away!" Amelia pointed out. Lina replied, "And whose fault is that? Whose?! Ray Wing!" Both sorceresses flew into the air, each still holding one foot of the frozen Gourry. They managed to fly into a waiting dock, probably Lina's plan. There was a raft there ready to be used, and Lina, Gourry, and Amelia landed and took off on it with one movement, the inertia from the Ray Wing still giving them speed. "This'll get us down the river fast!" declared Lina. Along the sides of the river further ahead, the bandits stood waiting, armed with all sorts of weapons on the dusty mountain path. Sharp swords and axes gleamed in the sun. The lead bandit was there as well. "They'll be coming round here any time! Don't let 'em escape this time!" he ordered. Everyone else shouted an agreement. The Slayers continued their fast course along the river, and the bandits watched for signs of them approaching on land. The tension deepened, but then was suddenly lifted as Lina and Amelia came by. "Hi!" they shouted gleefully, standing the waving at the bandits who were along the path as they coursed down the river. "Hi!" all of the bandits responded cheerfully, pleased at such friendly people. The lead bandit suddenly did a double-take, and adopted an altogether different expression. "Bye-bye!" Amelia and Lina yelled cheerfully as they passed the bandits. "Come back here, you little...!" the bandits shouted as they ran along the sides as fast as they could. Surprise! Explosions, arrows, holes, and traps of all kinds caught every single one of the bandits. Lina looked back in disbelief. "They're stupid enough to get caught in their own traps?" Surprisingly, Gourry was conscious now. His body was back to normal, and he looked kind of sleepy. The lead bandit was hung from his feet from the rope trap, and the other bandits were all littered around him. "Damn! We'll get you for this!" he swore. "Yahoo!" Lina shouted gleefully. "At this rate, we'll be at the next town in no time!" Amelia looked back at her. "But Miss Lina, don't you think the timing of finding this raft right where we did was just a little too convenient?" "What, this is a trap too? You're overthinking things," reassured Lina. "Anyway, once we get to the town..." "Food! Real food!" Gourry yelled suddenly. This appeared to cause both of them to be deeply moved. They faced each other, grasping each other's hands, their eyes brimming with tears, muttering madly about food. Amelia sighed, being the only rational one again, oddly. Just as they were celebrating, a huge glacier erupted out of the river, catching them all by surprise. The raft hit the ice, nearly toppling over. A second later, glaciers had surrounded their route entirely. Lina looked up out of instinct, and not surprisingly, there was Vrumugun, once again there at the perfect moment. "Oh, you stupid, stubborn, pushy... Would you just cut it out?!" Lina yelled at the sorcerer, firing a Digger Bolt at him. Vrumugun exploded in smoke, and Lina was spent, having no energy from lack of food. Gourry, using his sword, slashed the glacier to bits like ribbons, and they passed safely through. "Horray for your brute strength, Gourry," Lina commented, as Gourry smiled proudly. "Oh, Miss Lina, what's that?" Amelia interrupted, as all three eyed the figure on top of the high bridge above them. Zooming in, the figure was revealed to be Zangulus, smirking at his triumph. "It's him again," Gourry stated bluntly. "Oh, enough already!" Lina yelled, clutching her head. "So, you came at last!" Zangulus said, laughing. "I was getting bored!" Gourry had his hand on his sword, ready to strike. Zangulus drew his, and let out a long yell as he jumped off the bridge in an effort to get onto the raft. Gourry tensed up and got ready, but Amelia held out a hand. "Don't worry!" she said confidently. "That trick never works!" Zangulus continued to yell, but Gourry relaxed, and simply eyed the attacker, muttering a "Hm?" Their opponent plunged harmlessly into the water in front of the raft, and the Slayers simply passed over as if nothing had happened. "No kidding," Gourry muttered, bewildered. Amelia merely continued smiling. "See?" Suddenly, Zangulus's head appeared above the water, and he laughed. The strange thing was, he appeared to be moving at the same rate as the raft while keeping his body level. All three were confused, and Zangulus was suddenly standing on top of the water, appearing to be walking on top of it. His sword was still drawn. The huge fish he was standing on suddenly surfaced, and he stood on it as his ride as if he'd planned it all along. "Now that's just stupid," Lina stated. "I don't think he thinks so," Gourry replied. Zangulus's cape blew in the breeze, and he leapt off his ride on top of the tiny raft. Lina and Amelia both ducked down for cover as the wide swipes of the swords dangerously lashed everywhere. "No, wait! Not here!" Lina protested, though neither Zangulus nor Gourry paid her any heed. While Lina frantically dodged some of the swipes, Amelia was suddenly face-to-face with the huge fish. "I HATE FISH!" she screamed as she punched and kicked it, sending it careening back into the water. Amelia collapsed, and then suddenly yelled again as she saw the waterfall they were about to go over. "Why does this keep happening to us?!" Lina asked in exasperation, as all four went over the falls. The raft split into pieces, every person flying off in a different direction of the lake they'd reached. As Lina regained her composure underwater, she saw the huge fish going after her. It turned out that it was far more an eel than a fish, and its sharp teeth showed as it made a lunge. "Oh, no! I can't beat HIM in an underwater fight!" Lina realized, swimming desperately away. The eel opened his mouth wide, and as Lina got out of the water and went into the air, she fired a Demona Crystal spell at the fish, turning it and the whole lake to ice as it split into pieces. She managed to get herself onto dry land, breaking some of the ice as she did so. "C-cold..." she said. Looking onto the lake, she saw that Gourry and Zangulus were still dueling - on a spinning log! They didn't even seem to notice it as their feet kept perfectly with the log's movements, still matching one another's moves with their own swords. "This never ends," sighed Lina. "No, it's just beginning," said Vrumugun, who was right next to her. He had Amelia held in a headlock, his arm pressing hard against her neck, though his face was still emotionless. "Shall we end this ridiculous chase?" Vrumugun stated that either Lina agreed to go with him to Sairaag, or he would kill the girl. "Come on, threatening me with a girl hostage?" asked Lina. "Even third-rate sorcerers don't do that anymore!" "I said you were forcing my hand, didn't I?" Vrumugun asked, not losing his composure for a second. Lina was extremely pissed off at this. "Well, you just forced MY hand!" she yelled. Amelia supported her, saying to forget about her and defeat the bad guys. "Sure, sure! Fine with me! I'll do whatever you say!" agreed Lina. Amelia grimaced, knowing what was coming. As Lina started the familiar chant, Vrumugun let go of Amelia. The aura of the Dragonslave flowed around her, and Gourry stopped his battle with Vrumugun immediately as he realized what was happening, diving into the water to save himself. Amelia swam through the water too, complaining about "overdoing things". The enormous blast of the Dragonslave covered the entire area of the lake, and Vrumugun was reduced to shreds, finally destroyed. The lake now had smoke coming from it, instead of being covered with ice. Lina, Gourry, and Amelia were nowhere to be seen. Zangulus hung from a stick high up, stuck to the cliff. "Don't think you've beaten us!" he yelled, and then let out a squawk as he fell all the way. It's now nighttime, and the Slayers are on their way again. Lina and Gourry chat about food, getting to the next town, and getting to Sairaag. "Maybe we should've let them take us," Gourry commented reflectively. "They were pushy, Gourry, pushy!" Lina retorted, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Pushy guys never get girls!" As the scene zooms out, Lina narrates. "And so we let the endless flow of the river carry us along towards Sairaag, our ultimate goal. No matter where it takes us tomorrow.... we're really hungry!" |
| Overall Episode: 14 |
| Episode 1 of Video 5 |
 |
 |