The army barracks were on the complete other side of the kingdom. With such a long distance between us, we were bound to run into a few guards along the way. We notified them of the attack and continued on our way.

As we reached a small, desolate neighborhood, I noticed that Blade had started to walk a bit slower.

"Hold on," he quickly whispered.

"What’s the matter?" I asked as he stopped dead in his tracks and unsheathed his sword.

"Something’s wrong. Keep your guard up."

He was right; upon closer look, many of the buildings around us had scratch marks on them, and the ground looked as though it had been trodden on.

"Did one of them get through?" Joule spoke out

"Joule, watch out!" Blade shouted as he ran up to her and pushed her out of the way of an attack.

A Grewk had suddenly dropped down from one of the buildings around us.

The creature slowly stood up and turned towards us menacingly.

It had what appeared to be a sword in place of its right arm, various bone-like spikes throughout its face and body, but no eyes or mouth whatsoever,though we could still hear it breathing aggressively through two holes on the side of its face. The strangest part about this Grewk however, was that its skin was a pale ashen white as opposed to their typical muddy gray.

"Are you alright?" I asked Blade

"I’m fine," he said, wiping a streak of blood off his face. The Grewk had managed to land a clean shot on him. "This one is different from the rest of them; it read my movements."

I clenched my fist and gritted my teeth before turning towards Blade.

"You two should go on ahead. I'll hold him off long enough for both of you to call for reinforcements." I let out a deep breath.

"Are you sure?" Joule asked me.

"If this thing manages to slow us down now, we’ll never be able to call for backup," I raised my voice. "You two need to go!"

“Come on, we have to leave. He can handle this.” Blade spoke out to her without so much as giving it a second thought, of course he didn’t. As far as he knew, I was stronger than I led on and I used that to our advantage.

Throughout all of these years, I’d been trying to reveal the truth about my power to everyone. Who would’ve thought... that at the first real opportunity I got, I would be too scared to actually say anything?

"J-just be careful…" Joule said to me with what appeared to be a tear in her eye.

"Yeah…don’t worry," I said to them with a smile, "I can handle this one."

Yeah right…there was no way I could actually take on one of these creatures. However, I also knew that I was the only one who could hold him back long enough. Blade still looked exhausted from the earlier training, Joule didn’t seem to have much energy left and for some strange reason, I had somehow regained a bit of the energy I previously expended.

As the Grewk averted his attention to the others, I blasted a small spark of flame in its direction; drawing his attention towards me. The creature let out a huge screech. one so loud my ears felt like they were about to start bleeding. It then exhaled a small cloud of smoke from the holes on the side of its face, after which its limbs began to crack as it took a step forward.

This Grewk seemed to actually have a mind of its own; all of the others were like feral animals.

"NOW RUN!" I shouted as I charged towards the Grewk.

I managed to leap a great distance towards the creature.

"DON’T JUST APPROACH RECKLESSLY!" Blade shouted hopelessly.

The Grewk was prepared to counterattack. As I approached it, the creature swung its sword toward me. I tilted my head and struck its face with all of my strength. The creature had been knocked down.

"Are you alright!?" I heard Joule cry out.

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU STILL HERE!?" I shouted back.

I touched my cheek; I was bleeding. It just managed to graze me, but I was already in a lot of pain.

"I told you I’ve got this, so go," I said to her as she once again teared up, but luckily she ran off with Blade.

The Grewk once again stood up. Its limbs cracking as it regained its balance.

It let out another screech.

"Would you shut up already?" I said under my breath.

I blasted another bolt of fire towards it. The Grewk deflected the attack and ran towards me.

I was to dodge its first attack, an overhead swing, but it quickly followed through with a kick which sent me tumbling to the ground.

"You know... now that I think about it, this might’ve been a mistake," I said to myself, still in pain.

I jumped back up and continued to dodge the Grewk’s onslaught of attacks.

I searched around, looking at my surroundings to try to find a way to defeat this thing since there was no way I could fight this creature head-on for much longer.

Relentless with its assault, the Grewk jumped towards me with a huge downward slash. I managed to catch his sword with my bare hand as blood started pouring out. While the sword itself was fairly dull, the entire thing was layered with these… sharp bone-like segments that were able to pierce through my hand.

Nevertheless, I pushed through the pain and delivered another strike straight to its gut. The Grewk then backed off. Both my face and my hand were gushing out blood, but the creature once again rushed towards me. I had just about hit my limit. I took one last breath, placed my hand forward, towards the charging creature, and expelled every last drop of flame energy left within me, completely engulfing the creature’s body in a veil of flames.

I was left with nothing; I couldn’t even take a single step forward, but the Grewk had survived, and it looked pissed.

The creature growled in response.

I dropped down to my knees, panting. "Damnit!" I exclaimed.

The Grewk walked towards me. It lifted me by the head with its sword placed on my neck, drawing even more blood. I punched the Grewk repeatedly in desperation, but my punches had no effect. I was completely out of strength; my arms went limp. As my vision began to fade, I heard someone unsheathe a sword. With one clean swipe, the Grewk’s entire left arm was sliced off, which dropped me to the ground.

"I’ve got this now; rest up," I heard a familiar voice call out to me. I turned around and saw Blade standing next to me.

"Where’s Joule?" I asked him with what little energy I had left.

"Don’t worry, she went ahead and warned the guards; they should arrive shortly," he said to me.

"You really weren’t lying were you?" Blade said to me, "Damnit, you should've said something earlier!"

"Don't blame me; it’s your fault for not believing me all these years." I laughed it off, still in pain.

Blade walked up to the creature.

At this point, the Grewk had become furious. With its left arm gone, all it had remaining was its sword.

Both of their swords clashed several times before either one of them could land a strike. The sound of swords clanging could be heard all throughout the streets.

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Blade was clearly at a disadvantage; even with its arm gone, the Grewk was simply too powerful for either of us. Blade took a quick step back, and he placed his sword back in its sheath.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

He gestured at me to be quiet and let him focus. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Once the Grewk stepped forward to move towards him, Blade instantly drew his sword and swung with all his might. The attack struck the Grewk’s torso, but the creature simply took the hit and continued to charge forth.

The Grewk once again growled.

"Come on, just a bit more time," I heard Blade whisper. "Hold on a bit longer," he was speaking to himself in order to keep from giving up, but his willpower was starting to diminish.

I struggled as I stood back up.

“I can’t hold him back for much longer," Blade was beginning to struggle. “I know… I know I was wrong for not believing you, but can you blame me!?” he shouted out.

I clenched my fist as hard as I could, that blood started to drip off my hand. At this point, my entire body was trembling.

“I mean, I’ve seen what you can do. Today wasn’t the first, far from it. The rumors had to have stemmed from somewhere, no?” Blade spoke out as he continued holding the Grewk back,

"It’s not that simple…" I replied in desperation.

Once again, many things went through my mind: this fight, my hopeless struggles, and the fact that Blade was counting on me. Something inside me had indeed ticked, but not to the extent I would’ve liked. While my vision was beginning to turn red but all of my energy was still gone.

I let out a deep breath, “I don’t know what that power is, I can’t control it, to be perfectly honest I’ve only just recently become aware of its existence. All I know is that once it activates I lose all sense of who I am.”

"Listen Prince, no… Mistery. We’ve known each other since we were kids, right?" He seemingly went off on a tangent.

"Yeah… I don't think it’s the right time for this. What are you trying to get at?" I asked him

"You thought that no one would notice your drastic change," he said to me. "We might not have been the best of friends, but even I knew that something had been bothering you for a long time. You were always so full of energy, and then one day, it seemed as if all that just changed. It was like you became someone else."

"Shut up," I whispered, "don’t start this—not you too…"

“Yeah… that had to have been when your powers started to climb. Rumors began spreading, how there was a student who was purposely hiding his true rank. When people found out that it was the Prince, the grandson of Lord Zant, nobody batted an eye. Even I began to believe it.”

I remained silent

"So I asked Sigil, and he told me a bit about it," he said to me, "He told me of the time you and that friend of yours grew apart." Blade asked

"I-I can’t… relive that… not again." My trembling had intensified as I lost all my willpower and fell to the ground on my knees.

"What happened between you and Hope!?" he shouted.

As the fight continued, all I could hear was the sound of swords clashing; almost every single sound became muffled, and a single tear rolled down my cheek. The ground below us shook, and many of the buildings around us started to come crashing down.

"MISTERY!" Blade shouted out as he left the fight and ran over to me.

I couldn’t respond; it was like my body was frozen, and my heartbeat gradually sped up, each beat more intense than the last.

I managed to move my arm slightly, and I struck my chest with all my might in an attempt to snap myself out of it. As I did, a huge wave of power surged throughout my entire body, and I was once again in full control. My vision was no longer red, but I still felt a large amount of power emanating from inside me.

"What’s going on, talk to me," he said, "Why are your eyes red?"

"Shut up—" I responded cold-heartedly. My emotions felt sporadic.

The Grewk became impatient as it once again let out an ear piercing screech

"We’ll continue this later," I managed to utter as I stood up.

And as I ran up to the Grewk it backed up slightly, and for a moment, it wouldn’t attack me.

"What the hell is this?" I heard Blade say under his breath.

The Grewk let out another screech as if to snap itself out of a trance and shortly after, it started to violently swing its sword around but its movements now seemed almost as if they were in slow motion. I could react to everything he did in an instant. The moment I counterattacked, the Grewk was sent straight through a building.

I struggled to remain still, my breathing became irregular, my heart felt like it would beat out of my chest and my hands were now trembling.

I saw as the creature broke through the rubble and landed back on its feet. I started to throw chunks of stone and rubble towards me.

"It’s getting desperate!" Blade shouted, "You need to finish him off now!"

I cocked my arm back and launched a ball of fire. The Grewk took a huge step forward as it sliced right through the flames.

The creature once again charged towards me and managed to land a clean strike across my face.

"You’re starting to get on my nerves…" I whispered. My energy was dispersing fast, and the Grewk didn’t seem like it would give up anytime soon.

I took a huge step forward and leaped high into the air. I spun my entire body around and kicked the Grewk away from me. For a while after that, we continued to trade attacks. Blow after blow, I somehow managed to match the Grewk’s strength, but even after my considerable boost in power, I just couldn’t seem to get the upper hand on it; I couldn’t maintain focus on the actual fight, my body just wanted to attack and attack…

As the fight continued to drag on, I had gotten exceedingly more injuries all the while, and the Grewk just became more and more fierce with its offense. Without regard for anything around him, it continued to swing its sword in front of itself. There was no escaping this creature’s bloodlust; it had its sights set on killing me.

My arms and parts of my body were cut a few times before I finally managed to pry my body away from it.

I was starting to run on fumes, and once again, I had just about hit my limit. The creature chucked a piece of debris towards me, and I was suddenly knocked to the ground. As the Grewk jumped towards me to land the finishing blow, it suddenly froze in midair. Time felt like it had stopped for a second—not just the Grewk but everything around me—even Blade had considerably slowed down. However, I was still in full control of my body. I took a quick step back right as time reverted back to its original state.

And I then heard a shout.

"MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!" Blade exclaimed, He had parried the Grewk’s attack and left me with a clear opening.

Without hesitation, I expended every last bit of energy I had left inside me and blasted the Grewk away. I collapsed on the floor, and the great boost of power that I had gotten had all but disappeared leaving me practically motionless on the ground.

"Is that it?" Blade asked.

We began to hear growls and screeches from under the rubble.

"You’ve got to be kidding me," I remarked.

The Grewk was still alive and as it broke free, it instantly targeted Blade and ran towards him, blinded with anger. However, before either of us could react, the Grewk was struck by a bolt of lightning and was paralyzed dead in its tracks.

"Joule?" Blade spoke out.

"Oh, thank goodness, we made it in time," she reassured us. I was still on the ground, unable to even lift a finger. I heard a very familiar voice behind us.

"Man!" the voice exclaimed. "Back when I was your age, I was taking out hordes of these guys, and you two can’t even take out one." a comforting cackle filled the air.

"Glad you’re here, old man," I said to him with laughter and relief in my voice. It was Sigil.

"Hey now, I ain’t that old," he chuckled back. "Now let me take care of this mess so we can get on our way,"

Sigil placed his warhammer down to stretch. He cracked his back and his neck.

"Ahh, it’s been ages since I’ve gotten a good workout."

The Grewk took a small step back.

"What? You scared?" he said to the Grewk.

Sigil walked towards the creature. The Grewk was badly injured; he was missing a hand, and he had many cuts and bruises all over his body, but it still approached Sigil.

"Oh, don’t make me laugh. Look at ya. You've already got a foot in the grave as it is." Sigil remarked.

We knew that the fight was over the moment it began. During the Grewk’s last moments, it charged towards Sigil with all the strength it had, but it wasn’t enough. The creature was instantly smashed into the ground, its body turning to dust—the same as any other.

"That was just one strike," Blade said in awe.

"We should go check up on the captain," Joule said to us as she helped me up.

"Say… how many of them were there?" Sigil had asked us

"Maybe around fifty, I’m not sure; I didn't really count." I said to him.

He laughed. "What? Fifty? That’s child’s play for ol’ Strek; you all should’ve just stood back and watched," he cackled.

We were left in shock.

"Ol’ Strek?" I was left dumbfounded.

"Is the captain really that powerful?" Blade asked him.

"Of course!" he exclaimed. "There’s a reason I chose to give him the position after I retired," he said as we all headed for the training grounds.

"You never told me that you were once a captain of the royal army," I said to him.

"There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me, kid," he once again let out a dry laugh. "I was even in line to become a royal knight, but... I turned the offer down; it seemed like too much work for me. But… that was a long time ago, these old bones ain't what they used to be."

"Oh, you just had to bring that up," I responded. "Now you’re just mocking me; you know I want to become a royal knight someday."

"Yeah. And you won’t shut up about it either," he continued to jokingly berate me. "By the way, where’d your grandad head off to? It’s strange to think something like this would happen with him around."

"He said he needed to go to Hearth to run some errands or something like that; it was too early for me to remember," I gave a slight chuckle.

Suddenly, we began to feel the ground below us shake.

"What’s going on?" Blade asked in a panic.

"There’s a huge surge of power coming from the training grounds," Sigil responded.

"What? How can you tell?" I was left confused.

"Don’t tell me you haven’t learned to sense someone’s presence yet," he said to us.

"Yeah, I feel it," Blade said to him.

"So do I," Joule added.

"Oh so, am I the only one who has trouble with that technique?" I asked as I closed my eyes and tried to focus.

"I can’t tell if the surge of power is coming from the captain." Joule had said

"No, this is definitely someone else. Strek wouldn’t just release this much power at once without a good reason, not that he even could anyways… We need to head out now," he said to us.

As the entire kingdom continued to rumble, we all made our way to the training grounds, where we would soon find the source of this malicious power.