Enrique wasn’t sure what was happening. One moment he had been crawling along the cold, dark alley of Seventh Street, hoping to avoid Henricks and his posse. The next moment, he was here. His hands and knees landed on soft dirt. There was a loud roaring in his ears, the sounds of panicked screams, the sickening crunch of bending metal.

Someone fell next to him with a crash. He looked over and saw shattered steel armor covering a battered, bleeding man with short brown hair. Looking up, he glimpsed five people in front of him, each of their bodies glowing a different color of light like a radiant aura. They were moving so quickly they were like blurs to his eyes.

He glimpsed colorful armor, hands grasping swords and a knife, and what might have been a bow on someone’s back. Light flashed out from bodies like energy beams. Two of the people had something on their heads, though he couldn’t see clearly. If this was a dream or a hallucination, it was a bizarre one. He heard snatches of conversation, male and female, urgent and chaotic.

“We need the whole Guild here!”

“Just run! We can’t stop it!

“Where did that thing come from? We need to—Aaaaaah!”

Something large and red smashed against one of the blurring figures, sending the person crashing to the ground. The earth shook and the red color materialized into solid form. Enrique’s eyes widened. It was the arm of a two-legged, hulking, scarlet creature.

For a moment, he froze. Monster. That was all he could think to describe it. It stood the size of five full-grown men, with dark crimson skin, muscles as big as barrels, and a grotesquely misshapen face. It had gleaming, enormous, bloodshot eyes that rove over the group with unhinged fury. It opened its mouth, showing sharp teeth, and uttered a deafening roar which seemed to shake the earth itself.

Enrique shook himself out of his hesitation. He scrambled to his feet. Staying still meant death. He didn’t have a clue what was going on, but he did know this was a fight.

And Enrique knew how to fight.

Another red flash, and two of the glowing people were sent flying in the air. A dagger clattered to the dirt next to him. He scooped it up. The ground rumbled as the giant pounded towards him. Its eyes bore down with a predatory gaze. Despite its weight it was fast. His heart beat wildly and adrenaline surged through his chest. Closer, closer…

Now. He nimbly dodged to the side, like a matador twisting from a charging bull. He saw the giant’s fist smash into the dirt, felt the wind whistle from the strike, sending a plume of brown earth into the air. That’s my chance.

Before the monster could retract its arm, Enrique plunged the dagger into its skin. The steel pierced through flesh and slashed in a crisscross pattern, moving out of instinct. He was surprised to see blood gush from the wound, a dark stream. There was another terrifying roar and he was sent stumbling back.

Run. That was the next and only step for this type of battle. Run, hide, or be crushed. Cover. He spotted a thicket of dark green trees ahead, and barreled towards them.

Before he could reach the trees, a large, lime green circle appeared suddenly in front of him. It hovered in the air, glowing brightly and inscribed with symbols like the runes of an unknown language. Enrique hastily attempted to turn, but he was already going too fast and dashed headlong towards it.

A woman emerged from the circle and he collided with her.

“What the h***?” he asked in confusion. He grabbed her arm in an attempt to push her off him.

“Um, excuse you?” The woman sounded as surprised as he felt. She looked past him. “Whoa, what a mess out here. Guess I need to clean up.”

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Enrique was briefly stunned. The woman was also dressed very strangely, with dark purple robes, brown hair, and a conical hat which had, of all things, a pair of cream-white bunny ears poking from it. Behind him, he heard an earsplitting howl and the ground trembled like it was going to burst. At the edge of his vision, he saw flashes of light like fireworks.

Enrique let go of her and tried to run, but she gripped his shoulder tightly. Her free hand held a large scepter with a dark green orb on top, and she raised it as if about to clobber him with it. He needed to explain and there was no time. “There’s a—that monster—”

“I got it,” the woman said with surprising calm. The scepter swung down in an arc, but not at him. The rod stopped over his shoulder and glowed intensely with green light. Behind him, the orb pulsed with a wave of power that rippled through his body.

Enrique turned away from the woman and towards the monster. “Let me go, that thing’s already killed three people—”

“Perish! Inferno!” With a whoosh and a roar, a gargantuan wave of searing orange-red flames erupted from the end of the woman’s scepter, a tsunami taller than even the scarlet giant. It smashed into the monster with a massive explosion, sending out a shockwave of wind which made the trees sway and dirt fly into the air. Even from a distance, Enrique could feel the heat of the fire wash over him.

When the explosion cleared, the giant was on the floor. Its body was charred and blackened, and parts of it were little more than a pile of smoldering ash. The stench of burning flesh and smoke lingered in the air.

Clearly, it was dead.

The woman kept a firm grip on him and stepped closer to the monster’s corpse. He felt himself being dragged over to her. She scanned the armored people lying on the ground, who had been glowing before. Up close, Enrique noticed two of them had what looked like animal ears on their heads, like pointy dog ones. Things were getting stranger and stranger.

The woman looked sympathetic and worried for the group.

“If they’re lucky, they’ll pull through. I guess that’s why she gave me the contact number.”

She held out her scepter and it glowed with lime green light. The wounded people on the ground glowed with a matching color. As he watched, the bleeding on them receded. One of them, with short brown hair, dark skin, and broken gray armor, had a large gash in the stomach which slowly began to close, as if on its own.

The woman then released him and took out a small red device resembling a smartphone. Enrique considered bolting to the safety of the trees again, but something told him this lady could find him if she wished. There was also the fact she had saved his life. He didn’t trust her, but if she wanted to help him there must have been a reason, and admittedly he was curious.

The woman dialed a number on her phone. “Hello, is this the Luna Guild? It’s Fieldspring. This is an emergency. Get all your members here right away. Bring healers. Here’s the location. I gotta go—need to help a client.”

She turned the phone off and pocketed it. Then she turned to Enrique and inspected him. Her cocoa eyes were polite, even a little friendly, but the eyes of a total stranger. He could tell she couldn’t recognize him. He stiffened under her gaze.

“Hm…young, curly copper hair, brown eyes, tanned skin, black shirt, jeans, knows how to handle a knife.” Her eyes flickered to the dagger still in his hand, dripping with the giant’s blood. “Yup, the description matches. You’re pretty brave, kid. How old are you?”

“Fifteen,” he told her suspiciously. He looked the part, and there wasn’t much use lying. The woman looked early twenties.

She spoke to him conversationally as she looked him over. “Ogres aren’t supposed to be around here, even if you are at the Anima Kingdom’s borders. Nasty freaks. You’re lucky. Or I guess you could say, unluckily lucky! Ha!” She grinned at him. “Enrique Dominguez, am I right? My client asked me to pick you up.”

He met her eyes without flinching. “How do you know who I am? Who’re you? What do you mean by client?”

The woman held out her hand. “I’m Morgan Fieldspring. An Anima and a witch. I do the odd job every now and then. This one’s more of a personal favor.”

Enrique shook it. “Okay. Thanks for helping me, I guess.”

“Of course. I’m a pro!” She smiled.

“I’m pretty sure I could have gotten away if you had not run into me.” He didn’t want her to think he owed him too much.

She nodded, but said, “Nope. Come on, now. Let’s go. There’ll be seventy-five pairs barging into this clearing soon, and I don’t want to keep my client waiting.”

She held out the scepter, concentrated hard, and after a few moments another lime green circle appeared in front of her. She took his hand and pulled him in as she stepped through it.

When they emerged, they were somewhere else entirely.