Then, To Eliza's shock, she watched an image of herself running in front of her. The tendrils swerved after her moving image, and Eliza watched in a mix of horror and fascination as the dark tendrils passed through the image and slammed into the ground. She then felt an arm wrap around her midsection before pulling her away from the Wraith.

At the same time, She saw Leo easily step past the last of the defending tendrils before he dashed forward and swung at it with his fist enshrouded in a hazy green light. The Wraith desperately brought its last tendril up in front of the fist and managed to block the hit, but the impact of the blow sent it flying backward into the Crystal Nodes statue. It let out another screech as it pulled back its tendrils and lashed out at Leo.

That was all Eliza saw before she was dragged to a safe distance away, and Demitrus forced her to look away, cutting off her vision of the Wraith. Immediately Eliza regained control of her body, and she gasped in a huge lungful of air.

"I'm fine now." she managed to gasp out, and he let her go. She staggered a few shaky steps away and steadied herself by stabbing the bottom of the spear into the ground.

She turned and glared at Demitrus, who was standing nearby. He looked between her and the fight, a conflicted look in his eyes. "What are you doing? I told you I'm fine. Go help them; I'll be right behind you." She snarled out.

He gave her a long look before turning on his heel and sprinting to join the fight again.

Once he was gone, Eliza felt her body tremble again, and she fought to keep herself under control.

She heard the tendrils slam into the ground again, sending another wave of tremors through her body. Her body froze, refusing to move as she fought against the fear coursing through her. The thought of running crossed her mind, but she crushed that thought before it could take root.

Summoning everything she had, she pushed through the fear and took a shaky step forward. Dyrene's smiling face came to mind again, the face she had right before she had told Eliza to run and stepped out to face the Wraith.

Another shaky step

She clenched her hand around her spear, and she gritted her teeth. The rest of the team was still fighting, and they had risked themselves to save her just now. How could she think of running away after that? She wouldn't run. No, she couldn't. Running only caused people to die, people, she cared about.

A dark tendril slammed into the ground in front of her passing through another image that was noticeably less defined. The Wraith let out another screech, and Eliza watched as the dark tendril turned grey and slunk back to the Wraith, leaving a smoky black haze in the air behind it.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Sensei's words echoed in her mind, 'There is a price for everything we do. In a fight, we have the price we'll pay for fighting or the price we pay for hesitating. Hesitation begets regret, and so Eliza, You must fight.' Eliza relaxed her grip on her spear. Finally, she felt in control of herself.

Eliza keenly felt the little bit of power she had been given. She didn't know the intentions of who or what had given it to her, but she couldn't afford not to use it now.

In a practiced motion, she reached for it and drew all of it through her body to her spear. When the magic passed through her injured shoulder, the pain numbed and altogether disappeared. It traveled into the spear and condensed around the tip, giving it a faint violet hue that coated the metal spearhead.

Preparations done, she moved to reengage; as she moved, she took a quick stock of the situation.

Several tiles of cracked stone surrounded Leo, who gracefully moved out of the way of another tendril that smashed into the ground next to him. He was dealing with three of the tendrils. She wanted to see how Leah was doing but couldn't without risking looking directly at the core. Demitrus had joined the fight, and the Wraith had diverted two tendrils to deal with him.

He could dodge them as expected, but it was evident that he was struggling to avoid them this time.

All the more reason for her to hurry. Raising her spear in her left hand, she charged toward the occupied Wraith using her right hand to block her vision from where she knew the core was at.

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"Don't let it defend itself!" Eliza yelled out, and everyone looked at her in surprise before they sprung into action.

Demitrus twisted out around the thrashing tendrils and, in a clean movement, impaled both of them with his sword.

Leo charged at it, and it used several tendrils to force him back, leaving it exposed in the process.

Eliza closed the remaining distance and thrust with her spear toward where she knew the core was.

The Wraith immediately attempted to defend itself, but it only managed to get one back in time to block Eliza. The tendril darkened to block Eliza's spear, but it was no use. The purple hue around the spearhead cut right the dark tendril, and Eliza felt the spear hit the core.

As soon as the hit connected, Eliza knew it was a glancing hit. A chunk of the core fell to the ground as the Wraith let out a cry of pain. It retreated away from Eliza, heading directly towards Leah, who stood holding the torch.

"Watch out, Leah!" Eliza yelled out desperately, beginning to panic. She knew what it was trying to do.

The Wraith ignored both Demitrus and Leo as all five tendrils surged towards Leah so that it could heal itself using her life force. The tendrils fanned out, blocking off any chance of Leah dodging.

Eliza recklessly charged after the Wraith to try to stop it. All she could think of was that she couldn't lose another person who she had come to consider a friend.

In her hurry, she caught sight of the Wraiths core and felt her limbs begin to stiffen.

Eliza watched as the tendrils closed in on Leah, The feeling of helplessness returning. Was it always going to end this way?

Suddenly a large crack was heard, and then Leo was there, cloaked in a green aura. The aura condensed around his fist, and he struck the Wraith directly.

The Wraith barely managed to block with all of its tendrils, but the punch's force was enough to send It careening across the square. It stopped just short of one of the streets that entered the square.

"Don't touch my sister, Demon." Leo snarled, staring directly at the Wraith.

The Wraith emitted one last howl before it dashed down the street and disappeared into the city.

The green haze surrounding Leo slowly faded away, and he fell to a knee. He immediately covered his mouth with his hand as coughs racked his body. Once the coughing fit had subsided, he pulled his hand away. A hand, Eliza realized, that was covered in blood.

"Leo!" Leah yelled out as she rushed to his side.

Eliza tried to step towards him, but her legs gave out, and she fell onto her knees. She lost grip of her spear, which clattered onto the cold, stone ground, rolling out of her reach. A dull pain began radiating from her shoulder once again.

Confused, she looked down at herself. She hadn't even noticed she'd been trembling so much. She tried to keep her hands still but couldn't. Then she felt something warm on her cheeks.

With a shaky hand, she wiped her cheeks, and it came away wet.

When had she started crying? She had no reason to cry. She started wiping her tears away, but more tears immediately replaced them.

Eliza had no idea what was going on. Why couldn't she control herself?

"You idiot." Leah cried out as Leo once again descended into a coughing fit. "Why did you use so much of it? It's obvious that your body wouldn't be able to handle that much Ki without Elwyn's blessing!" tears streamed down her face.

Leo raised his clean hand and gently patted Leah's head, "I'm aware, Leah," He said, giving her as gentle of a smile as he could muster, "Don't worry, I'm not going to die." Another fit of coughing wracked his body; this time, he coughed into his elbow.

"See? I'm not even coughing up that much blood anymore." He said, showing her his elbow with only a few specks of blood, "Could you help me get out of here? I could use a good nap." he gave her another smile, but even Eliza could see that it was strained.

Leah helped him stand up and helped support his weight.

Eliza tried to stand up, but her legs immediately gave out again.

"Are you okay?" Demitrus asked as he came over, a hint of concern in his eyes.

"Yes?" Eliza said, unsure if it was the truth but not wanting to admit otherwise. She tried to stand up again but to no avail.

"Do you want help?" He asked.

"No. Just give me a few moments." Eliza said immediately. She closed her fist and whacked it against her legs, hoping it would somehow fix them.

"Eliza, Demitrus! We need to get out of here now! Leo needs to rest!" Leah said while supporting Leo as they walked away.

Demitrus looked over his shoulder and called back, "You guys go on; we'll be right behind you."

He looked at her with a hint of a smile, "You heard the little lady? I can carry you if you want?" he asked.

Eliza wiped her eyes once again, the tears finally abating. She glared at him and said, "No. Just get me my spear."

"Sure, sure," he said casually as he walked over to where her spear had fallen with, Eliza noticed, a carefully disguised limp. He picked up her spear, came back to her, and held out her spear to her with one hand, which she noticed was slightly trembling.

Eliza took it and, by using it to support her weight, managed to climb to her feet and shaky legs. Once she was sure she wouldn't immediately fall over again, she glanced at Demitrus's smiling face and said, "How audacious; how could you think you could help me when your body is in that state?"

His smile twitched and fell, revealing a worn look, "leave it to you to notice, huh." he said as he sighed. "Let's get out of here; I could also use a nap."

Eliza couldn't agree more with that statement. She looked away, slightly embarrassed, "Thanks, you saved me back there," she said.

"Just returning the favor, don't worry about it," Demitrus said.

Eliza slowly started to make her way after Lea and Leo, using her spear as an impromptu walking stick. Demitrus fell in alongside her, no longer hiding his limp.

Eliza hobbled past the Crystal Node, now brightly glowing, uninhibited by The Wraith. The blue light poured out of it into the veins beneath their feet. The blue glow soon spread through the veins and the pillars down the streets, the darkness fleeing from the soft blue light.

A sense of relief flooded over Eliza; they had survived. As she walked, Eliza became aware of how much everything hurt. Her skin was blistering; she had taken some pretty heavy hits, and she felt exhausted to top it all off. Despite all that, she felt excitement growing with every strained shaky step. They had done it; somehow, they had managed to beat a Wraith. Just the thought made her giddy with excitement. A small smile settled on her lips; now, all that was left was getting out.