They slept well, and as soon as they came downstairs, they overheard people chatting about the Battle. With the decision to just follow people, they ate and moved along with the group. Whirl and Steve were moving to the main gate, the one they entered with. The roads leading there were crowded. Except for villagers living there, many travelers had been there just in time to see Imagination Battle by themselves. Most of them weren't wearing anything reasonable for fighting. Why would they have different outfits in this situation? Thought Steve.

Above the main gate, there were special places to sit and stand, where the audience could see. Everything looked like a giant area but instead of a fighting ring, there was vast space.

"I'm excited about the show today, there were fascinating creatures two days ago. Maybe today will be even better." Steve heard some ecstatic shouts near his spot. "There are even more soldiers than last time."

With these words, Steve and Whirl finally noticed the army prepared to defend Gret. Several groups of soldiers wearing heavy armor stood in the first line. Behind them on massive horses stood light-clothed soldiers with short swords and bows on their backs. The army wasn't big but impressive.

While people were contemplating the army state, something started to appear far away. It was only one shape in the beginning, but it began to reveal a lot more. Like a huge black cloud, it was coming closer and it was getting bigger. Excitement yells were getting stronger.

"They don't expect what will happen today." Said Archibald.

Steve was curious what Wizard meant by saying this.

"Today will be different from usual. In many ways."

Without any more questions, Steve was watching how various shadows were approaching a stiff line of soldiers. Nightmares weren't interested in spectators, focusing only on the army. The cascade of sounds and yells started ringing in their heads. In the first line, the commander started shouting about courage and how their feat would protect The Kingdom. The soldiers seemed to be enchanted, and they heated up to fight. It happened in a few seconds. Soldiers rushed to face Imagination Creatures. Monsters used only brutal force, without any range or magic attacks. Despite ferocious attacks, the army remained calm and no one broke the line. From behind heavy soldiers, archers were continuously shooting. Most of the arrows were stuck deep inside the monsters, but a few of them disappeared into the shadows. Every projectile that hit imaginations made them even angrier. Some soldiers fell to the stronger hits, but either way, the army was leading in this battle. Monsters died in groups under the heavy concentrated attack.

People cheered as they saw the army handling the attack so well.

"I sense it." Said Archibald.

"What?" Steve was confused. "Even if there's something more in there, soldiers will kill it."

While they were talking, people suddenly changed their tone of yells. It became louder and more panicked. Steve and Whirl took a look at the arena and saw the reason behind this. Commander laid in the puddle of blood, his blood. The last drips were trickling from a big claw. A giant figure, with a face taken directly from the deepest nightmares, stood above the lifeless body. Pale, long face with burning fire instead of eyes. It grinned, showing its teeth, and roared slowly and loudly. The army of the Gret looked now almost as lifeless as the commander. Their will to fight was broken to pieces.

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"You see, the commander in our army was wearing bracelets of courage. This artifact had contained the spell of unbroken courage, which gave soldiers the one and only way to encounter such an enemy. Hope." Archibald hesitated before saying, "Not that he is dead, people will lose this winning element."

"That means…" Whirl tried grasping what that could mean. Her arms wilted.

"That is not all, unfortunately. The enemy's commander, on the opposite side, had imagination markings, which will deepen hopelessness in people hearts."

Overwhelming creatures advantage had already destroyed most of the soldiers. People, so convinced about victory, tried to leave as fast as they could, only to trample over themselves.

Whirl and Steve tried to evacuate themselves, but The Wizard stopped them. "Stop! Remember what I told you about how to get The Stone? You need to participate in this. Actively."

"How we even are supposed to fight with this. I know, Whirl is really good at fighting, but did you see what this," Steve hesitated, "monster commander, could do?"

"Yes, I know you are not a great fighter, but did you forget that you are wielding a powerful artifact"

"Let's do this, Steve. What we've got to lose? We will die anyway." Said Whirl with laugh.

With these words, no further arguments were needed to convince Steve into fighting. They carefully headed in enemies direction. Whirl drew her dirks, the sun flashed in the metal. Steve held his hand tight on the grip off his sword. The first imaginative creature that Whirl saw was twice as tall as her, so she needed to look up to see a black void instead of eyes. She didn't hesitate for a moment, jumping to the place where the heart should be and thrusting one of the daggers. With a thud, the creature fell immediately to the ground.

Next to Steve, big claws plowed the ground, avoiding his head by centimeters. He was able to scratch the monster's leg with his sword. Imagination roared, falling to one knee. Steve finished the creature by slitting its throat. The black void spurted instead of blood from where the cut had been.

"We need to kill the commander." Yelled Whirl through the noise.

Both friends rushed to where the commander stood, and creatures made a path for them as if The Stone alone let them. The commander was waiting for them. There was something in the void, where eyes should be, that was telling them that's them it's waiting for. Suddenly, they tremble with fear.

"No, Whirl, I can't do it—"

"Stop it, Steve, You can! The sword you're welding. It contains magic, don't you remember? We can kill this creature. I'm going." With these words, Whirl shortened the distance in a minute, and cut commander's ankles. It didn't even react to these wounds as if nothing happened, it was infuriated even more.

Directly hitting Whirl, it sent her few meters away.

Steve calmed himself, heading straight to the commander. He wasn't a great swordsman, but having a spell he could rely on, helped him mentally.

He tried to stab directly in the chest, but commander stopped him with a claw. The sound of something hard hitting metal was so loud that it hurt the ears. Steve's arm was trembling, but he knew that this shouldn't be concerning him. He needed to kill the commander to survive. His arm withdrawn and quickly slashed from the second side. As commander didn't care about getting hit, this one got through easily. Slashing the monster wasn't spectacular, but what followed was.

Unleashing the power of thunder was as loud as splitting a mountain in two. In addition to the sound, extreme light came from lighting, gathering in slash place. In a moment, lights engulfed commander. Before it knew what was happening, it was gone completely. To Steve surprise, lights engulfed him as well.