(Zack)

Gold trembles heavily, hugging himself tightly against the tree he's climbed up as he looks down, whimpering in fear, his tail between his legs, ears perked up. Something slams into the tree, shaking what little snow remains off of it and to the ground and Gold lets out another whimper, then a howl, a high-pitched, fear-filled sound that fills the air.

The beast slams into the tree again, deep in the shadows of the night, the new moon hidden high in the cloudless sky, the only light coming from the stars and their reflections in the snow. The beast slams into the tree again, and Gold lets out another howl of fear.

His clothes are ripped and torn, dirty as can be and covered in mud and blood. He's injured, I realize, his left arm likely broken, and his left leg clawed to hell and back. As the beast slams into the tree again, Gold howls, tears streaming down his cheeks.

I bolt upright with a start, struggling out of my blankets. That was another dream, and it was about Gold. But why would I dream about him being in danger? Especially since-

The snow. There was plenty on the ground and in the distance, even if the tree had none, because of the beast slamming into it. That wasn't a vision of the future.

The reason I couldn't find Gold… he's not in the City, is he? He's out there, in the forest-

He's in trouble!

I quickly scramble, pulling off my clothes and pulling on a day out and my gear. The New Moon is tonight, right now, the night before New Year's Eve. That dream vision – it was telling me the present. Gold's in danger, and I need to hurry.

I summon up my Crimson Guide, to guide me towards Gold. I didn't want to do it before, I wanted him to hear me and come to me, but this overrides that. He's outside of Maelnor and in danger, so I can't waste time hoping I find wherever he is. The Crimson Guide needs to lead me there.

As I run as fast as I can, I pass by Kylie, who's wandering the streets, a lantern in one hand. She doesn't see me, but she certainly feels my passage, due to how fast I'm moving creating a small wind around me.

I'm out of the City in no time, and the Crimson Guide leads me deep into the forest. It'd normally take hours to get to where it takes me. I continue going, until I eventually hear the snapping of a tree, followed by a yelping and a howl.

"Gold!" I exclaim.

The howl falters for a moment, then picks up again, this time more urgently than before.

It only takes me a few more minutes to reach where Gold is, the tree he'd been on crashed to the ground, the Beastborn up another tree nearby, whimpering when he sees me. He must have jumped onto the other tree when the first one started to fall. Impressive, with his injuries, but I can focus on that later.

"Gold!" I exclaim, and he whimpers down at me again, looking sad, his thoughts filled with panic and sorrow and fear. "What-"

I cut off as I see the beast. Its body is that of a tan-furred dog, though it's larger than a fucking elephant, and has a flat-faced lion's head. It has a pair of black horns, and its maw is filled with many, many sharp teeth. It's turned his ugly head to me, letting me see those golden eyes.

"Nian," I breathe out.

It's like a mix of the two descriptions I'd heard of them back in reality. If this really is one, then it's no wonder the walls of the Cities turn red – the legends say they're terrified of fire and the color red, though I'm not sure why. They also say that Nians eat children, which explains why it's more likely for children to disappear during the six days of the crimson City Walls. The Boundary Nians must also have a taste for men, I don't remember hearing about them liking men as well.

I look at its status, and know that I really, really need to think fast if I'm going to save Gold.

Nian Level 100 Health: 20,000,000 Mana: 0

At least it's not a magic-user, but that Health, and those claws… this thing can do some serious damage to me. But I can't let Gold die. What's he doing out of the City, anyway? Did someone chase him out?

My outfit has red on it, which has made the Nian wary. Gold's outfit is blue and white, not a trace of red on it, except for his blood, though the Nian doesn't seem bothered by that. And since he's a kid, that increases his attractiveness to the Nian.

It must increase mine, too.

The Nian takes a step towards me, and the ground shakes, its tiger-like tail flicking in anticipation. I need to get Gold, and get out of here.

And learn how to do the fucking Teleport spell, too, so that I can just Teleport back to town when there's an issue like this.

"Fireball!" I exclaim as the Nian charges me, and a fireball forms in front of me, the beast pausing a little. "Hey, kitty-doggy. Wanna play?"

The Nian snarls at me, and I throw the Fireball at it, jumping to the side, then up and into a tree, leaping from there to another as the Nian charges into the first.

"Binding Darkness!"

Black tendrils of darkness wrap around the Nian, temporarily immobilizing it. Considering its brute strength, it can probably break free of it, so I don't have long. I jump over to Gold's tree, and his thoughts are filled with apologies.

"Save it for when we meet up again," I touch his leg. "Heal."

His cuts heals, and I move my hand to his arm, causing him to whimper at my touch. I swiftly set his arm, and he yelps. I perform another Heal, then quickly cast down another Binding Darkness as the Nian breaks free of the first.

"Okay," I tell Gold. "Listen up. I'm going to distract this thing. You need to get back to the City. Go straight to Jesse's house, I know you can find it by scent. Pound on his door and wake that fucker up. You won't need to be able to talk, he'll be able to tell something's probably wrong, based on your appearance and panic. Binding Darkness! Show him this."

I pull my necklace off and place it around Gold's next, and he tilts his head to the side.

"It's unique," I tell him. "One-of-a-kind. He'll immediately know something's wrong with me. I'm going to distract this thing so you can get gone, then I'm going to do my best to lose it, but there's a strong chance I won't be able to. Jesse will assemble his team, and they'll come hunting for me. I can hold out for awhile, this thing's just got strength, though with that strength comes a speed from the sheer force. They should be able to-Binding Darkness! They should be able to retrieve me without issue. Now go!"

Gold nods, then takes off, jumping to another tree. He's pretty nimble, especially now that he's no longer injured as bad. He's probably still feeling the pain, though. I can mend the injuries, but not ease the pain.

Sorry, Gold.

I look down at the Nian, which snarls as it struggles against my binds. Its WIL must be pretty low, based on how long it takes it to break out of each set. Unfortunately, it gets better at breaking out each time, and I have a limited Mana Pool.

I stab myself, draining nearly all of my Health as I perform my most potent combination, my knife striking straight into the Nian's left eye without me even leaving the tree, just in time for the beast to break free.

My body heals of its injuries, though it didn't damage the Nian too badly, and it roars, bleeding out of its eye with my knife stuck in it, then charges at the tree, using its powerful legs to propel itself forward.

Yeah, my estimate was right. This thing's probably about as fast as I am, when I pull my all into it. Judging by its thoughts, the only reason it's heavily ignoring the slight fear that's filled it because of the red on my outfit and the Fireballs I keep launching at it is because it's hungry for human flesh, having not had a decent snack in more than a century, and it's furious at me for letting its other prey get away.

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The Nian bunches its back legs down, and I jump to the side and down to the ground as it launches itself into the air, slamming into the tree I just vacated. The force of the leap snapped the top of the tree off, and I'm already running.

The Nian and I play this little 'game' for awhile, where its best to kill me, and I do my best to get away from it while also hurting it. I manage to retrieve my knife at some point, only to take a fair bit of damage, which I promptly return with another Dark Vengeance.

After probably twenty minutes, I receive a notification that surprises me.

You have dealt 1,000,000 damage to the Nian! +10 platinum!

Damaging this thing earns me rewards? And I got money for it, too. What a nice surprise. What are the other rewards? There's got to be more than just platinum. And what would I get for killing it? Or would I not get anything?

I evade some more of its powerful attacks while doing my best to get away and wound it badly enough to force it to give up. Unfortunately, it's just too hungry and angry to do that, and it's a bit too tough for me to break its legs.

Dammit. If only I were stronger.

As I jump up into another tree, then quickly vacate it before it goes crashing down, I remember that I have that massive reward for solo'ing the Santa Boss, which I only have because I, uh, turned into a dragon for some reason.

I could instantly acquire the remaining 29 Levels to master Dark one, which would be a massive boost for my power. But that would also risk Power Jump occurring again. Making a decision as I dodge the Nian, I pull up the interface for adding my Resting Experience, then use 900% of it to bring me up to Level 10, before advancing it to Tier IV. That's only a small boost, though, compared to my overall Stats, so I quickly use up another 900% and advance me to Tier V. Twenty Levels should leave me alright, and the extra boosts from my every-fifth and Adventurer might be at least halfway decent of an added bonus.

They also give me an added bonus to my Agility, and it's enough to just-barely stay ahead of the Nian, unless it leaps at me, but I'm fast enough now to properly dodge and not risk having my body swiped by those paws.

Instead of having to dodge before it moves or the moment I notice it springing and hope I manage.

We continue our fight, and I start losing track of time. The only thing that really lets me know it even passes is my Health and Mana increasing, or an occasional Skill Level Up notice.

You have dealt 2,000,000 damage to the Nian! +5 Temporal Ingots

Temporal Ingots? Isn't that one of the ores Jackson mentioned? I suppose it makes sense this thing could drop them, considering that it's a beast of the shifting times. But it's not as if-

My entire body freezes, and I focus on my Mana, remembering the fight just in time to avoid being killed by the Nian, though I do still get hit, thrown into a tree.

"Fuck," I mutter, standing and brushing myself off before jumping straight up, the Nian slamming into the tree.

Time's moving slower. This thing doesn't have any Mana, though. Is it burning its Mana immediately to slow time? Or is it simply inherit around it? Or does it have to do with tomorrow being New Year's Eve? Do the Crimson City Walls also denote a different passage of time outside of them? What's going on?

Before I can drop back down, I sense something moving at me towards a speed far faster than I can react to, coming at me from behind, and suddenly, a pair of strong arms are gripping me.

"I've got you," Nik's voice carries into my ears, and I let out a sigh of relief.

"Might want to fly higher," I tell him, and he does, just in time to avoid being clawed by the Nian, which had jumped as soon as it realized its prey was getting away. "I don't know how much longer I could've gone."

He's not using Binding Darkness. Why'd he use it the last couple of times?

"You had to use up some of your bonus Experience," he tells me.

"Yeah," I nod. "I was barely managing to avoid it."

"Two million damage," he mutters. "You took out the Santa Boss, and that thing doesn't have Mana. How tough is its hide?"

"Extremely," I answer. "My strongest attacks were only doing between ten and twenty thousand damage to it."

"Damn," he says. "The Nian, huh? I don't remember any mentions of it in the records."

"It's powerful as fuck, that's why," I say. "It's also why the walls turn red."

"What do you mean?" He asks, and I throw a glance back to the now-roaring Nian.

"It fears the color red," I answer, looking up at Nik, who nearly drops me before using Binding Darkness to keep me from moving around so much.

Oh, that's why he did that the last couple of times. I guess not dropping his student from a few hundred feet up would be preferable, wouldn't it?

"You were wearing red," he points out.

"I also used fire against it," I say. "And it fears fire. It was hungry, and also pissed that I let its prey escape."

"How do you know about what it fears?"

"I'm me."

Nik's silent for a few moments as he continues flying towards the City.

"That's what causes people to disappear," I tell him. "Time flows differently around it."

"Differently how?" He asks.

"As soon as we were a mile away," I explain. "My Mana and Health started regenerating at the same rate as they should have been, but they were regenerating slower around it. Thinking back on things, whenever we disturbed the snow, it actually moved a bit slower than it should have, so it wasn't a regeneration-slowing effect. It was slowing time down around it."

"Damn," Nik says. "That must be why no one's ever reported it. If someone had, the Dark Order would know for sure."

"Yeah," I nod. "Oh, and it's not exclusive to the six-day period the walls are red."

"What do you mean?"

"Do the walls further into the Boundary change at varying times?"

"How did you know?" He asks. "Some of them turn a day sooner, and they don't consistently turn at the same time. Ours turned during the night, but last year, they turned the day before."

"They're to prevent the Nians from drawing near," I explain. "This thing is a Holiday Beast, but it's not gone the rest of the year, it's asleep. It doesn't spawn, it wakes up. The walls turn red when the 'local' one wakes up, but it's guaranteed to be awake for the three days up to and of the new year."

"How do you know this?"

Because I gleaned it from the beast's thoughts.

"I'm me."

Nik sighs, flying me down to the Dark Temple, where the rest of his team are waiting, though I know they'd been searching as well – I could sense Nathan flying alongside us after a few, then he sped up to land here, unhide himself, and wait. Travis and Blaine were visible, and I'm sure Jesse was traveling on the ground.

"What happened?" Travis asks, and I explain about the Nian, though I leave out about the rewards for dealing damage to it.

No need to risk incentivizing death like that. If word got out that you could get platinum and Temporal Ingots from dealing enough damage to it, plenty of morons would try their hand at killing it rather than dying in the war coming up.

"Where's Gold?" I ask, just in time to sense his thoughts as he bursts out of the Dark Temple, before spotting me and slamming into me.

He was cleaning up. I guess he was let in to wash up and change, considering he's not only clean now, but wearing the black and red of the Dark Knights. Nik must have gotten him the clothes before leaving.

"Hey, Gold," I hold him against me. "I'm fine, I told you I'd be fine."

Gold just cries into me. He's really sorry about abandoning me like that, and I manage to glean out of him that he overheard Nik and me talking, and how I couldn't date him because he wasn't strong enough.

"What?" I ask, pushing Gold back. "What are you talking about? That's not at all what I was saying, Gold!"

He looks confused, and tilts his head to the side.

"I don't love you," I say. "But I do like you. You're a good person, Gold. I've missed you a lot, and I've been looking for you like hell the last few days because of it. I won't date you because… because of reasons! But it has nothing to do with you not being strong! You don't need to be strong, Gold! Just be you, okay?"

Gold tilts his head to the other side.

"What?" I ask, and realization hits me. He mixed up the two topics Nick and I discussed, not realizing we were talking about someone else initially. "We were talking about Bryce, Gold."

Gold tilts his head to the other side.

"My half-brother," I explain. "He was killed by the Shadow of Life shortly before we met. He and I got up to a bit of mischief, and the way you acted when you got drunk reminded me of him."

Gold's ears and tails droop, and he drops his shoulders, looking down. He realizes he misunderstood what Nik and I were talking about, and now feels terrible for putting my life in danger like that.

"It wasn't intended," I step up to him and put my hands on his shoulders. "I forgive you, Gold. You couldn't have known about the Nian."

His mental frenzy tells me that he did know about it.

"You… did?" I ask, and he nods. "Did you think you could fight it?"

He shakes his head.

"Just that you could avoid it?" He nods. "It was a lot more powerful, and a lot more fast than you expected, though, wasn't it?"

He nods.

I pull him against me, and he starts crying again.

"It's okay," I tell him. "I forgive you, Gold. Let's me get cleaned up, then we can head home."

He nods, then suddenly steps back and pulls my necklace from his pocket and holds it out to me.

"Thanks," I take it and pull it back on, then look at Jesse. "Was it all that was needed?"

"Yes," he replies. "Is that why you refuse to sell it?"

"I think it looks cool," I shrug. "Having it be able to be used as a sign that something's wrong is just an added bonus, since it's unique. Anyway, I'm tired, and am probably pushing the limits for Power Jump with the boost I gave myself to avoid being killed, so I'm going to wash up, then Gold and I are heading home, for bed."

"Make sure he doesn't pass out," Nik tells Gold, who nods very seriously, and it takes all I have to not laugh.