Andrew

He leapt forward and deflected the viper-like inferno whip with his sword before overshooting his jump to pursue the assassin. As the deflected attack set the ground aflame, Andrew did all he could to keep from blinking his drying eyes. The inferno whip returned to the assassin. As predicted, the assassin aimed his pistol at him and so Andrew jumped over to avoid it. As he took to the air, however, the report of gunfire did not come. The assassin wore a winning smirk.

Bad move!

Re-aiming his gun upwards, the assassin fires at him in earnest. Suspended in thin air, with no patch of shadow to fade into, Andrew barely got his blade up in time to deflect the multiple shots before falling upon the assassin with an overarching slash. His strike cleaved the leaves as the assassin jumped back. Andrew flowed overhead strike into three instantaneous slashes. Avoiding the first, parrying the second, the assassin pivoted around the last strike before stepping back in with a reverse grip stab. The strike barely missed Andrew’s gut as the assassin was now pushing in.

Seeing an opening, Andrew was about to take it, but his instincts told him to run. His mind’s eye caught the intense glowing glimmer radiating from behind the assassin’s back. Jumping back, Andrew barely avoided another inferno whip as it cleaved through the rain, leaving a misty trail of smoke in its wake. Landing on the ground, Andrew countered with a nightslash. Black, beaming arcs of energy tore through the ground as they collided with the flame assassin, dissipating the smoke that was formed by the inferno whip cutting through the rain. He did not see the assassin try to counter his move with his inferno-like whip, nor did he see him deflect his last strike as he did the first time. Sensing that this might be one of his limits, Andrew began counting.

One...

The assassin knight’s armour flickered along his arms and part of his chest from the impact. He’d tanked Andrew’s blow head-on, but not without taking some damage.

Two... three...

With a smirk, the assassin fired a round from his pistol, forcing Andrew to cut to one side in evasive strides. Slipping behind a tree, Andrew slid under his remaining shots before hiding behind the large trunk.

Four... Five... Six... He jumped back as he heard the inferno whip sizzle through the rain before it struck the tree he was behind, cutting it in two. Rolling under its falling trunk, Andrew melded into his own shade using lone shadow before rushing up to him and leaping out of his shade like a fish out of a pond. Bearing down upon the assassin with an overhead slash, Andrew roared as the wills of flame and darkness clashed in an explosive display, manifesting sparks of energy that danced between them and pelted the forested trees.

The assassin’s menacing grin grew as Andrew’s efforts threatened to shift the tides. As he looked into the man’s eyes, however, a flicker of something flashed within. This lapse in concentration almost earned him a fatal slash to his gut, but before the heated knife could reach him, Andrew slipped just out of range, allowing his knight’s armour to take the brunt of the blow. Skidding to a halt, Andrew stabbed the ground as he placed his blade between him and the assassin. Before he could think, the killer unleashed another inferno-like whip at Andrew.

Barely able to jump over it, Andrew parried the strike at the last second. As it knocked him back, the assassin primed his pistol, but seeing Andrew’s already in a defensive stance, he sniffed to himself before slowly dropping his gun arm. His amused grin plastered its way on the killer’s face between breaths.

“Of all the fools I’ve run into, you’ve been the hardest one to kill,” the assassin said. “Maybe there was some merit to Epimetheus’s report.”

“Oh, good. I’ve always hoped that I’d be a bit harder to kill than women and children,” Andrew said. The assassin suddenly shot at him three times. Andrew blocked all three simply by ducking behind the face of his sword that he still had stabbed between him and the killer.

When he carefully looked back up, the assassin smiled again, but this time, his mirth did not reach his eyes. Andrew just looked at him with a careful mask of caution. He’d been trying to get a rise from him. Apparently, telling him that he could only kill women and children worked. Soon, the assassin was standing at his full height, his infernal blade glowed an angry red.

“Orders are orders,” he said bluntly. That reaction got Andrew curious.

“Shame those messengers did not get the memo,” he sniffed.

“It’s a small price to pay,” he said.

“What do you get out of all of this?” Andrew asked. He was getting tired. If he could buy some time until he either found an opening to strike or for backup to come...

“Why ask, you looking to buy me off?” the assassin asked. Andrew went silent. In truth, he was not thinking that far, but there was no point in letting him know that. Perhaps reading his silence as consent, the killer smiled. ”Hate to break it to you, but our loyalty can’t be brought,” the assassin said.

“Just as well for you. Because facing us would have been way above your pay grade,” Andrew said. He hoped that the assassin caught onto the unspoken threat. The implications of ‘us’, he added. The man looked at him for a while, an unspoken understanding running between them before he smiled sinisterly.

“I get it. Still, have faith that the lab rat will swoop into the rescue? Or were you perhaps alluding to other allies? Either way, I think you’re missing my point. Our master does not pay us, meaning you can’t buy ‘our’ loyalty,” he said. The words hung upon the air like a looming guillotine. Andrew instantly understood what he implied by these words and before he knew it, his eyes began darting around him for anyone else lurking in the shadows. He was not alone, he had backed up too.

“What’s so special about this place, anyway?” Andrew asked, still stalling for time.

“It’s simple. We were told to sow the seeds of chaos. To break the cycle of all that came before. What better way to begin that process than to cut off the weakest chains that hold everything together?” Soon, however, he went on to continue smiling. “Ultimately, we came here to force the bad mountain pup to heel,”

“You wounded the alpha king?” Andrew asked.

“Me?” he said, his tone dripping with amusement. “Please, even if I had the means to wound it myself, I would not have lived to talk about it.”

Once again, Andrew’s head began to throb. Flashes of memories that were not his own ran through his mind. It threatened to make him buckle over, but luckily the images fled before the feeling could overtake him, leaving Andrew to only react to it with an eye twitch. If the Assassin noticed a change in his demeanour, he did not react to it. Instead, he continued talking.

“A feeble mortal like me would be of little use against the village’s precious mountain guardian, but my master’s steed, however…”

“A Nova is here?” Andrew had mumbled it before he realised it. He could barely keep up with this. He could not even harm the wolf himself, even though he was in his element. And this Nova was strong enough to wound something as powerful as the guardian.

“The thing is a monster in the realist sense. The genuine pride of this backwater village if I’d ever seen one. Had we not stopped it like we did, then it would have definitely killed our pet before it grew strong enough to fend for itself.” Andrew’s jaw tightened. It was too dangerous here. He found himself carefully edging away from the flame assassin. He could not count on backup coming here soon enough. He needed help now. It was then that another part of what the assassin had said struck him.

‘Pet’? He’d asked Natalie how she knew that the demons that attacked their village of Null that day were connected to the people they were after.

“I know because that’s how they got me...” Her words stirred in his mind. And just like that, he was back there on that day, when the demon came and attacked his home. Back to the day when he was unable to do anything, the day he lost Natalie. The day that started him on this path and now…

“You can control demons,” Andrew whispered.

“Nobody controls a demon. Not without forcing them to heel first. Let’s just say that these demons’ interests and ours align well enough for the moment.”

“So you kill men out of spite, too?”

“In order to prepare things for the great reset, it is necessary to purge the rotten roots. Master Torus has been chosen to spark the plan into motion. Those so-called errand boys were nothing more than false prophets threatening to disrupt his work!”

“And how is the destruction of a whole village helpful to anyone?!”

“You speak as if a village up and vanishing is unheard of. The cycle has witnessed many civilisations disappear over the aeons. Whether it’s from man personified or mother nature, it’s all the same, so long as the cycle continues and its people’s lives are not directly affected, so long as there is an alternative path to move forward, people will forget and forge onwards. All you are witnessing now is the severing of another lone thread. Only this time, this thread will serve a new world purpose,”

‘Thread?’ It dawned on him soon after. He meant the village of Progmanfest. Even if the Famine Fisher was killed by another group, the loss of Progmanfest would be a disaster not seen since the destruction of his own village. It would bode badly for the surrounding towns and villages. Places like Altera, Zannidue and…

Aqua Falls. Andrew’s mind froze. A cold, hollow thought came to him. Again, the recollection from when Natalie spoke of the Seven Stars of Halo, a time before they even knew to call them.

“You summoned them,” he whispered.

The assassin turned to him with an amused grin. A silent moment went by before he snorted to himself.

“That’s right, not control, summon,” the assassin said. “We only usher in the required element for change where needed. From there, we let nature weed out the weakest chains from our link, starting with the villages. We will mould civilisations into individuals worthy of eternal bliss.”

“So… she was right,” he said. All this time, the great incident that he blamed himself for… the demons that fell out of the sky that day. It was all man-made. Organised by these maniacs.

Andrew’s eyes locked onto his. A part of him wanted to ask, but he already knew what he meant before he said it.

“But anyway! You coming here is a surprise to me. I’m glad I got to see first-hand what Epimetheus’ powers might look like. Could come in handy,” He shrugged. “Though, with how he was hyping you up, I was expecting, well… more,”

Andrew saw red, the stars of Halo were here. They were responsible for this mess and now his mother could already be...

Andrew took a tight hold of his sword. It was all that he could do to keep from exploding into a rage. Shedding his knight’s armour to practically non-existent, he channelled all that energy into his blade. Dark tendrils of power seeped off his sword, causing the surrounding air to hiss with its release. Darkness engulfs his world. Amidst it, the assassin gave him a look of surprise as a swirl of dark energy began to flow by his feet like refrigerated air. The assassin fired his pistol at him, only for Andrew to block.

“Not clever, sacrificing defence like that,” he said. Andrew’s body reacted. Before he knew it, he was rushing towards the assassin. His energy-dense blade smashed into his flaming knife causing the forest to flicker in ripples of light, barely able to block Andrew’s strike the assassin staggered back before shooting at him, with no armour protecting himself, Andrew was forced to block the shots whilst backing before seeing the assassin unleash his inferno like a whip. Swatting it aside, Andrew pursued the assassin. Now that he’d used it, he had six seconds. Six seconds to-

The assassin spun the inferno-like whip over himself and instead of fading away; it came from overhead.

That was less than six seconds… This whole time, the assassin had been fooling him into a false sense of comfort. The six seconds he thought he deducted out of the fight. It was meant to be noticed. It was a trap. Andrew’s mind took in this fact with detached observation. The surprise would have likely got him killed had he sprung it a little sooner. But as he was now, it did not matter. He simply did not care. If he could use that move once, ten or a hundred times.

The bed of wet leaves erupted into flames as the impossibly hot whip recoiled off its surface. All that came near it was turned into cinders. All except Andrew, who was no longer there. Blitzing onto a tree by the assassin’s blind spot, Andrew’s blade came down on the killer’s neck with all the strength he could muster. His strike barely brushed his skin thanks to the assassin’s knight armour and quick reflexes.

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Leaping back, the assassin used his inferno whip a third time in a row. Unphased, Andrew once again smacked it out of the way, eyes already marking the man dead as he fled. Rainwater became a tunnel-like vortex as Andrew rushed towards the assassin.

“What’s got into you all of a sudden?! We were having so much fun until now!” the assassin shouted. Bravado, Andrew, could see it now. He could see right through his tough act. It was evident that the man was scared. He could sense his imminent death. Jumping off a tree and atop a branch, Andrew quickly gained ground. Desperate, the assassin tried to fire shots at him, Andrew avoided them by taking a route among the treetops, the many branches a cover between him and the assassin.

“So you too still had some tricks up your sleeve!” The assassin’s voice echoed through the trees and rain. He’d lost sight of him. Not willing to lose this advantage, Andrew used lone shadow to slip into the shade of his tree in order to land silently back on the ground. Just as he was about to touch land, however, the tree he imprinted himself on was cleaved in half before flames came bursting up its trunk.

“Who are these people to you anyway!? Are you really willing to die for them!? How very chivalrous of you! Well, if you’re feeling so selfless, then why not come on out here and face me honourably?!” the assassin barked to all four corners of the forest as the tree he cut began to tip and fall. Remaining within his own shadow, Andrew ran back along the falling tree before re-emerging , allowing the sound of the toppled tree to mask his own clumsy stumble to the ground. Now, back to normal. He shook away the urge to scream out at the pain that he felt along the right side of his arm. He’d been close to the outburst of flame when he was in lone shadow, and that cost him. Had he been any closer, he would have been permanently damaged. What he did was too risky.

“All you knights love to spout stuff like chivalry and honour!” The assassin called out. It sounded like his back was to him. “You so desperately label yourselves in the vain hopes that it will somehow separate you from the real monsters, but it' changes nothing. They are just words. In the end, when it really matters, you are no better than us. Hiding in shadows, willing to stab me in the back. You're no assassin… are you?”

Overcoming the burning pain, Andrew dared a peek up from behind the fallen tree. That bastard dared to lecture him about a knight’s honour. He was trying to get him into an equal and open fight. After all that he did, after that, he might have already done to his mother’s home village.

Three other nearby trees had been cut down in the assassin’s outburst. As he looked around him with both pistol and knife at the ready, Andrew saw the growing concern in his features. For a moment, Andrew was worried that he only cut his tree because he somehow blew his cover. Certain that the assassin truly could not see him, Andrew used lone shadow once more. Slipping along the shadows laid out from trees that the assassin cut down, Andrew emerged behind them with a blade thrust at his spine. The assassin turned just in time to block the fatal blow, but even so, Andrew’s sword cut through his side as he evaded.

Not allowing him to recover, Andrew sent an immense shadow beam after him. Still in thin air from leaping back and nowhere to run, the flame assassin was forced to block the incoming strike. The blow imploded in a mist of black as the assassin collided against a tree back first, coughing all the wind out of him. The assassin’s flame armour flickered and faded like dying embers as he tumbled to the ground. With the assassin on one knee, Andrew ran in to cut him down.

Just as he was about to reach him, he heard the branches above him snap and fall. He jumped back just before an object crashed onto the ground between him and the assassin. A giant four-legged, robot-shaped contraption made of steel stood before him. Before Andrew could ask himself what it could be, the distinct hum of its engine pulled him back to the time that he first encountered something similar.

“You should have fled to your allies when you had the chance!” a voice boomed out from the Nova as it blasted its way towards him. Its speed was too immense. Andrew had barely any time to think, let alone move, and so he froze in mid-strike until something else came crashing down between them. A deafening explosion smothered his senses as the Nova was buried in an eruption of flames. The sheer force of which collided with his knight’s armour sending Andrew skyward. Blinking only to see the land and forest pinwheel round and round, Andrew got his bearings enough to grab a branch before looking down at what had just happened.

All the frosted trees around where Andrew had been standing just a moment ago were now flattened out by the shockwave, the patch of forest now fanned out as charred remains from the leaves flickered in flame. Within its opening stood the Nova and the assassin still resting on a tree behind him. At the epicentre of the carnage facing the Nova and the assassin stood Flynn. The man stood there like a hero from a tale, his posture tall and proud, chest out, and a gallant smile on his face as one hand casually rested on the diamond pummelled of his sword as it was stabbed into the earth.

“Flynn?” he asked in a daze. As Flynn’s confident phantom eyes weighed on his opponents, he dined a look back at him.

“Hey kid,” Flynn said all casually.

“Is that really you?” Just then, Andrew could make out the fading arc from his diamond slash that stood just in front of him. Any doubt about who it was faded right then. Although Andrew was gunning on someone coming to back him up, it still felt so serial.

“Now I know that I’d agreed to let you handle things. But well, I was in the neighbourhood, so thought I’d crash the party.”

“Could have come with a warning first,“ Andrew mumbled sarcastically. Without taking his eyes off the assassin and the Nova Flynn shrugged.

“Guess I stole your thunder. I hope you don’t mind,” he said. Andrew sniffed. Here Flynn was, acting cool as a cucumber as he faced down the Nova and assassin, whilst he was just hanging upon a branch of some chimp. Getting his head back into the game, he eyed the Nova and assassin.

“I don’t mind, in fact. I’d argue that you dropped in just in time for the main show.” As Andrew dropped down from the tree to make his way by Flynn’s side, he observed just how wounded the flame knight was. He was close, if he just had another second with him…

“I was hoping to kill the both of you in one go,” the booming voice of Nova echoed around them.

“And I hoped that my one attack would have split you in two. But I guess we are both cutting above our pay grade,” Flynn said.

“You single-handedly stopped my charge. I made sure to let my power explode like a supernova, and yet you still stand there unfazed… that’s impressive,” the pilot within the Nova said.

“Thanks,” Flynn said.

“I now understand how you survived that, but sadly, I don’t have the luxury to amend my error.” As the Nova moved forward a little, Andrew saw that one of its legs was bust. “Get on the cockpit Seven, we’re leaving,”

“Is that a direct order?” the assassin said. His voice was cold, passionless. Like all the fight that was once in him had been washed out.

“It’s worst. We’ve lost traction. The Famine Fissure is likely dead by now and-” Just then the sound of wolves howling came looming forth, making the man in the Nova curse. “Damn it Seven, we’ve got to go, now!”

“And in what cycle-forsaken world did you think we’d let you go?” Andrew stepped forth. If any of them made a move, he would engage. With Flynn by his side, this should be a Sinch.

“Natalie has been taken out…” Flynn murmured. All the fight and focus had seeped out of Andrew when he heard that.

“What are you saying?”

“She’s alive, but unconscious. It happened five minutes ago. I’ve been making my way over here to tell you the moment I got wind,” Flynn said. Now he turned to him carefully, a look of sympathy on his face. “Guess you did not notice the changes in the sky fighting deep in the forest as you were.”

Blinking in a daze, Andrew looked up at the sky. This whole time Natalie had been taken out, and he did not even notice the change in weather. He felt stupid now, looking up at the open canopy of sky cleared by Flynn and the Nova’s explosive clash. His eyes glanced down as he heard the Nova’s engine thrum as it stood up on its one good leg with the assassin Seven standing atop its cockpit.

They were about to leave, and Flynn simply stood there allowing it. It did not make sense. They had them right where they wanted them: the bastard’s henchmen that did all this to Natalie were right here, and now they could be going to his mother’s hometown to mess it up if they had not done so already. Andrew knew that he should leave them and get to Natalie’s side.

But even so…

Rising his sword skyward, Andrew called forth as much power that he could muster. Dark energy swirled around him like black mist. Channelling it along with his anger came a chilling coolness that was unlike him. He felt his fatigue grow more distant, his eyes more absolute. But as body and mind primed themselves for the fight, Andrew felt a cold stab in his chest. Ignoring it, he eyed his targets. A small part of him cried within as he prepared to face down the Nova and Seven, but he ignored it. Right now, it did not matter. He didn’t care for himself or anyone. So long as he could kill them both, stop them right here and now he will give anything.

Just as he was about to make a move, a hand took a grip on his shoulder. Stunned, Andrew turned to Flynn. He was looking at Seven and the Nova as they flew off into the sky. Andrew was incredulous.

“Get back here!” he shouted. The Nova did not even pretend to hear him, whereas the assassin Seven gave him a look of burning disdain which only made Andrew’s blood boil further pent-up rage. “Cowards! Running away from a fight that you started! If we ever meet again, I swear by the cycles and my mother’s life I’ll-” Flynn’s grip on his shoulder tightened to a surprising degree and before Andrew could ask him what his deal was, the Nova and assassin were gone. A long moment of silence went by, with only the crackling embers and last drops of rain fall tethering Andrew’s mind to the present. With nowhere to vent his pent-up anger, Andrew just froze in place.

“They got away,” he pushed out. It was all that Andrew could manage. The hand that hindered his attempts to stop them slid away numbly.

“A close thing, that encounter,” Flynn chuckled behind him, a relieved sigh escaping his lips.

“They are the ones who orchestrated this,” Andrew said. With an effort, he kept his eyes locked in the direction his targets fled towards.

“I gathered,” Flynn said. Andrew clenched his sword until his palms felt numb.

“They are the ones who me and Natalie are after,” he said carefully.

“So they are the stars of Halo? I was afraid that was the case.”

“‘Afraid’?“

“Was not expecting to encounter them here, but next time we’ll-” Flynn had placed his hand on his shoulder and, in an impulsive reflex, Andrew swatted it aside as he backed away a few steps and turned to him.

“’Next time’?! Cycles man-those bastards could be heading to my home village right now! We had a chance to end them right here! So why did you stop me from fighting them!?” He was breathing heavily now, his eyes wide with anger and frustration, he expected some rebuttal, he was hoping for Flynn to fight back- something for him to contend with, but Flynn just looked at him, a tired but relieved smile etched on his face.

“Because if you were to fight them right now, I would not have had the power to help you,” he said. Before Andrew could register it, Flynn fell to one knee, panting profusely.

“Flynn?” running back over Andrew placed a hand on his shoulder. “What’s wrong!?”

As his fight for air calmed down, Flynn simply waved his arm away and gave a nod.

“I’m fine… just burnt myself out during that last clash,” he said between breaths. Sweat was falling off his brow and dripping off his cheek now.

“But you looked so ready to go, I thought-”

“-to fool your enemies you sometimes need to fool your allies,” Andrew blinked at that. Was it really because he was a good actor? Or did he fail to see it again because he refused to do so? “Sorry, I didn’t have time to let you know, as you saw things… popped off.” Flynn nodded to the carnage around them as he said it.

That was when those last moments really hit him. Flynn had not just tanked an explosion but diverted its impact to the extent that it did not kill them. Even on his best day, Andrew was not fool enough to believe that he could do the same. He’d just saved both their lives.

Andrew was about to ask something until he heard a roar fast approaching them. Getting his guard up, he turned his blade towards Mt.Karaki. An avalanche of snow fell down its peak towards them. As the roaring rumble of snow drowned out the crackling of flaming firewood around them, Andrew was about to tell Flynn to make a run for it until he noticed something. Given how far the mountain was from them, it was unlikely that they would be hit by the avalanche. That was until he saw the beasts soaring beyond the plume of white, cascading snow like a ship riding the peak of a tidal wave.

Wolves! They leapt through the air and over the forest as if in boundless flight. Using their gale powers, they rode the avalanche further down the slope with them.

“Look out!” Andrew ducked behind the large charred stump of a tree. Although he knew it was too late, the wolves had seen them. They were coming in too fast. They will be upon them in moments. Andrew heard the sharp cry of the winds cutting through the forest as the roar of surrounding flames stoked them into a frenzy. The pitter-patter of wolves landing and kicking off logs rushed on by followed by the white of an avalanche.

As Andrew fought his way out of the snow, he quickly realised that the pile that he was under melted fast thanks to the scorched land they stood upon. He was only buried under an inch of snow lying down and by the time he stood up and looked around; he saw the pile of snow melting away to reveal a doused forest and not a single wolf in sight. That gave Andrew pause until he remembered something more pressing.

“Flynn!?” jumping to his feet and putting away his sword, he ran to the lopsided log where he last saw him. Thankfully, he was still there, braced against the incoming avalanche for dear life, eyes still closed from the effort it now took him. Sighing in relief, Andrew pushed the pile of snow that fell upon his back off him before helping Flynn to his feet.

“You ok?” Andrew asked.

“Had nicer ice baths if that’s what you're asking,“ Flynn said as he rolled his neck, “But beyond that I’m fine.”

He just tanked an explosion, and was buried in a ton of snow and that’s all he’s got to say for himself? Something like that should be impossible for most knights, even highly skilled steel knights around be hard pressed to come out of such destruction unharmed.

“What are you?” Andrew asked.

“I am merely human last I checked,” Flynn said.

I beg to differ…

“More importantly, where did those wolves go? I thought they were coming after us.” Flynn looked down the direction of the now snow-covered path. It led towards…

“The farmhouse,” Andrew whispered.

“I heard howling coming from near there not five minutes ago. I told her to call me back if she needed any help.”

“She called the wolves towards her instead,” the serious face Flynn gave him told him all he needed to know. He’d told Andrew to go on without him. He planned to catch up later. Andrew was already on the run before he could finish his sentence.

~#~

Storming through the trail of forest now covered in snow he soon made it back to Lawence’s farm and into the wheat fields that made out miss Iris’s farmlands, the trail of snow that the wolves brought with them faded part-way through the wheat field but even up to the end of the trailed they pointed directly towards the farmhouse. In fear of what he would find when he got there, Andrew ran faster. He began to hear sounds of a struggle by the time he just passed the pond.

His heart hammered in his chest as his surroundings blurred at the sheer speed he travelled. By the time he launched out of the tall wheat fields and finally cut through the wheat files to make it back to the farmhouse, Andrew was at a loss for what he saw.

Three wolves lept’d thrashed and clawed at some demon made of pure night. As they phased through it, Andrew’s eye could not be helped but be drawn to its head like a black hole. The thing, indistinguishable being save for two scythe-like blades that protrude out of its cloak of darkness, painted the same shade as the bottomless pits of nothingness. It was like looking at a shadow that had torn itself upright from the surface it was once bound to.

Something about that thought made Andrew’s blood run cold. Worst still were the wolves’ efforts to attack it. All three of them had lashed out at it with a variant array of moves, only to fade through the thing as if it was a spectre. Unbothered by the wolves, it stood motionless, its back to him. It looked downward as if observing something at its feet.

No time to think. Andrew channelled his dark powers into his blade to cut down the imposter before it saw-

Spacetime held its breath as it turned to him. All that was behind and beyond Andrew slowed, paused and was sucked into a deep blackness, leaving only Andrew with the creature. Although he had never seen it before, although its existence was impossible, Andrew knew then what he was looking at. It was his nightmares made manafest. His fear of the dark turned moulded into a tangible form. Andrew continued to rush towards it at full speed, but even his long, fast strides slowed to a crawl. As it turned what might have been its hooded head to him, Andrew felt a repulsive shiver run down his spine. He tried to swing his sword, but his strike moved like the crust of the equator. He tried to scream, to roar in rejection, but the sound oozed out of his throat as slowly as a sap seeps from a tree. Like a child stuck in a nightmare, he watched as the being rose its night blade over a black-forsaken sky.

Too slow, too slow! He was going to be cut down before he could do anything. Cut down by the manifestation of his own fears.

‘…drew!’

All the dreams that he had, although he never saw it, he knew what it was; he knew how the dreams ended. He was going to die and…

‘No!‘

Anger suddenly built up inside him. After everything that they’ve been through, he was not going to die to a figment of his imagination!

‘Then fight it!’

The old wound on his back began to burn with strength beyond him. Although he was stuck in a void of things with this being, suddenly he did not feel like he was all alone.

‘This place will not be your grave!’

This fresh surge of strength felt like…

_______?

‘Until you reach home, you cannot die! Now fight!’

Willing all the strength that he had vented within himself, Andrew forced his arms in front of him and spun his sword in front of him, activating clockwise counter. The moment was painfully slow but whereas before; it felt like moving the tectonic plates. This time it felt like moving through thick honey. He could feel and see a brightness running through him now, its presence almost nullifying whatever dark hold his living nightmare had on the surrounding space, allowing Andrew to move almost on equal footing.

The blade of night fell upon Andrew with a speed that ignored all physical laws. One second the blade was hanging above him, the next it had already fallen, its slash already leaving a trail in the air. Only the clank of his sword touching the strike and the black blur confirmed anything had moved at all. Retaking his sword, Andrew took hold of the impossible slash and returned the favour.

The act of countering such a blow rendered the whole world around him into a blur of white. Like the flick of a switch, he counter-stroke darkness itself. Instead of striking it with a darkness of his own, he’d countered with a blade bathed in pure, unfiltered light.

The world imploded into a pinprick before exploding back into existence, bringing back with it the farmhouse, the three-no, four wolves nearby him. And Gracie lying lifeless on the ground.