I grabbed Shua and threw his small body behind me, my arm outstretched.

The ray of blue light hammered against my shield, it felt continuous and concentrated—nearly unstoppable. I planted my leg into the sand and leaned into the shield with all the power I had, tumbling forward as soon as the beam vanished.

With one more yank the bird was finally free, it took flight and soared through the air with the speed of a crop duster. I whipped around to observe the creature. The bird’s eyes were distinctly bright orange—with elongated dark oval pupils. Its wingspan was the length of a school bus, with a body covered in brown feathers and a bare tan-colored underbelly. Whispers of blue glowing light trailed from its mouth as it twisted and turned through the sky, letting out screeches more similar to a beast than a bird.

Bits of glass crushed beneath my sneakers as I struggled to my feet. I hadn’t felt it before due to the adrenaline, but the glass had cut me up pretty good. There were trails of blood trickling down from my arms and dripping off my fingertips. The drops of blood seemed to bother Shua, although he tried his best not to show it. My shield could only protect me on one side, and although it stung, I would rather be cut up by glass than dead.

The flying creature was too high up, nowhere close to being within my range of attack. It banked backwards, charging its lazer and beaming it down into the sand around us, an explosion of dust kicked up from the blast and pelted against us.

“Shua, is there any way you can hit it from here?”

“Not from this distance, no.”

Through the swarm of dust, the creature swooped overhead, a large gust of air hurled down from its wings and swept out the sand beneath our feet.

I covered my eyes with my forearms and squinted, “Where the hell is it?”

The desert was already blowing around enough sand on its own, but now the creature had taken away all visuals, surrounding us in a dust storm. The distant cawing of the creature was all that could be heard over the sound of the roaring wind.

The cawing circled us, then grew closer and closer.

“Shua!” I pulled him in and lifted the shield above my head. The laser of blue light cut through the storm for an instant, burning into the sand and swiping across my forcefield with an overwhelming jolt, knocking me into the ground.

“Damn it! I can’t see a thing!”

Shua rushed over to me and grabbed my wrist, his soft voice shouting against the wind, “We can’t stay here! We need to run, see if we can find an opening.”

“Either way that thing is too high up, we can’t touch it.”

“At least we’ll be able to see it!”

I quickly sprang to my feet, ignoring the pain signals firing in my head. My attention shifted upward, scanning the sky as the beast's horrific shrieks echoed around me. Amid the churning storm, I caught a glimpse of blue sky, a shred of calm peeking through the whirlwind of dust. For a moment, the beast’s body flickered past the opening before vanishing just as swiftly.

I nudged Shua’s body twice, pointing upwards, “You got any spells that can lift me up there?”

He thought for a moment, then shook his head, “No… I mean, yes, but if you get knocked off it would kill you!”

“I don’t care, do it before that thing comes back again!”

A shriek from the flying monster rang in our ears and stopped Shua’s further objection. The blue ray sliced through the dust, humming towards us. I launched myself, tackling Shua out of the way and hard into the ground.

“AGHHH!”

We fell, the charred trail blazed behind us.

“Alright!” he heaved. He reluctantly stuck out his palms. “Oh, earth beneath my target, I command you—come forth with great ascension, rise!”

I felt somewhat of an earthquake, and within moments the ground shot up beneath me in a pillar of solid earth, propelling me high into the air. Sand scattered off the sides as the pillar rocketed me towards the blue sky.

“Oh no, wait!” Shua called out. “Your knife!” He displayed the knife briefly in his hands before anxiously prepping himself to throw it.

I shot him a quick nod, and the knife flashed away from his hands and securely into mine. Shua’s eyes darted between his palms. His worried expression melted away, being exchanged for a wry smile, “What the hell…”

I rose and broke free above the storm, then quickly steeled myself—scanning intently. I pivoted around my small platform, making sure that damn thing didn’t catch me by surprise. In the air, It was surprisingly quiet and peaceful—all I could hear was my maroon overshirt flapping around in the light wind. I didn’t feel all too comfortable being lifted as high as I was, but all things considered, It was a great place of respite compared to the turbulent storm of dust below me. I even kinda enjoyed the silence, but all too quickly, it ended. The bird emerged from the dust cloud—its sharp beak and eyes trained on me with unmistakable malice.

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It fired off another blue laser. I quickly anchored down into the platform and blocked the ray with my shield the best I could. My body strained, trying its hardest to keep me from falling off the platform until the deathray finally diminished. The creature double backed toward me. The beak of the beast was steady and stern, and its flight speed accelerated significantly—this time on a free dive. The creature had every intention of piercing right through me, and ramming me off the platform.

It propelled itself forward, and closed in fast. For the first time, the beast was finally within my attack range. I readied my blade as it flapped closer. The mouth of the creature opened with a cacophonous shriek before closing back into a solid cone.

“Airstrike Slash!” I hurled my attack at the beast with an unbelievable blitz that surprised even me. The slash tore through its right wing, slicing it cleanly in half with a single stroke. The creature howled in pain—spiraling out of control as it plummeted.

“What the…”

The wind my blade was able to produce caught me completely off guard, it was noticeably powerful. I expected the slash to be effective enough to wound it and make the creature bank away, but to completely slice through the wing…

As the creature neared my platform, I raised my knife again, and thrusted it forward as hard as I could, “Airstrike Ultrapear!”

The air blasted off my blade so quickly that it caused my arm to recoil and lose grip of the Windchaser’s handle, a booming sound fired off almost like a round from a high-powered rifle. Instantly, just before the flailing beast could reach me, its entire body exploded in two, right down the center. Its blood and entrails were blown backwards and rained down from the sky like a light evening mist.

My mouth parted.

My arm was frozen in the air—I just didn’t think to lower it. I heard the metallic clattering of my blade as it rolled off from the rocky platform—and along with the creature, it sank deep into the dust storm below. The air around me grew quiet once again, except for the distant echoing of the blast which scattered across the desert hills—slowly fading into a pure blissful silence.

“What. The. Fuck.” After recollecting myself, that was the first thought I could manage.

The flying beast definitely lacked defense—its strengths were obviously in flight and its offensive power. But even so, being able to do that kind of damage to it with so few attacks meant that something had changed.

When I stood there and thought on it further, that blue beam of light which the creature was shooting seemed to be much more powerful and concentrated than the fire back at Rae’s castle. Although it definitely was a struggle to deflect the blue beam, for some reason, it was easier for me to defend against it. Back at the castle I was barely able to defend myself against Rae’s flames. My shield kept breaking apart—and after a while, the fire attacks started to burn up my hands even with the shield activated.

Even though that light beam from the creature did knock me around, I still wasn’t badly injured.

I flashed the dagger back to my palm and twirled it around, then clenched it tightly, “I brought in previous items to this dream… but did I also somehow get stronger?”

Since the monstrous bird was no longer an issue, I put away my dagger for the time being. I continued to ponder the thought as I waited for the whirling sand beneath me to settle. Thinking more on the subject didn’t help much, all the new information being thrown at me was giving me a migraine. Trying to piece it all together into a coherent explanation felt like I was attempting to solve a jigsaw puzzle with all the wrong pieces.

Manifestations, dreams… it was apparent now that this place was much more than just a dream. I guess I never really stopped to consider the true nature of my abilities within the Dreamscape. But if this really was only a dream, then how could Shua be here? Especially against his will? Kingsley wouldn’t have even been aware of Shua’s existence. How was I able to carry things from one dream to another, when that person has no concept of those items in their mind at all?

The thoughts swirled around, bringing forth new possibilities, and quickly dismissing others. But after a few minutes, I decided to shelve the issue for now—the storm beneath me cleared, and I could finally see Shua.

Although he was little more than a speck on the ground beneath me, I could tell he was covering his eyes from the sun, staring up at the pillar of earth—trying to see what remained.

I peered over the ledge and sent him a disarming wave, and like an elevator, the platform beneath me trembled, then leisurely began its descent.

On the ride down, I watched the gloves on my hands stretch as I opened and shut my fingers, studying them carefully. If I was correct, and I somehow had gotten stronger since the previous dream, I wondered if I would finally be able to use the “Wall Of Haven” that I saw Claudius use back at the castle. The ability would come in handy, and be much more sturdy than my invisible shield.

I recalled Claudius’ stance when he had activated the ability, then mimicked it as closely as possible—my hands stretched out at my sides, feet parted. Then recited the words.

“Wall Of Haven.”

I paused for a moment, and then… nothing happened.

My arms dropped to my sides, and I immediately felt a little silly. It was worth a shot, but I sure felt stupid as hell for even trying it, especially in front of Shua.

“I’m glad to see you’re alright,” he said before his eyes caught the disemboweled beast carcass 40 yards away. A satisfied grin spread across his lips, “I figured you must be powerful, but I regret to say that even I underestimated your ability.”

“You’re not the only one surprised,” I said.

I hopped off the platform, and meant to head right toward Shua—but the corpse of the dead bird caught my attention, making me stop abruptly.

Looking at its lifeless body made an all too familiar shiver run down my spine, not out of any fear or anything like that, but in a way which I felt I was being called out too by an inaudible coarse whisper.

“Hold on…” I instructed Shua, not bothering to face him.

The closer I got to the beast, the more I could feel the presence of the unsettling feeling grow. I could sense a great amount of power radiating off of its quickly decaying body and flowing outwards—like a potent fragrance drifting through the wind. It’s as if the monster's carcass was trying to communicate with me, but was being gagged by the clutches of death itself.

The feeling… It was similar to how I felt when I first gathered my other weapons. But as I searched up and down the monster’s body, I couldn’t find an item which was able to be taken. Previously, I was able to successfully pinpoint where the source of energy was pouring out from. But in this case, the energy was emanating from the bird’s entire body.

“...Like Velbir,” I murmured pensively.

“Is there something wrong?” Shua must have seen the visible confusion in my face, because he stopped next to me with a puzzling look.

“No… Everything’s fine.”