Juno struck the first nekogoblin with a burst of mana, which caused the short and stout creature to screech and moan in agony. Alistair bristled beside him, not quite seeing how he would fight the nekogoblins and their menacing claws with just his fists. Alistair had never fought anything close to a nekogoblin, but he had grown up in a couple of different orphanages, he knew how to hold his own.

Zapp!

Juno struck the nekogoblin again, his bolt of mana searing into the creature’s abdomen.

“You little—” The nekogoblin’s eyes rolled back and it fell to the side.

“They can talk?” Alistair asked.

The other nekogoblins got in front of their fallen comrade, the trio of them screeching and snapping their teeth.

“Run!” Juno shot another blast at the three nekogoblins, scattering them. He took off, Alistair on his heels.

One of the nekogoblins lunged for Juno. The monster would have sunk its claws deep into Juno’s shoulders had it not been for Alistair, who turned back an impossible kick.

Wham!

Alistair’s kick shouldn’t have connected. It should have forced him to do the splits and pull a muscle. Yet he landed the strike with extreme precision. Alistair had his fists drawn to punch, yet he had kicked the creature instead.

How? He stumbled backward and the goblin came in again.

Once again, Alistair was possessed.

“Aargh!” the nekogoblin shrieked as Alistair stomped its face, kicked it in the side, and caught up with Juno.

“Holy shit, that was crazy!” Juno fired another Resonance Pulse at the two nekogoblins still pursuing them. His blast went wide, but it managed to graze across the face of one of them and knock it over.“Watch out—!”

Juno reached a gully and slid down into it, bringing Alistair with him. This had a way of flipping Alistair on top of him, his knee colliding with Juno’s chin.

“Sorry!”

“Fuck…” Juno moaned as Alistair got to his feet.

Alistiar glanced up to see the final nekogoblin, the largest of the group, an absolutely furious look on its face.

Frothing with rage, the nekogoblin leapt into the gully.

“You are both dead.” The monster’s eyes shifted to Alistair’s fingers. It licked its lips. “I’ll start there,” it said. The nekogoblin curled its tongue toward Alistair. “Finger stew. Butchered boy. Been a while.”

“Try it,” Alistair said.

Even though he was afraid, even though he could feel his arms tingling, he also felt more confident than he had in ages. Alistair didn’t know why, and he still couldn’t explain why his earlier kick had landed so perfectly. As he briefly looked down at his own fists, he realized he was holding them in a different way as well.

He was holding them like he knew exactly what he was doing.

Something came over Alistair, a darkness, an anger, a sense of power that he’d never felt before. Was this part of his attunement? Did it have something to do with resonant mana?

The nekogoblin exploded toward him. Alistair sidestepped the attack as if the nekogoblin was moving ten times slower than it normally would. He kicked its legs out from beneath it and fell onto the nekogoblin’s back with his knee.

Alistair gasped as memories that weren’t his flashed across his mind’s eye, memories of a betrayal, of a group of masked—who were these people?

What was happening to him?

He shrieked and fell to the side as the planted memories overwhelmed him.

The nekogoblin scrambled on top of Alistair and was just about to bring its claws down when its head exploded.

Splat!

A mist of blood and viscera coated Alistair’s face. But in that moment right before the nekogoblin was about to strike him, he knew what had happened.

Juno had fired a shot directly at its head, but it couldn’t have been Resonance Pulse. It was much too bright for that.

It must have been the other attack. What had the professor called it? It didn’t matter. Juno had saved him.

“Talk about a kick ass attack, I was not expecting Nova Strike to pack that kind of punch,” Juno said as he helped Alistair to his feet. He produced a rag and gave it to him. “Nice work back there. You almost had the fucker.”

“Yeah?” Alistair wiped the foul-smelling blood from his face.

“And that kick earlier was epic. But what happened at the end there? It looked like you were possessed or something.”

Alistair ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

“Well, whatever it was. It was sick as hell.”

“Sick as hell?” Alistair asked. Juno spoke in such a strange way.

“It was cool. Do that again next time we’re attacked. Anyway. Clean up and let’s get out of here. At least one of the nekos is still alive up there, and the dead bodies could attract other things as well. Stronger things.” Juno laughed nervously. “The night is young!”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Alistair looked down at the bloodsoaked rag that Juno had handed him. “You want this back?”

“Just leave it here. I’m sure we can clean up more once we reach the sanctuary zone.”

****

Alistair followed behind Juno, still unsure of what had come over him in their fight against the nekogoblins. Juno was right, it was like he had been possessed. And what were those memories? They certainly weren’t Alistair’s. Who were the people he saw? A big man, two women, two other men. Why were they wearing masks, and who was the man that was laughing?

Alistair shook his head as they reached a bubbling stream.

“There has to be something around here,” Juno said. “We have two days to capture a summon, to get our first Resonant Card, but most people do so on their first day. My sis says that they don’t grade you on how long it takes, but she is dumb, and I don’t believe her.”

Juno’s comment brought a grin to Alistair’s face. “So we technically have two days?”

“Technically. But we’re doing this today. I’m not trying to sleep in a sanctuary zone tonight or out here in the forest. Fuck that. Melissa also told me that they’ll put us up in our dorm rooms early if we’re able to capture something the first night. That means we’ll have first pick. You’ll be my roommate, right?”

“Sure.” Alistair hadn’t even considered this aspect of what was set to happen. Back at the orphanage, he had shared a room with upwards of twenty children. The idea of sharing a room with just one other person didn’t seem real.

“What’s that look?”

“You mean it?”

“Mean what?”

“About us being roommates.”

“Yeah, I mean it. Who else am I going to room with? Most the people from the Houses suck ass. You seem chill. Wait, are you chill?”

“I think I am.”

Juno smirked. “That works for me. And like I was saying, if we get there early, we can get one of the big corner dorms. That’s what Melissa has now. I’ve seen it. They have private bathrooms. Which is nice because it means we won’t have to go to the communal toilets. We can wake up, roll out of bed, grab a shower, head to the dining hall, and do it in style rather than wait for someone to finish taking a dump. You know what I mean.”

“Sure,” Alistair said, still not processing everything he was being told. “I’ll be your roommate.”

“Good. Now let’s find us a shiny new summon.” Juno motioned to the trickle of water. “This stream might be the way to go. We can follow it, and if we walk quietly, it’ll cover the sounds of our feet. We might just be able to sneak up on something.” He licked his finger and stuck it in the air. “The wind is heading that way. I think.” Juno chuckled. “Clearly, I have no idea what I’m doing. Let’s go that direction.”

Juno moved along, Alistair close behind, the dark-haired boy doing his best to walk quietly. Alistair had never really stalked something before, and he certainly hadn’t hunted, but it seemed like Juno had.

He mirrored Juno’s every move. When Juno stopped, Alistair stopped. When Juno moved faster, Alistair did the same.

They kept at this until the sun started to set, Alistair surprised at the intensity of Juno’s focus. Upon first meeting him, and especially after hearing him speak, he assumed Juno would be somewhat of a slack-off, a class clown type.

But the other boy had skill, and he seemed to have some tracking abilities as well, evident in the things he pointed out along the way. Sometimes they were droppings and other indications of monsters. Once, they were the footprints of another candidate, which told them that someone had already crossed the stream.

“Why haven’t we seen anyone else?” Alistair asked once they paused for a break.

“The Lumina Forest, or whatever the hell Humboldt called it, is massive. We might not see anyone at all.”

“Makes sense.”

“But we’re close, I can feel it, and I think it’s time we go into silent mode. If you have any burps or farts, now is the time.”

Alistair tried both and failed. “Guess I don’t.”

Juno opened his mouth and burped. “Better. Ha. I wish my sister was here. She’d fucking hate that.”

“Does she curse too?”

“Melissa? Only when she’s pissed or when she’s fighting with her girlfriend. Come on. There’s something here.”

“Yeah?”

“I know it.” Juno brought his wand to the ready and continued on.

They came to the mouth of the stream. Alistair took a step back when he saw the sheer size of the lake beyond. The stars and the moonlights danced beautifully across the lake’s surface. The crisp, night air carried the scene of wet soil coming off the muddy banks of the lake.

Juno paused. A flash of shock left his face as he brought his wand up. “Stay back,” he told Alistair. “That’s a Rokurokubi Basilisk up there. Has to be.”

“A what?” Alistair whispered. “Where?”

“In the mud. Once it evolves, it can rival the size of a dragon. I’ve seen one with my dad.”

Alistair squinted ahead, but couldn’t see anything aside from some overturned roots. “You’re sure there’s something there?”

“Watch.”

Rather than hit it with Resonance Pulse, Juno cast Mystic Lure to the far right of the basilisk. What started as a glowing dot of light quickly fizzled out into a strand of tinkling of magical bells.

The mud shifted, and Alistair finally saw it.

The basilisk exploded out of the mud, headed straight toward the fading ball of light and sound.

Zapp!

Juno blasted it with his wand. The basilisk shifted back, as if it were planning to strike Juno and Alistair. Juno stepped in front of Alistair to the side as the basilisk came forward. They were three meters away from it, yet the monster had cleared this distance in less than a second.

It was only after Alistair blinked twice that he saw just how long the snake’s neck had come, how the creature had quadrupled in length due to its neckspan. The elongated basilisk whipped right and managed to flit around Alistair’s legs, causing him to fall back.

Zapp! Zapp!

Juno struck it twice, the light from his attack illuminating their muddy surroundings. Juno cast Ethereal Net and the basilisk was soon covered by a luminous net.

“One more it is!” Juno cried as he pointed his wand at the summon.

Zapp!

This attack did the trick, the basilisk collapsed, but unlike the nekogoblin earlier, the creature was still breathing. Shallow breaths, but it was still alive.

“Hell yes.” Juno lifted his spare hand and the net closed on the basilisk. A blip of light flashed to Juno’s palm. He now held a glowing card, one that he quickly pressed into his chest. He smiled at Alistair.

“That’s it?”

“I did it. My first Resonant Card. I—” Juno’s body trembled.

“What’s wrong?” Alistair asked.

“Oh, shit. Oh, shit, oh, shit, oh shit!” Juno looked down at his hand, which had started to fade away. He quickly reached into his bag with his other hand and retrieved Alistair’s wand. He tossed it to the ground. “Take your wand!”

“Where are you going?”

“It says I caught my summon, the system, um, the system says that I’ll be portaled away. Shit! They must have changed this since my sister was a Fledgling.”

“The system is giving you details now?”

“Alistair. You’ve got this. You can do this. I’ll get us a dorm—” Juno’s eyes widened as his form completely vanished.

Alistair looked down at the wand, and from there to the lake beyond.

He was powerless now, alone in a forest full of monsters. Alistair was just about to let out a sigh of exasperation when a sudden pillar of mana flashed across the trees in the distance.

“What now?” he whispered as he readied his fists.