"Look out!" Kayden shouted as I contorted my body around an axe. It slammed into the ground next to me, sending a shockwave into the earth and causing a wave of elemental energy to slam into me, throwing me against a tree.

"Don't be so reckless!" Kayden cautioned. "You can't kill that thing all by yourself!" I looked out towards the monster in front of me. Kayden started a long chant as Zach rushed in to cut the monster to pieces. It was awkwardly large for the forest, being about half as tall as the trees. It looked like a giant ape, with shoulders that jutted out awkwardly on his back. His head was a skull mask that resembled an alligator.

Zach sliced at it's leg, causing it to wince before side-swiping its axe into him. He went flying in the distance, crashing through trees and other vegetation. The only audible words he said as he flew was "shiiiiiiiiiiiiit".

"Stephanie!" Kayden growled, focusing all he can on his incantation. "Get him!" Stephanie stood next to Kayden, eyes wide in fear at the creature. She hesitated for a moment.

"R-Right!" She ran off in the direction of Zach to go and heal him. I turned my attention towards the monster, who now had his axe up on his shoulder.

"Anna! Tye!" Kayden shouted. "Keep it's attention, I'm going to release a Chaos Spell!" Kayden's voice became grim as he began chanting again.

Tye and I both rushed in, I crushed a catalyst in my hand and lept into the air as Tye drew both of her blades forward. She jumped from a nearby tree, sliced its shoulder and then landed in another tree. I threw my dagger at the creature, it slammed into his awkward shoulder blade and I kicked off of it's head to land on another tree. It swung its axe at Tye and she jumped out of the tree quickly. The axe obliterated the tree completely.

"Return!" I shouted, using the energy from the catalyst a long magical chain appeared from my hand and hooked onto my knife. I pulled with all my might and the knife came back to me.

I had an idea. I sheathed my knife, pulling out the longer knife Arin had given me. Immediately, I felt more elemental energy coursing through my veins as I clutched this black blade. I smiled, and adored the energy pulsing through my veins.

"Anna! Now!" Tye shouted and jumped from the tree just as the monsters axe had collided with it.

"FROSTBOLT!" I shouted, shooting two frostbolts at the creature. They both landed, causing him some spots of frostbite. I leapt off of the ground, with much more force than usual. Arin's dagger was glowing a deep blue, and shaking violently in my hand.

"Now! I cast the cursed flame bellowing from within me. Chaos Orb!" A dark red flame burst from Kayden as his body was surrounded in flames. He screamed out as the magic energy surrounded him. Instinctively I landed on the creatures head, before it could grab me I jumped off. My reflexes were extremely fast, even I was surprised.

I quickly threw Arin's knife at the creature, which stuck in his shoulder, before landing on a tree. I reached my hand back out, and thought about my return spell. Before I could even catalyze the spell, a large chain burst forward from my hand and gripped my knife returning it to me. Kayden's spell impacted, obliterating the creature and turning its entire body to dust.

Feeling out of elemental energy, I sheathed my dagger and reached into my bag to drink up an elemental energy potion. I chugged it down, as it tasted bitter, but restored my energy, allowing me to cast more spells. I hopped down from the tree to be met with a furious Kayden.

"Anna." He spat. "You don't need to go against my commands to show off. You could have been obliterated by my fire spell!" He exclaimed. He was angry, but I understood why.

"I'm okay though aren't I?" I snapped back. He just sighed.

"Look, you need to start listening more, or people are going to die!" He shouted back at me. I thought about the boy who had died back in the forest, and the bandits.

"I-" I started to say before trailing off being lost in that memory. "I'm-"

"No excuses." Kayden commanded. "Just understand and fix it. That's all I ask." I nodded and he continued moving towards Tye.

"You okay?" He asked. Tye nodded.

"I know you have that special dagger," Tye mentioned. "But you shouldn't be so reckless. Harnessed magic is cool and all, but you need to quit making stupid decisions." I understood, but still crossed my arms. I hated being told what to do.

"And you!" Kayden shouted. "You could have died!" I turned to see who he was yelling at. It was Zach. "You got obliterated by that thing and got launched out to who the hell knows where, and we were down two teammates!" Kayden shouted as Zach was slung around Stephanie's shoulder.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Yeah yeah." Zach mocked. "We all lived isn't that what matters? Besides it's not like that thing really would have killed us." He laughed.

"This is not a game Zach!" Kayden spat. "People have died! I've watched it happen!" His eyes blazed as his magic aura started to appear around him.

"Kay-kay, my dude." Zach began, sheepishly putting his arm around him and almost falling over in the process. "Look man, we all made it out alive okay? I'll work harder next time, and I'll make sure the lass does as well." He pointed to me. "We're a party, we got this."

"You're right." He calmed down. "As long as we're a party, we'll make it." He smiled, shifting away from Zach as he fell over into the leaves below. Stephanie tried to catch him but couldn't.

"Zach! I'm so sorry!" Stephanie shouted.

"No worries sweet thing." He said getting to his feet. "I think I'm okay to stand now, just some bruises."

"SWEET THING?!" A voice shouted throughout the forest. "You dare call another girl a pet name! I'll kill you!" Julie rushed out from one of the trees and kicked Zach square in the jaw sending him twenty feet backwards.

"How DARE you flirt with another girl while I'm around?!" Julie snapped. I honestly couldn't tell if they were together and Zach was being a dick, or she just liked him. Zach had completely passed out from the kick, and Julie kept yelling at him as he groaned some sort of response I couldn't comprehend.

"Julie!" Stephanie protested. "He was already injured! You shouldn't hit Master Zach like that!" Julie gave her the dead stare and then pointed towards me.

"You!" She spat. "Keep an eye on this jackass." She growled before pulling out her spear and casting a healing spell on Zach and disappearing back into the forest. Zach groggily got back up and shook his head, not fully healed but in better condition than he was.

"You can't run at me like a goddamn bitch missile every time I do something you don't like!" Zach shouted. "Goddamn bitch thinks she owns me." He brushed himself off before gathering back into the group.

Stephanie was hovering by him to make sure he was okay. Tye and I talked a little bit as we moved through the forest. I noticed Kayden frantically looking through the forest and glancing back at his map.

"You okay?" I said, catching up to him.

"Yeah yeah." He said brushing me off.

"Kayden."

"Right, sorry. It's just this party is getting very stressful to lead." His ears flopped down from his head, like a sad puppy dog. "I'm not overburdened, I'm just thinking." I slow my pace down to nudge Tye.

"He's been like this since the party first formed." Tye said. "He's always thinking everything is his own fault." I blamed myself for this.

"Hey." I said, catching up with Kayden once again. "We'll be okay, as long as we stay together." I smiled brightly, laughing at myself on the inside about how silly I just sounded. Kayden returned my smile.

The forest quickly cleared as the day got brighter and we arrived at the large plateau. It was barely noon and we didn't have too much trouble getting here. I looked up, the plateau was quite large, I wasn't even able to see the entire circumference of it right away. I took a deep breath in, preparing myself for this. Despite what happened a few weeks ago, and my wishes to return back home, I am having fun.

"So what's our plan boss." Zach said getting ahead of himself and approaching the plateau. "Got any super cool magic to get us up there?"

"We'll have to scale the plateau," Kayden inspected it trying to get a decent grip with hands before climbing. "We can tie ourselves together to get up top, so as long as we all don't fall." He mentioned pulling out rope from his bag. Everyone began to gather around him, helping each other with getting ready to scale the plateau.

That's when it hit me. Waves of elemental energy radiated out from the forest. I started to tremble. I looked down at my hands, they were shaking. I shook my head violently. Fear. I was terrified. Every bone in my body was telling me to run away from what was behind us. I drew Arin's dagger, causing my relic to explode in a magical aura fueled by fear. I was reminded of the time when I met the Guardian Council, this fear was exactly the same. My skin grew hot, as the waves of heat bounced off my skin like a sunburn.

"Anna?" Zach had noticed my condition and battle stance, as well as my miraculous magical aura. "You okay there?" Sweat beat down my face as I lifted my mask up, covering me.

I snapped back into reality, realizing Zach was talking to me.

"You guys can't feel that?!" I exclaimed, my voice quivering. "We're gonna die! We-" I stopped for a moment, about to pull out my other dagger. I needed the strength, I needed the power.

You will die. A whisper reached into my soul and gripped my heart, preventing me from pulling out my original dagger.

"Lady Anna." Stephanie said, looking back at me with the same fear I had.

"You feel that?!" I questioned her, pointing my knife at her. She winced. "Can you not feel the aura? The energy. The heat. The .." I stopped for a moment, I wanted to cry. "Power." I muttered.

"I-" Stephanie went on. "I don't know what's wrong." Stephanie said, her fear had been misplaced. She was only afraid because I was. More energy, a spike? No a lance, of pure elemental energy heading straight for Stephanie.

"GET DOWN!" I shouted, pushing stephanie out of the way. Whispers. I heard the whispers. The power, growing, feeling, pulsating throughout me. I grabbed a catalyst and crushed it, outstretching both of my arms.

"Anna? What the hell is-" Kayden started to scold me but I ignored him.

"I summon a barrier of frozen earth, come forth and shield me from destructive energy." I felt my eyes tingle as all of the magical energy was transferred and outstretched through my weapon into a large blue kite shield made of pure ice in front of me. "Frost Shield!" I exclaimed, my voice echoing through the forest. The shield hardened into a blue ice.

"Anna, please calm down. Everything is-" Kayden attempted to calm me down, however he was interrupted by a large magical projectile. I instinctively grabbed another catalyst and crushed it, allowing myself to have more magic energy put into the shield. The projectile was racing towards me. I shut my eyes out of fear.

Impact. I couldn't even think, my body was filled with fear and my knees were shaking. I kept my eyes shut as my magical energy grew to compensate. I kept my hands outstretched, blocking the large beam of energy I hadn't even seen yet. My armor protected me from the heat, but I hoped my party members were okay.

Whatever was coming at us, I knew it was going to kill us all.