Vibrations shook me awake and stones clattered on the floor one after the other.

As I yawned, I swallowed something gritty, forcing me to cough. Bits of dirt and dust flew from my mouth, landing on the display console.

Mai and I had both fallen asleep in our chairs. She was also waking up, which for some reason I found cute. I watched as she stretched her arms, yawned then stretched her back and stood up.

“What are you looking at?” She snapped.

I shook my head then looked away, hoping she didn’t get the wrong impression.

Everyone else was waking up as well.

I remembered Cole and Carletta had gone to sleep on opposite ends of the room, but now they were practically back to back. Carletta, still on her mattress and under a cover, but Cole laying beside her on the floor.

Audrey sat up wistfully, her eyes sagging and dark as if she’d gotten no rest at all.

With a bang, the castle shook.

The rumbling jostled more stones that rained down in the entry hallway.

Again I coughed as dust and dirt settled in my eyes and mouth.

A jolt like a spark of energy, instantly pushed away my lingering lethargy.

On the monitor, a large purple underbelly could be seen pushing against the huge castle door.

Blood Fang!

“It survived!” I exclaimed.

“What are you excited about? That thing is about to bust down our door!” Cole rebuked.

“If Blood Fang survived, that means it probably killed whatever that thing was in the forest.”

“How is that good for us?” He snapped. “It means the beast is even stronger than we thought!”

That was a possibility I hadn’t considered.

The realization settled over me like a wet blanket on a fire. If the creature broke through, we might face an impossible battle.

I had yet to fully explore the castle; I was sure there must be other exits, but I didn’t know where they were and doubted the others did either.

If we ran around aimlessly it was more likely we’d come to a dead end.

If we hurried, we might be able to escape from a window in one of the bed chambers, or in the worst case, hide. That might prove a pointless defense against the beast's nose, but hopefully we wouldn’t have to find out.

I rushed into the hall first, with the others close behind me.

The bedchamber hall was up a flight of stairs and to the left. I didn’t get six steps out of the console room before the heavy metal doors broke from their hinges.

They crashed to the floor with a resounding clang that rolled through the entrance hall and filled the rest of the castle, reverberating painfully in my ears.

Blood Fang stood atop the doors, just twenty feet from us. The entrance hall was more than large enough to accommodate his size, but he didn’t come further into the building.

Globs of drool dripped from his bared fangs. His broken horn stuck through his lip, making it visibly difficult for him to snarl.

He kept licking the injury with a whimper.

He yelped when someone pushed his head up and aside. Then, from beneath him, three figures emerged.

I recognized one of them. It was Gregor Spearhand, wearing a black, red and grey school uniform. The other two trailing behind him were both beautiful girls, though their only familiarity came from pink stains on their faces and their eyes felt cold.

They were just like the girl in the forest.

Mai gagged at Gregor’s appearance then mumbled something to herself.

“You said there was only one of them.” Cole complained.

“There was, but she isn’t with them. I’m more concerned with the fact Blood Fang isn’t attacking them.”

“He might’ve tamed it.” Mai grimaced. “It’s never been done, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.”

While scanning the hall for anything I might use as a weapon—there was nothing, I incidentally met eyes with Gregor. He probably recognized me because at that moment he broke into a fit of laughter.

When he came back to himself he declared, “Oh this is just rich! First they reject me in favor of some scrap meat, now they’ve got him playing castle game!”

He continued laughing like an idiot, as if my presence here was some great joke. While he was distracted, Blood Fangs jaws crept ever closer behind him; they opened then snapped shut again, but had missed Gregor.

Whirling around to face the beast, he slapped it on the snout. “Stop it beast!”

The two girls behind Gregor both reached toward the beast then it backed down.

Whatever happened to the girl in the woods, Blood Fang was clearly afraid of these two, and they seemed to be protecting Gregor.

Walking towards us, Gregor began, “As I was saying, it’s quite fortunate that we were put together for this match. Especially for you, Mai.” When he spoke to Mai there was a lustful longing in his eyes.

Instinctively I stepped in front of her. “What do you want? If you’ve really tamed that beast then you’ve already won the game, so why bother coming here?”

“Shut up, beast meat! You’re just a snack for my new pet. You aren’t worthy to speak to me.”

His words were like a hot poker spreading kindling on my insecurities.

When he was close enough he pushed me aside. Then reached towards Mai.

“Ever since we were paired together I’ve searched for a girl as good as you,” he began, “your saucy defiance makes me want to taste your sweet nectar. You deny it, but I know you yearn for me, I can smell your desire.”

Mai spat in his face. “You’re disgusting!” She hollered as she shoved him away, frozen chains already forming around her and lashing toward Gregor.

He dodged by twirling around the room while simultaneously activating his spirit relic. Two sets of extra limbs grew from his sides and his natural limbs mutated into spider legs.

Once his transition was completed he climbed up the wall and started spaying web strings around the room. Mai’s chains swatted at the strings, knocking some down, but not as quickly as Gregor sprayed more.

The two girls at the door began advancing towards us. If I was right about what they were, then the only chance we had defeating them was if the voice helped me.

“Plasma blast!” Cole shouted. An energy orb hurtled from his palm down the center of the hall.

Within a few seconds the orb had multiplied in size exponentially. By the time it reached the girls and beast at the end of the hall, the orb was wide enough to hit the whole group at once. It burst with force that shook the walls more violently than when Blood Fang forced down the door.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The plasma orb had devoured half the carpet, a chunk from both of the broken doors and eaten several inches into the stone floor, but the evil creature still stood.

One of the beast’s wings was burned, but he had no other visible injuries. When he lifted his wing, the two girls continued moving forward, both unharmed.

Why did he protect them?

I couldn’t make heads or tails of the creature’s behavior.

Cole fired two more blasts back to back. One aimed at Gregor, and the other at the beast.

Audrey was busy not being helpful, as usual. For someone who Ms.Nordblum made a point of commending, she was surprisingly useless in a fight. While Gregor was speaking she had run up the stairs alone and into the bedchamber hall.

Cole's plasma blast was blocked by Blood Fang again.

Gregor managed to dodge the one aimed at him; it shot through the ceiling eating away any debris that would’ve fallen.

Carletta activated her CAD, infusing it with flaming mana, so that fire danced along the blade. Rather than advancing she took a defensive posture near Cole, keeping her eyes on Gregor, who was crawling around overhead after dodging the plasma blast.

Cole continued to fire orbs of plasma at the beast’s wing. His steady fire didn’t hurt them, but it kept them from getting close, while we tried to figure out a better solution.

I wanted to help but felt totally useless. The mana sword my father made hadn’t worked since the incident in the cave and I had yet to figure out how to cast spells.

I might regret it later, but I wasn’t just going to stand around while the others fought.

Please help me!

I closed my eyes and took a breath to calm my mind. Ignoring all the sounds around me, I focused on the flow of energy in the room.

After a few moments I could visualize the flow and see the battle as it happened around me.

Icy chains whipped and lashed in the hall. Keeping Gregor and his webs away from the group. Carletta remained on defense as she and Cole backed towards the stairs.

After the sixth consecutive plasma blast, Blood Fang spewed fire into the hall.

Mai, Cole and Carletta rushed up the stairs and into the hall on the left.

I opened my eyes and tried to follow, but my body froze, my feet refused to move.

The fire approached me like a crushing wave.

“Show me that you’re worthy, survive and defeat this beast!”

I clicked my tongue. “This isn’t the time for this! What happened to ‘we’ll both die?”

“…”

“Fey!” Mai shrieked from the hall.

Her chains scrambled to grab me, wrapping around my waist. They yanked me towards the steps then evaporated in the heat, causing me to fall just as the flames reached me.

Control.

I had no idea if this would work, but When Pyro fought the black dragon, it protected itself from his fire with pure mana, maybe I could do the same.

Blue fire came up over my feet and legs. I could feel the heat, though my Sky Haven uniform resisted the fire, though I knew the resistance was only temporary.

Ambient mana started to respond to my will. It gathered around me, sliding over my body like a gelatinous film. The slimy sensation crept over my skin then faded as it started to cover my uniform. It felt gross even after the film was in place.

As it covered my face, I wondered if I’d be able to breathe, to my relief there was no issue. I didn’t understand how it worked, but I was just happy not to suffocate or inhale smoke.

Flames wrapped around me completely. The fire ate at the entrance hall, Its heat cracking the stone floor and walls. The blaze consumed indiscriminately, burning away tables that lined the walls, decorative wall hangings fell and turned to ash. Suits of armor holding ornamental weapons melted, the fire spread along thin web strings, threatening to drop Gregor into the inferno, however the fire had no effect on me.

The film of mana separated me from the flames, not allowing even heat to pass through.

“Now go and deal with the spirits!”

“The what?”

“The ones you call possessed. They are spirits. Kill them before they infect you with that toxin.”

He must’ve sensed that I was going to protest because he cut himself off as soon as he’d finished explaining.

I hesitated, but not for fear of discovery. The others had all been forced down the bedchamber hallway.

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hurt the two spirits. Fighting even one of them alone was a challenge I wasn’t sure I was ready for, then there was Blood Fang.

I could’ve run away, but I got the sense that if I didn’t try, the voice might revoke his power to command mana and let me burn up in the fire.

The two “spirits,” as he’d called them, were advancing towards me. Without Cole’s suppressing fire there was nothing to keep them in place. They ran into the fire, sacrificing their human skin to the blue inferno without hesitation.

These two moved more naturally than the creature in the cave, maintaining a human figure even after losing the outward appearance, though they seemed to be several levels more intelligent.

The other spirit came around on the right, running along the wall, the other came from the left.

As they rushed through the fire, one picked up a half melted sword and coated it with mana. The blade would never cut as it was, but with the mana coating it, it might.

I couldn’t directly stop them like with the beast in the cave. When I tried to exert my will on them, the mana shield keeping me alive started to dissipate. Whether arbitrarily set by the voice, or a true limitation, it felt like I could only focus on one command at a time.

The unarmed spirit jumped and kicked off the wall to launch itself toward me. I easily dodged by stepping back. Then the spirit with a sword reached me and immediately delivered a right hook that knocked me to the ground.

It hardly hurt at all. My mana shield absorbed most of the force, I only fell because the blow caught me in the middle of my back step. I even managed to absorb some energy from the spirit when it hit me, but the creature immediately followed with a downward slash.

I rolled backward, but wasn’t able to avoid the blow. When I got back to my feet, there was a thin cut in my mana shield. The heat of the fire crept in, but the shield repaired itself before I could be burned.

For a brief moment I thought I’d be able to slowly absorb their energy while letting the two spirits hit me. The cut had shown me otherwise, besides, I didn’t know how many hits my shield could take anyway. Considering the fire, now probably wasn’t the best time to find out.

The spirit that knocked me down was already coming in for a cross slash and the other lunged at me from behind.

I ducked under the swirled then spun around the armed spirit and pushed it into its companion's grip, then punched it in the back of the head.

With each blow I absorbed the spirit's energy, I also saw what I could only assume was a snippet of the creature's memory.

In the brief vision I saw my sister.

A figure stood, in a red robe, before the twelve heroes. Others were gathered in the space, but their red robes obscured their identity. Around the edges of the clearing, spirits gathered between the trees, observing the ritual that was about to take place.

The vision ended, but continued again when I hit the spirit once more.

When Pyro removed the hood from the figure, she immediately began screaming.

KYLA!

Pyro shoved a vial of black fluid down her throat just like the man in the cave had done to the baby beast.

I didn’t know how to feel watching the scene unfold. Pyro was supposed to be a protector. I’d grown up watching him save cities from monsters, so why was he doing this to my sister?

No! No! I cried wishing I could save her.

The bastard smiled with a sick pleasure that sickened me. Memories of #Brave’s sacrifice returned to me. At the time I assumed he didn’t know, but what if Pyro had kicked down the wall on purpose. When he doused a crowd in white fire while chasing the dragon was it really an accident?

The vision ended again. I was still dazed by what I’d seen and left myself open as both spirits swung at me. Through the mana shield I barely felt their blows, but it brought me to my senses. I needed to see more. I had to know what happened to my sister.

Overcome with emotion the next few moments became a blur. I acted on pure instinct, grappling without the two spirits, my sole focus to see more of the vision.

Within a few moments I found myself back in the strange clearing watching as Pyro spun my sister around and began carving symbols into her now bare back.

Her blood stained the purple ground as energy from the atmosphere flowed into the wounds.

When my sister's eyes opened again, they weren’t cold and dead like the girls I was fighting now.

That was a good sign… still, there was something different about her.

Almost immediately she fell unconscious and Pyro scooped her up. They left the strange forest, but the spirits lingered a while longer.

When the vision came to an end, my rage was at its highest point. I was choking the last bit of life from both spirits. Nothing else in the space existed. I wanted to get back to that clearing, to follow the bastard who hurt my sister… but what would I do to him?

He was surrounded by creatures like this and they seemed reverent of him. I’d seen his magic as well, and his speed. The way I was now, I’d only be throwing myself on his blade if I confronted him.

“You want revenge… so do I.”

Blood Fang roared from the door, reminding me that he was still there.

I made eye contact with the beast and growled, “you’re next.”