The world seemed to slow to a crawl. I looked around me as events unfolded. Razule extended his hammer to finish off Goron. The fire woman then crashed into Goron, pushing him out of the way of Razule’s crushing blow. Then, the flutter of wings from above us. I looked up to see three distinct black spikes crashing down upon us. I grabbed the child at my feet and blinked, just in time for it to miss impaling her. It staked into the ground and pulsed with green energy.

The other two crashed into the back of the woman, pinning her and Goron together like giant staples. She laid on top of him and he wrapped his large arms around her. The stakes began to sink into her body. I dropped the girl and blinked in their direction, yelling at Razule.

‘Kill them before they can change!’

He turned to me, obviously having trouble taking in what was happening. I blinked again as he resolved himself and brought down his hammer to crush them, but it was blocked by a raising hand from Goron. His arm made a sick pop as he did.

‘Blue! No holds barred! Finish them quick!’

The illusion fell from Blue as she arrived and held her arm in the air, channeling blue energy into it. The spikes were two-thirds of the way into the two. A dense field of Aura now surrounded them. Razule brought his hammer up for a second strike. I blinked once more, bringing myself into range. We all attacked together.

I felt my blade cutting through flesh when the Aura detonated. It sent all three of us flying backward. Razule hit and tumbled, slamming his hammer into the ground to regain traction, I blinked and rolled. Blue slid across the ground on her shield before recovering. We stood as a torrent of Aura spiraled around what was now a growing mound of flesh. Razule yelled to me over the howling winds.

‘What is going on!’

‘They are turning into Revenant!’

‘How!’

‘The spikes! They turn people into monsters!’

I looked behind me and saw that a couple of Fairybond had come into the arena. They had apparently been watching and decided to join when things had gone south. People were filing out of the arena as fast as they could. Hopefully, they could all get to safety before the transformation ended. I knew we weren’t going to be able to get close enough until it was done.

The ball of flesh began to grow and take shape. Four lizard-like arms stretched out and a tail began to form. I heard alarm bells sounding throughout the city. Another Fairybond shouted down to the ground from the seat above.

‘A swarm of Revenant are attacking the gates! We are under siege!’

This was getting out of hand fast. My head reeled again at the backlash from my previous Aura absorption. A large head began to form in the center of the storm of energy. Blue yelled out orders to the other Fairybond.

‘Fairybond! Party check! Marina! Tank Control! Water element! Level three!’

The first response came from a thin girl with short yellow hair and fair skin. She had on a white and yellow skirt with knee-high yellow boots and a large yellow bow on her lower back. She was holding a wand with a clear crystal on the end.

‘Starlight! Healer Buff! Light element! Level five!’

The second response came from a tall muscled woman with a dark afro. She had on a green and purple shirt and long sleeve jacket with metal armor pieces affixed for defense. She was holding a bastard sword.

‘Xipper! DPS Buff! Chaos element! Level six!’

Doey stepped forward out from the hall that led to the waiting area. She was holding a pair of daggers with her pan flute around her neck.

‘Fauna! Buff Control! Wind element! Level four!’

The two new girls looked my way, expecting me to sound off my credentials. I looked over at Blue and shrugged. She decided to sound off for me.

‘She’s Sam! Pure DPS! No element! And, Hell if I know, probably level nine?’

I had no problem if she wanted to square me up for the others. I got a few quick glances at the mention that I was level nine, whatever that means. It had me wondering what level the three top witches of the school were. I looked back over to the form that was taking shape in front of me and sighed.

‘You have got to be kidding me. A dragon? What is wrong with this leaf?’

The lizard’s head formed and its tail stretched outward like gum being pulled out of a mouth. Wait. Not a dragon. A monitor lizard? Blue confirmed my thoughts as the creature formed.

‘Isn’t a dragon, like, supposed to have wings?’

We both looked at the white-haired child staring in fear as her friend and prince were both molded into a monster right before her eyes.

‘She had wings, right?’

Blue nodded and shrugged. I pointed to the girl and looked over at Razule.

‘I guess we dodged a bullet with that one. Sir, can you take her to safety? We don’t need you in the crossfire for this. Rox, you go too.’

Rox didn’t protest. She had already been slinking in the back away from the energy spiral. Razule just nodded and took the child and they headed for the exit. We turned back our focus on the Revenant’s forming body. It had grown dark green spiny scales all across its body. It stood over fifteen feet tall. It had four eyes, two on each side, and its tail ended in a spiny club.

‘Blue, take point. I won’t be surprised if this thing breathes fire, being part fire girl. The scales are likely nearly impenetrable. I doubt we have anything that can get through them. Focus on soft targets like eyes and joints. I’ll focus on draining its power. You guys keep it pissed off at you.’

The three girls all said ‘Right!’ all at the same time. Aww, how cute. The ground rumbled as the creature stomped its foot and howled. It was higher pitch then I had expected it to be, but still ear piercingly loud. The Aura storm dispersed as it screamed and I blinked to the left, trying to flank it. True to form, the creature opened its mouth and released a torrent of flame at the group.    

‘Tidal Wall!’

Splash!

Blue created a massive wave of water that blocked the cone of flame. Xipper held up her sword in front of her face and began to channel purple energy.

‘I have a way that we can get through the scales. Attack the purple spots as they appear! Cryptic Disorder!’

Ting ting ting TING ting!

The energy spiraled out and formed many glowing points in the air around her body connecting randomly by shifting lines forming mini constellations. The connecting lines projected themselves oddly onto the lizard. Whenever the lines occasionally crossed each other, a purple, laser-like glowing dot appeared. I tried to sense a pattern in the shifting lines but the swirling movements and appearance of dots seemed fleeting and random.

Starlight held up her wand and did a little spin, drawing a star with a white line that persisted in the air and then tapped it as rainbow energy darted through the air and hit each one of us.

‘Chromatic Bubble!’

Clink clink clink swoosh Whaaaa!

A slightly visible bubble surrounded each of us that had an oily rainbow sheen to it. I wasn’t sure how it would keep me from being smashed by a tail smack or crushed by its teeth, but I guess the placebo effect is a thing.

I charged my blade with Mana and I instantly noticed the purple dots appearance frequency increase by about double. I moved in to attack its side and aimed for one of the fleeting dots, but it disappeared before I made contact and my sword skipped harmlessly off the ridged scales. I attempted a few more times unsuccessfully. I blinked back as its tail whipped around to ward me off. 

‘Can you keep the dots lit up longer?! It’s like playing wack-a-mole on hard mode!’

‘No can do, sugar! The key is to predict where they will be, not to chase them!’

Blue moved in and smashed the lizard's head upwards with her mace, preventing another shower of fire. Doey put a distortion effect on each of us to make tail and claw attacks less accurate. Xipper moved in and started attacking the other side. She was the first to land a hit on one of the spots. Black blood sprayed as the purple dot exploded. 

The lizard cried out in pain. It spun its large body around and swung at Xipper with its tail. She blocked it with her sword, but the force sent her flying back and skipping off the ground. The impact popped the oily bubble surrounding her as well. Blue moved to get its attention again as Xipper brushed herself off and ran back into the fight.

I was becoming increasingly frustrated with chasing the dots when I started to feel the flow of them. There was no pattern. They were completely random, but they were somehow tied to the total potential attack that we had as a team. When I shifted the Mana I put into my sword, the frequency of the dots changed. So what would affect the duration of the dots?

‘Everyone attack together on three! Fire off a strong attack at the same time! Aim for vitals spots instead of the dots!’

Blue dropped another distracting wave of water and everyone jumped back to charge up their attacks.

‘One!’

Xipper held up her sword and charged as purple energy butterflies skittered through the air around her and absorbed into her weapon.

‘Dance of the Butterfly!’

Fwip fwip fwip fwip.

Blue held her mace in the air as blue energy crashed in a circle around her feet like waves.

‘Tiiiiiidal Smash!’

Whoosh! Whhhooosh!

‘Two!’

Starlight held her hand out and a cute pistol with a heart crystal and wings appeared in her hand. She attached her wand to the front and it transformed into some kind of girl power cannon.

‘Chromatic Laser!’

WhaaaaaaAAA!

Doey held her two daggers together and they formed into an intricate green and gold bow. She took a stance and pulled back on the string as green and brown energy formed into an arrow that looked like it was made from a deer’s horn.

‘Arrow of the Dawning Satyr!’

Errr crick crick shing!

‘Now!’

Blue lowered the wall and crashed her mace to the ground, a rush of water went under the lizard’s feet, and then put it off balance as the wave crashed into its back and pulled. It breathed a plume of smoke and fire upward as its backside was pulled underneath it causing it to tumble backward as it was pulled forward. 

Simultaneously, a beam of rainbow light and a massive ivory arrow crashed into its chest and it tumbled back further. It attempted to correct its roll, but I was there in a blink underneath it.

‘No you don’t! Kaisinka!’

Shing! Foom!

I jabbed my two fingers upward as it fell in my direction. Instead of crushing me, the blue and gold energy exploded and sent it flying several feet into the air. Xipper took the opportunity and darted forward. Her steps were like a dance, never actually touching the ground. She glided in and thrust into the center of its stomach.

As she approached, three of the lines intersected into a star on its belly. Her sword impacted the larger dot and purple rays exploded from a blinding flash of light. The monster was sent flying backward as black blood was slung across the field. It hit and crashed onto its back and the earth rumbled under our feet.

Blue jumped into the air and fist-pumped.

‘Take that you stupid gecko!’

‘Perfect! Let’s just keep doing this and take it down.’

Starlight let out a small squeak from behind us.

‘I’m really just a healer. I can only do that two more times.’

Xipper chipped in with her limitations as well.

‘Cryptic Disorder only has about three more minutes left. And I can only do Dance of the Butterfly three more times.’

I looked over at Blue, expecting her to pitch in.

‘Don’t look at me. I can dance all day. I haven’t created a real special move so my attacks don’t use a whole lot of magic energy.’

‘Doey?’

‘I have five more arrows. Then I’m all illusions.’

‘Alright, see if you can mix illusions and your arrows to take out its eyes as it gets up. Let’s at least get ready to do it one more time and see how much damage we can do.’

The lizard got up off the ground and stumbled a little. Black ooze was dripping out of the hole in its stomach. It put one foot in front of the other as it started to walk forward. Doey let off an arrow. It lowered its face and the arrow ricocheted harmlessly off the side of its head. It roared, and she let off a second arrow.

This time it seemed as though the monster moved right into the arrow. It howled as its right upper eye exploded in green energy. Black dripped out as the arrow stayed embedded in the socket. It began to charge and open its mouth to attempt to cook us once again.

‘Tidal Wall!’

Blue yelled and a new wall formed. Red and orange light darted on the other side of the wall and we hunkered down for round two.

‘Chromatic Laser!’

‘Dance of the Butterfly!’

‘Tidal Smash!’

‘Arrow of the Dawning Satyr!’

Blue lowered the wall and we started forward. Suddenly, faster than we expected, the lizard broke past where the wall once was. Blue smashed the ground with her mace to trigger the wave, but the lizard jumped in the air and avoided the initial force. We all stared in shock as jets of flame burst from its shoulders and it hovered over the returning wave.

Blue braced behind her shield as Starlight let off her energy blast and Doey shot another arrow. I blinked in to hit it in the side while Xipper moved under it to attack its previous wound. All at once, the rainbow blast hit its right side, damaging its second eye on that side. The fourth arrow bounced off harmlessly, much to Doey’s dismay. A flick of its tail crashed into Xipper again and sent her rolling. Without the protection of the bubble this time, her arm bent awkwardly to the side and she screamed.

I gathered Mana with everything I had in me and slammed it into its side. I heard a cry from the front as I did.

‘Kaisinka!’

The energy struck and sent the lizard flying to one side. It flew several dozen feet and tumbled over and over. It crashed into the side of the field and several bricks and chunks of concrete fell onto it from above. That is when I noticed that Blue was missing.

A substantial streak of green Aura energy flew through the air towards me and into my cuff as the beast clamped down its jaws. I heard another cry and I spotted Blue, bloodied and in between its pointy teeth.

‘Get off me, you overgrown crocodile! Tidal Smash!’

I began running in its direction as Blue weakly gathered blue energy into her mace and crashed it down into its teeth. Several teeth shattered and broke, but it didn’t relent. It bit down harder and she yelped.

I blinked in her direction as the lizard began to gather energy in its throat. I blinked again just as it opened its mouth. A freed Blue moved to brace herself as a torrent of flames engulfed her body. She burst into blue light and was gone.

‘No!’

Furious, I blinked again as the monster rolled onto its stomach and stood up, charging its fire attack again. I blinked in a zigzag pattern and then air dashed as it shot. I landed on its head and tore the arrow out of its bad eye. I moved to shove it into one of the remaining good eyes when I was thrown back.

Jets of flame licked over my body as the giant lizard accelerated in the direction of my comrades. I rolled down its back and through its new fiery wings. I felt the bubble around me pop and the heat barely licked against my clothes as I tumbled to the ground.

I recovered and turned to see it crash down on Starlight as she was attempting to heal Xipper. Doey let off another arrow that actually managed to lodge in the throat of the beast, but it shrugged it off and stomped down on Starlight. A burst of rainbow energy and she was gone. I blinked forward as Xipper began to fend off the lizard with a series of slashes and dancing movements.

 It was all falling apart in front of me. By the time I would get there, Xipper would be gone, or too damaged to continue to fight. Doey had only one more arrow left, and those weren’t doing much good. Then it would be just me and the Revenant.

I had a flash of a memory of when I was in this situation before. The Troll looming over everyone at the school. I looked down at my blade and noticed five glowing red dots. I stretched my consciousness into the blade and it erupted in crimson energy and I felt it change in my hands. The world slowed and turned monochrome once again.

My other senses began to dull. The world was silent, except for each step I took, which painfully echoed off the dirt. All I could feel was the cold metal gently humming in my hands. Red dots formed over the remaining eyes of the lizard and the hole in its stomach. Oddly, a green dot formed on the Aura crystal floating in the air. A fifth dot formed on something high up in the stands.

I couldn’t help but feel curious. Why was the green dot so important? Who or what was in the stands that triggered the sword's power? I’d figure it all out soon enough. But first, I had a dragon to smite.

I blinked over just as small bits of flame started to lick the mouth of the lizard in the direction of Xipper. She was frozen in fear, unable to get out of the way of the coming attack. We couldn’t have that happen, could we? I smashed into the side of the beast and sent it flying through the air.

‘Kaisinka!’

The beast yelped as it crashed into the ground, but showed no signs of stopping. The earth tore in two as it tumbled through the ground. It crashed into the wall of the field and kept on going through, creating a giant, dark hole.

Xipper looked at me in surprise. My blade was now much longer and black, with tiny serrations across it. The grey cloth that wrapped around my arm before was now wrapped all the way up my arm and into long cloth tassels on the end of the sword that flowed in the wind. The eye on my hand was a crimson color, instead of black. I turned from her and blinked at the hole in the wall.

The lizard burst from the wall with a torrent of flame from its back and mouth. I air dashed around the slow-moving flame and landed on its head again, this time steadying my footing. I pushed Mana into my blade and slashed.

Thooooom! Chrakow!

The air pressure from the strike alone caused the lizard to veer downward and crash into the ground. The slash I had made caused its remaining eyes to rupture and a line of black goo formed as a three-inch-deep gash appeared across its skull. I jumped as it crashed and then air dashed behind it. 

It rolled over onto its belly to find me, now blind to the world. The red lights that had marked its yes had now been extinguished. All that was left was the dot on its stomach. It thrashed around and spewed fire in random directions. I blinked a few times to avoid a flailing tail here or a clawing arm there. Then I jumped onto its belly.

I held my sword up and channeled the energy once again. I focused on the red dot and struck. All at once, all of the purple lines that had been darting all over the dragon’s body converged and crisscrossed on that one spot. Through the monochrome color, I saw a the red dot turn a deep violet as my blade made contact. The purple light broke through my colorless view and detonated outward.

Viiiirrrrrrrrrrr Crack Thooom!

I was now standing in a six-foot-deep crater slick with black ooze and meat. A black fine mist hung heavy in the air. Three lights down, two to go. I began to air dash and blink up into the air as I made my way up into the stands. I landed on the stands and then quickly dashed up to meet the dot.

As I approached, I felt a sick twisting in my gut. The air was thick with magic energy and Aura. The figure that stood before me smiled a sick grin from ear to ear.

‘Ah, Samantha. We meet again. Or should I call you, Prophet.’

I felt my mind reel and I slashed my sword at the Prime Minister.

Thooooom! Chrakow!

He held his hand out and a barrier full of sky blue hexagons formed and easily blocked my attack. The stands around him splintered like dry wood. I readied to attack the man again until I saw the red dot flutter. No, this wasn’t the Prime Minister. This was something greater. Why was it here? How was it here? The questions kept pounding at my head, seeking for answers.

‘How are you here? You are supposed to be incorporeal!’

‘Ah, so you’ve seen through my disguise? I bet I have my sister to thank for that. Well, collect enough Mana and you can really do just about anything in the world tree, but you already know this.’

His form morphed to a scrawny blond woman with a pixie cut, spiked up, and a toothy grin fixed on her face. Four insect wings twitched excitedly. Her skimpy leaf green dress barely covered her bony frame. The colors of her body were at odds with the monochrome world.

‘Now, What are we going to do with you? We had hoped that you would be a strong tool for gathering Aura, but it seems as though you have become a thorn in our side. Ah! A thorn. That’s perfect for you!’

She moved with a blur almost faster than I could see. I move to defend when I felt cold metal penetrate my stomach. She stood in front of me, holding a large black spike. The black liquid that flowed from my stomach faded to red as color returned to the world. I felt the spike exit my back as She pushed. I dropped my sword and grabbed the spike, pushing back. She continued to push as I resisted.

‘Now let’s see, Prophet. What is missing from this equation? Ah, I know…Aura!’

She laughed maniacally as I tasted blood in my mouth. I spit it in her face. She grinned and then pulled up on the spike, lifting me into the air. She licked off the blood on her face with a long tongue and then threw me.

I flew through the air and felt myself crash into something. I noticed that I was hanging in the air above the middle of the field. I heard someone cry out as green energy began to envelop me. I heard a crack from the crystallized Aura I was pinned to as the spike began to sink into my body. Hot energy radiated from the spike through my body which threatened to consume me.

I was becoming a Revenant.