David and the incarnation stood coiled, ready to strike, staring each other down.

  “Ignorant infant! You risk the lives of everyone!” The creature shrieked.

  “Then inform me!” He shouted back.

  The creature squinted, wary.

  “The enchantment needs life energy.” It pointed one of its jagged finger at the altar.

  “The beast's puppet has killed too many guardians before they could reach the chapel.”

  This confirmed that the bear really was hunting down anyone that tried to make their way here. It was a puppet? Of the beast?

  “Tell me of the beast.” He demanded.

  “The beast!” The creature spat, grimacing. “Born in the furthest reaches of the forest, savage nemesis to life! It desires destruction!” It half-screamed, half-ranted, its unnatural voice grating on David's ears.

  “What will it do if released?” David asked.

  “Destroy! Kill! Erase!” It shouted.

  “Riverwall? The people?”

  “Only the first step! It will not stop!” It warned, voice rising to a shrill.

  A creature, held somewhere by enchantments fuelled by a higher life form's vitality.

  How original.

  “Where is the beast? We can find another way to keep it contained.” He told the creature.

  “NO!” It screamed, eyes wide. “NO MORE QUESTIONS! A GUARDIAN MUST MANIFEST THEIR WILL!” It wailed, a sudden gust of wind buffeting David.

  Before he could react, the creature's hand reached for Niala's slumped form, unfurling into thin strands of grey filaments twisting and turning towards her. They tried to spear into her body, only to slide over her.

  “THE WOMAN! WHY IS HER MIND CLOSED TO ME?!” It screamed.

  “I disrupted her pathways, you won't be able to infect her mana for now.”

  “YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HER!”

  "I... you WOULD have killed her!" He shouted back.

  “A guardian is required! It does not have to be the girl. It can be you.” It said, pointing at David.

  He gritted his teeth. “No one is getting sacrificed tonight. I'm going to take Niala and go back to town. We'll come back with weavers, arcanists and enchanters to see what we can do about the beast.”

  "THERE IS NO TIME!" The creature screamed and attacked him, swinging one of its claw-like hand at him.

  He barely had time to interpose his blade. A small, explosion-like release of energy rang out from where David's blue light and the creature's grey haze touched, throwing both combatants back a few feet.

  The wind around him picked up, a cold biting razor-sharp thing that flailed his exposed skin.

  The creature screamed in rage, sounding like multiple panes of glass breaking all at once.

  “IF A GUARDIAN WILL NOT MANIFEST, I WILL DO IT FOR THEM!” It yelled, rushing David, swiping with both hands.

  David deflected one, using the ensuing recoil to push him out of range. A kick to the ground flung him to the creature's flank, his sword striking at its side. Again he used the burst to redirect himself away from the creature's counter-attack.

  And attack it did. It threw itself at him, flailing its arms in chaotic patterns that forced him to step back time and again, each attack accompanied by a snap of explosion.

  It was all he could do to avoid its strikes. He nearly stumbled half a dozen times as his feet found crumbling bones where he sought solid ground.

  Still the creature came at him, unbothered by the terrain. He kept retreating and blocking, making his way out of the chapel.

  He had less treacherous ground to tread out here, but the creature gave him no respite.

  And then, one of its attack hit his arm. A stabbing pain exploded at the point of contact. He felt his blood vessels burst and his muscles cramp up.

  He yelped in pain, kicking at the ground with his powered legs to jump back several meters.

  The creature's face morphed into a satisfied rictus. It stopped its maddened assault and marched on him, confident in its inevitable victory.

  David quickly looked at his arm, but nothing had physically damaged his armour. The pain he felt was very real, which meant that the creature was attacking his mana directly. He focused and sensed out his wound. His pathways had been battered and cracked, but they held on.

  He exhaled and pushed mana back through his arm. The glow reformed, abating most of the pain, but it was fainter, less definite.

  He looked back at the creature as it advanced on him. He didn't really want to fight it. He just wanted to get Niala and leave.

  He wasn't certain he could outrun it.

  He was certain he wouldn't have the time to bend down and pick up Niala while this things was still standing.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Cracking his neck, he brought up his sword and pushed a stupid amount of mana into it, the blade engulfed in waves of erupting blue light reaching into the night sky taller than he was, casting a blue glow over the entire clearing.

  The creature's confident steps faltered. Sudden unease crept through its features.

  Time to see if he had a limit after all.

  I swore I'd never test new potions on myself again...

  It was the only answer Niala's brain had to her splitting headache and complete lack of knowledge of where she was.

  She cracked open one eye. A skull greeted her.

  She yelped and pushed herself onto her haunches, scrambling back, only for her hands to land on more bones. She was sitting on a carpet of bones.

  She stifled a scream, slamming her hand over her mouth. Eyes wide and darting around, she found herself in an open-air structure, sitting next to what looked like a stone altar. There was a glowing translucent grey bloodied dagger on the ground nearby.

  Then she heard the sounds: a string of small conflagrations punctuated by glass-like shrieking and angry and powerful scythes of wind. A blue light flashed from outside at irregular intervals, bathing the interior each time.

  She closed her eyes and forced herself to take a few deep breaths.

  Once she felt somewhat centred, she reopened her eyes and slowly got to her feet, using the altar as support.

  As quietly as possible, she made her way to one of the archway leading outside. Pressing herself against the inside of the arch, she peeked outside.

  Her ears shot up and eyes widened as she saw David, doing his best impression of a super-powered blue firefly, fighting against a tall and spindly... air demon... thing. Chaotic winds were swirling around the pair of fighters, picking up debris and flinging them all over the place.

  What's going on? Where are we? What is that thing? How did I get here?

  Niala tried to remember the last thing she had been doing. It was... a house. It was night. She was... with someone. Talking? No, playing.

  Playing something. Playing Panjo! With Castello! And then she...

  A sudden spike of pain embedded itself into her brain. She whined as she grabbed her head with both hands and hunched over, tears flowing down.

  She stood there for several minutes, wishing the pain away, a single heartbeat away from losing consciousness.

  And then, like a tide, it slowly receded. She began to remember a dream. A dream where she had gotten up and left to the north. She was heading somewhere important, for a task only she could do.

  David was in her dream, trying to stop her. There was also a bear.

  She had to go north, to the... chapel. There was something she had to do. It was important. It would save everyone.

  She remembered walking, reaching... here. The bones of past guardians greeting her, welcoming her for this most important task.

  The giving of one life, for the sake of many others.

  To keep the beast asleep.

  Her eyes shot open, she swung her head towards the altar.

  The beast... it was here.

  Niala padded her way back to the altar. She stood before it, staring, remembering.

  The beast was underneath.

  She butted her shoulder on the altar and pushed with all her might. It did not move. She repositioned and tried again. Nothing. She put her back against it and pushed with both her legs. Still nothing.

  She huffed at the offending altar.

  Maybe brute force wasn't the way. She wasn't David after all.

  She looked around for something to use as a tool. The dagger...

  She picked it up and tested it against the altar. It was unnaturally sharp and strong. Maybe it would work...

  She began stabbing at the altar's base, quickly carving out a small divot.

  As she wiped her forehead with her sleeve, she listened for the sounds of fighting. The creature and David were still going at it, the small explosions and shrieks answering each other.

  David...

  She looked at the altar, then toward David's direction.

  Her mother had made her swear to never reveal what she was about to do to anyone she didn't trust with her life.

  She'd met him barely two weeks ago.

  She didn't find the hesitation she thought she would.

  She grabbed a bone just large enough to fill the divot, holding it in both hands.

  And then, for the first time in a decade, she pulled on her mana.

  It came in ragged gasps. She frowned. Something was wrong with her channels.

  She shook her head. It didn't matter for this.

  Her mana pooled in her hands. She imposed her will upon it, told it a story.

  It was a story of energy, stored, unstable. The energy was very angry and wanted to get out at all cost, but it was held in a prison of bone. The energy then curled up, as tight as it could, and then jumped at the walls of its prison with all the force it could, as quickly as it could. The prison's walls exploded, the energy was free.

  Her mana transformed into a short story. A story she told the bone, made it commit to memory.

  And then she gave life to the story inside the bone. Her mana sucked into it, where it belonged.

  The story began to play out. The bone started to shimmer.

  Niala stuffed the bone inside the divot and ran to a nearby pillar, taking refuge behind it.

  David and the creature kept exchanging blows. He had cramps everywhere, his flesh was bruised and purple from the internal bleeding.

  The creature was cracked, jagged lines marring its body, the flowing energy within hissing and puffing through them like steam.

  It charged at him, swiping overhead and toward his head. He brought his sword high to meet the attack, sword and claws exploding apart as the incompatible energies shattered. He pushed on and inside the creature's guard, slashing sideways at it.

  Digging his feet in the ground, holding the sword with both hands, he swung with his entire body. As the blade connected and the energies exploded on impact, he willed his sword forward, redirecting the entirety of the blast into the creature.

  It bent around the blade and catapulted away.

  BOOM

  A deafening explosion rang out.

  Half a flying altar crashed through the creature.

  It shattered, the grey haze it was made out of spewing from the fracture as if liquid from a smashed bottle.

  David stood motionless.

  He slowly looked at the chapel, where the altar had come from. Smoke was billowing from its open roof and filled its interior.

  From within, a silhouette resolved itself as it walked towards the exit.

  “Hi, David.” Niala greeted, timidly waving.

  Dumbstruck, he returned the wave. He looked at the remains of the altar that had crashed against a tree at the edge of the clearing, then back to her.

  “Good... shot?” He said.

  She sheepishly smiled.

  storytime!