I was being violently shaken awake, as my vision slowly returned from pure blackness. The person shaking me was a relatively average height girl. She had blonde hair with red tips, which somewhat reminded me of fire. She was dressed pretty casually, in a t-shirt and khaki shorts. Then, there was the sheathed sword on her belt. It had a very simple hilt with the sheath having a dragon at the bottom breathing fire all the way up the length of the sheath. It was very ornate and expertly crafted.

We were in some alley way that seemed like it wouldn’t have been too far from where I was before. I must have been dragged over here after I was knocked out, seeing that the soles of my shoes were more worn out and… “Nnngh, Christ, what…” I looked over at my arm which was badly scraped and bleeding, and my jacket was torn. I punched the dumpster next to me, turning my knuckles white.

“Woah! Chill out, you’ll only make it worse,” the girl spoke in a bitter tone, as she wrapped gauze around the massive gash on my arm. “Sorry, I’m just really pissed off about the jacket.” I averted my gaze. She was kind of scary, and her eyes were like a blazing inferno. “Well, maybe if you didn’t try to take on a Ser Wolf unarmed you’d be in a better position” she finished wrapping up my arm. “You should be glad though, you heal remarkably quickly.” She was right, my arm was already starting to feel better. “Thanks for that by the way, I really appreciate it. Oh, my name’s Avien by the way,” I reached out my hand, but she declined to shake it and simply stood up, averting her gaze. “My name is Lilith Syzerus of Camp VII, it’s nice to meet you,” she said in a very unwelcoming tone, clearly disinterested in the topic.

“You said Ser Wolf, is that the thing that’s been causing all these explosions and the weird fire?” She quickly jolted back to me and got closer to my face. “What do you know about what’s happening?” I shrugged “I honestly have no idea what’s happening or why I’m even here…” I really meant it. “Then what about that?” she said pointing directly at my left eye. “I have no idea what you’re talking about?” I was extraordinarily confused at the comment. “Then how do you explain this?” She brandished a small mirror up to my eye and I saw that there was a glowing golden cross in the center. “What is that?”

Before she could respond, something smashed through the wall behind us. I couldn’t tell what had come through; it was obscured by the large dumpster to my left, but Lilith walked over to it, sighed, and reached out her hand. Another hand reached up and grabbed her arm, pulling another boy up from a pile of bricks.  He was much taller than Lilith, being at least 6 foot and having to look down to talk to her. He had on long coat, with an upturned collar and straps all up and down the part in the center of it. He had no shoes on and his ragged grey pants looked like someone had burned off the bottoms of each leg. He had spiky brown hair partially pulled back into a ponytail with what looked like electrical tape. He had deep brown eyes and looked quite annoyed about being thrown through a wall.  “Lilith, what are you doing?! We have a monster to deal with!” He poked her in the forehead, I feared she would  rip his arm off, but she simply gestured over to me. “Well, this idiot got whipped into a building by the Wolf and seriously cut up his arm, so I decided to help him, is that okay, Julian?” She accentuated his name, clearly quite annoyed with his finger’s presence on her forehead.

The boy walked over and eyed me up and down, scrutinizing every detail, as if he was trying to figure out how to use me to the best of his ability. “If only I had my Luminite Goggles, then I could get some actual info. Hey, Lilith, why’s his eye active” He yelled back to the girl, still clearly annoyed. “He says he doesn’t have a clue” He then looked up slightly “Oh look another Ninx, how’d he get here?” He said grabbing my ears “Ow, why’d you do that? That hurt!” He looked inquisitively back at me. “Well, I had to make sure they were real after all, and you aren’t just some neko cosplaying wannabe” I glared angrily back at him “Of course they’re real, if they weren’t I would certainly not choose to wear them” He cocked his head, slightly confused “Oh? Well, this is the first time I’ve met a Ninx who isn’t too happy about their ears” I looked away, a bit ashamed “What is that, a Ninx? What do you mean by that?” He chuckled “Are you being serious, you don’t know what you are, you…” He was cut off by the girl, she was standing at the end of the alley. “We gotta move, now!”

He sarcastically saluted her and then pulled a strange gauntlet out of a bag he had slung over his shoulder. It was about half the length of his arm and had a gear on the back of the hand, with the fingers were cut off. It was a light brown color, but other than that it didn’t look too special. He slipped it onto his arm and clenched his fist, causing the gear to emit a brownish aura. The girl unsheathed her sword, and it was about 4 feet long and seemed to be made of solid gold, which didn’t seem like a smart choice for a sword. The blade had a reddish tint to it and emitted the same aura as the girl did.

The silence was broken by another explosion and a loud female scream from down the road. Dust billowed into the alley, making us all cough and wheeze slightly, as well as cutting off our vision. “Olive!” Lilith yelled into the smoke, but was met with no response. The dust settled and I could see she was staring at Julian intensely, on the verge of tears. He sighed and began walking over to the road, he stopped right behind her. “She’s gonna be okay, trust me, she’s strong, you know that” His tone was so serious it almost made me jump.

I made an attempt to stand up, but was unable to fully do so without experiencing serious pain. “Any way I can help?” I made an attempt to, but knew I wouldn’t really be able to do anything, but had to offer anything I could. “No, I’m sure you’ll only slow us down my little kitten.” I want to angrily shout at him, but I knew he was right. “Lilith, let’s go!” He called back to her and she snapped out of her trance. Then, to my surprise, she sprouted wings from her back and flew off in the direction of the explosion. “I recommend you head off, things are about to get messy,” Julian said before running off after Lilith.

I decided it would be best if I just stayed there for now, so I layed back down against the wall, wincing from the pain in my arm. Not too far in the distance I could hear sounds of fire, explosions, and what seemed like boulders being tossed around. There was a blinding flash of golden light and I shielded my eyes to avoid going blind or losing vision for too long. I shifted around awkwardly to find a more comfortable position to sit in. I closed my eyes, trying my best to concentrate on what I was hearing.

I could hear flapping from a large pair of wings every two seconds, which was clearly Lilith. From the same distance I could hear volleys of fire being launched at quite a rapid pace. From a little closer I could hear the whirr of machinery and something spinning. This must have been coming from that strange gauntlet Julian had taken out of his bag. Also coming from Julian’s direction I could hear some large objects flying quickly at something and then cracking apart. Finally, the furthest away was a very odd noise. Someone or something was producing an almost heavenly noise, sounding like a massive choir of angels chanting in unison.

There was another flash of light and I tried to shield my eyes and ended up knock myself over, landing right on my arm. The strange thing was, it didn’t hurt at all. I looked over at my arm and removed the bandages wrapped around it, revealing a completely healed wound. There was no scar, no blood, nothing, it was completely healed and it felt perfectly fine. I decided to stand up and see what was happening, I still felt a bit weak, but I didn’t care, I had to know what was happening.

I got to the corner of the building facing towards the fight  and looked over. What I saw almost made me fall over, it was simply too unbelievable. Standing in the center of the three people was a massive 30 foot tall wolf. However, this wolf was not your typical gigantic, 30 foot, demon wolf. It had shifting black fur that looked like it could cut through steel, and it oozed dark mist from the ends, enveloping the street in an aura of death. It’s ears were as sharp as daggers and littered with cuts and scrapes. Lining its mouth were teeth sharper than sword and twice as long. They were stained a deep reddish hue, presumably from the many victims it had chowed down on over the years. It was a fearsome looking beast and something that should certainly not be underestimated.

As I expected Lilith was flying above the creature, however somewhat to my surprise she was firing blasts of fire from strange red circles just above her palms. They were being fired rapidly at the beast but, seemed to have no real effect on it. On the other side of the beast was Julian, the gear on his gauntlet was glowing much brighter than before and was spinning at quite a pace. He had both hands pressed to the ground where there was another strange ornate circle, this one being brown and much bigger. It seemed to be summoning up large boulders and then hurling them at the beast. Despite the massive size of the rocks, they too seemed to have no visible effect. Though, what Julian really seemed to be providing was a set of five restraints keeping the wolf from moving or opening it’s mouth. They seemed to be holding but, were greatly straining the boy.

The final member was the one I hadn’t seen yet. She was a short girl with dark brown hair and caramel colored skin. Her eyes were almost golden and they gave off an aura of kindness. She was wearing a yellow shirt and jeans, accompanied by what seemed like a transparent wedding veil that extended down to her legs. She was standing the furthest back from the wolf and had a staff she was holding up to the sky creating another ornate circle, this time it was golden. It seemed to be radiating angelic light, the purpose was a mystery to me though.

As I continued to stare at the beast, something struck me as a bit odd. I had the same shifting dark grey color as the fire and the man’s clothing. I know, it’s wonderful looking isn’t it, quite the pretty texture I jumped at the sudden voice. “Is there something you aren’t telling me, you seem to be awfully fond of this weird shifting pattern?” I was met with no response then I thought back to fire and how it had bent around my hand to keep me from burning. Or at least, that’s how I had perceived the events with the fire and it’s strange behavior.

Suddenly an idea came into my head, without thinking I decided to act upon this impulse. Here’s hoping I don’t die I thought to myself, bolting out of the alley at blinding speed I didn’t know I was capable of. At this point I didn’t really think about it, my brain had switched over to autopilot. I quickly scanned the area looking for a high up ledge near to the monster. Once I had found it I dashed over to it as quickly as I could. I easily scaled the building and got to the high up ledge, I was in the perfect position. “What the hell are you doing?!” Lilith yelled at me from a few yards away. “It’s just a hunch but, I think I can help, keep it distracted” She looked very annoyed, but she obliged and continued to circle it and fire more blasts at the beast.

I got myself into a good stance and the took off, leaping almost 20 feet. As I got above the monster I angled myself downward, preparing to punch right into the monster’s back. Time seemed to slow as I got closer and I panicked. What if it didn’t part? What if it impaled my hand on the razor fur? What if the punch just annoyed the beast? My mind was racing, but to my surprise the beast’s fur parted, allowing me an opening to land a devastating blow. My fist connected with the wolf’s fur, creating a shockwave that shattered the windows of the nearby buildings.

The massive beast crumpled to the ground and it’s whole body went limp. Though it had worked as planned, my hand did hurt quite a bit, though I’m sure it was nothing compared to what the collapsed monster beneath me was enduring right now. Dark mist began spewing out of the wound I was standing on top of. I slowly walked over to the side of the beast and jumped off back onto the street. The looks I was met with ranged from shock, to anger, to intrigue. I simply held my hands up and said “I have absolutely no clue how I just did that”