Day's head shot in the direction of the sound. The first, booming sound echoed throughout the ruined city, but the yelling that came after was more faint, and the location was much more discernible.
It was coming from near the hill, likely a few minutes of walking away from where they stood.
Day ceased his attempt to speak before he could even begin his explanation. Caster, along with him, was also now looking that way– even though what lay in front of them was a wall.
For some odd reason, the loud sound had, in a way, woken Day up from his stupor. He stared the direction of the noise down grimly, and clenched his remaining fist.
"What do you think is happening?" Day said slowly, and quietly, like he would alert the source of the noise with his speech.
"Someone must have started a fight with… Maybe a Nightmare Creature?" Caster responded.
"Does that mean there are people in this city?" Day started.
Day glanced back in the direction they came, and then, wearily, he said:
"With creatures like that in their midst?"
Day closed his eyes and took a sharp breath in.
"Damn it all, I'm still shaken up… but if those are really people…"
"Yeah," Caster said, interrupting him, "I'm on the same page. We should go right now. Whether they need our help or not, this could be useful to us. I'm going to go ahead, alright? We can't waste time."
Day nodded, and then Caster started moving. Caster disappeared around the corner in a blur of speed, and Day was left alone to catch his breath.
And that he did, rather quickly, in fact, but he didn't run after him just yet. There were a few seconds where Day considered the possibilities, good and bad… and reminisced on his experiences with Envien, but he quickly crumbled up all the clutter in his mind and tossed it away.
"My companion already went ahead, I need to follow, I can't falter."
Day's light covered his legs. He hunched over slightly, and then pushed off of the ground and began to dash through the dark city. His legs, empowered by his light, gave him the leverage to navigate almost perfectly.
As he ran, he had no choice but to push out his fear and doubt and shatter it to pieces.
No matter what it was, he couldn't let it slow him down, because as always– it simply couldn't. He wasn't quite sure where these ideals had come from. If anything, after what he had been through, he would have expected his feeble, untrained mind to fall and be buried beneath the rubble of his incessant thoughts, but it couldn't… he wouldn't let it.
After seeing a Fallen creature in this city, and fighting an Awakened one, it really dawned on him that he didn't have any choice– he had to be unafraid.
But did he really have any choices anymore? In just his first Nightmare alone, he had to fight Nightmare Creatures, kill a human, and worst of all, chase uselessly after solace. All of those things were stark reminders of the world he lived in, and seeing a Fallen creature reminded him of his place in it.
He reached up with his remaining arm and in an act unlike anything he had ever done before, he slammed his fist into a wall as he passed by it. The sturdy stone stood tall even after his fist collided with it, and that… It pissed Day off as well.
He had never in his entire life been half as terrified as he had been when he laid eyes on that Fallen Nightmare Creature. The pure, unadulterated fear that he felt when he misstepped– not even seeing the Devourer of Hope chasing him compared to it.
And that was why Day realized… fear pissed him off even more than it scared him. He remembered it clearly, that each time he felt scared and panicked, there was also a hint of rage hidden beneath it.
But he didn't feel immature for feeling this way… no, it just reaffirmed his ideals– the ones that felt off before. He didn't want to be a warrior built by the Spell, and maybe he never would want to… But he gained unfathomable power, a True Name, and Divine Aspect, so he couldn't afford to be afraid.
He had prided himself on the bravery birthed by his suffering before, but what is bravery if victory is directly in sight? What is triumph if it requires dumb luck or minimal effort? And even when it requires effort, what is it worth if it requires sacrifice? When he fought the Dormant Beast, he would have failed if it weren't for Audrey. Once again, when he fought Jacob, the same applied. And then when he fought the Awakened Monster, he only survived because the terrain and his Aspect Ability just happened to be favorable… and that wasn't even mentioning the creature itself being rather weak.
Day gritted his teeth.
'It's not enough.'
More… He wanted more. Not just power, but conviction, triumph, born not by luck… but by him. Even if that wasn't something that could happen at this very moment, he knew that it was what he had to chase in the future. He could die at a moment's notice, something he was reminded of after seeing that Fallen creature, so he had to find a new path.
After being infected by the Spell, he spent all of his time thinking about companionship, trust, selfishness, and selflessness, and in a way, his entire first Nightmare was just him trying to grasp the seams of how to live a life with all of those aspects close to him… but in the end, prosperity was never going to rain upon Day if he continued like this. He needed to take into account all that he knew, but pave the way for something new.
What exactly he could do to bring this about, he didn't yet know, but what he did know now, was that he had to look out for whatever that would be.
Day turned another corner, and exploded from out of the alleyway before skidding to a stop. In front of him, Caster and three other people were in a deadly exchange with a most terrible Nightmare Creature.
It appeared that Caster had immediately jumped into battle, and was currently distracting the creature.
Day kept looking around, and that was when he saw something that made his heart sink.
Three people were lying on the ground injured a ways away from the fight. There was a person standing next to them playing a violin while streaks of white light flowed through the air in the form of sheet notes and submerged themselves within the injured peoples bodies.
Shaking off the shock, he looked back at the scene directly in front of him.
The three people that were fighting were doing so gracefully. One of them kept jumping repeatedly, and whenever his fist or foot neared the creature, it slammed into either it or the ground with unbelievable force for a Sleeper and sent the enemy reeling back. Another one's eyes were glowing a striking brown, and Day could see gears turning in her eyes. Each time the creature's claws flew in this fighter's direction, one of the two gears clunked audibly and turned quickly, and the girl dodged out of the way before she could be hit. The third was punching the creature incessantly, and her attacks were like a flowing stream. Each one went into the other perfectly, and even her dodges were flawless.
Caster was struggling to fit in, but the Legacy boy was nearly unhittable in any circumstance the creature put him in, so he was acting as the perfect distraction.
The creature itself was mighty. It was tall, imposing, and had stone-like skin. It had long, sharp claws that curved irregularly, and each time it swiped, the air itself was displaced by its strength.
'Damn it… What can I do?!'
In truth, there wasn't much. They had a terrific hold on the creature's attention, and all Day's interruption would do is throw off their flow. His arm was broken, and he was bloodied up and bruised from his encounter with the Awakened Monster.
He was in no state to join the battle, so what he did instead of jumping in was run over to the person playing music. Maybe she could give him something to do, or maybe not, but either way– it was worth a shot.
When he neared her, he slid to a stop. When she saw him, her eyes widened and she nearly stopped playing, but Day shook his head and quickly spoke.
"I mean no harm." He started, which prompted the girl to calm down almost immediately. It took only a few words, and because of that, Day could tell that whatever she was doing was likely urgent.
But Day wasn't done speaking.
"Whatever you are doing, you can keep doing it… I just arrived. My companion is the speedy one, uhh, his name is Caster– and I'm Day, in case you are wondering."
The girl looked at him for a few moments silently, and then, with venom laced beneath her voice, she said:
"I get it, so can you let me focus?"
Then, with that, she went silent and closed her eyes.
Day stood there flabbergasted for a few moments, and his face turned beet red.
'I'm such an idiot… I'm too panicked. I need to calm down. Okay, I need to let her focus. Let me think, what else can I do… What else can I do?!'
Day looked in the direction of the fight, studied it for a few moments, and grimaced. They were still holding strong at the moment, but they didn't seem to be making much progress in piercing the creatures skin. The battle obviously hadn't begun very long ago, but despite that, at this rate, Day didn't know how long they would last.
Because as he stared at the mighty creature, there wasn't a doubt in his mind that the squad wouldn't quite be able to come out on top. Why, he didn't quite know, but he had a feeling that there was something missing.
He stared, and watched, and creeped around far away from the fight, but no matter where he stood or what angle he looked at the fight from– he simply couldn't find an opening.
So despite all that he wished for himself, and his promise to do more, he was forced to swallow the bitter truth.
He couldn't do anything. In this fight, he was useless. He had come to the grim realization that he couldn't do the absolute most in every situation, but it still stung. Helplessness stung, but what hurt even more was uselessness. At least to Day, who had not just a taste of both of them, but a whiff of both at the exact same time.
'Is this really all my conviction is worth…?'
Even when Caster started to slow down, even when the creature began to falter, even when the guy among them fighting fell, leaving Caster and the two girls to fight a ravenous, angry beast…
Even when one of them fell…?
On the ground, the boy with the irregularly heavy attacks was writing and bleeding. He had a gash on his chest, and his clothing was torn up. In the past few seconds, he took a heavy blow from the creature's ferocious catalysts of death after attempting to go for an attack when the creature had him in his sights.
Caster and his two companions were screaming, trying to get the creature's attention, but the distance they had from the creature was too far– and the positioning around it was unfavorable. So much so that if they tried to run in, they would die.
But the trio didn't need to do anything risky… because Day was already dashing towards the fight.
His legs, covered by light, pushed off the ground multiple times, clearing the distance in an instant. In that same moment, Day's arm was enveloped by his light.
'Fine then! If I can't do the most… if my conviction is worth nothing right now, then I need to find a new iteration– and for now …'
He slid down onto his knees and gripped the bleeding boy's wrist. The creature's claws rained down upon them, but right before they could impale the two, Day and the boy were gone.
'I'll do what I can…!'
Day pushed off his light-covered legs and dove back. His mind was being strained, his muscles the same, but in a mere second, he and the boy were out of the creature's reach. Day landed on his back and tumbled. He let go of the boy, who slammed into the floor with a grunt of pain and rolled onto his side.
The creature continued its chase, and took a step towards the duo who were bloodied and broken, but before it could begin its dash, Caster disappeared in a blur of speed and slammed his shoulder into the creature. A resounding crack echoed, and the silence that followed was almost palpable– but the attack had done its job.
The creature stumbled over slightly and fell onto one knee, but then quickly turned around and swiped its claws at nothing– because Caster was already gone, or at least to Day, because the creature continued the pursuit mere moments after Caster disappeared.
He ducked, jumped back with all of his strength, and then used his aspect ability to disappear a few feet away, but it wasn't quite enough. The creature was chasing after him with a flurry of blows, trying to tear him into ribbons– obviously pissed at his effort to prevent it from chasing its prey.
Unfortunately for the creature, there were still two others, and those two quickly joined back into the fray. Now, once again, they had the creature in a deadlock. They were hitting it continuously, but none of their moves were impactful enough to tilt the scales in either of the two teams directions.
Day watched for a few more moments, and then came to a sudden, striking realization that promised to tilt the battle in their favor.
The loss of a companion didn't slow them down at all. In fact, it only sped them up. After Caster's great deed, they seemed to put more trust in him. Now, they were purposefully letting the creature chase him– and the Legacy was holding on fabulously.
No longer having to worry about their companion, they doubled their efforts. Day and the bleeding boy watched from a dozen or two feet away as they slowly chipped at the creature's defenses by using Caster as bait. Eventually, the girl with attacks resembling a flowing stream ended up getting a deciding blow that cracked the creature's leg and sent it tumbling away.
The creature fell to the ground with a wail of pain. Its claws lodged into the ground beneath, but it continued to tumble. Its head was now close to the ground, but in these few seconds, it was already picking itself back up and threatening to undo their efforts…
But Caster was already on top of it. The Legacy's sword, which he was hiding before, appeared in his hand after the coalescing of radiant white sparks. In a blur of speed, Caster flew towards the creature and raised his sword into the air– then, he slammed it into the creature's large head right above where its ear would be.
It pierced the beast, and their enemy went limp.
They had won. It was a short, but hard fought battle– and they came out on top.
Caster pulled his sword from the fallen creature's head and took a deep breath, and then reeled back and looked up.
Day grinned as he stared at the boy, and then, out loud, he said mockingly:
"Show off much?"