Sliding down the rubble, Nikolas's ears had no issue tuning out the incessant curses and complaints the naturals had at his existence. Life in the mountains was simple. He desecrated their god… he took whatever he needed to survive from them. He killed the beasts before they got too big. He did what he wanted like a force of nature, and that was more than enough in his mind for them to hate him. But the arrival of this new person, this one girl claiming that she needed his help… It made him think.

More than anything, he thought about the things she said. He had already crossed the bounds of the settlement by the time he came to terms with his unfamiliarity with the name he once went by. It was an unexpected shock that he had needed to think about it, a symptom of what his life had become lately.

His mind dwelled on others parts of their conversation as he slowly walked along the icy path, passively melting it back into damp cobble as he debated against himself. There was the matter of his fire spontaneously returning whenever she spoke that incantation - Lanciafiamme. Nikolas had always had free control over his flames, save for when he was exposed to cold water - but this was the first time he had felt an outside force compelling him to make flames, made even stranger by the feeling that he himself had run cold at that time.

Looking down at his hands, his eyes ran over the major features - slightly charred skin peppered with abrasions, scars and bruises all over. The cuts from his latest combat were still freshly bleeding into the fabric of his new outfit, though he didn't mind that - the red was useful to let him ignore it, afterall.

The feeling when she spoke that word though, it was so much more different than when he created his own flames. For a brief moment, it felt like he had received energy from the outside, using him as a channel to express itself in that moment. There had been a connection for a second before it was ripped away, and then his own flames returned. It was an uneasy feeling for the red panda hybrid, knowing that he wasn't the one fully in control when it happened.

Further up the path leading to his ambiguous destination, Nikolas felt that same unease once again. He felt it much earlier than his ears picked up any sound or his feet picked up the subtle vibrations in the ground, something which irked him. Begrudgingly, he glanced over his shoulder, hoping that he was wrong.

Much to his own annoyance, Nikolas's gut feeling was accurate, and far behind him on the winding path down the mountain, the same girl he had left in the ruins of the monastery was following him. He was grateful for being out of earshot from the redhead, seeing as she was attempting to call out to him after realizing he had spotted her. He shrugged to himself and changed his direction to head deeper into the mountains as soon as the mountainside cut her away from his line of sight.

Keeping a slow, steady pace felt strange right after an encounter like that to him - usually he would be in and out of the monastery as quickly as he could… there were always other beasts to hunt in the mountains, other storms to avoid. Even clad in fresh clothes, he felt dangerously undefended without his flames at full strength. Raising a hand again, Nikolas willed it to alight aflame. There was some resistance before it began to spontaneously combust, but only for a few seconds after which it died out on its own. "Damn cold…"

"Nikolas!"

The panda's ears perked up at the mention, partly from alarm and from dread - he still wasn't used to hearing his name, and much less from someone he knew next to nothing about. Although she was still quite a ways away, Clarisse had managed to close the gap between them. She immediately broke into a run at his acknowledgement, stumbling through the slippery path as she approached the unamused hybrid.

"Hey- I finally… caught up!" Clarisse spoke between gasps for breath in the thin air of the mountains. "Where are you… going?"

"Nowhere." Nikolas deflected the question yet again, glaring at her with his arms crossed. "Why are you here?"

"I need your help to save-"

"Cut the crap!" Nikolas growled, swiftly extending his arm to grab Clarisse by the collar of her coat and lifting her clean into the air. "Only those religious kooks live here… So who sent you? Was it the Syndicate? Remus? WHO?"

"Huh- wait- " Clarisse raised her arms up in surrender, her heart suddenly pounding as she felt her legs lose their footing on the ground. "I promise I'm telling you the truth, there's this prophecy-I-got-from-a-hermit-and-I'm-supposed-to-guide-you…" She ended up slurring her words by the end, prompted by his anger on the verge of boiling over.

"How did you know to find me here?" Nikolas shot back at her with a snarl, evidently finding her story hard to trust. "Better start making some sense, because no one will find your body in these mountains. The beasts do a good job of that, and I can do a damn better one."

Staring into his mismatched eyes, Clarisse was filled with terror. Not just because she was scared, but because she could sense the same from him - a mixed pot of emotions and racing thoughts shuffling between anger, fear and confusion. Even as her legs fidgeted and flailed under her, searching for a surface, she gripped Nikolas's forearms for support and chose her words carefully. "I ran away from home. I ran because I wanted to be someone special… I heard of a story about a fire-wielding hero and his guide from a hermit who gave me the gada tied to my bag. He told me that the warrior lived among the tallest peaks and the gada would guide me to you. I'm only here to ask for your help- please!"

Nikolas's glare remained static as he judged the truth behind her words. There was a scarce hint of recognition in his eyes as she mentioned the story, followed by a disgusted, guttural growl as he threw her a few feet away from him.

Clarisse covered her neck with her fingers as soon as she hit the ground, being able to breathe properly again now that her collar wasn't being used to choke her. She looked up at him - he had turned around, standing with his arms crossed again. Warm tears involuntarily spilled from her eyes at the realization of how close she had been to dying for the second time within that day, and her hands followed to tend to them.

"It's a foolish story." Nikolas grumbled without turning around. "One meant to let children dream big… hopelessly naive." The intonation of his voice shifted deeper as he clenched his fist in frustration.

"Y-you've heard of it?" Clarisse suppressed a sniffle in her throat, catching onto a glimmer of hope that she had found some common ground between them. "Then you know why-"

"-Why I fit the description?" Nikolas completed her question for her with a sarcastic undertone, glancing back at the surprised redhead. "Yeah, sure. But I'm not that hero, and I won't be saving the world."

"Why not!?" Clarisse asked, confused at both his acceptance and his refusal. There was a tinge of hopeful reassurance in her voice, still believing that she could reason with him. "You're strong enough to fight off those creatures by yourself- and they're terrorizing everyone in the mainlands too- the people need someone to protect them!"

"And why should I protect them?" Nikolas demanded, stomping his foot down and making Clarisse back away in fear. "Did you consider why someone would voluntarily live out here, in the middle of nowhere? This world deserves to suffer and die for the things that happen so commonplace, and I'm no better than them! …I stopped trying to be, a long time ago."

"You can't say that-!" Clarisse snapped back at him, finding the courage to raise her voice the moment her thoughts went back towards her parents and the friends she had left behind in her hometown. "There are still some good people out there."

"Oh, are they anything like you? People who run away from home chasing fairytales?" Nikolas countered, before his ears perked up at something else in the distance and he looked away, leaving Clarisse to wallow in the insult.

Clarisse had no words for him, a lump forming in her throat as she realized that he was right in some part - there was no reason for her to ever believe that the story was true or even meant something other than her own selfish indulgence in wanting to be something more than ordinary. Tears from before were still falling down her cheeks but she neglected to wipe them away now.

Nikolas's attention was focused elsewhere, his ears reactively moving as he picked up on noises around them. "Form up." He suddenly issued a command.

"What?" Clarisse asked, confused by both his words and his tone, which had shifted to a blank, monotone voice as quickly as it had divulged into anger before.

"We're being surrounded. Unless you fancy being eaten, form up." Nikolas commanded her, his gaze darting all around them as he tracked multiple targets in the distance. True to his word, a pack of shady quadrupeds was encircling them, each of them about as tall as the hybrid.

"Since when do you care about other people?" Clarisse jabbed at him with bitter words despite pushing herself to stand and reaching for her gada.

"These creatures get stronger by killing and eating others, and sometimes by merging with each other. Ensuring they don't is my motto for survival." Nikolas snapped his fingers, attempting to summon a plume of flame on his hand but only managing to conjure a damp glow of light. "Tch…" he crouched slightly and flexed his digits as the wolves began closing the circle around them.

"What happened?" Clarisse shot him a concerned glance, her tone growing nervous as she counted their odds - 3 against 1 for the wolves. "Where's your fire?"

Clarisse didn't have time to receive an answer before one of the wolves leapt at her with a startling howl. Shouting a cry in return, she swung her gada in a wide arc in front of her, which connected with the beast's teeth. Another followed up in its absence, leading her to swing the gada wildly to defend herself. "HAAA-" She cried out, trying to scare them away.

Behind her, Clarisse heard a series of growls followed by blunt thumps and whimpers, which she could only hope didn't come from Nikolas, for her own sake. Another wolf charged at her from ahead, and she swung at it from below. The blow connected but failed to stop the beast, which pushed her down. Within a fraction of a second she was on the ground, with the only thing keeping the beast from devouring her being the gada stuck in its jaw.

A rush of adrenaline coursed through Clarisse's veins as she saw the dark maw of the beast slobbering over her weapon, and she desperately kicked with her legs in an attempt to crawl away. "Nik!" She cried out for help as she felt one of her legs get caught in the teeth of another wolf.

Her cry was soon heeded in the form of the body of another wolf being thrown at the one towering over her, followed by a silvery-red blur beating both of them back. Nikolas seemed a much fiercer combatant up close than when she was simply spectating, letting a guttural growl loose at the beasts as he kicked one of them down by its neck and dug his claws in, drawing lethal smoke as the creature began to dissipate.

Even with a humanoid figure, Nikolas seemed comfortable fighting on the same terms as the wolves. He saw red in front of himself as the rest of the pack charged after seeing their fallen companion, striking at them with vicious slashes, kicks and punches to keep them from overwhelming him.

Clarisse used the brief respite to slip her bag off and gain some mobility - it was only a moment before she was faced with another wolf which had circled around Nikolas and targeted her instead. Holding the gada between them, she saw a set of letters flash in the text. Seeing as it had helped in the previous battle, she put her trust in the weapon and yelled the words out right as the wolf leapt at her. "RESPINGERE TUTTI!"

Nikolas felt his focus being involuntarily snatched by the command and an associated rush of energy as he glanced back at Clarisse, and the wolf which had leapt towards her smacked its face into a reddish, translucent dome instead. His eyes widened at the revelation, and then again a split second later as he felt a canine dig into his forearm with its teeth. With a deafening cry, he swung his arm to yank the beast with it, slamming it onto the ground. Pinning its snout with his foot, Nikolas used both his arms to break the wolf's jaw open and free himself.

Clarisse flinched at the beast's jump but was pleasantly surprised to find the warm barrier around herself. She found it very reminiscent of what the monks were capable of, though the beast in front of her already seemed to be preparing a dark orb in its jaw as the barrier faded away. "Cortina Fumogena, Presto!" She read out the gada's next line of text, hoping that would be more effective at dispatching the threats rather than delaying them.

The shadowy wolves retreated as a thick layer of ashen smoke blew out from Nikolas the same way his flames ordinarily would in response to the spell, narrowly giving Clarisse an opportunity to dodge the dark orb launched at her. She walked backwards into the smoke until she felt something and jumped, only to realize that it was Nikolas.

"Are you okay?" Clarisse asked, her concern brought about by the multitude of bite marks on his body, some of them even ripping through his newly acquired attire. The most concerning injury seemed to be a gaping wound on Nikolas's forearm from the way he was holding it to slow his blood from staining the dirty snow.

"The dome. Cast it again when I say so. This time around me." Nikolas spoke in short breaths, finding his own injuries unimportant to address. "I have a plan."

"Respingere? Got it." Clarisse nodded, putting her trust in his battle sense. A few more seconds passed while they were hidden in the smoke, and it began to get into her lungs, causing her to cough. As she attempted to leave the smokescreen, Nikolas let go of his wound to catch her arm.

"Don't… Ambush." Nikolas explained in as little words as he needed, either comfortable in the smoke or good at hiding his own discomfort at breathing it in. The smoke eventually began to thin as it spread into their surroundings, revealing that the wolves had indeed regrouped outside to ambush them. Nikolas walked forward through the opening in the smoke towards the wolves, letting his arm bleed freely as he prepared to scrap yet again.

There were only three wolves left now and the leader among them became evident, both by size and by his position in their formation. Standing in the back, the larger canine raised its head towards the evening sky and let out a loud howl.

Clarisse reeled back at the howl, suddenly feeling a surge of pain in her head breaking her focus. She could tell Nikolas also felt the same pain from the painful whimper he let out, but he wasted no time in closing the gap and dashed towards them. "NOW!" he called out as he got closer to the trio.

Clarisse complied as fast as she could. "Respingere!" She called out, feeling a massive portion of her strength wane as the spell formed a fiery dome around Nikolas while also encompassing the wolves within it. Using the gada as support to remain standing, Clarisse watched the fight under the dome. She was confused why Nikolas would cast a large enough shield that it didn't help at keeping the wolves out.

Nikolas clenched his fists as the dome finished forming around all of them, a sly smile appearing on his face as one of the wolves tried to retreat but got singed by the barrier. He had made the shield just large enough to house all of them, but also small enough that they would have nowhere to run out of his reach. It all felt very familiar to him in a way that made him angry, feral. Years of entrapment had made this his preferred battlefield… In the wilderness, they had a homefield advantage. In the ring, however, things were very different. Shaking his head to push back with the mental pain he was under for later, Nikolas charged at the wolves with a bloodcurdling scream.

Clarisse watched the ensuing slaughter as the wolves charged back at him at first, but quickly realized that the shield was meant to keep them trapped with him. She watched as they kept pressing themselves against the burning barrier with a sense of both horror and relief, knowing that Nikolas's threat from before was something he was very capable of, but glad that he was on her side, at least for the moment. It was about a minute before the whimpering howls stopped and the barrier dropped on its own, giving her a chance to approach the panda.

Nikolas was standing over the withering, fading corpses of his kills, looking down at the mangled mess under him. His mind, however, was far, far away, recalling the days he had spent in that same state after reliving a taste of his past. He seemed clouded in bloodlust, unable to recognize anything around him until a surge of energy returned him to the present moment.

"Nikolas?" Clarisse was holding his arm which the wolf had bitten, using her sleeve to dry the blood and get a better look at the fresh wound. "You're losing a lot of blood…"

Nikolas instinctively snatched his arm away, taking a shaky step back from her. "Don't concern yourself…" He looked around them at the bloody scene, taking a moment to reorient himself before beginning to walk away, deeper into the mountains. "We should get going before something else attacks us."

"Where are we even going?" Clarisse stood in his way, raising her arms in a T-pose to block the path until he answered her questions. "The monastery can help you heal… we should go back."

"Ha! They'll thank their god that I'm finally dying." Nikolas snapped back, though his unconscious action of gripping the wound so that it wouldn't bleed as much told both of them that she was right, and that he needed to address it quickly. "If I had my flames, I'd burn them shut."

"I'm not letting you die on my watch." Clarisse insisted, jogging back to where she had left her bags. A few seconds of rummaging through them yielded her a first aid kit, which she tucked under her arm before beckoning him to her.

Nikolas begrudgingly followed behind her, extending his arm out to accept the aid packet. "I know how to deal with it myself."

"Not in that state." Clarisse asserted upon looking up, much to his chagrin. "Your fingers are shaking. Sit down, and I'll do what I can." She pointed him towards the nearest tree from the trail.

Yet again Nikolas found that he couldn't deny his condition, and with a frustrated sigh he complied with her demands. "You don't need to do this. Just give me the kit and leave - you can still make it to the monastery before nightfall."

There was a moment of consideration in Clarisse's eyes for his suggestion, before she shook her head. "I came all this way for a reason. It can't just be to go back." She sat down next to him, slowly pushing his sleeves back and began cleaning up the wound.

"I'm not saving the world because of this, just so you know." Nikolas asserted despite letting her do as she pleased. His expression was still sullen, clearly out of the moment mentally.

"You don't have to." Clarisse replied without looking up, focused on wiping away the fresh blood from the wounds on both his hands. "I get it… it's unfair to put that kind of burden on someone."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

There was a few minutes of silence as Clarisse tended to his arms. She looked up at him a few times but got no reaction, leading the awkward silence to perpetuate. While she was working, the same strange feeling of energy ebbing and flowing rose up again, but she did her best to ignore it. Once Clarisse had closed and dressed up the more concerning wounds on his left arm, she sat back and analyzed if it was going to stick.

Nikolas was feeling a similar sensation of rhythm flowing in and out of him while she tended to him. It wasn't discomfort which bothered, but the unfamiliarity of the situation. "Did you get hurt back there?" He suddenly asked, wanting to break their mutual silence somehow.

"Not just now, but I do have some flesh wounds." Clarisse shook her head, wiping away a splotch of blood which had seeped out of the bandage onto her. "I was about to get bitten, but you saved me… both times. Thank you."

"Like I said before, it was just to stop them from getting stronger." Nikolas acknowledged with a nod, raising his bandaged arm to touch a lock of her hair which was now colored a pinkish shade with a couple of silver strands. "…It looks faded."

"Huh." Clarisse almost flinched at seeing him raise his hand, but let him touch her without issue. She hadn't noticed the change over the course of the day, given that she had a lot more to worry about. "I wonder if it happened from casting those spells… I felt my strength go whenever I cast one. Did you feel anything like that?"

"I did. I received bursts of energy." Nikolas confirmed with a solemn nod, before vaguely gesturing in the direction of the gada. "I don't know how to describe it well, but that club lets you cast magic through me… Spells I usually wouldn't be able to use."

"I don't know how it works either, but it's helpful…" Clarisse let herself smile at their agreement on the matter. She got up, walking around to his other side so she could tend to his right arm, which had a pair of deep gashes from the vulture. "So, umm… how did you… or rather why are you here, if you don't mind me asking?"

Nikolas let out an empty sigh, debating himself on if he should answer her or not. For some reason, being around her had given him a strange openness to divulging into his emotions, something he would've never considered by himself. Eventually, he gave into the opportunity to revisit his past. "I guess I wanted to run away from the world… hide somewhere I wouldn't be bothered."

Clarisse looked up, concern written plainly on her face as she cleaned his wound. "This place seems like a dangerous area to be left alone."

"It's better than being around naturals… and humans." Nikolas shrugged, averting his tired gaze from her. "The beasts aren't rotten like people can be… they don't hurt their own or care about money and status. It's a simpler life."

"The monastery, they still give you a hard time even though you protect them. I'm sorry…"

"Don't be. I've given them a lot to grieve about. They're just foolish enough to keep placing offerings at the altar from where I steal."

"They could at least help you in exchange for their protection."

"Not for a half-breed. I'm a freak of nature."

"I heard them mention that but I don't think you're a freak. Are you really a hybrid?"

"Mother was a human… father was a natural. They were an unusual couple from what I remember."

"From what you remember-?"

"I ran away from home when I was young."

Clarisse felt her heart drop into her stomach, pausing her work on his arm as she met his eyes with his. "You too…?"

"The story of a warrior… I trusted a natural who told me about it when I was a child." Nikolas recalled, his volume reduced to mere murmurs now. "Before I knew it, I was kidnapped. They made me fight in cage matches for them… used drugs on me so I wouldn't be able to escape."

"What kind of monsters would…" Clarisse mumbled, unable to finish her sentence as pure disgust rose up her throat in the form of acid reflux. Unconsciously, her fingers wrapped around his arm tighter. Everything until now suddenly began making sense to her - his suspicion, the names he had thrown at her, as well as his general disdain for company. "When did you escape?"

"A few years ago…" Nikolas croaked out, trying hard to sort out the truth from painful memories. "Chopped off my own tail… disguised myself as a human… I kept running until I made it into the mountains."

Clarisse became mortified at hearing that, realizing it was why he didn't share the tail with the way all the naturals sported one. "It must've been horrible, I'm so sorry…" She replied, holding his hand tightly within both of hers.

"I can't save the world." Nikolas shook his head ever so slightly, letting out a tired sigh. "Not that kind of a world."

Clarisse's lips parted, but no words came out. She couldn't deny that a world like that never deserved to exist… a world which exploited people for its profit was despicable. There were still the matters of her parents, her friends, everyone she resolved to go on this journey for… the redhead found herself caught at a crossroads between both worlds. She remained silent, resolving to secure the bandages on his arms while she deliberated against herself. Even once she was done, she said nothing, simply shifting her posture so that she was sitting next to him with her back to the same tree, gazing into the distance.

"I met a mother and her son on the way here… they were good to me."

There was no reply, but Clarisse reached out, loosely holding Nikolas's hand. There was no resistance towards that either.

"That woman… She reminded me of my mother. I left home because I thought I could become something special… but I wanted to be special for the people I cared about. So that they could have a better life."

Clarisse took a pause to take a deep breath, using it to fight back tears. "That family's father was killed by one of the beasts which came down from the mountain. If I don't help people like them… no one ever will. Bad people and dark creatures will keep hurting them, and good people will keep suffering."

"Spoken like someone who's going to save the world." Nikolas chuckled in a dry tone.

"Your parents… have you ever thought about going back to them?" Clarisse glanced at him and asked, holding his hand tighter in her grip.

"Why? I'm a completely different person now." Nikolas met her gaze and shrugged with a hint of confusion. "Nothing like the child who went missing that day… nothing will make up for all that time."

"But wouldn't they be worried?" Clarisse asked again, her tone showing more concern this time. She repositioned herself to sit facing towards him. "I've only been gone for a few months and I know people will be worried… I don't know when I'll get a chance to go back but I want to… I want to go back to see the people I'm doing all this for."

"I don't matter like that." Nikolas replied, and despite wearing his regret openly, he spoke his mind. "If I die today, no one will have remembered me in any meaningful way." He met her gaze again, steeling himself to admit a painful truth. "I am already dead to this world, Clarisse… it's just waiting to happen."

"Don't say that!" Clarisse's eyebrows furrowed as she refuted him, "Even if no one else does, I'll still remember you. I'll remember your story… and I'll help make a world where no one else has to go through that."

"Now that would be a better world." Nikolas admitted with a weak laugh. "But let's not get caught daydreaming…" He slowly pushed himself to stand up. "We should find shelter. There's a cave further up the mountain- it's where I usually rest. It'll be safe."

"Are you sure you can make it there? You shouldn't exert yourself too much…" Clarisse asked, standing up and inspecting the bandages she had wrapped once more.

"We'll get there." Nikolas urged her, walking back onto the path they were on before their skirmish with the wolves. "Your spells, can you cast more of them?"

Clarisse looked inward, wanting to say no. The spells she had already cast in their last fight had taken a significant toll on her, but it was more so that she didn't know the consequence of casting one spell too many which made her hesitate. "I'll try."

. . .

The air around them grew thinner and colder as they hiked up the mountain, quite an off pair. Despite leaving her overcoat and winter gear at the monastery, Clarisse somehow found the temperature bearable compared to before. She glanced to her side at Nikolas, and the fiery panda seemed far more comfortable in his stride despite wearing less layers than her to the point that simply walking beside him made her feel warmer in a strange way.

"How long have you been living… here?" She asked her companion, eating a painfully cold snowflake as she opened her mouth to speak. She shook her head, immediately attempting to expel the melted speck of foreign chillness.

There was a pause similar to the one in the monastery, enough to where it was clear that he hadn't thought about these topics in a long time. "3… maybe 3 and a half years." an awkward mumble escaped his lips as he lowered his gaze to focus on his next steps. "Time is a blur in these parts… Days pass by fast and nights are busy. I keep track by counting the monks' harvest seasons."

"And the beasts? Since when did they begin showing up?" The redhead posed another question, trying to understand what exactly this great evil they were supposed to fight even entailed.

"No clue…" The silverhead shrugged, raising a hand in front of himself to keep the downpour of snow away. "But they were part of the reason I chose to live here."

"Pardon?" Clarisse asked, failing to follow his line of thought in living in an area where he knew dangerous monsters resided.

"Even back then I knew…" Nikolas began, casting a side-eye at his newfound companion before continuing. "The shadowy beasts are great deterrents for people. Only the most stubborn and foolhardy idiot would ever be able to find me up here. "

Clarissed rolled her eyes at his jab at humor. "It was more like you found me first…" She complained, pondering if his daily routine would have put them in a position to meet at all. "Would you have come to the monastery if the birds weren't attacking?"

"Not in such a fiery fashion…" He shrugged, glancing down at his undernourished stomach before continuing. "-But yes. Food and clothing are resources the monks have in spades… particularly those apples… their rhythm boosts have kept me alive more nights than I can count." His admission was lackluster, filled with a certain hint of disgust at his own weakness.

Clarisse's lips parted in response, soaking in the new information. The tree was recognizable as one of the endemic flora of the region to her but she hadn't been privy to its use in this way before. "Do you… are you going to keep doing this?"

The half-panda raised an eyebrow, eyeing her with suspicion. He had already made his position clear on the matter of being a hero, and there wasn't much else for him to do but survive.

"L-living here, I mean." Clarisse clarified with a stutter manifesting in her voice from his steely gaze.

"I'll take the beasts born from shadows over the monsters in the mainland." He replied, his expression growing darker as he recalled the numerous people - naturals and humans alike - he'd wanted to exact his revenge against. Life in the mountains distanced itself from that part of his identity besides brief skirmishes.

Clarisse shrank at the implication that he presented, but still held a single thread of hope in the form of herself. "What if you came back with me? I promise you won't face them again - and if you do, I'll be there to protect you."

"Protect me?" Nikolas growled, certain that she had mistaken his intentions. He stopped in his tracks, looking down at the redhead with a piercing, mismatched gaze. "If I return, it will be on a warpath. I will find and then raze each of them to the ground. That is the only way they will never rob someone of a life like they did mine." Even through the inebriated conditions of his capture, years spent in their clutches had seared each of their identities into the back of his mind and left his body with a burning desire for retaliation. "You would better protect this world by leaving me in exile."

"I- I…" Clarisse felt her heart pounding out of her chest once again when faced by this visceral, enraged visage of the hybrid. She could feel the pent up anger gushing out of him like a stream of water smashing through stone upon impact from up high. She could tell it was an emotional reaction sharpened past the point of becoming a self-debilitating weapon, and now served as a crutch to keep him from dropping his guard.

And, for a moment, she agreed with him.

There was no point in protecting the people she cared about from the greater evils of the world if there were dangers such as this among their ranks, they would simply be trading one danger for another and become complacent over the fact. She watched in fear as he turned away from her and continued walking, reaching out for his wounded arm and gripping it tightly. "Then let me help you! You're right, no one should go through what you have. Come down with me, and I'll help you set things right!"

"Bold words coming from an innocent soul." Nikolas tried pulling his arm away, but she carried herself along with it regardless. "Don't tell me you threw away your original plan that quickly."

"No-" Clarisse huffed, grabbing his arm with both hands to stay upright when he yanked her forward. "I'm serious about this. I still want to save the world, but that doesn't end with dealing with just whatever this great evil is… After that, we can go deal with the people who hurt and exploit others, and much more! But… I need your help to do it."

Nikolas stared into her eyes with a loaded glare at hearing his sentiments echoed back towards him. Just as he opened his mouth to relay judgement, his ears flared up and something else caught his attention. His eyes rapidly scanned the snow storm bearing down on them, looking for danger. A moment later, he pulled Clarisse behind himself and pushed her head down. "Duck!"

Before his warning registered, a strong afterwind had already hit both of them as a dark bird with white spots all over its plumage flew right above them, its talons nearly grabbing both of them off the mountainside trail they were on and slicing off the nearby canopy as it rose upwards from the failed hunt.

Clarisse had knelt on all fours at his prompt and barely escaped, letting the afterwind help her stand shortly after. "Not again…" she complained to herself upon catching a brief glimpse of their assailant. "They keep tracking us down-"

Nikolas paid no heed to her complaints and was already working on a plan to deal with their predicament as he stood up and locked his eyes onto the spotted beast. "Shield when I call for it. Keep it as short as possible."

"Can't we flame it down like last time?" Clarisse asked, reaching for her gada from the side of her bag, which presented her with a new modifier to use with the shielding spell for some reason. It flipped back to Lanciafiamme the moment she mentioned it but then returned to Respingere just as fast.

"Our surroundings aren't as stable as before, and you're just as much a target as I am." Nikolas replied, sparing a second to quickly take in the terrain around them.

"Okay, ready at your mark!" Clarisse replied, surprised by the speed of his analysis. Looking around, she could only concur that the mountainside they were on seemed quite treacherous, layered in thick snow which reminded her of the first time she had fallen unconscious and then appeared at the monastery.

Standing behind him, Clarisse felt anxiety rack her body as she watched the giant hawk-like creature fly a circle over them before swooping in for another assault. It let out a high-pitched screech, launching a continuous volley of large icicles over the entire length of the path about a dozen metres on either side of them. She was on the verge of calling the spell out, but there was no signal from her companion. "Nik…" she urged him as the first icicle landed and the one projected to hit them approached rapidly.

Nikolas remained static despite the imminent danger, only raising his hand as the spear of ice aimed directly at them was on the verge of making contact. "Respingere Mosso!" The prompt from behind him created an instant, circular shield in front of him. The jagged spear broke through the fiery barrier but stopped short of drawing blood from the strategist of the two, who jumped into action at the moment the shield dropped.

Grabbing his caster's hand, Nikolas bolted forward along the path as fast as his wounded body could manage. He weaved through the line of icicles which had embedded themselves into the ground, making a beeline for the nearest tree-line but stopping short of it. "We'll use the trees as cover when it swoops in." He instructed, looking up to prepare for the bird's next assault.

Clarisse was gasping for breath as she stood by the treeline, finding his sudden dexterity unsuitable for her while she still suffered from the shallow cut on her thigh. "O- okay… just tell me when to cast a spell…" she managed to squeak out despite some noticeable strain.

The bird was relentless in its approach and swooped down with its talons extended for a second time, but found them tearing into wood instead of its prey due to a quick repositioning from them. The beast flapped its wings viciously in an attempt to gain height and make another attempt.

Nikolas ran out as the bird began its retreat, only to be treated by parts of a falling tree trunk and many shards of ice raining down on him like a wall of tiny knives. Both in tandem were enough to force the pyromancer into a hasty regrouping within the treeline with Clarisse.

Nikolas leaned back against one of the trees which had protected them, breathing heavily as he pulled out a small icicle lodged in his shoulder. "I'll need a few shields… Can you do that? You don't have to maintain them for very long."

Clarisse nodded frantically in response even though she had no idea how many more spells she could manage. It was simply what was needed, and so she would give it her all. She gripped the gada tightly as the bird flew over the canopy again, threatening to uproot their only layer of protection with its mere presence. Her anxiety was only alleviated by the confidence and prowess Nikolas displayed, and by trusting in him she found a way to calm herself for the moment.

Clarisse watched with bated breath as the bird crashed into the tree in front of them with its talons and nearly tore it in two. Right as the bird began flying up again, Nikolas broke into a sprint out of the treeline after reiterating his command. "Shields!"

"Respingere Mosso! Respingere Mosso! Respingere Mosso!" Clarisse called out in quick succession as the fighter rushed out, but the outcome of his strategy was something she was far from ever predicting. She felt her breath leave her body in bewilderment as Nikolas cast the first shield below himself - slightly above the ground - and proceeded to jump off it to get higher. The following two shields were also used in a similar manner, creating temporary circular disks in mid-air, placed at angle for the fighter to gain altitude from and catch up to his aerial adversary.

Nikolas made a last jump off his third shield, launching himself into the air high enough to grab onto the bird's tail feathers as it made its retreat. The bird was both surprised and intolerant of Nikolas's stunt and began doing its best to knock him off. It squirmed and maneuvered wildly mid-air, screeching loudly and flapping its wings to create a rain of icicles behind it to try and get him off, but he refused to budge despite the array of injuries upon his person.

Clarisse could sense Nikolas's desperation as she watched from below, seeing him trying to climb up its tail feathers and find a meaningful target to tear away at, but the rate at which the bird floundered in the air struck fear into her. Desperately trying to think of anything she could do to help him, Clarisse looked down at her gada.

"ARCOBALENO FUOCO PIANISSIMO!"

Nikolas had his work cut out for him - managing to find a suitable way to climb the beast's length would have been tough enough without it moving every which way in the air and occasionally attempting to remove him from its body using its beak. Then he heard a faint phrase - it was a voice he recognized, but not words he could make out clearly. His body still reacted to them, and he found that a dazzlingly bright orb had begun growing in his hand. His instincts told him to let go of the bird.

Looking down at the rapidly forming orb of energy in his palm while he desperately clung to the bird's tail, he made the decision to trust Clarisse once more. The next time the bird changed directions to throw him off, he let the orb loose at it and released its tail. The orb propelled itself to the bird as if guided by his intentions, before exploding into a bright rainbow flash.

Clarisse watched in wonder as the explosion lit up the monotone night sky into an array of color, but the sight of Nikolas being thrown away from it made her return to her senses as she ran to catch him. He broke past a pair of branches with ease before ending in Clarisse's arms and downing both of them with the force of his landing. "Nikolas? Nik!" She called out, trying to shake him awake.

Nikolas's reactions were sluggish, dazed. He opened his eyes but found that everything seemed blurry - his gaze honed in on the girl shaking him back and forth by his shoulders and identified her, before he grabbed her arm and softly asked her to stop. "I'm awake…"

"Oh thank Luca…" Clarisse muttered to herself, her demeanour easing a bit as she saw her partner regain consciousness. "I had no idea what that spell would do, I'm sorry! Did it hurt you too?"

"I'll live…" Nikolas muttered, his ears still ringing and his vision still making him see afterimages. He tried to stand up, but the ground also seemed like it was shaking. Blinking a few more times returned his vision to normal, but the other drawbacks remained in place. "Did it go down?"

"Yeah, the bird's dead. It's up there!" Clarisse pointed out to him after helping him get up, gesturing higher up on the mountain. Laying within the snow was now the lifeless mangled corpse of the bird, though there were other things to worry about.

Nikolas found that his hearing also returned pretty quickly, but the feeling of the ground moving was still constant. He quickly looked around himself, muttering negations all the while as he prayed that what he thought wasn't happening. "We need to get to solid footing, now…"

In conjunction with his warning, the snow around the bird's corpse shifted as an entire layer. It slid forward onto the path, followed by the layers of around it falling in to fill the new gap. Both companions watched helplessly as the snow began to accumulate and move faster, heading down towards them with the beginnings of an avalanche.

"Go, go!" Nikolas hastened Clarisse while still hobbling himself, but soon a thin layer of snow was sliding past their feet. A great rumbling could be heard higher up on the peak, and within seconds he saw a massive wave of snow rolling down the mountainside headed straight for them.

Clarisse froze for a moment upon hearing the deep rumbling sound, reminded of her first experience of being buried under snow. The sight of the wave coming for them solidified just how much worse it was going to be as the force of nature completely engulfed most of the trees on its path towards them. There was no point in running away from it with the rate at which it was moving, and the last thing she felt before everything went to black was Nikolas shielding her from the brunt of the impact.

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