The twin lion swords from the old legends and stories I had grown up reading about were now before me. A part of me couldn’t believe this, perhaps I was even here too soon, but even now they called to me, the swords silently glowing, pulsing with power, waiting to test me.

“Do you think you can?” questioned Brendan not convinced I could summon the power of the lions.

“I don’t know,” I shrugged, remembering what had happened to Dumah. His hands had been burned and his fur standing on end, representing the elements the two swords held over fire and lightning. I wondered if I would feel the same pain and the same struggle as he did against them, surely not if I was meant to wield their power, they had been calling me.

“You don’t believe in him,” commented Tigra.

“I do, but I remember how the power of the winged serpent weakened him for some time after the connection was broken,” admitted Brendan.

“This is different,” I spoke up. “If Tigra believes in me I can try, plus…” I hesitated to say my next line. “I think I’ve been hearing their voices for quite some time now.”

“Seriously,” said Brendan surprised.

“Those dreams I keep having, I think it is them,” I nodded and walked towards the swords. “I think I am destined to wield their power.”

“You hope.” Brendan was not convinced.

I reached my hand forward but was interrupted by someone shouting from behind. “Intruders!” We quickly turned to see the knights were already getting to their feet.

“Well, that didn’t last long,” commented Tigra.

“Obviously, these clones are neither dead nor alive master,” mentioned Larana. “More failed creatures.”

“Great,” I sighed.

“What do we do?” moaned Brendan, he still was not a fan of conflict and preferred not to engage unless absolutely necessary.

“No choice but to fight, then release the swords,” I said glancing at Tigra. “Good to go.”

“Always,” nodded Tigra. “I hope they don’t damage any of this beautiful temple.”

“I think we have more than that to worry about right now,” I responded.

I then looked at Brendan. “I’m not so sure about this.”

“You’re an Ursus, just go wild,” I encouraged. I saw the hesitation in his eyes. “Brendan, this is a life-or-death battle, us or them.”

“But…” It was obvious the moment I met Brendan he would rather avoid killing of any sort, perhaps that would one day change.

“Brendan just knock them out, like when you and Fang spar,” encouraged Tigra.

“Like sparring, got it,” nodded Brendan drawing his claymore.

“Good.” I drew my own sword manifesting Larana’s wind through the sword, something I had mastered over the last two years, it had been quite difficult in the beginning but when I had my encounter with Yuuma it had clicked.

“Focus master,” snapped Larana.

“Right,” I nodded as the knights drew their swords and attacked.

I pushed away as many as possible with Larana’s wind, all the way to the other side of the building, then slashed at any that came towards me. I found this was a perfect opportunity to really test my skills with Larana and Mila against so many.

I calmly watched their moves play out before making my own move, whether that was avoiding or attacking. I moved flawlessly, it felt so easy against them, almost like they had no soul, just the intent to kill, to follow the orders Dumah had laid out for them.

I quickly knocked out two in close succession slashing them from behind after I had gotten into their blind spots. Even wounded they continued to attack unaffected by pain or the blood leaving their bodies.

“What are you?” I said aloud as I jumped away from them, slashing the blade at thin air, I sent a gust of wind at them, sending them across the room, knocking into the others I had sent earlier.

I glanced at the others to see Brendan struggling, some of the areas around the main hall did not give him a lot of room to swing his claymore around, as the pillars which held the ceiling up were already crumbly to the touch.

Tigra refused to really let her lightning power loose; she cared far more about the temple than herself. She only infused a small portion of her power into her sword, which wasn’t enough to do much damage to these freaks.

I had to move quickly as my attention returned to those who came in around me. One attacked, then another as I avoided them another attacked towards me, but I wasn’t quite quick enough or had enough room to avoid it completely.

I gasped at the pain as his sword cut deeply into my side. Larana quickly responded before he could follow up with a second attack, pushing him away. Our sync rate was much higher now, she could access my power whenever she felt she needed, such as helping me like she just did, or even protection when it came to it.

“Master,” she cried worried.

I gasped holding my side. “I’m okay.”

“I have you covered,” said Mila as I felt her healing waters on my wound, the pain was quickly neutralised.

“Thank you, Mila.” It took a moment for me to actually recover from the attack, but I had no time to be standing there as the lot I had sent to the other end of the temple were already making there way back over.

Brendan was there point of contact, as he reluctantly swung around his claymore, but he seemed to becoming more aggressive and agitated by the incoming attacks.

“Fang again!” Shouted Tigra, expecting me to send them flying again. I did as she instructed but didn’t manage to send away as many as my attack was disrupted as I had to move to the left to avoid another knight.

I glimpse a vision of Tigra getting attacked. “No.” I jumped forward away from the knights I had been dealing with and headed straight for her.

I rushed in the way of the knight coming up from behind her, where I took a hit for her, a slash down my left side.

“Alex!” cried Tigra, she stared at me surprised I would risk everything for her, if only she knew I would sacrifice my life for her.

Mila was still healing my first wound, unfortunately I was still only able to heal one wound at a time, I was not yet capable of any more than that, but it had been something new I had been working on.

“Stay back Tigra.” I lifted my hand, blowing them away before they could attack again, with my power slightly disrupted due to the pain from the wounds inflicted I did not send them as far away as I had hoped.

“But…” I needed to protect her. I knew she held more power than most, but she was an extremely important individual not just to Cathopia but to me.

“I won’t let you hurt my friends anymore!” Brendan came out of nowhere, swinging his claymore, cutting down three of them within seconds. I wondered if this completed his dept to me, but I didn’t really see this as if he hadn’t I wouldn’t have died.

“Brendan,” I smirked.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Now I am.” I took in a deep breath, realising we were not of the same skill level as the knights who were attacking us, these were clones of knights from Cathopia’s warriors, and I was still simply classed as a knight-in-training.

I glanced back at the twin lion swords, surely their power would be able to stop them, there fire and lightning, but first.

I raised my hand. “Blade cutters.” I summoned Larana’s wind into thousands of tiny sharp blades, firing them all at the knights. They were cut and pinned against the wall at the far end, giving us a moment to make a plan, if this raged on much longer they could easily go get Dumah, then this venture to claim the lions for myself would come to an end.

Before turning to Tigra I saw the cloned knights helping each other free themselves. I only had a small window. “Tigra, you believe in me that much?”

“I do,” she smiled, her eyes gleaming with the determination I seemed to lack.

I walked back over to the lion swords, sitting there with the lion statue sat behind like silent sentries, the two winged lions. White winged lion of white fire and the black winged lion of black lightning.

“Careful,” warned Brendan.

“Remember you must pull them out together,” mentioned Tigra.

I felt heat emanating from them both. I reached out, taking hold of both hilts and I pulled.