“What are you?” Dallion asked.

The firebird looked at him with amusement and curiosity, standing so close to the chamber wall that it was almost touching.

“Nil, I’d like some help with this.”

It’s a first for me as well, the echo said. Usually, firebirds fall within the yellow-red color scale. While there have been stories of awakened stumbling across white ones on rare occasions, I can’t remember any references indicating there have been blue ones.

That wasn’t very reassuring. On the other hand, he couldn’t detect any hostility coming from the guardian. If the gate to the next level was open, Dallion might as well have just passed through.

“You okay for a draw?”

The giant bird tilted its head in the fashion only owls could. Green eyes glistened in the same fashion that a standard firebird’s would. Normally those would be the weak points Dallion would target to defeat the creature. Would it be the same here, though?

“Any chance you could surrender and let me pass?” Dallion used his music skills to add weight to the suggestion.

There was no effect whatsoever. The guardian tilted its head to the other side, its emotions unchanged.

“I guess not.” He swung the harpsisword in the air, clearly indicating his intentions. “Let’s do this.”

COMBAT INITIATED

Dallion prepped his shield. The expectation was that the firebird would throw a wave of flame in his direction. Instead, the guardian moved back, pressing against the wall. The hundreds of flames composing its feathers merged into one that spread along the stone surface, then flashed along the entire wall to the other side of the chamber. It was like watching a propane flame ignite.

That’s also something I haven’t seen before, Nil said, sounding as surprised as Dallion felt.

Not only was the creature made of flame, but it had the equivalent of teleportation as well? This was going to be difficult.

Dallion let go of the harpsisword and summoned the dartbow. His first shot targeted the guardian in the chest. The bolt went through the chamber, passing through the firebird and into the wall behind. The next bolt targeted the eye. Keeping a steady hand, Dallion exhaled and squeezed the trigger once more.

This time the guardian reacted, bursting along the wall and moving to an entirely different spot. Dallion’s response was to repeat the action, this time faster. Time after time he’d shoot at the firebird, going as fast as the weapon would let him. For a moment he felt like in a cowboy movie, shooting at cans around him. The only difference was that the “can” would either remain perfectly still or poof elsewhere should the bolt be aimed at the correct spot.

It was obvious that the creature was mocking Dallion. Had it wanted it could have counterattacked at any point, yet for ten seconds it persistently moved about the wall of the chamber, proving its superiority. At one point, it even moved to the ceiling—just a quick demonstration that wasn’t off limits either.

“Stop!” Dallion said, filling the word with an intense dose of calm.

Instead of obeying, the guardian moved again, this time sliding along the floor. The moment Dallion caught a glimpse, he knew what was in store, yet his reaction speed was too low for him to be able to do anything about it. Before he could jump, blue flames had already surrounded him, lifting him in the air the same way a crow would grab a mouse.

Dallion’s pulse spiked as the flaming beak tightened around him. The shield had extended, protecting his left side, though Dallion could still feel the heat from the right. Emerging from the floor, the guardian gained form, then continued on, slamming Dallion into the ceiling, before merging into the stone surface.

MEDIUM WOUND

Your health has been decreased by 10%

The pain felt very real, as if Dallion had been slammed in the face and chest with a desk. And that was the least of his worries. The moment the pain disappeared, gravity took over, pulling Dallion back to the floor. From this distance he wasn’t expected to lose any more health thanks to his body level. However, that had never been the guardian’s goal. When Dallion halved the distance down, the guardian emerged from below, once more driving him up into the ceiling.

MINOR WOUND

Your health has been decreased by 5%

“What the—” Dallion managed to say before the process repeated again.

MINOR WOUND

Your health has been decreased by 5%

This would have been comical if it wasn’t so serious. Dallion was trapped in a real-life combo of attacks from which there didn’t seem to be any escape. Already he had lost as much health as all the previous guardians combined. A few more slams against the ceiling and he wouldn’t be able to face the final guardian even if he managed to deal with this one.

Think, he told himself. Time slowed down to a crawl.

This was a fine mess Dallion had gotten himself into. After so many years of battles and learning—all in the span of a real-life month—he had become complacent. Up to now he had never considered a guardian could make use of its surroundings in such a way. The firebird seemed to have no openings or weak points, because it wasn’t the one attacking. Instead, it was using other forces to deal damage. If Dallion had been forced to fight flames alone, as he had in the past, he had strategies he could use. The current situation was as if he were fighting against a brick wall. Suddenly, a thought passed through his mind. Not losing an instant, Dallion unstrapped the shield from his arm.

“Cocoon me!” he shouted.

Before he could finish, the shield extended, enveloping Dallion in a large metal ball. No sooner had it done so than a loud thud resonated through it. Dallion then felt as if he were falling down once before the ball was propelled back into the ceiling again. Not the best situation, but at least he wasn’t losing health now.

For half a minute the ball, with Dallion in it, went up and down until suddenly there was no further thrust. Left to gravity, the large metal sphere continued down, crashing into the ground.

“Ouch!” Dallion went.

As the pain subsided, nothing but stillness remained.

“Shield, where’s the bird?” Dallion asked.

While he knew that the shield couldn’t respond, he was also aware that the harpsisword could. A soft melody soon followed, letting him know that the guardian was in fact there, looking at the shield with curiosity and pecking it with its beak of fire.

The first thing Dallion could imagine upon hearing that was the encounter between a sparrow and a gold ball. When he had seen the clip back on Earth, he had found it hilarious. It wasn’t so hilarious now, although it got him thinking. The guardian’s behavior strongly reminded him of someone else he had fought a while back. It was something of a gamble, but given how poorly he was doing so far, it was worth a try.

Dallion stood up as much as the limits of the ball would allow him.

“Am I facing the firebird?”

The sword’s response was “no.”

Dallion turned slightly right. “How about now?”

The response was still no, but this time the harpsisword gave adequate instructions so he was able to achieve what he wanted. Once done, Dallion slowly stepped back, causing the shield to roll along the chamber floor.

“What’s it doing now?”

Apparently, the guardian outside paused at the ball’s movement, tilted its head left, then right, then cautiously approached and started pecking again.

So far Dallion’s hypothesis held true. Now it was time to test it.

“Shield, I’ll roll you a bit back,” Dallion said. “I want you to make me an opening and when I get out, close up again. Okay?”

The harpsisword conveyed Dallion’s agreement.

With a nod, Dallion started his plan in motion. Moving slowly back, he waited until the connecting element was in the correct position. At that point, the ball cracked open like an accordion. When the opening grew large enough, Dallion jumped out. His instinct was to summon the harpsisword, but he suppressed it. For this to work, he had to be unarmed.

The guardian redirected its focus to Dallion for a moment, but then quickly lost interest and continued pecking at the ball again.

No malice, Dallion said to himself. No anger or hatred.

“It’s interesting, isn’t it?” he asked, converting joy through his words. “A pity you can’t actually peck it.”

Watching the beak dissolve in flame around the metal ball during each peck, then return to normal as the beak moved away was both strange and somewhat sweet.

“You’re just a little chick, aren’t you?” Firechick to be exact or whatever the proper term was.

Step by step, Dallion moved closer. At each stop he stopped, making sure not to scare or agitate the guardian. Then, after seeing there was no change, he would go on. When he was at arm’s length away, Dallion slowly moved his hand forward and put it on the creature’s “plumage.” The blue flames grew larger. Dallion could feel the heat in his hand. There was no damage, just pain. Slowly, the pain diminished until it subsided entirely. There was only warmth now.

“You’re a good little chick, aren’t you?” he asked.

The flames shrunk to their original size.

“You’ve no idea what’s going on.” Dallion rubbed the firebird’s underbelly. “Nil, how are firebirds born?”

There’s no consensus on the matter, the echo replied. The initial creation still remains a mystery, but in the wild it is believed to appear when their “parent” dies for some reason. That’s impossible for guardians, however.

“Not entirely.” It was true that a guardian would disappear when defeated, thus marking the leveling up of the item, or in this case the clearing of the level. However, there was one exception. Dallion had seen instances of guardians being killed without any consequences to the overall item. “Not if they had been killed in another fashion.”

Dear boy, Nil sighed. There’s no other way a guardian could be killed. For that matter, even if there was, the result would be identical.

“What about shelfeys?” Dallion asked. “I’ve seen what happens, and unlike the stories the guild tells people, I know what that means. If you have a way of telling Adzorg or anyone else out there what’s going on, I suggest you do it.”

Give me a moment.

“Take all the time you need.” Dallion kept patting the guardian. His actions had caused the entire bird to start shrinking in size. Already it was two-thirds its original size and kept on getting smaller. And that was to be normal, for it wasn’t the guardian that was supposed to be here—it was its offspring.

Somehow, a chainling had found its way into the dagger, and fairly recently. Dallion speculated that it had attempted to transform the original firebird into a shelfey, but had likely died when the guardian had perished. Due to its nature, the guardian had done what firebirds did in the wild upon death—created an offspring, and a very unusual one at that.

“That’s why you’re blue, isn’t it?” Dallion rubbed the bird’s head. It was about his size now. “The chainling affected you in some way, but it didn’t turn you into a shelfey.”

The thought made him shiver. A flaming shelfey was more than he could handle. It would be like walking through a level full of fire. It was good to know that this world had some overarching defense mechanisms in place to keep from it from imminent disaster, at least most of the time.

“You can return to normal now, shield,” Dallion said as the firebird flapped onto his hand. Similar to Nox at the time, it enjoyed being petted—something it had never experienced in its life or in any previous “incarnation” either.

“Who whoo,” the guardian squeaked, its call ringing through the chamber.

“Yeah, yeah.” Holding it, Dallion continued petting it with his free hand. “Who did this indeed? I don’t suppose you could tell me?”

The owlet looked at him with its large emerald eyes, then melted into a puddle of flame in the palm of Dallion’s hand. Before he could blink, the flame ran up his arms, covering the entire upper part of his body.

MINOR HEAL

Your health has been increased by 5%

Red rectangles appeared, stacking up one after the other. Was that the creature’s anomaly? Instead of causing damage it could only use its flames to remove damage? It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing Dallion had experienced, not to mention quite useful.

For several seconds his health continued to increase by five percent until at one point the flames disappeared. Dallion was surrounded by darkness.

DAGGER Level 4 has been cleared!

Claim the focus that suits you best and continue to fulfil the DAGGER’s destiny.

The chamber lit up. Soon after, the familiar five rectangles appeared. Dallion, however, wasn’t in the mood for choosing. When it disappeared, the firebird had taken the joy that he had put in it through his words, making him slightly empty. Dallion felt that he had lost something, but couldn’t tell what. Logically he was supposed to be happy—not only had he cleared the level, but he’d gotten his health restored—an impossible feat even in this world. And still, he didn’t.

“Nil, what happens when I fulfil the dagger’s destiny?” Dallion asked, even if he knew the answer.

You awaken its hidden potential, came the reply.

However, in doing so, Dallion was also going to lose the dagger’s guardians. The copyette had mentioned that no one knew what happened to the guardians once that occurred, but it was certain that the firebird wouldn’t be here.

“Thanks,” Dallion said, trying to voice as much joy as he could. As difficult as it was, the action seemed to have an effect.

Who knows.? Maybe I’ll get lucky, Dallion thought as he pushed the ??? rectangle.