Sparkles the Faerrow unleashed a happy giggle, bouncing in midair. Then it fired its beam attack. This column of bright pink energy slammed into the heavy brick walls behind Ondun as he dodged cleanly. Alice just raised an eyebrow.

  "Impressive. Most monsters can't dodge a Faebeam," she called out. Ondun ignored this because he had other things to worry about.

  While the Traveler's Brand gave Ondun a few advantages, like being a polyglot and having limited precognition of incoming hazards and attacks, not to mention shielding him from corrupting influences, it was just a huge advantage and not a reason to get sloppy in any fight. In this case, Ondun chose to see Sparkles as an enemy mage, a caster who would pelt him with powers from afar.

  While a Shinobi was a good job for scouting and taking down unaware targets, the simple fact was that it didn't have the longevity to survive a mage doing what a mage did best: acting as artillery. Embodying the power of the Dragon Knight was an even worse idea—while the armor and damage potential were there, the jumps that were the signature of that job would keep him out of range of the strange monster, giving it the range advantage it would thrive in.

  There was only one choice for an encounter like this. Even as he was dodging, he put a hand to his chest and drew from the Medicus knowledge gem. As soon as his robes had materialized, he released the spelliths into an aggressive formation and responded by firing his own beams from the levitating spell foci at random.

  Sparkles let out a loud, chirping giggle as it floated through the air, nimbly dodging many, but not all, of the beams. Eventually one pegged it straight in the face; as its visage was scrunched up, Ondun altered the magical configuration he had been building and instructed all four spelliths to unleash a single, powerful, accurate bolt that burned red through the daytime air. Out of the corner of Ondun's eye, he could see Alice wince as the modified spell cut into the pale shape, leaving a nasty energy burn.

  As Sparkles let out a perturbed grunt of "Faeeeeerow!!," Ondun inspected his handiwork. He'd left a few minor scratches on the beast, but nothing too serious, other than the burn that was eating away at the monster's stamina. He could keep that up, but the sheer resilience of this creature, in addition to its nimble evasions, gave Ondun a lot of pause. Clearly, this monster had fought its fair share of battles, just like he had.

  "Sparkles, he's been greeted. Let's get serious. Do the thing we did at the B.M. Tower."

  Ondun wanted to snicker at the unfortunate landmark's name, but the massive monster did something mages weren't known to do: It charged him. Ondun was now on the back foot as he danced out of the way, a little less nimbly than he might do if he were still embodying the Shinobi. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that this change in agility had not gone unnoticed by Alice. "Keep it up, Sparkles, he's not going to be as nimble as he was before!"

  Sparkles immediately pivoted in midair and repeated the feat.

  Ondun moved his spelliths about him and unleashed the anima that had been building up inside them, creating an energy shield that the monster skidded off of at an angle...only for it to reorient and slam headfirst into it, straining the magics. Ondun was already moving out of the area—it would endure on its own power for a short time, and if he went inside it, it would slowly mend his wounds. To improve his own resiliency, he gathered the spelliths about himself and altered a healing spell to instead give him a more focused, mobile shield.

  Ondun was frowning now. Given long enough, he could beat this creature, but it was a coin flip on if he could beat it solo, and Ondun was recognizing this fact the longer the duel went on. This monster was a threat at any range. Even as Sparkles reoriented for yet another blitz on him, he lined up the spell lathes and let loose another blast of neutral anima and gave Alice a look out of the corner of his eye. She had a slightly smug look but was looking a little worried too. She clearly had expected the strange monster to defeat him in only a few moves, and that wasn't what happened.

  Of course, defeating the monster in the normal way wasn't really the goal of this contest, Ondun remembered. He just needed to put Alice's monster ally through its paces, make it struggle. This wasn't a fight purely based on brute strength. Ondun had become unused to deploying his potent charisma after months of fighting his world's Vroskan Empire across two continents.

  All he had to do was convince Alice he had won the duel based on her own conditions. Ondun grinned, which drew a worried look from Alice. He dodged another charge, gave Alice a wink, and reached his hand up to his chest, replacing the robes of the Medicus with the armor of a Dragon Knight.

  "If we want to play tag..." he began, then gathered his legs, "...let's get some flight practice in while we're at it."

  Then Ondun unleashed his High Jump. Alice scoffed, and Sparkles chirped happily and dashed into the air directly beneath him. Alice cried out, "Sparkles, dodge, he's going to do something!"

  ... It was, of course, too late. The strange monster was aggressively charging and didn't have enough time to begin altering its immense inertia as Ondun reached the apogee of his high jump. He aimed his lance, the Lohengrim, beneath him and dove, the deep blue outline of a dragon flaring about him as he channeled massive amounts of anima into the dive.

  Sparkles did dodge at the last minute, but a massive purple bruise had welled up on one wing as well as a windburn. Ondun slammed into the ground, leaving a circular pattern of cracks in the concrete of the improvised arena, rocking Alice back, and forcing her to do a backflip of her own that she stabilized with both hands. She landed in a four-point lunge, her eyes glinting dangerously. It seemed to Ondun the woman was unused to needing to dodge attacks or deal with field conditions.

  Sparkles leveled off to Ondun's right, its eyes glinting fiercely, but awaiting orders from its master. Alice brushed a length of blonde hair from her face with a graceful flick. Ondun raised the visor and crest that was shaped like a dragon's head.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Are we still playing tag, or would another game be better?" Alice's mouth was open. The woman ran through a number of possible responses in her head.

  She clearly hadn't expected an attack that could cause harm on a graze and that could unleash destruction. Looking around, she saw a crowd gathering outside the Ranger's office with people already recording the match on smartphones both from the street level and from nearby buildings, and frowned. Again, the general thought was clear on the woman's brow: Ondun was making a spectacle of this. If this kept up, she'd have other fallout to deal with.

  Ondun decided it was time to proffer the proverbial carrot, now that the stick had been brandished. "So...would you say I gave your monster friend a good workout? They seem to need to touch up on their flying. With those spells at its command, it could be an untouchable menace."

  Alice's eyes narrowed. "One, Sparkles is a girl. Two, flying is hard for her, and three..."

  He raised a hand. "Peace, Guardian Alice. I also could stand to work on my aerial control too. Tell you what...I propose a trade. Let's talk over lunch." He had noticed her apprehensive glance at the growing crowd. He replaced his spear on his back as he did this and took off his helmet, just to give whatever was giving her pause even more of an impact. "I can also train with Sparkles whenever you'd like to help her get better at flying, which will help me develop my Dragon Knight arts even further. In return for this, I need to ask you some questions. It's clear that where I am isn't where I came from. Besides, where I'm from, I'm known as something of a helper."

  Alice sighed and closed her eyes. "Are you sure you're not a politician like me? As quid pro quo goes, that's a pretty good deal.... Besides, I am getting hungry. Amethyst and I had to fly here pretty quickly when we were told about you."

  Ondun cocked his head. "Is this another monster ally of yours?"

  She grinned brightly. "Eh, I may as well introduce you. She'll like your armor." She put a hand to her belt and pulled out a deep purple capsule, held it out, and pressed the release. "Amethyst, come out; there's someone I want you to meet." Even as the massive, purple, gemstone-encrusted dragon materialized, Sparkles floated over beside and slightly behind her tamer. To Ondun, it looked like she wasn't exactly on good terms with the dragon that bore down on him.

  "Amethyst, this is..." she looked to Ondun. "Given you're not human...well, are you a boy or a girl?" Ondun sighed and decided to never tell Alice about the time some of his adventurer companions had thrown a cross-dressing party that led to them needing to raid a few dungeons back-to-back. Aenora hadn't stopped teasing him for two weeks after the fact, though he'd gotten the impression she was going to give him fashion advice a few times.

  "I'm a guy. My name is Ondun, of the Knowing Circle. I'm an adventurer by trade and someone who saves countries and alliances, usually by accident." He gave a courtly bow to the astonished woman. "It's my pleasure to make your acquaintance, and that of your monster allies."

  Amethyst padded forward and put a massive claw on his head gently. With a deep, rumbling growl that sounded like the beginning of a cave-in, she pulled the paw away and went to stand beside her human. Alice giggled. "It seems Amethyst recognizes you." She turned to the dragon. "Were you watching the whole duel?"

  "Gemragon," it growled out, nodding. "Gemgemragon!" it said, with its eyes shining brightly. It turned to Ondun, and with a serious look on its face, pushing its chest out, loudly said, "GEMragon!"

  The Wayfarer's Brand reacted again. What came over wasn't language but a promise to defeat Ondun when they would inevitably duel. Ondun couldn't help but smile. He stepped forward and offered a balled fist to the monster. "Where I'm from, we have a gesture of respect—a fist bump. It shows that we respect each other's strength and have friendly intentions. Amethyst is worthy of such a gesture, Alice...as are you. You have formidable allies at your side."

  She grinned and bumped her fist into Ondun's. "Yeah, one doesn't become Guardian without her trusty companions...and good rivals to keep them sharp." Her eyes twinkled. "It's been a while since I've had a proper rival, you know. Your might, determination, and tactical sense...I feel like you'd make a fair monster coach yourself."

  Ondun thought about it. These monster allies were excellent teammates, if properly trained and cared for, it seemed. And he was condensing that anima crystal. Ondun thought for a moment further, coming up with an idea that might amuse him, help him find a way to save his comatose friends, and return home in one stroke.

  "I'd like to know more about being a 'monster coach,' as you say. I'm hungry too. What's good to eat around these parts?"

  Alice grinned, and the Captain Li sheepishly peeked out of the Ranger base behind Ondun. She gestured to him to come over too. "Come on, I know a few places. Besides, it doesn't seem like you've ever seen a city like this before. I can't have a new monster coach getting lost or disturbing the peace."

  She turned on her heel, with the Captain giving Ondun some slightly panicked looks. Ondun, for his part, simply shrugged. This was far from the weirdest thing to happen to him. With a reassuring nod to the captain, he began to follow the black and gold-dressed woman, who had now recalled her monster allies to their capsules without breaking stride.

  The trek through the city wasn't overly tedious. Many people's faces glowed with admiration and recognition when they saw their beloved Guardian was walking among the common people of the land, at least in Ondun's eyes. They saw Ondun, and their faces turned to a deep curiosity and sometimes fear, both for his own Draconian features and the ornate armor and massive lance slung across his back.

  The Ranger Captain was largely exempt from all of this and seemed to be doing his best to not stand out. He still got some cheers from passersby every once in a while, with thanks for saving a friend or a relative. Ondun gave him a pat on the back and a reassuring nod, which only seemed to make the black-haired, well-built man a little nervous. Ondun slackened his pace to walk beside the man. "You remind me of the Rangers from the lands I started my adventuring career in."

  The man looked up in shock. "How—how so?" he asked.

  Ondun thought back. "Well, Eldifia is a forest realm, like this one. It has lush wildlife, the same as here. Only where you've built these massive buildings have the humans and Elvidan of Eldifia built their dwellings and businesses into the trees. Massive bridges span from tree to tree, and an order of shamans communes with the wild to tell the common person of the will of the forest itself. Something about this, different though it is, reminds me of all of that."

  Alice slackened her gait to come to the Captain's side. "That sounds like something out of a fairy tale. Yet...for you, you've really been there, haven't you, Ondun?" He just nodded. He could see stars in the woman's eyes as her mind went into overdrive, imagining herself in such a land.

  "I've also explored some of the ruins of the precursor polity to that land. Usually because of random doomsday cults setting up shop in those, but Eldifia..." The woman stopped, then rushed forward and grabbed his gauntleted hands. "Ondun...did you say ruins!?"

  Captain Li facepalmed; Ondun had done it now. "I love archaeology. You must tell me everything!" she exclaimed, her mouth squiggling in anticipation. Ondun resolved to only allow her around Aenora with adult supervision and someone to make sure they ate when they inevitable got so far into the books that they would better resemble Goblins than any member of the Civil Folk.

  Alice began jogging forward, pulling the armored Dragon Knight behind her, as the Ranger Captain shouted for his Guardian to wait for him too. Eventually they came to a small restaurant. She guided her men in and chose a seat. "Now, Ondun...start at the beginning. I want to hear everything."