Sepki pulled his mace free and kicked me square in the abdomen. It launched me backward. I skirted along the sand of the beach, shooting sand up until my legs slammed against a tree. I twisted around and fell to the floor.

  Holy shit. This new body I had didn't make him any less dangerous. But thank Anubis I had it. Sand kicked up around him as he raced toward me. I pressed my palms against the ground and pushed myself up. I landed on my feet and punched the air, then bounced around a little on the balls of my feet. Everything felt new. He ran toward me and struck again but his mace slashed at air. I was already above him, I pressed my foot on the branch of a tree and propelled myself downward. I stuck out my claws and slashed at him, he tried to block me but I was too quick. I connected with the gap in his bronze armor and cut into his clavicle, then I slashed with my other hand and got his face. I bloodied him with my extended claws. His mace slammed against my head right before I clawed again, once again I went flying. Even though he wasn’t using his god’s power, he was still very strong. This time, however, I was prepared for flying back. I twisted in the air and reached my hand out, my claw scraped into a tree and I redirected my momentum, spinning around the tree and shooting back at him. I rolled on the ground and stuck my claws up to block Sepki’s mace attack.

  “Use your powers, Sepki,” I said, “I dare you.”

  Sepki used his spare hand to grip my muscular neck, I snickered as he tightened his grasp around it, “Kill a child? That was it. When Dale said that, all the weirdness started to click.”

  He threw me down on the ground and attempted to stomp me with his foot, I twisted before I could do that. I swept at his feet. He jumped over my leg and propelled himself forward, he was above me and kicked both his feet down to try to impact my chest. I rolled out of the way.

  I pressed my hands against the sand and lifted my foot up, my foot connected with the center of his back. He let out a primal yell as he got knocked forward, off-kilter. I threw myself up again and scraped a chunk of his shoulder with my claws.

  He let out another pained gasp, and pivoted, landing a mace shot on my chest.

  “Ooof!” I let out a pained cry as the wind got knocked out of me. He twisted his body up and uppercut my chin with the mace, lifting me into the air before knocking me down. I got up and gave myself some distance.

  God… even though I was taking shots, this power was insane. Broken even. I remember Anubis telling me she’d never had a paladin before. It seemed like she didn’t know when enough was enough and gave me too much power. He chucked the mace at me. I leapt over it but he was in the air waiting to meet me with a punch. Damn, the ol’ drill and lob. His fist traveled through my maw and I saw teeth shoot into the sand below. Hope I get those back when I devolve!

  While in the air, I reached out and kicked him in the solar plexus. He let out another gasp but blocked my other fist from punching him. I reached out with my other claw but he blocked that too. He held onto both of my wrists and so I craned my flexible neck forward and bit onto his neck.

  Sepki let out a howl of pain as we both collapsed into the sand. He still held onto my wrists as I dug my teeth into his mouth, growling. Sepki finally had to let go of my hands to grab my maw and try to rip me off. That was when I clawed at his sides, like a boxer who saw an opening. I clawed at his obliques, digging my nails into the crevices beneath his armor, feeling tender flesh that my animal appendages could reach into.

  He used his strength to pry open my maw. He was attempting to pull my jaw out of my skull. He kept going until my mouth came to its end but he still kept pulling.

  It felt like my jaw was going to come clean off. I snarled and grunted but he kept going. My tail wagged from the nerves as I grabbed at his arms to try to pry him off of me. I slapped at his face but he kept me at arms length. He was still much bigger than me as a full ground adult.

  I gripped at his wrists instead, my claws digging into him but he still didn’t let up. The pain became unimaginable and I could feel the creaking of my jaw about to be removed from its hinges.

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  “Ah!” Sepki let out a cry. He looked down to see that Ynec had stabbed his bone knife into Sepki’s thigh. He still did not let go of my jaw, but his grip weakened. He was distracted, attempting to kick Ynec away. Becoming distracted with Ynec, I dug my claws into him and pulled. It allowed just enough of a gap to slip under. I clawed at his other thigh. He yelled and dropped down to his knee. I slashed him in the face again. He dropped down farther. When I went to slash him again, it turned out he was reaching for his mace in the sand. He knocked me square in my chest and I was shot into the lake, my body skipping along the water like a stone. I slapped the surface over and over and over and eventually my body dripped in.

  I opened my eyes. There were no creatures here. The otherwise full body of water was starkly empty. Except for one creature. I turned around. The giant spindly dorsal fin that chased me the other day and almost ate me, I had seen what it now belonged to. It was colossal. I was away from it and could not see its whole body under the lake. creature with tendrils coming out of its mouth, presumably to pluck things and eat them. I immediately began doggy paddling back. My strength amplified by the dog form. It was…. Much bigger than i had anticipated. It turns out the dorsal fin was only atop its head, and its long neck stretched down to an even larger body. And when it opened its mouth to try to eat me, it was not even half way open and my entire troupe of paladins could have fallen in.

  Out of the corner of my eye was a dog icon, bifurcated into two colors. The top 70% was red, while the bottom was green. This was my time limit. I was running out. I made it back to the shore. He chased Ynec, every time he reached his hands out, Ynec would leap or dive or duck. Ynec snapped at him but finally, Sepki got a hit. He slapped Ynec in the face which threw him along the beach. I snarled and leapt at him again, pinning Sepki to the ground.

  Drool dripped from my teeth as I told him, “So… you gonna be honest about why you don’t use those powers?”

  Sepki snarled back. He pushed me off and I landed on my back.

  “Guess not.” I chucked myself upward and said, “I guess I’ll be honest for both of us!”

  Sepki tried to silence me but I jutted out of the way of his mace.

  “You can’t use your powers because they’re tied to the God Ra.”

  Sepki plunged his mace into my abdomen but I wasn’t there. I skirted to the left. “And you can’t let Ra know what you’re doing because he can’t find out.”

  Sepki sliced the air as I dipped under another mace attack.

  “Because this book you need is personal. It has nothing to do with Ra. You’re not here on his mission,” I clawed him, “You don’t want him to find out because he’s got strict guidelines and that would make you an oathbreaker!”

  This time, he got his mace on me. But I tanked the shot. He was clearly weakening. Sepki then provided another opening for me to sink my teeth into his neck, and I happily obliged.

  Sepki let out a pained shriek as he fell to the ground.

  I took deep labored breaths as I saw that he had fallen. I saw my power timer. It was critically low, but I had done it. I had knocked him down. Ynec hobbled back to me.

  Sepki looked up at the sun and between breaths, started to laugh, “You’re right, you’re absolutely right.”

  I waited for him to get up, but he didn’t. He laid on the beach, his arm blocking the sun’s ray from hitting his eyes.

  “I’ve always enjoyed the sun’s warmth.”

  “What?” I said.

  “I’ve always enjoyed the sun’s warmth. It basked over me when I played. I missed it when it was gone. I knew when it set, it would be back again tomorrow.

  I kept en garde but glancing at my little doggy timer, it was almost all red. Then again, he was so bloodied that I couldn’t believe he could get up in his current form.

  He took a deep sigh and continued, “I wanted to be that warmth. I wanted to help people. Be the force that helped children play. With Ra, it was an obvious choice. I worked hard. I had an uncle who stopped at nothing to help make me the best, with his promise that I would return the favor and help Skorwind when I became a paladin.”

  I tapped my foot, “Look, I’ll probably be going now. Stay down, okay?”

  “The thing is… there’s darkness in the world. And the sun can’t get to every nook and crevice. That’s where I came in. I am the light. I am the sun. And there are monsters. Monsters, like your pet, that will bring the darkness to my home. So… I’ll admit… When a paladin uses his powers, their god does get a limited understanding of what happened before and what is happening during. And Ra, unlike your mangy god, Anubis, does have strict guidelines. And even though he probably didn’t hear my whole speech, I hope he heard enough of it. I hope he heard that I cherish the power he gave me. Because without his power, I wouldn’t be able to heal myself. Cleansing Fire.”

  With the quickness of fire burning paper, a fire started in his chest and radiated throughout his body. It encircled him and when he came to, he had none of the injuries left. He had been completely healed and he got up, ready to fight me.

  “What?” I asked, and in that moment, the doggy in the corner of my eye turned completely red, and I shrunk back into my normal, 9 year old form.

  “Guess it’s my turn?” He said.

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