I blinked rapidly, barely having time to process what I was seeing, when the weapon crashed into the lion and broke apart into thousands of glittering pieces, falling to the floor, leaving the animal unharmed. The lion creature turned and looked up at me, and I went stiff with shock. He was the most majestic being I’d ever seen. Angel marks glowed on his light cream fur, and a pair of white feathered wings rested along his sides.
I tore my gaze away from the magnificent creature and looked at the level ten, surprised to see a flicker of fear in her eyes.
Lifting her fingers, she snapped, but nothing happened, and the fear that was once a flicker was now fully covering her face.
“You’re not getting away that easily,” the lion creature bellowed, his deep voice rumbling in my chest.
He spoke. The lion talked!
I squinted and saw waves of energy coming off of his body, wrapping around the level ten. The energy was translucent and hard to see, but it reminded me of high heat coming off of the concrete in summer.
The demon crouched on her heels and hissed at him, and I readied myself for another fight.
“Tatum, to me!” the lion commanded, and my spine straightened.
He knew my name! His voice was a mixture of human and animal, deep and rough, but oddly soothing.
He was clearly on our side, so I ran forward, blade drawn, and stood at his side.
“You have to behead a level ten to kill them,” he coached me.
Awesome, behead someone. No big deal.
I knew she wasn’t human, but she looked like one, or at least she had a few moments ago. Right now she looked straight out of a horror movie, head cocked to one side, rocking on her heels as black smoke rose up off of her skin.
If I could suck my thumb and rock in a corner I would, but there was no time; she was running.
Fast.
The lion creature had somehow managed to subdue her power and prevent her from escaping, but from the way his furry legs shook and he bared his teeth, I could tell the effort had cost him, so we needed to kill her quickly.
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting his power to be, but when legit blue laser beams shot from his eyes and seared into the demon’s legs, I realized it was definitely not that.
“Now!” he screamed.
The level ten fell forward, her legs burnt from the lion’s blue lasers. I gripped my sword and swung it like a bat, aiming for a home run across her evil little neck. The edge of my blade sliced into it before hitting bone and severing that too. Her head flew from her body and landed at my feet.
Bile rose in my throat. I stood there in shock, holding the sword and looking at her head, which was now withering into a green, scaly, lizard-looking thing.
What the heck?
Don’t vomit… don’t vomit.
Breathing slowly through my nose, I managed to keep my food down.
I looked back to make sure Drea and the rest were seeing this and saw them on a knee, heads bowed in respect.
Oh.
Whipping my head back to the creature, I dropped to one knee also.
“Well done, Tatum. I’m Aurum, your guardian,” he said, and chills broke out over my arms.
Guardian, likeguardian angel? I had a freaking eye laser-shooting lion with wings as a guardian? I didn’t know what to say, but that… was… awesome!
“Hi,” I squeaked.
His voice became serious. “It’s time for you to start preparing for your mission.”
