“Hey, Blade!”
I wake up. I’d fallen asleep next to a tree. I had been put on guard with Arrow Drakenheart: a bow-wielding Nexo Knight who had been my best friend for years. We’d been sent to retrieve a Nexo Power in the middle of the forest. Something to do with dreams, apparently, which made a lot of sense seeing it only came out at night.
“What now?” I get to my feet. I activate my armor's diagnostics and the technology fitted to it washes away any remnants of sleep moments later.
“Night’s falling” Arrow pointed to the sky. The sun had nearly gone down. The whole forest was covered in a strange orange light
“Great” I started to walk forward “Now we can get going. That map show anything yet?” Merlock 2.0 had given us a weird map. I say weird because it doesn't actually show anything. Merlock hadn’t specified why it was blank or how to actually use it. Apparently he had more pressing things to attend to, primarily ferrying Clay’s team to wherever Jestro and the Book of Monsters would strike next.
“No. Seeing its night now it should work, though” Arrow pulled the blue holoslate out from the bag strapped to his shoulder. it was still only blue glass.
Then the twilight ended, night fell and the holoslate suddenly sprang into life.
“Whats it showing?” I ask
“See for yourself” I walk to Arrow and look at the map over his shoulder.
“Its an arrow pointing to the left” I personally wouldn’t call it a map, it was more like a satnav, but it would do.
Arrow turned left and the arrow swung around to face forwards. Then he unexpected broke into a run. I had known Arrow do this for a long time, however, so I started pursuing him moments later.
Seeing Arrow had to get up to high places quickly for his role of sniper to really work, he had no problem swinging from overhead vines or leaping from trees as he ran. Me? I just run straight. After all, the point is to reach the location, right?
“the maps changed!” Arrow shouted as he dived to the right. I turned around as well
After about 10 minutes running, we finally arrived. It was a pink Nexo Power with a swirl as a symbol. I don't know why it looks like that, being related to dreams and all, but then again no one really understood Nexo Powers period. It was on a plinth in the middle of a clearing.
“well, that was easy” Arrow said as he walked closer. I soon followed
“more than a little too easy” I replied “keep an eye out for trouble”
To be fare, I just wanted to get this over with. My legs were aching after the run and I was feeling sleepy, even though I felt fine a few moments ago. As we walk closer to the Power, I suddenly realize how tired I actually am. My heads heavy. My visions swimming. I feel like I'm going to…
Hang on.
Isn’t the suit meant to stop me falling asleep?
I realize whats happening and turn towards Arrow. He’s looking pretty tired as well.
“ARROW!” I shout with all of my steadily draining energy
“yeah?”
“you feeling tired?”
“what do you think?”
“you do know the suits meant to prevent that, right”
Arrows eyes lit up as he acknowledged what was happening. He was always a quick thinker. “you’re saying the Power is trying to defend itself?”
“Yep. I wont be able to reach it without falling asleep, but you can shoot it off the plinth with your arrows!” my legs buckle under me and I fall over. “and hurry!”
Arrow pulled his long bow off his back and aimed. Being a Nexo weapon, the string was energy controlled by his hand, as was the arrow. i had never really known Arrow to miss, but due to the tiredness his aim wavers slightly. The arrow hits the plinth and disappears.
“keep trying!” I shout as I desperately try to crawl to the plinth. I'm surprised Arrow is still standing. He fires again, but the arrow goes straight over the top of the Power. He succumbs to the lack of strength and falls to his knees. I'm almost at the plinth but my eyelids don’t seem to want to stay open. I see Arrow’s arrow strike the Power, but it doesn't topple. Then I hear a thud as he falls.
I stand up as best I can, grab the power and rip it straight off the plinth. The armor starts working again and I suddenly feel fine. Arrow gets up too.
“I honestly don’t know how that was so hard” he says as he walks over to take a look at the Power.
“somethings not right about this” I say as I examine the power “none of them have this much power”
“stop being pessimistic. We’ll check it in with Merlock when the Fortrex arrives. Everything will be fine!”
I sure hope he’s right.

Merlock’s fooling you, Arkmoar.
“Who are you? Where am i?”
Merlock is keeping the Dream Stone for himself, to use its power for personal gain
“I don’t trust you”
What reason do you have not to?

I wake up in a cold sweat. What the brick was that? Me and Arrow had given the Power, or as this weird dream called it the Dream Stone, to Merlock this morning, yet now im being told he’s using it for personal gain.
“Stop thinking about it” I tell myself “Merlock wouldn’t do that. Plus, probably just a weird dream”. My dreams are normally so weird not even the great minds of Robin and Ava can work out what they mean. I try to go back to sleep, but I can’t. so in the end I just go to the training room, where who should I find but the person who probably wouldn’t have anything to do without training.
“Clay” I say as I walk into the training room. He’s hacking away at a hologram of Sparkks. “still can’t get over the fact he beat you?”
“At least I get to beat him again. For all your self-proclaimed ‘greatest warrior in the Kingdom’ stuff, you just get to run around getting powers”. I would have retorted and told him about Nightmare, but I remember what Merlock told me and don’t. “why are you down here anyway?” he asks as the hologram deactivates.
“Can’t get to sleep. Keep getting these weird dreams that tell me Merlock’s betraying us” I put on my armour and draw my long sword “Anyway, at least a fight with you will get it off my mind”
Clay smiles “bring it on” he draws his sword and shield. The shield gives him a slight advantage. But I can easily parry with my long sword. Of course, being as headstrong as he is, Clay charges first.
I move out of the way seconds before he would have hit me. He skids to a halt, turns and swings his sword all in one. Impressive, but im fast enough to parry the swipe and launch my own attack. He blocks it with his shield, but I go for a kick while he’s open. It sends him flying back but he gets his footing quicker than I expected. This time, I charge, but he sees it coming and knocks me back with his shield. However, im still in range and I swipe at him with my sword, but he sees that coming too and parrys almost perfectly. I go for a kick again but he knew it was coming and blocks with his shield. I use the shield as a stepping stone and leap backwards, spinning in mid-air before landing.
Had no effect on the fight, but hey, it looked cool.
Clay lunges in like a fencer and goes for a stab, but he misjudges the range and I knock the sword out of his hand. he uses the shield to backhand my sword away as well.
“hand to hand?” I ask as I get in a fighting stance.
“of course” Clay says. He then precedes to kick me in the chest.
I pretended to look like im really hurt so he’ll follow up. Sure enough he goes for a punch to the ribs, but I block it and launch my own punch. He blocks it with his shield hand but I knock the shield away in the process. I follow up with a hook kick to the head and this time it connects, knocking him to the ground. He rolls and gets back up again.
Unfortunately, before we can continue Macy runs in
“Jestro’s attacking a village” she says as me and Clay pick up our weapons “me and Arron are ready, but everyone’s asleep except for Arrow and Lance, who seemed to have disappeared entirely”
“knowing Arrow he’s probably there already” I say as we walk towards the door. “Lance, on the other hand…”
“Don’t worry about him” Clay says “He’ll probably be sitting in a hot tube in Knightonia or something”
We get close to the drawbridge and I see Arron already floating there on his…
Jestro…you are seriously worried about fighting him?
I leap back in surprise “did you guys hear that?”
“What, you’re hearing things? Dude,your going crazy!” Arron says as the drawbridge lowers.
“im not going crazy!” I retort.
“Shut up both of you!” Clay snapped “Get ready to fight!”

Someone knocks on my door moments after I wake up. No other weird dreams had come to me that night. I’m rather surprised that no voice had come into my head yet. I open the door and find Arrow standing there.
“where have you been?” I ask. He’s in full armor and looks tired.
“I’ve been finding out more about the Nightmare guy Merlock mentioned. Lance decided to come with me but got side tracked by ‘being famous’”
“he gets side tracked by ‘being famous’ mid battle, let alone when he randomly decides to get off the Fortrex. What did you find out, anyway?”
“hardly anything Merlock hadn’t told us. I did, however, find out that it tries to corrupt you by gaining your trust. It does it differently for each victim, so you might not know its happening. It might be happening to me or you right now”
“I think I’d know if I was being corrupted”
“the whole reason I'm telling you this is because you can’t tell. And even if you can, it clouds your judgement so even under those circumstances you can’t”
“if that’s the case, then tell Merlock if you think anythings wrong with me”
“And you tell him if anything goes wrong with me”
“Deal”
We shake hands while pretending to look as stern and posh as possible. Then we break down laughing. Arrow’s sense of humour matches my own. When we first met in weapons class back at knight’s school, we saw massive similarities between us. We were friends in that instant.
A few hours later, after getting my armor, training a bit with Macy and wandering about the Fortrex for about half an hour, the rolling castle finally halted in Knightonia. While Clay and his team got congratulated for what is rightfully my achievement and the Fortrex was refueled and re armed, me, Arrow and the other 20-ish Nexo Knights got to wander around a bit. Arrow went to the knight’s school to see if he could help out there. I personally went to the news building. One of the robot reporters there was a friend of mine. Whenever we stopped in Knightonia he’d update me on recent events. I knew most of them first hand, though, seeing the Nexo Knights were the only thing you’d hear about these days. It was more to see how the media portrayed everything. They mentioned Clay’s group almost all the time, yet never mentioned me, Arrow or the others. Whether the adventures of Clay were more newsworthy or Halbert just wanted Macy to get seen, I don’t know. We usually chat in the lobby, seeing theres not much point going to a coffee shop with him being a robot and all.
“There was a battle in a village” I say “my planning saved the day and the monsters were gunned down by a forward facing Fortrex. Did you get that?”
“Yeah, we did” he said “But we said Macy came up with the idea. The footage was edited so that Axel was in”
“They didn’t edit it so Lance was in?”
“The footage team tried to avoid shots of you as much as possible”
“But I was still in it?”
“For about 3 seconds and covered in Goblins? Yeah, sure” we both laughed, despite the unfairness of it all.
“Anything else?”
“A few things about battles and where Jestro was likely to strike next. We plan to interview you and the other less famous Nexo Knights so we can talk about something other than vicious attacks on the kingdom. Other than that, nothing”
“Well, it’s been nice seeing you again. Keep out of trouble, right?” I turn round and walk out of the building.
“I’m a robot reporter!” he shouted back “its against my programming to get in trouble!”
For all the rubbish robots get, they’re actually really nice people.
Next port of call: the knights school. Not to see Arrow, though: he drops into tactical classes. The students know who he is, even if the media doesn’t care. Most of the students there will be Realm Knights or Knighton Guards. To be an actual Nexo Knight was a grand dream that few fulfilled. So when a Nexo Knight, even one as obscure as me or Arrow, drops in, everyone is simply ecstatic. I dropped into weapons classes when I had any spare time in Knightonia. Not for the sake of fame, but because it just gives me and the students a buzz that really can’t be matched.
The domed arena was currently being used by a class of about 30 students. All of them had completed their first 3 months of training and had chosen a weapon that they will train with for the next 2 years of training. The two-handed sword had been an obvious choice for me, and its good to see the majority haven’t been influenced by recent events. There are a few more maces and two-handed axes than my time, but the number of shortswords has gone down since I last visited.
“hey, guys!” I shout over to the class in the middle of the large arena. Everyone turns to see who was there, including the teacher. Then they all (except the teacher, of course) shout with joy. I walk over and shake their hands. Their all about 14, but they’ve still been taught eticate from their noble households.
“so” I say, as the teacher steps back in an ‘over to you’ kinda way “whose chosen what weapon?”
“I’ve taken the spear!” one of them says
I walk over to the girl who said it. “The spear handles pretty unequally. Why did you choose it?”
“Im defensive, so I block attacks with the handle and then go for the stab”
“with your shield that may change. But its still a very good choice” I look up at the rest of the class “Who took one of the weapons Clay’s group are using?”
About 13 people put their hands up
“Who choose it because it was wielded by one of Clay’s group?”
12 people.
I sigh “I'm not saying that’s a bad choice, but its not the best. Continue on with the training, but next time you get a choice like this, follow your heart. Don't follow anyone else's. Even if it’s a trend, if its popular, that’s following someone else’s path which should rightfully be walked by them and only them. And that goes for all of you. Anyway…” I pull my sword of my back “Who wants to duel?”

It was rare occasion when all of the roughly 20 Nexo Knights fought as one. We had just got a horrifying image from Arron’s helmet cam: a massive army of monsters, bigger than any army the Book of Monsters had created before. Half of the the monsters weren’t even filed. I’m pretty sure Robin is trying to convince Merlock to use Warmonger. We arrive moments before the monsters do, and deploy at an insane speed. Baracades are set up directly in front of where they’re charging. Squirebots arm heavy weaponry and vehicles. I can’t see Warmonger yet, but I can see Robin running around setting everything up.

Then they charge.

A storm of red flies at us and we surge to meet them. I slash at basically anything that comes in my way. Massive monsters try to smash me down and I send them back to their stupid book. A battle finally deserving of my abilities. I look around to my fellow knights. Lance is using his robotic horse to smash through the endless hoards. Clay is effortlessly cutting through the monsters, his blade whirling at an immense speed. Axel is duelling some dog-like giant. Macy is helping the squirebots getting the villagers out the way, but would soon be back in the fight.
“they’re coming out the pit!”
I hear a shout from Arrow, who’s shooting from one of the rooftops. He’s looking down at the intersecting walkways of the pit.
“We can afford to lose this part of the village!” Macy shouted “move into the pit!”
“You sure that’s a good idea?” I shout back. The majority of the Nexo Knights were jumping onto the walkways now “they’ll get the higher ground!”
“We’ll fire on them from afar!” said Arrow, who stayed where he was. I don’t blame him “we’ll hold the other side of the pit with the artillery!”
He’s right. I abide and jump down the pit. I land on one of the lower walkways. The pit is about 2 miles deep, so my armour can resist the impact. I look down to see weird drilling monsters coming out the ground. I leap down again, falling to the bottom of the pit and slamming my sword into one of them, sending it back to the Book of Monsters. Artilary hammers the ground around me, blasting apart any of the monsters breaking through. I jump up to another walkway, grabbing the edge and quickly pulling myself up. The monsters were breaking through the walls of the pit, charging down the supporting walkways, with me now standing on a crossroads with two streams of monsters coming at me. Arron flies above one of them and blasts them apart.
“Way to spoil the fun!” I shout back, as I cut through the Goblins coming in the other direction
“Well, sorry dude!” I hear Arron says as he flies up through the twisting walkways. The entire pit is caught in vicious combat. Even the squirebots are having to help out. The artillery at the top of the pit is keeping most of the monsters at the top joining the ones coming out the bottom, but it means they can’t help us now.
A fist slams into my back and I fall to the ground. Sparkks had caught me off guard. I get up and swing my sword. It slams into his arm but doesn't hinder him to much. He reacts with a punch that sends me off my feet and crashing into the wall. My longsword goes skidding off the walkway into the pit. I can’t win in single combat against him. However, I notice something he doesn't.
A humanoid robot with two longswords drawn and a shoulder mounted crossbow pointing in his direction.
The crossbow fires and blasts Sparkks in the back, but not harming him much. He turns to face the newly arrived Warmonger. His fist goes flies towards it but the robot deflects it with it’s longsword, going for a stab with another. Again, it hits Sparkks but doesn't damage him much. The monster kicks Warmonger and it goes flying back, but quickly finds it’s footing. I jump down back into the bottom of the pit to see multiple goblins pouring out of new tunnels, the old ones having collapsed due to artillery fire. I punch my way through them, but their skin is tough without my sword and they start to wear me down. I can hear Warmonger’s whirring gears as it fights against Sparkks, but I have no idea whats happening.
I grab my sword, swing it around and tear down the goblins in one fell swoop. Sparkks has his back turned to me as he’s so busy fighting Warmonger. I jump back up to the walkway and stab Sparkks in the back, sending him back to his book.
“Good work, Blade Arkmoar” Warmonger said. It didn’t sound the least bit like a compliment, but then again it doesn't sound the least bit like anything.
“You to” I say. I dash up the stairs to a higher platform, Warmonger using jets in it’s feet to fly up to the top of the pit, probably to help the artillery.
I start slashing through the monsters on that platform, with Macy assisting from a few meters away. The battle was looking pretty equal right now, and even if it wasn’t the arrival of Warmonger would turn the tide in our favor. Even then, though, we weren’t doing well.
“Hey, Macy!” I shout over to her “wanna power up?”
“If it smashes through these pests, then yeah, sure!” she said, her mace smacking a small dragon-like creature off the platform.
“MERLOCK!” I shout to no one in particular, bringing my comns to life “requesting Nexo Power. Under these circumstances, Solar Sabre is a good pick”
“Commencing Nexo Scan!” I hear the wizard say, followed by multiple beeps in my helmet. Because I don’t have a shield, a bracelet that links into my armour goes orange instead.
“MACY!” I shout to her. We’re fighting back-to-back now “you want in on Solar Sabre?”
“Sure!” she says “Merlock, get me in on that countdown!”. Her shield goes orange as well.
The countdown stops.
“I love this part” I say.
Then my blade is set alight.

I'm on my knees. Jestro is circling me. Laughing at me. Looking upon a Knightonia in ruins.
“see!” he says “I'm good at being bad! I'm better than you! You called me a nobody! You called me a fool! Well who’s the one on his knees?! Who’s the one with the fallen kingdom?!”
I hear another voice. A hissing voice.
“Why do you bow down to him? Why do you let him destroy your world?”
A sword appears in my hands. And then the voice appears again.
“Why do you let him live?”

I wake up before anything else happens. I fell asleep on the sofa of the living room I was in.
Then I realize Warmonger is standing over me like some stone sentinel.
“Warmonger?” I groan as I get up “How long have you been here?”
“3 hours and 23 minutes” it says “however, diagnostic scan prove that you have been sleeping for 5 hours 38 minutes. I was not, however, able to identify your dreams”
I suppose that’s a good thing.
“whats going on now?” I ask. We leave the room to find Gronlem bustling with Squirebots and villagers. The platforms are scorched from Solar Sabre and a few of them have collapsed, but otherwise everything seems to be fine.
“Jestro left with something from the room you were sleeping in. We believe it is a stone able to free a monster of unknown power, most likely very dangerous”
“sounds like him”
“you and Arrow have been chosen for a recon mission”
“why him and not Arron?”
“Arron was knocked out in combat. He would be an inefficient tactical choice”
“why not you?”
“I am on 4% battery”
“fair enough”
We climb multiple stairs to the Fortrex. All the artillery is being packed away. Warmonger disappears into the Fortrex as Arrow comes down the drawbridge
“Took your time” he says
“We need to get moving” I say “we have no idea where Jestro’s going but we have a vague idea of where he is”
“He’s got to have surfaced by now” Arrow says as we walk off into the forest “he shouldn’t be that hard to find”

An hour after we’ve started, we find tracks. According to Arrow, Jestro surfaced a few miles away from where we are now.
“The tracks are fresh” Arrow says “he can’t have gotten far”
“you’re right. He hasn’t”
A voice from above. I look up. There was someone in the trees. A girl, around my age, covered from the neck down in skintight brown leather, worn and dirty. She had a green hood, with a cape attached to it. She jump down from the trees with feline agility.
“Been a long time since I’ve seen you two” she says
“Jade Daggerfall” I say. I know her name because she had been at Knights School with me and Arrow. While everyone else had come from lines of noblemen and warriors, she had come from a lineage of ruthless assassins. She had become a Nexo Knight like me and Arrow, but had found life dull and tedious without Jestro keeping us busy. She abandoned the Fortrex 5 months after she became a knight, instead turning her battle knowledge to lead a group of mercenaries called the Gryer Rouges. She doesn't fight for money, though: she does it for the sheer fun of it.
“whose side are you on?” Arrow asks. Its obvious the Rouges are watching us, but I don’t know from where.
“Depends...” she says “what are you doing? And how fun is it going to be?”
“We’re hunting Jestro”
“that fool? He went north to the Temple of Calvora. Apparently some ancient monster is trapped there…”
“We think Jestro’s trying to free it” I interrupt “can you take us there?”
“well, glad to hear its fun” she says “follow me”
Another hour of walking brings us to a clearing. I can’t see any of the Gryer Rouges, but their almost certainly stationed around the outside of the clearing. In the middle of the clearing is a massive stone temple. It was more of a ruin now, though, with large chunks of the roof and pillars missing. There were monsters surrounding the temple. They noticed us pretty quickly, and charged towards the three of us.
Then the Gryer rouges leaped out of the treetops and we charged.

I’ve never seen anything like it. A giant stone monster, with white liquid flowing through it’s joints, spewing out lightening at every possible moment. It’s eyes mouth were cracks in its head, which in itself was bigger than me. It has four spear-ended tendrils coming out of its back, created by some sort of living lightening. I look at Arrow. He’s as terrified as I am. I look at Jade. She’s grinning like it's her birthday.
I switch on my com link “Merlock, we need the other Nexo Knights. And a Nexo Power. And the Fortrex” all that comes out is static.
“The thing’s blocking radio signals!” Arrow says “the Rouges are the only thing that can help us now!”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way” Jade says as she dashes towards the monster. I hesitate, but I soon follow her. Arrow is already firing a barrage at the monster. I hear the Book of Monsters say something.
“all hail the Destroka!”
“Could you not think of a better name for it?” Jade replies as she kicks the book out the way. Jestro’s more terrified than I am and his staff is a few meters away from him. It’s just us and that thing now. Rain starts to come through the roof. Good. I like fighting when the weather adds atmosphere.
The tendrils come crashing down but Jade dodges them all like it was part of a dance routine. I simply side step them as they attempt to strike us. She dives between the creature’s legs and stabs the dagger right in a crack. It seemingly had no effect.
“I like fighting” she says “but not when you can’t win!”
I shoulder barge into the Destroka’s other leg, and hear my shoulder armour cave in.
“Aim for the cracks!” Jade shouts. Arrow is doing the same and it isn’t doing much good either.
I decided to do the same, yet It still doesn’t help at all. I hear the Greyer Rouges advancing closer, but what help could they be? None of us are even scratching it.
The monster notices Jade between its legs and kicks her away. The force is strong enough to send her crashing into Jestro, who rather ironically was trying to get to his staff. It tries to kick me, but I see it coming and dive under tithe tendrils are coming down on Arrow now, and he’s having a hard time dodging. The rain was pouring now, which only made things worse as it pooled in the cracks in the floor. Then I hear something come through on my com link.
“Blade…can you hear me?”
“Merlock!” I shout “how are you getting through?”
“we’re moving towards your location. We were told by some bandit near the Temple of Calvora”
“we’re fighting with Jade Dagger fall and the Greyer Rouges. Well…” I look over at Jade’s unconscious body piled on top of Jester “we were”
“I’m going to send you a Next Power” Merlock says “Stronghold of Resolution”
The countdown starts and the power activates for both me and Arrow. I strike the Destroka again. This time it chips it, but still nothing major. Arrow is letting off at least 10 arrows a second but still isn’t hurting it. A tendril comes down and bats Arrow into a pillar, knocking him out. I can’t hear the Greyer Rouges fighting anymore.
“Arrows down!” I shout “the Power isn’t helping!”
“then...if the other knights can’t do anything…then by my calculations…”
“what is it?”
“this is the end, Blade” Merlock said “we can’t win”

You know, I forgot how much I enjoyed writing this thing. I'll upload the rest for closures sake one day.