After Sylvia calmed down, Luna continued to speak: "We have to place our trust in Helix. He won't just be playing the role of a prisoner, he's going to compromise Thaleous' stronghold from the inside. This is our only shot at taking down this asshole, so we have to take it if we want to save both this realm and our home back in Helios. Besides." She continued, a thoughtful smile brightening her features. "Helix is hardly your average person. He does things most people could only dream of. Now, who's with me?"

"Aye!" They all shouted.

"Let's fuck these demon bitches up!"

"Analise!" Luna snapped, ears flattening against her head in clear agitation.

Evil laughter, "No regrets!"

Oh my...Luna knows how to get even. With a well-aimed right hook, she gave her best friend her comeuppance.

"Hey! No boob punches! That's just playing dirty, you evil woman."

Luna smiled, gazing sidelong at her child, "You heard nothing."

"Okay mama." Sylvia replied with a small grin.

The rest of the day passed semi-normally. Luna's speech had boosted the morale of everyone in the fort: Dorrian and Ben decided to have an archery contest, Sasha and Analise were in the middle of a game of Black Jack, and I decided to have a friendly duel with Soren, which ended with us disarming each other. Nova was on the ramparts of the fort. She told me that she was testing her gauss rifle out, and the screams of a few demons that got too close to the fort told me enough. Nova's mad laughter also made me doubt her sanity. I then caught sight of Stanford playing a round of chess with Evelyn, who was currently mopping the floor with him when I watched them play. I chuckled, then caught sight of Sylvia as she dunked an apple into Simon's body.

"Mmm...Sweet," Simon mused as he held his head in his hands, "Apples have such a nice, sweet taste to them. Throw some more in please."

Sylvia laughed with delight and threw a couple more apples into Simon. His eyes glowed happily as he somehow enjoyed the apples that were chucked into his armor.

"You seein' this?" I asked Luna as she stood beside me.

"Yep," She replied simply, "Who knew?"

I chuckled, "I know right?"

She smiled, "Wanna duel?" She asked, casually removing her staff from her back.

"You know it," I replied with a grin, also taking my staff off my back. Soon, everyone was gathered in a small ground near us. The people who've seen us duel before backed up cautiously. Soren's team noticed this and followed their lead. Dorrian hid behind Ben, who scowled.

"Really?" He demanded.

"Yeah," Dorrian began quickly, "Have you ever seen these two duel before?"

"Apparently not," Ben replied glumly.

There was a slight pause, then Luna launched into action, hurling spears of yellowish-green energy at me. I was able to create a shielding ward to stop the flying projectiles from hitting me. I stomped on the ground as my shielding ward crumbled, and Luna fell to her knees. In retaliation, she threw a punch in my direction, and I caught air as a yellowish-green boulder hit me in the stomach. As I landed on the ground, I pushed myself to my feet and snapped my fingers. A ring of pale blue spears appeared around me, and with a simple thought, they all flew toward Luna, who threw up a shielding ward that blocked every single spear. Now she stomped on the ground, and I fell to my stomach as gravity seemed to strengthen around me. Damn, it took a lot of effort to push past the effect of crushing gravity as I held my hand out before me, palm outward. I then balled my hand into a fist and jerked it to the left violently.

I groaned, "Why are you so talented with shielding wards, woman?"

She didn't move an inch. Thankfully, the increased effect of gravity trying to turn me into a pancake relented, and I was able to breathe.

She laughed, "I have to keep up with your balanced abilities, so it's only fair."

"Touche." I grumbled.

She stuck her tongue out at me, then threw four spears at me. I dodged two and sent the other two flying back at her.

Luna smiled, "Most impressive, love." She mused as her own projectiles bounced uselessly off her shielding ward.

I sighed, "I should be the one saying that. You're making my offensive capabilities look like complete and total trash right now."

She laughed, "A good offense always involves a good defense. You know this to be true, dummy."

The rest of the battle transpired in that way: the both of us going back and forth at each other, trading blows until we knocked each other out. I shattered Luna's shielding ward and caused her to fall to one knee while I flew backward and ate dirt.

"H-Helix?" She asked nervously.

"I'm fine." I assured her.

The crowd was silent until one voice rang out above the silence: "Holy shit! That was fucking epic!"

I rolled my eyes: "Good going Dorrian."

Soren walked over and helped me up. I then limped over to Luna to help her stand up.

"Thanks love-holy shit..."

"What?" I asked in confusion.

She pointed at my left knee, and I looked down.

"Oh, shit. Well then, I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took a spear to the knee."

Yep, it hurt like a bitch...a yellowish-green spear had gone straight through my left knee cap.

Luna dismissed the spear, which caused my knee to buckle.

Eating dirt yet again, Luna yelped and flipped me onto my back.

"Ow..." I mumbled.

"I'm sorry!" She began nervously, "I'll patch you up right away."

She knelt before me and healed my knee.

She helped me up and looked me over in concern, "You okay?"

I nodded, "Yep, I'm good. Thanks Luna."

She sighed deeply, "Good. I'm really sorry about that."

I smiled, "Don't worry about it. Hey, you technically won this match, so kudos to you."

"Don't be silly. We fell at the same time, so it's a draw."

"You got the last hit though," I persisted.

"No..."

Dorrian sighed, "Let's just call this a draw, yeah?"

Luna and I shrugged, "Alright."

The rest of the day wasn't as insane: Luna and I continued to teach Sylvia about more complex sentences and words. We didn't expect her to make much progress, but Sylvia seemed to learn all of this at an extremely fast rate. Honestly, her progress was astonishing.

"She seems to be learning faster as the days go by," Luna began as she watched her daughter run around with Simon's head in her hands. The possessed suit of armor tried in vain to chase after Sylvia, but was significantly at a disadvantage due to the fact that his perspective was thrown out of whack thanks to his head being held in Sylvia's arms.

"Come on!" Simon shouted irritably as he watched his body stumble around like an oaf, "Walk over here!"

His body began to walk slowly toward Sylvia, only for the devious little furball to dash off giggling.

"Please! Put my head back on!" Simon begged, "This is so weird..."

Luna shook her head, and I grinned, "Well, she does have two awesome teachers that also have a miniature army of maniacs to help her learn a ridiculous amount of words in such a small amount of time." That earned me a heart-stopping smile from Luna. (Geez...yeah, I can easily be struck dumb by Luna's beauty. I have no words to describe it, other than breath taking.)

"But to be honest," I continued, shaking my head to clear the stupor from my mind, "I don't think her speaking skills completely disappeared. Because we're teaching things she's probably already learned, she's catching on and relearning what she has lost."

"True," Luna replied, smiling fondly, "It's barely been a week since we started to take care of her, yet it's almost as if she's become a completely different person."

"Aye," I replied, "It's amazing what two imagists can do, eh?"

She chuckled, "Apparently, we can do a lot more than I thought."

When dinner rolled in, I experimented with a few chickens, an assortment of spices, and various vegetables. As always, the pot was cleaned out through and through. Everyone hung out after they finished eating, and general madness ensued.

I smiled, but the events that'll transpire tomorrow put a slight damper on my mood. I mean, tomorrow will determine the fate of this realm and my home-my country.

I sighed, "Way to kill the mood, Helix."

"Hey, it's not like I'm meaning to." One of my voices shot back, "Tomorrow can end in two ways: either we win or we lose-we live or we die."

"Shut the fuck up." Another voice snapped, "You're not helping us at all right now. We need to stay positive. We will kill Thaleous, and we will be victorious."

Even if everyone had faith in me, the same thought that bothered me before bothered me now: I honestly don't know the extent of my powers. The whole thing about me shifting into a bestial lupan is just a guess. The book Virrius lent me states clearly that a huntsman is guaranteed to have the ability to shift into their bestial form, and that they can shift into that form by getting really, really angry. However, I'm still not certain, and that's what kills me. Uncertainty is a bitch. If I get captured and I can't shift into my bestial form...shit...

Luna noticed my distracted state of mind and nudged me.

"Eh?" I began.

She chuckled, "You okay love?"

"Yeah..."I replied half-heartedly, "I'm fine."

She smiled sadly, "You're worried too, aren't you?"

I sighed in resignation, "Yeah, I am. I'm worried that I can't do it. Dorrian has a point: I'm taking a huge gamble by doing this. What if I fuck up? Or what if I can't shift into my bestial form?"

Luna embraced me, "Unlike Thaleous, you have something worth fighting for: your home, your friends, and your family. We all have the upmost faith in you Helix. We know you'll kick ass." She giggled, "And look awesome while doing it."

I felt my soul leave my body for a few minutes, "Dorrian, you ass muncher..."

I heard someone laughing their ass off somewhere nearby.

Luna chuckled, then kissed me, "Don't doubt yourself Helix. We'll be ready to help if things go to shit. Besides, you're one lucky bastard. I've never seen anyone else dodge death as many times as you have. Whatever happens tomorrow, Thaleous will fall, and he will learn the feeling of defeat as his asshole is torn apart by a white-hot spear."

"Yes!" Stanford shouted enthusiastically, brandishing a white-hot spear and holding it over his head with both hands as he hopped onto a table, "¡Viva la matanza!"

Nova snorted as she hefted up her gauss rifle, "Never mind the fact that Stanford just spoke in another language, I'm ready to kick some ass."

Ben strung his bow and idly held an arrow in his hands, a crooked grin on his scarred lips.

Soren twirled his sword while his group rose mugs and blades alike.

I smiled, raising my blade in kind: "Here's to kicking ass and looking awesome while doing it!"

"Aye!" Came the reply.

For my final trick, I shouted my battle cry: "Let's get down to business, my people!"

- - -

-H- Well then, you just got through the longest entry in Journal one, my dear reader. I must say, I'm impressed with your dedication. at any rate, the entries are much smaller after this one, so enjoy the remaining story!