The monster threw his spear first and, on the path it was going through, the ground was being destroyed.
"Haaaa!" Chase yelled as he threw his attack as well.
Upon impact, there was a battle between the two attacks; The ground underneath the attacks and the two fighters was breaking.
The two were simultaneously pushing each other back and, the monster, seeing that it was getting repelled, used its second hand to power up its attack even more, causing it to gain more ground.
"Master!" Tridius worryingly shouted. The spear had come closer and closer and had nearly reached Chase.
'I've had enough of losing...' He thought to himself, 'This time will be different.' He steeled his resolve and he was the most serious he had ever been in his life.
"Very well then, "A voice said. "I'll lend you a bit of my power, we don't want you dying here. Do we now?"
Chase's right eye turned red, and he felt a surge of power. This was the third time.
With all the strength he had left, he cried out and pushed again. This time, his attack was pushing back the spear. The monster roared in displeasure and tried to push back but, to no avail. The mask was breaking and when it fully broke, that was the signal.
Chase pushed a final time and the spear was engulfed into the attack, and the attack was heading straight for the monster. It went for a last desperate attempt and ran through Chase's attack to strike him down. If it was going to get killed, he might as well bring the boy with him.
Chase had seen what it was doing and he also attacked. They both attacked at the same time but, there was only going to be one winner. Chase and the monster were on opposite sides of each other, their backs away from one another still in the same position that they had striked in.
'This is over.' Tridius thought as he watched the fighters seemingly frozen into their stances.
Just then, a blue light escaped from the monster's body and in that second, it was torn to oblivion.
Chase regained an upright position and kept his fists closed. His eye changed back to dark but his hair remained upstanding. He simply smiled and fell backwards onto the ground.
*****
2 days later, the Tennyson family and Maria were attending a family gathering at May's parents' house. Both the Tennyson family and the Pierce family were there as their annual custom was.
"Merry Christmas everyone!!" They all said in unison as champagne bottles were opened and cheers followed.
There was a jovial mood and everyone was enjoying themselves. They were doing party games and some uncles came to tell one of their unbelievable stories but no one complained since they all made fun of the story at the end, fully insulting the person and their dumb decisions.
They ate all the things you could eat at a Christmas party such as Turkey, pies or cakes. Presents were joyfully exchanged and nothing could ruin their day: Chase was never mentioned once in those whole hours spent partying, not like he was ever present there anyway. The adults were around the table and the kids were in the living room, playing games and whatnot.
Lily looked outside and realised that it was snowing when someone had informed them. The snow started tumbling down and that brought a smile on her face before remembering someone. She felt sad since her brother wasn't here but there was nothing she could do about it.
'Merry Christmas brother, wherever you are.'
*****
Chase suddenly woke up and looked around.
"You're finally awake master?" Tridius said in his original form. "You've been asleep for two days, are you alright?"
"Yeah, " Chase said, "I'm fine."
"This is for you." Tridius pushed a bag with his paw towards Chase and he grabbed it before looking at the contents inside. He found sandwiches and a soda inside which brought a smile to his face.
"Thank you." Chase said as he wolfed down the sandwiches and drank his soda.
"Eat up master, you need energy." Tridius said as he laid down next to Chase.
"Where did you get this from anyways?"
"I have my ways." Chase was not going to push the topic any further and just gratefully enjoyed his food.
Once he was finished, he stood up, grabbed the gun that Tridius had picked up and tucked it inside his waist.
"Did it fall?" Tridius nodded, "Thanks."
They both advanced towards the huge gold chest that was patiently waiting to get opened.
"I hope I don't get shocked this time." Chase wearily uttered.
"Don't worry master, it won't happen this time."
"I'm going to take your word for it." Chase slowly opened the chest and when nothing happened, he sighed in relief.
"What do we have here?" Tridius asked as he took a look inside the chest.
"Clothes?" Chase asked in astonishment as he took a piece out. "Well it's fine, I didn't bring any extra clothing and the ones on me are ripped and unwearable."
He looked inside the chest again and analysed the remaining contents: The chest had a black leather coat with white linings around it, a dark long sleeved T-shirt, black trousers and black boots.
Chase took off his current pieces of clothing and changed into the ones he was given. He liked the way it fitted him and he was quite happy wearing it. Whilst admiring himself, the chest disappeared and the door for the outside world opened.
He fumbled into his pockets and wrapped his finger around a piece of paper. He pulled it out and realised that someone had left a note inside of it and the boys read it together, it looked like it was written in haste:
'person reading, u found a coat, lucky. Coat important, rest r just clothes that r infused with weight, great for training. coat'll help in trouble/ save ur life, probably. to complete set find the swords in Lomi-'
"And?" Chase asked as he flipped the paper around just to find it blank. "Did he die writing or was he caught?" Tridius shrugged. Chase suddenly felt himself getting heavier and heavier and he nearly collapsed on the ground but, all this training was not for nothing as he slowly stood back up, taking the weight head on and walking towards an object that was glinting in the distance. Even though he took 1 step every minute or so, he felt himself getting used to it, enough for him to walk properly but at a moderate pace.
He reached the glinting object, picked it out and made a thorough analysis of it. It was a plain white mask with nothing else around it to distinguish it.
"Are you thinking of wearing it master?" Tridius asked as he looked over Chase's shoulder.
"Maybe."
"It belonged to that monster." Tridius informed, "Must have fell when you started fighting."
"Do you know anything about this?" Chase asked as he pegged the mask near the coat's right pocket.
"Never seen something like this, sorry master."
"It's fine, " Chase said as he walked towards the door leading them outside, "Let's go."
Chase opened the door and they both walked back outside. It was morning and snowing, everything around them was white and cold but somehow, Chase felt warm. Maybe because of the clothes he had on.
"Say Tridius, " Chase said as they started walking forward, away from the tower and into the snow.
"Yes master?"
"What day is it?" Tridius tapped his paw on the ground and a small blue light was seen. He closed his eyes and gave his master an answer.
"If I'm not mistaken, master, " He stated, "It should be Christmas day."
"Christmas huh?" Chase responded sadly as he stopped and looked up towards the falling snow and sighed, "I guess I'll be spending it and my birthday alone... for the eleventh time straight." He continued, turning towards Tridius. "But at least, I have you."
"Master." Tridius said quietly but sadly at the same time with a defeated expression on his face.
"Come on, "Chase said, trying to cheer him up or rather, trying to cheer himself up. "Don't look at me like that, I'll be fine, totally fine. We still have stuff to do so let's go."
With that said, Chase started walking again and Tridius quietly followed, not quite knowing what to say, making silence fill the cold, wintery morning.