Chapter 11: The Beginning

I sat alone by a fire with my arms crossed and had my elbows resting on my knees as the sun slowly set. The last rays of light were slowly being replaced by darkness as the pale faces of the two moons began to glimmer in the twilight. The caravan had stopped for the day at the edge of Farleigh forest, just off of the trail in a spot that had been used many times for camping. It was a small peninsula of grass that was surrounded by trees, with a short hill to the southeast that overlooked the area.

When we first arrived, I had spent an hour helping set up camp for various merchants and then was free to do what I wanted. I was getting a lot of looks and whispers from people as I passed by, so I was assuming that people had begun to talk about me and Shimmer. It was irritating, and I wasn't scheduled to be on guard duty until later in the night, so I decided to hide away from the main group by making a camp for myself just inside the perimeter of the trees.

Without thinking too much, I grabbed a handful of grass and tossed it into the flames, watching as it slowly burned up and drifted off into the air as ashes. I felt somewhat jealous of that grass, because it didn't have to worry about anything aside from growing and the occasional herbivore.

I had been fairly moody after my argument with Shimmer. Although the rest of the day had gone by uneventfully, I was once again facing an internal battle that was driving me crazy. Doubts, questions, fears, confusion and a healthy dose of sadness left me mulling over the things I had learned and what I had experienced.

Eventually I followed my standard procedure of locking things away and gave up on figuring things out. Instead, I tried to focus on my job, but that didn't give me very much relief because it was boring. Nothing had happened on the trail, and the woods were quiet as we made our way towards Warfang. I had been secretly hoping for some type of action to help distract me from myself, but I guess it was for the better that things were calm because it meant that the merchants were safe.

The only odd thing had been the onset of tingling on my shoulder with the black veins, and it seemed to be getting worse as the day slowly changed into night.

I continued to toss handfuls of grass into the fire until I noticed someone break away from the camp and begin heading in my direction. As the person neared, I recognized him by his size alone. Strongfang pushed aside some bushes as he entered my little camp and sat down across from me, staring into the flames. I had an inkling as to why he was here, which caused my chest to tighten, and I nervously waited for him to talk.

"I heard ya had an argument with Shimmer today."

He didn't sound angry or frustrated, which was good.

"I did."

Strongfang nodded slowly.

"I'm not one t' meddle in personal affairs, but ya did make some of the merchants uncomfortable. It may not be fair t' ask, but if yer workin', make sure not t' get int' any fights. I don't want t' have t' fire ya for somethin' like that."

"Yes sir. It won't happen again."

"Good."

Strongfang glanced up from the fire and caught my eyes briefly before I looked away. We sat in silence, with only the crackling of flames accompanying us, before he began to stand up to leave.

"I recognize that look that ya have. Responsibility is a weight that we all bear, but ya don't have t' carry it alone."

He gave me a chance to respond, but I didn't.

"It might be a good idea t' camp with the group, it's safer that way. I'm not too concerned, because most of the dangers we face are deeper in the woods, but I don't like t' take chances. Regardless of what ya do, I'll come get ya when it's yer turn t' watch."

I nodded silently, glad that he wasn't going to pester me, and he walked away. It seemed to be a recurring theme of the people in this world to try and get me to share my thoughts or open up about the problems I was facing. It was really starting to piss me off, and I didn't understand why they thought I couldn't handle myself.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter. I'll be gone soon anyway."

I was only a few more days away from Warfang and I couldn't wait until I was able to talk to the council. My anticipation for arriving was growing, and it was becoming harder for me to contain my excitement and expectations. There was still a chance that even in Warfang I wouldn't find the help I needed, but I chose to ignore that possibility because I wasn't entirely sure what I would do if my hopes were dashed. All I knew is that I would be terrified, lost and desperate, three things that I wanted to avoid.

I yawned, even though I wasn't that tired and decided that I should try to get some rest. I would have the awkward shift in a few hours, just after midnight until three in the morning, so I would most likely be missing out on some sleep. I made myself as comfortable as I could on the ground, just close enough to the fire to stay warm, and forced myself to get some rest.

It couldn't have been more than an hour or two before I was woken by a sharp jolt in my shoulder. I sat up and grasped at the black veins as they seemed to throb, and then a shrill whistle broke the silence of the night. The whistle sounded a second time, followed by two short bursts.

"The signal!"

Strongfang had given the watch a small whistle to blow in the event of some type of danger, and all guards were supposed to gather themselves immediately at the sound. I hurried myself as the whistle blew again. Two quick whistles meant that there was legitimate danger to the merchants and we had to respond quickly. I was confused, because everything seemed quiet, but it was dark so the watch probably saw something that I couldn't.

I smothered the dying flames of my campfire with dirt, checked to make sure I had my sword and then started a brisk jog to the main camp. My shoulder was protesting as it continued to feel off, but I ignored it, and in the distance I could make out some people getting up and looking around, along with guards moving into various defensive positions on the far side of camp, but I couldn't tell what was going on. I vaguely heard Strongfang barking orders, but I was too far away to pick up on what he was saying.

Just as I made it to the far side of camp, a blob of fire shot down from the top of the hill to the south east and the earth was rocked by an explosion when it landed somewhere in camp. The shockwaves almost made me fall over and when I got a grip on my footing, I looked up and saw a large pillar of fire erupting from somewhere inside of camp.

People that were previously mulling about were now panicking and began to run away from the blaze. As it roared, the sounds of people screaming began to mix in with grunting and weapons being drawn as the guards began to fight. Howls that were deep and guttural emanated from the darkness around the camp and I had no idea where they were coming from.

I blindly made my way towards the noises of combat, but I kept bumping into and being delayed by civilians. I gave up on trying to push my way through the crowd and jumped up to begin hopping from wagon to wagon. From my new vantage point, I could clearly see the field of battle, along with the burning remains of what used to be a wagon.

The apes were currently fending off a large horde of… I had no idea what the hell they were. They looked somewhat like wolves, only with much larger heads that seemed too big for their bodies and teeth that were as big as my sword. If I was guessing correctly, they were taller than I was and just as wide, and their faces were bare ofany skin. Flames flickered in their mouths, and their eyes were only small pinpricks of ghoulish red light that peered out of the darkness. They appeared to be some kind of monstrosities that were trying their best to make a meal out of the apes, cheetahs and moles.

I jumped down to the ground as a fireball shot past the crowd of apes and exploded another wagon. Chips of wood flew everywhere and an unfortunate ape was struck by a wheel that had been blown off. He was knocked out of the formation he was in and the creatures made no hesitation to pile on and drag him out into the darkness where his screams were cut off. I drew my sword and shivered at his fate, but focused on the battle in front of me. Strongfang was currently keeping his troops organized and in position as the creatures tried to attack or scurry past them to get at the merchants in the camp. He had archers watching the perimeter to prevent any of them from sneaking by, while the melee fighters pushed back the wave of monsters that were brave enough to approach. It seemed to be working for now, but another fireball flew past and detonated, turning an ape into nothing but a blown apart charred corpse.

I stopped at the next wagon to watch the battle and realized that these creatures were smarter than they appeared. The main mass of them only feigned attacks, and they seemed to wait for the fireballs to make a distraction or break the wall before striking. Their goal seemed to be to slowly pick off the defenders until they could successfully overwhelm them, and there wasn't much the apes could do about it.

The archers were too busy keeping away stragglers to do much damage, and the others were tied up keeping the mass at bay. Strongfang was focused on keeping the troops composed, which meant that I was the only one available to do something to make a difference. Thinking quickly, I decided the best course of action would be to head to where the fireballs were coming from and stop them. If I managed to do that, the attackers wouldn't have a way to strike without losses, which would end with them being destroyed or force them to retreat.

I turned and made my way South, weaving around wagons and supplies with the aim of avoiding all of the fighting while remaining relatively unseen. As I neared the edge of the camp though, one of the creatures that was roaming noticed me and broke into a dead sprint towards me. It must have thought I was easy prey because it began to drool and opened its jaws wide, poised to strike at my head. I drew my sword as it neared, flipped forward over its head as it attacked, and dodged the attempted bite. I landed on the confused creatures back, twirled around and drove my blade into the back of its neck at the base of its skull. It let out a loud whimper before it fell limp and convulsed on the ground as it began to choke on its own blood. I pulled out my sword, and stepped off of the one I had killed, only to be approached by two more of the beasts.

They seemed wary as they looked between me and their fallen comrade. They approached slowly, snarling as they began to circle me, but I wasn't going to let them surround me and moved to the side to keep pace with one, while keeping the other in front of me. The one closest to me eventually grew impatient and feigned an attack, and his partner tried to use it as an opportunity to lunge at me.

Instead of retreating or dodging, I ducked forward underneath the lunge and slashed its belly with my sword. It fell to the ground in a heap, whimpering and writhing in pain as its guts spilled out onto the ground. The other monster panicked at the sight and decided to turn and flee. I didn't want it to alert any more of them, so I sprinted after it and jumped, bringing my sword down into its back. It took three stabs to kill it, and I jumped off of it as it fell into the dirt and tumbled to a stop. With those two taken care of, I was alone again and in a good position to deal with whatever was shooting the fireballs.

I gave a quick glance over towards the guards and sighed in relief. They seemed to be doing fine for now and had even managed to kill a few of the monsters. Feeling like I had time, I waited until the next fireball erupted from the darkness, pinpointing where I needed to go. They were originating from a small cluster of trees nestled at the very top of the hill. My approach should go unnoticed, because there were plenty of trees that I could use to sneak up the slope.

Another jolt shot through my shoulder causing me to hesitate for a moment before I started moving towards the tree line. I was almost there when I felt another stab and slid to a stop, gripping my shoulder tightly with a hand. The air around me suddenly chilled, and I now noticed the blood that covered my sword and hand as it became eerily clear in the moonlight.

Without understanding why, the chill in the air filled my lungs and I found myself paralyzed. Fear creeped into my mind and body, and I started to hyperventilate as the exact moment of Luna's death played out vividly in front of me. I was stabbing her through the heart, over and over, and I could feel her blood oozing down my arm, staining my hands red. All around me I could hear a familiar chorus of voices and whispers.

"Murderer!"

"Monster!"

"Betrayer!"

I collapsed to the ground and put a hand up to my forehead, trying to stop the things I was hearing and seeing, but I was helpless as I began to watch her die again through bleary eyes.

"N-no, I'm not! I did what I had to do! It was my only choice!"

I felt helpless as I sat crouched and unable to move. Dark hands rose up out of the ground and grabbed both of us, slowly dragging us down into the darkness. I screamed as I tried to escape, but my cry was cut short as a hand wrapped around my throat.

"A monster like you doesn't deserve forgiveness for your sins."

Any semblance of resistance that I had shattered and I sobbed to myself in pity. The guilt that I felt was too overwhelming and I gave up, waiting patiently for whatever lay in the darkness, until a sharp slap across my face jarred me back to reality. I jerked awake and was dumbfounded to see Shimmer standing in front of me with her eyes glistening with her own tears, concern etched on her face.

"W-what the hell just happened…?"

It took me a solid minute to get control of my breathing.

"S-Shimmer…?"

"Oh thank the ancestors you're ok! You scared me Kiran!"

"Wha-…?"

Shimmer lunged forward and hugged me tightly, making it hard for me to catch my already taxed breath. I almost pushed her away, but the chill from before still left me shivering and I wasn't fully in control of my shaking body. Weakly, I gave into the hug and waited for the feelings to fade. Shimmer waited patiently for me as I recovered, and eventually, I managed to push her away and stand up on my own, albeit on shaky legs. I picked up my sword again, wincing in unconscious fear as my hand grabbed the hilt and quickly put it back into its sheath, not wanting to think about what just happened.

"What are you doing here, Shimmer?"

"Strongfang sent me here to help you, but you were screaming, crying and choking when I found you! You were just… sitting there, freaking out! I should be asking you what happened!"

"So was I just stuck in an illusion or…?"

My head started to swim in confusion. I had never experienced anything like that before and it left me wondering if there was something happening to me. I wiped my eyes and then my nose to clear away some of the snot that was dripping down, and pondered this until a question popped into my mind and distracted me.

"Wait... how did he know I was here? It's too dark to see anything."

Shimmer gawked at me and shook her head in disbelief.

"Are we just going to ignore what happened to you here!? I've never seen you act like that before. What's wrong? I'm worried about you!"

I sighed, and did my best to clear my throat and sound alright.

"I'm… fine. We can talk about it later. We have more important things to deal with first."

Shimmer eyed me warily.

"You have to promise we'll talk then. I don't want to see you like that again..."

"..."

She growled at me.

"Promise we'll talk later!"

"Ok, ok, we can talk later! Now back to my question."

Shimmer beamed at my promise and dove into her explanation.

"Apes have partial vision in the dark, Strongfang can probably see both of us right now."

"Alright, well, that's good to know. Speaking of which, do you know what these things are?"

I pointed my sword back towards the one I had recently killed. Shimmer looked at it, grimaced, said 'eugh', and then answered.

"Well, they look vaguely like death hounds, but I don't think they are. I mean, look, they're missing half of their face!"

"So you've never seen them before?"

"No, I haven't, and I don't think Strongfang has either."

"An anomaly like me then. That's not good."

"Ok, we don't know what they are, but we need to stop them. I'm heading up to the top of the hill to deal with the fireballs and then we can meet back up with the Strongfang. Does that sound good to you?"

She replied sarcastically.

"Yeah, I guess."

That was a strange response considering how she had been acting just a moment ago, but I ignored it.

"Let's just hurry and take care of this already, ok?"

I started to move but didn't hear Shimmer plodding behind me. I turned around and saw that she was sitting down in the same spot.

"What's the hold up? We have something important to deal with right now!"

She turned her head to the side indignantly and stomped a paw.

"I'm not going anywhere with you until you apologize for yesterday!"

I blinked a few times to make sure that I heard that correctly. She scrunched her face up into an angry pout and smacked her tail against the ground.

"She can't be serious. Now of all times?!"

"Are you crazy?! We don't have time for this right now!"

"Yes we do! You need to apologize because I'm not going to let you be a big fat jerk and then pretend everything is ok between us!"

I shook my head in disbelief and raised my hands up in defeat.

"That's it, you've lost it. You can stay here and pout, I'm going to go stop whatever is up on that hill."

I started to move again until something heavy tackled me from behind. My face met dirt and I found that I couldn't push off whatever was on top of me. Sharp claws poked at my shoulders and the back of my knees.

"Apologize! I'm tired of you pretending that nothing is wrong!"

I couldn't believe it. I struggled to break free from her grasp, but her claws dug a little deeper each time I moved.

"Get off of me you idiot!"

"Why are you being so stubborn?"

"I could ask you the same thing!"

I didn't understand why she wouldn't give up, but I wasn't going to either. I managed to push my hands together long enough to form the signs for a jutsu, and formed a ball of wind that punched Shimmer in the gut. There was a loud 'oof' from Shimmer as the wind hit her, and I felt the pressure on my back and legs subside allowing me to roll to my feet. I was breathing heavily, but was glad to be free from her grasp. Shimmer was recovering from the blow, more from surprise than pain, and I couldn't help but take some satisfaction from the angry frown she wore.

"You can't do that! That's not fair!"

I ignored her and pointed an accusing finger at her, pushing it towards her angrily every few words to emphasize my point.

"Can you stop being a child for five minutes?! I'm going to go that way to stop whatever is shooting fireballs so more people don't die! Tag along if you want but I'm not wasting any more time."

Shimmer looked conflicted as she glanced between me and the camp, but she finally seemed to listen to reason and nodded.

"Fine, but only if we talk about this too!"

"Fine!"

She thumped her tail against the ground and growled.

"I said promise!"

I let out a deep breath to collect myself and rubbed the bridge of my nose gently.

"Fine, I promise we'll talk about both of these things later. Happy?"

"Yep! As long as you keep your promise!"

Shimmer finally got up from her spot and pranced over to me with a victorious smile.

"So, what are we up against?"

I raised an eyebrow in confusion as we began running to the hill and towards the small bundle of trees. I kept my pace relatively slow so Shimmer could keep up with me.

"What do you mean, 'what are we up against?'"

"Don't you know what's causing the fireballs?"

"I mean, no. I've been piecing together a vague idea as I've gotten closer."

Shimmer groaned with an exaggerated roll of her eyes.

"So you don't have a clue either. I thought you had this figured out!"

"I do!"

"Then why don't you know what we're up against?"

I clenched my mouth shut in irritation before I replied.

"Because I haven't been up to the hill yet! Right now I'm trying to find the source, and from there we can figure out how to stop it!"

I felt another jolt in my shoulder, but this time I also felt like something was watching me. It was extremely uncomfortable and I felt exposed, even though we were in the trees and it was dark.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? What if we run into something worse than these hound things?"

I wanted Shimmer to be quiet as I looked around us worriedly.

"Is that really relevant right now?"

"No, but-"

Shimmer's eyes widened and the area in front of us brightened considerably as a fireball was suddenly hurled towards us.

"Look out Kiran!"

I immediately dove to the side and rolled, watching as the hot flaming sphere flew by and detonated not too far from us. A wave of heat washed over me as flames shot into the sky, and I was once again showered in dirt as the fireball blew a considerable chunk of earth out of the ground. I wiped off some of the dust as Shimmer hovered above.

"Are you ok? That was waaaay too close!"

"I'm fine! I just… how did they know we were here!?"

Shimmer looked a bit sheepish as she swooped down towards me and extended her legs out.

"No idea!"

"That's not really helpful!"

She ignored that and reached for me as she got close.

"Grab on! We avoid their eyes in the sky and we can scout them from above so we'll have a chance to see what's down there before we commit to a fight!"

I was surprised that she even made a suggestion and shocked that it was reasonable. Observing the area before we dove in recklessly would leave us in a better position and possibly keep us from danger. I grabbed onto her paws as she flew by and she strained as she flew up high enough to be over the top of the trees.

It was only a short flight, but I winced every time she flapped her wings because her scales were sharp. I had to keep adjusting my grip as I slowly slipped due to her scales also being smooth and hard to hold onto. While I struggled to hold on, she was doing her best to fly gently, but she was having trouble with the extra weight and holding onto my wrists was awkward because of her claws, meaning I was stuck clinging onto her for dear life as we closed in on our mark.

As we slowly made our way through the air, my shoulder flared up and I had a sudden realization. I yelled to get Shimmer's attention.

"Hey! We need to land now! We're sitting ducks up here!"

"What do you mean?"

The appearance of another fireball caused her to panic and she rolled sharply to the side while I tried to hold on. The only problem with this was the fact that as she turned, I swung out and directly into the path of the fireball, leaving me with one option. I cursed to myself and let go, using the inertia from the swing to launch myself out of its path. It was another close call, and we both barely dodged the flames, but I was now tumbling to the earth and had no idea where I was.

It was only a few seconds before my tumbling came to an abrupt stop as my chest smashed into what I assumed was a tree branch. My breath was knocked out of me and I tried to grab onto the object, but I was a moment too slow and cursed a second time as my hands slipped and I began falling once again. I was ready this time though, and I was able to make out some of the branches that were whizzing by in the moonlight. I grabbed onto a few as I passed, slowing my fall considerably, but they all broke. I finally reached what I thought was the ground and landed on my side with a heavy thud, accompanied by the whimper of a surprised creature.

I realized then that I had somehow managed to land on one of the monsters. It was not happy that something had fallen out of the sky and landed on its back, and with a growl, it tried to reach back and bite me, but I leaned to the opposite side and pulled out my-

"Wait, where the hell did my sword go?!"

My sword must have slipped out during my fall, leaving me with nothing but my fists. As the hound continued turning to try and get a piece of me, I waited for the right moment and then jumped off of it, landing where it's head would soon be. I then pivoted and swung my leg in a spinning kick that landed my heel squarely in the monster's jaw. There was a loud crunch as the bones of its jaw and cheek shattered, and the hound took a few wobbly steps with its jaw hanging loosely before it fell over. Several howls echoed through the trees soon after, and I found myself looking around wildly in an attempt to spot where they were.

I didn't have to wait long, as soft footsteps slowly approached from all directions. I took a defensive stance with the tree to my back and waited. A droplet of sweat slowly ran down my cheek as the tension began to rise, but all the footsteps suddenly stopped in unison. There was a pause, and then trails of flame began to wrap around some kind of boulder about fifteen feet in front of me. As the flames spread, I began to realize that I wasn't looking at a boulder. The flames erupted furiously, and the entire clearing was lit up as a gigantic version of the monsters made its presence known by wrapping its head in orange and purple flames. This one looked different from the others, not only because of its size, but also because its entire skull was visible and had flames wrapped all around its body. It looked down at me with malicious, pinprick sized eyes and roared, forcing me to cover my ears to try and save them from the sound.

"Where the hell did that one come from?!"

It wasted no time trying to kill me and lunged at me with its jaws gaping wide. I did a backflip up to the tree behind me and used it as a springboard to launch myself away from the attack. I managed to get out of the way, but the tree wasn't as fortunate. It was snapped in two as the jaws clamped down, and the monster made the tree look like a twig as it was torn apart. The top half of the tree came crashing down, and landed on the monster's head, momentarily stunning it. The other piece was promptly spit out, and as it recovered from the tree, I spotted my blade glinting in the moonlight.

"There!"

The smaller creatures seemed to be keeping their distance, so I used the opportunity to hurry over and reclaim my weapon. With it in hand, I now had to figure out the best place to strike, while avoiding the giant thing that was now looking at me. I assumed that my sword wasn't long enough to do anything but artificial damage unless I used some wind chakra, but I wanted to reserve that for an emergency. Instead, I decided that its neck was a good start and started running in a wide circle around the monster as it prepared another charge. I slowed my pace as I passed another tree I could use and feigned a stumble.

It took the bait and started its second attempt to kill me. It aimed more carefully this time to avoid chomping down on a tree, but I was faster than him and ducked below the bite. It looked surprised as I vaulted forward and landed on its shoulder, and I guarantee that it was absolutely pissed as my small sword slashed through the side of its neck. It roared again and the flames surrounding its body began to move and expand.

This caught me off guard and I jumped back, but the sudden explosion of flames pushed me violently through the air until I met the ground. I tumbled several times, but eventually found my footing and slid to a stop. I grimaced as I pat down small patches of flame that had singed my clothing, and cursed at the small burns that I was now sporting on my skin. I let out a shaky breath, noting to myself that that had been way too close for comfort.

The small progress that I had made faded when the wound I inflicted on the monster slowly began to sizzle and heal. This thing was huge, had powerful attacks, had some type of healing ability and probably whatever the hell else it wanted to come up with on the fly. I was starting to feel a bit in over my head until Shimmer flew down from above, with ice already forming in her maw.

She attempted to rake across the creature's back with shards of ice, but they were stopped by another explosion of flame. As it looked to the air after the initial attack, Shimmer flew by its face, turned mid-air, and fired a ball of ice that detonated and covered its head in a sphere of ice. She then flew towards me, yelling the whole time with a pissed off scowl.

"There you are! You gave me a heart attack! I thought I dropped you!"

"I had to bail!"

She landed next to me, huffing indignantly.

"Don't scare me like that! Most people I know would have died from a fall from that height! How are you not even injured?!"

"Not the time, Shimmer!"

The beast was already melting through the ice sphere around its head, and reared up to shoot another fireball, but Shimmer wasn't paying attention.

"I know big ugly over there has you worried but we can take care of-"

The next fireball was launched at us and we didn't have time to move out of the way. That didn't leave me with any choice so I flashed through several hand signs to cast a wind jutsu.

"Wind style: Air vacuum!"

I took in a deep breath to create a space of no air in front of us. The fireball hit the dead zone, immediately lost all of its juice and promptly disappeared, leaving behind nothing but smoke. Shimmer looked at me in awe, while the smoke billowed from the space in front of us, and I took that as an opportunity to start running. Shimmer had to catch up to me and strained her wings to keep up.

"Hey, you never showed me that one! Also, why are we running?"

"Not relevant and getting into a better position! We need to fight that thing on our terms because it's tougher than it looks!"

"I had it under control though! I was gonna blast the fireball with ice but you beat me to it! Besides, it doesn't look too strong, I bet we can take it!"

I sighed and shook my head worriedly.

"Maybe, except for the fact that it has some kind of regeneration. I slashed a part of its neck earlier, but it healed quickly and only served to make it angrier."

"Are you sure? That doesn't sound possible."

A loud roar and the ripping apart of trees caused me to choose my next words quickly.

"It doesn't, but neither of us have ever seen anything like it before, right?"

She realized that I was right and relented to my point.

"Okay, so maybe it can. What do we do if it's just going to heal?"

"I don't know… maybe if we can kill it outright, it won't regenerate?"

"Are you kidding? It's huge! How are we supposed to do that?"

I mentally went over every technique that I knew and debated whether or not I could manage to do that by myself. I glanced over to Shimmer and thought about her icicles when an idea formed in my head.

"Shimmer, have you ever combined elemental attacks?"