-Night 5-

Nothing gets someone more nervous or excited than an upcoming conflict. Daniel, however, just felt grim determination. He was going to end these silly games, no matter what happens. Taking a deep breath, Daniel opens the door and once again enters the nightmarish diner.

What meets Daniel isn't what he expected. The diner was silent, eerily silent. Daniel could swear he could hear his heart beating. Despite this silence, Daniel knew not all was right. A heavy presence could be felt, weighing down on Daniel.

He growls lowly in annoyance at the force. He knew this would impair him later. He takes a step forward, and almost falls to the ground. His eyes widen and his teeth clench as gravity seems to intensify. He pushes himself back upright with some significant effort.

This could only be the work of Nightmarionne. No one else had the magical abilities to exert this amount of force, except for Nightmare himself. Daniel grunts as he takes another step, the gravity seeming to lower slightly. He looks forwards, watching in curiosity as reddish waves seemed to streak downwards constantly. He knew this was a visualization effect of the increased gravity.

He takes another step, feeling the gravity lower again. He could now stand somewhat upright, but not completely. Daniel's breaths come in short bursts, the heaviness of the air already exhausting his reserves.

Daniel glances around, trying to find any sort of source that Nightmarionne put down. These spells typically lasted longer if given a source, a separate entity or object that could house the magical energy.

After a few moments of searching, he finds his source. On top of the entrance desk was what appeared to be a taser. Bluish smoke flowed around it and it buzzed with magic.

Daniel, target in sight, increases his efforts. He takes a step towards the taser, and nearly falls again. The gravity increased exponentially from just one step. Daniel's right eye closes, the energy needed to keep it open beyond him. His left eye is half opened, just enough for him to see.

Grunting with the effort, Daniel fights back what has to be 5x the normal gravity. Any other person would die almost instantly due to the pressure. Daniel could withstand it because of his magic, but not for much longer.

Daniel stands up once again, and looks forwards. His spirit sinks when he sees that he has at least another three steps before he could reach the taser. From what he could tell from the other steps, that would reach up to at least 20x Earth's gravity. He would be crushed almost instantly!

"Not if you use THAT."

Used to Nightmare's sudden intrusions on his thoughts, Daniel simply grimaces at the idea. "I'd rather not. It is wild and I still have yet to control its power fully."

"But you also have no other options. Think, kit."

"I know that, but it-" Daniel blinks, thinking back on what Nightmare said. "Did you just call me 'kit'?"

Nightmare seems undisturbed by the notion though. "Yeah. What about it?"

Daniel blinks again. "You know a kit is a baby FOX, right?"

"Yeah."

"And I am HUMAN."

"Yeah."

"I am not a fox, or a baby."

"Yeah. And?"

Daniel blinks multiple times, his face the perfect form of absolute confusion. "You know what, forget it. I don't want to know."

Daniel growls when he hears Nightmare chuckling, but the amusement quickly dies down. Daniel knows what he has to do to reach the taser. He could just go the other direction, but he knew that taser is of some importance. Why would Nightmarionne put such a deadly enchantment otherwise?

Closing his eyes in concentration, Daniel tries pulling on his magical reserves. After a few short moments, he hits a mental barrier, one put up through fear. And he could remember quite vividly why it was put up.

Daniel looks around the clearing that Marion decided to use for training. He rubs his sore behind while at it, grimacing slightly. "I still don't get why we need to travel so much just for training. Couldn't we have just stayed back at home for it?"

Marion shakes his head. "No Daniel, we couldn't. Nightmare is an extremely influential being and he could easily take over others if you tried using his powers in a populated area."

Daniel frowns, but he does see the point. No need giving everyone nightmares. He sighs, then looks around again as he asks his next question. "Well, what are making me work on now?"

Seeing that Daniel attention is elsewhere, Marion decides to reveal the big surprise. "I will teach you how to access the reserves that Nightmare gave you by making you his host."

Daniel nods, absentmindedly pulling on his hair. He looks at one of his bangs and frowns. He misses his brown, flaming hair. This hair color is just so dull to him, even if he could see some brown coming back. "Alright. How do we do that?"

Marion claps his hands, a gesture that Daniel found he uses when ready to explain something important. "Well, you need to dive deep into your reserves. And I mean DEEP. Down to the bottom. Tell me when you hit some resistance.

Daniel nods, and closes his eyes. He then begins mentally traversing his reserves, going as far down as possible. He continues on for a few moments before he seems to reach some sort of wall. He tries hitting a few times, but it doesn't budge.

Making his way back up, Daniel opens his eyes. "There was some sort of wall I hit. It just seemed like a black mass of energy that I couldn't pass."

Marion nods, expecting as much. He then looks at Daniel, his eyes showing how serious he is. "I expected that, but this part will be much more harder. I need to use your own energy and slam into that wall as hard as possible. I want you to shatter it. Not crack or break, shatter."

Daniel nods nervously, slightly disturbed by the tone Marion used. He ignores it though and simply dives back into his reserves. He heads deep into the pool of energy, looking for the swirling barrier.

After a short while, Daniel finds the barrie again. He stares at it in slight awe. The barrier was obviously quite powerful. So much so that Daniel could almost see the energy waves it emitted, something not done normally.

Daniel once again grows nervous at the idea of trying to break this barrier. And he knew only one thing that could destroy it. He channels the energy surrounding him into his mental body, preparing himself for his attack.

After half his reserves have been depleted, he begins creating the attack. He cups his hands, about a basketball's width apart. He then grunts in exertion as he channels the energy he absorbed into the area between his hands. A blue spark appears, then turns into a small flame. It begins growing in size rapidly, already the size of a baseball. Daniel grunts again as he pours more energy into the fire.

After a few more moments, Daniel now holds a blazing blue flame. Foxfire. His ears twitch in excitement at the prospect of finally being able to use this attack. He then looks at the barrier again, almost glaring at it. He then pulls his arms back, as if pitching something. Then with a loud roar he sends the flame flying forward, rocketing towards the barrier. And when the flame hits, Daniel almost is blinded by the result.

The flame hits the barrier and explodes violently in a massive blue explosion. Daniel puts his arms in front of him to try and absorb some of the force. He begins getting pushed back as another explosion goes off, this one a much darker blue than before.

After the winds pass, Daniel looks up again. His heart skips a beat at what he sees, his ears falling flat against his head. A looming darkness was beginning to seep into his reserves, slowly consuming his energy. Daniel turns to run away, when he sees it.

Only a few feet away was Nightmare. That damned black bear. Nightmare didn't attack though, simply glaring at Daniel. Daniel grimaces slightly at the expression, but doesn't let it hinder him. He goes to move, but is shocked to find that he can't.

He begins squirming, trying to break free. That was when he heard it. A soft whispering starts up, seeming to come from everywhere. Daniel glances back again and blanches. The darkness was almost on him. And Daniel did what any other person would do. He screamed. He never heard Marion's shouts of worry.

What happened next could only be described as a massacre on Marion. Daniel, completely consumed by Nightmare's energy, quickly took him down. It took everything Marion had to restrain Nightmare again.

Daniel shakes his head to rid himself of the dark thoughts. He couldn't let something like that get to him. Not when he needed to use it to succeed. Daniel frowns, then closes his eyes again.

He opens them mentally inside his reserves, once again surrounded by the swirling white and blue of his energy. He moves forwards, quickly reaching the darkness that once consumed him. He stares at it once more, somehow feeling much more calm than he thought he would be.

Without any delay, Daniel begins channeling the energy it much larger quantities than he has ever before. He grunts, then cries out in pain as the foreign energy rushes into his energy coils. He grimaces, trying to control the energy. He cries out again, then stops.

Daniel breathes heavily, the energy taking its toll on him. He opens on eye slowly, then the other, and gasps in amazement.

His body had transformed from the energy. His sharpened fingernails were actual claws now, and his skin was a deep gray. A deep red light seemed to curl around his body, moving in a sporadic, yet focused movement.

His tail twitched, then… a second one? Daniel looks back, and finds to his amusement nine fox tails swaying gently behind him. "Man, I might as well have Kurama in me, not Nightmare."

"Am I not good enough for you?"

Daniel smirks "What, jealous?"

Nightmare grunts in annoyance. "Of course not. I just find offense in that you'd prefer that grumpy old fox than me."

Daniel smirk widens and he goes to respond, when he registers what Nightmare said. He blinks once, twice, three times. He then shakes his head. Nightmare basically just confirmed the existence of Naruto. How else will this get weird.

That was also when Daniel noticed that the gravity was having a much smaller effect than before. He could jump easily, and he felt he could run multiple miles. He smiles widely, his lengthened canines giving it a fox-like quality.

Daniel steps forwards and easily reaches the taser. While the gravity did increase quite a bit, it wasn't anything he couldn't handle with this form. Daniel grabs the taser, and instantly feels the effects. The gravity field disperses, and Daniel breaths in relief. Also, the slightly forceful presence he felt when he first entered had disappeared.

But he also felt something new, something sinister. It came from the direction of the office, a sickening, evil feeling of malevolence. And only a short moment after processing this did Daniel hear the roar. And that was when he knew that the real challenge, had just begun.

Nineteen years while fighting

Their life seconds numbering

They stopped, ready to find

A new beginning in life