The first thing Caius was aware of was a strangely peaceful sense of falling. He opened his eyes to find that everything around him was black. Save for a single spot of light that was getting bigger and bigger as he fell. Well it was more like floating downward than falling. His hair lay perfectly down by his shoulders, even though he was falling head first. This was most certainly a dream, as Caius had just gone to bed after a long exhausting day. His muscles didn't ache, his eyes didn't feel heavy, none of the day's burdens were on him here. He kind of liked it, it was peaceful. He could see the spot of light more clearly now, it seemed to be a platform. But what really caught his eye was what the platform looked like. It looked like it belonged in the window of a church with the art style. It depicted a sleeping girl with incredibly long blonde hair, she was wearing a purple dress. All around her were seemingly important symbols and figures. Though he wasn't sure what the frying pan meant.

As he reached the platform, he instinctively flipped himself around so he would land on his feet. Which he did. As he landed there was a flash of light and three pillars appeared out of nowhere. Each one held a different weapon of sorts. One was a katana with a silver blade, black hilt, and red wrapping. Another was a club sized staff that was white and had a red perfectly circular stone on the top. And the final was a kite shield that was black in color with blue trim. There was a symbol in the middle, one that Caius recognized fully. It was Phoenix rising from the ashes, it was also painted in blue. Something was telling him to choose one, he wasn't sure why. But he did know that he was really liking this dream. It was the most interesting thing that had happened to him since he had found out his now former girlfriend was making porn videos with his now former best friend.

He thought the sword would be most useful for combat, but he really was attracted to that shield. So that was what he picked. He walked up to it and took it off the pillar, hooking it onto his left arm. He was glad he choose the shield, it felt right, comfortable. The pillars wielding the sword and the staff disappeared after that, along with the platform. Panic surged in Caius' chest as there suddenly wasn't anything to stand on and he found himself falling through black.

He opened his eyes, not realizing he had closed them in the first place, to find himself on another platform. He climbed to his feet and noticed two things at once. One was that he still had the shield, two was this platform looked different than the first. This one had a normal looking girl with red hair, she was also sleeping. She held some sort of bud in her hands and was surrounded by a strange array of symbols and people. Like a slug, what appeared to be a samurai dressed in leaf armor, and a one eyed pug with three legs. Four strange shadows appeared on the platform and as Caius watched, turned into adorable black creatures with glowing yellow eyes. At least they were adorable until he was the claws, and they started trying to kill him. Fighting with a shield was going to be different, but he had been in his fair shares of fights. A few punches, kicks, and blows from his shield later and they disappeared. But something worse appeared in their place.

His sister, or at least a dream version, appeared looking very frightened. For a moment all Caius could see was her. Then what she was afraid of showed up. It was some sort of giant black shadow creature. Like a big ugly version of the ones he had just fought. The thing took a swipe at his sister and his brain stopped working. With no regard to himself, Caius leaped in front of his sister and threw up the shield. The creature's clawed hand slammed into said shield with enough force to send pain up the entirety of his arms. A look of surprised crossed his face, for two reasons. One being that he had felt pain in a dream. The second that he was suddenly airborne again, as the shadow creature's blow sending him reeling off the edge of the platform.

Once again he opened his eyes, and once again he was on another platform. This one was very different than the other two. There were no fancy symbols or sleeping girls. There were three people on this one, two boys one with silver hair and the other with spiky brown hair, and one girl with reddish brown hair. Each of them seemed to be looking at him with various shades of blue eyes. Each of them had some sort of weapon in their hands, some sort of blade. Suddenly a voice began speaking to him out of nowhere. [i]"You have chosen the power of the guardian and have shown it by protecting those you care about without regard to yourself. You have already proved why you were chosen. But be careful, it will be those you wish to protect who suffer if you should push yourself too far.[/i] Caius opened his mouth to speak, to address the bodiless voice. But before he could a blinding light engulfed everything.

Caius' eyes snapped open and he shot straight up in bed. He was panting and covered in sweat. He remembered he had a dream, but couldn't remember what it was about. All he remembered was a single sentence. "Those who I wish to protect, will suffer if I push myself too far." He said softly to himself. His arms seemed to ache for some reason, and his left one felt too light. A scream tore through the air, breaking Caius out of his thoughts. He looked out his window to see people getting attacked, by these strange black creatures with glowing yellow eyes. Ones that seemed incredibly familiar. He didn't even think about, there was nothing to think about. Caius was out of bed within moments and quickly pulled on his clothes.

He ran out of his house, intent on helping anybody in any way he could. As one of the black creatures leaped up to attack his next door neighbor's daughter, he leaped at it, tackling it to the ground. He could feel the little thing's claws rake across his chest as he pinned it to the ground, but ignored the pain and instead drove a fist into its head. Though it didn't seem to do anything. He had to get up and grab another one away from another person, his attacks still seemed not to do anything. But that wasn't going to stop him from fighting. He'd either find a way to beat them, or make sure he got as many people to safety before he went down.