No more than a handful of seconds after you grab the staff, do hordes of yellow circles appear in the treeline. You know, almost instinctively, what they belong to.
"Nightmares", you gasp. The eyes of Nightmares appear sporadically, but in short order become a light sea of creepy yellow spheres that you're not sure has an end.
Your fate is sealed.
You blink and suddenly, you're in a black void. The floor is made of stained glass. On it, an elegant woman. Or you think it's a woman. Hard to tell. There are no Nightmares around as far as you can tell. Where did they go? Where are you?
So, this is your choice.
"Hello? Who's there?" The voice, oddly enough, doesn't have a sound. It travels not through your ears, but through your mind.
The staff. The soul made manifest. Converted to willpower. To Ether. In order to become a true champion of the staff, someday you will have to let go. Will you be ready?
You hold the staff in front of you, parallel to the floor. "Let go? Of the staff? If I let it go, how will I become stronger? Where am I anyway? What is this about?"
Demonstrate your will.
Before you can protest, a shadow appears about a meter in front of you. The shadow takes form and develops two beady yellow eyes that send a slight shiver down your spine. You know what it is; you don't need to say its name. But this is the first time you're seeing a Nightmare's true form without the darkness of whatever that forest was to obscure its body. It displays its menacing teeth and growls for a moment, as if to size you up. It's like looking at pure evil. A small, black impish figure with two yellow eyes, abnormally large teeth and horns with a spaded tail.
Fight. Or submit. The choice...is yours.
The Nightmare gallops towards you and, wasting no time, sends a claw across your chest. Luckily, you dodge just in time, jumping backwards a few feet. You take this lull in combat to think.
> Fight: Aggressive Style
> Fight: Defensive Style
> Fight: Neutral Style