Novels by Tony Hallows

The ringing of a bell brought Whitney back to reality as her last class for the day ended. Pulling her upper body off her desk, she carefully concealed a yawn that threatened to escape either way behind the open notebook before her. Half the class had already disappeared within the first minute after the bell had rung and the other half were well on their way to join their peers. Looking around, Whitney felt a guilty pleasure in the fact that she had not been the only one who had slept throughout the entire class. Her disguised eyes spotted Mia's hunched over form still snoozing away at her desk. A fond smile, a rare thing for her to show, spread across Whitney's lips as she watched the sleeping girl. She had been mostly unconscious by the time Dean and Mia had arrived to her aid the night before but she had been filled in on what had happened after. To the surprise of everyone, herself included, Whitney had genuinely thanked the Hunters for their assistance in her rescue. Thoug

Stormy gray eyes almost silver in color and set in a blank stare, suddenly darkened with clarity of mind. Up above and around, the raging storm of magic ceased in an instant. Then it began moving again, this time with far clearer purpose. The energy nearest to Michael began to concentrate around his right hand. It swirled like a small whirlwind around his hand before gradually coagulating into a vaguely distinct shape. There was no particular form to it, but what resembled the hilt of a sword was visible when his hand tightened around it. The 'blade' was merely a dense mass of swirling magic that pulsated with so much power that it turned the land around him to dust. Sensing the imminent threat, Àtahsaia conjured as much Hellfire as it could to form a giant wave of soul-consuming flames that crashed towards Michael. The wave destroyed everything in its path at it approached the Hunter. Michael regarded it without a single care. With his mind restored, the memory of an attack

The fog of energy around him stirred to life and he surged forward at a much higher speed than he had used as a wolf beast. A wild and terrifying grin appeared on the demon's face, one that split its whole face in half, as it ran to meet the Hunter's charge head on. Just before they could clash, the demon leveled its giant bow at him and the nocked arrows on it suddenly went ablaze with black flames. Michael's eyebrows shot up into his hairline and he kicked off to the side to avoid the arrows that obliterated the area he had occupied a mere second ago in a blaze of Hellfire. His quick dodge did nothing to reduce his momentum however and he soon arrived within striking range of the demon. In a single breath, it drew its large knife and brought it down on Michael who grabbed the weapon's bladed edge with a single hand. He suffered no visible harm although the way the ground around him cratered instantly spoke volumes of the amount of force behind that strike. The destruction

Under the nonstop pressure the black sphere was emitting, the walls of the cavern were forced to give. Fortunately the cavern had been located just below the surface of the mountain, which meant that there was not much thickness to the earth on one side of the hollow formation. Within seconds, the cavern exploded outwards under the pressure. From an outside view, it looked like a mine charge had detonated from within the mountain. The quake from the explosion shook the entire mountain slightly since the whole structure itself was fairly small. Dislodged debris in the form of large rocks and landslides wrecked some parts of the forest below. In the middle of the newly formed 'cave', an inhumanly large figure pushed itself off the ground to stand on its two feet. Standing at over twenty feet, the creature towered over most land animals. The moonlight fell on its body and illuminated its bizarre appearance. Finally able to dig himself out of the rubble, Michael received the u

A chimera. He turned himself into a freaking chimera?! 'Don't be so quick to conclude. We still don't know if he breathes fire–' Michael spotted a dim orange glow at the back of its throat that was rapidly growing in intensity. 'You know what? Never mind. Do try and dodge that.' "Yeah no kidding!" Still he agreed with his predecessor's soul. Michael forced himself out of his shock to leap out of the way as a stream of fire engulfed the area he had been standing on seconds ago. Unfortunately dodging did not mean it had forgotten Michael. The chimera used the continuous stream of flames to chase the Hunter across half the cavern before it ceased its attempts to incinerate him. "If it keeps this up, I might not be able to keep my promise to Daniel." Black smoke rose from the ground to surround Michael's body. After a few seconds, it dissipated revealing a massive humanoid wolf-like creature that howled loudly. The chimera roared in reply and both beasts lunged

When faced with imminent threat, the automatic response of every sentient creature would be either flight or fight. This was a reaction that could not be overcome without the presence of an extreme amount of self control. Even a weak rat would struggle to mount a resistance against the hungry cat that sought its demise, hence the phrase. But in the occasion that the opponent, the predator was so far above the prey on the food chain that any form of resistance would be futile, what then? The skinwalkers chose to fight. Bad choice. Out of the corner of his eyes, he spotted another approaching from what might have looked like his blind spot. His right hand snapped backwards and grabbed the skinwalker's head in a vice-like grip. A second later, the body collapsed, its center of control gone with the wind. Two more dashed forward, dark magic swirling around their hands. Their blasts vanished an inch before his skin to their immense dismay. Before they could retreat, he swi

Rosaline stared at the ground in front of her where a raised mound of earth was all that remained of one of her longest friends. The pain and grief in her heart was far greater than the ones still wracking her body even as she stood in the pouring rain. Unlike other mounds around her, this one did not have a cross atop it, nor did it have a headstone. Rosaline had felt it would definitely not be fitting to put up a cross on Aria's grave considering how the girl had died. And as for a headstone, she had considered it at first, but that idea had eventually been discarded. After all, even if she were to make one, what would she write on it? Aria was the last of her family to die and as far as Rosaline knew, the girl did not have any other relations outside the Order of The New World. Even within the organisation, the only people she had really gotten along with had been Rosaline herself and Ezra. The latter had been in a strange love-hate relationship with Aria, something that Rosali

Chapter Ninety Eight: A Coming Storm Mia could not stop staring at the girl lying oh so innocently on that white hospital bed like she had not just tried to suck away all of Mia's powers like some kind of energy leech. The memory of that terrifying experience was still very fresh and raw in her mind, leaving her very uneasy about getting any closer than six feet to the girl's bed. She just kept pacing back and forth, imagining just what could have done this to the girl before her. But Rin was in no mood for such indecision. "Hey Mia," the ex assassin snapped the mage out of her thoughts sharply. "What the hell just happened right now?" "I... I don't really know..." She answered, her voice less shaky that it had been a few seconds ago but still just as uncertain. "I mean I thought I had recognized her from somewhere but when we first got here, I wasn't able to get a reading so I just thought I had been imagining things... But this..." "Ok you better start making sense or I'm

"As you know by now, all of the Hunters possess a specific Variant ability in addition to the powers we already have by virtue of our werewolf nature," Olivia explained. "Michael has his Erasure, Dean has Absolute Death Inducement, Jade has Space and Time Manipulation and Lee had his own particular brand of Blood Magic. As for me, well the closest thing we've been able to find as a suitable name for my ability was the Eternal Soul." "The Eternal Soul?" Mia repeated in surprise. "And if that name was to be believed literally," Rin leveled the girl with a flat look. "Then it means you are essentially immortal?" "That is correct." "But Shin said that he had both gravely injured you and hit you with an unavoidable attack that was meant to inflict death upon any target it hit regardless of—" "Ah ah, that's where you're wrong," Olivia cut in with a knowing grin. "Immortality does not always equal to invulnerability. You can cut me, stab me, shoot me and I'll still bleed just li

As the morning sun rose above the sky of Starlight Central Academy, the shrill sound of the wind whistling through the rows of ornamental trees planted all over the school was nearly drowned out by the loud singing from the large open field that was situated just off the north of the school. The pitch was mostly devoid of regular students leaving only members of the two most well known extra curricular clubs in the entire academy: the football team and the cheerleading squad. Both were having their practices on the same field, which was fortunately large enough to easily accommodate the two groups without either having to worry about bothering the other. As the cheer squad went through the complex choreography of their routine, a lone figure sitting on the middle row in the bleachers watched them with unconcealed interest. A few of the girls on the squad had noticed the individual's staring and had begun to whisper among themselves. Eventually one of them seemed to have had enoug

Sometimes Loretta wondered if this power she had been born with was a blessing or a curse. The Celestial Eyes had always been something she had taken extreme pride in. With those Eyes, there was practically nothing that was hidden to her. She could see all the truths of the world, the inner workings of the human mind, even the most concealed secrets of most people she came across every day. But for the first time in her life, Loretta felt completely blind and lost on what to do as she stood on the paved walkway along the avenue that led out of the residential part of the campus. There was a slight chill in the air, something that was not uncommon this early in August since that was when fall started bleeding into winter. But though Loretta had worn a comfy looking long sleeved blue parka jacket and was even going as far as to keep cycling her magic through her body at all times, it did not alleviate the cold that was boring into her soul. At least unlike the last time she had

A single flap of his wings had him closing the distance between them immediately, his swords coming up for a double diagonal slash from both sides. Ezra reacted accordingly by blocking both attacks with a brand new pair of blood axes that formed instantaneously from the swirling magic around him. Vincent raised an eyebrow at the appearance of a second arm in the vampire's body, formed from solidified energy to replace the the Exorcist had severed earlier tonight. But even then, the strength of a Celestial being was not something that could be matched by simple Blood Magic. The axes shattered after a few seconds of bearing the weight of the Exorcist's power and Vincent attacked again. Having fully expected this, Ezra did not make any attempt to dodge since doing so would put him in a far more unfavorable position than he already was. Rather he stepped forward and raised his arm, the one that was made of energy and intercepted the stab. The sword pierced right through the arm but t

By morning, life in the monastery had returned to normal. The cleanup had even occurred sometime during the night, leaving no evidence that any sort of celebration had ever happened. Everyone went about their usual activities, paying little attention to the newly arrived group. As it was, the group might have arrived recently but this was definitely not their first time here. By the time Liling moved to seek out the other members of their little party, Jiang and the others had already left to attend to their matters, inadvertently leaving Liling on her own in an extremely unfamiliar place. Deciding to make the most of her 'abandonment', Liling headed out to explore the rest of the the temple where the welcome-back party had been thrown. On her way she made several observations about the place, the most apparent being the shockingly large amount of affluence around her. There had been no chance to look around the previous night but now that she really paid attention, she was more t

It took the greater part of TFW evening for Liu Han to finish with the greetings. Apparently he was in very good terms with pretty much every monk in the monastery, evident by the literal crowd that swarmed him as soon as word of his return spread. All the while though, Liling was content with standing on the sidelines and watching the whole thing unfold. If she were to be totally honest with herself,a part of her was a bit envious of the warm welcome her new guardian was receiving. Having lacked a normal upbringing available to most children, she had never had the opportunity to establish deeper familial connections with anybody. The gang that had taken her in did not count. That group had been full of thieves and criminals who did nothing but take advantage of her skills every chance they got. And besides, if she were to return to them now after all she'd done, there was no doubt that they would slit her throat immediately. Later that night, a small scale celebratory party was

Daoxi Province was exactly how Liu Liling had imagined it. It stretched out for several kilometers in each direction, and had quite bountiful flora and fauna. Many multi-storeyed buildings populated the main town, designed to reflect the affluence of the capital. With a population of over ten thousand people with a majority of them being traders, Daoxi, the capital town of the province was a thriving merchant town. Hundreds of traveling merchants moved in and out of the town daily through huge steel gates, bringing in various goods and articles from foreign lands to sell at largely affordable prices to the locals. Most of the town's houses were painted a dark brown that was just a shade shy of red. That seemed to be the town's color as a good portion of the population wore clothing of a similar color. There were more eye-catching things about Daoxi though, one of which was the local dishes of the natives. Some were exotic and exquisite to both sight and taste, while some looked li

At the last two words, Gui's normally cheerful face became strangely shrouded in contained rage and what seemed like disgust, as if the words left a sour taste in his mouth. Liling nearly asked him what had irritated him so much before she put two and two together in her head. Her own expression sobered up immediately when she realized who Gui had meant. "Mei Daiyu came to your village, didn't she?" The burly man simply nodded and she turned her eyes back to the crackling fire morbidly. She had heard enough about the Lady of Death to know what must have happened afterwards. "I'll leave the description of the things that followed to your imagination," Gui said grimly. The flames of the fire cast his face in different tones of light. "By the time I regained myself, everything had been destroyed and everyone was dead. My father I found pinned to the wall by an arrow through his chest. He lived long enough to hand over the staff and pass on his last wishes for me to fulfill on his

"How much farther do we have to walk? My feet are getting really sore." The sound of her voice was the only thing that kept breaking TFW unspoken treaty of silence that existed between the quintet group as they moved steadily on a worn path through a thick forest. The question, like the others before it, had been directed at Liu Han. After the incident at the festival, the relationship between the two had improved considerably, to the point where Liling would intentionally throw superfluous statements at Liu Han just to break the white haired man's stoic expression. They had spent the next few days traveling and trekking across mostly empty land with only a few human settlements scattered here and there. The way they moved was designed to place Liling in a position where they would be perfectly capable of protecting her in an event that their little group got ambushed. Jiang Shui led the way because of the fact that he possessed the sharpest eyesight among them all, therefore

Wherever crows went, death and misfortune were often not very far behind. The pitch black birds were regarded as harbingers of ill, symbols of evil that knew no boundaries. Abhorred and feared by all those who did not wish to suffer a painful, violent death, it was only fitting that they accompany someone who was seen as the physical incarnation of death itself. Flocks of the accursed birds descended to join their compatriots to feast on the bodies strewn across the ruins of a village. One that had been a bustling hive of cheerful life and civility only mere hours ago. Now it had joined the ranks of the settlements that had been completely destroyed by an army of blood thirsty mercenaries, led by an individual whose mere presence brought terrible sorrow and suffering. Black smoke streamed up from the funeral pyres where the bodies of innocent victims had been piled up and burnt. Houses lay in smoldering ruins. Hundreds of dead corpses that had abandoned littered the streets, their i