"I see..." She finally spoke in an unnervingly calm tone. "Looks like I had been worried over nothing after all." Olivia slowly pushed herself off the ground without a single sign of the pain that had been ravaging her body earlier. She wiped the blood around her mouth on her sleeve and frowned at the thought that she would have to throw it out later. Some meters away, the skinwalker eyed her with a mixture of caution and disbelief. "You know for a second there I thought your Variant ability would have been similar to Dean's," Olivia said and flashed him a strange smile. "But it turns out you're nothing but a cheap copy." Anger surged through the skinwalker's mind although it was kept in check by both surprise and now concern. So far, the special ability of his Variant magic had never been countered by any means. Yet for some reason, the girl before him had yet to succumb to its effects even after displaying signs of being affected by its curse. Was it possible that she co
Olivia turned to glance at the woman who was giving her a look full of concern. It puzzled the Hunter who could not understand why she was being asked such a question. "What do you mean?" Olivia asked. Diana's concerned look remained as she also turned to face the girl. "It's just... About your fight with the skinwalker..." Just like the last person to be faced with it, Diana felt a shiver run down her spine at the sudden lack of emotion that appeared on Olivia's face. The temperature around them felt like it had dropped more than a couple degrees. The girl's cold eyes narrowed at Diana. "How much did you see?" Despite the sudden change, Diana reacted with professional skill. There was no outward sign of the apprehension she was feeling at the moment. Although she did err on the side of caution by taking a step back, masking it as an attempt to stand more comfortably. "Enough," she replied cryptically. Olivia's eyes hardened even more but Diana stood her ground. S
Àtahsaia attacked first. It lunged forward at the dark haired youth with its claws aimed to pierce through his skull. To its surprise, the youth did not attempt to dodge. Rather as soon as its claws were within range, he reached out and smacked it away to deflect the attack. Before the beast could comprehend what had just happened, Dean grabbed the deflected hand and pulled forward harshly, at the same time throwing a kick at the creature's lower torso. By the time Àtahsaia realized it, the ground was already right before its eyes. It crashed down heavily, its own momentum carrying it on to scrape a ridge through the forest floor. Rising back to its feet, the demon glared viciously at the one who had humiliated it in such manner, while inwardly wondering how he possessed such immense strength. At the time of its summoning, its summoner had not failed to impart on it knowledge about the two things that could threaten its existence: Exorcists and Hunters. Since its summoner was u
The portal dropped Michael off at the foot of the small mountain. Since she had never been to the mountain herself nor did she have a clear picture as to what it would look like, Jade had been unable to open a gateway that would lead directly to the top. Hence the distant position of his starting point. Daniel and the vampires would encounter the same issue as well, although he knew they would have it easier than he would. No one else knew skinwalkers better than Daniel after all. As he began his ascent through the woody areas at the bottom of the natural structure, Michael found his eyes wondering upwards. On any other day, he would have found the sight above him incredible. Instead all he felt at the moment was rage and immense disappointment in himself. They had discovered the skinwalker threat a long time ago. Then, Michael had refused the idea of a full-scale attack on them in a bid to avoid human casualties which might occur in such a situation. Now he was deeply regretti
Every living creature feared death on an instinctual level. Sentient or not, an organism would always take steps that would ensure its life, its kind remained in existence. Death was the enemy of life. Death was unavoidable end of all things that lived and breathed. Death... was standing right before it. It was everywhere around the boy, clinging to him in the form of a noxious semitransparent cloud of dark smoke. Nothing could exist in the presence of death, especially things that represented life. Like warmth. The temperature in a wide area of the entire forest dropped like a stone in a river. Small layers of chilly fog began to formulate near ground level. The night dew slowly turned to frost on the leaves and rocks around. The forest plant life had not gotten off easy either. The ground around where the boy stood was entirely devoid of any green matter. Any thing that even a wisp of that deathly miasma touched, shriveled up near instantly. But what probably stood out the m
As its wounds healed, Àtahsaia forced itself to to stand once more. It was still unsure as to what had happened to cause the situation to devolve to this. The battle had been under its control, it had finally caught the Hunter in an unavoidable attack. Next thing it knew, it was sent flying away with a giant wound on its body. It had sensed the cursed energy lingering around the area of the slash. That was supposed to have been a fatal blow and it nearly had. But the Hunter had done something. He had been the one to prevent death from consuming it. It was this that confused the demon as it was fairly certain that this individual had come here with the purpose of exterminating it. Let it be known that the strength of the demon known as Àtahsaia did not lie in its not so inconsiderable power, but in its wit and intelligence. Something had caused the Hunter to pull back his attack at the last second. And as far as it knew, there was only one other third party involved in all this.
Àtahsaia was confused. First the Hunter had been barely able to match its strength. Then he unleashed this terrifying power that nearly killed it with a single strike. After that he had become weaker for sometime. But now here he was easily being able to keep up with itself even with the boost that witch's soul had granted it. Just what was this individual planning? Dean deflected a swipe of the demon's large hand and landed three slashes on its arm, shoulder and face in quick succession. With each hit he had increased his power but it had still not been enough to pierce the demon's tough hide. Although he had felt a slight depression in its skin on that last strike. 'It shouldn't take much now.' He leapt back to avoid the raging stream of flame it spat out in return. When the breath of fire ended, he was gone. But Àtahsaia knew better than to assume he would retreat so easily. A lance of flames formed within its have and it swung backwards to block the curved blade of shadow
"For a place that's supposed to be of immense importance, there is very little security around here." "Don't jinx it Caen." "I'm just saying. It's way too quiet here." The way both Aiden and Veronica turned to glare at him made it very clear that they had long noticed that fact and had chosen not to acknowledge it for a reason. No one knew exactly how this sort of flags worked in movies, but they were not exactly keen to find out. They were vampires. Immortal yes, but certainly not invulnerable. The walk up the mountain had been largely uneventful. Whether that was good or bad, none of them could say. While they were definitely glad for the hitch free journey, the boredom still made it annoying. Vampires were not exactly the most docile of creatures, especially at night. There was no doubt the others had engaged in some sort of battle at some point. It had been impossible to ignore the dramatic spike in energy that had resonated throughout that side of the mountain. Eve
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
"For a place that's supposed to be of immense importance, there is very little security around here." "Don't jinx it Caen." "I'm just saying. It's way too quiet here." The way both Aiden and Veronica turned to glare at him made it very clear that they had long noticed that fact and had chosen not to acknowledge it for a reason. No one knew exactly how this sort of flags worked in movies, but they were not exactly keen to find out. They were vampires. Immortal yes, but certainly not invulnerable. The walk up the mountain had been largely uneventful. Whether that was good or bad, none of them could say. While they were definitely glad for the hitch free journey, the boredom still made it annoying. Vampires were not exactly the most docile of creatures, especially at night. There was no doubt the others had engaged in some sort of battle at some point. It had been impossible to ignore the dramatic spike in energy that had resonated throughout that side of the mountain. Eve
Àtahsaia was confused. First the Hunter had been barely able to match its strength. Then he unleashed this terrifying power that nearly killed it with a single strike. After that he had become weaker for sometime. But now here he was easily being able to keep up with itself even with the boost that witch's soul had granted it. Just what was this individual planning? Dean deflected a swipe of the demon's large hand and landed three slashes on its arm, shoulder and face in quick succession. With each hit he had increased his power but it had still not been enough to pierce the demon's tough hide. Although he had felt a slight depression in its skin on that last strike. 'It shouldn't take much now.' He leapt back to avoid the raging stream of flame it spat out in return. When the breath of fire ended, he was gone. But Àtahsaia knew better than to assume he would retreat so easily. A lance of flames formed within its have and it swung backwards to block the curved blade of shadow
As its wounds healed, Àtahsaia forced itself to to stand once more. It was still unsure as to what had happened to cause the situation to devolve to this. The battle had been under its control, it had finally caught the Hunter in an unavoidable attack. Next thing it knew, it was sent flying away with a giant wound on its body. It had sensed the cursed energy lingering around the area of the slash. That was supposed to have been a fatal blow and it nearly had. But the Hunter had done something. He had been the one to prevent death from consuming it. It was this that confused the demon as it was fairly certain that this individual had come here with the purpose of exterminating it. Let it be known that the strength of the demon known as Àtahsaia did not lie in its not so inconsiderable power, but in its wit and intelligence. Something had caused the Hunter to pull back his attack at the last second. And as far as it knew, there was only one other third party involved in all this.