The skinwalker led them deeper into the cave, navigating through various tunnels with ease. An uneasy silence hung around them, mostly on the part of the skinwalker due to the gruesome display earlier. The tunnels were somewhat stuffy though an occasional draft of wind would waft past the group through the multiple holes that lined the cave walls. The trend of markings along the wall seemed to increase as they went deeper. Various scenarios were depicted in the illustrations, some of them showing vaguely disturbing scenes. The visiting pair had different reactions to the diagrams and symbols. The man in the suit was obviously less bothered with the images, instead he seemed more annoyed with the fact that his colleague chose to display some mild interest in them at all. "You can ask for a tour of the place the next time you visit, Katherine. Although I doubt they would be willing to get within ten feet of you after that stunt you pulled." The woman, Katherine spun aroun
Listless eyes stared blankly into space as Whitney sat in her seat, waiting for the lesson to end. The words of the lecturer had long been reduced to a mere buzz sound, along with the background noise in the class. She had nothing against the teacher of course, the man being one of the few normal professors whose classes she found somewhat interesting at the least. So, no, she did not hate the class. There were simply more important things to think about at the moment. Her eyes drifted down to her wrist covered in the soft cream material of her long sleeved shirt. Her other hand came up and slowly moved the sleeve back, revealing the cause of all her worries. There was only one circle left in the rope encirclement. A good quarter of the white symbol was already gone, seeing as she had already spent some hours of her last day in classes. A self deprecating scoff escaped her lips at the morbid thought. It was still hard to believe that in less than twelve hours, she would
As she made her way through the hallways in the building, Whitney realized just how good it felt to have delivered such a verbal beat down. That was something she would never had done normally but in light of recent events, she had no intentions of dying without letting that infuriating girl know exactly what she thought of her. As the day's lessons were still ongoing, most of the students were in class, with only a few upperclassmen roaming the school freely as they had less lectures to attend. The weather was pleasant enough that some of them opted to simply lie on the soft grass publicly. Whitney slowed her pace as she observed them. A pang of envy sought to rise up in her heart but she ruthlessly squashed it. With everything that was going on, she did not have time to spare for pettiness. Soon the large building that had been allocated to the witches and the Hunters came into view. For a few seconds, Whitney stood there and wondered if it would be worth it to go inside. S
Vincent sighed wearily as he stared at the multiple texts spread out all over the desk before him. There were different large books and documents scattered across the surface of the desk. Each of the reading materials were from his personal library that sat just a few feet away in the form of several large bookshelves that lined the walls of the room he was in. Despite most of the residential staff having separate lodging which had been provided for them by the administration, the two Exorcists had preferred to live with the participants of the program. With the anti-undead properties of her Relic, Diana had opted to stay with the vampires. That left Vincent with the option to stay in the building that housed both the witches and the Hunters. While it might not have been the most optimal arrangement for him, he had been willing to live with it. There had been no words spared when the importance of every individual in the program had been imposed on them. Whilst the Hunters woul
To the consternation of both Hunter and Exorcist, the mafia boss's news had not ended there. Having found the whole thing more than a little concerning, Antonio had gone on to look deeper into the matter and the results had been as surprising as they had been alarming. Apparently the same scenario had occurred in multiple locations throughout the city. Numerous people had been reported absent from their workplaces and when the mafia boss had investigated those cases, he found the absentees in the same state as his men. To say Lee and Vincent had found this disturbing would be an understatement. But even more concerning was the discovery Antonio had made while he had been digging around. The boss had made good use of his connections to obtain the locations of most of the victims' homes as well as their workplaces. Just as he had suspected, practically all of them had been based in the less than privileged sections of the city. Such locations were where the dregs of society dw
Diana made her way briskly across campus. Since she was now a bit more familiar with the school layout, it took her less time than before to get to the administrative building. Sparing little time to respond to the greetings that were sent her way, Diana moved with fairly hurried steps until she reached the office of the head of the school. Although this time she was not here to meet him, not directly at least. "Good morning Lisa," she greeted as she approached the receptionist's desk. The younger lady smiled faintly at first as her mind worked to recall the woman before her. When she did, her smile became more profound. "Hello, Diana right? What can I help you with?" "I was wondering if the principal had returned to office?" "Oh, unfortunately that has not happened. He has yet to recover completely." "Does this happen often?" Diana questioned. Lisa responded with a small shake of her head. "Actually no. Mr Rhodes rarely ever gets sick and never to this extent. Wh
Lucio Romano let out a breathy sigh and watched it turn into mist in the slight cold of the evening. He had been asked to pick up the boss's daughter from school. It was a task that was usually assigned to him, and he had long since grown accustomed to it. He even found it somewhat pleasant. The long periods of waiting for the last bell to ring normally provided him with some time to think. And there was a lot to think about this time. He had never really been much of a superstitious individual. At least that was until he had been shot and poisoned by an undead skeleton. His right hand came up to rub his left shoulder in reminiscence. It had already been days since the attack on Anna where he had been injured but he still felt occasional tingles of phantom pain in the arm. The wound had healed up nicely since then. The arrow had been needle-like in shape as it was never designed to kill immediately but rather to deliver its target to a slow cruel death by poisoning. After tha
"It seems I have once again underestimated the lengths these people can go to achieve their aims." "I'm guessing this is bad then." "Putting it lightly, yes." Jade groaned loudly. "Great. Another thing to worry about." The common room had been partially transformed to something that resembled a cross between a horror movie and the laboratory of a mad scientist. Empty vials and breakers were kept aside on standby while the ones containing one substance or another were kept atop the table. There were also several glass jars containing various leaves and herbs and what Jade suspected to be animal parts. For the past several hours, she, Olivia and Daniel Whitestone had been examining and running tests on the mysterious cans Vincent and Lee had suddenly dropped off earlier in the day. The erratic behavior of the two as they hurried to leave after bringing the unlabeled items had not stopped then from emphasizing on the importance of the cans. Lee had been vague with his
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.