Despite the fact that the main aim of the program was to foster unity between the factions, invitees were still expected to behave accordingly with the rules of the academy. In other words, attending lectures and tests were a given. Supernatural or not, they had to participate in certain activities so as not to stand out among the student population. Most of them found this arrangement annoying. Having been spent years learning various complex branches of magic, it was a bit of a bother to have to repeat the same in an even less motivating manner. The only upside to this was the fact that they still received magic lessons every week from their original teachers. Every other day was spent with actual professors alongside other normal students since as first year students, everyone had the same general classes. If the witches and vampires found this annoying, one could only imagine how the Hunters felt about it. Michael in particular had begun considering straight up leaving t
As a city that ran almost entirely on income from tourism, Starlight Bay's entertainment constructions were usually of high quality. There were many of them too, all built to popularize the town and in turn draw in more people into the economical loop. Although most of the establishments in the urban part of the city were high class, there were still many that had yet to fall into that category. Small cafes, eateries and the like that were privately owned served to provide for people who had no intention of blowing hundreds of dollars on a ridiculously small meal. In one of such modest restaurants, three people sat around a table. Though they were in a restaurant, none of them had a single edible thing in front of them. After all, food was the last thing on their minds at the moment. Michael read through the list in front of him for what must have been the tenth time in the past fifteen minutes. A dark look had settled on his face and his eyes narrowed grimly as he returne
Katie cursed silently as she tugged at a thorny branch that had caught on her pajamas. She had seriously begun reconsidering her decision to follow Melanie. When she had been suddenly asked to come outside her dorm room at two in the morning, she had thought there had been something important that required her help. As a 'good friend' she was, Katie had left the comfort of her bed to tend to the call of the diva. That was a choice she was severely regretting. Her sleepy eyes fell on the girl stumbling beside her and she was secretly glad she was not suffering alone. Melanie had dragged another one of their friends, Sarah with them on this useless trip. The other girl seemed to be just as miserable as Katie herself, if not more. Oh how she would have loved to refuse Melanie's order. Unfortunately it was impossible for her to do so, at least not if she wanted to drop out of college. There was a reason Melanie could act the way she did without any fear of repercussions. Her
The bodies had been found by some students who had gone into the woods with a teacher for an outdoor project. Terrified at the mangled state of the two corpses, they had immediately notified the police who were then invited to remove the bodies. The time of death had been estimated to have been several hours before the bodies were discovered and the cause of death has been assumed to be an attack by a large carnivorous animal. That conclusion had been after further examination of the bodies had revealed several body parts missing in a manner that indicated that they had been consumed. When another body was discovered deep in the forest the next day, in the same condition as the first two, a wave of alarm swept through the school. Once more the police were called in and a warning was issued to all students to avoid solitary movements after dark. A special Animal Control team had been called in to search the forest for the creature responsible for the murders. Since it was fall, it
The silver Mercedes rolled down the slightly busy road, accelerating gradually as it rounded a bend. The driver was a man in his prime, with slightly parted brown hair that seemed almost red in the sunlight. His attire was casual enough not to make him stand out yet gave him an air of seriousness. On the left part of his turtleneck shirt, a beautiful bejeweled silver cross pinned there gleamed in the sunlight brightly. Vincent McAllen mused quietly as he drove his car downtown. The recent spate of violent murders had gotten everyone concerned, some more than others. As an Exorcist as well as the one of the coordinators of this whole thing, it was easy to see how much the deaths had affected him. The fact that innocent people were being killed aside, Vincent had an uncomfortable notion that these murders were only the beginning. He did not like to sound too pessimistic but as far as he was concerned, if there was even a slight chance of something bad happening, he would rather no
"It looks even worse the second time," Rebecca groaned as she tried to hold back the retches that tried to force their way out. "You never answered my question Vincent." "I'm thinking it was neither of those two," he replied as he focused his attention on the corpse. "If you don't think it was an animal or a person, then who did do it?" "That's what I'm here to find out, isn't it?" He bent low over the body and reached behind him. "Hand me the forceps please. The scalpel too." Legally she was not supposed to allow him to touch the corpses since that would be 'tampering with the evidence'. But this was not Rebecca's first time dealing with a disturbing murder case. From the expressions of the police who had brought in the bodies, she knew already that they had very little intention of looking deeper into this. In other words, these bodies had just as much legal importance as roadkill. She did as he asked and he began to work on the body. Using the forceps, he pulled b
After Vincent had left the school for the morgue, Diane had intended to go to the principal's office as per Michael's request. Her last class had kept her busy for more than two hours and the other academic duties related to her work only served to delay her even more. The end result was that by the time she was finally on her way to the administrative building, it was already several hours past noon. An institution as large and complex as Starlight Central Academy would require far more staff to run than av regular college. Thus it was not strange to imagine that an entire building has been set apart solely for administrative personnel. The five storey building was occupied by efficient workers dedicated to ensuring the smooth running of the school. The fact that these people still had to go about their duties with haste was a testament to how complicated the school management was. Diane stepped through the rotating glass doors and was instantly met with a room buzzing with
"Come on Elena! Hurry up!" Whitney called out to the girl behind her. "I'm moving as fast as I can already!" The two girls had been training privately together in the forest behind their dorms daily in an effort to get Elena up to shape after she recovered her magic. Some might think it was risky considering the recent killings but Whitney had never been one to let fear dictate her actions. At the moment she was extremely glad she had not. Their usual training session had barely begun when they saw the bright explosion light up the night sky. Brief and muffled as it had been, it could have easily been mistaken for a random firework but for witches who had spent years under the teachings of the Arcane Circle, it meant something much more. As with every other organized group in the world, the Arcane Council had a set of protocols that were designed for certain conditions. The burst of light in the sky had not been the result of a firework, it had been a flare spell t
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.