Chapter 6
My coven and I ran into the Grand Hall right as the first explosion hit the castle.
Circe let out a squeak as rubble and dust fell around us, but I knew we couldn’t focus too much on the explosions. I heard the terrified screams of the students in the castle, and they weren’t going to last long if they didn’t have anyone to protect them.
“Vanessa, Morgana, Revna, Circe, Faye, and Beatrix,” I ordered as I pointed to each woman in turn. “Stay here and kill any men and creatures that come your way. The rest of you, follow me.”
“Where are we going?” Marina asked as we ran from the Grand Hall.
“To protect the others,” I replied. “They’ll all be dead by sunset if we don’t get there right now.”
I ran blindly through the school with the others close behind me. I had no idea where I was going, but I followed the sounds of the screaming students and didn’t pay attention to where I was. The warlocks were still to enter the school, and right now it was just the explosions we needed to dodge, so I hoped it gave me the opportunity to reach the weaker women before our time ran out.
“Prepare yourselves,” Quinn’s voice echoed through the walls. “Use all the information you’ve learned in class and fight with everything you’ve got!”
“This way!” Nyx shouted as she pointed toward a lone, wooden door. “This is probably where the majority of the students will hide.”
I nodded and followed the blue-haired witch through the door. I noticed it led to some sort of common room which faced the back of the castle, and as Nyx had theorized, at least twenty students were found huddled behind couches and in the corners of the room.
But being the only male in the school came as a slight issue for me, especially as a student suddenly aimed her wand in my direction.
“Volant!” the raven-haired woman cried out.
A spark of light left the tip of her wand, but due to the shakiness of her hand, the light missed me by an inch and shot a hole straight through the wooden door.
“Damn, Winnie, he’s on our fucking side!” another student shouted from her hiding spot underneath a table. “Don’t you remember him from the last time this school was under attack?”
“S-S-Sorry,” Winnie stuttered, and she nearly dropped her wand. “I panicked.”
Then another explosion hit the room we were in, and it took half of one wall with it. Winnie screamed again, and the fresh set of tears were visible on her cheeks.
“Stop fucking crying,” the girl under the table moaned. “Your panicking is going to get us all killed.”
“No, your arguing will get us killed,” I said. “Now, everyone come here and huddle together.”
I didn’t need to tell the students twice, and they all left their spots to stand beside me at the door. But movement in my peripheral vision caught my attention, and then I saw a warlock climb through the hole he’d made in the wall.
“Aperto!” Samara shouted, and the former goddess’ face was twisted with rage.
A raging fire began to build across the floor, which acted as a barricade between us and the warlocks.
“Prohibere!” one warlock cried out, and the fire began to die.
“Volant!” Marina ordered.
The warlock was shot back from the power of Marina’s wand, and Samara’s fire continued to grow once again. It gave us a few extra seconds to put our plan into action, but more of our enemies could arrive at any given moment.
“Like Headmistress Quinn said, put everything you’ve learned into practice,” I said to the quivering group. “Work as a team, and aim for the warlocks outside of the school, not each other.”
I glanced over at Winnie and noticed her tears had dried up, but the panic and fear were still obvious on her face. I hoped everyone was going to survive the attack, but I knew the weaker and anxious students were often the first to die.
“Create a protective shield around you if you think that will help, but remember, it won’t last forever,” I continued. “Do you all know how to summon a shield?”
“I do,” one witch said with her hand in the air.
“Excellent.” I nodded. “Use that, but only if you can’t do anything else. We’ll return shortly to offer you a hand if you need it.”
I took my coven from the common room, but as I closed the door, another explosion sounded from the other side of the wall. I heard the shouts and orders as the students defended themselves, and their words became fainter as I raced down the corridor.
A group of nine warlocks instantly appeared at the end of the hall, and a sinister smile crossed their faces as they noticed our approach.
“Dissulto!” Akira shouted and hit one warlock straight in the chest.
“Conflo!” one warlock cried out.
“Novis,” I ordered.
Then a blue inferno sparked at the warlocks’ feet, and all nine of them began to scream in pain as the fire worked its way up their legs, over their chests, and down their arms. The warlocks did whatever they could to bat out the flames, but the inferno was far too strong, and it ate the men alive as the fire licked at their skin.
Soon, they were nothing but a pile of ash, and Akira had great fun kicking the mess as we ran through them.
“Let’s go upstairs,” I said. “We can get a better view of what’s going on that way.”
“There’s a watchtower on the west side,” Nyx suggested. “Unless it’s already being demolished, of course.”
“Lead the way.” I motioned with my hand. “We won’t know until we get there.”
Nyx sprinted up the stone stairs with the rest of us hot on her heels. I was pleased to see the warlocks hadn’t targeted the next floor yet, so the students were poised and ready at the windows, and every so often one girl would shout out an incantation as bolts of light left her wand.
We ran up two more flights of stairs until we reached the watchtower, and amazingly it hadn’t been touched by our opponents. The tower gave us the perfect view of our surroundings, and there looked to be at least a hundred warlocks sprinting through the trees. Not only did the tower show us that, but it also gave me the first look at the creatures the warlocks had brought with them.
Like Lilith said, they were far worse than any of us had previously imagined.
The creatures looked to be the size of mammoths. They walked on all fours, and I noticed the terrifying tusks that protruded from their bottom jaw and curled up to their nose. It felt as though the ground shook and vibrated every time the monsters took a step forward, and I noticed at least thirty of them all headed in the same direction.
Toward us.
“We need to find a way to stop the beasts from reaching the castle,” I said to my coven. “If they manage to reach these walls, no amount of power or strength will stop them from demolishing everything in their paths. I haven’t had a chance to impregnate the witches of this academy yet, so each life lost will reduce the power of my future army.”
“I can’t say for certain since I’ve only read about them, but they look to be slontaurs,” Samara said as she squinted her eyes.
“And what if they are slontaurs?” Akira asked. “What do you know about them?”
Samara scoffed, but it held very little humor. “The blood pact might not be enough to save us if we’re trampled into a liquid pulp.”
“Then we have to do something to stop them,” I decided. “Bolts of fire, and even chains, may not be enough to hold them off, so we’ll have to combine our forces together and create something utterly unstoppable.”
“I’ve heard of some people who fought off a slontaur,” Penelope piped up. “According to the source, they fought against that beast for hours, and they only won because the slontaur lost too much blood and became too weak to fight back. But, obviously, that’s only if you get close enough to the beast, so… that probably doesn’t help.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Akira huffed.
I glanced down at the warlocks who’d reached the castle walls. From the speed the slontaurs walked at, I knew we had some time to think of a plan, and the warlocks needed to be dealt with first.
“Samara, you obviously know more about the slontaurs than we do,” I said. “I want you, Penelope, and Akira to think of a way around that issue. Nyx, Marina, and Vesta, you three will help me fight off those fuckers.”
“I’ll be happy to.” Nyx smirked.
Within seconds, there was an abundance of noise as Nyx, Marina, and Vesta aimed their wands over the top of the stone wall and shouted out every spell they knew. I heard screams and groans from down below, but it was hard to differentiate where the noises were coming from. It could have been a warlock meeting his death, or it could have been a student meeting theirs. Nothing was clear from this high off the ground, but I had to do my best to focus on the troubles in front of us.
The stone wall had small slits in the center, and it gave me the perfect opportunity to spy on our opponents without them realizing it. With my women completing their tasks, I laid down flat on the ground and positioned my wand through the thin opening. I eyed up my first victim, and then I allowed my wand to do all the work.
“Volant!” I shouted.
The bolt of light sent the warlock flying backward, and once he was on the ground, I moved onto a different target and repeated the process. I lost count how many warlocks I forced to the ground, but it had to have been at least fifteen, possibly more. Once the men were on the ground, I paralyzed them with the tardesco spell, created the blue inferno, and watched in delight as the motherfuckers shriveled into ash.
“Lacero,” I commanded, and a flash of white light formed at the tip of my wand.
The white light shot a warlock straight in the chest, and before he even knew what had happened, the white light sliced the man in half. His head and torso collapsed to the ground, followed by his legs.
But the sudden dismemberment created a slight uproar with the warlocks that gathered around the mutilated man. I watched carefully as they scanned the area, like they were trying to work out where the threat came from, but before they could work out our hiding spot, I repeated the same spell again.
“Lacero,” I ordered, but this time with a smirk on my face.
The white light caught one man at the base of his throat, and his decapitated head quickly rolled to the ground.
“Lacero,” I said again.
I worked my way through five of the warlocks, and each of them received a different death. One lost his legs, arms, and head in that order, another was sliced right down the center, starting from the top of his head, and others were simply cut in half by the white light.
Then, as I picked out my next victim, I spotted one of the traitorous men staring up at the watchtower. They must have spotted myself and the others peering over the wall, and now he had his own wand aimed straight at us. I couldn’t hear the word he shouted, but I noticed the movement of his lips, and then a red light zoomed in our direction.
“Get down!” I shouted as I covered my head with my arms.
My coven obeyed my orders seconds before the stone roof of the watchtower was targeted, and stone shrapnel rained down on us. A second hit quickly followed, but this time the warlock aimed lower, and a thick crack formed across the floor.
We had to move quickly, otherwise the entire tower was going to collapse to the ground.
“Go, go!” I ordered. “Get out of the tower!”
The seven of us scrambled to our feet and ran back inside the castle, then just as Vesta crossed the threshold, the tower crumbled to the ground, and nothing was left behind apart from a gaping hole in the side of the building.
“Satan, that was close.” Akira let out a sigh of relief. “But where do we go now? We can’t watch the slontaurs from inside.”
“I know.” I nodded. “Nyx, can you think of anywhere that gives us a good view?”
“Um…” Nyx ran her hands down her face as she thought. “What about the owlery? It’s right at the top of the school, so I don’t know what condition it’s in, but it might have a good viewpoint.”
“It’s worth a shot.” I shrugged. “Let’s go.”
Nyx wasted no time as she ran through the school, but just as we reached a staircase, a blood-curdling scream echoed from the floor below. It was clearly a female, and someone in great distress, and I wouldn’t have forgiven myself if I’d left her there to die.
“Cole, what are you doing?” Akira shouted as I instantly sprinted down the stairs.
“Stay there!” I demanded.
The lower floor was a complete mess. There were holes in the walls, the floor was covered in dust, blood, and small pieces of rock, and there was a woman collapsed against one wall. She clearly hadn’t made it, but the peaceful look on her face spoke a thousand words.
Then the screaming returned, and I forced my body to move faster as I followed the wails and cries that filled the building. The woman’s screams took me down one hallway, and then I spotted the owner of the high-pitched noise.
The student was young, and her Vipera uniform was ripped and bloody from the fight. Blood seeped from a large wound on her leg, but the girl had pulled across to a dark corner, and I assumed she thought she would have been safe there.
But she was wrong.
A few steps in front of the girl, with his back to me, was a warlock. His robe was torn and ripped, and he sauntered toward his prey slowly, like he wanted to make her final few minutes as torturous as possible.
However, due to the screams, the warlock hadn’t realized that I stood behind him. I noticed his wand in his hand by his side, so if I was quick and nimble, I could kill the man before he even knew what hit him.
“Dolorum fuga,” I whispered.
A red mist formed in my palm, and as I raised my hand, the warlock was lifted off his feet.
“What the fuck?” he asked as he wriggled around in my clutches, and his head shook from side to side.
Before the warlock could use his own wand, I slammed him against the nearest wall and then brought the motherfucker back toward me so I could see his face. A neat trickle of blood ran down the side of his head, and I noticed the narrowed, dark look in his eyes.
“Nos vae mec a habir,” I growled.
The warlock’s wand fell from his hand, and it bounced across the floor and rolled away.
“Now that you’re completely unarmed, I’m going to kill you slowly, yet painfully.” I grinned. “Essentially, I’m going to do what you’d planned to do to this innocent student.”
“I’m not fucking scared of you, you male witch,” the warlock spat.
“You see, I’m more than just that, but I’d rather not waste my breath on someone like you.” I rolled my eyes, and then I threw the warlock around the room like a rubber ball, just for good measure.
I finally allowed him to drop to the floor once I’d played with him enough, and the man let out a guttural moan as his body smashed against the floor. I imagined the force of his landing had probably broken a bone, but I wanted to do more than that. I wanted this bastard to feel every inch of pain and fire as it worked its way through his body.
“If you think you’ll be able to--”
“Tardesco,” I cut off his words before he could finish his sentence.
The warlock’s mouth clamped shut, and I saw the struggle on his face as he attempted to open his lips, but nothing was going to work. Unless someone removed the spell, the man wasn’t going to open his mouth ever again. Smothered moans came from the warlock, and it was music to my ears.
“Intermissum,” I said with my wand aimed at the warlock’s feet.
The smothered screams became slightly louder and more intense as the spell broke the man’s feet, and then I repeated the process until I’d broken every major bone in his body. The warlock became weaker as the pain increased, but I had one more surprise for him.
“Flatus,” I ordered.
I watched the man’s eyes widen as a spark ignited at the tips of his fingers, and the fire spread throughout his body, burning everything in its path.
I turned away once the flames reached his chest, and I focused on the woman in the corner. Her screaming had come to an end, but the fear hadn’t left.
“Are you okay?” I asked as I crouched down beside her.
“Y-Yeah.” She nodded. “T-Thank you… I… I was certain he was going to kill me.”
“That was his intention,” I answered honestly. “But I wasn’t going to let that happen. How’s your leg? Do you think you can stand?”
“I don’t think so,” she said quietly. “I’m almost certain it’s broken.”
“Well, it won’t be for long.” I smiled as I aimed the tip of my wand against the bleeding cut and paid close attention to the wound. “Sarcio.”
Then the broken skin slowly stitched itself back together, and the witch winced as the bone fell into place again.
“There,” I said once the healing process was over with. “Do you need help off the floor?”
“No, I think I’m okay now.” She smiled. “Thank you, I really wouldn’t have made it out of this alive if it wasn’t for you. You are Cole, right?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve heard of you,” she gushed. “Thank you for saving me.”
“I hope the battle won’t last for too much longer, but find a place to hide, okay?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Okay.” The woman nodded.
I left the student with a parting smile, and then I raced back down the hall and up the stairs where my coven waited for me. But as I reached the top step, I noticed six dead warlocks who hadn’t been there before.
“The broom fuckers just refused to die,” Akira cackled loudly. “You should have seen us, master!”
“You should have seen the one I faced,” I snorted. “But we can discuss the gloriously gory details later. We have slontaurs to defeat.”
We traveled up the two remaining flights of stairs until we reached an attic-like space, with dirty wooden beams that ran across the ceiling and stacks of boxes where the owls nested. There were no animals to be seen, so I imagined the owls had flown away when the first explosion hit, but at least it allowed us to hide and watch without the added interference.
There was an open, circular window in the far off wall, with just enough space for us all to crowd around. The number of warlocks outside the castle had dropped dramatically, and now there was nothing but a mound of dead bodies that littered the grass and courtyard. The slontaurs were still off in the distance, but they’d stopped walking, and I assumed it was to wait for their next commandment.
The sounds that drifted throughout the castle helped me work out how the fight was going, and from the dead bodies below, I knew Vipera had managed to overpower their opponents. But perhaps that was the warlocks’ plan all along. Have the school believe they’d won, and then have the slontaurs take over and crush the building, and everyone who hid inside, to the ground.
“Have you thought of a plan to take the slontaurs down?” I asked Samara as I continued to gaze out the window.
“We’ve had one idea, but without testing it first, we won’t know if it’ll work,” she replied. “It’ll take a lot of power, so it’s a good thing we have the Dark Lord on our side.”
I sent my group a smirk, took a deep breath, and then stood upright. “I’ll do whatever it takes to save this school and the people inside.”
“Good, because you’ll need to,” Akira chuckled.
“The only thing that’ll essentially stop anyone is fire,” Samara explained. “We know fire doesn’t have much of an impact on creatures of that size, but what if the flames were larger? If we combine all our powers together, we could create a blaze large enough to wipe out the crowd of slontaurs.”
“Or at least weaken them enough to destroy them like any other being.” Penelope shrugged.
The idea intrigued me, and it wouldn’t have been the first time I’d combined my power with someone else’s. Like Samara had said, it wasn’t a solid plan, especially as we hadn’t tested it before now, but sometimes impulsive decisions created the greatest outcomes.
However, there was one thing I knew for certain.
I didn’t have enough people around me.
I peered around the owlery as I thought about how much space we would have needed, and I weighed that against the safest place in the castle. If I wanted the plan to work, then we couldn’t afford having warlocks interrupt us. Those fuckers would be dead in an instant, but it could affect the overall outcome.
It had to happen here, there was no way around it, so like I’d done when we first arrived, I closed my eyes, relaxed my mind, and summoned the other half of my coven to return to me.
Vanessa, Morgana, Revna, Circe, Beatrix, and Faye landed on their feet on the wooden flooring, and they let out surprised gasps.
“The landings are getting better,” Revna laughed as she stretched out her body, and I noticed her bow was looped over her back beside her empty quiver. “Just wish we had a bit of a notice.”
“I needed you instantly.”
“What are we doing here?” Vanessa frowned. “An owlery? Really?”
“Have you managed to get a glimpse of the threat around us?” I asked.
“Funnily enough, we haven’t.” Faye smirked. “We’ve been too busy killing warlocks. And, might I add, we’ve done a fantastic job. You should have seen Morgana!”
“I shot three warlocks with the same spell.” The beautiful bookish brunette grinned. “It ricocheted off one and worked its way along the line!”
“Very good,” I replied. “But it’s not just the warlocks we have to worry about. They have brought a gang of slontaurs with them, and they’re simply waiting to put the creatures to good use. Which is why I need you here.”
“Slontaurs?” Vanessa asked with her eyes open wide. “You’ve found a quick and simple way to defeat them?”
“Potentially.” I nodded. “Samara believes fire could be our main weapon, and then we could work on them by hand once they’re weak enough, but we’ll need to create a blaze large enough in order for that to work. If I combine my power with all of yours, we could create a fire larger than we’ve ever seen before.”
“It certainly sounds like a possibility,” the professor said. “I also don’t think we have much choice right now, so that could be our only option.”
“Right, everyone put your wands together,” I ordered. “All I need you to do is clear your minds and focus solely on your wands, got it? The hex won’t last for long, but once I’ve created the fire, it’ll all be down to me. You just need to stand there.”
“Of course, master,” they all replied in unison.
The tips of our wands connected together, and it reminded me somewhat of a teepee. I watched as everyone in the group closed their eyes, and then I closed my own as I thought about the incantation.
“Unum vinculum nos, ut et nos in unum facti speciem fortissimum,” I said firmly.
A few seconds ticked by where nothing happened, but then a vibration ran through my wand and pulsed against my palm. I knew it was the souls of the other wands bonding together for this one particular spell.
Once the vibration died down, I instantly went to the window and shot my arm out as far as it would go. I squinted down the wand as I lined it up with the ground beneath the slontaurs, and I didn’t make a move until I was certain of my aim.
“Flatus!” I finally ordered with as much strength as I could muster.
A deluge of fire exploded from my wand, and as I moved my arm, the flames went along with it. It felt as though the fire was never-ending, but that was exactly what I wanted. My wand acted like a flamethrower, and at first I never wanted it to end.
I watched in delight as the grass beneath the slontaurs began to burn and crisp, and then I heard the loudest roar that came from the beasts as the blaze hit their skin and began to work its way up their ankles. The power in my wand was far greater than I’d ever experienced before, and I held onto the window with one hand as I forced myself to stay standing.
“You’re doing it, Cole!” Samara cheered. “Keep at it!”
“I can almost smell the burning flesh from here!” Akira cackled. “Fuck those guys!”
As much as I appreciated their words of encouragement, I did my best to focus on my target, and I blocked out anything that could have been a distraction.
I waved my wand from left to right as I caught every slontaur, but one thing I noticed was how they refused to move. The creatures were being burned alive, yet despite the agonizing roars, the slontaurs continued to stand there. It made me think back to their discipline, and the commandments they had to obey, and I wondered if the warlocks had cast a spell on the creatures.
But if that was the case, then it made my job ten times easier.
I stood there for an uncountable amount of time as I watched the legs of the slontaurs burn and bubble, and then I moved the fire up to reach the rest of their giant bodies. At one point, I noticed a warlock aim his wand in my direction, but I put an end to that as I caused the blaze to rain down on him.
He died instantly.
My energy weakened the longer I stood there, but I knew I needed to keep going, and I knew this was the only way I would save Vipera. My coven couldn’t aim at the slontaurs until I’d finished with the fire, so I had to make sure the beasts were weak enough before I allowed my women to offer me any assistance.
The blaze worked its way up to the creatures’ shoulders, and a thick, black smoke clouded in the air above them. The scent of burned skin and fur was almost overpowering, but the satisfaction of watching them die outnumbered the grotesque stench.
My heart pounded, my body became numb, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold on for much longer, but I fought past the final hurdle and focused on nothing but the triumph that would fill my body the moment we won.
The second the blaze reached the slontaurs’ eyes, I finally dropped the spell, and then the fire instantly vanished into thin air.
“Go!” I gasped as I regained my breath and energy. “Hit them with everything you have!”
Vanessa, Samara, and Penelope took my place at the window as I crashed to the floor.
“Dark Lord, are you okay?” Morgana asked as she dropped down beside me.
“Are you strong enough to continue?” Circe added.
“Of course, I am.” I smirked and wiped the sweat from my face. “I just need to rest for now.”
“Glacies!” Penelope shouted.
“Stupefaciunt!” Vanessa ordered.
“Tardus!” Samara cried out next.
Their words and incantations continued for a few more minutes, and it took the same amount of time for me to find the energy to stand.
But then just as I did so, Samara gasped loudly.
“Master, come and look at this!” she said excitedly.
I took her place at the large window, and as I peered over, I noticed the beams of lights and bolts of color that shot at the slontaurs from down below.
“Fuck, yeah!” I laughed hysterically. “Vipera is fighting back!”
It was a sign the warlocks had been defeated, and now the entire school worked together to finish off their final threat. The blue, red, white, and green lights exploded against the burned creatures, and it created a rainbow of light against the dark, dismal background.
“Let’s go join them,” I decided, and then I aimed my wand at my feet. “Me avolare.”
I felt my body fade into nothing as I was transported from the owlery and down onto the ground below. The sensation in my body returned once my feet were safely on the ground, and my coven joined me seconds later.
Then I looked over at the main doors and what was left of the front of the academy, and I noticed the large group of students who stood there. Some were torn and bloody, others appeared weak, but they all powered through and threw every kind of spell at the slontaurs. The brick wall that surrounded the courtyard had been completely demolished, but that only gave us a better opportunity to hit the beasts directly, and I noticed how the slontaurs stumbled on their feet, like they were doing their best to stay upright.
“Conligo!” one student shouted.
“Glacio!” a younger voice cried out.
“Dissulto!” another student added.
I threw my own spells at the beasts, and I saw the determination in my coven as they did the same. Despite the losses Vipera experienced, I knew nothing would beat this moment, and we’d all remember it for many years to come.
With the amount of force behind us, it wasn’t long before the first slontaurs collapsed to the ground, followed by another, and another, until all thirty of the fuckers had fallen victim to our power.
The Vipera Academy cheered and celebrated their triumph, and I spotted the bright smiles that my coven sported, but I knew the war wasn’t over, and the warlocks today were only the start of what was to come.
And from the sudden look of panic on Revna’s face, I knew she felt the same way.
“My lord,” she whispered as she grabbed onto my arm. “I fear for my sisters. If the warlocks attacked Vipera, I dread to think what could happen to my family and my home.”
“Fear not,” I said comfortingly. “Nothing will happen to your family, especially not if I can help it.”
“Can we visit them?” she asked. “Perhaps once we’ve helped the school clear up?”
“Of course.” I smiled. “Whatever would bring you peace, we’ll do it.”
Revna let out a sigh of relief, and I saw the weight instantly lift from her shoulders. But what I didn’t tell Revna was how excited I was to visit her sisters once again, and how incredibly beautiful they all were.
If we wanted to defeat the Elder Lord, then I’d need my army to grow as much as it could, and I knew the perfect people to join the group.