“EYES!” Phoebe called out to the gang before clapping her hands above her head.

Immediately a burst of white light filled the room and blinded the chimeras, the three humans had shut their eyes when she had shouted as had the hyena, who had realised what the witch was doing.

The hyena pounced towards Phoebe who dissolved the two shields and reformed them into one strong one in front of her to block the Hyena.

Luke had slammed Ryuu onto the ground and was sitting on his chest as he punched the Komodo dragon in the face, but Ryuu recovered his bearing even as Luke was beating him into a pummel and used his tail to grab the redhead’s arm and wrench it back, nearly pulling it out of his shoulder.

Luke tried to free his arm as he held Ryuu down by the throat with his other, locking the two into a battle of physical strength.

Chang and Obie had recovered and with the bright light orb turning into a low light orb, they could see Gabi and John on either side of them and fired their crossbows at the two, forcing them to dodge backwards.

“Daph!” Obie screamed upwards, knowing he and Chang alone couldn’t hold on for long.

“a bit busy at the moment!” Daphne screamed back angrily; the damned raven bitch wasn’t letting her move into the hole; raining down feather blades from her wings with every flap.

These feather blades were sharp as steel, and flew faster than Daphne could run, forcing her on the defensive.

Up in the perches, Tessa wasn’t doing well either; each feather that she launched fell like ripping out clumps of her hair, plus she wasn’t sure how many more feathers she could launch before she started falling.

“This is bad” Obie realised as Chang was reloading his crossbow, the Puma and Leopard chimeras were almost upon them “shit” Obie resorted to his only hail-mary he had; and threw out a stink bomb at Gabi.

Even Luke, Ryuu, Phoebe, John, and the Hyena paused when the smell hit them, much less Gabi whose heightened sense of smell and close proximity caused her to feel it a thousand fold.

The leopard rolled away in visible pain as Chang slammed his crossbow on the head of John, who had been the second closest to the stink bomb explosion and had been too startled to react.

Meanwhile Phoebe was trying to bind the hyena with magical chains of light, but the Hyena was sitting on her hind legs as a translucent, phantom hyena was crackling above her head, biting and breaking any chains that came too close.

On the other side, Luke had formed a sword of shadows and was slashing at Ryuu who was using his own tail and claws to keep the redhead at bay.

They were locked in a stalemate, but the situation wasn’t gonna stay that way long. Chang and Obie were running out of arrows, and on the ground level, Tessa was having trouble staying in the air.

“Got anymore stink bombs?” Chang asked Obie as they stood back to back, while Luke and Gabi stood just far enough to jump away in case either of them shot, but Chang and Obie couldn’t shoot because the time to reload would be too long and the chimeras could kill them twice over in that duration

“nope” Obie popped the P as Luke slid back towards them on his back, and Ryuu joined the other two in circling around them.

“Welcome to the wheel of misfortune” Obie quipped as Luke got back to his feet and formed two balls of shadows.

“No more stink bombs?” Luke asked Obie who replied the same as before “but do they know that?”

Obie’s eyes lit up, but he tried to keep his face neutral “what are you thinking”

Luke looked around “remember the dead frog incident in fourth grade? Combine it with the turntable kick we did in freshman year”

“Alright!” Obie hummed

“And what do I have to do?” Chang was completely out of the loop,

“Shoot Ryuu…” Luke whispered “now!”

“LET’S GO!” Obie hollered and threw it towards Gabi who jumped backwards.

At the same moment, Luke leapt in her direction but twisted towards the ceiling and threw out a ball of shadow which sailed out of the hole in the ceiling and straight into the chest of Tessa.

“DAPH!” Luke screamed as he lay on the ground as Obie turned around at took a shot at John, while Chang did the same to Ryuu, all while Gabi realised that Obie hadn’t thrown anything in the first place.

“I’M GONNA KILL YOU!” She leapt towards Luke who was still on the ground; but the opening had been enough for Daphne to leap into the hole and come down sword first at Gabi. “AHHHH!” the leopard chimera screamed as the familiar’s sword drove into her shoulder.

“GABI!” Ryuu and John shouted at the same time, as on the other side, Phoebe and the hyena broke their battle, both too spent to continue.

“RETREAT!” John made the immediate decision as Tessa flew in through the hole and was hit by two more shadow balls from Luke

Ryuu had taken that moment to strike at Daphne who was still facing Gabi.

“shit!” Chang was done reloading at shot another arrow at Ryuu who grabbed the prone Gabi and rolled out of the way.

A translucent aura of Puma like fur formed around John as he knelt down and slammed both of his fists into the ground, creating a man sized hole “Guys!”

Ryuu and Gabi gathered their strength and barrelled past Daphne and Chang towards John, while Tessa turned into a complete regular sized raven and flew between Luke’s feet and just out of Obie’s reach.

Phoebe knew she was in no shape to stop the Hyena right now, but Obie still took a shot at her, and missed as she disappeared into the hole behind the other chimeras.

“haah, haah, haah” the silence after the battle was punctuated by their pants

“Did we… haah… did we win?” Obie looked around

“We didn’t lose” Chang offered “and that’s all we got for now”

XXXXXXX

“we’re clear” John declared “there’s no one behind us” the chimeras all collapsed in exhaustion. They had all run out into the sewer and then out, led by the Hyena into a vacant house.

“That slimy fuck” Gabi growled as she held her shoulder “I’m gonna rip out his eyeballs when I get my hands on him”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“This is really turning into an issue” John added as he glanced at the Hyena “that witch and her coven are gonna continue to be a thorn in our side”

“Not for long” The Hyena’s words made everyone else fall silent “no more games; we go straight for the throat now”

XXXXXXX

Andrea Wyatt sighed as she stared around the living room; every cell in her body was screaming at her to take a drink, and her mind was losing this particular battle of wills. “Luke!” she grabbed onto her son as soon as he walked into the room “let’s go out somewhere tonight, just you and me!”

Gotta rain check on that mom” the redhead just grabbed his backpack, not even seating for breakfast. “How about in a couple of days? Let’s talk at dinner” he didn’t even wait for a reply as he exited the house.

“Gotta complete steps six and seven, before getting to eight and nine” Andrea steeled herself for another day of fighting with her demons and thought to have a talk with her sponsor

Meanwhile Luke sipped his water as she rolled down the street on his skateboard, trying to keep his mind clear “the ambush was flipped on us” he told himself “No point obsessing over it”

“Still thinking about last night?” Phoebe asked when he ran into her at the school entrance

“You know it” Luke shrugged, knowing he had failed in talking himself out of the spiral

“Me too” she sighed in resignation as the two settled into the student lounge couch, there was no meeting today, none of them were in the mood.

“What are you thinking?” Phoebe asked as they plopped down side by side

“That I’m done with these shadow games and want to actively hunt down the chimeras now”

“Well… I was just beating myself up over walking into a trap so easily, but yeah, let’s do your thing” Phoebe gave the redhead a sidelong look

“That Hyena killed me Pheebs…” Luke couldn’t hold it back anymore “I may have come back to life but I was dead; dead!”

“I’m so sorry Luke” Phoebe pulled her hair back “we were all so wrapped in the miracle of you coming back to life, we didn’t even consider what it was like for you”

“It was scary” he admitted “not the dying part, that was oddly…” he searched for the right word “detaching; but when I came back to life and realised that I had actually died…”

“Fuck!” Phoebe couldn’t even imagine what he must have been going through all this time “you should’ve said something”

“hmm” Luke didn’t say anything else, just lost in his own head.

“Hey babe” Jules chose this moment to appear beside Luke, sitting down on the couch’s armrest “watcha doin?”

“nothing” Luke leaned up for a kiss which Jules happily gave “all set for cheerleader tryouts?”

“yup” Jules popped the P

“Hey Jules” Phoebe greeted the girl as well. She liked the brunette, and really wanted to be friends with her.

“Hey!” Jules gave a bright smile to the blonde with as well “how’s it hanging?”

“Good, good” Phoebe lied, but to be fair she couldn’t exactly admit her frustrations about walking into the chimeras’ trap.

“By the way” Jules pushed Luke back against the couch and leaned closer to Phoebe “are you free tonight?”

“Tonight?” Phoebe was momentarily stunned

“Just a reminder that I’m the one you’re dating” Luke felt the need to point out

“I just need your help with some science homework” Jules ignored her boyfriend and spoke directly to Phoebe “please”

“sure” Phoebe gave the other girl a small smile which was returned a hundredfold

“And you” Jules turned back to Luke and gave him another deep kiss “get to walk me to class”

“Yes ma’am” Luke leapt up from his seat and trailed behind Jules like a puppy

“Bye dude” Phoebe grinned as Luke waved his hand back without even looking at her “And now I wish I had a boyfriend” the blonde with mused silently “or maybe a girlfriend”

Meanwhile Luke and Jules had already reached her homeroom “I’ll see you at lunch?”

“And what am I supposed to do until then?” Luke held her close, feeling more affectionate than usual

“Try studying” the girl smiled wryly but then hissed in pain when Luke lightly tapped her.

“What happened?” the redhead freaked out, worried he hurt her using his zombie strength.

“Just hit myself with the door this morning” Jules massaged her left arm “nothing to worry about”

“You sure? You seem in real pain”

The petite brunette pulled her boyfriend close once again “maybe you can kiss the booboo” she whispered huskily “and other parts of my body as well” she then pushed him away and walked backwards into her homeroom calling out “on Friday night!”

All Luke could do was stand rooted in his spot staring dumbly at her homeroom door for a full minute.

XXXXXXX

“Are you two insane?” Chang demanded once Luke and Phoebe revealed their plan “you could get killed” the two had called the meeting to discuss their plan of attack

“This is the only way” Phoebe stood her ground “how many more people have disappeared since we first fought the chimeras?”

Chang pursed his lips, not saying anything.

“What do you guys think?” Luke turned to Daphne and Obie “you guys in or out?”

“In!” Daphne didn’t hesitate for a moment “I’ve had more than enough of these fuckers, let’s finish them once and for all”

‘they’ve been a step ahead of us the entire time guys” Obie wasn’t so sure “going around looking for them blindly”

“They can’t surprise us if we’re already expecting it” Luke still tried to sell Obie on the plan “plus we know they’ll come after us”

“it’s there ‘where’ and ‘how’ that bothers me” Obie smiled mirthlessly “look I’m not saying we should just wait around for these guys to rear their fur covered heads again, but there’s got to be a better way to go on about this”

“What do you want from me dude?” Luke knew Obie’s mind was made up, but he knew he couldn’t go ahead with this plan without Obie.

“Twenty four hours” Obie uttered after mulling over it for a few seconds “if I can’t come up with a better plan we’ll go ahead with yours”

Luke turned back to Phoebe who shrugged as if to say ‘your plan, your call’

“fine” Luke resignedly turned back to Obie “twenty four hours”

XXXXXXX

Since she was free for the night Phoebe decided to meet up with Jules and help her study. “Right on time”

DING DONG

“wait” Phoebe paused after ringing the bell “would it have been cooler to be fashionably late? How late is fashionably late?” before she could think more, the door opened to reveal Jules.

“Hey, you’re right on time” the petite brunette stepped aside to let Phoebe in

“thanks” the blonde witch tamped down her straying thoughts as the two walked into the living room “shall we get started?”

“Great idea” Jules’s bright smile turned into a feral one and her hair turned white with black spots, and fur started to grow on her face as her nose and mouth elongated.

From the kitchen, a familiar humanoid leopard walked in and a raven flew down from the ceiling, all while a Puma and Komodo dragon appeared behind Jules.

“y-you’re” Phoebe stepped back as she tried to make sense of what was happening

“The Hyena” Jules finished the sentence for Phoebe “surprise!” Jules threw out a kick that hit Phoebe right onto her unguarded stomach and sent her flying backwards, landing right beside Gabi.

“Bitch bye!” Gabi stomped her foot down where Phoebe’s head had been a split second ago. The witch got over her shock and acted immediately.

Dodging Gabi’s lethal blow she threw out two fireballs, one at the leopard and another at Jules before getting back to her feet.

Jules sidestepped the fireball easily enough but Gabi had been too close and had to jump backwards, giving Jules enough time to go for the windows

CAW

Tessa flew down and scratched at Phoebe’s face with her talons, not letting the girl escape, and making her forcing her back towards the others.

“shit” Phoebe threw up her hands and a barrier that surrounded her completely took shape

“Cute!” Jules remarked as she stood right in front of Phoebe, while John, Ryuu, and Gabi surrounded her and Tessa flew above the chimeras started to attack Phoebe’s barrier, raining down blows that shook the barrier with each hit.

“trapped” Phoebe looked around furiously “no gap” she cut her finger on her collar and started to make hand signs when a pull in her gut made her feel like she was about to throw up. “No energy, can’t do earth escape magic”

The battle just a night ago had been exhausting for her, and if it was just one, she could easily fight her way out, but at five versus one she had no chance. “I’ve got no choice” she realised as she was forced to shrink down her barrier a bit so that it wouldn’t break completely.

“Please save me Daphne” the blonde with prayed as she took out a talisman and tore it in half before starting to form hand signs again. The pull in her gut appeared again but she bore it as she completed the spell and took a deep breath.

The barrier dissolved as Phoebe’s eyes turned pitch black in its entirety and she fell down onto the ground in a slump.

Gabi rushed in for the kill but was just as her claw was about to come down, Jules’ hand stopped in a hair’s breath away from the witch’s throat.

“Do you want the kill?” Gabi asked as she pulled her hand back

“I do” Jules admitted “but not at the cost”

“What do you mean?” Ryuu knelt down and stared at Phoebe’s open Black eyes “what’s wrong with her?”

“it’s a spell called the sleep of death” Jules explained “the witch has gone into a coma of sorts and set up a death spell” the others took an involuntary step back “if she is killed the death spell will activate and kill her killer, a life for a life kinda deal”

“So, what now?” Tessa had turned back into her human form

“Grab her” Jules commanded John and Ryuu “I will kill this witch, but before that she will serve us; she will serve us well”