“Should we really be here and not hunt for these goddamn assassins?” Luke asked everyone else that was currently in Chang’s office. It was early morning and they were holding their meeting before the start of the day.

“While the veil may hide the reality from the masses, they will still infer the dangers if you kill the monsters in front of them” Chang explained “they’ll just see it as something mundane like two people shooting at each other.

“So mundane” Obie muttered dryly

“Plus, they’re also hiding from my tracking spell” Phoebe added “can’t exactly find them even in broad daylight”

“You need a new tracking spell” Luke muttered and was rewarded with a middle finger from the blonde haired girl.

“regardless” Chang pinched the bridge of his nose “we’ll go ahead with our plan at night”

“Is that really what we’re gonna do?” Daphne raised an eyebrow “go half cocked and hope for the best?”

“Running around searching for them isn’t a plan” Chang pointed out, and as much as Daphne wanted to refute, she knew better.

“alright” Luke took a big gulp of his water bottle “since we’re not gonna do anything until evening, I’mma head to class and catch a few zee’s” they all exited the office just as the warning bell rung, and headed off to their respective classes, knowing nothing could be done before sundown.

XXXXXXX

“Here you go” Mr. Verne handed Luke his answer sheet back, “not bad, but you can do better if you put more effort in your studies”

Luke glanced at the big red B on his sheet and thought “eh, this is good enough”

“what’d you get?” Jules leaned in from her chair in the adjacent desk, allowing Luke to show her his grade. “Not bad”

“Yours is better” Luke peeked at her A plus and smiled

“Pretty bummed with mine” Behind Luke, Jerry Roday showed of his B minus “dad’s gonna have a fit when he sees it’s not an A”

“y’know we can get together to study” Jules suggested to Luke “get you that A”

“Nah I’m good with the B’s” Luke casually shot her down without another thought, not even noticing her deflated expression “but I think Jerry here could use your help” he pointed his thumb back towards the blonde boy

Jerry awkwardly glanced between Jules and Luke “Uhhh…I’mma let you know” he then had an idea “but I’m sure Luke could use your help in taking his math from a D to at least a B”

“Yes!” Luke perked up “I could really use your help in math”

“Okay!” Jules agreed in a heartbeat as she shot Jerry a grateful look which he accepted with aplomb.

“Now that we’ve settled that can we please get back to physics” Mr. Verne’s dry voice made all three jump.

“sorry” they all sheepishly bowed their heads as Jules and Luke shared a silent giggle.

XXXXXXX

“Alright kids” Coach Matt Jefferson clapped his hands once to get the attention for all the gathered boys “today we’re gonna have a few practice matches to see where you all stand”

All the boys, including Luke shared excited looks, the meet with Borden high was at the end of the month and all of them were itching to be in that ring; which winning today was going to go a long way in securing that spot.

The coach split the room into four rings so half the kids were wrestling and the other half waiting for their turn; so, Luke only got to enter the ring after ten minutes.

The redhead couldn’t help but grin as he faced off against James Mantle, who had a smirk of his own as the two boys took their stance opposite each other.

“Begin!”

Mantle immediately tried to go for Luke’s leg, but got blocked as Luke grabbed onto his head and right shoulder, the tried to pivot and escape, but Luke managed to sweep his leg out and drop him flat on his back.

“Point” Coach Jefferson declared as Luke helped Mantle back to his feet.

“Not half bad Wyatt” the coach slapped Luke’s back “keep this up and you just might have a chance at being selected by a top college”

“College…” Luke mulled the words to himself as the coach sent him off to do drills “I could go to college…”

XXXXXXX

It was late at night when Phoebe and Daphne were patrolling the streets of Solwood. “Anything?” Daphne asked the other girl who was holding a compass.

“Nothing yet” Phoebe tucked a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear “is there a possibility that they aren’t going to come today?”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“Could it be that their target was Luke all along?” the though suddenly came to the familiar “and they’re trying to track him down?”

“… No” Phoebe shook her head “they neither targeted him exclusively nor they tried to isolate him” before she could elaborate, the compass in her hand suddenly came to life and pointed behind them.

“they’re coming” the two girls turned around, battle ready for the Wolf, Ram and Hart.

“gahh!” From the bushes, Luke who had been trying to hide there, leapt out and rolled forward

“What are you doing?” Daphne hissed, the plan was for the two girls to be out in the open and the three boys to hide until the Wolf, Ram, and Hart appeared to encircle and ambush them.

“He snuck up behind me” Luke declared without preamble as he got up and the white furred man emerged from the bushes, his two white knives glowing with iridescent runes.

“The knives are made from his antlers” Phoebe realized “and his conduit for magic”

“Shift to plan B” Daphne called out as the Wolf and Ram also appeared from where the compass had been pointing

“what’s plan B?” Luke asked as Chang and Obie walked out of the bushes on the other side of the street, crossbows in hand.

“All out assault!” Daphne drew her sword and charged towards the Hart, While Luke chose to forgo his shadow balls in favor of his fists and locked hands with the Ram.

Before the Wolf could do anything, she heard the whistling of the wind and ducked as a crossbow sailed right over her head. “wolfsbane” she recognized the poisonous smell that the bolt left behind but before she could attack the two humans another bolt flew towards her that she had to dodge.

This entire time, Phoebe was sitting down cross legged on the ground, holding a wooden rod with unknown seeds and golden bells tied to it, making gestures with her other hand and chanting continuously.

Daphne ducked under one of the Hart’s knives only to have a hoof driven into her kidney, “fuck” she ignored the burning pain and slashed her sword at him, only to have him block it with his other knife and go for another kick, but this time Daphne was prepared and a bangle in her left hand flashed into a small arm guard that she used to block his kick.

Adjacent to them, Luke and the Ram had their hands locked as each tried to overpower the other, both men tried to jockey for position, but were caught up in a stalemate.

Chang and Obie fared better, each shooting a bolt at the Wolf as the other reloaded, not giving her the space to be able to do anything other than deflect their bolts.

And all it took for this to change was a leaf.

A leaf that was carried by the wind into Luke’s eye, distracting him for the moment which was all the Ram needed to overpower him and pin him down and straddle his torso.

A pin that distracted Obie long enough for the Wolf to duck and run on all fours to the Ram and jump off his back even as he held down Luke.

A jump that positioned the Wolf high above Phoebe who was still chanting with singular focus on her spell.

Chang still shot his bolt towards her but the wolf slapped it away without even looking.

“we’re gonna die, and it’ll be my fault” Luke realized as he stared at the upside down figure of the Wolf slowly moving towards the upside down figure of Phoebe “we’re gonna die” Phoebe still hadn’t notice the wolf falling even as Obie threw his crossbow at her and she kicked it away “WE’RE GONNA DIE!”

Something inside Luke shifted as she shadows came to him larger than ever. With a heave, Luke used the shadows and launched the Ram off his chest and straight into the Wolf; sending both of them flying behind Phoebe.

Getting off the ground Luke ran towards the two chimeras, leaping over the sitting Phoebe and rolled right in front of the Wolf whom he lifted in a waist hold and slammed onto the ground.

The Ram charged towards Luke again who went for a head-butt in the hard bony area between the horns.

“OW!” Luke took a step back in disorientation while the Ram was completely unfazed

“… well, that was fucking stupid” said chimera threw an uppercut right into Luke’s jaw that sent him sprawling down.

“TAI!” Phoebe screamed as she completed her spell and slammed her stick into the ground.

A glowing emerald circle appeared on the ground, encircling all of them, as vine and plants started to grow around the three chimeras and only around the three chimeras.

“Shit!” The Hart realized that the situation was not good as the plants started to wrap themselves around him. He slammed the butt of both of his daggers onto his forehead as the continued to glow and transform into antlers even as he held them.

The Ram and the Wolf stood back-to-back pulling out and slashing down the vines as they grew around them, but the vines were innumerous, and regrowing faster than the two of them could cut them down.

The Hart had started to bray as translucent phantom harts started to appear around him and bray as well, seemingly holding the vines at bay as if a force field was stopping them from coming close to it.

SHTUCK!

the braying, glowing and hart phantoms all died down when Daphne drove her sword into the white furred man’s throat.

“Well, there ends that!” she sighed as she walked over to the Wolf and Ram, who now had bark forming over their bodies, effectively paralyzing them; and cut off their heads as well.

“unggh!” Phoebe groaned as she ended the spell, allowing the growing wilderness to turn into dust along with the chimera corpses and disperse.

“So that was the arsenal of Artio?” Obie asked as he slung Phoebe’s arm around his neck and helped her up.

“Gaulish *pant* goddess of wilderness *pant*” the blonde witch gave him a tired smile.

“It was pretty fucking awesome” Luke declared as he sat up where he had fallen.

Snarl!

Before anyone else could say anything, a large hyena jumped from the shadows straight towards Obie and Phoebe, and pinned them down, growling as it bit and clawed at them.

“HAH!” Daphne was the first to react and swing her sword at the chimera, who sensed it and rolled away from Obie and Phoebe, only to swipe away a bolt that Chang had just fired, the beast’s brown eyes then met Luke’s blue ones for an instant before it chose to run away.

“…What just happened?”

“Hey, you guys, okay?!” Daphne started checking Phoebe and Obie for injuries, only to find that oof of them were on Obie.

“You covered me with your body!” Phoebe stared at Obie’s elfin face “why?”

“So that you wouldn’t get hurt” Obie pointed out the most obvious thing in the world as Daphne and Chang carefully checked his torso.

“So, it was here to finish the job?” Luke stared at Obie’s scratched and bitten torso

“No deep cuts” Chang noted before answering Luke question “I’m guessing it was here to do the complete job, period”

“What do you mean?”

“The Wolf, Ram, and Hart were nothing more than a ploy to drain Phoebe of her magic power” Chang theorized as he took out his field med kit and pulled out some potions from it for Obie “it directly attacked Phoebe without any regard for our presence; it’s target was Phoebe since day one”

A heavy silence hung over them as they realized how close the chimera had come to succeeding today.

“Oh yeah?” Obie spoke with more bravado than he felt “well, if it comes again, I’m going to do more than just pull out it’s fur” he waved his fist in the direction the hyena had run away “I’m gonna… punch it in the snout” he finished lamely, making everyone but Phoebe chuckle.

“You pulled out its fur?” she glanced at Obie’s fist which he opened to show the few brown hairs he was holding

“what’s going on?” Luke asked the three as they shared looks of anticipation; a question Daphne was all too happy to answer.

“We finally have the means of accurately tracking the chimera”