Chapter Fourteen:
My Angry Little Fluffball
Nicodemus
Akira and I laid on the ground in our front yard, staring into one another’s eyes so intently that we both refused to break the gaze. I was trying to figure out what exactly to do with my new companion, while he was probably thinking about how to ask me for more of the salmon treats I had been giving him in between classes. Our noses were inches apart, and eventually, Akira grew tired of my staring and licked my cheek to break my concentration. I spit a roll of laughter and ruffled his fur up wildly, “You little goofball! We gotta figure out how this contract works, little buddy.” I poked his nose to get his attention, “Got any pointers for me? I’m pretty new to this?” Akira gave me an empty look before his tongue flopped out the side of his mouth, and his ears folded over on themselves lamely. I smacked a hand to my forehead with a groan of defeat, “Oh Gods… my familiar might be dumber than a rock.”
“That’s a pretty unfair thing to say,” Dad laughed as he came out of the garage, his hair disheveled from being under his car most of the afternoon. “What exactly are you two doing?”
“I’m trying to figure out how this whole contract works!” I whined, throwing my arms up in defeat, “but fluffy over here isn’t very helpful.”
“Your first problem is blaming your familiar for your lack of knowledge,” Dad thunked the top of my head before whistling three times, the same tune over and over. On cue, all three of our Pomeranians appeared in puffs of black smoke, wagging their dumb tails wildly as they barked at Dad. He patted his knee, and when he did, Amara bounded up his leg and into his arms to receive some head scratches. “Having a familiar isn’t just about training a household pet. The relationship you build with your familiar is one built on trust, power dynamics, and a gratification system. I never overextend my familiars, even in my worst moments, and always put their safety and well being first. In return, they do the same for me when called upon.”
“Akira just stares at me when I try and do anything with him… just watch. Akira, transform into a Griffin!” I commanded, waving a hand in his face. He blinked heavily before going back to watching me, still unfazed by my request.
Dad snorted a huge chuckle before shaking his head, “Nick, he doesn’t know any commands; how do you expect him to transform when he has no clue what you mean?”
“Well, you show me how your angry chihuahuas work, then!” I roared, punching his arm. As soon as I punched him Amara’s eyes turned blood red, and she turned to snarl with a violent, purely demonic screech straight from the depths of Gehenna. I flinched back in surprise; as soon as I was a safe enough distance away, she blinked to make her eyes turn back to brown, and went back to cuddling into Dad’s chin lovingly. My jaw flopped open in disbelief; “That’s the last time I sneak you bacon at breakfast, you ugly rat!”
Dad rolled his eyes and kissed her nose, “Amara knows to protect me right now, so she is working on instinct is all. As much as she may love you, my safety will always trump yours in her eyes.” He set her down and held a hand up, “Amara, inhabilitare.”
“Whoa, wait, inhabil…?” Before I had a chance to react, Amara grew into a huge black mass, towering over eight feet tall. A long, black cloak overcame her body, and a set of white locks spilled down her shoulders. My jaw fell open in shock as I watched her transform; she pulled a long arm out from under the cloak and turned to me slowly. When she faced me, her own face was nothing more than a dark, soulless void, but her eyes were two swirling whirlpool of red and black that seemed to suck me in by the second. She perfumed a grotesque energy, that felt like I was choking on tar when I breathed it in, and made me slap my hands over my mouth. I stumbled backwards away from her, but she shot forward and grabbed my shirt in a blur, raising me to the same height she stood at before slamming me into the ground as hard as she could. The air physically left my lungs on impact with the Earth, and made me wheeze so hard that I spit. Once she was done she morphed back into a Pomeranian, and sat at Dad’s side patiently as she awaited her next command.
Akira snapped out of his trance like staring to crouch into a fighting stance, and snarled just as demonically as Amara had moment’s ago. He pulled his snout back to reveal rows of razor sharp teeth, and his eyes swirled until they turned a violent blood red. The two familiars snarled at one another viciously, pacing in circles around me as I clutched my chest and tried to catch my breathe. “Akira… enough!” I hacked, and to my surprise, he firmly sat down with a scoff.
Dad held his hand out to me, “See what I mean? Akira knows to protect you, even when he’s not trained properly. You need to prove to him he can trust you before you start demanding him to do things. Familiars don’t come with a how-to guide; you need to figure out his fighting style, and use it to your advantage, not make him conform to yours.”
“What’s the best way to do that?” I asked, sitting on the ground beside Akira to pull him into my lap and scratch between his ears.
Dad sighed deeply before nodding to the dogs, “I had to prove I could conquer my familiars to gain their trust, but then again, they were high class reigning beings in Gehenna. Akira is a bit more basic, but you should still prove to him you can hold your own against him. A familiar will never respect a master who cannot keep him in line.”
I picked Akira up and brought him eye level to me. He licked my nose with a little whine, which made me giggle wildly. “Fight this little guy? Dad, he’s too innocent for that!”
“He’s a demon, Nicodemus. Do not EVER underestimate him. You know better than that, young man.” He shot back sternly.
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I frowned and set Akira back down, then stood and conjured my scythe. It fell into my hand passively; I spun it twice before gripping the handle with both hands. “Well, Akira… I suppose you should show me what you can really do, then.” I offered.
Akira blinked once, then stood slowly and pranced towards the other side of the yard. When he reached the tree line he disappeared into the brush, which made me raise an eyebrow at Dad. Dad stepped back and sat on the porch steps, where he and the dogs waited patiently to see where Akira had run off to. Each one sat in his lap in a perfect line, their tongues hanging out as they panted against the summer sun. Dad snuggled into Bodhi’s head, curious to see how this was going to go down himself. The silence in the air was stagnant, uncomfortable, and the longer I sat in it the more nervous I became. I breathed the summons for my Shadow Walkers under my breath just in case, and once they all four popped up behind me, I braced myself a bit better for the fight.
A small tearing sound echoed from the tree line, but it wasn’t a normal tearing sound; it was the sound of flesh being peeled off of bone. I had heard this sound before when slaughtering demons, and was not fond of it, but knew it like I knew air. Birds that had been sitting in the trees shot into the sky in large waves, cawing wildly as they tried to escape whatever was coming from the tree line. I squinted hard to try and see myself, but before I could make out the shape that emerged, a long lick of flames consumed the front yard.
I screeched and shot back on clouds of smoke to distance myself, hovering just above the fiery wall that had nearly burned me to a crisp. “Whoa, when the heck could he breathe fire…!?” I cried to Dad, who shrugged lamely. From within the waves came a set of pure black wings, and a large reptilian head. The creature threw its head back and wailed an ungodly cry, so loud that it shook the house and everything in the surrounding area. Dad drew a symbol into the air to put a dome around the house and then our yard, to keep myself and what I presumed was Akira from causing some major damage to the academy or our new home. I wasn’t fond of this dome, as he limited my fighting space drastically by doing this.
(Ok, this is go time for sure! Alice, you need to swallow those flames, asap!)
[I can’t swallow flames from Gehenna, Claude?! What do I look like?!] Alice cried.
“Instead of fighting, how about putting your block-heads together for a second!” I barked back, spinning my scythe three times before positioning myself, “May, extinguish as much of the fire as you can. Jackson, use your vines to try and tie his legs together. Claude, once he’s on his side, use your somnum sedare electric spell to try and make him sleep. I’m going to distract him.”
I gripped my scythe handle tighter, “I got something to prove to the old man, so trust me on this. I need show him I’m strong.” I declared before racing back towards the Earth as a plume of smoke. My Shadows set to work trying to flank Akira, who had in fact turned into a ten foot tall black dragon. His wings glistened blood red and purple in the reflection of the flames he spewed, and the energy pulsing from him beat like a deafening drum in my ears. When he saw me flashing around, he raised his tail and slammed it onto my back, which made me revert from smoke back into my normal form. I hit the ground with a loud crunch, and bounced wildly before skidding out in the wet grass, which was drenched by May as she extinguished his flames.
{You ok, Nick!?} May called as she shielded me from another wave of flames.
“Getting pissed off…!” I shot back, shaking my head before letting my scythe hit the ground. White circles began to form on the yard; my hair whipped violently as the tons of energy from the Shadow Realm filled my body and charged me completely. I took off towards Akira again, and this time, began to draw quick sealing bonds on the dirt by his massive paws and tail. He was distracted by Claude at the moment, and didn’t seem to notice me doing this, which I was grateful for. Each bond he stepped on would send waves of black Shadow arms up to lock around his ankles, and yank him to an immediate stop. He screeched and snapped at the binds, tearing at the arms with his teeth, but every time he broke one more arms appeared.
I remembered a spell Dad had taught me when we fought a demon a few years back who, much like Akira, used fire as its main fighting choice. The bond made the demon’s fire fizzle out in one foul swoop, and gave us enough time to capture it once it had nothing to defend itself with. I figured now was better than ever to try this, and nodded to May from across the field. “Alright girls, I need you to cover me! I have to get to his chest, so I need you to keep his flames at bay. Claude, use your lightning to spook him. Jackson, use whatever you can to tilt his head back enough for me to get in there!”
I threw my scythe and shot through the field as a cloud of smoke, dodging fallen burnt branches and balls of fire Akira was projecting while his head was stuck in place. Alice kept catching the balls and stomping on them to put them out, while May froze or drowned as many as she could as well, both girls following me through the dense heat towards Akira’s chest. Claude summoned his biggest burst of lightning and shocked Akira to the point that he lost his balance, and began to sink into the sealing bonds I had been using to keep his legs at bay.
“Sorry about this, buddy!” I exclaimed before using my finger to draw the dark spell into his scales. He jerked wildly to try and free himself from Jackson’s vines, but once I had the spell drawn, I slammed my palm into his chest and cried, “Perdere impia flammas!” A violent burst of energy consumed Akira, and after a moment, all of his flames fizzled out. He teetered twice before falling to the ground, and once he did, his giant body dissipated back into a little fox. I gasped and ran to his side, picking him up and cuddling him close as he wheezed breaths loudly. “Did I hurt him!?” I cried to Dad, tears in my eyes.
Dad chuckled and shook his head, “I mean, kind of, but he’ll be alright. Why don’t we take him inside so he can rest a bit, and I’m sure when he wakes up, he’ll be ready to start training with you.” Dad ruffled Akira’s ears with a gentle smile, “You did really good, Nick. I know this is hard, but I promise, it’ll all be worth it in the end.”