Halloween Horror (Pt. 11): The True Horror Unleashed

--- Val ---

“Right, think you can hold this cabrón down while I deal with his army of pendejos?” She asked Whitaker, having weighed her options, and realized that splitting her focus would end with either another Creep ganking her or the Horror getting in a lucky hit she couldn’t afford without the Scarecrow to piece her back together.

“So long as you can keep them off me,” Whitaker hefted his axe onto his shoulder, “I can keep him off of you.”

“Eso es.” She nodded back, as she started backing away from the Horror, her eyes drifting over the dozen or so minions it had brought to bear, only idly noticing how Whitaker roared before rushing the Horror once more.

Her phone began ringing.

More specifically one of the ringtones she’d saved to her contact list.

She glanced past Whitaker and the Horror and saw Audrey on her phone giving her a look as she pulled the phone out..

“Hola.” She answered, briefly giving the other teen a wave.

“Right, so you want the good news or the bad news?” Audrey began, taking a look around as neither of them truly took their attention from the horde of Chimera Creeps slowly crawling towards them both.

“Could probably use some good news tonight.” She confessed, knowing that they were all running low on magic, stamina, and morale.

“Well, the good news is Arty figured out how to reseal the Horror.” The other teen assured her.

“Bad news implies a ‘but’.” She pointed out, before sticking her hand out as she felt the first drops of rain. (Which is just what we fucking need…)

Audrey nodded with a grim look. “But, it’s going to take her a minute and it’s going to do absolutely nothing to stop all of these Creeps and any others that are on their way. Meaning even once the Horror is off the table we’re still going to have to fight our way out.”

She couldn’t help but give that a sardonic grin as she pulled out one of her scripts. “Well, like mi madre likes to say: mal tiempo, buena cara.”

“Yeah, whatever that means…” Audrey sighed, before shaking her head. “Anyway I can keep Artemis covered but are you and Jon going to be able handle the Creeps and the Horror?”

“I’m handling the pendejos and he’s handling the cabrón.” She answered, holding the spell script out to see how badly the drizzle would mess with the ink, and more importantly how long she could have one out before reducing the whole thing to mush.

“You think he can handle the Horror by himself for long?” Audrey asked as the both glanced towards the teen in question, just in time to watch him throw his axe at the Horror’s face before diving out of the way of one of the Demon’s hands.

“Well, he’s going to have to or we’re fucked.” She shrugged, figuring it was a waste to plan for if he failed when they had more imminent things on their plates. “Hopefully, he’s as scary as Artemis says he is.”

From what little fighting they’d done together, she knew that he could fight but she still didn’t see the threat the other teen supposedly posed.

She looked at the page in her hand before stuffing it in her pocket. (Right, so these can last a minute or two and I can at least use them as magic grenades still.)

“Hopefully…” Audrey agreed. “Any word from the Scarecrow? He’d make me feel a whole lot better about this whole mess.”

That got a laugh out of her, “I’ll let him know I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.” (Or it’ll annoy the hell out of him.)

She closed one of her eyes, and fought back a mild wave of vertigo as she began to see out of the Scarecrow’s eye with it, before shaking her head clear. “If I’m reading it right he’ll be here in a few minutes. Just need to keep holding everything down until he gets here.”

“Fuck, how far away was he?” Audrey groaned.

“He’s picking off some of the Creeps getting past the other hunters, if not for him there’d probably be twice as many of them here with us.” She pointed out. “As long as he’s moving though, we just have to focus on stalling until he gets here.”

“Fine, but when we’re done here you and Artemis are going to sit down and figure out how to do that warp summon thing I’ve seen other Contractors pull off.” Audrey told her.

“Sure.” It’s not like she had any problem being alone with her duende for a few hours. “That said…”

She spun around with her bat in hand and took the head off of a Creep that thought it could sneak up on her. “Maybe we should focus on dealing with the current problem first?”

--- Audrey ---

“That is what I’m focusing on.” She argued, her hand still on the four meter tall plant that she’d managed to make grow from a small patch of flowers and grass near the statue’s base.

“Yeah, well I can’t just stay still and talk while I fight so… adiós.”

She looked down at her phone as Val hung up on her. (Note to self, invest in bluetooth earpieces for the team so they can’t hang up on me.)

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

She glanced up as one of the mantis Creeps landed in front of her, and glared at it before having her plant shoot out and grab the insect chimera by its waist. She then had the plant lift the Creep into the air before smashing its soft organ-filled thorax into the concrete sidewalk, turning both into a bloody and beaten mess.

This first Creep was the one to break the dam as she watched a number of other chimerical beasts leaping down from their various perches, the werewolf-like creatures rushing towards them in a flurry of frothing violence in the hopes of ripping them limb from bloody limb.

And unfortunately for them, there were a number of spell scripts laying strewn about the nearby ground, forcing this first wave of Creeps to realize how terrible of an idea it was to rush a prepared enemy.

All around her and Artemis various spell effects were triggered as the Creeps would step upon one of the magical mines they’d set up earlier, and all she had to do was watch as some were impaled on pillars of ice, others wrapped and strangled by vines grown from the paper, and others still burned alive by flames that erupted from the ground like a portal to hell.

The few Creeps who didn’t die to these gruesome methods instead found themselves being crushed under the weight of her massive plant, or thrown aside by a sweeping blow that sent them crashing into the nearby brickwork with enough force to shatter every bone in their bodies.

Upon witnessing all of this carnage, the second wave of Creeps were far more cautious in their approach, and instead of more of the werewolf chimeras mostly consisted of the flying Creeps. A type that she could do little to harm given how no matter the strength behind her plants brutal blows, it was severely lacking in agility.

“How much longer do you think it’s going to be?” She asked Artemis as she futilely lashed out at the Creeps too mobile for her to really do anything about.

“I’m working as fast as I can.” Artemis snapped at her. “Or would you like to take a crack at fixing this damaged seal, without disrupting the other two seals it's connected to, or completely unleashing the Demonic Horror the seal is keeping locked in place?!”

“Uh, yeah… Magical theory is not my thing.” She admitted, knowing that while she was good at potions and plants… she was only really good at potions and plants.

“Yeah, I didn’t think so.” Artemis glared before throwing a quick fireball that impacted one of the flying Creeps as it tried to dive bomb them. “Now focus on fighting so I can focus on fixing this mess!”

“Yes, ma’am.” She nodded, having her plant smash the dazed Creep into paste at the bottom of a small crater.

Unfortunately as she made her plant rise once more into the air, the flying Creeps finally realized arguably the greatest weakness of her weapon. Namely that no matter how much magic she poured into it, her ferocious flora was still extremely flammable in the face of enough of their flames.

“Shit!” She cursed, as her plant caught fire before sending another wave of magic through it in the hopes of healing the flora faster than they could burn it. “Uh, Arty? Not sure how much longer I can keep these fuckers back!”

“Just… need… one… more… and there!” Artemis cheered, before slamming both of her hands into the statue and flooding so much magic into the structure that the various spells and enchantments built into it were brought into the naturally visible spectrum.

As it grew ever brighter the complex spell work became both a bastion of safety and a beacon of light, forcing the wary creatures of the night further back as it continued to build up power before shooting a beam of magic straight up into the Bleed the Horror was escaping from.

--- Artemis ---

The Horror screamed, it’s wail like nails on a chalkboard as the Demon desperately clawed at the ground trying to resist the seal forcing it back into its prison. A clear sense of panic to the Horror as it futilely attempted to resist its final fate.

“Nooo!” The Demon yelled as it continued to scrabble at the dirt, its entire form shaking and shivering as it struggled to keep its enormous body from slowly being forced back through the Bleed, even at the price of tearing its own wounds back open.

The air changed, the rain growing heavier as the Horror slammed two of its hands into the ground, a smoke darker than black pouring off of them. “I Refoosh Too Bee Imprishoned!!!” The Demon roared as it pulled itself back from the Bleed.

“W-what?” She couldn’t help but stammer as more black smoke began to pour out from where the Horror’s flesh met the seal, the Demon clearly resisting despite the fact that seal should be dragging it back in.

“Arty, why isn’t the Demon going back in the seal?!” Audrey panicked as their plan to stop the Horror failed.

“I-I don’t understand. The, the seal is working. I-I’m even burning its lifespan to get it back to full power!” She cried, desperately going over the statue to try and figure out what had gone wrong.

“Yoo Wretched Pesht!” The Horror roared, flinging one of its hands at Whitaker, who leapt out of the way only to be caught as an additional limb burst out of the shadows and coiled its fingers around him.

With its agile prey finally in hand, the Demon raised its arm into the air, the shadow limb following behind, before slamming both into the ground hard enough to crater it. Even with this the young teen refused to simply die, so the Horror raised its fist once more before smashing it against the pest over and over until the miserable wretch finally quit moving.

With that task finally done, the Demon bent over to glare at her and Audrey as it hung from the Bleed above. “Peshts, Peshts Every Where!”

Before either of them could react the Horror’s hand shot out and grabbed both of them, dragging them away from the statues base and raising them into the air before sending them both hurtling at the fourth wretch to get in the Demon’s way.

She had just enough time to hear a faint, “Oh, shi-!” before she felt herself impacting Val as the entirety of their coven was sent tumbling in a tangle of limbs, eventually rolling to a stop as a series of vines wrapped around them. Whether Val or Audrey’s work she couldn’t say, (nor do I really care…)

“What the fuck happened?!” Val coughed. “I thought you said, you were sealing the Horror?!”

“I was, I did, I-I…” She looked at the Demon glaring down at them as it continued to fight and struggle against its Bleed. “It’s working, it’s just… the Demon is fighting it… but, but how?!”

Val stared at the Horror for a moment, before her eyes darted back to the Creeps slowly encircling them. “Best guess? Easier to keep a door open than to actually open it.”

“That’s, that’s…” She blinked, before swallowing past her fear as she forced herself to keep thinking. “When, when they first sealed it, they split the Demon’s power first. This time… I tried to seal it while it was still at full power!” She cried, before hitting her head. “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!!!”

“Oye, stop that.” Val ordered, grabbing her arm. “The seal is doing its job and dragging the Horror in, meaning you did your job. We just need to weaken it enough for the seal to finish its job now.”

“Don’t think… that’s going to be easy…” Audrey noted, wrapping an arm around herself. “Feels like… I broke something…”

“If you aren’t dead you can still fight.” Val told the other teen with no sympathy, as she forced herself onto her own feet before offering Artemis a hand up.

“Yeah, yeah…” Audrey groaned, having to stand up on her own. “But from the looks of it… fight or no fight… we might be dead…”

“Maybe but I’m not really worried.” Val admitted with a laugh. “After all…”

She stumbled and Val kept her up by wrapping an arm around her as the other teen gave the Horror a feral grin, as the surrounding Creeps began to scrabble away from them.

“My Demon ‘s already free.”

And the Scarecrow screamed.