We all backed away a little bit from the monsters as they plodded towards us, until I suddenly felt something biting down on my foot. I screamed and pulled away only to see one of the dead sharks had taken a chunk out of me! It couldn't have been any longer than about three feet. Its skin was so decaying it had turned completely white, its guts had already been torn out by either whatever had killed it in the ocean or a scavenger and yet it moved, or rather wriggled along its side very slowly, but determined to take another chunk out of my foot.
As I looked around the beach I could see all of the other corpses had started to move, or at least squirm. Whilst I was distracted by the horrifying spectacle before me, a zombie octopus' tentacle wrapped itself around my foot and sent me head first into that filthy sand. Dozens of other monsters then started to crawl their way towards me. Crabs, small sharks, and a jelly fish like creature, all decaying, all squirming. I tried to get back up, but the octopus wrapped another tentacle around my throat and pinned me to the beach. I tried to pull free, but its strength was immense. A few more sharks started to nip at my arms and feet, whilst the crabs crawled over my face. One of the crabs tried to stick its claw down my throat and rip my tongue out, but I manage to wrestle one arm free from the Sharks and pulled it off, though the little bastard then grabbed onto my thumb and very nearly pulled it off instead. I thought I was done for when I saw a much larger zombie shark, it must have been about five feet long slide along the beach on its belly towards my throat. It could easily have taken my head clean off with those chompers, but Sophia saved me by impaling the octopus holding me down through the head with a silver knife. I jumped up, with some of the crabs and smaller sharks still holding onto my legs and arms. I pulled them all off, though in the process the little bastards took whatever it was they were holding with them. At least I didn't lose any fingers or toes, but it hurt like hell. Well maybe not quite as much as the portal to that actual hell dimension, but it was a lot more disgusting.
The rest of the gang meanwhile had their hands full with the slime monsters. They were throwing all the weapons they had at them, silver knives, wooden stakes, but none of it was working. In fact as soon as one of their weapons touched one of the monsters, it was sucked into it, just like the witch had been. Those monsters were like black holes that would just consume everything they touched. I got to test that theory when one of the abominations zeroed in on me. I call out for help, but sadly none of the rest of the team were able to respond. They were all doing their best to not be absorbed by those monsters themselves. With no other choice I picked the large shark that just a minute or so earlier looked set to take my head off with both hands and I threw it into the slime beast. Unlike the witch, the shark didn't go down so easily. It appeared to swim about inside the slime monster and even poked its head back through and clamped its jaws around the Demons head, before finally disappearing into the larger abomination. Whilst I was distracted by the spectacle another smaller shark clamped its jaws around my foot. I pulled him off, losing a chunk of my foot in the process, though when I held him up by his tail, he swung back round and bit my arm again. I was only too happy to throw the little bastard into the monster after that.
Unfortunately as I tried to throw more zombies in, they seemingly got wise to my idea and started to flee. In desperation I tried to run to the boat, but three more of the slime beasts came crawling out of the water in front of me.
Just as all hope seemed lost the witch suddenly crawled her way back out of the monster that had consumed her. She had managed to absorb parts of the creature into herself, creating a temporary, but extremely frail body. That wasn't her plan all along. These monsters as she later explained, belonged to a group of ocean dwelling demons, who were normally her servants. She used them and the zombies on the beach to guard her island and prevent any souls from escaping her hell. However she had been trapped in that dimension for so long, the beasts now had difficulty telling her apart from any random prisoner.
Still she had at least turned the tables on the monster that ate her and drained it of its life force, leaving it nothing more than a puddle of green sludge on the beach.
With her new, squishy body that allowed her to use more of her powers for a short while, she blasted her way through the demons and led us to her ship which soon made its way through the fog. Outside the fog it was still bright daylight outside and the ocean looked rather lovely. Though I kept expecting some kind of giant shark or serpent monster to come leaping out and try and eat us.
When I looked back to see the island it was gone. It was obviously part of the spell. The witch said that no one she didn't want could enter the island, though apparently the spell wasn't full proof, and sometimes ships would inadvertently pass through the forcefield and end up on that godforsaken monster beach. I can only shudder to think of the poor sailors who stumbled into that hell hole unaware
The witch meanwhile spent the whole journey trying to keep her new body together. For the most part she looked normal, but her skin started dripping in certain places.
"This is only temporary. When we get back to my castle I'll have a new body in." Before she could finish Sophia slapped cuffs around her, which bore a strange symbol, that was designed to hold ghosts and would keep her trapped in her body. Fortunately for us, as a spectre she didn't have enough power to break them.
"What treachery is this." The witch said, yelling so loudly that he whole neck began to sack until she put it back into place.
"This is to make sure that you don't go off half cocked trying to take down the Blue Devil's minions. We don't know how many of them there are or how powerful they are." O'Brien explained.
"I can reach my castle in no time. At full power I could blast those puny bloodsuckers away to nothing." The witch protested.
"Well last time you lost. Badly to them. Hence why they pushed you back to that godforsaken island. Besides we don't like you anyway." O'Brien said before walking away.
The witch stopped the boat in its tracks as it had been powered by a spell of hers, but fortunately Sophia, O'Brien and the others did not back down and after a few minutes the witch gave in and started the boat up again. She simply had no choice and the longer she waited her in an unstable body, the bigger the danger that it would collapse, and she was barely struggling to keep her spirit without a body from falling back into that hell. She gave in to their demands for now, but was adamant that she would easily escape from them soon.
Eventually we reached Port Patrick. The Scathach organisation always had a special room reserved in the hotel overlooking the bay. We could use it until their reinforcements arrived. I loved Port Patrick personally, but sadly I was given the task of babysitting the witch. Sophia, rightfully felt the vampires would be able to track the witches presence and would be here soon. Fortunately the room, at least Sophia assured me was warded against vampires. The entire grounds of the hotel were in fact. Still that didn't mean that the vampires wouldn't try and cause havoc in Port Patrick to draw us out and Sophia wanted to be ready for them.
Unfortunately however the vampires sent one of their strongest minions to attack Port Patrick. A white wolvron. This beast was the offspring of two werewolves, born when the female was in wolf form. They looked like nine foot tall bipedal wolves with snow white fur and a more twisted, demonic, but still human face, though they were completely devoid of any humanity in terms of personality. They were savage, vicious animals who killed without reason. According to Sophia, they were also still capable of taking a kind of perverse pleasure in torturing their victims and they were also fiercely loyal to vampires. Contrary to what many of us have been told in the media. Vampires and werewolves are not sworn enemies. In fact ironically werewolves are among the few species that vampires don't instantly view as as trash or food.
This is because the creator of the werewolf race, was a loyal follower of Khastran, the father of the vampires, creating a bond between them. Whilst some werewolves who retain their humanity do have a problem working with vampires, because you know they're homicidal bastards. Wolvrons who have no humanity at all make the perfect pets and foot soldiers for vamps.
I was lucky enough to be spared an encounter with the wolvron at least at first. The vamps let it loose in Port Patrick, in another display of how bold they were becoming. O'Brien and Sophia instantly rushed down to the village to try and help, whilst James and Elizabeth searched any nearby areas for vampires.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Sophia told me that going in, they knew they couldn't prevent any casualties. The best these two professional monster hunters could hope for would be be to try and distract the wolf demon and lure it away from the village. They certainly couldn't kill it. Only decapitation or fire could destroy a wolvron, and it would take a lot of fire to do that, whilst their flesh could only be pierced with a weapon made of silver, or the claws of the strongest earthly demons.
The wolvron had already killed about six people before the two hunters arrived. Every time the mass of fleeing people tried to escape one way, the wolf would descend and chase them back the way they came. Sadly when Sophia and O'Brien arrived, it didn't make much difference. Even though they only had silver bullets, the monster was a lot faster than its 900 pound body would suggest and they weren't able to land a hit on it. The monster enjoyed toying with them and all of its victims by swooping down and picking them off slowly. The first two it killed in front of Sophia and O'Brien were a young couple. It stabbed its clawed hands through their spines, breaking them in half, and then lifted their corpses up and used them as shields to protect itself from Sophie and O'Brien's barrage of bullets, before fleeing. Less than a minute later the monsters next victim was an old man that had struggled to try and get into a nearby cafe through the crowd, hoping he'd be safe indoors. The wolf however grabbed him from above just as he reached the entrance and took him to the top of the cafe where it ripped him apart in front of the whole village, before throwing several pieces into the panicing crowd, all of which it did whilst easily dodging its enemies bullets. It's next victim meanwhile, a young woman who was closer to the bay, it jumped over 70 feet towards and clamped its jaws around her entire head which it then crushed it to pulp. It then landed on a crowd of young teenagers, about five or so of them who it completely tore to pieces. Arms and legs and other body parts just flew into the crowd and the hunters before the beast again seemingly vanished into the sky.
O'Brien and Sophia stayed close together. I mean really close together, like back to back as the monster continued to toy with them. Sadly however the beast still managed to catch them unaware and knock both monster busters to the ground. Fortunately however, O'Brien who had held onto his gun was able to fire six rounds of silver bullets into the wolvron's chest as it lunged towards him. It didn't kill the monster, but it was enough to make it shriek in pain and stop for a few seconds, after which Sophia shot another five or so rounds into the beast. Not used to pain of any kind, the wolf monster fled, but just before it did, it grabbed hold of a civilian named Jonathan. Holding him up as a shield to the hunters who held their fire, the monster then ran its claws down his chest before seemingly vanishing.
Unfortunately as soon as she was sure the wolf was gone for good this time, Sophia shot Jonathan in the head. Those who white wolvrons bite or scratch transform into dark wolvrons themselves, though those who are created via infection are always less powerful than those who are born wolvrons. Furthermore, those who are created by infection can only transform others into dark wolvrons who are smaller and considerably less powerful.
Still either way there was no cure for this strain of the poison of lycanthropy, and unlike other breeds of werewolf, when a person becomes a wolvron they remained the wolf all the time. Jonathan would have died anyway and Sophia couldn't take any chances. Like many demonic infections, including vampirism. The curse of Lycanthropy can be unpredictable in how long it takes to infect the victim. Sometimes it can be days (though its always within a week.) Other times it can be hours, and sometimes there have been cases of people changing within only a few minutes. Sophia couldn't let any more of these creatures loose in Port Patrick. Sadly however and not surprisingly, the rest of the locals who witnessed the gruesome sight didn't see it that way and they instantly surrounded both Sophia and O'Brien. Since their explanation probably wouldn't have been believed, even with what they saw. O'Brien fired his guns into the sky scattering the crowd. Unfortunately however they couldn't make it back to the hotel as the police soon cut them off and with nowhere else to go, Sophia and O'Brien were forced to jump into the harbour and swim to safety.
This had been part of the vampires plan however. They had ordered their dog to not only attack a crowded area to draw any hunters out, but to infect someone, knowing that even if the wolf didn't get all of the hunters, the survivors would be forced to kill the infected in public. Whilst the bloodsuckers may have been acting more boldly than ever before, at the same they hadn't lost any of their craftiness either.
Meanwhile back in the hotel I did my best to try and strike up a conversation with my captive. Though to be honest in a way we were both captives.
I tried to amaze the witch with examples of modern technology but A/ she knew about them, as ironically some of the demons who had been torturing her for years had enjoyed them. (With one of her demon captors being a big fan of the tv show Gladiators in particular.)
Still I was at least able to find out the witch's name. It was Higressa. I was also able to find out a tiny bit about her past and what made her tick. To be honest I think she just wanted to rant about all the injustices she felt she had suffered. I'm not saying that being locked up in a hell dimension for hundreds of years isn't a horrible thing to happen to anyone, but let's just say she pushed the limits of my sympathy.
It was quite fascinating in a way how she talked about how slaughtering people the same way I would about what I had for breakfast, whilst even the slightest thing that happened to her was told with such unbelievable self pity.
Apparently she was once the Roman empire's leading expert on black magic, and had even helped design weapons used in the Trajan wars. She was also responsible for casting one of the blackest spells over Scotland as a revenge for it resisting Roman rule. Her spell was so strong that it very nearly dragged the country into a hell dimension.
This action horrified the Emperor Hadrian, who had succeeded Trajan and who had made a concentrated effort to conquer Scotland, not just for the good of the empire, but to take care of the supernatural creatures who had made it their home. Higressa's actions were designed to take us and the demons out completely in one blast. I guess however she overestimated her sway over the Emperor and the fact that she had committed this war crime, and failed to eliminate Rome's enemies at the same time, (either Scots or demons) just made the members of the senate who had secretly backed her betray the witch.
She was ironically forced to flee to Scotland to escape. She lost everything. Her family, her coven, who she was forced to abandon, or who betrayed her. She had genuinely believed in the Empire for all of her then 300 year old life and to be cast out from it and erased from its official history was the hardest blow of all. Even more than the torture she endured in that prison. At least that's what she told me.
It amused me no end the way she kept talking about how if only her spell had worked and Scotland, MY country had been reduced to an uninhabitable rock, then it wouldn't have gone so badly! I almost felt like shouting to the vampires "she's here, promise you'll hurt her real bad."
In the end she was able to create the nightmarish hell dimension we found her in from the excess dark magic left behind from her weapon, which just made her imprisonment there all the more fitting. Still from what I would later experience about the monster whose minions trapped her spirit in her own hell, the Blue Devil, incredible as it may have seemed, she really was the lesser of two evils!
I'd get an unpleasant reminder of how awful the monsters we were protecting her from were soon when one of them came crashing through our window. It was a totally different type than the ones who had chased me earlier. It had grey, rotting skin, long hair, crooked fangs and black sockets where its eyes should have been. Despite you know not having any eyes it could see us very well, and charged for us. Unfortunately Higressa couldn't use her magics to fight it off, as they were all being used to hold her together. Instead, she pushed me into the vampires arms and ran like hell out of the room. And to think I let her moan on for ages about how hard it was that she failed to carry out a genocide of my people?
The vampire however luckily for me just tossed me aside and went after its main target. It took me a few seconds to work up the courage to follow it and even when I did I hoped that it would be so fast I wouldn't be able to catch up to it. At least this way I wouldn't look as cowardly as I actually was I thought.
I picked up a stake (I wasn't even sure if that was lethal to this breed) as well as a gun loaded with silver bullets, that had crosses carved into them, and headed out down the hallway. Surprisingly no one else had been alerted from their rooms by the noise, though downstairs I soon heard some screaming as the melting woman and the vampire pushed past people in the lobby.
When I got outside however I could see the vampire and the witch facing each other. Her body was already beginning to break off into bits of slime on the floor, but the vampire at least seemed to tread more carefully in case she had any more tricks left. In a few seconds however a prehistoric, flying reptile, like a Pteranodon suddenly swooped down and grabbed Hegressa in its talons. Its wingspan must have been over forty feet and its skin was bright green and scaly, again signs that it must have been brought back with crude magics as real Pterosaurs were furry and in Pteranodon's case a lot smaller!
The animal picked Hegressa up as though were a child, but the flesh she had made from the Demon's slime soon dripped through the flying reptiles claws, until eventually her entire body melted into nothing more than a huge, really, really disgusting puddle of slime on the floor.
However the Pterosaur, somehow still held onto her spirit with its claws. She tried to pull free as best she could, but the winged horrors grip appeared to be too strong and it flew away with her over Port Patrick.