Not all the students had finished evacuating the class and Mrs. Deville acted quickly to protect the ones still inside it. Raising her hands, she cast the wildest, rawest, purest nature magic that Anna had ever sensed. The perfectly manicured lawn and the flowers outside of her classroom window experienced a massive growth spurt. Whips of grass sprang up over a dozen feet in length to snap around the stubby rubber legs of the transformed motorcycle that had been parked in the faculty parking lot until a few minutes’ prior.

“We’ll hold this breach.” Marax chimed in chipperly with his proper British accent. He even sounded like royalty. He ran a large hand through his dark hair and winked one of his dark eyes reassuringly at the students as they fled past him to join Anna. The motorcycle monster was gnashing its teeth and struggling to get free from his wife’s magical grip.

“Honey. Could you hurry?” She called out sweetly, clearly trying to hide the edge in her voice from the students. “There’s only so much one can do with grass and shrubbery against metal and teeth.”

“Of course, my love.” He blew his wife a kiss suavely and his eyes began to glow red. His long head transformed into that of a bull as if he’d suddenly become a minotaur. Or had the image just superimposed itself over his face. Anna couldn’t tell. It happened so quickly and smoothly.

Practice. This is why practice is important. Even in this time of crisis, Anna could imagine exactly what her mother would say. Or maybe it was just what she herself thought about any skill. If you want it to work right when you need it, then practice it when you don’t.

“Run child.” Marax Deville called over his shoulder as he blasted a good old fashioned fireball spell at the creature and was immediately accosted by another coming in through the broken windows. “The herd is manifesting.” Anna’s shock stilled her for a few seconds longer before she shouted at her terrified schoolmates.

“Go. Go. Go.” She waved them past her down the hallway back the way she had come. “To the front entrance.” Screams and crashes of glass were coming from the other classrooms as other monster-formed vehicles from the parking lot found the unevacuated classrooms along the route to the front of the school. “Oh. Shit!”

It was murmured quietly as she began running after the others, bringing up the rear. Then she stopped short. The hallway began to fill as more students and teachers streamed into it from the compromised classrooms. But only the classrooms on one side of the hallway. She stopped short at the first one and waved the students out.

“Evacuate to the front office.” Anna shouted at the students as she waved them down the hallway preventing them from fleeing in the wrong direction. Peering over the heads of the older students he could see Miss Callahan, a non-magic user heroically trying to fend off the metal and rubber beast that had invaded her classroom.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The petite Asian woman, Anna had never found out which actual nationality she was, was holding a tall metal stool by the seat and brandishing the long legs at the creature sobbing defiant invectives at the monsters in a desperate last stand. The small woman, smaller than Anna herself was, was cornered. If she fled, there would be nothing between herself and the students. If she didn’t flee, she’d be overrun. As Anna watched horrified, one of the jocks in back of the crush of bodies caught the look on her face. He followed her helpless fatalistic gaze and noticed their teacher’s plight.

“Miss Callahan!” Anna vaguely recognized one of the few lower classmen who were taller than she as he shouted in alarm. No, you idiot! While it was brave of the boy to try, Anna had to groan internally at the fact that any actions he took would just divert the attention from the doomed teacher onto the students. And without magic, he wasn’t going to make a positive difference.

Or maybe not. The blonde boy picked up a whole desk like it was no heavier than the light stool that the monsters were gradually eating the legs off of to Miss Callahan’s absolute despair. Wielding it as both a defensive shield and a weapon, the boy set his shoulders determinedly and called out to the motorcycle monsters.

“Come pick on someone your own size.” A shocked short laugh of incredulity burst out of Anna. Really? Did, did I really just live that trope? He just said that? When he’s about to feed himself to monsters? One of the monsters turned. It was hundreds of pounds. They were all over a hundred pounds. The only thing allowing the students time to flee is that the heavier motorcycle-form monsters weren’t strong enough to break through the wall beneath the windows and were too heavy on their new stubby rubber legs to climb over the wall.

But the car-forms were coming.

One of blondie’s friends saw him taking a stand and frantically tapped a few others to try and help. Only two chose to stay behind, lifting chairs or desks of their own, and Anna started trying to shove her way into the room against the tide of exiting students. True, it had only been seconds, but it felt like forever.

Finally, the line of students was past her and running in the direction she’d shouted at them. Anna rushed into the nearly vacant classroom except for the four moped and motorcycle-form monsters. Then she stopped. Because…what the hell was her plan? She couldn’t just run into the chaos. Fighting with chairs was stupid against large heavy creatures.

And past the empty window frames, across the manicured lawn, the larger vehicles in the parking lot were stirring. Their dead headlights lit up with eerie glows. Wheels lost their roundness, becoming short stubby legs. Grills and windshields turned into gaping maws, some with glass for teeth and some with metal teeth. Death in aluminum and steel lumping toward the school.

“Right.” Nodding, Anna knew what she needed to do and pulled her hair back from her face. The loose strands were distracting her. “Time to seal the breach.” Maybe she shouldn’t have done it the way she did, but this was the first time Anna would ever use her magic in a life-or-death situation. This was fine. She could do this. She just needed to take the time to do it right.