deadly night shade 12

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Battle at the Nether Gate
Everybody stood in the desolate area where the warlocks had teleported them to. “You said the demon’s out here?” Windfire asked.
“That I did,” Shade agreed. “It came through earlier. It will take anywhere between ten minutes to an hour to fully materialize on the mortal plane.”
“You really know your demonology,” Frostgem whispered.
“I’m the strongest warlock on earth. Of course I know my demons,” Shade replied with a smile.
“Is anybody else nervous?” Roy asked, his voice quivering.
“Yes,” Shadowstorm gulped, wishing she wasn’t a witch at that moment.
“Why are you nervous?” Rich asked.
“Because we could die…” Shadowstorm muttered.
“No, we won’t die,” Shade shook his head. “We’re meant to be victorious against this behemoth.”
“You seem confident,” Windfire gripped Shade’s warm hand.
Shade smirked, “Trust me. I’m not leaving you.”
Windfire nearly fainted from the shock of his words. “R-really?”
Shade smiled his charming human smile, “Really.”
“Well, I suppose we’ll have to find a new place to live…” Roy frowned.
Shade snickered, “Nah, you can have the house.”
“W-what?” Rich stammered.
“I’ll keep paying for the house so long as you live there,” Shade said more specifically.
“Can I get a new car?” Shadowstorm asked.
“I don’t care what you do with your money,” Shade replied.
“You’re no fun,” Shadowstorm complained.
“Well, we know we’re going to have to actually explain Shade to the rest of the family,” Ravenwater said quickly.
“What a fun conversation that will prove to be,” Emberstrike folded her hands like she was about to pray.
A large roar and the quaking of the ground stopped their peasantries. “Attack it with everything you have,” Shade instructed. “Its hide is nearly impenetrable to our magic, but enough of it can crack its shell.”
“What magic can it use?” Frostgem asked.
“It depends on where it is from. Most likely fire, though,” Shade said quickly.
The large beast had anticipated that it would be met with challengers, so as any intellectual beast would do, it came prepared. It took in a deep breath of air and exhaled a barrage of ice shards, hitting only the three warlock men who were at the nose of the party.
Shade, Roy and Rich looked at their feet ad cursed. “We don’t have a way out of traps,” Roy growled.
“We could melt the ice,” Emberstrike started.
“Save your strength for that thing!” Shade pointed toward the large dragon-like demon.
“But we’ll need you,” Ravenwater insisted.
“I’ll use my sword to get us out. Go ahead and start attacking. We’ll be right behind you,” Shade said quickly.
“Come on, before it gets out of the plain here and actually can do some real damage,” Windfire urged her coven forward, even against her own wishes.
Shade immediately kept to his word, chipping through the ice with the tip of his demonic weapon. To his dismay, the ice wasn’t cracking so easily.
Ravenwater started off the attack with a blast of water from his palms. The beast didn’t even so much as flinch to the high-pressured attack. “Oh, no…” Ravenwater said as he beast drew closer to him.
Shadowstorm threw a bolt of lightning from her parted hands at the giant beast in the same spot Ravenwater had attacked. “Yes!” she grinned when the beast stopped for a moment, proving that it could feel some pain with their magic.
“Come on…” Shade begged, slamming the sword into the ice around his feet with all of his strength. “Crack damn it!” Shade hissed as the ice began cracking at the top layer.
“Come on…” Roy had his fingers crossed.
“Hey, make your imp help, too,” Rich suggested as he drew the summoning stone from his pocket. After muttering a sentence in the warlock tongue, the small gaunt creature appeared at his feet.
Its voice was that of a squeak, “What do you require, master?”
“Start cracking the ice around my feet,” Rich commanded and the imp bowed before it stepped onto the ice and began stopping up and down.
Roy likewise summoned his imp and forced it to start working on the ice that was around his feet.
“Let’s see how you like this,” Frostgem threw an orb of ice at the beast’s face and followed through with a quick blast of fire.
The best roared, throwing its snout into the air and letting out a mighty bellow. It continued stomping forward, shaking the ground that the witches needed to stand on.
“Or this,” Frostgem called several vines from beneath the earth and smiled when the worked like a giant restraint composed of plants and leaves.
Windfire shot a bolt of light into the creature’s face, followed by lightning, repeating the pattern faster and faster. The Vehmaut struggled against the restraint of the vines and tried to dodge the painful blows Windfire was throwing at his face.
“Almost there…” Shade muttered. He was still pounding into the ice with the blade of his sword and he was slowly, but surely making progress. His two lesser acolytes were using their demon companions to pound away at the first layer of ice. They were also making some progress, though the miniature fiends grew tired quickly.
“Back away from it!” Ravenwater instructed. They all turned their backs on the creature that had broken free from the natural trap Frostgem had set for it, and it was continuing forward, slowly and shaking the earth with its every breath and movement.
They were split into two groups: Windfire and Ravenwater were to the left of the beast and Frostgem, Emberstrike and Shadowstorm were to the right of it. The creature saw their well-measured fear as an opportunity to take out the most of the attack force.
He drew in another deep breath and released a wave of fire at Frostgem, Emberstrike and Shadowstorm who were trying to take cover behind a crevice in one of the rocky cliffs.
The witches all cried in pain as the wicked fire’s heat hit their barely covered flesh.
“Girls!” Windfire cried.
“Keep going,” Ravenwater said, dragging Windfire as far away from the Vehmaut as possible.
“We’re almost done,” one imp cheered, nearly applauding itself.
“Excellent,” Rich said with a grin.
“No…” Roy gasped.
“What?” Shade asked, still stabbing the ice around his feet.
“Three of the witches were hurt!” Roy pointed to the three girls who were crawling toward a place between cliffs.
“What?” Shade snarled, glaring daggers at the incongruous demon. Shade slammed the sword down one last time, shattering the ice at his feet. He took his sword and slammed it down on the ice between Rich and Roy, shattering it as well.
“Come on,” Ravenwater huffed, tired from running already.
“No!” Windfire cried as the Vehmaut’s horn shot a bolt of lightning at Ravenwater’s back, throwing him to the ground.
“Get to the other three. I’ll get to the two,” Shade ordered before darting toward where Windfire and Ravenwater had fled to.
“Screw it,” Windfire growled. She didn’t have the energy to move from the path of the oncoming blast of fire. She had already expended too much of her energy avoiding smaller attacks and she didn’t have a fighting chance at moving out of the way even if she did have the energy. Windfire fell forward, hitting the ground. She thought she had just collapsed in exhaustion except for one the weight of somebody else on top of her.
She felt the heat of the blaze rush over her back as she opened her eyes. “I got here as fast as I could,” Shade said quietly in her ear His black eyes blazed with some determination Windfire had never seen before.
“We don’t even phase it…”
“You don’t, but I do,” Shade whispered.
Windfire gasped in realization, “Sh-Shade? You’re human!”
“What?” Shade asked.
“You’re a human, now, right? Just with warlock powers,” Windfire said quickly as Shade sat up off of her and allowed her to sit up.
“Why would you think that?” he asked.
“Because my Deadly Night Shade is lighter than Shade,” Windfire said quietly.
Shade glanced down at her then forward at the giant horned beast that was advancing toward him. He shot a bolt of lightning from his fist, the giant roared, a little stunned from the shock, but not too intimidated by the warlock’s attack. Shade drew his dark sword from his side and shot another chain of lightning from his sword at the beast, That time, the beast cried more in pain than as a intimidation tactic.
“The other two are with the girls. Stay here with Raven and don’t help me. Save your strength.” Shade said before he teleported himself forward and closer to the behemoth.
He jumped up to the creature’s abdomen in a single impressive bound and thrust his sword into its flesh. He used his weight to yank the sword out of the wound and rolled to the ground. He flinched when he saw the large taloned foot coming straight down onto him.
Windfire stood and sent the incantation toward Shade. Shade opened his eyes when he wasn’t crushed to death by the demon and glared over at Windfire. “I told you not to help!” he hissed.
“And it’s a good thing I don’t take orders,” Windfire replied.
“Oh try me,” Shade taunted the dragon-like demon. A fire attack hit the shield and did nothing as Shade thrust another ball of ice at the creature’s foot. He saw the ring on it front left foot, finally. He recognized the giant band as the ring known as Nexus.
“Girls,” Roy whispered, gently shaking one of the stunned girls. “Shadowstorm?” he asked.
“Come on, girls,” Rich said quickly, trying to rouse one of them to respond.
“What’s happening?” Shadowstorm sprung immediately into a sitting position.
“Shade’s facing the Vehmaut alone,” Rich said quietly.
“He can’t take it…” Frostgem muttered, her blue eyes fluttering open.
“Yes he can,” Emberstrike disagreed as she, too roused.
“The missing ring explains a lot,” Shade grumbled as he motioned for the earth to become the texture of quicksand. The demon initiated a spell of its own, freezing the ground it walked on, ruining Shade’s plot.
He closed his eyes as he felt the shield fade along with its caster. “Windfire!” he shouted, but got no reply. He sheathed his sword and tucked into a roll out of the demon’s way. As soon as the ground stopped shaking beneath the giant’s weight he darted toward the fallen mage. “Windy…” he begged her to respond.
“Finish what you started, she’ll be fine,” Ravenwater’s voice was weak, but sincere.
“It has the power of the Nexus,” Shade whispered.
“And you’re standing here, letting it outweigh you in power why?” Ravenwater teased.
“Excellent point,” Shade replied, before kissing Windfire’s lips gently.
“Finish that damned thing off, you snake-tongued narcissist,” Ravenwater said, smiling weakly.
Shade laughed, “Are you ever going to drop that theory?” He placed Windfire beside her cousin and turned back toward the horned beast that was advancing further into the human world.
“Nope,” Ravenwater replied as he pulled his cousin closer to him. “It’s going to be okay. Shade can do this,” he said, hoping that Windfire could hear him.
Shade leapt at the beast’s face and threw his curtain of darkness over the demon’s face. The demon was confused by the sudden change of environment and it stopped moving immediately. It turned its head to the left, then to the right, still not able to find the source of the darkness.
Shade smiled a wicked smirk as he drew his sword into the air. He brought the blade down with all of his strength on the beast’s claw that was adorned with the power of the Nexus.
The beast grew even more flustered now to the pain it couldn’t see the cause of and the total blackness around its face. As the demon thrashed, Shade teleported himself to a safe distance and began firing bolts of darkness at the demon, teleporting to a different location before launching another bolt of energy.
The demon that wasn’t empowered any longer fell to the warlock’s assault of darkness. Shade stood, exhausted from battle and weary in his mind. He knew that his coven took a big hit and he wanted to take it back.
“Begone, demon” Shade muttered, holding up the black and red ring he wore on his left index finger. The large demon looked like sand in the wind as its body was teleported to the demonic graveyard in the Nether world.
Shade scooped up the ring that allegedly changed in size to perfectly fit its wearer. “Nexus…” he whispered. He clutched the ring in his palm and turned back toward Windfire and Ravenwater.
He went to scoop up Windfire when Rich appeared by his side. “We’ve gotten everybody else home…”
“Can you carry Raven?” Shade asked.
Rich nodded, “He’s lighter than he looks.” Rich scooped Raven into his hands with surprising ease and turned toward Shade.
“Where’s Roy?” Shade asked.
“With the girls at the house.”
“Good. Let’s get them back and see if we can’t right a few wrongs,” Shade said before disappearing into the thin air.
Rich smiled, nodded and followed Shade into the shadows that lead into the witches’ city home.

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deadly night shade 14