Shrill sounds of anguish split the night, away from the prying eyes of the innocence. Mumbled voices begging for mercy fell on deaf ears, as the small army of darkness tore through the village, butchering every being within their sight. 

Terror filled eyes looked at the figures standing tall in front of the blazing fire which served to destroyed the remnant of their beloved town. Their families dan friends.

 Sinister smile plastered across the pale face of Lucian. His crimson eyes alight with madness and excitement as he stared greedily at the two cowering figures kneeling before him. “Do not be afraid, young ones. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Flanked by his two beloved soldiers on either side of him, Lucian stepped forward and extended his right hand to the little girl who was then shoved aside by the more mature teen boy in a moment of false bravado before shrieking sound escaped his lips as a painful magical blow pierced his body. Lucian glanced to Aurelle who simply smirked then shrugged as the scream turned to silent sob.

“Now… I have no intention to hurt you, young ones. Join me, and you shall live. Cross me, well now, I’m sure you have a comprehension of what I’m capable of.” Another smile flitted across his lips as he watched with uncontained glee the nod that followed his silent threat.

“Brilliant! Let’s go to your new home then. ” He turned and faced his quad. “ The acquisition has been made, time to go children.”

With perfect synchronization one by one the dark coven followed their master, blended seamlessly into the dusk, leaving only charred smell and dust as the only indication that they ever stepped foot on that place.

 

***

 

Joo Hyun gasped when the first image of slaughter coursed through her mind. Her eyes glazed over and her body shook as images after images of gruesome killing went rampage within her. She went still when two strong arms circled itself around her lithe body. She could feel Seulgi’s gentle shield surrounding her, blocking the mental images away.

“Thank you.” She murmured her thanks against Seulgi’s neck after she turned around and hugged her mage partner.

The four Guardian stood there in a grim silent. They have caught the telltale of something brewing within the realm. Something was wrong, yet they didn’t have the proof to explain the uneasy feelings that enveloped them.

There were incidents after incidents occurring lately, yet the incidents were too random and isolated from each other, the authorities dismissed them as just simple altercation between the races until Solar finally had her first prophetic vision. 

“So it is true then, Lucian has infiltrate the realm. Again.” A flicker flash of fear and uncertainty crossed Taeyeon’s face. A small shiver went up the tiny blonde’s spine as she contemplated the possibility of intrusion. How? How can they pass the gate?

“He became bolder. He’s starting to kidnapped those with powers. They were children!” Sehun gritted his teeth, his startling dark eyes, the color of midnight with a tint of gold hues around his irises flashed with anger. His wolf close to the surface.

The Guardian leader became solemn, the thought of the previous Dark War still heavy on her mind. Sehun and the other’s werent even born when the Dark War broke within Alarice, but Taeyeon was an old nymph, she was already in her hundred years of existence when it happened. She remembered exactly the amount of terror that engulfed her realm in a tight grip.

“It was a massacre, Taeyeonnie. They tore the magicless human from limbs to limbs in split second. They didnt even have the chance to defend themselves.” Seulgi tightened her hold when Joo Hyun’s body shuddered by the sheer remembrance of the bloody altercation.

Taeyeon nibbled at her lower lip lightly in contemplation, her brows furrowed as she weighed in the circumstances before addressing her comrades.

“We need to inform the council about this. They need to know that Lucian is back and we need to figure out how he can enter the realm without going through the gate, and....”

Taeyeon stopped short on her speech when they all felt disturbance from the gate, like a draught of icy water invading their vein, “Intruder!”

 

***

 

Hwasa blinked once.

Twice.

Then she gave up and shut her eyes tightly, tried to steady her blurry sight and quelled the emerging nausea. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and exhaled gladly when she felt her sight was back to normal and saw her two friends lying not far away from her.

"Anyone mind telling me where we are?" she blinked up at the canopy of leaves over her head, warm bright streams of sunlight filtered down through whispering leaves and gently waving branches.  Yep, they were most definitely not in their treasury room anymore. 

 

*No , sherlock.* She heard Moonbyul chuckled softly inside her mind. Shifting her gaze to the silver haired vampire, she watched as Moonbyul pulled herself to a standing position, hands patting soil off from her black leather pants.

 

"Yes, would you mind enlightening us, Wheein?" asked Moonbyul as she observed their surrounding area.  It was impossible to know where the tree lines ended, which mean they were definitely far away from any civilization.

 

"Uh..." Wheein ran her hand over her blond hair in a nervous habit. She honestly has no idea where they could possibly be. She closed her eyes and breathed in, extending tendrils of her magic experimentingly in greeting of the natural forces of the place. She smiled, cheek dimpling when she felt a tug, an answering carress from the nature, “This place know magic.”

 

“Oh goody, that’s help.” Hwasa deadpanned, she too stood up, hands busy dusting off the excess soil marring her usual black crop top and black jeans get up.

 

Wheein threw her an annoyed look and extended her magic once more, “There’s something here, I could feel a swirling energy surrounding the area, but....” she furrowed her brows, there’s a vortex somewhere, unseen and contained, it felt so near yet so far.

"And who are you all might be?" asked a male voice from behind them.
In a blink of an eye, both Moonbyul and Hwasa turned around and pulled both of their weapons in fighting stance which in turn made the company who asked them did the same.

Their "company" apparently was one man and three women. At the front was a good looking man, tall and fit, and although he bore no weapon, he was in his fighting stance.

The women were in fighting stances as well. One woman who stood beside him has a kind face. She was also in, well, some kind of fighting stance, hands poised as if ready to strike anytime. One woman, with long black hair flowing on her back and eyes the colour of cinnamon, was beautiful. The problem was, she was holding two stilettos and looked like ready to charge anytime. The same goes with the other woman who held a thin katana, a petite blonde who barely looked legal, yet her eyes shone with the wisdom of the ancient.

 

"Wheein, now might be a good time to undo whatever spell you cast before," whispered Hwasa.

 

“It would help if only I did cast a spell, which I didnt.”
 

"Then would you mind, explaining to them? I don't want to fight." said Moonbyul without taking her eyes from the parties in front of them.
 

"Alright, alright. Let me go through." Wheein shuffled her way between her two friends in front of her.
 

"Careful Wheein." warned Moonbyul and the small witch nodded.

She held her hands up and cleared . "We are not enemy. We come in peace."
 

"Greetings, Earthlings." added Hwasa in whisper.
 

Wheein flicked her eyes to Hwasa and glared. Then she looked back to the people in front of her.
 

"We really are not your enemy. We are only passing through. To prove that, we are putting away our weapons," Wheein looked back to Hwasa and Moonbyul, signaling to them to put away the weapons slowly.

 

Hwasa and Moonbyul looked at Wheein with a look that can only be interpreted as "Seriously?!"
 

Wheein glared back at them and finally they resigned and sheathed back their weapons slowly.
She then looked at the people in front of her again, "See? We are not a threat."

"Is she telling the truth?" asked the young man to the dark haired woman.

The woman relaxed her stance. "Yes she is." And her answer made the others relaxed their stance.

 

"Who are you?" asked the man again, suspicion still lacing his words.

Wheein smiled, "My name is Wheein. These are my two friends, on the left, Hwasa and on my right, Moonbyul.  And you are... ?"

The man took ɑ step forward to Wheein. "My name is Sehun. And this is Seulgi, the High-Wizard of Human-Mage Domain." He pointed to the woman beside him who nodded toward them.
 

"And this is Joo Hyun, Inquisitor also from the Human-Mage Domain," he pointed to the dark-haired woman. She smiled lightly to them.
 

"The one on my left is Taeyeon, a Nymph."

 

Hwasa raised one of her eyebrow, human, nymph and if her sense of smell proved to be right, the young man is a wolf.

 

Taeyeon keen eyes zeroed in on the source of energy coming from the amulet held by the small blond in front of her, “that amulet....”

 

On her soft whispered words, the three quickly moved on alert. Hwasa pushed Wheein to her back as Moonbyul stepped in and drew her sword up to stop any further advance step by the nymph.

 

“I’ll take a step back if I were you, Nymph.” Moonbyul smiled sweetly but her voice dripped with veiled threat.

 

Wheein looked at the amulet on her hand, could it be? She muttered a spell and in an instant, the wind began to pick up and the air darkened, a mesmerizing rippling flow of lights began to form until it burst outward into a shimmering whirpool around 6 feets both in height and width.  Wheein gasped, disbelief written all over her face.

 

“Wheein, this might be a good time to explain what the hell is going on here?” Hwasa asked Wheein without taking her eyes off of the group who once again already in their battle stances. She chances a quick look around their surrounding and calculated the probability to shape shift then and there and swept Wheein to her back and fly into safety. Too much trees, it would hurt like a son of bacchae to shift with too many obstacle in the way, but she’ll do it if it means she could keep her friend safe.

 

*Byul.*

 

A brief look passed through the dragon and the vampire, enough to let the vampire in on her plan. She noted the slight movement on Moonbyul stance, a slight dip on her knee, ready to launch herself in moment notice.

 

“Close the gate, you idiot!!” Sehun yelled.

 

“It might be too late for that. Wheein! Shield! ” Moonbyul yelled as eight shadows lunged at the group. Razor sharp fangs glinted under the sun light as gigantic wolves leaped across the space from out of nowhere and only Wheein’s sharp reflexes saved them from being mauled by erecting the bluish shield around them.

 

The wolves growled as they tried with all of their might to break the shield. Beads of sweat forms in Wheein’s face as every blows weakened the shield, forcing her to double her effort in making sure the shield stayed up. “Guys, a little help here.”

 

Hwasa extracted her twin Trisulas and grin widely, “Ready to have fun, vamp?”

 

Moonbyul grinned and winked at the dragon, “2 seconds, Wheein.” The Witch nodded and let down the shield as both women leaped upon the sky before closing it again, restraining herself to keep the shield up instead of joining the fight in front of her.

 

The werewolves ran towards the two lone fighters in quad format, prepared to attack from all side and ensure that the women cant ran away.

 

“They never play fair aren’t they? Always attacking in pack.” Commented Moonbyul as she carved several eternal symbol on the air with a flick of her wrist to warm up, before leaping to the air in a mere blur of a movement and came down, sword point first on one of the werewolves eyes, using it as her leverage to kick the other wolves away. Blood spurts touched her cheek as she yanked her sword upward, severing half of the werewolves face.

 

Hwasa let out of whooped of triumph as she jabbed both of her trisulas to one of the werewolves’ neck, using the equilibrium to somersault back, away from the other 3 wolves, “Come on!”

 

Wheein almost lost her concentration when one of the werewolves managed to breach through Moonbyul’s defense and clawed dangerously close to Moonbyul’s torso, ripping the bodice and nicking the skin inside.

 

“Let us out! You don’t know what you’re up against.” Sehun voice sounded more like a growl as he partially shift infront of the blond witch.

 

“Oh, we know exactly what we are doing, you will only interfere.”

 

The wolf growled. “Sehun.” A warning tone left the Nymph’s lips, as she too withdrew her katana, “Let us out, this is our realm. Our fight.”

 

Foregoing all of her instict to always ensure others safety, Wheein nodded. “Be careful.” With those last parting words, she let down the shield and with lightning quick move withdrew the Glock strapped on her body before running toward the field, guns a blazing.  

 

Three of the werewolves moved toward the new comers, leaving Moonbyul to deal with two werewolves while Hwasa looked almost playing gleefully with one of the wolf.

 

Wheein slide over the grass surface and bend over backward as one of the werewolves lunged after . Raising both of her hands upward, she open fire and landed 4 shots onto the belly of one of the wolves. Not looking back, she quickly ran towards Moonbyul, firing what’s left in her magazine to the back of one of the werewolves as Moonbyul severed the other one’s head.

 

“You okay?” asked Wheein, noting the pale parlor on Moonbyul’s face, she looked up to the brilliantly shinning sun and motioned with her eyes for Moonbyul to take cover among the trees, who simply smiled and shook her head no.

 

The three of them watched on, after Hwasa finished her opponent and stood slightly behind Moonbyul, trying to block the sun from the Vampire’s back, noting with dislike that the werewolves has managed to ripped open the back of Moonbyul’s blouse, exposing her skin to the merciless sun.

 

“They are pretty good,” noted Wheein.

 

“Too slow,” said the other two women in tandem, before Hwasa kneels on one knee and observed the fights using her assassin skills, filing the movements in front of her for future use.

 

 “Well, I think they all were well trained, but they are not used to fight in the real battle. Looked at the wizard, she can’t get any shot in fear that the magic hit one of her friends. I got to say, the nymph can fight, but her movement is too light. She depends too much on her speed and the dance-like quality of her fighting style, but with werewolves, you can’t play with them, they got more stamina.”  

 

“Uh guys, although I like your commentary on their fighting skill, don’t you think we need to lend them a helping hand there?” Wheein pointed at the fact that despite their superior numbers, they were literally pushed against the tree there.

 

“I don’t want to run, it’s too hot.” complained Hwasa.

 

“I’m too spent using that spell for shielding and all.” Said Wheein as she looked expectantly at the Vampire, who simply grinned at the younger women.

 

“You two will be the death of me, someday.” Her voice a mere whisper of the wind as her physical body turned to wisp of smoke before their eyes, only to appear behind two of the remaining werewolves and with a grunt, severed one of the werewolves head, leaving room for Joo Hyun to use both of her stilettos to stab the last remaining wolf amidst the distraction.

 

“What are you?” Moonbyul faced the tip of a stilleto as she bend down to retrieved parts of Joo Hyun’s ripped sleeves to clean her sword.  “I saw you appeared as smoke in the back of the werewolves. You’re not human.”

 

Moonbyul smirked and cleaned her sword through fully, making sure that the blood did not seep to the hilt before sheathing it again. “I never said I’ am.”

 

The foursome tense as Hwasa and Wheein closed rank with Moonbyul, especially when fire erupted from Hwasa hands and she expertly lit the bodies on fire.

 

“You’re a mage too?” asked Seulgi in disbelief.

 

“Me? Nach. The only witch is Wheein here.” She shrugged before wandered over to ensure that every wolf is lit on fire.

 

“You’re hurt.” noted Taeyeon as she looked at the claw mark on Moonbyul’s torso, and the fact that the beautiful woman in front of her grew paler by the second, “Seulgi.”

 

Moonbyul shook her head and smiled, “Thanks, but really, it’s not necessary.”

 

“I would not hurt you, you know, but if you don’t trust me, you should ask your witch to heal you.” Seulgi scoffed and looked pointedly at Wheein and bristled when the young woman only looks at her with a confused face, “Dear Spirit! Heal her, Child!”

 

“Oh! No.. no… she’ll be fine. She just needs to get out of the sun, really. See.” She pointed as the claw marks slowly but surely close up before their eyes, leaving on a slight red mark on Moonbyul’s torso.

 

“What are you, people? Really?” asked Sehun, slowly turning back to the young man he was.

 

“Mercenaries, just…. not from around here.” She took a step forward toward the quiet Nymph, “You recognized this Amulet didn’t you? Is this the reason why we were brought here? Can you tell me where we are?”

 

Her words were soft, barely audible as she motioned to them to sit, “You might want to get comfortable, it’s a long story….”

 

 

Their realm, Alarice, consisted of three main Domains.  The Human - Mage domain, the Elves domain, and the Shape-shifter domain, with smaller domains of the nymphs, dwarves, minotaurs, centaurs and other wood dwellings.

 

They all lived in a peaceful coexistence, although the Mage and the Elves has the best relationship, since their domains are the closest in terrain. The other domains are situated across the waters and except for some trading, they did not communicate much. The Domains are led by Kings, and other than occasional border skirmishes, the Domains got along pretty well.

 

Then everything changed when a dark warlock from another realm made a pact with the rebel from the shape shifters domain. He, who went by the name of Lucian, promised the rebel pack leader that he would help him conquered Alarice and made him king of the entire realm.

  

The tide of unrest and terrors began to erupt throughout the Realm. Incidents after incidents involving the rebels with the other races made the situation slowly but surely began to deteriorate. The kings from all Domains tried to control the situation, but all hell broke loose when Lucian teleported his armies into Alarice.

 

The open war cannot be avoided. Like a whirlpool of nightmare, the dark army came out of the portal with one intention and one intention only. Destroy everything on their path.

 

The battle was merciless. Swords clashed with swords. Magic clashed with magic. Raging cries of the fallen reverberated through the space as pools of blood began to form, tainting the earth with its metallic scent.

 

The claws of the shape shifters cut bloody swaths to whoever it was on their path. Some of them going berserk with the knowledges that part of their own clan, their own brothers, their own pack, was behind the massacre.

 

The roar of their pack leader can be heard echoing throughout the battle field, voicing out his broken heart and his shame, while his claws ripped through the rebel minions, as if he wishes to cleanse them with his own bare hand.  

 

As the shape shifters clashed amongst its own clan, the High Wizards of the Human – Mage domain chanted the spell to repel the attack of the Necromancers. The magic of the Mage clashed with its dark counterpart, hitting each other in a blinding explosion of a huge blue fire, which burned everything on its path into ashes in a single breath.

 

The Elven magic roused in bright flashes of silver, their preferred weapon of quivers and bow was enchanted with pure magic to cut through the massive armies of undead roused by the Necromancers.

 

Taeyeon remembered clearly how the ground grew slippery with blood, how fighters stumbled over the fallen of all sides, how each small victory had its bitter cost. She remembered how day and night slipped by unnoticed as both side put up violent opposition against each other.

 

Even after they succeed in obliterating almost the entire shape shifter rebels and the undead, the war did not stop there. She remembered the helplessness that they felt when Lucian summoned reinforcement after the battle already lasted for 2 full weeks.

 

Unwilling to be deterred, their Kings joined their forces in a single mind numbing battle against Lucian and his army of Necromancers.

 

In the explosions of the Elven and Mage King’s magic and the roar of the Pack leader, a new battle commenced, and the Alarice soldiers emboldened by their Kings bravery, gripped their chosen weapon and attacked.

 

At long last, the tide turned little by little, and the Alarice soldiers, seeing the victory within their grasp, seized it with fierce determination.

 

The momentum was on Alarice side, when the pack leader successfully ripped through the forces of Necromancers with the help of his fellow Kings, and injured Lucian.

 

Without its master’s magic to protect them, the Alarice soldiers quickly surrounded and drove the disoriented army of darkness into the center of the portal.

 

They watched in triumph as the dark armies were back into the vortex to the unknown.

 

Their yell of victory echoes throughout the realm and in those precious moments of victory, the boundaries of race was forgotten as they all tearfully welcoming the overwhelming flood of joy.

 

The process of recovery after the war was slow, but as villages and cities were reclaimed, the people of Alarice felt the stirring of hope for the future.

 

The Kings, however, still weary with the fact that their realm was so easily infiltrated decided to hold an urgent gathering. 

 

The generals from the Domains work together to piece the missing puzzle regarding the beginning of the pact between the rebels and the other-worlder. They interrogated the war survivors, submitting them through magic interrogations to ensure that they could not tell any lies.

 

The results shocked them to the core when they learned that Lucian had managed to conquered many other realms aside from them. Realm jumping is not unheard of, yet it was not something that can be easily done. The jumper need to have a massive amount of magic just to anchored themselves to the original realm before opening the portal and manipulate it in such a way to bend to their will.

 

The fact that Lucian managed to use the instability of the portal between the realms to jumped from realm to realm with ease, and even teleporting his army to the other realms, sent chills down the Kings’ back. If the shifter King failed to injure him at the war, they couldn’t imagine what would become of Alarice.

 

Realizing the severity of the situation, the Kings agreed that something need to be done to stabilize the shift in the portal and to concentrated it into only one passage way. With the consent of their Kings, magic wielders from the Human-Mage Domain and the Elven Domain worked side by side, using all of their power to create the Gate of Eagora to stabilize the shift of portal to their realm and locked it.

 

Knowing that the safety of the Gate is their main priority, and worried about any type of betrayal, the leader of all Domains agreed to send their chosen representatives to become its guardian. The Guardian will then be trained under each races tutelage to become an impartial guardian of the Gate.

 

Thus, the Guardians were born.

 

 

[insert potential prophecy – Taeyeon explaining to them that although highly skilled and trained vigorously, the Guardian members are not a battle hardened team and will have a hard time protecting their realm against Lucian and ask them to stay and help them fight - The loser club debating whether or not to stay and help protect the Realm – decided to leave instead, giving Taeyeon the Amulet and hope that it would at least help them somehow.]

 

 

                                                                                [After splitting with the Guardians – Finding A way Back Home]

 

 

Wheein flexed her fingers and walked closer to the banks, murmuring something that sounded a lot like, “I can do this… I can do this.  Of course I can do this. Piece of cake. Hokay….”

 

She raised her hand high in the air, murmuring an ancient language in an intricate spell. Goosebumps broke on her skin as the wispy wind danced through her hair and magic raised in the air. The murmuring intensifies along with the rapidly growing swirl of the water in front of her, the wind picked up the water, creating a small water tornado that move slowly but surely towards her.

 

The water tornado expanded into a telltale of a gate and Wheein ceased her murmuring, making a small circular wave with her hand to try stabilize the vortex that will bring them back home.

 

“Come on…… come on……”

 

The air around them change, the temperature dropped as the quiet breeze turned volatile as Wheein tried with all her might to keep the vortex from them into an abyss of nothingness.  

 

“Something is wrong.” She gritted her teeth as she struggled to maintain her hold, the voracious vortex strained against the delicate weave of Magic.

 

The sky darkened above their heads in response to Wheein’s magic. Lightning lit the sky in brilliant show of light, striking down toward the earth and into the vortex’s ravenous hole and Wheein screamed as she lost control, only Hwasa’s tight gripped on her torso that save her from being thrown into the air.

 

The water tornado disappeared with a thunderous ‘bang!’ and revealed the person that it bring.  

 

“Oh hell no.” cursed Hwasa as she saw a petite Asian woman holding a fire arm which currently aimed at her best friend.

 

“Who are you? Where am I?”

 

Her voice was slightly roughened from sleep, her tousled slightly wavy hair was a rich chocolate color, the same burnish coal color of her eyes. She might be petite, but Moonbyul noted the muscle of her forearms and thighs that are not covered by the black tank and boy brief of the same color that she wore.

 

Apparently, Wheein must’ve plucked her directly from her bed.

 

“Put down your weapon, we meant you no harm.” Moonbyul took a step up and stopped when the woman only tightened her grip on her weapon, her eyes never leaving the blond woman in front of her.

 

“I would not take another step if I were you.”

 

Wheein bit her lips and move her fingers slightly, making the gun flew from the woman’s hand to hers.

 

Startled, the woman shifted to look at Wheein and cringed when she suddenly realized that she was pinned against a tree, “Wha…” she stared at the darkest eyes she ever encountered and froze when she saw the irises changed into a brilliant silver color.

 

“Relax… We’re not trying to hurt you. Relax….” Her muscles relaxed immediately as the words cocoon over her like a warm blanket, easing her anxiety from within.

 

Hwasa winced at the burnish feel of Wheein’s skin, she’s always feverish every time she overtaxed herself, “You okay?”

 

Wheein shook her head and groaned, “My energy reserve….”

 

“We need a new game plan then.” Hwasa murmured and looked toward the Vampire general still locked in a semi embrace with the human, but her eyes already turned to her usual black, an indication that she already stop glamouring the human.

 

The space between her eyebrows crinkled as she tried to maintain a mental link to the vampire.

 

*Moonbyul, bad news.*

 

*I know, I heard.*

 

*We need a new game plan, any ideas?*

 

*We’ll talk later, I still need to talk to Solar about this whole mess. Go back to the village, we’ll reconvene later.*

 

*She’s pretty.*

 

Moonbyul shifted and let the woman whose name she just found out go and turned her slight silvery eyes toward the young dragon, “Hwasa, the others back to the Village, I’ll catch up later. We won’t be long.”

 

Hwasa’s cheeks burned with chastisement, she knew she shouldn’t mentioned anything about the woman being pretty, she knew better that Byul won’t be sidetracked that easily, but instead of apologizing she just stared ahead, “We can’t send her back to the world that she knew for we don’t know how long, we don’t have any plan yet, Lucian may attack anytime. We can’t afford to protect her.”

 

“I can protect myself.” Came the indignant respond from the petite brunette.

 

“Not in this world you can’t, you may be able to use handgun, but lady, you are far from capable for a hand to hand combat, and we’re not bodyguard service.”

 

“Size doesn’t matter, maybe you would like a demonstration?”

 

Hwasa blood incensed with the taunt thrown her way and a menacing grin bloom on her face, “Oh I never back down from a fight.”

 

Without preamble Hwasa leaped, air borne for a full second before zooming to grab the woman, full of intention to incapacitate her and growled when her hands came up empty.

 

Solar leaped backward as she saw the blur shadow of the woman coming toward her, before landing on her arms for a mere second. She twisted and used her arms to propel her back onto her feet and with speed that took Hwasa by surprise landed a successive blows to 3 points of her ribs.

 

Hwasa gasped as pain spread on her left side and could only growl when her slightly off balance stance enabled Solar to grab her wrist, twisted it and forced her arm backward in a deadly grip before using her knee to forced Hwasa to drop face down toward the earth,  “Whose the weak one now?”

 

Fearing for the human life, Moonbyul stepped forward and reached out her hand toward the woman, “Enough, you proved your point. We still have many things to discuss and its nearing dawn, we need to head back to the village.”

 

Solar puffed and with a glare took Byul’s hand and let the vampire pulled her on her feet, “You have a lot of explaining to do and I still haven’t forgotten that your eyes turned silver.”

 

Moonbyul smiled apologetically and shrugged, “I’ll explain it later. I promise.”

 

“Well no more weird mojo jojo next time or I’ll be putting a bullet in YOU.” Solar crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked at Byul expectantly, noticing for the first time just how pale she was.

 

“Noted.” She smiled once again before turning her attention back to Hwasa, “You okay?”

 

“I think she just bruised me.” Pouted Hwasa.

 

“Your ego most likely, I don’t think humans are capable to do that to you, a dragon, in a hand to hand combat.” Quipped Wheein with a grin on seeing her fried sprawled on the ground like a wounded puppy

 

“Wait!” Solar grabbed Byul’s arm in a dead grip and asked bewilderedly, “Dragon!? Did she just say dragon!?”

 

Moonbyul cringed before glaring at Wheein who just had an ‘Oops’ look on her face before muttering, “Trust me, It’s a long story.”

 

 

***

[Insert Solar’s background story – An agent for Supernatural Division, her job is to apprehended supernatural beings when they misbehave and harass human, hence she formed alliance with vampire coven, werepacks, etc in their world – since Wheein exhausted her energy reserve, they decided to go the nearest Human-Mage Village to see whether or not they could get some help going back to their own realm, but on the way there…..]

 

Moonbyul was about to protest when the hair on the back of her neck rose along with the feeling of dread that suddenly engulfed her. She looked up toward the gloom sky and quickly shout, “WHEEIN! SHIELD!!!”

 

Even as she shouted, a quad of shifters already was zooming from the sky towards them and landed before Wheein could erect the shield around them.

 

The earth around them shook when the shifters landed. The quad of wolves growled, showing the gleam of their fangs as they dashed with lightning speed belying their massive bodies toward the stunned human.

 

“Go, protect Wheein! “ She shouted to the human. Sword in hand, she rushed toward the first shifter bounded her way.

 

Wheein watched in horror as shifter after shifter magically appeared from the sky, peppering the once clear atmosphere and zooming their way. Wheein closed her eyes briefly before shouting the spell that immediately covered the perimeter around them in a massive bluish shield. 

 

She staggered backward when she felt the impact of shifters landing on top of her shield. Sweats run from her hairline down her eyelash, forcing her to blink rapidly as she tried to grip the control over her power tighter, *too many…. It’s too many of them* she closed her eyes to block off the helplessness rushing over her and gritted her teeth against the onslaught of shifters clawing at the shield.

 

“Wheein… hey Wheein….” Wheein felt a hand cradle her face softly and she opened her eyes to look into the warm cinnamon eyes in front of her.

 

“Breathe, you can do this.”

 

“But it’s raining dogs and dogs….”

 

Solar chuckled softly, amazed on how she still managed to laced humor in her words, “I know but I’m sure we’ll think of something.” Solar smiled with forced bravado, coaxing a small smile from the lithe witch that seemed to finally get a grip on herself again. Solar braced herself to look up then and shivered. She can’t even see the sky anymore.

 

“We need a plan.” Hwasa gripped her trisulas tighter. Every instinct on her body screamed at her to get out there and fight, but she knew that their usual plan can’t be enforce with Solar there.  

 

“Do you think you could run fast enough to take cover?” Moonbyul, her bodice drenched with shifter’s blood, looked at the nodding human.

“I’ll manage.”

 

Byul nodded, “We’ll distract them and give you time.”

 

“Ready when you are.” Wheein groaned and breathe through , the shield was already fractured in some of the places, she’s not sure she can hold it any longer.

 

Moonbyul looked at Hwasa then, her eyes flashed dangerously silver, “Kill them, Dragon.”

 

With that command, Wheein dissolved the shield, grabbed Solar in one move and gone in the next breath.

 

Hwasa soared to the sky, cutting through the bodies of the shifters with the flap of her wings. Her jaw clamped on one of the wolf and flung it with ease. Fire emitted from , incinerating the shifters on its path to mere ash in a second and scattering others who tried to escape the blazing heat. The fiery dragon whooped with glee as she somersaulted in the air before rushing back down to the ground, ready to emit another blazing fire. Caught up by her elation, she failed to notice the shift in the shifter’s formation nor the leaping wolves on either side of her. She roared when all of a sudden, she felt the bites of the shifters in various parts of her body. They bit and sank their claws into her thighs, trying to pull her back to ground.

 

Hwasa ignored the blinding pain on her left thigh and soared higher, maneuvering her body in twists and turns to shake them off to no avail. The shifters relentlessly clamped their jaws deep into her muscles, letting the venom in their fangs seeped through her wounds to her vein.

 

Spots started to cloud her vision as the venom slowly spread inside her blood system, she furiously spiraled back down to the ground and twisted her body backward, squashing the shifters to the ground using her body before leaping back to the air in one clumsy jerk.

 

*Vamp. I got hit.* Hwasa groggily tried to initiate their mental link, but she can’t seem to get through.  *Vamp?* dread washed over her when she saw a flash of blue among the shifters, *No… No, No, No, Wheein!* She dove in blinding speed and growled when she saw the battle below her. Moonbyul, Wheein and Solar slashed their way among the shifters.

 

Fire came out of nowhere and Moonbyul looked up through her battle haze. Hwasa. Knowing that help was underway, she gripped her sword with renewed vigor and turned to wisp of smokes once more, teleporting sporadically among the shifters, decapitating them without any resistance.

 

Moonbyul crushed the neck of one young pup with her grip, her sword embedded on the gut of another shifter behind her. She released the pup and using her free hand, she pushed her sword through the shifter before she leaped, ripping the shifter in two in the process. Her sword was covered with blood to the hilt, the slickness caused her sword to almost slip from her grip when she took yet another head of the shifter in one fierce blow. But no matter how many she took out, it seems that yet another shifter will replace it.

 

Four shuriken flashed on either side of her face, the speed increasing rapidly before spinning wildly toward the bear like shifter heading her way and shredded it into pieces.

 

Moonbyul cocked one of her eyebrow toward the grinning witch, who lazily waved her hand, summoning the shuriken back to her side.

 

“Never let your guard down, Vamp!” Said Wheein in passing, her lithe body already in motion, weaving between the heavier shifters, her bluish shield protecting her from the blows, her hands gripped twin daggers, slashing at the hamstrings of the shifters, incapacitated them and rendering them powerless.

 

 

She heard the battle cries before she felt the axe nicking her shoulder and only pure instinct saved her from getting her right arm remove.  She pivoted to her left, letting the axe sliced down her right side instead. Gritting her teeth through the pain, she swiveled around the shifters and using her katana, took his head in a single move.

 

She felt the rush of adrenaline coursing through her vein as she watched the headless body slumped near her boots and was about to take another shaky breath when battle cries from her left made her turned and saw two shifters rushing toward her. 

 

Glancing around for a way out, she looked back and forth between the large tree behind her and the nearing shifters. Taking one large deep breath, Solar turned and sprinted toward the tree.  She leaped and used a quick side-step on its body as a leverage to jump ahead of the shifters. Suspended mid-air with both arms outreach, she sliced down through both of their head before landing hard on her feet, trying to absorb the impact using her legs instead of her stinging side.

 

Solar groaned, what she wouldn’t give to have AK-47 instead of the blades. Taking a huge gulp of air, she growl out loud as she jumped and sunk both of her blades to a wolf’s heart. Her breathing was harsh and her limbs grew heavier with each slashes that she made. She jumped down from the wolf, almost didn’t have the energy to pull her sword from its resting place. Her arms numb. Her legs numb. Only adrenaline coursing through her body that kept her standing and fighting with all of her might.

 

She jumped onto another wolf and climbed its body before striding its massive shoulders and with one move, her double katana penetrated the skin, through the sinewy muscles of the wolf and pierced through its heart. Spraying her with its warm blood when she pulled her Katana from its body.

 

She took a shaky ragged breath, breathing hard through . She could barely feel her fingers anymore. Her vision blurred as she stared vacantly at the ongoing battle in front of her. *Wolves….* she wanted to move, dodge, anything, but her feet felt like lead, her arms… they can’t move….

 

 

A cry caused Byul to shift her attention to her left and she paled when two wolves sunk their jaws into Solar’s body and pushed her down to the ground.

 

Byul shouted and quickly materialized behind the wolves. Both of her hands reached down to grip the furry nape and with all of her strength pulled the wolves from Solar and flung it away.

 

She dropped to her knees, her surrounding and weapon forgotten as she cradled the bloodied human carefully in her arms, “Solar, stay with me. Stay with me.” She frantically touched the gaping wounds, helpless to stop the blood from flowing out of Solar’s body, watching as the human shook her head tiredly, somehow knew that her borrowed time was almost up.

 

“No. I got you… I got you…” Byul reached inside her pocket, pulling out a flask full of spelled healing holy water and poured it into both of her wounds, grimacing when the human screamed and clutched at her.

 

A hiss of smoke came out when the holy water touched the wounds, thick blood darkened with shifter’s venom oozed out as Solar continued to scream, her body spasms against the pain while tears were pouring down her blood splattered face.

 

Byul could only hold her down while the holy water purged the venom out of her body, watching in awe as the spell inside the water started to slowly mend the intricate of muscles and fractured bones. Her focus solely on the human on her arms, Moonbyul didn’t even notice the blow until a claw ripped through her left shoulder blade and she choked on her own blood.

 

On the sky, a dragon roared and dove straight to midst of the battle.

 

Hwasa cries echoes throughout the battle field when she turned back into her human form mid air and ran straight to where the shifters ready to tore Moonbyul into pieces. Her golden eyes glow with reddish hue as she ripped through the shifter with her trisulas and pulling its claw until it pop out from Byul, causing the Vampire to slump on top of the human.

 

Hwasa attacked with abandon, in her mind she knew that she had to get Moonbyul to safety, but her body moved on its own accord further into the unbalanced battlefield, ripping shifters after shifters, ignoring the chance claws and blows that connected to her body. They hurt Moonbyul. They have to perish.

 

 

Wheein bit her lips hard and ran toward Moonbyul, maneuvering her lithe body easily amongst the remaining shifters who are now moving in unison toward Hwasa, instinctively anointing her as the one enemy that they need to vanquish.

 

She in her breath when she saw the mangled body of her friends, before forcing herself to clear her mind and reached down to touch Moonbyul’s shoulder, murmuring healing spell, coercing the already accelerated healing ability of the Vampire to work even faster.

 

Moonbyul groaned, her shoulder felt like it was on fire. She moved against Wheein’s protest to a sitting position, inspecting her injured shoulder as the bones knitted back together and the wound closing rapidly before her eyes. 

 

“Wheein. Solar, you have to safe Sol….” Her eyes flashed silver then and a growl emitted from her lips as she jumped on her feet before leaping to the air and disappeared as smokes.

 

She materialized behind a shifter and broke its head at the same time it managed to run through the Hwasa with its claw. Moonbyul caught the fallen dragon while shouting Wheein’s name.

 

“. . .” Wheein cursed when she finally kneel beside Hwasa and saw the damage caused by the shifter.

 

“I can’t safe them both, Byul. I cant….”

 

“Take care of Hwasa.” With that parting word, Moonbyul was gone before materializing once again beside the human assassin.

 

Moonbyul took stock of the human’s injuries, noting with pained realization that the holy water has stopped its mending, leaving the human still hanging by a thread between live and dead.

 

Moonbyul closed her eyes momentarily before revealing the red blood irises of her eyes, she slit her wrist and let her blood dripped onto Solar’s lips

 

“prin sângele tatălui meu” she whispered, by the blood of my father.

 

”Forgive me...”

 

 

Wheein froze as shadows loomed over her. A drop of saliva dripped from one of the wolves fang, stinging the skin when it touched her shoulder.

 

The blue shield erected simultaneously with their attacks and Wheein grimaced as she divided her attention between chanting the healing spell and keeping the shield erected around them.

 

Her eyes moved frantically searching for her friends, a strangled sob escaped her lips, when her gaze finally fell to the bloodied body of the Vamp crumpled on top of Solar. Unmoving.

 

Her shield cracked then without her realizing.

 

A grunt left her lips when one of the wolves mauled at her and her body was thrown to the air before landed heavily near Hwasa. She grunted again, crawling with difficulty to where her friend lay. Her broken ribs made every move that she made painful. Her fingers inching toward Hwasa, willing herself to touch her best friend, a chant of healing leave her lips in a whisper, she just need to touch her….

 

“ARRGGHHH!!!”  Her cries echo through the field when a hyena used its paw to crushed her leg, pinning her to the ground, hindering her effort to reach the young dragon.

 

Snarling, Wheein used the last of her power to blast the hyena off her body and turned her body around to look at her surrounding.

 

They managed to kill a lot of shifters. But not enough. They still lost.

 

Hwasa.

 

Moonbyul.

 

Wheein bit her lips hard to prevent herself from crying. Her heart felt like it was ready to burst. The pain was almost unbearable. If only she was stronger…. If only she had more power…. If only she could let go…

 

The wolves circled around her, wary with the vacant look on the blond witch face. One of them moved closer to sniff at her and growled, yet the witch didn’t even flinch. Accepting the silent invitation, the shifters grinned and moved in for the kill, leaping through the air, fangs and claws ready to shred the witch into tiny little pieces.

 

Shrieks filled the air when the shifters turned into ashes before they could even reach a single strand of Wheein’s hair. A bluish mage energy swirling around her as she gently rose from her position.

 

The shifters nervously watched on, their animal instinct screamed at them to run far away from the woman, but somehow a supernatural force a kin to their alpha command forced them to stay put and endured the terror rising in the air.

 

The atmosphere around the pillar of creation shifted as magical power of the elements gathered around the blond witch, emanating rumbling sounds that grew along with the swirls of mage energy.

 

Wheein raised one of her hand along with her bowed head, “Mortuus.”

 

Die.

 

The mage energy enveloping her lithe body rose up toward the sky before it exploded across the plain, leaving only deadening silences.

 

Moonbyul looked astounded at the scene played before her eyes. She knew Wheein was the daughter of two powerful witch and wizard, and also the last of her line. But she didn't realize Wheein's magic was this powerful. As if the magic has been sleeping all this time and suddenly, it was awakened. Unleashed in all its bloody glory and was reveling in the freedom to cause mayhem.

Hundreds of ferocious shifters were falling. Lifeless.
 

Every single one of them.
 

The ground was starting to shake and even the small hills around starting to crumble.

She's got to do something before Wheein destroyed everything, and by everything, she means literally.

Moonbyul rose from her crouching position and using her teleport power, she magically appeared in front of Wheein. But the adorable witch is not quite there. There's something else riding her body. And it's dark. Her usually lively eyes were dull and it looked pass through Moonbyul, as if she wasn't standing there.

"Wheein," Moonbyul called her softly.

For a second, Wheein didn't react. Then a deep voice that's surely not belongs to Wheein came from her lips,"This world will kneel before me."

Moonbyul hissed. She remembered the prophecy. The awakening of the great witch. This can't happen now. Because if it is, then the situation is just turned from ugly to completely doomed. There'll be no hope for this world.

She knew, Wheein is still there somewhere. And she needs to act fast before her dear friend was too far gone. She touched Wheein's shoulder with one hand and jerked. It's like touching a high-voltage electricity. She inhaled deeply and with both hands, she clasped Wheein's cheek. She gritted her teeth when the high-voltage magic coursed through her body. Her cinnamon eyes bored deep to Wheein's and she poured all her power to her voice.
 

"Lubirea mea, come back to me."

Wheein just stared passed through her until suddenly there's a flicker of shadow flashing on her eyes.

"Wheein, I know you can hear me. Fight her. You don't need her anymore. It's over, sweetie. It's over. Come back to us."

Moonbyul keep on saying the words repeatedly, almost like a litany.

Seconds passed which felt like forever until she saw Wheein's eyes back to live and recognizing her. "Byul?"

"Yes, it's me. Welcome back, Wheein," Moonbyul smiled softly.

"Hwasa? The others?"

"They're safe. It's okay now. You can stop your magic. It's over, sweetie. We're safe."

And with that last sentence, Wheein nodded and sagged to Byul.

 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Authors Note:

Let me begin with telling you that I abandon this story :') I abandon this for various reasons, but mainly because I'm lazy and writing a full blown action fantasy story will take up too much time, so yes, I'm abandoning this. To anyone that read this and want to continue it, talk to me and I might give you the permission to do it hehehe 

Cheers, 

Gabe