Shout-outs:
Darkblade County: Aww thank you :) (not the ripping throats, but the compliment of the wife/daughter/pitch scene)
Sora Tayuya: Thank you so much! I had the main plot planned out ahead of time, just not the fill-ins. Anyhow, thank you again for reviewing. It means a lot.
SeeingBeliever98: Well, the fic is rated T for a reason. Plus, if it's a 'war between the guardians and nightmares' there must be some type of casualties (just watch The Grey so I have the wolf killing stuck in my head). I'm just glad I didn't follow my first plan of killing Phil! I don't think many people would have been too happy about that!
AlexJohnD: That's exactly what I was hoping for. Just wait and see!
Let me apologies for my slowness... It's been an interesting week. Anyhow, enjoy:
Bunny was pulled from his shock when a wolf pounced at him. He used the creature's momentum to his advantage. He allowed it to push him to the ground but started into a backwards roll. With his powerful hind legs, he pushed the wolf off which was sliced in half by North's sword. It then fell to dust like the others had.
Father Christmas turned his attention back to the nightmare man that surrounded him, waiting to get their chance to draw blood with their witch-like fingers.
Another rushed him with talons outstretched to tear through flesh. It sidestepped North's slash and managed to scrape the big red man's cheek as he tried to step back.
It came at him again, but this time North slashed off its hand, which fell apart as soon as it was separated from the body. The nightmare didn't even seem to fazed by its lost- no cry of pain or recognition that it was gone.
With it injured and slash through the creature's stomach, the entire thing turned to dust.
More came his way, yet he continued to bring them to piles of dust beneath his feet. Although, they were only replaced by new nightmare that came from the depths of the earth through the cracks that breached the surface. They just kept coming, never tiring of their continuing attack, always following their leader.
The leader.
North mentally face-palmed, for he was too busy fighting, for realizing his stupidity.
All he needed was the leaders.
.../\...
Anger welled in the king of nightmares. How dare he- he being an ally in the dark ages- touch his wife or daughter?
Then Pitch started to realize what was going on. The place, the age of his daughter, him gone.
This was the time of her sickness, his wife's, the one that killed her.
As his fury began to grow withing Pitch, the fearlings that had been taken over Pitch's mind, began to threat over the man's emotions. These were not influenced by them. These were not of the fearlings' doing.
These emotions were his and only his.
That moment there, they knew their control was breaking.
.../\...
Tooth continued on to fight with Jack's staff, though it didn't seem to want to respond to her movements. It was Jack's staff after all. MiM didn't create it, he did. It was his the moment he awoke from the frozen pond and touched it. When she swung, it either felt too light or too heavy, never feeling natural. Maybe it knew the tooth fairy wasn't its master?
Even with the trouble, she managed to take out several of the nightmare men from above as she passed by. Or, at least it had worked until one specific nightmare child.
Shadow Jack must have grown bored by her fighting, for she was in no real danger, since he used his own staff to hook onto the crook of the shepherd's staff, stopping Tooth in mid-flight. She felt her head jerk forward as well as her legs while the rest of her came to a complete stop abruptly. She could have sworn her stomach reached her throat from the immediate stop.
The quick change in flight and her wings attempt to continue flying made her twist and turn around and landing to the unyielding ground.
How Shadow Jack was unfazed by Tooth's momentum, she didn't know.
As she came back to her sense, she felt something off about herself. Though Tooth didn't have time to think of it for she quickly rolled off to the side to dodge the shadow boy's sword from embedding itself in her chest.
Stumbling to her feet, she stood with staff at the ready in front of the Shadow boy. The lead nightmare man was nowhere to be seen on her side of the battlefield. Now that she could think without having that boy standing over her, waiting to give the death blow to her, she realized how off her wing felt. It drooped slightly, as if it were bent.
She fluttered her wings to test though causing herself more pain. She certainly did something to it.
Her attacker laughed at her disadvantage. "The little bird can't fly away?" He made a tsk tsk sound. "Not good for you."
She raised her staff just a little bit higher to emphasize her unwillingness to back down.
Shadow Jack chuckled as he leaned against his staff casually. "You really want to fight me? Have you forgotten that I'm Jack Frost's Darkness, his other half that he can't seem to be able to rid of?" He wave his hand in front of him in an open gesture. "Look around you?! You are in the middle of a war against fear! No matter what you do, even if you strike down my allies, I will always be Jack's fear. I will not die!"
With that said, ice shot from the tip of his nightmare staff towards Tooth.
She swung at the spike shooting towards her as if she was playing baseball, and the ice shattered from the impact. Another one came, and another. She ducked, and stepped, and flew to dodge the continuing attacks.
He soon grew tired of the little contact and came at her. As his nightmare staff morphed into a sword, he slashed. She blocked it with Jack's staff, though his strength, she nearly fell. Again he swung low, barely missing her stomach. After he brought his sword down once more, slamming it into the earth, she gave him no time to recover and swung right for his head.
He must have known she would try to attack him and grabbed the staff mid-air in his hand. A horrifying laughter escaped his lips, like one of a madman.
With a little bit of reluctance yet desperation, she brought her foot up and kicked where no man want to be kicked. He doubled over as she yanked the staff free from his grasp and tried to swing again. Recovering quickly, he took his sword and with a flick of his wrist, knocked the staff out of her arms and was sent flying.
After another set of laughter and a snap of his fingers, several wolves that had been mauling a yeti that was no longer in the world of the living minutes before turned their attention to their master. Blood coated their muzzles and bare teeth as they snarled at their new target.
Her stomach, that had once been in her throat, was now compressing itself in the center of her body. Her eyes stunned immensely, and tears threatened to fall.
But now- now was not the time to grieve for wolves made their towards her craving more blood. Even with the overcast sky threatening to pour a major storm upon them, the shadow creatures stood out from the green grass, the ruins, the sea, they stood out from the place they were in. Tooth knew they didn't belong their- out in the world where life thrived and innocence reigned. Those creatures were not to belong there in the place of peace, for they only caused destruction and fear.
The sword that hung at her side was pulled from its sheath. The blade was unlike those she had seen for some time in the modern world. It ended in two points, one larger than the other, and quite thin. A zulfiqar is what it was.
With her zulfigar, she met them half way. As one pounce aiming for her throat, she jabbed her sword into the creature's chest, stopping its attack causing it to lose its composure as a wolf and into no more than black beneath her feet.
But that was only one of them.
Before she could even react, another wolf latched onto her arm, its teeth digging passed her feathers and into her skin. She screamed as she stabbed into its back, causing it to fall into nothing as well.
As she was doing that, another bit onto her ankle, bringing her attention to that creature. But, then another pounced, ramming into her and causing her to fall from its momentum. Now, with the wolf no longer chewing on her ankle, it and the others came towards her face while the other one that stood over her that had knocked her down snarled, its red eyes staring right through her.
If her fear hadn't been effecting her enough before, she was now frozen like a doe in front of a car speeding its way towards it about to bring it to its death. That was she was now, a doe mesmerized by the red eyes that glared at her that would bring her to her demise.
Time seemed to slow as her breathing quickened. Tooth wanted to be the one to give Jack his staff back once they found him. But now- now she couldn't.
A blur of white past her vision. The wolf that had stood over her fell to side as something shot through it, then decomposed into loose sand. Tooth was pulled from her confusion and noticed within the pile of sand beside her was an icicle.
She turned just in time to see another three wolves freeze in a block of ice, all staring in the same direction...
Jack.
.../\...
New chapter will be posted on... Monday? If I can, I'll post earlier. Depends on what happens the next few days.
So sorry for my slowness, it's been a weird week. I also thought Tuesday was Friday and thought Wednesday was Tuesday. Topping that off with some life issues, it's just been crazy. Sorry for not saying when I'd update and for the gaps between chapters!
Once, for those who haven't, please vote on my profile at the top of the page to help me decide what to do after this fanfic. For those who have voted, thank you so much. I really appreciate it!
HAPPY SINGLENESS AWARENESS DAY!