Chapter 4

A/N: I don't think I have ever written an action scene before. And, uh, bit of a confession, I usually skim past them when they pop up in stories. So I hope you all don't mind my lack of experience with them too much.

On a somewhat related note, I think one of the few fics I've felt really nailed fight scenes was "Eldritch" a Pokémon story by TaurusVersant. It's an extremely well done novelization of Sun and Moon, and a rare 10/10 for me. I even made physical copies of the fic to put in my bookshelf, so go check it out if you're a Pokémon fan. Just be warned. It's long. Like, Lord of the Rings Trilogy levels long. I'm just looking for an excuse to plug one of my favorite fics of all time, so if you don't care, never mind me.

"Hey! Pay attention, this will all be on the test!"

Luz looked up from her phone, a half typed message to her sister put on the back burner. She locked eyes with King, who had been giving one of his usual, impromptu lessons on demon species, and as much as she found them fascinating, she hadn't put much stake into them after how incorrect he had been about the Snaggleback. But this was still important to her tiny friend, so she could wait. "I'm sorry King, I'll listen."

As soon as the phone was back in her pocket, King cleared his throat and resumed his lesson. "As I was saying, the Orthrursa demon is a powerful and dangerous foe! It blends seamlessly into the night, which is it's preferred hunting time as it can see with it's night vision!"

He used an elongated pointer to tap a crude drawing he'd made of a two headed monster. "It has six arms, each with enough deadly claws to tear a witch, or in your case, a human, to shreds! It has teeth the size of your forearm, made for chewing through bones like they were…"

He paused, trying to think of an idiom, "I dunno, like some delicious, gummy candy! But with blood! Lots of blood!"

Luz took notes as he spoke, feeling sorry for whatever poor sucker came across this demon. If anything King was saying was accurate, at least.

"If you find one, the best thing you can do is run! Not that it will help you, but it will let this beast work off some calories before it gobbles you up!" King continued. "Now, you might be asking yourself, what is this things weakness? How can I fight it?"

He paused, and stayed silent, building suspense until Luz began to lose patience and speak up, only for King to choose that moment to talk, cutting Luz off. "Well, the answer is nothing! It has no weaknesses! Also, fire, but whatever." He waved the seemingly unimpressive weakness away quickly, attempting to move on to the next impressive and deadly feats the Orthrursa could perform.

Luz quickly jotted down "FIRE" in her notes, underlining it multiple times. She didn't currently have a glyph for that, but she hoped she found one soon so she didn't have her summer vacation literally cut short by those claws.

She heard Eda take a condescending sip from her mug of Appleblood from her seat on the couch behind Luz, "Don't fret too much about Mr. Wiggle's Orthrursa, kiddo. What he's 'forgetting' to mention is that this thing is rare, practically extinct. Hasn't been giving witches trouble since we mastered fire spells. Too much flammable fur."

"Eeeeda!" King whined, stomping his little foot in protest and irritation, "These are supposed to be my lessons! And stop calling me Mr. Wiggles! It undermines my authority as a teacher, and a ruler!"

Luz breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that she'd probably never come face to face with one of these scary, dangerous monsters anytime soon.

"Dios Mio…"

In the dark of the early night, it was hard to make out exactly what was attacking them. It seemed more like a black blob, blending in with the shadows like a silhouette. Lucia would have thought it was some kind of bear, if it wasn't for the six glowing red eyes split among two heads, and two extra limbs attached to it's torso.

Her hands clamped over her ears as it roared, and she made the mistake of squeezing her eyes shut, prying them open despite the fear she felt just in time to see the claw imbedded in the wall above her, where her head used to be, start to scrape and tear through the bricks, downward towards where she was now.

Scrambling on all fours, she made the immensely stupid move of diving under the beasts legs. It craned it's heads down, gaze never letting her leave its sight as it tore it's claws out of the wall, now unstuck, twisting it's body to follow her. Lucia, with wobbly legs, tried her best to keep it's attention on her, Amelia having not picked herself off the ground where she'd been shoved yet. She fought against the fear to run, to leave her friend behind.

'When you and your friends are being chased by a bear, you don't need to outrun the bear, you just need to outrun your slowest friend.' Rang in her head, but she shushed the thought. She wasn't leaving Amelia behind, and who knew if that advice even worked on large, two headed, mutant monster bears?

Running wasn't something Lucia could do. It wasn't who she was. If that meant planting herself in between danger and a friend, she'd do it every damn time.

She just really wished she had known something like this would happen. She'd have kicked so much more ass if she'd had an actual plan, and like, a machete or something!

Her eyes widened, remembering that she had something she could use to her advantage. She leaped backwards, barely evading another swipe of the monster's claws as her frantic eyes desperately began to search around for her gym bag. Between the… incident between her and Amelia, and the sudden attack, she'd lost track of where she had put it.

She didn't know if she should be stunningly grateful, or in hysteric disbelief as Amelia appeared once more in her line of sight, hitting the ugly beast with an ordinary stick of all things. It must have just been laying around, and didn't seem to do anything other than irritate the monster, but it served as a distraction, giving Lucia a breather from avoiding the claws and allowed her to focus on her search.

"Keep it's attention on you for a second!" She shouted to Amelia, her eyes landing on her gym bag. It had been tossed on top of a closed dumpster when they had arrived, sitting forgotten, and must have fallen sometime, somehow, in the scuffle, as it was now on the ground behind it, wedged between the dumpster and the brick wall. The only reason she had been able to see it at all was the moonlight reflecting off of the bottom of one of her cans of spray paint that poked out of the still open flap.

"What do you think I'm trying to do? Go!" Amelia shouted, taking another swing at the beast. The stick swished through the air, and managed to score a hit directly in one of the things eyes, making it howl, but the blow had the unfortunate effect of snapping the branch in half.

Lucia tugged at her bag, but it wasn't coming loose. Shooting a glance back towards the fight, she could see Amelia backing off, and the monster on the prowl. With no time to fight her bag, she messed with the zipper, unzipping the already half opened flap and spilling the contents all over the ground. Scrounging through her supplies, silently praying it hadn't rolled away in the dark, Lucia searched for her baseball bat, and gave a cry of relief as her hands found it. Taking it, and a can of spray paint, she raced back over to the fight.

"Hey, ugly!" She shouted, cursing herself for such a lame battle cry, "I'm not done with you yet!

One of the heads turned towards her, the other focused entirely on Amelia, but it was enough. With a habitual shake of the can, she held it out and blasted the face of the creature, blinding it's angry red eyes with purple spray paint. It let another roar, and it took all she had not to drop her weapons and cover her ears again. In an attempt to silence the beast, she dropped the can, and with both hands now gripping the bat, she struck a batting pose and swung, hard enough that she could have knocked a ball out of the park in a home run.

The blow sent the head reeling, but at a cost. Lucia stood comically, holding the handle of her favorite baseball bat, while the other half laid on the ground in splinters. "Oh, cramity." She bemoaned, as while one head was out of commission, the other had now turned its attention from her friend and was now on her again.

The beast stood on its haunches, standing at it's full height, taller than even the building beside it. It's unconscious head hung limply as it took a ground shaking step forward. Lucia could see the rage in it's terrible eyes, and made a decision. It wasn't in her to run away, but damn could she skedaddle like no one's business. She and Amelia had a clear shot at getting away now, neither pinned by the monster and it couldn't chase them both.

Then the worst luck she could possibly have reared its head, for as she took a step back to bolt, she tripped over herself. 'Curse these long lanky teenage legs!' She mentally screamed as she crashed into the ground, hard enough to bruise and cut through a few layers of skin.

She tried to crawl, she tried to scramble, taking comfort that the adrenaline in her veins meant she wouldn't be feeling the fall until later, as long as she could just get up and run in the first place!

She could see the shadow of the beast cover her, and her first instinct was to turn around, roll over and face her doom. She grit her teeth and glared at the creature as it raise its claws, ready to end her existence.

"Stay away from her!" She heard Amelia shout from somewhere off in the distance.

Despite it all, Lucia could help but smile in the face of defeat. There were worse ways to go out than this. Who else could say it took a twelve foot tall monster bear from Hell to kill you? And at least she wasn't dying alone. She just hoped Amelia could get away while this thing chewed on her bones.

Then there was fire. Blinding, hot, and enough of it to light up the night. All of it focused on eating up, burning, and turning the monster in front of her to cinders.

Today was a very strange day.

The creature roared in agony, paws swiping every which way, trying to fight the fire off, to scrape it off it's fur and flesh. Falling back to all six legs, it bounded off into the distance, it's screams of pain and the glimmer of flames on it's back following it as it ran away, as quickly as it had come only moments before.

Lucia lay panting on the pavement as everything that had just happened solidified in her mind. She had almost died. She had seen an honest to god demon, and almost hadn't lived to tell the tale.

She clenched her jaw tightly as she began to choke up. She wasn't going to do this. She wasn't going to cry like a baby. She fought back against them all she could, hands wiping viciously at her face as stray tears leaked through in spite of her protests. Stupid, traitorous eyes.

With a wet sniff, she sat up, and tried to stop the shaking that had overtaken her body. In a bid to distract herself, she called out to her companion, "Amelia? Amelia, are you okay?"

When she didn't receive a reply, she began to worry, and lifted her head to find her. She didn't have to look far, the other girl was exactly where she had last seen her when the monster had turned around. She hadn't run away either, when Lucia had fallen. That was… good to know. Lucia didn't have time to go over what that was making her feel, though, as Amelia seemed to be in the middle of a freak out of her own, so she filed her thoughts away for later.

Standing on shaky legs, she made her way over to Amelia, who still was unresponsive. Clasping her hands around the girl's shoulders, she gave a gentle shake. She wished she knew what to do when someone was in shock. Luz would probably know, Luz actually bothered to listen when their Mom gave health lectures at home. "Amelia, are you okay?" She asked softly.

Amelia didn't answer at first, instead she stared at her shaking hands as if the fingers had suddenly turned into spiders. She seemed entirely ignorant of Lucia's presence, looking lost to the world.

"Amelia?" Lucia tried again, "Can you hear me? Do you need me to call someone? Your parents? A hospital?"

As much as she wanted to avoid either of those, because who the fuck was going to believe anything they had to say about being attacked by some kind of demon, she would do it if it would help her friend. Noceda's took care of their friends, and Amelia had definitely proved that's what she was tonight.

Finally, the girl seemed to snap back to reality, looking up from her hands to instead cast her disbelieving gaze at Lucia. Her lips twitched, wanting to form words, but unable to decide what should be said first. Finally, they settled on three.

"What am I?"

Lucia quickly paid the cashier of the gas station convenience store she'd managed to drag Amelia to. The girl was right outside the store, shaking, clammy, and cold to the touch after their ordeal, but otherwise unscathed. Lucia had come out the worst, but even then she only had a few scratches from her fall and other tumbles. Amelia's eyes notably kept darting around, looking through the night as if another demon was about to come for her, and she hadn't left the soft yellow light the establishment provided through the window.

Lucia took both the drinks she had bought and headed outside to join Amelia, sitting at the curb and gesturing for the antsy girl to join her. They'd called Amelia's parents, who would be there to pick her up, Lucia taking the call and convincing them that their daughter was just a bit shaken up after a stray dog nearly got her. Her mother had been very understanding, and told them to wait right there where it was safe.

The two sat there in silence, sipping on their respective drinks. Throughout it all, Amelia kept clutching near her heart, nails digging into the cloth of her clothes. Lucia could understand, her heart hadn't stopped pounding a mile a minute since this whole thing happened.

Licking her lips, Lucia looked back on everything. The attack, their defense, the sudden, random burst of fire that enveloped the creature. "What even was that?" She murmured aloud, earning a glance from her partner in crime.

"The fire," Lucia clarified, "Where did that even come from? Did you see anything?"

Amelia broke her gaze, staring once again into the inky blackness that was being fought off by the gas station lights. After entirely too long, where Lucia was beginning to worry she'd gone non responsive again, she answered, "Yeah. It came from me."

Eyes widening in interest, Lucia leaned forward, "Wait, that was you? How did you do that? Some kind of improvised Molotov cocktail, or something?"

She quickly filed that away as a stupid idea. If she had brought any liquor with her, Amelia wouldn't have kept it a secret. They could have split it and really had a party going. And then they probably would have wound up dead when the monster showed up. "No, wait, you must have used one of the spray cans, and a lighter, or something and made a flame jet!"

That made a lot more sense. "I didn't think you smoked, though," Lucia admitted. Amelia certainly hadn't smelled like she did. Not that Lucia made a habit of sniffing her, or anything. Not on purpose at least.

Amelia shook her head, slowly at first before settling into frantic territory. "No, I mean, the fire came from me! It shot out of my goddamn hands and then 'fwoosh!'" She shook her hands, wiggling her fingers to simulate the fire.

Lucia didn't hesitate, taking Amelia's face in her hands, and inspecting her eyes. "What are you doing?!" The green haired girl fought back, shoving Lucia off of her.

"I was checking for a concussion," Lucia admitted. She could at least remember some vague memories on her mother's lessons about those. Camila had been a nurse before she'd been a vet, and had stressed that head injuries were nothing to mess with, "Did you hit your head at some point? When I pushed you out of the way, maybe?"

A wave of hurt and shock went across Amelia's face, "You don't believe me? We just got attacked by a giant, two headed bear demon and you have trouble believing I shot fire out of my hands?"

Lucia opened her mouth, ready to argue her case, only to find she had none. Instead she shrugged, "Okay, you have me there." She sat back on the curb.

"So, you can shoot fire out of your hands? That's… pretty hot." She joked, trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work. "Uh, do you think you could do it again?"

Amelia clutched at her hands, looking worried about them. She glanced back towards the store, making sure the cashier couldn't see them from where he stood. "I can try?"

Lucia nodded, egging her on. If her friend could shoot fire out of her hands, then she had to see this. She watched as Amelia took a deep breath and closed her eyes, steeling her nerves, then held out one, trembling hand. There was no fire.

"Nothing's happening," Lucia stated the obvious. Amelia growled, scrunching up her face in concentration, trying to remember exactly what had happened to make fire. Lucia had been in trouble, she was just about to die. A monster was bearing down on her, so Amelia had raised a hand, and… spun it?

She tried, but it still didn't work. Cursing under her breath and sucking in another lungful of air between her teeth, she made another attempt, this time drawing her fingers back until just the index was out. With her unsteady hands, she traced a circle, and her eyes sprang open when Lucia gasped.

In front of her, appearing from the tips of her fingers, was an incomplete golden ring suspended in midair, halfway finished from her tracing motion. Wanting to see what would happen, if she could make fire yet again, she made to complete the circle, only for it to burn out just before she could finish and pain shot through her chest.

Her hand retracted from the air, back to clawing at the center of her chest. For whatever reason, it ached, like a pulled hamstring being flexed. Her shaky breathing returned, as did a cold sweat that overtook her, and she suddenly felt like she was moments away from being violently sick.

Lucia was by her side again in an instant, looking her over. Whatever doubts she might have had about Amelia creating fire were gone at the sight of that magic circle, and she was now entirely dedicated to making sure her friend was in good health.

When the pain and nausea subsided, Amelia brushed Lucia off of her, not in the mood to feel like someone's patient, or to be poked and prodded. Instead she focused on the question of the hour, that she had been pondering ever since the beast was lost to the flames. "What am I?"

This time, having the full context, Lucia tried her best to help find the answer, "Well, that was magic, right? You used magic! So, you've got to be some kind of witch? Like Azura?"

It took all that she had to quiet the part inside of her that knew Luz would kill to be here. It wasn't the time for her to go on another big sister rant. Then another thought occurred to her, "Wait, maybe this is why you have pointy ears?" Lucia brought her hand up, flicking one of Amelia's ears with a finger, which twitched upon contact.

"Explains my hair, too." Amelia responded despondently. Catching Lucia's confusion, she elaborated, "I dye my roots brown, and pass off the green hair as the dyed part. I already have to deal with the ears, and the being gay, so I just wanted to feel normal about my hair. Of course, sometimes I forget to redo my roots, so it kinda shows." She parted her hair, showing off her scalp and the roots of her hair, which were in fact the same woodland green as the ends where.

Her eyes widened as realization kicked in, "I'm not a witch. I'm an elf! I'm some kind of forest elf, or something. I have green hair, pointy ears, and I can do magic!"

Panic began to set in as she began to rant, "Wait, does that mean all those dumb goth kids who claim to be vampires might actually be vampires?! Did my parents accidentally kidnap me, and will that cause some kind of war between our species? Do I have to move back into the woods or something stupid like that? Am I going to live forever?!"

The panic was short lived, as a pair of headlights flashed into both teens' eyes, momentarily blinding them and startling Amelia out of her state of shock. Amelia's parents were here, ready to pick her up and take her home. The elf eared girl took a moment to compose herself, not wanting to deal with having to explain her state of mind to her family at the moment.

The Driver's seat window rolled down, and a woman that could only be Amelia's mother poked her head out, "Are you okay, sweetie?"

Amelia nodded her head, in contrast to the real truth that she was far from alright. "Yeah, I'll be right there. Let me say goodbye."

Amelia turned her attention back to her friend, keeping her voice low so her mother wouldn't hear, "I- this was- it was an interesting night. I had fun, when we weren't so close to dying."

She began to struggle with her words, "But, I'm gonna need some time to process all of this… And I want to do it alone. I-I'll call you, when I'm ready. Thanks for tonight." She didn't wait for a response, turning away from Lucia, who had to steel her expression to not look as devastated as she was feeling on the inside.

Lucia watched as Amelia walked away, opening the car door and shutting it behind her without another word. Her mother, not oblivious to her daughter's plight but also not wanting to drive off without making sure Lucia was alright, spoke again, "Can I offer you a ride home? It's pretty dark out now, I wouldn't want you to go out there alone."

Lucia waved her offer off, forcing a smile to her face. "That's kind of you to offer, Mrs. Bane, but I'm alright. I don't live that far away from here." That was a lie, it was at least another half hour of walking, but she didn't want to have to sit beside Amelia after the girl's desire for some space.

After bidding them farewell, waving after the car with a cheer she didn't feel, Lucia stuffed her hands in her pockets and frowned. Figures the moment she was really connecting with someone, a terrible monster would attack and ruin everything. That was just her luck, wasn't it?

She stared out into the dark, suppressing shivers that echoed down her spine at the sight of it. She really would have preferred the ride. Bucking up and summoning her courage, she began the trek back home in the black of the night.

Lucia was jumpy the entire time. She had a right to be. She kept seeing things out of the corners of her eyes, waiting to pounce. She'd nearly kicked a cat that ran past her legs, only barely managing to stop herself in time, and had jumped, taking a fighting stance when she'd heard the rattle of a trash bin, only to feel foolish when it was just a raccoon.

The paranoia only deepened the farther Lucia got. Each street lamp felt like a safe beacon for her to hide under, and it took all she had to get her legs to move her out from underneath them. The time it took for her to get back home had nearly doubled at her pace, but she breathed a sigh of relief when her house was in sight, the glow of the porch light welcoming her with open arms.

She stumbled inside, her feet absolutely killing her. She really needed to get her license, she was old enough to drive now. She'd feel a lot safer moving through the dark in a tin can as well. She kicked off her shoes at the door, wandering into the living room as she heard the sounds of the tv's chatter.

There Lucia found her mother, curled up in pajamas and her bathrobe, sitting in the dark and watching television. A wave of guilt went through Lucia as she saw how tired her mother looked, barely hanging onto the edges of consciousness from staying up so late. Lucia knew it was because her mother had been waiting for her to return home, despite having an early shift tomorrow at the Vets office. Evidently, she was tired enough to not notice Lucia walk in, so the girl greeted her.

"Hey, Mamá, I'm home." She said softly, making Camila blink, her weary eyes attempting to focus behind her lenses.

The nurse sat up, straightening in her seat as she tried to banish her tiredness from her body. "Oh, Mija, I didn't hear you come in, you startled me! How was your date?"

Lucia instinctively opened her mouth to deny that this had been a date in any way, shape or form, but closed it when she had realized that in all the commotion, she'd kind of forgotten that it sorta had been. She sighed, feeling even worse now than she had when Amelia asked for some space.

"It- It was a date." She concluded shortly, "I'll tell you about it later. You should head to bed, you look like you're about to fall asleep right here and now."

Lucia didn't wait to see if her mother listened to her, instead traipsing off to her room, and shutting the door behind it, making an effort not to slam it and make her mother worried, even if it would have made her feel better.

She climbed into bed, not even bothering to undress, and buried her head under her pillow. She'd gone on her first date tonight, and hadn't really even known it until it was over. She'd nearly had her first kiss, too, if that damn demon hadn't shown up.

The soreness of her numerous falls from the fight should have been catching up to her, but all she could think about was the feeling of Amelia's body pressed up against her own. She rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling, moving the pillow from her head, to tightly gripping it in her arms against her chest as her face heated back up at the thought.

God dammit, she was too tired to even attempt to unpack all of that tonight.

She slept with the lights on, and had fitful dreams about two headed monsters, and a pointy eared girl.

A/N: So, how did you guys enjoy the fight? The name of the monster, Orthrursa, is a combination of Ursa, or bear, and Urthrus, a two headed dog monster from Greek mythology… I think. I mostly know it from Persona. If you haven't played Persona… what the hell is wrong with you? I don't even like turn based RPGs and I love Persona. Play 5, it's good. Then play Strikers/Scramble, it's also good.

I know most comics and fics feature the Betas as badasses, but seeing as this was the first time they've seen a demon, I wanted to show how frightening that could be. This isn't something they're used to yet, and they barely lived to tell the tale.

If you liked this, please leave a comment. I eat them for breakfast, and you don't want me to starve, do you?