Occult Beasts: Nightspawn

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the author created characters and concepts. Thanks to Ranger Red 2.3, Mistycharming and SA June for their OC's used in this fic.

A clattering of footsteps echoed throughout the narrow winding streets of Numin as a man in his mid-forties ran, panting and clearly exhausted, he ducked into a small dead end in the street and hugged the wall, trying to steady his breathing as a large ominous shadow flew overhead, quickly passing the man's location. Once he had confirmed whatever the shadow belonged to had lost sight of him, he gave out a relieved sigh.

He was about to head out from the alleyway when he caught eye of the silhouette of a man with a cane in his hand. Once he caught sight of the man that had been running, the former strolled toward him, whistling a strange tune.

As he passed by a building's exterior light, his features were revealed, the pale white skin, the fangs extending out from his teeth as he grinned at the prey before him, the bright crimson pigments of his predatory eyes, it was none other than Nikolai. He stopped just short of the man and took a deep breath in through his nose before opening his mouth.

"I do love the smell of fear in the evening. How about you, do you appreciate the terror of midnight?" He casually conversed with the man.

The other stood there frozen, fear spread across the entirety of his face, unable to respond. Nikolai gave a sigh as he moved closer, coming face to face with his latest victim.

"Seems not, you humans are all cattle after all. Guess it's about time to feed my pet again, you know I think he enjoys the taste of middle aged men like you, he tends to take a while eating them, perhaps he likes to savour it. How would I know what he thinks though, all I know is that the pain can be quite excruciating." Nikolai smirked once more as he produced a pair of bat-like wings from his back and gripped the man tightly by the throat as he lifted him up high into the air, floating high above the buildings as the victim struggled to breathe.

Nikolai gave a sharp whistle as a giant creature beat it's wings, flying toward the Vampire. Coming into full view, the creature looked almost like a giant Vampire Bat, its legs however were longer and more muscular, with three sharp talons on each foot. In place of claws on the end of each of its wings that were made of up thick hide, were scythe-like appendages formed of hard bone and appeared sharp enough to cut easily through objects. While it's skin was coloured a reddish brown, the fur on its body was a deep crimson. Around the neck of this beast sat a strange black choker of sorts which held a bright red gem in the centre.

The creature gave out a bellowing roar toward the Vampire as it beat its wings to float there, holding out its maw ready for the meal. Without a care Nikolai tossed his latest victim into the air above the beast as it flew up quickly and caught him in its mouth crunching down on the meal it had been given as the man let out terrified screams as he was slowly eaten by the beast.

As the screams echoed into the night, Nikolai wore a satisfied smile. "Ah music to my ears, it shouldn't be too long now, kill enough people and they'll show up. Then the real fun begins." Nikolai said over the man's screams as he let out a dark chuckle. While he did so and the creature devoured the victim, the red gemstone around it's neck lit up, resonating a bright red as it's eyes followed suit.

[Occult Circle]

It was the morning break at Numin High, the following day from Nikolai's night of terror. There was a feeling of unrest present throughout the school as several areas of the city had been closed off after bodies had been found that morning. The official cause had been labeled as several suicide cases from reports saying the bodies had dropped from high places but there were rumors that there was more to it. Eleanor Hall walked through the hallways of the school building, listening to the talk about the string of suspected suicides, though she wasn't convinced at all.

Earlier that morning she had come across some of those mangled remains, the horrifying imagery was something she didn't want to look back on but she knew that such a thing wouldn't be possible from simply jumping off of a building. She couldn't quite place where but she had seen similar wounds on bodies before. She quickly decided to check up on it later in the clubroom as Ray walked toward her with a short wave before joining her.

"Hey Ellie, you alright? All those bodies around town's got everybody spooked. They're saying it was just a bunch of random suicides right?" He repeated what she already knew.

"I know what they're saying but they're wrong. I saw one of the bodies before anyone showed up, I-I know what it looks like after someone jumps to their death... It's horrible but what happened to those people, it's a lot worse. Something big sank its teeth into them and left what it couldn't eat." She explained, sounding tense.

"Everything okay with you Ellie? You don't sound alright." He said after picking up on her tone.

She quickly shook the thoughts from her head before giving a nod. "I'll be alright, I was just remembering something I'd rather forget, that's all."

"Well if you don't wanna talk about it that's fine. Any idea what that thing might be?" He returned the conversation to the original subject as his friend gave a shrug.

"Not sure, I've got a hunch but that's all. We should head to the clubroom when we can, there's gotta be something in there about it." She suggested.

Ray gave a nod as they turned the corner, he was quickly met with the face of girl around his age that looked similar to the Vampire beside him. While she was related to Ellie, most people only knew them as distant cousins but Ray knew differently.

Nora Hall looked to Ellie and gave what looked like a relieved smile. "Ellie glad I found you, everybody was talking about those suicides so I just wanted to see if you were okay."

"I'm alright, I've only heard what everybody else was saying but it's really sad, hearing people losing all hope like that and jumping." She rather obviously lied to keep the teen from becoming involved.

"Yeah, I guess some people just can't deal with all the stress sometimes." She commented before turning her attention to Ray. "So who's this, your boyfriend?" Nora asked playfully.

Ray was surprised by the sudden assumption but looking over at Ellie he could see she kept calm about the whole thing. "Nah he's just a friend, not even my type." Ellie quickly dismissed the notion.

"So what is your type, tall dark and handsome?" Nora pried further.

"Throw in the personality of a pompous ass and that's exactly the type of guy I hate." The Vampire added as Nora joined them in their walk through the halls as the first break of the day began to come to an end.

[Occult Circle]

Quickly enough, the school day came to an end. What had been an uneventful number of hours strained by the talk and rumors pertaining to the deaths that occurred the previous night was about to shift as the six Occult rangers and Ray sat around the clubroom. They patiently waited as Ellie flicked through the pages of a large tome detailing Vampires and creatures of similar origin.

"Here, this is it." She finally called to them as she brought the book over. There was an illustration of a creature exactly like the monster that had hunted the victims the night before. Above the image it was aptly titled 'Nightspawn.'

"So this' what caused all those deaths last night." Nyssa said as they skimmed through the article of text on the beast.

"That doesn't entirely make sense." Saya began. "It says they're herbivores but that one devoured several people last night. How could that be?" She questioned as Ellie flicked over to the next page.

"Usually they are. You know the Vampire Kingdom right, how it's full of creatures with physical traits similar to us? The Nightspawn aren't an exception, but they prefer to eat the crimson plants that grow there. I was hunting Nikolai around twenty years ago and I wandered into the Kingdom, in the wilderness I saw a Vampire attach a device to a docile Nightspawn's neck. I don't know what happened but it turned bloodthirsty pretty quickly and the Vampire couldn't control it. Things got ugly fast so I left before things could escalate." Ellie relayed the information she knew to the group.

"Sounds like that device made it into a savage beast, that's horrible, not being able to have a choice, being forced to be something you're not." Max added.

Close by, Sera lowered her head and frowned at the thought. "It has to be hurting, going against it's nature like that, what monster would do such a thing?" She asked as tension built up in the other rangers.

"I bet we can all guess who." Joe added grimly as a large dark shadow skimmed across the grass outside the School, gaining the attention of everyone inside the room.

Ellie clenched her fists and gritted her teeth upon seeing the shadow of the Nightspawn and knowing exactly what kind of monster would do such a thing before uttering his name. "Nikolai..."

[Occult Circle]

Making their way outside to the battlefield their enemy had chosen, the six Occult rangers watched as the Nightspawn beat its wings, slowly lowering to the ground and folding in its wings. The creature sat calmly, surprising the rangers, who had expected the creature to attack on sight. Yet the beast sat waiting.

A few tense moments passed before the unsettling familiar laugh of their Vampire foe echoed through the area. "So we're all reunited again aren't we rangers, I'm glad that you've all took such good care of Eleanor for me but now I've returned to take her back. So if you could all just roll over and die, that'd be splendid." He laughed cockily as the rangers scanned the area.

"Come on out Nikolai, stop hiding in the shadows like a coward!" Joe challenged.

The Vampire simply laughed. "Where's the fun in that? Besides, if I didn't fight dirty, I'd not get to do this." His voice echoed again as from a cluster of trees, he emerged.

Their foe moved with unnatural speed, quickly pouncing upon them and drawing a blade from within the cane he held. Nikolai smirked as he leapt into the air and swung his blade while he descended. Yet his strike was dodged by the hasty maneuvers of the six. Now surrounded he gave another confident laugh as they readied their rings.

"Now that's more like it, come on rangers, give me a challenge, I dare you." He taunted, not losing his air of confidence as the gemstones within their magical devices flared to life with energy.

"Occult Breakout!" "Celestial Breakout!" The rangers called as flashes of coloured energy erupted around their foe, blinding him momentarily before the six emerged, morphed and each wielding their weapons.

Nikolai gave a grin before raising his freehand and signalling the beast that sat idly. "Have fun playing with my pet rangers, watch out though, he bites." Nikolai joked as he pointed his sword at the red ranger and lunged at him with incredible speed.

Joe managed to react to Nikolai's movements just before the latter's sword struck, fending off the blow as their swords clashed. "Coming after me first? I'd say I'm touched but I really hate your company." Joe addressed him as he pushed back with his rapier.

"Don't worry this isn't a social call. The Dark Angel wanted to see if I could bring you to him. He's taken quite an interest in you. I was going to wrap you up and maybe put a little bow on your head but I hardly have the time to dress you up, so I thought I'd bring Eleanor back with me while I'm at it." He revealed his full intentions in the despicably joking manner he was now infamous for as they exchanged blows.

As they did so, the Nightspawn leapt at the five other rangers, swinging ferociously at them with the scythe-like appendages on its wings. The rangers desperately ducked, dodged and blocked the powerful swings, holding it off as best they could while they prepared a counterattack.

Ellie looked to the fight between Nikolai and Joe, the Vampire foe appeared confident that his pet would take care of the others while he enacted his plans, so much that he took no notice of the other fight occurring only a few feet away. Now would be the perfect time to strike and kill the greatest cause of the pain she had suffered, Ellie thought as she gripped her dagger and prepared to quite literally stab him in the back.

As she readied herself. Sera rolled out of the way of an arcing swing of the scythe appendage, quickly regaining her footing. Focusing her Celestial energy, the Angel generated a Lightspear above her right hand, quickly motioning it as if she was throwing the Celestial weapon herself. Her Lightspear whizzed through the air, soon enough piercing through the Nightspawn's shoulder plate, causing it to let out a bellowing roar in reacting to the searing pain it now felt through the right side of its body.

As Ellie prepared to put an end to Nikolai she heard, the creature's cries and snapped her head around to see the wounded Nightspawn let out more cries of pain as the other rangers turned the tables on the creature. She took one last look back to the distracted Nikolai before letting out a groan. "Damn it." She muttered under her breath as she raced over to the wounded beast.

As Nyssa fired arrows into the creature and Sera generated more Lightspears, in preparation to finish the creature off if it came to it. Max wrestled with the Nightspawn, using his enhanced Lycan strength to stand his ground. Frome where Saya stood, she began to focus her magical energy into her sword, preparing one of her signature kicks. Before she could move however, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

Turning her head, Saya found the crimson ranger beside her. "Saya, you see that choker around its neck? I need you to take that out. We can't destroy it, Nikolai made it a monster, it deserves better." Ellie quickly spoke up before her teammate could ask what she was doing.

Saya thought for a moment before nodding. "I understand." She told her teammate before addressing the others. "Everyone stand down, I'll take care of this." She ordered, to which the others did so after some hesitation and confusion as to why they were asked to.

Taking her chance, the demon extended her wings and rose into the air as her cutlass ignited with magical blue flames. Soon enough it attracted the Nightspawn's attention, the creature now watching the demon curiously as it let out a snarl. With that Saya folded in her wings and descended, bringing down her foot before switching it out for her cutlass.

"Leviafang Kick!" She called as the blazing weapon sliced effortlessly through the choker and shattering the red gemstone it held. As the blue ranger touched the ground and the blue flames of her sword died down, the beast they had thought now appeared to be pacified and now sat calmly. Before anyone could say a word, Saya opened her mouth. "For the record, I know it's not a kick."

Her admittance to the fact surprised them all but before they could get a word in about it, the clashing of blades rang through the air, catching the five's attention as they turned to see Nikolai and Joe continuing their duel.

Joe glanced at where the other rangers stood with the docile Nightspawn, smirking under his helmet he turned his attention back to the foe before him and pressed the attack. "Looks like it's not your pet anymore. Your plan's a bust Nikolai, now you've gotta deal with all of us." Joe said as he swung and clashed blades with the Vampire again.

Nikolai gave another laugh and shook his head as he allowed himself to be pushed back by the red ranger. "Don't be so naive, since when do I decide to fight if I'm not at an advantage. We've had a few encounters now I'm slightly insulted you'd think I'd ever fight fair." Nikolai explained to Joe as without a hint as to his next action, the Vampire brought a heavy handed punch around and into Joe's face, dazing the red ranger for several seconds.

When Joe regained his senses he looked around to find that Nikolai had vanished once again. "Man I hate that guy."

"Don't lie to yourself, you know you enjoy my company." Nikolai's voice echoed from the nearby treeline as a series of laughs became more distant, soon enough fading out completely.

Demorphing and making his way over to the other rangers who had now also reverted to their civilian forms, he saw that the Nightspawn sat licking the wounds it had sustained fighting the other rangers. Wandering up, he looked to the other five, deciding to speak up about what was on everyone's mind.

"What's going to happen to the Nightspawn? It doesn't seem dangerous any more, but it killed people, can we really risk letting it go free?" He asked while Ellie walked over to the creature.

The Nightspawn lowered its head down to her and began sniffing her hand curiously before giving it a small lick. "I don't know, seems kinda cute when he's like this, maybe we should keep him." Ellie suggested, surprising the other rangers.

"You wanna keep him?" Max asked. "You realise he's a huge supernatural monster, right?"

"We kept you didn't we, when you're all wolfed out it's not too different from this." Ellie remarked as she placed her hand by the snout of the beast.

Before the other rangers could get a word in about such a big decision, Ellie's Occult ring, that now rested with her hand on the Nightspawn, began to resonate with crimson energy. The energy appeared to spread out over the Nightspawn's body, completely enshrouding it before the form of the creature began to deteriorate as the energy receded into her ring once more.

Each ranger stood wide eyed, surprised at the spontaneous event that had occurred before them, from what they could gather, the Nightspawn had been absorbed into Ellie's Occult ring, the exact reason as to why it had however eluded them.

"Looks like it's settled then, we're keeping the Nightspawn whether we like it or not." Saya commented before the group decided to return to the Clubroom, hoping the Gabriel would be present to shed some light on why the Occult ring had absorbed the Nightspawn.

[Occult Circle]

Upon returning to the clubroom, there was unfortunately no sign of Gabriel and upon further investigation both he and Michael were nowhere to be found within the School grounds. With the strangeness of the day, most of the rangers had decided to return home for the day. Ellie had decided to stay behind in the clubroom, Ray also staying to keep her company.

The Vampire appeared to be in deep thought as she fumbled with the Occult ring she held between her fingers. "Something bothering you Ellie?" Ray spoke up, trying to help his friend through whatever was troubling her.

"I had the chance to kill Nikolai today and I didn't take it. Instead I decided to save that Nightspawn he was controlling. Looking back I should've finished Nikolai then and there so why didn't I?" She asked, hoping that he would give her some reasonable answer.

"Maybe it's because you saw another victim in it. Forced to be a monster because of him and couldn't let it die because of Nikolai. I know he did some terrible things to you from what you've told us but you hate him a lot more than what you should for just that. There's more isn't there, what happened?" Ray asked, catching on to just how strongly she hated Nikolai.

Ellie paused for a moment, lowering her head, before facing him with a blank expression. "I don't want to talk about it. In the seventy two years since he made me like this, the things he's done are more than enough of a reason for me to hate him so much. Maybe I'll tell you one day, but I'm not ready to revisit those things yet." She refused to tell him anything further.

Ray quickly took the silence that followed as a hint that she wanted to be left alone and headed for the door. "Alright, but come find me if you ever need to talk."

|Occult Circle|

Occult Beast - Nightspawn - Taking some of its physical traits from the earthly Vampire Bat, the Nightspawn is a large but gentle giant of a creature. Because of its size, the creature wouldn't sustain itself if it were to survive on a carnivorous diet, therefore it chooses to eat the abundant plant life of the land it is native to. The fangs of the beast however remain sharp and though no one understands why for certain, it is suspected the Nightspawn's fangs are used for aesthetic display similar to how an earthly male Peacock uses its feathers to attract a mate. It is suspected that the longer and sharper a Nightspawn's fangs are, the more likely they are to attract a mate, though the research needed to confirm this theory has not yet yielded any results.

That's chapter 22 done and out of the way. I had a few ideas for how I was going to do this one but I started last week or the week before and didn't make any note of what those ideas were so it went a little differently since I had to stop mid writing to focus on moving. I'm still saving a few plot concepts concerning Ellie for later though but right now I'll be moving onto focusing on another character.

This past week though I've been at Uni, no actual lessons just yet but that stuff's starting Monday. I've got no idea how it's gonna affect my tie to write but I do have a couple of days free which I could use at the very least. That all said thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed and here's the preview of the next one.

Next Chapter: Occult Encounters: Wings of Rebellion

Synopsis: When the rangers are contacted by a potential defector from the Abyssal Cult allegedly holding important information about a major attack the Cult is planning, the rangers are sceptical to believe it given the events that occurred the last time they were contacted for such a thing. Is this defector all they seem to be? What plan could the Cult be forming if so? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Occult Circle.