Chapter 41: New Enemies

Misery, back in the cobblestone square stood proudly facing her enemies, primarily Xerxion and Euphemia since Vyperine had taken a shortcut back to the tower. Accompanying them were 10 other witches who had ambushed them originally along with another 30 who had heard the commotion and decided to join the fight.

"I have a lot of misfortune usually but I think it's gonna rub off on you today." She said mockingly.

"Is that so? Thanks for the pep talk little miss congeniality." Xerxion said mocking her.

"By the time we're finished with you you're gonna hafta be hosed off the wall." Euphemia added.

I'm not a fortuneteller but I can tell you three things that aren't going to happen. One, I'm not gonna get hurt, Two, I'm not going to run away and Three, none of you are going to leave here with your lives intact." She said before Xerxion called her bluff.

"Such big talk for such an inferior species, heck you're sooo inferior I think our less experienced combatants can take you down. Oh ladies!"

"These are three of our, lets say weakest fighters."

"HEY!" they cried out annoyed.

"Just being honest, Misery this is Penumbra, Charlemaignee and Guendollynne. Let's see if you can take them and how about to make it a fair fight, the rest of us will hang back until you're dead. Ready set GO!"

The three witches lunged forward at Misery who quickly counterattacks by swinging Shrieking Vesper around to defend herself.

Guendollynne swung at her like crazy with Misery having perfect defensive timing. "Uh oh looks like my friends are back!" "What where?!" {SLASH} Misery looked and was shocked as Guendollynne saw blood coming out of her mouth before noticing Misery had cut her in half.. her eyes rolled back in her head as her torso came unattached and fell to the ground. Dead.

"Lordy Lou!" cried out Xerxion who was horrified not only by Guendollynne's mutilated corpse but at how strong Misery was.

"Who's next." Misery said lurching her scimitar forward.

"You'll have to take us both at once said Charlemaignee." Referring to herself and Penumbra.

They immediately started to clash swords with each other until Misery quickly had disarmed Penumbra and vertically slit her throat causing her to gush blood like a geyser until collapsing. Charlemaignee was shocked but continued to clash with Misery until she ducked down after she swung at her and sliced through her thigh leading her to fall over in excruciating pain until Misery stabbed her through the heart, Charlemaignee's tongue flopped out of her mouth as her life drained from her.

"Still think I'm weak?" Misery said threateningly.

"Th-That doesn't prove anything!" Xerxion said clearly in denial but too far gone to admit it. "Get her!" He called out to the 37 other witches excluding Euphemia and himself.

They all charged at Misery with wands blazing but Misery used Shrieking Vesper to her advantage and used a nearby stack of crates to act as a launch pad she swung her weapon through the air and heard cries of anguish as her eyes were closed. When she landed she saw she had managed to fatally wound 15 of the witch attackers by slicing their throats, skulls, upper chests or slicing directly down the middle of their faces, seconds later they all collapsed onto the cobblestone road as pools of blood began to form around them.

"18 down, 24 to go, any questions?"

No answer could be heard.

"So you guys wanna play? Okay then let's play!" Misery said as she faced the onslaught by lunging with Shrieking Vesper forward to impale several more of them. She stabbed most through the chest

whilst some had their throats slit, eyeballs gouged out, limbs cracked like pencils or impaled through the frontal lobe of their brains.

One unfortunate male witch named Talbotsford had foolishly rushed to Misery letting out a battle cry which resulted in Misery stabbing him through his chin choking to death on his own blood, and an equally unlucky female witch named Hortensia had attempted to decapitate Misery only to have her swing around and cut the top of her skull off leaving her tongue to flop out of her mouth and her corpse to fall to the ground as a geyser of blood squirted out like a garden hose.

Eventually the air reeked of slaughter and 40 witch corpses polluted the street lying in pools of their own red hemoglobin laced fluid. All that remained were Euphemia and Xerxion.

Xerxion was in disbelief as he reacted in shock to his fellow witches demise.

"Sigregard! Rothschilde! Jessamine! Britannica! Nymphadahlia! Terpsechoire! Wilmerozef! Manfreidi! and Lester..." he said in anguish over his fallen comrades with Euphemia equally as shocked.

"Y'know this doesn't have to end with you two dead." She said as she gave them an ultimatum "Drop your weapons and live on or I can ensure that you share the same fate as these unlucky few."

Xerxion pondered the thought. Misery could see the gears turning in his head. But unfortunately whatever humanity he had was already long gone after his killer instinct was awakened.

"Not happening Misery." He said before Euphemia voiced her opinion.

"Sadly for you we never turn on our own."

"What a coincidence I don't either."

"Really? I don't see any other banshees around."

"I'm talking about my friends." Misery said firmly.

"Ha-ha, friends? You're not even the same species. Heck one of them is a talking crow, another's a talking bat and another's a cat that doesn't talk at all!" She said referring to Poe, Scaredy and Doom.

"Well if that's the way you feel maybe we should take a different approach to this fight. What do you say instead of squaring off in a duel, we make it a chase?" Misery suggested.

"I could be persuaded: you run away from us, we catch you , you die, we win. Sounds simple enough." Xerxion bluffed.

"Seems we have a deal then, but I get a head start since I'm at a disadvantage running in heels."

"Okay we'll give you 10 seconds, starting right about...now!"

Misery ran out of the square and took off through the streets.

"Should we even bother counting?" Euphemia asked.

"Your probably right let's go, stay close behind me that way we can hit her together." Xerxion explained.

"On it." They both took off after Misery although she proved to be speedy even wearing high heeled boots.

"You're just prolonging the agony!" called Xerxion.

"Actually I'm postponing the agony!" Misery hollered back. She ran past several heavy crates and barrels in the alleyway and realized that her environment could be used as a weapon against them too. She kicked over a barrel and grabbed some crates and threw them over her head as they hit Xerxion and Euphemia in the face as the barrel rolled over them knocking them to the solid ground.

Soon after Misery came out of the alley and scanned her environment for anything she could use against the remaining two witches. After seeing a crumbling building, a flagpole and a coffin she could only assume was for the war, got an idea.

The witches came out of the alleyway but Misery was nowhere to be seen.

"Where'd she go?"

"Don't look at me I'm having trouble seeing much of anything after I whacked my head on the road."

"Where is she?"

"Try looking up!" Cried out Misery's voice.

"Huh?" Misery swung down from a power cable and kicked Xerxion square in the face Kicking him and he landed right inside the coffin. Misery landed on the ground and made sure he couldn't get out by using the rope from the flagpole to seal it.

"Let me out!" Xerxion cried banging on the door with all his might.

"Sorry, but I've got some plans and you're not a part of them. You'll have to wait till later." She said sarcastically.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Euphemia said standing right behind her.

"Nope it's right here" she said pulling out Shrieking Vesper.

Euphemia lunged at her as they engaged in dueling with their swords. They clashed a bit before separating.

"You know this can all be solved right now if you would just back off and leave. No one has to get hurt and you can escape with your life, doesn't that in anyway entice you?" Misery said hoping to appeal to her better nature.

"Not gonna happen." Euphemia said with her eyes glowing orange with a need to kill etched into her soul.

Then you leave me no choice she said Euphemia charged at Misery ready to impale her and put an end to her once and for all.

But she wasn't anticipating that Misery was already two steps ahead of her.

Euphemia swung at her but Misery ducked down low and using her scimitar to stab through her shirt she hurled Euphemia high into the atmosphere.

"Aaaahhhh!" Euphemia screamed as she fell down to the earth closing her eyes expecting to hit the concrete, but instead of a smack against the cobblestone road she heard an audible SQUELCH!

Euphemia opened her eyes only to realize she had been impaled on a flagpole! It had stabbed her right through her stomach. She tried to speak as she choked up blood and her words became incomprehensible as she began sliding down the pole leaving behind a bloody trail as she slid down.

"Ah..ah..aaaah..." were her final words as her eyes closed permanently as torso was torn open and her upper body and her lower body disconnected from each other leaving her dead body in a bloody heap.

"I gave you a chance to be saved, but you were already too far gone." Misery said empathetically. Then she heard a bumping sound as a hand burst out of the coffin, Xerxion was ready to finish her off.

Before he could do anything he took notice of Euphemia's impaled, disembodied corpse.

"Euphemia! No! You're gonna pay!" He screamed at Misery.

"I don't think so." Misery said with confidence. "Cuz I'm already two steps ahead of you." She took her scimitar and ran directly at Xerxion who closed his eyes and cowered in fear as a loud crumbling sound echoed.

Xerxion looked down and saw that Misery didn't even scratch him. "Ha-ha! You missed." He said smugly.

"Did I?" Misery said stepping back. Xerxion saw that Misery had used the scimitar to destroy the foundation of the crumbling building behind him and he was directly in its path as it came down.

"Maybe I should've ran away while I had the chance." He said in hindsight before closing his eyes and wincing before...

"SMASH! CRASH! CLATTER! BASH BAM!"

The entire building came down on top of him crushing him underneath it.

Once the rubble had cleared, Misery strolled up and saw Xerxion's crushed arm underneath the rubble as a river of blood was flowing out of the debris.

"Well I guess that's the end of Xerxion. Shame he couldn't be saved, but I guess if I wanna save my friends I've gotta get past every obstacle facing me."

She then looked up at the sky and took notice that time had once again slipped away from her and dusk was nearly upon her. Misery felt exhausted after slaying all those zombies there was no conceivable way she'd be rescuing her friends tonight since she was physically drained.

"I'd better rest up for the night and set out to find them first thing tomorrow." She decided, now feeling much calmer since she had eradicated a good chunk of witches so she was certain that at least one of the nearby houses were empty.

Misery used Shrieking Vesper to open the door to a taller house and managed to go inside noticing that it was empty. After re-locking the door she looked around and spotted a picture of one of the witches she had killed in the battle earlier that day.

"I guess I'm on my own." She said to herself. Misery proceeded to climb the stairs to a small bedroom with a bed. It obviously not a bed of nails like she was used to, but decided that beggars can't be choosers. With that she kicked off her black boots and unzipped out of her black spy suit before crawling under the covers in her underwear. Before falling asleep she whispered "Don't worry Zaí, Ruby, Skull Boy, Zerelda, Poe, Doom, Iris, Len, Scaredy and Frank, tomorrow I'll find you guys and bring you home, I promise." With that she gave a big yawn and fell into a deep and well deserved sleep.

—

Well there you go. Misery has now slayed the witch armada and is gonna get some REM sleep. When we see her next she'll be on her way to freeing the gang from DeDe's dungeon. We're getting close now, the day of reckoning will be commencing soon...