Chapter 6: First Battle
"How about this," Sabrina said. "I'll orb Annie and David out to lure him from the door. You three go out with the potion and hit him from behind."
"It's a brilliant plan," Millie said, "if it were being used on any normal demon. Axict is way too smart and powerful for that." Millie stood in thought for a moment. "Orb those four out. Go somewhere safe. I'll hold him off and allow time for you to get situated. When he comes, throw the potion." Without time for anyone to object the plan, Millie ran out.
"Come," Sabrina said. She orbed them all out of the house and to a forest. The forest was located just outside the farm, yet still on Millie's property.
"What about our mom?" Jordan asked once they had rematerialized.
"Don't worry," Sabrina said. "She knows how to take care of herself."
"Why'd you bring us to a forest?" Annie asked.
"It's better battling ground," Sabrina said. "The trees provide better cover." Charles suddenly fell to the ground. Everyone crowded around him as he shook violently.
Around the five of them, several men appeared in a blink of the eye. Sabrina tried fighting them off with her powers, but they overpowered and killed her. Annie, David, and Jordan were no match for them either. They were killed as well. Then, Axict shimmered in and took Charles.
Charles returned to reality and gasped for breath. He could actually feel as each one of them was being killed. "What did you see?" Sabrina asked, knowing exactly what had happened. She was leaning over him. The others were standing, looking at him in horror.
"You four being killed," Charles said. "There will be several men coming, and they'll stab you with knives."
"I think you mean athames," Sabrina said. "They're ritual knives. But how did they get here?"
"They just appeared," Charles said. "In the blink of an eye."
"Warlocks," Sabrina said. "They blink to get place to place. How many were there?"
"At least seven."
"This could be a problem. We need to spread out and take them out as they appear. My powers don't work too well on them."
"What, exactly,are your powers?" Jordan asked.
"Besides my orbing, I can use light around me and turn it into a powerful beams of energy. But yours' can be more useful if you use them right."
"We don't even know how to use them," David said.
"You have to find the certain emotion that triggers your power," Sabrina said. "It's unique to each person, but usually ties into your power. Anger usually triggers active powers so I don't think that will be any of yours."
"This sucks," Annie said. "We'll never be able to do it in time." Charles noticed a rabbit go by. He recognized it from his vision.
"Hurry!" Charles yelled. "Here they come!" Accompanied by an odd sound, several warlocks appeared all over the place. Sabrina counted eight.
"What are they?" Annie asked.
"They're like evil witches," Sabrina said. She shot two beams of light, one from each hand, at the nearest warlock. He flew back and hit a tree. "They're hard to kill without the proper spell or vanquishing potion."
"There's one other thing," Charles said to Sabrina, as he hit a warlock in the face. "I saw Axict come after they killed you."
"Thanks for telling me that earlier," Sabrina said. Charles looked at his new friends. Everything was happening the exact same as it had in his vision. He was going to fail to change his vision that he was meant to change, just like he had with his mother. Annie kicked a warlock and then hit him in the face. Jordan had a small branch and was whacking the warlocks closest to her. David was trying to hold two off that were slowly gaining the advantage over him.
"I've got an idea," Charles suddenly said. "Jordan, Annie, David!" He motioned for them to follow him. Sabrina tried her best to give them time. "David, we need a clone, work on it. Jordan, mind control as many warlocks as you can. Annie, make some sort of illusion to give us better cover."
"It won't work," Annie said. "We don't know how to trigger our powers."
"Try fear and panic to trigger it!" Charles said frantically. Annie concentrated all her strength to gather up energy to cast an illusion. She could feel the magic, she just didn't know how to tap into it. She remembered Charles' words and used her fear to help her. In her mind, she saw the ability to manipulate whatever she wanted to about the surrounding. She used that to make walls appear where they weren't and her friends to appear other places.
"I did it!" she yelled. The others looked at her questioningly. They didn't see anything, but they did see the warlocks looking confused and trying to attack at nothing. Jordan tried to do the same thing as Annie had. She concentrated and felt the magic build up inside of her. She opened her eyes and faced the nearest warlock. It looked at her, dazed.
"Destroy the other warlocks." It obeyed and started striking the others. She smiled, proud with herself.
"Good job," David said. "I think I've learned mine too. By wanting to be in more than one place at once, it causes me to…" A second David appeared next to him. "Split," they finished together. The two David's ran in to battle to even up the odds. Soon, the warlocks backed off. Axict shimmered in a few minutes later, just as he had in Charles' vision, only this time, Sabrina, David, Jordan, and Annie were alive.
"You failed me!" Axict yelled. He was in his demonic form. "Leave!" The warlocks bowed their heads and blinked away.
"Where's my mother!" Jordan yelled.
"I had a fun time killing her," Axict said with a twisted smile. "Her body is burnt to a crisp."