Notes:

Finally chapter 10! And its a bit of a fun one, with my first real OC enemy. I'm playing up some of the mystical traits of Marco and Janna to, again, help explain how they can survive and thrive in the more adventurous parts later in the series.

For all you readers who've come this far, I'd love if you could leave a comment on your thoughts so far! Feedback will do wonders for the story quality, haha.

Chapter 10 (EDITED 12/22/2020)

Interestingly enough, my first thought is how different their hands are. Star has calloused hands, strong and thick-she probably swung around a weapon before picking up that wand. Janna's hands are different, softer, but not as much as I expected. Maybe she really works hard on the mechanical stuff I saw in her room? I didn't even know she was interested in that, but I guess it makes sense that she'd have to be the one building most of her more complicated traps.

More than that, Star's hand is so much warmer. Does she run at a hotter temperature than the rest of us? Is it something else? My left hand is getting sweaty because of it, which makes me nervous enough that the rest of me is sweating soon after. Definitely doesn't help that we're stuck in a little closet with a bunch of candles. Star doesn't even seem to care about the little rejection from earlier, smiling in anticipation at both me and Janna equally. Am I the weird one for still feeling hurt she didn't take my side…?

Before I can put more thought into it, Janna finally starts doing something, "Janna Ordonia, qui maga Echo Creek. Marco Diaz bellator est ab Echo Creek. Star Butterfly, a procer magicae. Tres vocant inde supplices te. Niotalosed, responde huius vocationem." I raise my eyebrows as she starts chanting in what sounds like latin. Not one of my specialties-there is a limit to being a straight A student. I'm pretty sure I heard our names in there, though…

"Wait-are we summoning an actual demon? This better not be one of Tom's pranks." Star frowns, suddenly seeming a bit unsure she wants to be a part of this.

I snort, shaking my head, "I'm telling you, Star. We have plenty of crazy people who chant Latin in their basements on Earth-if they could actually summon demons, the planet would be chock full of em by now." She seems unconvinced, but then she doesn't tend to believe me on matters of Earth magic I've come to realize. Perhaps she just considers herself an expert, bah.

Janna continues chanting that same thing over and over, and just as I begin to wonder how long I'll be kneeling on this stone floor I start to feel something...odd. It's an uncomfortably warm sensation in my chest, near my heart. I'd think it might be some weird heartburn, but I've actually felt it before-since this year started, I'd get this feeling sometimes when fighting, and almost always during our heavy meditation sessions. Sensei said it was nothing, and the doctors seemed to agree when I got myself checked out. I wonder why I'm feeling it now? I guess it could be since I'm kneeling which is...kinda like how I sit while meditating. Close enough?

Janna's eyes slowly close and her chanting gets a weird echoey background reverb. A microphone? Her room's acoustics? But why would it only sound out now? I turn to Star to see if she's noticed this weirdness, but blink. She's looking rather odd herself-are her cheek stickers glowing a little? "Star, are you causing this?" I try to say, but my breath feels like it's stolen away as soon as I open my mouth. She turns to me when my hand tightens on hers in a panic, and I see by her own wide eyes and flapping lips that she can't speak either. Shit. Something is definitely wrong, and it wasn't Star's doing this time-at least not completely.

Star and I share a deeply concerned look, gripping our hands tighter. Then we both look at Janna, hoping that my creepy friend hasn't thrown us completely into the deep end. The burning feeling in my chest gets stronger and stronger, while Star's cheek marks start glowing like lanterns. Just as things reach the point where I'm certain something is going to explode, a wave of cold black smoke blasts out from the center of the pentagram. It chills my chest and sets Star's cheeks back to normal, in addition to blowing out the candles.

Janna, however, is still going-she finishes one last chant before throwing open her eyes, a crazed look and a thin green film of energy over them, "Niotalosed, ostende te!" she calls out, and in answer the weird black smoke that fills the room now congeals once more in the center of the pentagram. It slowly forms the shape of an obsidian skinned monster, with squat toad legs, a human torso, lion's arms, and the head of what looks kind of like a snub nosed dragon of some sort. Lizard like, with more teeth and horns than any being should have.

"Quid ego faciem exitium?" it asks in a rumbling voice. It seems almost conversational in tone, but its size and the sheer depth of its voice still feels like it vibrates the room. It's at this point that Janna's eyes lose their power and she falls back with a look of amazement and awe on her face.

When she lets go, the circle is finally broken and I'm free to move and speak. "Star! What the heck is this?! What the heck was that?! Janna's eyes were glowing, and your cheeks were doing something weird!" I jump towards Star's side of the room and yank her up to her feet and behind me, then take a defensive stance against the monster. It seems rather amused by my actions so far, though my ability to read the face of a lizard thing is probably not exactly the best.

At least it hasn't tried to kill us yet, "Okay, so, yeah. This was definitely demon summoning. Bogwash, I was hoping for something way cooler from Earth magic." Star lets out a sigh, clearly quite disappointed. I have no idea how she's staying so calm with this thing in front of us, and that answer of hers wasn't exactly complete. Unfortunately I can't demand more from her as the demon suddenly starts moving. It has apparently lost interest in us and turned towards Janna. She is staring at the thing like its an angel from heaven, cheeks all aflush and her eyes unfocused. Regardless of how Janna managed to pull off an actual demon summoning, or my thoughts on her personally, I can't let this monster just eat her or something! I dash towards it and slam my fist into the kidney of its human looking torso. That clearly seems to hurt it...but not enough, and probably not as much as it hurt me. That skin is hard as rock, so my scraped up knuckles tell me.

The next thing I know I'm being thrown through the closet door and crash landing on Janna's bed. I only just barely managed to get my guard up, those lion paws pack a punch. And if it had used its claws… "Hey, that's my friend! Honeybee tornado Swarm!" A yellow tornado buzzing like angry syrup is suddenly visible in the dark closet, after which I see Star flying through the doorway exactly as I was a few moments earlier.

Seems she took the hit about as well as I did, though, as she gives me a determined nod once I help her up. "Lets kick this demon's ass, Star." The next few minutes are a blur of bruises, scrapes, lasers, cute animals, and fire. We managed to drag the demon away from Janna to fight it in her room proper, but while we're destroying all her stuff pretty easily the thing doesn't even have a scratch. My nascent lizard emotion reading skills tell me it's probably just annoyed at everything we've thrown at it. "Janna! You're the one who summoned it, do something!" This seems to finally knock my weirdo friend out of her daze. I see her walking out of the closet with a book labeled 'Latin for dummies' in her arms, and fire in her eyes. Figuratively this time, no weird green magic juicing up my friend, just determination and more than a little smugness.