The trend continues with another rewritten chapter. I thought this one would need a lot more but I was wrong.
Enjoy.
One thing was official for Ezekiel. He was going to kick Stone's ass when he found him. Screw not doing punchy, that cowboy deserved it for running off like that.
Of course, as soon as Baird noticed Stone was missing she went into full blown panic mode. Her first guess was someone snuck into the annex but Ezekiel shot that down instantly. A single touch to the door showed Endymion's spells were still active so it was doubtful the witch got through. This left only a single possibility.
Stone went back to Salem.
Stone must have taken off to fight the witch on his own. No doubt in some half-cocked plan to get payback for Cassandra. He did have the knife, but after the thrashing Endymion got it wasn't going to help much.
Ezekiel knew Stone was taking their friend's death hard but he didn't expect him to snap like this. Baird must not have gotten through as well as they thought.
Naturally, the last remaining librarian and his guardian ran to their comrade's rescue. Ezekiel passed the gun to Baird while he kept the dagger.
Nether were prepared for what was waiting for them on the other side of the door.
The pair soon emerged on the streets of Salem, not a person was in sight. At least no one still on their feet. The first hint something was amiss was the woman lying on the sidewalk seemingly unconscious. Baird checked her for a pulse and found one quickly but it was erratic.
Something else was off. There had been a full moon tonight, or there was supposed to be one at least. It was the darkness, this was far from an ordinary night. Almost as if the dark had grown deeper, become darker. It made no sense to Ezekiel, but hey, magic.
The woman they found on the sidewalk was not an isolated case either. The duo found many more people who seemed to have fallen unconscious where they had been. Some on the sidewalk, their front porch, even a few in cars that were still running. Whatever the witch did seemed to have spread across the entire town at once.
"Come on, we need to find Stone." Baird gripped her revolver tighter.
Ezekiel knew a boss battle was imminent. He had played enough video games to know this was the final level before entering the bosses lair. At least the witch hadn't raised any minions, not yet at least.
Even though they outnumbered her two to one, three to one if they could find that damn cowboy, Ezekiel was having a bad feeling about this whole deal. If another sorcerer couldn't defeat her then what hope did they have? Well it was no secret how short the life expectancy of librarians was...
Ezekiel's attention was snatched by a flash of light nearby. With no other leads, Baird and Ezekiel followed the light show. They had just entered some kind of park when Baird franticly signaled to take cover.
With a cluster of trees and bushes for concealment, Baird and Ezekiel found their witch. The woman from the cabin stood in the center of a clearing. Her feet were still, but her hands were moving in intricate gestures. A language Ezekiel felt more than heard passing from her lips.
The witch was still casting whatever spell she was weaving when a roar erupted from the other side of the clearing.
Stone burst from the shrubbery to charge the witch, Endymion's dagger still in hand.
"Smarter not harder!" Baird growled beneath her breath as she also jumped from cover for the attack. On pure reflex, Ezekiel followed instantly with his own dagger in hand.
Baird and Ezekiel made it about three steps before Stone was tripped by the ground shifting around his feet. He rolled just in time to avoid a gout of flame from one of the witch.
Baird opened fire with the revolver but the witch used her other hand to swat them aside like they were no more than flies.
Not a single one of them managed to get remotely close. The woman blocked all their attacks and retaliated with attacks of their own. Unlike hers, Baird and the others couldn't simply stop them and had to dodge. Leaving them on the defensive and unable to do anything but avoid being fried.
The battle lasted a whole two minutes before the witch got tired of their efforts and moved to action. First, she caught Stone's knife arm by the wrist and twisted it with surprising strength to force him to the ground. A knee to his face silenced him.
Next to fall was Baird. One second the witch was in one spot, the next she appeared right in front of the guardian. With her enemy within melee range, Baird lashed out with her own unarmed combat but the witch moved inhumanly fast. Catching one of Baird's hands, she twirled her so that she was at Baird's back and landed a heavy kick to the back of her knee. With Baird down on one knee, the witch grabbed her by the neck and, with a second hand on her lower back, flung Baird over the shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
In a final desperate attempt to do something, Ezekiel threw the dagger he was holding straight toward the witch. She threw up a wall of fire but, to both her and Ezekiel's shock, the knife passed right through.
Now Ezekiel was no master knife thrower. But luck must have been on his side in that moment because the weapon went straight toward the witch's chest. The blade must have defied the laws of physics or something. Ezekiel hadn't even thrown it that hard, but it still sank deep into the center of her chest.
The scream she made almost made Ezekiel's eardrums explode.
If only it had actually slowed the witch down. She quickly tore it free and lunged at Ezekiel. With no weapon he was easy prey. Grabbing him by his throat, she shoved him to the ground hard enough to see stars. Instead of letting him go, she held her iron strong grip to his neck.
Oddly enough, from this angle Ezekiel could see the damage inflicted by the knife. The witch didn't bleed red, she didn't even bleed really. Dark smoke poured from the wound instead.
"Foolish children." Ezekiel had yet to hear the witch speak, he almost wished he didn't. Much like her spellcasting a short time ago, Ezekiel felt the words more than he heard. "You dare attack your betters? Such arrogance!"
Ezekiel was gasping for breath as the witch released his throat. Shortly after, an out cold Stone was thrown down beside him. A disarmed Baird following shortly after.
"Now the time has come for you to die." Flames coalesced around the arms of the witch. Faster than an eye blink she raised her hands and unleashed the fires of hell upon them.
Jake had done some stupid things in his life. Attacking an all-powerful sorceress with nothing but a knife definitely ranked pretty high up there. It was neither the smartest thing to do nor the right thing to do. He imagined Cassandra would have berated the hell out of him for trying.
At the time, all he could think about was making that witch pay for what she did to Cassandra. He didn't want to kill her oh no, at least not at first. He wanted her to suffer.
When he heard they needed to go after the witch, something inside Jake just snapped. Jake had been on the street before he even realized he was on his feet.
The assumption she was distracted by whatever vile spell she was enacting had been way off. She was very observant or knew he was coming. Either way his frontal assault ended as badly as that time he tried a similar tactic against Baird during training.
Jake's head was swimming ever since he took that hit to the face. He was a fairly durable guy but it must have had magic behind the blow because no human could possibly hit that hard. Not with that witch's tiny build.
He did however hear the words of the witch. Then he heard the whoosh of approaching fire.
He always thought burning to death would hurt like hell. But right now, he didn't feel hardly anything apart from a nasty headache forming.
"Jake?" A quiet voice spoke up from his side.
Opening his eyes, he was at first greeted by a dark blur sitting beside him. As his vision slowly cleared he was astonished by who it was.
"Cassie?" Jake was utterly baffled. Her mane of red hair was the first thing Jake noticed. Next was the black dress she wore along with small fireworks going off behind her.
Jake found himself unable to speak for the longest time. Despite the pounding between his temples, he reached up and pulled the redhead into a tight embrace.
Cassandra let out a small "oh" of surprise as she returned the hug. "I'm glad you're okay Jake."
"Is this heaven?" Jake finally found his voice.
The redhead opened her mouth to answer but the voice from behind her beat her to it. "No Mister Stone, this is most certainly NOT heaven."
Peering around Cassandra, Jake saw that the other person was Endymion. He stood with one foot slid backward as if about to perform a sprint. One hand was held out in front of him while his other was in the air behind him.
As Jake's vision grew more and more clearer he saw several things at once.
Firstly, that was not a dress Cassandra was wearing, but a long black coat that swallowed her smaller frame. She was clutching the lapels of the garment to hold it closed.
Since Endymion was missing his, it must have been the one he normally wore. It was the first-time Jake saw the sorcerer without the coat on. Underneath the coat had been what appeared to be some kind of combat armor, but it looked like something straight from a science fiction novel. Along with that was a harness on his back. Jake could see spots where the two daggers were normally sheathed, a pair of pistol holsters with one unoccupied, and a short round metal bar right over his spine.
The next thing Jake saw was the blue translucent glasslike shield around them. Judging by the way Endymion was standing it must be something he was generating. What Jake had thought were fireworks were fireballs and magical missiles being deflected by the barrier around them. The witch most certainly had not given up.
"But I thought you two..." Jake was unable to finish his sentence.
Endymion scoffed. "Please, if a burning building was enough, I'd never have made it to my fifth millionth birthday."
Well, this actually didn't require as extensive a rewrite as I thought. Let me know what you think.