Midnight, Chapter 2

Imagine a time... a time where there was constant blood shed, constant war, constant death... place yourself in this place of war and darkness, how would you react? What would you do? What COULD you do?

Pt 1

The sun was soaring up high in the sky; the hybrid clan was at ease. The forces of the rival Vampire clans would be asleep by now, as for the Lycan, they were too smart to attack the hybrid clan during the day. The hybrid clan could attack their enemies but that wouldn’t go well.

The Lycan were fiercer in their human forms it seemed while the Vampires could defend themselves in their dwellings.

This is the time where the hybrid would rest, get food, and do several other activities that they couldn’t do when there was a threat of invasion or attack. For Holly however, it wasn’t a time for relaxing.

Her nightmare had been constantly bugging her, continually waking her in the middle of the night or day. The clan had unanimously decided to relieve her of her duties so that she could figure out what was causing them and end it.

She could hear her fellow warriors chatting with one another; some were discussing future battle plans, others were talking about the weather while a few were simply just chatting. She spaced off soon enough and began to think about her tormentor.

At this point she decided to call the nightmare by the name of Shadow considering how it tended to sneak around in the shadows of the nightmares that it caused. Shadow looked familiar but she couldn’t figure out how and why he did.

She didn’t have much time to think about it before her thoughts were interrupted by Randy, one of the head members of the clan. “Hey Holly,” came his usual greeting. Holly turned to face Randy with a tired expression.

He shook his head at the sight of her; her hair was a mess, dust covered her face, and she looked exhausted, “You need to figure out what is going on with this nightmare. It definitely is a sign of something if it keeps repeating every time you dream.”

“I know Randy, I was just thinking about it until you interrupted my thoughts.”

Randy muttered something and was silent again for about three seconds when he started up again, “Well, no matter. Holly, you need to get to work. We’re low on food, we’re in need of a scout patrol to check the edges of the area to the west but we’re short on warriors to do that so you’ll have to, we need more water because the jugs are almost empty so head to the river after you’re done with that, some of the younger warriors are getting annoyed since they haven’t been training in awhile, fix some new bedding up for the older warriors that is preferably soft but make sure it isn’t too soft yet not hard as a rock, and lastly you need to fix yourself up. You look like a disaster Holly so clean up afterward.”

She groaned in response. “Get it all done by nightfall understood?” Randy enjoyed pushing Holly to her limits with several tasks constantly. Johnson would constantly tell her to ignore him but she never seemed to do so. Randy walked away to leave Holly to get to work on her many tasks of the day.

The sun was now setting; Holly had almost completed her list of assignments. All that she had to do now was scout the western edge of the clan’s territory, fetch water, and clean up. Lucky for her however, there was a river in the western area so she could do all three. She was carrying a long pole that had half a dozen water jugs hanging on it by ropes.

She had seen no problems so far which was good. After about five minutes she reached the river. The first thing she did was stick her head in the water to clean her face up. After about ten seconds she flung her head up and began to squeeze the water out of her hair. She grabbed the pole and lifted it above the river, after which she put it in and let the current fill it.

A bush rustled. Holly shot her head around to face the direction. By the bush were just two squirrels rolling around fighting over an acorn. She sighed and went back to looking at the river. It took awhile but the jugs finally were filled to the top.

Holly picked the pole up, and held it on her back while the jugs shook. She proceeded to walk onward towards the heart of the clan’s turf after a quick look around that she did with her head.

Now she began to hum to herself as she walked. The next sound to be heard was a grunt that came not from Holly, but from someone else which was followed by the sound of something hurling through the air.

A small ax snapped the pole in half and whacked into a tree as the jugs hit the ground. Holly however dropped down at the last second and avoided getting hit.

She sprung up and twirled around to find several chuckling Lycan warriors that were still in their human states. One of them spat in her direction.

“Well if it isn’t David of the Lycan clan and his bumbling companions,” she mocked. One of the warriors raised another ax but David shook his head. David was referred to as the leader of the Lycan clan considering he was generally the one giving the orders while the clan’s leader seemed to cower back at the heart of the Lycan turf; David had dirty blonde hair that he kept short but buzzed up an inch or two and yellow eyes. Beside him stood his girlfriend Milly, who had dark red hair which was also kept at about the same height and darker red eyes.

Together the two of them were a real pain in the neck, to say the least. “Holly, what a surprise this is. Here we come to get water only to find a whack job of a human on our turf.” Holly glared, “Idiot, you know very well that I’m no human!” David laughed as if Holly had just made a joke, “To us you are, fool, your power won’t kill us!”

“I’ll show you, David!” Holly jumped and spiraled around in the air. Light now began to gather between her fist and started taking the form of a long rod. It solidified into a pole that had a bright white glow.

Holly landed in the middle of the Lycan group and without a moment of rest she whacked one of them in the face. Next, as they attempted to grab her, she leaped in the air allowing them to ram each other which is when she made her next move. She swung the pole around and almost managed to hit every single Lycan exception of David and Milly. They spat in disgust.

The next thing Holly knew was that they were starting to grow long fur. The rest of them were beginning to do the same she soon noted. They were transforming, that much was made clear to her instantly. She took a battle stance ready to fight to the end if necessary. Unknown to them however, was a presence… from the shadows; someone was observing the conflict about to unfold.

Holly grew annoyed with the Lycan warriors and considered attacking them while they were changing but she chose not to since she is a warrior of "honor" and doesn’t attack a defenseless opponent at the beginning of a battle. It took time but eventually the Lycan warriors were fully transformed.

She glared at David and Milly who hadn’t transformed. “Clearly they think I’ll be easy to take down,” she thought to herself. “Alright, bring it wolf faces.”

Instantly, David shouted and raised his right hand, signaling his warriors to wait for the command to attack. The silence lasted for about ten seconds, before his arm went down, “Attack pattern: SWARM formation!” he ordered.

The Lycan warriors split into two groups, one group of three, and a group of eleven counting Milly and David. The group of three dashed at Holly, running on all four, and began to circle her at top speed.

Holly held the pole ready to swing at any that got close but they kept their distance, being about ten feet away from her. One of them suddenly stopped running, turned to face Holly, and leaped at her.

She jumped above to avoid a collision and instantly recognized the SWARM pattern. During the war, she remembered that one Hive unit was famous for the SWARM pattern.

It involved three sections; each would join in after the first wave was beat. They would circle their target at a distance and eventually they would stop to strike. In most cases, if the first wave warriors weren’t killed off, they would add themselves to the second wave.

This attack pattern was hard to counter since it was only possible to hit the enemy when they weren’t running but of course, if they weren’t circling they would be attacking. It was a hard battle but she managed to defeat the special Hive unit in one of the war’s millions’ of battles.

The Lycan continued to circle her as she let her face smirk, “Idiot, I know the SWARM pattern, I’ve defeated a unit that’s done this against me before,” she muttered. David heard her mention the SWARM pattern but didn’t catch the part she said about beating a unit that tried it on her. One of the Lycan stopped to attack but she instantly sent the pole crashing into its face which sent it flying across the battle field.

This caught David by surprise. Right away the other two that were circling her stopped to attack but she was too fast. Holly threw the pole at one of the two Lycan’s nose and shot at the other to kick it away. She slammed her foot into the Lycan and bounced off of it after sending it flying. She grabbed the pole as she somersaulted in the air and safely landed on the ground below. She stood and glanced at David who glared at her with anger.

He yelled the command that sent three more into battle which were followed by the first three who were coming back. She smirked again, “Well if that’s how you want to play it…” Holly held her hand up, instantly a small sphere of light gathered above her palm.

After three seconds her hand closed on it causing an explosion of shinning light to fly everywhere around her. The warriors began to crash into each other and stumble about due to the blinding bright light that filled their eyes. This gave Holly an opportunity to break the attack formation.

She dashed at two Lycan that had crashed into each other. They had gotten up, leaving a gap in between them that Holly could fit through which she did. When she was about to run through she held her pole behind her, each end facing away from her, and as she shot between them the pole made contact with their legs. The two warriors were tripped and landed on their backs with a loud thud.

Next, she noted another clumsy warrior that the light had temporarily blinded. She ran at it lightning fast when she noticed that one of them was following the sound of her running.

She threw the pole in the air attempting to get it to land in the ground which it did. It was slanted towards her. Jumping over it, she continued to dash at the Lycan as the pursuing Lycan ran into the pole. It went right through his arm, causing him to yowl in rage as well as pain.

She jumped again a few feet away from the stumbling Lycan and gave him a roundhouse kick to the snout. He stumbled backward, keeping his hands on his snout. Holly jumped again and hit his jaw with her kneecap, “Yow, ouch that’s smarts!” she mocked. At this point, David had ordered all of the Lycan warriors to attack and forget the SWARM pattern.

The blinding effects of the light began to wear off. Some of the warriors were beginning to open their eyes slowly and look around. Eventually, they all snapped out of it.

David barked another command but instead of charging, the warriors lined up in one row. Holly glanced at David with another of her famous battle smirks, which sent chills down his spine; she had something up her sleeve.

Once more she raised her hand but this time her palm faced the Lycan lineup. She bent all of her fingers except for her middle and pointer fingers, which she kept together. Light began to glow at the tips of her fingernails. David shouted the order to charge. Holly responded by waving her hand in the air at a fast pace, which left lines of light in the air.

She did this for a few seconds before her arm ducked behind her back. Instantly the lines turned direction and pointed at the charging Lycan; this made David angry. It was her special light arrow attack.

Her arm shot in front of her, the same two fingers extended at the attackers. In a reaction, the light arrows shot forth towards the Lycan warriors. They mostly shot passed them leaving scratches but several were shot into their flesh.

Some of them staggered backwards a few steps before landing on their backs while others fell to their knees; the attack wasn’t meant to kill but instead she had meant it to scare them off which it did because in the next few seconds the warriors shot up, turned away from Holly, and began to dash away on all four of their paws.

The person that was watching in the shadows crossed his/her arms, however, no one noticed this, “Not bad… even with that she still seems to be…” David nodded at Milly. Their arms bent downwards as they began to change from their human forms into the werewolf forms. In three short seconds, they had fully changed and were ready to fight.

They both shot at Holly who seemed to be ready to do the same. Milly shot right in front of her and snarled. In response, Holly slugged her in the snout. David shot at her from behind but she simply put her fist up which he slammed into. The next thing they knew was that they were flying, Holly had kicked them both.

When they landed they turned back into their human forms. David staggered up huffing, amazed at how such small time attacks had knocked the breath out of him, “Milly… how is it possible that… someone so small can… knock the breath out of us… like this?!” Holly chuckled, “Size has nothing to do with it David, strength, smarts, and speed help.”

David glared at her before backing away. He nodded at Milly; they were going to retreat for now clearly. Holly watched as they dashed away into the approaching night. She sighed but she didn’t stay inactive for long, she noticed something reflecting under a tree. She noticed that someone was watching her.

Holly locked eyes with the figure. She started slowly walking in the direction of the person pretending to not notice. The person walked behind the tree, apparently knowing that Holly had spotted him/her. Holly walked up to it and instantly jumped to the side.

No one was there however. Whoever it was had somehow disappeared. She sighed once more, “Guess I should report back about this,” she muttered. With that Holly dashed off towards the heart of the clan’s territory.

Pt 2

Katherine sat in the dark feeling low and depressed. It had been three days since her last encounter with Zepp. Ever since then she had felt like this, miserable at the knowledge that Zepp truly thought she deserved to be dead.

The only one that was keeping him from challenging her to a death battle was Jayden. He kept Zepp under for a few days somehow but it never lasted.

The painful emotions that she felt because of Zepp were gnawing at her, making her feel rage and misery at the same time which ended with depression.

A voice echoed through the caves, her father was calling a meeting, “Gather you worthless good for nothings, I’m calling up an important meeting!” Katherine sighed and sucked up her feelings.

She walked into the main chamber; it was about a couple dozen meters tall and a few dozen meters in diameter. This chamber was the gathering room, the place in which the clan leader would hold clan meetings where everyone would gather.

Katherine’s father stood high above on a platform in front of a tunnel that went to his chamber. Her mother Madelyn was sitting on his right while her brother Jayden stood on his left. In front of them were Steve and Zepp.

She knew what it meant. Zepp was going to be punished, Steve would be replaced, and Jayden would take his place. The other elites stood around them. Mike glanced around. Katherine assumed that her guess was correct.

The other elites, Bob, Joe, Billy, and the captain of them, Phil, stood as if they were in a rage. Mike raised his hand in the air for silence.

As the room began to grow silent, he began his speech, “Fellow warriors of the clan, I have gathered you all here to inform you of some… unexpected news… As I’m sure you know, my son Jayden beat Steve in a Death Battle but chose to spare his, now pathetic, life. My elites met earlier to discuss a replacement for him since he isn’t able to fight anymore. We’ve come to this decision; since my son beat him, Jayden shall be the one to take Steve’s place.”

The room lit up with cheers. Jayden was truly a gifted warrior. Katherine still wondered why Jayden said that Zepp was stronger than him.

“Silence!” he yelled. “That isn’t all I have to share with you. On another note, my older son Zepp, for disgracing us, is going to be charged with a punishment that could very well kill him. Tonight we are attacking a rival clan, Zepp is to lead this attack with a small diversionary team to lead most of the enemy’s warriors away from their lair.”

“Which one are we attacking,” someone questioned.

“Yeah, is it one of the Lycan clans or maybe another Vampire clan… or are you planning on attacking that hybrid clan?” People began to shout until Mike silenced everyone again.

“No, we aren’t attacking the hybrid clan. After one of the Lycan clan’s foolish efforts to take one of their warriors hostage; they’re on full alert. Also we aren’t going to attack one of the surrounding Vampire clans. That leaves us with a Lycan clan and can you guess which one I picked out?”

Silence filled the room again for about five seconds until Mike continued, “I chose the Lycan clan that attacked the hybrid clan. They’ll be easy pickings after their encounter with the warrior called Holly.”

“Yeah, how on earth did a hybrid take on ten Lycan warriors as well as David and survive?”

“They say she is some sort of alien or something.”

“I heard she made arrows appear from nowhere and fly at them.”

“Are you serious?”

“No joke, I heard that she blinded them with some sort of blinding light weapon or something.”

“How is that possible?”

The whole chamber went up in talk. No one appeared to know who Holly was or what her background is. “Silence!” Mike ordered once again. “We attack tonight.”

“Why don’t we wait for the moon to be blocked by clouds?”

“Because by then their warriors will be back to full strength,” came a reply.

“Yeah but with no light we could sneak up on ‘em.”

“Have you forgotten about their insane hearing skills? They’d hear us coming from a mile away idiot.” Arguments and fights were beginning to break out thanks to the insulting.

Mike silenced them yet again. Katherine yawned. She felt tired it seemed. “I want no objections. The next one to argue will be decapitated.” The room went silent instantly. “Now I want you to prepare for battle; use the next three hours to prepare yourselves for the fight with those flea bags!” Mike raised a fist into the air and yelled out a battle cry. Everyone else in the room did the same, cheering for battle.

Katherine didn’t seem to care about battling the Lycan. It was always the same story with the different clans she would often mutter; they would fight the other clans of Lycan, Vampires, and the hybrid clan occasionally.

Sometimes they won, other times they lost. The story of her life’s battles was as simple as that and generally in every battle; she got stuck with fighting the younger, as well as the weaker or sickly warriors. It bored her to death.

Mike motioned them to disperse and prepare with a simple hand gesture. The elites, Mike, and Madelyn turned and walked into the tunnel that was behind them to discuss the battle. Behind they left Zepp and Steve. Zepp jumped down, followed by Steve.

They passed Katherine who was still staring ahead. Zepp stopped a few feet behind her. “That includes you slacker; get moving,” he commanded. She turned to follow them. Katherine grew annoyed again.

The next few hours were miserable for her. She got stuck with Zepp as a partner for the attack so they actually had to work out combat strategies that they could both work with as a team.

She often thought of how irritating it was to work with him. Zepp criticized her every move, complaining that she would be taken out by the enemy at the beginning of the battle. She doubted she would survive this battle with Zepp as her partner.

The time came at last. Most of the clan had assembled outside of the mountain for a final briefing before the battle while several remained in it to guard in case of a rival clan’s attack. Mike stood in front of his five elites waiting for everyone to assemble. The moon was out and shinning.

“Alright, it seems like everyone is here… so I’ll start the briefing,” he boomed. Katherine yawned. “My elites and I have decided on a plan that we find most fitting. Actually Jayden came up with this idea himself so I’ll let him explain it.”

Mike backed up as Jayden stepped forward. “I could never give a speech to the whole clan like him… I don’t know how Jayden does it,” Katherine thought to herself.

“Thank you father; now before I start explaining, I feel it necessary to say that anyone who feels like their fear will get in the way should stay back. Cowards will only screw the plan up, which is something I would not like. Therefore I ask those of you who are to step back… anyone? Good. Now this plan does involve Zepp as a key component. We will require a large diversion to draw the enemy away from their settlement. The attack on their home will be simple and will require few warriors. This means that most of you will follow Zepp into battle as the diversion. Now once his team distracts most of them the plan splits into several stages. We will need four groups for the main attack: a group to deal with any warriors that are left, a group to wreck everything in sight, and a group to annihilate the young, the ill, the injured, the weak, or anyone else that isn’t well enough for combat. The fourth group will receive the most important job, capturing the hostage we’re going to use; their real leader. If we can get him, the enemy might be willing to trade for the life of their leaders. We will be trading him for territory, food, and several other necessities. If they agree, we’ll keep him alive, if not we kill. Either way we weaken them considerably. I want you to show no mercy. The warriors that will be in the fourth group are going to be my father, myself, my sister, and the other elites. Why so many of our best you might be wondering? Phil recommended it. The enemy’s best warriors typically guard their leader when they fall under attack, which means that David, Milly, Jasper, Sam, and Jake, as well as any other warriors in the area that don’t follow the diversion team. Now before I turn this back to my father, are there any questions about the plan?”

Katherine raised her hand, “Yes Jayden, you said you wanted the best warriors for the important group so why did you pick me?” Everyone went silent waiting for a response. Jayden chuckled before he decided to reply, “My dear sister, you underestimate yourself. You only think you’re weak because Zepp insists that you are but I think he is the weak one. I’ve seen you practice your fighting skills, you are much better than him at fighting. If you’d open your eyes I’m sure you would agree.”

She smiled, “Thank you Jayden.” She didn't have to look, already feeling the burning gaze from Zepp wherever he stood. She glanced down, sighing at the feeling.

Mike stepped forward as Jayden backed away, “As my son said, cowards will not be appreciated so if you think fear will mess you up on this attack, stay back.” No one stepped back.

“Good. Now to make the plan more specific, I’ll specify where you’re to go. The diversionary team is to lure the enemy half way between the heart of their turf and the edge of ours. The main assault is to lure any remaining warriors away. The second team has it simple with wrecking anything such as dens, food, weapons, anything at all that will weaken them. Our third group can attack anywhere they want to I guess. As for my team, I want us to basically stick to their leader like stink on a skunk, lure away his guards if needed but don’t harm the leader. Are we clear on that? Good. Diversionary team, if the enemy tries to retreat, cut them off. I want them kept away from their settlement at all times!”

Everyone nodded. It was time to move out. Several of the warriors began to follow Mike and the five elites. Katherine still couldn’t believe what Jayden had said to her. She felt happier than she had been in a long time.

She walked in the front of the crowd by her brothers and her father. He seemed to side with Jayden she noticed. His expression when Jayden had answered her question looked like it meant he agreed with Jayden.

She felt like she was being watched. She turned to her left to see someone standing atop a tree that looked like it was dead center in front of the full moon.

Its eyes seemed to reflect the moon. Katherine stopped where she was and continued to look at the person. No one seemed to notice what she was doing nor did they notice the person on the tree top. Her eyes locked with the person’s eyes.

Their white hair blew with the wind, which was blowing away from the Lycan clan’s turf luckily. “Hey, Katherine, are you alright?” She turned to see her father had stopped with her.

“Y-yeah…” She turned her head back to the tree top to see only a fading white glow.

“Is something wrong?”

She turned her head back to her father and shook it, “No… I just thought I saw something. Just the moonlight playing tricks on me I guess.”

“Well, let’s go then.” She walked after her father with the rest of the group.

At last, they had come to the edge of their territory and were by the territory of their target. Mike nodded to the clan issuing the “ok” that it was safe to move on. The plan to get the enemy’s attention for the diversion was to storm their turf yelling out battle cries. The clan broke into two groups and went their separate ways for the attack.

Katherine’s group snuck around in the bushes. The other group had stopped farther back meanwhile her team was nearing the heart of the Lycan’s turf. They stopped only a few feet away in the bushes and waited for their warriors to go storming off. Minutes passed and nothing had happened.

She began to doubt the plan with the wind throwing off the diversion team’s yelling and scent. Five minutes had passed. Finally, the plan took effect. Dozens of transformed Lycan warriors began to storm out of an area of dense trees, yowling their version of a battle cry. They waited a few minutes after the last one stormed by before they began to divide.

Team one shot from the bushes and went into the dense trees the Lycan had stormed out of. Seconds later they were shooting back out with several more warriors chasing them. Once they were out of sight, the group approached the area. They stopped.

Mike glanced in a gap to see a bunch of hammocks of cloth and several more warriors that weren’t transformed. He nodded. Katherine’s heart began to race as they shot in the gap shouting. They split into three teams and began to act on what they had come to do.

One team shot after the hammocks, food, and everything else while the third team blasted after the remaining Lycan. Her team approached another gap and shot in it. Now they were in a small clearing; there were a few hammocks here but not many. Bones were lying around on the ground, and in the middle of the clearing were the elites and the Lycan clan’s leader.

“Well, looks like we found the target…” Jayden muttered.

Mike smirked, “Well Dustin, looks like we’ve got you.”

The warrior snarled, “I think it is I who has you Mike!”

From the rumors, Katherine was expecting a fat, overweight, sloppy looking warrior to be the leader but this was not the case. Dustin was muscular. His finger nails looked razor sharp as well as his teeth and he wasn’t even transformed. His hair was shaggy dirty blonde, his eyes were amber shaded. He looked very dangerous to Katherine but she didn’t care.

“Father, I thought you said he would be overweight and weak looking?” Jayden mumbled.

“I did…” was Mike’s reply.

“Then explain that!” Jayden pointed a finger at Dustin.

“How should I know, I’m not his keeper!”

Dustin smirked, “You bugs really thought I would be a push over? Guess again! I’ve been like this for quite awhile fools. Elites, attack these pests!”

Dustin stepped back as his clan elites charged Katherine and her team. The battle started small with things like hair pulling and kicking but soon turned into an all-out brawl.

“Their elites are stronger than ours!” she thought. The captain of the elites, David, approached Katherine. She raised her right hand and got into a defensive pose that involved her having one foot behind her and the other in front of her.

David laughed. He found her to be amusing. Anger flared in Katherine but she didn’t explode over it. David shot at her when Jayden interfered, “Dustin is escaping, capture him, sis.”

She looked at him with a look of surprise. He trusted her to get the job done. She glanced around, everyone was busy including her father, she noted in her head. Then she spotted Dustin backing through a cluster of bushes.

Katherine sprinted after the Lycan leader. She shot through the bushes and rounded a tree. She continued to run and turned at another thick cluster of trees and bushes. Dustin was waiting for her it seemed.

He chuckled for a few seconds before he actually said something to her, “I was expecting your clan’s leader to come after me but instead I get a little girl who should be back at the mountain caring for the kids and elderly!” He laughed out loud. “Oh… I tell ya this is just hilarious. Why don’t you go run along home little girl before you get hurt.”

Anger flared in Katherine again, “For your information, I’m a warrior of the clan. Mike is my father and I am going to take you down you worthless mutt!” she replied.

Dustin growled in response; he clearly hadn’t found Katherine’s reply funny, “Fine, have it your way but don’t say I didn’t warn you fool!”

Dustin dashed at Katherine with his right hand in the air. He was attempting to slap her aside. Katherine’s left arm went up to block his hand. His hand shot at her face. His nails slashed her arm and shredded one of her sleeves. She shouted.

Dustin tried slapping her again and successfully knocked her to the ground. Next, he tried sending his fingernails through her body. She rolled aside just as the nails would’ve made contact but instead of going through her they went through the ground.

He growled. Katherine shot up from the ground and landed. She then turned to face Dustin who was shooting her a dirty look. He once more dashed at Katherine but this time he didn’t stay on the ground; Dustin was shooting into the air and was beginning a dive at Katherine.

Katherine felt Dustin’s foot making contact to her neck. She fell to the ground and went skidding along. Dustin landed and turned to face his opponent. A sighing sound came from the warrior, “Well, you aren’t half bad I will admit but I don’t even have to take this as a serious battle to win it. So I guess I should finish this now that I am done playing with you.” Dustin slowly approached Katherine. He felt bored by her performance.

Her green eyes stared up into his. She knew she was going to die. Dustin grabbed her shirt’s collar and held it along with her up into the air. His left hand approached her throat. He was planning to cut it open.

“Weak minded fool, your death will bring your clan joy. You’ll no longer get in their way; if they live, that is.” Dustin was just about to carve her throat when yelling came from the tree tops. Their eyes glanced up to see several of Katherine’s friends jumping from the tops of the trees.

Dustin got kicked in the head and stumbled backward. He lost a grip on Katherine’s shirt which is when she jumped away from the Lycan. More of her friends shot down on Dustin from the tree tops; one surprised Katherine by landing right next to her followed by two more.

“You ok Katherine?” one asked.

“Yeah, thanks, Carly,” she replied.

“Good, we got her just in time then; let us handle that creep ok. Come on Josh, let’s get him.” They ran towards the swarm of young Vampire warriors and joined in with knocking Dustin around.

He growled, “Why you insignificant peasants!” His nose grew out while his eyes turned all golden amber. His nails grew sharper as fur began to grow out. Before long, his transformation was complete. He then began to throw the young warriors about, cut them, and injure.

Carly and Josh ran at the warrior screaming. What Katherine saw next was something she would never forget. Dustin sent his claws into Josh’s stomach and ripped out several organs while his other hand’s claws went soaring into Carly’s jaw; ripping it out in pieces. Josh was dead instantly while Carly dropped to the ground bleeding out. In only a few seconds, she too was dead.

Katherine’s eyes watered, two of her best friends, friends she had had since she could walk, were no more. Her rage exploded again. She screamed into the air with rage at the top of her lungs so loud that Zepp’s team could have heard it; it certainly got Dustin’s attention. She glared with hatred at him; tears were flowing down her cheeks.

“Huh?” he thought. Katherine began to growl like a Lycan would. Her ears grew out and ended like the point of a bat’s ear. Her fangs grew sharper as well as longer. Her nails grew pointed and longer while her arms and legs bulked up slightly. Her eye color became a darker shade of dark green. Fur grew on her arms in small portions.

This fur began to glow with a gray light, blindingly strong. Dustin’s expression showed confusion, even though he was transformed, in a way that made it look like he was thinking “What the heck is going on?” Katherine shot off at Dustin. Her new claws slashed his chest, digging a little deep. Blood trickled down as her other hand slashed into his arm.

He growled. His hands shot at her but instead his and hers locked up. Each of them was pushing with force against each other. Katherine grunted, then with a growl she lifted him into the air and tossed him upward.

Katherine jumped up after him and sent her fists flying into him. Her hands locked into fists and came together above her. She slammed them down on his forehead which sent him flying down to the ground below.

He landed with a loud bang, bounced up a few feet from the ground, and was slammed down again by a slam to the throat. He moaned. He slowly began to return to his human form just as Katherine was doing. She was huffing and puffing. Blood trickled from Dustin’s nose and his mouth.

She raised her hands to her face and observed them, shocked by what had happened. Before she knew it, the dozens of Lycan warriors that went after the diversionary team were retreating along the path she was on.

When they came into view they instantly noted their leader’s unconscious body and Katherine who was standing over him huffing as if she had just exhausted herself in a battle. They all looked down at him and then at her. Anger still flashed in her eyes.

“I can’t believe it, our leader taken down by a little girl!”

“A Vampire girl at that!”

“Impossible, she must have had help.”

“Let’s get her and throw her back to those failures.”

“Send her back in pieces with the rest of them.”

Before anyone could react, the second team shot out of some bushes followed by several of the Lycan warriors, including the elite ones. Mike instantly noted Dustin was down. He shot at Dustin and took out a knife.

He landed right next to him and held the knife above Dustin’s throat. The Lycan warriors froze in their tracks, “Now if you want to see your leader alive, I suggest you let us go… otherwise, I’ll carve him with this knife!”

The Lycan warriors growled but were silenced by a hand gesture from David, “No,” he spoke, “Let them go… if they attempt to take Dustin with them, kill them all.” Mike’s plan had failed.

They had all fought for nothing. Mike shook his head, “We’ll let you have him but we are going to drag him with us till we reach our turf.”

Everyone looked to David for a response; he nodded, “We’ll agree but we’re going to make sure you go back without our leader.”

They approached the mountain defeated and injured. The Lycan stuck to them like glue the whole time as David said they would. When they finally had crossed into their own territory, the Lycan had drug their leader back to the heart after seeing to it that the Vampire clan had left. They entered the entrance tunnel with the sun beginning to rise.

It didn’t take long for news of Katherine defeating Dustin alone to spread throughout the clan. Zepp had, of course, called her out as a liar but no one listened to him.

They had sustained heavy casualties, at least half of the warriors that had gone with were injured, a fourth of the warriors were dead or dying, while the rest were simply exhausted.

Katherine sat in the darkness of her chamber, sad, confused, and angry. All she thought about was how she had failed to protect her friends. She didn’t care that she had been able to tap into her hybrid powers. She wanted her friends back, even if it meant losing her hybrid powers. “The battle should never have happened,” she thought to herself.

Pt 3

Holly rolled to her left as a black spear shot by her face. Blood dripped from a small cut that it had made on her face as it passed. The spear shot into a rock and was stuck. Sitting on a rock, not too far away was Shadow.

He stood and jumped to the ground with a spin. He landed with one knee on the ground with fire exploding behind him. Holly stiffened. “You sure know how to make an entrance… I’ll say that much,” she mumbled. He instantly bowed his head in reply, thanking her for the comment.

He stood up smiling at her. That smile then turned into a grin as Shadow put his arm in front of his body. Holly turned and dashed off as a black glow emitted from the ground below. Black lightning shot up into the air in a huge cluster, compacting and exploding only a few feet off of the ground.

His next trick was a shocker. Shadow waved his hands and arms around in the air, which were leaving black lines. “It would be best to avoid whatever he’s up to,” she thought.

Before she could act, Shadow’s right palm landed on the ground, leaving a black symbol as it rose. The ground cracked and exploded sending debris everywhere.

From the ground, several molten black liquid creatures shot up and onto the ground. Shadow crossed his arms with a smirk.

The creatures raised their heads and shrieked into the air with a high pitch sound. Holly put her hands to her ears to block out the sound. “I know those things, black shriekers of the Hive… so that’s his game!” she thought. She fell to the ground, still covering her ears. The pain was too much.

She awakened to the sound of Randy’s voice. He was talking about some sort of attack on the Lycan clan she had fought off’s turf. “Sounds like the Lycan got lucky,” someone muttered. Holly sluggishly sat up to see Randy, Jeff, and three others. They stopped and looked at her. They began to smile and chuckle.

“What?” Holly mumbled.

“Uh… Holly, you went to bed with a pretty face right?” She gave an annoyed look to them,

“Yes, why?”

“Well… it’s just that… uh… just go look at your reflection in a water container.” She slowly got up and walked towards a nearby container. She looked at her reflection and screamed.

Edgar burst from some bushes glancing around crazily, “What, what happened? Are we under attack? Will someone tell me who just screamed?” Holly backed away from the water and felt her face. There was a cut going along her left cheek.

“I know it’s not pretty but there’s no need to scream about it Holly!” Randy commented.

“Sorry… I just over reacted…” she muttered.

“To what?”

“Well, in a nightmare I just had, that creep I told you about cut my face in pretty much the same spot as this one… I thought that it was from my dream but instead it looks like a thorn was in my bedding…” Laughter exploded from them.

“HEY! It wasn’t funny; I was scared that I’d die next time I dream there for a minute!” Once again, they all laughed, some were rolling on the floor. Holly chuckled with a smile on her face and walked away with her friends.