The Thirty-Third - #BattletheBeast

Blood dripped from Martin Chatwin's nose as he looked up at Penny. The young man's eyes held a look of betrayal and it unexpectantly tugged at his heart. 

"What's wrong with me?" he asked as he collapsed to the ground holding his stomach. The way his face twisted in pain caused Penny to cringe. 

The beast moved towards the boy his laugh echoing off the surrounding trees. "We can't be in the same place at once. Jane should have told you." He laughed again as the moths covering his face moved their wings at a fevered pace. 

Penny moved forward to help the ailing Martin but the beast held up a hand to stop him. He pointed a  finger and moved it through the air across and down. The magician instantly felt a burning in his side and looked down to see blood soaking through his shirt. He went to one knee clutching himself. 

The beast moved the same finger over his other hand in a sawing motion. Penny tried to fight through the pain but felt the metal teeth of an invisible saw moving against his ribs. 

Alice took a step forward next to Julia who'd already moved closer to their adversary. The two stood shoulder to shoulder their hands outstretched ready to fight. Penny felt a deep despair as he watched his friends prepare to fight to the death. There was no way they could win. He glanced behind him at Eliot, Quentin, and Margo. They stood with each of their hands arranged in a way to throw their most powerful spells. 

Skipping backward the beast simply laughed. Penny refused to think of him as Martin even as he knew it was what the future held for the broken boy lying on the ground. 

"You see when you spend years alone in Fillory you have time to go over every scenario." The beast said steepling his fingers beneath his chin. "Naturally, I thought someone might try to defeat me by bringing my former self here. So I simply made it where if we're in the same timeline in Fillory, everything gets destroyed."

Quentin was the first to throw a spell at him his fingers moving quickly at arm's length. As soon as the fire had left Quentin's hands the beast flicked his wrist as if swatting away a gnat and it flew back at him. 

Quentin screamed as the fire moved over his body and Julia immediately attempted to put him out. Her hands flew in a spell Penny had never seen and water started to pour on Quentin's body. The smell was horrific and once the fire was out Penny was startled to see part of his face had been melted away. Quentin fell to the ground and convulsed. Another flick of his wrist and the beast threw Julia clear across the forest where her body hit a tree with a sickening thud.

Two down, Penny thought. Martin grabbed the bottom of his pants and whimpered. He'd almost forgotten about the boy they'd brought with them. His blood boiled when he thought of all the trouble they'd gone to in order to move him through time.

"Where's the destruction huh?" Penny yelled hoping he was calling a bluff and not inviting more chaos. "So far all I've seen you do is pick on a little boy." 

"Did you not see the mouthy brunette fly into the forest or the condescending long haired boy ablaze? I simply must try harder to impress you," the beast said raising both hands above his head.

Alice's arms flew up above her head. She let out a loud horrible scream as blood pooled beneath her armpits. The bastard was trying to pull her arms off. Penny moved forward throwing a spell Kady had shown him when they were bored one day after class. He was pleased to see the shockwave radiating from the tips of his fingers and flying at the beast like a tidal wave of power. It was worth the pain in his ribs from the wound left there. The monster was momentarily stunned, he shook his head like a dog jumping from the water and continued moving forward. 

"This bastard just won't die," Penny said in disbelief. Margo and Eliot were throwing everything they had at him. Margo had made her way to Alice and was trying to help her put down her arms. 

The beast's fingers flew in ways Penny could not imagine, the extra fingers making more elaborate gestures and creating spells which could only come from evil. As he made the gestures Alice's screams grew louder. The rings of blood beneath her arms got darker and bigger. She was being stretched in two and Penny did the only thing he could think of. He dove forward and knocked him to the ground stopping the spell. 

Penny felt the strength in the monster's arms as he lifted him like he was a small child up above his head. The pain in his ribs increased and he saw his blood dripping onto the man's coat beneath him as held him perpendicular to his body and laughed hysterically. "Here comes the destruction."

He was tossed off the beast and landed hard on the ground. A thin crack spread from the top of young Martin's head on the ground. The boy was now unconscious the trickle of blood from his nose having become a waterfall. The line started to spread as the ground shook and heaved as if the world was trying to shake them off. 

As it became wider and longer it became faster. Eliot was taken by surprise and fell into it screaming until he'd fallen so far they could no longer hear him. Margo ran from the crack towards the trees and was flattened when one jumped from the Earth and crashed on top of her. 

Alice whose arms had still been above her head let out another horrified shriek as the appendages came off her body and blood poured to the ground. She fell down and rolled into the crack which now stretched wide and seemed to go on forever back through the forest. It split it in two and Penny could see the trees continuing to spread further apart.

Only Penny was left facing the beast who continued to laugh wildly.

"Total destruction," he said gleefully and raised a hand into the air. He swiped it in front of him and Penny's head twisted around his neck breaking and blackness consuming him. They had failed.