Children of the Archangels

CHAPTER 13: GIANT YAK ATTACK!

Luke's school sounded like a military base about to be carpet bombed by an enemy air force. Luke ran to the window besides Sirius to see what all the commotion was about.

An announcement came on a PA address system urging students to stay indoors and await further orders.

Meanwhile the ground shook as the sounds of mild explosions echoed off in the distance as if someone was using TNT to blow holes in the surrounding mountainside.

"What's attacking us? More Aeria?" Luke remembered the encounter he and Kevin had coming up to SGA. Maybe they had found a way into the school. They were demons of the air, if Luke recalled correctly.

"Demons can't come into this school unless invited in and even then I doubt they'd make so much noise. This sounds like a creature—maybe even an Iumenti," Sirius said trying to peek his head out the window as Mr. Faustin tried gathering everyone away from the window.

"What's an Iumenti?" Luke asked.

"Legendary creatures who are very hard to kill. They were amongst the first creatures created by God when he made the Earth. Most of them are gone or asleep. But some manage to creep back to the surface."

As if on cue, another explosion went off in the distance and sprayed chunks of rocks over by the sports field, destroying benches and trees. Emerging into view was a creature that looked like a Yak, a big hairy cow with giant horns. Its body was covered in snow white hair that sometimes made it blend into the snowy landscape around it. Soldiers from the school, dressed in white and brown camouflage with the SGA seal over their shirts, started firing weapons at them.

But the long-ranged weapons were useless. Bullets bounced off of its fur. Laser streams just got reflected back at their owners. Arrows snapped against the thick hide of the creature.

Then a putrid smell started to spray from its fur. It smelled like a hot gym full of men who all badly needed deodorant and a shower. Luke covered his nose.

"That thing stinks," Luke said.

"It's a Zengan," Sirius said. "A hybrid Iumenti."

Luke didn't understand what made it a hybrid. It looked like a Yak or a Musk-Ox, just the size of an elephant. Maybe it was a hybrid between a Yak, an elephant, and a skunk.

Then the Zengan Yak-thingy puffed up and let out a bellow followed by a stream of icy gas that enshrouded the area around it. The gas slowed down the movement of the soldiers attacking it. Nine out of ten of the soldiers were stopped in their tracks, and made into living ice sculptures.

"House Anael students should take this one," Sirius said. "They're immune to ice."

That'd explain the ten percent that didn't become artworks. But then the Zengan opened its mouth and Luke could see cold air that the yak gathered into its mouth forming a solid light blue ball.

The ten percent might be immune to catching a cold, but they won't be immune to a good old fashioned boulder smashing into their faces.

Like an automatic canon the Zengan fired off shot after shot of icy cannonballs. Some crashed into the ground like mortar strikes and sent soldiers flying. Others were deflected by a separate team of soldiers dressed in all black.

"Tempest," Sirius spoke to himself. "The highest-ranking students at SGA. They've either been at it for nearly eight years or are pretty powerful Nefs."

One of them created a wall of rock by planting his hands into the ground triggering a new barrier to absorb the impact of the icy cannonballs. Another teleported within striking distance of the Zengan and slashed at it with a golden sword that clanged off the creature's fury hide. The Tempest students had more grace in battle, but they might as well have been fighting with toothbrushes and combs because their weapons were useless.

Eventually the Zengan stomped on the ground and the whole campus shook. A crack formed in the ground.

Sirius gulped. "Not good," he said. "I think it's trying to open up a portal."

Luke didn't want to know how the burly yak was opening up a portal, nor did he want to know where it led to. But he had a feeling that it wasn't to a paradise spa resort in the Bahamas.

"Students, I need you all to step away from the window now," Mr. Faustin said as a blast of wind pushed everyone away from the windows, even Luke.

But Sirius stood his ground.

Before the windows could close, Sirius leaped out the window and was heading towards the track field.

"Sirius!" Luke yelled. The wind had died down, and Luke shoved his way back to the window.

"Son, I said step away from the window," Mr. Faustin ordered.

"Sirius is going to die out there!" Luke said. But the rest of the class didn't seem as convinced.

"You clearly haven't seen my boy Siri fight," Kallup said.

"Yeah, I'd be worried for the bull," Henry agreed.

Sure, Luke had seen Sirius handle the demon on the way to SGA pretty easily. He had a wicked cool sword named Absorber that was blinding bright. But that was a demon that needed to take control over something to do much damage. This creature was fully operational from the start and had impenetrable hide, freezing breath, cannonball spit-bullets, and not to mention the fact that it smelled like a landfill.

Sirius rushed towards the battlefield that was covered in craters, and frozen soldiers. He yelled at the Zengan to draw its attention. "Hey dumpster fire; I got a can of Febreze here with your name on it."

The Zengan turned towards Sirius and huffed. Then like a battering ram, it charged straight for Sirius.