Grim ran out of the school to chaos. Elizabeth was laying on the crumpled hood of a car and Selena went hurtling past him into the school. Fire was everywhere and the creature was searching for new targets. It was shaped like a woman with blades extending from her arms. Her entire body looked like dried tar except for her lava like eyes.
"Katie!" Grim yelled.
Katie ran out and saw the destruction. She formed into a weapon in Grim's hands. The creature attacked Nadia, but Grim blurred in front of her and blocked the attack. He was pushed to one knee as the creature over powered him.
"Nadia, this is one is strong, I need help."
The marks on her arms glowed and black crystals erupted from her hands. The torrent blew the monster back. Nadia's cloths faded away as a skin tight black and green dress took their place. The marks glowed up her arms and her neck. She hurled a fireball down the street.
"Let's get it."
Elizabeth and Selena staggered back into the fight.
" Watch out Grim, we opened Death's Gate and still couldn't beat it."
"You guys can't open it as wide as I can and I'm still exhausted from last night."
"Grim run for the marks!" Nadia yelled as she created magic glyphs on the ground. He ran towards one and he felt his power surge. He blurred again and hit the monster at high speed. His scythe impacted the creature but her skin didn't even crack. He back flipped away and a new glyph apeared in the air. He hit it and was standing upside down in the air.
"Oh, this is cool." Glyphs started to apear around the creature while a new one formed on the scythe. He launched himself from it and started darting around her. His attacks were either blocked or scratched off her harmlessly. She kicked and sent Grim hurtling into a car.
"Grim, can you get up?" Katie asked.
"Yeah." He groaned as he pulled himself out of the ruined hummer. "Damn thing has to be a pretty powerful to shrug off my attacks."
"How do we kill it?" Elizabeth asked.
"If we can crack it's armor you should be able to take it out with a rail shot." Selena said.
"I got a plan. Nadia can you restrain it."
"Yeah." She responded.
"Elizabeth get somewhere high up and prepare to take the shot. Selena you and me are going to break her."
They nodded and started the plan. Nadia made glyphs that trapped the creatures arms. Selena started firing at its midsection while Grim blurred at it. He continued to slash it till a crack apeared. The creature ripped one hand free and tried to stab him. Selena caught it's hand with her whip and held it back.
"Not so fast."
Grim slammed into the monster and broke open the skin on its right side. Elizabeth stilled her breath and fired a super powered shot. The round struck and the creature was ripped in half. It dissolved into silver dust and they all relaxed. They made they're way back into the school and Grim collapsed the Death Field. Time resumed it's flow and he leaned back against the wall.
"That was so exciting." Nadia said in a hushed voice.
"Just a day in the life of a hunter. We can give you the full orientation once we go home but if you have any questions."
"What exactly was that thing?"
"Alright when a human dies it's Lord Death's job to take them to the underworld. It is like a giant black ocean with infinite islands. Each islands either the perfect paradise or personal hell for someone's soul. When people leave their island and float in the ocean for years. They become warped and twisted losing all of their humanity. When they worm they're way out into our world, it's our job to send them back. They come here hoping to syphon power and life energy from living beings."
"You said something about Death's Gate, what's that?"
"It's complicated and I'll explain it better later, but basically we tap directly into Death's power and if we aren't careful it will burn out our souls."
"Wow, your guy's lives must be crazy."
"You don't know the half of it."
When the bell rang later they split up and Grim painstakingly pushed himself through three tests and a pop quiz. At the end of the day he just wanted to lay down and never get up. The others were waiting on the front steps of the school.
" We're taking the new girl to Chico's, you coming?"
" Of course greasy street vendor food is exactly what I need right now."
They made they're way into the business district. On the corner between two skyscrapers was a little food cart.
"Hey Chico, seven regulars."
"Coming right up amigos."
Chico was a second generation Mexican American and had been running his food cart as long as the hunters could remember.
"What are you guys getting?"
"Chico takes a tortilla, stuffs it with meat, cheese, and sour cream, folds it in half, then fries it. Trust me it tastes much better than it sounds." Katie said excitedly.
Chico passed them all their meal wrapped in wax paper. Grim handed him a fifty and they started walking towards their apartment. Nadia took a bite and her eyes went wide.
"Beats fish and chips huh?" James joked.
Nadia simply shook her head and took another bite. They all laughed and when they got to the apartment complex they grabbed her room key. They shared a massive area with six rooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen/living room.
"Grab any of the free rooms, dinner will probably be ready around six." Ryan said.
"Yeah settle in then we will blow you away with orentation."
"Okay." Nadia said. She climbed the spiral case and let out a sigh of relief. She went into one of the unoccupied rooms and plopped down on the bed. Her entire body ached and she was glad the day was over. She slowly pulled her shirt off with a grimace of pain. The marks across her arms and chest were inflamed and red. Even the ones on her slender neck made her involuntarily gasp as her shirt brushed against them.
"Where the hell did I pack it?"
She dug through her bag till she found a tube of medicine. It soothed the agony crawling up her body.
"I shouldn't have used that much power so soon." Reluctantly she got up and found a loose fitting shirt to wear. She pulled her silver white hair out of it's spiky ponytail.
When she came back down the stairs everyone but Ryan was on the couch. They were watching a cheezy sci-fi action movie while Ryan cooked.
"You kidding, I could totally take on chupacabra." Selena said. Grim had his head buried in his notebook.
"Hey Grim, why don't you pull your head out of that book for once." James said.
He looked up then immediately went back to scribbling in his book.
"Fine crab ass."
If Grim heard him he didn't show it. Nadia was strangely drawn towards Grim, the hexagonal mark on her neck crawling when she got close.
"Alright newbie, time for orentation. You may want to sit down."
3,376 words, 46,624 to go
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Death's Stigma (NanoWriMo14)
Ação(Very Rough Draft)The human world has become so corrupt that death can no long hold back the tide of creatures attempting to break free from his realm. As a last ditch attempt to stop the flow of undead he has spread his power through out the world...
