Chapter 19
I wasn’t sure what my other fellow manifestations were dealing with, but the chaotic thoughts surging through the city made it clear the Celestial Coven had come. Unlike the other psychic extensions, I managed to make my way back to the Global Guild station where my core self worked.
Outside the facility, Enchanter Diaz and his interns patrolled.
There was no urgency in their surface thoughts, meaning the chaos in the city hadn’t spread everywhere.
A calculated strike, precision. Even though my core self had been struck down somehow from within, it seemed no one had realized yet.
“Sort of offensive the Global Guild would only assign one of theirs to guard their sanctum.”
A slender guy with dark brown skin slicked toward Diaz and his interns. I fought off a headache from the memories shoved into my thoughts before losing connection with my core self.
“Dammit,” I whispered, before linking my thoughts to Diaz and his interns. “This is one of the Celestial Coven witches. You need to be extremely careful.”
Name: Lambert Finch
Branch: Bestial (Hybridization)
I shared what little intel I had on Finch, but I didn’t know much about the hybridization branch.
“Frosty?”
“Ba-ba-bawk.”
“That sounds like a dangerous branch.”
“We need to stay on guard, Duchess.”
“I’m absolutely flattered the Celestial Coven would send a fellow bestial branch witch to face me,” Diaz said with a cocky grin. “Priscilla and I can’t wait to test our might against you.”
The armored bear roared ferociously as Diaz pulled out his enchanted sword.
“Please, you familiar witches think you’re of the same caliber as me?” Finch scoffed, disgust pouring off his tongue. “You lot insult the bestial branch.”
Diaz groaned. “You’re one of those bestial users.”
“Let me and King Clucks at him.” Gael twirled his meteor hammer, letting the heavy metallic ball whirl faster and faster, adding a bit more slack to the chain with each swing. “We can take this cocky lil bitch on our own.”
“Cl-cluck.”
“Don’t be arrogant, Gael.” Diaz shifted his stance. “You wouldn’t wanna come off like this fool.”
“You wanna see fools?” Finch scowled. “I’ll show you what fools you lot are challenging me.”
Finch’s eyes turned a golden brown. His nails grew long and black. His teeth turned fanged. Muscles swelled across his body, making him inflate and rip through his shirt. His heels arched like a cat’s. Fur covered patches of his body.
Flickers of his thoughts bled through his protective warding.
Eagle’s vision. Elephant’s smell. Tiger’s claws. Crocodile’s jaw. Great White’s fangs. Cat’s reflexes. Gorilla’s strength and adaptability. Worst of all, Inland Taipan Snake venom secreted on his claws.
“You all need to be incredibly cautious.” I shared what animal intel I could, and Diaz filled in the blanks on the few I hadn’t noticed.
Apparently, he had a strong encyclopedic knowledge of different animals, spending his efforts searching for fellow bestial witches of all types and helping them thrive in the enchanter world.
Priscilla growled, shaking her head and tearing off her helmet.
“Girl, what’s wrong?” Diaz turned to his familiar.
“Ba-ba-bawk!” King Clucks flapped his wings, fluttering and jumping away from Gael.
Duchess made a strange noise and thwacked her tail a few times before levitating in the air.
“Moo-Moo, chill out.” Wesley attempted to settle his cowfish, who circled the tiny fishbowl enclosure at a dangerous speed, knocking water out in the process.
“It’s a pheromone cocktail of my own creation,” Finch explained.
“There’s a lot of tragic branches out there, but I’ve found familiar witches utterly worthless.
You share your magic with an animal, reliant and pathetic.
Without your beasts, you’re nothing. This cocktail blurs their senses, drives them primal, and severs that telepathic link y’all share while they’re in a feral state. ”
Priscilla roared, then turned to run away. She bulldozed into the street, casting telekinesis erratically at nearby cars.
“Shit,” Diaz muttered. “She’s going to kill someone at this rate.”
“Duchess, stop it.” Tiffany tried to grab her levitating beaver, who chased after Wesley.
Not Wesley, but his fish familiar in the small fishbowl.
“Leave Moo-Moo alone!” Wesley screamed, running from Duchess, who gripped the teen’s shirt with her tiny, grabby hands, gnawing on his clothes with her chattering teeth.
“I have to stop Priscilla.” Diaz sheathed his sword and flew after his raging familiar.
“Pathetic jokes.” Finch snickered. “I’ll kill you lot when I finish my assignment. Save you the embarrassment of living with such failure.”
“I’m no joke,” Gael said, flying in front of Finch and blocking his path inside. “And we’re no failures.”
“We?” Finch laughed. “It’s just you, boy. Your coven is busy chasing their stupid pets.”
At that comment, Gael swung his meteor hammer, aiming the large metallic ball at Finch’s head. But the witch’s reflexes were superior, and he quickly pivoted out of the way.
“King Clucks isn’t a pet.”
“Ba-ba-bawk!” From out of nowhere, the rooster fluttered beside Finch, attempting to claw or peck the man, only to miss.
Finch snarled at the bird but unknowingly walked right into the path of the meteor hammer. It smacked him on the back of the head, flipping him around until he landed flat on his stomach.
“All those animal traits you copied, and you didn’t think to mimic the genius prowess of a rooster?” Gael shook his head disapprovingly. “Big mistake.”
Name: Gael Rios-Vega
Branch: Bestial (Familiar)
Finch leapt up, lunging for Gael with his venomous claws. Without an ounce of fear, Gael twirled to the side, evading the strike and lashing out with his meteor hammer.
Even as it missed, Gael’s telekinesis carefully twisted the trajectory as Gael yanked and turned the angle of his weapon. Through precise aiming and added magic, he continued making brutal swings that’d knock Finch off balance.
As Finch adapted to Gael’s attacks, he found himself facing the wrath of the world’s most aggressive bird yet again. King Clucks sprang into combat, avoiding Gael’s weapon and knocking Finch into the path of a strike every time.
Whenever the witch managed to dodge the hammer, a beak or claw sliced into him.
Whenever he evaded King Clucks’ fury, he found himself smacked with the meteor hammer.
All the animal skills in the world didn’t help.
In fact, they worked against him. This hybridization ability allowed him to take on animal traits, but his thoughts turned feral the longer he used them.
His hostility made it difficult for him to think, to focus, to counter.
“How is your damn bird immune to the pheromones?” Finch roared.
“He’s not,” Gael said with a smirk. “But if you think King Clucks, Peckfender of the Unhatched Dozen, is only with me because of the familiar bond, then you don’t know a goddamn thing about friendship.”
“Cl-cl-cluck!” King Clucks kicked Finch into the path of the meteor hammer with a powerful addition of telekinesis.
The hammer smacked the witch directly in the face, flipping him back onto the ground. Gael swung the weapon a few times, building up as much momentum as possible, before adding his own telekinesis to the fold and slamming the meteor hammer directly onto Finch’s chest.
He knocked the air out of Finch’s lungs. He sent a searing pain coursing through Finch’s body.
Finch snarled, chattered, and roared all at once. His skin turned scaly. His mind went feral. Wings sprouted from his back. Webbed flesh hung from his arms. Tails thrashed. Hundreds of tiny horns erupted from his head.
I had no idea how many animal traits he currently channeled, but it overrode his senses. Finch lunged at Gael, spitting an acidic sludge from his throat.
“Ba-ba.” King Clucks flapped his wings, telekinetically knocking the spit off course.
“Thanks,” Gael said, swinging his meteor hammer.
Finch rolled out his tongue, easily the length of Gael’s weapon, and snatched it away. When he landed in front of Gael, he swiped at him with those venomous claws. No, more like talons now.
Gael darted out of Finch’s path, barely avoiding the deadly swipe, and managed to retrieve his stolen weapon in the process.
“This is over.” Finch gloated, gesturing to his own unblemished arm.
Gael looked to see a small cut on his forearm. Panic took hold. He’d been warned about the venomous cut. My breathing hitched, caught on the anxiety building inside Gael.
“It only takes a drop to kill a man in minutes.”
Gael trembled, slowing the swing of his meteor hammer. I didn’t know what to do for him. How to help. If there was even help for venom from an animal not native to this city, state, country. A snake’s venom that killed with every bite.
“Then I better finish this fast,” Gael said with a smirk. His cheeks twitched nervously, but he maintained his confidence, even if purely bravado. “Not a sentence I say often.”
Gael waited for Finch to move in close again; this time, he was prepared to let the witch land a strike, so he could bind Finch with the meteor hammer. He was already poisoned, so he figured it couldn’t get much worse.
He was wrong. If a drop had already made his legs wobble, what would a dose ten times that do?
Finch moved in close, about to slash Gael across the chest, when a watery portal opened above the pair.
“I don’t think so.” Carter leapt out and swung a fist direct center into Finch’s gut.
It knocked the breath out of the villainous witch and sent him flying back several yards before he pivoted with a touch of telekinesis and the adaptability of his animal traits.
Name: Carter Howe
Branch: Rejuvenation (Vitality)
Carter stood tall in a defensive stance I’d seen Gladiatrix take on many times on her missions.
It appeared Carter’s mentor taught him more than how to compose himself for the media.
She’d taught him how to channel his vitality just right so that he could swing a punch nearly as powerful as Gladiatrix’s.