AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Didn’t he also say they’re terrified of fresh water?” Grant asked.
“I don’t see any freshwater streams around!” Miles’s voice rose a few pitches.
“I’ve got this.” Chloe stepped forward confidently, and the end of the Mentalist Wand glowed. “Turn around and go back to where you came from!”
Chloe was trying to get into their heads, but the herd kept creeping closer. The way behind us was only a dead end. To escape, we’d have to get to one of the stairwells on either side of the hall and down to the main level. The monsters were blocking off all exits.
“Uh, I don’t think it’s working!” Talia squeaked.
“Use the Oaken Wands,” Verla encouraged. “There has to be a spell that can break them.”
“What am I going to do?” Talia demanded. “The best I can do is feel their emotions, and it’s obvious they were sent to kill us!”
Grant held up the Alchemy Wand. “I’ll poison their blood. That should stop them.”
The dark blood in the nuckelavees’ veins glowed as Grant infused it with his magic. In moments, their muscles seemed to grow an extra twenty-five percent. It had the exact opposite effect he intended.
Grant chuckled nervously. “Uh… I see you all have been spending some time in the weight room.”
“They’re already poisonous,” Onyx pointed out. “You’ve only made them stronger.”
“Let me try,” I offered, taking another step back as they stopped their hooves at us. I lifted the Mortana Wand and curled my magic around their throats. I tried to rip their souls apart one by one, the same way I’d dragged the Executors’ souls from their bodies, but the darkness I felt within them didn’t budge.
“It’s not going to work,” Autumn said in a shaky tone. “They’re already dead.”
“Autumn’s right,” I told the others. I felt into their energy, and I could tell something was off, the same way I had sensed that Professor Leto was a demon last year. “They’re raw dark spiritual energy. They can’t be influenced by personality, which means there’s nothing for our power to manipulate.”
The nuckelavee were getting too close now. They’d backed us into the wall, and any moment now they’d be close enough to breathe their deathly breath on us.
“Then we’re going to have to turn to brute force.” Professor Warren lifted his hands, and I quickly caught on to what he was doing. Footsteps sounded on the stairs—the heavy boots of dead Executors from downstairs, reanimated by Professor Warren’s necromancy magic. Several nuckelavee turned their heads to see what was coming. In the moment they were distracted, I gestured to the others. We quickly slipped to the side and raced toward another stairwell at the other end of the hall.
We weren’t fast enough, though. Two nuckelavee got to the stairwell before we did to block our path. They huffed and stomped their feet.
I shoved the others back. “Don’t let them breathe on you!”
Chloe shrugged me off and stepped forward to face the nuckelavee. “For fuck’s sake, get the hell out of our way.”
She thrust her hand forward, and the two nuckelavee went flying backward in response to her telekinetic magic. They tumbled down the stairs, but immediately jumped to their feet on the landing. They narrowed their eyes at us and scraped their hooves on the ground. I threw up a shield to hold them back.
“All you did was piss them off!” Nadine cried.
She barely got the words out before a group of nuckelavee came charging down the hallway. I immediately conjured my scythe and swung it at the nearest monster. The horse’s head rolled off its shoulders, and its rider screamed a high-pitched cry that reverberated through the walls.
I ordered my scythe to fly down the hall and swing at the second closest nuckelavee. All I had to do was think about it. But before the blade could make contact, the nuckelavee caught it in his spindly fingers and tossed it aside. My scythe clattered to the ground.
My shoulders slumped. I’d already performed so much magic, and it was wearing me out.
Nadine thrust her hand out, blasting the closest creatures back with battle orbs. It wasn’t enough to get rid of them, though. How were we going to kill something that was already dead?
Down the hall, ten dead bodies had reached the top of the stairs. Professor Warren moved them like puppets, ordering them to attack the nuckelavee. Blood dripped out of slashed wounds in their abdomen, and they slumped over. My scythe had delivered so much damage that even in death they couldn’t walk right. Two of the corpses had been sliced clean in half by my blade, and their bottom half marched up the stairs, while the top half dragged itself upward by its hands.
The dead tried to climb onto the monsters’ backs, and the nuckelavee turned their heads to deliver their deadly breath. Naturally, it didn’t work on the dead bodies. When the nuckelavee realized this, they began punching and scratching at the Executors. They tossed the bodies off their backs, then stomped them with their hooves. The crunch of bones echoed off the walls. It all happened so fast.
“Lucas, portal us out of here!” Verla cried.
I lifted my hands, but only sparks appeared. “I’m… drained,” I admitted breathlessly. I couldn’t perform much more magic. Not when I’d already done so much to kill the hundreds of Executors. Whatever power I could still do was up to the ability of the Mortana Wand.
“We’re not leaving without Marcus,” Autumn demanded. “If it’s portals you want, then let’s portal these creatures back to the hell they came from.”
