Chapter 56

**Merianna**

Fog hauled the child up in his arms and turned to me. “Grab Noch’s attention, tell him about the fire message and that he has to get a Gate to the village ready. I will take this boy to the Ga’s and have them take him to the Order for containment.”

With a sharp nod I jumped into action. I dove into the dying battle and made a beeline for the area where I saw a bunch of Hunters being knocked into the air. There was no doubt that Noch was the culprit in that circle. Only he would find enjoyment out of clobbering people with his staff and literally sending them flying.

“Noch!” I yelled as Ara appeared close to him, dispatching the Hunters he knocked senseless.

I was so focused on reaching Noch in the fray that I forgot to be alert. A sudden pain raced through my right arm as I felt an object hit me in that spot. Gritting my teeth I reflexively grabbed for the hilt that protruded from my arm and yanked it out without a second thought. Whirling around, I spied the culprit smirking at me. On impulse I drew back my arm and… a brilliant flash of light erupted in front of me.

Before I knew what was happening, I saw Hezerial emerge from the light and bring down his blade upon the woman and cut her cleanly in half. For a second I was too stunned to react properly, but as soon as Hezerial rushed to my side, I felt my frustration boil to the surface.

“My Lady! Are you hurt? I swear it shall never happen again. You are bleeding! My Lady, please stand still so I may-,” He instantly silenced when I brought the hilt of the dagger violently down on his head, which actually only served to hurt my hand more than his skull.

“I didn’t call you! I wanted to do that! Why the hell did you pop up?!” I yelled.

“But My Lady, it is my duty to protect you.” Hezerial pleaded woundedly.

“I wanted to kill her! Curses!!!” I yelled and tossed the dagger into the head of a different Hunter fighting one of the Council witches. The Council witch looked confused for a second as his opponent dropped like a stone until he caught sight of me, at which stage he quickly scrambled away in search of another fight.

“You got hurt Demon Spawn?” I heard Noch yell from where he was cleaning up his last few Hunters. Go figure that he came out of a battle perfectly untouched. I spied Nana Ara close by and had the same thought directed at her. 

“All because I have to tell you something important! It’s all your fault!” I yelled back at him. Nelia always kept saying that I had a bad habit of being angry when I was in pain.

“Now, now no time for that if there is something important you have to tell me. So what is it?” He asked as he wandered closer and started examining my arm while Hezerial stood close by looking dejected. “Just a deep flesh wound. You’ll live!” He announced proudly while patting me on the head.

I groaned in frustration as my arm started to burn with pain. “I want to be mad at you but I can’t!”

Noch looked surprised at that for a second. “Why not? You usually just dive right into it and screw the consequences.”

“You need to make a gateway to the village. They are being attacked by Hunters, we have to hurry.” I huffed out while Nana Ara came around to tie my wound with a cloth.

Noch’s expression went dark and the joking atmosphere disappeared in a breath. “Arasule, gather everyone that is finished and meet me by the pillar.” He ordered and immediately jumped out of the hole 

I moved to follow Noch but suddenly stopped short when my arm got jerked. A flash of pain speared through my nerves and I snapped at the nearest person within eyesight. “Nana Ara! That HURT!!!”

She retaliated by smacking the back of my head. “I’m not going to tell you to respect your elders, because you never do, but at least let me tie this cloth around your bleeding arm!” I relented and grumbled inaudibly as she knotted off the cloth and gave my arm a tap, which made me yelp and jump out of reach.

“Done! Now off with you! I’ll get the others.” She shooed me away and started pointing weary people to the surface.

Grumbling again I noticed that Hezerial was still standing dejectedly close by. I heaved a sigh and turned to him. “Thank you Zerial. I know you only want to keep me safe, but I will call you when and if I truly need you. I’m used to doing things by myself.”

He brightened up with a smile and bowed. “I will appear any time you have need of me, My Lady. I wish you success.” He said and then disappeared back into the ether.

I started gathering air around me to make my way back out of the hole, only to have my hand gripped and my injured arm tugged again. “OUCH!” I yelled and instantly thrust my uninjured elbow towards the offender.

“I yield I yield!” I heard Thyrion yell as my elbow missed his head by a hair.

“That Hurt!!!” I yelled in his face as I pulled my arm back to hit him.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know you got injured!” He pleaded as I let my arm swing towards his face. Unfortunately he quickly caught my fist before I could make contact. “I said I’m sorry!” He said with a sheepish grin.

“You’re not forgiven.” I gritted out as the pain finally started to ebb again.

“Where are you off to? I saw you talking to Noch, is something wrong?” Thyrion asked in concern.

I glared at him and didn’t say anything. Instead I grabbed his arm and pulled him behind me as I jumped back to the surface. He yelped and flailed in surprise but quickly decided to stop asking questions and just follow.

I rushed us over to Noch who had just finished establishing a Gateway. “Where are the others?” He asked curtly.

“They’re on the way. We will go through first.” I said and tried to make a dive for the swirling mass of colour.

“Hold on! Where are we going?!” Thyrion asked as he pulled me to a sudden stop.

“He didn’t hear yet?” Noch asked with a raised eyebrow.

“There’s no time.” I huffed.

“For once, you are right Demon Spawn!” He made a grab for Thyrion’s collar and dragged him the rest of the way. “Be prepared for work.” He threatened, then tossed Thyrion right through the gateway without another word.

“I thought you only do things like that to me.” I commented dryly as I heard Nana Ara and the other witches running up to us from the hole.

“Only when you irk me. Now go through Demon Spawn. We will need all the witches we can spare over there. Also take this with you.” He said and pulled out the Rune Reaper from behind him. My mind froze for a second.

“How on earth did you hide it?” I asked with a raised brow.

He grinned at me. “A new little rune I inscribed that changes its size.” He said proudly. “Now off with you, I will show you how the rune works later.”

“No need to tell me twice!” I responded with a grin and jumped through the gateway, determined to dive into the next battle.

When I emerged from the gateway and landed on a soft surface, all I could smell was smoke. My eyes flew to the direction of the village and was locked onto the vision of firelight that shone through the trees.

“Time to fight more, apparently.” I heard Thyrion mutter from the ground. Only then did I realize what I was standing on.

“If you don’t move soon, the whole armada of witches are going to use you as a rug.” I said while stepping off of him.

“Fair point.” He jumped up nimbly and stretched his spine as he moved away. The gateway popped rhythmically as Nana Ara pulled Raska and the rest of the witches through the layer of energy.

“Teams reform and arm yourselves!” I heard Fog command from the edge of the gateway, and saw him swiftly move through the throng. Raska quickly hopped excitedly to our side and slung an arm around my neck.

“Time for us to have a little more fun.” She said while squeezing my sore arm. At which I gritted my teeth and groaned.

“I swear if one more of you touch my bloody arm, I will make sure to remove a limb.” I gritted out while ducking out of her grasp.

“You got injured?” She asked in surprise, then ducked to examine my injury.

“I got distracted, and you don’t have any injuries as usual…” I grumbled.

“Well it’s Raska after all, have you ever seen her with an injury?” Thyrion retorted with a smirk.

“I am not in the mood for rhetorical questions!” I snapped back at him. I was in pain and the two of them making fun of me was not helping matters in the slightest.

Before either of them could say another word, Fog called together everyone’s attention. “We charge now! No prisoners! Make sure not to miss a single Hunter.” He yelled and started leading the head of the group in a sprint towards the village. It made me glad that he never wasted any time on speeches to lift everyone’s spirits. Everyone in the Order always had the same purpose in mind all the time when it came to situations like these. Save our kind. And if that wasn’t your priority, then it would be very hard indeed for you to become a member.

My heart started thumping as we followed suit. I saw everyone run along with a determined single minded purpose. We were here to help the coven, and kill the Hunters. I could feel an excited grin starting to stretch on my lips with the thought of the impending battle. As much as my arm hurt from the last brawl, I still couldn’t stop from being excited about giving the Hunters back what they gave to us ten fold. Clouds overhead rumbled with the thunder of an impending storm, making my element sing inside me with joy, which only fueled my excitement even more.

I glanced towards Raska and noticed she was also grinning from ear to ear. If I were to picture her with horns growing out of her head, I bet she would make any real demons proud. 

Was I starting to turn into Raska?! 

That was a scary thought…

It wasn’t long before we reached the entrance to the village. My blood boiled anew with that same emotion I felt when I dived into that first battle against the Hunters. The scenery wasn’t much different from that night either. Homes were burning, witches were running, screaming or fighting, and the Hunters were all in the middle of the chaos.

Amongst the chaos I could see the witches we had left in the area fighting against the Hunters for all they were worth. We didn’t leave nearly enough fighters here to quell the onslaught of Hunters that were in front of us. We didn’t expect to be blindsighted like this, in that regard, not knowing who the enemy was, was our mistake.