Our elk mounts growled in retaliation as a deep rustling of the trees grew louder, and as I strained to listen, I heard galloping coming from all directions.
“Wands aimed high and at the ready!” I commanded, and the others obeyed my order.
We soon came face to face with the creatures Morgana perfectly described, and it was hard not to stare at their strange but robustly built forms. They appeared to be men from their torso and up, but their skin was scaled, and the bottom of their bodies were made from bare horses’ bones. They carried long wooden spears with bladed arrowheads and large shields with intricate patterns placed in the center. Their skin was covered with tattoos of assorted designs, and half their faces were protected by different animal skulls. They wore stacks of thick bracelets on their wrists and wooden crosses around their long necks. Their skin was pale, like the early morning sun, and their eyes were as black as night and barely visible behind their masks. When they smiled, they bared small but sharp teeth, like that of a fish, and they even smelled like dead, rotting sea creatures.
It didn’t take long for me to realize who the group leader was since he was the largest and broadest and stood right in the middle of his herd. There had to be at least two dozen of the bastards all around us, and each one was smiling beneath their bony veneers.
“You’re trespassing across holy territory,” the leader growled as he aimed his spear at me, and when his eyes landed on my wand, he began to chuckle until his shoulders shook. “Do my eyes deceive me, or am I gazing upon a group of witches? And a male witch at that?”
“That’s right, you bony motherfucker,” I growled, and before he could command his soldiers to attack, I aimed my wand at his head. “Dissulto!”
The leader quickly raised his shield, and when my spell hit his wood, it instantly shattered into splinters. The incantation made him stumble back, but I could feel his rage radiating from his body as he regained his footing and pointed in my direction.
“Attack them!” he cried out in raw fury. “Show them no ounce of mercy!”
“Volant!” Akira screamed without hesitation, and she sent three charging creatures flying backward.
“Stupefaciunt!” Morgana yelled, and it caused a group of our attackers to soar back into a group of trees until their bones broke into pieces.
“Glacio!” Beatrix shouted before she froze a cluster of the scaled and horse-like men in place.
We cast spell after spell at the herd of equos, and our familiars attacked without mercy as they tore into our enemies’ chests and ripped off their masks. When I saw what these bastards looked like beneath their facades, I realized their faces resembled both man and fish. Their eyes were as black and beady as a shark’s, and they didn’t have noses, at least not like ours. Instead, they possessed two slit-like holes in the center of their faces, and their skin was covered with pale yellow scales.
Their leader, who Alex attacked without mercy, tried to swing his spear at my familiar, and he nearly slashed one of Alex’s large, bat-like wings in half.
Anger welled inside my heart, and I focused solely on the largest soldier of the army.
“Secure!” I cried out as I aimed my wand at one of his bony kneecaps, and it instantly shattered into bits of white fragments.
The leader cried out in fury as his leg bent and broke, and although he had trouble standing upright, he used the last of his energy to throw his spear right in my direction. I saw the weapon coming right at me and moved my head out of the way at the last possible second, but then I heard someone behind me scream in panic.
“Professor!” Akira yelled at the top of her lungs.
I swerved my head and looked behind me, and the spear was inches away from piercing Vanessa’s heart until I quickly muttered the all-powerful premonition incantation in my head.
Motus.
The spear stopped right in between Vanessa’s breasts, and her eyes were as wide as dinner plates. Her lips trembled, and her face was two shades paler when she realized how close she had been to instant death.
I willed the spear to turn the opposite direction with all my might and fury, and then I forced it to go flying in the leader’s path. The weapon flew faster than a flash of lightning and pierced him right in the middle of his broad chest.
His eyes widened with agony, and black blood spurted from his thin lips. His men stopped attacking, and they all stared at me in horror. Then the leader collapsed to the ground, and all was still and silent.
“Retreat!” a random soldier shouted. “The general is dead. Pull back now!”
“I don’t fucking think so,” I growled before a familiar and raging sensation overcame my entire body.
There was no way in hell I was going to let these holy bastards go, so with all my fury, darkness, and might, I commanded the earth to split open and swallow each one of these creatures whole. My body trembled, and my blood seared with venomous fury as I willed the forest to shake, and I smiled as each soldier looked at each other in sheer panic.
“Run!” one of them screamed, but as they turned around and began to gallop through the trees, I uttered the most powerful premonition incantation in my head.
Modus antiquorum.
The earth began to crack open as the small army tried to pathetically gallop away, and then I aimed my wand into the ground.
“Illuminana,” I muttered.
A blazing fire began to sprout from the cracks of the ground, and as the equos
