The stone of the outside wall exploded across the gym, some tumbled across the gym and others hit the students sitting nearby. The explosion had knocked several people including me off their feet. I managed to get my knees up underneath me as I stumbled up off the ground. I shook my head to try and clear my ringing ears. Several students were lying bleeding on the ground nearby. I looked around and saw my guys already getting to their feet nearby. The rest of the Elites were fine as well and starting to sit up. As everyone tried to gather themselves back up several members of staff were assisting the students who were hurt and still unconscious on the ground. The headmaster was checking on the students by the bleachers who seemed to be in shock. No one was paying attention to the gaping hole in the wall. No one was paying attention as the first demon took a step inside. I quickly called three daggers and sent them in quick succession at the demon’s neck. It didn’t quite sever the head but it lolled over to one side before the demon collapsed to ground gurgling on its own blood. I was fairly certain it wouldn’t be getting up again. That was when the first scream came “Demons!” and then chaos ensued as all of the students and staff tried to run for their lives. Those that were still on the ground were being trampled by their panicking classmates. Lives were going to be lost and worst of all everyone’s first instinct seemed to be to run away as demons started to lumber through the hole in the wall. They were similar looking to the ones which had been in the simulation from my first day. They stood on two legs and had to be about seven feet tall. They looked similar to a gorilla stood upright but had a ring of horns around their head and what looked the thick tusks hanging from the corners of their mouths. Long strings of drool ran from their mouths as they roared their rage into the room. One of the demons grabbed a student who was still lying on the floor by the hole. He already seemed to be dead but that didn’t stop the demon from tearing off an arm and biting into his neck.
“Elites with me!” I shouted pulling my short swords into existence in my hands as I sprinted towards the demons. “Engage them in the breach, we need to stop them from entering the school.” All of the Elites drew their own weapons and we charged the breach and the demons tearing into our classmates. Several of the staff members seemed to rouse from their panic and charged to join us.
“Third year students to the weapon store” Caleb shouted trying to gather a fighting force from the other students. Most continued to just run screaming from the gym but some did stop and ran back to the rear corner where the weapons store was located. Trent and his friends were the first ones there.
“Elites engage in three’s, do not take on a demon alone.” I shouted as I plunged one of my short swords into the thigh of a demon, swiping it to the side and took out what I hoped to be its femoral artery. It roared as it fell to the ground and I pierced it through the neck with my second sword quickly removing its head. To my left I could see the guys engaging another demon but I only had eyes on three of the girls who were tackling another demon just beyond. Britt, Mae and Aeryn were circling the demon and randomly ducking in to swipe at it. It didn’t take them long to wear it down and it fell to the ground while Britt pounced and removed its head with one swipe of her katana. The guys were a bit more efficient, making each blow count. They had removed an arm and a leg before beheading the demon they were fighting. But as fast as we were taking them down more were appearing. Trent and his friends had stormed into the battle and were taking on a demon on their own. Thankfully they were working as a team as well. They clearly didn’t have as much training as my Elites but they were adopting the same tactic as the girls and trying to keep out of arms reach. Harmony, Echo and Nix joined them to fight at their backs. The teachers were fighting with magic and there were energy balls and fire flying everywhere. We weren’t winning though. The third years were trying to take on whatever came their way and were just getting cut down where they stood. I became a blur or blades and fists. I even relied on a good old headbutt at one point which had me seeing stars but had prevented the demon closest to me from taking a bite out of my neck. It was chaos. It wasn’t long before the majority of the fighting students were down, dead or dying. We had fought
our way outside of the gym and were standing outside in the grounds. Several demons had escaped into the school and the screams had long since died out. Caleb had moved behind me and we were fighting back to back. It was efficient but even with that we were vastly outnumbered and I could see no way out.
“We need to retreat,” the headmaster shouted across the grounds, which were now little more than a battlefield “the academy is lost.”
Everyone who was left fighting just looked around as they continued to do what little they could to defend themselves. The thought that everyone was having was clear. Where was there left to retreat to? Caleb who was behind me muttered. “The pack lands, we should regroup with the pack.”
Two more demons surged towards us and we quickly dispatched one each. My magic was practically singing a song of rage and death to me. It felt like my skin was buzzing. I had never in my life felt more alive, nor been surrounded by so much death. The Elites were still engaged with their own fights but I could see that they were starting to tire. We were all starting to tire and the demons were more than aware of it. They were starting to attack in groups, they had grown familiar with our tactics. As the guys were engaged with two demons of their own, another surged towards Britt and the other girls. I watched in horror as it played out in almost slow motion. They were wearing down the first demon keeping out of its reach when a second blazed towards them. Britt turned to engage and swiped out with her katana slicing into the demon’s leg. She spun out of its reach as it swiped its claws trying to slash her face but by moving away, she had isolated herself from the group and there now stood two demons between her and the others. I took off at a run towards her, abandoning Caleb’s back without a second thought. It was a rash decision and I prayed that I wouldn’t regret it. There was no way that I could reach her in time and Britt turned and locked eyes with me the moment that she realised her mistake. She didn’t even move as those deadly claws came back for a second swipe and cut through her abdomen like it was tissue paper. Her head threw back in a scream, finally breaking eye contact with me as she started to fall to the ground. I
hurdled the body of a dead demon and used the second one as a spring pad to launch myself at the back of the demon that had just torn through my first and only friend. It didn’t even see me coming. My sword cleanly pierced through the back of its neck at an angle and it fell to the ground dead beneath me. But it was too late, I was too late. I gathered Britt up in my arms and cradled her against my chest as a sob escaped me. There was so much blood. Her abdomen was torn wide. Britt coughed and groaned in my arms. “Stay with me Britt, please, just stay with me. Don’t go. I need you with Britt. Please don’t go.” I sobbed. I tried to press my hands to her stomach, to do something, anything. There was no way to stop the bleeding there was just so much. She was bleeding out so fast. I rocked her gently in my arms as I sobbed. I couldn’t lose her, not like this, not when I had finally made a friend, finally found someone who understood me. She was too good to die like this, on the ground, her own blood mixed with the filth.
“I’m …… s-sorry Aria.” She mumbled. Blood stained her lips and trickled from the corner of her mouth. She didn’t cough or splutter. It was like her body barely had anything left. “St-stupid mistake.”
“Don’t, don’t say that. Just hold on. Someone here can help us. You just need to hold on.” I begged. The battle raged around us but I didn’t care. I didn’t care in that moment what was happening. All I could see was my only friend dying in my arms while I begged her not to leave me like the selfish bitch that I was.
“It’s okay,” she said trying to reach her hand up towards my face. I caught it as it began to fall back towards her and placed it gently against my cheek that was streaked with my tears and filthy with demon blood. “It’s time.” She whispered as her eyes grew vacant and her last breath gently blew out of her. And with that she was gone. Brave to her last breath. She didn’t cry, she didn’t scream, she just stopped and then she was gone. As I looked down at her unsure what to do, I couldn’t let go, I couldn’t leave her here alone, it was like all of my surroundings just returned at once. The screams and wails of the other injured students lying around us, the roars and grunts of the demons still fighting the few left standing. And that was when I felt
it. I had thought that it had blazed before but my magic suddenly surged, surged with the outrage of our loss, surged with the anger and the need for vengeance and it was like nothing I had ever felt before. I thought that my skin would split from the sheer force of it. It burned hotter than I had ever felt and I revelled in the pain, revelled in the justice that was about to flow out of me and end in rivers of demon blood. Finally, when I felt like I couldn’t take it anymore I threw back my head and screamed.
