Chapter Thirty Five
The Storm

 

The first to kick into gear was the Headmistress. She shouted something to Melody Falls, who seemed to be more stunned than afraid. A moment later, Miss Falls disappeared, and then Lady Lalonde touched her brooch and in a flash she was gone, reappearing next to Emily’s table. 

“You lot,” she said, her usual stern-but-calm demeanour having given way to something more utilitarian, “you’ve fought them before. Spread out. Teach the others how to defend. Keep the younger kids safe. I’m getting the civilians out as quickly as I can.” She looked up at Cunning. “He’ll be looking for me,” she mumbled to herself, “so I’m going to stay on the move.” Finally, she looked at Leah. “You and Sarah, you know the way to the Familiar house, yeah?”

“Y— Yes,” Sarah said, nodding quickly. Leah already had her wand out, looking for a target, but the Headmistress put her hand on the girl’s wrist. 

“You know the way and you’re fast,” Lady Lalonde said. “Go warn Charlie. Tell her to bring everyone.” She looked up at the spirits. “Though if you can take one of them out on your way I don’t think anyone would mind. You can recharge on the way.” There was a pause while people waited for anything more, prompting an exasperated “Go!” from the Headmistress. “The rest of you!” she said, raising her voice above the panicking children. “Stay together! You are strong! You can do this!” 

Without another word, she was gone, and Emily noticed her reappearing outside the next house over, where several of the staff had stepped outside to see what the commotion had been about, only for them to have frozen like a deer in headlights. 

With a quick look at Emily, Sarah nodded and then looked up at Leah. The two seemed to talk for a second, before they both lifted into the air. “Stay alive!” the Fox yelled.

“Promise!” Emily shouted back at the two. They drifted up in front of the Spirit. It opened its mouth to roar at them, but Leah had her wand raised. A flash and a thunderclap later, and the giant creature’s body sizzled away into nothing, and Leah and Sarah flew away much faster than was reasonable. “I should’ve said something,” Emily mumbled.

“Now what do we do?” Dennis asked, clearly scared despite the fact that Jacob had him under his arm like a football.

“Lady Lalonde… She— she’s right,” Emily said, swallowing, but there wasn’t much she herself could do. Her voice as a cat didn’t carry very far, but maybe it didn’t have to. “Jenna!” she sent to her Witch, who immediately spun to look at her. “The wall! We need people out of this building! We can defend ourselves better if we can move!” Jenna had always been better at projecting flat force than Ben and Jacob’s flashier explosions, but right now that was what they needed. With a nod, the Witch extended the arm with her bracelet to the nearest wall. A very loud second later, a large chunk of building had been converted into a door, just in time for another spirit to bring one of its many appendages down on the crowd.

The students spilled out onto the grass as quickly as they could, herded and protected by the oldest and most experienced. Even Terence, the annoying Cat, and his wizard, were doing their best to keep their cool, helping keep Jacob’s shield intact from the continued barrage. 

“What do we… We can’t do this!” Sylvie said, clearly starting to lose herself in anxiety, Erinna on her shoulder and looking around panicked. “We’re going t—”

“We’re going to be okay!” Emily yelled, interrupting her. She could tell where that sentence was going, and knew where that line of thinking led. If ever there was a slippery slope, the one with death at the end was probably the most dangerous. So she wasn’t going to let anyone set foot on it. “They’re pretty strong, but they’re not invincible!” She looked at the Spirits. 

Some of them looked like the ones from the town, hulking beasts that were something between a gorilla and rhinoceros, made of shadow and teeth. Others were more eldritch, more frightening, reminding her of her first run-in with one in front of the Familiar house a million years ago. Tentacles. Eyes. Teeth. 

“They’re weak at the back of the neck,” she continued, forcing herself to think instead of panic. “And— and once you get through their thick skin they’ll pop like a balloon!” Some of the older kids looked at her sceptically, but seemed to realise who she was. They had just seen Leah, a second-year’s student, just destroy one of them like it was nothing. There were affirming nods, and the message was spread quickly. Several kids started to rise into the air with the help of their Familiars, and started throwing fireballs at several of the Spirits, keeping them at bay and away from the kids whose Familiars couldn’t help them fly. 

“Do… Do we want to do that?” Jenna asked nervously. Emily shook her head. They were a little way away from the majority of the younger kids, and being approached by one of the Spirits, something that looked like a centipede with antlers and tentacles. Looking at it made her teeth itch.

“Absolutely not,” she said, “No way I can do that without dropping one of us.” She looked around. “Jacob, can you and Dennis keep the youngest kids safe? Teach them how to properly conjure shields.” The boy nodded, then looked at Jenna. The two briefly reached out to each other, like they were going to say something, then just touched hands for a second, before the Wizard ran off, fluffy dog still under his arm. Emily looked up at Jenna. “He’ll be fine.”

“Yeah,” Jenna said. “Yeah. So, what’s the plan?” Jenna switched to their telepathic communication mid-thought, and it was strangely comforting to Emily. It felt like her Witch was closer, like they were more in sync. The two of them looked at the Spirit approaching them, and took a deep synchronous breath.

“So you remember the fight in town, right?” It was hard not to remember, of course. The fight had shook them to their core, and had changed things dramatically. “These things can take a ton of punishment, but I also think the teachers aren’t as strong as we are.” 

“But they have experience fighting these things,” Jenna countered. “And Mister… Mister Vigours was barely able to hold his own against one of them.” Emily shook her head.

“No,” she said, “that’s only half true.” Jenna shot her a questioning look. “Sure, on his own he was outmatched, but I think that’s because he trained to work with others. As soon as we distracted it, he made quick work of it.”

“So…”

“So we need a distraction,” Emily said. “Sylvie!” The girl had been doing her best to keep her shield up protecting some of the smaller kids and inexperienced Familiars, but seemed mostly lost beyond that. She seemed almost relieved to hear someone call her name, like she was expecting to be sent home. “How good is Erinna at telekinesis?”

“I’m pretty good!” Erinna squawked, fluttering her wings. 

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“Good! I’m going to need you two to draw this thing’s attention!” Emily yelled, Jenna pointing for emphasis at the now-very-close centipede-Spirit. The terror on Sylvie’s face would have been funny if it wasn’t so appropriate. “Sylvie, you just keep your shield up! Erinna, you just throw whatever you can at it, as hard as you can!”

“Okay!” Erinna said and, with a flurry of feathers, took to the air. Immediately she started chucking bricks at the creature, and several of the younger Familiars excitedly helped by throwing stones too. It only took a single lucky shot in the eye for the monster to come raging at them. 

“It’s working!” Emily said as she began to run, Jenna right behind her and keeping up. “We need to get behind it!” 

“And then what?” Jenna said. “If we can’t fly I don’t think we can get that high!” Emily frowned to herself. She had an idea, but it was a terrible and dangerous idea, and it would depend on how well Jenna had paid attention in their sports classes. Before she’d even voiced the thought, Jenna responded. “Oh! Oh no! That’s a terrible idea!” 

“I didn’t say anything yet!” Emily said.

“I could see it!” The two stopped for a moment to look at each other, when the Spirit thundered past them. “Crap! Come on, do it then!” They ran to keep up with the creature as it came down at the kids, its tentacles and claws and mandibles bouncing off of Sylvie’s shield to no effect, although she still looked terrified.

“UP!” Emily said, and lifted Jenna up high. Like serving a volleyball. Or a tennis ball. Some kind of sport ball. “Now!” As Emily had ‘shown’ her, Jenna wrapped a bubble around herself, just like Charlie had done back way back when. 

“Do it!” Jenna said, her eyes squeezed shut. Then, as hard as she could, Emily spiked her downward at the creature’s head. The Witch slammed into the back of the Spirit, and it crashed head-first into the ground next to the kids. To Emily’s horror, it slowly raised itself up again… only to fall over, its legs curling up underneath it. It wasn’t completely dead, apparently, its body not disintegrating like the others. Emily couldn’t see Jenna anywhere and she ran closer. Sylvie and Erinna also came down at them, and just a ways away Jacob seemed to have noticed what happened. He was rapidly closing the distance.

“Jenna?!”

“Emily??”

“Where are you?”

“In here! Help!” Emily ran up to the creature’s head. The back of it was like a cracked egg. Emily started to dig at the goop with her telekinesis, but couldn’t find enough grip to really move things around. 

“Help!” she yelled at Sylvie, who also seemed completely lost. “I think she’s…” was as far as she got, when Jacob, like a locomotive, dove headfirst into the thing’s skull with a disgusting ‘schlorp’. 

A second later, there was a sound like cracking glass, and the thing’s skull expanded like a balloon, then popped, and its entire body with it, dissolving into shadows. Jacob sat next to Jenna, an arm around her and his hand on his glasses. Emily could kiss him for that, although she was more than happy to leave that up to Jenna. 

There was a loud roar, and they looked up. There were at least eighteen or nineteen more of the things, and it felt like taking down even one of them had been a titanic effort. On the other hand… it had taken only the two of them. Several more of the creatures started to charge at them, and then one of them just fell apart, like it had gone through a bread-slicer. There was a moment of stunned silence as Lady Lalonde’s spectral sword hummed in the air. Emily hadn’t seen it move. She hadn’t even seen the Headmistress. 

For a brief moment, while the spirit dissolved, a sense of triumph washed over them. If Lady Lalonde was really this good, this powerful, then they stood a chance. No, then they were going to win. And then that triumph and relief, like a tide, ebbed away again. Cunning’s laughter rang in their ears as he rained fire on her. 

Emily and Jenna started to move as one, hoping they could help her if they were fast enough, but were stopped in their tracks when all the other Spirits charged as one. Jacob threw his shield up, jumping in front of them, just as the arms of a giant ape-like monstrosity crashed its forearms down on them. The sound was deafening, and the small, shielded shape of Lady Lalonde disappeared from view. 

“What do we do?!” Dennis squeaked from between Jacob’s legs, and Emily hated the fact that he was even here. He shouldn’t have to fight this. 

“Maybe we can pull the same trick again?” Jenna said. Before Emily could respond, a second Spirit, one of the tentacles-and-mouths kind, began to rain down blows on their shield, and Jenna had to focus not to let their defences falter. 

Emily looked around in a panic, trying to figure out if there was some way out or forward she hadn’t thought about. All over, the kids who had been flying around to attack had retreated, and all she could see were little bubbles, shields barely holding. “I don’t kn—” 

The gorilla Spirit roared as a fireball exploded against its back. It started to turn around, when a beam of pure light sliced through it, and it evaporated instantly. 

“Good,” Sarah said as she descended and Leah cut the other Spirit down, “you’re not dead.” She landed next to Emily and they pushed their foreheads together. Behind Leah, in the air, were easily a hundred Warlocks, each with their Familiar dancing in the air around them. “I brought the cavalry!”

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