“Hazel!” Jayce’s voice was warm in her ears as his arms were thrown tight around her, drawing her out of the line of fire just as a beam of heat singed past her head, right where she had been standing. Finally, she could move again, able to control her arms and legs. It was like Jayce’s touch had broken whatever spell had been keeping her in place.
Hazel finally managed to force her eyes open and immediately wished she hadn’t. Terror reigned across her front lawn. Every part of her nightmare come to be reality and happening right in front of her.
She watched helplessly as the dark, shadow drenched figure shot attack after attack at the only family she had left. Members of her own coven had been drawn to the scene, sensitive to the spike in the energy in the atmosphere. And the worst part hit her like a sledge hammer straight to her chest. They were losing. And they were losing badly.
She watched in horrified shock as the realization sank in. This was one dark entity against almost thirty of her sisters, including members of the high council. These were some of the most powerful witch’s that she knew even existed, and they were getting pushed back. Inch by inch, foot by foot, they were losing ground.
A group of three witches who were closest to the vile creature had conjured a wall of pure white flame, and seemed to be keeping some of his blows at bay. But Eidolon had noticed them as well, and Hazel screamed in warning as he lifted an arm, barreling forward past fireballs and lightning strikes that seemed to always just miss him.
A ball of black fire, blacker than any she had ever seen grew from the dark spirit’s outstretched fist, growing wilder and larger with every passing second until it almost obscured him completely.
She stared into that black flame because she didn’t have a choice. Her gaze, as well as almost all the other’s, clung to its shifting, oozing mass as if by a powerful magnet. And they couldn’t look away. Again, Hazel felt stuck, frozen by whatever power Eidolon was wielding.
And the worst was that she could feel it singing into her, changing her, bringing with it a cold sorrow and bitter hopelessness that drained any urge to fights. What would be the point? They were all just going to die there anyways. Why struggle when it would be so much easier to give in, to give up?
A part of her reveled in the thought while the rest of her looked on in horror, but unable do a single thing to stop herself from moving a single step forward. Towards the monster. Towards the inevitable.
Why continue to fight when she knew she was so much weaker than he was? The thoughts ricocheted through her mind like bullets, and she took another desperate step towards him. His dark arms opened slowly as if to embrace her.
Suddenly, before she could take another step, a shape was moving so fast it was just a golden hued blur to her spell be-numbed eyes. The shape continued past her, shoving her out of the way of harm but barely stopping as it barreled strait toward Eidolon and the darkest fire he was emitting.
Jayce’s touch once again shattered whatever hold the dark spirit had on her and she could only watch in absolute terror as the warrior attacked, Nika just a slivery blur at his side. Luckily for them, Eidolon’s view was obscured by the dark light and they were upon him before he even realized.
With a hiss that sounded like all the vents of hell releasing their fury, he was finally forced backwards. They kept coming, refusing to let him rest, to give him that single moment he would need to ready a spell and rip both of the them to shreds.
But the moment was all the other witches needed to reform and reinforce the barrier of bright white light that had weakened to the tiniest flicker. The sent the pure flame, pulsing it after the dark spirit in waves that left oddly symboled burns rising on his rotting grey white skin.
“You belong to me, deliverer! You are mine. Your blood is mine!” the dark spirit shrieked in rage and bitter frustration. Jayce and Nika were forcing him back even further until he should have been too far away to hear, but still his voice rang terribly through Hazel’s mind.
“Your little pets are mine too, sweet witch, as they have always been. I will make them my puppets long before I finally kill them, but your death will be quick, sweet one, and it will soon.” He took a final step back as the last words he had spoken echoed painfully, forced further by the dragon warriors, still attacking furiously. Before she could shout that they had gone to far away from her, Jayce and Nika began to shift, forced into the change.