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The school was about as secure as we could make it in such a short amount of time, due mostly to the wall that the notru had spent the last day building around it. Of course, the wall wasn’t enough to stop all the daemons, not when some could climb it or simply fly over, but it could stop plenty of them and slow down a lot of others. It wasn’t a perfect defense, but it was the best available at the moment.

One thing we’d noticed was that the daemons hadn’t been swarming the school, possibly due to the fight that the armed guards had been putting up so far. Stragglers had been coming in, attacking in ones and twos, and they were relatively easy to fight off. However, from what I knew of daemons and their daemonite controllers, that worried us.

“I don’t like playing defense,” Lindrell had told everyone. “Because, while we stay secure behind our wall, the daemonites are probably bringing over more daemons and increasing their numbers. If we wait too long, they’ll probably swarm and overwhelm us with sheer numbers.”

“This isn’t the place to withstand a siege,” Gretchen had quickly agreed.

So far, the daemonites themselves had been pretty scarce, which made us even more suspicious about what they were up to. Because of that, Lindrell decided to send out a hunting party, which consisted of two triads…and a group of survivors who insisted on going along. Lindrell hadn’t been happy about taking non-Val Kyr, but it turned out that even she had a hard time dissuading my dad once he’d made up his mind.

I adjusted the quiver on my back, thankful that I’d been able to get a few replacement arrows, courtesy of a sporting goods store that had been scavenged a few days earlier. I had a feeling that I was going to need every arrow available for this little hunt. Then I looked over at the rest of the hunting party, which consisted not only of my triad, but also one with Fleur, Bethany, and a notru named Cassandra.

“You can’t go out with those things,” a man exclaimed from our group, drawing my attention to him. He was thin, with a Captain Picard haircut and a military style rifle in his hands. I knew for certain that his was modified to fire full auto since it had come from the local police department. Mr. Rosewald, Julie’s dad, was trying to talk her out of coming on this hunting mission. “You don’t know how dangerous those things are…”

“I know a lot better than you do,” Julie responded, giving him a level glare.

“You’re just a kid,” Mr. Rosewald insisted. “You’re too young…”

However, Julie was starting to get angry and snapped, “I am NOT a little girl. I am Val Kyr and this is what I do now…”

“You’re still a minor,” he told her. “And I forbid you from this nonsense…”

Julie was starting to get pissed, and though just about everyone else was uncomfortable with this fight, no one wanted to get in the middle of a family argument. “I am Val Kyr,” Julie told her dad in a cold voice, giving him a look that she must have learned from Lindrell. “I’ve been trained to fight these things, and I’ve done so several times before. And once we’re done here, I’m going to go back to Val Halla so I can fight them even more. Whether you like it or not, Daddy, this is who I am now.”

Mr. Rosewald stood there with his mouth open, obviously stunned at having Julie talk back to him this way. Then he finally demanded, “This is all because of those books you read, isn’t it…?”

“Yes, Daddy,” Julie responded sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “This is all because I read Harry Potter.” Then she stood up straight, held up her spear and looked her dad in the eyes. “Now enough of this. You’re embarrassing me.” And with that, she turned her back on her dad and came over to join me.

I actually felt kind of sorry for Mr. Rosewald, because he was just trying to protect Julie. He’d only just found her again, after a month and a half, and she immediately runs off into danger again. Obviously, he didn’t understand that Julie had grown more than just physically, but he’d see firsthand soon enough.

My eyes went to my dad, who seemed much more understanding about the situation than Mr. Rosewald was. Maybe it was because of his talk with Lindrell, or maybe it was just because he knew what it meant to be a soldier. At the moment, he was definitely in soldier mode, with the sniper rifle strapped across his back, a high caliber hand gun sitting on his hip, and he was holding some kind of small machine gun that he’d ‘borrowed’ from the police.

Standing a short distance away from my dad was Officer Kyles, the male cop we’d first run into. He was fully armed and ready to go, and he was even wearing some kind of bullet proof vest, which was obviously police issue. Fortunately for the other non-Val Kyr in the group, he’d shared the police gear with them, giving Dad, Mr. Rosewald, and the other two guys the same kind of protection. I just wasn’t sure it would do much good against a daemon.

I didn’t know the names of the last two men, but they were armed and ready to go. One was a stocky black man who’d proudly proclaimed himself to be a Marine, and the last was a guy in his late teens or early twenties, who seemed a bit out of his depth. From the way he kept grinning at Julie and me, I had a feeling that he was here more to try impressing us than anything else.

Just as I thought we were about to get going, Mr. Rosewald decided to make another scene. This time, it was directed towards Lindrell, though he spoke to the other men with him. He stared at my mother and announced, “I don’t know why we’re letting these people tell us what to do. I mean, what kind of lunatic thinks it’s a good idea to go after these monsters with just an axe?”

Lindrell gave him a flat look, seeming more annoyed than really bothered by it. “I have been fighting daemons for centuries,” she said in a steady voice, raising her axe and adding, “with this very axe.” Mr. Rosewald gasped at that while Julie cringed in embarrassment. “Our order…the Val Kyr…have been protecting the world from daemons for thousands of years. It is a testament to our skill and sacrifice that you have been fortunate enough to have never seen one until now.”

Mr. Rosewald looked like he was going to make some kind of response, which would have been a bad idea, when Dad suddenly snapped, “Walt!” He spoke in the tone of voice that demanded immediate respect, and it worked. Mr. Rosewald immediately looked to my dad. “Walt,” Dad said in a calm tone, but one that clearly wasn’t to be argued with. “I know you’re proud of your time in the Guard, but this isn’t like anything you’ve ever been trained for. It’s not like anything any of us have been trained for…”

“You’ve got that right,” the Marine agreed while Officer Kyles nodded along.

“In this situation,” Dad continued, not taking his eyes off Mr. Rosewald, “Lynn and her people are the experts, and we’d be damn fools not to listen to them. Lynn is in command of this mission, so unless you can accept that and be professional, you might as well stay behind. Otherwise, you’d just be a liability in the field.”

Mr. Rosewald glanced to Julie and grimaced, obviously being extremely embarrassed over getting called out by Dad. However, he nodded and simply said, “I’ll be professional.”

A minute later, we started on our way, with my triad in the front while the other triad brought up the rear. In between us were the men, who Lindrell had positioned so we could protect them. If any of their egos were hurt by being guarded by women with medieval weaponry, none of them said so.

“This is a regular family reunion,” Julie whispered to me with an exasperated sigh.

I nodded at that. “You’re telling me.”

It was actually a strange thought to realize that I was actually going out on a mission, with both of my parents. I felt just a bit uncomfortable with the thought that they’d be watching me…judging me. Of course, I knew that this was kind of silly since Lindrell was already quite aware of how I performed in battle. But for some reason, knowing that she was my mom somehow made it different. Still, I tried to put those thoughts out of my mind and just focus on the mission, silently telling myself that this was no different than any other time my triad had faced daemons.

We made slow progress as we walked, partly because of my dad and his prosthetic leg, but he made no complaints and wasn’t about to ask anyone to slow down even more. There were surprisingly few daemons in sight, and we’d gone about a hundred yards before seeing the first one. It was a small one, climbing up the wall of a nearby building. Fleur noticed it a second before I did and sent an arrow through its head.

Officer Kyles shook his head and announced, “These things are going to give me nightmares for the rest of my life…”

“I’ve had nightmares about one of these things for years,” Dad admitted, absently patting his prosthetic leg. I glanced back at him while he continued, “I thought it was my imagination…a bit of PTSD… But now…” He looked to Lindrell, who grimaced. It seemed that Dad had remembered a bit more about that attack than she’d thought.

“Consider this an opportunity for payback,” Lindrell said. Though her voice was calm and even, I caught the faint note of sadness in it.

Just a few minutes later, Shannon announced, “I just spotted a daemonite, watching from a window.” She didn’t look or gesture towards the daemonite, not wanting to give away the fact that she’d noticed him.

“Is he a viable target?” Lindrell asked calmly as we continued to walk.

Shannon shook her head. “No. Too much cover.” Then a few seconds later, she added, “We have incoming daemons…”

I noticed the first daemon just a second after she said this, a giant spider creature that had appeared in the roof of a building. Other daemons began to come out of the woodwork as well, crawling out from buildings and alleyways, appearing around us in every direction. We were about to get swarmed.

“They took the bait,” Lindrell said with a grim smile. “Set cover.”

With that, the whole group stopped, with Julie and Cassandra immediately touching their spears to the ground, forming rounded walls with openings so that the men had cover for the fight. The men split into two smaller groups, each going for the cover that was being made for them.

“Watch your field of fire,” Dad called out to them. “Don’t hit the friendlies…”

I took careful aim and then let loose with an arrow, hitting a mid-sized daemon through the eye and killing it. However, I didn’t waste time congratulating myself and immediately notched another arrow, charging it up from my bow and sending it flying right at a hellhound. I HATED those things.

While I was doing this, Fleur took aim as well, though she aimed high into the air, not at any specific daemon. I wondered what she was doing, until she released the arrow, which glowed with a white light. Once the arrow hit the arc and began to come back down, it seemed to split…creating two dozen identical glowing arrows around it…all of which rained down on the approaching daemon swarm. They didn’t seem to do any more damage than normal arrows, but with that many of them, there were a few dead and injured daemons.

Lindrell let out a shrill whistle, then jumped into the fight, swinging her axe at a daemon that had the general shape of a gorilla, but was scaled like some kind of reptile. It leapt at her with clawed hands, though her axe split the creature’s head in half. Without hesitation, she kicked the body away and used the momentum to swing herself at another daemon, one resembled a bald, six-legged mountain lion.

Dad and the other men were shooting at the daemons from behind cover, with Dad calling out, “Don’t go full auto… You’ll just waste ammo…”

Julie and Cassandra were offering the usual notru protections, trying to drive the daemons back and slow their approach. However, they were also staying close enough to the small bunkers they’d created in order to keep the daemons away from the men as well as the Val Kyr.

One daemon, that almost could have been mistaken for a bald and mangy dog with lots of sores, if it hadn’t been for the extra set of glowing red eyes, charged at Julie. She casually swept her spear along the ground in front of her and sent a wave of concrete at the daemon, knocking it back. Then she stepped forward, making it sink into the concrete before she impaled it with her spear.

“Disgusting,” Julie said with a sigh. I saw her dad watching from the bunker, his mouth open in shock as he watched her. My own dad, however, was focused too much on the battle itself to waste time watching me.

“I just saw someone,” the Marine called out in surprise. “A man dressed in red…”

“A daemonite,” Fleur responded, contempt dripping from her words.

“Daemons are like rabid dogs,” I stated, firing another shot at a lesser daemon. “Daemonites are the assholes who let the rabid dogs loose in a crowded building…just for entertainment.” Of course, there was a lot more to it than that, but it got the point across.

“Shit,” the Marine muttered.

“Kill any daemonites you can,” Lindrell called out, more to the men than the Val Kyr since we already knew this. “They are the ones who unleashed this plague on your town.”

Bethany opened fire with the tactical shotgun she held in one hand, shooting one daemon at point-blank range, then she used the claymore she held in the other hand to slash at the next daemon. She was grinning as she did this, as though she was having a great time. Then again, knowing Bethany, this was probably her idea of a party.

“Speaking of daemonites,” Bethany called, gesturing to a nearby building where a daemonite stepped out the front door. His cloak obscured his face and body enough so I couldn’t make out many details except that he was male. “I think it may be time.”

“Agreed,” Lindrell responded, right before letting out a shrill whistle that wavered a few times.

The daemonite held out his hands, and though I expected him to summon more daemons, instead a ball of green flame formed in front of him. I gulped at the sight, realizing that this daemonite had to be either a channeler or a host…either of which would be bad. He let out a loud laugh and threw the ball of green flame in our direction.

“Got it,” Cassandra called out, forming a wall of concrete, which rose up just in time to block the attack. However, the attack was strong enough to shatter the wall and knock her back. The daemonite just laughed again.

“Smug bastard,” Bethany commented.

I took aim, fully intending to put an arrow through his chest, but daemons kept getting in between us, preventing me from getting a clear shot. And unfortunately, what I did see of the daemonite revealed that his skin was turning a sickly green color and becoming scaly. He was transforming into a daemon.

Dad was clearly trying to take the daemonite out as well, and unlike me, he got a clear shot. The daemonite was knocked back a bit, but then stood up again laughed as he tore off his cloak. His newly grown scales had kept the bullet from penetrating, and he was still changing, growing an extra set of arms and becoming quite fearsome looking.

“They’re upping the ante,” Bethany exclaimed, using her claymore to gesture to some of the new daemons that were arriving

The new arrivals were some of the bigger and nastier daemons, or at least ones that weren’t these lesser daemon annoyances. One of the new daemons looked like a twisted cross between a turtle and a spider, and was the size of a Volkswagen bug. Another daemon was humanoid in shape, except he was also seven feet tall with lumpy gray skin. Then there was a daemon, who from a distance, almost looked like a naked human woman, though when I turned my attention to her, I noticed that she had no eyes, mouth, nose, or any other facial features.

“This is some freaky shit,” the Marine called out as he kept shooting.

Suddenly, the transforming daemonite was thrown back by an arrow in his head, but this one hadn’t come from either me or Fleur. I looked towards the source, and saw Jass, who’d taken up a sniper position behind a parked car. She fired two more arrows into the daemonite’s chest, and for once, I was actually grateful for her presence.

“Reinforcements are here,” I called out as more Val Kyr came rushing to our aid.

I grinned as I put an arrow through the eye of a daemon, glad that the reinforcements had arrived when they did since we were on the verge of being overwhelmed. Of course, that had been the plan from the start. We’d go out on a hunting expedition, playing the part of bait in order to lure out the daemonites, then Lindrell would call in the two other triads that had been following us from a distance.

Lei charged straight into the battle with a loud war cry, smashing one daemon in the head with her hammer, then kicking at a second to knock it back long enough for her to hit that one as well. The rest of the reinforcements came in right behind her, tearing through the daemon swarm from the other side. I grinned at the sight, wondering if the daemonites were shitting their pants at suddenly having twice as many Val Kyr in the fight.

A daemon about the size of a large dog, and which resembled some kind of twisted fusion between a rabbit and a piranha, suddenly hit Lindrell from the side. It’s large, toothy jaws snapped on her arm, though her armor seemed to prevent the teeth from really penetrating. She gave the daemon a look of annoyance, then used her free hand to smack it on the head until it let go. With one swift kick, she sent the thing flying, right into another daemon.

“Drive them back,” Lindrell called out. “I want to clear every last one of these vermin from this town.”

With that, Lindrell leapt at the turtle spider, swinging her axe at one of the legs and slicing it off. However, that only seemed to piss off the daemon, which spat some kind of spray at her. She ducked down to avoid it, but some of it caught her arm and shoulder, which began to smoke a bit. I wasn’t sure if any of it had penetrated her armor, but she continued to fight on. Then, I felt her unleash the essence in her axe, which became covered with frost. She leapt up and drove the axe right into the daemon’s head. Ice crystals erupted from where she’d struck, and when she pulled her axe away, the daemon collapsed to the ground. Without a word, she turned her frosty axe to the next daemon.

“Now she’s just showing off,” I muttered, glancing towards the shelter my dad was using as cover.

At this point, I’d completely run out of arrows, so I dropped my bow and drew my sword, which was immediately covered with ghost flames. Until now, I’d been staying back, letting the notru and jatta keep the daemons away from me while I acted as a sniper. However, it was time to be flexible and change tactics. With that, I charged at the nearest daemon, thinking that if Lindrell could show off for my dad, so could I.

“Eat burning steel,” I exclaimed, slicing at one daemon and then another, using my reflexes to slash and move as quickly as I could, just so I could damage as many daemons as possible before my sword ran out of essence. Each daemon I injured continued to burn after I hit them, and two of the smaller ones fell dead without my having to do anything more. But with the others, I went back to and finished them off.

“I think I might make this one into a necklace,” Bethany exclaimed, drawing my attention to the daemon she was fighting. It was a squat creature, looking a little like an anthropomorphic turtle, with a shell that was make out of crystal. I had to admit, those crystal spikes coming out of the shell probably would make for some interesting jewelry, though the idea of actually wearing part of a daemon was disturbing.

Bethany yelled out as she swung her sword at the crystal shelled daemon, looking as though she intended to cut the thing right in half with a single blow. But as her sword sliced into the daemon, it suddenly exploded, sending shards of crystal everywhere. Bethany was thrown back, her face and the front of her armor shredded from the crystal shrapnel. However, yells from Fleur, Cassandra, and one of the Val Kyr who’d just joined us revealed that she hadn’t been the only one in range.

“Oh shit,” I exclaimed, noticing that several daemons had been killed in the blast, but that hadn’t done much for our side. Fleur was clutching her side with a grimace of pain while Cassandra had dropped to her knees, appearing to be injured from several wounds. With this distraction, several daemons started to rush into the opening. And though I wanted to rush over and help, the gray skinned humanoid daemon was coming straight at me. “Bring it on…”

The gray skinned brute roared, making me gag from the stench. Then as he swung a massive fist at me, I quickly dodged back and out of the way, wishing that my sword hadn’t run out of essence. As it was, the residual essence left it a bit harder and sharper than it would have been otherwise, but I didn’t have the ghostly flames available. He swung at me again, moving slowly, though I could tell that if one of those punches connected, it would do some pretty nasty damage.

“Gotcha,” I snapped, lunging forward and slicing at his stomach. I cut into his flesh only about an inch, when I should have gone much deeper. And to my surprise, there was barely a trickle of thick green blood. The brute snarled, seeming angry but not really hurt as he lunged at me. “You’re a tough bastard.”

While I was fighting with the brute, I was aware of the fact that a slimy mass of tentacles had reached the shelter where my dad had taken cover, and bullets seemed to have absolutely no effect on it. The men scrambled back, continuing to shoot at the daemon as they retreated. My dad had a grim look of determination on his face as he snarled, “Fall back and find cover… I don’t want to be in the open here…” Then his eyes darted to me and then Lindrell, though I couldn’t make out what he was thinking. “Keep providing cover fire…”

I wanted to go help my dad, but I was too busy dealing with the brute. I sliced him several more times, but his dense hide kept me from doing too much damage, and it was starting to annoy me. I’d slashed him almost a dozen times, and he wasn’t even slowing down. I needed to hit him harder, or at least with something that could do more damage. After putting another slash across his chest, I had an idea.

With my free hand, I grabbed the small axe I’d brought with me, then unleashed the essence stored within. A moment later, I lunged forward and slammed the axe right into the middle of his face, letting the essence freeze him. I figured that even if he was tough enough to survive an axe to the face, frostbite probably wouldn’t be good for his eyes. He staggered back a little, then roared and began to swing his fists at random, blinded but still not down.

“What does it take to kill you?” I demanded in frustration.

“Just a little knock on the noggin,” Lei exclaimed as she leapt at the brute, bringing her massive hammer down on his head with all of her strength. The brute’s head caved in and he fell to the ground while Lei gave me a smug look and added, “Ogers are hard to cut through, but with enough force, you can still break their bones.”

“I’ll have to remember that,” I responded with a sigh.

Since the gray brute…the oger was down, I checked on my dad again, seeing that the slimy mass of tentacles that had been after them was now being dealt with by Lindrell, Shannon, and Julie. Julie kept the thing locked down while the other two cut at it, not that this seemed to bother the daemon. The pieces that were cut off continued to move on their own, leaving several tentacles writing around on the ground like snakes.

Then Julie suddenly released a massive amount of raw essence, which burst into flame as it slammed into the daemon. She had to be leaving herself almost completely drained with that move, but the essence napalm seemed to be doing the job of finally killing that thing.

Another daemon had gone around them and was slowly approaching my dad and the two men with him, almost as if it was stalking them. This daemon resembled a three-headed mountain lion, whose body was severely mangy and covered with disgusting sores.

Dad was shooting the daemon point blank, and had put bullets through all three heads, and he was still shooting at the middle one. I charged right at the daemon as quickly as I could, calling out a quick yell to get Dad’s attention so he didn’t accidentally shoot me. As soon as I reached the daemon, I swung my sword down through the nearest neck, then I took my short sword, which was burning with ghostly flames, and drove it right into the daemon’s chest. The daemon dropped to the ground and spasmed a few times as the flames burned it from the inside out.

“These ones have their brains in their chests,” I said, noticing that Dad was staring at me, and he actually looked impressed.

“Good to know,” he responded with a nod.

At this point, we’d severely reduced the daemon forces and the surviving monsters were starting to retreat. They began running away, jumping through open doors and windows, and in some cases, just climbing up the walls of the buildings.

One daemonite remained, standing back with two large daemons positioned on each side of her. Because of those daemon bodyguards, I was pretty sure she was a binder. She made no move to attack us, but when Dad took aim, both daemons moved in front of her, protecting her as she ran off along with the daemons.

“All that and we only got one daemonite,” Julie said in disgust.

As the last of the daemons fled, Lindrell said, “At least we lured them out and reduced their forces.”

“That won’t do much good if they have time to summon more,” Shannon pointed out grimly.

“Either way,” Lei said as she used a daemon body to wipe the blood and gore from her hammer, “the haunts are going to feast tonight.”

With all the daemons gone, the men came out from cover and looked around with haunted expressions on most of their faces. I could imagine what was running through their minds as they’d just been in the middle of a daemon swarm…and were still alive. Lindrell had tried to talk them out of coming with, and now they understood why.

“I’ve never seen a battle like that before,” Dad commented, giving Lindrell a thoughtful look. “So, this is the kind of war you fight.”

Lindrell looked just a little self-conscious and gave him a gentle smile before responding. “Yes. I’ve been fighting this war for a very long time.”

Dad turned and stared at me with an expression that seemed a mixture of pride and sadness. He shook his head, saying, “This isn’t the kind of life I wanted for you.”

I shrugged at that, not sure what I could possibly say. This wasn’t the kind of life I’d ever imagined for myself, and two months ago, I never would have chosen this. However, as I looked over the piles of daemonite bodies, I felt a deep sense of satisfaction. This kind of life might be gruesome, but I was doing something important…something worthwhile. I was helping to protect the world from these creatures.

“I’m Val Kyr,” I proudly announced, which was the best explanation I could give.