Page 132 of The Lost Ones

“Well it is a seriously old castle Little Star!” He says from behind me.

“Well there’s too damn many.” I joke back, smirking.

“I think the instructors rooms are just around the corner.” Damon chuckles as he interrupts Jax and I’s quickly devolving argument.

We turn the corner and all come screeching to a halt.

Coiled in the middle of the corridor is something with a similar shape to a giant snake but its body circumference is large enough that even Levi couldn’t get his arms wrapped around it. Not that he’d want to since it’s covered in oozing lava filled boils that drip down its black as night body. The smell of burning flesh and ozone is overwhelming and starts to make my eyes water as it burns my nostrils, lovely.

Four serpent split eyes blink in our direction on its massive table sized head as it opens its jaw to reveal arm length teeth dripping with some sort of black ichor. It hisses flinging the ichor in our direction and singeing the floor as we jump backwards. Behind it, where the rest of the wide, high ceilinged hallway should be is just inky darkness. No sign of the doors that should line the hallway behind it or hell, even walls. There’s just an abyss of nothingness. It creates a fearsome backdrop.

“Fuck!” I curse loudly making the serpent’s head snap in my direction and I freeze instantly.

For some reason though, it doesn’t strike out.

“What the fuck is that and why is it in the fucking school?” Kyle says, being smarter than me and saying it quietly.

“We’ll research it. Just back up really slowly.” Dash says equally as quiet.

We slowly start to step back, none of us taking our eyes off of the beast and all of us dropping our glamour one by one. I don’t give a shit about anyone seeing us with our glamour completely dropped. It takes far too much energy to keep it up for any length of time and if this ugly fucker decides to come for us then we’re going to need all the energy we can get.

A high pitched whistle sounds throughout the hallway echoing around as if it’s coming from everywhere at once making it impossible to pin point it’s origin. The serpent’s head rises as it hones in on us and hisses its acidic venom in our direction.

“Why do I feel like it just got ordered to do something?” Kai whispers, not really expecting an answer.

The hallway is silent for a beat before it suddenly lunges in our direction, heading straight towards Kai. Kai manages to launch himself in the air as the wings from my vision when we had our gifts unlocked, suddenly sprout from his back. They keep him suspended and move him closer to the high ceilings.

“What the fuck!” Kai exclaims.

The serpent seems as shocked as Kai himself and the look on Kai’s face is pretty damn comical as he keeps glancing behind himself at his wings in disbelief. We don’t get a chance to enjoy it though before the snake is lunging for us again. Fortunately all of us are still armed thanks to none of us feeling safe here and wanting to stay on guard.

Erin and Jett come at it from opposite sides as the rest of us try to surround it so we can attack all at once. As soon as their swords make contact with the snakes skin they start to bend and melt from the heat of the lava boils. All our attacks seem to do is piss it off. Suddenly Erin shoots strong Jet’s of water towards it sending it crashing into the exposed brick of the castle wall and making its skin hiss angrily as it screeches in pain.

Water and lava are not a good mix.

“Holy fuck!” She exclaims wide eyed as she stares at her hands in disbelief.

The creature does this weird roar hiss and the boils start to spurt lava scorching the floor and setting the already ruined ornate floor runner, alight. Clearly our weapons aren’t going to do fuck all to help us defeat it, so we abandon them.

“Don’t bite it!” I call out urgently to Hunter who was about to take a giant chunk out of it in his wolf form.

He veers at the last second jumping over the tail of the serpent and raking his claws down it, making it screech in pain. Erin immediately shoots water towards Hunter paws just in case there’s anything damaging on them.

Good to know, shape shifter claws can damage it.

The serpent flings its tail smashing into Hunter and Kyle, sending them both crashing into the wall and Maverick behind them, making them all slump to the floor.

“Guys!” I call out not taking my eyes off of the creature as its tail swings around for the rest of us.

“We’re good!” Hunter calls out.

The tail misses Jett and Dash but I don’t move quick enough and it smacks into me, knocking my feet out from underneath me and making me land hard on the floor.

Fuck that’s going to bruise.

Levi grunts as the tail smacks into his stomach pushing him back but not over, due to his considerable size when his glamours dropped. Nate,Damon and Jax all run over helping to stop it from crushing Levi against the rough stone walls of the castle.

I feel for my magic and shoot a stream of my blue and purple tinted flames straight for it. I feel Kai’s magic mix with mine from above and I’m unsure whether he’s up there by choice or not at this point. Our mixed flames are stronger together and we manage to do some damage but not a lot. Only succeeding in giving it some pretty damn nasty, but in no way life threatening, burns along its side.