Gate of Life and Death (III)

Raz. A named monster.

Snow had heard about monsters that were given names or were named. There weren't many, but she heard from rumors. There weren't many instances of named monsters, especially the ones that had personally chosen a name for itself. Most were given by the hunter association. They were powerful creatures and, for a named monster to appear in the dungeon, spelled trouble.

Snow heard about the Dullahan, through legends. They were vengeful spirits, looking for their long-gone head. Rabbit was the unlucky soul that caught up in the revenge.

From its hands, Raz summoned up a flaming black sword that gave off a chilling feel. One could tell that the sword in her hand was full of resentment and hate.

"Hurry, Ms. Snow!" Mr. Everrett made contact with his fist burning with magical energy. "We can't let this named monster live!"

Snow darted in, barely missing from the flaming black sword that sliced down the side. She gulped. It was too close a call.

Mr. Everrett struck from behind, but Raz seemed to have noticed Mr. Everrett's presence and dodged out of the way. He quickly positioned his footing, twirling in the exact moment to give a backhand. Raz blocked the hit, effortlessly, and grabbed Mr. Everrett's wrist. She threw him over as he slid across the ground.

"Rabbit!" Snow hoped that she could somehow get through.

Raz didn't pay attention to Snow. Instead, she rushed towards Mr. Everrett to give a fatal strike.

Tamaki appeared before Mr. Everrett, catching the downward force from Raz's sword. Black heat beat against his face; he trembled from the weight of power that she gave off, pushing him down to his knees.

"Mr. Everrett, quickly! I can't hold this position any longer!" Tamaki cried out with strain as he was being pushed down into the ground even more.

Mr. Everrett understood, but his injuries still slowed him down. Eventually, he was able to get up and out of the way for Tamaki to let out a roaring powerful energy slash that pushed Raz back into a defensive position.

Raz hissed, letting out steam from her mouth.

"I hate you." She spoke, her eyes glistening with bloody intent to kill them all. Staring everyone down one-by-one as she got up.

Everyone felt the overbearing energy from her and knew that she was only just getting stronger.

"I hate you," Raz repeated.

"Why?" Snow replied. Her sword in front, watching Raz's next movement.

"Because you all didn't save me," Raz spoke with hate that bubble out from her lips into a nasty snarl.

"We couldn't!" Snow yelled back, a bit ashamed at her powerlessness to stop Rabbit's unfortunate demise. "No, I couldn't!"

"Lies." Raz stood up straight; the burning black sword became brighter. "You had the power in you." She looked towards Snow. "I can sense it.

Snow was confused, did what Raz say what was right? She wasn't sure. She started to doubt herself.

"Ms. Snow, don't listen to the Dullahan!" Mr. Everrett shouted. "Whatever it tells you are all the monsters fabled lies and deceit to bring you down. Ms. Rabbit is dead."

A flare of black flames sprouted out from Raz, angrily spitting in outrage from what Mr. Everrett had said. Even though she wasn't fully Rabbit, bits and pieces of her old memories remained.

"Silence!" Raz roared. She raised her sword and swung as black fire pulsated out from her sword in an arc.

Snow quickly summoned up light magic to counter the burning flames as she created a shield. Roaring fires thundered around, licking her very shield walls. She could feel the devilish flames trying to eat her whole. Holding on, she braced forward to quell the fire.

"Holy crap." Mike let out an exaggerated breath; he was leaning forward on the sword in his hand, trying to catch his breath. An earth shield was covering himself, Leo, and Cleo from harm. "I don't think I can handle another hit like that."

Almost everyone else was finally free, except Tommy, who was still out cold, woken up from the freezing spell.

"Are all-girl monsters crazies?" Mike harrumphed, getting up, shaking away whatever leftover freezing spell that he had. He still felt a bit stiff.

Dairen, who was shrouded in dark energy, split-back the black flames that were trying to ravage him. He shot back a reinforced energy bullet from his bow, causing Raz to shield herself. This enraged Raz, who saw all of them as insignificant worms, wanting to crush them all under her.

"Die. Die. Die!" Raz screamed, "Because you are all alive. Die!" Blood red tears dripped down her face, sending shockwaves after shockwaves of black flaming energy that it was difficult for anyone of them to keep up.

Snow's light shield broke, leaving her exposed. The black flames came in a burning fury. The dragon armor activated its defense, absorbing away as much of the fire as it could. Even still, she could feel the dangerous rising heat from her armor herself.

Her hands waved a few times, to focus on a protection spell. Already, she could feel a first-degree burn happening all around her body, giving her a very unpleasant feeling. With a sudden shift of magic, she was once again able to create a more durable light shield that pushed away the dark energy.

"Snow!" Dairen called out, he was having his battle against the flames and couldn't do anything.

"Are you alright?"

"Yea, just give me a moment." Another glimmer of magical light appeared over everyone's head as she did a large scale heal. She knew that they were all hurting from the burning fire. Even she, who was burnt, cast a healing spell on herself to control the pain that would deter her focus away.

"We need to regroup!" She called out when the flames finally started to simmer down. "We are out of harmony."

"Do you have a suggestion?" Mike asked he was taking the brunt of the fire.

"Yea," Snow willed her magic over towards Mike, Mr. Everrett, and Tamaki. A shining ray of light appeared from above, blessing them with power. "I cast a temporary shield and fire-resistant around your body, I need you guys to keep Raz focused on you guys. Attack and defend as much as you can when you can."

Mike, Mr. Everrett, and Tamaki took action, already drawing Raz's attention towards them.

"Leo, Cleo, and Dairen aim for the Dullahan's head. If we can knock it off...." Snow's voice trailed off for a moment, "We should be able to bring it back into its original form."

"Wait, knocking its head off will do that?" Cleo asked, who didn't seem like she believed her words.

"Something better than nothing."

"I don't know…"

"Anyways, we can start from here. We can improvise after." Snow started to chant ancient magical spells.

With a whoosh of powerful holy light, she cast overhead, leaving behind a glowing white light. Her spell suppressed the demonic flames that gave them trouble before, making Raz scream in frustration, unable to use it to a certain degree. On the other hand, her ruthless attack intensified, making it harder to get closer to her.

"Ms. Snow, you know holy spells?" Tamaki, who was keeping most of Raz's attacks in place, asked.

"Stuff and things happened." Snow quickly replied, not wanting to be talking about where she had gotten such power.

"I see." Tamaki didn't ask anymore and continued to attack.

She quickly changed the subject. "The suppression magic is only going to last for ten minutes any longer we are going to be in trouble."

The others understood what she meant. Even with everyone jointly attacking Raz, they were being pushed around. Tamaki wasn't as injured as the others but wasn't able to give much damage because he was the main focal point. Mike and Mr. Everrett was dodging and hitting, every chance they could get to take the burden off of Tamaki.

Leo and Cleo did what they could; their magic wasn't on par with Snow's while Dairen had many good shots that brought massive damage to them. They weren't so lucky to tag the head of the body.

Snow, on the other hand, was casting healing magic every chance she got as she dove in the fight to keep Raz at check. Her magic mingled in the air, spitting out holy light here and there whenever she saw a glimpse of black flames trying to struggle out to wash over them.

She attacked from the side, matching Mr. Everrett's hits, diverting away its attention from focusing on one of them. For a while, their attacks seem to work, picking away at Raz's strength as black blood oozed out.

Snow saw an opportunity; she snuck in from the side. Her sword slashed upwards, taking out Raz's hand.

With an angry scream, Raz slashed downwards to lop off Snow's head. She raised her sword to block in time, but a numbing pain ring throughout her arm. She couldn't move from an unfavorable position. Suddenly, Raz kicked her in the chest, collapsing her onto the ground.

Enraged, Raz let out a terrifying scream as the ground shook.