Did I Offend a Witch?

"Snap! Crack! Crash!" The sound of something roughly breaking through branches came from up ahead. Frederick spread his arms out wide, as if trying to block the way of the threat even before it was visible.

Jay had slung the bat off of his back, and was slapping it against his palm, a mean look on his face.

"Swooosh." Suddenly, Ying was standing just behind Jay and Frederick, his sword in his hand.

"A Tier 3. It shouldn't be here, but it is, just our luck." The words tumbled out of Ying's mouth, and Fredrick and Jay's faces visibly paled.

At the sound of 'Tier 3' the survivors huddled even closer together. Zac felt like his stomach was doing flips, and next to him, Mary began to cry.

As for Winston, he had clasped his hands tightly together, and was gazing up into the sky and rapidly muttering, clearly in desperate prayer.

"What type?" Frederick barked, as he stepped back, and Jay stepped back with him, it seemed the pair of them were now far less eager to face the incoming threat.

This was due to the simple fact that they would be facing a Tier 3 Magical Beast, the tier system that had been created in the early days of the ITC. Basically, it was an exponential scale, based on how many fully equipped soldiers it would take to eliminate one of the given beasts.

A Tier 1 Magical Beast would take one fully equipped soldier, while a Tier 2 would take 10, a Tier 3 100, a Tier 4 1000 and so on.

This was why Fredrick and Jay's attitudes had changed so drastically, even though Frederick had so easily taken out multiple Tier 1 Magical Beasts all on his own, a Tier 3 a completely different story.

"It's a Lava Lion, it probably strayed from the volcanic region further into the zone. From how angry it seems, I would guess it's coming away from a failed hunt." Ying continued to speak quickly, and as he spoke, Jay's grip on his bat grew tighter and tiger, so that his knuckles were now starkly white against the tan color of the rest of his skin.

"F***!"

"Goddamnit!" The two enormous men cursed at the same time, and then glanced at each other and laughed, due to the sheer danger and unlikelihood of the situation.

"Rachel, Klau-." Frederick put his walkie talkie up to his mouth and started to speak, but Ying cut him off.

"I tried them while I was up above, they're out of range. We'll have to use a flare." Ying said, his dark eyebrows creasing into a frown.

"Won't that alert the beast?" Mary said between sobs, her high voice cutting through the deep voices of the Augmented.

"It'll catch our scent soon enough, I'm surprised it hasn't already." Jay responded, a strained smile on his face, trying to show a brave front to the survivors.

Zac knew from his lessons as a young man that Jay was completely correct, the Lava Lion was a predator, named after the volcanic habitats that it liked to inhabit.

It was known for roaming vast stretches of territory, and would track prey for miles before ambushing it.

It's tough heat resistant hide was difficult for most weapons to break through, while it's fire based attacks would cause even most Augmented trouble.

Its attack were nothing like the weak breath of a Flame Fennec, the Lava Lion had a concentrated attack that was more a superheated beam of plasma than a flame.

"Alright, here's the flare Fredrick. All of you, listen and do exactly as we say, otherwise it might cost you your lives. Understood?" Jay handed Fredrick the flare from his backpack then turned to the survivors, his mouth set in a serious line.

Zac and the others nodded in response, meanwhile Zac's mind was once again going through a rapid whirlwind of thoughts.

'I swear, I have got to be cursed or something! These f****** beasts seem to be in love with me or some s****! Did I offend a witch or something in my past life?' Zac screamed internally as Jay herded them into a narrow hollow between a large tree and a fallen trunk.

"Stay right here, if you see the Lava Lion turn towards you, and open its mouth, then run as fast as you can off to the side. You got it?" Jay said quietly, and all the survivors murmured in agreement.

'F*** this! What the hell is this! Is this how I pay for this ridiculous ability I've gotten! Fat lot of good it's doing me anyway! I can't even use it right now, since I've bloody got to wait between transformations!' Zac continued to rage in his head, as he squeezed in between the softly sobbing Mary and the murmuring Winston.

"Fweeeeeeee. Boom!" The red flare rocketed up into the sky, and then exploded.

Immediately, there was a loud crashing noise, as the Lava Lion turned off in the distance, destroying the bushes and trees around it.

Frederick and Jay stood ready, Jay holding his bat in both hands now, while Fredrick's hands had already formed into a drill shape.

With a swoosh, Ying took off back into the skies.

"Here comes the ugly b******." Jay muttered to Fredrick, as the crashing noise grew louder and louder.