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Tybalt watched in horror as Red's petrified body shattered. Her life extinguished... her body destroyed in one blow from the reapers scythe. Just like that? She was gone? Red was... gone?

She had protected their lives with the last of her strength, costing her her own.

The black dog was lost for words. He couldn't say or do anything, he couldn't even hear Simone talking to him, he could only stare at what was once their gym teacher... their mentor. Now nothing more than a cracked hollow skull...

He felt cold.

Of all the teachers in the school, Red was one he admired the most and now she was gone... and for what? What had her death gained?

He turned his head in the direction of retreating hunters. Cold fury burning within him as he glared after them.

...Who were the real monsters?

For a long time Mandy did nothing, there were no sounds of battle as everyone recovered from the devastating flames so she felt no need to move.

Then she heard it, a ghouls voice, raising above the din in a rallying call.

WE WILL MAKE THEM REMEMBER WHY WE ARE THEIR TERROR

She, she was being anything but terrifying. She was being down right pathetic. She’d gotten jacking swords to the gut before and she had kept going. Her Fear shield was fine. A little yo-yoed but still strong. Why should some burns and slices keep her down now? Hadn’t she said that she would keep them safe until they could retreat, that she would help protect?

Well she was doing no good like this. Gingerly she got to her feet, skin cracking as the crisped layers flaked away. One paw in front of the other she stepped away from the safety her friend huddle implied. It felt so much farther this time, an uphill walk in a form not made for it. But she kept at it, eyes straining to see what she sought.

There

With a deft paw Mandy snatched back up her Skullpin, groaning softly as she transitioned from on form to the other. Just because she was bigger now didn’t make her any less burnt. But it did make her more useful. Her natural form was for forests, not for scorched rocky plains.

As she picked up her backpack a splash of colour caught the corner of Mandy’s eyes, drawing her attention towards Colette and Danny, the latter which didn’t seem to be holding up well. Torn her eyes flickered over to Barth and Calder but they seemed to be involved in another ‘debate’ over what to do – she had no patience for that now. Instead she went towards the two ghouls to offer help.

Halfway there she froze as Red spoke again, and this resonated with Mandy.

HALLOWEEN. CAN. NOT. DIE.

A smile broke out on Mandy face, it was true, they forgot it but it was true – how many times had she herself taken a fatal wound and dissipated only to come back. Oh this, this, they could fight and win as long as no hunter took them because they were eter-

If hope shattering could be a sound then that was all Mandy could hear as the ice encased them and Red disintegrated.

W-we cannot die. We cannot die. We cannot die. Wecannotdie. Please Red, come back, please Red let you be there in Halloween.

Mandy’s thoughts took a desperate tone but she knew there was no way to tell if her wish was to be granted until they got home and with the Hunter leaving that was finally looking possible. Now was the time to care for the wounded not panic, to look for a way out or wait for rescue.

Drawing a steading breath Mandy deliberately refused to look towards the ashes of their dear Professor, instead looking towards the ghouls she had been heading to and resuming her walk.

Which quickly turned into a run as she saw Danny go down, skidding besides the ghoul just in time to catch her and stop her hitting her head upon the stone ground. Grunting slightly at the weight of the bigger ghoul she looked at Colette, tired.

"Hey." her voice was subdued, she wasn't really sure what to say.

Aksaja froze as the telepathic voices came again, slamming into his head in rapid-fire succession. It was about to happen again, the last time there were voices there was fire . . . and some of the others still weren't behind the hasty barrier they'd built OH s**t.

The lightning dragon started to rear up on his hind legs to try and shelter as many of the others as he could with his own body - though he suspected it wouldn't do any good. Even as the Red-thing shouted aloud . . .



. . . the front of his body was lifting up, wings spreading to either side almost in slow motion. And then after a few more words from the Red-thing, the fire came for them.

It came.

Flowing toward them once again like a wave of death.

And he was blind, fighting to stay upright, to ignore the pain . . . except that there was no pain.

Front legs thumped to the ground, claws digging in as the light faded, and then he saw. Saw what had happened to the creature that used to be Red. "No . . . " he half-whispered, golden eyes wide. "Didn't you just say . . . we couldn't die . . .?"

She couldn't do this, couldn't leave them like this, THEY COULDN'T DIE. She just said that! JackDAMMITall! Did every one of these ******** field trips have to end in tradgedy?!!

Then, to make it worse, the Hunter, the human moved forward and smashed Red to pieces. "YOU b*****d!!!" Aksaja roared. "LEAVE HER ALONE, HAVEN'T YOU DONE ENOUGH?! . . . Haven't you done enough . . .?" that last nearly a whisper as his legs threatened to buckle beneath him. What were they supposed to do now? Just . . . go home, try to forget it ever happened?

No. Not him, at least. He'd never forget this. Never forget what those humans had done. They would pay for this . . . someday, they'd pay.

As Jerry inquired about his glasses Candace cleared her throat and thought of how to answer. I'm sorry, Jerry. I destroyed your glasses. It was an accident. That would do, right? But thankfully she didn't need to explain, she was distracted by their leader suddenly getting up. "Sir?" She was holding Jerry still as she watched him slowly trudge closer and closer to the basically fallen beast. She had protected her...young, so to speak. One last ditch effort. Narrowed eyes turned toward the monsters hidden in the protective ice barrier before she huffed and turned back to watch Caelius.

It was beautiful. Watching the way he hacked at the beast. Her narrowed eyes widened and her heart raced with excitement, her blood pumping so hard she could hear it in her head. Her grip on Jerry tightened ever so slightly as the adrenaline pumped through her just watching Caelius. It was like watching a work of art in progress. The way the blade glided through the monster's body, the sounds it made, the lights reflecting off the blade, the glow of the scythe...it was all so beautiful.

This renewed Candace's dying love for Caelius. He had just earned her respect and adoration all over again. That scythe. Her breath had quickened at some point until Caelius disappeared--oh no, wait. He was just on the ground in the ash. There was so. much. ash.

"Is that it..?" The shouts and cries and screams of the students reached her ears and she grinned. "Heh. Yeah. That's it." So much for the big bad wolf. In fact, as Candace rose to her feet she began to hum that very song. Loudly.

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf~? Atropos chuckled darkly in Candace's head. Candace could only nod in agreement. She was not afraid of that piddly little thing. Heh. Taken down by a half dead reaper, using what was left of her energy to protect a bunch of snotnosed crybabies. You realize this isn't nearly the end? This is just one small victory for us. It's not nearly enough.. Candace nodded.

"I know..." She looked down as her pendant began to glow and she sighed with relief. Candace reached down to help Jerry to his feet, glad to see the others had helped Caelius. "Are you ready to go, Jerr-bear? Where's Harrison? Is he ready, too? We should get out of here before that barrier goes down...you look a mess. We'll get you to the infirmary first thing, okay?" She gripped her pendant while still keeping her arm around Jerry's shoulders.

(EXITING)

Mostly blind, Jerry could only watch dancing shadows, shapes so large even without glasses he could understand. A wounded goliath. A dying battle cry.

A lot of scared... kids.

His enraged superior.

Something clattered by his feet. The rubber of his boots had melted. His fingers studied the odd texture a moment, mind far away, before the singed fingertips brushed against something cold... a stone? No... it had a different texture than the rubble. Stiffly he shoved it into his pocket, letting Candace help him to his feet.

He hated them. He hated what they did to him. But why was he feeling... No. No. An evolutionary trait to make Humans sympathize. A defense mechanism. To look so much like us at times. A wolf cub might be cute and fluffy, but unlike other puppies it grew up and went for the jugular.

Candace's hum made him bleerily glance up, unfocused eyes in a sallow, burn-reddened face staring at her for several moments before dropping back down to stare at the whistle that now hung from his neck. Roar.

He was singing along before he even knew it, "Long ago, there were three pigs, Little handsome piggy-wigs, For the big, bad very big very bad wolf, They didn't give three figs." He didn't know where Harrison was. Hopefully alive.

He wanted to go home. He was cold. He didn't feel very well.

He was pretty sure he had died.

((Exiting))

Vaith's hand met Xiu's shoulder, his hand lightly gripping her wrists to pull them awya from the barrier of ice. His fists was white, even his injured one under the blackened wound, his face an ashen color. It was futile to pound-- Xiu shouldn't have been, the jerky action wreaking stress on their already battle-driven bodies.

Their teacher. Desecrated even after death. The barrier was given a good hard kick from the reaper's long legs, a choking sound held back in his throat, the sight of Xiu's desperation and regret infectious. Why hadn't they been strong enough? They had horsemen on their side. They had alumni, year ones, year twos .. There was a infinite amount of powers and abilities. They even had Red.It wasn't as if the other side had been better. (Or were they?)

Why weren't they strong enough? Why were they so weak? Why did they have the stupidity to get caught in the nets, forcing Red to rescue them and result into this?

He bit down hard, grinding his teeth, one corner of his mouth crooked in a degree of immeasurable frustration. Red's words were piercing everyone's hearts, Vaith being no different. He stared at the skull, his eyes wide and pupils shaking. The shock wouldn't leave, even after this event would be long over. His mind would replay, replay and replay.

Somewhere along the way. Note had hidden from all the destruction but he didn't escape injury-- the familiar's tail was singed and jerky, as if difficult to keep it's shape. It's jerky motions reflected Vaith's state of mind, unable to keep his natural fear in a consistent flow to keep his familiar. Vaith wanted to kneel to the ground and cry too. But being a boil, obvious prevented that. And, he didn't think he had the energy left to cry. He felt so drained. So tired. So regretful. It was a hurricane that sapped at his energy with every thought, every second of silence passing by.

Shakily, Note's crumpled form approached Xiu's kneeling form, tapping at her knees with slanted red eyes. Rarely, could one see the familiar's expression but this moment had such a clear precise clarity; perhaps it could be attributed to the fact that one's senses became extraordinarily heightened in awareness at times like these. Or that the sadness even infected Note.

Aria - Red, whoever - turning herself to stone was rather anti-climatic, Davey thought. And a shame. Red had been the least crazy of their instructors. If only the students she'd been so determined to protect had been the Hunters, not those monsters. Well, Davey supposed you couldn't expect that much from someone who was a monster herself.

And on the that note, one of several large disappointing revelations of the day, Davey took hold of the glowing pendant around his neck and disappeared.


(( Exiting to Triage Thread ))