The human waited at the door, trying to keep his breath steady and convincing himself he was ready for anything.
And a short ways away Ixia kept an eye on him and an ear out for anything unusual. The unusual came in the form of the lights of a neighboring house winking out at the edge of the Dryad’s peripheral vision. She turned her head, ever so slightly to the left as her eyes darted in the same direction. The lights to the entire house had indeed gone completely off.
To the right of her, another house went dark. Ixia dropped to the ground and rolled under the truck as she looked around for a clear cause to this. She saw nothing but her Guardian who had just noticed not only the darkening houses, but a distinct lack of visible Dryad.
Ixia debated calling out or waving from her hiding spot, only for a moment as she waited for this new complication to present itself. Neither of them said a word, with only crickets to fill the silence of the rapidly darkening night.
Cormac stuck to the plan, ringing the doorbell once more and hearing that chime pierce the still night. And as the human realized, even the crickets were starting to go silent. Then came a sound from beyond that plain white wooden door to grab Cormac’s attention so fast he thought he might have hurt his neck in trying to meet that noise.
“One moment!”
The Guardian’s brow raised at the distinctly female voice. He had been warned that this fiend would likely take a human form, but even so he wasn’t certain as to what he should actually expect.
The door flew open to reveal a tall, pale, raven haired woman wearing only a silken red bathrobe over a slender figure to match her eyes that were just slightly too big.
“Oh I’m terribly sorry dear but I believe you have the wrong house!”
Cormac’s brows pressed together as he heaved a deep sigh and put his free hand on his hip. “Really? You’re sure this isn’t-”
He took a step back to look at the house number and bite his tongue to prevent his natural instinct to insist that for not-a-vampire, she was certainly putting in her best effort to get the vampire aesthetic down.
“Oh!” Cormac smacked his head and rolled his eyes. “Silly me, this is 9234 not 9226! I’m so sorry, you wouldn’t believe the day I’ve had…”
The woman’s crimson lipstick clad lips pulled into a venomous grin that surprisingly had absolutely nothing in the way of fangs as she leaned her left arm against the door frame while her bathrobe rode higher. “You know? I just might. Why don’t you come in and tell me about it?”
The Guardian fought his urge to gnaw his tongue off as his eyes didn’t leave hers. “Well, I would hate to impose and I should really be getting this delivery done…”
If Ixia could hear any of this exchange, she would have had a hard time not just jumping ahead with the plan.
At the moment, Ixia was distracted with the rest of the houses on this street going dark and all crickets going entirely silent. Her hand was to the ground as she reached out to every plant in the area, trying to channel her senses through all the plants in the area. And while she had serious concerns about how it was possible to keep so many non-desert plants watered in a desert she was thankful in this moment that there were so many on this street.
She could only glimpse for a second to not leave herself vulnerable for too long, but she was able to sense others stalking about in the shadows outside those houses. At least four of them, human sized, carrying weapons?
“-really I can’t impose, with grandma in the hospital I just can’t afford to lose this job. I might even have to sell my truck soon….so...so soon. Really soon. And with that being the last thing granda left me-”
Cormac was busy struggling to keep the woman occupied and not paying attention to even the street lights going off, expecting those most important of lights to come on any moment now.
Ixia blinked and was back in her own head, pressing a hand over her mouth to contain the gasp from the shock of going from so much sensory input back down to her own. She had to act fast, as whoever was out there was acting just as fast and approaching Cormac faster. There was no telling if they were friend or foe, but at the moment there was a certainty that they were about to interrupt the Dryad and Guardian’s plan.
She crawled over to the driver's side of the truck, put her hand to the pavement, and focused with all her might to target all the earth of this street and felt the pulse of all the plant life connect to her own spirit. With all of her magical energy, she readied a grand growth that she only hoped would work. One of her eyes strained open as she tried to time this with Cormac trying to keep to the plan.
“You poor, sweet thing!” The woman cooed as she heard Cormac’s yarn about mounting student debt and stretched her right arm out to prop it on the door frame as well to make for an imposing figure. “You know...I run a charity for those who find themselves so very hard on their luck. And I think you’ve found yourself very hard. On your luck. Why don’t you come in for some gingersnaps and tea?”
Cormac felt his skin crawl, which he was still certain was just from wanting to die and nothing supernatural. He shook his head, careful to keep his eyes on the woman as he took a step back. “Madam I...this seems highly inappropriate.”
“You speak that, and yet…” With both arms outstretched to the doorframe she pointed down with another right arm that Cormac distinctly didn’t recall being there one blink ago, right before licking her lips and stepping towards him. “Is that a shillelagh in your pocket or were you just happy to see me?”
The Guardian groaned and narrowed his eyes at the woman who had stepped beyond the threshold with now six outstretched arms and another set of eyes or two peeking out from beneath her bangs.
“No,” Cormac said through gritted teeth as he reached into his pocket with a shaking hand after finally dropping the pizza. “It’s a flashlight you fucking dollar store vampire!”
From beneath the truck, Ixia could feel the mysterious figures breaking into a sprint as she had a tangle of vines spring from the ground all around this neighborhood just as Cormac clicked on the UV flashlight at the Gloomfang’s face.
Several cries rang out from around the neighborhood as several individuals hit the ground with a shout of surprise and more than a few curses. The Gloomfang shrieked in agony, bringing up her many hands to cover her face as more of her changed as her facade fell and her too perfect pale skin became segmented and mottled. Cormac aimed the flashlight downward at her neck and took a swing with his free hand at that same spot. His fist connected with her throat, stunning her and eliciting another strained cry of pain as a stinger tipped tail, that he definitely did not remember being there before, started to swing wildly at him while the Gloomfang gasped for air.
Staying nimble on his feet, he dodged out of the way while keeping the UV light trained on her face while not taking his eyes off of her. He shouted “SELL MY TRUCK! SELL MY TRUCK!”
Ixia had already been in the process of scrambling to her feet after a bout of dizziness from having the tangling vines ensnare whoever it was that had been out there stalking closer. They could determine if they were friend in need of apology or foe in need of a solution later. Right now she was scrambling to climb into the truck and execute the next part of the plan. She was stopped by an arrow whizzing by her head just as she climbed to her feet and exploding into a burst of bright light just as it hit the truck to daze her.
“TRUCK!...Truck?” Cormac was now asking himself as he heard that burst but couldn’t look away while dodging blows from that tail. As the Gloomfang recovered from the blow to the throat, she stared down the Guardian and prepared a decisive strike with her many limbs as she now towered over him. Cormac tried a sweep of the legs as he held the light at her face, only for his leg to phase right through hers as she stared down the UV light while daring him to strike her once more while she had the height advantage.
Another arrow flew past Cormac to phase through the first few inches of splotchy sallow flesh of her towering torso before bursting into light and causing a roar of agony while Cormac turned and ran while discovering the source of the arrows.
Another man, looking distinctly human despite all the lights in the neighborhood aside from Cormac’s UV flashlight being out to cast that UV glow on him. It was enough to see that the man was staring daggers at him and knocking another arrow in that bow aimed right at Cormac.
The sudden burst of a small oak tree from the pavement right next to him threw him to the ground as his bow went flying. Cormac looked over to the truck to see Ixia steadying herself on the hood as she had a hand outreached in his direction.
“Keep them occupied!” She shouted out as she threw open the door and climbed in the truck to quickly deploy the planned contraption on the dashboard while Cormac aimed the flashlight back at the still reeling but still recovering too fast Gloomfang to gain her attention. He backed up towards the man that had been knocked down as the truck’s ignition turned over and an array of the brightest grow lights that Cormac’s long suffering credit card could buy turned night into full spectrum for all stages of growing day that the Gloomfang tried in vain to shield herself from with her arms and tail.
The archer had recovered enough to climb to his feet and reach for something at his hip while shouting “Hey! What the fuck do you think you’re-”
The UV flashlight collided with his stomach shortly before Cormac tackled him to the ground and Ixia stumbled out of the still running truck to reach out a hand towards the stunned and very tangible Gloomfang, no longer able to poison the land and prevent growth just by her presence, as roots burst from the ground to pierce the monster a dozen times over. The Dryad was still catching her breath while Cormac locked the man into a sleeper hold. Guardian and Dryad alike looked on towards the impaled Gloomfang with cautious smiles that sank into horror as the fiend was still squirming and struggling.
Ixia readied a more fearsome attack as a small fireball hit the pavement next to where she was standing.
“I’ll take care of the Dryad!” Came the shout of a woman with hands wreathed in flames to illuminate her amber skin and bits of vine still stuck to her torn black clothes. “Go after the Leprechaun, he’s trying to kill Ed!”
The Dryad was going to let no such thing happen, and caused all the grass of every lawn that their assailants were standing on to grow as tall as the houses to trap them in a miniature jungle.
“Don’t burn it!” came a third voice, this time a man. “This is going to be hard to cover up already without you burning down the neighborhood!”
“I’m not letting Ed die!” The woman shouted back, and two other voices shouted to stop shouting while they struggled through the grass.
Ed, struggle and grapple as he might, had just taken a knee to the groin as Cormac and Ixia both had their attention drawn to the Gloomfang currently tearing away at the roots with long claws and a strong tail. Cormac looked around for any ideas at all, and next to the man writing in male pain was his quiver of arrows.
With no bow in sight and time running out.
The Guardian grabbed a fistful of arrows as he shouted out to Ixia while holding the arrows overhead and sprinting towards the Gloomfang. “HOLD HER STEADY AS LONG AS YOU CAN!”
The Dryad understood as she summoned more roots from the ground for the monster to struggle with and tear apart as no damage seemed to actually matter to it, all while she heard the four assailants charging through the tall grass behind her.
That didn’t matter for the moment, what mattered was holding that Gloomfang down with piercing roots and in place just long enough for her to focus all of her many eyes on the Dryad and not on the human sprinting up to her with arrows in hand.
“BIGOTED BITCH!” Cormac screamed as he jammed a bundle of arrows into the distracted Gloomfang’s throat, jumping back just before they went off. “YOU’RE NOT EVEN MY TYPE!”
The arrows exploded into sunlight under the already near blinding grow lights from the truck, detaching the monsters head and sending it through the air for Cormac to catch, fumble several times due to the blood, and finally manage to recover just before it hit the ground.
“NAILED IT!” He shouted in triumph while holding the head aloft to a still panting yet amused Ixia. “Sorry, that was...it was really cool okay and I’m glad you saw me catch it?”
Ixia looked just past him to the decapitated monster body. “That’s what you are most proud of?”
“....yes? It was like psychic powers or something-”
“HEY!”
The pair looked towards the woman with hands wreathed in flames and orange hair standing next to four others. Namely a hobbled human archer missing a bow, a bald man with silver skin, and two shorter twin human women covered in strange tattoos.
All of which were staring incredulously at the Dryad and her Guardian, currently frozen in place.
The silver skinned man held up both hands defensively and approached slowly. “Wait...you killed the Gloomfang?”
Cormac looked down to the head the size of a pumpkin in his hands that he was really starting to feel the weight of. “Yes? Also which one of you assholes called me a Leprechaun?”
“You’re...not?” The first twin asked with a raised brow.
“You’re not here...to join her?” The second twin asked, confusion shadowing her medium complexioned face.
It was Ixia’s turn to look at the head, still leaking blue blood. “I….no, no he is not. Nor am I. What are you here for?”
The amber skinned woman extinguished her hand flames. “To vanquish that foe.”
“Quietly.” The archer said, strain coming through in his voice.
“And unnoticed by anyone in the neighborhood.” The silver man finished that thought and stepped forward. “There was enough shouting and noise to draw attention even if we put this and surrounding streets to sleep. We need to make all this-” He gestured to the tall grass, oak tree, and Gloomfang corpse pierced by a mass of roots “-aaaaall go away. What was your plan to remain undetected? Or how to exit quietly?”
Cormac felt his blood turn to ice, and a bead of sweat run down his forehead as he dry swallowed and cleared his throat. “There’s no time to explain, everyone…” He looked around in a panic. “Uh, everyone into her house and we can talk this out and hide. Hurry!”
The two groups shared another moment of mutual staring and glaring before they jumped into action to clean up the scene and hide in the Gloomfang’s house.
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