As Ellen, Harris, Blaire and Devon were joining the others in the living room, Winona—after seeing Ellen’s face—asked, “What’s wrong with your face, Ellen?”
“A slight friction burn,” Ellen informed. “I’m fine though. It just feels as if I had stayed out in the sun a little too long.”
“How did it happen?” Sadie asked.
“I was testing that speed spell and moving faster than human speeds,” Ellen explained. “Although to me, I felt as if I was moving normally and everything around me was moving extremely slow.”
“You’re human and humans are not capable of with-standing those fast speeds,” Winona pointed out.
“Yes, I figured that out from the friction burn on my face,” Ellen said while trying not to sound sarcastic.
“Not just friction burns,” Winona retorted. “Sudden stops and starts to and from extremely fast speeds could cause a concussion and possibly injuries to your organs. Of course I’m no doctor, so I’m just guessing here.”
Ellen thought it over for a brief moment before saying, “Okay, well, I’m planning not to use this spell anymore unless I absolutely have to.”
“Good,” Winona said with a slight grin.
“Okay, well, Ellen has one more spell to cast and a healing spell to be cast on her and then we’ll be off to the salvage yard,” Blaire said.
“No one else is going to link these spells to tokens?” Ellen quickly asked.
“We should,” Harris strongly agreed. “I’ll go out and grab rocks from the flowerbed next door and we can link the spells to them.”
“I’ll help you,” Galvin volunteered.
“We might as well help,” Devon said while indicating to Trevor and himself.
“Okay, Ellen,” Blaire began as Harris, Jessica, Karla, Trevor, Devon, Galvin, Winona and Cory walked towards the door. “While they’re out collecting rocks, let’s go in the dining room.”
“Okay,” Ellen agreed before she and Blaire walked towards the dining room.
The spell that would sharpen images of Ellen’s mind was twelve verses long, and once it was completed, Ellen tested the illusion spell again.
As before with Devon, Ellen imagined a skeleton next to Blaire, but this time, it wasn’t distorted nor did she lose the image after a few seconds.
Once Ellen had allowed the image to fade from sight, after holding it for longer than three minutes, Blaire moved onto the healing spell. The healing spell didn’t take long to do, and once it was done, Ellen’s face looked normal.
Harris and the others collected over sixty white gravel rocks from the neighbor’s flowerbed. The smallest rock was one inch long, one-half inch wide and one-half inch thick while the largest rock was one and one-half inch long, one and one-half inch wide and one-half inch thick.
Once Harris and the others returned with the rocks, Harris, Jessica, Karla, Sadie, Blaire, Trevor, Devon, Galvin, Winona and Cory each linked the seven spells (The whirlwind spell, the illusion spell, the faster-than-human speed spell, the mentally-grabbing-hold-of-an-object spell, the mentally-throwing-a-mentally-grabbed-object spell, the fire spell and the blow-back spell) to seven of the rocks.
After all the incantations were cast, everyone, except for Allyson and Sonya, left the house and went to the Salvage yard in his or her own vehicle.
Wesley and Melanie had arrived at the salvage yard first and after Ellen’s group had gotten there, the Rottweilers, except for Shadow, were let out of their cages.
Quentin had wanted to stick around and watch, but Blaire, Trevor and Devon had strongly urged him to leave. He left with very little protest, but before he drove off, he slid the two gates close, wrapped the chain around the gates as if he was securing the yard for the night as he always did and placed the heavy pad-lock in position without actually locking it.
As Quentin was making the salvage yard look secure for the night, Ellen led the Rottweilers around the salvage yard while looking for an ambush spot for her trap.
When Ellen came to the largest spacious part of the yard—a part of the yard that was illuminated by a pole-mounted area light—she ordered the Rottweilers to get out of view within and around the junk cars.
The others got out of sight as well while making it look as if Ellen was alone within the yard.
Ellen mentally imagined the details of the wizard’s face to activate her remote viewing psychic ability, and once she knew that the wizard knew where to find her, she paced back and forth within the clearing of the yard. She paced for several minutes before getting bored and sitting down Indian-style on the ground.
At the hospital, Kristen was called into work a few hours early, and as she was walking from the entrance towards the elevators, April noticed her.
April—with a slight grin on her face—caught up with Kristen and greeted her with, “Nurse Delaney.”
“Dr. Robinson,” Kristen greeted as she continued towards the elevators.
“I met my cousin today—a cousin that I didn’t even know I had,” April shared.
“Okay,” Kristen said in a confused tone as she looked curiously at April. “Why are you sharing this with me?”
“My cousin is Ellen Anderson,” April informed.
Kristen abruptly stopped walking and looked towards April. April stopped as well.
“Ellen Anderson is your cousin?” Kristen quickly asked.
“She is, and she had informed me that she’s dating your son,” April shared.
“Wow!” Kristen uttered in astonishment before moving into whispering distance. Without thinking, Kristen asked, “So are you a witch too?”
“Excuse me!” April demanded, in an annoyed tone.
Kristen realized her mistake and poorly tried to cover it up with, “Listen to me stumbling over my words. I meant which side of the family are you to Ellen…?”
“The question you asked and the manner at which you had asked it clearly tell me that you think that my cousin’s a witch,” April strongly made note of in an offended tone. “So you think that Ellen isn’t good enough for your son?”
“Ellen is the girl-next-door type and I can’t think of a better girl for my son to date,” Kristen quickly defended.
“But you think that Ellen is a witch,” April pointed out.
“Witch—as in hocus pocus; not as in she is a malicious or hateful person,” Kristen clarified. April shot Kristen a confused look that Kristen didn’t notice. “In fact, she is a very caring person, and as for her being a witch… a sorceress actually—now that I’m thinking about it—she would rank with Glinda, the Good Witch of the North.”
“Are you calling her a witch or a sorceress because she bought a magic kit from the hobby shop today?” April questioned.
“No, and I’ve obviously said too much,” Kristen said before gesturing down the hall towards the elevators. “So I’m going to get going.”
“You can’t honestly think that I’m going to allow you to drop this before you explain yourself,” April retorted before Kristen could step away.
“I am definitely not the right person to be explaining this to you,” Kristen insisted.
“Try,” April demanded.
Kristen stared worriedly into April’s eyes. When Kristen determined that April was serious, she sighed and said in a defeated tone, “Fine. Before I do, how are you related to Ellen?”
“My dad and Ellen’s mom are brother and sister,” April shared.
“Which I should’ve found that out before I had opened my big mouth,” Kristen said in a self-scolding manner. April just gave her an inquisitive look. Kristen took a deep breath before continuing with, “Anyway, I should start by saying that if any animal gets within so many feet of Ellen, Ellen will attract it…”
“I heard about Ellen’s charming effects on the animals,” April quickly informed. “My grandma… which is Ellen’s grandma as well, knew Ellen’s other grandparents while growing-up, so I know that Ellen gets her charming-the-animal attribute from her Grandpa Alex—Ellen’s dad’s dad.”
“Oh, that attribute goes back much farther than Alexander Anderson,” Kristen claimed.
“What do you mean?” April asked in a confused tone.
Kristen again took a breath before telling April every detail that she knew of Ellen.
Without interrupting, April listened to what Kristen had to say. When Kristen was done, April nodded her head while saying, “What you told me is fascinating to say the least. But you can’t honestly believe that Ellen and Ellen’s relatives on her dad’s side are descendants of Merlin.”
“That’s just it, it’s not a belief, it’s a fact,” Kristen replied. “Ellen has diaries of her ancestors that are called Legacy volumes. Those Legacy volumes span centuries, and they’ll prove who she is. In any case, you need to speak with Ellen about it.”
April pursed her lips for a moment before nodding and saying, “Alright. I’ll take this conversation to Ellen.”
“Let her know that I didn’t mean to out her,” Kristen requested. April slightly hesitated before nodding. “Anyway, I need to get to the psychiatric department.”
April nodded with a polite grin before she and Kristen went their respective ways.
As April was rounding the corner of the hall, she and Mr. O’Brien had to abruptly stop to keep from colliding into each other.
“Mr. O’Brien?” April uttered in a surprised tone. “Did something else happen?”
“Nothing happened,” Mr. O’Brien assured her. “I came to visit Anthony before he passes.” He then offered to shake April’s hand. “It’s good to see you again, Dr. Robinson.”
“It’s good to see you,” April said while shaking Mr. O’Brien’s hand. “And in good health.” April suddenly saw that Mr. O’Brien appeared as though he was concentrating on a thought. “Mr. O’Brien?”
Mr. O’Brien stared indifferently at April for a brief moment before saying, “As you suspected, I’m a psychic, and your cousin—the one you were recently discussing with a nurse—is in the middle of ‘Quentin’s Salvage Yard’ while waiting for something.”
April gave him a curious look before asking, “What is she waiting for?”
Mr. O’Brien shook his head before saying, “I can’t see what she’s waiting for. I don’t believe it’s anything good though.”
“Okay,” April began in a skeptical tone. “Do you know what the nurse and I were discussing? About my cousin?”
Mr. O’Brien slightly hesitated before nodding and saying, “The nurse told you the truth. Your cousin is a sorceress. She’s not evil though.”
“Wow,” April said in an astonished manner. “And you don’t know what my cousin is waiting for inside ‘Quentin’s Salvage Yard’?”
“I didn’t see or sense what she’s waiting for, but I did get the sense of an ‘O. K. Corral’ atmosphere around her.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” April took note of. “Thanks for the information. And I’ll see you later.”
“Bye,” Mr. O’Brien said.
April nodded before stepping away.
At the salvage yard, Ellen was once again pacing around. Her attention was then suddenly drawn to a section of the yard when electrical arcing, accompanied by the sound of something hard was slowly splitting, was heard.
When Ellen looked, a cartoon looking fight cloud had formed at ground level that was six feet tall and four feet wide.
Without hesitation, Ellen recited the incantation to draw in electricity from the area light.
Ellen was only midway through the spell when Garrett—the thirty-something-year-old wizard from New Orleans—stepped out from the cloud. The cloud dissipated quickly.
Garrett had a grin across his face, but when Ellen began drawing in electricity from the area light, his expression turned into a curious one.
The salvage yard darkened to almost nothing, and once a glowing halo was seen around Ellen, Ellen shot a powerful bolt of electricity towards Garrett. The light in the yard returned to normal.
Garrett remained where he was, and when the bolt was six inches from him, the bolt impacted an invisible shell that surrounded him. The shell lit up like a low wattage light bulb as it absorbed the strike, and after the invisible shell had returned to normal, Garrett’s grin returned.
As Garrett stepped towards Ellen by a few steps, he said, “A very interesting opening move. And before I retaliate…” Garrett stopped talking and turned his head as if he had sense something behind him. Garrett faced Ellen before continuing. “I expected that you wouldn’t be alone, but to bring an entire coven with you was something that I hadn’t expected. “ Garrett then spoke louder. “So everyone can come out now!”
“No!” Ellen uttered. “Stay out of sight!”
“Quiet!” Garrett ordered while shooting a magical strike at her with only a yellowish flash of his eyes.
Ellen could see the translucent distortion wave of the magical strike rippling quickly through the air towards her, and before she could even respond to it, it was six feet from her face.
Without hesitation, Ellen uttered the command phrase that gave her superhuman speed, and to Ellen’s perspective, the magical strike—now one foot from her face—slowed down to a speed where Ellen could jerk her head to the side in time for the magical strike to soar past her ear by two inches.
As Ellen was still moving at a superhuman speed, Ellen scanned the area around Garrett. She spotted a small stack of unused concrete blocks not far from him.
Suddenly everything returned to its normal speed, and Ellen winced from the pain that shot through her head and the sting of the friction burn on her face.
Ellen ignored the pain as best as she could and quickly uttered the two command phrases that would throw one of the concrete blocks at Garrett. As the concrete block went flying towards Garrett, Ellen quickly repeated the two command phrases again and sent another concrete block flying his way.
Garrett turned towards the flying concrete blocks, and before they could hit him, he blew them to bits, one after the other, with simple hand gestures. The dust and small pieces showered his invisible shell.
Trevor stood upright while reciting a spell. The spell was almost identical to the one that Ellen had just used to draw in electricity, and after he said it in its entirety, a whoosh of flame came up from his toes and a fireball shot out from his fingertips.
The fireball impacted Garrett’s invisible shell from the side while causing his invisible shell to light up again as it did before.
Garrett was left untouched by the fireball and he jerked towards Trevor to retaliate, but before he could do so, Ellen said the first command phrase for the blow-back spell.
As with Cory earlier that day, Garrett was forcibly swatted back several feet into the air and crashed hard into a pile of stacked cars that was stacked ten feet high. Garrett hit the stacked cars near the top and he had caused the stack to sway slightly as he fell nine feet to the ground.
When the stacked cars swayed towards Garrett, Ellen uttered the two command phrases again to throw an object, but this time, she mentally made the top car to drop towards Garrett.
Garrett had gotten up onto his knees, although Garrett’s invisible shell had prevented his knees from touching the ground by six inches, and when he saw the car falling towards him, he made a hand gesture that sent the car flying swiftly towards Ellen.
Ellen once again uttered the command phrase that gave her superhuman speed, and to Ellen’s perspective, the car soared towards her at a slow pace.
Without rushing, Ellen moved out of the car’s path, and when time returned to normal, the car flew past where Ellen had been standing and plowed into the junk cars that were several feet away.
During the sounds of breaking glass and crunching metal, Garrett stood upright, and once it was quiet again, Garrett informed, “I can withstand, absorb or deflect anything that you and your hiding coven can throw at me.”
“Your battery won’t last long,” Ellen presumed as Garrett glanced towards Trevor. “Your force-field will drop and you won’t be able to withstand, absorb or deflect anything.”
“My force-field will last much longer than your Speedy Gonzales imitations,” Garrett assured Ellen.
“We’ll see,” Ellen retorted.
“You and your coven can’t win.”
Ellen ignored what Garrett had said and magically threw three more concrete blocks at him, one after the other.
Trevor magically threw five moderately size car parts at Garrett as well.
Garrett quickly blew up the concrete blocks, one after the other, with simple hand gestures, and as before, the dust and small pieces showered his invisible shell.
The two car parts that Garrett saw coming were quickly deflected while the other three bounced off Garrett’s invisible shell without effecting Garrett.
Garrett briefly glanced towards Trevor as the last car part clang to the ground. As he faced Ellen again, he said, “You know, I wouldn’t even be here if you weren’t spying on my business.”
“If killing innocent people is your business, then you need a new vocation,” Ellen retorted. “And I wasn’t spying on you; you just happened to show up in one of my dreams recently, and while I was trying to remember the details of my dream character’s face, you and your victim had flashed through my head during your human sacrifice.”
“Then I might be to blame for this… this stand-off,” Garrett confessed. Ellen shot him a curious look. “I had cast a spell that supposed to incite dreams. The intended dreamer of my dream was my cowardly brother. The dream was my way of telling him that I was coming for him. In any case, I can’t allow you…” Garrett slightly paused while gesturing towards Trevor. “Him or the rest of your coven to live.”
“Yeah, well, I hope you don’t mind us fighting to stay alive,” Ellen quipped.
“Actually, I would be a little disappointed if you didn’t fight back—like now, in fact. I’m disappointed that your…” Garrett stopped talking and appeared as if he was counting to himself. “That your other eleven coven members are refusing to show themselves. I don’t care about the five dogs that you have hiding about.”
“It appears that the element of surprise has been lost,” Blaire said while coming out of hiding.
In different parts of the yard, Harris, Jessica, Karla, Sadie, Devon, Galvin, Winona, Cory, Riley and Brad came out of hiding one by one as well. Garrett looked into their faces as they each came out.
Wesley whispered to Melanie below human hearing, “Ellen doesn’t want us to come out of hiding.”
“Alright,” Melanie whispered back, also below human hearing.
“I can hear and distinguish heartbeats in case any of you were wondering how I knew your numbers,” Garrett shared.
“Fascinating,” Galvin uttered in an unimpressed tone.
“We clearly outnumber you, so if you surrender now, we can come up with an alternative punishment than death for you,” Trevor bluffed.
Garrett amusingly laughed before rhetorically asking, “Do you know the difference between me and all of you?” Garrett’s eyes flashed, followed by Ellen and the others grabbing their throats and struggling to breathe from an invisible chokehold. “I don’t need to speak when using witchcraft.”
In lightning speed, Wesley came out of hiding, ran towards Garrett at his fastest speed, and rammed shoulder first into Garrett’s six-inch thick invisible shell near the chest.
Garrett flew back several feet into the air, and losing his chokehold on the others.
Wesley came to a halt has he watched Garrett fly back. Everyone, except for Wesley and Melanie, dropped to his or her knees, coughing and gasping for air.
Garrett hit the ground, and as he got up onto his knees, he uttered, “Vampire! I thought I sensed you and one other. Vampires helping witches and wizards is ridiculous, so I dismissed my feeling…”
Just as Garrett went to get up from his knees, Winona noticed that Garrett’s knees had never touched the ground, but his feet do.
Jessica was the closest one to Winona, and Winona quickly grabbed her attention before telling her, “His feet will touch the ground when his knees and other body parts won’t.” Jessica gave Winona a curious look. “I think his feet are vulnerable. Tell the others.”
Jessica nodded in an understanding manner before she went to stand.
“I can kill you, vampire, with just a thought—kill you so much easier than I could kill these witches and wizards,” Garrett continued.
Once back on their feet, their attention was suddenly drawn to Jessica as Jessica was drawing in electricity from the area light.
“This again?” Garrett rhetorically questioned in a tiresome tone. “I thought we had established that your electrical bolts have no effect on me.”
Jessica ignored Garrett, and when a glowing halo was formed, she shot a powerful electrical bolt at the ground between his feet.
Garrett, while noticed by the others, clenched his teeth and endured the pain that shot through his body. When it was over, Garrett shot her a grin and said, “Nice try, but as you can see, it didn’t work.”
“Then we’ll try again,” Ellen uttered before saying the command phrase to activate the whirlwind, and then the command phrase to activate the illusion spell. Garrett put up his hand to block his face from the dust and small debris that were being kicked up, as did Ellen’s group. “Let’s see if a lightning bolt—” As Ellen was imagining lightning, she emphasized, “—or multiple lightning bolts have any effect on your feet and legs.”
Harris took Ellen’s words as a cue to throw another electrical discharge at Garrett’s feet. As Harris recited the spell, Jessica followed along and recited the spell again.
Blaire, Trevor, Devon and Galvin each recited the spell for the fireball.
As Ellen held Garrett’s attention with her whirlwind and illusion, Harris fired an electrical bolt at Garrett’s feet first followed by Jessica.
Blaire, Trevor, Devon and Galvin shot their fireball respectively within seconds apart from each other.
The combine strikes blew out a small crater beneath Garrett’s feet, and the gravel-size loose rocks and debris that were created were picked up by Ellen’s whirlwind.
Before the rocks and debris could hit anyone, Garrett shouted out, “Enough!”
The whirlwind immediately died out and the rocks and debris that it held rained down.
With an infuriated expression on his face, Garrett stepped out of the newly formed eighteen-inch crater. His pants from his shin to his shoes, and along with his shoes, were dusty from the recent strikes.
Ellen saw the dust on Garrett’s lower leg and shoes, and while trying to hold back her grin, she again uttered the command phrase for creating illusions.
From five directions, convincing images of Rottweilers came out from underneath and from around the junk cars, and dashed towards Garrett.
Wesley wasn’t sure what to do, so he backed up to the junk cars. Melanie didn’t know what to do either and she just watched the battle from her hiding place.
Garrett turned towards the false images and threw magical strikes towards the illusions. Ellen—while not really knowing what Garrett’s strikes were supposed to do—created illusions of the dogs disintegrating; however, for every one Rottweiler that had disintegrated, two more convincing images came out from underneath the junk cars.
The others realized what Ellen was doing and uttered their command phrases to create convincing images of attacking Rottweilers of their own.
After a short time, Garrett realized what was happening and shot the group an annoyed look.
When Ellen saw that Garrett had given up on fighting the illusions, she mentally gave the Rottweilers the order to attack Garrett’s ankles.
The closest of the five Rottweilers to Garrett got within six feet of him before he realized—either by sensing something or by hearing something—that there were real Rottweilers among the illusions of Rottweilers.
Garrett turned towards the Rottweilers again, but before he could determine which Rottweilers were real, the closest Rottweiler sank her teeth into his leg just above the ankle.
Garrett clenched his teeth, closed his eyes and moaned as he went down onto his knees.
Another Rottweiler was able to bite at his ankle before Garrett could retaliate by creating a strong explosion wave. When the explosion wave hit the five Rottweilers, the five Rottweilers were thrown back several feet. They landed unconscious on top of and around the junk cars.
Ellen and the others were also thrown off their feet when the explosion wave hit them. The metal from the junk cars ten feet from Garrett or closer had groaned from being bent. Any glass there was had shattered and was thrown as well. The cars that were ten to twenty feet from Garrett just shook.
The explosion wave was short and any glass or rough debris that was thrown had showered down without severe injuries to anyone.
Garrett was still on his knees when everyone went to get back on his or her feet. As Winona was getting back up, she noticed that Garrett’s knees were closer to the ground than they were before; however, Garrett was getting up as well and Winona wasn’t sure if she had seen right. To see if she was right, she uttered her command phrase that grabbed a nearby fist-size rock followed by her command phrase that threw that rock towards Garrett.
Garrett didn’t see or notice the rock until it had hit his invisible shell, three inches from his left shoulder. Garrett turned and watched the rock as it fell to the ground.
Winona thought for a moment, and as the rock was rolling across the ground, a thought occurred to her.
“Hey,” Winona whispered as she stepped up to Jessica. “We need him to set loose another powerful strike as he did on those dogs.”
“Why?” Jessica whispered back.
“That explosion wave he created had used up a lot of his power,” Winona informed. “His force-field is half to what it was before.”
Jessica thought for a moment before asking, “How do we do it?”
“I want you to do what Ellen had done, but instead of dogs, I want you to create bear illusions,” Winona instructed.
“Why bear?” Jessica asked.
“I learned today from Cory that I can shape-shift, and I practiced shape-shifting as a bear,” Winona explained.
“Bear?!” Jessica mouthed out. “Wow!”
“I need you to create the illusion of an army of bears attacking him,” Winona told her.
“Which bear?” Jessica asked.
“A brown bear mainly, but if you want to mix it up, that’s fine,” Winona replied.
Jessica nodded in an understanding manner.
When Jessica turned to look, Ellen had sent Garrett flying through the air again with the blow-back spell that was linked to one of her rings.
As Garrett was hitting the ground, Jessica uttered her command phrase that activated the illusion spell.
From eight directions, convincing images of bears began to merge on Garrett. Ellen immediately saw them and figured out quickly that the bears were only an illusion and she turned to look for the source.
Winona was removing her pants when she saw Ellen looking in her and Jessica’s direction. Before Ellen could utter a syllable, Winona hushed her with a finger gesture to her lips. When Winona saw that Ellen was going to comply, she went to remove her shirt.
Ellen turned towards Garrett—who was getting back on his feet—and after a short thought, she uttered her command phrase that gave her superhuman speed.
Ellen moved towards the opposite side of the yard from where Winona and Jessica were. When Ellen’s speed returned to normal, Ellen cringed and slightly groaned from the pain that the spell had caused.
Garrett jerked around towards Ellen and saw that she was in pain. A pleasant grin came across his face before saying, “Your Speedy Gonzales imitations are taking their toll.”
“I’ll still outlast the battery to your force-field,” Ellen said. Ellen glanced towards Winona—who was now standing completely in the nude—and then quickly turned away. “So why don’t you give up now?”
Garrett had seen Ellen’s quick glance and turned to see what Ellen was looking at. For the first time, Garrett noticed the eight bear images, and then caught sight of Winona in mid-transformation from human to the bear that she was attempting to become.
“The illusions of the dogs—since there are dogs in the yard—were more convincing,” Garrett uttered while turning towards Ellen again. “However, I have to admit that the shape-shifting human is a nice touch.”
Ellen looked in Cory’s direction—to Garrett’s right—before saying loudly, “Then perhaps I should bring back the dogs.”
“That ploy was a good move, but it won’t work twice,” Garrett informed as Ellen faced him again.
“How about if I mix it up with other types of dogs?” Ellen rhetorically questioned before saying the command phrase that activated the illusion spell.
To Garrett’s left side, convincing images of a German Sheppard, a Rottweiler and a Saint Bernard appeared within a few feet from each other.
Getting undressed in a rush was an art for Cory, and he was completely undressed within a minute. As he threw his clothes to the ground, he began to shape-shift into a dog.
Winona had shape-shifted into something that looked more like a short Bigfoot with bear-claws, and she moved swiftly towards Garrett.
Harris, Karla, Sadie, Blaire, Trevor, Devon and Galvin—with confused expressions on their faces—went along with what was happening and uttered their command phrases that activated the illusion spell and created dogs, bears and Bigfoot images of their own.
“Playing that card twice is a bad move,” Garrett informed.
Ellen allowed the illusions that she was creating to drop before asking, “How can you be so sure that we don’t have two of those cards to play?”
“Because I can…” Garrett got out before swinging towards the Bigfoot looking creature that Winona had shape-shifted into.
Winona was swinging her right bear-claw hand towards Garrett’s lower leg when Garrett looked, and before he could respond, Winona had ripped open his lower legs with one swipe of her claws.
Cory—as the dog that he had shape-shifted into—was a couple of feet behind Winona, and before Cory could reach Garrett, Garrett created another explosion wave.
When the explosion wave hit Winona and Cory, they were thrown back several feet as the Rottweilers were.
Ellen and the others felt the explosion wave rushed past them, but it wasn’t as powerful as the time before, nor were Ellen and the others knocked off their feet. The junk cars ten feet from Garrett or closer only shook.
Ellen stared confusingly at Garrett for a moment before having a thought. She then recited the incantation again to draw in electricity. Harris and Jessica saw what Ellen was doing and did the same.
Blaire, Trevor, Devon and Galvin each recited the spell for the fireball.
Winona and Cory—while still respectively shape-shifted into a Bigfoot likeness and a dog—were getting back on their feet as fast as they could. Once they were on their feet, they saw that the others were preparing to strike, and so the two hung back.
As Ellen was drawing in the electricity and the area light was dimming, a woman’s worried voice screamed out, “Ellen!”
The voice came from the double gates and Ellen was slightly distracted by it just before she released her bolt. The bolt flew past Garrett and the junk cars by inches and impacted the metal fence.
April—while wearing her doctor’s clothes and her name tag—was the woman who screamed out, and when she saw the electricity touching the metal fence, she jumped back off the double gates quickly. An electrical arc jumped and hit the electrical transformer that was setting on a pole a few feet on the outside of the fence, which caused the neighborhood streetlights and the lights to the surrounding buildings to flicker off and on. The alarm to the lamp wholesale store, one block away, had begun to sound.
Harris and Jessica had shot their bolts simultaneously followed by Blaire, Trevor, Devon and Galvin shooting their fireballs.
Galvin was the last one to fire, and after Garrett’s invisible shell had absorbed the first five strikes with diminishing effectiveness, Galvin’s strike made it through.
Galvin’s fireball hit Garrett in the right shoulder and Garrett acted quickly to put the fire out.
Just as Ellen’s group was realizing that Garrett’s invisible shell had been breached, Garrett set loose his strongest explosion wave yet.
The explosion wave threw everyone, who was out in the open, off his or her feet again. The metal from the junk cars twenty feet from Garrett or closer had groaned from being bent. The junk cars ten feet from Garrett or closer had moved away from Garrett by a few feet. Any glass that had survived the first explosion wave within twenty feet of Garrett had shattered and was thrown as well. The cars that were twenty to thirty feet from Garrett just shook. April had even felt the air as it blew past her.
Once the explosion wave came to an end and the glass or rough debris was showering down, Garrett uttered an incantation for the first time since being in the salvage yard.
The incantation was short, and once it was said in its entirety, a six-foot fissure from the ground up opened up. The fissure was created ten feet from him and he made a mad dash for it.