Chapter 8: Witch hunters

Errol smiled at sharkk, who, if he had a mouth, would have smiled back, but he didn't so instead he simply made an odd humming noise, as though purring. They stood there, until finally sharkk broke the now awkward silence.

“Do you hear that?” 

“What?”

“Y'know the yelling?”

“No, who is it?”

“I don't really know, it sounds kinda like, people” his eyes widened they both turned to see torchlight running through the forest, suddenly, the roar of a shotgun broke the air, and Errol saw a shrub nearby get torn apart, as though many bullets had hit it at once, an appropriate idea, as that was what had happened 

Sharkk made an odd sniffing sound to the air

“Normal gunpowder, witch hunters”

“Say what now!” Errol said “MORE people we have to deal with!”
“Yes” Sharkk answered simply “witch hunters are humans who found out about the witch world,  but did not take it so well, most of them went insane by it and are bent on killing witches”
“Splendid. Absolutely hanging” Errol said, a bit frustrated, he picked up a stick nearby, it was hardwood, very dense and heavy. He also grabbed a rock, about palm sized, read to fight

“No” Sharkk said, “there are too many they may not have magical means but they can-”

He promptly exploded, anther shotgun blast hitting home his head went off its shoulders, the neck a mass of blood and bone, his head rolled a few feet, then stopped right at Errols, Errol's eyes widened at the head of his friend, his only friend, sitting at his feet, the body crumpled to the floor

“Got one!” a voice called through the trees, continually getting closer

Errol screamed, he held up the rock and the stick, prepared to fight to the death and kill as many witch hunters as possible, for Sharkk. For-

“OW” a voice at Errol's feet came Errol yelped

“Errol im fine!” Errol yelled in fear again and jumped back, Sharkks head was talking to him.

It rolled towards the body, which got up and grabbed the head, and jammed it back onto the completely fine neck.

“Wha- wha- whaa-” Errol gasped, pointing at Sharkk 

“I'm ok! I'll explain later, but I'm half demon, remember? And NOW i'm a half demon who is  VERY pissed” he stood and pulled his knife from its sheath, yelling a war cry, he ran into the fray, he drove his knife into one, sending a spurt of blood everywhere  then spun and drove his arkansas toothpick into the second, but more came, Errol joined him, he spun into a whirlwind, cracking the stick against one's head, the slamming the rock into another's face. He whipped around, and tackled another, it was just like wrestling his brothers, but with a  flash of trying to get your hands around the other person's throat, and then squeeze the life out of someone. He grabbed hold of the mans throat, lifted him into the air, and using all his strength, slammed his head into a nearby tree, sending him ragdolled to the floor.

“GET BACK!!” this was Sharkk, he had begun spinning his knife into a circle and then he spoke a word that made absolutely no sense to Errol

“ASTRAPI” he screamed and one of the etchings on his blade glowed blue, and in the distance, a storm approached, sending billowing black clouds shooting all around, it twisted into a great black and gray cyclone, high in the sky, lighting crackled. And sharks eyes glowed blue, he threw his knife out in front of him, his hand gripping it tight, and then it struck, it came from above, like the brutal force it was, the pale blue and white, streak jagged its way downward, and slammed into the tip of his blade, then, like it was made of rubber, bounced off and came flying in the direction of the witch hunters,

“TAKE COVER!!” Sharkk screeched to Errol and Errol hit the deck, covering his ears as an eardrum-shattering noise exploded forth. Then the second sound came

BOOM 

It was as though the gods themselves had unleashed their fury upon them, the sound was deafening he felt his ears practically go numb, for a moment, he couldn't hear anything, but in his silence, he saw a blackened, charred body lying on the floor, and two seared bodies next to it,  the other witch hunters were fleeing 

After about an hour of lying on the floor, sound came back, he heard footsteps

“You can get up kid, there gone”

“Are they? What WAS that!” he said excitedly, pointing to the bodies lying next to a fallen tree, which  had been knocked over by the lighting.

“astrapi, the spell for lighting, THIS is why you need to learn magic, because without it, you won't last a day without me, and i can't protect us both forever and-”

“Wait, explain why you didn't die when they chopped off your head?!!” Errol interrupted

“Because i'm half demon, fortunately that means i can't die from  simply a non magic weapon, now DEMONS are even harder to kill, you need some seriously powerful magic to get those idiots dead

“In fact, lets try some spells to help you out, they do say those are easier than symbol spells, ok let's try this, but first we gotta get outta here, they'll be back, with greater numbers”

***

After they moved to a new location, Sharkk continued “you see, when it comes to spells, the more powerful the spells, the more it drains you, ans when you use a sigil weapon to channel a spell, such as the lightning spell i used, you have ‘charges’ or a limited number of times you can use it under a certain amount of time, unless the spell is seriously powerful it usually refreshes every day, mine takes two days to refresh and i have three charges. But simple spells require greek and latin terms, which you can pretty much play around with, watch 

He took a deep breath, then spoke

“kátheto ston aéra” and pointed at a tree nearby, immediately with a SLASH noise, deep claw grooves in the tree appeared. He pointed to another tree

 “Spásimo” he thrummed and immediately the tree crushed itself into bits, wood pulp and torn bits of wood crushed went everywhere, errol shielded his face

When he was finished, Errol stared in awe at the mass of crumpled wood before him.

“Wow” was all he could manage 

“Now” Sharkk began  “why dont we always use spells? In addition to them being very draining, you must also be very specific, for example, i once said  “attack angel, i  was fighting a man named angel at the time, anyways i mispronounced the word angelos, which means angel, with the word for message, so he was simply pelted with a letter, not very effective. Anyways our teaching may continue, but first we must make out way down the mountain, to the , as they say, safe house”

“Safe house?” Errol wondered allowed 

“Why yes my apartment in manhattan, new york”

“Where?” was all Errol could say