As she ran, she saw Mrs. Henry, a special case in the witch clan holding two glowing-spiked black clubs in her hands and ruthlessly smashing at the enemy. She had been injured on her left thigh by an arrow from a sneaky demon archer, another demon type that was small and could even turn invisible for 3 seconds.
They weren't many but were very problematic to deal with.
"Hi, Wyetta," Mrs Henry said with a smile, jumping high to smash at a grey-winged theriantrope female's head. "Die, you bitch!" she cursed, smashing the demon female's head rapidly until both landed on the ground. The latter collapsed to the ground with her head mangled.
Wyetta managed to spot a demon archer in time who was aiming to shoot at Mrs. Henry's neck. Quickly, she used her right sword to slash towards it.
However, it dodged, even turning invisible again and appearing behind another witch warrior who was using gauntlets.
The arrow was frozen in mid-air by a frail-looking but powerful old female spellcaster.
"Thank you," Wyetta heard the male gauntlet user say.
The old woman didn't reply, but she flew southwards with her purple staff spinning rapidly to push back flying demon archers.
"Girl, you're heading home?" Mrs Henry asked while pounding another unfortunate demon beast to death.
"Y-yes,"
"Then go, and be careful," Mrs. Henry said as she jumped high and with a battle cry, smashed a demon male's head. However, it did nothing to this guy surprisingly.
He held her two clubs and flung her far away. Then he used the same clubs to smash the heads of two witch sword warriors. "This weapon's not too bad," the demon male said.
His gaze locked with Wyetta and she needed no soothsayer to tell her. She had to run, no, escape!
"Where do you think you're going, morsel," a beast that could surprisingly talk blocked her path. It was a Chimera wolf demon.
"No choice," she muttered, taking off the grey pearl bracelets on her wrists.
She joined them together and threw them at the Chimera wolf's mouth which was open with its snake tongue casually roving about prior to that moment.
The beast immediately exploded, stunning the demon male who was busy smashing some hard-lucked witch clanspeople with Mrs Henry's club. He had thought there was no need to go after Wyetta since the beast demon would eat her up.
The explosion gave Wyetta time to flee without for once looking back. The swords in both hands were beginning to feel four times heavier than before. She quickly let go of them and continued running weaponless.
The reason for this was well-known. A dead witch warrior or spellcaster's instruments would seal themselves a few minutes after their owners died.
Hence, not only would they become heavy to hold, but they could even harm the person who held them as the weapons would explode into fragments.
Not surprisingly, two explosions occurred behind her and she ran even faster, pushing her legs to the limit.
"Wyetta!" she suddenly heard a voice that was more than familiar to her.
She made a pivot and descried Loyce running over super fast. The latter stopped just short of Wyetta, breathing heavily, with her hands on her knees.
"Loyce?"
"I'm glad I found you, sister-in-law," Loyce said amidst huffs.
"I'm glad you're fine too. Where are my hubby and Thalia? Are they not at home?" The demon portals were opening up just about everywhere. If one opened inside their home, her husband could have been kept busy trying to protect their daughter while fighting demons.
"W-what's going on, Loyce? Why are the demons here?" Wyetta quickly voiced out her confusion and fear.
"I don't know. But what I do know is that these demons fighting our people right now, I mean the ones who stepped out of the portals seconds ago, are not low-ranked. They've killed so many..." Loyce paused to catch her breath before continuing, "Where I'm coming from... Many of our clan members who are capable of flying are even being shot down by dark magical arrows. I... Let's just go,"
"Where's my husband and child?" Wyetta asked desperately.
"I'll take you to them. Get on my back this instant," Loyce commanded.
"Yes,"
With Wyetta securely on her back, Loyce raced out of that area, avoiding the sharp, toothed-edged heavy blades and even the arrows of the enemy.
Those of the witch clan who had 2 or more abilities were doing their best to fight hard, trying to win the enemy but the demons seemed to be stronger. Or rather, they might have taken something to boost them up.
Corpses of both enemy and witch clan members- the latter having far more casualties- were strewn about.
More frightening scenes of people engaged in fierce combats were witnessed as Loyce sped in the direction of her sister-in-law's home.
"That perv... I mean Kilvester..."
"He's... dead. He took a demon archer's arrow for me," Loyce said in an emotional tone; She was trying hard not to cry.
"S-Sorry," Wyetta said contritely.
"It's fine. The vital thing now is to get you and Thalia to safety," said Loyce; her tone was melancholic. "I'm pretty sure we will win this thing if all those blessed with abilities in this clan push harder."
She stopped dead in her tracks soon enough, many steps away from the home. Because right at the entrance to the house were dozens of demon corpses, their blood decorating the doorstep awfully.
At that, Wyetta got off Loyce's back and the compunctious look on her face morphed into that of anxiety.
Loyce pulled Wyetta forward and they ran into the house, only to find an injured Hunter in a brutal battle with a demon man who was twice the size of him. Hunter was adeptly using a giant, heavy black sword.
Before the ladies could even express their concern, Hunter jumped high and swung the blade at the demon's neck with a lot of mustered strength.
Unfortunately, upon coming in contact with the demon's neck, it shockingly got stuck.
"You toerag! How dare you?!" The enraged demon fellow grabbed the sword's blade and pulled it out of his neck. One could see glowing red lines on the cut on his neck and soon the cut healed. Then he flung Hunter away mercilessly. The latter hit the wall and it crumbled.
"Husband!"
"Brother!"
Both women shouted at the same time, wearing anxious looks.
"Go get Hunter. I'll handle this demon," An infuriated Loyce said to Wyetta, who immediately obeyed, running toward her husband, who'd managed to escape being crushed by the ruined wall. But he wasn't in good shape.
"Hunter!" Wyetta cried as she got closer to him, only for the demon to abruptly get in her way, wanting to slap her away.
A peeved Loyce made it in time, stopping him with the fire that had come from her magic staff.
"Oh no you don't. Your opponent is me, you ginormous piece of crap!" Loyce raged, charging at him.
"Hmph. You're dead meat, lass," the demon raged, focusing his gaze on her. As she got closer, she jumped high, launching a long stream of fire at him. He crossed his hands above his head and let his hands take on the attack from Loyce.
As the fire stream ended, he put down his hands that weren't that affected by the fire. This didn't discourage the young woman though. Instead, she harrumphed, muttered some incantations, and turned invisible. But her words could still be heard.
"If you're so confident, fight me with just one hand," she mocked after successfully launching a sneak attack that burnt his right hand.
"You sneaky bitch," the demon cursed, leaping in her exact direction after his eyes changed from grey to a glowing red with black veins protruding from his skin.
With the one hand that was not affected by the fire attack, he still gave Loyce a hard time. Loyce had already figured out he could still see her even when she turned invisible. And she also found out, sneak attacks could no longer work.
"Hunter!" Wyetta had finally reached her husband's spot. On his own, he'd managed to sit up, groaning from the pains from the injuries and exhaustion. But he knew resting was not an option in this case. Not when lives were at stake here!
"W-wifey," he muttered as she knelt and held his hand, tears streaming down her pretty face.
"Hunter, you're..."
"Go into Thalia's room and get her from the basement under it. Then you two should run away. Don't come back. I'll have Loyce join you guys soon too."
"No," Wyetta shook her head, "I can't leave you behind,"
"Honey, I love you so much. But it's best if one of us lives to take care of our daughter. And you always loved the topic of self-sacrifice. So here I am," he shrugged and tried to chuckle, but that made him cough and wince from pain.
"Honey," she had gotten more worried, especially since he coughed out blood.
"Bring me my sword," he requested and she rushed to get it; it wasn't far off from where they were. Upon handing the sword back to him, he took off the white necklace around his neck and wrapped it around the handle which absorbed it. Seeing this, Wyetta lifted her top up to reveal five rows of thin white waist beads.
"No, Wyetta," her husband shook his head, knowing what she was about to do. "Don't you dare take them off,"
These beads were worn by every married witch in the city. Not only were they expensive, they were proof of her husband's eternal love for her. They also contained magic power that could be absorbed into a witch clansman's weapon to enhance its attacks and even heal the user of the weapon.
"Husband..."
"Wyetta, if you love me, do as I say," He said, getting into a meditative pose, placing his sword horizontally atop his thighs and subsequently pressing his palms together. The necklace glowed and got absorbed into his sword and he closed his eyes.
Taking advantage of the fact that his eyes were closed, she took off two of the waist beads and placed them on the sword which already had streaks of white light. The waist beads also got absorbed into the blade of the sword which started to hover and slightly tremble.
She could see her husband's body slightly glow with a golden light and she smiled. "Heal well. Let me get Thalia," she said softly.
Turning her head, she could see two more demon beasts had entered the sitting room and now Loyce was dealing with three opponents, but this endeavour just wasn't going well.
Without a second thought, Wyetta took off the last waist bead and threw it towards Loyce, "Catch!"
The latter caught it and wrapped it around the hollow spiral tip of her witch staff. The staff glowed and absorbed the beads. "You bastards are more than toast now," Hunter's sister raged, charging at the beasts after delivering an attack that could keep the demon male on the floor for a short time.
Without saying a word, Wyetta ran to Thalia's room. The door was locked from the inside.
She began to knock, "Thalia baby! It's mum. Open up quickly," she called out, but there was no one coming after a while.
Desperate, she started using her body as a means to force the door to open. After several unsuccessful attempts, the door suddenly opened.
She wasn't expecting it as she was getting discouraged prior to that moment.
As the door opened, she fell to the floor but undeterred, she rose to her feet and rushed into the room calling out her daughter's name.
She checked everywhere but couldn't find her. Then a thought came to her and she pushed the bed away from its spot. After which a trapdoor came in sight. One that was already open.
She immediately got in, landing safely on the underground floor and running through the passage until she got to the basement.
"Thalia baby!" she called out.
Finally, the little one ran over to her and the overjoyed mom carried her child who hugged her neck and began crying.
"Mum, I was so scared," Thalia said amidst sobs while Wyetta stroked her back, trying not to cry herself.
"It's okay, baby," she said softly, planting a kiss on her daughter's soft cheek, "Mum is here, you're safe in my arms, okay?"
"Yes, mum," Thalia looked at her mum and voiced out her curiosity, "Where's daddy?"
"He told me to come get you. Let's go,"
"Okay, mum,"
Just as Thalia said this, to both's dismay, a portal appeared right in front of them.
Their eyes dilated and Wyetta covered her daughter's mouth to censor her screams of fright.
"Shush, baby. Let's run before anything comes out of that thing," she whispered to her daughter, turning around to run back the way she came.
There were a few dim lights randomly placed along the walls of the passage, even in the basement. These helped light their path back to the surface.
They could hear it- the sound of demon beasts, this time, bloodsucking rats!