"My baby!" Achlys exclaimed, crying fiercely just as the car squealed on its wheels and hit a giant boulder. "She's ok, she's ok, she's okay." She said, as if to comfort herself.
The trio had just had time to process the crash when the back door was ripped from the hinges and Blake was dragged out of the car by a claw of hands, just in time to hear Achlys saying "Not the side door! My baby girl!"
Blake was tossed across the ground like a chew toy, by huge, red-furred, apparitions of claws, as the Chaos hound launched at him, trying to pry him open and bite his head off.
Before it could, though, Cimon had already had his spear in its skull and had killed it before it hit the ground.
Getting up, Blake studied his surroundings. There were sparse woods all around him on the dual lane roads. And, from the base of these trees and the road around them red apparition of dogs the size of wolves eyed them like food. He counted roughly 25 of these chaos hounds, and, as Achlys arrived beside them, eyeing these red canines like they broke her favorite toy[A/N: They did], Achlys summoned a black long scythe into her hands, with intricate designs and patterns on its shaft and a dark silver blade on it. It radiated a deathly purple energy.
"BAD DOGS!" she shouted as a warcry. "You FUCKED up my CAR!"
Blake barely had time to grab the discarded car door to use as a shield before she appeared before the first chaos hound, slicing it to dust.
The battle had just begun.
Cimon jabbed his spear through the heart of one chaos hound, using the body and the momentum to shove a second one away. Withdrawing his spear, Cimon let out an earth shattering scream and, to Blake's astonishment, glowing silver miasma dust seemed to come from his pores like pollen. The four or so beasts that had seemingly decided to surround him gradually became slowed down, sluggish, and lethargic — two of them collapsed, snoring unconsciously. The other two others, upon seeing this, tried to escape the field of silver miasma, but they had already inhaled a great amount of this strange pollen, breathing in these glowing spores — They were slower than before, and were the next to be slain after Cimon dealt with the two unconscious hounds.
Achlys wasn't any less of a fighter herself. Like a ballerina of death, long scythe in hand, Achlys danced across the battlefield, reaping the lives of various chaos hounds like she was the angel of death. Her scythe reaped hounds like she was collecting rocks. Soon, she had slain six chaos hounds easily and climbing.
But there was more.
At first, Blake was second guessing himself, but, as the battle dragged on, and he paid more attention, Blake was absolutely certain — Achlys's eyes were glowing a menacing shade of dark violet light and her hair seemed to turn into violet flames of the same shade as her glowing eyes during the battle — And both were the same shade of purple as the energy glow of her scythe.
Blake stared at the two people who were like family to him in disbelief. If he wasn't seeing it with his own eyes, he'd never believe what he saw. His cousins had superpowers! Blake was so jealous, but, at the same time, thankful. They were protecting him, and he was thankful.
"Blake! Watch out!" Achlys' voice broke Blake from his daze, just to see one of the chaos hounds had bypassed his cousins and leaped at him.
Hurriedly, Blake put the cat door up like a shield, but the force of the beasts' collision still knocked him on his back, the air knocked out of him upon contact with the ground, as the creature followed suit on top of him, attempting to bite his face off through the shatter window of the door. He held up the door with all he had, but there was no telling just how long the creaking door would hold off the creature for.
Just when the creature was gaining an advantage, the whistle of something narrow wheeze through the air, glowed by a THUNK! and the creature fell onto its side, dead.
Getting up, panting, Blake saw a brown shaft of a spear sticking from the creature's heart and chest, it's rib cage sticking out at an odd angle. It was Cimon's spear.
Looking at his cousin, he locked eyes with him for just a moment, before shouting "Cimon, behind you!"
But Cimon was already expecting a sneak attack. He turned to face a charging chaos hound, grappling with the creature, its strength v.s divine strength. Quickly, in efficient fashion, he snapped its neck, just as two more charged and leaped at him, tackling him. Biting and clawing anywhere they can gain purchase.
Achlys wasn't fairing any better. She was surrounded by eight red hounds and covered in minor cuts and injuries, but she seemed slightly out of breath, like she was being drained of her energy the longer she fought.
'I have to do something,' Blake thought to himself. 'I need to help them… But how? Think Blake!'
Looking at the spear, still stuck inside the beast chest beside him, Blake had an idea. Snapping the spear free from the dead body, Blake rushed to Achlys' side, with surprisingly blurry speed. Then, with surprising strength, he stabbed one of the hounds in the eye, retrieved the spear, then stabbed it through the heart of another before the first could hit the ground.
"Cimon! Heads up!" Blake shouted before spiral throwing the spear through the air and through the skull of one of the beasts on top of him with surprising ease.
Cimon, now free of one of the ganging hounds, put his hand on the forehead of the second one, which instantly passed out, unconscious. Freeing his spear, Cimon made quick work of the unconscious creature, stabbing its heart.
With renewed vigor, Achlys spun her scythe like a dancer of death, slicing the heads from the bodies of two chaos hounds.
Even Blake managed to use the car door to shove back a raging hound. He then hit on its back with surprising strength, before using everything he had to hit it on top of its head. It didn't move again.
Things were looking up. The remaining six hounds prowled in V formation, eyeing its with trepidation. Their comrades were dead, and they hadn't expected to deal with such losses.
"Come on! What's the matter, you mutts? Scared? Come on!" challenged Achlys, boldly.
The remaining chaos hounds growled and prowled, and seemed about ready to move when a sudden screech shook the entire environment, piercing the air like an arrow. Everyone watched, with bated breath as, in the next moment, a giant lion-sized creature descended upon them, with wings half the size of its body. Its fur and mane of feathered head were like red smoke and it had a humanoid face with the nose and mouth of a big cat. Its multiple rows of sharp teeth are razor sharp and its long mane of hair and feathers as red as its wingspan, which was twice the size of any eagle's. It was at least 8 feet tall, and just as menacing. It's glowing red eyes were like chaotic flares in the night, sizing Blake and his friends up like prey.
Nobody moved, not even his cousins. The battlefield was quiet, and Blake was paralyzed. He was suddenly reminded of the dream he had the night before — It came to him clearly at the sight of this creature — He knew, without any doubt, they were the same type of creature, just that this one was slightly smaller, though still bigger than all of the chaos hounds — And even more imposing.
"Gods…," muttered a horrified Achlys in awe and terror. "A Chaos Sphinx….One of the Chaos Realms' greatest predators and agents of chaos…That one has to be at least at the Tier B stage, with Tier S bloodline ability at least, based on this aura…".
"For it to be here…," Cimon murmured to himself, almost incoherently. "It doesn't matter, though. Our mission remains the same...".
The creature observed the three teenagers, as if they were prey. It let out an ear piercing screech. Then it attacked.