Out of the Darkness

Raven transported us to the opening of a dimly lit cave. There were two guards standing at the mouth of the cave staring right at us.

‘We’re invisible. I won’t be able to cloak us all for long but it will at least get us inside.’ Raven answered the question on my mind, communicating telepathically as to not alert the guards and no doubt sending the same message to everyone we were with.

Raven circled one guard and I followed her lead with the other, we made eye contact and then in unison we both snapped one of the guard’s necks. We settled their bodies on the ground as to not make a sound and entered the cave.

We walked about a yard before Raven paused. On high alert the others did the same. Raven motioned for us to stay where we were; we watched as she stepped over and crouched under invisible objects.

‘Lasers?’ I asked her telepathically after a moment and she nodded slightly in reply.

After a few minutes she stood up straight and typed some numbers in to a panel on the wall. She nodded for us to follow.

“How did you know the code?” Alexander asked, out loud now that there weren’t any guards in the near vicinity.

“I got it from the minds of the witch leaders at the clearing.” Raven told us.

We continued through the cave in the same sort of fashion, we would pause when Raven did, she would disarm the trap so we could continue on. After a while of this we could hear voices from around the next corner. We paused and listened for a while, I used my vampire hearing to identify how many heartbeats there were, I held up three fingers to notify Raven of this, she nodded. She pointed to me and Tom to follow her. We rounded the corner and took out the three guards without a problem.

It took an hour to get through all of the winding tunnels and in to the main area of the witches lair. Here the cave opened up and we had at least fifty guards charge at us, weapons drawn. We weren’t prepared for this, the Exitium didn’t warn us, but then again we didn’t know that we would have to come here. We were all still tired from our previous battle, and these guards were fully prepared for our arrival. We gave them everything we could and their bodies soon littered the floor.

“How could they see us?” Alexander asked Raven.

“They must have some kind of magic block up; my best guess would be that the necklaces won’t work either. Let’s just hope they haven’t completely blocked magic, something tells me we may need it.” She told us.

“Wouldn’t blocking all magic hinder them?” Jonathan asked.

“They may be able to specify it so the spell only blocks our magic.” Raven paused for a moment, thinking. “These are the most powerful witches I’ve ever encountered, and their power has more than likely intensified since I was last here.”

“What does that mean for us?” Tom asked.

“We need a plan.” Raven turned to us. “Any ideas?”

We looked at each other, thinking.

“Clara, any spells you know that could help us?” Jonathan asked her.

“None powerful enough to counteract theirs.” She replied.

“Explosives.” Raven said suddenly. We looked at her questioningly. “If we set explosives we can cause panic and chaos, hopefully enough for the witches to put their energy in to keeping this place standing rather than fighting us and blocking our magic.”

“How many do we need?” Tom asked as he searched through our bags, checking supplies. Raven thought for a moment.

“There are six main tunnels, but I don’t know if they would have extended them or not. They all spiral off to living quarters, that one there should lead to the guards’ rooms.” She nodded her head to the one off to our left. “If we follow that one we should get to the most guarded area where the leader will be.” Raven nodded to another tunnel.

“Would she have any reason to be anywhere else?” I asked, picking her brain.

“Providing it’s the same as the other one was then no, the most powerful witch never leaves that sector, for safety.” I nodded, we were basing a lot on Raven’s tampered memory, but it would take too long to search the entire compound. “If we set two explosives in all of the tunnels as far down as we can without raising suspicion, including the one we go down once we’ve entered then the leader will be completely cut off from the rest of the coven, she will only have the guards that are already with her. We should be able to take them out but there is the risk of her escaping whilst we do so.” Raven explained her plan.

“So we head in, get a visual on the leader, trigger the explosives, then Raven can go after the queen witch whilst the rest of us take out the guards. Raven can you take her out alone or will you need help?” Jonathan asked. Raven shook her head.

“I have no idea if we will have enough power to take her out.” Raven said, looking sceptical.

“Can you combine our powers with yours without it affecting us?” I asked her. Raven looked at me with her eyebrow raised questioningly.

“I have a spell that can do exactly that, even with the magic block it should still work.” Clara said as she fished a piece of paper out of her bag and handed it to Raven.

“You sure this will work?” She asked Clara, she answered with a nod. “Is everyone ok with this?” She asked as she looked around the remaining of us. We all nodded. She cast the spell, I wasn’t sure if it had worked as it protected us from being affected.

“Did it--?“ I began but Raven nodded, confirming its success.

“Excellent, so everyone knows the plan?” Jonathan looked amongst us. “Good. Let’s do this.”