C15 Teamwork

They stepped through the portal and appeared on the rooftop of a building in the nonacademic section of the school. Even at their height, they could hear the sound of music from the clubs in the neighborhood. Mia stumbled a bit when she exited the portal and Whitney moved to hold her up until she regained her steadiness. The gateway vanished behind them and Jade began to focus on detecting the presence Dean had felt earlier. A surge of negativity reached her senses and she moved to the edge of the building and looked down. What she saw made her grin sadistically.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the vampire princess in trouble, who else would it be?"

Veronica bit back a cry of pain as she felt a blow crash against her spine and threatening to send her flying. Gritting her teeth, she weathered the punch and returned it with her own. The attacking werecoyote staggered back only for another to leap over it and backhand her across the space in the alley. Deftly turning her fall into a crouch, she stopped herself from tumbling into the street and glared at her attackers. Fortunately they had chosen to ignore her weakened bodyguards, obviously having written them off as goners. Unfortunately that meant all three of them could now focus their attacks on her.

'Wait, where's the third one...'

Her instincts screamed at her to dodge and she moved the fastest she had ever moved in her life. A second later, a massive fist cratered the ground she had been crouching on. The werepanther stared at her with bright yellow slitted eyes that glowed in the darkness. Veronica suddenly realized that this must be how a mouse staring at a cat would feel.

The werepanther had not attacked her directly since the first time it had struck her after its transformation. Instead, it would let the other two beasts distract her for a while before it would appear from nowhere and attempt to kill her with a single attack. It annoyed her that she was being toyed with like this but inwardly she was glad it was yet to take her seriously. She did not know how long she would last if it did.

Snarls from her right reminded her of the two werecoyotes' presence. They reared back to attack her again and she summoned blood around her wrists once more in preparation. Suddenly a figure dropped from the sky and landed perfectly on the ground in front of Veronica without a single crack appearing. The vampire shuffled back away from the newcomer in wariness before her red eyes fell on the person's straight black hair. It felt familiar to her in a way she could not identify. At least until the person turned to smirk at her and she suddenly felt like sighing in embarrassment.

"So what were you saying about not needing protection?" Jade asked in light derision and turned to face the werepanther. "Oh, you faced off against three transformed skinwalkers and you're not dead yet? You're tougher than you look, bat girl."

Veronica felt her eyebrow twitch at the insult but her retort died in her throat when she saw how the skinwalkers were reacting to Jade's presence. The werecoyotes had stopped entirely and had even backed away slightly, their black eyes watching Jade with visible caution. Their leader's reaction was even more surprising. The werepanther was staring, but not the same way it had stared at Veronica. Rather it was the sort of look one would see on a the face of a playground bully who suddenly found himself in the presence of an even bigger bully.

On her part, Jade simply regarded the werepanther with the slightest bit of interest. A raised eyebrow and a shift in her stance had the werepanther's eyes narrowing in high caution.

The female Hunter glanced at the werecoyotes and they recoiled instantly. She watched them for a few seconds before dismissing them as not worth her time and turned back to the werepanther.

"So there's a hierarchy in place? In that case, I'll take care of this one. That's okay with you, princess?" Jade said and began walking towards the feline beast. "Don't worry about the other two. They'll take care of them."

"They?" Veronica repeated in confusion and looked around to find no one else.

The werecoyotes, having sensed that the new threat was ignoring them for their leader, decided to pick off their original prey. They had taken nary a step when fire descended on the two of them like retribution from heaven. Their shrieks resounded through the silence of the night as the flames formed pillars over them.

The fiery display caught the eyes of both Jade and the werepanther. 'Showoff,' Jade thought with a small smile. From the corner of her vision, she saw the werepanther looking increasingly agitated at the condition of its subordinates. When it took a step forward, she moved her arm to stop it.

"Your fight's with me, big guy," she said and decked the beast in the face hard enough that it skidded a few feet backwards.

Veronica blinked in shock on seeing the creature that had been smacking her around all night get dazed with one hit. It took five seconds for her to remember that the puncher was a Hunter and her surprise was immediately replaced with anticipation. She was finally going to witness a Hunter in action.

Whitney slid down the spiral railing of the building's fire escape and landed on the ground in the alley. A frown adorned her face, one brought on by Jade's decision to jump down a building of all things. It had been her idea to use the fire escape after she and Mia had launched a combined assault on the skinwalkers after Jade distracted them.

Her partner joined her in the alley and they watched the burning howling creatures flail about madly. Suddenly they stopped moving and released a pulse of energy from their bodies to remove the flames. To the witches' astonishment, they were not too badly burned by the attack. Even the moderate damage that had been done was already healing visibly.

They heard Veronica scoff behind them with no small amount of contempt. "If it was that easy to beat them, do you think I'd still be here?"

Whitney was having none of it. "Shut it princess, and help Mia with the one on the left. The other guy's mine."

Before Veronica could protest, Whitney launched herself towards one of the skinwalkers, her eyes glowing like hot embers. The beast tried to take off her head with a wide swing that she saw a mile away. Ducking under its arm, she summoned a red magic circle in the palm of her hand and aimed it at the creature's torso. Less than a second later, a condensed stream of fire from the circle crashed into the beast. The force of the flames carried it deeper into the alley and Whitney chased after it with vigor.

The whole thing has happened so fast none of them had been able to react. Now, the second werecoyote turned to growl at the two girls in front of it. Mia immediately lowered her eyes to just below its head, remembering Jade's words about the skinwalker's fear inducing ability.

"Hey princess, do you have a plan to beat this thing?"

Veronica rounded on her with fury clear in her red eyes. "First of all, never call me that again. Second, stay out of my way."

Without a second glance at Mia, Veronica dashed forward to engage the skinwalker. It screeched at her and his clawed hand carved an arc toward Veronica. She deflected the blow and reciprocated the gesture with a blood coated fist. The creature staggered back and she immediately went after it. The red liquid around her limbs constantly changed shape as she threw out attack after attack at a rate the skinwalker could barely follow. Now that she was not being pressured by multiple opponents, Veronica could fully utilize her combat abilities. It was safe to say that after being oppressed all night, the vampire was eager to do some oppressing of her own.

Eventually the werecoyote found an opening to attack within her relentless onslaught when she overextended a left hook and it moved to slice off her arm. Before that could happened though, Veronica felt a rapidly increase in temperature from behind, and without looking back, she grabbed the werecoyote's attacking limb and vaulted herself over it. She landed a few meters away from the creature's range and more importantly out of the range of the fireball that slammed into it a second later. It screeched in pain and made to lunge at the cause of its misery but Mia quickly followed up her initial attack with a second. Kicking off the ground, she threw herself into an acrobatic backflip as the monster closed in on her. A blade of compressed wind traced her foot upwards to slice into the creature deep enough to send it skidding backwards.

Veronica made eye contact with her when she regained her footing. Her recent display was surprisingly skillful and the vampire could understand each of her actions. The witch was apparently skilled enough to wield two nature elements, both of which were best used at a range. Getting in a close quarters fight would be disadvantageous for her, hence her reason for putting space between the beast and herself. Red eyes locked with hazel for some seconds as an understanding was reached between the two girls.