Jack Orin and The Death Dome

Chapter 4 The welcoming

For five hours we followed the hellhound's trail as it teleported to different cities and countries. Whatever this thing was, it was on the move and had been busy. After many stops, we finally stopped in England in front of what looked like a three-story law firm. The hellhound sniffed the door and then sat down.

           “Guess we found our culprit,” Anubis said with a sigh of relief.

           “Thank god, If I had to circle back to Florida one more time I was going to scream.” I began to look at the building more closely. There was nothing out of the ordinary about the building and there was no magical energy that could be sensed.

           “Maybe it’s his hideout?” Anubis asked.

           “Doubt it, most likely its next victim.” as if on cue there was a blood-curling scream. Anubis, the dog, and I didn’t hesitate as we bolted into the building. The first floor was surprisingly large and looked a bit fancy for a law firm. It had red carpeting and a silver chandelier on the ceiling. The walls were painted a hideous orange that only someone from London could have picked. The furniture was arranged in a strange pattern where chairs and tables faced opposite directions and each chair had a rose on it. After a few more steps, we stopped.

           The dog began to sniff around and then howled as it jumped up through the ceiling to reach the upper floor.

           I looked up at the ceiling, and with a snap of my fingers both Anubis and I were transported to the second level. Once there, the lights were all out, except for the moonlight that leaked from the curtainless windows.

           “Where the hell is the hound?” Anubis asked.

           “I don’t know, but I don’t like it.” Hellhounds were not the silent type, as they usually attacked with ferocity and would let their victims know their presence to instill fear; since they could not be killed by normal means. “We were only a second behind it may,” before I could finish something busted through the hallway wall and crashed into the other wall. As whatever crashed through the other wall, I could hear a yelp from a dog.

           “Jack, something is wrong.” Anubis was right, the air began to chill, and goosebumps began to appear on my arm. I could see goosebumps were appearing on his arm as well. Nothing could do that except old magic. The one thing that the new gods feared the most, and this place reeked of it. “We have severely underestimated this opponent. We need to contact Ra and the council of the gods. If this thing reeks of this much power, they were all in danger. We need to leave now.”

           I clenched my fist in anger, but I did not protest. I knew he was right. This just became a lot more complicated for both of us. I looked over at him and nodded in agreement. I then snapped my fingers to transport us back to my place, but nothing happened. I snapped them again, nothing. “Yeah, Anubis. We might have a problem. We’re going to have to escape your way.”

           Anubis grunted in frustration, then pulled his hand out. Sand appeared out of nowhere and it began to overflow into his arms. Then they began to shape themselves into the staff of Anubis. The staff of Anubis was long and, on the top, had a cross figure, but on the top, it was circular instead of straight. The bottom of the staff was shaped like a crescent moon, symbolizing his favorite shape. Once the staff was complete, the human features that he once held melted away, and his true form appeared. His skin was now black and much more muscular and formed. He stood taller and his facial features and head now represented the form of a Jackal. His clothes were different now as well. He was now shirtless and wore an Egyptian head covering with spikes that led down to his chest. He was now what an Egyptian god was meant to look like. “Orin stand back. I am about to summon the sands of Egypt to aid in our escape.” Anubis brought his staff down to summon his own personal sands which would cover us and swirl around us before teleporting us to anywhere he chooses to go.

           As his staff was about to touch the ground, something caught my attention in the corner of my eye. It was moving at incredible speed, before I could do anything, the figure rammed into Anubis, making him crash into the adjacent wall. “Anubis”, I yelled concerningly.

           I could hear both of them struggling through the broken wall. I ran towards Anubis and this monster hoping to help my friend. As soon as I stepped into view, I saw Anubis attacking with his sand surrounding what looked like a shadow. The sand surrounded the monster and began to cut through the monster. The sand then solidified and then squished the shadow until the sand fell down and the shadow was gone. The sand fell ever so lightly onto the ground.

           Anubis was breathing heavily and looked at his surroundings. “Keep an eye out for it. That attack didn’t kill it, only made it angry.”  

           I quickly glanced around the room to see if I could spot the creature. After a few moments, I noticed a shadow moving towards Anubis from behind. “Watch your flank!”

Anubis turned swinging his staff, making contact with the creature. They stumbled back from that attack, then stretched out their arms in an unnatural way. His arms wrapped around Anubis and slammed him up and down several times.

I held out my arm towards the creature.  fotiá tis skoteinís epíthesis. Black flames erupted from my palm and latched itself onto the creature’s arm. It screamed an unnatural scream and let go of Anubis, who was struggling to break free.

Anubis landed on his feet, as he fell. “I didn’t need any help, you know, I had it all under control.”

I just shook my head. “Oh, shut up, we both know you needed the assist.”

“Was that Greek fire you hit it with?”

“Yup, and for my next trick I am going to use the red dust to get us out of here.”

“When the heck did you get red dust?”

“Long story, tell you later.” As I reached for the bag of red dust, the creature retracted its arm and then cut it off at the shoulder. It screeched in pain, but almost immediately the fallen arm disappeared and reappeared on the creature.

I quickly started to apply the red dust to the broken part of the wall. Anubis raised his staff and blasted the creature with his staff. I recognized the attack. Anubis was attempting to separate the creature’s soul from his body and destroy it. When the blast hit the creature, the creature was pushed back, but then started to walk forward unharmed.

As the creature walked forward, I finished applying the red dust, but it didn’t glow. “Anubis, we got a problem. It's blocking the red dust. Whatever power it has, it’s blocking any attempt to escape via teleportation.”

“Well, isn’t that nice. So, here is the game plan, we're going to attack until it dies or surrenders; I don’t care which.” Anubis then charged at the creature and swung his fist at its face. Anubis, like most gods, had super strength that surpassed any mortal or creature. When his fist connected with the creature, the creature's head slightly turned, proving that his punch resulted in absolutely nothing. I saw the reaction in Anubis’s face change from anger to horror as the monster’s face turned back to its original position and faced Anubis. “Jack, run now!”

After he said this sentence, the creature grabbed Anubis’s arm that he used to punch his face, lifted him up by the arm, and then punched him in the stomach. The punch was so strong that air puffed from the back of Anubis. Anubis gagged as the air left his body forcefully and then slumped over as he fell unconscious.

“Anubis!” I lifted up my arm for another attack, but the creature moved the dangling body of Anubis in front of me as a shield. “Fine, you want to play dirty, I guess it’s time to play dirty.” Vindskygge. In a flash, I disappeared from the creature’s sight. The spell I used was similar to how the creature seemed to travel; by shadow. I reappeared in an instant behind the creature without it noticing. I pulled both of my arms back and then pointed them at the creature. Lyubov' ledyanoy korolevy. White beams of energy busted from my hands and hit the creature in the back. Ice began to envelop the starting from its back and reaching all the way to Anubis. When both Anubis and the creature were frozen in place, I stopped the attack. As soon as I stopped, I began to hear a cracking sound. The ice around the creature began to c***k and then imploded.

           The creature shook off the remaining ice on himself and freed Anubis from the ice as well. It just turned its head towards me. It then let go of Anubis, who fell hard unto the floor. They said nothing and then disappeared from my view.

           “ok, two can play this game of cat and mouse.” Vindskygge. I disappeared as well; I knew that I needed to get near Anubis. A quick jolt spell and he would be back on his feet. I would be weaker, but it would still be a two versus one fight. Before I appeared next to Anubis, I felt a force brush against me. I flung from the shadows and slammed into a wall breaking it. I landed hard on my back. I struggled to get back up; I knew the magical protection around my body buffered the blow and damage I would have taken, but it still hurt. When I got up, I saw the creature standing in the hole I made from my crash. The creature was surrounded by shadow and the only thing now visible was its red eyes. It held Anubis in one hand, and another body that I had never seen before on the other. Its eyes blinked before it disappeared one last time. The aura of old magic disappeared when he vanished, and I knew that meant he escaped with not only his victim but Anubis as well.

           “Oh no, you don’t”, I quickly reached into my pocket and pulled out a piece of chalk. I began to quickly draw a circular symbol on the floor with lines inside that looked like a crooked maze. The creature made one very bad mistake; he had Anubis. Anubis and I are blood brothers and were connected by a powerful spell that used a feather from an angel. If he or I needed to find each other quickly, using this spell would bring one of us to the other person's location. After a couple of minutes, I finished the symbol. I didn’t know whether or not I would be in a time crunch with this thing using old magic. I looked around at the broken office building one last time, then slammed my hand in the middle of the symbol and the symbol began to glow blue and connect with each other. Once they all connected, there was a bright flash of light, and then suddenly everything went dark, and then I began to fall.