Looking forward at the witch who defied death, the group's first action was sprung about by Hiein, who took his bat and launched at the witch with a great kick off of the ground.
He unleashed the attack upon the witch, who was sent crashing into the ground. He ran over and continued his assault, attempting to bash her skull in further.
Yet, she persisted still, flying up and grabbing him by the throat, flying through the air before chucking him down at ground level.
"Run!" Hiein yelled to the others, who swiftly followed his command. The three, now outside of the house, looked down at the dirt.
It was a cloudy day, and it was going to be dark in a few hours. This light which was still left in the day allowed them to tell that darkness was emerging from the dirt, like a flood.
Unsure of what effect the darkness would bring upon them, they all leapt through the air and onto trees, watching the fight from outside.
Black masses of tentacle lookalikes ravaged all that they came across, slamming into furniture, walls, windows and more, causing quite the ruckus. Hiein fled the house, but was grabbed from behind by one such tentacle, lifted up and slammed into the ground repeatedly, before being swung around and catapulted through the sky.
He sprouted wings, gaining control over his body, before the witch floated out of the house.
Unlike every other dragon, this woman did not need dragon wings to fly. Her body continuously hung, suspended in the air with her head down like a hanged man.
"She's kinda bad tho," Damien said to lighten the mood. It got a snicker from Jack, easing both of their nerves.
The corpse flew at the boy, before Jack rushed, shoving him out of the way and taking the attack for himself. The corpse crashed into him, knocking him back before all four of his limbs were grabbed by the tentacles, as one impaled him through the stomach.
These tentacles, mind you, were perhaps around the same thickness as one of those super big bottles of Coke.
It was ripped out of him, before he was flung down to the dirt and darkness, crashing into it hard enough to blow dirt and dust everywhere like a meteor had fallen.
…
It was darkness. Nothing. It was as though even blackness itself had been stolen from him.
He couldn't breathe, but he needed oxygen. He couldn't hear, but he wanted to listen. He couldn't see, but he was unaware. He couldn't smell, he couldn't taste, he couldn't feel anything.
Consciousness was ripping itself apart. A foul, hungry man, clawing at his stomach to devour his own flesh, consumed by his own appetite and craving his own blood.
"What's happening?"
A distant voice might have said. He couldn't hear anything, but that voice gave the impression that it existed.
"Where am I?"
He couldn't think. The words he experienced did not come from his mind. They were far out, like a silent word spoken atop a mountain.
So what was happening?
What was going on? What is this? Why was he here? Who was he? Was he a he? What is this. Why is. What. Why. What. Why. Who. What. Wha. Why. Wha. Who. Wh. Wh. Wh. Wh. W. W. W. W. W. VV. VV. VV. VV. VV. VV. V. V. V. V. V. V V V V V V V
…
Emerging from the darkness, all of existence slammed into Jack's consciousness at once.
He was taken out of the darkness and carried by Damien on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He was placed on a tree branch, and his eyes rolled around his head, blood exiting every orifice. Yes, every orifice. Even the ones down there.
"Dude, you alright!?" Damien yelled, shaking him. Jack's mouth stayed agape, and one eye, his left eye, flickered and twitched, becoming smaller than the other.
"Plph."
"What? Shit, he's…"
Damien looked over, seeing the witch presently floating in the air. Her tentacles extended even further, swinging and cleaving the tops and bottoms of trees off in giant swings.
This applied to their tree as well. As they were on private property far away from all humans, Damien didn't need to concern himself with civilians or whatnot.
Damien leapt into the sky, holding onto Jack, before he sprouted his wings and began to fly up. Hiein and Alicia met up with him, with Hiein bleeding from his face as a result of his injuries.
"Hiein, what the heck are we gonna do? She's scary!" Damien yelled, to which Hiein didn't really have a response.
"What's going on with Jack? Is he alright?" Alicia asked, to which Damien responded,
"No, that darkness might be even more dangerous than we thought; he's sounding really stupid!"
"Alright then," Hiein stated. "We'll run away."
Damien looked at him with surprise. "What do you mean 'run away!?'"
"Exactly as it sounds. I noticed this when I bashed her head in with my bat, but she doesn't seem to take damage."
"What? Like, she's invincible?"
"Exactly. If we lure her into a city, then eventually the US military will find a way to take care of her."
"No, we can't do that," Damien objected. "If we, as dragons, allow a dragon to kill a bunch of people, won't we be targeted by the government?"
"Hm. I see, very well then," Hiein said. He turned back towards the witch, who stayed, hovering in the sky beneath them.
In his mind, Damien tried to find a way to win.
'She can't take damage. Then, wouldn't defeating her require a special condition? Maybe… the darkness.'
"Hey Alicia, hold on to Jack for a sec," Damien requested. Alicia looked at him with raised eyebrows before the teenager was handed over to her.
Damien flew down from the sky, swooping in like a hawk to a witch. Tendrils of black each rushed at him repeatedly, around 12 of them. However, Damien was able to evade, doing rather spectacular moves of evasion, before delivering a literal dropkick to her head, knocking her down into the darkness which flooded the earth.
In doing so, she was then launched inside of the darkness.
Loud, shrill shrieks and screeches flooded the sky, as the noises produced quite literally passed through the bones of those who heard it. It was a noise which disrupted someone's very connection to their body, mentally speaking.
But Damien was in fact correct. While the witch would have died normally after time had passed, the witch being submerged in darkness was a way to end the fight.
The darkness sank back into the earth, and the witch's corpse was unable to be found. Everyone flew back down to the ground, with Jack being put on the grass.
"Jack," Damien muttered. "You alright?"
Jack looked at him, his condition being better now that the witch was gone. However—
"This world…"
A mouth appeared on Jack's cheek.
"All I've lived is a shameful life. I'm exhausted."
Everyone reeled slightly from the nasty sight.
…
Due to taking a "bath" in darkness, and the witch drowning in that very same bath, a coincidental effect of the ability took place. Her Dragon Art, "Shameful Life, Beyond Death," manifested when she died.
Her dead body would take over as a witch, and an immensely powerful one at that. And if there was a manor in which to escape death, it would be by placing her soul into the body of whoever "drowned" in the pool of darkness.
And though he couldn't fully control her, she was now part of him.
Perhaps, in the event of Jack's own death—
The witch may return.
But yet, that was just a hypothetical. There was no guarantee such a thing could happen. Plus, with her in his body, he could borrow some of her "witch powers," and summon similar tentacles of darkness, though they may not be as powerful.
It was a confusing situation for all present, so they decided just to go head back to the rest of the Ost family, and find out what to do next.