Gregor took one look at the newly arrived Professor Roangard and immediately launched an attack on her, activating a spell and sending a green spark at her exactly like the one that had sent most of the school to sleep. However, Professor Roangard held up her own staff and responded with a spell of her own, blocking the green spark completely so that it didn’t even bounce to a new target after failing.

Amylia immediately launched another spell at Gregor, one that looked like a swarm of bees made out of burning embers, all of which swarmed around him but started to blink out without doing any harm. I watched for a moment longer and realized that Gregor wasn’t just using a shield, he was using spell armor. Amylia had told me about it once, describing it as being similar to the shield chain spell that I’d used earlier…but several levels more advanced. She’d described it as being multiple different types of shields layered on top of each other so that they could stop just about anything. According to her, creating a single use of spell armor could be extremely complicated and time consuming.

Gregor responded by using another chain spell on Amylia, sending a ball of fire right where she was standing. Amylia dove aside while three more attacks continued to hit exactly where she’d been standing. I realized that this was another of the downsides of a chain spell, that after activating it, it would continue to follow its path even though it was wasting all the spells in the chain.

By this point, Professor Roangard and the students who’d arrived with her had helped finish up with the invaders and their summoned creatures. The only invaders who were still fighting were Marcus and Gregor, both of whom were still involved in nasty looking duels.

Gayle and Marcus were still swinging their swords at each other, then Marcus jumped back and activated a spell. A large glowing wolf appeared and jumped at Gayle, but she slashed it with her sword and it vanished. Marcus fired a blast of fire at her, but she held up her sword which blocked the attack.

“I will defeat you this time,” Marcus exclaimed with a look of hatred in his eyes. “This school will be safe from your venom.”

“You’re insane,” Gayle screamed at him furiously. “You tried to murder me… Now you attack us without reason and you still think I’m the threat? If you want to see the real threat, try looking in the damn mirror…”

Gayle held out two of the tarot cards that acted as her tokens and activated them. A ball of glowing green energy shot out at Marcus, but he dodged to the side and avoided it. At the same time, a conjuring appeared in front of her, shaped like a human woman but made entirely out of water. The water woman charged straight at Marcus while he jumped back, avoiding her even more desperately than he had the ball of energy. Then he activated a token and the water woman suddenly froze into an ice statue that stood there motionless.

“You won’t get me wet this time,” Marcus exclaimed, forming a glowing disk in front of him to block a spray of water that Gayle had just released. “You can’t beat me the same way twice.”

“I know,” Gayle responded, jumping back as the ground beneath her started to reach up to grab her ankles. “This time I’m doing something else.”

Suddenly, the ball of green energy that Marcus had avoided earlier, came back and hit him from behind, sending him sprawling face first into the ground. His energy sword flew from his hand and vanished and he scrambled to his knees, only to find that Gayle had closed the distance and had her sword nearly to his throat.

Monica had been watching their fight with a worried look, and at the sight of her brother like this, she cried out, “Marcus…” She started running towards them, crying out, “He’s my brother. Please don’t kill him…”

Gayle stepped back, looking surprised as Monica threw herself between Marcus and the sword. “Monica,” Marcus said, looking surprised as well. He looked at her arm, which she was still holding, and demanded, “What did they do to you?”

“It was your friends who did this,” Monica snapped at him angrily.

Marcus looked a little surprised at that. “You must be mistaken,” Marcus said. “These people who kidnapped you must have made you believe…”

“I am NOT brainwashed or charmed,” Monica spat at him. “And I wasn’t kidnapped. I left you and your friends on my own…after I helped your prisoners escape.”

“What?” Marcus asked, looking confused. “Why would you have done something like that?”

“You actually have to ask?” Monica demanded. “You were kidnapping people so you could murder them for some kind of experiment. Who does things like that?” She paused, shaking and having tears running down her cheeks. “At first, I was angry and scared and it made me feel like I was stopping the monsters… But then, I realized that what you and your friends were doing was what was really monstrous. I couldn’t just let those people be murdered like that…”

“You don’t understand,” Marcus told her. “I don’t like the methods either, but they are necessary for saving our people…”

“BULLSHIT,” Monica nearly screamed in her brother’s face. “The ends justify the means? Your means are evil so how can your ends possibly be good?” Then she just stood there, glaring at him furiously. “You always wanted to be the hero, but now all you are is another bad guy.”

Marcus suddenly glared back at Monica in anger. “You’re obviously still under their control.”

“You tried to murder someone who never hurt you,” Monica told him grimly, gesturing to Gayle. “You kidnapped a bunch of innocent people so you could kill them in some kind of experiment. You attacked a school so you could take a bunch of kids hostage and brainwash them to do what you want. There is absolutely NOTHING good about anything of that. You’ve become the bad guy…pure and simple.”

“Monica,” he said awkwardly, almost pleading with you. “You don’t understand…”

“No, YOU don’t understand,” she exclaimed, slapping Marcus across the face as hard as she could. Then she tearfully blurted out, “I used to look up to look up to you. I wanted to be just like you. But now…now I’m ashamed to be your sister.” And with that, Monica turned and walked away.

Marcus stared after her with a look of stunned confusion. Then he almost seemed to deflate into himself, collapsing to his knees and looking completely and utterly defeated. He didn’t even look at Gayle, who stood back with the sword in hand, looking completely uncertain as to what to do next.

While this was occurring, Amylia continued fighting Gregor while everyone stood back and watched. Everyone seemed to realize that this was a personal battle and even Professor Roangard seemed hesitant to get between the two of them. But as I watched them, I felt that it was personal for me as well. After all, Gregor was one of my ancestors and I couldn’t help but feeling at least a tiny bit responsible for him.

It was obvious that Gregor had come well prepared to fight as he had a huge arsenal of chain spells that he was releasing. For every spell he activated, it was the equivalent of activating three or more. Amylia was doing quite well but was being overwhelmed with the sheer number of effects she was being hit with.

Then Gregor sent a massive wave of fire straight at Amylia. She conjured up a disk of light in front of her which blocked the flames, though they spread around the disk and began to form a ring of flames around her. A moment later, the ground around her shattered and exploded, sending her flying back, just as a burst of tiny red balls of energy shot out towards her like a shotgun blast.

“Amylia,” I cried out in horror, rushing to her and seeing that she’d been badly injured. Between the stone shard shrapnel from the exploding ground, being singed a little from the flames, and having one of the glowing red balls actually go through her shoulder, she looked in bad shape. I dropped down beside her and touched her body, tears running down my cheeks. “Amylia…?” She didn’t answer so I nearly screamed, “Grandma…”

Amylia opened her eyes and looked at me. “Erin,” she whispered, gasping in pain. “I... I never thought I’d be called that…” Then she gave me a weak smile before closing her eyes again.

I turned my attention to Gregor, glaring at him in a cold fury. “Surrender now,” Gregor stated coldly. “I’d rather not kill you just yet. You could still be too useful to me…just as Conrad was.”

I clenched my fists, suddenly wondering what he’d done to Conrad but having a bad idea already. When the rest of us had escaped from Gregor, he’d still been left with one mythic of his own bloodline. Somehow, I didn’t think the fact that Conrad had been working for him and had been loyal about it would make any difference.

“Go suck a dead gorn’s ass,” I spat out at him, immediately following that up with, “Engage.”

The spell I unleashed on Gregor was just a wind spell, meant to throw him back and off his feet. However, it had no effect whatsoever against his spell armor. He responded by sending a spell at me and I jumped to the side just as roots started to grow up from the ground and would have entangled my feet. I didn’t stop though and kept moving as the other effect of his chain spell kicked in, coating the ground with a sheet of ice and having chains appear in mid-air. However, I’d avoided the area where the magic hit so the effects had been wasted.

Professor Roangard stepped in at this point and began launching attacks at Gregor, having a look of cold fury on her face. “Well girl,” she snapped at Kaellie, who stood there looking as though she couldn’t decide whether or not she should help me. “Are you going to assist or not?” Kaellie gulped and launched a fireball at Gregor as well.

Now that this was no longer a personal duel between Gregor and Amylia, everyone started going after him, some with the obvious intention of avenging Amylia. Traci took a large jump and landed right beside Gregor, punching him as hard as he could. Gregor’s shield seemed to prevent him from being harmed. He swung his staff at Traci, who then jumped back and out of range. Jake and Kaylie began flying around his head, distracting him and then dodging away as Professor Roangard attacked.

Gregor held his staff up and activated a spell, but nothing seemed to happen other than that there was a momentary shimmer around his body. I grimaced, realizing that he must have just renewed his spell armor. I could only imagine how much time and effort it must have taken to create a spell of that type and power. Then he gestured with his staff and released another spell right at Professor Roangard.

A blast of purple energy shot out of Gregor’s staff but Professor Roangard held up her own staff and invoked a spell. A bubble of light appeared around herself and the students that were close to her. The blast didn’t get through the bubble, but the ground and building behind them cracked and melted. I stared in awe, realizing that this had to be another chain spell, one that used a series of spells to amplify the effects of the main one, much as he did with the sleeping spell.

I looked to Amylia and saw Gayle bent over her, the sword in her hand glowing. I didn’t think Gayle could do anything for Amylia, though I silently prayed that she could. I hadn’t realized just how much I’d come to care about Amylia until now.

“You will pay for harming my students,” Professor Roangard exclaimed, launching a spell at Gregor. He responded by using a spell of his own to teleport a short distance away, just as the spot where he’d been standing began to melt and dissolve into molten lava. “For harming my teaching staff…”

I glared at Gregor furiously, wanting to take him down but knowing that there was nothing I could do. Amylia hadn’t been able to defeat him and she was a lot more experienced than I was. And to top it off, I was nearly out of spells. I only had a few left and none of those would be very good at attacking.

Then I suddenly had an idea, remembering what Teressa and Kaellie had both tried to do to me during our duels. I took a deep breath and then started running straight towards Gregor. Once I was close enough, I activated one of the tokens on my bead bracelet and suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke, using the trick aunt June had taught me. With my few seconds of invisibility, I rushed to my great plus grandpa, reappearing right in front of him. He gasped in surprise while I snatched the staff right out of his hands and threw it away as hard as I could.

“Try fighting without any spells,” I spat at him, jumping back as he swung his fist at me.

Of course, Gregor wasn’t completely unarmed. He had a few heavy looking medallions around his neck and tied to his belt, but most of his spells appeared to have been in his staff. Without that, his options were greatly reduced.

Gregor glared at me with a look of cold fury on his face. “I had not intended to use this yet,” Gregor announced, reaching for one of the medallions around his neck. “I had intended to wait until I’d drained the power from more of my vermin descendants…” Then he paused to sneer at me with contempt so thick that it nearly dripped from him. “You may thank Conrad’s…sacrifice for this. Invoke.”

Gregor suddenly began to change, growing larger so that his clothes stretched and tore. His skin turned a sickling greenish color and became thick and lumpy looking. It was almost like watching Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk.

I watched in horror as the sorcerer transformed into what was obviously a troll. He’d actually done it. He’d somehow stolen Conrad’s Were form. When he was finished, he stood eight feet tall and had a bulky body that seemed thick with muscle as well as a layer of fat. He was completely naked, except for several medallions which still hung around his neck.

“It worked,” Gregor exclaimed as he looked down at himself and then laughed. His voice was now deep and gravely, sounding nothing like he had before. Then he looked at me with an oddly hungry look in his eyes. “None of my associates can use this spell. It only works for me because of the blood resonance…” He took several steps towards me, adding, “I won’t kill you…yet. Any of you. I’ll break your wings to keep you from flying away until I can acquire your power as well…”

“You will not harm a hair on her head,” Professor Roangard exclaimed, sending what looked like a dragon made out of fire right at Gregor.

Gregor swung his fist at the flaming dragon and it shattered and faded away while Gregor laughed. “The strength… I’ve never felt so strong…so unstoppable.”

“Oh frell,” I gasped in horror, remembering just how strong and tough Conrad had been to fight. His thick skin had been nearly invulnerable, and now Gregor not only had that but his spell armor as well.

Nearly everyone began launching attacks at Gregor but he just laughed them all off. Teressa sent two creatures made of fire towards him but he backhanded them and they vanished, even as Professor Roangard had a bolt of lightning come from the sky and strike him. Without a word, Gregor turned and charged towards a group of students who all turned and fled screaming in terror from the massive monster. Now, he seemed to have lost any real plan and seemed to just be caught up in his physical power and how unstoppable he’d become.

Gregor paused, reaching for one of the amulets around his neck and activating it. Suddenly, a beam of red light shot out of it like a laser beam, burning into the ground beside one of the students who’d just barely managed to get out of the way. Gregor laughed and swung the laser around as it continued burning whatever it hit.

“Watch out,” Eve cried out, activating a spell that caused a brick wall to suddenly appear in front of her, just in time for the laser to burn the surface.

“We have to stop him,” Sylvie screamed, conjuring a similar wall in front of herself but made of ice. This protected her, Todd, and Darek from being hit.

Gregor swung the laser again, this time aiming it right to where Jake was on the ground with Monica standing beside him. “Run,” Jake ordered her, then cursed, “Damn fish tail… Now I know how useless Aquaman must feel.”

“No,” Monica screamed, putting herself in front of Jake to try protecting him from the laser.

Suddenly, a golden disk of light appeared in front of them and blocked the laser. The laser swept around and was about to hit one of the girl’s who’d come with Kaellie and Professor Roangard, but another golden disk appeared to protect her as well. A moment later, the laser cut out and finally stopped.

Then I looked around and saw the source of those two golden shield spells. Marcus stood there with a worn expression on his face. Gayle had left him to go help Amylia but now he was getting back into the fight.

“Enough,” Marcus called out to Gregor. “Our mission here is a complete failure. All you’re doing now is hurting innocent students…”

“I won’t be beaten by the likes of them,” Gregor responded. “Now assist me.”

“No,” Marcus told him grimly. “I was cast out of this Academy for trying to protect the students. I agreed to invade the Academy so I could protect the students from the same threat. I can NOT allow you to harm the innocent students.”

Gregor glared at Marcus, a very frightening expression on the face of the huge and ugly troll. “You betrayed me,” Gregor snarled angrily.

“No,” Marcus responded, looking tired but determined. “I betrayed myself. I betrayed my own ethics and lost everything because of it. But you took me in and taught me. You gave me a new purpose…restoring the Touched to glory and making our kind respected again. But now you’re betraying that goal. Our mission failed and this rampage does nothing to help our kind. It only harms them.”

“No one betrays me,” Gregor yelled, charging straight at Marcus, who activated a token and suddenly disappeared, only to reappear a short distance away. He activated a second token and a large glowing wolf appeared and ran straight at Gregor. “TRAITOR,” Gregor snarled furiously.

Suddenly, a flaming phoenix landed in Gregor’s hair while a golden pixie flew in front of his face to distract him. He snarled and swatted at the two mythics who quickly dodged out of his way.

Gregor grabbed the last medallion around his neck and invoked it. Suddenly a blast of green energy shot out straight at Monica. Marcus was clutching a red ribbon in his hand and screamed out, “Invoke.” He suddenly disappeared, reappearing next to Monica and shoving her out of the way as the blast hit him in the side instead.

“Marcus,” Monica cried out, dropping next to her brother who was now on the ground with most of his torso being blackened and burned.

“I’m…sorry,” Marcus whispered to her.

“No,” Monica exclaimed, grabbing her brother’s arm, “Please…” Tears were running down her cheeks as she quietly said, “I’m proud of you…”

Marcus smiled faintly before his entire body went limp. I stared at him, realizing that I could sense every last trace of sexual energy from within his body fading away. He was dead.

“Nobody betrays me,” Gregor announced, looking around as though trying to decide who he was going to kill next.

Gayle stepped away from Amylia, her sword firmly in hand. She looked a little shaken as she glanced back to Marcus and then at Gregor. “Marcus was an asshole,” she stated grimly. “But even he didn’t deserve that.”

With that, Gayle ran straight for Gregor, who almost seemed amused by her attack. She was about halfway to him when she activated a token, creating a thick cloud of mist between the two of them. Gregor paused, unable to see her until she emerged from the fog and slashed at him with her sword.

Gregor grabbed his side with a look of pain on his face, shocked that he’d actually been injured. There was a flickering glow around him as his spell armor faded away under the force of the sword’s power.

“You’ll pay for that,” Gregor snarled, swinging a massive fist at Gayle who dodged to the side.

With Gregor’s spell armor gone, he was now only as tough as a normal troll, which I knew from experience was still tough enough. Just not tough enough to shrug off the force of this many angry sorcerers and Were.

I was the first to recognize the opportunity and jumped into the air, only to dive bomb Gregor, landing on his shoulders and digging my claws into his face. He howled in rage and tried shaking me off, but I just spat at him and leapt into the air.

“Time to end this,” Gayle exclaimed, holding her sword with a look of determination.

“Yes…it is,” a weak voice said. Amylia stood up, though it obviously took a great deal of effort.

“Amylia,” I exclaimed, immediately landing beside her so that I could help support her. I felt an immense sense of relief at seeing her like this.

Amylia glared at Gregor and grimly said, “For Robert…” Then she held up a token and weakly said, “Invoke.”

The ground beneath Gregor suddenly seemed to turn into quicksand and he started to sink. He was going down fast and was struggling, though that only seemed to make him sink faster.

“And for my grandchildren,” Amylia added with a cold anger, activating another token and sending a ball of fire right at Gregor.

Gregor screamed in pain as his body became enveloped in flames. He tried flailing but he was trapped from the waist down in stone and was still sinking. I could see his flesh blistering and burning as I watched, making my stomach turn.

The flames stopped half a minute later, but by then Gregor’s head was the only part still above the ground. His head was now completely bald with the skin being all blistered and charred. He was no longer moving, but I could sense enough energy from within him to know that he wasn’t dead. Not yet.

“It’s done,” Amylia whispered as I supported nearly all of her weight. There were tears running down her cheeks as she added, “It’s finally done.”