"It was a good party, maybe you can get fired so we can get another one," a scout told another.
"How about you take up the honor and quit," the other scout responded while taking a bite of his breakfast.
Axel ate his food regardless of what the other scouts. He wasn't sure if the Beetle Scales that he put on his food was getting better and better, or his tongue was just tricking him so he would keep eating.
Several scouts were talking about the party, of the drink, of the food, of meeting new witches, but none talked of the screams that Axel heard.
He was unsure if he was the one of the few who heard it, or if there were many more, but no one wanted to bring it up.
It gnawed at the back of Axel's mind, almost as much as making the stupid glowing fire.
No matter what Axel did with the two glyphs, he would never get a glowing fire. Fireballs, a light that set things on fire, a dim fire he was close that time, fire blasts, and a controlled flashbang, he made many things with the two glyphs, and yet he feels like he had barely scratched the surface.
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Heading to the captain so Axel could get his job, Axel saw the captain standing straight up while reading over a piece of paper, the piece of paper probably had the job they were doing.
The rest of the group were standing around waiting for the captain to tell them their job.
Taking a deep breath in, the captain turned to his team.
"We are to accompany Ms. Lilith to capture the Owl Lady," the captain told, "Prepare for anything we will leave in three hours at the bridge," the captain said before leaving himself.
"Fighting the Owl Lady huh? Well, it's going to be seven on one so it should be easy," Apple said.
"From what I've heard it's not the Owl Lady we have to worry about, but the house demon," Artichoke says.
"A house demon, please I've seen twenty of them and I've fought plenty," Apple boasted, "I can take a single house demon," they said.
"House demons live five years max," Lettuce said.
"Yes, and?" Apple asked.
"Fighting for over ten years," Lettuce responded.
"What do you mean ten years? Are you telling me this thing has lived double its life span?" Apple said.
"As far as we know," Lettuce replied.
"What do we know about this thing?" Axel asked.
"It's an owl house demon who's attached to the door, it can stretch itself to an unknown degree," Grape said, "It doesn't like to stretch too far from the house though," they said.
"How do you know this?" Axel asked.
"I've sat next to scouts that have delt with the house demon, consoling them take a while," Grape recounted.
"We have a few hours to prepare for anything, I need to get some potions," Artichoke mumbled leaving to his room.
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Behind Lilith six scout marched in unison through bushes and near trees. All of them somewhat nervous, though some much less than others.
Axel was not one of those. He had prepared as much as he could, several pieces of paper lied in his coat with different combinations on the two glyphs he knew of, and a knife he took from the kitchen. The cooks would forgive him, he was sure.
After a time, they arrived at a small clearing, and in the middle of that clearing laid the owl house, home of the Owl Lady, the house demon, and the portal that Axel needs.
The coven members hid in the bushes and looked at the door of the owl house. In the middle of the door and above the door handle had what looked like a circle with an owl drawn on it.
The owl was singing about how much he wanted to eat bugs and was moving around by stretching his body out of the door hole.
Silently Lilith gathered the scouts, making them get into a huddle formation
"Now, you will be on healing," she said pointing to Grape, "Your guard captain will be"
"What are we talking about hoot hoot?" the house demon asked including himself in the huddle.
The demon had extended itself from the door and all the way to the huddle.
Before anything else could happen, the captain leapt into action, slamming his hands down and making a stone pillar rise up from the ground and hit the demon in the middle of it's body.
The body raised up along with the pillar, but the head didn't move, the body was stretching at the same rate as the pilar was rising.
"Hoot! A massage! Let me try!" the demon said.
Faster than anyone could react to, the demon extended behind the captain and slammed him on his backs
"Captain!" Grape called out.
In response, Lilith tried to cast a spell, put her spell casting wasn't as fast as the demon.
"Ooh, sparkly," the demon commented, before slamming its body into Lilith
"Scatter, surround!" Lettuce called out.
Hearing that, the scouts leapt back circling the head of the house demon as best as they could. Though Lilith didn't heed the warning and stayed in the middle, and Grape had dragged the captain and was beginning to heal him.
"Eat Firebees!" Apple yelled out throwing a jar of firebees at the house demon.
"Thanks Hoot!" the house demon said, stretching its mouth open and swallowing the firebee jar in an instant.
"No, thank you!" Apple called out, using his magic to tell the firebees to attack the demon while inside of it.
Nothing.
"What are you waiting for?" Artichoke called out pulling out a potion.
"They're not there!" Apple replied.
"Mmm mmm! Tasty fire," the demon commented.
'Are they already digested?'
"Are you ready Lettuce!" Artichoke called out throwing a potion at the ground near the house demon.
"Yes," Lettuce answered, drawing a magic circle.
As soon as the potion cracked on the ground, a torrent of poison smoke erupted. The house demon tried to move, but as it did a tree trunk burst from the ground and surrounded the demon.
For a moment the poison smoke engulfed the head of the house demon, as a red leaved tree blew in the wind. With a moment of peace, Lilith ran for the door, trying to get into the owl house.
"Hooty!" a voice from the owl house said, "Get that smoke out of the way, it's messing with my view of the scout's butts getting kicked," the voice ordered.
"Ok Eda!" the house demon said before slightly extending beyond the trunk of the tree, before tilting his neck ninety degrees.
The house demon then spun their neck like a helicopter, blowing the poison gas back at Artichoke, and ripping the tree apart.
Right as the poison gas was about to hit Artichoke, a wall of stone rose up from the ground. Protecting Artichoke leading the poison gas to float into the forest, probably hurting something, but not a scout.
"Thanks Captain," Artichoke said.
Lilith, who was trying to get in, was suddenly wrapped up by the tube-like body of the house demon.
"Don't think I forgot about you Lilith," the demon said moving Lilith closer to their face, "How could I forget about my favorite playmate," they said.
But before Lilith got too close to the face of the house demon, the captain hit its face with a right hook.
In surprise the demon dropped Lilith, before being smacked by one of Axel's fireballs. And before the demon could do anything, it was hit by left hook from the captain.
The captain then kicked a piece of stone up at the demon, the demon quickly dodged before being hit by another right hook followed up by a fire ball.
Before the house demon could counterattack, the captain drew a circle causing the stone that was in the air to come flying down smacking the demon in the head and pushing it down, down into the captain's fist who hit the demon with an upercut.
"The door!" the captain yelled out while he and Axel wailed on the demon, "This thing won't fall as long as the door remains," the captain ordered.
In response, the scouts, save Axel and Grap, Axel because he was busy slinging glyphs at the demon, and Grape because they were a healer.
The spells each flew towards the door, and in response the house demon extending its body and covered the door, all the spells hit the body and had no effect.
"Sorry, Eda doesn't like it when the house gets scratched," the demon said pulling itself back near the door.
The demon was only a foot away from the door, and yet his body was stretched at least twenty feet out to cover the door. Suddenly, the demon pointed itself at the captain and began rapidly straightening themselves causing the house demon to fly towards the captain extremely fast.
Grape knew, as the one who healed him, that the captain wasn't in the best shape. The captain actually stood up and got back into the fight before Grape could finish healing him.
There was no time for a normal spell, the captain simply braced himself, and the other scouts began to try to do something, but no magic they could cast would reach the captain in time, and no potion thrown could go faster than the house demon.
However, glyphs didn't have a time to cast, they just happened.
Axel used a fire burst, pushing him from his position and towards the captain.
Next, he put a fire glyph on his coat, setting it on fire, and propelling him faster through the magic of the fire glyph.
Finaly, Axel used a flashbang spell, both to distract the demon, and to distract the captain, for if the captain knew what Axel was trying to do, he would have stopped him.
With all of that, Axel flew into the captain pushing him out of the way, which caused Axel to be in the path of the house demon.
The speed of the fire burst was gone after bumping into the captain, and the small amount of time that Axel had use glyphs had passed.
A great force slammed into Axel. He could not even think of the pain before he was flung back into the forest, he was flying at such a speed that only a very sturdy object could stop him.
He then slammed into a tree.
"My lord forgive me," Axel murmured.
"Scout!" the captain said rushing over to Axel, with Grape behind.
"I have saved the life of a witch," Axel murmured sadly
"That you have, now hold on, we're heading back to base," the captain said, scooping Axel up.
"No, we are not!" Lilith said, "We are this close to capturing my sister!" she said putting her fingers close together.
"I will not see one of my own die for a mission again! We are moving!" the captain ordered the rest of the scouts.