Note: due to leaving it too long to do the last update, I couldn't remember what order things happened in. I've now updated that post so that it actually ends at the point this one starts.
The tooth creature might have been cute, but it had one hell of a bite. Fortunately we managed to separate it from Michael's arm, and Adam wrapped it up in iron chain netting. It wasn't happy about it, and we managed to use that to our advantage. It wanted to get somewhere, so we went in the direction it was trying to go. I thought maybe we could use the acid bombs we'd used for the stone creatures that were definitely not gargoyles, but as the others pointed out, that was our timeline. It didn't happen here. We were stuck with sugar cola.
We ended up at an old warehouse. Not many options for a stealthy entrance, but Michael spotted the pile of teeth inside, along with a few more of the tooth creatures. I armoured up, popped the claws, and in we went.
That was a nasty fight. Taking down the tooth creatures wasn't hugely difficult, but then they started reforming and combining into larger and much nastier versions. Adam took a nasty blow when one of them spat a tooth at him. Elizabeth did a good job with her ice magic, slowing them down and putting up a shield, although she did go all evil Galadriel and really isn't convincing me that she's not a lich. Michael's new spiky bat thing seemed pretty effective. So did my claws. More so than I expected somehow.
We were just getting to the point where we were on the point of ending things when reinforcements arrived, in the shape of the tooth fairy who'd dragged Michael off, and a couple more tooth creatures. Adam got his iron net out again and managed to grapple the fairy. The combined tooth creatures were getting even worse though, and one of them hit Michael so hard he went flying back against a wall. I saw red at that point, and threw myself into the fight, not even caring if I got hurt. My claws went through it like butter and it collapsed into a pile of teeth.
I checked on Michael, but Elizabeth was already there with a bit of magical wound closing. He was going to be fine. Funny though, it seemed brighter in the room around me. Like my armour was glowing.
We needed to get the tooth fairy back to the fairy queen fast, but he was freaking out about the ward. Fair, I remember what it's like trying to get through a ward. Adam came up with an idea. If we drove up to the ward, and then I held the fairy and teleported to the other side, he technically wouldn't actually go through the ward.
I was still nervous about something going wrong, and this would have been a very bad time to lose the fairy. Fortunately Elizabeth was on hand to give me a little arcane assistance and we crossed the ward without incident.
Once on the other side, the fairy's whole attitude changed. He warned us that there were even more of the tooth creatures out there, and the plan would keep happening if they weren't stopped. So Michael and Elizabeth took the van to drive out to the fairy portal, and I teleported Adam and me back to the warehouse. We didn't know where the creatures were, but at least we knew where they were going.
After a fight so brutal that even I got hurt, the last of the tooth creatures were dismantled. Adam asked if I could do some magical healing, and I gave it a go, but something about my magic felt weird, and from the way Adam was looking at me I think I might have also been looking weird. Anyway, I closed his wound, but a bunch of teeth grew out of it, which was kind of gross.
I got a text from Agnes. Unsurprisingly she'd noticed me teleporting through her ward. I was going to have some explaining to do.
Elizabeth and Michael pulled up in the van, and we swept up the remaining teeth and took them all to the junkyard to put in the oubliette. Or the bat cave, as Adam now calls it. Just one problem remaining: the portal. We drove around until Elizabeth found it, and there we were back at the bloody church.
The crypt felt even weirder this time. It wasn't just the lack of the usual skin crawling sensation. It actually felt nice. Even the pain from my injuries went away. And here, in the one place in Wicker Valley that Agnes' magic couldn't touch, was the portal that was about to be used for the invasion. We'd bought some time by dealing with the teeth, but we still needed to get it closed.
Elizabeth took the lead, marking out the cardinal points. She took water, and told me to take fire, which is stereotyping, but at least it was the opposite side to her. She wasn't sure about where to put the others, but I thought Adam should be earth. After all, he'd shown up normal to a weird fight. That's pretty damn grounded.
The portal was closed. And I got even more suspicious texts from Agnes.
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