Suddenly A Succubus
Chapter 25.2

It was late in the evening the following day when the girls were able to meet up again. Amara had borrowed Nick’s key to the gymnastics building, as they needed both privacy and a wide-open space to practice. The day leading up to this strange rehearsal had been confusing, to say the least. After so many weeks of beating herself up, convinced that she could change Vee’s mind by just explaining herself, Amara was now skeptical. In their very first fight, supposedly as allies, Amara had wound up with a volley of holy arrows lodged in her back.

What if Tessa is right? I’ve been so focused on proving to Vee that I’m trustworthy, but… I never bothered to ask the same about her. Am I so desperate for forgiveness that I’m blind to what’s in front of me?

Amara was waiting outside the gymnastics building, idly scrolling through her socials as she waited for Vee and Tessa to show up. She wore an outfit similar to yesterday, athletic shorts and a matching sports bra, though this time they were a deep, royal purple. Comfortable sweats covered them, but they were unfortunately not the same sweats from yesterday; those had been a tragic casualty of the fight. She’d briefly revisited the elevator in Lysander Hall, just in case, but her clothes were nowhere to be found.

Vee arrived first, unsurprisingly. “Hey Amara, any problems today?” she asked.

“Nothing really. I don’t think they’re stupid enough to cause a scene in public. Tess tells me that people who know about magic like to keep it hidden.” Amara’s words were tense. After being literally stabbed in the back yesterday, she was having trouble extending the same generosity to Vee that she’d mustered their last few run-ins.

“I’ve heard the same thing,” Vee said. They stood there awkwardly for another few minutes before Tessa arrived, and Amara was pretty sure they both sighed in relief.

Soon enough, all three girls were entering the gymnastics building, and Amara quickly ran over to the light switches. The bright fluorescent lights took a while to fully kick in, but soon the building was ready for action. Amara started by pulling her sweats off, and she immediately noticed a swell in Tessa’s aura. Amara was fully aware that her outfit was pretty revealing, but she needed as little coverage as possible to make sure her wings and tail had room to breathe. Though, she couldn’t deny that it was nice to have clothes that so perfectly showed off how athletic her demonic body had gotten.

Remembering Vee’s request from back in Whitmore Hall, Amara spoke up. “Alright Vee, I’m manifesting my true form, which means there’s going to be some fire. That okay?”

“Sure, go for it.”

With a burst of hellfire, Amara’s demonic features returned to her. She happily ran her hands over her horns, always happy to have them back, and noticed that they seemed to have grown again recently. They reached further back than usual, and were now starting to angle back up as they reached the back of her head. A quick check of her tail and wings revealed nothing else had changed, so she started stretching everything out in preparation.

Vee, presumably, wasn’t planning on wearing the same revealing clothing; she was wearing loose, white and gold running pants that cinched at the ankles, and a blue athletic jacket. She pulled out her Enochian Texts, casting a couple quick spells while Amara continued stretching. They were far enough apart that the angelic magic didn’t sting too much, but Amara certainly bristled at its presence.

“Alright, what’s the plan you two?” Tessa asked, leaning against a nearby pommel horse.

“What? Why is this on us?” Vee responded.

“You two are our heavy hitters and have the most varied abilities. You want me to explain everything I can do? I can make knives float and try to stab people. There, you know everything you need to know.”

“What about when you threw Brandon across the room?” Amara asked. “I know you said that was stressful, but it’s an option, right?”

“Not really. See, most magic has trace amounts of psychic energy to it, likely even yours and Vee’s. Your hellfire, for example, is an extension of you, but you still have to control it. Think of the psychic connection like a muscle, a necessary part of controlling any magic that’s not physically attached with musculature. Pretty much everyone has a low-level psychic field, which means they can try to resist magical effects. Some people are better than others, but generally, the more resolute you are, the more you can resist most magic.”

“So why did it work on Brandon?”

“Cuz he’s a weak little bitch, that’s why. He’s got no backbone, and he was terrified of me. Fear can be incredibly helpful for bypassing psychic resistance. A roomful of cultists and demons, though? Better to assume you won’t be able to just light them on fire. You’ll have better luck throwing fire at them, or lighting up your fists and beating them senseless.”

“Makes enough sense, I suppose,” Amara said. She looked to Vee, who seemed to be looking at Amara’s tail again, though she quickly averted her eyes. “Vee, you or me?”

Both girls looked at each other silently, the tension more than obvious. “You first,” Vee said.

Hardly surprised, Amara sighed and nodded. “Alright, fine. It’s pretty straightforward, honestly. I have enhanced vision, I can see in the dark as clear as day, and I can also see electrical signals. I’m not great at deciphering them, but I’m working on it. I can also see auras around everyone, which tell me if they’re horny, who they’re attracted to, when they last had sex, things like that. I don’t think any of that is going to be very helpful in a fight.”

Starting to feel antsy, Amara jumped up on the balance beam and continued warming up while she kept talking. “Physically, I’m much stronger. I can overpower Nick easily, and you both know how strong he is. My shapeshifting lets me grow a chitinous exoskeleton over my body, giving me natural protection, but I can also sharpen it to give myself claws, or turn my tail into a blade.”

To illustrate her point, Amara manifested her chitinous gauntlets and sharpened her tail, swishing it through the air as a demonstration. “I can do the same for my wings, and give myself a pretty hefty shield, but it weighs me down. I can summon hellfire and exert my willpower over existing flames. If you see purple fire, chances are I’m the one controlling it. I’m completely immune to fire myself, but as a side effect of that, it’s really hard for me to notice changes in temperature, even dramatic ones.”

A thought jumped into Amara’s head, and she decided to test her balance even further. She leaned forward, planting her hands on the balance beam, and kicked her legs over her head. It was a rocky start, but with the help of her tail, she found the motion came quite naturally to her. “That’s about it, honestly.”

Vee seemed surprised that Amara didn’t have more to say. “That’s it?”

“Um… I guess I also dreamwalk, but it’s pretty sporadic, and I’m not sure how to control it yet. Even if I could, I doubt we’ll need that in a fight.”

Amara and Tessa looked at Vee expectantly. The angel let out a sigh of her own, no doubt regretting that she had to give up divine secrets, but she soon began talking. “Alright, my abilities are… complicated. Long story short, angels wield the power of Creation, and our magic can manifest as almost anything we want. However, the more esoteric our desires are, the harder it’ll be to control the magic.”

“Is that why you stick to making weapons?” Amara asked.

“That’s part of it, yeah. Angelic magic can be incredibly taxing, and it takes years of training to prepare our bodies for it. I have an innate well of angelic energy of my own, but it’s pretty small. That’s why this book is so important.” Vee tapped her Enochian Texts, and they glowed slightly under her touch.

“This book is essentially a battery, a reservoir of holy magic that’s been cultivated for generations. These pages contain detailed descriptions of spells, knowledge on how to cast them, and the magic to do it. Traditionally, every angel that inherits this book adds a spell of their own, and future generations continue to iterate and perfect those spells. Those arrows I created came from an angel that roamed the Earth a few hundred years back, and they’re one of the most reliable offensive abilities I have.”

“You’ve also got a banishment spell in there, right?” Amara asked.

“I do, but… you saw me try to cast it. It takes a while, and I can’t be interrupted. Best case scenario, I can try to trap someone in a circle to buy time, but it’s possible to break out.”

Amara couldn’t help but glare at Vee, watching her recount the events that led up to their fateful fight. “Okay, so you have a lot of options. You’ve also been training for this your whole life, whereas I’m just some idiot that happened to turn into a demon. Do you have any suggestions on strategies? Spells that might synergize with what I can do?”

“I’ve certainly been thinking about that, but it’s tough. If you weren’t a demon, I could probably try to enhance your abilities, make you stronger and faster, maybe even give you weapons of your own, but I think it’s safe to assume that my magic will always hurt you, even if it’s not aggressive.”

“Agreed,” Amara said. “Even that healing spell you cast on yourself stung pretty bad. We need something that will let us keep out of each other’s way.”

“There’s another wrinkle, too,” Vee continued. “Not all the cultists have been turned into demons yet. I fought one that was still human. Depending on what magic I use, they might be completely immune to it.”

“Wait, that’s it!” Tessa said, rejoining the conversation. “You can separate the demons and the humans!”

“How would that help?” Amara asked.

“It’s simple. On Halloween, Vee locked you inside a circle, right? Well, what if we did the opposite? Lock us both inside a barrier, so that the only people that can get through are humans! That way, Amara can focus entirely on the demons, while Vee can take out any non-possessed cultists that enter the field. If I’m inside the barrier, that should buy me enough time to reverse engineer the circle!”

“That’s… honestly a really good idea, Tessa,” Vee said.

“What, like it’s surprising?” the witch replied, sticking her tongue out.

“Well, we’ve no time to waste. Let’s test it out,” Amara said, jumping off the balance beam.

“Fine, just give me a few minutes. I need to figure out which spell would work best for that.” Vee sat down, opening her Enochian Texts and starting to flip through them. While she read, Amara busied herself by trying some of the other gymnastics equipment. A few minutes passed before Vee spoke up again. “Got it!”

Amara watched as Vee moved to the middle of the large spring floor, then held her book aloft and started reading. Her hair started billowing and angelic energy swirled around her, the book glowing as its magic activated. Various Enochian runes began to form around her, building in complexity, until they all connected to form a large wall that circled Vee, creating a space roughly fifteen feet across. As expected, Amara’s body reacted poorly to the Enochian chanting, but the uncomfortable seizing ended once the spell finished.

“Certainly looks impressive,” Amara said. “Tess, can you walk through it?”

Moving closer, Tessa carefully pushed a hand against the barrier, watching as it harmlessly passed through. She then took a step inside, shivering slightly as she did, but nothing seemed to happen. “I think I’m fine. It tingled a little, but nothing else. What about you? That’s the real test, isn’t it?”

Amara looked towards Vee, who gestured at the wall. “Give it a shot,” she said.

With a deep breath, Amara approached the glowing wall. She could feel the angelic energy bristling at her presence, and she braced herself for some discomfort as she reached for the barrier. The instant she touched it, her entire body seized up once more, holy sparks surging through her body. It felt like she was holding the Enochian Texts again, the energy making it difficult to move. When she finally managed to pull away, she was panting heavily, and could feel sweat running down her temples.

“Fuck, that stings…” Amara said through gritted teeth.

“That’s kind of the point, Amara,” Vee said. “Do you think you’d be able to break through?”

“Probably, I did it last time.”

“I’d like to see you try,” Vee said. The two girls stared at each other through the barrier, the tension obvious as the challenge was posed.

Amara’s eyes flared, and she happily manifested her chitinous gauntlets before engulfing them in hellfire. She took a few steps back, crouched low to the ground, and leapt at the barrier. She threw the entire weight of her body behind her first punch, watching as her fist collided with the barrier, holy sparks flying through the air and assaulting her body. The barrier threw her back slightly, but she wasn’t done yet. She continued attacking, trying to expand her senses to get a feel for the barrier’s limits. She had a harder time reading it than she did on Halloween, presumably because she was on the outside this time, but eventually she started to get a sense of what was needed. With each strike, another barrage of Enochian magic attacked her, and she could feel herself getting angrier from its influence. Eventually, just as the holy magic was threatening to wear her out, she managed to land a strike that sank further into the barrier than before. Her second hand joined in, then her bladed tail. She grabbed the edges of the barrier, let loose an angry shout, and ripped a hole in it.

All at once, the holy barrier surrounding Vee and Tessa dissipated. Amara watched Vee’s eyes go wide in surprise, and her own body seemed to recoil as Amara broke through the magic.

The angel and the demon locked eyes, and when Amara finally spoke, her words were surprisingly smug. “Looks like I win again, Vee.”

Vee snarled at Amara, pulling herself together before she started pacing sideways, skirting around Amara. “Please, I wasn’t even fighting back.”

Amara matched the movement, and now both girls were slowly circling the open floor, each waiting for the other to escalate the situation. Out of the corner of her eye, Amara could see Tessa nervously looking back and forth, before deciding to back out and take a seat on the pommel horse.

“Maybe we should practice fighting, since apparently you know so much more than I do,” Amara said.

“Maybe we should. You clearly have a lot to learn.” Vee dropped her Enochian Texts to the ground, then kicked them back to keep them out of the way. She unzipped her jacket, throwing it aside as well, revealing a sports bra that seemed to resemble marble, with streaks of white, gray, and gold running through it.

“Says the girl that trained her whole life just to lose to a month-old demon!”

“Um, guys? Maybe we should—” Tessa tried to say, but her words were instantly cut off by Vee.

“Shut up!” Vee shouted. She leapt forward, summoning her holy blade with a burst of Enochian energy. She slashed at Amara, who managed to dodge out of the way, but only barely. Vee continued attacking, again and again, trying to push Amara off balance, but Amara continued to evade each attack. This harrowing dance continued until Vee summoned a flash of light from her off hand, which startled Amara and created an opening for Vee to jab the demon’s side with the hilt of her sword.

“Your movements are sloppy and unrefined. Your inexperience is obvious,” Vee hissed as Amara grabbed her side in pain.

“Yeah? Well you can’t handle extra limbs!” Amara’s tail darted out, wrapping around Vee’s ankle and pulling hard. Vee fell to the ground, gasping as she landed flat on her back. “You only stood a chance because you caught me off guard.”

Vee was breathing heavily, and she glared at Amara before responding. “You’re right about one thing, at least.” With a quick spin, Vee swung her legs towards Amara, who wasn’t ready for retaliation. She fell to the ground herself, and Vee quickly jumped on top of the demon to try and pin her down. “You can’t read your opponents! You leave yourself open with every attack!”

Amara’s tail lashed out again, knocking Vee’s sword out of her hand. Amara thrust off the ground, turning the tables on Vee as she tried to pin her down as well. The girls quickly locked hands as they wrestled, tumbling back and forth as each tried to force the other into submission. This continued for close to a minute, neither one able to cement their advantage. Eventually, the girls began to tire, their actions slowing as they both refused to surrender. Amara, however, had already exerted herself breaking through Vee’s barrier, and soon found herself on her back while Vee pinned her hands on the floor over her head.

They were both panting heavily, sweat pouring down their bodies as they glared at each other. The tension only broke when Amara’s nose twitched, and a familiar smell filled her senses. The change in expression threw Vee off guard, and both girls paused as Amara turned her head to look at Tessa.

“Really, Tess?” Amara said.

“What’s she doing?” Vee asked, her grip loosening slightly.

“Watching us fight is turning her on!”

“Oh come on, look at you two!” Tessa said, gesturing at them. Amara looked back at Vee, who was clearly straddling her, her athletic body glistening with sweat. “This is the most homoerotic shit I’ve ever seen!”

“It is not!” Amara and Vee said in unison. They looked at each other in surprise before Vee rolled her eyes and got off Amara. They both stood up, huffing as they pulled themselves together. Vee picked up her sword before dismissing it, then grabbed her Enochian Texts and her jacket. Amara walked over to Tessa, playfully smacking her with her tail before grabbing her own clothes and starting to put them on.

“I guess we’re done?” Tessa said, looking at Amara and Vee.

“For tonight? Absolutely,” Vee said. She was clearly flustered, both from Tessa’s comments and the tiring fight.

A moment passed, Amara doing her best to calm herself down after the fight with Vee. Enochian magic always riled her up, and she wanted to think about things calmly. “For what it’s worth,” she started, “I do think we should keep training while we have the time. We’ve got a couple days, might as well be as ready as possible.”

“Yeah? Training? Is that what we’re calling this?” Tessa said, the insinuation obvious.

“I’m serious, Tess! Setting aside our… history, Vee’s right. I don’t have any fighting experience, and she’s the only person that can match my strength. If I try to fight you or Nick, I risk snapping you in half.”

“Fine by me,” Vee said. “I’d like to live past Sunday, so every bit of practice helps.”

While it was obvious that Tessa only wanted to make crude jokes, Amara was glad to be on the same page as Vee. She still wasn’t entirely sure if the angel could be trusted, but for some reason, their fight had been strangely cathartic. Once everyone had packed up their things, and Amara had double checked that they hadn’t scorched anything, she turned off the lights in the building and locked up.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.