Mullwurm

The three covered themselves in black shrouds. Their robes hid their features except for their glowing eyes. The tried to follow the girls closely until they saw an opening. They hid in the shadows stalking their prey until they were finally alone. The three Light Guardians walked into an empty alleyway. The sun was still up and the wind picked up slightly.

Nina sighed and shouted, "Alright, come out! No point hiding!"

Yune, Mary, and Jack were all surprised. They all thought they hid themselves so well.

Jack came out of the shadows first. And then, Yune and Mary followed behind.

In the alleys, the three faced off against the others.

Jack, Yune, and Mary stared at the three other girls, Nina, Kira, and Anne.

"How'd you know we were there?" Jack asked.

Nina smiled and said, "Only a suspicion."

"Her suspicions usually turn out right," Anne commented while Kira watched.

All of them stood in silence. None made a move, but the tensions ran high. One small step could mean the beginning of a battle, but Nina tried to remain calm.

"I didn't introduce myself last time. My name is Nina," she said, "And these other two are Kira and Anne."

"Thank you for your introductions, but I will not be introducing myself or my peers," Yune said.

"I'm sure you three had some reason for following us. Why? Is it to steal another kill, you dishonorable punks?" Anne asked.

"No," Jack opened her mouth, "We wanted to know whether you three were going to be a threat."

"A threat?," Nina said, "Well, I'm pretty certain that you're not Night Demons. I'm sure we could come to an arrangement on the hunting grounds if that's what you're concerned about."

The three fell silent. Nina was trying not to turn this into a fight, while Anne and Kira were expecting it to happen in any second. Each of them prepared to transform the moment the other three move closer. But Jack, Yune, and Mary stayed where they were.

Mary was itching to fight, but kept herself in control. She didn't care about hurting the Light Guardians, but cared about what the other two thought about her. She didn't consider them as friends, but as necessary allies.

Yune remained calm. She had no desire to fight them, but she was ready to.

Jack, however, was trying to keep herself in check just like Mary. Something inside of her wanted to fight, but she didn't have any ill feelings towards the girls in front of her.

As tensions ran high, something unexpected occurred. A chill ran through all six of their backs. And each one knew what they were feeling. A Night Demon.

In the alleyway, a Night Demon began to form from the trash behind the three Light Guardians. The creature moaned and it turned itself into a giant hookworm with teeth made of broken glass. Nina, Anne, and Kira turned around in surprise. How could a Night Demon just appear out of nowhere, they thought.

The creature began to attack the girls, but suddenly a hook attached to a chain collided with the Night Demon's head pushing it back.

The three Light Guardians immediately transformed. The girls' hair danced in the wind and a bright light enveloped them. Nina wore a purple dress and held two katanas. Anne wore a white and light-blue dress, while using metal gauntlets and shoes. Kira wore a green costume and held daggers.

The Night Demon wiggled and fixed itself from the surrounding trash. The hook-chain was drawn back towards its beholder, Yune, the white-eyed girl.

"Alright. Not the fight I was expecting, but a welcome one," Mary said with her long claws out in the open.

Jack conjured a flame in her hand and brought out a machete.

The girls took off their robes and revealed their own costumes.

Yune with her black and white armor, and white mask. Mary with her red and purple dress, and a blood-red mask. And Jack with her giant red armor and hockey mask.

Nina looked at them for a second, and thought to herself that they were Light Guardians albeit strange ones. But something about them gave a chill. However, she had no time to think about it.

The Night Demon said one word before charging at the Light Guardians. "Mullwurm."

Anne screamed a battlecry and kept punching Mullwurm back.

Kira jumped around throwing daggers at it. The tight space limited how much she can move, but Anne held her ground keeping the monster back.

Jack was going to help them, but Yune held her back.

"Wait. Let's see how this fight plays out," Yune suggested as she wanted to see how well the other three Light Guardians fought together.

"Hmm. Alright, fine," Mary said thinking that maybe the Night Demon would get rid of their Light Guardian problem for them.

And Jack just nodded along thinking that it would be a smart idea to see how they fight. But Jack also wanted to attack. Violent feelings just stirred within her. She then thought about whether the Night Demon would try to hurt any bystanders. If that happened, she wouldn't forgive herself. But she kept herself under control. If something did happen, she thought she could jump in and prevent anything from happening.

Nina concentrated and saw that Mullwurm had some water bottles attached to it.

"There's still some water in those," Nina said and as she concentrated, the water from the almost empty water bottles floated out of them. Together the water created a ring around the demon. It kept taking the barrage of punches and had no time to react to Nina's attack. The water began to cover the monster and with one blink, Nina was able to freeze the water around the monster. As the ice formed, Anne fell back and took a breather. Mullwurm slowed to a halt and soon the ice covered it whole. Kira, Nina, and Anne all took a breath.

But the ice cracked. And in a mere moment, the ice broke like glass. Mullwurm slithered with intense speed and before Anne could react, the monster's mouth was wide open.

"Anne!!!" Nina yelled as she ran to push her out of the way. Kira's dagger grew into long vines and branches to try and hold the monster, but it was too slippery. Anne was paralyzed with fear, but she didn't need to be.

A wall of fire burst between Anne and Mullwurm. The monster backed off from the heat.

Jack dashed through while wearing armor that would have been too heavy for any knight. She held her machete tightly and when the wall of fire fell, she was between Anne and the Night Demon.

Jack growled with fiery intensity. With her machete, she kept hitting the Night Demon with pure power.

It kept trying to regenerate itself with nearby trash, but everything it touched would turn to flame. Mullwurm cried in pain while Jack thrashed in a fit of uncontrolled rage.

The monster's cry ended and a dark steam coming from the monster dissipated. Jack hit once more and calmed herself down.

Anne was still paralyzed, but then she realized that the girl in front of her saved her. She took a step forwards and began to say, "Thank yo-"

But it was cut short. As soon as Jack turned around to see Anne, something inside of her snapped. She looked at the Light Guardian and felt a surge of hate. More so than towards the Night Demon.

She muttered without knowing why, "You didn't save them."

And then, Jack lifted her machete and before it could drop, charred vines grabbed onto her arm.

And then, Nina grabbed Anne's hand and jumped back.

Jack was on one side. Yune and Mary on the other. All while Anne, Nina, and Kira were stuck in between.

Jack looked at the vines and in one second, burned them to a crisp.

"And here I thought we could be friends," Nina said.

Anne looked in confusion and called out towards the girl wearing the heavy red armor, "You saved me. Why would you save me, then attack me?"

Then, Anne started to remember a Light Guardian like the one in front of her. A Light Guardian with red armor, and even a hockey mask that could be found at a cheap dollar store. However, the mask that the girl in front of her wore was fully red and glared with metal. However, these girls felt very different than any regular Light Guardian. Different than the one she knew.

Jack calmed herself down, but something inside of her just wanted to attack the Light Guardians.

Yune and Mary didn't have any sort of violent feelings like this.

"Oh, come now. If we were going to kill them, we should have just let the Night Demon do it," Mary said even though she did nothing to help against the monster.

Jack looked down and saw a black coin. She leaned down and grabbed it. It was such a small thing especially to her. She looked back at Anne, Nina, and Kira.

"I don't... nevermind," Jack said in response to Anne's question while ignoring Mary. She held the black coin up for them to see. "How about a wager. If we win a fight with you three, we'll take this coin and make you leave this place. If you win, you can take the black coin and we won't steal any more kills in this area. We will leave you three alone."

Jack knew that they were going to fight eventually. It would be easier to live if there weren't other Light Guardians around them. Mary, Jack, and Yune knew this and were willing to fight.

Nina looked at three. She didn't believe that they would let them leave without a fight, anyways.

Anne, Kira, and Nina looked at the other three's arms and they glowed. The big red armored one had a glowing mark of a snake heiroglyph. The white armored one with the hook-chain had a cat. And the small girl with the claws had a bird. However, these symbols made no sense. They were unaware of Light Guardians with symbols on their arms.

"We can't just agree to that," Anne cried.

"It seems very unfair. We were here, first," Kira said calmly.

Anne stopped them from making any more comments.

"Fine. We'll take that wager," she said without argument.

"What? You can't be serious. We don't have to agree to that," Anne said.

"It's alright. If we work together as usual, we can win," Nina said reassuring the other two. She smiled with confidence and so the other two also gained a boost of confidence.

And so, the three Light Guardians prepared themselves for a fight. Jack gently placed the black coin on top of a trash can next to her.

And as soon as that happened, Jack charged forward with her machete in hand. Her mind in an uncontrollable rage.

Mary, then, followed through and charged, while Yune stayed behind preparing to throw her chains whenever she had an opening.

And so, Nina, Anne, and Kira all stood their ground - ready for battle.