The Strongest Prodigy

Whitney was having the time of her life right now, although she would never admit to it. She had been drawing out her fight with the skinwalker, her intention being to gain information on its commonly used skills. But after a while, it had proven to be quite resilient to her attacks. Normally this would have been frustrating but she was simply glad to have an opponent on which she could test out her arsenal of techniques. At least one she would not have to worry about burning to a crisp after a few seconds. The training dummies back at her coven were not nearly as fireproof as this guy was.

The beast attacked with its claws again in a move Whitney had seen several times that night and thus was able to telegraph the sequence perfectly. She went underneath the paw and danced around the beast until it turned to chomp down on her head. Its open maw filled with razor sharp teeth was promptly stuffed with orange flames that stung it badly enough for it to rear back in pain. She wasted no time in landing several kicks on its body further increasing its instability. Whitney was aware that her physical strength, while higher than that of a normal human due to magic reinforcement, was no where near enough to sufficiently damage a supernatural like this. These kicks were intended to let her gain time for her next move.

Her amber eyes glowed even brighter as she summoned up two red magic circles at the back of her hands. Mentally willing more of her fire magic in them, she modified the glyphs in the circles to accommodate the massive amounts of power she was condensing into them. The glyphs began to spin at high speeds as the color of the circles went from red to a fiery yellow and orange.

The skinwalker once again extinguished the annoying flames and glared at the witch as she finished her preparation of her new move. It watched curiously and cautiously for any sign of more flames before leaping towards her. Golden eyes narrowed in the darkness as Whitney waited until the perfect moment to counter the beast's swipe by deflecting its claws to the side with the circle on one hand. With the other, she sent a vicious punch at its torso. Her fist did not actually touch its skin but the heated magic circle sliced through it like a hot knife through butter. The acrid stench of charred flesh filled the air as the beast howled in pain and Whitney stepped back to observe the effects of her attack.

This was something she had never been able to test efficiently back home, reason being the lack of a viable test subject. It was her way of combining her hand-to-hand combat skills with her magic as well as her answer to potential enemies with regenerative abilities like the skinwalker. The intense heat garnered by the compressed fire magic as well as the rapid rotation of the glyphs served to cauterize any wounds inflicted by the magic circles. She had yet to perfect it to completely counter regeneration but for now it would be enough to slow down the beast's healing factor long enough for her to deal more meaningful damage.

Appalled by the aggravatingly slow rate of its regeneration, the skinwalker attacked with increased hatred. However the injury at its side slowed it down even more. Whitney had not had trouble keeping up with its initial speed. Now it was just a bigger, stronger dummy that could move around. She began to land more and more hits, incorporating more tricks into her fighting style. Each time she connected with the monster, the magic circles would release controlled bursts of fire that would stun the skinwalker to make it even more sluggish.

Deciding she had seen enough, Whitney jumped back to put some space between herself and the skinwalker. In midair, she threw the magic circles she wielded at the creature's legs to cripple it. Upon landing, she immediately summoned two more in the same state as the first pair and sent them towards the skinwalker as well. One lodged itself in its chest while the other found home in the werecoyote's left arm.

Creating one final super charged magic circle, Whitney looked with contempt at the growling creature clearly on its last legs.

"Elena was right. You really are disgusting," she scorned and thrust her hand forward.

The circle cut through the air like a buzzsaw as she mentally steered it to land directly in the skinwalker's head, cutting halfway through the skull in one go. To its credit, the beast did not die immediately. Its hate filled black eyes were fixed directly on the white haired witch that had managed to hurt it so badly. Forgetting its original plan to murder the vampire princess, it focused solely on the witch before it. Never in its life has it been so badly humiliated. There was no way it could let this go.

Summoning all its dark magic into its eyes, it sent a silent curse towards the girl. The effect was instantaneous. Whitney hissed sharply and gripped her left hand with her right. Turning it over she saw a strange symbol etch itself onto the back of her hand. It looked like a piece of rope that encircled a string of six beads, three of which were black and the other three white. The symbol's appearance had stung a bit more than Whitney would have been comfortable with and it just made her madder at the skinwalker. With a look of cold fury on her face, she clenched her hand shut and sent a final command at the magic circles embedded in the body of the creature. They glowed brightly for all of two seconds before exploding in a conflagration of intense fire and heat. The flames reflected off Whitney's eyes, giving them an even more unnatural vibe as she stared on in satisfaction until the flames died down.

"Wow," Mia gaped at the spot where the skinwalker had previously been. There was nothing there now except a large scorch mark on the concrete.

Beside her, Veronica echoed the sentiment but she never let it show. Instead she eyed the white haired witch with new found respect and a certain amount of apprehension. She had seen what her last technique had done to the skinwalker. Veronica was aware that she had no way of countering such a move. Her vampiric regeneration was a big component in her fighting style and this could negate it quite efficiently. That meant that it would be very difficult to be sure of a win should she have to fight the witch. Whitney had drawn her attention ever since the assembly on the first day. She had been the only person aside Veronica herself who had seen exactly what had happened when Dorerra had attacked Michael. Her performance tonight just made her all the more interesting.

The vampire and witch duo has long since defeated their opponent who had not lasted long under their combined assault. When they turned their attention to the other fight, they were surprised to see it still ongoing. Although by the looks of it, it seemed to have been done on purpose. The werepanther was still attacking even though it was getting slowly winded while Jade looked just as she had been when they arrived.

Jade glanced back and saw that the others had finished their fights and were now watching hers. 'Good. Now I can finally get started.'

"I do not understand you, Hunter," the werepanther growled. "If you will not take this fight seriously, I will."

It struck with a large fist towards the side of her head at a speed faster than before. Jade's smaller palm stopped the fist instantly in the air before it got halfway through its path. Looking up at the beast, she grinned maliciously.

"Oh don't worry. I just wanted the kids to watch."

Faster than anyone could comprehend, she backhanded the skinwalker into the wall of the building nearby. The ease with which she had done so stunned the three onlookers. Whitney in particular frowned. Elena had told her not to underestimate the strength of the Hunters but seeing it firsthand was a different thing altogether. She had felt the presence of the werepanther earlier before the fight began and she knew it was not a foe she was certain of defeating. And now she was watching that same foe getting tossed around like a child's toy.

The werepanther shook off the rubble and rushed at Jade angrily. She simply shifted her stance and waited for it to strike. Had its mind been clearer, the skinwalker would have given more thought to her actions to find an explanation but it did not. Thus when it reached close enough to attack her only to find itself right back at the wall swiping at air, it could only stare at her in surprise.

Jade smirked at the creature's confused expression. "Do you know that space exists everywhere? Between every atom, between every molecule, there's always an amount of space that allows for the existence of reality. My ability doesn't just allow me to create portals through space, it allows me to control space itself. Which means I can generate space between two points." Her smile turned feral. "As well as remove it."

In an instant, she was in front of the skinwalker with her hand already closed around its throat. Her smaller size meant her hand could not fully enclose its neck. But the part she wrapped her fingers around gave her enough grip to pull the werepanther off its feet and toss it deeper into the alley.