Well That Didn't Work - A Magicians Fanfic

Battle The Beast - A Fanfic

"You know Quentin? If you knew half as much about Fillory as that dork brain of yours thinks you do, we could have traveled to this center of power instead of hiking it up in nature," Penny chided him.

Quentin was about to reply when a blue moth caught his eye. The Beast stepped forward, as quiet, calm and sudden as the first time they had seen him in a mirror, right before Julia had shattered it with a brick. They had been fools then, playing with summoning magic for the right intentions, and had paid for it by drawing the attention of The Beast.

"M...Martin."

It came out a lot less forceful than Quentin had intended. Somehow he had hoped that calling the creature by his real name would make him seem less of a supernatural threat. The moths fluttered about The Beast's face.

"All together this time, I see," a calm voice greeted them from within the cluster. The moths dissipated to reveal the face of... a seemingly ordinary and greying man. His calm voice and twinkling smile created a deceptively gentle facade, especially for a creature who delighted in carnage.

"Quentin." His voice carried clearly now without the moths obstructing his face. "Are you attempting to defeat me by sheer force of numbers?" The warmth of his smile even reached the corners of his eyes.

"That and then some," Julia retorted, clearly ignoring the contrast that bothered Quentin. She pulled the dagger out of its sheath. So just like that then, Quentin thought falling into place behind Julia's lead. They all began shifting to their positions.

Quentin's team was prepared. They had spent all year planning this attack. Kady had trained the group in battle magic. Eliot and Margo had prepared performance enhancing potions. Alice and Quentin had poured through the library for all knowledge of Fillory. And Julia, the strongest of them all, had spent her months becoming so powerful that she could wield a god-slaying dagger on her own. When they had finally recruited Penny into their mission, Quentin was sure The Beast wouldn't even know what hit him.

Penny traveled to stand behind Julia, then quickly putting his hand on her shoulder, blinked away and out of The Beast's direct line of sight. Instantly, Kady took their place, battle magic already prepared and let loose a blast at the Beast while Eliot, Margo and Quentin began to cast a three-person spell to combine their strength. The Beast, seeing Kady's attack, flippantly deflected it, then lifted his hand in an effortless gesture to pull Kady off the ground through physical power. Kady struggled with the grip, but smiled back nevertheless at the overconfident Beast. It was a feint, but Quentin hadn't expect Kady to get herself into real danger so quickly. It's was always a risk, he told himself as he forced his hands to keep pace with the others. She's doing her part. She'll be fine.

Penny reappeared silently right behind Martin with Julia in tow. Quick and precise, before the creature could even react, Julia plunged her arm down to stab Martin through the back.

Their plan was designed to be quick, to strike a lethal blow before the Beast could cast any magic of its own. Got you, you bastard, Quentin thought with anticipation. Then his smile fell.

He couldn't see the strike, but he did see Julia's face. The blade had slid off its mark, striking against an invisible barrier instead. The Beast's smile widened as he lifted his other hand and Julia and the dagger jerked back and flew through the woods in a forceful arc.

Penny ducked. "Julia!" He traveled away to catch her from being thrown too far.

"Shit." Quentin cursed under his breath, but continued to move his fingers in their collaborative spell.

Martin laughed. "Poorly done." He flippantly twitched the fingers of his right hand and Kady flew in the opposite direction. Quentin couldn't see where she landed, but cringed when he heard a loud crack and then a heavy thud not too far away.

"Kady!" a girl's voice screamed.

Alice, who had been standing a little further behind the rest took an instinctive step towards where Kady fell, but stopped when she realized The Beast now had his eyes turned on her. She faced the Beast with a scared but determined face. It was her idea to have this fail safe spell in case Julia's dagger failed, which Quentin whispered quiet gratitude for her preemptive planning. The trio of magicians changed spells and began channeling the built up energy to Alice. Alice's hands were in motion now, forming a battle spell that Kady had taught her, weaving the channeled energy with her fingers. But The Beast began walking slowly towards her. Quentin could see her forcing a breath in order to calm her nerves, but her hands began to shake in fear and her fingers fumbled the delicate weaving spell.

C'mon Alice, we practiced this. You can do it, Quentin whispered.

Alice spun her hands as fast as she could, but her nerves were getting the better of her now and a fumbled finger or bent wrist and she had to restart the spell again. The Beast steadily closed the distance between the two. Panic was written in her eyes.

"Oh fuck this already." Eliot broke his concentration and instead of channeling the energy to Alice began drawing energy into his own hands, a tiny pinpoint of red kinetic force hovered between his taut fingers. Then with a sharp slicing motion, Eliot fired it at The Beast. Quentin had seen this spell once before. While not battle magic, it was a directed push of physical power that could snap the neck in a sudden force if directed there. There was a flicker as the spell impacted The Beast's head and Quentin was sure he saw its neck twitch ever so slightly. Martin paused in his advance and turned towards Eliot, his lips no longer curved in a smile but tight with annoyance. He raised his left hand, straightening his fingers in the exact same way as Eliot had, and fired his own pinpoint of red light.

"Eliot!" But before Quentin could say anything else, Eliot's head had snapped at a disturbing angle and without another word, he fell to the floor.

Margo shrieked in reaction and her hands stopped moving. She looked at Eliot's body and then to Martin with rage in her eyes, but Martin merely twisted his hand and Quentin saw Margo's head snap sharply to the left and she too crumpled to the floor without even a chance to fight.

Martin chimed. "Let's end this shall we?"

Quentin looked at him in complete fear.

Just then a blast of battle magic came from the left as Julia fired a dark mist at The Beast. She leapt at him, dagger in hand, diving to strike but then stopped midair as her limbs lurched forward from the momentum. Martin stood in the midst of the fog undisturbed, one again smiling at Julia this time. Hepoints his other hand at Alice.

Quentin stared in horror as Julia and Alice were held hostage by the creature. Half of them were dead. Not knowing what else to do, his hands began casting the same battle spell Kady taught him, picking up the remnants of the energy channel he and his circle had made. It wasn't going to be enough, he knew that. The Beast was just... ridiculously stronger than them.

But he had to do something, right?

What could he do?

The Beast laughed and in one fell swoop, broke the necks of both girls. They fell hard to the dirt.

"No!" Quentin shouted, frustration and anguish flooding into him at the loss of his closest friends. He fueled his anguish into his spell and fired everything he had directly at The Beast.

Nothing.

"Too predictable, Quentin." The Beast turned and smiled the same smile at him.

Then he pointed a hand at the helpless student and Quentin began to feel his insides burn with a pressurizing pain. Hearing a slight shuffle both he and Martin looked to the right and saw Penny crouching beside Kady. Penny turned to Martin, to his fallen comrades, and then to Quentin. With an apologetic look, he took hold of Kady's body and disappeared.

Martin's smile deepened. "A traveler? Is that the best you can do?"

Then Quentin's pain doubled as blood trickled out of his nose and mouth.

Jane Chatwin watch The Beast saunter jovially away. She had become too jaded playing this game with her younger brother. Julia had been her strongest this time, wielding the god blade on her own. Quentin had kept everyone working together. And Penny's power had lent an unexpected twist to their strategies. Yet every addition to their strength just resulted in the same outcome. She was becoming too predictable.

So, she thought, why not do something unexpected?