Nico chased the haunt down the block.

When he rounded the corner, all he saw was a clear, open street. There were a few parked cars, but no people, no malicious shimmers of air.

Sudden cold slithered up Nico’s spine. A little voice in the back of his head whispered to him a different street might be more comfortable.

Nico shook his head, warding off the vague psychic suggestion. He had reached a cold spot, one of the first signs of a haunt. Good. That meant the spirit created an illusion barrier.

Spirits of the Grey Dead like haunts could’t vanish in and out of mortal reality like banshees or dampir. They could make it seem like they disappeared through psychic suggestions and other magical means. However, Nico was confident the haunt was here.

All beings of magical power could cast illusion barriers, an area which occupies the same physical space of the mortal worlds while only affecting the spiritual aspects. Even someone like Nico could cast them.

Creatures of the Grey Dead erected illusion barriers to mark their territory, the way feral boars or lions did in the jungle. Mages and Champions used them as a way to fight magical battles in the mortal world without attracting the attention of mortals. The size and complexity of the barrier revealed the strength, identity, and power of the one who cast it.

Nico extended his senses.

This illusion barrier felt a little stronger than the typical one erected by a single haunt. That meant he was either dealing with two haunts or one which had already possessed a mortal.

Nico’s anger flared. What if it possessed a child who was late to school?

Haunts that possessed people had more of a foothold in the mortal world and could express more of their power. Nico needed to get inside the illusion barrier quickly. If he wasn’t powerful enough to kill the haunt, all he had to do was push it out of the barrier.

Haunts could not stay in the mortal world for too long unless they claimed territory through an illusion barrier. Once erected, they could wander freely within the spiritual territory. That was why there were so many accounts of haunted houses.

Nico’s hand went to his leather belt. His fingers touched four metal tubes, each the length and width of his forefinger. He withdrew the tube closest to his right pocket, and untwisted the cap. The tip of the tube revealed a wet stamp filled with invisible ink. It was Gallahad’s Mind Formation, which Nico had found no need to modify. It acted as a magical lens to view what was normally invisible to most people.

He closed his eyes, stamped each eyelid, capped the tube, and tucked the stamp back into his belt loop. His energy on this bell formation on his eyes. He felt a small trickle of his energy siphoned into the Mind Formation.

When Nico opened his eyes, he saw the street for what it really was.

A thin membrane of subtle, cold power stood before Nico. He pressed his hand against it, and extended his will into the membrane. With a little bit of power, he pushed himself forcefully into the barrier and stepped inside.

In front of him was not the vague, shimmering haze of the haunt, but it's true appearance. It was a tall, slender man with pallid white skin, no eyes, no mouth, and wore a black suit.

It wasn't alone. Another haunt, half its height but the width of a massively overweight man, and its face also featureless, stood next to the first haunt.

The magical community had its official names for different types of spirits. Having faced these kinds before, Nico nicknamed them Slim and Bigboy. Between Bigboy’s legs was a wispy, white tail that was latched to an unconscious young woman who stood perfectly still and erect. Her eyes were wide open, in an expression of paralyzed fear.

“Possession,” Nico spat with disgust.

Without another thought, he pulled out two stamps from the loops attached to his belt, one with each hand. His fingers untwisted their caps, and he let the caps fall to the ground. Nico knelt on the asphalt, and stamped multiple times, creating a wall of spell arrays in the form of an outward-facing arrow.

Slim, the tall, thin haunt turned its pale, featureless head toward Nico.

A black mouth formed on its face, widening into a smile with no teeth and no tongue. Inside its mouth was a darkness blacker than any night.

Nico shivered. He did not move from behind his wall of spell formulas because minor spirits did not have a physical presence in the world. That meant they could not attack him physically, so haunts tended to launch spiritual attacks from a distance.

A wave of cold energy screeched out from the thin haunt. rippling the air between them. It smashed into Nico like a wave of freezing water.

Although he expected the psychic attack, Nico staggered back a step at the sheer coldness of it. He felt like he’d been dipped into the Antarctic Ocean. Naked.

Nico replaced the tube in his right hand with another from his belt, and stamped his temple. It was also Gallahad’s Mind Formation, but with a few specialized modifications Nico created after a haunt blasted him into a hypothermic shock that almost killed him.

The modification came from an old irish book he bought from eBay. The cost? Two months worth of rent. The whole book was useless except for a few scribbled notes in invisible ink.

Nico poured power into the spell matrix on his temple. The chill lessened, and he fought the urge to shiver. His body stopped shaking and he took in a deep breath.

He said, “You’re going to have to do better than that.”

The tall haunt’s black-void of a smile vanished. It launched another wave, but this time, the temperature within the illusion barrier dropped drastically. It wasn’t a psychic attack, but true cold. A gust of frigid wind shot at Nico, but he did not dodge.

He stood his ground behind his wall of spell formulas. As Nico raised his hands to form a triangle, the blotches in his vision appeared again. He couldn't time the speed of the cold blast with his counterspell.

The blast knocked Nico back into the frozen membrane of the illusion barrier. A chill seeped into his body, and the shiver returned. Frost formed on his forearms.

Nico blinked away the blotchy vision. Whatever ability he was getting for his twenty first birthday was going to kill him. Damn the timing.

Before the magic of the freezing blast dispersed, Nico activated the spell formations on the ground. The spell formations sucked up the frigid air, raising the temperature slightly. They glowed a faint blue.

Nico checked his magical reserves. He still had most of his magical power, and had used only a little of it to redirect the haunt’s attack into the spell formation. It was a tactic he had developed after realizing he couldn’t magically brute-force his way out of problems.

The strategy relied on the most elementary formation taught to every low-level practitioner, Gallahad’s Control Formation. It was a simple cantrip that most kids used to perform minor feats of telekinesis with small objects, like pens or sticks of gum.

After many failed experiments with modifications he accrued over the years, Nico developed a fighting style using the Control Formation.

By adopting the principles of Jiu-Jitsu, Aikido, and Judo, Nico could redirect magical energy. In the case of enemies above his weight class, his redirection was the magical equivalent of a parry or a block. Those within his weight class, he could divert their energy into his own spell formulas.

But the technique was dangerous. It required complete focus and control.

If he absorbed too much of the enemy's power, his arrays would explode, much like Rashid’s had the day before. If he absorbed too little, the matrixes wouldn’t have enough power to summon an actual spell. He had to absorb exactly the right amount.

Nico’s body shook with cold, and he gasped out a plume of white air. He needed to finish us quickly.

The Control Formations on the ground changed from blue to white. In less than a second, Nico focused his power into the formations, and let it form around the converted energies like hands on clay. He molded it, changing its texture, and more importantly, its intent. Once again, he summoned the memory of having ice cream with his father in the summer.

The formations flowed from white to a warm red, and the power he had borrowed began to boil with pressure under his control.

Nico gritted his teeth. He had to release the energy quickly. It wasn’t like he could store the energy permanently. If that was possible, then he’d be the smartest mage to have ever been born.

Steam rose from Nico’s skin. His gut twisted with the foreign energy. If he held on to it any longer, he would explode.

Nico clapped his hands, fingers pointed at the Slim haunt.

A red hot oscillating blade of wind boomed from the points of his fingers. The blade collided into the Slim haunt, tearing into its black suit and pallid white body.

The Slim screeched a primal, incomprehensible cry as the blade of red hot wind chipped away the last of its silhouette.

Nico winced, breathing hard. Diverting and converting energy that was not his put a mental strain on him. The effort felt like he had just spent two days without sleep. Luckily, the feeling was familiar, and he was used to it by now.

Only the Bigboy haunt remained. With Slim gone, its attention was now fully focused on Nico. White spikes grew out of its head, like how cat’s fure rose when ready for an attack.

Its tail was still attached to the young woman's body, but it was twice the thickness as before.

“No!” Nico yelled. He prepared to attack the haunt with a spell of his own, but it was too late.

The large haunt’s body shrank, as if the young woman sucked it inside herself. It was now inside her.

Nico ran to the young woman. Her eyes fluttered. That was good. It meant the haunt had met some psychic resistance from her.

He pulled out a golden tube closest to his belt buckle. He uncorked it, and stamped it on her forehead, just between and above her eyes.

It was the Anti-Possession Formula Nico had been given by Fu before his first assignment. Fu had given it to him free of charge. Of course, Nico added his own modifications.

The girl’s lips parted in a silent scream.

Nico closed his eyes, and poured power into formula.

By itself, the Anti-Possession Formula helped the possessed become more aware of the invader within their own body. Nico modified it so that the more power he invested into the formula, the more aware the person became. It was the magical equivalent of shaking someone awake.

Nico hated this part. He wasn’t a priest of Champion of a Hold of Faith. He couldn’t perform an active exorcism. All he could do now was help her help herself.

Sweat started pouring down the young woman's face.

“You’re doing well,” Nico whispered, wiping away a tear from her eye. He poured a little bit more power into the spell away, but not too much.

If he invested too much of his own power into her, her natural defenses would only see him as another invader of her body. It required a light, careful touch. Nico held his breath. He had done everything. he could. Now, everything was up to her.

After what seemed like forever, the illusion barrier shook. The girl's eyes stopped fluttering. She went limp.

Nico caught her before she fell to the ground and gently lay her on the street.

The barrier vanished, and he was once more in the middle of a nearly empty street. He let out a sigh of relief. She had done it. Of course, he had helped, but she had the will and fortitude to banish the haunt.

Now that he got a good look at her, Nico realized how beautiful she was. She looked about his age, with Middle Eastern features, almond shaped eyes, long black hair, and skin the color chestnuts. She wore a lilac colored pantsuit that was pretty in vogue among the high fashion types, which suggested she might have a lot of money.

Nico his phone to call the Friends of the Night. They would pick her up, and help her come back to her sense.

A black SUV whipped around the corner onto the street. It screeched to a halt, and the driver door slung open. A tall man with a turban, wearing a well fitting black suit stepped out of the car. From his muscled frame and stern expression, everything about him told Nico he could break someone’s arm with little effort.

It was then Nico realized how the situation must have looked from the man’s point of view. Nico was hunched over an unconscious young woman.

“Uh, it’s not what you think,” Nico insisted. “I was just helping her out--”

The man with the turben lifted his right hand. His suit sleeve fell down, revealing one of those Middle Eastern bangles Nico remembered was called a kara, worn by Sikhs.

To regular mortals, the kara would have been a cool bit of cultural trivia. Among magical types, it was a symbol of a mage who could cast at least a level one spell.

An illusion barrier echoed out of the kara like a wave of heat from an open furnace. The casting was so sudden and powerful, it knocked Nico on his back. The street disappeared, replaced by desert sand under a hot sun.

“Oh shit,” Nico cursed.This was not a low level creature's illusion barrier. This was a full on mage.

He stood up and he repeated. “Listen, man. It's not what you think.”

As soon as he said the words, he realized that was probably the worst thing he could say. It was exactly what a guilty person would say.

The sikh did not seem to be the talking type. He placed his hand on the kara, and twisted it. The bangle glowed in a golden light.

Lightning crackled through the sikh’s arm and danced between his fingers. He pointed his fingers in the shape of a gun at Nico, and fired a beam of electricity.

Nico jumped back reflexively. The lightning barely missed him, blasting a hole in the desert sand.

He scrambled for his Control Formation stamp, but realized he had nowhere to stamp it to. The sand couldn’t take the ink. His stamps were useless.

Lightning crackled in the sikh’s hand again.

Nico stamped the palm of his own hands and cursed. The modified Control Formation was at most effective on a solid surface. On his hand, it would lose its efficacy by at least half. Worse yet, he’d have to rely more on feeling the energy rather than precise diversion of energy.

The sikh sliced the air in front of him, and a blade of lightning spiked out. Nico spread his palms outward. The lightning blade collided into Nico’s palms.

Nico’s fingers felt like they had been dipped into lava. He screamed at the pain, and clenched his jaw. His magical reserves drained completely in an instant just to hold the lightning in place.

The sikh’s mouth dropped in shock.

Despite the pain, Nico managed a smirk. With all of his will and power, he tried redirecting the energy back at the sikh.

But it was too much power for him to mold and handle. The lightning shot up into the sky, breaking past the illusion barrier. Thunder clapped high in the distance.

Nico collapsed to the ground, his fingers shaking and burnt. The illusion barrier vanished, and his face collided sideways back on the concrete sidewalk. Just parrying the lightning drained him of all his magic. He could barely hold a single thought together.

Blackness crept into the edges of his vision quickly. The blotches in his vision took over until everything was a blur. He heard a young woman’s voice shouting, and it seemed so far away. Before the darkness took him, one of the blotches in his vision solidified into something he would recognize anywhere.

A blue, translucent screen.