Serenity searched around the far side of the car for where the creature had gone when it dove away from Russ’s sword. He didn’t immediately see it, so he checked under the cars, thinking it might have rolled under one.

If it had, it had kept rolling, because it came at Serenity over the top of the car beyond where it disappeared. The attack reminded Serenity of a jumping spider and his naginata was in his hand and aimed at the creature before it reached him. When he saw the creature vomit up something in his direction as it flew, he reinforced the weapon with an Essence Strike. He wasn’t sure what it would do, but he couldn’t move fast enough to get out of the way, and the same preparation on his weapon as himself seemed wise.

The vomit splattered across his hands and his chest was a sticky, viscous gunk. It was gross, but it didn’t seem to have anything else going for it.

Serenity grumbled to himself. The creature was moving too quickly, but he didn’t have a Slow spell infused, only a Quickness spell, and he wanted to wait to trigger that until he could catch Russ with it as well. He seemed to know what the thing was and how to fight it, while Serenity hadn’t ever seen anything quite like it.

Serenity swept his naginata towards the creature. One or two good hits should be all he needed. It wasn’t actually that much faster than Serenity when he concentrated, it was simply that it moved wrong. It looked like a human, sort of, but it didn’t move like one, and Serenity kept expecting it to move like something with defined joints and it simply didn’t. He’d adapt to it if he had the time, but it would take time.

It spat another lump of goo at Serenity; this time, he dodged, and instead of coating his face, it hit the car behind him. Serenity could hear a hissing noise from where it hit and was suddenly grateful that whatever it was could be so easily countered.

As he swung back around to try to hit the creature again, Serenity suddenly wondered if it was a monster. He couldn’t think of anything else that should behave like that, but this was still so early in Earth’s growth that it seemed odd. He triggered his Essence Sight to see if it would tell him anything.

There was no Essence moving around the being and no core. It wasn’t a monster.

The only significant Essence moving in the area other than Serenity’s was coming from his right. Serenity took a moment to get a better look and saw a man-shaped fuzzy glow come running down the lane.

That was the direction Russ had gone. Serenity made a leap of faith and Evoked his saved Quickness spell, targeting himself and whoever was running towards them.

The running man pushed Essence into something in its hand and threw it at the creature. The creature jumped forward to avoid it, but was not quite fast enough; its foot was caught.

Serenity disabled his Essence Sight to make the world clearer. The thing’s foot was pinned to the pavement by Russ’s sword.

Serenity stabbed it with his naginata. It couldn’t dodge, this time.

There was a hiss and a clatter as the thing pulled what was left of its foot out of a hole in the asphalt. It looked like the foot below where the sword hit had fallen off and dissolved the asphalt under it. The creature looked at the two fighters and hissed. “You think you have won, but I am only a fraction of ME! And I will take one of you with ME!”

It leapt at Serenity, who was still far closer than Russ. Serenity interposed his naginata, spearing the creature when it didn’t even try to avoid it. It seemed to be almost a liquid now, and it flowed around the weapon. It covered Serenity’s face and seemed to try to flow in his mouth and nose.

Serenity did the only logical thing: He bit it.

It tasted fairly bland, really. It had less taste than the water in the Necropolis’s aquifer. He tried to spit it out, but there wasn’t anywhere for it to go.

Serenity reached up and tried to get it off his face, or at least to keep it out of his lungs. As he coughed, even more went down his throat. Serenity swallowed, hoping his stomach could handle it. It should; he was Death, and whatever it tried to do, it was living.

Russ poured water over Serenity; the water hissed as it hit the goo, evaporating both itself and the remnants of the goo. The water didn’t do anything where it hit Serenity’s skin and armor. It took a lot of water before he was clean.

Russ handed Serenity a water bottle and told him to drink all of it. Serenity didn’t question it; it was clear he was dealing with something where Russ was more knowledgeable than he was. Russ poured another bottle over Serenity’s naginata, washing all the goop off it before handing it back to him.

The only sign left of the fight was the hole in the asphalt and the group of decayed cars. A closer look at the cars showed that the decay was patchy, almost as though the thing had been spitting on them and watching them corrode from it.

“How do you feel? Any sudden desires to see everything fall apart from the disease of time and decay?” Russ questioned Serenity as they headed back to their car.

“I feel fine.” Serenity hadn’t released his hold on his Incarnate. He wasn’t going to do that until he was certain there were no issues. “But if you happened to have more of that water?” He wasn’t sure how much of the creature he’d eaten, but the idea was disgusting.

Russ laughed and pulled another bottle of water out of nowhere.

“Let me OUT!” As he finished the water bottle, Serenity could hear Raz shouting. He picked up his pace. He hadn’t thought about why Raz wasn’t with them, but being stuck in the car explained it.

“You wouldn’t have survived.” Phoebe’s voice was slow and calm. “They’re fine. See? They’re headed this way.”

Russ walked up to the passenger side window and turned to his wife. “Phoebe?” Russ’s voice sounded concerned. “Is Thomas really fine? He took a possession attack. I’ve had him drink a couple bottles of Water of Purification.”

Serenity stopped at the hood of the car and looked at Rissa’s mother. She stared at him for a moment, with a look he recognized. He’d seen it on Rissa’s face more than once, when she was searching for a clue about the future.

Phoebe came back to herself, blinked, and started laughing. “Yeah, he’ll be fine. A bit hyper, but that’s all I see. Get in the car. How did he do?”

Serenity couldn’t see Russ’s face, but he could hear his voice and he knew Russ had to be grinning. “Handled it like an experienced Guardian. He’ll be good for our girl, and I’ll need to talk to him about what being a Guardian means soon.”

“Do you think he’ll accept?” Phoebe sounded worried rather than excited like her husband.

Serenity wasn’t feeling so good, and concentrating on the conversation wasn’t helping.

“Why wouldn’t he? He’s definitely capable, and from what Rissa said, he’s already signed up for the work…” Serenity tried to tune Russ out. They could talk about it when he was feeling better.

As they pulled out of the parking lot, Serenity didn’t feel hyper; he felt dizzy. He relaxed his hold on his Incarnate and then he did feel hyper. He couldn’t sit still. It wasn’t far to Rissa’s, but he needed to move.

The inside of the car also suddenly looked a lot larger and in color.

He slipped out from under the seatbelt; it didn’t fit very well anyway, and sitting in the seat was really uncomfortable for his tail. He didn’t know how Raz managed. It only took a moment longer to shimmy out of the armor and shirt; he easily fit through the cut in the back. He climbed up the back of the seat to see if there was a way to get into the trunk from up there.

There wasn’t.

He scooted along the window behind Raz and checked out the lever that would lean the seat forward to allow it to be folded down. He knew better than to push it while the car was moving, so he climbed down Raz to reach the floorboards.

For some reason, Raz was laughing.

The floor mats were empty and seemed freshly vacuumed, even though Serenity knew this was Rissa’s car and she almost never took it in to be cleaned. Her parents must have taken care of it.

He climbed over the center console and looked out the windshield. They were almost to Rissa’s; he recognized the street.

Serenity didn’t want to bother the driver, so he climbed into Phoebe’s lap instead as they pulled into the driveway. He didn’t want to wait for the garage door, so he reached for the door latch, only to find Phoebe’s hand catching his and moving him away from the door.

Serenity felt a light pop of magic, but didn’t pay it much attention. If he’d been more aware, he might have realized it was a worn-out ward failing, but he was in no condition to pay attention to anything that difficult.

He climbed back over her lap, and this time she let him reach the door. It opened and he jumped down into the garage.

Serenity hurried around the car and to the door into the house from the garage. It was too high! He couldn’t reach!

He tried to jump up to it, but he simply wasn’t tall enough.

A couple of attempted jumps later, Russ arrived at the door. He was laughing, but opened the door for Serenity and called out “Rissa!” as Serenity hopped up the step into the house.

Serenity jumped into her arms as she came around the corner, but she dropped him!

He tried again, and this time she caught him. He nuzzled up against her and she laughed, then tapped him on the nose. “Boop!”

It was good to be home.