Wednesday Addams felt her pupils dilate at the spectacle unfolding before her. She couldn't help it, it was mesmerizing.
Needler had left the area a few minutes ago, after Wednesday had explained everything she had found out about The Bright One's plans. The armored fiend tried to halt her departure, but found it impossible. She had other, more pressing problems to deal with. Problems materialized in the form of a huge, vengeful lycanthrope.
Enid's full lupine form was exactly as Wednesday remembered her, but the she-wolf seemed even bigger than before, and faster. There was a fluidity and gracefulness in her movements that wasn't there previously. Pure animal instinct lived on, but tempered by conscious purpose and iron discipline. If Enid had achieved that in only six months of assumed preparation and training, Wednesday couldn't help but wonder how far her beloved could go.
There will be no other lycanthrope capable of matching her, she thought, as she threw herself into battle, taking advantage of a possible opening in her enemy's defenses.
They had been like this for a while now. Enid in direct contact against The Bright One. A storm of claws, punches and bites against the villain's armor and magic tricks. Wednesday, for her part, intervened more sporadically with her saber, looking for her enemy's blind spots or trying to serve as an extra distraction that could allow Enid to deliver a decisive blow.
For if there was one thing Wednesday Addams was good at, it was reading her opponent, and at the moment what she sensed was not too reassuring.
Although her armor was beginning to accumulate an increasing number of marks, scratches and cracks, The Bright One's body language did not denote alarm. Rage and aggravation, no doubt, at levels that seemed to radiate from the deranged woman's body. But in combat she was focused. Most of Wednesday and Enid's attacks were interrupted by pure energy shields and light constructs that cracked in an instant after being hit but gave The Bright One enough time to change her position or counterattack.
Only her lupine reflexes had already saved Enid on more than one occasion from receiving a blast of pure, burning energy directly in her face.
And any attack that got past The Bright One's magical defenses had to deal with her armor.
Wednesday was sure that Enid could shatter that metal with her claws if she could spare the precious seconds to do so, but that was where the third factor that was making the fight difficult came in. The Bright One not only had superhuman reflexes and strength in addition to her use of magic, but she was obviously a combatant with decades, if not centuries, of experience beyond what the two young women had.
Wednesday's saber, for example, seemed to be able to cut through the armor as if it were butter. But whenever she managed to bypass one of The Bright One's shields, or surprise her if she was being distracted by one of Enid's attacks, the armored madwoman reacted instantly by moving in such a way that the attacks barely grazed her or the hits were merely superficial or were redirected to areas where the damage was minimal.
It was frustrating and Wednesday didn't know how long they could keep it up. She wasn't afraid of fatigue... she was sure Enid could fight like this for days if she put her mind to it. And as for herself, she still had the extra help of Agent A powering her movements. But it seemed that The Bright One also had time to last and if the time was prolonged, she was the one who had more advantages to be able to turn the tables of the fight if something went wrong.
Wednesday glanced at Enid. There was a message in her eyes that the she-wolf caught immediately. If they wanted to win, they had to find a way to strike a definitive and lethal blow by surprise. The question was how to do it.
At that moment there was a small turn of events. Enid delivered a series of consecutive blows that The Bright One proceeded to block by generating small circular shields of light or with her own hands, deflecting the claws of the lycanthrope. Then, Enid changed. In seconds, she shifted from her full lupine form to her hybrid form, shrinking in size but gaining speed and advanced to stand in front of The Bright One after ducking and dodging an energy shot that would have taken off her head if it had hit her full on.
Enid lunged upwards, directing her right fist towards her enemy's helmet. The Bright One's armor began to glow, no doubt preparing another burst of power as its owner leaned to the side so that Enid's blow would miss, just grazing her.
And in that instant, Enid's entire right arm shifted. The lycanthrope was still in her hybrid form, but her arm had disproportionately increased in size, more closely resembling the limb she would sport in her full transformation. The change took place in tenths of a second and The Bright One had no time to react.
Enid did not use her claws but her clenched fist, huge and with the impact force of a battering ram. The blow resounded in the area like thunder and Wednesday could almost feel the vibrations, as if the very air had been displaced by the impact. Enid's fist landed squarely on The Bright One's head. In an instant, part of the dark glass visor covering the armored fiend's face cracked as her head was jerked back with a whiplash from the vertebrae in her neck. But the force of the blow was enough to knock The Bright One's feet off the ground and the armored figure was flung through the air until she landed on her back on the ground again, a dozen feet away from where Enid was standing.
Wednesday had already begun to move, saber in hand and ready to seize the opportunity, but unfortunately the moment passed as quickly as it had come.
From her position on the ground, The Bright One screamed. A deep, inhuman wail that would have been more appropriate in the throat of a demon from hell. She may no longer be a lycanthrope, but it was clear that the sorceress was no longer quite human either. Her armor glowed, like a sun lighting up and Wednesday and Enid noticed the smell of ozone in the air and how every fur or hair on their bodies bristled.
Wednesday halted her advance, trying to locate any point that could serve as cover as The Bright One's body seemed to explode in a roaring sphere of fiery white expanding light. She barely had seconds before the blast of scorching raw magical energy reached her.
In that moment, the young Addams felt something huge crash into her and knock her to the ground, covering her completely and enveloping her in an embrace between two huge golden fur-covered arms.
Enid, she thought and closed her eyes. Despite this she could see the whiteness of the light through her closed eyelids, feel the burning air around her and hear the deafening roar of the explosion that was engulfing them. She noticed the tremor in the ground and heard the crunch of rock, metal and glass and somehow she knew that part of the citadel they stood upon had ceased to exist.
And just as quickly as it began, it ceased.
The first thing Wednesday noticed as her senses came back to normal was Enid's pained gasp above her. She felt the lycanthrope move, getting up. Wednesday opened her eyes, pinned high above, able to see the bare sky of the dimension they were in. She looked to the side and saw how much of the upper citadel had been demolished leaving a weathered surface above. No more walls, rooms or hallways. The ground around them was charred and crystallized, with only the area where Enid had shielded Wednesday still intact and retaining the pristine white color the fortress had worn.
Finally, stopping putting it off out of a fear she didn't want to acknowledge, Wednesday looked at Enid. The Addams' eyes widened disproportionately and, without realizing it, so did her mouth in a restrained grimace of horror and alarm.
The lycanthrope was beside her, on her knees and fully transformed. Alive, but breathing with effort. And with the entire left side of her body and her entire back charred. The special suit seemed to have disintegrated, or perhaps melted over her. There was no fur, not even flesh. Half of Enid's massive body looked like a blackened, smoldering crust of dark rock, as if it had been bathed in magma and coated in volcanic ash.
"Weds..." she whispered, her voice cavernous and broken.
"ENID!"
Wednesday sat up, kneeling beside her she-wolf, wanting to grab her by the shoulders, to hug her and not daring to because of the visible pain Enid was experiencing. She wanted to touch her beloved more than anything in the world and could not, a bitter irony that did not escape her.
But then, she watched in amazement as Enid's body seemed to vibrate as a low, deep growl erupted from the werewolf's throat. A dry sound escaped her lupine muzzle and it took Wednesday a few seconds to realize it was laughter.
"Easy Weds...this is nothing..."
"Enid, mia lupa, mio sole, no. You're badly hurt, don't exert yourself unnecessarily, you must..."
"Weds, it's okay," reaffirmed Enid, and Wednesday perceived with amazement that her voice sounded clearer. The blackened and burned parts of her body were fragmenting, falling apart as new muscle mass and fur seemed to emerge beneath them. Enid's body vibrated as if distorted in the damaged areas and Wednesday realized it was because she was regenerating at a staggering speed. New flesh, new skin and new fur displacing and absorbing the damaged tissue.
The question must have been fully visible on her face, for Wednesday didn't even have to ask anything for Enid to respond again.
"I am the Volvaugr, my moon," said Enid, "That whole custos lupus thing has turned out to be more complicated than we thought... I'll tell you all about it in more detail later."
Volvaugr? Wednesday didn't know what that word meant, but there was a strange, feral familiarity about it that made the ancient Addams instincts inside her howl in approval as if she were a lycanthrope herself. Enid rested one of her paws on the Addams' shoulder, eager to convey calm. Wednesday treasured the contact, taking the paw in her hand and bringing it close to her cheek, allowing herself to feel Enid's warmth.
"I'm stupidly resistant to magic," the werewolf explained, "Not invulnerable as you can see, but I'll get out of this... though I'm going to need some time."
"And that's precisely what you're not going to get," interrupted a painfully familiar voice.
The two young women returned their attention to the figure in armor that, less meters away than they would like, was rising in the center of a crystalline crater. The Bright One's armor was still mostly intact, but it smoked as if a fire had gone out on it and was covered in ash and new scorch marks, with some parts around the arms that appeared slightly deformed and melted. And the black glass visor of the helmet had cracked in half, exposing the left sife of her face.
The expression of unhinged loathing on The Bright One was worthy of the ancient harpies of legends, her eyes alight with incandescent hatred.
"I admit," she began to speak, between ragged gasps as if trying to catch her breath, "That all this is proving to be the most exhilarating thing I've experienced in centuries. But you are beginning to be more of an annoyance than an entertainment."
And of course, the only response she got was a chuckle from the still sore Enid.
"Wow. Psychopathic insanity aside it looks like the years are going to treat me well," Enid commented, looking at The Bright One's now bewildered expression.
"I daresay time will be even more benevolent to you for not being a festering human pustule of hatred and madness, mia cara lupa," Wednesday added, "Your beauty will be even superior, I'm certain."
"It's just that… Look at her! We're not even talking about being just a MILF anymore. I'm going to be totes a GILF, for real."
"The first of those terms is one I've heard several Nevermore students use to refer to my mother and you never wanted to explain it to me."
"And since I don't want to be an unwitting accomplice to several murders, I don't plan to," laughed Enid.
"WILL YOU SHUT UP NOW!!??" exclaimed The Bright One, interrupting the couple, "You're in a situation that's going to result in your certain death and... and... and you're joking and flirting!?"Enid smiled again, but this time observing The Bright One with a hint of sympathetic sadness on her muzzle, "I don't know what her story is, but... she never truly knew her Wednesday Addams, did she?"
"I'm afraid not," Wednesday replied, somberly. The Addams placed a soft kiss on Enid's forehead on the still healthy fur and stood up, clutching the saber again to begin moving in The Bright One's direction, "Concentrate on getting well, querida. I'll get you all the time you need."
"Be careful, Wednesday," said Enid.
"When haven't I been?"
"Fuck, don't make me laugh," Enid complained, "It stings when I laugh."
Wednesday nodded, casting one last loving glance at her she-wolf before turning and continuing to advance towards her foe. Enid was regenerating fast, but she would need a few minutes. The key was to keep her safe and survive those minutes.
You can count on me.
Agent A, Wednesday thought, Any suggestions?
I'm afraid we can only improvise as we go along, but I'll let you know if I think of anything.
Wednesday resisted the urge to nod, trying to avoid conveying the slightest hint that there was another presence within her as she neared The Bright One. The armored witch had not moved from her spot, taking a deep breath and watching her opponent approach. Her hands glowed with white light again, if somewhat dimmer than before.
"Looks like your furious outburst has worn you out a bit," said Wednesday.
"I'll soon recover," replied The Bright One, "And while I know better than to underestimate you I don't think you're going to give me as much of a struggle as your mutt, Weds."
"You have no right to call me that," said Wednesday, getting into a fighting stance and raising her saber, "And you have even less right to insult her."
"I have the right to call you whatever I please because that is what I dictate in my realm," replied The Bright One, "It grieves me that I will surely have to kill you and waste such good raw material, but things are as they are. Then I'll kill your bitch...any interest I might have in her strange condition doesn't make up for the headache. And then I'll put down that rebellion down there, put your variants in their place and kill all those cheap copies of me."
"You really don't realize you've already lost yet, do you?" asked Wednesday.
"Let me guess...because I'm going up against you and you're not like any of the others?" scoffed The Bright One.
"No. I'm just a standard Wednesday Addams, even if that makes me exceptional by default. And it's not my presence that is the cause of your defeat, I'm just the ultimate manifestation and consequence of it," replied Wednesday, "You lost and ruined your plan the day your vermin captured a kind and cheerful Wednesday Friday Addams, mother and wife, prone to the use of the color pink, leaving behind her desperate twin children. That was the moment you lost."
"I have not lost. Not as long as I'm breathing and my pyramid is still standing."
"Well, that can be fixed."
Wednesday lunged forward with a thrust of her saber. Immediately, The Bright One's energy and light shields materialized, shattering into shards as the sword struck. An armored hand glowing like a sun lunged toward Wednesday, emitting thin beams of sharp light from its fingertips that nearly grazed the Addams.
Wednesday dodged the attack, lunging toward her opponent's right side and seeking to make a cross-cut into her torso, but the Addams had to duck, dodging a blow from The Bright One. Then she took the opportunity to try to close the distance, using the extra ability provided by Agent A to move with sudden swiftness. Her sword rose up, straight for The Bright One's chest, only to be intercepted by her enemy's hand, clamping down on the blade and making the metal red hot.
Now, punch her!
Wednesday didn't ask for explanations or question the order. She noticed the familiar tingling of partial possession in her free, left hand. Without releasing the sword in her right hand she spun on herself, contorting with almost inhuman flexibility and directed her fist squarely at The Bright One's face, specifically the right side still partially covered by the cracked visor of her helmet.
The Bright One saw the attack coming.
Don't stop!
Wednesday didn't hold back her blow. Her fist touched solid body for a millionth of a second before The Bright One's magic defense, the same one used by her Shadow Hyde, activated and Wednesday's fist phased through the villain's body as if she were intangible. A smile had begun to form on The Bright One's face.
A smile that was undone when a second fist, invisible to all her senses, made a full impact, shattering what was left of her visor and momentarily deforming her face with the force of the impact and the crunching sound of broken teeth. The villainess didn't go flying through the air as when she was hit by Enid, but she staggered trying not to fall, retreating several steps and letting go of Wednesday's weapon.
The Bright One let out a groan and spat out blood and a piece of her teeth, then immediately put her hand to her sore right cheek with an indecipherable expression. She looked at Wednesday again, with disbelief and something akin to fear and incomprehension on her visage. It seemed to be that she had to re-evaluate the Addams before her.
I told you, my variant. She may see your punches coming, but she will never see mine.
This time Wednesday did allow herself to nod silently. She smiled, a smile as sharp as the now incandescent saber she raised before herself again, back in combat stance as she gestured to her opponent.
"En garde."
NOTES
The illustrated portion of the collage comes from lesly-oh's art on Tumblr.
Well, I hope you liked the chapter. I had to split an extra long one in two again 😅 In the next one we will return to the battle with the Shadow Hydes and we will have some pending appearances.
By the way, a quick refresher on the ages of our cast in Kooky Spooky (note that some of the characters are now at least six months older and this could affect the year count):
Wednesday & Enid: 18 years old.
Dora & Theo: 17 years old.
Pup: 19 years old.
Taylor Galpin: 20 years old.
Woe & Saint-Clair: 17 years old.
Friday: 39 years old (same age for her husband).
Agent A: 44 years old (at the time of her death).
Shark: 15 years old.
Wodnesdæg and Eneit: 25 years old.
Needler: 35 years old.
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