Chapter 3 - "What manner of creatures ARE you?"

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.

AN: Don't take this too seriously. I don't.

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It only took about 3 seconds for his screaming to alert the FUCKING DEMON that was standing in front of him to his presence. Instincts were the only thing that helped Harry avoid the axe that threatened to decapitate him.

Even though he hadn't died to a sword from the gut, he wasn't ready to test a limb being cut off. Or his head. Definitely no.

Harry screamed again as the axe came down nearly cut off his Harry Jr and forced himself to his feet. A flick of the wrist and his wand was in his hand and then he threw off several spells at the demon thing that was trying to kill him. Thankfully, it wasn't anything like a troll with magic resistant skin and a reducto cruse to the head downed his foe.

It was quickly replaced by several more.

Using every ounce of will that he had, Harry didn't scream again. Instead, he started to throw out more spells. He noticed quickly the stunning spells weren't doing much and went to more... permanent solutions.

Just as Harry had killed another giant, axe-wielding demon, he turned to throw off another spell and couldn't contain his shriek.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?" Harry had finally noticed that he wasn't the only person fighting off the demons or the giant monsters made out of green, glowing rocks.

The thing he was pointing his wand at though didn't look like the demons-there was a color scheme difference. This... thing... looked like an owl and a bear had a baby, then some antlers were thrown on for fun.

"Oh, I'm gonna be sick..." Harry muttered quietly, getting bumped by a purple-skinned person running past him. The person was running up to another person who had... bones? flying around them? and then... there were leaves and green light?

What the fuck kind of magic was this?

Harry's next thought vanished as he had to defend himself yet again. In no time at all, the shock was slowly replaced by adrenaline and he lost himself to the rhythm of battle.

He had been trying to kill one of the giant rock monsters he'd heard one of the other people call an 'infernal' when it happened.

Harry hadn't thought much about the glowing green ground he was standing on, even as he started to get tired and achy. It was only after he fell down with a groan that he realized he had died... again.

He was barely aware of what happened before he sat up with a gasp, one hand still holding his wand and the other clutching his chest.

"Hey, you okay?" A man wearing huge metal shoulder pads and armour came up to Harry, offering him a hand up. Taking it, Harry nearly flew into the much larger man who was apparently way stronger than him.

"UH," Harry began, "No! I'm not okay! I just DIED!" he motioned to the ground he had just been laying on. Good thing he didn't look down.

The man, clearly some type of warrior judging by that absolutely massive sword he was holding, looking at Harry in confusion.

"Well, yeah, but that's okay. Eremel," He pointed to the woman with green hair and vaguely purple skin just as she transformed into the owl-bear-with-antlers-hybrid, something that almost made Harry fall over again when he saw it, "used Rebirth on you." The warrior continued, "So you're okay now."

The man clapped Harry on the shoulder, causing the wizard to stumble, "Come on! Let's get back to the fight! And remember not to stand in the bad stuff." The warrior yelled a random fighting call and then charged ridiculously fast at a demon with wings and swung his sword.

"What is this place!?" Harry cried, high pitched, looking to the ground and jumping away when it started to glow green again. Then he yelped and threw an overpowered bombarda at the Infernal in front of him.

The spell impacted and actually managed to completely destroy the arm of the creature. Harry was pretty proud of that and started throwing a few more of the same spell until the monster completely fell apart.

Harry was starting to feel good about himself and the situation again and jumped forward to stand next to a red-haired human who was throwing what looked like ice from her hands at the monsters.

Just as he was about to engage her in some friendly banter, a blue-skinned demon, similar yet different from the ones they were fighting against, rushed past him and his casting friend to intercept a blow on their shield.

Harry, once more terrified, shrieked. Especially when he saw the ground beneath his feet start glowing gold and yellow. He jumped off the ground and skid in the sand, nearly twisting his ankle in the process.

"WHAT ARE YOU!" Harry's voice hurt from the octave it reached with that question.

The caster turned to him in confused concern as the demon intercepted another swing on their shield.

"I am Haquar! By the light, your magic is fearsome!" The voice sounded female, for all that the accent was strange. So, she. She then swung her giant... was that a fucking MACE? At the demon and it flew a few feet in the air before falling, no longer moving.

This... being? Turned to Harry then and offered him a hand up. Harry, terrified out of his mind once more, took the hand. She pulled him easily to his feet just like that warrior guy had earlier.

"Why were you scared by her consecrate?" The caster asked, taking some food and water out of a pouch on her belt.

"Her what?" Harry responded, staring at the blue-skinned demon's glowing eyes.

Haquar, clearly feeling a little uncomfortable by the little human's staring, excused herself and ran back into the fight.

"Her-..." The caster stopped and stared. "You've never fought with a paladin before?" She tossed aside her glass, watching it vanish into magic in the air.

"I-..." Harry watched the glass as well, letting out a little whimper. "I need to sit down."

As he moved to do just that, the ... witch? That was magic, so she had to be a witch. So the witch stopped him. "Nope, no can do. We just got a message from Khadgar, we need to head up the hill and kill the eredar there."

"What's an eredar…" Harry whimpered, even as she grabbed his arm, and hauled him along with a huge group of other people who were all still fighting. They moved up a hill, Harry skidding in the sand, not used to the pace that this woman was setting.

Eventually, she dropped his arm and he continued at his own speed.

When he reached the top, the giant demon was the most terrifying thing he had seen yet that day. It was HUGE! His knees wobbled for half a second, unable to handle all of the shocks of the day, but only until the adrenaline started to pump again.

Around him, everyone was shouting and screaming as they all worked together to defeat this thing. It was empowering, maybe quite literally! So Harry ran forward and started to throw off his own spells, faster than he ever had before. Someone who was busy slashing at the monster in the back with a pair of daggers looked at Harry like he was crazy. After all, why did Harry move up so close? And why was he standing in that purple...

A few minutes passed before Harry woke up again. Had he really just died... AGAIN!? There was a tiny little creature in white who reminded him of Flitwick back home, but female, who was throwing her hands up in the air, then other people were sitting up like he just had. Below them were bones. Harry looked under himself.

Sure enough. Bones.

He screamed again and bolted off of them, running to catch back up with the group.

Small packs of people were running around to what could only be described as portals, doing something that caused them to basically explode in on themselves. Others were attacking more demons and that's where Harry decided to go as well.

To be honest, Harry wasn't sure why he continued to fight. He hadn't even bothered trying to look around to see if there was a place he could hide or something.

It boiled down to: He could help, so he did. It must be that Saving People Thing Hermione had always spoken about.

In the background, Harry could hear some kind of conversation going on, but the group he was currently fighting with just kept trying to kill the demon. A huge woman with huge shoulder armour and robes showed up at that point, swinging huge, round blades and quickly dispatched the demon.

Those near him muttered something about 'Wardens' but, seeing as Harry was clueless, he just took that moment to take a breath.

"Here." Another tiny female, which looked like his old professor, tapped him on the leg. She held out a cup and piece of bread similar to what that witch was eating before. "This will help."

"Thanks..." Harry took the items, looking at them from a few angles before shrugging and eating quickly.

"You're welcome!" squeaked the tiny Flitwick-look-alike, but with no beard, hurrying away to go back to the fighting. A floating table was left in her wake that others seemed to be taking food and drinks from as well.

He finished quickly, actually feeling better, and just dropped the cup, watching it disappear into magic again. That... was super cool and he kind of wanted to learn the spell.

A quick glance around showed most everyone congregating in one area, so Harry followed over. His heart was still thudding in his ears, and he thought he had seen a giant panda walking around earlier, but he was trying not to think too hard about it.

"What's going on?" Harry tapped the shoulder of a woman with grey hair. She was actually wearing robes like his own, but he was pretty sure she had horns. He wasn't sure how to react to that, so he didn't.

"We have to take the gateway up to the ship," The woman said giving Harry a glance before looking back forward. They seemed to be working on a turn based system so Harry just queued up with everyone else.

A few silent moments passed and Harry leaned forward again. "I'm Harry," he said to the grey-haired woman, offering a smile.

"... Nice to meet you," she replied, brushing off her tabard before offering a gloved hand, "I'm Orchard."

Harry took her hand but didn't shake it, just staring. "Like... with apples?"

Now it was her turn to look confused, slowly pulling back her hand.

"You know... Apple orchar-nevermind." Harry waved off the comment, feeling his neck heat in embarrassment. The woman just smirked and looked forward again.

When it was Harry's turn to use the Gateway, which looked disturbingly similar to the Veil of Death, only purple and scarier, Harry hesitated.

The tall, dark blue-skinned person with a giant bow shoved him through it.

His terrible luck with magical travel, coupled with the shove, caused him to skid across the floor until he smacked into a wall.

"Ow..." Harry groaned, curling up into a ball.

The same dark blue-skinned person-and did they have hooves?-walked out of the gateway perfectly normal. They walked over to him and offered him a hand. Experience said to not take the hand, but Harry wasn't thinking clearly and took it anyway. This time he did smack into the person's chest, the purple and green cloth that covered the mail armour did not make it soft, even though now he could tell they were probably a she.

"Come," came a surprisingly deep voice, causing Harry to question his assessment of 'she', the person steadying him with firm, calloused hands. "We must go defeat Mephistroth." She gave his shoulder a surprisingly gentle pat and then pulled out her bow and started to shoot.

Harry watched her leave and heard a strange noise leave his throat when he noticed her tail. Her fucking tail. What the...

"Don't stand around Harry," Orchard was carefully placing what could only be a bomb with the help of the owl-bear-with-antlers-hybrid he'd seen before. "Help get out the rest of these arcane bombs."

Being given a direct order like that, even from someone he'd just met, helped. Harry did as he was told, flicking his wand out to levitate one of the bombs into an indicated position.

The person with the bow defended their group from some crazy little creatures, soon joined by three other people with bows and a pair of wolves. It was a weird double set of what appeared to be male and female of the same... species is a good word.

With Harry's magic, the bombs were quickly set up. The group then moved forward to attack the creature.

Monster.

'Monster' was a much better word.

It was huge, it was glowing blue, and it was covered in armour that made what that warrior was wearing earlier look like a frilly, little dress! His steps faltered for half of a second before he jumped right into the fray.

At one point, Orchard grabbed him by the backpack that he was amazingly was still wearing and hauled him out of some purple stuff on the ground. A flash of light flew over his head in the next moment as she glared at him.

"Don't stand in that stuff. You'll die." Then she was back to throwing what looked like dark balls of energy at the monster.

Harry looked down at the ground and sure enough, there was something violently purple. Jumping back, he looked at Orchard, then was distracted by what was definitely a panda this time.

Once more, Harry yelled-his heart couldn't handle this, truly. It was bound to burst.

Thankfully, the fight was just about done by then. He heard someone talking, but could only barely hear them before he felt himself being whisked away by yet another new form of magical travel.

And, as per usual, Harry landed in a heap.

He was the only one to do so.

"I hate this," Harry muttered as he just stayed face down in the hard dirt and grass.

The same voice that had been talking to them periodically throughout the entire endeavor was speaking over Harry's head.

"...prematurely," that voice said before being joined by another.

"We have won this day," this voice was a lot deeper than the other one and Harry forced his head to turn to look.

Apparently, Harry had one last scream left in him because he let it out upon seeing the horned, winged, hooved, green glowing monstrosity that was talking to the old-young man in blue.

It was finally too much.

Harry passed out.

... ... ...

AN: Nearly all eluded to toons are my guildies. Named characters are also my guildies. They gave me permission to use their characters. The mages are not guildies, however. Though I'm sure one of them has an alt... Also, Grammarly hates that I'm switching between British-English and American-English, lol.