PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter XXX Part V

Olive just barely managed to barrel out of the doorway, nearly smashing into the thing alongside the splatter of blood leaking from Luna's leg. The dog was using all her strength to stay awake, only managing to turn at the first junction before Luna's leg went limp, and she started to lose consciousness.

The mutt grunted in even greater effort, unable to walk forward with how heavy Luna had gotten. "L-Luna!" they pleaded, trying to maintain their grip as her head dipped and her body slumped towards the floor.

It was a grace that in that moment, Pandora, Milk, and Cliff turned the corner in a swift jog, all going wide-eyed to recognize the mutt and poodle.

"Olive? Luna!?" Pandora exclaimed in disbelief. "Why are you here? What happened?"

Lacking hesitation, the rex ran up to Olive, helping hold Luna up before waving over for Cliff to help him out.

Luna grunted, "P-Patches; run!" Her words came like a quickly deflating balloon, losing volume before she began to breathe again on the brink of consciousness raggedly.

"N-No!" Milk muttered, "He found us?!"

"Got the time to explain now?" Cliff demanded, grunting with effort as he took nearly all of Luna's weight onto himself. "Who the hell is Patches?"

With a theatrical flourish, the dalmatian stepped around the corner with a stride, fully placing himself in view of Milk and Olive. Both the cat and dog let out a shrill scream as Patches raised a devious smile, then his wand as he readied a strike at the trio unable to dodge, still confusedly turning their heads around to meet his gaze.

When he lashed out, a screaming beam radiated from the wand, instantly blinding everyone for a moment or two. When he winced his eyes open, he saw Pandora breathily begging for help as he tried to find where the pieces of his chest had gone- cooked into atoms by the heat of the attack. He spent a moment longer in fear, looking around on the floor before letting his head level towards Olive and the colour in his eyes faded.

With hardly a sound amongst the panicked screaming, the german rex fell to his knees then slammed onto the floor, the only evidence of the attack would be the smouldering fist-sized hole where his heart was, but there was no blood or residue from the cauterized wound.

"Hm," Patches' smirk drained from his face, and he re-adjusted the dirtied bandage around his head as his eyes studied the corpse. "Way too quick, shame I couldn't give him what he deserved."

His eyes fluttered over to the terrified accompaniment of dogs and cats. "But at least I have all of you to make up for it," he said with a tired grin.

"RUN!" Cliff shouted, practically tugging Luna along like a ragdoll as he put all of his energy into hobbling along.

Patches would've laughed at the attempt if he had the energy for it- he made no effort to conceal his weaknesses in the moment, just trying to enjoy himself. "Oh that's cute!" he said, lazily sauntering up to the dog that was slowly getting away. "If you wanted to live, you should've left her behind!"

Before anyone had realized it, another beam slammed itself into something, causing a white light to engulf the room. The heat from the attack was palpable, and it sloughed off of the magical protective shield like magma.

Patches cocked his eyebrow, "Huh?"

Milk wordlessly held their fencepost cap in front of themselves like a sword keeping Patches at bay. The nearly invisible barrier in front of Cliff shimmered, then disappeared as the cat caught their breath, almost stumbling over Pandora's corpse as they tried to position themselves between Patches and their friends.

"Is that a wand?" Patches chuckled out. "Oh you poor fool!"

"I'll-" Milk involuntarily swallowed, in disbelief of what she was about to say. "I'll keep him away," they muttered.

"No, w-wait!" Olive began with a protest, only to be cut off by Cliff grabbing their arm and tugging them along with Luna.

"Hurry!" the terrier exclaimed, "We don't have a chance against him, but that cat has a wand- if anyone can beat him, it's them!"

Olive hesitated as Patches stared at them with his fury, which then ebbed as their eyes met. They could see the fondness was still there, and it made the situation all the more wretched.

"You want my wand!?" Milk tried to scream out, though their critically underworked vocal cords could barely bring it past a whisper as their voice cracked from fear. "Come and get it!"

Milk rushed down the corridor, past the corner and out of Olive's sight. They cried out denial, begging for Milk to listen and stay, but the cat's thoughts were occupied.

Patches shrugged as Olive broke eye contact, being tugged around the corner by the one boston terrier. He knew he could find them at any time, and he was in no rush to chase after them- they had nowhere to run, after all. Right now, he needed that wand, and so turned his sight towards the tiffany keeping one bespectacled eye on Patches as they jogged away from the bloodied dalmatian, shimmering shield preventing him from firing or walking towards the defenseless crowd.

He sighed, then began walking towards the cat. 

--- Authors note

Wew, been a while hasnt it? Hope y'all have had a great couple of months as I've been dealing with other stuff and writing up this 'chapter'. I have a bunch of OC's- nearly 30, that I'm eager to explore, and chapter 30 is just the start! There'll likely be 4-6 more chapters before the 'arc' is over.

Thank you everyone for reading, and happy birthday to you Holly! <3