Chapter 5: The Hunter's Trap
The air in the forest was thick with the scent of pine and something else, something metallic and sharp that made the hairs on Ezra's neck stand up. He and Wednesday crouched behind a gnarled oak, the rough bark digging into his palm. Enid, a soft blur of pink and yellow, was a few dozen yards to their left, hidden by a cluster of shivering ferns. The plan was simple, in theory. Wednesday had pinpointed the ritual site on the map, a small clearing where a single, ancient-looking tree stood like a sentry. The Scalper was there, their back to them, a hunched figure in the dim moonlight. The smell was stronger here, the coppery tang of blood and a thin, acrid smoke rising from a small, glowing fire.
"Ready?" Wednesday's voice was a low rasp beside him, more sound than breath. Her hand rested on the hilt of a small, silver-handled knife.
Ezra didn't answer with words. He gave a single, almost imperceptible nod. He focused, not on the Scalper, but on the space behind them. He drew on his power, the familiar, cool hum a comforting presence in his mind. He pushed, the energy flowing from his core, out of his hands, and into the air. He wove it into a web, a shimmering, half-seen illusion of a dozen Ezras, all of them racing through the woods with silent, blurred speed.
The Scalper stirred, their head turning to the phantom noises. It was a distraction, a brief moment of confusion.
"Now," Wednesday hissed.
She moved first, a shadow flowing from the darkness, a blur of braids and black-on-black. Enid followed, a silent predator, her claws just beginning to extend, a sliver of silver glinting in the pale light. Ezra pushed his illusion faster, wider, creating a cacophony of rustling leaves and breaking twigs behind the Scalper. He was a silent conductor, his focus absolute.
But the Scalper wasn't distracted. Not for long.
They moved with a terrible, unnatural grace, spinning on their heel, a ceremonial knife appearing in their hand with a sickeningly smooth motion. It wasn't a blade for fighting. It was too ornate, too perfect, a thin, curved piece of obsidian that seemed to drink the moonlight. They didn't even look at Wednesday or Enid. Their eyes, or the dark holes where their eyes should have been, were fixed on the student.
The student was a boy, no older than fifteen, tied to the old tree. His face was pale with terror, his eyes wide and vacant. The Scalper raised the knife. The boy's lips moved, a silent scream of pure, unadulterated fear.
Ezra felt something break inside him. Something in his chest, a tight, cold knot of apathy that had been there since the day he transmigrated, snapped. This wasn't a game. This wasn't some intellectual exercise in the woods. This was real. A life was about to be taken. His power, the Null, surged. It wasn't a cool hum anymore. It was a roar, a hot, all-consuming fire. It screamed with a need to protect, to destroy, to nullify.
"Wednesday!" Enid screamed, but it was too late. The knife left the Scalper's hand, a streak of black in the air.
Ezra didn't think. He acted. He threw his hands out, his power a wild, uncontrolled vortex of humming energy. He didn't try to aim. He didn't try to create a shield. He just let it all go. The Null Domain erupted from him, a violent, blinding flash of pure white energy. It wasn't a small bubble like before. It was a sphere, a perfect, humming, two-meter-wide dome that pulsed with raw, annihilating power.
The knife entered the dome and simply… ceased to exist. Not shattered. Not broken. It was gone. It dissolved into a fine, black dust, the ritual's smoke and the acrid smell of ozone filling the air. The humming was so loud it was a physical pressure, a force that pushed against Wednesday and Enid, making their teeth rattle. When it receded, the Scalper was gone. The boy was still tied to the tree, shaking. The clearing was silent, the only sound the soft rustle of leaves in the breeze.
The Scalper fled, a dark blur of frantic motion against the dim backdrop of the woods. Wednesday, her mind still reeling from the sheer, raw force of Ezra's Null Domain, was the first to react.
"Ezra! Go! Don't let them get away!" she shouted, her voice sharp with a mix of urgency and morbid fascination.
Ezra didn't hesitate. The power still thrummed beneath his skin, a feeling like an electric wire. He focused it, not into an outward display of force, but into himself. He felt a sharp jolt, a physical shock that made his muscles seize. The world blurred. The trees became a green and brown streak. The ground was a soft, muddy ribbon beneath his feet. He was moving, faster than he ever had before. Faster than anything should. It was a physical manifestation of his power, a new, exhilarating speed burst.
He was a human lightning bolt, a blur of black and white.
The Scalper, for all their speed, was no match. They were still quick, but it was a clumsy, desperate quickness. They threw a handful of small, glass-like spheres onto the forest floor. They hit the ground with a soft tink and exploded in a shower of thick, cloying smoke, smelling of burnt wood and something vaguely chemical. Ezra didn't slow. He ran straight through the smoke, his Null Domain, now a subtle, active field around him, consuming the magic in the air. The smoke swirled, confused, and then dissolved into nothingness.
The Scalper threw another trap, a small, circular rune etched into a piece of wood. It hit the ground and a thorny vine, thick and covered in wicked-looking spikes, shot out, coiling around Ezra's ankles. It was a simple, magical trap, but a deadly one.
Ezra's power flared. He didn't have to think about it. The vines withered and died, turning to a brittle, gray ash that crumbled in his hands. He was faster, stronger, and more in control of his Null than he had ever been.
But the Scalper was resourceful. They vanished behind a thick screen of bushes, and when Ezra rounded them, he found nothing. He was just a few feet away when something small and glowing left the shadows and flew toward him. It was a fragment of the obsidian blade. He caught it, his Null Domain a reflexive, immediate force that consumed the magic. The piece went from a pulsing, glowing fragment to a dull, inert piece of black metal, cold and dead in his hand.
The Scalper was gone.
Ezra stood there, panting, the adrenaline rush fading, replaced by a deep sense of frustration. I let them get away. The silence of the forest was thick with his failure. He stared at the piece of inert metal in his hand, a dull, cold weight. It was a sign. A clue. And a symbol of his failure.
"You let them get away." Wednesday's voice, devoid of emotion, cut through the quiet of the clearing.
Ezra turned to face her. The boy was gone, a silent Wednesday having taken him back to Nevermore while Ezra had been chasing the Scalper. Enid was there, her claws fully retracted, her eyes wide with a mix of awe and concern. She rushed toward him, her arms enveloping him in a tight, warm hug.
"Ezra! Oh my God, you were amazing! You were like a superhero!" she exclaimed, her voice full of genuine praise.
Ezra's heart, still thrumming with the aftereffects of his Null Domain, softened. He hadn't thought about what he had done. He hadn't thought about how others would see it. He just… acted. And for the first time in a long time, he felt something other than apathy. He felt a strange, uncomfortable warmth.
"It's true," Wednesday said, a small, almost imperceptible smile playing on her lips. "I have rarely seen such a concise display of raw power. It was almost… beautiful."
Ezra felt a jolt of shock. Wednesday Addams, calling something beautiful? The world must be ending.
"I still let them get away," Ezra said, his voice flat. He looked at the inert shard in his hand.
"A temporary inconvenience," Wednesday countered. "The Scalper is injured. We have the student's testimony. And we have the most important thing of all." She looked at the shard in his hand, a strange, hungry look in her eyes. "The clue."
Ezra looked at the shard. It was just a dull piece of metal. But then, as he watched, a faint, almost imperceptible light began to pulse inside it. It was weak, a flickering ember of light trapped within the dark stone.
"What is it?" Enid asked, her eyes wide.
Ezra handed the shard to Wednesday. She took it, her touch cold and clinical. She closed her eyes, and a single, low hum filled the air, the sound of her psychic powers connecting with the object. Her face twisted, a flicker of disgust and a jolt of something new: surprise. She opened her eyes, and they were wide with a chilling understanding.
"It's not just a shard," she said, her voice a low murmur. "It's a memory."
She looked at him, and her eyes held a new, focused intensity. She wasn't just working with him anymore. She wasn't just using him. She saw him. He was a partner.
"The Scalper… they were an agent. They weren't working alone. I saw a symbol. A thorny vine. This is just the beginning."
Ezra stared at the shard, then at Wednesday's face, now a mask of grim determination. He had been apathetic for so long. He had wanted to be left alone. But he had a new purpose. A new reason to use his power. And a new, more dangerous enemy. He had been a protector, a hunter, but now he was a player in a game far larger than he could have ever imagined. The hunt was over, but the game had just begun. The fading echo had become a pulsating call to action, and the next steps would require a visit to a source of great knowledge: the Addams family home.
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