The arsonist bent over and grabbed his damaged leg at the point of the injury. Then there was an uncomfortable snap.

A second later he was back to standing on both legs like nothing had happened moments before, the only sign of the damage he took was the football size cavity in his chest.

The blueish tinted moon shone down upon him through the trees adding another heavy layer of surrealism to the night.

Ali watched him look, no glare at her. She grew up in a strict environment due to her living with her grandmother but living in the city had exposed her to violence and she had delivered some over the years to people who tried to take advantage of her but she had never seen... this before.

The look on his face was pure unmasked anger and ill intent, all directed at her.

So it was a shocking when he made a sudden dash toward the three siblings by the farm house, who were more focused on putting out the fire that was quickly spreading, than the fight that was happening in the background.

Ali was caught flatfooted with this unexpected turn but as she was about to run after him, three bread tin sized blurs from the apple trees dashed out ramming the arsonist in the back if his legs with all their might.

"Damn it, I thought I got rid of them all! I swear you things multiply like rabbits..." He had fallen over and was on his hands and knees, halfway to the farm house.

His leg was also now a bloody mess, Jagged wounds covered his ripped and torn legs almost to the bone from the jackalopes antlers.

Ali watched as dozens of shadows swarmed out of the trees behind her, a few of them paused next to the ones that had attacked and in no time the jackalopes surrounded him under the savage ethereal moon that seemed to be even bigger in the night sky than it was before the bloody scene started.

"I should have just killed you!" The man said to Ali, as if he was fine and they were having a pleasant conversation. "The only time these damn things attack is when I get too close to normal folk."

The jackalopes looking at their dead cried out.

It wasn't a loud noise, if Ali wasn't so close she might have missed it but it quivered the air in a mournful burst of sorrow as the others took up the cry.

Even the siblings dealing with the fire all but stopped and turned to the sound.

"Mary, Shawn, Bryan! Put out the fire, I'll deal with this." Ali shouted after the cry ended.

A fire engine siren could be heard growing louder in the distance.

And with that as the signal the jackalopes moved as one.

The swarmed the arsonist like moths to a flame.

His legs seemed to have no problem supporting his weight as he stood battering the ones that got too close as they pushed him back towards the apple trees away from the siblings at the farm house.

The fight was fast and brutal, like wolves trying to bring down a stag, it wasn't a question of if he was going to fall but when.

With an irritated grunt he then he pulled a small spray can out of his tattered pants. A fire bloomed in the night once again.

Ali continued to watch the scene play out as her hand throbbed, even moving it slightly felt as if it would make the pain flair, like an animal caught in a bear trap she could now understand how the pain could make them try to knaw their own limb off.

She watch the horned terrors jump and dash forward trying savagely to bring to ground the man who killed their kin.

She watched the flames from his makeshift torch burn them, shifting them from a direct attack to harrowing him from either side.

The flames gave her a path.

Ali remembered her dreams, the training she undertook and as his aim shifted to the sides trying to keep the jackalopes back, she saw a path to the man that caused all this destruction.

With a deep breath, Ali took two steps forward and the world blurred, losing herself in the moment, the dream, she stepped through fire in an instant.

Then she took a third step.

On the arsonist shoulder.

She clearly felt the weight of her foot crack the man's bones in his shoulder like a sledgehammer that had landed on a stone, the lighter powering the makeshift torch left his hand and slowly fell to the ground.

Before her balance could be lost Ali twisted her body, took three steps backwards ending back at her original location and breathed out as causing the world to return to normal but now both her head and her hand screamed with painful anguish. Her stomach learched and rolled as she fell to a knee cradling her damaged hand.

After she stopped moving, the man's left side crumbled and broke under the impression that she left on him and with a surge the jackalopes rushed forward as he scrambled and dug at the ground in a mad effort to excape.

He somehow made it to the trees before they completely overtook him.

And muffled curses could be heard as he tried to regain himself.