By Andrew Agney
The troll lets out a ferocious roar as it slams its hands down, the group of teens jumping out of the way of the attack, the impact leaving a crater where the children were standing.
“Come on guys, we can do this!” Ciel calls, slapping a piece of paper with a flight glyph on her back, her dragon wings sprouting out as she takes off towards the face of the troll. Taking out another slip of paper, this one with a light glyph, an intense flash of light comes from the paper, blinding the beast. Seeing her opportunity, Exquise holds up her hand as it begins glowing with red magical energy and soon fires an orb of fire out of it, striking the beast in its face, making it recoil in pain…but narrowly avoiding Ciel.
“Hey! Watch where you’re aiming!” The dragon child yells down at the Rhyolition, who responds by turning her nose up and saying, “I didn’t hit you, did I?” Ciel opens her mouth to protest more but can’t get the words out as she gets slammed into the ground by the troll, having recovered from its blindness.
“Ciel!” Syrid, the shadow elf, calls out as he rushes over to stand between Ciel and the troll. “Sorry pal, but if you want to hurt her, you have to get past us…” He then claps his hands together as they glow with purple energy, ten more Syrids appearing, forming a line. “All of us!” he says with a grin, feeling proud of himself…before the troll swipes its hand across the line, dispersing the clones into dust and sending Syrid flying into the wall of the arena, the shadow elf letting out a scream of pain.
“Stop it!” Breeze, the goblin, yells out, tears filling her eyes as her hands glow green and she slams them into the ground, a rose garden growing around the troll’s feet in an attempt to stop it from moving. “I hate seeing people get hurt…” she quietly whimpers, her whimpers getting louder as the monster seems to ignore her rose garden and starts to approach her…before it gets hit by more fireballs, turning its attention towards Exquise.
“Come on ugly! Why waste your time on them when a powerful witch is right here?!” Exquise shouts out, her body starting to glow with an orange halo as she fires off a torrent of fireballs at the beast, doing damage to it slowly…but not enough to stop it as it starts to walk over to Exquise, giving heavy footfalls that shake the room as it approaches.
“Exquise, stop!” Breeze calls out with a worried tone, “You’re going to burn yourself out!” she warns. But Exquise keeps firing her onslaught of attacks, the orange halo getting brighter and brighter…but soon it explodes out in a burst of light, Exquise collapsing to her knees, panting heavily as her vibrant red skin now turns dark and dull. She looks up at the troll now in front of her, singed and burned, but not knocked out yet, as it starts to raise up its hand to crush the defenseless Rhyolition….Exquise closing her eyes to accept her fate.
TO BE CONTINUED