27 Chapter 5 - Shades under the Yellow

Part 4

Marikit

The Yellow Blade Field.

Mid-Morning.

When I heard her voice, chills ran into my spine. I felt the ominousness within her. The alarm bells in my head were exploding

"Laum!" I pulled Laum's ear so hard.

Samantha glowed in orange and in an instant, a huge explosion caught us. The explosion blasted us off away from the princess. Laum was on his knees. I was still on his shoulder since I held on his ear tightly.

Fortunately, Laum had cast his 'Bubble's Barrier' on the time I pulled his ear. The barrier did not even withstood the explosion and broke as we were thrown. Burns had covered Laum's body.

"Rejuvenation of the Pure Spring" I healed Laum's burns.

"Thanks," He said.

As I was healing him, Laum never let his eyes loose away from the cloud of dust. He was cautious that Samantha might make her move any time soon.

I was focused on healing him but my attention got snatched as I heard a laugh. My tiny hair in my skin all stood.

The laugh was so eerie. Its voice was as if it echoed infinitely on her throat before it came out from her mouth.

Laum immediately stood and jumped away from the dust. I had healed him but there were still small burns in his body.

I had no time to heal him. He understood that. We had to focus on what's hidden inside the cloud of dust.

Laum gripped his sticks so hard. He breathed deep. His heartbeat was also accelerating. He was a little bit nervous.

Suddenly, a flash of intense orange light sparkled from the dust. Laum reflexively swung one of his sticks to fend what was coming. The stick went off from Laum's grip and rattled as it landed away from us.

He even shook his right hand in pain.

Whatever skill it was, it's too powerful.

I did not even notice it was coming to us.

Laum looked at me. He was shocked and his eyes widened.

I nodded at him.

Laum was slowly moving back. He passed the stick on his left hand to the next.

Two orange lights shined again. Laum quickly cast 'Bubble's Barrier' and floated to move away from our spot.

One of the Orange Lights hit the ground and made a hole. The other one managed to hit us. The 'Bubble's Barrier' shattered and we were also flung.

Laum was barely on his knees. Still, our eyes were wary of what's inside the dust.

A burning image was walking out from the cloud of dust.

Samantha we knew wasn't on there anymore. A Fiery Half Spirit replaced her.

Orange hair danced and waved like the flames of the candle. Yellow eyes were merciless. Her skin turned into burning red coal with yellow veins running like rivers of lava.

"This is bad, Laum. We must not fight with that." I nervously warned him.

He made a gulp.

"But… we have to win."

"How are we going to win a Half Spirit"

"Half Spirit? You're a spirit yourself. I know you know how." Even Laum's heartbeat was drumming so hard, yet he was still holding his self calm.

"Y-yeah. You're right."

We heard her eerie laugh again, clearer as seconds passed as she flew to approach us closer.

Yes. She had her feet floating above the ground. That's a Half Spirit for you, a Fiery God to be precise.

Half Spirits are those humans who can transform into Spirit form. Only a few humans can do it and one of the rarest and the rarest of these Half Spirits are the Fiery God. And there's a reason for that.

They have inside them one of the Five Fragments of the Phoenix's Soul.

I have little things that I am afraid of in this world. I could count them within the fingers of my left hand. Unluckily, I was facing one of them.

It requires a lot of mana to become a Half Spirit. Even a person have enough mana, some interventions and sometimes unnatural means are needed to attain it. The process to become one is extremely dangerous. It has an exception. One of them is becoming a Fiery God.

I could not let Laum learn about Phoenix's Soul. I must keep him away from this. Laum must not be involved in any of this.

But we had to win.

Now I knew why Samantha wanted me so much. No, it's not exactly me she wanted. Any pixie would do.

For the very first I saw her, I knew she was some bad news for us. She was the worst thing I could imagine when our eyes met.

She is dangerous. She was even using her Fiery God Transformation without any partner. It must be difficult and mana control must be extremely delicate. Besides, if she keeps on using her transformation without a partner, the fragment of Phoenix's Soul will eat her mind eventually. She will bring her own madness and death.

Laum stood to recover from the impact.

"Alright. We have two ways to defeat her. One is to wait for her transformation to went off. But I could not guarantee how long the time for us to wait. Either way, it's not a good idea. The other is I need you to give me some time to chant a spell. It's a long spell but it could render the source of her power. With that, we can win, Laum." I explained.

He nodded, agreeing my proposition. "I guess we have to go with the second one."

"Yes. For now, you must not try to get close to her. Keep distance. After all, she's a Half Spirit, A fiery God."

"Fiery God? Half Spirit?"

"I have no time to explain. For now, I'm going to fulfill my duty to protect you and keep my promise to your family."

He sighed. "I guess I have to listen to you at this. You're the spirit, not me."

"Yes. Now run!"

Instead of running, Laum cast a skill. He floated, instead.

"Bubble Attribute: Bubble's Barrier."

I also started chanting the long spell. I could not support the barrier since that was the case.

As soon Laum made a move, flashes of orange lights came from the hands of Samantha which was still laughing maniacally as she was shooting deadly rays to us.

"Dance! Dance, you fool."

I just wondered how Johan reacted seeing the princess in her ugly true self.

To be honest, dealing a Fiery God, an 'Archon' in human tongue, is a tremendous task for even a former queen of a pixie. No mere pixie would withstand a Half Spirit with power next to the First Gods and Goddesses. Samantha now was an embodiment of the true Fiery God, though it was still incomplete. But Laum got lucky. He has me, a pixie who is a former queen of one of the Realms of the Spirits, Fearie Cry.

Fearie Cry is the Realm of us, of the notoriously mischievous but undeniably cute Fairies, the Pixies. And their queens must be the cutest, I guess. The most playful too, in fact.

Facing a Fiery God would be no small feat but I had to show to Samantha what a queen can do.

Above Laum's head, I sat as I chanted the long spell. I could feel Laum was having a hard time evading the rays. He was flying everywhere just to make sure that his barrier would not be hit by then deathly orange rays.

On the other hand, Samantha noticed me. Of course since I standout as I was above Laum's head. She immediately knew that we were planning fishy behind this play of tag. Laum was buying time for me, she thought.

She laughed again. "That will not do" Her voice was still echoing. It was eerie for sure. "Take this. Come and burn them. Archon: Phoenix!"

A large magic circle glowed in front of the grinning Samantha. An enormous mythical Bird came out flying from that magic circle. It flew over Samantha with its eyes glowing.

Two burning rays fired off from its eyes which followed Laum. Two darkened lines were forming on the yellow field.

I could even feel the heat from the rays.

What the world was happening? Why His Highness was not stopping his daughter from killing us? What happened to the 'no killing' rule?

I knew then Samantha's mind was starting to crumble more. If she continues to use this transformation, it will be a problem.

Jeez. Okay. We'll win this!

However, Laum began to falter as the rays were still chasing us.

"Marikit? Not done yet? She's serious in burning me alive."

I wanted to answer him but I could not. I was still chanting the long spell and if one word was missed or misspoken, I would have to start at the beginning of the spell.

I had to focus on what I was doing.

The deathly rays drawn closer to the barrier. Finally, the Phoenix roared and closed its eyes ending the rays.

However, Samantha was unhappy about it.

"You must entertain me more, you foul thing. Dance! Dance until death!" She raised her right hand above her head. "Archon: Thousand Flares Of The Dying Sun!"

On the palm of the hand she was raising, an intensely bright light gathered. Soon, flashes of orange lights dominated the place.

"This is… bad." Laum uttered. He gulped a large amount of saliva on his dried throat.

Laum readied for the worst. He clenched his remaining stick and aimed it forward. He improvised his 'Bubble's Barrier', making most of its defensive ability was gathered forward. He concentrated his mana, stabilizing it for the big impacts.

Deathly rays were indiscriminately hit everywhere. Even Gil had to focus his mana to keep his barrier stable. His eyes glowed in intense gold.

It was a shower of orange light. Large holes started to pop up on the grounds. Clouds of dust started to rise and covered the whole arena.

A ray clashed with Laum's improvised barrier. Laum's feet were pushed back against the yellow grass. He gritted his teeth knowing that just even one hit of the rays steals a big portion of the barrier's sturdiness. His sweat on his head was like the rivers.

"You have to hurry, Marikit. I don't think I will be able to hold this any longer."

I could not answer. As I much as I wanted, I just could not do it.

But I was also reaching the end of the long spell. I needed him to wait just a little bit longer.

Several rays collided with a barrier and each time they hit, the barrier weakened. Laum bent his knee.

One last orange ray collided with the barrier and the barrier shattered finally.

Fortunately, I had finished the long chant already. All we had to do was to get close to Samantha again to release the spell.

"Now!"

Laum heard me loud and clear. Lifting his bending knee, he made a good and loud battle cry. He ran with his remaining strength, the last spurt of his strength. We were charging without a barrier. He raised his stick to hit Samantha. His eyes maimed.

Samantha grinned seeing how wide open Laum was.

"Come. I'll give you your death." She said raising her hand up and dragged it down again. The Phoenix roared and straightened its flaming, enormous wings.

"Archon: Phoenix Dive"

The Phoenix dove toward us as she commanded.

"Laum, use your sticks."

"No need to tell me. Yaaahh!"

He gripped the stick on his right hand, still running and preparing to batter the Phoenix. It was an absurd idea but I had faith in the incantations of the sticks which were as old as Laum's first ancestors.

The Phoenix was blinding and its enormous seize was belittling when it was in front of us. It was already diving to cook us alive.

Perhaps his ancestors heard the mighty battle cry of Laum, as the Phoenix was before us, he jumped and smashed the Phoenix's head. He successfully disabled the Phoenix. The Phoenix crashed its head into the ground. It would take a few seconds for the Phoenix to fly again. But it was enough for us.

We left the Phoenix with stars circling on its head. We dashed straight to Samantha to finish the duel.

"How futile."

She said and laughed like she was an evil incarnate. Her palms were accumulating a large amount of mana again. It would be a big spell, much more powerful than the previous ones. I don't want to see how powerful the spell would be and it would be bad for us.

We were near to her, just a few steps.

She had her arms facing at us, ready to cast the skill. The orange light on her palms was almost blinding. A large amount of pure mana.

Laum jumped to hit her with his stick.

"Too slow!" Close enough, I released the spell to dispel the source of her powers, the fragment of the Phoenix's Soul. "Release!"

Pop! Everything froze for a moment. The Phoenix which was recovering to fly again silently faded into small orange kindles. I could now hear the whisper of the cold winds and the soft chirps of the distant little birds once again.

Samantha's widened in surprise at what a queen can do.

Everyone on the Yellow Blade Field held their breath. Gil was not even looking at the scene. He was not allowed to look.

Laum's stick did not touch Samantha's head. He froze like those naked marble statues inside the mansion. His mind went blank witnessing how fair Samantha's skin was.

She sobbed. Her eyes became wet but she was still not crying. She's on the verge of crying.

His father was the first to react. He cleared his throat as he grabbed the robe from Gil. Then, he went quickly to his daughter who was like a chick looking for shelter.

Still, Laum was not moving.

Samantha finally abled to make her own body move when she noticed her father was bringing her a robe. Her widened eyes remained on Laum.

"How… how… how dare you!" The eerie voiced had disappeared and a young lady's voiced replaced it. It was much better to the ears.

A red palm marked on Laum's cheeks. Thanks to that, Laum had his mind working back. Samantha bent her knees and wrapped her arms to cover the parts that needed covering.

I could not help but feel the burning feeling inside me as well. "Laum?" I smiled at him.

Seeing a maiden naked, a princess no less. How lucky this dumb young man can be, huh?

"M-Marikit? B-black Miasma is smoking at f-from you." He was now more nervous than facing the Fiery God.

"Yaah! Divine Punishment From the Queen!" His two guilty, perverted eyes. I used my hands to serve the punishment into them.

"My eyes! I can't see! Help me! My eyes!"

Now, a perverted young man was rolling over the ground with his hands covering his bleeding eyes.

"I feel much better now," I said to myself.

"My eyes!"

Meanwhile, His Highness assisted his daughter back to the mansion. She was already covered with a robe. I see. So, they had expected that this would happen and they prepared the robe for this.

Gil went to the door of the big tree to open and left it open for us to follow. Johan fixed her eyeglasses and approached us

"That's a quite complicated you relinquished back there. I see you're no ordinary pixie. And my eyes are telling me that, no?" For a moment, Johan looked at my without her eyeglasses. Her eyes were extraordinary. Her brown eyes were something special.

"W-what are you saying?" I became uncomfortable with her eyes.

She wore her eyeglasses again and adjusted it.

"That's fine. I'm not fond of knowing someone better without their approval. But I assure you. You will willingly speak about it with me when the right time will come, no? No worries."

Johan left to see what Laum was doing; still rolling like a log. She poked Laum with a stick and asked him if he's okay.

"I can't see! My eyes!"

I sighed. But did we win right?

It was clear the duel was over but who was the winner? His Highness did not announce the victor. He just went to help his own daughter.

Laum was on the last steps of winning the duel but he was now rolling in the grass in agony. Samantha was also on the verge of crying. Clearly she had lost, however, it was still unclear if we were the winner.

They had already left us on the middle of the Yellow Blade Field. Laum's cry was not good to the ears so I decided that I should leave him here.

I flew toward Johan.

"May I?" I gestured my hands into slim shoulders.

"My pleasure, no?"

With that, we left a young man on Gil's care.

"My eyes!"