115 A Shot in the Dark

Artio stood alone, surrounded by the numerous pillars keeping the haunted barn standing tall. The eerie atmosphere around her was heavier than iron, and the smell o blood polluted the air. Shuja could feel the pressure behind the pillars.

She was safe behind the red pillar, but hiding will not save Artio. She must act now. Shuja ran across the room and fired a barrage of arrows aimed at Artio's legs. Artio shuffled her legs, dodging the arrows while maintaining a perfectly upright stance. She aimed her bow at Shuja and released her arrow with full power.

The arrow traveled gracefully in the air with leaving a dazzling blue tail. Shuja slid underneath the arrow and got behind cover. When Artio's arrow hit one of the cell doors, it smashed its way through it, folding the iron bars before crashing on the wooden floor.

Artio took another arrow from her quiver and fired it towards Shuja. The arrow hit its mark, but it did not pierce through the pillar despite the mana embedded in the arrow, making it stronger. It did, however, shook the foundation beneath Shuja.

"Shuja!" Artio called out, "Please, just give up. I'll handle this myself!"

"No way!" Shuja began drawing her next arrow, "I'm not running. Never again! And what about you? Why are you doing this?"

"Because I was told to," Artio's gem began to glow red and hot. The longer the time she took not trying to kill her pupil, the hotter and more painful her restraints became. Shuja could see the red light shining emitting behind the pillar while its shadow cast over her. And she could hear Artio writhing in pain.

Shuja peeked and saw the gem growing an intense red glow. The only way to save her master was to remove the cursed stone. Shuja shot her arrow at the pillar across from her. A thread of mana connected her to the arrow. Then she ran in the opposite direction of her arrow and fired another volley of arrows.

Artio could sense the arrow with her Isiptali and could tell their trajectory. "What the?" Artio was puzzled when she saw the arrows' targets. Instead of her, the arrows went to the other pillars. "What are you up to?"

"I'm going to snatch that collar off you."

"Didn't I tell you to run!" Artio draws her arrow and fired a shot stronger and faster than any other arrows she fired before.

Shuja's reached for one of the arrows, and she flew away from the arrow. Before she could the arrow her body was flying to, she extended her palm towards the arrow behind Artio. She pulled the blue strings connecting her to the arrows and launched herself to Artio. Shuja reached out to grab the gemstone, but Artio leaned to the side, keeping her neck away from Shuja's reach.

Shuja rotated her body and landed on the pillar with her feet. When she looked up, she saw Artio preparing to shoot another arrow, "Get out of the way!" She yelled while crimson light grew even more intense. Artio was holding back her shot to give Shuja time to escape.

Once Shuja leaped from her pillar and onto another one, Artio released her arrow. The shot was so strong it penetrated four inches deep in the robust Tungstree wood used for the pillar and broke Shuja's arrow to pieces. Mana seeped out from the hole like sap.

"Shuja, run!" Artio cried in desperation. The pain from the gemstone was far too much for her to handle, and she lost control of her body. She only stopped once Shuja got behind cover.

The gemstone's crimson light began to calm down, giving some semblance of control to Artio. Shuja's arrows marked the red pillars around her as they pierce through the tough hardened wood. Artio's back was sweating profusely. She had never used this technique in such a manner before. She felt the strings around her, acting like a spider's web with its center being Shuja herself.

Artio sheds a single tear from her eye, feeling proud of her pupil and the ingenious use of her lesson. But the tear also had sadness mixed in because she knew not even this trick will let her mind and body lose with the gemstone dictating her will. She could only pray Shuja will save her.

Meanwhile, Shuja hid behind one of these pillars, counting her remaining arrows. She only had five of them. Despair was creeping its way to Shuja's mind, but she was yet to loosen her grip to hope. "Artio!" Shuja yelled, "I'm going to save you, no matter what!"

Shuja ran around Artio, hiding behind each pillar on the way whenever Artio shoots her blue gleaming arrows. Each of her shots grew heavier, and the building shook even more, but the lack of time only motivated Shuja more, keeping despair's clutches away from her. As she circles Artio, she used her Isiptali to look through the dark. The barely lit torches were not bright enough to keep the dark veil from covering everything in the barn. But Shuja's mana could see everything, including a large wagon stained in dry blood sitting still behind Artio.

An idea lit inside Shuja's head. She took three arrows from her quiver, holding them on her drawing hand. Then she aimed her bow towards the wagon, shooting her three arrows around Artio's body.

Artio assumed Shuja would do a similar trick using the Hookshot technique. Her body reacted quickly, drawing her arrows at full power, ready to strike at the direction of Shuja's travel. But Shuja did not move. "Why are you not moving?" Artio asked desperately.

Shuja's weight began to increase due to the mana converging in her chest and becoming denser drastically. "Because if there's one thing I learned, I have to be pretty light to fly with Hookshot!"

Artio's instinct flared as her Isiptali sense a large object heading to her at great speed. She turned around and saw an oversize wagon, so big only a horse would pull it, fly towards her. The arrows Shuja shot managed to punch through it and hooked itself, allowing Shuja to pull the giant wagon to her.

The wagon nearly crushed Artio, but she released her explosive arrow, breaking the wagon into pieces. The explosion knocked Artio back, and Shuja ran to catch her and grabbed the gemstone stuck on her collar. When Shuja's right hand touched the red stone, it began to glow bright orange and burned Shuja's hand.

The two rolled on the floor, with Shuja pushing herself off Artio's body and rolled further into the darkness. "Oh, god!" Shuja yelled as the searing pain grew intense as seconds go by.

Artio could only lay on the floor and listen helplessly to her student's crying voice. Her body began to shake uncontrollably as reality dawned on her mind. Artio's mana was plentiful and strong enough to keep the gemstone's fire from burning her neck away. But Shuja's kas and mana were not strong enough.

Shuja's blackened hand was proof of this, and Artio hoped this would sway her to run away. But Shuja has grown stubborn. Despair crawled its way into her heart and mind, but Shuja did not waiver from the hot pressure before her. Her charcoaled hand did not scare her because she feared running away more.

The red gem began to glow brighter. Artio's veins on her forehead popped through her skin, and her skin began to turn to a shade of red as she forces her body to stay put with her sheer will. The stone tried to contort its body with no avail. Not even the heat from the collar could move her body from the floor. "Shuja, run!" Artio pleaded, "I can't hold on much longer." White smoke began to rise from her neck because the skin around her collar began to burn through her flesh.

Shuja did not respond to Artio's call. She stared at her black hand, and it reminded her of a cowardice act during winter. Like a mirror, she saw herself as a weak goblin, but this was just despair and its attempt to pull her to its side.

"Shuja!" Artio called out to her again. Her mind lost the battle, and the gemstone's will took over her body. Artio stood up awkwardly. Her neck was just as black as Shuja's hand. "Shuja, please, just run. You can't win!"

Just as she said those words, Shuja closed her hand. Artio and her gem could sense a strange pressure exuding around her air. The stone, in particular, could sense danger.

Then an explosion of blue and violent flame burst out from Shuja's chest and surrounded her being. Artio backed stepped several steps from the dazzling blue pyre. "Shuja!" Artio tried to reach for the fire, but the stone kept pulling her away. It could feel the mana distorting around Shuja, and it's unsure how to assess the situation. It must kill the goblin as ordered, but the stone's inherent nature to preserve its existence was going against this order.

And it had every right to be hesitant. An arrow flew out of the flames and passed Artio. A shot in the dark, but it hit the mark. It punched through an empty barrel situated behind Artio, attaching to it like glue.

And it was the same trick as before, and both gem and Artio knew what to do against it. Artio didn't draw an arrow; she simply turned around, raised her hand, and gathered her mana into the palm of her hand. When the barrel got pulled towards her, she released her mana, exploding on her palm and blowing the barrel to bits.

"Gotcha!" A voice announced itself within the fire. Artio turned around, and she saw a strange figure appear from the flame with the silver bow in her black hand.

"Shuja?" Artio whispered in shock. The red goblin that barely reached her chest in height was now standing as tall as her. And the blue flames around her contrasted itself with her light pink skin. Only her crystal blue eyes shined in the orange dim light from the torches around her when the blue flames died down.

Her arrow was drawn as far as it could, and she released the moment Artio turned to face her. The moment the gem faced her. The arrow pierced the gemstone, its stone tip covered in mana nudged itself tightly in the crack.

Shuja grabbed the blue thread connecting her to stone and pulled as hard as she could. The stone could not resist or electrocute its host, and it popped out from the iron collar. But at its removal, it exploded in a beautiful array of red, orange, and yellow lightning. And the energy of the explosion launched the two away from each other.

Shuja landed on a rolled-up haystack. "Ow. I didn't know it will explode," She told herself. Across from her was Artio trying to get back up from her feet. "Artio!" Shuja crawled back up and ran to her teacher.

Artio got on her knees and opened her arms for Shuja to jump to, and they embraced each other. Their tears flowed like a river running down their cheeks and onto their shoulders. "I'm sorry I hurt!" Artio cried.

"No, don't apologize. It was that fuckers fault." Shuja tightened her embrace, "I'm just glad your back."

"Me too," Artio sneezed. Under Shuja's short black hair was a beautiful orange and purple plumage above the nape and behind her ears. "You sure have grown? Is this how Sun and Smoke transformed?"

Shuja released her grip and faced Artio, "Yeah, though I have no idea how it happened. I just wanted to save you."

Artio stared at Shuja's beautiful face, "And I think that's all you needed."

They stayed huddled together in the silent stables, but Sun's echoing voice broke this comfy silence. "Shuja! Artio!" The voice called out, "Are you guys finish? I need your help!"

"Looks like your boyfriend needs help." Artio teased.

"Boyrfriend? What's that?" The joke went over Shuja's head. And it was not entirely her fault since it wasn't a term commonly used by their tribe. "Whatever, let's just go help him."

Shuja and Artio made their way upstairs and arrived at an awkward scene. The torches fully lit the second floor, and in the center was Sun on all four while a bunch of elderly goblin and pregnant women sat on top of him while goblin children grabbed hold of his hands and feet.

"What happened?" Shuja asked

"That asshole ordered them to hold me still. Then before he could kill me, a huge explosion happened outside, and he just jumped out, leaving me here!"

"And why can't you just throw them off,"

"Because look at them. Some of them are pregnant, and the old ladies are frail like paper and the children. They may be ugly, but I'd rather punch Buchanan than some kids."

"Sometimes, I think you're actually from these parts of the woods and up north where they're more willing to punch a baby if it meant winning a fight," Artio commented.

"That's brutal," Sun tried to stand up, but more goblins got on his back, "Yeah, I can't carry everyone. And I tried to take off their gem, but it burned my hand and shocked them. And since you managed to take out Artio's gem without," Sun stopped when he noticed the burn marks on Artio's neck, "Nevermind."

"Actually, I didn't feel any shock when Shuja pulled off my gem. It didn't even hurt."

Sun tried to point his puckered mouth at Artio's neck, "Then what is that?"

"Tis but a scratch from fighting Shuja off me."

"Alright." Sun turned to Shuja, "How did you do it?"

Shuja smiled and grabbed an arrow, "I'll show you."