Ch.29: Face My Fears

The Goblin Gladiator's club pummeled Alice's stomach, knocking the teen off her feet and causing her to harshly smack against the ground. Ignoring the pain, Alice got ready to pick herself up only to see herself surrounded by lower ranked goblins grinning down at her prone posture.

One even had the nerve to rub its grubby hand on her legs.

"Get away from me!" Alice was disgusted, but the goblins didn't take her threat seriously.

Their mouths rang with laughter as if the young girl had told a joke. They reached out their grubby hands again to caress the smooth flesh of her skin. Too late to regret their decision when a blur swooped by in a line, a spurt of blood gushed from their severed necks.

"Try to hang in there! I can't have you dying on me yet," Tai encouraged the young huntress-in-training, lending a hand which Alice accepted, pulling her to her feet.

"Sorry for burdening you," Alice apologized.

"I don't need your apology! Just keep that pretty head of yours focused," Tai said to Alice, using her superhuman speed, and tried to slice off the Goblin Gladiator's arm but was grappled by her leg. Swung around in a full circle, she was tossed across the lobby and crashed into a wall.

"That's no way to treat a lady, you ugly bastard," groaned Tai as she pulled herself out from the wall.

The two girls continued to attack the stocky goblin reaching over six feet. But each time they got close, the Goblin Gladiator would counter-attack with a swing of its giant club or try to grab them with its free hand, only to grow frustrated when the girls evaded his advances.

"Shit! We're hardly making any progress!" cursed Tai, brushing back a few strands of hair that had fallen into her eyes.

"What it lacks in speed, it makes up with its strength," Alice analyzed, leaping out of the way when the Goblin Gladiator swung its club at her head.

Unable to take any more of its attacks missing the mark, the frustrated Goblin Gladiator beat its chest, resonating like loud drums, before slamming its metal club against the ground. The room began to shake as if it was under the attack of an earthquake.

The ground trembled underneath their feet, causing Alice and Tai to lose their balance and fall. Reaching into its back pouch, the Goblin Gladiator threw down a smoke bomb that covered the entire room with thick gray smoke. Alice began to cough, feeling the back of her throat itch.

'Shit! It's laced with holy water.'

The stinging sensation in Tai's eyes blurred her vision. Alice, with her human eyes, wasn't faring any better. Leaving the female vampire to rely only on her superior ears, which could hear the Goblin Gladiator's heavy footsteps, when everything suddenly came to an eerie halt.

Seconds ticked by, and Tai could not hear a sound when out of nowhere, something whooshed through the air like a missile, heading straight towards Alice.

"Alice, duck!" shouted Tai as Alice ducked down low, feeling something brush over her head before hitting the ground. Deciding to look and see what it was, the auburn-haired girl was surprised to see it was one of the bodies that belonged to the dead goblins.

'Not only was it smart enough to use a smoke screen laced with holy water to blind and distract us, but he even used the dead bodies of his fellow companions as artillery!'

Alice, who thought the monster was more brawn than brains, was surprised to see it had some intelligence to develop a form of attack.

"Alice, evade to the right!" Alerted by Tai's urgent voice, Alice did as ordered and missed another missile attack.

"Now move two steps forward and jump left!" Until her eyesight returned, Tai repeatedly yelled to Alice what directions she should move in. The well-mannered girl followed the directions her friend yelled out and flawlessly evaded the Goblin Gladiator's attacks.

Her petite body was quick to act and agile. She was like a ballerina dancing across the stage. Tai was still calling out directions when an impact to her back had her fall. Alice, who heard her friend's cry of pain, stood still and worriedly called out her name, but this was a mistake.

From behind, the Goblin Gladiator appeared. Alice sensed its presence after it had swung its metal club and quickly reacted by blocking the attack with her sword, but the force behind its swings was too strong.

Her feet slid across the floor before she was knocked off her feet. Her body flipped over a counter. The blade of her sword was broken in half.

"Alice!"

Tai screamed out to her friend, feeling her spine almost crush into her stomach when the Goblin Gladiator pressed its stinking heavy foot onto her back. The female vampire felt anger consume her as the monster laughed at her defenseless form in mockery, gloating at the victory it believed it had won.

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Meanwhile, down below in the VIP room, Dia's brown eyes were filled with fear as the giant fireball loomed closer.

'I gotta do something!' Wielding her bow, she poured a large amount of magic into the arrow that grew twice its normal size, launching it at the fireball.

The Goblin Mage's thin green lips pulled into a crazy smile of glee, watching the flames engulf the girl

"Naive little girl! Did you really think you stood a chance? You should have never gotten in my way! If you didn't, maybe you'd still be alive!"

The white-haired female goblin continued to cackle, believing the battle had been won in her favor. Nothing could stop this joyous moment except when a sharp pain disrupted her vision. Slowly turning its head to the left, a spurt of blood from its left shoulder filled her vision, watching her dismembered arm fall to the ground.

A blood-curdling scream ripped from the Goblin Mage's throat.

"You little bitch! What have you done to me?!" The Goblin Mage's eyes bleed red from both pain and rage. Instead of flames roasting the little witch alive, as she was led to believe, the girl stood before her, still alive and breathing with cold eyes.

'H-How c-could this be?! Why didn't my flames devour her?!'

Inside Dia's head, she let out a sigh of relief that her gamble had paid off. When she poured a large amount of her black magic into the arrow, the two attacks collided but right before they could cancel each other out, she pulled out a round glass vial filled with purple liquid.

Since the day she failed at making her first potion, she wanted to improve her skills. Dai may have been a newbie, but when it came to her grades, she took things seriously and hated receiving a failing grade.

Plus, she really wanted to perfect her potion crafting skill. When Sunday rolled around, Dia spent most of her time in her Magic and Potion Crafting classroom, hoping to improve.

"I failed again!"

She frustratedly watched the rat Ms. Hana had used for their potions' test blink its curious beady eyes at her, showing no signs of falling under her potion. Slouching down in her seat, she hit her forehead against the table, oblivious to the pain as she felt like ripping her hair out.

"Why won't this stupid spell work? I did everything right this time." Dia sulked, cheek pressed against the cold surface of the table. "Maybe I'm just not cut out to be a witch. Am I a failure? Does this make me a disgrace to all witches?"

A flash of light pulled the teen from her moping, and Lilith appeared on the table.

"Little Master, you are not a failure, just in unknown territory, but I'm here to assist you," said the bunny before peeking her white eyes into the boiling cauldron.

"Your problem is that you are not focused enough. What type of Dream Potion are you trying to make?" asked Lilith, watching the teen tap her cheek as she thought over this question.

"What I had in mind was a dream potion that can trick one into creating an illusion! A potion like this could come in handy for missions," said Dia.

"That is a good thought. Now I want you to hold onto that thought and position your hand as if you are molding a big ball of clay." Dia did as Lilith instructed, though mentally, she felt a little silly.

"Close your eyes, and clear away all unwanted thoughts. Focus on nothing but the idea of your potion," Lilith calmly instructed, but it wasn't easy for Dia.

"Now, from deep within, summon a portion of your magic. That feeling that you feel rumbling deep inside your chest? That's your magic core. Tap into it and call forth your magic," ordered Lilith as sweat dripped from Dia's brows, trying her hardest to tap into her magic core.

"Stay calm, Dia, and let your instincts take over," Lilith's gentle voice advised. Dia took a deep breath and calmed down her beating heart, and with a gentle tap, a crack split open.

She could feel the cold sensation of her magic spread inside her body. The lids of her eyes peered open as a mass of black and purple magic spun wildly in her hands.

"Concentrate, Dia! Control your magic!" said Lilith.

The swirling mass of magic continued to spin before finally taking the shape of a ball, which sank inside the cauldron, engulfing the entire room with purple light before vanishing. Staring inside the cauldron, Dia saw the color of the liquid had changed to purple.