“Does this mean you’re breaking up with me?” he casually asked with a shrug.
“No way,” a gremlin breathed out.
“He… did he block it?” a troll whispered.
“Impossible,” an arachne said shaking her head.
The gemini uttered something under a grunt, the twins staring at Daniel in shock and anger as he had deflected Jovian’s attack around him. Daniel glanced down to his sword that had flames licking off its heated steal then around the area, seeing mites, salamander women, gremlins, goblins, trolls, a few witches, and even elves in the woods nearby, all of them staring at him with unblinking eyes as he stood there with his sword having fire coming off its edge.
“Did you see that?” an elf whispered.
“Yes… but I don’t believe it,” another whispered back.
“Is that a man?” a dark ranger asked.
“How did he do that?” a troll wondered.
“What manner of magic is he using?” a witch whispered to her sister.
“How dare you…” Jovian and Jacqueline growled. “How dare you-”
“Yes, I dare!” Daniel shouted at them. “I dare stand against you monsters and what you’re doing! I dare stand against those that would harm these innocent women of Eden! And I sure as hell dare to draw my sword against you two after everything you’ve done!”
“Who the fuck is this guy?” an elf softly said.
“I’m not going to let you have your sick fun with these women and their children!” Daniel continued. “You’ve destroyed the centaur’s home, you murdered their empress, you’ve laid waste to countless innocent lives, and now you dare to treat the elves of this land with such cruelty? To treat them like mere pawns for you to move about as you see fit? To treat them to horrors such as this? No, I won’t allow it!”
The elves in the crowd looked to each other in stunned silence while The Sisterhood kept staring at the human with confusion from his words. Daniel glanced around at the monsters gathering nearby before keeping his eyes on the gemini before him, seeing them both fuming with rage while their followers were starting to show less puzzlement about his presence and more disdain.
‘This is not at all going according to plan. I really hope the girls are alright and are getting the elves out of here right now. C’mon, Daniel. Don’t let those two go on another killing spree, especially with your mates nearby. You have to hold them here for as long as you can.’
“So what’s it going to be?” Daniel dared with a hard swipe of his sword. “Are you going to fight me, or are you going to hide behind your lackeys once again and have them do all the work for you? If you want me so bad, come and get me! I’m right here! Show me what you’ve got!”
The gemini lowered their heads, shaking with their frustration and rising anger while those around were looking between them and the lone human who was boldly challenging them to combat. After a few deep breaths the twins turned to Daniel with fire in their eyes while holding their swords out towards him, with him tensing up and preparing to once again stand against them in heated battle.
“KILL HIM!” the gemini roared, with nearby monsters of The Sisterhood facing Daniel with harsh glares before charging towards him. Mites buzzed through the air, arachne hopped down from webs and skittered along the ground and fallen royal tree, goblins and trolls rushed forward while brandishing their sharpened weapons, the ogre roared and lumbered towards the human with its huge club, witches waved their staves and wands with trailing magical radiances as they focused on their prey, and elves watched anxiously from the woods while being surrounded by their captors as the lone swordsman was rushed from all sides by The Sisterhood, all while one thought crossed his mind.
“Well that backfired,” Daniel muttered with a dull expression.
Tensing up, Daniel got ready to fight the incoming horde of monsters, his eyes quickly moving around at seeing them closing in on all sides. He gripped his sword with both hands, reminded himself he had many mates who were counting on him to return to them, prayed for a miracle in order to live long enough to return to them, and then watched as the monsters leapt at him with murderous intent. Before he could move and take the only swing at them he might have gotten, a flash of crimson light shot down from the sky and through the smoky haze above Green Haven, zipping down in a straight line before quickly spiraling around in a small winding decent and striking the ground at Daniel’s feet, casting out a tremendous blast of magical light and energy that shined as bright as a star in front of everyone. The monsters lunging towards Daniel were blasted away in the shockwave, some crashing into trees and fellow sisters while a few were struck down with the gemini swinging their swords and slashing them aside. The ground ruptured around Daniel and sent off clouds of dust and ashes, many of the grunts shielded their eyes from the glaring light and backed away, passing monsters of both sides slowed down and took notice of the sudden radiant bloom, everyone nearby halted and watched as the fiery light that suddenly appeared began to slowly recede around the human. Daniel waited a moment before lowering his arm from in front of his eyes, himself and everyone else then seeing a tiny girl with buzzing insect wings hovering in front of the human with a chilling aura surrounding her along with a dark crimson glow.
“I’m back from my nap,” Pip declared, her hair fluttering behind in the wind while she slowly turned her eyes around at the monsters who were slowly getting back onto their feet and staring at her in bewilderment.
“What the hell is that thing?” an arachne hissed.
“It’s a tiny bug,” a goblin guessed.
“How did that little insect do that?” a gremlin snarled as she grabbed hold of a pouch from her belt.
“Pip?” Daniel asked. “What are you doing here?”
“Alyssa told me to come find you,” Pip answered looking back to him with a worried eye. “I woke up to her screaming and then seeing the forest on fire. We were worried about you.”
“Yeah, things haven’t been going according to plan here,” Daniel admitted with a shrug. “Thanks for the help just now, I needed it.”
“Anything for you, Daniel,” Pip promised with a small smile. The two shared a moment looking into each other’s eyes before an elf nearby suddenly cried out in terror.
“That’s a fairy!” Everyone turned to see the monster staring with wide eyes and pointing to Pip while other elves were quickly showing similar alarm. “That’s a goddamned fairy! There’s a fairy in Green Haven!”
“Now there’s a fairy here too?” another shouted while grabbing her hair. “Holy fuck, the gods seriously have it out for us! Why are we on their shit list like this?”
“That thing’s going to kill us all!” a child screamed holding onto her mother. “It’s a forest destroying fairy! It’s a demon from hell!”
“All of this is her fault!” an elf shouted in distress. “She blew up our beloved forest with her accursed magic!”
“I’m not a demon from hell,” Pip whined with a pout. “And I didn’t do this to your forest. I just got here.”
“Kill that thing before it wipes us all out!” a dark ranger ordered pointing to Pip. “Hurry up and take it out before it unleashes more of its wrath upon us!”
Salamander women and arachne leapt off the fallen royal tree while goblins and mites rushed forward from the woods with daggers and mandibles set to draw blood. The salamanders launched molten bile from their mouths while the arachne threw out webs of sticky silk, all of which was quickly engulfed in a mighty wave of blazing fire that Daniel cast out with a hard swing of his sword. The salamander women landed on the ground smoking as the wave blew past while the arachne were thrown back as charred corpses against the tree, with the fiery monsters then charging towards Daniel while Pip erected a large crimson casting ring before her made of spinning circles and her flair of exclamation and question marks. The fairy let loose a stream of magical energy out in a wild burst, searing through the goblins and angling around to ignite and incinerate the buzzing mi
tes into puffs of smoke and cinders. As the torrent of burning light sliced through the forest behind them and tore down trees while terrifying the nearby monsters into ducking down and taking cover below it, Daniel faced the three salamander women that charged him with fire building up in their mouths.
“You can’t burn us,” one of them hissed with flames coming out of her wicked smile.
“Fair enough,” he conceded, then wound back with his sword and struck downward in a wide slice into the ground, sending out an explosive wave of charred rock and fire that washed outward and tripped all the salamanders down after it. Pip glanced back to them then heaved her casting circle up over her head with both hands, the fairy turning the searing torrent of light she was still firing around through the air and down at the salamanders, with Daniel quickly ducking down beneath the fairy as she struck the monsters with the full force of her magic, blasting them and the surrounding area into rubble and flames with a bright explosion.
“Holy fuck!” an elf cried out, leaping to the side to avoid a falling tree that was sliced in half by the fairy’s magic.
“That thing’s unleashing its wrath upon us!” another screamed while keeping low to the ground. “Oh god, she’s going to kill us all!”
“I’m not unleashing my wrath,” Pip complained. “I’m just protecting me and Daniel from bad monsters. I didn’t hurt anyone else.”
“She nearly killed us just now!” a dark ranger exclaimed as she stared with wide eyes at a few trees that were cut down by the tiny monster’s stream of power.
“…but I didn’t… um… sorry?”
“Get rid of that thing before we’re all roasted alive!”
“Easily done,” a witch scorned as she and her sisters waved their relics around, creating circular searing lights of violet and black energy before them. Within the rings everything turned dark while black light began to creep outward like cracks through the air, the magical monsters forming green and purple casting rings around their hands as they held them up behind their spellbases.
“Send them both to the underworld!” another witch ordered. The rings gave off quiet howls from within while swirling out from them were a few black skulls that trailed smoke, all of them spinning in place before the witches launched them towards Daniel and Pip at once from all sides. The skulls shrieked while spiraling at them, with Daniel tensing up before Pip held her arms close to her chest then threw them outward as she formed several casting rings all around them made of crackling red light and bearing her usual exclamation and question mark emblems along the rings. The dark magics of the witches struck the barriers and burst with ghostly wails and clouds of smoke, the rings sparking and flashing violently from the hits before breaking as well.
“She blocked them?” a witch exclaimed with a hop.
“Do it again!” another ordered, with the monsters again conjuring their dark magic to fire once more. “Sap that fucking human’s lifeforce dry!”
“Nobody harms my man,” Pip growled as crackling arcs of energy built up around her. In a flash she took off in blur of red light, streaking over towards a witch before circling around her in a tight loop. The little monster screamed and swung with her staff at the fairy, her casting base wavering with a soft crackle before fading away as the witch tried and failed to hit the speedy flyer. Pip ran circles around the witch before zipping off and doing the same to another, then another, and then another, the fairy moving from one magical monster to the next while tightly circling them with trails of red light. The witches watched her move about to all six of them before zipping over to Daniel, stopping immediately over his head and then slowly gazing around at the confused monsters with rapidly beating wings.
“Was that it?” one of them asked as they got ready to launch their spells. “You never even touched us. You didn’t do a damned thing, you stupid bug.”
“I’m not a bug,” Pip argued. “I’m a fairy. And I did do something.”
“Yeah? What did you do?”
“You idiots!” a gremlin called out, with the witches turning to her in confusion. “Look below you!”
The witches blinked then looked down, all of them jumping in surprise at seeing magical casting bases glowing below their feet with exclamation and question marks for their emblems. The monsters then saw Daniel smirking at them while Pip had her hand raised with her finger pressed against her thumb.
“I made you all go away,” she scorned. With a snap of her finger the casting bases lit up with bright flashes before launching the witches high into the air screaming. Everyone watched the little monsters flailing about while soaring up over the forest before seeing Pip holding her hands out towards them and erecting a wide casting ring overhead with multiple intertwining bases and sets of her markers within it.
“Meanies,” she said, right before launching a barrage of blinding light out into the sky. The thundering volley streaked high over the forest, incinerating the airborne witches while catching the attention of plenty of other monsters throughout the burning forest as the sight looked drastically different compared to the sprouting cascades of lava or pillars of smoke and cinders.
“Dear god,” an elf breathed out, herself and others nearby watching in awe as the fairy unleashed a hellish onslaught into the sky, taking the witches out by extreme overkill, with her magical bombardment soaring high up before exploding into radiant displays of energy and light. As her magic faded away everyone turned to the fairy who kept her eyes upward still, her wings beating quickly while emitting a crimson light as she hovered over Daniel.
“The amount of power that monster has,” an elf softly spoke. “The stories about them were true.”
“Someone kill that thing, quick!” a dark ranger shouted as she and others drew their arrows towards the fairy. “She’ll destroy us all next with that magic of hers if we don’t!”
“No she won’t!” Daniel called out at them, with the rangers keeping their arrows primed while other elves were watching the tiny monster fearfully. “This fairy isn’t a danger to you. She isn’t like the ones you’ve heard about, I can assure you of that. She’s nothing like the monster you believe her to be.”
He then turned to Jovian and Jacqueline, the two slowly looking down from the magical display above back to him with narrowed eyes.
“She isn’t like these monsters that surround us, like these two soulless murderers that stand before us. She cares about the lives of others, about the innocent women and children who are trapped in this forest, trapped as slaves to these cruel oppressors, and she’s come here to help free them just as I have.”
“Just as you… what the fuck are you talking about?” an elf called over. “Who the hell are you anyway?”
“Just another pitiful fool,” the gemini cursed before stepping forward and slashing their swords towards Daniel, the blades hitting against each other as a torrent of electrical energy and freezing shards of ice spiraled at the human and fairy. Pip held her hands out before her, creating a large shield of interconnecting casting rings that glowed a deep crimson, the barrier taking the full force of the gemini’s attack with lightning bolts and shards of ice flying off wildly to the sides. Monsters ducked and backed away while a bright flash lit up in the clearing, bolts of electricity and spears of ice striking all around while monsters jumped further back to avoid getting hit. The blinding light slowly faded from the point of impact to reveal Pip’s barrier standing strong while the ground around her and Daniel was scorched with large icicles sticking out of the dirt. Jovian and Jacqueline snarled with rising anger while The Sisterhood stared at Daniel and Pip with disbelief as they remained unharmed from the magical onslaught.
“Such power,” an elf breathed out. “She blocked all that without any trouble.”
“That thing is going to be the end of us all,” a dark ranger scorned. “Rangers, you heard our leaders. Kill that human and his pet fairy, now!”
The elves let loose their arrows, the flying barrage shooting out of the surrounding w
oods with sharp whistles and glints of light from their steel tips. Pip quickly spun around with a graceful twirl, erecting more glowing barriers to cover every angle around her and Daniel before the arrows struck against them with sharp crackles and sparks.
“Kill them!” a gremlin ordered, herself and her sisters throwing their alchemic bags at the barrier dome that they exploded violently against. Daniel and Pip looked around to seeing flames, noxious gas, and arrows striking the barrier before a huge thud sounded off above them. Looking up they saw a giant club pressing against the top of the dome, the lights flashing brightly to hold off the mighty force as the weapon was brought back by an ogre before slamming down again with a powerful impact.
“I don’t think they like us, Pip,” Daniel commented as the ogre struck the barrier again and again while more arrows and exploding pouches hit against it relentlessly. “Though I can’t imagine why.”
“What do we do?” Pip asked. “Daniel, what should I do now? Should I blow everything up?”
Chronicles of Eden - Act XII Page 9