The Witch of the Castle of Glass

Calista shoved the four children and their father under the third seonangdang as Olive’s explosion rattled the treetops. The twenty fairies already sheltered beneath this seonangdang embraced the family with relief and beckoned Calista to join them within its safety of its light.

Calista shook her head, the next cries for help already drawn her attention, and she bolted towards the voices.

“Hang in there, my love,” Calista whispered into the wind, wishing Milly could hear her plea. “We just need to survive four more minutes.”

A tremendous snap, followed by a fearful wails, reached Calista’s ears. She turned towards the cries for help and stumbled when she saw the massive form of Fairy Killer towering over its victims.

She began to flee from the beast, until she recognized the elderly voices that cried out for help.

“Shit. Calista, you don’t need to go there. They brought this upon themselves,” she groaned to herself. Her feet instinctively shifted beneath her, and she headed to intercept Fairy Killer, cursing herself for her idiocy.

Calista broke into the clearing just as Fairy Killer lifted Elder Tidebreaker in its jaws. The gull frantically flapped his useless wings, feathers flying everywhere in a frantic attempt to escape the beast’s iron bite. Chief Elder Tamarind and Elder Durian watched helplessly from below, surrounded by a dozen members of their tribes and twice as many corpses.

“Help me, my friends,” pleaded Elder Tidebreaker. “Please, help me!”

His fellow elders looked on helplessly, as Fairy Killer began to swallow the elder alive.

Calista hurled her spear into the beast’s giant left eye. It howled with outrage as the metal tip pierced its pupil. Elder Tidebreaker fell out of its mouth and landed hard on the ground, covered with a thick, putrid saliva.

“Run for the seonangdang,” Calista shouted at the elders and their kin as she rushed to Fairy Killer’s hind leg and grabbed hold of a hunk of fur. “Or just ignore me again, if you still think my girlfriend and I are liars.”

A spark of loathing flashed in Calista’s eyes, belying any argument from the Elders. Durian and Tidebreaker quickly gathered up their surviving kin and headed towards the nearest seonangdang.

Chief Elder Tamarind remained behind after directing his few remaining kin to follow the other Elders.

“What the hell are you doing, Tamarind? Get out of here,” shouted Calista, grabbing a second handful of fur. She climbed up Fairy Killer’s Leg towards its back while it was distracted. It ground it head into the dirt to try to dislodge the spear in its eye.

Calista willed the spear to pull out an inch, just enough to aggravate the wound to keep the beast distracted.

Tamarind sat cross-legged on a nearly stone. “I’m doing what I can, outsider,” the elder said softly. He mumbled under his breath, and a golden halo appeared over Calista’s head. She felt her strength and agility increase as Tamarind’s enhancement spell took effect.

Calista scrambled up the beasts’ leg and across its back with her newfound strength and agility, until she stood atop its thrashing head. Stretching her hand towards its skull, she called upon the Spear of Pinga to return to her. It did, through the most direct route.

The howl of the wolf reached every ear in the valley as the spear slowly tore it way through the beast’s eye, skull, and brain like a tiny, piercing needle. Calista struggled to maintain her balance atop the creature as it flailed in agony, and she wrapped her foot around its fur for purchase. She focused intently on the spear, and the effort drained her magic greatly.

Fairy Killer’s eyes glowed blue as it thrashed wildly. It healed the spear’s damage as quickly as the damage was dealt. Calista wondered how much magic power it took to heal such an injury, and soon had her answer. As the spear completed its journey and erupted out of the back of Fairy Killer’s skull like a bullet, the blue glow in the beast’s eye’s faded and a tiny, unhealed wound remained where the spear had emerged.

Calista clutched the spear tightly with both hands. “Okay, fucker. Let’s see how long you last without your magic.”

She drove the tip of the spear down hard into the unhealed wound and began to pry. Tamarind’s enhancement spell took her strength to new heights, and Fairy Killer’s skull cracked. With a triumphant grin, Calista brought the spear down again and again, open the crack wider until she could see its brain beneath.

Fairy Killer slammed its body into tree and stone, desperate to dislodge Calista and end her relentless assault. Panic gripped the beast as it sought for prey to replenish its healing magic.

Its eyes fell on Tamarind, seated on the stone with his eyes closed, mumbling as he maintained the enhancement spell.

“Tamarind!” Calista shouted as the beast turn its massive head towards the elder. “Run!”

Tamarind’s eyes opened and he saw his face reflected in the massive wolf’s eye.

“Protect my people, outsider,” Tamarind said calmly, and he poured every ounce of his remaining magic into the halo above Calista’s head.

Fairy Killer grabbed the elder between its teeth, threw him in the air, and swallowed him whole. Tamarind did not give the beast the satisfaction of a scream.

Calista felt the enhancement halo flare to life, empowered by the sacrifice of Chief Elder. Her eyes flared with fire, and the fire flowed into the spear. The metal tip at the end of the driftwood began to glow with intense heat, and she stabbed it into the centre of Fairy Killer’s brain.

Fairy Killer tried to heal, but only a single, inadequate blue spark appeared for a fraction of a second. Tamarind had emptied himself of magic before being devoured, leaving little for the beast to consume.

The beast, unable to shake its relentless attacker, bounded out of the clearing desperately searching for more prey. It sped across the Gathering as it sniffed the air and locked in on a scent.

Calista knelt on the beast’s head, held on for dear life, and continued her relentless assault, praying she would survive long enough for the countdown to reach zero.

Time Remaining: 1:35

Total Fairies: 1,214

Fairies Enslaved: 384

Fairies Murdered: 503

Fairies Under Seonangdangs: 185

Remaining Fairies: 142

* * *

Milly took a deep breath to calm her racing heart.

This is it. The final minute of the arena. But I don’t know how we’ll survive it.

She surveyed the wolf packs that had assembled at the edge of the Bazaar, just outside her magic’s range. Thirty wolves had gathered – the majority of their remaining forces – led by a nine-foot-tall monster named Stormfury. Her winter white fur stained red from slaughter, she picked bits of flesh from beneath her claws as she shouted orders to the wolves to bring them in line to finally end the fairies’ resistance.

Exhausted, Milly leaned against a fallen oak to support herself. Her magic was nearly empty. As a last resort, she reluctantly removed Xavier’s black blade from her inventory. She could feel its hunger as she held it in her hands, crying out for death. She shivered.

Sapphire watched as Milly pulled the blade from thin air and mumbled “Not a Goddess, my ass.”

Milly was too tired to argue. Their defensive line had repelled five assaults from wolf packs in the last two minutes and it had cost them dearly. The land between the two armies was a graveyard of fairy and wolf alike.

Across Milly’s feet lay the last of Rain’s explosive muskrats. It wouldn’t be enough to dissuade the gathering horde.

Nobori emerged from the Gathering as the wolves assembled, sneaking the surviving members of the Galloping Winds behind their lines and beneath the safety of the seonangdang. He embraced Nobori tightly, then snatched a trident from a fallen warrior and joined the lines at Milly’s side. Indigo cried as he walked away, held under the light by her tribe.

“She won’t forgive you for that, Nobori,” Sapphire advised with a subtle smile. She placed a comforting, scaled hand on his furry shoulder.

“She was my rock – my everything – when we were slaves. I’ll do everything I can to keep her safe,” Nobori answered as he clutched the trident fiercely. It towered over his head, far too large for his petite form to properly wield.

“You’re a brave one, tiny fox,” Sapphire said with admiration. “You’d be welcome amongst the Kinship of the Eastern Waves.”

Nobori beamed with pride.

Milly glanced back at their forces. There numbers had dwindled to less than sixty, and most were injured and exhausted. There was no more room under the healer’s seonangdang, and they could not reach another in time.

“We’re not going to win this,” Sapphire leaned over and mumbled to Milly. “But we’ll show them the strength of our tribes as we fall.”

Milly hoisted the black blade in her hands. It weighed heavy on her soul.

“Stay together! Stay alive!” Milly shouted at the defenders. It was something Calista would have said. She felt a pang of sorrow as she glanced towards the Gathering and wondered if her girlfriend was still alive. She fed that thought to the fire of Salem’s Fury and readied herself for the final battle.

Stormfury howled, and the amassed wolves surged forward as the arena timer entered its final minute.

“It’s been an honor to know you, Witch. I wish we’d had more time to know each other,” Sapphire said, hoisting her trident and baring her shark-like teeth.

The ground shook beneath their feet as the wolves charged forward, howling with excitement. Milly fixed her eyes on the nearest one, the black blade crying out to drain its soul away.

Movement at her periphery drew her attention. A flash of a gigantic wolf at the edge of the Gathering. Milly realized the ground was not shaking from the charge of the wolves, but from something far worse.

Shit. Not now. Please, anything but this.

Fairy Killer burst onto the battlefield, headed directly between the wolf and fairy lines. Howls of exhilaration rose up from the wolves as they hailed the arrival of their strongest weapon.

The howls were immediately silenced as Fairy Killer crushed two of the wolves beneath its massive paws in its mad charge forward.

Calista rode upon Fairy Killer’s bloody skull like a cowboy, her spear imbedded in the beast’s exposed brain. Milly’s heart soared as she saw her girlfriend, an excitement which quickly spread throughout the fairy lines.

“Cally!” cried Milly with elation.

“Milly, I could use something explody right now,” Calista called back. She was covered in the beast’s blood from head to toe and struggled to keep a tight grip on her spear as Fairy Killer thrashed madly.

The beast snatched two wolves and swallowed them without hesitation, desperate to replenish its magic. Chaos spread amongst the wolves, and even Stormfury stuttered in her charge towards the fairy lines.

“Sapphire, hold your fairies here. Do not attack. We can’t let Fairy Killer get to any of them, or it will get its magic back,” Milly shouted as she tucked the last muskrat under her arm and ran towards Calista and Fairy Killer. She watched in heart-clenching agony as Calista’s hand slipped.

“Cally, catch!” Milly yelled when she came in range. She threw the muskrat and, with the last of her magic, pushed it towards Calista with her telekinesis. The fires of Salem’s Fury extinguished as her magic emptied. The emotions the Fury had burned away rushed back to her light a tidal wave held at bay – fear, pain, loss, and anger – struck her like a tidal wave as the muskrat flew.

Calista held on for dear life as she reached and caught the creature by the tail.

“Sorry, little guy,” she said apologetically as she shoved the muskrat deep into Fairy Killer’s brain. She ripped her spear out and tumbled down the beast’s back just as the muskrat bit down on its vial.

The explosion blew apart Fairy Killer’s head from within. The beast’s flesh rained down upon the wolves as its life came to an abrupt end.

Calista rode its deathly momentum as she rolled down its back and hind leg. Landing on her feet, she skidded across the trampled earth until she came to a stop ten paces away from the corpse.

Calista took a deep breath, flipped her shoulder length hair from her eyes, and planted the Spear of Pinga into the soil as Fairy Killer’s body fell with a resounding thud between the two armies. She stared into the wolf army.

“Well, that was fun. Which of you is next?” she asked casually, as if eliminating the mighty beast had been child’s play. Her words carried through the stunned silence that had fallen over the battlefield and reached the ears of every wolf in their army.

The confident spirit of the wolves shattered like glass striking stone. They clambered over each other in a desperate retreat, headed for the southern slopes. Stormfury watched incredulously as her forces fled, then, with a snarl, joined in their retreat.

A euphoric cheer rang out from the fairies as Milly rushed into Calista’s arms and held her tightly.

“Careful, love,” Calista grunted, every cut, bruise, and ache hitting her at once as Tamarind’s enhancing halo faded away. “I’m more fragile than I look.”

Milly leaned up and, ignoring the blood and filth that covered them both, kissed Calista passionately, over and over, as the Arena’s countdown reached zero.

A triumphant horn blared across the valley, signaling the end of the arena.

“Congratulations, players!” Tutorias voice echoed across the valley as the golden dome dissolved into a shower of gold confetti. “That was one for the ages! The AI Director is calculating your points as we speak, but for now, enjoy some well-earned peace.”

The fairies’ elation lasted only for a few seconds. As the seonangdang’s light faded away, sorrowful cries began to fill the war-torn valley.

Milly and Calista slumped to the ground, exhausted. They sat in the field of corpses and leaned against each other for support. Milly opened the arena player screen, and the final totals appeared.

Time Remaining: 0:00

Total Fairies: 1,214

Fairies Enslaved: 384

Fairies Murdered: 503

Fairies Saved: 327

The final statistic, comprised of the fairies under the seonangdangs and those who had survived the battlefield, flashed gold. It had been close, but they had won. They had saved over three hundred fairies.

“Nine hundred dead. Milly, their whole society is decimated. What are they going to do?”

Milly didn’t have an answer. She simply held her girlfriend close as the sorrow of the fairies spread, and they waited the rewards their death had bought.

Congratulations! Your party has defeated Unique Beast: Fairy Killer.

Your party has been awarded 20,000 experience points.

Milly Brown has leveled up three times. Six attribute points, one general talent point, and three class talent points acquired.

Calista Gale has leveled up four times. Eight attribute points, one general talent point, and two class talent points acquired. Class Talent points will be awarded when a class has been selected.

Items Acquired: Fairy Killer Roast (unique ingredient)

Gold Acquired: 5,000