Part 3
Marikit
The Yellow Blade Field
Mid-morning
The awaited time for me to beat the princess had finally arrived. To hold my excitement, I gripped Laum's ears so hard. However, he did not react at all. He became too dumbfounded with his jaw dropped.
I could not blame him though.
We had arrived at the place where the duel will be held. The Yellow Blade Field. And we came here using Gil's skill, a teleportation skill.
Teleporting using a door was quite an experience. It's a new experience for me as well. But perhaps it was not the time to be amazed, right Laum?
I went to his face to pull up his hanging jaw. His mind came back.
"He must be playing with me," He said disappointedly and grudgingly. But he sounded to me that he was indeed amazed at Gil too.
For sure he felt like Gil was playing with him. I mean, Laum spent a lot of time walking around the maze of hallways inside the mansion just to reach another room. And there's Gil, he could just open a door for Laum but he did not.
I had my sympathies with my Laum. But to tell you a secret, it was least of my concern. He-he. I'm fine Laum walking around as long as I'm with him and I'm sitting comfortably on his shoulder, as long as I have my wings not to make a flip as he wanders around the mansion.
"He has his reasons, Laum. You should understand, no?" Johan said as she tapped Laum's shoulder. She was also trying to hide her smile. It must be entertaining for her to see how Laum reacted discovering this.
Standing next to Johan was His Highness. Our opponent was beside him.
Gil behind them was holding a white robe. I just wondered why did he bring a robe. Well, it's not my business.
As His Highness had proclaimed two weeks ago, our battle will be held here in the Yellow Blade Field. I never had set foot here but I had seen this yellow field from afar, from the glass window of the mansion. Laum had never too. This field is quite eye-catching, its yellowness to be precise with the big lone tree in the middle of the field. The yellowness of this field came from the grasses. It just never came to me that the big old tree had a door struck on its wide trunk.
In the far edge of the yellow field was a forest near at the foot of Mt. Rio.
Samantha stepped forward. She was in plain, paled, old shirt as always as she did every morning when she had morning practice.
The princess smiled at me.
Whereas, I gave her a 'Humph'. She was still smiling at me. What an unshakable young lady she is.
All was here. All was ready.
Under the shades of the big tree's trunk were the people from the mansion. His Highness will be the one who overlooks the duel. Johan will be our only audience as Gil will be the one who ensures that we will not do significant damages to the surrounding. He will be casting a barrier that will trap us with Samantha.
Perfect time of the morning. The sun was climbing mid-way toward the peak of the cloudless blue sky. The morning light was with us and I felt it was calling for our victory. Little wind was whispering, enough to cool the heat from the sun. And the tweets of the birds were from the distant, perhaps from that forest at the border of the field.
His Highness stepped forward to give us his short instruction.
"Both of you, come here."
Laum approached His Highness, so did Samantha. We were facing at her.
"No killing. Use your skills but no killing."
Laum's eyebrows raised as he was making an eye to Samantha. She smiled. She intended to burn Laum alive, after all.
No killing, huh?
Laum nodded at His Highness. "Yes, His Highness."
"It goes without saying, His Highness," Samantha answered his father.
"Now, get in your positions!"
His Highness's piercing eyes brushed us off, even with her own daughter. That was scary.
We immediately ran to our positions. Samantha was merely 25 hand spans away from us. His Highness stepped back into the shades with Johan.
He turned to the butler in black-and-white attire. "Gil"
Gil nodded. "Yes, His Highness."
Then, he stepped in and raised his gloved hands level to his shoulders. His golden eyes glowed.
"Astral Attribute: Binding of the Dark Divine."
As soon as he named his skill, lines of gray lights formed a rectangular box with us inside. Then the line of lights sprung up in an instant and enclosed as it reached the top. The gray lights gradually disappear and the barrier was complete. The same barrier on that day at the underground throne room's incident.
Laum looked amazed. He was turning his eyes everywhere.
"Ahem" I coughed to get his attention back.
"Yaah, surely it's interesting, isn't it?" He said.
"Surely it is. But sure it's not the right time for that, right?"
"Yeah, I get what you mean."
Good. He was distracted earlier but now he regained his focus. We had our sights straight to the front, to our opponent.
She had no weapons, just her bare hands.
Laum grabbed his sticks from his back. He inhaled much air and then exhaled. Since I was always close to him, I can always hear his heartbeat.
Good. His heartbeat was not particularly calm, it was slightly faster than the normal but it was expected. At least, he was able to restrain the stage fright.
His Highness will be the one to do the opening rite of the duel.
We were anticipating for His Highness.
I breathed in deeply. Then His Highness's calm voice rang.
"Begin."
****
Marikit
The Yellow Blade Field.
In the instant His Highness voiced his signal, Laum's feet moved to the run straight to Samantha but Samantha unleashed the first skill.
She was unwilling to wait for us to approach her close. She knew she would be in a disadvantage if we got close to her. The Orange-Haired Princess did have the patience the same as His Highness.
"Iron-melt Attribute: Magma Bolt"
Three balls of molten blasted off from her palms.
Since we already knew Samantha's Attribute, we could handle her easier than when we had fought with His Highness.
Laum moved to evade the 'Magma Bolts' instead of relying on his 'Bubble's Barrier'.
Laum struck one 'Magma Bolts' with his stick. The Bolt ricocheted away from us.
"Think you can keep up with this?" I asked him. I was still on his shoulder and grabbing his ear.
"We're just getting started," Laum replied.
He glanced at me and gave me a nod. A clear one.
Samantha cast another round of her 'Magma Bolts'. Laum readied his sticks.
"Let's go, Marikit."
"Yes!"
We charged without a barrier. Laum was working his feet hard to approach closer to the Princess. We were like dancing as we dodged her 'Bolts'. I bet Samantha's Ruby Eyes were also dancing as they followed us for Laum's agility was not only for show.
Slowly but surely we moved closer to her.
When Samantha realized this, she grinned. Perhaps she had seen this would happen.
Her eyes glittered.
Bending one knee, she slammed her two hands on the yellow grasses. She cast another skill of her.
"Iron-melt Attribute: Pillars of Icarus"
The ground trembled as if something would come out from it.
I immediately pulled Laum's ears like it was a horse's reign.
"Laum!"
He halted. He looked down on the ground feeling also the shaking.
Smoke started to rise on the ground below, then it glowed as Laum's feet started to feel the heat.
He jumped back.
And as he did, a pillar of magma spurted out from the ground we stood previously. It was as though a strong geyser but instead of hot water, molten iron was spurting out from the ground.
"Not yet. Others are coming, Laum!" I warned Laum.
Without spending another second on the spot we standing, Laum ran.
Even the ground around Samantha was erupting like it was in hell, we had to keep on running to get close to Samantha with me telling Laum where to run.
However, Laum mistakenly landed to a place where a pillar would erupt. There's no other choice but to rely on his barrier.
"Marikit!" He cast his defensive skill. "Bubble Attribute: Bubble's Barrier"
I maintained the stability of the barrier. Even we tried floating with the barrier up so that the pillars could not touch us, it was not possible. There was also a flat invisible wall above us. We were trapped within Gil's barrier as I had mentioned.
We stayed low to the ground while evading the hellish pillars.
Samantha was still in her place.
"Bubble Attribute: Seven Stars of Ulfsaar"
Laum skilled. Seven red bubbles emerged. Samantha knew the red bubbles' property. She knew it would explode at Laum's will so she countered us by exploding the red bubbles with her 'Magma Bolts'
"Iron-melt Attribute: Magma Bolts"
But that was an opening we had been waiting. After casting a spell, she would be left wide open. Even she continued hitting the red bubbles, we were still approaching her fast.
Close enough, Laum gave the princess a good swing with his stick. She rolled over and Laum hit the ground. She somehow avoided the attack but as much as I thought, Samantha did not have the same alacrity with his father, His Highness.
Since we managed to get close with Samantha, Laum swung his sticks again. He was trying to corner the princess. We were going with physical attacks.
Samantha gritted.
"Iron-melt Attribute: Fiery Wall"
The sticks collided with a protective wall of molten iron and bounced off. Laum jumped back. As soon as he landed, he leaped once more to attack.
His sticks collided with the 'Fiery Walls' again. Samantha managed to block off his sticks.
She was too focused on defending. The defending and the swings of the sticks played at some times.
When Laum noticed Samantha had troubles to keep the cycle on, he made his next move.
Laum grinned as he moved back to keep a distance between us and the Princess, who was showing a sign that she was starting to feel exhaustion. Her breath was getting more rapid and short.
She wiped her sweat on her forehead. Her bangs were also drenched slightly.
When she tried to raise her hands to use a skill, she noticed something behind her back.
"I got you." Laum's voice rang like we were winning already.
Samantha's eyes widened witnessing two red bubbles were ready to explode near her.
She was blown-off. However, she still stood with her feet as she landed. Not bad for a princess.
Her face was smudged with dirt. Her clothes were also soiled. As the dust dissipated, she wiped her cheeks.
She glared at Laum.
If I were her, I would thank Laum. Based on the explosion earlier, Laum was still concern about Samantha. He did not want to end up hurting her too much. He preferred to win this fight by either binding her or making her surrender.
We desired that situation. However, Samantha would not do that. She would not yield that easily.
Even if that if Samantha wanted to fight until the last drop of her mana, I'm sure we will win against her.
In some point, Laum had a great advantage in this duel.
He is a son of a Rajah in the first place. He trained not only within the yards but as a son of a Rajah, he had been in a real battle like wars between our hostile villages and engaging and hunting some wild magical beast.
Also, Laum has a pixie, a great pixie to be exact. Haha. And that's right. It's me.
Since Samantha had the same attribute as his father, we could handle her easier. Besides, as a pixie, as a queen to be precise, I have some special abilities that a mere pixie haven't acquire.
Yes, I am a queen and I don't have plans to tell this to Laum. It's irrelevant, after all.
Hmm… I was a queen to be exact. A former queen.
Life of a queen might be over for me but I still have responsibilities with my Kin. I promised to save them.
As a former queen, I can grow resistance to an attribute I have met. However, it's not full immunity. Also, it has a threshold. In addition to that, if I spent enough time with a human who uses an attribute, I could learn some of his skills.
I had learned skills of Laum like his 'Bubble's Barrier' and 'Rattletrap Blue'. I had also acquired some skills from Mayumi, Laum's younger sister. One of them was a healing skill called 'Rejuvenation of the Pure Spring'.
Laum had such advantage against Samantha that's why I was confident we would be standing as the victor at the end of the duel.
Samantha was still eyed on us. It was heavy. Growing hatred was unconcealed. Perhaps she was being more caution too as she fell off guard earlier.
"Marikit" Laum readied his sticks once more. He notified. We were going to charge again.
"Of course!" My voice was too energetic. I was excited about our upcoming victory.
Laum sprinted. His feet were fast and were jumping as lively as they could. It was though we were chasing our prey in the forest back in our homeland.
Samantha skilled to intercept Laum. However, our momentum was unstoppable. We were in trance. Laum moved swiftly to avoid the 'Pillars of Icarus'. Sometimes he used the sticks to fend off the 'Magma Bolts'.
My blue wings glowed as it flipped. I cast a spell too.
"Rattletrap Blue'
Blue Bubbles swirled around us.
Laum prepared himself too. He tapped his sticks once.
"Bubble Attribute: Seven Stars of Ulfsaar."
Seven Red Bubbles joined the blue ones.
Samantha could not stop us no more. Her face showed irritation. She raised her two hands toward us. Her palms facing to us was starting glow orange. She was accumulating mana.
"Iron-melt Attribute: Deep Magma Core!"
A ball of molten iron enlarged on her palms like a balloon. As it was big enough to cover her image to us, she fired it off.
The 'Deep Magma Core' shot more than the speed of an arrow. It was fast that it would surely hit us.
"I got this, Laum."
Laum did not turn his face to me but he nodded.
"Bubble's Barrier"
I made 'Bubble Barrier' and as soon as the barrier appeared, the 'Deep Magma Core' collided our barrier.
A big explosion with an earsplitting sound occurred. Dust covered us. It became silent for mere seconds.
Samantha focused her eyes on the cloud of dust. She was sure she hit us.
She saw something was moving inside the cloud of dust. She cautioned herself and she tried to stand back. But she could not move. Her feet were stuck.
Her feet were caught by the blue bubbles I cast earlier.
A silhouette was approaching her. It was running, with sticks on its hands. Jumping like he had escaped death, Laum came out from the dust.
Samantha struggled to free herself. She even used skills but it was rendered useless.
Luckily for us, her skills were less destructive than His Highness's did. It was also thanks to the resistance I had acquired from His Highness's Attribute.
Samantha tried to raise her hands to cast a skill aimed to Laum but his stick had already at the front of her pretty face.
"It's over, Princess Samantha."
Three Red Bubbles were circling Samantha and another Blue Bubble seized her hand preventing her to cast a skill.
I came out of the smoke too. Then I landed on Laum's shoulder. It was boasting seeing the princess fell into our plan. It felt good seeing Samantha fell into our hands.
She was on her knees.
"You okay?" Laum asked me.
"I'm perfectly alright. Well done, Laum" I poked his cheek.
"I could not do it without my partner." Laum was still pointing his stick to Samantha.
She had her face down. Then, she looked up. Anger and despise were clear.
She snorted. She was mocking Laum.
"As expected to a foul thing like you. You used Marie as a shield against my last attack." She sneered once more. "In my thought, she deserves to be treated just more than like that. You sacrificed her to win. How lowly!"
"Jeez. Just admit defeat already." I said it to her.
"It's fine, Marikit. Besides, I have trust in my partner."
As I heard him, it stung my chest. I felt guilty. I tried my best to hide it, however.
He sighed. Laum did not want to see the princess in a sorry state any longer.
"Say the word, Princess Samantha. Let's end this."
How he sounded so sympathetic.
However, Samantha's glared with more anger.
She grinned and uttered a strong word of disapproval and resistance. Her voice was also blended with mockery as always.
"Never"