The Fairies cackled madly. They enjoyed the show and planned out several different ways they would like to see the group killed. Of course, this caused some arguments between them, and they'd stopped paying complete attention to the group of travelers.
Meanwhile, Mikaya had made it to the pond and flung her sword at the frozen Fairy. She used her magic to guide it right through the Fairy's throat.
It finally released Danny.
He screamed, as he found himself falling back into the water, but Mikaya guided the sword back and Danny managed to grab the hilt as it sped by him. Its momentum pulled him clear of the pond.
Mikaya's sweat trickled down her face. She really needed to practice her magic more.
Elena sighed in relief, but she had no more left in her. She passed out, and Yevad caught her as she fell.
Yevad laid her gently on the ground and glared at the Fairies.
The Fairies had come to an agreement. They all attacked the group at once. Four flew at Mikaya and Danny, and the other five flew at Yevad and Elena.
"Don't try to hurt them!" Mikaya yelled as she saw Danny lifting her sword against the attackers.
He froze. "Why!" he asked in disbelief.
"The spell they cast will kill you! Run!"
"But how were you able to kill that one . . . ?"
"It was frozen. It didn't cast the spell. Now run!"
Mikaya ran to Danny and grabbed his arm with her left hand. With her right, she reclaimed the sword.
Yevad grabbed Elena and pulled her onto his shoulder.
They ran away from the Fairies, but the Fairies were only toying with them. They could kill them at any time.
"It's my fault," Mikaya gasped, speaking between breaths as she ran. "I should have thought of a better way than having Elena use all her power. She's the only one that can counter the Fairy spell."
Suddenly, Mikaya felt something. The spell was broken! She stopped abruptly and turned to face the Fairies, amazed. Had they run out of magic? No. That couldn't be it. Fairies were immensely powerful beings. That one spell wouldn't have used up all their power. "Who could have countered the spell?" Mikaya thought as she quickly searched her surroundings. Her eyes could see everything even though it was dark, but aside from the four of them and the Fairies, Mikaya saw no one.
The Fairies stopped in disbelief and looked around frantically for the source of the counter spell. Clearly, none of the four targets had been able to undo their magic. The only one they'd seen with any real magical talent had expended every bit she had to freeze their sister. That one lay helpless and unconscious on the shoulder of the blue-armored human.
Mikaya noticed that the Fairies were distracted and wasted no time at all. She decapitated two Fairies.
Danny and Yevad had continued to run, and they were several feet away from Mikaya and the Fairies when Danny saw that Mikaya was no longer at their side. Danny stopped and turned in time to see her attack.
"Yevad!" Danny called out.
Elena weighed heavily on Yevad's shoulder, but the adrenaline coursing through his veins made him feel as if he could run forever. It took all his strength of will to fight his natural instincts and stop to look back. He turned to see Mikaya kill the Fairies.
Unfortunately, the other two Fairies had decided to attack Mikaya at the same time, and Mikaya was unable to dodge them. She was about to be struck down!
Just then, James appeared out of nowhere and hacked off the head of the Fairy on the right of Mikaya. Its head and James hit the ground at the same time. The head rolled and bounced off of Mikaya's boot toe.
Mikaya dodged the other Fairy and cut its head off before it could catch up to her movements.
James looked around at the others and saw that the final five Fairies were after the most vulnerable of them. He ran toward Yevad.
Yevad didn't understand what was happening, but he did understand that the spell Mikaya had been talking about earlier no longer existed. He laid Elena down gently and readied himself to fight.
Before James could reach him, one of the Fairies turned and came flying at him with its claws out, ready to slice James to pieces. Skillfully, he blocked its claws with his sword and then shifted and ran to the left. James used his momentum to jump and run sideways up the crooked trunk of a nearby tree. He bent his knees and pushed off, high into the air, then came down onto the startled Fairy so quickly that it didn't have any time to react before losing its head.
Meanwhile, the other four Fairies converged at Yevad simultaneously from all different directions.
"Yevad!" Mikaya screamed, but she was too far away to help him.
James stealthily ran up behind one of the Fairies and impaled it through the body so savagely, that it fell to the ground and found itself stuck there. Standing on its back, James drew his sword out of the ground and back through the Fairy before lifting it and chopping the Fairy's head off with a fluid motion.
One of the remaining Fairies went straight for Yevad's neck with its razor-sharp claws, but Yevad felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickling. Moving instantly, he barely dodged the attack of the Fairy behind him, and it crashed into the other Fairy that had made a full frontal assault. It bounced and fell backward.
Yevad turned and sliced the Fairy's head off with his sword as it fell to the ground.
Shrieking in frustrated fury, the last Fairy flew up into the sky and searched for a target. It dove at James unseen, but before anyone could warn him, another figure appeared and killed the Fairy with a mighty spell that stabbed the Fairy's body before exploding in starburst rays of blinding green light that disintegrated the Fairy in a flash.
Everyone, except James and Elena stared at the creature.
It had a furry face, cat-slit eyes, stood about four feet tall, and wore a dark pink robe.
"Whose idea was it to stop for a picnic at the Fairy Pond of all places?" the creature asked in a lovely feminine voice.
James smiled wearily and walked up to it. He placed his hand on its shoulder and said, "Thanks, Lina."
"Lina . . ." everyone else (not including Elena, who was still out cold) said in unison.
"Yes," Lina said. "That is my name. In case you were wondering, I am a Gatis, and I countered the Fairy's spell."