The Dark Goddess

Chapter 21

For the first few minutes of the challenge there was an eerie calm all over, then suddenly the sound of battles could be heard echoing about as the challengers clashed at different places all over the course.

Ami moved stealthily through the course, hoping to catch some unwary challengers off guard, Casey was even stealthier at a few paces behind Ami, but she was being aided by a spell form and was moving amongst covers of bushes, trees, boulders and so on.

Their first encounter was with a trio of boys, their stature, poise and the manner by which they carried themselves showed they were either legacies or demigods of a war or battle god, that and the assortment of classic weapons they had with them.

One had a morning star and from the first look, Ami could tell the chains on it were barbed and could go to any length, 

Another had a spiked mace, Ami could also tell it was really heavy but the wielder hefted it with so little effort,

The third had a battle axe, long and double bladed, it also seemed heavy but what Ami could say about this particular one was that it was best not to get caught in the direction of a swing.

Ami also realized two things; first all had burly stature and their weapons were huge and of the swing type of attack, this makes them automatically slow,

The second thing was that each of them had two treasures each already but their weapons as sharp as they were, wasn’t bloodied, this could probably mean that there is an extent to which they were allowed to use the weapons or they just used it to intimidate others into giving up their treasures.

“We know you’re there creeping, creep!” the one with the axe shouted in Ami’s direction.

Damn, she had taken too long analyzing them and hadn’t even come up with a plan of attack yet, she was going to have to wing it.

She stepped out hoping Casey would think of a quick counter to whatever happens next.

“Name calling isn’t good yunno” Ami answered as she got in the open with her swords in her hands.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t be creeping about, only cowards fight with ambush, there is no honor in stabbing an enemy from the back” the one with the morning star said.

“Or in her case, pricking the enemy, I mean, do you really call those swords? They’re more like needles” the axe wielder said and burst out laugh joined by the morning star wielder.

It was the mace wielder that nudged them both and gave them a look of caution “look at her neck, she has the same amount of treasure as we do” he said to his teammates.

The jesters suddenly turned serious, they must have realized she wasn’t one to be taken lightly, Ami decided to play on that.

“You are right yunno, but these needles aren’t for pricking or stitching, they aim at your internal organs and hurt you where it is most painful” she said and for show she swung the swords back and forth.

“Is that even allowed?” the axe wielder asked.

His question confirmed Ami’s suspicions that they weren’t allowed to really harm others with their weapons.

Just then, from her peripheral vision Ami saw something twinkle and knew it could only be Casey’s signal that she was ready.

“Finally” Ami said aloud and smirked then she poised in an attack position holding both her swords ready, 

The trio looked puzzled at her sudden change and started to get on guard, then Ami started running towards them, they all seemed surprised that she was the one that intended to attack them and not the other way round.

They hefted their weapons nevertheless and braced, but suddenly a very bright flash of light shone at them and blinded them for a while.

As the light waned and they could see once more, they discovered Ami was gone and so was all their treasures.

Ami and Casey never stopped moving though, Casey laid down a couple of confusion spell forms behind them as they moved on so as to cover their tracks that they might not be followed by the three huge warriors, the flare wouldn’t work a second time and they can’t fight with them head on.

Ami suddenly stopped and crouched low, a sound had flitted past her ears so she stopped to hear it better, but rather than hearing anything, three figures appeared from her right side and moved to the clearing at her front.

“Come out now dear Ami, we would like to have words with you” one of them said.

Ami cursed lowly under her breath, she had really been hoping for this encounter not to take place, but after seeing that the number of treasure with the trio was still just one each, she figured the only thing they had been doing was searching for her.

“Well if it isn’t the three sassy Egyptian magicians… again” Ami said as she stepped out, she wasn’t about to look intimidated although she noticed that this particular clearing had been used well enough by other challengers from seeing the bits and pieces of clothing and armor and weapons.

“What?! Sassy?! Wow! You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that” another said to her, Ami had learnt their names from Zeke and Zara, this one was called Carmen, rumored to be the bossiest and baddest.

“You should know though” the one called Kayla started “We’ve started out on your mute friend’s punishment and this here would be your own punishment ground” she said to Ami.

Ami felt her blood boiling in anger “What did you do to Zara?” she asked in a dangerously low voice.

The trio broke out laughing and continued for almost a minute before the third May spoke.

“Not what we did to her, but what we are doing to her, besides I don’t think you have the luxury of thinking about her now, when you really need to think about yourself and the world of pain we’re about to rain down on you” May said with wicked conviction.

“We had been scrying to search for you since the challenge started, we aren’t gonna lose this lesson teaching opportunity” Carmen said.

Ami shifted then suddenly she heard the flitting sound again.

“Argh, that’s the second hex that you’ve missed Kayla, cmon aim properly” Carmen said right after.

Ami must have looked puzzled because Carmen laughed before saying “oh right, you probably don’t know but Kayla her tried to place a hex on you twice now, nothing dangerous or permanent, but she missed anyways, that’s to show you we are serious this time, no humiliation from you anymore, we’ll be the ones dishing out that to you this time”

Ami felt a cold sweat trickle down her spine, Hex?, now that was scary and these guys aren’t playing as they’ve said, she hasn’t seen any sign from Casey, meaning she’s probably still creating the spell form or forms she needs for these guys.

It also means Ami was going to have to holdout a little longer.

“You know what actually got me the most out of all you guys have said?” Ami asked rhetorically although the girls shrugged in response. 

“The very fact that you three had been scrying in search for me all day long, I must either scare you so much, or all three of you are gluttons for beatings and humiliation” she said to the three girls and got her intended reaction from them, anger.

Ami knows if she can get them angry then they might, they just might not be as coordinated in their attacks or at the very least they’d loose some of their concentration.

“Like I said” Carmen said with voice quavering with anger “You’ve got guts, and We will be the ones dishing out the beatings and humiliation to You!” she shouted.

As Carmen finished Ami took off, running really fast to her side back into the cover of the bushes, she knows facing them in the open like that is only advantageous to them not her, but in the bushes she’d have a more better fighting chance, if they followed which she was really counting on.

And they did, the trio rushed into the bushes with her thinking she was escaping.

“Stop!” Carmen shouted after Ami though she couldn’t see her, “Don’t run off” May shouted as well.

Ami though was already right behind them, she figured out which amongst them was Kayla the hexer, she pegged Kayla to be the most dangerous from afar because of her ability to launch hexes so logically taking her out first is the right thing to do.

Ami made up her mind and attacked.

She sheathed her swords and brought forth her powers, with a low boom and a loud swoosh her powers burst forth in response to her.

Then she pushed a force of wind towards Kayla and though she didn’t mean for it to come out as strong as it did but it swept Kayla off her feet, slammed her into a tree and still dragged her away screaming.

There was no time for remorse, Ami unsheathed her swords and headed for Carmen in a rush, the after effects of activating her powers still lingered hence making her even faster than she normally is.

She caught Carmen just turning around away from the direction Kayla’s scream came from, and on seeing Ami headed for her, she smiled? Ami was puzzled enough to falter, she wasn’t expecting that.

Then Carmen placed her palms together to form a triangle, now the fliting sound came as well and this time it hit Ami squarely in the chest.

‘Damn, the whole thing was a trap’ was all Ami could think of before the hex spread around her, growing from her chest and crawling about her body like a spider’s web.

She landed on the floor with a thud, paralyzed and dumb folded.

‘Casey where are you?’ Ami thought in a panic, then again she realized she hadn’t even seen any sign of Casey not to talk of a sign from her, what had happened to her?

Carmen strode towards Ami, followed behind by May who was dragging Kayla with her hands across her shoulders.

“You know what the good thing about being three is? We get to offer one up for bait, a necessary sacrifice if you will” Carmen said.

“You believe everything you hear don’t you? I mean why else would you have so easily fallen into this trap, Kayla isn’t the one with the hex, I am” she continued with a chuckle.

“Casey would have told you that much if she were here, but alas, she herself is entangled in one of May’s Nut traps, so right now you are all alone and we are about to bear down on you a world of pain and suffering” Carmen finished and smirked contentedly.