Chapter 30 Melodia

I grunted as the doll smashed me down to the ground. The angle of its attack gave me a good look at the floor as it quickly approached and then passed me by.

Oh great, the doll threw me into the foundation hole. I braced myself for the impact of hard concrete. Maybe I had enough time to make a spell to slow my…

“Ow”

I crashed into the floor as a web of cracks appeared in the concrete around me. I stumbled to my feet, hating my situation. As it turned out, there was a simple way to counter magi. All of their magical knowledge and spells were useless if you attacked them faster than they could cast.

I heard the air shift above me. I looked up just in time to see a black blur coming right for me. I brought my hands up and braced myself. The doll slammed into me, my feet digging deeper into the ground. I snatched my hands out, trying to grab its arm.

[Gravity.

One meter area around me.

Increase gravity by…

The doll pushed itself off my arms and flew away before the spell could finish. What was that, the fourth spell I hadn’t been able to finish before the doll got out of range?

I jumped out of the little hole within a hole I’d made and looked around for the Doll. I didn’t see it but I did get my first look at my new battlefield.

The area directly under the hole was empty, but right past the edge was a large underground chamber that went out in all directions. Everywhere I looked I could see a forest of support columns. Not that I could see far into said forest. There were no lights down here, so the area faded to dark after a while.

So a bunch of white columns in between black voids. I couldn’t think of better camouflage for the doll. I kept looking around, searching for movement instead of color and… there. I spotted the white mask moving as it burst out of the shadows.

[Gravity

Three meter area around me.

Gravity increase by…

The doll raced past me before I could finish the spell. I blinked and felt a sudden pain on my side. I glanced down and saw a cut on my jacket which must have come from the doll. I winced as my warm blood met the cool night air. I turned around just in time to see the doll go back into the shadows.

Maybe I could cast the spell now while it wasn’t attacking? No, that wouldn’t work. Making an area big enough and heavy enough would take way too much mana, even with the power of the stars adding to my stores. From there all the doll had to do was wait until I ran out of it.

No, if I was going to do this, it was going to have to be spell-less. I kept an eye out for anything only to see a blur of movement from above.

I glanced upwards and swung a kick only to stop right before I hit Anna in the face.

I jumped back as the rest of the girls landed on the ground.

“Come on even when we’re trying to help… are you bleeding?” Before I had a chance to say a word, the doll rushed past me again, making a big cut on my shoulder. Sure it didn’t sound so impressive when you remembered how long it took me to talk, but it was fast, trust me.

I winced again, my hand reaching up for my shoulder. I felt the warm liquid on my hand as my eyes went back to looking through the dark for the doll.

There it was again. I saw the blur coming right at me again. I grit my teeth and swung my leg out to kick it… only for it to turn at the last second.

It swung right at Claire, sending her into a white column. Instead of going for another ambush, it landed on another column and bounced back at us, going for Rashell this time.

“Air bu…” She lifted her finger to aim only for the doll to hit her before she could finish the word. She went flying into the void. With any luck, she’d make it back to us.

The doll landed on another column and jumped again, aiming for Anna this time.

“Prism Shield,” she spoke as quickly as possible as a pink wall of hard light appeared in front of her. The doll smashed into it, growling at us from behind its mouth less face. The doll bashed its arm into the shield. Anna’s own arm shook as she buckled back and sweat started going down her face. Could she feel the hits her shield took?

I rushed forward past the round shield and swung back to kick the doll in the back. I had been hoping to smash it on Anna’s shield. She might have taken a bit of the hit, but this doll needed to start talking damage already.

Instead, the doll shifted to the side as my foot hit the shield. My eyes widened as I felt my foot set itself on fire. I yelled as I bounced back and landed on the ground. I forced my eyes open in time to see the doll coming right for me.

“Air Bullet,” a blast of wind hit the doll in midair, knocking it to the ground, “Air Bullet.”

The doll hit the ground and skittered away before the second blast hit its landing spot. I struggled to stand up, trying not to put too much weight on the foot which kicked Anna’s shield. I glanced over and spotted Claire getting to her feet too.

“How is this thing so fast?” She grumbled as the doll vanished back in to the void. “How are we even supposed to beat it?”

“I have no clue,” Rashell added as the three of them started walking towards each other, forming a rough triangle with their backs to each other.

And here I was standing outside of it all by myself. The easy target.

It was going to come after me first, wasn’t it?

I spun around without even hearing anything. My fist was already swinging by the time I heard something moving towards me. The black blur came right for me, my fist already on path to hit it right in its dumb bone mask.

The blur came to a stop as I felt another sharp pain in my hand. I slowly looked back at the doll. It almost looked like it had blocked the attack with its face. Its claws flashed forward and grabbed my arm. I tried to pull away, but the grip was too tight.

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Wait, it was grabbing my arm. All I had to do was point my finger and…

The doll swung me around and sent me flying before the thought was even half formed. I grit my teeth as I hit something hard as white stone crumbled around me.

“He threw me through it,” I mumbled to myself as I saw the column in front me, now missing a chunk in the center. Past it I could see the doll jumping from column to column in a circle around the rest of the girls.

Well if he was going to focus on them, maybe I had a chance to…

The second I thought that, the doll broke its pattern to rush back into the void. I blinked as the white mask got right into my face. I felt a sudden pain in my gut. I glanced down and saw a fist jammed into my stomach.

And then the world started moving. I slammed into a far wall, the open pit now a bunch of light in the distance. I got to my feet as I heard the wind rushing towards me.

I jumped off the wall just in time for the doll to crash where I’d been. I swung my fist into its back. I winced as I felt nothing but pain. There was no way around it, this whole thing’s body was hard as rock. Hitting the doll was never going to work.

I jumped back as the doll turned and became a blue again. It started jumping around the columns, almost invisible in the dark. I guess if I waited long enough my eyes would get used to it, but I didn’t have that kind of…

The doll brushed past me, getting another cut in. This time, my leg was the one to take the hit.

I fell to my knee, wincing in pain. The doll came to a stop right in front of me, pulling its arm back. I only had time to close my eyes before its claws came down on my face.

I heard whooshing air as I opened my eyes. The doll was smashed against the wall and slowly twitching.

“Air Bullet,” the words echoed through the columns as another blast hit the doll. I watched as it tried to dig itself out. Before it could get very far, I heard Rashell casting her spell again as another blast of wind hit the doll, keeping it in place.

“Can you stand?” I looked to the side to see Anna standing over me with her hand out. Rashell was standing next to her wielding dual finger guns.

Had she always fired Air Bullet with those?

Oh right, the hand.

I slowly nodded at Anna and took her hand. She pulled me up only for my leg to act up. I winced and almost fell only for Claire to catch me.

“You two get her out of here, we’re not going to win down here,” Rashell yelled as the other two propped me up onto their shoulders. “I’ll join you when I can.”

“Got it,” the two other girls turned around and started carrying me out of the dark and back into the light.

“Get ready,” I mumbled to them as I saw the night sky again.

“Ready for what? Anna asked as I closed my eyes.

[Gravity.

Self, Anna, and Claire.

Negate gravity.]

I hit the ground with my good foot and launched us up.

“Whoa!” Anna yelled as we went up.

“So this is what you meant,” Claire added in a weirdly calm voice as we cleared the top of the pit. Once we were good, I dropped the spell and we landed back onto the ground.

“Melodia,” I looked up to see my brother and Tina running towards us. He came to a stop and freaked out. “Are you okay, did you beat the doll?”

I guess I was a little beat up, but I was fine… I think. I wasn’t sure I’d ever been this injured before.

“The doll’s still down there,” Anna said, saving me the trouble of explaining. “It’s too tough, it’s like its body is made of rocks or something. Rashell is still down there holding it down, but she can’t really hurt it, nothing we have can.”

“What about Gravity Crush?” He asked as his eyes fell on me. I took a deep breath and focused on him while trying to block out the rest of them.

“Too fast,” I managed to get out as a green shape jumped out of the pit. Rashell landed next to us before glancing back at the pit. She was breathing heavily, and her feet were stumbling a bit, like she was about to fall over.

“I managed to get it stuck pretty deep into the wall,” she managed to say between breaths, “but it’s still going to get out and attack us again if we can’t think of something.”

Well at least we agreed on that. There had to be some way to get rid of this thing. If only we could really slow it down…

I glanced between Anna, Claire and myself as a plan started to form.

“Melodia,” my brother interrupted me as everyone turned to look at him. “I know that look in your eye. You have an idea, don’t you?”

Everyone’s eyes fell on me.

Claire’s eyes.

Rashell’s eyes

Tina’s eyes.

Anna’s eyes.

No, please don’t. Why were they all looking at me now? Go look at something else. Go away and leave me…

“Melodia,” I felt two hands grip my shoulders as I looked straight ahead as Arturo’s eyes met mine, “just look at me. Ignore everyone else and tell me the plan. Pretend they’re not there. The only people here right now are you and me.”

“Only you and me,” I repeated after him before looking into his eyes. I took a few deep breaths as I felt the rest of the world fall away. “Things get easier to break when it gets cold,” and that was it, the words started spilling out of my mouth, “if Claire keeps pouring her mist into the hole, the doll won’t be able to avoid it. It can’t break through Anna’s shield either, so we can use it to block off the entrance. I can cast a spell to increase the gravity in the area to slow it down even more.”

“That’s… a good idea,” I jumped into my brother’s arm and turned to see Anna’ flinching away from me. I had actually forgotten she was here. “Claire, get the mist started.”

“Yeah, on it,” she gave me one last glance before running to the edge of the hole. She put her hands over it and flexed her fingers. “Freezing Mist,” two streams of mist dropped from her hands into the hole as my plan started.

“I think I may have something to help with this plan,” Tina added as she took off towards her van.

We were really doing this then. I let go of Arturo and walked towards the pit. I reached the end and looked down to the increasing amount of mist below.

[Gravity.

Square the size of this hole.

Double.]

I held the spell for a while, watching the edges of the walls until the first sign of…

There.

I cast the spell the instant I saw the blur. The doll fell to the ground, its weight suddenly too high to keep jumping around.

It got to its feet and looked up. It crouched down and rocketed up. Between the ice already forming on its body, and its doubled weight, it was much slower than before. It reached the edge of the hole only to smash against a wall of light.

“Prism Shield,” Anna called out as the pink shield formed across the top of the hole. The doll fell back to the ground and growled at us, the ice growing even thicker around it.

I glanced over at Anna who had taken a spot between Claire and me. She was glaring at the doll and putting her all into the shield, even as the doll jumped up again and smacked itself into it. Right past her was Claire, still pouring on the mist. Honestly I was a little worried the shield would keep the mist out, but it looked like we dodged that bullet. It was going through with no trouble.

The doll kept attacking over and over again, the ice and increased gravity keeping it down until finally it landed on the ground and didn’t jump up again.

“Keep going,” I heard Anna say as I kept the spell up. There was no way I was letting this thing fake us out. It took another two minutes, but the doll jumped up again. It made it halfway to the top before freezing over all the way and falling back down as a statue.

“I’m back,” Tina declared as we all dropped our spells. She was holding something up. She ran right up to us and placed it in my hand. It was a blue metal orb with a big dial on it.

“Figured you made the plan, so you should get the honors,” Tina quickly explained before pointing at the dial. “Turn the dial twice and push it down. You’ll know if you did it right if it starts beeping. Once it does, throw it in.”

I nodded and did as Tina said. Just as she explained, it started beeping. I glanced over into the hole as the mist started vanishing. Right in the center was the still frozen doll, reaching towards the sky with one of its arms.

I tossed the orb down next to the doll.

“Okay now everyone back up a bit,” she said as she spread her arms out and Claire, Anna, Arturo and I all…

Wait, where was Rashell?

Before I could ask, a burst of blue dust exploded out from the hole, floating up into the sky. Was anything else supposed to happen, because I didn’t think some blue dust would be enough?

And then the world became white.

A boom erupted from the air above as a bolt of lightning formed out of the dust and struck down into the hole. I felt the ground under me shake as bits of concrete came flying out of the hole.

“So is that going to happen twice or?” Arturo asked Tina who shook her head. He took a careful step forward along with Anna to the edge of the hole and peaked in.

“Yeah, it’s gone,” he confirmed.

“Along with most of the floor,” Anna added, “the parts that aren’t all black and crispy anyway.”

“Well in that case, we should probably go see how…” Tina was erupted by another explosion coming from behind us.