KYLIE.

Kylie felt the tether release with a snap!

She panicked.

What had happened to Gob?

No wait… not to Gob… if he had died, she was sure she wouldn't be here.

It was the tether that was destroyed.

That meant the shard was dispelled. Or destroyed… destroying a shard was OP. She didn't know of anyone that would be capable…

Would The White Orc? If so he must have advanced significantly further than how Gervais had described him the few times she'd heard him talk about it.

She cursed herself for sending Gob off on his own.

She had been angry.

It was stupid.

Gervais would…

Gervais will be pissed. she thought.

She paused and thought about that. It should have made her afraid. But strangely, it didnt. Not long ago she would have been afraid. But right now, here, she wasn't. Not at all. In fact, she realised… she was smirking about it!

"Gervais will be PISSED!" she said out loud with a laugh, getting some strange looks from the goblins in the market.

She decided to let Gob keep doing whatever he was doing, and she would keep going where she was going.

She knew she shouldn't be going where she was going. She knew she should be minding her own business. But minding her business wasn't something that came easily to Kylie, and now that she thought about it, being untethered and, finally, 'off the radar' from Gervais made what she was about to do astronomically more possible… as well as astronomically more stupid.

Goblin town was built around its markets. This famous place where anyone could buy or sell anything at any price, without any questions being asked, was where the town got its reputation and it's influential capacity to accommodate the multiple archetypes who would likely only ever otherwise meet each other on the battlefield.

Next to the markets was a large dilapidated box of a stadium surrounding a notoriously renowned fighting pit. The pits offered recreational violence for the entertainment of inhabitants and visitors, an excellent secondary income stream for the town, and either opportunity or sudden and vicious death for the combatants. That's where Kylie was headed. To find an Elf.

She flew over to the private entry. Not the door you went to as a paying customer, but where you went if you owned a fighter, or a prisoner you wanted a fighter to dispose of.

A chunky, bored looking armoured Orc guard stood at that door with its huge arms folded and what was probably a perpetual frown engraved into his snout. She tried the front on approach, just looking confidently like she knew what she was doing.

As she got close the Orc put its hand on its very large axe and grunted "No Brights."

"I have business here" she replied authoritatively.

It shook its head and pointed at a sign above and to the side of the door. It read:

NO HEROS

NO BRITES

WIVOUT AUFORITY OF DA

STADIUM MANAGER.

IF YOR DAT FAR UP YORSELF

DEN STAY DOWN DERE.

She crossed her arms and glared at him. She thought about attacking. She'd be able to take him in a fair fight, but that would end up being counter-productive to her admittedly already very weak plan, and she had already pushed her luck too far by beating up two Orcs in the tavern last night to prevent them from tearing Gob to pieces.

There weren't too many Bright fairies around Goblin Town and while the gold coin would shut the barman up, she knew the Orcs themselves would come looking for revenge when they recovered… if they recovered. She'd been pretty angry.

Being a neon fairy was generally pretty good. You didn't need to eat or sleep, and you weren't far off invincible. It was pretty hard to kill sentient gas. But there were a couple of negatives you had to look out for. There was the physical limitation of small size with its corresponding difficulty in getting around in a large world, AND there was the constant glowing all the time.

Kylie was never able to increase her size, not even magically, it was a rare to find any race with a fixed cap stat, but given how OP fairies were from the start she guessed it must be the Spheraxis' way of balancing the universe or something. Anyway, every fairy was size(0.33cap), and remained that way their whole life.

Not a problem today. For what she had planned, being small was going to be a positive.

But the constant glowing was going to be an issue, especially because she glowed blue.

Blue was the colour of the Bright magic style. Bright magic dealt with magical skills related to air, light, electricity, resonant sound, water, gas, ice, teleportation… it was a long list, but it was a list of things often associated with blueness, so blue had become its signature colour scheme. Bright mages were not regulars in Goblin Town. They weren't liked in Goblin Town. While they would no doubt be tolerated like everyone else who wasn't an Elf, they would certainly be descriminated against like she was at the tavern last night. Bright Mages were mostly Human or Elf, and they were often, Kylie had to agree, up themselves.

Most of the magic that happened down here was Crude Magic.

Putrid or luminescent greens were the signature colours of the Crude style, whose practitioners dealt with infection, mutation, poison, decay and a range of other unnatural un-life forces. Goblins and Orc Mages were most usually aligned to Crude Magic. Green was a very acceptable colour in Goblin Town.

So while her blue glow wasn't going to get her in trouble per say, it was certainly a limitation.

She had no doubt they would let her in the fighting pits as a paying customer. A Brights gold was as good as a Crudes gold. But she wasn't here for entertainment, and she was unlikely to get where she was trying to get without some other sort of concealment.

What she needed was an alchemical solution. Neon fairies couldn't ever stop glowing, but just a small intake of select chemicals balanced within their bodies effected their colour. She actually glowed blue by maintaining a 2.5% balance of argon gas, alongside her neon.

Crude fairies glowed green by a holding a similar balance of Krypton gas.

All she needed was to rebalance her chemistry, and she could change colour.

Except that finding noble gasses wasn't exactly that easy. Lucky for her, this was Goblin Town.

As it happened, trace amounts of liquid Krypton were found in most crude replenishment pills and potions. She couldn't eat a pill, because she was a fairy, BUT if she popped the top off a Crude potion and dipped her hand into it, she definitely could convert the liquid krypton to gas.

As long as she was physically depleted.

So all she needed was a green potion, and a decent gym.

She found a market stall with a range of Crude, Shadow and Chaotic options. After some loud haggling, the price dropped from 20 gold to half of Gobs final silver coin. She handed it over in exchange for a low grade, Crude body replenishment potion in a stoppered glass vial that glowed an iridescent green.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

The vial was nearly as big as she was, but while fairies where diminutive, they weren't weak, and she flew off with the bottle tucked under her arm without any trouble except balance. Now all she had to do was burn some points.

The 'health' of a being appeared in the spheraxial diagram under body points. Whenever body points were reduced below their maximum whether through a wound, from sickness, or even just a full on workout, they could be replenished in time by rest, relaxation and natural healing, or more quickly with a magical or alchemical solution, or in this case a cross of both: the common replenishment potion.

Kylie had already naturally replenished her few lost points from her tussle with the Orcs last night, so for the potion to do anything for her she was going to have to do something to burn a few points. Where better to burn off some body than the gym?

Gyms in a place like goblin town didn't have workout machines and full length mirrors like an Heroic gym would. Most creatures in goblin town were Savage aligned, and that meant boxing.

There was a boxing gym not far from the fighting pits, of course, and when Kylie got there, a short goblin guard with a spear longer than he was tall stood sternly at the door. When she approached he pointed at the sign and shook his head.

NO TRANSCENDENTS OR HEROS.

THIS IS A BEAT UP GYM,

NOT A BEAUTY PARLOR.

"Bite me", she said flying past him.

"Well don' dat sound sweet darlin', I never tasted me sum bit ov fey befoor, might be, todayz me lukky day" he sneered and licked his lips with a pointed red tongue.

"It'll be hard to taste anything once I've stuck that spear so far up your backside that it comes out your mouth." she shot back over her shoulder.

"Oh! tee hee hee!" the goblin giggled, legitimately amused and impressed by her comeback. Kylie knew how to talk goblin. You just had to be disgusting.

She knew she had won him over because he yelled "OI FISTY, YA GOT A GILFREND COMIN TA SEE YA, WOCH IT, SHE GOT A MOUF ON 'ER JUZ LIK YOUR LAS WUN!"

Inside was dark, lit only by a hole in the roof over a central boxing ring, and the blue glow of Kylie herself. It stank of old blood and goblin sweat. Goblin sweat is the rankest sweat of any creature. It made Kylie want to gag.

The equipment was battered and worn, patched leather punching bags hanging from rusty chains in the ceiling around the outside of the ring.

A pot bellied goblin with scrawny arms but incredibly oversized bandaged knuckles, presumably Fisty, materialised out of the gloom with a scowl on his face.

"Whaddaya wont" he snarled "dis ain' no place for yer kind"

"I wanna fight" she replied with a wink and a cheeky smile.

Another, much more muscular goblin emerged from the darkness on the other side of the ring. He had a greedy gleam in his eye and a wide sharp toothed grin. Keeping his eyes on her, but speaking to Fisty, he said,

"Liddle glowworm wants a fight does she? I'll give her a taste of goblin grift no worries Boss."

Three more goblins and a bulky orc had materialised from the gloom now, all of them similarly rough looking. They spoke to each other in low growls. Fisty had narrowed his eyes warily but never took them off Kylie as he replied to the other goblin.

"I'd no' be so quick ta jump in Jinks, seein' yeh hav'na fought a fey before. Dey ain' so soft as dey looks"

"Dunno Boss, looks jus' like a bug to me. Might be, I jus' squish it." he replied licking his lips.

"Hey Boss, I reckon dis da one from da Spear las' night! Ya know? Da fay wot put down Korl an Pates boyz!" it was the orc this time, who had been growling to his friends.

"Yeh dat?" Fisty asked Kylie sharply.

Kylie rolled her eyes, that damn barkeeper she thought to herself.

"Don't know what you're taking about" she answered, "isn't there no one in here wants a fight? I thought this was a SAVAGE gym, all I'm seeing is a bunch of—"

"Woz it you. wot put down. Korl an Pates boyz." Fisty asked her again, cutting her off mid sentence and firmly restating the question. He wasn't going to let up. She assumed she was at some sort of crossroads. She was thought quickly. She was suddenly surprised when three obvious options appeared in her mind... she'd never had options before.

This is what it's like to be independent! she thought. I'm no one's familiar!

*Lie about it (deception (2/30))

No, I'm the worst liar ever.

*ESCAPE! (speed (53/20))

I can easily get away... but what then?

*Tell them it was you (conversation(172/15), goblintalk(15/15))

She got herself ready for a different sort of fight in case they didn't like what she told them.

"OK, OK, sure, yes it was me, but they were already half way done on each other anyway, there wasn't much left by the time I got stuck into them."

A pause.

HA HA HA HA HA!

burst out Fisty all of a sudden.

HA HA HAW HAW HO HO HO!

The others all laughed too, the mood in the gym suddenly shifted from dangerous to friendly.

"Any'un puts down two of Korl an Pates boyz is WELCOME IN MY GYM ANYDAY!!! Might be, ye ain't so bad after all blubell! Alright fellers, who ready to rumble the orc beater?!"

"How about this boys… anyone beats me, gets to keep me!" she said with a wink.

They cheered heartily.

"Aright Jinks" said Fisty to the other goblin, "yeh wanted to fight the fey? 'Ave a go then!"

Jinks licked his lips again as he climbed into the ring, cracking his bare knuckles loudly. He raised them up in front of his face and adjusted his stance. Fisty rang a small bell,

Ting, ting!

----------------------------------------

Fifteen minutes later, Kylie flew out of the gym with a mischevious grin on her face but otherwise hardly a scratch on her. She was exhausted as hoped, her body points sufficiently depleted for her needs.

“Hey Fisty," she asked in her way out "who's boys guard the fighting pits - that Korl and Pates boys too?”

He squinted at her, “what yeh up to fay?”

“Aw, nuthin'” she said, “just want to stay out of trouble is all.”

“Ask me blubell, yeh got trouble ritten all over yeh.” he said, head shaking “but yeah, dems Korl an Pates boyz in dere. Korl an Pates boyz is ev'ywhere. ‘sept ere. Dey wont come 'ere. We'z got… an agreement.”

He waved her off, his face smirking and dripping with sweat, nursing his recently relocated dislocated arm.

"Yeh be sur to look afer yerself blubell, we'z fond o yeh now. We ain't neva 'ad a workout like dat befor, an i reckon yeh got mor in yeh yet… but if dem orc boyz give yeh any trouble, you juz call out for ol' Fisty" he banged his fists together, then winced, remembering his shoulder.

"Why ya alwayz go fer da tuff wunz Fisty? she heard the doorman ask as she flew off.

Kylie didn't waste any time, she would naturally start to replenish her body points and needed to get the potion into her while she was still depleted.

She popped the cap on the vial she was still lugging around and dipped her hand into it, swishing the liquid around and focusing on her inner chemical balance. She exhaled her Argon, and concentrated on drawing in the Krypton.

The effect was almost instantaneous. She felt the replenishing effect spread through her body, as her points were restored, and at the same time her colour shifted with a flicker from bright blue to a putrid incandescent green. She felt… exhilarated! She'd been Bright for so long. She'd never even considering changing, not that Gervais would have allowed it anyway. She felt liberated! Free! Green!

She headed back to the fighting arena, still lugging the potion under her arm in case her Elf friend needed it when she rescued him… because that was her plan.

This was a rescue mission. Since seeing the poor Elf in the tunnel outside goblin town yesterday she hadn't been able to get him out of her thoughts. She couldn't just stand by and let him be butchered for the fun of it.

The boxy stadium building loomed above her, the roar of the crowd constantly rising and falling. It was very big. And her plan was pretty underwhelming now that she thought about it.

Less thinking, she told herself, Just do it!

Instead of chancing the same orc again at the fighters entrance, she paid the last half of Gobs silver to get in the public entrance.

She flew up into the stand,

Ooooooooooooooh!

said the crowd as one, then

YYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

mixed together.

In the middle of the stadium was a large square boxed in area with high walls on each of its four sides. The walls were made of rough planks of timber and were high enough that the viewers around the edges could get a good view down into the pit, as well as to keep the blood spatters off them during the fight. Most of the blood spatters anyway. They also prevented any terrified contestants from escaping their inevitable ends.

As Kylie flew through the stands, largely ignored thanks to her now-green glow, she saw a monstrous two-headed troll being led, staggering, out of the pits through a side access door. It was at least a size 9, with its head only just below the height of the timber planked walls. Kylie noticed the seats in the bottom two rows were more or less vacant, being within range of a grab from the thing. It was bound by a heavy chain and was being roughly dragged by four big, fat Orcs.

The Troll had just won the fight, even though its claws had been filed off, assumably to give it some measure of disadvantage, and it made a loud

crunch-crunch!

sound as it bit down on two detached limbs of its recent victim; one in each hand, feeding each tusked mouth.

"oh good hik. dis wun tase betta dan da ova wun" said one head.

"yes good baz. dis wun tase betta dan da puky gobs" agreed the other head.

The brute had deep slashes all over its legs and belly, but it didn't seem bothered by them. Whoever had been fighting it hadn't done much more damage than that before they had ended up as its next snack.

It was hard to tell who that might have been as there wasn't much left to identify them, with the remains currently being 'tidied up' by some vile little tribal goblins with collars who were let out on a chain after each match for scavenger duties.

It didn't look like Elf though.

When no one seemed to be giving her any attention, Kylie ducked down a staff hallway and came to an internal access to the fighters area, this one manned by a fat bespectacled goblin in a waistcoat sitting at a desk.

He wasn't holding a weapon of any sort. It was far worse than that. He had a clipboard and a pen.