Destiny Island

Chapter 34

If someone had told Jade that she would be flying around dodging attacks of evil magical being, she would have thought they were insane.
First of all, she had always had a paralyzing fear of heights and often times she wasn't even able to look down from her own terrace without getting extremely dizzy.
It wasn't something that had a clear explanation or an obvious cause, it was just something that suddenly became her reality and that she had no control over.

Another reason the battle seemed so unreal to her, was that she was always a very rational person.
She didn't believe that magical beings, good or evil truly existed nor that she would get the chance to face off with them.
So the whole situation felt so unreal that her brain didn't seem to register that it was all truly happening.
For a while, it seemed to her like she was just playing a video game, a very realistic one at that.

Still, she did her best, she automatically avoided attacks, tried to strike back using her knowledge of martial arts, all in the delusional hope of winning the game, being the best player she could be.
It seemed as if her brain refused to accept that it was a game she played for her own life, that losing the game would mean death.
Instincts took over, and she did what she felt was right but it took her some time to truly start being afraid.

Fear snuck into her heart slowly and surely until she was faced with the full importance of the battle, its reality.
It didn't hit her until she heard a strange ominous voice calling her name.
"Jadeeee, Jadeee, did you like my storm? I made it especially for you! Did you really think that a regular storm would just pick up a person like that and carry her to the highest possible place." A raspy female voice said.

Chills ran down Jade's spine, and she knew that what was happening was something far beyond her ability to comprehend.
She was faced with one person who not only knew her fears well enough to use them against her but also seemed able to adjust.
It was obvious that the evil witch that started emerging from the shadows had other plans for Jade this time. Probably because she realized that Jade no longer had major problems with heights.
The witch's purple glowing eyes whispered to Jade that they knew all of her fears, all of her dark secrets, and they only needed to choose one and let the torture begin.

There was no way to outrun her or outfly her, so Jade was forced to stay grounded and face her fears.
Never in her life had she had to do something as brave as that.
Greater men than her were unable to do the same, but Jade knew that her survival, the survival of her friends depended on her beating her own fears.
Still, she wished she knew which ones the witch would choose. It was always her motto to prepare in advance, no matter what kind of challenge she was facing.
But there she was, unprepared for what might come, but ready to do what it took to come out as a winner.

Having fears is normal, human and Jade knew that. She didn't have more or fewer fears than an average person, but that still meant the witch had a wide range of fears to choose from.

At first, the witch didn't do anything, just stood there staring at Jade while her night black hair flew around her in what seemed to be the gathering of power, energy, something Jade couldn't understand.
Then suddenly, something in the witch's expression changed as a wide grin appeared on her face.

Jade couldn't help but be fascinated by the huge contrast that the witch's perfectly white teeth made with her black lips.
Every part of the witch's appearance seemed to scream 'evil' as if she wanted her victims to immediately know that she would show no mercy.
However, instead of attacking Jade directly in one way or the other as Jade expected, she did something that Jade didn't see coming.

It was as if the witch divided her powers and sent one part of her essence to a dark humanoid form that was confronting Amber giving it more strength and the other towards Royce.
The one sent in Royce's direction was more direct since it was a slow moving fog that seemed to eat up everything in its path.

One of the creatures of darkness was on its way to Royce and the huge bat-like creature was devoured in a matter of seconds.
The fog just melted away all of its flesh and the only thing that was left was a pile of bones.
The fog was moving on a path towards Royce and although it was very high it wasn't so wide, probably to avoid destroying more of the evil's allies.
Jade knew that she could fly Royce away, out of the path of the dark fog but Amber was also in danger.

Before she knew what she was doing Jade was by Royce's side flying him away of death's path but the moment they landed she was shocked to see the humanoid monster slashed Amber with its huge claws.
Seeing that made her lose her focus and before either her or Royce could do anything she was hit by something huge and was thrown a few feet away landing in a pool of blood that effectively soaked her hair.
Not having time to check on Amber, Jade started praying that her friend was okay and that she didn't just become responsible for her friend's death.

One of Jade's greatest fears, the one she had hidden from everyone was losing people, having to choose who to save and failing both sides. Watching someone die because of her was something that scared Jade out of her mind.
To her it seemed much easier to die, to stop existing than to live with the pain of someone else's death especially knowing you caused it, knowing you weren't strong enough to stop it.

Hoping that Amber was okay, and trying to convince herself that her friend was not defenseless anymore, after all, she had the power of fire on her side, Jade focused her attention on fighting the thing that attacked her.

It reminded her of trolls she had read about in the stories but much bigger and stronger.
Although she knew how to defend herself from regular attackers, Jade wasn't sure how she would deal with the huge beast that was confronting her.
As she was dodging its fists, she was trying to think of a way to defeat it. Although it was very strong it seemed very dumb, so she just needed an intelligent plan to beat it.

"Watch out!" She heard Ignacio say.
She looked in his direction and upon realizing what he was planning to do, moved out of his way.
Soon after a huge rock crashed into the troll's head and although it didn't seem to hurt it too much it managed to knock it out of the Shadow World which was a huge relief to her.
She only had enough time to nod to Ignacio in gratitude before she had to focus on other possible attackers and on the unfolding battle.

At one point, she did manage to glance towards Amber and seeing her on her feet made her feel a bit better.
If she was moving around, she was probably okay.
That thought helped renew her strength, and she charged towards the dark witch who made her face her worst fear.

Otherwise occupied, the witch didn't notice her until Jade picked her up and carried her up into the air.
"Thanks a lot. If it hadn't been for your little storm trick I wouldn't have been able to do this now." Jade said as she dropped the witch from the height that would have killed any regular human, but managed only to make the witch disappear the same way the troll did.
It was a win in Jade's book, and she rejoined the battle with new-found strength and confidence.