Slayers: Alive

Slayers: Alive 23

Filia's eyes glowed as her tail, claws and fangs made an appearance, giving her a fierce look, even if the rest of her body remained in elf form. With her anger reaching its peak, Filia swung her racket fiercely. "Xellos is mine!"

The ball hit Saramina head on, though the zombie tried to shield herself with her racket. Yet there was something off, it wasn't just the magical sphere, there was something else behind it, a sphere of energy, specifically white magic. Entangling itself with the brass rackets ball, the sphere of light carrying an exorcism spell collided with the undead target. Saramina let out an ear splitting wail that made all those present immediately cover their ears. Then she disappeared in a brilliant flash of light.

Filia clapped her hands together and gently voiced, "rest in peace," before strolling victoriously out of the court. A few more rules might have been broken, but again, no one wanted to argue with a dragon.

"Sa... Sa.... Sa... Saramina!" Mr. Enterprise finally seemed to have recovered his capacity of speech. "Dragon, you exorcised my only child and now she is no longer with me because of you!"

Filia's guilt was quick to catch up to her. No matter how much of a, literally and metaphorically, rotten brat that girl was, she was still this man's only daughter. What could she say to console him? How could she convince him that it was better for Saramina to rest in peace?

"Thank you!" Mr. Enterprise suddenly burst into tears of relief. "Thank you so much, Lady Filia! Saramina was a terrible expense for me and because of her zombie state, I was afraid to put a stop to her spending or refuse anything she asked for. I was sure she would devour my brain if I did! Bringing her back from the dead was a mistake, but now I'm finally free! I'm free at last and I didn't even have to hire an exorcist. I'm free for free, life is wonderful!" Jumping with joy, Mr. Enterprise ran off to celebrate.

Filia stood there in shock. "How could he be so happy to be rid of his daughter? He's so mean!" The golden dragon pouted indignantly.

"That was... interesting," Zelas calmly commented. She gave Filia an almost friendly smile that made the dragon do a double take. Then the monster lord's expression morphed into something deadly, her fangs peeking out of her mouth, golden eyes glowing. "If you ever call me mother, mom, mommy, mama or any other variation again, I will kill you." She especially emphasized the last four words of her threat.

Filia shuddered under Zelas' intense glare and nodded like a bubblehead toy. "Yes, Lord Beast Master."

Zelas grinned, her eyes closed, an expression that was Xellos' rather than hers. She knew it annoyed Filia to find similarities between them. "I'm glad that we're finally starting to see eye to eye." The remark was full of sarcasm, with a message buried between the lines that reaffirmed Zelas' sense of superiority. The monster lord got up from her bench and stretched. "I'm getting bored, I'm going to take a walk, maybe I'll see someone else around here I recognize. I'll be back in a little while." With those words of parting, Zelas walked away, disappearing among the gathered crowd.

Filia let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding and nearly collapsed into the bench where Zelas had been sitting before. Her rest was short lived, as the brass rackets tournament had to continue. She didn't even have time to let out her tensions by complaining to her friends, though she thought she heard Gourry telling Lina about how glad he was that his mother in law was nice. With number seven and number thirteen, the last remaining contestants, being called to the court, Filia went off to face her hopefully final obstacle in recovering Xellos.

Filia strode to her side of the court, while a young woman who went by the name of Yuna walked to the opposite side. Yuna looked normal enough with her energetic eyes and short orange hair. A classic sports girl with real skill. "You can serve if you want." She offered sweetly.