The Dark Witch's Insignia

Chapter 04

Jayden's voice booms as he announces the start of the event. He replaces Alexander for the second task as the emcee.

"In front of you are different doors to the cages of the mythical beasts that I, together with the Witches Council, have collected for the sake of the Great Search."

Fon looks over the grounds and studies the different kinds of doors around them. There are numbers written in front of the doors in ascending order.

"The numbers you see in front of the doors coincide with the points that you will get when you defeated the beast inside. The higher the points, the stronger and harder to defeat the beast within."

Fon searches for Philomena at the judges' table, and she notices as Philomena shakes her head. That means, she cannot use her BeastMaster voice.

"We will watch your battle while inside on the screen dedicated for each door. So when you are defeated, our rescue team will automatically enter the room to save you," Jayden assures. "But if you are defeated, you cannot continue to enter any room and defeat other beasts."

Jayden pauses for a while before continuing, "When you enter a room, you cannot leave until you defeat the beast or it defeats you or someone else defeats it for you. The time limit is one hour. Whoever gets the highest point will win this test!"

"As a bonus, whoever defeats the highest pointer will get the specified points on the door. But, whoever can tame it will earn twice as much! In addition to the highest pointer, when a group of people teamed up to defeat it, the point will be divided equally among the members of the team. So choose wisely what room to enter to get the highest possible point!"

Fon smirks as she watches Ayin and Cesky eyeing the middle door. They are planning to get the middle pointer beasts to add up and match the highest pointer. They are betting on the fact that no one can defeat the highest pointer.

The signal to start sounds. Prim and Sven enter the highest pointer room while she is left in the center of the Academy grounds.

Moments later, she enters the same room as Ayin. She observes as Ayin tries to pierce the huge beast with icicles that he made out of the moisture around the room. Due to the sturdy build of the beast, Ayin's icicles are just bouncing off upon contact against the body of the beast.

Fon imitates him and creates her icicles and pierces the monster. It goes right through the beast and crushes the wall behind it. Ayin glares at her and she laughs until she leaves the room.

After that, she enters where Cesky is. She can't help but laugh loudly at the scene. The beast is a small creature resembling that of a chick, but huge winged creatures–that can revive and multiply when it dies–surround it.

There are already tens of them around. It only means that Cesky tried to kill the guardians of the beast before resorting to this plan. She is using her glamour and imitating the winged creature to get close enough to the little beast. When the little beast dies, so are the guardians that will all wither down to ashes. It is not a bad plan, but it is hilarious.

Cesky notices and looks at her, clearly irritated. Fon waves her hand and Cesky sees the little beast vanishing in front of her eyes. The huge winged creature moves and goes to the little beast who is transported to the other side of the room.

Cesky is confused. There is no way that the little beast can be transported from the huge winged creature encirclement to another area. It is rooted in that same spot and is immovable. No magick can also be used against it because of the defense barrier being created by the huge winged creatures around it.

Fon approaches and smiles, "This is the fastest way to kill a little beast if you have enough magick." Fon thrusts a sword made from her aura on the ground.

Cesky sees the trail of blood on the ground and the sword. She looks at the huge winged creature in the other corner of the room and they all withered down to ashes. The little beast appears to her and Cesky. Her sword already impaled it.

"You applied glamour to each one of those winged creatures?" Cesky asks incredulously.

"Sort of," Fon answers as she is leaving the room.

"But Energy Molding cannot acquire that kind of magick in that short span of time! And you can't definitely apply it to each of the winged creatures that fast!"

"I just applied glamour lavishly in the area surrounding the little beast. It is like putting water in a cylindrical container with the little beast in the center. That is why you also see the little beast being transported."

"But that would require a huge amount of magick!"

"Which I, fortunately, have," Fon says and leaves the room.

For half an hour, Fon continues to snatch and steal from Ayin and Cesky's prey which earned her the wrath of the spectators. When at last she tires of it, she enters the room where Prim and Sven are.

She finds them still battling the dragon inside the room which means that they have already given up on getting the points for taming it. She sits on one of the protruding stones and sighs as she watches the other two candidates run around and throw different weapons at the dragon.

After all the excitement she felt while stealing the other candidate's prey, the feeling of sickness and nausea is coming back to her. Trying to prolong the task might cause her the Great Witch title.

"I left you for half an hour hoping the two of you could weaken it but it looks like you are the ones losing your magick instead," Fon comments lazily as she watches the two prancing around the cavern that is inside the door.

Prim and Sven back away from the dragon and glare at Fon. She smiles. For the whole day, she received nothing but glares. It is so unfamiliar since Freya's apprentices are all scared of her and tried hard not to meet her gaze.

Dirt and bruises cover Prim and Sven's bodies. They look exhausted from trying to defeat the dragon. So she can't help the gargle of laughter again.

"You even gave up on taming it," she says, deciding not to say her other honest, but deprecatory opinions.

"I never thought you can laugh like that. You should use that often in conversations," Prim suggests.

"Prim and I teamed up on defeating it. This is the highest pointer so if the two of us share the point, we will still win against the other candidates. You should team up with us too," Sven suggests.

"You approved of this?" Fon asks Prim. She did not anticipate that Prim will choose to cooperate with the idealistic Sven.

"The dragon is too powerful for us to handle individually."

She sighs. "First of all, when I entered this room, Cesky and Ayin earned no points. Second, I don't like teaming up when I can easily do it alone, and third, I am not planning to defeat it."

Prim and Sven stare at her like she's some crazy witch. Fon stands up from where she sits as a spectator and walks toward the dragon. The dragon roars at her, threatening to tear her apart. Nevertheless, she steadily approaches it. She heard Sven shouting for her name and warning her of the strength of the dragon. She is even aware when Prim stops Sven to come to her rescue. The dragon's massive claw suddenly comes down on her. She places her barrier up using energy molding, and it sent the dragon wheeling backward and losing its footing.

The dragon gathers up its bearings and fires its breath toward her. When it's done, she allows the shackles inside her, and her full magick blasts off. It is felt around the room and the dragon backs away. She extends her hands towards it and it cowers under her touch. When she is assured that she already tamed the dragon, she places the shackles again and her magick is set to a minimum, a limit that she could manage comfortably.

When she moves to its side, Fon knows, that she will win this challenge without a doubt.

A/N: 

More reference for Fon Carlson at the top.