During these two days, Peter spent them floating, trying to recover from his challenge. Monica spent those times training, even at night, in the underground. Humans sometimes fired flaming arrows at her in order to train her counter attacks.
Usually the challenge would take place in Mount Vatra. However, of course they had to create a new arena.
The challenge was going to happen underground, deep underground where the lava dwelled. The only way to get there was to create a tunnel of stairs. Sirus made one next to the treehouse instead of going outside the wall. They had to descend over two thousand steps, the further they went down, the higher the temperature rose. By the time they reached the ring, the temperature was impossible to support or resist. It felt like they were walking on the sun. Monica found this kind of temperature normal. The others had to wear light clothes, and with the help of Alexandra's cold water they drank, their bodies could resist such heat for merely half a day.
The arena was made out of obsidian rocks that was surrounded by a lava moat. There wasn't anyone except for the king, the queens, the children, and Monica's resurrected parents. No others needed to be there.
"Good luck, Monica." Said Judy, and hugged her.
"Thank you." Said Monica.
"Don't worry, you're going to do great." Said Peter, patting her back.
"Try not to get killed." Nicholas jested with a smirk.
"That would be my first thing to do." Chuckled Monica.
"It's time." Said Sirus.
Monica gripped tightly both her parents as she was levitated by Ama down on the arena, right on the center. Everything went quiet, only the sound of the lava flowing was heard. Monica placed herself in a position of combat. Her parents, shakily, stood close to the fire princess.
Salamanders slithered out from the lava like crocodiles, surrounding them. They were ten as expected. Monica felt her stomach lurch, and her skin crawling.
The salamanders sneered one after another at Monica.
"Welcome, traitor."
"For a traitor, you do have courage. But you are a fool."
"You wouldn't last a second with us."
"Are you prepared to die?"
"She'll be defeated soon."
"You know what?" Monica finally said, sound confident. "The only one who's going to be defeated is all of you. And the only person I know who is a real traitor is your evil and sadistic queen."
All the salamanders shrieked in anger. Their shrieks were so earsplitting, the children and Monica's parents covered their ears.
"How dare you mock our queen?!" One of the creatures hissed.
"Now you will die, TRAITOR!"
Their horns protruded out of their backs, tails and heads. The salamanders were really fast creatures, and very true fire resisters. None of Monica's skills could knock them out unconscious, only push them away or hurt them like a mosquito bite. Luckily, Monica studied the salamanders' weakness at once when Ama asked Peter about it.
A salamander had more than fifty horns on its body and tail together, one of them was its weakest point. Monica went over the book 'The civilization of Salamanders.' The horn on its head was the one. If Monica could manage to remove that horn from each salamander, she could knock them out and retrieve the gem, if she could find it.
Monica closed her eyes and listened.
Everything was dark and quiet but she could sense the fire in each salamander. She could also see them, even with her eyes closed. She didn't know how but she could feel and hear the flames without those creatures. During her training, Monica had to stop the flaming arrows from hitting her, with a blindfold. She had to feel the flame rather than see it.
Salamanders were wicked fast and with so many it would be a challenge to know which one was going to attack first.
"THERE!"
Monica's eyes jerked open. A salamander sprang at them with its jaws wide open, fangs so sharp it could easily rip the flesh from the body.
Monica held her hand open at it. "FIRE BLAST!"
The creature was catapulted away from and was thrown into the river of lava.
Monica felt another one coming. She bent backwards and use the same skill, blasted the salamander away. Then another one, and another one.... She used the same skill on all but she couldn't keep up like this. She had to find another way to win this challenge or else she would be weakened for the use of her powers. When were they going to shoot? She had to stop them so she could pull out the horn on their heads. But how?
"Wait a minute... That's it." Monica realized all of a sudden. "Come with me!" She ordered, pulling her mother and father's hands.
While dragging them to the corner of the ring, Monica used the fire blast at the salamanders over her shoulder to stop them from attacking her.
"What are you doing?" Said the man anxiously.
"Something very risky but you have to trust me." Said Monica. "Get down!" She pushed them to lay down on the obsidian floor. Monica stretched her hand at the river. "Lava Flava!"
The lava streamed up, circling the woman and man who were laying down on their stomachs next to each other.
"What are you doing?" The man screamed, his whole body now under the thick lava. To his surprise, it didn't burn him.
But Monica didn't answer. She forced more lava out from the river. She covered her parents with it then she forced the lava to turn to obsidian. It was unbreakable, they were safe, but not for long.
Monica turned to finally face the enemies without so much worrying of her parents. Only....
"AHH!!"
A terrible sear pain coursed in her shoulder. Her wide eyes turned and there it was, a horn of the salamander penetrated deep inside her shoulder, nearly going to the other side.
As her trembling hand reached for the horn to pull it out, one of the salamanders jumped from behind and knocked her on the floor. His claws pressing on her back, pinning her down. It seized her from her right shoulder with its fangs before dragging her to the edge of the ring. She couldn't do anything other than groan painfully through her clenched teeth. The pain of her shoulder
and her back were intense. Judy and Peter were terrified of this sight. Nicholas was angry. Sirus, Ama and Alexandra grew nervous, they barely trained her well, barely knew how to, but they were confident. The salamander, whose jaws gripped onto Monica, stopped before a few feet away from the river. The other creatures surrounded her, hissing angrily.
"The end is here, traitor." Said one of the salamanders. "Any last words?"
Monica could barely speak. She raised her head, looked at all the salamanders and forced them out.
"You... have a... monstrous queen..." Monica chuckled weakly, with a smirk.
Three more salamanders lunged at Monica with their jaws wide open, each took a sharp bit onto her body, before all forcibly dragged her into the lava.
Something appeared on the lava. Dark red... blood.
"NO!" Judy's shrieks echoed, covering her eyes while kneeling down in despair.
Peter and Nicholas jaw fell open. Nicholas in frustration eyed Sirus and the queens, hoping they would react. They didn't. They simply just stood there. They couldn't do anything even if they wanted to. This was Monica's battle. Still they couldn't hide their fear and anxiety. Ama's lips were pierced shut. Alexandra had to hold her quivering hands together. Sirus standing with his arms crossed, his fingers were digging into his skin.
All waiting desperately for Monica's counter attack or something.
Suddenly, the lava began to froth. The bubbles were weak but growing. Then revolving, like a whirlpool, making the blood fade into the lava. Going fast and faster until something popped out like a cork from the lava before rolling over the obsidian arena.
A salamander.
And the horn that was supposed to be on its head was gone. Then another one burst out and landed on the ring, and two more. None of them had horns on their heads. The whirlpool kept on revolving until it stopped at once.
Everyone stared and waited desperately to see what was going to happen. One of the salamanders cautiously crawled to the edge and bent down its head, sniffing. It turned to the others, shook its head, then turned back to the lava and... bang!
A hand was gripping its head horn. The creature struggled to
get away, snarling wildly, twisting its head left and right, until the horn broke, and the creature fell. The hand dived back under the lava with the horn. Out of fear, anger and desperation, three of the salamanders dived down the river. But they were thrown out after a few seconds, all losing their head horns.
Only two salamanders remained.
Monica's head appeared on the surface of the lava. Slowly, she rose without a scorch. Lava and blood dripped down from her hair and clothes like water. It was amazing. How did she do that if she wasn't trained for this? Everyone was quite astonished. They didn't cheer or anything, they had their eyes and mouths wide open in shock.
Monica was now on the surface of the lava, with a horn in her left hand, slowly walking back to the ring. Even with those horrible wounds on her body, she was hiding her pain perfectly, retaining that faint smile.
"How is it possible?" Said one of the two salamanders, awestruck.
"I guess I got really lucky." Monica shrugged, with a weak grin.
"You will not get lucky while searching for the gem. You will never find it, traitor!" Hissed a salamander.
Monica giggled weakly; blood dripped out from her mouth. "You mean this gem?" She raising the horn and on the bottom of the horn there was a small diamond-shape opal gem.
"Impossible! How did you find it?" Snapped the same salamander.
"One of your friends shot the wrong horn at me. You should be really careful." Said Monica twinkled her eyes.
The salamanders trembled with fear and anger.
"This battle is not over yet!" Shouted the second salamander.
"Get the humans! I'll take care of her!" Ordered the first.
One of the salamanders darted toward the humans, who were still trapped under the obsidian, while the other one darted towards Monica. Monica quickly placed the horn in her belt and quickly pushed herself to fall back on her back.
"Lava Flava!"
Lava, this time, blasted out from the ground and covered the salamander, trapping it the moment it turned into obsidian.
The scream of the woman burst out. The last salamander
managed to break the rock and was now dragging the woman out with its jaws. How did he get into the obsidian trap? Monica thought.
"Leave her alone!" Monica demanded furiously. "Firus Calamus!"
The fire forced the salamander to release the woman. However, the creature turned to Monica, leaped onto her and forced her down. Monica used all her force trying to push it off her, groaning as its claws were pressing on her stomach. It was too heavy and powerful to push away, but one thing for sure, the horn was close. Monica freed one of her hands, and grasped the horn on the creatures' head. The salamander grew weaker as she was pulling it. Slowly, it was coming out with dark red blood dripping heavily.
"Please, forgive us, my queen!" Was the last thing the salamander hissed before Monica pulled the horn out, causing the creature to fell on the side.
Judy, Nicholas and Peter cheered zealously, hugging each other while jumping around. Sirus, Ama and Alexandra applauded proudly. Proud of Monica and proud of themselves for training her even though they knew less of her powers.
But that cheer died the moment Monica's chest gave a red light. Her birthmark was glowing, which meant...
"Virginia's here!" Ama yelled.
The woman and the man screamed in terror. Judy, Peter and Nicholas quickly ran behind the king and the queens for protection. Monica was helpless, salamanders' claws injured her waist.
Everything was dead silent except for the echoing sound of clapping. Ama closed her eyes, focusing to find the source, but she couldn't find it. An earsplitting scream erupted, Ama squinted her eyes. Everyone looked down at the ring.
Virginia kneeling next to the weakened Monica. One hand pressed hard on her chest while the other cupped her cheek.
"Get away from her!" Ordered Sirus.
Virginia ignored him. She leaned down, her nose an inch away from touching Monica's. Monica was awestruck, trembling weakly, her teeth were clattering, her wide eyes staring at Virginia's crimson eyes. She couldn't move, her body was too weak and in so much in pain.
"Congratulations." Virginia murmured, with her cold dark tone, and kissed Monica on her forehead. Virginia quickly
jumped back the moment she saw Sirus and Ama diving at her. They landed in front of Monica.
"Farewell, my friends!" Virginia cheered, waving her hand to the king and queens. Her body caught fire. Flying through the tunnel to escape. Her evil laugh echoed everywhere.
How did she know where Monica's challenge was? Did she find out about the training underground? Why didn't she kill Monica when she had the chance?
Everyone rushed back to the treehouse as fast as they could with Nicholas and Peter were carrying Monica together. The moment they entered safely, Sirus placed the humus shield around the wall as well. He, Ama and Alexandra stayed outside the treehouse, searching for Virginia, and making sure there wasn't any child missing.
Judy, Whiterose and Sunray were gently cleaning and healing Monica in the privy chamber.
"I still cannot believe Virginia attacked again." Sunray mumbled anxiously, gently cleaning the blood off from Monica's shoulder.
"She didn't actually attack me... Ow... She just congratulated me... Ow!" Monica groaned.
"Still, she was not allowed to come near you." Said Whiterose.
"I don't understand how'd she find us." Said Judy, cleaning Monica's left arm with a towel.
"Ow!! Gently, please!" Monica whined, fidgeting on the edge of the tub. "She keeps scaring the ghost out of me every time I see her." Monica sighed deeply; she splashed some water with her hand. "What did I do for her to want to kill me so badly?"
"You are not the only person asking this question. All of Virginia's victims died in her hands without any reason. The parents keep asking why.'" Said Whiterose dreary.
"We're very sorry about your daughter." Said Judy to Whiterose, holding her hand.
"Thank you, Princess." Whiterose smiled feebly, squeezing Judy's hand.
"Ow!!" Cried Monica, nearly jumped.
"Sorry, but I had to pull out this fang from your shoulder." Said Sunray, showing Monica the four-centimeter fang between her fingers.
"Please, warn me next time... Ow..."
Peter and Nicholas quickly shouldered in.
"What happened?" Said Nicholas alarmingly.
Monica was body was half exposed. Both boys face turned red. Monica, bashfully yelped, covered her breasts and ducked into the water.
"Get out!"
Peter and Nicholas darted out, shutting the door before one of Judy's water powers could touch them.
"From now on," Nicholas gulped, holding his finger up. "Whatever we hear in there, we'll just leave it to Judy and Monica."
"Agreed mate." Peter nodded. He could've sworn her saw a part of Monica's breasts.