Skye is the Limit by Phenomenal Pen (detective books to read TXT) 📗

He sent another ball of energy flying to one unlucky knight, who took the brunt of it. The ball was well-aimed and it ricocheted off the chest and knocked the helmet off. The goblin’s head was exposed not only to them but to the sun, and it started to sizzle and produce smoke.

“AAAAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!” the goblin screamed as he clutched the collar of his armor. His pale head was starting to redden and swell excessively.

“Watch out! It’s gonna pop!” Warrior screamed in disgust.   

The goblin’s head did burst like a watermelon but, fortunately, no pieces of flesh came flying at them as Warrior feared. Instead, tendrils of inky smoke drifted from the collar of his armor. Soon, the entire armor fell like a stringless dummy and scattered into its various components. It was completely hollow except for gold coins that spilled out of the neck and joints. A jangling sound rang clearly – hyperbolically – and three-dimensional letters that spelled “117 GOLD” appeared a foot above the clutter, before vanishing just as swiftly.

Warrior stood mesmerized.  

“It’s sunlight!” Blacksmith screamed. “That’s their weakness! We need to expose them to it!”

The executioner swung his axe from behind but Blacksmith was able to evade with an agility he didn’t know he had. With uncanny precision, he also sensed the dragon’s head, which had been glowering down from the forest canopy, release another blast of ice. He jumped out of the way and the executioner was struck instead, freezing over instantaneously. 

Blacksmith delivered a front kick to the huge block of ice and it toppled, shattering into a hundred pieces, literally, of gold. There was no sign of a body, only more 3-D letters, this time flashing “164 GOLD”, which faded away just as promptly.

“NOOOOOO!!!!” Elf screamed from afar.

A knight had stabbed Ranger in the stomach with the tip of his lance. As Ranger let out a moan, Elf’s Anima bracelet jumped into her hand and transformed into a bow. It also threw a long piece like golden Silly String in the opposite direction, up her arm and onto her back, where it created a quiver.

With surprising familiarity, Elf groped over her shoulder for the arrows that were only then manifesting in the quiver. She drew one, nocked it and aimed at the knight with the bloodied lance. She fired.

The arrow, which was also made of golden energy, hit the goblin knight squarely on the chest and knocked him off his horse. The projectile burst into sparks when it hit its target. 

Elf did the same to Sir Delamere and two more knights, all with blinding speed. This time she thought about the gaps in their visors and, amazingly, she lodged the arrows through and inside their helmets. The knights fell to the ground, convulsed, and then dissolved into smoke and gold coins spilling out of armor. The words “234 GOLD” rose and faded.   

The dragon, unable to join the fight and accidentally freezing the carriage with both its occupants, decided to withdraw. But first it extended its giant prehensile tongue and attempted to snatch its spoil: the frozen Fairy.

“Leave her alone!” Blacksmith shouted and started running towards their teammate. He put his hands together and when he separated them again, he was holding two light swords, one in each.

He slashed the groping tongue, drawing blood and eliciting a pained shriek from its owner. But the jiggly azure organ lashed sideways and knocked him down. It then wrapped around its coveted prize and retracted back to its owner, who in turn withdrew from the hole in the canopy.

“Ewww…” Blacksmith exclaimed because he was covered in dragon slobber.

“No. No. No. No,” Elf said as she cradled Ranger’s head. He was losing a lot of blood and slipping into unconsciousness. She tried putting pressure to stop the bleeding but the injury was severe and she was starting to panic.

Her bow and arrows had returned to the original shape of her crest animal: a hawk. She now wished she had those injectable tiny sponges used by the US Army like what she had seen on an InterLinked video once. As soon as she had this thought in her brain, she held in her hand a light-composed syringe filled with such sponges, again courtesy of her Anima bracelet. Without wasting time, she injected the sponges into Ranger’s wound and they expanded within, effectively sealing the wound and stopping the bleeding in seconds.

As though a caption to their heartwarming tableau, a blue badge materialized while emitting an electronic beep. It then stretched into a slim tape that surrounded Elf and Ranger like a ribbon in rhythmic gymnastics. It announced like a 360-degree revolving LED news ticker: ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: HERBS OF CAUTERY.      

Meanwhile, Warrior had been taunting the goblins with chants of “Olê, Olê, Olê, Olá — Zika! Zika!”, whose meaning also eluded him. Whatever they meant, the words worked because almost a dozen incensed knights were flocking towards him and Mage. And since they were lined up almost like rubber ducks in a shooting gallery, Mage shot them down one by one with energy blasts from his hand. The few survivors beat a hasty retreat and abandoned their precious cargoes: their frozen patrons, while the grooms and other slaves had already disappeared into the thicket way ahead of them.