Glass or Diamond: Fairy's Wish

Episode 19: The Fairy's Dark Power

A good plan assumes the opponent also follows the plan -unwittingly, of course-. A great plan accounts for the opponent resisting the plan.

Not everything is practical enough to be accounted for, of course. Especially when the information provided on the opponent lacks certain information.

A deep, bestial growl fills the night air before the body of the silveryourd has even fully cooled and released its strength.

The plan laid out and executed by Murtoa of Lakia and his companions was intended for one mid-sized silveryourd, an acid spitting colossus fairly common in the desert, according to the two professional monster hunters in the party. They had to adapt when this silveryourd didn't go exactly to plan, but they defeated it.

Now, however, the answer to a question posed by the implication of an egg has arisen.

Gyrryth and Coco both look down on the creature from their position high above in a moment of stunned silence.

Gyrryth responds first, drawing his second lightning pistol, quickly chanting and firing as a huge body throws itself onto the gryduke's decaying head. Both Coco and Gyrryth stumble as Coco screams.

The teenage techromancer is afraid of heights, and it took great effort and reassurance to get her up to where she is -where she would in fact be safer than anywhere else-. Or, so everyone thought.

The newcoming monster howls in anger and pain from Gyrryth's shot, and the lizardman spellshot recovers his footing. He holsters his pistol and takes a step back away from Coco's direction. With a short sprint, he leaps as far as his physique will allow. He only just manages to catch the other tooth across the gap he had to jump, but he digs his claws in and scrambles to pull himself up.

Coco is clutching tightly to the tooth, terrified of falling.

Gyrryth scoops her up, even as she begs for him not to touch her. But, he has no intention of leaving her to the monster clawing its way up the jaw towards them. The lizardman cradles Coco, sprinting away from the encroaching colossus.

Lykha's heart races as she watches this. She and Coco butt heads often, but the teen is a true and caring friend to Lykha. Gyrryth too, but Coco is the one person that Lykha feels like she can protect and reassure at all. She's the sister Lykha never had; good and bad.

And worth every second.

She tenses when Gyrryth leaps from the jaw, narrowly avoiding a claw-swipe as the monster swings at him.

Sure enough, it's another silveryourd, larger than the one they just killed and with shimmering, flickering skirts hanging from its lower jaw. It also flicks a pair of sail-like hoods upwards from its head, kind of like vents almost, but with flickering bioluminescent lights that twinkle attractively.

The two that just leapt from their perch plummet towards the sand, and Coco screams as Gyrryth holds her firmly to his chest.

He, however, jumped toward a specific spot, and he hits the rounded sloped edge of sand where the gryduke's jaw buried itself into the sand on the down edge. The angle lets him soften his landing -similar to how Mury escaped the collapsing nightenmael-.

Lykha sighs when the two tumble safely to a stop.

But, of course, the silveryourd is still a problem.

A bright red light ignites to Lykha's right.

She looks to find Murtoa holding a small clay stick with a BRIGHT red flame spitting out of it; a quarter-stick flare.

The silveryourd glares directly at him from its new perch high above them all. It roars, and Mury starts running -away from his companions-. The silveryourd adjusts its posture, and it inhales deeply as its gaze follows the human warrior.