Estella grit her teeth as she cut through incoming strands of hair. If there was one thing Gulara was not remotely inclined to do whatsoever, it was fight fairly.
Almost immediately after the battle began, two of Gulara’s lackeys (and their dream counterparts) had suddenly burst out of the sand. So with Jay out of commission, it was two against six. While Estella had cast mind barriers on her dream counterpart and Jay to buy them both some time, she was still fighting against the clock to take these guys down before the mass hypnosis overwhelmed her.
Sand was being kicked up everywhere as she and her dream counterpart were back-to-back as they dashed across the dunes, slashing and hacking away and setting alight attempts to restrain them with hair, launching fireballs back at their attackers as they tried to avoid being encircled. The enemy was not making it easy for them.
Estella knew she was fighting a battle of attrition right now - Gulara was clearly betting on the mass hypnosis eventually overwhelming her. Sure, ‘Mind Barrier’ spells cast on herself, her dream counterpart and Jay would help, but Jay was currently out of commission and Gulara had the numbers advantage. And lastly, Estella had the Mind, Barrier, Fire, Projectile and Earth runes, and she didn’t have an opportunity to focus on swapping out any of them. One wrong move and it was over.
Time to change tactics, then. The runes in her head weren’t the only tools at her disposal.
Estella manipulated the sand to create an earthen barrier around them, momentarily obscuring the witches’ eyesight, and both she and her counterpart used the flight spell stored in Allagí to take to the air with quick leaps, avoiding a tangle of hair from the witches trying to attack all at once as they broke through the sand. With that, she had breathing room - she took the opportunity to switch out Earth, Mind and Barrier for Electricity, Bind and Tracking.
She couldn’t help but grin as she twirled through the air, evading incoming strands of hair as she began using a tactic she’d used before, specifically tying hair two sets of hair together to ensnare her opponents before grabbing them and hitting them with an intense jolt of electricity, which if nothing else was . And with homing electrical projectiles at her disposal, she could shock her opponents into unconsciousness.
She was immersed in both the rush of combat and the joy of flight. Even with the full set of disguised armour, she could feel the rush of wind as she moved and the hair swinging past her with each evasion. Now she had the advantage.
She looked down at Gulara as she hit the witch with another bolt, which felt oh so satisfying, but the coven leader didn’t seem at all concerned. She wasn’t surprised that Gulara had some kind of resistance prepared, so she wasn’t going to go down easily, but-
-and then suddenly something grabbed Estella’s left leg.
Estella quickly looked down, seeing some kind of stone hand with a firm grip on her leg, extending upwards from the ground like it was stretched out from below the sand. Her dream counterpart had been grabbed by another similar hand. It didn’t take much thinking to figure out what was going on here. Estella took a big swing at the hand with her sword, smashing through it, her dream counterpart doing the same.
Unfortunately, mid-swing, while she was focused on it, another stone hand almost the size of her body suddenly shot out from the ground. Estella’s eyes widened, and she tried to move out of the way, but she hadn’t freed herself fast enough. The hand swiftly took hold of her, clamping around her arms and legs, as another hand did much the same to her dream counterpart, completely restraining the both of them. As both hands started pulling them down towards the ground, Estella switched out the Fire rune back to Earth and Tracking for Change, trying to liquefy the stone hand, but much to her surprise the hand only slightly melted, not nearly enough for her to slip free.
“Nice try, but I know your little tricks by now, Estella.” She looked at Gulara, who stared back with a smug smirk, “I keep underestimating you, girl. That ends now. And don’t bother trying to free yourself, I have full control over this place, so I can manipulate the environment around us without even a spell.”
Oh shit. Estella’s eyes widened, and she tried to cast another spell, but she felt a shock through her system that shattered her concentration. Gulara had been holding back.
Damnation, she played us, said Allagí, I should have anticipated this, Estella. I’m sorry.
I should have grabbed Jase and run like hell, Estella thought, mentally kicking herself. She thought she could take Gulara, but now it was obvious that the witch had been way more prepared than she expected. “Damn it, you-“
“-settle down, my dear, no point in struggling,” Gulara cooed, placing her hands on the sides of Estella’s head, something mirrored with their dream counterparts, “let’s fix that troublesome mind of yours, shall we?”
Estella tried to zap the witch by touch, but another concentration-breaking jolt put a stop to that notion. She could feel magic flowing into her mind, tempered by her invisible helmet and the mental protection, but still attempting to alter her thoughts, and the two-pronged assault only intensified it. “Fuck… you…”
Gulara sighed, “oh, dear, I didn’t want to do this, but… You’ve been a naughty girl, Estella. And naughty girls need to be punished.”
And then Estella was hit like a truck as memories of the six hours of dream brainwashing were relived in mere moments, including the sub-dreams that ultimately had broken her will. Estella’s eyes glazed over as she found it difficult to think, unable to sort her true feelings from the ones forced into her being. And the latter was winning out, as she looked at Gulara with lust, need and affection. “I…”
“Take off the helmet, Estella,” Gulara commanded softly.
Allagí called out with alarm, Estella, no! Fight it!
Estella complied, her helmet being stored away in Allagí as the witch rubbed her temples, the mental magic making her feel wonderful. What was the point of resisting this?
Gulara smiled, and leaned in to kiss her passionately. Estella responded in kind, locking lips and tangling tongues, embracing Gulara’s sweet taste. Maybe the witch was the lover she had been searching for all along. Perhaps submission was the price to pay to be with her destined lover.
Gulara broke the kiss, cooing, “that’s it, my dear. Say the words that will make you mine.”
Estella stared at her with a dopey smile, the words on the tip of her lips, ignoring Allagí’s pleading. The magnificent bliss of spending her life by Gulara’s side as her lover and concubine, with all eyes on her… Would there be anything more wonderful? Eternal bliss and happiness was in her grasp, and all she had to do was say the right words.
Estella opened her mouth.
Before a sound emerged, however, a near-deafening boom erupted from behind, followed by a shockwave that shattered the hands and sent the witches tumbling back. Her mind still in a haze, almost annoyed that someone interrupted her bliss, Estella looked back over her shoulder slowly, barely noticing that storm clouds were forming overhead. It only just occurred to her that the sound was thunder.
An old man in an old, ragged cloak strode towards her, using an ornate spear as a walking stick in his left hand. She could see armour under the cloak, and the man wore an eye-patch. He simply let out a weary chuckle as he came close to her, “goodness me, girl, that was a close shave. But I foresaw this moment, so I knew exactly when to time it.”
Estella just groaned, trying to clear her head. This person seemed familiar somehow, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. “Who…?”
“Allow me to help you with that.”
The old man reached out with his right hand, touching his index and middle fingers against the back of her neck, right up against her spine.
Estella was not remotely prepared for the painful shock to her system that came right afterwards, lighting every nerve in her body alight like she was aflame. But before she could even scream, it was over, almost like it had never happened at all. And suddenly, her mind could not be more clear. The miasma of the mass hypnosis and Gulara’s attempt to brainwash her had been swept away much like sandcastle at high tide. In fact, she couldn’t feel the effect of the mass hypnosis at all right now.
And Estella felt ashamed and frustrated at having been cornered and nearly turned into the witch’s willing slave.
“Your shame is understandable, Estella. But all of us have our flaws and vices,” said the old man, “even the best of us require aid to save us from our weaknesses, sometimes.”
Gulara was now back up on her feet, and she was giving the old man a livid glare, storming down the beach towards them as her hair flared up in her rage, “HOW DARE YOU! I will rip you apart, you-“
A bolt of lightning struck the sand right in front of her, stopping her in her tracks. She stumbled back, “who are you?! How are you controlling the weather in her so casually-”
Her eyes widened as her face changed from fury to shock. “No. You can’t be here. You’re dead.”
The old man chuckled, “oh, yes, I do believe I am. This is merely a manifestation in a dream, conjured by something I left behind in Allagí. The girl is beyond your reach, now. I have made sure of it.”
Estella reached to the back of her neck where the old man touched her, and felt something burned into her skin. She already knew who this man likely was. “You’re… Odin?”
“Yes, and no. I am something left in Allagi of the gods of magic who helped create the sword you wield, having foreseen the purpose he would serve. I simply choose to take on the form of Odin right now. Don’t get comfortable with me saving your skin like this, it won’t happen very often, and I am almost at my limit at this time,” said the old man, tracing runic symbols in the air, which glowed as they manifested a magical influence over the area around them. “However. The runes I have left on your neck will protect you from unwanted mental influence for a while, until they eventually break down. And these runes will counteract the witch’s ability to manipulate the environment freely. Now then, on your feet.”
Estella took a deep breath, and stood up, gripping Allagí as she put her helmet back on, “okay, guess I’m not getting any more help from you, then, still gotta fight this by myself…”
‘Odin’ chuckled, “who said anything about you fighting by yourself?”
A lighting bolt suddenly struck ‘Odin’, as he morphed into another form - that of the gentleman knight that Estella quickly recognised as Allagí. “Well, that was interesting. Odin could’ve told me he put that in me, but oh well.”
“Maybe we should cut the chatter,” Estella noted as the witches tried to surround them again, with herself, her dream counterpart and Allagí now back-to-back, “we’re still at a numbers disadvantage. I could probably beat Gulara in a one-on-one fight, but-“
A cracking sound began ringing through the air as the sand around them started getting kicked up by what Estella quickly realised was gunfire, forcing the witches to spread out as the bullets seemed to be aimed at them, with one of the witches getting a bullet to his waist. The howl of a wolf echoed through the air as Estella spotted the source of the incoming fire - it was Jax, holding his assault rifle, descending down the sand dune as he continued to fire in quick bursts.
That gave Estella an idea. “Work with Jax, keep the minions busy. I’ve got some payback to administer. Can you do that, mate?”
Allagí chuckled, as he dashed for the nearest witch, “very well, but don’t be afraid to call for our help if you need it!”
Estella and her dream counterpart faced down both Gularas as the witch formed what looked like a simplistic iron sword from the ground, and forming a flame in her hand, smirking, “fine, if you insist. I will make you regret defying me, girl.”
“We’ll see about that,” Estella grumbled as she firmly gripped her sword with both hands, and her counterpart did the same. This whole battle had felt like a hall of mirrors, except the mirrors were transparent glass instead. As interesting as it could’ve been in a vacuum, Estella was sick of this nonsense already.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
As the two pairs circled each other, trying to find an opening, Estella briefly glanced at how Allagí and Jax were handling the other witches. Allagí was handling things as she thought he would with deft swordsmanship, cutting through magic attacks like a hot knife through butter, but Jax was practically a bulldozer, ripping through hair, flames and sand with his claws and making good use of his rifle, which interestingly wasn’t causing hits on the witches to actually bleed. Something to ask about later. Jax also seemed to be enjoying himself a little, if his slight smirk indicated anything.
No, no, focus, Estella, Estella thought to herself as she refocused her attention on Gulara, who had apparently decided to strike first, unleashing a wave of flames that Estella deflected with a burst of air before she rushed in to strike while Estella was dealing with the fire. Estella stood her ground and deflected the incoming strike, her swordsmanship training with Clarette having paid off as she went toe-to-toe with Gulara.
Two things became apparent to Estella quickly as they clashed blades and launched flames and sparks at each other - firstly, the dream counterparts were clashing in a similar but not identical manner, which felt odd, but Estella was surprised how well she could maintain independent focus between both of her selves.
Secondly, Gulara was not a trained swordfighter - it was like the witch was doing this just to prove her superiority. Gulara was more experienced with magic, but even with magical hair to fight with, Estella was easily outfighting her.
Problem was, Gulara realised this fairly quickly, and started putting distance between herself and Estella, using her hair and flames to attack from a distance while using her blade as a last resort. And she was frustratingly good at that. Every time Estella tried to get in close, Gulara would just back off and slow her down with hair and fire.
“What’s the matter? Can’t touch me?” Gulara taunted, using the earth to block another projectile launched by Estella. “I can do this all day, and thanks to this world of mine, I have plenty of energy to spare. I’ll outlast you if I have to.”
Estella grit her teeth, gears turning in her head as she tried to figure out a new strategy, taking a look at her currently equipped runes.
Then she noticed she had Change, Bind and Earth already equipped. Time to use a familiar tactic once more, but with a twist.
She charged again, thrusting her hand out as she liquefied the sand under Gulara’s feet, flying right over the witch’s attempt at stopping her with a fire wave as she not only cast a change spell, but also a binding spell. Gulara’s eyes widened as she looked down, stepping back out of the ‘quicksand’ as she tried to establish solid footing, “clever trick, but you’ll have to do more than that to-WHAT?!”
Gulara’s feet were encased in large balls of tightly-packed sand sticking to her, not only making her feet heavy but also making it difficult for her to maintain even decent footing. The witch snarled as she tried to remove the sand, but it had slowed her enough and caused enough of a distraction for Estella to rush her and tackle her to the ground.
Estella wasted no time, using another binding spell to bind a lot of sand to Gulara’s back and limbs, essentially pinning her to the ground through sheer weight, buried her hands in the sand to keep her from using her fire, and grabbed her hair to swiftly cut it down to a more harmless length that she could more easily deal with. Estella held her sword to the witch’s neck, taking deep breaths. Her gambit had worked for herself and her dream counterpart, now they were almost perfectly mirrored. “Gotcha, bitch. Now, you gonna come quietly, or…?”
Gulara just glared at her for a moment, but then she smirked, and let out a laugh. “Oh, you silly, silly girl. Allow me to teach you a lesson about underestimating your opponent’s ability to use magic… Especially in a world of dream logic.”
Estella just blinked, but suddenly she felt air rushing right into her mouth and nostrils, and embarrassingly, up her rear end, both in incredibly large quantities. Alarmingly, she could feel the air flooding her body and expanding her torso, arms and legs as if she was some kind of balloon. Before she could even do anything, the air expanding her arms moved her blade away from Gulara’s neck, and the witch broke free of her bonds, letting out another laugh as she shoved Estella off her body.
“What the FUCK?!” Estella exclaimed in panic as she tried switching out Earth and Bind to Air and Move to get the air out of her body, but there was too much being forced in, and Gulara was clearly using her control of the world (even if diminished) along with her own magic to manipulate the air around them. Closing her mouth didn’t matter, it’d still get in via her nose and ass. It took very little time for Estella to suddenly become basically spherical, with an inflated chest, ass and stubby inflated arms and legs, leaving only her head, hands and feet unchanged, and her entire body now twice her original size by the time the air stopped inflating her. Her dream counterpart hadn’t fared any better. “Wha… HOW?!”
“I told you, it’s dream logic,” smirked Gulara, pushing Estella upright, as the young knight helplessly struggled, manipulating the sand to keep her stuck in place, “even for those from reality will end up being forced to adhere the ‘rules’ of a dream. And I control the rules here, to a degree.”
Estella grit her teeth. This was embarrassing, cartoonish, and… Slightly arousing. There was no bloody way she got off on this sort of thing, right?! And she wasn’t sure how to deflate herself without Gulara just inflating her again. “Damn it…”
“I’m going to have a lot of fun with you. I really want to humiliate you and then break your will once I remove those runes, but first, I have a werewolf and a magic sword’s dream-self to deal with,” said Gulara, as she started walking away, her hair beginning to regrow, “it shouldn’t be too difficult to do the same to them.”
Shit, she’s right. She had this kind of ridiculous trump card all along?! Estella thought to herself, wracking her brain for something he could do. She could still hear the sounds of battle nearby - if Jax and Allagí weren’t done yet, then Gulara could potentially take them by surprise. Even if they were magic-resistant, Estella didn’t want to take that bet. There had to be something she could-
A fireball suddenly streaked towards Gulara, forcing her to dodge as she and her counterpart regrouped, and they stared at who launched it - Jay, who looked very pissed off right now. Standing by him was his still-female counterpart, who was now clothed and looking much more lucid, and both Arikas, who grinned and waved.
Gulara snarled, “how?! I had an entire group to handle you, girl!”
“I had help. Thanks for being distracted enough for me to fix Jay, by the way!” Arika said innocently with a grin, as she rushed over to Estella, wincing, “oof, you’ve gotten yourself into a pickle, huh, Stella?”
“Yeah, and I can’t deflate myself while she’s here,” groaned Estella, “right now I’m mostly useless. Also, don’t tell anyone about this, please.”
Jay winced as well, looking her over, “yeah, fair enou-” Suddenly, his expression changed, and he got an almost uncharacteristically devious grin, looking at his female counterpart who smirked back as they nodded to each other.
Arika blinked, and then grinned, as her hair suddenly extended, wrapping around Estella’s body, “oh, this is gonna be fun.”
Estella was very confused for a moment, but then he heard Jay’s voice in her head. “Estella, switch in your Gravity rune. You’ve still got your armour on, right?”
“Yeah, but what’s that got to do with-” Estella then had a realisation. She knew exactly what Jay was thinking. It was silly and would probably hurt somewhat, but she had a feeling this was going to be so, so worth it. “Ah, I get it. Gotcha.”
She switched in Gravity, Reinforce and Life, using the latter two to reinforce her body and Arika’s hair as she changed her sword back into its pendant form, making sure to bind it to her armor. Arika lifted Estella off the ground with her hair, their dream counterparts doing much the same, and began swinging her around. Both Jays rushed to help subdue the remaining minion witches.
Gulara just stared incredulously. “What on Earth are you-“
And then Arika swung Estella’s body right at her. Estella used ‘Change Gravity’ just as she was about to collide, shifting her direction of gravity right at Gulara, as well as increasing it to a point where it would be detrimental to herself.
Gulara’s eyes widened moments before she and her dream counterpart were sent flying by the sudden collision.
Despite her body having been balloon-ified, Estella was still wearing her armour, which had apparently somehow also stretched with her, despite being fully clad in steel. Which meant right now, Estella was basically a balloon with a steel shell. And by dream logic, stretchy inflated steel was still as hard and painful as steel would normally be. And the right use of gravity manipulation only made it even more damaging.
Arika had turned her hair and Estella’s body into a giant ball-and-chain flail, not letting up as she swung again, only barely missing as Gulara scrambled away in panic, the witch for once looking genuinely panicked for once (as well as bewildered) as she scrambled to get back on her feet, “this can’t be happening!”
Estella actually laughed. How did this of all things finally manage to set Gulara on the back foot for more than a moment? “Hey, you did this to me!”
Gulara snarled, but Estella just came back around as Arika performed another swing. The witch tried to raise a sand barrier, but Estella just smashed right through, only marginally reducing her momentum as she slammed into Gulara and sent her tumbling again. Based on the crunch, she was fairly sure she damaged something that time, and Gulara was definitely bleeding at this point. It wasn’t surprising that the witch had also magically reinforced her own body, which was keeping her from having all of her bones broken immediately.
Gulara was backing away, bleeding in several places and clutching her arm, trying to stay out of reach of the human wrecking ball. Her left eye twitched as her face contorted into a furious snarl. “This is ridiculous! If it wasn’t for those damn runes I’d have a proper countermeasure! And deflating her won’t make this any easier… HOW AM I LOSING TO THIS?!”
On the other hand, Estella was finding that this was absolutely the funniest shit as she was swung around again, grinning from ear to ear, “I dunno, but fuck you anyway, lady!”
Gulara dodged the next swing, but her eyes widened, seeing something Estella couldn’t that seemed to be behind her.
“Mind if I got in on this?” asked Jax from behind Estella, as he slammed his palm into her, sending her flying back in the other direction right towards Gulara, crashing into her before she had any time to react. The guy would have to be very strong to be able to pull that off.
Gulara looked like she could barely stand as she scrambled backwards on the sand, her dream counterpart helping her back up. Her face was a twisted form of agony and pain, but it shifted to panic as she suddenly looked towards the distant bonfire. “No… Damn it, no!”
The sands suddenly began carrying her off at high speed, as her dream counterpart formed a massive wall of sand that blocked the way. Seems she was actively holding the line now. “I won’t let you pass. Even if I ‘die’, I can simply reform again.”
Arika swung again, her dream counterpart following up immediately, “we’ll just smash right through you! You can’t win at this point!”
Dream Gulara formed a ramp that sent Estella rolling over her, “hate to break it to you, but I don’t intend to ‘win’, just hold you back until-“
“-yeah fuck this,” said Jax as he grabbed his rifle and opened fire, forcing Dream Gulara to raise a sand barrier, though multiple bullets pierced her body before she could do so.
In fact, she raised barriers of hardened sand in all directions, and yet was still attacking through it, launching blades of fire as Allagí and Jay tried to get closer, forcing them to evade. When both Arikas tried to prepare a combination attack, a couple of fire blades slashed through her hair, sending Estella into the air.
Estella, thankfully, still had her flight spell active, and she had an idea. She and her dream counterpart flew right above the makeshift sand bunker, redirected their gravity and increased its force, and came crashing down on Dream Gulara.
Estella winced as she heard and felt the crunch of her adversary’s ethereal body being crushed under both weights, but the body disappeared, and the sand constructs collapsed into the dunes.
As Estella got to work deflating herself, Jax was already on the move. “I’ll try and catch up to her, all of you catch up when you can!”
“Gotcha,” Estella nodded as she turned to see what happened to the other witches - they were all unconscious and tied up both physically and magically.
Both Jays ran over to her, looking very relived. “We’ve got her on the run!”
“Indeed we do, but we should take a moment to catch our breath,” said Allagí, as he walked over, “good thinking, Jay. And well done, Estella, Arika, for putting such a plan into action.”
Arika giggled, walking over as well, “what can I say? It was pretty satisfying to smash Gulara like that!”
Estella just laughed.
And then the consequences of being swung about all over the place finally caught up with her as she was forced to remove her helmet, right before throwing up onto the sand. She gagged, cleaning off her mouth, “yeah, but… I’d rather not do that again anytime soon.”
