Part 3

The Witch Princess slowly opens her eyes to find the Harvest Goddess casting a healing spell on her. Her memory is foggy for a moment, she groans as she regains consciousness. His head is dizzy, and she has a light cough. As soon as she is well enough to stand, Witch Princess quickly remembers what happened. Shiba surprised and defeated her which lead to an embarrassing retreat to the Goddess Pond.

She jumps up and backs away from the Harvest Goddess yelling, “what do you think you are doing?!”

The Harvest Goddess giggles as she answers, “silly you. Did you forget that it was you who came to me? I can only guess that you lost the fight with Shiba again.”

Witch Princess raises a fist out of anger as she yells, “this is all your fault! If you wasn’t such a weakling, I could have been much stronger by now!”

“Ta-tah,” said the Harvest Goddess in a cheerful tone. “Remember that I am a goddess. I was born with only the ability to cast healing and nature spells. If I was able to use combat magic such as yourself-”

“Yeah I get it,” said Witch Princess standing down. “If you knew combat magic, you could beat me very easily. But seriously, I never had a reason to get stronger, we were always evenly matched. I felt that if I could just beat you once, that would make me the most powerful witch of all time.”

Witch Princess then turns away and bites her thumb in frustration. She hates to admit defeat, but she gave it her best shot against Shiba. After using her most powerful tricks and spells, he still comes out on top. “Jungle boy may not have much magical power, but his skills and abilities are certainly impressive. That can only mean that his father is much stronger than he is. I just need one win, something to let those witch doctors know that I am a force to be reckoned with. But how?”

After thinking things through, Witch Princess begins her walk back to her hut. Harvest Goddess smiles then sings, “hey, where are you going!”

“None of your business! Be prepared Harvest Goddess. When I get strong enough to beat Jungle Boy, I am coming for you next,” shouted Witch Princess.

On the way back to her hut, she begins to come up with a new plan. She knows that going back to the jungle to face Shiba again is pointless. She will need to do something different, something unexpected that will catch him off guard. A new spell that can get the upper edge on Shiba. But learning new spells could take years, if not decades to learn. If she wants a shot at beating him, she will have to fight dirty.

She slams the door of her hut open and marches over to her collection of spell books. Over the years she has been alive, she gathered a ton of books to learn spells across many schools of magic. There are so many that there are many that she has not read yet. Magic is very difficult to learn, let alone master despite her family practicing it as long as magic existed. Even though she has learned many spells and enchantments during her time, there is still so much she can add to her arsenal of spells.

As Witch Princess scans through her collection of books, she wonders what kind of magic she will use to win against Shiba. There are so many elements and magic schools that witches, warlocks, witch doctors, oracles, and nature spirits practice. They range from combat, support, defensive, healing, enfeebling, poisons, illusion, alteration, and alchemical spells. Many more will be discovered over the centuries as magic users study the flow of mana on earth.

While Witch Princess studies a variety of schools of magic, her specialty is flame combat magic. She enjoys fire’s destructive potential and chaotic nature that comes with setting her foes on fire. Currently, she only knows mid level flame attacks which is enough to terrorize normal humans and be evenly matched against the Harvest Goddess. She has never imagined running into someone like Shiba who can cancel her spells and fight back so easily. She can learn higher tiers of fire magic if she wants to, but it will take decades to master them. She wants to beat Shiba sooner than later, so she wants to try something different. To beat him, she wants to tap into a much stronger school of magic. Something powerful, but doesn’t take too long to use. So she pulls a book out of her shelf that specializes in the ancient power of plasma.

As she skims through the pages, she can clearly see that these spells are far more complex and dangerous than anything she has studied. She could learn it, but it will take centuries to master even the basics. Other magic users has died from trying to learn to control it. Luckily, she doesn’t plan to learn how to cast these spells, she just wants to capture it and use it to defeat Shiba.

As she reads the book, she learns that plasma can only be harvested naturally from two sources; bolts of lightning and directly from the sun. She could gather plasma from the sun, but that could take forever. The more easier form of plasma can be collected from bolts of lightning from a heavy storm. She will need a powerful magic wand to be able to harness the power of plasma. This will still take time, but she can do it in weeks instead of years.

First thing she needs is a magical wand. Plasma is very unstable and unpredictable, so she will need a wand made of a highly potent magical wood. She will need heartwood from a tree that has lived for at least five hundred years. The older the tree, the better. She is glad that she lives in a forest that has no shortage of trees that are centuries old. Despite this, she still takes her time to find the oldest tree in the entire forest.

After scouting the forest for days, Witch Princess finally finds the oldest tree in Sunny Island. The tree is massive, standing taller than all the rest. Satisfied with her find, she summons her logging axe once again to chop down such an elder tree. After a dozen strikes, Witch Princess cries “Timber!” as the fall to the ground causing a crash that can be heard for miles. She then uses her magic to burn, cut, and wash away the outer layers of the trunk to expose the valuable heartwood. She smiles as she touches the strong inner core of the trunk.

She then chops the heartwood into smaller manageable pieces to bring back to her hut. She only needs a piece that measures a foot long to make her wand. The rest of the wood can be ground into powerful magical dust or burned to make some magic flames. The piece she is saving is about six inches thick, far too wide to make an effective wand. Using a skinning knife, she begins to whittle away at the wand to make it more comfortable to use and hold.

After a few days, the wand is complete. She holds the wand lightly to examine it’s shape and comfort. The base is about an inch wide, with the tip being much thinner. She then begins to whip it around imagining what kind of magic she will shoot out of it’s tip. Once satisfied with her work, she binds the base with leather scraps to make a comfortable grip. All she needs to do now is enchant the wand with the power of plasma.

The only place she can harvest plasma safely is from a thunderstorm. Luckily she is on an island, and storms are frequent during the summer months. She reads the clouds, and sees that a storm is coming in a few days. She can make her own storms, but she needs to harvest lightning from one that occurs naturally. She is not concerned about the wait, this gives her time to plan an attack on the jungle.

A few days later, the clouds turn thick and dark. Light rain turns into a heavy downpour. As the storm intensifies, Witch Princess sees lightning getting closer to the island. She rides her broom to the tallest tree, and jumps on to a branch that sticks out over the canopy. Her hair and cape whips violently as the winds pick up. She grins wickedly as the lightning slams into the ocean causing loud thunder to roar across the island. It is now time to collect what she worked so hard to accomplish.

She raises the wand up high, which causes the clouds to swirl above Witch Princess. Jolts of static electricity swirl and crackles through the maelstrom. In a single flash, a bolt of lightning slams down and hits the wand in Witch Princess’ hand. The wand shakes violently as it tries to collect the plasma inside the bolt of lightning, she uses all of her strength to keep the wand stable. If she loses control for even a moment, the lightning could hit her and kill her instantly. No matter how hard the process is, she is prepared for the worst and keeps her focus.

Soon, the lightning vanishes and the plasma is collected in the enchanted wand. She flies down back to the ground, then takes a good look at her ultimate creation. The wand glows with immense power as she holds it lightly. Even if this form of plasma is weak, it is still powerful enough to defeat any foe she comes across. To test it’s power, she swings the wand pointing it at a nearby tree. A flash of lightning shoots out of the tip, causing the tree to burst into flame. The tree collapses as it quickly turns into nothing but ash and charcoal. If it wasn’t for the heavy rain of the storm, the burning tree could have set the whole forest on fire.

Even though she is satisfied with her work, she knows that there is one glaring weakness to her wand. Because of how unstable the magic is, she can’t make it immune to damage. If Shiba cuts the wand like he did her broom, things can go horribly wrong very quickly. The wand has reached it’s limit on magic power, so she can’t even make it more durable. She will have to either distract Shiba or weaken him enough to solve her issue. Luckily, she comes up with a plan.

A few days later, the Harvest Goddess decides to check up on Witch Princess and appears inside her hut. She finds Witch Princess on her crafting table working on something she can’t see just yet. She smiles as she cheers, “ta-da! I am here Witch Princess! Please be a dear and entertain your guest with some tea.”

“I didn’t invite you,” said Witch Princess not even bothering to turn around to face the goddess. “What do you want? I’m busy.”

“It’s been a while since your last fight with Shiba. I wanted to check and see if you are all right. It’s not like you to give up on a fight so easily,” said the Harvest Goddess with her hands on her hips.

Witch Princess starts to giggle deviously. “You really think I gave up on defeating that mangy, savage, vine swinging, cave man looking Jungle Boy? I will never let him have the satisfaction of besting the all powerful Witch Princess. And tomorrow, I will have the victory I deserve!” She then turns around to show off a potted plant. “Behold, my ultimate weapon in defeating that leotard wearing brute!”

The Harvest Goddess stares, unimpressed with Witch Princess’ idea. “That’s it? A flower? I really don’t think you can defeat Shiba with kindness.”

“Oh shut up,” yelled Witch Princess as she pulls the plant away. She then starts to pet it’s leaves explaining, “with this summoned creature, I will force Jungle Boy to use up all of his strength. Then I will finish him off with my new magic powers. And once I show off how powerful I am, I will claim all the resources on this whole island for myself. Nothing can stop me now!”

Once again, Witch Princess laughs maniacally that makes her sound like a mad scientist who plans to take over the world. The Harvest Goddess just sighs stressfully. She feels that she should stop Witch Princess, but the brawl is none of her business. She only hopes that things don’t get too out of hand between Witch Princess and Shiba.

The next day, Witch Princess starts to put her plan into motion. Shiba can feel Witch Princess’ aura, so he leaves his hut and tracks her down to see what is she doing. At the jungle clearing where he fought her twice before, Shiba hides and sees Witch Princess casually planting a flower in the dirt. He is hiding in the foliage watching her, she is not doing anything to the jungle but he is suspicious.

Rather than waiting for her to do something, Shiba grabs a vine and swings closer to her. He doesn’t plan to fight, but he is on his guard. He jumps and does a few flips before landing directly in front of Witch Princess. “What you do? Why come back?” asked Shiba pointing an accusing finger at her.

Witch Princess smiles as she answers, “I’m glad you can make it to the party! Too bad that I don’t have any cake.” She then stands up and points back at Shiba to declare, “last time I was not prepared to deal with you properly. But now I can pay you back for my embarrassing defeat. Get ready Jungle Boy! Me and my minion will make you regret messing with the all powerful Witch Princess!”

She finally pulls out a small satchel out of her pocket. She takes a pinch of white dust from it, and begins to sprinkle it on the flower she planted. The plant quickly starts to glow as it squirms wildly. Shiba has no idea what to expect, so he jumps back and pulls out his dagger in defense. But his aggression subsides as he sees the plant shrink and bury itself under the dirt.

Shiba sheathes his dagger and crosses his arm in frustration. “That it? Stupid magic woman!”

Witch Princess grins wickedly. Shiba then raises an eyebrow, confused at her reaction. Suddenly, the ground under them begins to tremble. Shiba tries his best to keep his footing as he tries to figure out what is going on. One by one, huge thorny vines erupt out of the ground. After the fourth vine pops out, a giant stem erupts from the center. From the tip of the stem, a bud blooms into a blood red colored flower. The center of the flower has a terrifying maw that snaps wildly. Shiba steps back even further as the plant monster roars viciously at him.

“Get him my summoned creature from the nether,” shouted Witch Princess pointing at Shiba. The Monster roars sends vines covered in razor sharp thorns whipping at his direction.

Shiba jumps to dodge the vines. He climbs the trees, trying his best to gain some distance from the monster. The monster is rooted to the ground, so he is safe as long as Shiba is far enough away. Witch Princess grunts angrily and shakes a fist at him, “come back and fight like a man! If you run away, my creature will destroy your precious jungle!”

The monster then begins to whip it’s vines wildly; snapping trees in half, crushing bushes, and attacking anything that moves. The sight of Witch Princess’ monster destroying the jungle angers Shiba. He jumps out of the tree to begin his attack. He tries to dodge the vines, but it gets increasingly difficult the closer he is to the monster’s main stem. He rolls, cartwheels, flips, and performs other evasive maneuvers, but he is having trouble getting close to the flower’s stem.

He decides to change his tactics. He pulls out his dagger and charges to the base of one of the vines. If he can cut down one of the vines, he could have easier access to the plant’s main stem. The monster tries to whip Shiba, but his lightning fast reflexes cut and slashes the vines causing them to pull back. The closer he is, the harder it is becoming to parry the vines. As soon as he gets an opening, he jumps up high and lands on the back of the vine taking care not to touch the razor sharp thorns. He follows the vine all the way to the base where it had erupted out of the ground. Another vine swings at him, but he uses it to spring up into the air. He screams as he uses his dagger to cut the vine cleanly off the ground. The severed vine falls limp to the ground and quickly shrivels dead. The plant monster roars in pain as it uses it’s remaining three vines to attack in a raging frenzy.

Shiba pulls back and watches the monster carefully. Even though he cut one of the vines, the severed stump is slowly sprouting a new vine. He will need to hurry and defeat the monster before it’s vine fully regenerates. Shiba rushes ahead aiming for the main stem. The monster attacks, but Shiba easily evades now that there is one less vine to worry about. As soon as he gets close enough, he jumps on a vine to spring himself up into the air. With his dagger drawn, he is prepared for the kill. He quickly realizes that the main stem is not defenseless. As soon as it realizes that Shiba is getting close, the monster moves in a snakelike motion and tries to bite him. Shiba quickly flips and kicks himself over the flower just in time to dodge the attack. He then lands on the ground and runs off to safety.

As he catches his breath, he stares at the plant monster noticing two things. First, the monster is slowly growing in size. Giving enough time, the monster can grow big enough to reach anywhere in the entire island. If he doesn’t kill it soon, the monster could destroy the entire island. The second thing Shiba notices is a small throbbing organ in the back of the flower’s mouth. He is not sure what it is, but he feels that it could be the monster’s heart. He feels that he should try to attack that organ directly, even though he is not sure it will work.

He puts away the dagger, then beats his chest a few times. With a loud war cry, Shiba rushes ahead aiming for the main stem once again. One after another, he dodges the whipping vines until he is too close to dodge anymore. Instead, he just grabs on to the vines and uses them to fling himself around getting closer to the main stem. He climbs, runs, and jumps around until he can get close enough to the flower at the tip of the stem. The flower coils, then strikes opening it’s mouth to eat him alive. Shiba doesn’t evade, instead he jumps forward aiming directly into the mouth of the beast. The monster then snaps it’s maw shut with Shiba inside.

Witch Princess cheers thinking she had already won the fight. But Shiba bursts himself out of the back of the flower’s head with the monster’s heart still beating in his hands. As soon as he lands, he crushes the heart with both hands until it pops like a water balloon. This causes the monster to roar and flail out of control until everything goes limp and dies. The monster’s entire body then crumbles into dust, leaving behind nothing but the five holes that it came out of.

Shiba takes a deep breath, feeling that the fight is over. “Not so fast,” shouted Witch Princess who is charging at him on her broom. Shiba quickly jumps out of her way, but she pulls out her wand and zaps him with a bolt of lightning. The explosion from the spell sends him flying through the air and slams against a tree.

Witch Princess flies back, and lands on the ground. She knows that he is weak from the last battle, and it is time to finish him off. Shiba draws his dagger, and Witch Princess points her wand at him sending a stream of lightning at his direction. He uses his dagger to stop the spell, but this magic is far more powerful than her fireballs. His dagger is absorbing the magic, but he is having trouble keeping it at bay. His blade trembles as the deadlock continues against his favor.

As Witch Princess continues her assault, she taunts, “give up Jungle Boy! You can’t beat me this time! Just surrender, then I’ll let you live. If you kneel before me and beg for my forgiveness, I might have mercy and make you my minion. Or feel the wrath of the Witch Princess! Are you getting a charge out of this?”

Shiba grits his teeth. Using all the strength he can, she shouts summoning a strong black wind. The wind causes Witch Princess to stagger and stop her spell. Shiba breathes heavily as the sweat sizzle and evaporates from his body. Witch Princess grins as she sees him close to his breaking point. Just a bit longer, and victory will be hers.

To taunt Shiba even more, she raises her want straight up. She unleashes a small amount of her wand’s power by shooting out smaller bolts of lightning in random directions. She laughs fully confident that she had already won. Shiba grunts as he charges forward swinging his dagger. Each time he gets closer to Witch Princess, she swings the wand causing a flash of electricity to push him away. At this point, this fight starts to look like a fencing duel than a fight between magic users.

Shiba rushes forward with his dagger pointing forward. Once again, Witch Princess waves the wand and pushes him away with a blinding flash. Shiba does a few flips before landing on the ground. He is exhausted, and he can’t keep fighting like this for much longer. If he wants to defeat Witch Princess, he will have to give it his all with the next attack.

Shiba pulls his dagger back, and his left arm forward into a battle pose. Witch Princess grins as she says, “so, you want to joust. Eh? Fine by me!” She then snaps her fingers to call her broom to her. She mounts her broom and shouts, “challenge accepted! Come at me!”

Shiba shouts as he runs forward while Witch Princess flies towards him. Shiba thrusts his dagger forward while Witch Princess swings her wand as soon as they get close to each other. After a flash of light, Shiba is sent flying through the air to crash against the ground. Witch Princess looks back at Shiba face down against the ground and battered.

Witch Princess chuckles just before saying, “looks like I won this time. Stay down and I’ll stop hurting you.”

Suddenly, a light breeze passes through Witch Princess causing her to winch in pain from her left cheek. Confused, Witch Princess touches her cheek and finds it wet. She then looks at her hand and finds it covered in her own blood. Her eyes widen as she processes what Shiba had done. She then becomes angry imagining what her face looks like. Her eyes glow with the rage of hot coal as she grips her wand tightly. “You! You cut my face! How Dare You!” Her anger causes her to lose control of the magic stored in the wand. Her hair stands with super charged static electricity as jolts of lightning escape from the wand. The untamed plasma flies everywhere. Leaves start to catch on fire and wild animals run away fearing the worst to come.

Shiba slowly gets back up and watches Witch Princess lose control of her magic power. He feels like this is the perfect time to land his final blow. He places his hand over his dagger and concentrates on it very hard. His dagger once again glows a dark aura, he then throws his hand to the side growing his dagger into a three foot long energy sword. He has only one shot, he wants to make it count.

“Die,” shouted Witch Princess.

“I kill,” screamed Shiba.

They both then charge towards one another, each side intending to finish the battle. Even if it means ending the other person’s life. As their weapons make contact, an enormous flash of light engulfs the jungle before exploding. The explosion causes a massive mushroom cloud to rise hundreds of feet into the air. The earth shakes for miles, and the ocean forms tidal waves that will crash towards the main land. Dust, logs, and shattered stone also flings all over the island and into the ocean. If anyone else was nearby, they would swear a bomb was set off in the jungle.

The dust settles about ten minutes later. Everyone is laying down, out cold from the resulting explosion. Witch Princess wakes up a few minutes later. Her eyes needs to readjust from the flash, her ears are ringing, and her whole body hurts. She tries to get up, but she ends up collapsing on her knees and starts to cough up blood. Her body is covered in cuts and bruises, and she has some internal injuries.

After catching her breath, she takes a look around to see the damage she has caused. Many trees has collapsed, and nearby boulders have shattered. Branches and rocks has been sent across the entire island damaging everything. Her magic wand was reduced to nothing but thatch. Shiba is lying on the other side of the field alive but unconscious.

Witch Princess tries to stand up once again. Once she does, she starts to laugh and declare, “I did it! I finally beat Jungle Boy. I am the best, nobody can defeat me!” She tries to laugh out loud, but she ends up coughing up more blood and falling on the ground once again. She then rolls on her back to face the blue summer sky. She is in so much pain that smiling or laughing hurts too much. But no matter how much she is in pain, she still feels proud of her victory.

Her mood changes as soon as she sees a shadow walk over her. She looks at the stranger and finds Wada the witch doctor, who she heard from the Harvest Goddess. A tribal man with large eyebrows, rugged hair in a ponytail, a leotard similar to Shiba’s, a dead lizard in his mouth, and a spear in his hand. Witch Princess can feel the enormous magic power radiating from him that surpasses Shiba and herself.

She has caused so much destruction to the jungle, and she is already so weak. She smiles, thinking that this will not end well for her. “So, you must be Wada, the witch doctor I heard so much about. I destroyed part of the jungle, and I guess you’ll make me pay. Go ahead, finish me off. Just make it quick.”

He grunts as he walks away from her. He walks towards his son to take him back to their hut so he can get treatment. After he throws Shiba’s arm over his shoulder, Witch Princess shouts, “Wait!” He looks back at Witch Princess who has found enough strength to stand. She is holding her right arm which is limp and bleeding. She grunts in pain as she shouts, “just so you know, I am not afraid of you! If you want, I will take you on once my wounds have healed!”

“Leave. . . No come back,” said Wada before jumping into the trees and vanishing with Shiba.

“Why you little-” Witch Princess coughs and falls back on her knees. She takes a deep breath before saying, “I better get back to my own hut before I bleed to death. That would be pretty pathetic. . .” She then calls her broom so she can fly herself back home.

A few days later, Witch Princess’ wounds has completely healed up. She was able to brew enough medical potions to let her heal quickly. But the wound on her face healed to a nasty scar on her face. She looks at her reflection on the goddess pond and feels disgusted. “Damn you Jungle Boy! I know we were fighting back there, but he didn’t have to cut my face! Next time I see him, I will give him a piece of my mind!”

Suddenly, the Harvest Goddess appears, “ta-da! Hello Witch Princess. Oh dear, what happened to your face?”

Witch Princess covers her scar and yells, “shut your mouth. You know darn well what happened. I bet you were watching the whole fight from the comfort of your pond.”

“Now now, temper my dear friend. If you were just a bit nicer, I’m sure you could have even more friends. Now let me take care of that scar for you.” The Harvest Goddess snaps her fingers, which causes Witch Princess’ scar to vanish instantly. She looks at the reflection in the water once again, amazed that she looks like if nothing had happened. If she knew Harvest Goddess could do that, she would have not been so mad when Shiba cut her.

“I noticed that you met Wada the witch doctor. You plan to fight him too?” asked the Harvest Goddess.

Witch princess wanted to say that she plans to get even stronger and beat Wada as well. But after everything she has been through, she takes a deep breath and says, “you know what? No. I beat Jungle Boy after all, so I’m satisfied for now.”

“Really? That’s amazing! So that means you are going to give up fighting?” asked the Harvest Goddess in a surprised tone.

“Of course not,” shouted Witch Princess. “I plan to get stronger and stronger. Even though I beat Jungle Boy, I haven’t beaten you yet. You better watch your back, cause someday you will be next!” She then laughs out loud, confident in the future of her magical power. The Harvest Goddess sighs stressfully. Witch Princess may have grown a bit since Forget-Me-Not Valley, but there are some things that will never change.

Witch Princess will never admit to anyone that she is grateful to Shiba and Wada. Before she met them, she had no reason to get stronger. Now that she is aware that there are people around the world who are this strong, she has found inspiration to get better. Will she find all new opponents to fight? Only time will tell.

The End.