"My spells are plenty strong, dirt-child."

Hali gave a frightful start, and Xavier and Sam soon followed suit. Tiamat, just suddenly materialized inside the cavity of the revenge. The evil queen stared at the merfolk with her cold, amber eyes.

"If your spells are so mighty," Xavier retaliated in Hali's defense, "why was the skeleton so easy for Hali to defeat?"

"Did you ever hear of the word distraction, my boy?" Tiamat snarled, "or are you too dim-witted?"

Xavier would have strangled the hag, then and there, if Hali hadn't motioned for him to stay back.

"I don't believe it," Sam was setting Tiamat up for a dig.

"You don't believe what, handsome?" the queens icy voice settled on Sam.

"It just, that in all the stories I've ever heard about mermaids," Sam paused for a moment, as he sized up the enemy, "mermaids were always described to be beautiful. Where do you fit into the equation?"

Tiamat roared in anger. As she did so, her entire body began to glow in a faint green light. The moon was beginning to rise. When the first of the full moon's beams pierced the surface of the ocean, all would be hers. The light continued to grow more intensely, as it enveloped the sorceress' body, her blood red tail appeared green in the malicious lighting. She was obviously draining the energy from the moon. It was only a matter of moments, now.

Xavier gallantly lunged at Tiamat with the sword he was still holding, but the queen was too quick for the stable hand. An unbelievably large shaft of white-hot lightning shot directly from the tips of the Trident. It landed on the ground right in front of Xavier, and he recoiled backwards at an alarming speed.

"Шчасна прызямліцца," Hali prayed that her simple spell would be enough to safe Xavier's life.

The stable hand, sailed through the water, and slammed into the wall on the far side of the Revenge. Before he knew it, Xavier was showered by twenty years worth of debris. Other than that, he appeared to be completely unharmed.

Tiamat was outraged at the thought of the little dirt-child, grandbrat of pathetically weak Triton, being able to counter a spell, she had spent years perfecting.

"You brat!" Tiamat was now seething with hatred, "You will die now!"

Tiamat directed three rays of crackling electricity at the mermaid, and each of the rays hit its mark, exactly. Hali sunk to the deck, writhing in her agony. The poor girl was emitting yelps of pain, that would break anybody's heart. Then suddenly, the yelps stopped, altogether, and Hali lay in a lifeless heap on the wooden planks of Bonnet's Revenge.

Tiamat laughed hideously, her body was now fully engulfed in the evil green light. The first moonbeam had finally pierced the water's surface.

Xavier, unable to hide his tears, wanted to rush to Hali's side, but was restrained by Sam's arm.

"Let me go!" sobbed Xavier.

"Look!" Sam whispered.

Xavier studied the lifeless form of his lover, tears flowing freely from his eyes. Then he saw what Sam must have meant. A movement, just barely noticeable, but a movement just the same. Hali had taken a short breath. She was still alive.

Tiamat ignored the fools, mourning the loss of the dirt-child. She needn't worry about them anymore. Her water dragon army would take care of them, and avenge the tragic death of her beloved Mizu-Kaida. The sea witch raised the Trident high in the air, and began her incantation.

Paldies jums Mēness,
Lai ļautu man savas pilnvaras.

Hali painstakingly opened one eye. The water was twirling about the Trident's tips, just as it had before. Only Hali knew Tiamat must be summoning something much more dangerous than Mizu-Kaida. The Guardian needed to stop the lunatic, if she had to die trying.

'My book!" Hali thought to herself in panic, 'I can't find my book!'

Okeāna
Tagad pieder man!

Good. Tiamat was still distracted. If she noticed that Hali was still living, she would immediately rectify that tiny detail. Hali's hands, searched around for her book. Nothing. Finally, her fingers closed around a small, hard object. It wasn't her book. No, far from it. Hali's dainty fingers were grasping a pistol that had once belonged to the Gentleman Pirate himself.

'Thanks, Bonnet,' Hali praised the dead pirate, but she wasn't sure that the pistol would even fire.

Hali abruptly pulled the trigger, with a click, and the bullet nearly tore off Tiamat's arm. The evil one's arm was hanging by a tendon, and blood was spurting everywhere. Tiamat wore on her face a look of utter shock, but she still held the Trident in her good arm. Undeterred, Tiamat continued her spell.

Ūdens pūķi,
Daudzi numurs,

Tiamat's spell was nearly complete. If she finished speaking the incantation, the the ocean would fall, and Hali would have failed at the only thing she was asked to do. No, the thing she was destined to do. There was no time to look for her book, now. Hali needed to craft a spell quickly. It was now or never.

Hali took in a breath and cast the simplest, most specific spell her brain could come up with.

"Памерці, Tiamat!"

The sorceress crashed to the floor in a heap, and flopped her tail like a dead fish. Tiamat moaned in agony for several moments, and then... silence. Not wanting to take any chances, Xavier ran his sword through the ice queen's body, staining the blade with blood.

Hali breathed a sigh of relief, but soon fainted from stress and exhaustion.