Tangerina and Tarantulene were locked eye-to-eye as they fought. The witch kicked the fairy with all four of her legs and hit her with all four of her hands. A swarm of bees flew out of Tangerina’s beehive and circled Tarantulene, stinging her arms and legs wherever they could.
The witch sprayed the bees with spiderweb and then showered the fairy with it—sticking Tangerina’s whole body to the ground. Tarantulene then stood over the fairy, preparing to strike her with her long fangs. But Tangerina managed to free one of her hands from the web, and she pointed at the witch. Honey erupted from the fairy’s finger and covered Tarantulene from head to toe. The honey quickly hardened and trapped the witch inside a large golden blob.
“It’s honey that attracts the flies, darling,” Tangerina said. “You should try it.”
Across the Great Lawn, Xanthous was caught in a battle with the Snow Queen. Unfortunately for him, nothing about their fight was heated. The witch pointed her cane at the fairy, and sharp icicles shot out of it like bullets. Xanthous dived out of their path, but there were too many to avoid. One icicle pierced his shoulder and another pierced his thigh, pinning poor Xanthous to a tree. The fairy screamed in agony and the witch cackled with satisfaction. The flames on Xanthous’s head and shoulders spread across his body until he was completely covered in fire and the icicles impaling him melted away.
The witch lifted the cloth covering her eyes, and an icy chill blew out from her empty eye sockets. Xanthous shielded himself with a wall of fire, but he struggled to keep it up. The wind grew stronger and stronger while the temperature became colder and colder. It was so cold, the Snow Queen’s face started to freeze, and soon her whole body was covered in ice.
“I always loved extinguishing little flamers like you!” the Snow Queen said.
“Do you know what they say about icy old queens?” Xanthous asked. “The colder the heart, the easier she melts.”
A ball of fire appeared in Xanthous’s hand, and he threw it at the Snow Queen. The fireball collided with the witch and exploded. The heat was so severe, it melted all the ice covering the Snow Queen’s body, and the witch vanished.
The Snow Queen’s polar bears were furious at seeing their mistress destroyed. They charged across the Great Lawn, intending to rip Xanthous limb from limb. Mother Goose and Merlin stepped into the bears’ path and blocked the beasts from attacking the fairy.
“My dear, I think it’s time to grin and bear it.” Merlin chuckled.
“Oh, Merlin, your jokes are unbearable.” Mother Goose laughed.
The couple transformed into a pair of ferocious grizzly bears and wrestled the polar bears to the ground. After a series of body slams, headlocks, and pile drivers, the polar bears gave up and tapped out of the fight.
In the opposite corner of the Great Lawn, Emerelda had a beastly challenger of her own. The Sea Witch snapped her claws, and a wall of salty water surrounded Emerelda. The witch snapped her claws again, and the wall filled with great white sharks—Emerelda was trapped! The Sea Witch opened her mouth, and an enormous electric eel slithered out from the back of her throat. The eel wrapped around Emerelda and shocked the fairy as it pinned her arms to her sides. The witch then pelted Emerelda with pieces of coral that grew over the fairy and confined her even more tightly.
“You won’t get away with this!” Emerelda shouted. “You can surround me with every fish in the sea, but good will always prevail over evil!”
“That’s the beauty of this world,” the Sea Witch hissed. “In the Otherworld, the evildoers can win!”
The Sea Witch clapped her claws together, and the wall of water caved in on the fairy. The water formed a sphere around Emerelda, and she couldn’t breathe. The fairy struggled against her fishy constraints but couldn’t break free. Emerelda’s eyes fluttered shut as she appeared to drown.
Before she celebrated her victory, the Sea Witch wanted to make certain the fairy was dead. She snapped her claws again, and the coral and eel disappeared and the fairy’s lifeless body rolled out of the watery sphere. As the witch leaned over her, Emerelda suddenly snapped back to life and grabbed the Sea Witch’s claw. The witch’s body was infected by Emerelda’s touch; inch by inch, the Sea Witch was covered in an emerald glow that transformed her body into sea glass. When the transformation was complete, Emerelda blasted the Sea Witch with a bright green light and she burst into thousands of pieces, showering Central Park with tiny shards of sea glass.
The Sea Witch’s sharks angrily lunged toward Emerelda, and the giant sphere of salt water rolled toward her. Before the sharks could harm the fairy, Mother Goose and Merlin pushed Emerelda out of the way and jumped inside the sphere. The couple transformed into a pair of giant squid and beat the sharks senseless.
Nearby, Violetta was having a difficult time keeping up with Serpentina’s swift attacks. The witch wrapped her tongue around the fairy’s ankle and dragged her through the mud. In retaliation, Violetta simply threw a small rock at the witch, but missed. Serpentina flung Violetta into the air, and the fairy landed with a heavy thud on the ground. Once again, all Violetta did to defend herself was throw another rock at the witch, and it, too, missed by almost a foot. The fairy repeated her poor defense over and over, but it only annoyed her opponent.
“Oh, come on! You’re not even trying! Have sssome ssself-ressspect and fight back!” Serpentina hissed.
Violetta smiled and pointed to the sky above Serpentina. The witch looked up and saw that all the rocks were hovering above her head—but they had all grown to the size of boulders. Violetta snapped her fingers, and the boulders collapsed on top of Serpentina.
Across the lawn, Skylene was clashing with Charcoaline. A geyser of lava erupted from Charcoaline’s mouth, and she aimed it toward the fairy. Skylene reached out her hands and blocked the lava with an equally powerful geyser of water. The water made a rainbow appear over the Great Lawn, not that anyone had a spare moment to enjoy it. Charcoaline used all her strength to hit Skylene with the most powerful geyser she could muster. The witch’s whole body filled with lava, and it flowed through the cracks of her ashy skin.
Skylene spotted the Central Park Reservoir out of the corner of her eye and had an idea. The fairy kept her watery geyser flowing with one hand and pointed to the reservoir with the other. An enormous wave of cold water spilled out of the reservoir and drenched everyone and everything across the Great Lawn. When Skylene looked up, Charcoaline had disappeared. The fairy looked at the ground and discovered that her opponent had been cooled into a mound of singed charcoal.