An ice sculpture could really throw a punch.

The wolf Hunter staggered as the lumberjack's fist cracked into its jaw. The impact sounded closer to cannon fire than a punch, not that Jorden was complaining.

The moose sculpture galloped across the ice, its hooves echoing into the night as it ran.

The bird Hunter ignored the sculptures and went straight for Jordan, black feathers glistening and claws flashing as it struck.

The moose caught it in the back, antlers lowered to punch right through it.

The bird screeched as blue antlers burst from its side.

The moose bucked, tossing its head back and swinging the massive monster off its feet.

Jorden laughed, exhilaration momentarily beating out his fear. There was something deeply cathartic about seeing something that terrorized you get its ass kicked.

The wolf Hunter lurched back to its feet and let out an ear-piercing howl. Red light rolled through the air and scrambled along the ice before slamming into Jordan.

His heart pounding in his ears, the sound loud enough that he barely heard the Hunters fighting around him.

Every smell in the park suddenly jumped out at him. The fresh snow, the wet pavement, and bits of blood on his arm from where he scraped against the ground.

The polar bear sculpture joined the lumberjack. One massive crystalline paw batted the side of a wolf’s face, staggering it again and tearing away pits of flesh.

Jorden scrambled to his feet as the red light faded around him.

The wolf darted back from the two sculptures, its movements faster and more graceful.

Jorden noticed with a start that while the red light had faded from the air, it still hung around the wolf like a loose fog.

The monster circled the sculptures, darting forward to make small testing lunges before backing away.

The wolf stepped in once, twice, and then the three of them became a frenzy of slashing claws and striking fists.

Jorden checked his cooldowns.

15 seconds left on New Shoes.

Wizards Gambit was-Jorden stopped, staring at the number in disbelief.

2 hours

He watched the polar bear take a hit from the wolf, shrugging it off as it threw itself back into the fight.

That Hunter pancaked a car, and these ice sculptures were strong enough to shrug off its hits.

How the hell was that balanced? The System made claims about how it wanted its Skills to be balanced, but this skill sure as hell wasn’t.

Were epic skills just that strong?

…Though the Skill hadn’t created any ice sculptures, only animated the ones already there.

If the Skill made incredible soldiers to fight for you, but you had to sculpt them yourself, that would certainly balance its usefulness.

How many places could you find ice sculptures lying around? Or even have the option to make them yourself?

The bird ripped into the moose’s side, and the sculpture bellowed, the sound ringing out like shattering glass as the dark talons scored the ice.

Jorden hesitated.

He couldn’t run while the ice sculptures were distracting the Hunters. They might chase him, but they might hunt for the others instead.

Jorden had barely survived so far, and he had literal magic on his side. The others wouldn’t stand a chance.

But he also couldn’t just stand here!

The Hunters hadn’t bothered with the sculptures until they got in their way. Hell, the bird had let itself be impaled to try and get to him.

He certainly couldn’t go and help the sculptures physically. An errant swipe would tear him in half. But Jorden didn’t need to touch them to distract them.

He just had to scream.

And he could do that.

Jorden opened his mouth and let rip an ear-shattering wail.

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He didn’t bother with words. He didn’t need those. He just needed to be as loud and attention-grabbing as humanly possible.

And by god was he loud. He took all of his fear and stress, all his anxiety and anger and confusion over the last week and poured it into his voice.

The Hunters both snapped towards him, their gazes burning with hunger.

And his sculptures struck.

A wicked paw swipe followed by a punch from the lumberjack slammed into the wolf.

It yelped and scrabbled back as the lumberjack pressed in.

A brutal kick from the moose caught the bird in the hip, sending it reeling.

The Hunters fought back, and Jorden kept up his yelling.

They didn’t turn all their attention to him again, but they kept shooting him glances or trying to angle their fights to take them closer to him.

He only had 10 seconds left for Shoes cooldown.

He could keep this up for 10 more sec-

A white ball slammed into his shoulder with a burst of pain.

The ball detonated, spraying something sticky over his shoulder and neck.

“What the fuck?!” He tried to look in every direction at once as his shoulder throbbed. That felt like getting hit by a fastball!

Where had it come from? And who’d thrown it for that ma-

Shit!

Jorden threw himself down on the ice as another white ball whistled overhead.

The third Hunter! He forgot about the third Hunter!

The hall detonated against the ice, leaving behind a path of…webs!

He climbed to his feet. As the sculptures continued their brawl, Jorden desperately searched for his attacker.

It wasn’t until a third web ball raced for his head that he caught sight of them.

Spiders. Massive, bone-white spiders bigger than his chest were clinging to the side of the building across the street.

He counted at least six of them, and each set of bright blue eyes were locked onto him.

“…Fuck.”

Four spiders scuttled down from the building, their legs clicking against the bricks in a flurry of noise.

Each one had a massive bulbous thorax that pulsed with lines of blue, and their spindly legs cracked the sidewalk as they ran.

“No. Nope nope nope.”

Jorden turned and started running. “Fuck that!”

“Moose!” The sculpture in question had just staggered the bird in return for a chip in its shoulder, and it spun around at his call and started galloping for him.

For a second, he worried the moose would trample him, but it had seemingly read his mind, and the thing ran past him, skidding to a stop beside one of the park's low hills.

The sound of giant spider legs closing in obliterated any hesitation he might have had as he sprinted to the hill and threw himself down onto the moose’s freezing back.

It took off, the air whipping at Jorden’s face as they hurtled from the park.

Moose were fast, but this thing wasn’t an ordinary moose.

They blasted down the streets of downtown at something approaching highway speeds.

And the spiders kept pace.

He glanced over his shoulder, certain they’d lost them, only to find a web ball narrowly miss his back.

The spiders were swinging after them.

Webs shot from their butts, attaching to nearby buildings as they swung through the air.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me!”

He kept dodging webs as they continued to race through the streets, but he didn’t know how long they could keep this up.

And not just because the spiders might get a lucky shot in. Jorden was freezing. Adrenaline and proper clothes could do a lot, but it was cold out, and he was literally on ice.

The moose’s chill was creeping into his bones, and it probably wouldn’t be long before he risked hypothermia.

While that was normally a cause for concern, if he got off the moose, he wouldn’t live long enough for hypothermia to be a problem.

The moose juked to the side as a spider flew by, mandibles clacking.

“Jesus Christ!”

“Right, turn right!” The moose swerved, practically drifting as they rounded the corner.

Another spider swooped by, and Jorden barely ducked in time to dodge the point-blank web ball.

He glanced over his shoulder and only saw one spider.

Where were the others!?

He turned back just in time to see a trip wire made of corded web blocking the entire street. And on the left and right, a spider sat waiting, webs already launching.

Jorden’s breath caught, his heart freezing in his chest as a single thought echoed through his mind.

“I don’t want to die!”

His Skill pulsed, and he activated it with a panicked thought.

Turquoise light flooded out of him, spreading through the air and straight through his mount.

Just as the moose was about to hit the webs, the world warped, his vision tunneling down to a point as the entire street compressed into a pinprick.

His stomach turned as a terrible sense of momentum settled onto him.

He struggled to comprehend what his eyes were telling him, but then everything snapped back to normal, except they were a hundred feet further down the road, and crystalline blue light hung off him and the moose like a cloak.

He looked back to see the spiders searching in every direction, making furious clicking noises.

He started to smile, only for it to fade as he saw four forms in the distance marked by a wall of red light.

The other Hunters were coming for him, and they were faster than his other sculptures.