There was a joke went around the teams Sara was a part of; the joke was nothing special they just called her The Ice Queen. While her nickname did have to do with one of her essence abilities that wasn’t why they called her that.

As the cloud of snow started to settle around Sara, she took a deep centering breath. As she let it out the breath, she felt herself settle into that cold place that she lived for.

Her old teammates would always say when she got like this, they could feel the temperature drop and her gaze change. Most other capable combatants would also get a certain gaze. Her teammates always claimed when her gaze changed it was like standing before a ruler with no mercy. It would always freak them out and it annoyed Sara a bit, only a bit. At first it really annoyed her until she saw a recording. It was one of those recordings that not only captured image and sound but auras and magic as well. Through that recording she understood why the others always felt that way however, in her humble opinion it felt more like a god that was about ready to smite someone.

Sara felt a little stupid for not noticing a Bronze-Rank threat and trained her focus on the target. The target was made up of floating humanoid bones that cut off at the waist, the target was draped in a tattered black cloak, it also held a bow in one hand. The skulls eye sockets were filled with white flames, the creature raised the bow and began to draw. As it pulled back the flames grew brighter, and an arrow appeared on the bow string. Right before it could release the arrow Sara activated on of her abilities [Thunderclap Impulse].

[Thunderclap Impulse]

* Attribute: Lightning (Speed)

* (Bronze-Rank, 8 65%)

* Special Ability: (Movement, Lightning)

* Cost: low

* Cooldown: 30 seconds

* Lightning courses through your body causing all senses and thoughts to be enhanced for 5 seconds.

Sara’s thoughts sped up causing everything to go into slow motion. Her depth perception was increased, detail of everything became more noticeable, the colors she saw were more vivid, deeper, and more distinct. Her sense of smell sharpened, letting her catch every scent in the air around her, even herself, which she had to admit was very pleasant. It was like a lovely spring breeze, but she didn’t let it distract her too much. Her sense of taste also improved allowing her to taste the air, the sweet taste of pine in the air was always pleasant to her. Her hearing became more pronounced as well, she could hear the creak of the monsters bow, the rustling of its cloak and so much more. Her sense of touch became more sensitive, which was both a blessing and a curse, especially when she got torn up in a fight.

All these changes she was used to, she spent countless hours training in this state. She became so attuned that she could tell the moment a bullet left the barrel of a rifle. She could also tell the next move of an opponent just by the way their muscles shifted. Her aura on the other hand also helped predict the next move but something changed. She was trained enough to not let change affect her much, but she did notice it. Her aura felt like a blanket of snow encapsulating everything. It couldn’t affect anything, but she could feel everything.

She could already tell the difference this could have in battles. She tried to form a smirk but while everything seemed slower around her this also meant her physical movements were slower. She stopped trying to form a smirk and let the cold blank expression settle back on her face.

Settling back, she started to form a plan. The first thing she needed to consider was if she was going to fight or run. She was Iron-Rank fighting a Bronze-Rank, the rank disparity would not help in this fight. So, she opened her inventory and navigated to the weapons tab. Just like before there was a silhouette on the side this had six slots.

Quick Equip Slots: When selecting items with the tag “Weapon” assign it to one of six slots, Right Hand, Left Hand, Right Hip, Left Hip, Right Back, or Left Back. They will be equipped to chosen slots. Note, some weapons are incompatible with some slots, slots can change depending on clothing or armor.

She also noticed while that she had pending notifications, she decided to ignore those as it was not important. She knew what was previously in her ice chest so the weapons she saw wasn’t surprising. She had two one handed axes, one glaive, and one two handed axe. She equipped the two one handed axes to her hands and the glaive to her back. She noticed when she did this the Right Back and Left Back slot were both taken up. Like when she equipped her clothing a mist appeared right in front of her hands. Unfortunately, due to her current state it still took a moment for the mist to disperse and her hands to grasp the weapons.

While she waited, she started channeling one of her area of effect attacks. This was something she was used to as well, having spent many hours training with [Thunderclap Impulse]. She channeled it only for a second in this state and released. Feeling the manna in her drain and seeing a lightning bolt strike the monster, it signaled the start to this ability.

[Thors Hand]

* Attribute: Storm (Power)

* (Iron-Rank, 5 26%)

* Area Of Effect (Cloud, Wind, Lightning)

* Cost: High

* Cooldown: 5 Minutes

* Summon a storm that rains lightning bolts that strike your enemies for 3 Minutes With a 25M radius.

In the beginning this ability was pretty lackluster. It started the same with one big bolt of lightning but the number of bolts it sent was what made it lackluster. With it only sending around half a dozen in the beginning at random rates it was hard to work with. Now though Sara had a vague sense of when a bolt would strike, and the number of bolts increased to now being about a dozen and a half. One thing that did annoy her was the inconsistency of bolts. Sometimes it was 20 bolts and sometimes it was 14 bolts with 18 being a fairly consistent number. Seeing the effect of the strike and knowing [Thunderclap Impulse] was coming to an end she started to move.

Like a bolt of lightning, she launched herself, except it didn’t feel like it. Even if it didn’t feel all too fast, she knew she was fine. With the axes secured in her hands and a glaive on her back she started to channel another attack.

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[Wind Blade]

* Wind (Regeneration)

* (Iron-Rank, 4 72%)

* Special Attack (Wind)

* Cost: Low

* Cooldown: None

* Swing Arms, Legs, or Weapons to create a blade of wind.

As [Thunderclap Impulse] came to an end she released the charge with a swing of her axes. The wind blades shot out barreling to the monster. They collided with the monster and much to Sara’s disappointment all it did was push it back a little. Sara didn’t let that phase her and doubled down. She rushed in with her axes made of ice. As she got to the monster, she made an overhead strike with one axe while she made an underhanded swing with the other. The axe that made the overhead strike came down and struck the skull of the monster and shattered. All that was left was the handle of the axe. While the axe that made the underhanded swing completely missed. Seeing the results Sara jumped back and switched the axe to her other hand and discarded the broken handle of the other.

As she switched the axes, she felt a familiar feeling indicating another strike of lightning. What followed was five consecutive strikes of lightning. This left the monster wobbling if it wasn’t floating Sara would say that it was staggering. Seeing her opportunity she charged. This time she aimed for its rib cage. She changed to a two handed grip, it was a bit inefficient with the axe but it would provide more power behind her swing.

She swung from the side and struck two of the monsters ribs. The two ribs she struck broke but, it also broke her axe. Being to close to the monster with no weapons in her hands, she decided to jump up and use the monsters body as a wall to jump off. The maneuver was successful, sort of. She launched herself away from the monster yes, but she didn’t stick the landing. This caused her to stumble and fall. As she started getting up, she felt an impact, then hot pain spread from her back. She let out a scream of agony then gritted her teeth.

She lost her momentum in the fight, she failed to stick the landing and for that she now had an arrow sticking out of her back. She went to reach for the glaive on her back but found it missing. When she turned around, she found out why. Her failed landing and fall caused the glaive to come off her back.

Things were falling apart; she felt a spike of panic start to rise but she was not done yet. She reached to a comforting cold feeling, the feeling that she truly lived for. Nothing mattered to her, the pain, the panic, the feeling of dread all gone. All that was left was the cold hard wrath that gave her, her nick name The Ice Queen finally came to play. A smirk formed on her face. The feeling that signaled lightning was about to strike came and she launched herself.

As the lightning struck, she also struck knocking the monster to the ground. She sat on the monster holding it in place. She used the rest of her mana to clamps to anchor its arms to the ground, further reinforcing her hold on it. She then started wailing on the monsters skull. The skull felt like punching a steal beam. Her gloves had knuckle guards made with a composite of several tough Iron-Rank materials. This didn’t matter because after a couple of hits the material started to crack but so did the monsters skull.

Now, while she did have lighting as one of her essences this didn’t mean she was completely immune. While not completely immune she did have some resistance to it. So, every time the lightning struck, she was shocked, this caused her muscles to spasm. This wasn’t the biggest of issues though because she trained her body and was able to recover quicker than most. So, the worst thing about it was the damage she took. After a bit of punching the monster, getting struck by lightning, and fighting the monster to keep it down she heard an androgenous voice say, “WARNING HEALTH BELOW 50%.”

Of course, she ignored the warning and kept going. At some point the knuckle guards broke and she was left bare knuckled. So, just like punching steal her knuckled started to get torn up and blead. This sent blood flying, painting the area red in her blood. This did pay off though because the monsters skull now had a spiders web of cracks around the area Sara was hitting. With each punch Sara sent she felt the impact run through her hands and arms. Consequently, fracturing them, but she didn’t let up because with each punch the cracks grew larger. As she was punching she got another warning that she ignored “WARNING HEALTH BELOW 30% SEEK HEALING SOON.” After a bit more punching and a few more lightning strikes the flames in the skull went out. When the flames dissipated, she used a recovery skill. This was a pretty good recovery skill, the only downside being, she could only use it after a fight. So, with an intake of breath a stream of blue and green ribbons of light came from the wraith and into Sara.

[Breath of Fresh Air]

* Attribute: Wind (Regeneration)

* (Iron-Rank, 5 56%)

* Regeneration (Recovery, Cleansing)

* Cost: None

* Cooldown: None

* Inhale the remnant energies after defeating an enemy and gain an instance of [Rejuvenation]

* [Rejuvenation] (Recovery, Cleansing): Depending on the color of the energy stream regain a portion of the remnant energy.

* (Red): Life force.

* (Green): Stamina.

* (Blue): Mana.

She then had a screen appear in her vision.

Would you like to loot [Ranged Wraith]

[Yes/No]

Without really thinking Sara mentally affirmed.

You Have looted [Ranged Wrath]

* You have received.

* 1 Bee’s Knees Healing Salve.

* 1 Bee’s Knees Drink of Miraculous Healing.

* 1 Bronze-Rank monster core

* 10 Bronze-Rank spirit coins

* 100 Iron-Rank spirit coins

* Items have been moved to [Ice Vault].

* New information has been added to [Encyclopedia]. Open [Encyclopedia] tab to view new information under [Monsters] category.

After she affirmed the wraith turned into the familiar yet dreaded rainbow smoke. Sense she was still straddling the wraith she was assaulted by the smoke. She fell over gaging and retching from the stench. When her hands hit the ground, she was reminded of her state and let out a wail of pain. Vision blurred by the tears she remembered one of the things she got from lotting the wraith.

She pulled out a bottle with blue and green liquid that swirled as if it had a mind of its own. she popped the cork and guzzled it down. A warmth flooded her body upon drinking the liquid. The warmth was followed by a slight tingling, but she no longer felt the pain that consumed her arms. She wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at the bottle. There was a label on the bottle, on the was a cartoon bee giving a thumbs up. Under the bee was text that read “Bee’s Knees Drink of Miraculous Healing,” under that was smaller text that read “From the creators of Bee’s Knees Healing Salve, there’s no ouches or uh-ohs the bee’s knees can’t handle.” Sara quirked a slight smile “I really needed that,” she said with a slight chuckle.