Typhon led the group through the cold mist. He still held his tate shield, but they were no longer in harm's way from the icicle lancers.

As they walked they came upon two petrified frozen women. They did not appear to be bounty hunters and were most likely just some people from the nearby village that had strayed into the temple. They appeared under dressed for a blizzard, so perhaps they may have been only seeking shelter in Yuki-Onna’s lair. One of the women was holding a bag while the other one was reaching their hand into it. They had both been frozen with a single look by Yuki-Onna. Both women appeared to be in their early twenties and they were dressed in modern clothing. There was no doubt that these were recent victims of the demon.

Osian was getting tired of seeing the frozen victims of Yuki-Onna. Every time they passed a new set of petrified corps it filled him with a sense of despair. He felt sorry for these people and wished that there was something he could do to restore them. But he knew that this was not possible.

They reached a staircase made out of wood that rose up to the next level of the Pagoda. The staircase had an ornamental railing and it was all painted and red. Ice covered most of the steps, but otherwise it looked like a normal staircase. Even with that Typhon proceeded with cautiously one step at a time. He seemed ready to jump out of harm's way at a moments notice. Osian and Talyla both followed the master hunter and they reached the top of the steps.

“This is way too easy,” Typhon whispered. “The witch is up to something.”

The third level of the Temple was much different than the previous two levels. There were walls everywhere and everything was enclosed. Many were Japanese sliding walls and were made out of wood. The three walls ahead of them each had a symbol, but Osian couldn't understand the writing. Most likely this was demonscript.

Osian knew that Chimon would have been useful in deciphering the symbols. Trackers typically had a better understanding of demonscript than the average bounty hunter. Typhon was very experienced, so it might be possible for him to interpret these symbols.

“Stay close,” Typhon said.

He then proceeded to open one of the sliding doors with a symbol. On the other side was a long passage filled with ice on all the walls. The floor seemed extremely slippery.

Typhon chose to advance cautiously and the two recruits followed.

As they passed down the hall Osian could only see that the long hallway led into darkness. Typhon, as their leader, seemed to know where he was going, but the young recruit knew that they were a little lost without their tracker.

When Osian looked at the walls he noticed glints of energy. It was like the structure had been formed magically, almost like it didn't really exist. The temple was close to a ley line on Earth. This was were the demonplane intersected with the natural world. In the books that he read on the subject Osian knew that this meant that the two worlds intermixed at these locations and it was where the effects of the demon plane were the strongest.

As they passed down the corridor Osian was anxious and felt slightly guilty for what happened to Chimon. Maybe he did make the wrong choice when he evaded the falling icicle lancers. If he could go back in time he simple climb up the rope fast and do what he was supposed to do.

It was then that Osian got a strange feeling in his stomach. He could sense that something was about to happen.

Shsst!

Suddenly an ice wall dropped down in front of him. As he was at the back of the group it effectively cut him off from master Typhon and Tayla. The ice was clear, but still murky enough so that all he could see the shadows of the other hunters.

"Master Typhon!", he yelled. He proceeded to pound on the ice wall, but he knew it was way too think.

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He used his katana to try and break chunks of ice off the wall, but the ice was magically created and hard as stone. Small chips of ice splashed against his face, but he quickly concluded that there was no way he'd be able to cut through the ice.

He could hear the muffled voices of Tayla and Typhon on the other side. They were shouting something at him, but he couldn't understand. They moved away from the ice wall and vanished.

Were they under attack?

He knew that master Typhon wouldn't abandon him, so something must be distracting them.

Nothing Osian did to try and break the ice really made any difference, so he just gave up. Instead he tried to think about what he could do on his side of the wall. The only option available to him was to go to proceed forward. Master Typhon did say that Yuki-Onna would try and separate them, to kill them individually. Osian knew that he was no match for the Snow Witch should he encounter her. By all accounts she was a very powerful demon and had appeared on on Earth on several centuries.

“Did the demon have some way of watching us from afar?” He thought to himself

It was possible that she knew exactly where he was and what Osian was doing. She had laughed out loud when Chimon was killed and again when Tayla had slapped his face. Many demons had full control over their lairs, especially the really powerful ones. Osian wasn’t aware of the full extent of the demon's powers, but hi master had mentioned that she was a most dangerous opponent.

Typhon was one of the few bounty hunters that had fought the Snow Witch and lived. Many other hunters have died at her hands over the centuries. She seemed to have a knack for surviving and reappearing when the Archmagi thought her to be dead.

Osian proceeded down the passage. It was for the first time that he realized that the entire pogado was illuminated by a strange undersea crystalline glow. The walls and floor flickered with a waves of light and energy. The patterns in the ice seemed to move like it was alive. Osian didn’t understand how the passage was lit as he should be in darkness.

Shsst!

Another wall dropped down in front of him blocking his way forward. He was now trapped in a thirty foot long stretch of passage with no exit.

"Dammit, what am I going to do now?" he wondered.

From behind him he heard some ice crumble and fall. When he turned around he saw that a large crevice had been formed in the side wall of the passage. Chunks of ice continued fall and he saw a shadow appear through the opening.

"Is this Yuki-Onna?", he thought.

He gripped his katana sword and took a deep breath. He wanted to meet his fate head on. He didn't want to cower in the face of dear, so he walked towards the ice crevice.

As he approached he saw something strange. Something he had never heard of before. A giant snowball rolled towards him. It sparkled with a crystalline energy as it appeared out of the darkness. It rolled around with an animal-like purpose... so it was definitely alive. He didn’t know what exactly it was, but he knew it was probably a minion of the Snow Witch sent to defeat him.

The snowball creature rolled over the broken ice wall and stopped about fifteen feet away. It was about three times the size of a basketball and seemed to make some kind of gurgling noises as it moved.

Just when Osian was trying to figure out what do about this creature another snowball of the same size appeared through the crevice.

Osian gulped and tried to remain calm. He had completed three months of training to get to this point. His whole life had been spent dreaming of revenge for what had happened to him and his family. He wasn’t about to go softly now and give up.

“Whatever you creatures are, I'm going to defeat you!” He said aloud down the passage.

The closest snowball creature gurgled in response. Then the second creature gurgled in reply. They were communicating with each other, so they weren’t simply mindless automatons of Yuki-Onna. They were intelligent enough form some kind of language between them.

The first snow creature rolled and then bounced off the ground. It launched itself at Osian who managed to duck out of the way just in the knick of time. The creature bounced off the wall behind him and ricocheted around the frozen passage like a ping pong ball. Osian had to roll away on the floor to avoid being hit by rebounding creature.

At that time the second creature moved into the hallway and started rolling towards Osian.

“What am I going to do?” he thought

He hadn’t practiced defending against snowball creatures. He didn't even know if his sword would damage these things. He wasn’t sure what could kill them. He needed to find out if they could be cut down to size, or perhaps melted in some way.