“Are you being chased?”

“YES! I–”

“[Ice Lance]!”

The spear of ice pierced Bay in an instant, closing the magical connection. Lily looked down at the plush in her hands. A huge hole had been punched through him.

“I– How could you!? He was my friend!”

“... The toy?”

The balaur girl was standing in the snow, taken aback by Lily’s response. Lily took a step forward, and the girl raised her hand, mana forming up in it. Lily turned and ran again.

Think. Think. The girl was hardly having trouble following her in the snow. Lily was staggering forward out of breath, while Adelina was simply walking after her. Plus it was COLD. Not as cold as the night of the storm, but Lily wasn’t fully dressed in the clothes Sunica got her, and the gaps were causing her problems already.

What could she do? She had to stop the girl. She’d tried laying a trap like she had with Sunica before, but Adelina could apparently see mana. At least in that big a circle. Lily had to get away. Find Sunica. Find Avea. Get help!

“Stop running, Human. It’s pointless. Get back here and reap the consequences!”

Lily scooped up some snow, and turned to throw a snowball at the girl. It sailed wide. Adelina laughed.

“You think I’m scared of a little snow? Are you blind? How about this? [Snow Blast]!”

As Lily felt the mana building behind her she dove behind a tree. Immediately the tree shook under the immense weight and pressure of the blast of snow that slammed against it. Lily felt like she’d barely dodged a tidal wave. She poked her head out from behind the tree. Adelina stood under a nearby tree with her hand outstretched in Lily’s direction.

Fine. She wants to play it like that? Lily had a little experience with snow filled trees! She visualized a simple spell. It could push in one of two directions if she fed it with mana. Instantly the circle appeared on the tree next to Adelina, and Lily poured mana into it. The tree shook back and forth violently, dislodging the snow from the branches all at once.

With a whumph sound the snow poured onto the girl, burying her as the weight of it knocked her to the ground. Lily stared in wonder. She hadn’t really expected that to work. Should… should she start digging to help the girl? She didn’t mean to–

There was an explosion of snow as the girl rose suddenly, throwing the entire pile of the stuff in all directions.

“Okay, I’m getting real pissed now!”

Lily turned and ran again. Behind her she heard the sound of sudden whooshing air. She hazarded a look over her shoulder only to see the girl sprouting wings!

“Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Sunica!? Anyone!?”

From above and behind her, Lily heard Adelina's voice.

“My Sister’s not coming to save you, Human! So just surrender!”

This was it. Lily was really going to die. She was really really gonna die. No. No no no. How had it all happened like this? Where did she go wrong?

Absolutely not. A bit of resistance flared up in her soul. Absolutely. Not. She was going to defend herself. How? Adelina wasn’t scared of snow, and she was flying. Lily didn’t think she could get away with casting a spell directly on the girl. She had tried when she started running, but for some reason she couldn’t focus on her like she could on inscribing a circle into an object, or herself. Some kind of anti-magic tool?

Now wasn’t the time! She had to think! How could she hit a flying moving… oh yeah!

“Star! Thank you buddy. I owe you one!”

Lily grabbed a handful of snow and formed it into a ball again.

“Please work, please work!”

She imagined the circles she wanted. The lightning spell she’d used on Sunica, and… the circle from Star’s ball back home!

When she finished, she only needed a clear shot. She hung a left at a tree and headed to a clearing. She needed a nice view of Adelina for this.

“Human, stop! Where are you going? Are you stupid?”

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Adelina’s voice sounded a little worried now. Perfect! Good! She should be! Just as the girl cleared the treeline, Lily made her move.

“Take this! Ultimate attack! [Star Bomb]!”

She threw the snowball. It sailed wide again. Missed by a mile, really. But that’s okay. She didn’t have to hit her target for this to work.

“Where do you think you’re aimin– Ahh!”

Lily activated the spell on the ball. It made a quick turn in the air, slamming into the girl’s back. There was an audible zapping noise as steam erupted from the girl and she fell like a bag of stones. Lily turned to keep running. It wasn’t like that had killed the girl. It might buy Lily some distance, but that was going to be it.

Five feet. Ten feet. Twenty feet.

Crack

Lily stopped instantly. Why did that sound like it came from below her?

Crack

Before Lily even had a chance to scream, she was underwater. The clearing! The lack of trees! River! It was a river! A frozen river!

She flailed, but everything was beyond freezing cold. She opened her eyes to see and the cold felt like shards of ice cutting into her eyes. She almost screamed in pain and fear, but that would be death!

Lily felt around desperately above her, trying to find the hole she fell in, but it was solid ice! Solid ice! No way, was there a current? How could she have been so–

She remembered what Adelina had said. “Human, stop! Where are you going? Are you stupid?”

She had been trying to warn Lily! What could she do? What could she do? Spell? What spell? Heat? Light? A flare? Strong enough to melt the ice?

It’s all she could think of, so it better work! She raised her hands in the direction she thought was up, and focused. Fire. Heat. Light. Fire. Big fire. Straight up. She dug deep. How much mana? As much as she could use. The mana river if she needed to. It wouldn’t matter if it tore her up if she was going to drown! She reached down into the depths of her mana pool and pulled.

The water around her warmed noticeably. Good. But that wasn’t enough! She had to get through the ice, and make it visible where she was. More. More mana. How deep was her mana pool now? Even now she couldn’t feel it running low. She redoubled her efforts. Focus on the pool, and. Force. It. Out!

Lily felt a shockwave. The water got a lot hotter, and suddenly! There was a horrible wrenching cracking sound from above her, but the water around her was starting to get painfully hot. She could feel her hands getting scalded! She had to get out of here! Out of the water! The ice should be weaker now, if not gone. She had to refocus her efforts. She was running out of air. It was so hard to focus. The pain was unbearable. She tried to swim up, but the pain! She wasn’t going to make it. New plan, push glyph!

She focused, drawing a circle on herself, and applying the push glyph. She had never done this before because dying to fall damage was way too easy. But right now, there was no other option. She poured mana into it. The water shifted around her. It grew hotter, but only for a second, then she broke the surface. She coughed and sputtered and tried to open her eyes. She was spinning, in freefall. She couldn’t even tell how high up she was! Another push with the glyph! Maybe she could get her bearings…?

She started spinning more forcefully. No! Tuck and roll? She screamed while trying to cover her head at the least when–

“Gotcha!”

The spinning stopped. She was about thirty feet in the air above a boiling and steaming patch of river, and… still descending quite quickly.

“Ugh– Brace yourself!”

Lily and Adelina hit the ground. The snow somewhat cushioned the fall, but it was still hard enough to hurt. Lily tried to sputter out a thank you, but she couldn’t stop coughing up water. Her teeth were chattering. She was trying not to vomit from coughing so hard.

She heard the girl stand up from beside her.

“You absolute moron! I thought you were some kind of great caster with that first spell, but now I see you’re just an idiot! Running headlong into a frozen river? What the hells were you thinking? Not to mention blowing it up!”

Lily coughed and sputtered a little more, and Adelina just went on.

“You’re lucky you didn’t die! You’re still not out of the fire. [Resist Cold].”

She tapped Lily on the shoulder, and instantly the bite of the cold lessened by a lot. Not enough that she wasn’t still freezing. But it no longer felt like ice might be forming in her lungs. The girl continued.

“The frost might not kill you, but I’m still on the fence! What are you, stupid? Attacking a member of the Matriarch’s family, and then running half naked into the snow with no protection spells? Do you have a death wish? Hey! Answer me!”

Lily tried. All she managed to do was croak out a single word.

“S-sorry.”

The girl tsked and stood over Lily with her arms crossed in silence for a minute. When she eventually spoke it was with a slightly less aggressive tone.

“Well, let’s get back to Sunica’s house before you freeze to death. Can you walk?”

Lily tried to rise to her feet, and staggered. Her clothes were freezing to her body already. It didn’t hurt like blades against her skin, thanks to Adelina’s spell. But it still hindered her movement a lot. It was so heavy. She took a step, and fell face first back into the snow. A scaled hand fished her out.

“Pathetic. Fine. We’re going to fly. But you better be grateful.”

Before Lily could object, she felt the girl get a firm grip under both her arms and take off. Lily wanted to scream, but she was so tired all of a sudden. So she just focused on staying awake. Could she cast a spell for heat? Would it mess with the [Resist Cold] spell…?

She stifled the thought. Flying, the house should be only a couple minutes away. She just had to stay awake for a few minutes. It was going to be okay.

“Thank you.”

“Huh?”

But Lily was too tired and weak to repeat herself louder. So she just held it in. She’d thank Adelina for saving her life when they got to Sunica’s. And then have it out with the girl.

But where was Sunica…?