Snow's training included simply using her magic. None of the other students trained towards the northside of the academy, mostly as the majority of them can't really handle the cold all too well. For Snow however, this just happened to be the perfect climate. Everyday, she used her spells to create ice crystals and other things as big and deadly as she can possibly make them. Every couple of days Alan also participated in mock battles with her, mostly to help her gain experience against opponents which she can't instantly immobilize, either by freezing or by immobilizing them for eternity.
During this time, Alan also taught Crystal basic things she could do to defend herself against an enemy. Primarily, call for him or Snow, secondarily, hit them right between their legs as hard as she could, which due to her exceptionally strong legs is enough to break bones. High chances they will die, if not, they will still not be capable of moving for a fairly long while.
The last option which remained for her is to run, for which he taught her hand-to-hand combat so she could create openings to run away, and even helped better dodges. Her speed already rivaled the fastest creatures on land, and probably even gave them a tough fight, but Snow felt certain that it surpassed the rest by a fair amount already, and would continue grow along with her.
Snow also started realizing that the icy artifacts Alan gifted her increased her mana by quite a lot, both efficiency and capacity. She found herself to be capable of performing thrice as many spells, and of twice the scale.
She slowly but surely got stronger, but it still felt awfully lonely when he told her to train by herself for entire entire moon cycle, after he helped her train for one, using the regular schedule. He did tell her found something very important and needed to investigate it in further detail, and he needed Crystal's help for it. So, the two were away, leaving Snow behind by herself, training as hard as she can so she would be useful at the final exam.
Alan taught her how to block attacks and parry with a staff, a weapon she never considered using, and he even gifted her one. The staff gifted to her consisted of an icy white rod, glistening in the light, a blue gem at one end of it. The gem seemed to have been carved into a shape similar to that of a spearhead, the opposite corner also being sharp. He intended her to use her spells to damage enemies and keep them at a safe distance, and use the staff for sneak attacks on mages who might sense her activating a spell, or to protect herself when an enemy reached close.
After training alone for two weeks, she decided to go exploring further north, being extremely bored. She didn't worry about accidentally losing her way, she trusted her sense of direction enough, and even if she did Crystal would have no problems following Snow's trail even in the harsh icy environment.
When Snow reached what she believed to be the center of the snowy area, it felt cold to her, a strange occurence as Ice Wyverns don't feel cold easily. They can survive freezing temperatures and waters without any problems, and even prefer such places over others. This did not feel too cold either to Snow, she found the climate to be quite pleasant, not having experienced such pleasant weather in about ten years.
As her body and mind relaxed she started feeling tired and drowsy. After finding a nice area, a thick pile of snow, she lied down, and before she even knew it, she fell into the soft embrace of sleep.
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The little Ice Wyvern girl walked over the frozen lake, her parents watching her from not too far. The girl kept slipping on the ice and falling, getting back on her feet after some struggling. Generally, Ice Wyverns did not struggle in such a way, but being just a child, it is easy to say why it doesn't apply to the girl.
She belonged to a bloodline of Ice Wyverns which has served eight generations of demon kings, amounting to well over five thousand years. She didn't possess the fearsome look of most Ice Wyverns, not even in her dragon form, she resembled a little pup with wings and scales for fur. The girl possessed hair resembling a sheet of snow over the earth, her eyes similar to a frozen lake.
Most of the time, the young ones of the bloodline went through harsh training to be useful for the demon king in the future. However, she did not need to follow it. Her family already sent their older son for the training, which he wanted for himself, they didn't wish to send him away, but still succumbed to his demands. After they sent away their son, bidding him a final farewell, they disappeared without a trace with their daughter, not wishing for her to leave them as well. While most dragons preferred solitude, certain tribes of Ice Wyverns stuck close with family, very few ever leaving their family even after hundreds of years, and even then most settled not too far and visited often.
The training in her bloodline usually begun at the mere age of five. When her brother went for the training, the little girl was far too young to even remember that she has a brother. Wyverns are babies till the age of three years, after which they are kids till they turn juvenile by the age of sixteen, and at the age of twenty-five they become adults.
The girl and her parents looked up on hearing the sound of beating wings overhead, only to see another family of Ice Wyverns arriving. That family belonging to the Ice Wyvern the girl befriended not too long ago. They brought their daughter here so the two could play together, and the adults also needed to discuss certain matters with the girl's parents.
The two girls went to play over the lake, the other girl, possessed hair similar to the silver lining on gray clouds, and gray eyes like clouds during winter, just about to snow. The silver haired girl moved gracefully over the lake while the white haired girl struggled to even stand still, causing the silver haired girl to burst out in a short giggle every time she fell, only to stop after a moment and encourage her to try again.
As she fell again the white haired girl heard a crack sound from underneath, her eyes widening as she noticed the cracks in the ice, stretching from under her into many veins around the center of the lake, the veins growing thinner and disappearing as they reached the shore. Wyverns could swim, very well even, but they needed to be taught how to do so, something the little girl has not yet learnt.
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The silver haired girl, four years older calmed herself, having been in such situations many times before. "Stay still! If you move the ice will continue to break, no need to worry, just keep your focus on me and sit still," The girl ordered.
The white haired girl panicked, though she didn't move, instead remaining there and started to cry. The parents heard the shouts of the silver haired girl and rushed to help at once, using their ice abilities to make sure the ice where they stepped did not crack. They were stopped in their path however, by a wall of dark flames that appeared out of seemingly nowhere.
"Could you not interrupt?" The dark figure requested, in a voice that seemed to convey that his words were not a request, but a command.
The parents knew the dark figure and wished to help the little girl, but none of them could muster the courage to even move in the presence of the demon king's strongest general. They knew they were caught and any resistance will only worsen the situation for everyone, and so they knew they could do nothing but resign themselves and their daughters to whatever fate wished.
The dark figure slowly walked towards the crying girl, the other girl also trembling. She did not know about the dark figure, but she could feel the overwhelming aura he possessed, and his overwhelming power, being more than enough to convince her to stand still "Are you planning on crying for the whole day?" The dark figure questioned the little girl as it towered over her.
The girl slowly looked up with teary eyes, sobbing as she inspected what stood in front of her. The dark figure continued looking at her with expectant eyes, not that his eyes were visible, but it seemed such to the other observers. The girl continued to cry as she finished inspecting the dark figure, now, for the previous reason, as well as the fact that a creepy dark figure stood right in front of her.
The dark figure grabbed the girl's hair and lifted her up slightly, causing her to scream out in pain. Everyone there wished to do something, but still couldn't build up the courage to move. "You are an Ice Wyvern!" The dark figure shouted at her. "Of the strongest bloodline at that, is this all you are good for? Crying and not doing anything? Use those Ice Wyvern powers which your bloodline is known for, useless piece of frozen dirt." The dark figure spat.
When she still refused to do anything, even move, the dark figure resolved to another method to know her strength, which he came there to evaluate, manipulating her to kill everyone present there. It would make his trip worthwhile if he could get to see some bloodshed at the least.
"Kill everyone here, now." The dark figure ordered the girl as it looked down on her.
The girl's eyes went darker, the light having been drained out of them as her screaming stopped abruptly. She looked towards her friend and lifted up her hand, pointing it at her. At that very moment ice crystals shot up from the ground, moving towards the girl with silver hair at high speeds. The parents moved quicker still, stopping the attack by smashing through it in their dragon form, one of them carrying the silver haired girl away.
"What are you waiting for? Don't let them get away." The dark figure whispered in her ear.
She lifted her hand up again, aiming towards the flying dragon, the mother of the silver haired one, carrying her daughter away from the dangerous area in her dragon form. An icicle formed in front of the girl's hand, launching towards the dragon's wing at very high speed. It missed the wing, but instead hit the neck, both mother and daughter fell down into the icy waters, cold enough to be hard for even juvenile Ice Wyverns to endure for long.
"Oh my, it seems like she really wants to kill you." The dark figure laughed. Tears were started to roll down the girl's eyes, freezing into ice crystals by the time they fell off her face.
The silver haired girl's father charged at the white haired girl with a sword, prepared to kill her, being the only one that carried a weapon. Just as he got close to her, just before he could be within reach, his leg fell into a hole as the lake opened to swallow him, ice quickly freezing back as his leg fell in the water, freezing and locking him in place and started creeping upwards. As a last resort method he threw his sword at her, hoping to kill her with that. Suddenly ice shot up from the ground creating a wall in front of the girl, stopping the sword and protecting the girl from the attack, aimed right at her head.
He to turn back into his dragon form to break free when hundreds of ice spikes shot up towards him from the ground, impaling his entire body and killing him near instantly, sitting in the same place, frozen. When the white haired girl turned her head upwards she felt the air turn cold as she got blasted by a powerful ice breath. The girl's parents already abandoned hope of rescuing her as well, knowing it would be far nicer a fate than leaving her with the dark figure determined to kill her now.
The two were in their dragon forms and decided to charge at her at once Just as they were about to, they realized they couldn't move their legs, already frozen in place, all feeling already faded from their legs. They tried to use their wings to fly and break the ice, but failed. Now, an ice dome starter to form around them, encasing them inside of it. Thousands of ice spikes shot towards them from the dome's wall and the ground under the dome, impaling them to the point the corpse could barely even be recognized to be an Ice Wyvern corpse.
The silver-haired girl stood some distance away in terror. She thought of something and started to hit her hand on the ice of the lake as hard as she could, confusing the two that stood and watched her.
The dark figure laughed. "She has lost her mind from all this it seems like, go and kill her, make it as painful as possible." The little girl followed his order, starting to walk towards the silver-haired girl, tears streaming from both their faces, though only one's face showed any emotions.
As the little girl reached halfway there, the ice of the lake cracked, breaking off and separating the parts the two girls were on. The silver-haired girl's part, being towards the shore, allowed her to make a run for it. She started to think she would be able to make it out alive. Just before she could reach the shore and glanced a look behind, she glimpsed a wave of ice spikes rushing towards her. She attempted to run faster, but to no avail, simply not being fast enough to escape her fate.
The entire lake froze over again by now, under a very thick layer of ice, along with the shore and even some distance away from it. The dark figure released the little girl from the mind control, allowing her to think clearly again, and also remember how she killed everyone she knew in the matter of a minute. She fell down on her knees, starting crying loudly, looking at the destruction she brought about.
The girl killed her parents, her friend's parents, and her only friend. The dark figure already tested as much as he needed to, he knew now for certain, that this girl would be the strongest Ice Wyvern from this bloodline. The other one also showed promising growth, but it would be very wrong to compare the two. This girl possessed this much power at a much younger age.
The dark figure approached the girl, taking her to the demon king and started training her. She went through hell, crying without anyone to tell her "it's fine, no need to cry". The only words given to her were, "If you don't stand up to my expectations, just know that there will be hell waiting for you."