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Dumb bastard couldn’t even stay alive long enough for me to get here, and it feels like Hajka is fighting someone strong. Feels like shadow magic, only… much more dangerous. This isn’t looking good… These four look dangerous too. Even though I don’t feel an Aura coming from any of them, they are still able to resist mine and remain standing. The female even managed to stop my ice wave with nothing but a punch, how the hell does that even work!?

Creating a dozen spears above my head, I jump back and send them flying at the giant humans, forcing the two that are charging at me to dodge to the side and then block as some of the spears impact the road beside them, exploding into shrapnel of ice shards flying in every direction. Some of the spears get sent towards the trapped female, while the rest head for the wounded one in the back.

He is quick to react and simply pivots on one leg, turning as he throws a kick. The corpse of Safta that was still stuck under his foot gets launch at blinding speeds and collides with the spears, exploding on contact in a hail of ice dust and gore. As soon as his foot returns to the ground, he is darting toward the trapped female at ungodly speeds, clearing half the street in the blink of the eye.

Even with one side covered in burns, he can still move that fast!?

The female responds to the spears in an equally, if not more, surprising way to counter the spears flying towards her. Even with half of her body frozen over and only one arm free, she still manages to reach down and pull something free from her hip.

Her hand comes up with some black and grey metal brick, aiming it towards the spears. With a loud crack of the air, the brick snaps the air several times in quick succession, filling the street with noise and making my ears ring even from how far away I am.

The ice spears explode in midair, and I have to hold back my surprise as I witness this.

Is that some kind of wind magic? Little Sister Fazzuth can throw invisible projectiles, but they can’t stop my spears like that. What is that thing? It must be the source of all the noise I heard earlier…

Continuing to retreat some distance, I have to stop thinking as the two that are charging me are getting closer, having only been slightly slowed by my last attack.

The largest of the two draws some large metal and wood thing from where it is strapped to his back, aiming it towards me as he runs with it braced against his shoulder. I can clearly see the tube on the top has an opening, and after he pumps the wooden part resting bellow it, I can already tell that this thing must be similar to the female’s weapon.

At the same time as the tube explodes, I create a floating wall of ice before me. The attack hits it almost instantly and cracks the barrier of ice in a spider’s web of fractures. I only get a second to notice the little metal balls that are now caught in the ice, the source of all the damage.

So not wind then. They somehow launch projectiles at incredible speeds. The projectiles are small, but for it to crack my ice like this, I definitely don’t want to get hit…

The smaller of the two- Which isn’t saying much considering that they are both easily twice my size, if not more - takes this opening to burst forward, exploding into motion with a forward sprint and cracking the road where his feet used to be. I don’t even have any time to try and freeze his feet to the ground like I did the female before he is right in front of me, waist lowered, and his hands on the sword hanging from his hip.

Mostly acting on pure instinct and sheer panic, I manage to duck just fast enough to avoid getting my head removed, the blade of his sword cutting through the air above my head faster than I can see.

Stumbling back and slightly of balanced, not wanting to give him a chance to follow-up his attack with another swing, I call on everything I have and fill the world with ice. A pillar forms bellow my feet and pushes me into the air as hundreds of meter long spikes grow out in every direction and carpet the floor.

With frost forming over their bodies, the two giants jump back, clearing an astonishing distance with just a single leap. The shorter one, having been closest, takes a couple of the spikes to his body before he can get away, the blades of ice ripping through his clothes and drawing blood. Surprisingly, he somehow managed to use his sword to block and parry the worst of the spikes, breaking those that would have gotten him in the neck or stabbed his legs.

Ripping my eyes away from the sword wielding giant, I have to quickly block another blast from the bigger one, having fired at me again while still moving through the air. He lands with an audible thud as his feet hit the ground, pumping the weapon before firing it at me again.

It has to be pumped before each shot…

Now dozens of meters in the air atop my tower of ice and just a little safer, I quickly send out another wave of spears towards the enemies, repeatedly creating them and launching them down as fast as I can.

The giants dodge and jump around, taking any opening they can find to fire more projectiles at me. The shorter one temporarily takes me by surprise as he draws a ranged weapon of his own in his left hand. The shield that I hastily raised towards him was almost broken through as a stream of projectiles began slamming into it instead of just a single cluster of little metal balls.

Different kinds of weapons. Small one that can fire one round at a time in quick succession. Medium one that can fire a stream of rounds. Long one that fires a cluster and has to be pumped. Earlier, the female fired something else at me, but it got caught in the ice. That was much bigger that the others, but that weapon is frozen now…

As they continue to dodge around and fire at me, I send a quick glance towards the other two. The wounded male is trying to free the female by punching at the ice, shattering large sections of it with ever blow.

That won’t hold her for long. I just have to hope that the ice damaged her enough to keep her out of the fight. Though, with how he is still moving despite being covered in burns, that might not be the case…

Raising both hands up to the sky, I yell out, “Ice Rain!”

The sky above me fills with hundreds of thousands of icy needles, blotting out the night sky and hiding the stars. Throwing down both of my hands, the needles are propelled down towards the streets below, raining down on the giants and stabbing into the hard surface of the road.

They curse as they all raise up their arms to cover their heads, needles stabbing into their bodies where they can and clattering off of armor where they can’t.

The injured male uses his body to cover the female, protecting her from the assault of falling needles. Meanwhile, the other two run for the cover of the buildings and try to get inside.

With a wave of my hand and pushing my magic as far as I can, walls of ice shoot up to cover the buildings and block every way of getting inside, transforming the street into a corridor of ice.

With them unable to hide, I direct my magic again and try to form ice over their bodies, but their instincts and ability to sense danger seem to be too strong as the two of them quickly jump away from the spot, a block of ice snapping into existence where they used to stand.

If I can’t take them out, then I’ll remove the two injured ones first before they can join the fight.

Aiming toward the two, I start pushing power into my attack, but movement in my peripheral vision catches my attention and just barely saves my life, giving me just enough time to throw up a wall of ice in the air to block a huge chunk of road, bigger than my body, that is flying towards me from the side.

Smacking it out of the air with my magic, I look down in shock as the sword wielding giant rips out another piece of road and chucks it at me with ease, seeming not to care in the slightest about the weight of the damned things, or that I am on a tower, a couple dozen meters up in the air.

The large projectiles soar through the air, and I have to focus on blocking them, lest they end up damaging my footing.

In the spare few moments that I am focusing on blocking meter wide projectiles getting hurled at me like rocks, I stop maintaining the fall of raining needles, the last of the sharp pieces of ice clattering to the floor around us.

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Off the side, the tallest giant calls out, “Throwing grenade!”

Though I don’t understand the words spoken, it does draw my attention enough to get me to turn and look. What I find is a little green ball tumbling through the air towards me, though it is moving suspiciously slow. If they can throw pieces of road around like this, then why is this thing moving at such a slow arc? It is almost like they aren’t even trying to hit me with it.

Down below, the giant is hiding his head, shying away from the flying sphere.

Dangerous?

I don’t have much time to react or think, the object quickly drawing closer in its arc that will have it going over my head. No time to decide if I should block it or swat it away. So, instead of doing any of that, I freeze it solid in a sphere of ice half a meter thick. Its arc immediately shifts downward as gravity pulls on its increased weight, but before it can disappear form view below the top of my tower, I catch sight of the thing exploding, the inside of the sphere cracking first in a flash of light before the entire thing suddenly shatters and explodes violently. The blast shakes my tower and throws me back as shards of ice go flying in every direction, some smashing against my side as I am thrown over the edge of the tower.

Panic quickly takes me, and out of fear of smacking into the quickly approaching ground, I throw my arm out and grow a branch of ice off from my crumbling tower, blowing the air out of my lungs as it catches me. The branch only manages to hold for a couple of seconds before everything starts to fall apart and I am falling again, though thankfully much closer to the ground this time.

I materialize a smooth platform of ice to meet me halfway and slam into it hard, my right arm letting out a horrible crack as something breaks, pain lancing up my arm and compelling me to scream. Though nothing comes out, my lunges are still fighting to desperately pull air back into them after getting the wind blown out of them. So, all I can do is writhe around on the platform, clutching my arm until I can finally force down a gasping breath of fresh air.

A scream of pain is the first thing to escape my lips, and is answered by an immense crashing nose.

This fucking hurts! But I need to focus, I am still in a fight!

I turn just in time to catch sight of the two giants crashing through the collapsing mess of my tower, plowing through falling ice rubble and breaking the remaining ice spikes as they charge towards me. Their ranged weapons and the large packs that were on their backs are now gone, the shorter one moving forward in low sprint with his sword, while the bigger one charges like a beast, two meaty metal gauntlets adorning his arms like the fists of some angry god.

I force myself up onto my knees and wave my one good arm out in a hurry, sending out a wave of ice that covers the entire road in crashing layers of spikes and turning icebergs.

The sword giant leaps off the ground, clearing the wave with ease and soaring through the air towards me. The other giant simply lets out a roar, punching the wave with all his strength, exploding the ice. The sound of his fist smashing through the ice is like a bomb going off as the air is forced back and the earth shakes from the power behind his punch.

What the hell are these things!?

The sword giant crashes down towards me, sword held high and swinging down towards me as he hits my platform with enough force to crack it in half. I barely have enough time to throw myself off and onto the road below, screaming in pain as my broken arm gets jostled and smacks the ground. As the giant is pulling his sword free from the ice, I quickly get up and wave at him, taking what little chance I can get.

The ice of the platform quickly grows upward, catching him by the legs and freezing his sword into the platform.

I don’t have time to try and finish him or to watch him panic, the other giant is already barreling down on me like some charging monster and is throwing a punch that would surely kill me with a single blow.

I just barely mange to dodge by forming ice under me and launching myself away in an uncontrolled arc. I hit the ground hard and roll onto my feet as he is pulling his fist out of a new crater in the road.

I need to run! I can’t guarantee that I can stop this thing before the other ones get free and rejoin the fight. I can’t take on all four of them at once, just two is already too much!

Throwing a spear of ice at the horrifying giant, I turn away and start running. Desperation pumping adrenaline through my blood and pushing my legs to move faster.

One step, two steps, three, four… Only four steps and I can already feel it. He is right behind me, his giant body right behind me, looming over me and casting a shadow over everything. I can feel him in my Aura, his giant body of muscles and violence like a pillar of granite standing tall in my senses. I don’t even have to turn and look to know that his massive fist is raised and ready to smash into the back of my skull.

So, this is how I die… Ahhh, I really wanted to see the end of winter. I haven’t even finished reading my books yet…

I close my eyes, trying not to imagine the sight of my own head exploding. Hoping that it will be quick and painless.

But before the sense of impending death can hit me, something small and soft collides with me with a shrill little scream into my side, knocking over and tripping me onto the floor.

The massive, gauntleted fist soars right past my head and hits the length of my right ear, my hearing ringing as the air claps next to me with a woosh and a bang.

Hitting the ground, the giant goes soring past me, tripping over his own momentum until he can manage to dig his feet in and force himself to a stop with nothing but sheer physical strength.

Turning towards me, he takes a step forward, fist raised and face looking like a devil through the clear glass of his visor, the horns sticking out from his helmet giving him a monstrous silhouette against the backdrop of the night sky, the light of the moon shining ominously along the metal of his ice coated armor and gauntlet.

A little angry scream draws my attention away from him. Looking down, I find Vivviv pointing at the giant, no, the Demon; her teeth bared with rage and fear in equal measure showing on her face. She doesn’t use words, simply screaming her heart out at the Demon like an angry little animal against some looming predator. Her body pressed against me as she holds me tightly.

Her vines writhe across her body like hissing snakes and stab themselves into the ground, her magic pumping out of her little body and covering the area around us in her Aura.

Blood red flowers of massive size, wreathed in violent looking thorns, begin to grow everywhere, filling the frozen over street in a forest of towering flowers breaking out through the ice. With another scream and a wave of her arm, massive vines, as thick as a person and covered in sword like thorns, explode out of the ground, moving to wrap up and tangle the Demon.

He fights back, tearing the attacking vines apart as he gets his hands on them, stomping on one under foot, and simply ripping another apart by walking forward, despite it being wrapping around his waist to try desperately and stop him.

More and more vines move to attack, and soon even the flowers begin to grow teeth and move to bite at his body with their giant maws. But he doesn’t stop moving, stomping forward with heavy steps that breaks the floor beneath him. Growing ice over his feet only serves to slow him down a little, but still, he just does not stop moving.

Even as the thorns of the vines and the teeth of the flowers make him bleed, he doesn’t seem to be phased, simply moving forward with yet another step and back handing aside an especially aggressive flower that tries to go for his head.

He. Just. Does. Not. Stop.

One step after another, he draws closer and closer. Even as we back away from him, dragging ourselves across the floor, my limp arm dragging across the floor, he just keeps advancing until we have nowhere else to go, my back quite literally against the wall.

He raises his fist, the vines fighting desperately to stop him as he takes one final step towards us. I wrap my one good arm around Vivviv, joining her as she screams in rage against the Demon, our desperation pushing our Cores to exhaustion as we let everything out to attack him, our Auras mixing together into one whole of nature and ice.

A single flower blooms above our head, bursting out of the ice coated wall and aiming to bite off the head of the Demon with massive ice coated teeth, like razor sharp swords adorning its maw of red and blue petals.

“”Die!!!”” “Die!” We all scream as our attacks move to strike each other, determined to take each other down in this final moment.

…

That is, until time simply stops. In a single moment, it is almost like the world itself is taking a breath. Nothing can move and everything is stopped. A single second that stretching on for infinity until it all comes crashing down, time violently restarting, and the world forced back into motion by a violent hand.

A presence like a wrathful god smashes down onto the battlefield, the wind getting blown out of our lungs as we are forced even lower to the floor. All around us, all the vines and flowers, even the massive thing that had been born above us, are suddenly and violently torn apart by blades of darkness, my ice is burned away by flames that burn black, devouring the light around them and producing not even a hint of warmth. Everything is destroyed in a single instant and almost without noise.

In an instant the area is cleared, and there is nothing but an all-consuming rage filling this place, making itself known into our very souls, suppressing Vivviv’s and my Aura’s like a parent holding down their petulant child.

The Demon only faulters for a moment under this new presence and is quick to resume his attack, raising an arm to finish us off as we can no longer defend ourselves. But before his fist can strikes us down, a small figure walks out from seemingly nowhere, walking into view as if she had just been born from the shadows that now grow all along the street at odd angles and look so deep that you would think you might be able to fall into their depths, like some deep cold ocean. Standing before the Demon with her back towards him, he halts his attack, though seemingly not of his own will.

He says something, but by this point, I have no attention left to give to him. Vivviv and I are both struck in horror and awe as we gaze up at the figure. The source of this presence that can only possibly be matched by my father.

Grey skin, black hair, little white horns that point upward in defiance of the heavens, void like claws that adorn her fingers and promise blood, and eyes of golden halos resting upon a sea of black, with the slit like pupils of a predator staring down at us. With horror, I watch as her eyes become black pits of darkness, the golden lights of her eyes sinking under the dark currents as black tears leak from her eyes and dye her face black. A smoke as black as night begins to seep out from between her lips as she scowls at us, her white teeth becoming colored black as some darkness tries to climb its way out of her and escape. Her rage carpeting the world like a weighted blanket filled with ice, its cold hatred pushing and burrowing its way into our very souls to make itself known.

The Grey Demon. Father’s enemy… Ah, so this is who he would burn the world to face. I’m sorry Vivviv. I shouldn’t have brought you with me. I should have just dragged you back to bed and went to sleep. It was only for a couple of days, but I enjoyed getting to hold you.

I can hardly move under the Grey Demon’s wrathful gaze. I can’t attack. I can’t flee. I can’t defend. All I can do is wrap my one good arm around the soft girl that is pressed against me, squeezing her hard and holding her tight in my shaking grip.

At least we will die together.