Sword and Snow

My hands continued to trail paths over Emery’s body as I tried to force healing Qi through her entire system.

The lightning had not done a lot of external damage, but the internal effect was significant. The physical burns and the like were easy to heal, but the nerve and muscle damage was different. Even with my healing techniques, her body would need time to shake off the shocks that had essentially short circuited her system.

At least with the current state of her nerve endings, she wouldn’t be able to feel the pain.

In the meantime, I turned my attention to Eozia and Auban.

Eozia lazily approached us as I pushed more of my Qi toward my Domain. I pulled the edges much closer, significantly boosting the concentration of Qi at the expense of size. For now, I greatly preferred the strength bonuses.

I forced my focus to narrow on our enemies. I put Emery’s state out of my mind for now; she would survive as long as the Demons didn’t attack her. And I didn’t plan to let them.

I kept Eozia’s Domain effect in the back of my mind, having seen what it did to Emery’s flying swords. My Dancing Snowflakes hovered behind me. I replaced the one that had been destroyed earlier, and funneled more Qi into them. I may not be able to handle controlling more than ten at once, but I could make the ones I had stronger.

The Flakes all thickened and grew larger, to a diameter of thirty centimeters or so. The edges remained incredibly sharp blades of ice. I wasn’t sure they would be useful for offense, but I wanted to be prepared if an opening presented itself.

I took a deep breath, steadied myself and my focus once more, then breathed out and glared up at Eozia from the ground. She raised her giant hammer over her head, despite being outside her reach.

I saw Emery close her eyes, whether in acceptance or something else I wasn’t sure, but I screamed my desire to protect her through our Domains. A little quirk of a smile told me she received the message.

Then I felt Eozia move.

Auban remained still, looking bored, as Eozia suddenly manifested before me. Six of my Snowflakes gathered above my head to form a shield against the crushing blow of her hammer. She couldn’t reach them with her Domain, but her gravity control still made her hammer ridiculously heavy as she swung it down.

I felt my Qi quiver as the six Snowflakes tried their best to hold up the hammer. I poured Qi into the link with them and pushed upward as hard as I could. I screamed my throat raw with the effort as I slightly angled the left side of the Flakes downward. The hammer slipped off the tilted surface, and crashed to the ground just beside Emery and I, sending debris flying into the air.

I felt the immense weight against my Qi lessen with the hammer gone, and my body nearly collapsed with the sudden relief. I kept myself upright on my knees while my eyes drilled holes into Eozia’s head.

She just looked at me with a crooked grin. “Well, would you look at that? Ice girl has a bit of spine.” She scoffed, pulling her hammer back to her shoulder.

Auban rolled his eyes. “I’m going to go start gathering the sacrifices, Eozia. Just finish this up, will you?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve got this handled.” She said, waving him off. “If any of them manage to escape somehow, let them. I’ll hunt them down for some fun after this.”

Auban let out an exasperated sigh as he turned to walk toward the tent with the prisoners in it. They were still all tied up, last time I had felt for them.

With some effort, I fought to my feet. I stood slowly, but Eozia just watched me, excited. She looked giddy at the chance for more action.

Qi poured from me like water. Some went into my Snowflakes, repairing the damage they had received from the blocked hammer blow. The rest coalesced into my Blizzard Dragon technique.

I felt the wind and snow whip around behind me as it all formed a cohesive shape. The destructive power of the technique had grown pretty significantly after the jump to Sky Realm. During practice, just being physically near it was enough to tear clothing to shreds and freeze things solid, but I wasn’t sure how it would fare against a full Demon like this.

Still, it was really my only good card to play.

I stood my ground beside Emery, who was still laid on the floor. My Snowflakes formed up as a large shield before me as Eozia appeared to prepare for another big swing, this time a horizontal one.

I was wary of the windy aftershock that had sent Emery flying earlier, but I wasn’t sure what I could realistically do about it. Instead, I mentally urged my Dragon forward. At my command, it launched after Eozia, tearing up the ground as it passed, leaving streaks of ice and torn up dirt.

Thankfully, Eozia seemed to regard it as enough of a threat to react to it. As It flew directly toward her, she shifted her weight to alter her hammer blow’s target to the Dragon.

She swung, and I made a choice. I was pretty sure if I had the Dragon avoid the strike, it would get torn apart by the following winds. So, I had it just plow forward.

The hammer struck the back half of the Dragon and absolutely obliterated it. The entire back half of the technique simply ceased to exist.

The front half, however, managed to strike home.

As the Dragon opened its jaws and collided with Eozia, a storm engulfed her. Wind tore at her immaculate robes, leaving slices cut through the beautiful material as well as leaving a fair number of superficial wounds on her skin. The snow and ice also covered her, leaving stiff patches around her arms, neck, and head. Frost seemed to stick to her hair, and coated her eyebrows and lashes.

The damage was practically insignificant, all told. But I hoped it would at least be enough to slow her down for a moment while I hobbled together another Dragon, and wracked my brain for some kind of plan.

Eozia seemed to be shaking off the effects of the ice as she grinned at me predatorily and laughed maniacally. “Ha! Nice technique! It’s stylish, dangerous, and entirely destructive. Just my style.” She said, continuing to cleanse herself of the ice, shaking it off in fairly large sheets.

As I prepared to launch another attack, I felt Emery reach out to me through our Domains.

‘Idea. Need Surprise. Back away from me.’

Emery’s message started an internal war within me. Everything I was fought against the idea of leaving her on the ground between myself and the enemy, defenseless. Even if it was her idea.

As I struggled to make a decision, I felt Emery reach up with her Domain. I made space for it within mine, as I had done for the last month in practice. It flowed up above her in a small pillar, only really covering the space directly around and above her in a small cylinder.

I reminded myself that as long as she had her Domain, she wasn’t truly defenseless, and that if I had learned anything in the last several months, it was that I could trust Emery when it came to this stuff.

With a deep breath, I committed to the idea and stepped back, acting the part of an overwhelmed opponent.

Eozia met my gaze and frowned. “What happened?” She said, sadly. “I didn’t scare you off, now, did I?”

I continued to slowly back away from her, but didn’t turn my back to run. I continued to keep my techniques about me, but moved them into a more defensive formation as I tried to look at least a little scared.

Eozia’s frown deepened, then she stomped the ground, frustrated. “Damn it! Why do you people always lose the will to fight so easily?” Angered, she hefted her hammer, and the heavy weight collapsing onto her shoulder was enough to dislodge the rest of the ice from her body. “Fine then, have it your way, Ice Princess. I’ll just kill you and be done with this.” She said dryly and strode forward.

I continued to back up, carefully regulating my pace to make sure the situation stayed predictable as she approached Emery’s body. I wasn’t sure what Emery had planned, but I kept my Domain surrounding hers to keep it hidden from Eozia as she walked forward.

I carefully watched as Eozia simply walked forward, continued to ignore Emery, and then she made to just step over Emery’s prone form. As she walked forward, our Domains parted to make room for hers. Thankfully, she did just ignore Emery, and kept walking after stepping over her. One step, then two steps, then she stopped, a confused look on her face.

I raised an eyebrow, confused in response, when I saw a red line bloom across the woman’s neck. She reached up to paw at her neck, then stared down at her hand as it came away bloody. “Wha -”

‘Attack! Now!’

My body reacted on instinct to Emery’s words. My Blizzard Dragon shot forward, careening toward Eozia as her neck started to pump out blood in surprising amounts. She looked up from her hand just in time for the Dragon to smash into her upper body.

The entire technique surrounded her, and she let out a gurgling scream. She dropped her hammer in the confusion, and swung her arms and hands wildly around her, trying to knock the technique away from her. The cutting winds and ice overwhelmed her quickly though, and the fight seemed to leave her body altogether in seconds and she crumpled to the floor in a bloody mess.

There was a huge array of superficial but bloody gashes all over her body from the concentrated ice storm, so much so that every visible inch of her skin looked red with blood. I slowly approached her, my Snowflakes at the ready, just in case.

“You…you…” Eozia’s voice came out in a gurgle, as she struggled to turn her head to face Emery, who was now struggling to sit up. As I got closer, I noticed that as Eozia turned her head, the slice in her neck was deeper than I had imagined. It looked almost as if the cut went from the front all the way to her spine where it finally stopped, and with her neck turned to the side, the top portion had turned independently of the bottom.

Emery seemed to have enough control over her body to move, but not enough to stand on her own. I slipped up beside her, threw her arm over my shoulders, and hoisted her to her feet. She offered me a weak smile, which I returned.

Then I felt Eozia’s Domain flicker and die as she finally either lost consciousness or died outright. I flinched as I felt it happen, knowing full well that it would pull an angry Auban back out here.

And sure enough, he darted from the tent, shouting angrily for Eozia, wondering what she was doing.

With her body behind Emery and I, I was able to hide it behind some Snowflakes as Auban leapt from the tent’s entrance to land before us, lightning crackling along his arms.

“What did -”

In the instant he started to talk, I made the Snowflakes move. When he saw the bloody mess on the ground, there was just a moment where his concentration faltered as he took in the sight of his ally.

And I didn’t miss it.

My Domain slammed down on him in that short moment. With my entire Domain so tightly concentrated in a smaller area, the strength of it was enough to slam the door on his Domain, locking it tightly within his body.

Auban’s head immediately snapped up to eye the two of us angrily. “I don’t know, or even really care, what you did to Eozia, but you’ll pay. I don’t need my Domain to blast you both with lightning.”

Emery seemed to find her strength then, and levered herself off of me and stood straight. Her flying swords returned to their positions around her shoulders, and she grinned wickedly.

“We’ll see. Personally, I think it’s payback time.”