The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

"Arghh!"

Eva exclaimed in pain as the frozen projectile wedged itself in her back. However, her survival instincts kicked in quickly; she dived to the left and rolled out of the way. 2 more icicles whistled past where she had stood.

"Tch."

The den was filled with the various sounds of battle, but everybody heard this simple tongue click. Eva wanted to look back and see who had attacked her, but the wolf was already upon her. It leapt towards her and she rolled forwards to dodge the attack. Their fierce battle resumed.

*************************

There was tense silence on the other side of the den; the battle had stopped. Abbie and Johan both stood there, fists clenched. They stared intensely at the passageway's entrance and both wore grimaces on their faces.

A figure stood there. They couldn't see him very well since there was a wall of skeletons protecting him, but the bright smile from under his hood felt menacing enough.

Another man stood slightly behind him. Johan couldn't see him properly either, but he could tell the man was tall and muscular with a shaggy beard. It was clear he was commanding the skeletons, since they stopped attacking and protected him the moment he arrived.

The bearded man guffawed loudly, then his companion in the brown fur coat chuckled too. The skeletons began to move again.

They got into an arrowhead formation, then marched through the passageway like well-trained soldiers. Johan fired a volley of icicles to try and fight them off, but he only killed the ones at the front. More skeletons stepped over the bones of their fallen comrades and kept walking towards Abbie's snow barrier.

Johan fired even more icicles, but then he suddenly stopped and leapt out of the way. He looked down the passage with wariness in his eyes.

The thin man had fired an icicle at Johan and interrupted his attacks; Johan would've been hit if he dodged just a second late. He instantly recognised the projectiles since he used the exact same ones himself, so he tried to warn Eva,

"Watch out! There're two men here, one of whom has the Ice Fragment Anima. Keep an eye out for ranged attacks!"

"... Got it."

Johan couldn't see how Eva was doing, but she sounded out of breath. He wanted to help her, but he had his own problems to deal with here.

He fired more icicles to try and stop the skeletons, but they had little effect.

The skeletons destroyed Abbie's snow barrier and streamed into the chamber. Abbie created several more barriers. They were set up to slow the skeletons' advance and funnel them into the middle of the room.

The skeletons rushed through the gap in the walls, but that just lined them up for Johan. He continued firing off icicles and many skeletons fell.

However, it felt like he was a kid again, playing 'the floor is lava'. He couldn't stand still for a moment since icicles kept flying in and he had to dance to and fro to avoid them. He couldn't focus on his targets and his own shooting was becoming erratic.

Abbie was also being targeted by the man. Icicles rained down on her as well and she couldn't dodge them due to the back injuries which severely limited her mobility. Instead, she had to create snow walls to block the icicles.

Johan tried to shoot back at the 2 men, but there were too many skeletons in the way. Besides, he was under pressure: every shot needed to be aimed at the advancing army of skeletons and he couldn't waste Qi taking pot-shots at the men.

Speaking of Qi, he'd used half of his already. Thankfully he'd reached middle stage and the Ice Fragment Anima had a low Qi consumption, otherwise he might've been out by now.

On the other hand, Abbie wasn't doing so well. Maintaining the walls was difficult and it was about to become worse...

The burly man realised his skeletons couldn't get through. He grunted, then gave a relaxed wave of his muscle-bound arm.

The skeletons changed course. Instead of funnelling through the gap in the walls, they attacked the walls themselves. Once these obstacles were destroyed, they would have a free path to the target.

Abbie and Johan began to panic.

If the walls broke down, then they could just create new ones. However, that was merely a temporary solution. Abbie's Qi was rapidly depleting and it would only be a matter of time before it ran out. When that happened, the skeletons would tear them apart.

*************************

Eva was also in a difficult spot.

Johan wasn't the only one under fire; the smirking man fired icicles at her too. It was incredibly difficult to split her attention between the wolf and the man, so she'd been hit a couple of times.

She struggled to move her left shoulder because of the attack from earlier and there were more, less serious injuries around her lower back. Her Qi was also being used up, and she was physically exhausted.

The Sarcevic Wolf skeleton stood opposite her.

She'd finally noticed the wolf's weakness and had begun attacking its joints. Several parts of its body were covered in ice and it was moving significantly slower than before.

Eva jumped forwards, trying to take advantage of this slowness, but then a ghastly shrieking filled the cavern. She covered both her ears but the sound didn't get any quieter, and her head began to spin. She became dizzy and felt sick to her stomach.

Then she saw movement in the corner of her eye; the wolf was coming. She tried to pull herself together and back away, but her movements were sluggish. Everything felt lethargic, like she was moving through treacle.

The wolf attacked and Eva tried to escape. It felt like there was a banshee screaming inside of her head, so focusing on the battle became nearly impossible and she couldn't completely dodge the incoming claw.

The claw tips raked across her stomach and she began bleeding profusely. Fortunately, the ringing in her head began to subside. She could concentrate enough to freeze the wound and get back into a fighting stance.

The wolf tried to press the advantage and attacked again. This time Eva slipped the strike. The wolf's neck was wide open – she couldn't believe how exposed it was. She darted towards the opening and struck towards it.

*Thud*

Her palm slammed against a pillar of water. The wolf was unharmed and it spun to attack her. She was completely defenceless against the sudden change of events, and the wolf's tail slammed into her stomach.

She was sent flying a metre backwards and crashed to the ground.

She had a long cut just above her waistline and the wounds she'd frozen shut also reopened and continued bleeding. Eva coughed a few times – she'd been severely winded and had some trouble breathing.

While she gasped for air, the wolf bounded towards her.

It crouched down and got ready to pounce, but a trio of icicles shot towards it. Streams of water sprung up to block the icicles. However, while the streams blocked the icicles, they also blocked the wolf.

The streams stood for a second, then collapsed and splashed to the ground. But Abbie created a snow barrier in that brief moment and the wolf's attack was foiled.

Eva managed to escape, but now Johan and Abbie were under pressure. Skeletons streamed forwards and the defensive walls were destroyed. Abbie tried to raise more, but it was merely a last-ditch effort; her Qi was nearly exhausted.

Just as things were looking hopeless, shouts came from behind the skeletons.

"Fuck! Die!"

"Arghhhh!!"

Then there was a loud commotion as the skeletons all changed directions and flooded back towards the passageway. A final shout came from the passageway,

"Attack the wolf now!"

"Was that Isaac?!"

Johan exclaimed in joy and disbelief.

*************************

7 minutes earlier, back in the forest...

Isaac was wandering through the woods, pretending like he was inspecting the surrounding area. He looked like he was off-guard, but he was actually highly vigilant and constantly scanned the forest from the corner of his eye.

Isaac idled around and waited for the moment he would be attacked; he made sure not to venture far from the den so the team could quickly come to his aid when he signalled them. He continued to wait, and 2 minutes ticked by. However, something seemed... off.

The forest was deathly silent. Even the birds they heard on the way here had stopped tweeting. Suddenly, there was a loud commotion.

A flock of silent birds flew up and out of the forest; it seemed like something had scared them. Isaac wore an expression of mild confusion and interest, but then he went back to his pretend search for clues.

Inwardly, he was readying himself. It looked like the enemy was approaching and he would be attacked soon.

However, another few minutes passed. Isaac was still safe. Nobody had attacked him.

Isaac grew suspicious. What had scared the birds? Why wasn't he being attacked? He dropped his act and did a blatant sweep of the surroundings. However, he could only see a maze of trees with a carpet of snow; no signs of human activity. The carpet was untouched – there were no footprints in the snow – and the maze was undisturbed – nobody hid in the trees.

Isaac grew even more concerned. He was about to go and investigate where the birds had flown away, but then he realised something: the birds had flown from the direction of the den!

Everything clicked into place; he knew his teammates had been ambushed instead of him.

Isaac activated the Snowshoe Anima and sped towards the Sarcevic Wolf's den.