Starting Life From Zero: Far From Home

Chapter Five

While the ice was flying past, Peter took the chance to web Old Man Rom and pull him to safety in the corner of the bar out of the way of Elsa and Emilia's duel.

Emilia, so that was her name.

Peter thought back to when she first introduced herself as Satella. He thought back to how people reacted to her and how she seemed almost shocked at his niceness. She was a witch now too? Where had all of this been before or had she just assumed that she knew. This world's customs and legends were unknown to him, but the idea that someone could come from somewhere so far away was probably unknown to the people of this Kingdom.

There was no time to sort out who she was or what made her act the way that she did. He knew that when it came down to it, Emilia had been the first person who was nice to him when he got here. Elsa was the first person to actually stick a knife in him—well in this world.

There was a cacophony crackling and shattering as shards and spikes of ice slammed into the opposite side of the room. At the very last moment, as if to hide herself from view, Else raised her cloak up and used it to shield her face and arms. The magical ice piled into one spot, congealing around Elsa until she was buried under a mound of the stuff. The air chilled and steam rose from the ice as it solidified into place.

Peter searched the wall to make sure that she hadn't escaped somehow. The heads-up display of his suit trilling and whirring through different shadows along the wall and searching for any sign of movement.

"That ought to about do it," Puck said.

Karen's voice sounded inside the suit. "Heat signature detected."

The ice split down the middle and Elsa emerged, soaking wet. Her cloak burned away in a purple flash as she stepped free of the ice. "That would have actually had me," she said as Puck fired two more shards of ice her way and she cut them down. "It's a good thing that I know how to dress the part."

Elsa charged across the room, she was fast. Probably too fast for Emilia to match her in speed; Peter lunged for her webbing his way around her and tightening her into a bundle, before he could get her good and stuck she dislocated her arm used the extra mobility to wriggle free as she danced to the side of another web shot.

More ice rained down and Elsa fell against the floor, letting the ice slice through the webbing and free her, though some of her own blood spilled out. Her arms were coated red though she didn't seem to notice and if she did she did not care. Peter twisted to kick her, landing a solid hit with the side of his leg on the side of her head.

Elsa slid back from the kick and then flipped to dodge another ice barrage. She took to the wall, crawling and cling her way around the wood, forcing Puck to fire sporadically. Injury didn't seem to slow her down, in fact it was as if she grew more giddy with each wound she sustained.

"Peter, despite your webbing earlier the blood loss may be critical—attempting to staunch the wound," said Karen as the suit compressed itself on that side, trying to cut out the bleeding.

Else got in close to attack from time to time Puck was too quick with the shielding and he forced her back with vicious ice spikes erupting from the ground. In turn, he and Emilia would go on the offensive firing ice in an attempt to both pin Elsa down and keep her at bay and she would cartwheel out of the way and leap to the wall or ceiling to throw off Puck's moments.

When Peter closed in the next time he traded blows with the woman, her knives would glance off the suit unless it was a direct hit, so he made sure that it never was. Peter punched her back and she rolled across the floor, coming to a stop on one knee.