Coldsnap: Harbinger of Ice

Chapter 25: A Wrong of Ice and Fire

Keena, controlling the water goliath from the inside, attempted to end the battle quickly by bringing her massive fist down on Alpin and his two guards, but the three of them split off mere seconds before impact, much to her frustration; all she did was cause a huge crater in the middle of the lobby.

One of the Ice Sentries threw his axe towards Keena's actual body---located in the middle of the aquatic construct---but she managed to catch it with the elemental's hand. However, she saw that the hand was beginning to freeze over as a result of the weapon's frozen touch, so she quickly ejected it from the elemental's body and sent it flying towards the sentries in a maneuver similar to a rocket punch. Once again, they successfully dove out of the way at the last moment, the punch instead creating a huge hole in the wall. 

The water mage took some time to regenerate the lost limb while the disarmed goon materialized another axe. Once she had regrown the construct's arm, she spotted the other guard using his chain mace to reposition himself on higher ground so he could attempt to strike her from above. She reeled back the elemental's fist and launched a strong torrent of water to assault the pillar he was climbing on, destroying it, making him lose his grip, and causing him to fall back down to the ground. 

As he was recovering, the axe-wielding minion leapt onto one of the remaining undamaged walls and made a straight shot for Keena's body with his new weapon extended outward. However, she reacted quickly and went for a grabbing maneuver again, this time on the foe himself rather than his weapon. He brought his axe crashing down on her arm, causing it to start freezing over again, but by now, she'd had about enough of him. 

She aimed the goliath's fist towards the ceiling and ejected it from the rest of the construct before the ice could spread, making a giant hole in the roof and sending the Ice Sentry flying far away from the battle; now, only Alpin and one other guard were left. 

Keena appeared to be causing a lot of collateral damage to the castle, but then again, she didn't really care. This was the home of someone who had wronged Coldsnap, so they had to pay. 

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Meanwhile, Firebird, Leo, and Geode ran away from Aurora Keep as fast as they could, aiming to reach the Whitecap Tundra portal so they could escape to the Grand Terminus and head to the Stonemount Gorge from there. 

However, just as they approached it, a flaming obsidian gate materialized out of thin air and dropped itself in front of the portal, sealing it off and preventing access. 

"Huh?!" Leo exclaimed in surprise. "What is this?!" 

Firebird temporarily handed Geode over to Leo and briefly tried to use her attacks to break the bars, but the gate wouldn't budge. 

"Ugh! I can't get through this thing!" she complained. 

"Okay, let's not panic.....maybe we can get Keena to extinguish the fire," Leo suggested. 

"Yeah, that sounds good, we just need----" 

Just then, Firebird came to a grim realization. 

"Keena chose to stay with Coldsnap." 

Leo cursed under his breath. "Darn it! So what do we do?! Are we just stuck here?" 

"I'm afraid so," a deep voice called out from behind them. 

Firebird, Leo, and Geode turned around to find that they had been ambushed by several Seared Hand forces; two mages, two flame imps, and two molten giants. To make matters worse, a familiar-looking winged magma creature wearing a set of armor and wielding a longsword lowered himself to the ground and touched down in front of them.