Coldsnap: Harbinger of Ice

Chapter 42: Breaching the Sanctum

The massive lobby just before Coldsnap's prison was in utter chaos as both Firebird's group and the Seared Hand defenses vied for supremacy; there was not a single moment when a spell wasn't flying, or when blows weren't being traded.

Keena was able to use her spells again after a brief cooldown, but she didn't have the strength to recreate the colossus just yet—a move which would've likely ended the skirmish quickly. Instead, she planted her baton into the floor and summoned a large water spout beneath one of her enemies, forcibly hoisting them into the air and leaving them helplessly flailing around like a beached fish. Then, she moved the staff around like a joystick to control the vortex's position, piloting it around the room and sucking in every single unfortunate Seared Hand minion who found themselves within its vicinity. Once it was full, she pulled her weapon out of the ground and sheathed it on her back again, causing the spout to detonate and fling all of its prisoners against the outer walls.

"Nice job!" Firebird commended as their foes struggled to pull themselves back up. She then dashed up one of the stairwells to the second floor and leapt off the railing to cling onto the rear of one of the flying magma creatures, causing it to swerve around uncontrollably and fire energy projectiles every which way while Firebird bombarded it with relentless stabs to the back. Once she had made sure it was thoroughly wounded, she impaled one of her daggers through the slit in its helmet and lodged it in firmly, causing it to roar out in pain as she set the weapon to explode. Thinking quickly, she jumped off of it mere milliseconds before the detonation split its head in two, instantly killing it and sending it falling to the floor.

Before she could do the same to the second one, however, a fireball flew in from the side and knocked her out of position, sending her tumbling back to the ground. She quickly recovered and shook off the impact of the blow before spotting the patrol leader advancing menacingly towards her.

"Haven't you done enough?" he sighed. "We are above the humans.....why do we trouble ourselves with looking after them for the Ascendant's sake? None of them are going to exist forever, you know....."

"Perhaps," Firebird agreed partially. "But they're not beautiful because they last. Their hearts.....kindness.....compassion....that's why we fight for them."

She materialized a second knife in her right hand to replace the one that had detonated earlier. "You've made a grave mistake, standing between me and my friend. You really think I'm going to listen to you after all of this?"

Her foe rolled his eyes. "Very well. I pity you, Firebird.....you could've been so much more. You fought alongside us once upon a time.....what changed?"

"Flamestar. All of you. That was before I knew about any of this. If saving my friend.....and buying the Earth more time.....means defeating you.....then I'll do what I have to do."

"You would kill your fellow Mage Aspects?"

"In the Ascendant's name? Oh, yeah."

The patrol leader scowled and formed a whip-like weapon engulfed in pure flames out of thin air, and held onto it. With a firm grasp, he swung it over his head several times before attempting to strike at Firebird's position, only for her to dive out of the way.

"You want me?" she taunted, even going as far as to blow a raspberry while turning around and slapping her rear. "Come and get me."

As he chased her around the lobby, Keena aided the other Fire Sect mages in their fights whenever she saw them. She used her baton to vault into the air and slam down on one of the Seared Hand forces, then delivered a fatal water bolt shot—without even looking—to a flame imp who was about to ambush her from behind. However, the person she was helping ended up having to tackle her out of the way of a sword beam attack that had been sent by the second flying magma creature—the one whom Firebird had failed to take down.