Broken

Chapter 62

Watching the massive crystal serpent ascend out of the icy lake, I was reminded of one of Agatha's skills: <Summon Avatar of Frost>. I'd be willing to bet I was looking at that avatar right now.

Agatha lowered an arm and pointed one of those gaunt arms directly at me, still smirking. The snake's head immediately snapped in my direction, and it lunged forward at a dizzying speed, yet there was still not even a ripple in the water.

"Watch it!" Aiden snapped, yanking me back by the hood of my jacket, literally pulling me over he and Vixen's bodies in his rush to save me from being a crystal snake's early morning snack. I rolled over them, and nearly off the edge of the unstable chunk of ice, only stopping because Vixen managed to grab my sleeve at the last second.

I exspected for us all to go flying into the lake despite the pair's efforts, but the dunking never happened. Getting to my knees, all three of us watched as the snake dove back into the lake... through the solid ice. As if it were a ghost going through a wall. 

Was it just an illusion?

That thought was quickly banished when the giant head appeared once again, this time under another ice float. And this time it made full contact, shattering ice and throwing two other raiders into the water.

"Bastard!" I heard a familiar voice shout, and spun around to see Argus literally falling from the sky. A little ways back I saw a madly  rocking ice platform with Carson clinging to it, teeth gritted as he watched Argus descend from above. It seemed as if Argus had jumped to the sky to attack the snake.

The monster's head was already below the surface, but there was plenty enough of the long, crystalline body to aim at. Argus came down, his body glowing red and veins popping all over the place. But, rather than landing on it's back, Argus simply passed straight through it, plunging into the water with a giant splash.

"Argus!" I shouted, worried. I still had no idea if the man could even swim.

I wasn't given the time to worry, however. The snake was no longer attacking leisurely, and went after all raiders furiously. We all learned fairly quick that the avatar could not be hit. Not by anyone, nor by anything. Yet, despite the fact that every fist, sword, and spell that flew at that thing passed right through it; the snake itself was able to make physical contact with the rest of us.

"There is no winning against that." Aiden grunted as it did its best to decimate the Chaos guild. All we humans could do was flee. All over the lake, people were either leaping from one ice flow to another, or swimming in the icy waters, doing their best to escape. "Not when we don't even have a proper place to put our feet."

"Are Five-star instances supposed to be like this?" Vixen asked, her teeth chattering as she tried to help the larger healer to his feet.

"No." said a new voice, making me jump as our chunk of ice rocked slightly. Kuro, dripping wet and holding his black sword at his side, watched the snake advance through the group of fleeing raiders. They weren't all that fast over all. I mean, they were all running on fumes, and we were in the middle of a frozen lake without boats. "This is beyond what a fifth-star should be."

"You aren't thinking its a silver-star?" Aiden asked, skin nearly as pale as Agatha's. She was still hovering over the lake, grinning from ear to ear as she watched her summon harass the men and women who'd been so close to taking her out.

Kuro shook his head. "No. A silver-star is typically a large chamber filled with massively over-powered monsters. This feels more like how the floors above level ten can be..."

Silver instances were incredibly rare, but there had been enough to conclude what might be their 'general' formation. Kuro was right. After all, four-stars were almost like a practice for taking on the upper levels of the tower. But according to him, it was more like we were in the actual thing, not just an instance.

"No matter what it is that's going on, we can try and figure it out after we survive this." Kuro continued.

"That monster is impervious to damage, and I can't even get my de-buffs to work on it." Stated Aiden. I hadn't even realized that he'd tried to cast any. "That means there's only one way to beat it."

Before I could ask what that was, and if he would like to share that crucial information with the rest of the class, Kuro nodded. "We need to kill the banshee. Kill the summoner, you kill the summon. Or, at least get it to de-spawn."

"Right." I said, agreeing that it made sense. Currently Agatha was preoccupied with watching her creature toy with the fleeing Chaos guild. The real problem was that the snake was huge, and because of that it could literally be in multiple places at once, providing a semi- solid shield of crystal around the banshee princess.

"I'm tapped out." Aiden warned.

"As am I." Frowned Vixen, her legs shaking as she held the much larger Aiden up. She might look small, but- healer or not- Vixen was a raider. Her strength stat should be more than enough to hold up the other healer. Her shaking was due to fatigue more than lack of muscle. "A strike team without healers is hardly a strike team at all..."

"Doesn't change what needs to be done." I sighed, readying myself to jump back into the fight. If we needed to take out the nearly-dead banshee, then there was no point just standing here chatting about it. "You with me?" I asked the magical swordsmen.

"Yes." he said simply, ever the man of few words.

Leaving Aiden and Vixen to their own devises, Kuro and I went straight for the banshee.

As we left them behind, I noticed that Kuro's shadow stepping skills were well suited for this battlefield of treacherous footing. His skill used his stamina rather than mana, but it cost less then physically jumping from ice flow to ice flow as I was doing. And as the name 'shadow' might imply, he was far stealthier than myself as well.

As we drew closer, slowly and deliberately, dodging random parts of the massive ice snake that appeared out of the dark waters, I noticed that Agatha wasn't doing well. Despite the facade of power and depraved enjoyment she was projecting, I saw that she was actually on her last legs (Er, pun not intended). She had many wounds all over her body, and there was a pinched look to her face that the forced amusement wasn't able to hide. Her fists were clenched, and she appeared to be shaking; with rage or panic, I wasn't totally sure.

I was crouched on an ice flow, behind a large chunk of ice that was protruding from it, while Kuro was about a dozen meters away on another. Our eyes connected, and with a single nod, agreed to initiate this suicidal, last ditched attempt at ending the banshee once and for all.

Kuro, acting as the bait, flashed before her eyes, and I saw the panic cross her icy features when the man's sword came flying at her face. For a split second I thought that it was the end, that Kuro had managed to take her out without even needing my help. But then the banshee let out a hiss, throwing up her arms and causing a massive spear of ice to erupt from the lake, blocking Kuro's sword and sending him back several meters to another ice flow.

Agatha screamed. At least the distraction worked. Suddenly both the banshee and the snake had eyes only for the dark haired magical swordsmen, the beast even abandoning the fleeing Chaos members to double back and protect Agatha.

 Good. Now I only hoped that Kuro could hold out long enough for me to stick the bitch with my tiny, pathetic dagger... I'm sure everything was going to go swimmingly.

I should have paid more attention. 

I should have remembered that the damn avatar could easily be in more than one place at once with that long, ethereal body it had, even if it wasn't actively paying attention to me.

Mostly, I should have known better than to have even thought the word 'swimmingly' while on a lake with a skill like <Broken> that just loves irony.

Just as I was leaping from a larger ice flow to a smaller one, hoping to get closer to the banshee's back, an arch of ice snake body appeared from the depths, right before my eyes. One second I was mid-leap, and the next I was plunged into the frozen depths of the dark lake.