Crystal Folly

Crystal Terror

Everyone leaped from the building as Xeno's forearm came crashing down on the top of the building, demolishing it completely, and split up around his legs. Again he swung, narrowly missing Liliona and Milo, who ducked at the last possible second. Arthur threw a large purple fireball at his left elbow when he was out of Xeno's reach and burned a giant gaping hole where the middle of his elbow used to be. However, his effort was in vain, as Xeno pulled up a giant chunk of crystal from underneath him and stuck it in the gap.

"Of course he'd expect that," Arthur grumbled to himself as he prepared to dodge a storm of crystals, which never came. Instead, Xeno launched himself up in the air and tried to grab him before hurtling back down to everyone else. Unfortunately for Xeno, he'd engulfed himself in purple flames right as he reached for his wings, instantly melting his hands. "You wanna try again?" Arthur taunted as he plummeted downward before realizing that this was most likely what he did to the other town.

On the ground, Liliona was preparing a phase shift hex so that they'd survive the impact. "Everyone get over here, now!" she shouted when the hex was finished. It didn't take very long before they were all together, and mere seconds before Xeno hit the ground, Liliona screamed, "Tilapäinen vaiheensiirto!", turning them into thin vapors that were pushed away slightly when he landed. Xeno's contact with the ground caused quakes strong enough for Arthur to feel a magnitude ten in the air. Shortly after, it began to snow, and with it being light blue, he realized what his brother was trying to do.

"Looks like you're all alone, kid! Gonna call in the royal family so they can back you up?" Xeno taunted, shouting from the gigantic pit he'd created upon impact, unaware that the others were still alive. "Well I got news for ya, they aren't makin' it in time to stop me!" Arthur then noticed the barely-visible wisps of smoke moving towards Xeno's body, most of which were in the shape of small orbs. Xeno didn't notice that they were there until the balls of mist were on him shortly before a bolt of lightning struck their positions. Xeno stumbled from the shock, craters in his shoulders and head, confused as to how they could do so much damage to him from lightning alone.

"Was that really necessary for us to come back?" Stella questioned Liliona, who was dusting herself off, complaining about the shock herself. Xeno glared at them, his hands becoming giant crystalline blades with gaping holes near the tips as he stood back up. He swung one of them at a rapid pace, keeping Stella busy dodging before she had a chance to attack, and completely ignored Arthur until he was right above him.

"Silly boy, you should know your PLACE!" Xeno roared before swinging his other arm at him. The blade connected, but Arthur didn't budge. Such a clean slice! It's a shame, really, he was the strongest they had. Shame for them! Only when he felt burning in his back did he realize that it was his afterimage that had he cut through. He tried to reach him before it was too late, but by the time his blade-hand got to where he was, Arthur had already melted enough of him to go through where his stomach would be. He encased himself in fire and expanded his wings, melting even more of Xeno than he expected before flying out of his torso a second later.

Feeling confident, Arthur yelled, "What was that? I couldn't hear you over that hole I made in your stomach!" before soaring around him, pelting him with purple and black fireballs. Xeno tried to hit him with his blades, but trailed far behind most of his attempts. Stella and Taylor flew in too, contributing to the firestorm, before three giant spikes shot out of the ground where they were moments before. Shortly after they emerged, they morphed into thousands of crystal wolves that began to chase them down. With everyone being distracted, Xeno slowly managed to patch up a few areas with more crystals from beneath him, though most of them were thin and hardly helped. Many of the wolves were beginning to melt into the air before anyone could do anything else.

"That's it, I have to help him," Stella told Ender. He nodded and agreed to make sure that he'd be there to catch her if she passed out from the heat

"So if we're done playing around," Xeno began, now having stood back up to his full height, one hand slowly morphing back into a sword, "how about we speed things up again? Here, I'll start." The instant he finished talking, he slashed directly where Stella was, nicking her hair as she hurried towards him, pelting him with icy blue and purple fireballs in seemingly random areas. He swung again as she flew towards Arthur, but missed due to her ice freezing him over.

"Are you ready? I have enough for one attack," Stella asked him. He nodded before creating a small purple fireball. She made a larger one and kept adding to it, dodging all the while, before it became big enough to melt him in one go. By the time Xeno realized what was going on, he had already been frozen solid, and could only wait for the inevitable.it had gotten down

"The worst way to go, death by fireball," Liliona whispered as it began to burn through Xeno's face. Before long, it had already hit his torso and quickly descended to his legs. Five seconds later, there was no trace of him. However, for good measure, Arthur torched the crater with a solid stream of purple flames. At about the same time, they got a call from someone they all knew.

"Is this thing on?" A familiar voice rang through Johann's miniature earpiece. "Never mind, I hear the echo. Listen, that blue snow you see over there is Ancient Frost magic. You guys get somewhere safe and tell Arthur if he already hasn't figured out the issue."

"How did you even get into the comms?" Stella shouted at her watch. For her answer, she got static before a clicking sound, signaling that she was kicked out. When she turned to Arthur, he had already began flying into the air. "Where are you going?!" she screamed at him, hoping he'd explain before he took off.

"He used the scroll. I have to find him," was all Arthur told them before flying off. Ender tried to reach him with his earpiece, but he'd already turned his comms watch off. The light snow aggressively transitioned into a blizzard, leaving the group with the only choice of getting inside one of the remaining buildings for shelter.

Johann made sure that there wasn't a crack anywhere in the walls or windows of the house they managed to get into before shouting, "If this is Ancient magic, what are we supposed to do? They told us about some of the properties, but this is insane!" Stella was shivering violently, only adding to his point.

"There's nothing we can do. I can imagine that it's starting in select areas and spreading around the world. That damn Prince really knows how to give us a good party," Milo grumbled. "We should rest, we need it. We'll be going far to look for somewhere else to stay. The search starts first thing in the morning."