Just as the Migoi brushed razor-sharp talons over the putrid snow to capture its prey, from nowhere, Fujin flew into it on a violent gust of wind and knocked it an easy half-mile away. With eyes like glowing white marbles, he pursued the creature and attacked.
Beneath a stunted snow dune – poor protection from the beast, but better than none at all – a heap of debris shifted, jolted from within. Dirt, sludge, snow, and ice crumbled away, revealing the Earthrealm Champions. In addition to the dirt coating them from head to toe and their now slightly damp clothes, most had suffered various degrees of frostbite or bumps and bruises, though Kailyn had an almost comical clean spot across her face in the exact size and shape of Tomas' cybernetic arm. They were a sorrowful lot, battered and filthy.
"That's it. We're going to die." The statement came from Kenshi. His left arm dangled uselessly, bone and frosty meat hanging off his side, but his right – and the katana clutched in that hand – appeared as steady as ever.
"'Sta loco, don't talk like that," Bo'Rai Cho admonished him. "As long as we draw breath, we can still fight."
"Ugh, I think my uterus is broken," Kabal groaned as the fat, drunken master rolled off him.
Sub-Zero huddled over on one knee, clutching his rib cage where Shao Kahn gave him the flail chest roughly two years prior. It cracked in sharp pain, and he drew in ragged, burning breaths made torturous by the blistering cold air.
Beside him, Anya knelt on all fours, clutching her stomach and vomiting into the snowbank. As soon as the moisture from the bile touched the air, it cracked loudly like a lake of ice fracturing into smaller floes. Much of it instantly froze into an icicle from her purplish lips, and with disgust she gripped it and threw it to the side.
"Sister," Kailyn panted as she knelt beside her. "Are you wounded?"
When Anya finally answered, she wheezed, "I got hit in the stomach. Hard. I'm okay." As if to prove her point, she forced herself to stand. Then she looked at her husband, who now stood as well. "Are you okay?" she asked, hobbling to him.
"I'm fine," he answered stubbornly.
"Your ribs-"
"Are the least of my worries at the moment," he grunted almost curtly. "We need to get out of here and help Fujin."
"Move quickly and in a single file," Shujinko ordered as he took the lead. Beside him, Bo'Rai Cho helped Kenshi tie up his wounded arm. "Keep some distance between each of you. Each person is responsible for covering the one ahead, so keep your eyes peeled. If anything seems strange, I don't care how little it is, I want to know right away. Move!"
They moved. Sub-Zero and Smoke watched as the warriors gathered, guided by either instinct or prior training into an organized line. The Cryomancer merely grunted at Shujinko's presumptuousness, and then the company was moving as fast as it could through the thick dunes and drifts of snow and the stands of dead trees. The snow crunched, slid, burst, and squelched beneath their feet; they hurtled narrow but seemingly bottomless gaps, through misty curtains of super-cooled air and other, fouler vapors.
It wasn't long, that path. It led not only onward to Fujin but slightly down. Between the length of it and the speed by which they moved, Kuai Liang and his companions reached their destination long before the icy debris falling through the sky had finished settling.
In exhaustion and defeat, they stared with comically slack jaws at the chasm that met them and obstructed their path. There was a simple magnificence to the icy abyss; it was far greater in height than in width. Roughly fifteen paces across, it was more than three times that in depth. Slick ledges and snow-encrusted bridges protruded from the walls at seemingly random heights. Open archways led from those protrusions into the icy walls, allowing access to whatever caverns or tunnels they led to. For a dramatic instant, pregnant with all manner of possibilities, the company stared down into the farthest reaches of the canyon.
And from below, their horrified stares were met by black sapphire cyclops eyes and giant primate faces who were obviously expecting them.
The first Migoi was familiar enough, for he was still embroiled in battle with Fujin on the opposing side of the abyss, attempting to strike the god down but frustrated by his failure thus far. The Wind God also seemed frustrated and impatient with the way the battle was unraveling. The Champions saw him calmly summon a tornado and use it to slam the beast face-first into the snow several times. Then, the tornado lifted it back to its feet, its arms whipping much faster now, the shards of ice contained within its arms glistening like tiny razors. It engulfed the Yeti and instantly ripped off every scrap of flesh and fur, skinning the creature alive before it shoved it into the ravine.
But the dusky-furred, single eyed giants who loomed at least a head taller than the first, shaken from their initial astonishment, now erupted in a shrieking cacophony of prehistoric roars and bellows, and bedlam answered their calls. Some leapt into the air with impossible grace, plunging their long talons into the icy walls for support like monkeys leaping from branch to branch. Others slid into dark, oily puddles and surged through the crusty snow like stains. Clubs, axes, or swords protruded from many of the hairy fists. Most of the primitive beasts seemed more content, however, with tooth and talon.
As synchronized as if they'd practiced the maneuver hundreds of times before, Sub-Zero and Smoke heaved themselves over the edge and plummeted into the abyss. The action jolted the others from their shock and fear, and immediately they were raising their weapons and scattering in all directions. Even Kenshi, who was hanging off Bo'Rai Cho for support until now, charged forward and leapt over the edge as well.
Two kori swords formed in the Cryomancer's palms at his command, a weapon for each hand, and he sent both razor-edged missiles hurtling downward before his own fall came to an end nearly fifteen feet down. The first slashed across a Migoi's arm even as it reached out to catch him. Heavy ice screamed, indigo blood flew, and though the cut did no serious damage, it was enough to force the tiger-striped creature back, recoiling from his attack and roaring in pain.
Sub-Zero's second blade proved less effective. Another creature, smaller in stature but far more aggressive and intelligent, reacted faster than his companion. Claws swept from its monkey-like paw to bat at the weapon. The kori sword rebounded from hands evolved to crush a glacier, and it swept back through the open air. The Cryomancer wasted no time contemplating his bad luck and had already formed new kori swords the same instant his boots touched rock-hard snow – the snow of a precariously narrow land bridge.
The Migoi took one step back, just beyond the reach of Sub-Zero's twin blades, and crossed its arms. Great chains of ice, their heavy links bristling with barbs, slid from the undersides of its furry forearms. Longer than the creature was tall, almost as thick around as its own arms, they couldn't have possibly been hidden on its body – the Migoi had to have formed them with the same powers the Cryomancers' possessed. The chains rose and coiled of their own accord, as though the Yeti had as much control over them as over the hands from which they sprouted. They swayed like angry cobras through the dimness. Then the jagged chains shot up and around, shredding flesh from Sub-Zero's back as they passed. He vaguely thought of Grandmaster Oniro's cat o'nine tails, and how the whipping sting of the lashes now felt all-too-familiar.
The Cryomancer ducked as they lashed the cold air over him and wrapped around an unintended target – a Yeti torso nearby – and first crushed the creature to a pulp before they unwound so quickly they actually sawed the thing in half. Gallons of dark blood rained through the air and froze into tear-shaped globes the very instant they were exposed to the elements, hailing on the Earthrealm warriors who found themselves fighting the Migoi on the natural ice bridges.
Sub-Zero recognized his precarious position and soared off stable ground once more to escape, twisting between flying horrors. A kori sword licked out at any Yeti who came too close, and ice balls spoke in rapid, crackling bursts. Migoi howled in pain as the biting teeth of the Cryomancer's most basic weapon gnawed on flesh and spirit alike. Another fifteen feet down, he landed hard in the snow and he stayed there for several long moments before he noticed that below him, Smoke struggled to ward off the exceptionally large Migoi that charged towards him. Kuai Liang then smiled – he was never going to let Tomas forget this – and sprang upward after scurrying up a Yeti's backside.
The Cryomancer swung his legs forward so that they struck the ice wall first. His knees folded, absorbing the impact, and thrust out again in a second jump straight from the wall itself. Once more across the abyss, and he plummeted down onto his target from above, spraying a jet of cryogenic energy onto the creature. The startled Yeti thrashed about for a moment, moving to reorient itself to face the unexpected attack, but a thick sheen of blue-white ice enveloped it, and it collapsed to the ground like a fallen pillar of stone when Sub-Zero landed on its head.
"What are you waiting for, an invitation?" he yelled at his friend. "Hop on!"
"I didn't need your help!" Tomas yelled back as he bolted towards the Migoi corpse, leapt through the air, and landed on the beast. Then, as if reading Kuai Liang's mind, he blasted the bridge behind them with a missile, the subsequent shock wave forcing the body to slide down the slight incline like a snowboard.
"You're welcome!" Kuai Liang answered. Two new swords sprang from his palms.
The Cryomancer now spun his weapons at the living Yeti in his path. Both hands whirled around with impossible speed, nothing but a razored blur. His wrists passed over and around each other, and he himself was spinning when his weapons struck gray tiger-striped fur and flesh. Behind him, Smoke stamped and thrust, firing his kunai spear at the Yeti and harpooning them through the chest long enough to fire missiles into their faces. Only when their heads exploded did he release them. Between the two Lin Kuei warriors, gallons of beastly blood spattered into the air in a series of short, swift geysers, followed by limbs and the occasional head. And just that quickly, the natural ice bridge was empty of any living enemy.
Still above them on the snow-packed ridge, Kailyn and Anya were embroiled in their own battle. A Yeti duo of frightening speed and ferocity swooped toward them with sharp talons bared, their high voices screeching in fury. Hot, moist breaths wafted through the air, casting the permeating stench of flesh left rotting in the sun before them.
Kailyn wordlessly pushed her half-sister behind her and fearlessly let them come, then she dove forward into a tight roll, still clutching Catja's spear. With it firmly in her grip, she rose and stabbed with it. The lead Yeti was behind her now, still dashing towards Anya, failing to turn and face the Hydromancer woman who just passed beneath its body. The other creature flopped, screaming, on the end of the spear point the Tetrach just launched into its heart. Within seconds, she retrieved her weapon and scarcely cared as the beast died in agony.
Now Kailyn turned toward the remaining Migoi that continued to accost her half-sister, and she narrowed her lavender-colored eyes. Stray pieces of golden blond hair peeked from beneath her hood and were now being lifted by a sudden wind whipping through the air. She felt as though she were sinking into the snow, submerged just beneath this impure and diseased crust of ice, but that was merely her imagination. She ignored it and slowly raised her hand towards the creature, calling her powers forth.
Water welled within her, overflowing until it ceased to be contained, escaping through her outstretched palm. It raced from her with blinding speed, but even still it barely had time to reach its target before it turned to ice. Loud, crackling sounds unexpectedly filled the air as Kailyn's jet of water froze the animal in the same instant it soaked it, and the force of the blast knocked it over like a falling tree. It was dead.
She took no time to rejoice in her victory against the creatures, however. Biting pain gnawed at her hand, and she immediately saw why: it, too, was frozen. The Falcata Tetrach looked at it stupidly, even as Anya stumbled through the snow to reach her. Glossy and shiny, it glistened in the pale light of the land, almost glowing blue. Kailyn tried to wiggle her fingers, but found that they were far too stiff.
"Oh, my God!" her half-sister yelped as she reached her and took her wounded hand in her own. "Kailyn!"
"Evidently, that was a foolish plan," she told her younger sister dreamily, as if a fugue were settling on her head. "I did not account for the coldness of this place."
"I can fix this," Anya said anxiously, now rubbing the Tetrach's forearm. "I think."
"It does not hurt," Kailyn told her as she lazily leaned against Catja's spear.
"I'm not surprised," the other replied as she gripped her hand and closed her eyes. There was a hint of sarcasm in the younger woman's voice. "You're probably nu-"
Anya didn't get to finish her thought because at that moment, inky snow exploded upwards like a geyser, giving birth to another Migoi. The blast was enough to topple the Hydromancer healer, shrieking her pain and fury, to the putrid ground. Kailyn, staggered by the detonation, still managed to land unsteadily on her feet, only to be bowled over by the Yeti, who had roared and inadvertently kicked waves of snow towards them the instant it surfaced. Quickly, she scrambled to her feet and dug her sister from beneath the snow pack before the animal squashed them both like insects. The two women struggled to escape, and the beast succeeded in shoving them back only a few more steps, but the Yeti had chosen its moment well, and a few steps was all it needed.
The two women tumbled over the edge. Catja's spear was still in the Tetrach's undamaged fist and she used it, instantly lodging it into the thick sheets of ice at the same time her sister clamped her hands around her half-frozen forearm, and both slammed into ancient icicles that shattered into tiny shards the moment they hit. The Hydromancer warrior howled in pain as her shoulders both threatened to pop from their sockets as she struggled to hold both her weight and her sister's with one hand. Anya, meanwhile, screamed and began to cry in abject terror, clearly afraid of heights.
"Elder Gods, give me strength," she groaned as her face contorted and she tried to pull her sobbing sister up. "Fujin!" she screamed in something like a panicked prayer a moment later.
Now she heard the swoop of air above her, saw the putrid snow swirling – yet she was helpless to do anything to shield herself. Agony ripped through her back and her innards, and it was all she could do to bite back her tears as one of the Migoi's razor sharp claws dragged itself through the cloth and skin. Her vision blurred and Catja's spear shook with the tremors in her arm. Only by leaning her head on the haft of her weapon and picturing Morgan's face, her precious daughter, did Kailyn even manage to hold on.
On a different bridge below them, Kenshi plowed through the center of the Migoi swarm, letting claws and monkey paws sail harmlessly over his head. He swung Sento in broad strokes with only the power of his mind, rending two or more of his enemies at a time. And then, like a dancer gliding across a ballroom floor, he swept around the edges of the mass, occasionally darting in and out just to prove to the Yeti that none were safe. Few of the creatures came anywhere near to hitting him, even with their blinding speed, and those who got close found their most precise strikes parried by Sento, their hands chopped off in clean slices. Even wounded as he was, Kenshi was a dangerous adversary.
On the ledge above, some distance from Kailyn and Anya, Kabal was slowed down by the deep drifts, but just barely. The Yeti burst into view, massive claws poised to strike, the earth beneath it crackling like breaking ice. It was indistinguishable from its comrades save for the squatness of its ape-like snout, and it scrutinized the detective with an eye as blue-black as shadow. It all but stamped in place, snorting and whistling its eerie tune, angry and eager. It stalked before him, daring him to move.
Kabal would not be escaping this confrontation unscathed, of that he was certain. He crouched, not really knowing why, placing the fingertips of his left hand on the corrupted snow. A dark shadow spread swiftly over him, beginning with his outstretched hand as though drawn from the earth itself, traveling up and out, until he appeared to have been coated in soot. Somewhere in the distance, he thought he heard a crow cawing.
The Migoi's initial pass was scarcely more than a test, and it conducted it well. Its approach, the careful intervals between one strike and the next, meant that Kabal must have his back to it at least some of the time, and he could never be certain that the beast wouldn't just squash him like a bug at once with its meaty palm.
Even in this first, almost gentle exchange, the detective found himself hard-pressed to avoid every attack. He parried with his hookswords, ducked beneath a talon that might otherwise have taken off his head, but he could do nothing against the swipe from the other paw save to take the force against his oxygen tanks. The blow staggered him, dropping him – if only briefly – to one knee; but thanks to the supernatural shield and strength he didn't know he possessed, it did no lasting damage.
He was standing once more as the Yeti circled around the other side, and with a determined grunt, he waited with both hands on his great curved blades that crossed inexorably in front of him, tip-down, as the Yeti pounded closer and closer…
And then Kabal thrust against his hookswords with impossible strength, burying a good portion of the blades in the heavy snow, but also propelling himself forward at the same time. Feet-first, he slid swiftly between the Migoi's legs, kicking it in the shins just above its ankles. Before the beast could begin to respond to the sudden maneuver, the detective tensed both knees and straightened once more. With his hookswords in both hands, he lifted the blades, twirled around, and deftly chopped into its Achilles' tendons with a single blow.
The Yeti roared in agony. Propelled by both Kabal's unnatural might and its own forward momentum, it tumbled and flailed into the abyss, fully airborne, until colliding with a deafening, bone-rending crash against one of its friends below.
Beside them, Bo'Rai Cho ducked into a roll back the way he'd come, passing easily beneath a blade of ice that belonged to one of the Migoi, and shot upright into a fearsome leap. He landed hard beside the entangled creatures, his short staff readied in a two-fisted grip. Wood, the Migoi on top, and the drunken master screamed in unison as his weapon punched through delicate eye tissue and brain matter until the end jutted through the back of its skull.
The Migoi pinned beneath his now-dead companion howled to be freed. Bo'Rai Cho had no difficulty reading the creature's fear, but the creature still had to be put down. He shuffled around and squatted as he conjured a ball of fire in his palm. Then a burst of putrid force shot through the air. The drunken master calmly held his fire to it, and it devoured the fuel-like stench in green flames that enveloped the Yeti. It screamed, soon falling dead in a heap of singed meat and blazing fur.
"Phew!" he said as he waved a hand in front of his face to fan away the smell. "That was a stinky one!"
Shujinko, meanwhile, traipsed over the battlefield, standing tall on the back of an abnormally large Yeti, almost bigger than the ones Fujin currently fought on the opposite side of the ravine. The Migoi shrieked and gibbered, its world awash in freezing pain. Shujinko's twin blades served as reins. Each tip sat deep and snug within the bloody, furry, mangled flesh of the creature's shoulders, and he needed only the slightest tug to inform the Yeti which way it had better turn. After a few desperate attempts at shaking its rider, including a maddened lopsided grasping dance that hadn't been enough to dislodge either the swords or their wielder, it had given up the struggle and meekly obeyed. While it trudged on, Shujinko used a third sword nearly as tall and as wide as himself to decapitate any of the beasts that came near him. Primate cyclops' heads flew.
Despite the immediacy of the carnage and bloodshed, Smoke couldn't help but spend a moment looking around, staring with unabashed astonishment at the wake of devastation slicing through the creatures ahead. Sub-Zero, as far as his best friend could determine, had lost himself fully to the havoc of battle. Not merely the initial Yeti who attacked them, but two more of those monstrosities – as well as several dozen smaller versions – littered the battlefield ahead of them. Literally littered the battlefield, as in not a single one of them lay in any fewer than three pieces.
Sub-Zero's kori swords moved so swiftly that they seemed to form a solid arc. His black cloak streamed behind him in tatters; blood spilled from a veritable legion of wounds scattered across his body. The Cryomancer didn't appear to care, or even to have noticed. A dull reverberation echoed from the whirling figure, and Smoke was stunned to realize that what he heard was nothing less than a continuous, breathless battle cry. It was, the cyber-ninja realized, a damn good thing that they weren't counting on any meticulous plans or tactics to win this struggle. Kuai Liang didn't seem sentient enough anymore to follow them, and in any effort to stop him, Tomas wasn't certain that even Fujin could emerge the victor.
With a quick head shake, he dragged his attentions back to his own circumstances and left Sub-Zero to clear the way ahead.
And suddenly, piercing cries shattered the air and his ears, high and terrified, sharp as his mechanical kunai blade. Both Smoke and Sub-Zero whipped their heads around to see two black-clad figures plummeting, falling as much as swinging, slipping before plowing painfully into the cliff of ice. The bottommost person's feet kicked empty air with unnecessary fury, screeching so frantically she'd surely bring down an avalanche of prodigious proportions on their heads.
"Anya?" Kuai Liang asked as his bloodlust for battle receded. "Anya!"
Tomas watched in dumbfounded silence as one of the Yeti batted at both her and Kailyn – he was certain it was Kailyn – while they both struggled to climb back to the relative safety of solid ground. But the creature was relentless, and even from his vantage point several feet below them, through cybernetic hawk eyes he saw them slipping. They had precious little time before they both fell to their deaths.
"I should leave that She-Devil to her own fate," he mumbled, thinking about Kailyn, as his friend pushed past him. But even as he spoke, he knew he wouldn't.
"No!" Kuai Liang roared as his head tilted upward, his eyes blazing like dark sapphires. "Get away from them!"
At first, Smoke thought he was futilely screaming at the Migoi who still attacked them, but then he saw a new figure dash into view, running towards the women: Kabal. He raised his eyebrow inquisitively, but had no time to ask the Cryomancer about it before the man was running toward the cliff. Tomas moved to follow Sub-Zero. There was only one problem with that: both men found themselves staring at a veritable thicket of tiger-striped fur and razor-sharp talons.
One of the Migoi was almost directly before them, and it was nothing short of good luck that its attentions were currently directed at Kenshi. Numerous others, well over half a dozen, stood at various intervals in their path. Even if the three warriors could hold them off, with their sheer numbers and the limited breadth of the ice bridge, they could easily block their way for several minutes – more than Kailyn and Anya had to spare.
All the more reason to deal with them swiftly, then.
High above them, Anya found herself clinging like an oversized spider to her sister and the underside of a jagged ice spur – a slanted outcropping on which the Yeti who'd knocked them over the side now perched – hanging above a drop which felt deep enough to have been the gullet of Outworld itself. Below were only drifting clouds and a cracked canyon floor so far away it was all but invisible unless the dim light and the shadows collaborated just so. As tears and strangled cries escaped her, Anya chose to stop peering down at a drop that would definitely kill her should she fall.
"Sister!" Kailyn squealed in pain after the Yeti slashed her back open again. "Do something!"
With ice-blurred eyes, Anya tilted her head upward and saw nearly black blood frozen into a glossy sheen on Kailyn's back, saw the tears glistening in frozen streaks on the woman's cheeks, saw her stubborn hand fight to grip the spear. Above them both, the Migoi roared and batted its paw at them again, striking the Falcata Tetrach once more. Though the blond woman had been surprisingly silent through their predicament, now she wailed as razor talons shredded deeper than before.
"I can't," Anya whispered, trembling. The mere thought of trying paralyzed her with fear. She wanted to help, but she sincerely couldn't. The nurse buried her face in her upward-stretched arm and began to sob.
"Stop your crying!" Kailyn barked at her, her voice strangled. "I will not let you disgrace our father like that. If this is how we are meant to die, we shall do so with honor." She grimaced in clear pain. "Is this really how you want to die, Annalise? In the way you fear the most? When you have more than just my life and yours to think of now?"
No, she whined to herself in her head. She timidly tilted her head up, and promptly saw the Yeti reaching for Kailyn again. Somehow, the sight of her half-sister's peril gave her the strength to overcome her fear, and a fiery hatred for the creature welled inside of her, fueling her next actions. Quickly, she yanked off the glove on her free hand with her teeth. You're going to freeze your hand if you do that! she inwardly warned. Then, a second later, Better my hand than my life. Oh, God, this is gonna hurt…
She had a clear line of sight to the creature's face, and she took it. "Take that, Bigfoot!" she screeched as she sprayed it in the face with a jet of water. Thank God for Kailyn's accuracy tutorials since they left Tlachtga; her aim was much better than it had been only a few weeks prior.
As it had done with Kailyn, the beast froze. But so too did Anya's hand. Agony ripped through her fingers, her bones up to her shoulder, and it was all she could do to bite back a scream as her flesh faded from creamy white skin to sickly blue glass. As the Migoi stiffened into a statue, she bawled and cradled the terribly frostbitten extremity to her chest.
"Thank you," Kailyn choked out in pained relief. "But it is not enough. I am losing my grip. You have to grab onto the cliff wall. That way, if I can no longer hold myself up, only one of us dies."
"I – I can't," Anya sobbed, the pain – oddly numb and hot at the same time – unbearable. She wondered if this was how Kuai Liang's victims felt when he froze them. The thought troubled her.
"You have to!" Kailyn yelped. "I cannot hold our weight-"
"Well, lookie here," a new voice interrupted. Both women looked up and saw Kabal standing above them with his arms crossed. "I see a couple of damsels in distress."
"Kabal!" Anya breathed in triumphant relief just as Kailyn let out a shaky laugh. "Help us!"
"Why don't you get your polar bear to help you?" he jeered. "I'm not allowed to be near you, remember?"
It was like a slap to the face. At first, Anya felt bewildered. And then, fury burned her, setting even her frozen hand on fire. "This isn't funny, Kabal!" she growled. "We'll die. This is not the time to play jealous games."
The detective dropped to one knee. No retort left his mouth. Instead, he simply stared at the two women dangling helplessly from the outcropping of ice, his eyes through his goggles glimmering like burning emeralds. He made no motion to help either of them, but continued to watch them as if studying them, or perhaps waiting for that moment when Kailyn could no longer hold them up.
"Kabal!" Anya screeched, almost pleading him to help. "Please! We're your friends!"
"If you do not help us, human," Kailyn hissed, "you better hope we fall because if we do not, I will you throw you into this ravine myself when we climb out."
But still he stared in eerie silence, not even blinking behind his goggles as Anya clawed her sister's arm, and the Falcata Tetrach's fingers started slipping at last. The nurse whimpered and began to sob again when she saw the pale digits slowly slide from the spear haft, when she felt her body move further down the ravine. Her own hand, the one that clutched Kailyn's body, began to slide down her frostbitten forearm as well. She clamped on even harder then, but it did precious little good. Both women were going to fall.
"Kabal," she whined again, her voice barely audible. "Don't do this. This isn't who you are."
And then, Kailyn's fingers slid off the spear completely. Both women yelped more from surprise than in fear when the wood cast them down, as if they couldn't believe it had actually bucked them off. But then, an abrupt jerk followed the odd sensation of being hooked like a fish at the nape of their necks, and their fall was halted. Anya felt like the victim of a hangman's noose as the hook yanked her hood taut and her body gradually pulled upward. Within seconds that could've passed for eons, her feet touched solid snow before her body was thrown like a rag doll into a nearby drift.
"Anya!" she heard Kuai Liang call in a stern voice as heavy footsteps crunched towards her through the snow. She struggled to push herself up, especially with her frozen fingers, but a second later she felt a strong hand grip her elbow and lift her. Beside her was her husband, his battered face stony and somber.
She said nothing, merely flung herself against his chest, hoping he'd wrap his arms around her to console her. To her surprise, however, he did no such thing and instead, peeled her from his body and stared at her with his fiercest expression. "What's the matter with you?" she asked nervously.
"You need to be more careful," he admonished her like a child. "I'm getting tired of having to come save you because you can't look after yourself."
The nurse took a step back. What in the hell had gotten into everyone today? "Excuse me?" she sputtered, startled and hurt more than anything. "I didn't ask to be here. I got dragged along for the ride, and at the moment, I'm not too thrilled about it either."
"I-"
Kuai Liang's statement was abruptly cut off by Kailyn yelling, "I told you, human!"
Both he and Anya whirled around in time to see the Falcata Tetrach pointing her spear at Kabal's middle as she stalked towards him, edging him towards the ravine. Her face, twisted into an ugly expression of hatred – nostrils flaring, amethyst eyes colder than the land – was a veritable storm cloud of murderous rage. The detective, meanwhile, held his hands up deferentially, as if he were an innocent victim and Kailyn were a madwoman threatening to kill him.
"I don't know what you're so upset about," he said casually. "I pulled you up."
"Yeah, after we almost fell to our deaths," Anya growled, joining her sister's side. Though it was an empty gesture, she held her injured hand up as if she meant to spray him with water.
"I wasn't going to let you fall," he chuckled.
"You could have fooled me," Kailyn said.
"Okay, time-out, ladies!" Tomas cried. "What's going on? What did he do?"
Kailyn glanced at him from the corner of her eye. "He could have pulled us up, but instead, he let us fall." She scowled at Kabal. "He caught us with his weapons, but only after we slipped and nearly died."
"What?" Kuai Liang now yelled. And then, he charged towards Kabal to punch him, but a sudden gust of wind that lifted sharp molecules of ice into the air knocked him and everyone else to the ground. A moment later, Fujin landed in their midst.
"We have to retreat," he breathlessly announced as the remaining company members rejoined them. "Gather behind me!"
The mortals obeyed the Wind God's commands, and darkness spread over the already shadowy ravine while Fujin slowly raised his arms at his sides. In response to his mental directions, Anya saw black clouds rapidly building just above the Champions and the snow, but also the Migoi quickly clamoring to attack them. Soon the ominous clouds gathered tightly into an anvil shape, blooming over the deep abyss like a misshapen flower. As the clouds exploded into the frigid air in puffs of black, purplish-blue lightning bounced between them and struck the cliffs, detonating the ice into an eruption of snow and glassy debris. Deafening peals of thunder accompanied the lightning. And then, an angry tornado roaring like a lion dropped from the growing wall cloud like the finger of God.
The raging winds chewed up the natural ice bridges as well as the Migoi, and then spit them out violently as if they found them distasteful. Furry bodies flew through the air in a storm of flesh, rock, and snow. The tornado furiously threw those bits back, and it even wedged several Yetis in the face of the cliff as if the thick sheets of rock and ice were mere putty in its fingers. Controlling its wild, untamed winds was Fujin, his white hair whipping through the air like a ribbon, his eyes still glowing with divine light.
His hands dropped to his sides but the tornado remained in place. He turned to the others and said, "That won't stop them forever, but it'll buy us some time. Get out of here, and fast!"
Kuai Liang possessively grabbed Anya's good hand as he glared at Kabal and pointed. "This isn't over. When we get somewhere safe, you and I are gonna have it out."
"Looking forward to it," the detective taunted, his voice somewhat raspier than normal.