CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

*

For what seemed like the thousandth time, Inuyasha sent a blast from the Tetsusaiga at the snow-demon. He felt a cold gust of wind almost blow him off his feet, and a cold, wet spray hardening on the back of his neck. Then it hardened, freezing. He growled.

Dammit! he thought as the ice around his throat cracked and crumbled away. He wasn't being seriously hurt by the demon's attacks so far -- but the ice was burning his skin, especially on his hands. His fingers were red, and he felt like his skin was sticking to the Tetsusaiga's hilt. Wincing, he stepped back closer to Kagome and huddled behind a rock. "I can't hit him," he growled. "It passes right through him."

The demon screeched at them to go away again.

Kagome clutched one of Inuyasha's hands and examined it. He yanked it away before she could get a better look. "If I had my arrows I could help you," she started.

"No point in saying that, 'cause you don't," Inuyasha said, staring over the edge of the rock. Suddenly his eyes widened. "Get down!"

He seized Kagome roughly and pushed her down. Something roared right over her, and she felt a strange tingle pass over her back and head. When she looked up, frost fell from her long black hair. She could see her breath.

"Looks like the abominable snowman's decided to get nasty," Inuyasha said, grimacing. His knuckles cracked loudly as he stood up. "Stay here, Kagome. I can stand this guy's attacks, but you can't."

Kagome opened her mouth to argue, but shut it again. He was right. She had almost fallen asleep on him the night before, because of the cold. And she couldn't dodge as fast as he could. I'd only be in the way, she thought unhappily, crouching down.

The snow-demon now resembled a tornado, a whirling mass of snow spinning in place. To Kagome's eyes, a faint purple glow was suffusing every flake -- but it was strongest around the shard itself, floating in the middle. Her fingers ached for her bow and arrows -- if she had then, she could at least partly melt that stupid demon. But she had left them with Miroku.

"Yeah, big mean demon has to hide in a cave," Inuyasha sneered, holding up Tetsusaiga. "You're just a bag of cold air."

The glowing eyes shimmered slightly. And a blast of icy wind smashed into Inuyasha like a giant hand, crashing him back into the stone wall. For a moment he lay pinned, the cold rock crushing into his back, smashing the breath from him. Then, straining against the snow-demon's hold, he raised the Tetsusaiga and slashed it down.

The wind seemed to split, spraying frost in both directions. "What--" the demon screeched.

Inuyasha tumbled to the ground, gasping. Then he grinned slightly. "So, you may not be vulnerable to my Tetsusaiga, but I can cut away your attacks easily. This is where the real fighting starts, isn't it?" he said.

The snow-demon seemed to shrink slightly, the eyes growing dimmer. The shard's glow began to fall back on it, as if the demon's power were retracting. Inuyasha heard an ominous creaking from somewhere nearby, but as he looked above his head --

"INUYASHA, LOOK OUT!" Kagome shrieked.

Inuyasha leaped aside as a stalactite crashed to the floor, shattering the stone. When the dust cleared, only a few scattered pieces remained. Inuyasha hid his shock quickly behind a grimace. Another few seconds, and the stalactite would have crushed him -- or at least wounded him enough for the demon to freeze him.

But the demon's glowing eyes slowly turned to Kagome, flickering with rage. "Yooouuuuu giiiiirrrrllll..." it shrieked above the howl of its own wind. "You should have stayed out of this..."

"Don't you touch her!" Inuyasha bellowed, lunging at the demon.

But he was too late. A blast of cold wind roared at Kagome, throwing her to the stony ground -- followed by a searing chill that spread over her skin and seemed to lock her in ice. The cave seemed to go dark, and distantly she could hear Inuyasha screaming her name, saw a flash of him running toward her with the Tetsusaiga...

TO BE CONTINUED