"NO!" Eddie immediately jumped into Peaches as he blindly swings his sword around in anger and fury.
Peaches looked at the tiny possum and smirked at his efforts to land a strike as she walked backwards to dodge them.
"Aaaw, look at you little bean. Maybe you could use some kicks."
After that being said, she kicked Eddie away, sent him flying into the tree near Ellie's
"Eddie? You alright?!" Ellie worried about both of her brothers
"Possum...down.." Eddie managed to mutter those words before he faints, or feign his death.
Roshan let go of his arrow, he aimed at the legs of the mammoth in hopes to immobilize it.
Peaches however did notice the arrow flying to her ankle, and she summoned an ice wall in its direction, blocking the arrow.
"Nice try human, but that ain-"
Julian rammed straight through the wall and pushed her a few meters. She swung her tusks right at Julian's face which stopped him from continuing to do so. She then launched a boulder of ice which knocked him back a few steps.
That helped Buck to use his vines and caught her tusks, he went ballistic on the icicle as he descent, his knife point towards first.
"This might hurt a bit, Nectarine!" He grinned as he went down closer to the icicle, while evading most of her attacks.
"No, this will" Peaches simply grabbed the airborne weasel from the air and threw him to the other side. Roshan jumped out of the bush and engaged close-quarter combat to her. He gritted his teeth in wrath as he clashed his spear with hers.
"You should have stayed there!" He shouted in anger at the mammoth. The mammoth simply laughed and replied.
"You think that small little worn-down structure is capable of keeping me detained? You must be daydreaming for decades and years now!"
Roshan heavily hit his spear down with his teeth gritted each other, breaking Peaches' ice spear, he looked at her with eyes filled with fire as he stabbed her sternum. She backed away a bit, as her teeth clenched in slight pain, but the smile remained on her face.
"Looks like you've been improved during the times, also. I adore that, heehee." She commended Roshan's fighting skills. "But worry no more, Once this devoted sacrifice is mine to fully control, it's only a matter of time before your kind dies with the REST OF THE ANIMALS!" as she created an axe head made out of ice and chopped down on Roshan's spear, splitting it in half.
"It's NOT YOURS TO KEEP!" He scolded the mammoth.
Roshan managed to dodge the mammoth's incoming axe strikes, only to be knocked away when she hit him with the axe's poll.
"Hmmm, perhaps it may be. Oh and on second thought, I take my compliment about your fighting skills back, teehee." She replied to the human laying at the corner holding his stomach in pain.
Ellie swung herself at Peaches, in efforts to deliver a sharp kick. Peaches performed an evasive maneuver to dodge the incoming mammoth, as she launched an icicle at the vines, dropping Ellie down to the ground.
"Not falling for the trick twice, mommy." Peaches smirked at her efforts in disapproval.
"Give my daughter back! You mindless being." She said with a hint of fury in her voice.
"Oh, look at you motherly mammoth, but I got to tell you, she's already back. This..." as she used her trunk to point at the icicle on her back "...this is her new 'home' now, heehee."
Peaches told Ellie that fact which made her furious, Ellie immediately charged at Peaches, hitting her with her tusks at her side. Peaches responded to her attack with a boulder to the face, Ellie was then knocked out instantly, as a stream of blood flow out from the crest on her head.
"ELLIE! NO!" Manny was really exasperated at what just happened. Peaches quickly turned her focus on him after she heard his call.
"Oh, so this is the head of the pack. I see, go on Manny, show me what you got, poofy." she slowly walks towards him, her grip on the axe head tightens.
Manny came running to her and got the first strike, as the shield prevented him from getting struck with the axe.
"You are not worthy to have her! You parasitic monster!" Manny disarmed her after he bashes his shield right at her trunk, her axe head slips away from her grasp. He then hit her right at the head with his plank, which tumbled the mammoth and knocked it back.
She got up from the fall quickly, as she formed a sword in her trunk.
"You have always been such a splinter in my eye, you sack of flesh." She angrily exclaimed, as she dashed at Manny. "I'll make them vile rot under my blade!"
"What are you?!" Manny asked as he cringed in fear when Peaches held the sword in her trunk and slashed him.
"Oh, I come with many names, some people called me the icicle. The humans called me the spirit. Others named me the dangerous jewel, and yada yada yada (etc.), but I don't really care about it."
Manny struggled to block her incoming attacks. She rapidly landed blow after blow after blow. It lasted for a while until she heavily sent her blade down, and broke Manny's shield to pieces. Manny slowly backed away from the lunatic mammoth. It then made a request to him.
"Dad, you know it's been quite a time when we play hockey together right?" She asked with a mischievous intent. Manny raised his eyebrow and asked.
"Ye, so?"
"That was your game for so long. Now let us play my game this time." She said as she forms another sword and passed it into Manny's trunk. Manny can already see where this was leading to.
"En garde" Peaches shouted, as she came straight into Manny, and both of them engaged in combat. The sound of ice clenched together in the air as they also put themselves in a conversation.
"Look at you over the past decades, old but still robust. I really love that!" She said as she caught Manny slightly off guard, and tried to slice off his knees, but the big old mammoth knew her tricks. He put his blade right at its way and shove one of his tusk right into Peaches, knocking her back.
"You're getting too much pride in you, that would make you fall without humility!" Manny came at her again and attempt to strike her, he stabbed right at her thigh and then used his trunk to pull the icicle out, but as soon as he touched the icicle, Peaches immediately got back up, despite the fact that there's a bleeding wound from the strike that Manny gave her.
"Woah, woah, what did you think you were doing?" She laughed at Manny's attempt to pull the luminous icicle out. Manny looked at the mammoth get on itself again with ease in disbelief.
"H-how did...you, I stabbed your leg?!" He soon found out that he was wrong all along, and he didn't know what he was dealing with until now.
"I'm sorry, who's leg? No, not mine, it was your sweet little angel's leg. Teehee!" Peaches laughed that off as she looked at the shocked Manny. "You see, I'm just controlling her body, I don't feel any pain at all, really, NONE at all! I may be even controlling her injured self or even her dead carcass right now, without any discomfort. Gotta say, it took quite some time for me to control her, you have quite a stubborn daughter, but eventually, she gave up. I hope you finally know what was going on all the time now, silly old mammoth. Heeheehee."
"No, no NO!" Manny lost what was left on his mind, all of his members are rather wounded or even unconscious. His rage increased as he tried to go for the icicle by reaching his sword to it. That however created a huge chance for Peaches to disarm him, as she attacked Manny with one swing, the sword flew out of his trunk, he then used his tusks to defend himself from the menacing Peaches.
"Look at you, a mortal being, blind to the obvious facts around you, tried its best to stop something like me?!" She hit Manny harder within every strike, while he resisted with his two tusks. "This should be a price for you to pay when you can't come to its TERMS!" She upper slashed Manny's right tusk. It was a hard, powerful swing at the helpless old mammoth.
Manny's tusk broke out from its place.
She then swung her tusks right at him, which knocked him to the trees.
"Heeheehee, looks like I'm winning, daddy…" as she came closer to the injured mammoth, fidgeting the sword around with her trunk.
Manny looked at her, as he asked:
"Why are you...doing this?"
Peaches just glared at him, and gave the mammoth a smile.
"I think that my objectives are way beyond your little understanding, big guy."
"Countless animals had died because of your objectives, moron."
Peaches replied to that almost immediately in wrath upon hearing what Manny said.
"Because that's the only THING ANIMALS DO!" she calmed down a little and explained her 'vision' to Manny.
"Don't you see? All they do is DIE, DIE and DIE! Every day millions of them are killed because of various causes. They DIE in the hands of humans, climate change, disasters, hunger, thirst, and reasons UNKNOWN! They even kill each other too for survival and to be on top of the food chain, heheh, so HOW ARE YOU SO BLIND TO SUCH THINGS MANNY?!"
Manny looked at the thing as if it had already lost its mind at the very beginning.
"Well then what are you going to plan for if the world is that miserable like you described?"
"Oh, it's a real simple, old friend. Kill or be killed."
"But why do we have to do that when we can form communities toge-"
"THEY ARE TEMPORARY! Communities are just solutions that will soon cause other problems! Manny, you need to know that NOTHING, NOTHING IN THIS WORLD LAST FOREVER! It's either short, or long, and this…"
She said as she turned her back and looked at Ellie, she then raised a cluster of sharp icicles to Ellie. The icicle clusters slowly rose closer to the unconscious mammoth's throat.
"This is the long term solution." She said as Manny witnessed the scene in horror.
END OF PART 8