"You don't have to do this. She's INNOCENT!" Manny begged the spirit to spare his wife's life. Peaches still slowly let the icicles approach her throat, as she grinned out.
"You'll 'thank' me later for it, big guy. I can assure you that she'll be safer in paradise than here! TeeheeheeHAHAHA!"
Manny shutted his eyes down fast, he couldn't witness the scene as Ellie's neck was close to resting on the sharp pointy tip.
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"Oh Maannnyy! Don't you just love how the tables had turned so quickly, right my gentle giant?"
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"NO!" Julian came out and bashed her as hard as he could with his wood plank. The impact dazed the frosty mammoth a little, and it stopped the rising icicle from impaling Ellie, as it dissipated. Peaches looked at Julian angrily as she blocked his strike with her trunk and head butted him. He fell back as he got surrounded by icicles.
Peaches then used her trunk and rubbed at the spot where Julian hit her and laughed.
"I admired that bravery, but last-ditch efforts are so plain and boring." She mocked him, then she suddenly got an idea for her 'game'.
"Oh..wait! Manny, Let's play this game shall we?" she looked at him as she giggled. "I know you have someone special in your life that you always love and care for until your time comes. Who would it be, Manny? Teeheehee."
"Is it her?" She said as she pointed an icicle at Ellie's skull.
"Or him? Let's see if you're actually brave, or you just haven't heard of the word 'Death' until now." Julian saw one pointing close at his eyes socket.
"Uhh...Bro-dad?! If you're gonna have to choose, just please know that I'm ready to sacrifice for the greater good...But I also don't wanna DIE!" Julian murmured as fears slowly formed in his eyes.
"You're sick being, you're a madman!" Manny looked at her in disgust as she laughed. She suddenly stopped laughing to add one more member of his pack to the list.
"I almost forgot, maybe it is even…"
She pointed an icicle at herself as he looked at Manny with her wild eyes.
"Just please stop, you don't have to do this. I don't see any of these actions benefit your objectives whatsoever!" Manny was really on the verge of fear as he was about to see one of his loved ones flash away in front of his eyes.
"I mean, you've been quite a giant obstacle blocking my way. I just wanted you to see that, by putting a giant mark on you in return. I think you wouldn't understand how cold and lonely it is to stay in that ruin for centuries would you? Overall, I'm just giving you back your medicine, don't yo-AAARRGGH!"
Peaches suddenly yelled out in pain as she felt something sharp hit right at the icicle on her back.
"I may be puny, but I am very skilled in acting dead!" Crash said as he sneak attacked her and pushed his stone blade deeper into the icicle, while Peaches tried to buck the possum off like a bull in a rodeo. Diego and Shira came in to help him by trying to keep her down with vines coming from 2 directions..
"Looks like you don't have such a good memory aren't you?" Diego smirked as he felt like the mammoth forgot the sabers' existences in the fight. Buck also jumped in and helped Crash to remove the icicle.
"You think that little throw is gonna disable me for life, mate?" Buck came in as he stabbed his knife on the openings that the icicle caused on Peaches' back to remove it as he tried to push it down.
"GGGRH! You little RASCALS!" She shouted as she tried to get up, but Diego and Shira got the hold on the vines secured tightly. The pain increased for Peaches as Crash and Buck managed to slightly loosened the icicle.
Peaches summoned an icicle and launched at one of the vines holding her down, as it snapped away easily like scissors cutting paper.
"Alright...umm...Change of plans?" Diego asked Buck and Crash as the mammoth got up and looked at them in fury. There was a clear distinctive crack on the icicle.
"I'll...I'll *screams and screeches* KILL ALL OF YOU!"
"Go with the 'circles'!" Shira told Diego about their next vining trick.
Peaches recalled her ice sword again, but this time there was a significant sign of damage on it, somewhat like the icicle on the back. While Peaches was distracted by the remaining members of the Herd, Manny took off his shell helmet and used it as a blunt object to break his way out from the surrounding cluster of icicles he had been imprisoned in.
"HEY? Aren't you supposed to go anti clockwise?"
"I thought YOU'RE the one going anti clockwise!" Diego and Shira somehow ended up bonded themselves together by running into each other whilst trying to dodge the mammoth's attacks.
Buck with his technical difficulties in the launcher caused the weasel to ram his head straight into stones at launch when he attempted to aim at Peaches.
"You're too small for this body, slimy stick!" Crash said as he blocked an incoming attack from Peaches with a smile on his face, it lasted for a while until his sword ultimately broke while trying to defuse the situation. It was broken at the time he was trying to defend a strike from her tusks.
He nervously looked at his broken sword hilt as he silently whispered :"Oh shoot…"
"Pick on someone your own size in the afterlife. Now DIE, FILTHY POSSUM!." She swung her blade down on the unarmed possum. The icy blade was going straight into Crash's forehead as it would split his body apart clean…
"At least I died trying…" the possum mumbled out.
...but before she could they both heard a weird scream from the woods.
"HYAAAH!" The shout of the sloth (or the Fire lord himself) came charging into the mammoth, with his torch still burning bright and clear in his grip as it completely obliterated the sword into a mess of crumbs after he swung it into the blade.
"You underestimated me too much there, sweetheart." He said as he slapped her face with the fiery heat emitting from the torch.
"AURH!" she shrieked out as the heat gave her immense pain, but she refused to fall back.
"Lords are symbols of power and nobility, they are not worthy to have disgusting green floppy SLOTHS LIKE YOU!" She shouted as a vow of not being defeated by someone or something like Sid.
"Ah not again?! When will you just give up? You can have a chance to restart a new and get better outcomes!" Sid tried to confront Peaches as he didn't want to use too much violence.
"Shut up!"
She looked at him angrily, assuming something in his sentence had offended her as she pelted Sid with her icicles. He raised his torch up as a way to block them, one of them went through and got stuck mid-way when it hit the torch's solid wood body.
"Man this torch has alotta wood! Th-*OOF!*" Sid complimented the torch for saving him from being hit in the face, but then he got knocked off as she whacked him to the side with her tusks.
"This will be the last time you have tasted fresh air." She approached the frightening sloth with a shard in control. Sid slowly crawled away and screamed in fear as he begged for mercy.
"OKAY OKAY CALM DOWN, NOTHING SHOULD BE RESOLVED IN VIOLENCE." the sloth yelled out as something to buy some time.
"SLEEP TIGHT! You worthless sloth!" She exclaimed as she launched her icicle down to the miserable sloth, as he screamed louder.
"Bedtime has not YET TO COME!"
Manny came to the save by jumping right in front of the icicle as he hit his helmet at it, shattering the thing into pieces. Peaches then tried to attempt to launch another one, but Manny then used his helmet and dumped it onto her, blinding the mammoth's view as she struggled to stand properly and maintain balance.
"Nothing." He pushed her like a bulldozer straight to a designated tree.
"Ever." Manny then held her down as he whistled, calling out for something in the woods.
"LASTS." He called out as he tried to keep her from breaking away.
"URGH! *shrieks and sharp cries* You have ANNOYED ME FOR THE LAST TIME!"
As Peaches used her trunk to remove the helmet and tried to break free. Scrat, upon hearing the signal that Manny had given him, jumped out from the tree and landed on her back, with his amazing capability of pulling things out, the saber-toothed squirrel used all of its power into pulling the icicle off. Peaches screams of pain were getting louder as the icicle was slowly loosing up away from her back. Refused to be defeated like this, it tried its last effort to aim an icicle straight into Manny's head, with a hope to drag him down with her.
The entire scene felt like it turned slow-mo as the icicle was launched, aiming for the mammoth's skull, Manny was only able to have a glance of it coming straight to him, as he quickly closed his eyes and 'brace' for its impact. His life was on the hands of Scrat, if this little saber-toothed squirrel fails to do what he was assigned to, all is lost.
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The icicle was clearly in the grasp of Scrat.
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"HEEIIGGHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAA!" Scrat let out his "acorn-ripping" call as he pulled out something, he can't be sure about it, but it felt really cold.
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The spirit had decided to give up.
The icicle that was launched at Manny that nearly touched his eyelid suddenly evaporated in a blink.
"Forever." Manny ended his sentence by the time the icicle was taken out.
The area was soon covered by macabre screams and shrieks from Peaches:
"NOAᔑ!ᔑᔑAAO!ᔑ𝙹Au*-aa!AoAo-!" The spirit tried to shout out something in the voice of Peaches, before it completely turned silent.
Peaches slowly turned back to normal, with her light brown fur and red-ish brown scalp hair again. She collapsed immediately after all the hellish bellows and Manny soon came to her as he wrapped around her body with his trunk, her body was regaining temperature as it was getting hotter after the removal of the icicle.
She opened her eyes lightly, as her green familiar and endearing pupils moved teeny by tiny bit.
"I was hoping for this day to come." Manny muttered in happiness as his daughter slowly gained consciousness, without any signs of anomalies. He was happier than ever at that moment. Everyone there who was still conscious looked at them as the emotions build up inside them, especially Scrat and Sid. The sight of a father protecting his child with all of his efforts, where slashes, blood trails, tree branches, and worn out weapons scattered around the area in the aftermath of the final and brutal clash.
"D...Dad?" her voice is no longer creepy-toned anymore like the time she was controlled. Peaches started to see clearer of who was in front of her.
"Yes. It's me Fuzzball, it is me. It's over, it's all over. W-we've won." Manny softly whispered to Peaches, he started to tear up in front of his sweet soft mammoth that he had his chance to hold on.
"W-We…..won?" Peaches was confused at her father's words as she looked around the battleground and saw familiar faces, some were fine and some were wounded. She then noticed Manny's right tusk isn't there anymore.
"Wh-what...happened to o-one...of yo-your tus-*AAGHH!*" she suddenly got some sort of a bad migraine, it was incredibly painful as it feels like she just hit her head constantly into a coarse wall when she thought about what just happened around.
"Peaches? You alright sweetheart?" Manny got worried for her, but she quickly recovered from it.
"Ye, I'm...alright. Just pretend that I never asked that." Something about the sudden pain made her change her mind. It felt like memories went splatting into her mind, but nevertheless, she gave Manny a hug and replied:
"I can't believe you would do everything to save me."
Manny just looked at her and smiled: "That's what fathers do."
"I have so many questions to Peaches right now" Diego asked if Peaches might want to have a talk with him.
Peaches had a short hug with Manny until she caught her eyes on her motionless mammoth mother, Ellie.
"Mom!" Peaches suddenly changed her attention to Ellie. She rushed straight to the fainted mammoth at the far side, as a line of blood from her head flowed down to her face started to stop and dry up. Peaches looked at her and felt devastated, as she fretted at Ellie's injuries.
"If only I didn't become such a daredevil, nothing would happen and she would be FINE!" Peaches called as she tormented herself inside and tears came running out, but Roshan was there to calm the young mammoth down
"Don't worry, she'll be alright, we can take care of this." Roshan looked at Peaches and he grinned to keep her fine."You're not the reason that all of these events happened, alright? Just remember that in your head."
"Uhhh...GUYS!" Sid pointed at the icicle slowly floating up as it turned its sharp point right at Manny.
"Uh oh…..This...this...isn't good." Manny exclaimed as he slowly backed away. He stared at the icicles aiming at him, scared to break eye contact from the thing to turn his back and run...
but before it can even launch, there's a maniacal yell in the background. Everybody can already guess who it was from the sound.
"HAH!" Buck grabbed on the icicle, pushing it down to the ground as the weasel lifted his blade up.
The spiritual icicle tried wiggling its way out from Buck's hold, but it was ineffectual.
"Nothing ever lasts forever, isn't it mate?" Buck looked at it as he smiled, his grasp on the tooth was tightened as he swung it down on the icicle, like an executioner.
A clear and crisp breaking sound was heard the moment the Baryonyx's tooth touched the fragile ice.
The icicle broke into half, as it created some crackling sound and it started to mist for a while. It then stopped emitting light completely and its color turned from light cyan to dark-gray as voices lingers around. Buck felt a bit disturbed by it but he just ignored it after a while.
"Huh, I guess that saying is true."
END OF PART 9.