First off, thank you to multi-fangirl123 for favouriting!
Not So Eloquent- Thanks for still reading! This is probably the most action heavy of the three arcs, and oddly the shortest, 30 chapters to the first arc's 40 *shrug*.
The brain freeze thing seems to one heck of coincidence, although it is one advantage of being a Descendant of Jack Frost, you don't get brain freeze! But what do I know? I'm a Descendant of Sandman.
As for running into more Descendants of Pitch, you'll see in this chapter.
I got most of the way across New York State before settling down for the day. I stopped shaking a couple of hours beforehand, putting what Purple Hair had said from my mind, but what happened still unsettled me. I'd been there for five minutes! Were they following me?
I leaned back in my sleeping bag and sighed. It didn't matter right now, they wouldn't be following me for a bit, so I could relax for now.
I looked up at the sky, watching as the warm lights of day overtook the beauty that was the night. There was something liberating about moving around like this. I didn't have to conform to anything, I could do what I wanted. In theory I could just tell HOG to stuff it and push off on my own. I could see why Jack liked living like this.
But even Jack comes back to his roots, and I knew from Penelope that living out here is not as freeing as it could be. There were dangers here, I couldn't allow myself to forget that.
Plus my mission was too important. It wasn't just my Branch or all of HOG, something was up with the Guardians as well.
The majority of the next night was uneventful, and I came down in an area that was far enough from civilisation for no one to notice me. At the same time it wasn't so far that I couldn't get supplies if I needed them, there was a town about an hour's walk away, so about five minutes by ice.
As I was setting up camp, which consisted on unrolling my sleeping bag, I felt a prickle between my shoulder blades.
I looked up and scanned the trees, trying to work out what I thought I'd sensed. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a flash of yellow. I whipped my head around to face it and saw a glimpse of yellow eyes before they disappeared into the shadows.
I stared at where they had been for a second and began packing up my sleeping bag, I had no intention of hanging around somewhere where I could get eaten by wolves or something.
As I shoved the sleeping bag back into my rucksack there seemed to one large leaf rustle from all around me, as though there had been a synchronised food forage by small mammals.
Or a synchronised foot step of a group of people surrounding another.
I threw on my bag as a group of Descendants of Pitch stepped out of the shadows to surround me. There were too many to count at a glance and even more worryingly there were a handful of Nightmares joining them.
I felt my stomach drop; I hadn't seen the demonic looking horses since the battle four years ago, and they still looked terrifying.
I stood and stared for a second, then went up on a pillar of ice. There were way too many to fight, last time I'd tried to find anything close to this number hadn't ended well.
From below and behind me black strands of black sand shot up and began to wrap around my arms, starting to pull me off the pillar.
"Get off!" I yelled, a little pointlessly as I pulled back and wrapped my feet in ice to try and keep myself on the ice pillar. As I did so I sent ice down the strands to shatter them.
In response they sent strands to wrap around my legs. I could hear them yelling to each other, but what they were saying was lost.
The ice around my feet cracked as their sand began to succeed in pulling me off. I grunted and tried to strengthen it, sending more ice down the sand. Some shattered, but for each one that shattered, another two got wrapped around me.
It was starting to really hurt, the strands digging into my arms, legs and torso as I was almost pulled horizontally backwards. I had to grit my teeth to stop myself from screaming. Finally the ice gave in and I was pulled off the ice pillar with a yell of shock.
I fell down the few metres I'd managed to go up with a heavy thud and began to get pulled towards the group of Descendants behind me.
Ice spread up the strands more quickly than ever and they shattered. Before they could send more sand strands my way I drew up a protective barrier of ice.
I got to my feet within the dome and scanned the crowd, trying to work out what they were going to try now. Their shouting was muffled within the ice, however it quickly quietened and streams of black sand were sent my way. Inside the protective dome I gathered myself, breathed in, and let out a slow breath, causing the grass around the dome to frost over and begin spreading towards the Descendants of Pitch.
I tuned out the attacks and focused on the slow approach of the frost; I couldn't stop flinching every time black sand impacted the dome, but otherwise didn't react. Once close to the surrounding Descendants the frost increased in mass to become ice, which in turn became spikes to cut through the streams of black sand.
It seemed to work for a second and the streams were halted, but within two seconds of the streams stopping the Nightmares charged.
They bucked and charged at my protective dome, cracks appearing in its surface. I held out my arms to try and hold them back, but they were attacking it so hard, it was impossible to keep it up, I had to let the dome shatter. I caught hold of the shards and sent them at the Nightmares. Some of them went down with a horse like scream, others brushed it off with a snort.
More streams of black sand went towards me and the Nightmares charged again. There was no way I could take them all at once, but I had to try something.
I pulled up a barrier to block the rear attacks and formed my blades to slice through the frontal attacks. The Nightmares I just tried to dodge.
I was taken back to the fight in Burgess five years ago. The situation was similar, Descendants of Pitch trying to snag me with streams and ropes made of sand and me using arm blades to cut through them. I'd lost that time, and at this rate, the same thing could happen.
I gritted my teeth against the thought as I spun and slashed. It was not going to happen.
Too much was riding on this!
The ice spikes merged back into the ice and frost and began to spread further. This was at the back of my mind as my breath panted loudly in my ears and I tried to not get caught in black sand. I was getting tired, and with tiredness came sloppiness, so I had to get this right the first time.
The ice suddenly jumped up to wrap around the Descendants, pinning them in place. They probably weren't keen on this happening again, but this time I stopped before the ice reached their heads. The Nightmares also got their hooves wrapped in ice, immobilising them as well.
I stood there panting as I examined my handiwork. I couldn't hang around here, but maybe a few seconds to catch my breath wouldn't hurt.
I almost froze in place as four more Descendants of Pitch stepped out of the shadows in different places around me, each carrying a dark pack with some kind of nozzle in their hands.
Okay, a rest would hurt.
Before I could do anything there was a strange bursting noise and fire burst from the Descendant behind me and I felt a burst of heat fly past me.
On instinct I scrambled away from it, when another burst of heat came from the side I was running to. Those two bursts of heat became full on flames.
Since when did the Descendants of Pitch carry flame throwers of all things!?
I'd never willingly stood this close to a flame before, and I could already feel my body screaming at me. I was burning and melting at the same time, and it hurt so much!
I curled up in an attempt to protect myself, but I couldn't stop the scream of pain wrenching itself from my mouth as I tried to get away from both flamethrowers. The two on the other side of me sent out theirs, blocking my escape on the ground, and it felt like I was standing on the Sun.
The ice and frost began to melt around the flames, and any ice or frost that tried to form on my body to cool me was immediately melted. My blades also suffered, becoming malformed from the close proximity to the fire and dripping onto the grass.
I began to stagger from the heat, my head feeling oddly light and my legs becoming wobbly. The air was thick in my throat, making it difficult to breathe and I felt like I was going to faint, there were even dark spots dancing in front of my eyes as the world began to blur. My stomach was revolting against me, wanting to expel my last meal.
I needed to get out of here. Now.
It took longer than I would have like, with the lack of moisture in the air and my current position making it difficult to form anything. Finally I rose up on a pillar of ice, away from the horrific heat of the flame throwers and into the cold autumn air.
I sucked in lungfuls of air as I stood in the morning sky, the rising sun causing the sky to turn pink and orange. Parts of my clothes were soaked from the melted ice and frost, if I wasn't a Descendant of Jack Frost I'd worry that I'd catch my death up here. Below me I could feel my pillar wobbling as the flame throwers began to melt it.
I hadn't recovered, not even close, I still felt like I was going to be sick, but I still jumped onto an ice bridge and began to skate in a wobbly way, getting rid the blades as I did so. I wanted to get as far away from those flamethrowers as humanly possible. The other side of the planet preferably.
As I skated frost began to cover the exposed parts of my body, which were my face and hands. It also extended underneath my clothes, getting my body back to a normal temperature by becoming a second skin.
As I concentrated more on skated my nausea faded and my legs began to feel stronger. My breathing managed to get stronger, but it still felt a little difficult.
I dropped onto the roofs of the town, seeing clusters of kids making their way to school. I stayed on top of the roofs to recover, surely the Descendants of Pitch wouldn't attack somewhere so populated?
A whinny caught my attention. I turned to look back to the woods and saw something that made my stomach drop.
The Descendants of Pitch wouldn't attack, but the Nightmares certainly would!
Now I was the one at the disadvantage; I couldn't use my powers so close to people, so I did the only thing I could do.
I ran.
You can all yell at me now.
And believe it or not, that's not the worst thing Jackie's going to face this arc.