Happy New Year everyone! Hope people aren't struggling too much from hangovers, unless you're too young to drink, in which case I hope you had a fun night.

Admittedly I spent my New Years alone, at home, with a can of cider. By choice, I'm not good with parties.

Anyway, next chapter! GO!

I was grabbed from behind and lifted from the ice bridge and even higher into the air. I wriggled and squirmed, trying to shoot ice at them as they backed up, I didn't bother shouting, there was so much noise in the cavern I'd never be heard. There was a sudden sickness in my stomach and blackness to my vision, along with the sensation of falling.

Before I could recover myself I was suddenly in the light, feeling very sick.

I got given a push and I staggered away, feeling light headed and not seeing clearly. There was blur of black fur in front of me and it collided with me, sending a loud clang
through my armour and causing me to spin away from the impact.

Already disorientated I spun and fell over on my back, trying to work out what the heck was going on.

As I tried to work it out, another figure leapt towards me and landed on top of me. I recognised the face and dirty blonde hair.

"S-Samuel?" I gasped, as his fingers rooted around under my helmet straps.

He found my throat in the gap between my helmet and the chest plate and began to squeeze.
A determined expression was spread across his face and an enraged look filled his eyes.

"You ruined everything!" He yelled in my face as I scrabbled at his hands.

"G-get off." I said weakly as I struggled to get air into my screaming lungs.

Out of a reflex I stamped my foot down and sent a pillar of ice into his stomach from below. He flew upwards and away from me, allowing me to roll over and attempt to get some air back into my lungs, retching as I did so.

I felt weak and shivery as I pushed up my visor to let out my breakfast, gasping.

I moved away from the vomit, struggling to stand and using a wall for support. Once I was up a sand arrow appeared out of the shadows and headed straight for my chest. I pushed myself away from the wall to try and dodge, but couldn't react in time as it hit, the arrow bouncing off the chest plate with a clang.

I was pushed back from the force and shook my head to try and clear it as Samuel appeared out of the shadows in front of me. I staggered away, leaning against the wall as I tried to gauge where we were and what was happening, pain flaring up in my chest from the various impacts.

It seemed that we were in some kind of residential area at night, which really didn't narrow it down. So I couldn't guarantee help if I yelled for it.

He came towards me with arrows pointed at the small, exposed parts of the armour, in response I shakily raised my arm and sent up ice shards.

We sent them off at the same time and he dodged while I blocked with a wall at the same time, neither of us getting a hit in.

We slowly began to circle, each of us trying to work out what the other was going to do as my eyesight cleared.

I saw him move his head slightly and I sent out my blades on my arms in response. I ran towards him with my arm raised to stab, only to have him disappear into the shadows.

I looked around for him, not finding anything in the darkness. I sent ice out in a circle around me, trying to 'see' through it. It found a presence behind me and I turned in time to block a sand axe from above.

I gritted my teeth as the axe pressed down on my blades. The sheer weight of the thing was forcing me to my knees, but I wasn't about to let go.

Instead I sent more ice towards the ground below the axe shaft, from there I sent up a sharp ice pillar, shattering the axe into a cloud of sand.

The cloud of sand spread out in front of me, obscuring my vision in gritty darkness, causing me to cough slightly and wave my hand in front of my face.

Before I could see clearly through it a darker human shape leapt towards me.

I managed to move away and Samuel landed on the ground hard. He turned to his head towards me, his face twisted into an animalistic snarl.

He got to his feet as another figure leapt through the cloud of sand.

The black form of Lupine landed between me and Samuel and snarled at me.

"Time for a re-match." He snarled. Samuel walked around Lupine and said with an almost sadistic look on his face.

"You can't take on both of us."

My head had finally cleared and the shakiness had been displaced by the adrenaline. With my mind I sent out frost and began drawing in it, but they weren't going to let me do this without a fight.

I ducked under a projectile from Samuel and jumped aside to avoid Lupine's charge. Lupine turned on his paw and ran back at me, knocking me to the ground.

My armour clanged as I hit the ground and I shoved my arm up towards Lupine, sending a blast of ice from my hand. Lupine yelped and turned away, trying to get the biting cold off his muzzle.

While he did that Samuel send more sand projectiles my way, trying to keep me down while Lupine recovered. I threw up an ice barrier which the projectiles got imbedded in, the wall then shattered and flew towards Lupine and Samuel. Lupine danced back to avoid them and Samuel pulled up a barrier of sand.

In that second I sent my concentration to the drawing in the ice, and ice tiger sprang to life, charging at Lupine. It had worked earlier, so why fix what isn't broken?

They whirled away, hissing and snarling as they fought. I looked over at Samuel, who was doing his best not to look impressed.

"This is our fight." I said as I stood up and memories rushed in. This was the one who was in charge, the one who'd kidnapped me and caused Sally to become contaminated by black sand.

The one who killed Penelope.

My visor slid down over my face as more shards formed behind me, my anger building. Samuel scoffed.

"The same old tricks, supposedly it's been four years, but you've barely changed."

"What, the tigers don't count?"

Without moving I send the ice shards at him, to which he pulled up a sand shield to block.

I took to the air with an ice bridge as the sand shield came down. He rose up on the sand and followed me, forming blades of sand.

I extended my blades and we traded blows above the roof tops. It was difficult, Samuel clearly had more experience with this, and my practice with the Burgess Branch had not prepared me for an opponent of this calibre.

The sound of another fight below us reached my ears, who was on either side I had no idea, but occasionally I picked up the roar or my ice tiger, that was now controlled by the back of my mind.

We sped over the rooftops, the sound of screeching ice, grunts and disappeared sand filling the air around us.

Samuel's blade danced towards me, causing me to parry it, sending it away, but it quickly turned and jabbed me in the small unprotected gap in the side of my armour.

I hissed in pain and flung one blade forward towards his face, causing a cut to open up by his left eye. Samuel cried out and wheeled away as blood spilled down his face and into his eye. He turned back to me with a scowl and lunged his blade straight towards my chest, where it was rebounded by the armour.

It was enough to send me back slightly and I changed the width of the bridge to compensate. From there I went over a house and dodged around an aerial, allowing him to crash right into it. Samuel seemed to growl and went after me, firing round after round of knives at me, each one I blocked with a swipe of my blades.

One got through and sent my further back, into someone's window. I grunted in pain and stood on a plane of ice for a second, my mind running through strategic options. Behind me I heard something tap the window.

Despite the fight I turned to see a pair of kids, one boy and girl, about five years old, staring at me with open mouths.

They looked remarkably similar, blonde hair and wide blue eyes. Twins perhaps?

I looked for about half a second, and in a moment of silliness, saluted and skated off to my right. I skated backwards, keeping an eye on Samuel behind me.

Samuel came straight towards me through the storm of blades and raised his sword again, causing me to raise my elbow blades to block. He pushed down and I struggled to stay standing, he was still older than me biologically and was still stronger. One of us was either going to have to give or do something else to get out of this.

Suddenly one my blades snapped and the sword came down, scraping down my helmet and chest plate and the force of the impact sent me flying from the bridge. I formed another bridge to catch me, but a burst of sand caught me in the chest as I began to stand up on it. I was sent into the side of building with a gasp. The armour had taken the brunt of the impact, but the breath was still forced out my lungs.

I fell into an alley way on my hands and knees. As I started to get to my feet Samuel landed, ready to gloat and clearly ignoring the steady stream of blood going down his face.

"Most powerful my ass! You're pathetic, you know that? You're the one who beat us? I'm struggling to believe that! And I was there!"

I staggered to my feet, ice spreading rapidly. "Pathetic, am I?"

Icicles burst out the walls one by one, their tips facing towards him. He went backwards slightly and the ground below him became slippery with ice.

"Do you think I sat on my arse for four years?" I asked, walking towards him. More spikes shot out of the ground and ice grasped his feet, holding him place.

"I trained. Day in, day out. I honed and perfected my techniques. I never expected you to break out, it's just something I do, because I don't slack off when war is no longer immanent."

Sand coated his feet with sand and melted the ice, causing him to stagger free.

The pillars of ice on the walls shot forward and wrapped around his wrists and ankles, lifting him into the air.

He struggled, but the ice held fast as I used ice to get myself level with his face. The blades on my wrists had reformed and a dark part of my mind whispered to me.

You could do it, right now, you can kill him.

Samuel seemed to echo my thoughts, not allowing fear to cross his face.

"Go on, kill me, you must've been waiting for years for revenge. Get on with it already."

I raised my arm, the blades pointed towards his heart. I could feel blood roaring my ears and my gaze narrowed until all I could see was my blade and a possible target. I could do it, just one thrust forward and that would be it, I could unleash a fortnight's worth of anger and pain and get revenge in one simple movement. An eye for an eye.

My arm remained level, then began to wobble. After a few tense seconds I slowly lowered
it, the blades disappearing.

"It was four years ago, I've moved on. There's no point in killing you."

I moved back slightly. "Besides, killing isn't how I do things."

"You killed six of my best, and froze two hundred of us!" He yelled as I lowered myself and walked away.

"You even killed your own brother!"

I turned, formed an ice bridge towards him and skated towards him in less than a second.

"Let me re-phrase that. Intentional killing, isn't my style." I said, my face inches from
his.

My mood soured I walked away, leaving him hanging there.

He wasn't done though.

As I entered the street I heard him yell after me.

"Murderer!"

I froze on the spot, my eyes wide with shock and my fists clenched in anger.

"Murderer!"

Before he could get another cry I spun on the spot and sent an ice blast at him, hitting him in the stomach and winding him. Before he could get his breath back I covered his mouth in film of ice.

Let's see him get out of that.