Frost slowly spread across the earthen ground, allowing me to map my way through the cavern as the floor tilted down slightly. So far it was only just wide enough for me to stretch out my arms without touching the sides, but it was only by a matter of centimetres. The slight clunk of my armour and the tapping of the cane made for a less than stealthy approach, but there was little I could do about that.

My frost suddenly hit a wall and I stopped, allowing the frost to spread out a bit so I could tell where the wall was. It quickly hit a wall to my right, but met no resistance on the left, so I went left.

I continued walking and now I could hear soft growling through my helmet. I pulled the frost back slightly, so I could still tell where I was going, but also so I wouldn't alert whoever was there to my presence so soon.

Once again the frost hit a wall, but this time further exploration found that I had found the side of an entrance to a larger part of the cavern.

I didn't bother trying to crouch down to be more stealthy about looking, instead peering my head around.

It was a little lighter in here and what I could see made a small amount hope rise.

There was a group of black wolves and a few dark haired humans who I assumed were Descendants of Lupine. Which meant that Pete had been lying when I first met him, his ten were not the only ten; there were at least twenty in here, making my job a lot harder. In the centre, surrounded by about ten black wolves, was Jamie.

He looked unhurt and his face clearly showed that he was being strong, but I knew him well enough to know that he was scared. He was still in his pyjamas and had a bad case of bed head.

Although he seemed to have put up a bit of a fight, several of the surrounding wolves were sporting what appeared to be black eyes. Good on him.

Near the back, practically lounging on a six sided slab of black rock was the dark form of Lupine. He was clearly awake and alert, because as soon as I peered my head around, his head went up.

"Glad you could join us." He said, standing up and walking lazily over. Jamie snapped his head towards the entrance and I stepped out, there was little point in hiding at this point.

I could hear my breathing rate increase at the sight of the wolves, but I had to hold together now. It didn't stop the images crashing through my mind, but I forced myself to pay attention to what Lupine was saying.

"As I understand it, you have ten of my Descendants in custody, including my second in command."

I lifted up my visor so I could be heard more clearly.

"What of it?" I asked cautiously, which sent a ripple of growls throughout the cavern.

"Release them." Growled Lupine dangerously.

"I do not have the authority to make that decision." I said calmly, despite the fact that my heart was currently trying to escape my ribcage.

"Then why are you here?"

My anger began to show itself. "Well, it might be because you have such an enormous ego that you sent your Descendants after me, injuring me, holding my parents hostage and now having taken my friend! Do you even know how wrong that is! We do not get non-Descendants involved if we can help it!"

There was a pause then, to my surprise, Lupine started to laugh.

"That old rule! I never agreed with it, getting non Descendants involved is great to watch!"

"And catastrophic for everyone else."

"Well, that's your problem, not mine."

"Let's just get to the point." I said, almost growling, finding Lupine's lack of regard for the consequences of this really unnerving.

"Alright, my ten Descendants for the human. That's why you're here."

"I told you, I don't have the authority to make that call."

"That's a shame. He's no use to us now, is he?" Said Lupine, tilting his head in Jamie's direction.

The surrounding wolves growled with agreement, especially the ones that had black eyes.

I felt my heart thudding even more painfully against my ribs. This was really not good, I couldn't barter, and my brain just didn't want to work properly.

The wolves surrounding Jamie stood up and turned to face him, I could see Jamie's face going about as pale as mine normally was.

"Wait."

The wolves stopped as I tried to think of something. As I did my gaze fell on Lupine and an idea emerged.

"You sent those ten after me because you were angry that I beat you in a fight."

Lupine growled, his muzzle twisted in preparation for a snarl. "Yes."

"So, how about a re-match? I win and Jamie and I walk away, and I'll talk to the Heads about your Descendants. Okay?"

I ran it through my head, trying to find loopholes as Lupine considered. I was aware that
he had said he'd destroy me about a month ago, however I was hoping that was just in the heat of the moment.

"Fine." Snarled Lupine. "However, if you lose, you and that Winter Spirit leave and have three days to free my Descendants. Understood?"

How he knew that Jack was around here I had no idea. I ran his side through my head, and nodded.

"Okay."

The wolves surrounding Jamie moved off to the side, herding Jamie along with them. Lupine moved to the centre of the cavern and I followed, my leg now painfully stiff and having to hobble. I felt my face twist from the pain, but I hoped that it wasn't all that obvious.

I melted my cane and lowered my visor, when I noticed that most the remaining already shifted wolves hadn't moved, with the human Descendants having also moved to the side.

"Why are they still here?" I asked, my voice slightly muffled beneath my helmet.

"We couldn't beat you separately, so we're fighting you together!" He said, then let out a loud howl, which his Descendants took up.

Before I could call foul all eleven of them charged towards me, their eyes blazing with murderous intent and their muzzles curled into snarls. I went upwards on an ice pillar to avoid them, which started to wobble as Lupine rammed into it, with the intent of knocking me down.

I jumped onto an ice bridge as the pillar came down, using my powers to move my skates along. With a wave of my hand the ground below them became icy, and they all struggled to stay upright, their legs suddenly a little beyond their control. From there I formed ice shards and sent them at the wolves.

I didn't hit them anywhere vital, just enough so that they were hampered in some way, say through part of the paw or through the skin of their shoulder. It was easy to see that I was being more ruthless than usual, but I'd just had enough with them.

Lupine himself seemed unaffected as his Descendants yelped in pain from the icicles, any icicles I sent towards him seemed to bounce off. Had I lost my touch since I last fought him? Or had Lupine gotten more powerful?

He took a run up and leapt onto my bridge, his front paws struggling to pull him onto it as he fell just short of making it. As he scrambled for purchase I severed the bridge and sped away, but out of the corner of my eye I could see him standing up and take a flying leap towards me, his mouth agape and fangs dripping. Before I could get out of the way he collided with my bad shoulder, causing me to cry out in pain.

I fell off the bridge and landed on the ground on my back, Lupine had hit me in such a way that the landed on top of me, his muzzle just above my visor as saliva dripped onto it. Before he had a chance to call victory he was pushed away by an ice tiger.

I hadn't even thought about making one, it popped into my head, and there it was, to my rescue.

I got to my feet as his Descendants charged towards me, now that Lupine was busy. They weren't all running at top speed, some hampered by my icicles, but they were still in action. My blades extended outwards and I waited until they were almost on top of me, then held my arms out in front of me.

The closest ones didn't get a chance to stop, so met my blades head on. I closed my eyes and turned my head away slightly, not wanting to see.

I quickly noticed that there were only seven still on the ice, and ducked to avoid the overhead wolves.

They crashed into the ice behind me and whilst I had them all there I pulled my arms up and built the ice upwards. Essentially encasing all ten of them in ice.

This wasn't the same as last time I had frozen a group of people, I was in control, and had every intention of freeing them eventually. To make sure I hadn't even fully encased them, just their limbs.

With them taken care of, I turned my full attention to the ice tiger and Lupine.

Forming the ice animals was becoming a lot easier than it ever was, and I barely had to pay attention to control them. Lupine was forced back onto the ice, and I wrapped his paws in it, holding him fast. To be doubly sure I spread the ice up his limbs as he snarled and snapped in my direction, but he was stuck in the ice.

The ice tiger snapped at him as he started to form shadows to get free, and for some reason he did stop. It was as if he was a little intimidated by my ice tiger. From nearby there was the sound of shattering ice.

I turned to see that one of the Descendants of Lupine had freed themselves from the ice with what looked solidified shadows. It charged towards me and I raised a barrier, in response the Descendant formed almost a plough out of shadows, smashing through the barrier and landing on top of me.

My shoulder screamed at me as the Descendant put pressure on it, my leg joining in as it collapsed beneath me. The wolf's snarling face was inches from mine, it's breath fogging up my visor. Ice shot up from either side of me and caught its sides, sending it back with a yelp of pain.

It skittered on the ice as I lifted up my good leg, pulled it back and then shot it forward, using it to send an ice blast the wolf's way. The Descendant hit the cave wall and landed painfully, not getting up.

There was a louder sound of shattering ice as the rest of the Descendants freed themselves. I didn't have time to get up so I went up on an ice pillar, moving my hands up to allow the ice to push me to my feet.

Looking down I saw the Descendants just standing there, each of them just looking up at me almost calmly. The area around them seemed to become darker and what seemed to be sharp shadows appeared from around them and it slammed into the ice pillar.

I fell off with a scream and my training kicked in, an ice platform forming for me to land on. I yelped as pain shot up my bad leg as the tiger let out a snarl, leaping at several of the wolves, who yelped in surprise and pain. The Descendants of Lupine scattered and the shadows disappeared, their concentration broken.

From my lofty height I spread the ice on the floor and pushed it up, around the standing Descendants. They yelped and tried to get away, because I wasn't stopping at their limbs this time, they were going to be completely encased.

I lowered myself to the cave floor, the ice tiger having done what it needed to do and some of those wolves having been knocked out. I wrapped ice around them as well, but was a little more careful as their condition was a little more unpredictable.

With that done I made to melt the ice tiger, only to find that I couldn't. Figuring I was just tired I tried again, with the same result.

The tiger walked over and rubbed its head against mine, completely shocking me.

I didn't tell it to do that.

I looked at it carefully and saw something that hadn't been there on the other ice tigers. This one's eyes had a blue glow to them, like they were alive.

Jack and North's warnings came thudding down on me with the force of a felled tree; I now had an ice tiger with its own conscious.