Chapter Eight
"Hello, Jack," Elliot sneered at the winter spirit at his feet. Jack quickly waved his staff, letting the wind carry him away from the two spirits and into the air. His bruising back and empty lungs protested, but there was no way he was going to sit there like he had submitted to them.
"What's up, Elliot?" Jack shot back flippantly.
"Oh, not much," Elliot said, shrugging. A small fire erupted below him and he shot into the air in front of Jack, flames shooting out into the air from the bottoms of his feet. "Just trying to save the world and all that jazz."
Jack scoffed. "Save the world? More like kill it. If this," he pointed down at the black scar below them, "is your idea of 'saving the world' then I'm afraid you've mixed up the definitions of 'save' and 'destroy'."
Elliot's face darkened. "Better hot than cold," he spat. "I'm trying to prevent you from pulling another stunt like the Ice Age."
Jack's confusion spiked but he didn't acknowledge the comment. "What is all this for?" he asked instead, keeping his tone light and gesturing down to the cables and the rod sticking out of the ground.
"It's a conduit, you twit," Elliot hissed. "It's gonna help me heat up the planet, make it a more suitable place for life to flourish."
"Um," Jack said, purposefully not letting his eyes wander over to where Mother Nature, still in her dome, was frantically signalling to him, asking for more time, "okay? That sounds fake, but okay."
Elliot's face contorted in rage. Without a warning he shot at Jack, fire consuming the outstretched hand he was aiming at him. The winter sprite barely managed to drop in time, still feeling the heat from the fire as it passed over his head. He spun around and shot a blast of ice at Elliot.
The fire spirit, back still turned from his attack, shouted in pain as the ice connecting with his back, melting on contact and sending up a small wisp of steam. He roared in fury and flew at Jack again, too fast for the spirit to dodge.
Jack felt the heat first, then the solid weight that was Elliot. He flew backwards through the air, but Elliot wasn't done. Jack had barely righted himself before a strong kick connected with his abdomen, sending him sprawling into the sky.
Miraculously, he still had his fist around his staff. Almost doubled over from the pain of Elliot's foot, he waved his staff and the air around him dropped in temperature dramatically. When Elliot next charged at him, he ran into a wall of pure cold, causing him to yelp in pain and backpedal furiously.
Steam billowed off of him in angry white waves, and he glared at Jack. The winter sprite was finally able to straighten out, and he glared back at Elliot with the same intensity. The battle still raged below them, though several yards to their left.
Jack raked his eyes over the commotion quickly. North, Sandy and Mother Nature were still trying to break down the thick glass but it didn't look like the spirit of Earth could produce ice fast enough. Tooth and Bunny were holding their own against the elementals, but just barely.
Jack turned his attention back to Elliot. The spirit was breathing hard though there wasn't anymore steam coming off of him. Suddenly, Elliot dropped like a stone. Startled, Jack followed him, albeit warily.
Elliot landed heavily on the ground and smirked up at Jack.
"Now!" he shouted. Jack didn't have any time to ponder what he was doing before a thick column of smoke engulfed him. Jack looked around wildly, eyes streaming as the smoke got in them. Aware of what a sitting duck he was, he flew down-or at least, what he thought was down. It was near impossible to tell.
After a few moments of flying blindly, Jack realized what Elliot was trying to do. He wasn't going to attack, like Jack thought he was. No, the winter sprite was pretty sure he was trying to suffocate him. The scariest part? It was working.
Jack coughed violently, desperately trying to inhale air that wasn't there. In a last ditch effort, he raised his staff and called the wind. Like he had expected, he was swept away with the smoke, but at least he could breathe again.
Still hacking up one of his lungs, he looked around through watery eyes for any sign of Elliot or John. He gave one final cough and rubbed his eyes, glaring down at the soot that covered most of his body.
"Jack!"
Jack looked around and finally spotted Tooth. The Guardian was streaking towards him as fast as her wings would carry her, and Jack frowned when he noticed how far away he was from the main battle.
"Jack, Mother Nature and the others have escaped, but all of the elementals are going after them," Tooth said worriedly. "North, Sandy and Bunny are doing their best, but they can't hold off all of them for long. No matter how many we knock out, more wake up and come at us."
Jack looked past her and saw that she was right. He could barely make out the forms of his mother and siblings, but there was no mistaking the giant red blob that was North or the walking inferno that Elliot had become.
"Okay," he said, looking back down at Tooth," c'mon."
The two of them sped back to the battle. Jack flew down and hovered in front of Mother Nature, careful not to cut himself on the frosted broken glass littering the ground. A glance to his side showed him that Sunny, Ash and Lila were up and fighting, but incredibly weak. They were barely standing as they fought, and Jack was incredibly glad that Sandy and Bunny were right next to them.
"Mom, where's Elliot?" Jack asked, raising his staff and causing huge spikes of ice to erupt from the ground, forcing the elementals away from them.
"He's connecting himself to the conduit," Mother Nature informed him. "Jack, you have to stop him. If he manages to use the energy he drained from us…"
She didn't have to finish her sentence. Jack nodded once and shot into the air, glancing down briefly to make sure that no one needed his help before shooting off to where he could see Elliot attaching small wires all over his skin.
Lips curled into a snarl, Jack formed a large spear of ice and hurled it as hard as he could. The air around Elliot was so hot that the ice half-melted before it could even touch him, but it was still solid enough that it hit its target.
The ice shattered upon impact and Elliot stumbled forwards a few steps. He whipped around with a snarl and his eyes instantly landed on Jack. The winter sprite wasted no time. Before Elliot could react, he rocketed to the large metal rod sticking out of the ground. He released all of his power as he flew, freezing the air around him so much that when he got close enough to the conduit, a thin cover of ice instantly formed over the metal.
Elliot roared in rage, shooting towards Jack, but something huge and golden slammed into him just before he could make contact with Jack. The winter sprite looked to his left and saw Sandy giving him a salute and a sly smile.
"Thanks, Sandy!" Jack called before turning his attention back to the conduit. Tuning out the sounds of warring spirits all around him, he focused his attention on the task in front of him, sparing only a second to make sure that Elliot was still being held down by Sandy's Dreamsand. Then he took a deep breath and let it out slow, along with a blast of cold that he released into the air. He placed both of his hands on the thick rod and gritted his teeth.
Slowly but steadily, ice started forming around his hands, creeping along the metal in thicker and thicker waves. He kept going, ignoring the threats Elliot was throwing at him and the shouts of elementals still getting their asses handed to them by the Guardians, until the whole pole was covered in a thick layer of ice.
He didn't stop there, though. Any summer spirit could melt ice; he needed to ensure that this thing was unsalvageable. He took another deep breath and gripped his staff tighter, moving it a fraction of an inch and making the air temperature drop even more, until frost started forming on the ground. He grabbed his staff with both hands and brought it up and back, poised like a baseball bat.
"I am so going to regret this," he mumbled, and swung his staff as hard as he could. Just as he had predicted, the rod shattered and the staff broke cleanly in half. A scream tore itself out of his throat and he dropped to his knees. All activity on the battlefield stopped as everyone turned to stare at him.
Elliot was the first to move. He screamed in fury and ripped himself free of the Dreamsand. He attacked while Jack was down, fire engulfing his whole body as he flew towards the winter sprite. Everything fell into chaos after that.
Ash, Sunny and Lila, moving with a speed Jack hadn't known they possessed, tackled Elliot in midair and pinned the thrashing spirit to the ground. All of the other elementals panicked when their leader fell, fleeing left and right, nearly trampling each other in their haste to get away. The Guardians tried to capture some of them, but all of them slipped out of their grasps.
Mother Nature, calm as ever, strode over to Jack with large steps. She kneeled down by him and wrapped him up in a huge hug.
"Thank you," she sighed. She placed a kiss on his forehead and smiled.
"No problem," Jack mumbled. "That guy needed to be taken down a few pegs anyway."
"Jack, are you alright?"
Jack looked over his shoulder to see the other four Guardians looking at him worriedly. It was Tooth who had spoken, and she was holding the two halves of his staff gingerly, as if afraid of damaging them more.
"I'm fine, Tooth," Jack said, reaching out and taking hold of the two pieces of his conduit. He put the two broken ends together and closed his eyes, reaching deep inside himself for whatever he had used to do this last time.
He didn't open his eyes until he saw a flash that turned the insides of his eyelids red for a moment.
"Wow, Jack," came a voice from behind him, "that was some pretty heavy-duty stuff you did."
Jack turned and grinned when he saw an unconscious Elliot being supported by Ash and Sunny. Lila, smirked at him, wiping blood from her knuckles onto the front of her shirt.
"Not really," Jack said, shrugging. "I've done it before."
"Not that," Sunny said. She let go of Elliot's arm and let him drop halfway. Ash glanced down at him before shrugging and releasing the grip he had on Elliot, letting the fire spirit crumple to the ground in an undignified heap. "She meant taking on Elliot by yourself."
"Yeah, tha' was some impressive stuff, Frostbite," Bunny said, coming up behind Jack. The winter sprite smiled.
"Thanks, Bunny," he said. He looked down at Elliot and nudged him with the end of his staff. "So, what are we going to do with him?"
Mother Nature's eyes darkened. "I'm going to lock him up in the dungeon until he's learned his lesson or until I see fit."
Jack gaped at her, a single eyebrow raised. "Wait, hold on. We have a dungeon?"