Patriot ripped his halberd from the ground in one swift motion, shaking the dirt off the weapon and slowly walking forwards, towards the borders of the shield. The Arts were already beginning to dissipate, fading red revealing the clear, black-white snow and trees ahead of them.
Frostnova turned around, judging their surroundings. Not much to see; swaths of grey wood hid anything beyond their small clearing. She raised her wand and closed her eyes, casting her Arts once more. The ground shook, and a wall of ice sprouted from the ground, flat surface quickly growing sharp and imposing as it grew. Eventually raising it to half her height, Frostnova judged her handiwork, the wall of ice now surrounding them from all directions.
Her hands grazed the sharp edges, just barely touching the ice. Sharp enough.
A few seconds of respite, at best; but that was enough for an extra volley of Arts.
A howl, from the east, then a chorus of growls and guttural grunts. Humans, Frostnova realized – now reduced to mere shells. No mercy was necessary.
"East, fifteen." Another pulse of Arts, then a quick report from Andrey. Frostnova raised her wand, gathering her Arts around it as she grasped it tightly in her right hand. A flash of purple, and a wolf rushed towards them, running in leaps and bounds as it closed the distance rapidly.
Frostnova released her Arts, and watched the spikes of ice impale the wolf.
Just as quickly, another wolf rushed forwards, only to again be put down by a blast of ice. Frostnova looked to Patriot; the Wendigo was no longer casting his Arts, perhaps deeming the corruption a lesser priority to survival.
The next group followed after. Four wolves leaped at them, driven on by a warrior wearing unfamiliar, almost tribal armors – now turned black and bluish-grey, the axe in its right hand a pure black. Ignoring the menacing orb staring back at her, Frostnova fired her Arts again, knocking back a wolf and freezing it on a tree.
Retreating behind Patriot, Frostnova blasted back two wolves as they attempted to bound over the ice, locking them down. An additional pulse of cold, and they were simply frozen to death.
Taking a step back, Frostnova looked up – just in time to spot the wolf flying towards her. Jumping aside, she kicked the wolf away, its body impacting against the ice wall.
Advancing on the corrupted being barely a third of his size, Patriot impaled the wolf with his halberd, before flinging it away at the warrior that had begun running towards them.
Frostnova was expecting the warrior to dodge, maybe, or fall trying.
Instead, raising its sword, the warrior cut the wolf to shreds. Batting aside the remains, it emotionlessly continued its run, single-mindedly rushing towards Patriot. The purple fur slowly sizzled in the air, leaving a trail of purple light behind it as it ran forwards – strangely beautiful against the snow.
"Fast block." Andrey commented, watching Patriot stand before the ice wall, patiently waiting for the warrior to come to him.
"Arts are not as easy to block." Firing an orb of Arts, Frostnova watched in satisfaction as the warrior raised its sword in an attempt to stop the energies, only for the Arts to ignore the steel and strike it square in the face.
Raising a wave of ice, she ensnared the warrior's feet, before leaving the cold to slowly progress through its body. Perhaps resigning to its fate, it simply stared back at her.
Patriot was having none of that, however, crossing the squat wall of ice she had constructed and beheading the corrupted warrior. Feeling a twinge of frustration at the loss of an opportunity to study the corruption up close, Frostnova sighed and raised her wand again. Where were the other enemies?
"Sami –" They would soon find out, as a trio of Arts blasts flew at Patriot, chipping his armor as he shrugged off the attacks. "Gh!"
Blindly throwing his halberd towards the trees, Patriot struck one of the Casters, halberd flying through its body and out towards the forest. As he raised his hand, red chains wrapped around the halberd and flung it back, revealing the broken body the halberd had struck. Another warrior, holding a ritualistic knife instead of axe. No signs of Oripathy, as far as she could tell, yet those were powerful Arts.
For a moment, Frostnova considered whether the corruption could be used as a tool for Oripathy – recalling all the Yetis that had been crippled or killed by it over the years.
Maybe…
"Focus!" That moment would cost her, Andrey's call waking her just in time to deflect the blade of an axe, the corrupted warrior in front of her raising its axe to strike her once more only to collapse to the ground.
"Kill it. It's temporary." Sure enough, as Frostnova charged up her Arts for the finishing blow, the warrior's right eye glowed with a renewed light, and it surged up – yet no zombification could combat the half-meter spear of ice that struck it back down.
Frostnova raised her head, judging the battlefield. Patriot had killed the Casters, it seemed, and the three warriors had apparently decided that she was the easier target.
She would soon prove them wrong. An ice spike executed the first, and a block of ice crushed the second as they charged, leaving only the third alone against her. Ducking under the axe blade that streaked towards her head, Frostnova manifested a blade of ice around her wand, stabbing the being in the gut.
Holding her wand like a dagger, Frostnova cut open the warrior, before kicking it away.
"Well done." Andrey commented as Frostnova cast the ice off her wand. "Second wave is a minute away, from the north. Thirty wolves."
"This feels like a siege." Frostnova looked to Patriot, gesturing for him to move behind the ice wall she had constructed – using her Arts to quickly strengthen the northern wall.
"It may as well be. I can still sense Patriot's Arts; it will take hours for the energy to fully disappear."
"Hours of attacks?" Frostnova asked, brow furrowing.
"Likely not. All nearby groups will be attracted within the first half-hour, at most. You can win."
"We can survive." Frostnova corrected. "Any form of combat against near-endless enemies has no 'winning.'"
"I see." Andrey quieted down, and Frostnova turned to her northern wall, scaling the spiked surface and rushing out into the open. Patriot raised a hand to stop her – the Wendigo likely thought that was his job – but Frostnova gave him no heed. She would deal with this herself.
The first wolf rushed at her with the same deadly ferocity of its predecessors, and was put down just as mercilessly, with a single blast of ice to the head. Without any skill, just pure, raw strength, the wolves fell easily to precise attacks.
Another duo came towards her, claws extended. Spinning to the side, Frostnova raised her wand to fire, only for Patriot's halberd to come down on the wolves; the Wendigo now standing beside her.
"Father, I can deal with this myself." Frostnova said, firing off another spike of ice towards the mass of wolves beginning to collect nearby, hidden by a grove of trees. The spike of ice shattered against the tree, but it had served its purpose – the wolves now all rushed at her in a chaotic run.
Raising his halberd and chanting an old curse, Patriot chained the wolves with a web of red Arts, collapsing the web and slicing through it with his halberd. No blood, just empty bodies and corrupted purple-black.
"Risk, unnecessary." With a final slash, Patriot executed the last wolf, before turning to another group rushing forwards. A powerful swing blasted the leading wolf against the trees, shocking the following wolves before they charged forwards again.
Firing a wave of Arts, Frostnova felt her consciousness slipping for a moment before her eyes refocused to see the wolves frozen against the ground. She was losing control too soon… that wave should have merely slowed the wolves.
Just like a swordsman, the less energy she had, the more desperate and uncontrolled her attacks would become.
"One last group in this wave, six wolves. Third wave is ten minutes away, fifty total, types currently unknown." Andrey reported.
Frostnova fired off a torrent of Arts at the next group of wolves, the uncontrolled Arts growing spikes of ice on the ground as the wolves froze. Inefficient – and tiring. Frostnova leaned against a nearby tree for support, looking at the now – broken battlefield, trees tainted black, and ground filled with broken ice. Giving herself the luxury of closing her eyes, she imagined the multitude of times she had seen this before; only then they were on the open tundra, and the snow was stained red instead of black.
She pushed herself upright again and inspected her wall. It was somewhat of a waste, it appeared – fighting within it risked being sitting ducks to Caster attacks.
From behind her, a guttural chant came, and Frostnova watched as a wave of red swept over the ground; the corruption slowly clearing away before her eyes. Patriot looked at the Arts he had casted, before straightening his armor and looking to the north again; the picture-perfect warrior, even after such a grueling battle. Sometimes, Frostnova wondered how they had trained him, or if he had just been born like this.
There wasn't much time to think, she reminded herself. Her body loudly reminded her of her increasing fatigue, her legs collapsing under her for a split second before she regained her balance.
No matter. She would break when she chose to, not when her body did.
Ten minutes passed in what seemed like a heartbeat, and soon, Andrey reported again. "All wolves, coming from the north. There appear to be very few corrupted humans nearby."
"Mhm." Readying another maelstrom of snow and ice around her wand, Frostnova pointed it forwards once more.
The first group was simply consumed, her Arts rapidly converting them to heaps of flesh buried under ice and snow. Frostnova sighed, feeling her energy deplete – but yet again, she readied her Arts.
The next trio of wolves faced the same fate, unable to even resist before ice buried them. Pulling on her reserves of energy, Frostnova erected yet another wall facing the north; and soon, as the wolves came forwards in earnest, she shattered the ice.
But nothing was enough. Patriot flung a dozen back, only for them to get back up again; Andrey struck down a wolf mid-flight, only for it to return, eyes blazing with renewed fury.
Frostnova blocked an errant claw strike meant for Patriot, before blasting away the wolf responsible. They were getting surrounded.
Darkness creeped into her mind. She was tired of fighting this battle, of fighting this endless war that permeated her every step.
Just before she collapsed, she let out one last battlecry.
And under the darkened trees, she began to sing.
A beautiful, soundless melody coalesced around her, seemingly flowing with the snow and tundra yet discordant and jarring all the same. And around her wand, a miniature star of ice grew, stretching its tendrils out into the world as she sang.
She may been scarred by war, and damaged by conflict, but her voice was still pure and untarnished, like the glassy surface of a frozen lake.
The wolves now gathered around her stepped back, merely letting out defiant growls as the light grew brighter. Wisely, Patriot raised his shield, casting a barrier of his own.
He had taught her this song, so long ago.
And now, as the world around her froze and stopped, she sang it for him.
AN: Finished much of this in a day because of poor time management, so this is a bit late. Sorry again; I'll try to write more regularly in the future. Thanks for the reviews, follows and favorites so far!