[43] Broken

With their food acquired, and as they gazed out into a world of snow from within a Crystal Tower, Claire turned to Alice.

"Let's complete the next floor before we bath, shall we?"

And with a thought, they disappeared.

[Welcome back, I've missed you.]

That ancient voice rang as they stood within a large hall of ice. Claire immediately wanted to roll her eyes but kept herself from that.

"Glad to see you again too, teacher-whom-has-taught-me-nothing."

[. . .I take back what I said.]

In front of them floated a clear orb. The Crystal Globe, but both Claire and Alicia ignored it as the ice queen spoke.

"Oh don't look so speechless. I would like to challenge the third floor now, please."

[. . .you can't even see me, how do you know what I look like?]

"I can tell."

The ancient voice sighed at her clear certainty.

[Third floor of the Crystal Tower rewards a 'Dragon's Heart.']

"Sounds fantastical, what does it do?"

[You'll know its power when you attain it. If you can. For I should warn you, this may be the hardest battle you have yet to face—especially for an ice wielder such as yourself. Furthermore, this challenge must be faced alone.]

"Oh. . ." Claire said.

[Scared?]

"No, I just realized I brought Alice for nothing. Hey, Alice, I'll meet you back in our room, wait for me."

Alicia frowned momentarily, but soon nodded, "Alright."

With a thought on Claire's part, the girl disappeared.

[. . .]

"What? Start the challenge, Ice-ghost."

[Gah—I hope you get injured.]

"Oi that's just uncalled f—."

Claire found her words caught in her throat as heat permeated her skin. She stood within a chamber of red rock, surrounded on all sides as lava flowed within the walls. The place was circular, similar to an arena, and in front of her, a creature flapped its wings as flames escaped its lips in small spurts.

". . .a fire breathing dragon?" She tilted her head.

The creature looked like a dragon. It had the red-scaled body, the tail, and the wings. However, its wings were combined with its upper limbs—resembling that of a pterodactyl—and it was far too small. It looked down on her from within the air and its beak-like mouth opened into a screech.

"No, a lesser dragon. A wyvern." Claire finalized as flames pierced through the sky.

Her body moved and she ran, dodging as heat seared the ground behind her. The lesser-dragon did not let up. Its fire breath followed her movements through the circular arena and soon, a ring of flames had been made.

Seeing a wall of fire before her, Claire's mana churned as she ran into the center of the arena.

'I need to bring it down first, it has air-superiority.' Ice spears manifested themselves about her location. Hundreds of them rolling and sharpened to their deepest hardness.

Flames came from her front and she raised a hand forward, azure swirling into an ice wall that met the torrent as the spears flew.

As soon as the two elements clashed, mist spasmed.

The wyvern flapped its wings. The wind churned and the mist dispersed. It screeched, body moving through the air to evade the spears that followed its movement.

It flapped, rising into the air with the trail of spears behind it.

At that moment, however, a gleam appeared in the sky.

"Thought you'd do that," Claire laughed above the creature, switching place with a descending ice spear as her hands swung down.

A wail of pain filled the air as <Loki> ripped through the beast's wings like butter, slicing it off its body.

A gush of blood spluttered and Claire disappeared from the air, a chunk of ice replacing her.

She looked up from the ground, seeing the wyvern struggling to regain flight with one wing and slapped her hands together as azure rose into the air.

"Goodbye," She muttered.

Two walls of ice smashed the airborne creature between them.

"Whew—" Claire breathed out in relief. "That wasn't so ba—."

An explosion rippled through the air. Ice chunks and fire mingled and shattered every which way.

Within the air, wings of flames flapped, sending heat through the arena and the beast appeared, renewed, and made entirely of fire.

"Of course. . .it's a boss. . .it has a phase two."

The wyvern screeched and dived down.

Claire raised both hands and a wall of ice, spiked to the brim with spears, met its decent.

Boom

The air left her lungs as her body slammed against the red walls of the arena. Her vision momentarily blurred, her eyes filled with red and blue, but she grimaced and took a step forward.

"This has to be cheating, you're clearly a Phoenix," Claire stood, shaking from the ground and glared at the creature as her hair flapped to white and her eyes chilled blue.

She reached a hand forward and azure turned into a rotating spear of ice, hardened to the bitter-bone. The weapon of destruction was massive.

Flames came from the screech of the pseudo-phoenix and she sent the spear flying forward.

As always, the clash of the two elements brought mist and, as the spear pierced forward, the flames melted it down little by little until it became nothing by the time it reached the pseudo-phoenix.

"So my ice is useless on you, hmm?" She tilted her head.

A new wave of fire shot from the beast's lips. Claire shrugged and took a step forward.

"Well well," She smiled in the face of the flames. "How lucky, you get to see my ace in the hole."

She walked closer, azure blowing around her, dispersing any fire that came her way into mist. Ice and fire combated each other, and both found themselves evenly matched.

"You know, I've been dying to try this since I first entered this world, but I've never met an opponent that has forced me till this point. . ."

She reached the creature in a sea of mist and, with the remainder of her mana, reached out a hand.

"<Glacial World>." Her cold eyes looked into its own.

Her mana engulfed the beast.

In an instant, they found themselves in a world of ice. Snow flurried in the air, a perpetual blizzard, and the land around them was flat and forever white.

A puff of smoke escaped the mouth of the creature. Its wings of flames died down to nothing. It tried to screech out an attack but whatever flames it created died within the air in an instant.

Claire Hill watched it in amusement. She watched as it recognized its incoming demise—fear coating its face—and made to escape, scurrying back like a rat, its one available wing making to fly.

"In my world," She said as she grasped her hand.

"I control every ounce of snow."

She wielded ice without mana and the snow scurried from the ground and devoured the beast. It tried to flap its wing but a turret of a blizzard of snowflakes smacked it back down.

She took a step forward. Her body blurred and she appeared before the struggling creature with <Loki> in hand.

"Hardest fight I've faced? Maybe," She said, staring down at it as snow swirled around her sword. "But there was never a chance for your victory."

She twirled the weapon and slashed.

"Because I'm simply. . ."

An extended blade of crystal-ice ripped through the wyvern's neck and scattered crimson snow into her world.

"Too broken."