Trial by Fire and Ice

Aatish had a decision to make, and so did #212. Their entire beings were engaged in a deep battle. Outwardly, #212 had been obliterating foes left and right, dodging most of the menacing strikes with extreme ease. Aatish had been taking on the mercenary groups all by herself.

But deep inside, both knew they had to make a decision.

The girls were not completely helpless but were naive. Isra had not yet summoned the lightning again, but she was butchering the creatures. Her body moved on its own whenever any of them came too close, and Ishaar's scythe did the rest. Khadija was trying her best to aim down the creatures, but they were too agile for her arrows.

Aatish was currently fighting against rodent-like creatures that had liquid claws, deforming and changing into any type of weapon at will. It was a whole clan of mercenaries trying to get her off from the group.

A liquid-made axe hissed through the air, but Aatish flared up as it evaporated. The damned creature pulled the vapors in an instant and materialized them into another axe, this time pushing past her weapon and appearing right between her head.

Aatish grabbed it by its neck and tore its head free before the axe could even touch her. She then threw it on the rest of the creatures who had her surrounded.

Another moved in, a long dagger forming into its hand at the last moment. But Aatish was getting tired of them. She closed her eyes as her entire body flared up with light blue fire, reaching high up to the sky in a pillar made of flame, forming a convection current. In the next few seconds, due to an increase in pressure, the creatures around her burned and swayed away. Then, they crashed wildly into the maddening crowd and combusted, tearing the whole sky with an avalanche of fire.

Aatish grunted and looked back at #212, then the girls, and disappeared.

#212 did not waste a single more second and burst through the crowd, flying at an abnormally fast speed. He had ended up all alone again with scores of abominations on his tail, hungrily reaching for the girls.

He felt relieved at Aatish disappearing, going for Amawas. She was their captain throughout the mission, and the thought of abandoning her had been eating him up from inside. He knew that he wasn't strong enough to face whatever Amawas was fighting down there, so letting Aatish go was a hard but necessary move.

He tore through the sky and reached the field of the third checkpoint. Suddenly, tens of flying octopus-like creatures latched onto him like leeches, biting into his skin. He shrieked and shook a few of the pesky creatures off. More and more were descending from above.

Khadija aimed and killed two of them, but the others were at his underside, which was impossible to reach. They were sucking off his blood at an alarming rate.

#212's gaze was fixated upon the scores that were about to fall onto them when another creature, this one looking like a long root worm, pierced through his gorget from the underside, almost decapitating his neck with its menacing curved sword, stopping only some inches away from its vertebrae.

Isra turned her head and saw blood spilling away from #212's neck. The whole world fell silent to her, then greyed. Her mouth contorted into a scream, and her eyes bent in extreme rage.

Voiceless.

And the time stopped. Through her voiceless rage, she summoned the wrath of lightning above the entire legion of creatures. In a blink of an eye, responding to her voiceless screams, the lightning danced from one abomination to another, tearing their head free from their bodies, passing through their hearts. Burning away some of them completely, cracking the others into tiny pieces, the lightning fell on each single creature within a large radius. Then it all struck Isra's chest from a multitude of angles, hundreds of piercing bolts entering her body.

Isra's eyes lit up as her white floating hair crackled with purple lightning. Then it flew to her scythe; her mouth was still contorted into a scream. Ishaar's scythe recognized the lightning and the foe standing in front of her, the long fleshy root-like creature that had its curved sword dug into #212's neck. The scythe spun itself against it, as a menacing long slice of lightning tore through its entire body, leaving it burned, and the sword disintegrated.

Isra had unknowingly caused havoc of her own in the entire battle, shifting the odds into their favor dramatically. The time then resumed, and she fell unconscious onto #212's body.

It had seemed like only a few seconds had passed for Khadija. One moment Isra was standing still, beautifully cutting down the abominations, and in the next, she fell down, and with her, hundreds if not a thousand creatures rained down on the earth, set ablaze.

She jumped down and grabbed Isra before she drifted off #212's body and hugged her, then grabbed the loading strap and tried to move her under it. She dragged Isra with effort and pushed her under the strap and tightened it. A sudden jolt of flight made her look at the front as she saw #212, his armor broken from the neck, his underside painted red with blood, slowly descending through the sky, bleeding heavily.

#212 propelled himself forward with all the energy he had left in his body, marking a distance of half a kilometer between the team and the pursuers before he fell unconscious too.

Khadija braced herself and clenched her teeth as in the next moment #212 crashed, dragging his body on the third checkpoint field in a long line. Isra had fallen upon Khadija, holding her down with all her might.

********************

Khadija rubbed her face and got up barely, her arm severely wounded and bleeding. Isra was still unconscious.

She limped to #212 and pressed onto his wound as blood seeped through her hands, falling onto the ground below. Before she could catch a proper breath, she heard deep fluttering of wings behind her.

Khadija looked back and saw thousands of creatures about to rain down upon the entire team, wielding god knows what in their hands. She saw a thousand ways for the entire team to die. Any other person would seize and give up, but Khadija had her friends to protect behind her.

She found herself at the same spot she had found herself almost a month ago when she had run to rescue #212.

Bravery ignited and pushed everything aside—doubt and helplessness. She breathed in.

'What would have Amawas appi done in this situation?' There were still some ten seconds left for their all inevitable death.

Khadija's eyes shimmered as she frantically searched for her thobe and found the ice candy Shahrukh had given them. Then she ran to Isra and found one in the underside of her thobe as well.

Then she looked at the crowd and pushed both of the candies into her palm. Her fist froze and got instantly covered in a deep layer of ice, completely clenched together. She tried opening it, but it didn't budge. Panicking, her eyes fell upon her bow and the arrows, but her fists were frozen.

A thousand thoughts rushed through her mind; the creatures were upon them at any moment. She looked behind and saw Isra and #212, both unconscious.

A tear finally rolled down her cheek; she had been brave this whole time, but this was just too unfair.

Khadija did not waste another second. Amawas wouldn't waste another second either. She rushed to #212 and pushed her icy fist against his warm body; nothing happened.

Only some three seconds were remaining; she could see vague shapes of all the creatures, their weapons, and techniques. But then the frost flew up from her fists, forming into two extremely tiny cats made of pure ice. They meowed at Khadija.

And then flew at the black undulating sea of pure carnage that was approaching her.

In the next moment,

The tiny meows disappeared in the crowd, and the entire thousands upon thousands of creatures frosted. The frost spread outwards from the middle and took them all alike despite their techniques and their natures; all died.

Now there were a thousand blocks of ice about to fall upon them at an amazing speed.

'Amazing,' Khadija thought to herself and closed her eyes, as a wing enveloped her from behind, shielding her from the ice. And all the blocks fell.

Khadija rubbed her face and got up barely; her arm was severely wounded and bleeding. Isra was still unconscious.