Frozen Falsehood II

  AUSHEN

  I let up on the ice, and it faded away, leaving nothing behind but puddles of brown sludge. Each step Blu took would cast a ripple across the ground, distorting the reflection of Nika and himself.

  “What happened to her?” I tried to keep my voice steady, but my concern was still apparent in the reflection of Blu’s eyes.

  “I’d guess lack of oxygen or panic-induced blackout. She’s even paler than usual, but I don’t see any wounds on her or anything that may indicate internal bleeding.”

  “Where was she?”

  “Tucked away in a vent somewhere, I found some needlers preventing her escape. The fumes from the acid could have knocked her out.”

  “That’s good, we should-”

  The world rocked momentarily, scratching and buzzing sounds filled the hall.

  A wave of demoryns poured into the hall from the end opposite the one we entered through, limbs and wings moving sporadically. I pointed behind Blu, and he spun and gazed at the impending monsters, he flinched in surprise, a nearly imperceptible motion.

  “I can’t fight with my hands tied,” Blu told me. “You want to take this and have me hold her? Or do you wanna swap roles?”

  “Shift us out.”

  “No time now, I’ll just bring them with us if I do.”

  “So then put up a barrier of some sort,” I countered hastily.

  “I could make a wall using Sifyx, but to maintain the durability of something that large I’d have to stay physically connected to it. Doing so would constrict my mobility too much, so it’s not a good move.” Blu ducked under a needler that dove towards him, I cut it down with an ice-formed axe.

  “It’s risky, but you could leave the jacket around her and fight with a blade not connected to Sifyx,” I offered sheepishly, knowing my offer was ludicrous.

  Blu tossed up his hands in a careless gesture, “whatever, it’s been some time since I’ve fought with normal swords besides Hope’s Dusk.” He set Nika behind us and Sifyx wrapped around the unconscious girl, revealing Blu’s black button-down shirt. He rolled up his sleeves and smirked defiantly.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “Okay, let’s try something from my earlier years,” Blu said assuredly.

  Two black katanas shot from the black mass that encased Nika, and into Blu’s hands. The blue-haired boy gave me a curt nod before facing the masses of enemies. Before moving to his side, I blasted a coating of ice around Nika and pressed my staff into it to strengthen the barrier. I drew my knives and took a defensive stance; Blu gave me a look of regret.

  “You know we’re screwed, right?”

  “Nah, this’ll be easy,” I joked. “Watch me solo.”

  “Idiot,” he got out briskly as he began slashing away at the creatures that had just reached us.

  I gave a last look at Blu before throwing myself into the path of some needlers. There were three in total in this group, the two on the left spat acid at me, I rolled under the spray, it hissed on the ground beneath me. I came up on my feet and froze the wings of one of the two needlers and set a flashfire on the third needler on the right.

  It careened into the center creature, also setting it alight. I brought down my knives on the last enemy, I could hear Blu rending flesh and breaking bones, though I could not make him out in the sea of entities.

  I killed off any stragglers that got past Blu, slowly but surely making my way forward toward him as the intervals at which monsters dropped increased as a direct result of our blades.

  “Dammit!” Cried Blu.

  I swiveled toward him and caught a glimpse of Blu clutching his leg before picking up one of the two katanas that he dropped. He transformed the Japanese sword into a shadowsteel bat and knocked a needler out of the air, then subsequently breaking a shadling’s spine in the downward arc.

  “Eat shit,” he spat, a pained expression crossed his face.

  My gut wrung itself. “You good?”

  “Acid.”

  “Assed all over you,” I laughed as I flung my knife into the skull of the needler that blasted Blu.

  “Not what I said.” Blu put out, striking a needler that was flying too close to him. He picked up the katana he dropped and threw it right at me, I moved automatically, forced to the ground in a spurt of adrenaline. The blade plunged into a shadling and pinned it to the ground; it gave a whine as the life leaked from its body.

  “You know, I had thought we were dead ended but we’re actually wrecking these fools,” I called out.

  “I recall you last said that we were undoubtedly fucked,” Blu argued.

  I readied myself for another patch of enemies to advance, but before most of them even got near either of us a crack appeared in the ground and ceiling, stopping them in their tracks. After the initial pause, I thought the cracking would start up again, when a section of the hall collapsed, crushing everything beneath it and eliminating our adversaries.

  When the dust settled around us, I was horrified by the sight before me, the disgust I had for the creatures here increased substantially. There was a huge, almost human-like face in front of us completely filling the corridor from wall to wall. White eyes and gray, slimy skin, and a long body like a snake, the demoryn before me was more than we could handle in the moment.

  We had been brought face to face with a realm wiper.

  I concluded that we were indeed, quite fucked.

  “See now, this is that bullshit I been talking about,” Blu exasperated.