She stopped to look at me, instead focusing on the beast of ice. Standing up she walked towards it, her nails growing long and sharp. “Can you help keep the little ones at bay?” And before I could even say anything she stormed forward against the beast.

“Just be careful.” I turned away, walking towards another edge of the group. “Narva, can you take care of that side? It should be enough if you incapacitate them.”

“Got it.” Quickly she disappeared towards the other end.

The warriors keeping the beasts away were already on their last reserves, breathing heavily, some even injured and nearly unable to continue through all different kinds of wounds. The mages on the other hand swayed back and forth as their low mana reserves made them dizzy and fatigued, but they still tried their best to finish the beast brought down by their companions.

I laid my hand on the shoulder of a mage that barely kept himself afoot. “You can rest now.” He was surprised at first, his attention low enough that he didn’t even notice me from behind, but when he gazed upon my spreading fire he only let out a faint laughter, filled with relief, as he let himself fall down to rest upon the ground.

And just like him the warriors in front where astonished at the sudden attack, but upon noticing that they locked onto the beasts they attacked once more, reinvigorated with strength as the pushed out their last reserves.

The beasts, noticing the sudden change in the fight tried to fight back even harder, only to break apart moments later when they thought of running away. Even then it only stayed at a thought as the warriors hacked at their fleeing forms, slashing their legs off or even their bodies cleanly apart.

Leaving the reforming bodies to the remaining mages I turned away to the final area to finish off the remaining ones. Just like before I send orbs of flame towards the beast, catching many of them with my surprise attack.

“It’s about time that you showed up devil! No, its Agni, right? Whatever, can you finish the rest off?” Charr called out from the front, standing amidst a weaving mass of snow, compromised of who knows how many beasts. Behind him a little girl, not even of age, tried her best to look fearless as she melted them with the little magic she could muster. And whenever something tried to recollect itself he brought his foot crashing down on it, dispersing it once more, gaining a look of reliance in return.

“I was already on it.” Another wave of fire orbs rushed forward, finishing over half of the remaining beasts at once. But out of all the orbs none struck the pile of snow around him.

“Hey, help a little bit over here!” He shouted at me.

But as I send out the next attack, I still only struck towards the beasts mingling with the other soldiers and mages. “You look fine from over here, that girl got it.”

He wanted to retort but before he had a chance the little girl shot straight upwards saying, “I’ll do my best,” only to lose control of her magic, letting the fireball flicker out of existence.

Looking towards he I could see him wanting to sigh, only to suppress it when he looked at her. “Stay focused if you want to do it.” Anyone could hear the unwillingness projected in his voice, but the girl just smiled at him as he let her continue before she summoned another Fireball, continuing to melt the beasts. And as she looked down once more he began to shake his head with a saddened smile, stomping down at another reforming head.

As the beasts got lesser and lesser the others perked up, mopping up the rest quickly now that there were only a few left for each, quickly leaving nothing else for me to do here. I looked towards the one area left, but what I saw made me stop from going there.

Gone was the snowstorm as Narva used her magic to take control of the wind. Little by little the beasts were minced into pieces, the snow picked up by the wind to form a sphere at which most of the mages directed their attacks, killing the defenseless beast. The warriors instead gathered around Narva to protect her while she channeled her magic, the beast they hacked apart becoming part of the sphere before long or finished directly by one mage if their pieces were too large to be carried away.

Such being the case I walked back towards the middle of the group, in case Homura needed assistance. The people without any combat experience gathered around her, making me press through them in order to even get near as they watched fearfully. Pushing past another person I saw a another back a step away from the rest.

Seemingly he noticed me coming forward as he glanced over his shoulder while starting to speak. “Stand,” but as he saw me his fierce tone changed into a weak one, “back.” But while this guard was taken aback by my sudden reappearance I had to put up another barrier as shards of ice flow towards us.

“Watch out.” I strode past him, earning a little thanks in return, while he did nothing to stop me once more. Before us I could see Homura fighting against the ice beast, flickering around nimbly as she dodged strike after strike, each sending a cloud of snow upwards whenever the icicle like claws smashed into the ground.

Homura on the other hand answered its attack with her own, smashing her claws into its body, cracking it before she released her flames alongst her finger, spreading the fire within it. And with the flames another part of its enormous body came off, falling towards other at the ground.

The beast roared loudly, angered by her defiance, and swept its tail at her direction. She leaped backwards to avoid the strike, but before the tail went past completely shards of ice broke off, flying towards her.

Lifting her arms in front of her she protected her face, but the splinters struck her otherwise unprotected areas, leaving small cuts and even stabbing wounds behind before she even touched the ground once more.

Instead of wincing at the pain however she dashed forward, ignoring her wounds completely to engage the beast once more. Her recklessness stunned the beast for a moment, as it was unprepared for another assault so soon after wounding its enemy grievously before it slashed at her once more.

The little pause in its attacks however allowed her to jump past the attack, landing on all fours beneath the beast. From there she pushed herself upwards, spinning her body around to slash at the beast’s neck.

It tried to get away from her, jumping backwards, but she held onto it resolutely, her claws stuck into the ice. Realizing that she wasn’t gone the beast began to shake its body violently in an attempt to throw her off, as its neck began to crack louder and louder, deep fissures running through it.

In the end, bit by bit came off, till she broke it completely. The head fell downwards, landing with a thud inside the snow, followed by its body falling sideways with an even heavier noise, sending a wave of snow all around.

As it cleared we saw Homura once more, fallen to her knees while breathing heavily as all her strength has gone into the last attack. She didn’t show any sign of joy however, even though she defeated it, instead she kept a bitter expression on her face.

When she caught her breath she stood up, looking over to those surrounding her, trying to show them a smile once more, like she always did. But after her first step towards them the body suddenly moved once more, catching her off-guard with the back of its claw and sending her flying away into the crowd.

Quickly the headless body rose once more, running towards the other end of the group and jumped over them, disappearing into the snowstorm as none could react to its sudden movement, having thought it was dead.