Chapter Fifty-Three

In a matter of seconds, I was surrounded by the now uncaged body of water. It began to carry me towards the rushing river below, but I was able to catch a glimpse of Psyna as she floated above the current and watched me struggle to breathe. Suddenly, the situation was made immediately worse as I saw a light blue glow flash within the current. This was followed by the water surrounding me freezing in place as Ice Cap rose from the dead faster than his partner. I sincerely wanted to ask how, but this battle was way beyond more conversation at this point. 

The blue tiger perched on a crooked sheet of ice and sneered at me next to Psyna. I summoned my dragon but Ice Cap pounced at me before it could open its mouth. He tackled me through the ice and shattered it but Psyna literally picked up the pieces and as he connected swipes at me midair, she backed him up by cutting me with ice shards. I was able to create a portal between a gap of both of their attacks below me and port above Psyna. She saw the attack coming and held out a hand, holding me in the air for a brief second before she shot me straight down through the multiple misshapen spears, pillars, and sheets of ice into the freezing water below. 

I purposefully stayed below the surface of the water and heard muffles through it of the two of them speaking to each other. I also noticed the ice breaking near the surface due to the flow of water. The tiger had only frozen the top layer of water and his partner shattered most of what remained of his ice blast above. Unfortunately, I was still at a disadvantage because of what we were surrounded by and the fact that his partner can move anything. The good part was there wasn't much to move other than the water, her partner, herself, or me. Truth be told, Adriel might’ve been a better matchup.

I created a portal in the water and made it come out next to both of them on the surface. Water poured out and distracted them, making them believe I would fall out at any moment, but I used the opportunity to swim to the surface and let my eagle lose to blitz them. As I did this, I realized I had shown my eagle once before against Dr. Man’s golem, but it wasn’t technically this one as this one didn’t explode upon contact. 

One small unforeseen thing happened though, as Psyna held my light construct eagle in place. With her mind. She wasn’t capable of this before, but the rebirth must have given her a power boost. With seeing this, I couldn’t see a valid outcome that would result in my victory. I had no way to stop her. Then I looked to Ice Cap. He could.

I believed she was immune to my illusions at this point as I didn’t want to try anything further on her to get her back into my head, but with him…

Only thing was, his nose was healed upon being reborn, so I needed to be able to get close enough to break it. Or have him get close enough to me. 

I figured it would be more difficult for Psyna to stop a flock of eagles rather than a hail of bullets, so I sent explosive eagles of light in her direction as I created a portal beneath Ice Cap’s feet and another next to me. As he fell through, I clocked him directly in the nose, breaking it before Psyna sent all my eagles back at me.

As Ice Cap still spun around from my punch, I casted an illusion on him and created a portal in front of me, then above him and sent my eagles directly at him. Psyna was fast enough to stop it, however with her being distracted from letting the eagles fall on her partner, I ported close enough to tackle her and do some physical damage, punching her wherever I could before letting our scuffle confuse the tiger. 

“What’s wrong?” I said as Ice Cap saw us both as Psyna. 

“Mila, why do I see two of you?” he asked.

“Calm down, Josh. She’s just using her illusions again,” the actual Psyna said. 

“How do I know which is the real you?” Ice Cap asked.

“Simple, just ask us something only the real me would know,” I said. I hadn’t planned on answering the question.

“Okay…” The tiger said. He was either deep in thought or realized he didn’t want to be there anymore because his safeguard of resurrection was used up. Or both. “What’s my--”

I quick-drew a desert eagle (they were unaffected by the water) and landed a bullet right through Psyna’s temple. The stupid hero was so hyper-focused on answering Ice Cap’s question that she forgot I was still a legitimate threat. I honestly didn’t think the shit plan would work. Caught a lucky break. Or so I thought as I dropped Ice Cap’s illusion and let him see the real me smirk as his partner collapsed dead next to me. 

He snapped into a feral state again, only without the use of a pill this time, so I had no idea how long it would last or if I could even stop him. The temperature dropped well below zero as he created a private blizzard for the two of us, snow swirling all around. The body of his partner froze instantly from the temperature. If he was capable of dropping the temperature that low, I was surprised I wasn’t instantly frozen. 

Well, this was my thought before I “woke up” to Ice Cap punching me across the cheek. I woke up again to him uppercutting me sky high and again to him kicking me across the frozen river. I kept waking up to him mixing punches, slashes, and kicks around separate areas of the snow-covered ravine, until he had the decency to axe kick me through the ice into the freezing water and then freeze the water around me. 

I woke up once more to ice being shattered around me and an impactful force in my ribs as he seemed to carve me out then kick me through the block of ice into one of the side walls of the ravine. 

I got to my feet and created a portal beneath myself and woke up to shattered ice again, on the opposite side of him this time. He seemed confused, but I knew what I was doing. I created a portal beneath me and on the other side of him high above the frozen water so I could shatter upon hitting the ground just in case he froze me, which he did. He spun around confused and I unloaded two clips into his body before I woke up to him choking me out. Then I woke up again to the same vision. And again. And again. 

I think he was attempting to throw me off by flash freezing me while digging his claws into my durable neck. I woke up one last time to him roaring at me before I gunbutted him across his temple. The impact must’ve affected him as he was woozy upon re-standing. Either that or his feral tantrum was running out. 

Ultimately, it didn’t matter as I let my eagle blitz him into the air and I let my dragon obliterate him. 

Two more of the Archs were dead. And if both Amaia and Adriel did their due diligence, that only left Lux.