Part II-Chapter 20

•Elia

This cannot possibly be good.

"What the-" Lita's exclamation gets interrupted by the monster's growl, which causes most of us to lose our balance this time.

What even is that?

A fourteen foot tall, blueish, frosty-looking... ogre? Monster? An ice monster?

Its body is adorned by tiny little ice horns.

"As long as you are in contact with the stones, you will remain undetected by it. It might not have a good sight, but it can feel you," the woman announces from wherever she is.

Completely avoided telling us what creature this is.

Everyone snaps out of their faze, running towards the stones... rocks... whatever.

Well, not everyone. Two ran out the exit before the announcement.

Lita and I, along with three other students, hide behind one of the stones, while the rest divide into stone-hiding-groups of threes and fives.

One of the stones is left vacant—The one closest to the creature.

"You have twenty minutes," the woman informs.

"Okay? So we just have to hide here until times up? Then we pass?" Lita asks.

"If it was that easy, it wouldn't be a test." I rest my back on the stone.

Another growl causes the ground to shake.

It can't detect us, but it knows we're here.

"If your aim is to just pass, then you don't deserve to be a protector." The guy hiding with us stands up.

"Hey! Get down! It's gonna see you!" a curly-haired girl shouts out. She's hiding behind the stone to our left.

"We don't need to hide. We just need to be in contact with the stone. If anything, your loud voice is what would lead it here," he answers.

"If you don't have a plan, don't charge towards it!" a sandy-haired girl shouts out, clearly ignoring what he just said.

"Calm down, Ivy, I have a plan," he replies. "Sierra, any idea what that is?" He turns to the curly-haired girl.

"Never seen it before. It looks like it's made of ice," she answers.

"You think everyone here know each other, except us?" Lita whispers.

"I'm beginning to think so too," I whisper back.

A bead of sweat trails down my back, and I'm suddenly conscious of how hot it is.

Isn't it hot for the monster as well? Ice monsters shouldn't like heat.

"Ice... so its weakness must be fire," he concludes.

I don't really think that would work.

"Don't tell me you plan on-"

"I can handle this." He charges off before Ivy completes her sentence, causing her to face palm herself with a frustrated sigh.

We all watch as he bravely charges towards the monster, while rubbing his hands together really fast. The monster notices him immediately, but before it can react, he brings his clasped hands to his mouth and blows through it, leading to a burst of fire, blasting the monster.

"He breathes fire!" Lita exclaims, loud enough for everyone to hear.

"He conjures fire. There's a huge difference," Sierra replies, a smile plastered on her face.

Did it work? The monster is defeated?

I can't really see much because of the smoke.

A loud, annoyed growl answers my question.

At least I can see clearly now, since its growl must have blown all the smoke away.

The monster grabs the guy, and just when I fear that it is going to use his bones as bread, it flings him, hard, to the other side of the chamber.

The hard stone wall catches him, right before the harder stone floor breaks his fall.

I clamp a hand to my mouth, sliding down the stone into a sitting position.

He's not moving. He doesn't look like he's going to move.

"Iven!" Ivy cries out, ready to run out to him, but a muscular-looking girl grabs her.

"If you go out there, you end up like him," the girl says.

Ivy throws a fit, still trying to break out of the girl's hold, to no avail.

"Well, this is bad. We just lost a teammate," one of the guys hiding beside us says in the most nonchalant manner possible.

"Can you be any more insensitive?" The other taller guy beside him shoots him a glare.

"He's not dead! He's stronger than that!" Ivy bites back at the insensitive guy.

"No one's getting up after a crash like that. He's not getting up," he retorts.

Ivy finally breaks out of the girl's hold, runs to our side, and punches him hard right across the face. Hard enough to make him almost lose a tooth.

For a tiny looking girl, she knows how to throw a punch.

He spits out a little bit of blood onto the ground, before turning swiftly, returning the punch.

A dark-haired, emo-looking girl catches Ivy when she almost falls from the impact.

"Zanda!" The tall guy grabs his shirt. "Behave."

They both glare at each other.

"Guys!" Lita shouts at all of them. "If you think you have all the time in the world to fight, think again." She points at the stones.

I turn to see that they no longer have the same colour as before.

"It's fading," the dark-haired girl says.

"The time limit also affects the stones," Lita continues.

"And before time is up, it would lose its power," Sierra whispers.

"So... we either run, or fight that thing." The muscular girl stands up.

"Or find a way to survive those few minutes after the stone fades," the dark-haired girl adds.

I'm the only one still on the floor, still fazed by Iven's death.

The monster growls again, causing the ground to shake, and they all grab tightly to the stones.

Two other students bolt for the exit after this.

Zanda scoffs. "Weak."

The monster notices them trying to run, and starts to throw huge boulders at them, with really accurate aim for a blind monster. Luckily they escape before it hits, narrowly.

Wait... where did the boulders come from?

"Did it just pull out a part of the ground?! It's an earth-bending ice monster?!" Lita exclaims, placing her hands on her head, before remembering that she has to be in contact with the stone, then quickly places a hand back.

"Earth...bending? Whatever. But that's strange. I haven't seen anyone, or anything with elemental abilities, except the king, Iven, and Ivy," Sierra says.

"Ivy?" Lita asks.

"Yeah. Iven conjures fire, Ivy conjures Ice," she answers. Ivy tugs on her, prompting her to stop talking.

A boulder comes crashing close to us, and I catch sight of one of the students running our way. I notice that the exit has been blocked off by a huge boulder.

He must have been trying to run away, but got trapped in here.

"You're leading it to us!" Zanda yells at the guy, but he doesn't stop.

When a boulder lands really close to him, he falls really close to us—to me.

The monster gets ready to throw another boulder, and the guy looks up at it, ready to accept his fate.

I stand up, heading towards him, and pull him to our side right before the boulder hits.

I don't think I can watch another person die.

"What were you thinking leading the monster to us?! Fool!" Zanda barks, causing me to glare at him, but I don't say anything.

"Ivy, he might need another one," Lita says.

"Gladly." Ivy begins to walk towards him, but Sierra stops her.

"Are you alright?" she asks the guy I just saved. He nods.

"Thank you for saving me. I-I didn't mean-"

"It's cool," the tall guy says.

"Fifteen minutes left," the woman announces.

If I knew where this woman was, I'd shoot her a glare.

The boulder which was blocking the exit, suddenly disappears.

"The exit will always be open to everyone," she adds.

Did she do that so we still have a choice?

But I don't want to run. I have to figure out how to stay in the protectors district.

But how?

Fire doesn't work on it, so what else can defeat an ice monster?

Unless-

"Great! You can run now. It was nice to meet you." Zanda's words pull me out of my thoughts, but I tune out his voice and everyone else's.

The monster is now standing really far from the stones, in the middle of the chamber, waiting for any movement. Its moment to strike.

"Where do you think you're going?" the tall guy asks Zanda.

So much for tuning everyone out.

"We have to defeat that thing," he replies.

"I know that, but what's your plan?"

"Attack it. Find its weakness. Defeat it. Start as top class." Zanda starts running towards the monster, with a heavy-looking axe in his hand.

The tall guy sighs. "Anyone have a solid plan?"

"Let's see what Zanda wants to do." Ivy smiles.

We all turn to see Zanda has already picked a fight with the monster.

Guy's got some guts.

When it tries to grab him, he swings his axe, slicing off its fingers.

Maybe he has this under control.

The monster's fingers grow back in an instant.

Definitely not under control.

He runs behind the monster, swinging his axe at its ankle, but it barely slices through.

It grabs him, flinging him like he did Iven, but this time he lands a few feet away from me.

"It's... really hot." He groans in pain.

Hot?

I pull him closer so he's in contact with the stone. He might be an asshole, but that doesn't mean I'll let him die.

I also grab his axe, which I don't plan on returning just yet.

Something is off about that monster.

"Yeah, buddy. It's really hot in here, isn't it?" The tall guy says, squatting beside him, and giving him a light pat on the back.

I think Zanda was talking about the monster.

"It is actually really hot in here. But that doesn't seem to be affecting the monster. You think it's related to why fire doesn't work on it?" the muscular girl asks.

Exactly what I've been thinking.

I flash her a little smile, before running towards the vacant stone, which is also fading, but still has some power left in it.

Let's hope this axe is strong enough.

"What are you doing?" Lita calls out.

I swing the axe as hard as I can, hoping the stone is not some kind of indestructible entity. Luckily, it isn't, as a huge chunk falls to the ground.

Huh, took only one strike.

"Looks like she has a plan," Sierra says.

I hope it works.

To test it, I pick up the piece of stone I just cut off, and step away from the main stone.

My hands are shaking, either from the heaviness of the stone, or the fear that my plan won't work.

The monster turns in my direction and I swear I turn white. I take a step backwards, ready to hide back, but the monster turns away like I don't matter to him in the slightest.

It didn't sense me? It works!

I sigh out in relief and begin to slowly make my way towards the monster—Not too slowly, as we don't have time on our hands.

When I do get close enough to it, I slow down.

It looks like an ice monster, but Zanda said it was hot, or at least I think he was referring to it.

I try to touch it as gently as I can, but before I do, I wince in pain, pulling my hand away immediately.

It's hot, really hot.

It's an ice monster only in appearance.

Could it be what's causing the hot temperature in the room?

The monster abruptly growls, turning to me.

My blood goes cold. I slowly take a few steps back as if moving too fast would annoy it even more.

Did it feel me touch it?

But the stone should mask my presence.

I look down at the stone to realize that it's faded, completely.

Oh shit.

It faded faster because it got separated?

"LIA!" I hear Lita call out.

I don't even wait for it to react. I drop the stone and run. I run faster than I think I have ever run in my life. But apparently, the monster does more cardio than me.

Why the heck is something so huge this fast?

And why the heck did it decide to chase me instead of just throwing boulders?

Actually, the real question here is.. why the heck does the universe hate me?!

The ground begins to move in funny waves, causing me to stumble and lose my balance.

Oh double shit.

It picks up one of its magic boulders and lifts it up to personally end me, but just then, Lita jumps onto me, rolling us both out right before it lands.

"Ivy!" I call out, "Freeze it!"

The monster gets ready for another round of Tag, you're dead. Lita and I quickly get up and start running.

"She speaks!" the muscular girl exclaims.

Haha, very funny.

"It's made of ice! What do you mean 'freeze it'?" Ivy asks.

The monster catches up, grabbing Lita—mostly because she pushed me out of the way when it almost grabbed me.

"What if... it's not really ice," Sierra says. "I think you should trust her."

I don't even trust myself right now.

Ivy runs out, rubbing her hands the same way Iven did, the monster stretches his arms out ready to fling his third victim of the day, Ivy blows through her hands, Lita's screams grow louder, my heart pounds faster, a blast of frost escapes from her hands, the monster stops moving.

It's now ice solid. Real ice this time.

"It... worked?" Ivy sounds dumbfounded.

That's why fire didn't work on it. It's not an ice monster, but its appearance gives a huge hint as to what its weakness is. It was definitely just a gamble on my side.

So glad it worked.

I run to get the axe, and run back to the monster, stopping a few feet away so I can aim properly. I aim for its elbow, but it slices through the shoulder instead, causing the whole frozen arm to fall off, releasing Lita.

Good enough.

The tall guy, who left the spot earlier, catches her before she falls, and she thanks him after he drops her.

"That was a really nice aim though," she says, grabbing the axe from the floor.

"Yeah..." I smile awkwardly.

Ivy rushes over to Iven, while Sierra and the rest come out from their spot behind the stones.

"We won?" Sierra asks, smiling widely.

"Not just yet," I answer. "The heat from the monster would probably melt the ice really fast, so we might have to break it before it defrosts."

"Uhh..." Her expression changes to a terrified one.

"It's defrosted, isn't it?"

A loud growl answers my question.

We all immediately bolt in different directions, but the monster chooses to chase after me. If I wasn't running for my life right now, I'd laugh at that.

At least it didn't regenerate the arm that was cut off. That's a good sign.

"IVY!" we all call out in unison.

She was already up and ready to move before we called her, so she just gets closer to it and freezes it immediately.

It looks like that second blast took a whole lot of her energy, because she wobbles a little and almost falls, but Iven catches her. Then they both fall.

He's alive!

I am so glad he's alive.

Looks like he might have a concussion, especially with the amount of blood rushing from his head, but nonetheless, he's alive.

"Alright! I got this!" Lita raises the axe.

"Aim for the head," I tell her.

I don't know if the zombie rule applies to this. It should. It can't move without a head, even after it defrosts.

Lita gets into the most wrong stance I've ever seen in all my years of archery, and when she throws it, it misses by a thousand miles.

It's not funny, but it is. If it wasn't, the dark-haired emo-looking girl wouldn't have snorted.

"In my defense, it could have happened to anyone." She shrugs.

Then it dawns on me that Ivy probably won't be able to conjure her ice magic anytime soon, the monster is about to defrost, we might only have five minutes left, and the axe was flung so far away, it would take ages to get it.

This is a dire situation.

My gaze goes to the piece of stone I chopped off earlier, which is right next to me, and I pick it up.

This will have to do.

I begin running towards the monster as fast as I can, and when I reach it, I start contemplating climbing it.

It's like climbing a tree. Right?

It's like climbing... a freaking cold tree, with no branches, using one hand, and a high chance of either slipping or being flung.

Yeah, it's like climbing a tree.

"You want to climb that thing?" Lita asks.

"Not a chance," I answer.

Okay, plan B.

Push it so it falls and shatters.

It's too big for that.

Plan C.

The monster's arm starts to defrost.

Plan A it is.

I begin climbing, trying to convince myself it's just like climbing a tree. It's not.

I use the tiny little horns as climbing stones, but once I get to the torso its hand completely defrosts, and it reaches out to attack me.

Sierra yanks a rope towards its arm, which wraps around it as she tries to pull hard, preventing it from reaching me. The tall guy and Lita join her, pulling as hard as they can.

Where did the rope come from?

I should have been paying attention to where I was placing my hand, but since I wasn't, I slip.