Frosted And Dangerous

Gabriel ran.

His breath came quick but steady, his heartbeat thumping heavily, loud enough for him to hear.

The halls twisted ahead of him, the sterile glow of overhead lights casting long, sharp-edged shadows. He didn't need to check behind him—he knew the guards were still in pursuit, though their numbers were thinning, and the distance between them was now palpable.

He had no idea where he was, even worse, his pursuers knew the surroundings far better than he did.

But He had to keep moving.

Just then, the sound of bashing metal met Gabriel's ears as three guards shot at him from ahead.

Gabriel ducked around a corner, narrowly dodging the volley of bullets. Still grabbing the discarded metal shard from the wreckage, he swung it in a wide arc, deflecting the shots. The guards hesitated, perplexed by his uncanny precision. But he didn't wait for them to regroup—he pushed forward, barrelling down another hall.

More guards came after that, although they never seemed to be more than four or five. Gabriel tried his best to incapacitate them as quickly as he could, then moved on.

He had to escape. These bastards had him sealed in a container. Whatever plans they had for him, it definitely couldn't be good.

Gabriel had just turned a corner when he suddenly felt it.

A chill.

Not the kind that came from fear or exhaustion. No, this was something else—something unnatural.

The air grew heavy, and crisp, like the first bite of winter.

His breath misted, his skin prickled, and an instinct—sharper than thought, honed by survival—screamed at him to jump.

He leapt just in time.

Ice surged beneath him, jagged shards stabbing up from the floor where his feet had been an instant before. A second too late and his leg would have been frozen solid.

Gabriel twisted in midair, preparing to land—but something else was coming.

He barely managed to raise his arms in defence before someone's shin slammed into him.

The impact sent him skidding back, his boots scraping against the frozen floor. His arms stung—not from pain, but from the creeping cold spreading along his skin. His hands were starting to freeze over, albeit slowly.

A light chuckle drew his attention to the girl before him.

She looked younger than him—thirteen, maybe—but carried herself with a confidence that was far too apparent.

"Smug brat."

Gabriel cursed under his breath as the pain from his freezing arms got to him.

"Naked fool." She replied with a palm over her head.

"Is this who uncle really let get past him... what a pity."

The girl said, kissing her teeth.

Her words actually hurt. Perhaps it was because he actually was naked, or the fact that a child who hadn't even hit puberty had called him out for being a pervert. But it hurt.

Gabriel raised his head so he could get a good look at her.

She wore a noble dress, pristine despite the surrounding chaos, and her pale blue eyes gleamed with smug satisfaction.

Gabriel's muscles tensed. Who the hell was she anyway?

The girl tilted her head, lips curling into a small, knowing smile.

"So, you're the villain," she said in accusation, pointing right at Gabriel with her other hand on her waist. "I'll kill you before you go any further."

Gabriel narrowed his eyes, his words thick and deathly m. "Get out of my way."

She chuckled, utterly unbothered by the warning. "Make me."

His irritation flared. He didn't have time for this.

He bolted forward, intending to slip past her, but the moment his foot touched the ground, ice spears erupted in his path. 

Gabriel skidded to a halt, barely avoiding being skewered by the child's frozen spikes.

It seemed she could control ice on command, to a very frightening level.

Just how many strong assholes can one building hold? The large man from earlier was plenty strong too. If Gabriel were to place him anywhere, it would probably be a C-rank hero.

This child, however, showed talent far beyond that.

Gabriel's patience snapped. Fine. If she wanted a fight, he'd give her one.

He lunged, closing the distance between them in a blink. But she reacted instantly, summoning another ice lance that immediately shot right for him.

He parried with his metal shard, knocking the lance to the side.

Gabriel was right before her now, two icy blue eyes staring up at him. He didn't want to kill her, so he aimed at her with the dull end of his makeshift blade.

The next second, something materialized in the girls' palms and before Gabriel could notice, their weapons had kissed with a sharp crack.

His makeshift blade took the weight of the blow but folded right after, turning to just another piece of scrap metal.

The girl didn't hesitate, closing the distance between them pretty quickly. She had two frost daggers in hand now, skidding across the frozen floor as she aimed both daggers at Gabriel.

He was quick to react, always one step ahead, just enough to dodge and redirect her attacks. Every now and again he would throw a blow of his own for good measure.

Gabriel was holding back—he would rather not hurt a kid—but it quickly became apparent that she wasn't sharing the same sentiment.

She moved with lethal precision, every strike aimed to kill.

Her attacks were relentless, cold, and sharp, forcing Gabriel onto the defensive. The ice on his arms spread with every blow he blocked, slowly numbing his movements.

What made her so terrifying was how she managed to mix terrain attacks with her melee. Every now and again, the frozen floor would release spikes tall enough to reach his head.

Luckily, Gabriel's intuition was plenty sharp, allowing him enough time to evade and anticipate them. She couldn't do them quickly enough though and with how much focus he forced out of her in melee, the rate at which she realized the Ice mines were few and far between.

Yet, the child still made it work.

She was fast. Trained. And completely fearless.

But also reckless.

Gabriel saw it the moment she overextended. She lunged too hard, putting too much force behind her next attack. He shifted to counter—

—only for her ice to betray her.

A sudden frost spike shot from the floor, disrupting her footing. She gasped, her balance breaking, her momentum carrying her forward.

Gabriel's eyes widened.

She's going to skewer herself—

Without thinking, he moved.

He grabbed her wrist, yanking her back before she could impale herself on her weapon. The motion sent them both tumbling to the ground.

For a brief second, there was silence.

Then he realized—she wasn't moving.

Gabriel pushed himself up, looking down at her unconscious form. She had hit the ground hard, her body limp in his arms.

He exhaled sharply, annoyed.

"Dumbass."

Just then, a new presence entered the room. Gabriel turned to catch the bulky man from earlier waltzing towards them.

He had his hands on his mace with a calm but smouldering anger bursting between the seams.

Gabriel glanced at him, then at the girl who lay underneath him.

"Oh shit."