Fire on Ice

As Sari took off to convey his plan to Norin and Warden Dart, Trick studied the layout of the room and tried to keep his distance from the serpent machine. He could see that the terrain gave them a couple of advantages. First, the machine’s gears were vulnerable to the cold as it had to focus the power of its turret on keeping the floor under it heated. Second, the creature’s length and width worked against it now. The small pillars scattered around the room forced it to weave itself back and forth as it advanced, resulting in it tying itself into knots.

He couldn’t do much until Sari gave him the signal but at the very least he could keep the snake busy. “Hey, you worm!” Trick leapt away from the stairs, skidding across the icy floor and waving his sword. The serpent’s head swung around towards him. “You want a little more of this sword? Come and get it!”

The serpent piled up its body in a spiral shape, reducing how much was in contact with the floor, then its lens turret snapped around towards him and fired a short blast of crimson lumi. Trick was expecting that and wrapped one arm around a freezing cold pillar as he slid along, jerking to a stop and throwing off the snake’s aim. Shifting his grip on his sword so his thumb grounded the weapon he threw an invisible attack back.

The snake’s body jerked and sparked as a narrow cut opened along its body. Once again violet light leaked out of the injury. The serpent started to uncoil itself to move closer then stopped short as ice built around its base, layering up as Sari blasted it with concentrated cobalt lumi. The lens turrets swiveled to blast at Sari, forcing her to spin her staff to make a ward and repel the attack. As soon as her attack let up the burning crimson lenses pivoted to burn the ice away. With the snake distracted Trick took the opportunity to skate closer to its flanks, watching as Norin and Chestin did the same on the opposite side.

Recognizing the danger the serpent’s turret ceased firing and it heaved itself up, breaking the dregs of the ice. As soon as it was able to move it threw its body back down to the floor, its gears dragging it around at ground level to avoid taking another flying slash. In that position it was shorter than some of the pillars in the room. It also made Trick’s idea harder to pull off.

“Sari!” He called. “Freeze it again!”

The snake whipped up and around, blasting towards Sari’s position with a powerful, sustained heat blast. Trick had wondered whether the creature could understand them. Now he knew. On the bright side, now he had the perfect angle to attack. He leapt over the last pillar between them and slid forward until he could chop into the side of the serpent with a two handed attack. When his blade made contact it triggered the largest purple blast yet.

With the snake’s flank above him he managed not to get thrown across the room this time. Instead he got blasted down into the ground. It didn’t feel great but it was part of the plan so Trick was ready for it. He kicked against the side of the snake, skidding back towards the pillar and cut it free from the floor with his sword. Then he just had to wait.

Norin and Chestin threw themselves into the side of the serpent opposite the one he’d just cut, slamming their gauntlets into it and activating their wards at the same time. The amethyst energy popped into place and expanded outward, throwing the snake to the ground. Trick watched the snake fall and hustled to get the severed pillar lined up with the wound in its side. The serpent slammed down just as he got it lined up, driving the frigid chunk of crystal into the already closing rip in its side. Trick had just enough time to exult in his success, then the machine’s body squashed him.

The creature was hot. Not quite boiling water hot, but close enough that Trick felt it through his clothes. He shoved at the snake’s body, trying to get free, as the machine’s gears churned wildly, sometimes gripping the floor and sometimes shredding his skin. Then the entire creature seized, shoving Trick to one side and sending him skidding along the floor. Its serpentine body twitched, jerked and spasmed. It looked a lot like a garden hose, spraying water at full force with no one holding on to it to keep it steady. But no matter how it thrashed the pillar fragment didn’t come free. The edges of the wound had already started healing around it, wedging it into place.

Trick braced himself against one of the pillars, trying to get to his feet, but his entire body was suddenly in pain and he couldn’t quite get up and stay there. He tried twice and fell to the ground each time. As the creature continued thrashing Trick got worried. It moved a bit closer to him every time it thrashed, still fixated on getting him. Figuring it was best to give up on verticality, Trick grabbed the pillar and shoved himself a few feet away from the serpent towards another pillar. Unfortunately he didn’t slide far enough to grab the next one, leaving him stranded on the open floor.

Vara popped up over the stairs, focused her lens on the snake and froze it in place. The machine’s turret spun wildly, spraying burning lumi. Some of the ice around the serpent melted but Bertran blasted it with cold next, undoing the work the turret had done. Sari, Bertran and Vara took turns freezing the machine over and over. After twenty hits or so the serpent had finally stopped moving, becoming little more than a frozen mess in the middle of the floor, the lumi reservoir in its head barely visible under all the ice.

As the serpent slowly succumbed to the barrage Toff made his way over to Trick and helped him up. He groaned and slid his sword back into its sheath. His left arm felt like a solid bruise from where the machine had fallen on him and most of his right side had gone numb from the cold floor. Yet, to his surprise, he didn’t feel anything broken or dislocated.

Then Toff laughed and smacked him on the back, saying, “Well done, Trick, well done! That was a brilliant idea!”

“Thanks,” he wheezed. “You don’t have to beat myself up over it.”

Toff’s exuberance turned to confusion. “What was that?”

“Nevermind. It probably didn’t translate.”

Norin walked up to the frozen hulk of the machine and stared at it with a contemplative look. “We should probably try to get that crimson reservoir out of there before it can defrost itself and come back for a round two.”

“It will make up for all the crystals that tumbled away, too,” Vara said. “But how do we get up to it?”

Warden Dart held up his light spear. “If Toff and I thrust at it from either side it should pop out like a seed from a seedpod.”

“Wait a minute.” Norin frowned. “Is it changing color to amethyst?”

Worried, Trick looked up at the lumi crystal and realized that Norin was correct. The creature’s reservoir was, indeed, changing colors. Toff frowned. “Why would it do that? Surely crimson is the most suitable color for the situation it’s in.”

“Maybe it’s trying to absorb the cobalt we hit it with?” Vara suggested.

“No,” Trick said, the pieces falling into place. “It’s still trying to expel the pillar fragment that got wedged in it. It’s going to try and blast it out the same way it blasted me away when I cut it.”

The creature’s reservoir was a bright, rich violet at that point. Norin took one step back and gave Trick a worried look. “How big a blast do you think we’re talking about here?”

Trick swallowed hard. “I think it’s time we left.”

They got up the stairs as fast as they could go.