You’re a Candle in the Window on a Cold, Dark Winter’s Night (2)

The spear-wielder was the first to charge at him. Shuji ran to meet it in the middle. Or so it must have seemed, but at the last moment, he dropped to the ground and slid past between its legs.

He expected them to be slow to react, to turn, at that size and this was his way of testing if it was a weakness he could exploit.

He hoped so, but he wasn't counting on it. He didn't rely on tricks.

The statue turned just fine. Okay, it was clear that it wasn't. Shuji threw the shield against the breastplate of the armor. There it simply bounced harmlessly and returned to his hand as if magnetized. He could say like a boomerang, but that would imply there was a chance it would miss and it wasn't so.

Screaming, Shuji leapt and fell like a meteorite near the statue, swinging the axe at the ground.

But its wake wasn't flames as it was reduced to nothingness, but the complete opposite. Or not exactly, an ice so cold it burned too, spreading across the ground and over one of the statue's legs, blocking its movements.

Immobile. Helpless.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that one of the half-dozen statuses had lunged for Luna. The weakest target, at least in theory. But she was fine. Surrounded by a yellow, pulsating barrier. The individual cells, so to speak, had a honeycomb pattern.

Interesting. He had never seen a spell like that before.

Not that he had much experience either, working alone for so long.

Most importantly, he had withstood one blow. But what about the second, the third, what would it be like after that? And how many times could he repeat it? The barrier summoning-how many times until she ran out of energy and could no longer defend herself?

Shuji climbed up the slippery ice he had created himself. He didn't need traction or to be careful. Just as the moon flames didn't burn his skin, the ice didn't bother him. To him it was like walking on the ground.

He took a leap. He covered ten meters in an instant, up to a shoulder of the statue. Once there, he put his hands on either side of the helmet. He pulled with all his might, as if trying to rip a tree out of the ground.

It was harder than that, but he succeeded.

Shuji fell to the ground along with the helmet, however. He was about to be crushed. It wouldn't have killed him. He would have been able to keep fighting, even. But damn, it had been close.

In that short period of time, the statue managed to break the ice that immobilized one of his legs. He didn't need that, all that mattered was that he had managed to get the helmet off. That was step one.

Shuji lunged for that statue again, but didn't get too far.

For he was hit full in the chest with a mace. The force of the impact sent him flying to the other side of the chamber. He only stopped when his back hit something.

He would say a wall, but he was far from walls yet.

What was it? It didn't matter.

He shook his head, sitting up.

This might be the room of a final boss, but he wasn't fighting just one enemy, or even two. He was facing half a dozen. He couldn't let his guard down like this, dammit.

He heard an explosion. It turned out to be worse than he had imagined. He turned just in time to see the barrier vanish.

After how many hits?

What did he know, he hadn't been fucking counting. Besides, he was already too busy with himself now. What had she said, that if she didn't measure up, she'd just die? Well, okay, fine.

Another statue, he couldn't help but notice that this one carried an axe, came rushing towards him.

But what it did wasn't swing its weapon.

It jumped, intending to land on him. It had given him enough time to roll away, though. Maybe that wasn't the right word. He avoided his chest getting crushed, but he didn't get away.

When the statue landed, the impact zone was filled with cracks. But not only that. Shuji flew backwards as if propelled by the aftershock of an explosion, even though he had only jumped.

He had to stop the momentum somehow. Shuji drove the axe into the ground. Clouds of dust rose up, also bricks flew out as he continued to fly backwards. But at last he stopped, and was able to get up.

Back to the charge.

The spear statue was reaching for its helmet blindly, bumping even into its comrades in the attempt, hindering them. There was nothing inside the helmet, but it was as if it had gone blind.

Shuji had to finish it off before it could find that.

Then, well, then it would be just five against two, which was something. Progress.

The helmet wasn't that far away, so he had to make sure it couldn't put it back on by acting fast. Shuji was the first to reach the helmet, naturally.

Though he had to dodge attacks from several of the other statues along the way.

Then, he sent the helmet away with a single swing of the axe. Albeit accompanied by a violent volley of ice. One less thing in his way. Now, more ice, this time to create a bridge.

One that would surround the statue, lest the blind monster shatter it as it passed, of course.

A bridge that would take him, sliding...

Straight into the hole that had been left by the helmet. The real monster, the one controlling the armor, should be inside. And it didn't take him long to see signs of its presence. In other words, a tentacle curled around his right arm, another brushed past his cheek and blood gushed out.

“Sneaky bastard.”

Yet another tentacle, writhing in the darkness. It found its way, curling around his left arm. It had him trapped. Or so the creature would think.

Shuji simply put a foot on it. And pressed down.

He pressed down until it exploded like a piñata.

Instantly, the gigantic armor collapsed with no one to control it. The impact shook the ground like a real earthquake.

Shuji dropped to the ground and crawled out of the armor right where he had entered. The barrier was down. One down, but he had to hurry.

As it turned out, he shouldn't even have bothered.

In the time it had taken him to take care of one of the armors, Luna had taken down two. It was hard to believe, but there was no other explanation, like the cavalry arriving at the last moment. They were alone in this.

Yes, it was hard to believe.

Especially now, seeing her cowering behind one of those barriers again. But she had done it. He didn't know how, but she'd done it. You can't look a gift horse in the mouth, Shuji thought.

There was half of them left, which was still quite a bit, but it shouldn't be a problem. If he was able to continue as he was. If they were able.

The statues wasted no time.

Two of them were working together to break down the barrier, but the third, who carried a sword, went for him at once. It executed several quick blows, but not enough to reach him.

A direct hit from that thing would have ripped his head off like tofu.

But he managed to stay ahead. The blows of the sword only hit the ground, to the point where at one point it was stuck there. Buried halfway in the rocks like some kind of legendary sword.

Ha.

In any case, it was where it was supposed to be. Now he wouldn't even need to expend energy to create a path. It was right in front of him. Shuji ran up the blade of the sword as the monster tried to pull it out of the ground without much success. It would have to switch to using both hands to get it, but by then he would be inside.

He descended into the interior of one of those suits of armor, again, with the axe in front of him.

Everything was pretty much the same as last time. Maybe Luna had a great variety of ways thanks to the power of magic, but he could only do this. There was one difference, though. A single difference, but of great importance.

This time it didn't catch him by surprise. The creature that lived inside.

That was because, as he landed, he created an explosion of ice around him. The ice spread quickly and violently, so much so that it touched the walls of the armor and continued to grow after bending. The ice spikes pierced the creature inside mercilessly in less than a tenth of a second. It was filled with holes and disappeared from this world.

He didn't give it time to get out of the armor before it fell, mind you. Shit. Shuji took a deep breath. He could only do one at a time. He'd say that, with any luck, the fight would be over by the time he got out. But silence didn't reign. It was clearly still ongoing.