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Refracted light shone dully through the great, icy chasm. The air was frigid, stinging, and heavy. It hurt to breathe. Susie looked to her right and saw the green pile of robes that belonged to Ralsei, collapsed and empty. There were no items left to resuscitate him. Nothing was going to heal the dull ache in her gut or the pain that she felt every time she inhaled the stinging, cold air. Kris had taken his place beside her, shield extended, determined to block any incoming blow, even if she protested.
“Kris, just focus on yourself. I can handle this.”
“Not if you take another hit.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve just got to hit harder.”
Her eyes narrowed at the frigid, lifeless being in front of them. Its spiked plate armor shook and rattled with all of its rapid, convulsing, unnatural movements. Every step the Icicle Knight took almost looked as if it were filmed in stop motion, its joints fighting against the constant icing which crackled and shattered with each shaking stride. Each of the ridges on its armor terminated in cruel, thin spikes, some of which had been broken off by Susie’s blows, but other than those and a few errant dents in its armor, it didn’t seem in the least bit fazed by the group’s attacks, and Susie’s brow folded at its seeming defiance. Cold, blank, black, lifeless eyes stared back at her, silently taunting her from behind a thin, ethereal veil that hung from the spikes on its terrible crown. It hefted its long, slender two-handed sword over its shoulder, pulling it out of the ground and the icicles surrounding it from its previous attack. It tilted its head as if to invite them to their certain doom, its lipless, toothy grimace almost taking on the appearance of a sinister, icy grin.
Gusts of frozen air issued from the dragoness’ nostrils as she snarled and growled at her enemy.
“Come on, you big, frozen turd.” She hissed. “I’m right here.”
The beast’s neck cracked as it cocked its head to look her dead in the eyes. It squared its feet almost instantly and unnaturally fast as its frozen body snapped into position, sword held by its head and pointed to the last two stragglers.
Then it let out an inhuman, ear-piercing screech before sliding forward to skewer them.
Kris rushed ahead, blocking the impact and crying out in pain as the force of its blow nearly shattered his arm. Susie charged ahead of him; ax poised to take the ice beast’s head. The blade struck at the enemy’s gorget, whistling as it returned behind the other side of Susie’ head before sending itself down to its thigh, knocking it down. Before she could strike again, it retreated, using its sword to push itself back and skate on the flat, slick ice.
Susie took Kris in her arms. “Kris! Just use your sword, it’s going to tear you to shreds if you keep that up!”
“I’ll take my chances.”
‘LOOK OUT!”
The Icicle Knight lunged forward again, its blade dragging behind it in tail guard, scraping the ice with a flesh-crawling sound that blended in with its own screeching battle cry. By the time Susie had gotten her eyes on the sword, it was already flying up into her face. Then, there was a streak of cyan and pink, and she heard Kris in pain again.
The boy was brought to his knees from the blow, but she couldn’t tend to him. The icicle knight’s blade was already swung back over its head, ready to cleave into the boy’s shoulder. The position left it wide open. Susie heaved her axe into its armpit, at the only place not covered by its indomitable plate armor. Finally, the axe head found purchase and bit deeply into the creature’s frozen flesh. It screamed and wailed, grasping at the axe haft as Susie yanked and pulled and tugged and aggravated the injury as best as she could. With a massive heave that cost her almost all her breath, she freed the axe and sent a kick toward the howling knight’s knee, bringing it down to eye level before sending another hefty blow aimed for its head.
But the axe didn’t meet its mark. The beast recovered instantly and grasped its weapon at half-sword, catching Susie’a axe by the beard. Susie’s felt her heart freeze in the split second it took for the monstrosity to regain its footing and fling Susie’s ax right out of her hands. Then, the massive pommel of its sword struck her right temple and the world and its gravity began to spin all around her. The blues and blacks and whites of the icy dungeon flashed in neon stripes and spots in her vision before the cold, hard ground came back and knocked the wind out of her. Everything was going black and Susie fought with all her might to stay conscious as she heard the creature’s shuffling footsteps. No doubt it was coming to finish her off. Her hands grasped for a haft that was no longer there, and as she realized she was disarmed, she shakily got to her feet before realizing the footsteps weren’t coming her way.
It was coming for Kris.
It loomed over its helpless prey; sword gripped in both hands with its cruel point hanging directly over the human. Susie had no breath to scream out his name. Her lungs were empty and her mind went blank. Kris fumbled onto his back as he slipped on the ice, looking up just in time to see the long, black blade plunging down. The cruel knight skewered him through the stomach, crashing into the ice and staining it red with his blood. The boy let out a pathetic, gargling gasp as blood rushed up from his torn gut before the beast sent its armored boot into his chest, kicking him off its weapon.
It looked him over as he gasped and coughed up blood, helpless and prone on the ice. Its prey was still alive, but the beast refused to dispatch it. It drank in the boy’s agony, silently gloating as a low, hideous growl issued from between its jagged, black-gummed teeth.
And then its head jerked up as it heard furious screaming and thudding footsteps. It turned just in time to see Susie’s boots careening towards its face in a heaving dropkick.
Susie then felt a cold, iron hand catching her by the ankles and throwing her to the ground. Her limp body skidded across the ice, its sheer frigid cold being her only reprieve from the searing pain in her shoulder and her ribs, all of which were no doubt broken at this point. Her wet, bruised eyes looked everywhere for her axe, adrenaline being the only thing keeping them open. All she could see was ice. All she could hear was the Icicle Knight wailing, and soon after, the sound of cracking and something falling from the cavern roof.
She turned on her back and saw to her horror, that the beast was no longer alone. At least two dozen other hulking, frozen forms landed behind the abominable thing hovering over Kris. Whatever they were before the ice took them, no one could tell. Some were disc-like with shattered, chipped edges. Others long and thin and gangly, some stuck together by the midsection, pale white in color. The largest were round and slovenly, frozen drool hanging from their cracked lips. Each of them brandished sharp shards of ice for hands and terrible, needle-like teeth, gnashing them as they gathered behind the Icicle Knight in final victory.
Kris struggled to get away, crawling on his elbows and his bleeding gut, leaving behind a crimson trail. The Icicle Knight mercilessly kicked him onto his back. He had no more breath to cry out in pain as he clung to his bleeding stomach. The air went silent, and he heard the towering abomination speak as its lipless jaws moved, its voice hushed and close, as if it were right in his ear. His blood and his tears froze.
“Die now… lonely little lightner.”
There was a sound of metal scraping as it brought its sword once more to bear on him.
And then a metallic whistling. Its black eye sockets widened.
Then, it turned to see a great, broad-bladed axe sailing through the air. The blade bit square into its forehead and it stood for a moment, vision blackening as its hearing picked up the sound of haggard, heaving breaths and plodding footsteps. Something heavy landed on its chest. Something sharp bit deep into its throat. The icicle knight fell to its knees and dropped its weapon in an attempt to pry off its attacker. The massive sword toppled to the ground, its clattering report echoing throughout the cavern.
The frozen creatures looked on in horrified awe as they saw Susie biting into its throat, snarling, foaming at the mouth, pulling her head back with dead, pale strings of its flesh caught between her terrible teeth. Hoarse rasping issued from the beast’s torn throat as Susie bit down once again, this time across its face. A dry, horrible crunch silenced the creature as Susie pulled back and spat out a sizable chunk of frozen flesh and bone. Only the lower jaw and forehead remained as the icicle knight fell to the floor, dead.
Then, her axe sailed through the air again, planting itself in the head of one of the fat ones as Susie jumped down and took hold of the icicle Knights massive sword. Her voice rasped as she screamed at them in rabid fury and hate.
“YOU’RE DEAD! YOU’RE ALL DEAD!!”
Susie screamed with all her might as she bore into the crowd of frozen abominations closest to Kris. The great blade was heavy and scraped against the ground as she brought it behind her back to take a wild underhanded swing at a group of three to her right. The blade sang as it sailed through one of the round ones, spilling its icy, red, seedy innards all over the floor. The tip grazed two of the thin ones, breaking brittle white shards off their faces and bringing screams of terror and pain from their dried throats.
“DON’T YOU LAY A FINGER ON HIM!” she shouted as she bore to her left, the blade having swung behind her back. Its weight was crippling, but the searing soreness in her arms was dulled by the sheer volume of rage and adrenaline coursing through every fiber of her body. It swung and cleaved through two of the icy discs, shattering them into glassy, pink pieces. The other beasts stood their ground, hissing and screeching and readying their frigid, jagged claws.
Stopping the blade when in motion felt herculean, and she struggled to control it and keep it from cutting her right side. Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself, compensating for the sword’s sheer momentum. Her teeth gritted. Her eyes went wide and her pupils became pinheads against the glowing ember shine of her irises. The image of Kris, bleeding and helpless flashed in her mind, and as her enemies came forth to tear the two of them asunder, she felt a deep burning in her chest, spreading through every muscle in her body. The most guttural, unquenchable rage she had ever felt began to consume her, a rage that mixed with unshakable determination.
Angel help her, she wasn’t going to die here.
Kris wasn’t going to die here.
Not if she had a say in it.
She had no more words. Nothing for her vile enemies. Just another earth-shaking scream
“RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUGGHHH!”
She swung the sword again and tore the offending arms off of two of the tall ones. Instead of stopping the blade, she let it carry its own momentum to swing back behind her head and again to her right, cleaving their legs before rearing up again and thrusting, skewering the two together in mid-fall. She flung them forth and hit another of the discs, tearing it clean in half before more of the round ones waddled towards her with bristling toothy red mouths. Their arms reached out for her, only to be lopped off at the elbows before the tip swung back over Susie’s head to plunge into one’s throat while she sent her boot to the other’s knee, extracting the sword and slamming it down into the creature’s gut and tearing it out again, spreading slushy seeds across the ground.
Three of the discs rolled toward her, sharp edges marking the ice, set on bifurcating the dragoness. She remembered the way the Icicle Knight blocked, gripping the middle of the blade and the hilt near the cross guard. She caught the first dead center, its own edge stopping inches from her face. She yanked the blade to her left, tossing her enemy’s ruined remains aside, before sending the pommel into the middle of another disc missing her, shattering it into pieces. The last one came at her from her left, and she stepped to her right, poising the tip of the sword and thrusting it toward her foe, skewering it right through the middle. It screamed in pathetic, mewling cries before she yanked the blade down, tearing through its body and finally silencing it
All the rest let out ghastly roars as they rushed her all at once. Their patience had ended. There were at least fifteen or so of them left, but Susie didn’t care to count. They were dead already as far as she was concerned. She charged right back into them, and the fear within them came out in terrified screams as the sword whipped about, tearing into their brittle bodies with ease. Susie swung the blade with wild abandon, no longer taking technique into mind. The sword was big enough that it could keep them all at bay if she swung widely. Two of the round ones tried to flee until she carved their backs open. One of the tall ones raised its arm against her before the greatsword bifurcated it from head to groin, and its lifeless, white, porous halves were trampled underfoot as Susie chased its fellows down, swinging and rending and tearing.
Three more round ones charged her, mouths gaping. They were fed with icy steel and the taste of their own seeds as Susie cleaved them asunder, parting their cheeks all the way through to the back of their heads with one great swing. A tall one lunged from behind her only to have its gut caved in by the sword’s pommel, followed quickly by the blade, slamming laterally into its body before Susie dragged it out from its side in a single slicing action, tearing it in half and burying the blade into the face of another disc in the selfsame motion.
The others were beginning to waver as they saw their numbers dwindle right before their very eyes. There was nowhere to go, but they fled nonetheless, hoping they could find some corner in the cavern, or that they could crawl back to their spaces carved in the roof.
Susie pulled the sword from out of the crumbling conjoined bodies of two tall ones before seeing the remainder attempt to flee. In that moment, she felt a kind of power emanating from deep within the blade. It was similar to what she felt in her own axe whenever Kris had her use Red Buster: a powerful magic that was fueled by her rage and her aggression. She felt it course through her arms, almost as if it were ready to possess her. She didn’t know what it would do, but she had to find out. She had the gut feeling that, like the magic in her axe, whatever this was, it was going to send a lot of hurt downrange.
Almost as if the weapon itself was acting for her, she jumped as she pointed it skyward, encasing its blade in a thick coat of ice before pointing it towards the ground as she landed and plunging it thereto. The ice seemed to trickle down from the edges, running from the blade and reforming on the icy floor as a series of sharp, needle-like icicles that sprouted upward with a sharp sound of crackling, crunching, and shattering, homing in on the fleeing enemies in a massive wave of deadly spikes.
They screamed in terror as they ran, only to be cut off as the thin frozen spears jutted out from their toothy mouths and hollow, black eyes. The chamber echoed with the sound of scores of icicles bursting from rock and flesh as each vile screeching voice was snuffed out, a symphony in the sound of shattering glass and dying breaths. The last few had managed to make it a-ways up the cavern wall, but the flowing wave of sharpened ice got up there quicker. The ice skewered them and left them to hang from their perches, lifeless and limp before finally freezing over, motionless.
Susie caught her labored breath as exhaustion returned to her shaking frame. Yet, even with excruciating pain searing every joint and bone and muscle in her body, it was the last thing on her mind. She turned behind her to find Kris, prone and motionless, a layer of white hoarfrost coating the trail of darkened blood behind him.
She dropped her weapon as she ran for him, falling to her knees and taking him up in her arms.
“Kris?! Kris! Come on, Kris, talk to me, man!” her voice rasped as she pleaded for her friend to respond. His body was completely limp. Only the slightest rise and fall of his chest told her he was still breathing.
It took everything in Kris to even lift his head to acknowledge her. “H-hey…”
Tears ran down Susie’s face when she saw the blood that had poured from his mouth and heard how weak his voice had become. “Kris!” she stroked his face, parting his bangs so she could see his ruby eyes. The light inside them was fading fast. “Kris, it’s okay, I’ll get you out of here-”
“You did really good Susie…” it seemed he didn’t even acknowledge her speaking. “You were… you were amazing…”
“Kris, come on!” she grabbed his hand, trying to drape it over her shoulder. “Try and get up, I’ll get you somewhere safe!”
“I can’t get up, Susie.” Even if his voice was reduced to a whisper, he still sounded so sure and resolute. He didn’t sound afraid. He was even smiling a little. “And you’re too weakened to carry me.”
“Kris, no…” desperation took hold of her and refused to let go. “No, no, NO! Come on, I’ll… I can-I can try and get Ralsei up-“
“Ralsei won’t be able to get up. We don’t have anything to heal with.” He could feel himself fading, and he wanted to make sure he could get the best possible look at Susie before the end. He tried lifting his arm up to her cheek, but he couldn’t even make it past her elbow.
Susie saw how he was struggling, and lifted his palm to her face. Deep down, she knew he wasn’t going to make it, no matter how much it hurt, or how much she desperately tried to deny it. Tears ran down her bruised face. “Kris…”
He gazed at her, pained that she was so distraught, but gladdened that she would be the last thing he’d see. “It’s okay Susie… It’s oka-OOMPH!”
And then a pair of fuzzy brown hands stuffed something warm and saucy and cheesy down both of their throats. The pain immediately subsided. Kris felt his belly; it was dry and bloodless, and while his stomach still hurt, it certainly wasn’t open anymore. The biting pain in Susie’s shoulder was gone. It still ached, but she could move it without the excruciating stabbing feeling of broken bones inside her.
The two looked up and got to their feet to look on their newfound savior, who pulled back his hood to reveal…
“Burgerpants?!” Kris exclaimed.
“Sup, little buddy.” He chided. “Here, you guys took a beating. Have some more.” He reached into a big rectangular bag slung over his shoulder and took out two more slices of warm heartpizza.
“What are you doing he-OOOMPHH!” Susie protested with yet another full helping of pizza. As the food eased her nerves and healed her wounds, she resigned herself to listen as her mouth was now full.
“You guys have some serious bro-globes trying to take on the Icicle Knight alone like that. You little weasels are lucky to be alive. Not even I could beat him, let alone all his buddies. I’ve tried.” The disheveled cat said as he tossed a slice of pizza towards Ralsei’s empty robes. It landed and the young goat prince poofed back into view.
Ralsei shook his head and immediately got his bearings, running towards the rest of his party. “Kris! Susie!” I was so worried! Are you okay? Do you need some extra healing magi-MMPH!”
“There ya go. It's practically cardboard, but it helps.”
Having swallowed her pizza, Susie’s gratitude still had to take a backseat to her indignance. “DUDE! Were you here the whole time?! Why didn’t you help?!”
“In case you didn’t notice the door was shut.” Burgerpants pointed towards the now opened door with his characteristic tired smile. “It only just now opened, FYI. That one too.” He pointed towards the northern chasm wall, creaking open to reveal what they had been looking for.
The dark fountain radiated its beautiful kaleidoscope of colors, beckoning them all with its unknowable splendor.
“Looks like you kids just got your ticket home.”
_________
Kris and Susie woke up, chilly, but otherwise unaffected. The light came back to them, and they found themselves surrounded by empty boxes, along with spilled breadsticks, tomatoes, and pepperoni. Old wire shelving surrounded them, laden with various boxes and bags of dough and cheese and sausage and other ingredients. They looked back and saw the sub-zero cooler door open, icicles hanging off the freezer unit.
“*Ahem*”
They turned to the other door in front of them.
“You kids know you’re not allowed back here, right?” Burgerpants took a draft of his cigarette, his hand leaning on the refrigerator doorframe.
“Oh… sorry dude.” Susie eked out. She looked down and saw she was gripping a long, pointy cooking thermometer.
“Here, gimme that. You’ll poke your eye out, kid.” He confiscated the equipment before sending them on their way. “It’s a good thing we’re not open yet. Be glad it’s me that caught you. By the way, one of you dropped this.” He took out a messy old hairbrush from one of his pockets.
“That’s mine” Susie replied sheepishly as she took it back.
“Mm-hm, and all this is mine.” He said as he pointed to the contents of the walk-in before shutting the door. “Now, let me show you two the door.”
Spring had brought all the leaves back onto the trees, and the air was still cool and crisp. The bell on the doorframe jingled and the wind swept by Kris and Susie as they were escorted off the premises.
“Now, what are the rules from here on out?”
“No sneaking in while the store Is closed.” Susie replied begrudgingly.
“And?”
“No taking stuff from the walk-in.” Kris said with his head hung low.
“And lastly?”
Susie and Kris were puzzled. He had only told them those two rules.
Burgerpants smirked at both of them. “Let me know before you go off fighting any bosses.” He shut the door behind him, leaving the two troublemakers flabbergasted.
Kris exchanged looks with Susie. “So… we heading back here tomorrow?
“Let’s just stick to the Library.”
THE END