LoS: Heart of Power: Ch 11

Battle of Ice


Spyro, Cynder, Ravina and the Observer slowly entered the fog filled room. Behind them the wall almost immediately closed hiding any traces of their passing.

The fog hang around them in a dense cloud  obscuring all vision beyond a few meters and making it impossible to see how big or what kind of room they were in. The fog was also very cold and both Cynder and Ravina shivered a bit from contact with it. Spyro and the Observer remained unaffected however.

"Where are we?" asked Spyro looking at the Observer.

The Observer smiled before he answered. "I think you will find the answer for that question soon enough."

At that very moment a shadow appeared in the fog ahead of them and a little above. Just a moment later a massive sphere of ice came out of the fog and shattered against a wall of rock Spyro had only barely raised in time.

More sphere´s of ice followed in a steady stream, shattering upon the ground all around them. But the shadows in the fog offered more than enough warning for Spyro to protect them from any spheres which came close  to hitting them.

But they could not see exactly where they were being attacked from either.

But they had a general idea of the direction of their attacker and Cynder made use of that. Spreading her wings wide, she let a thick coat of acid seep forth from her scales and cover the membranes. Making a low jump into the air she then beat her wings in the perceived direction they were being attacked from.  

Immediately the acid on her wings flew of forming a swarm of deadly acid daggers which disappeared into the fog. Cynder quickly landed on the ground again and waited for a reaction.

The barrage of icy spheres almost immediately stopped though no sound came from within the fog. Then suddenly a shadow appeared just ahead of Cynder and Spyro reacted quickly raising a barrier of rock in front of her.

A spear of ice longer than even Spyro and Cynder combined came out of the fog and pierced the rock barrier without even slowing down for a moment. Luckily the spear was a bit of and instead of hitting Cynder it simply drove into the ground just in front of her.

Cynder looked at the spear, but then looked forward again. "That's it! let us see what we are dealing with!" she said with a snarl.

A powerful wind rose around her and spread through the room like a hurricane.

Immediately the fog started to disperse as the wind pushed it upwards, clearing the room.

The room revealed to them was instantly recognizable. It was the same circular shape as the two other rooms where they had faced a guardian and this room was no different as a brilliant statue of white and blue crystals came into sight before them. It actually looked like it had been sculpted in the very ice it represented.

Like the other statues this one was much larger than them, standing at least three times taller than them in the middle of the room. But unlike the other two guardians they had faced this one was immobile standing like a tower in the middle of the room and held in place by powerful crystal chains running from the middle of its body and into the ground.

Three rings of white crystal also circled around its legs and though they did not touch the statues body they still gave the impression that they were keeping something powerful trapped. These circles had numerous holes in them from where Cynder´s acid daggers had impacted.

Its upper body was also white, but glowed with an inner blue light. It looked like that of the Mole´s with powerful arms and a single head. However all of it was simply smooth crystal with no features standing out. Even its face was completely smooth with only two glowing purple eyes standing out.

Even as they watched the statue it raised one of its massive hands up into the cloud which the fog had formed above. When the hand appeared again it was holding another spear and it looked at Cynder with its purple gaze.

"I'll handle this" said Cynder quickly as Spyro was about to move forward protectively. "I'll show that construct exactly who it is messing with."

As the massive spear was hurled at Cynder she jumped into the air towards it, dark energy gathering around both her wings.

Turning in the air she unleashed the energy on one of her wings as a dark blade which split the long end of the spear in two. Both parts passed harmlessly around Cynder as she quickly turned around again and unleashed the energy on her other wing in the process, aiming at the statues head this time.

But the statue seemed to have learned from the spear and swinging one of its arms in a broad arch it hit the dark blade with the back of its hand and made it bounce away, harmlessly striking the wall behind the statue.

But the moment the statue lowered its hand, Spyro struck. Having flown low across the ground towards the statue he now ascended towards its head his mouth wide open and lightning arching from it and as he flew up past its upper body, the lightning struck its surface repeatedly, leaving behind great cracks.

He was forced to turn before he reached the head as the statues massive right hand came towards him, but it left the statue open as Ravina came in from the side and aimed a power shriek at the statues head.

The blast from the shriek knocked its head sideways and the statues arms felt limply down next to its body.

Spyro, Cynder and Ravina each landed on the ground again.

"That wasn't too hard" said Spyro with a smile as he looked at the unmoving statue and then turned to Cynder. "Seems like that fog was its only defense."

Spyro had barely finished his sentence before a cold chuckle was heard from the Observer. "You might want to take another look at it."

Spyro immediately turned his attention back to the statue and saw it slowly start moving again. Even as they watched the statue slowly reached its hand up into the cloud above and a stream of ice flowed down its arm mending the cracked parts of its body.
"Its surface is coated in ice!" exclaimed Ravina as it saw it.

"You can see that from here?" asked Spyro surprised as to him it looked like the crystals were just mending.

"No, but I noticed a large area of shattering and flying past me when I made my attack while what below remained relatively undamaged" said Ravina quickly. "I did not understand quite why until now."

"So the ice takes the blunt of the damage, protecting what is below" said Cynder quickly in understanding.

"Well that complicates things, but nothing we can't handle" said Spyro confidently and leapt into the air just as a new spear struck the ground where they were standing. "I'll take care of the ice layer, you strike while it is vulnerable!"

Cynder and Ravina nodded and then flew to either side to circle the statue.

As Spyro approached the statue it raised its left hand towards him and from the palm of the hand erupted a storm of ice, snow and deadly claw long icicles which flew at Spyro like a blizzard.

But Spyro did not change his direction. Shedding himself in a cloak of flames he dived head first into the blizzard.

Spyro could hear the hissing sound of the ice and snow turning to water and steam as it impacted the flames protecting him. But the flames did not extinguish or even waver.
Suddenly the blizzard stopped and Spyro saw the statue just in front of him, its right arm poised for a blow against him.

Spyro beat his wings and quickly ascended, narrowly dodging the massive fist. Now hovering right in front of the statues face Spyro unleashed the flames surrounding his body, turning them into spheres of flame aimed at the statues face.

But the statue was faster than Spyro had anticipated as its left hand moved protectively in front of it face, blocking the flames.

However before the statue could react again, Cynder flew in from the side directing a series of acid projectiles at the area of the hand where Spyro´s flames had impacted.

The red energy balls struck the same area of the hand one after the other, seeping into the crystal and weakening it for Ravina, who flew past from the other side and directed four red energy projectiles at the weakened area.

The hand broke off and tumbled down the side of the statue´s body before smashing against the floor.

The statue immediately struck out against Cynder and Ravina, but both were already out of reach. Instead it focused upon Spyro who was coming back for another attack.

Spyro launched several fireballs at the statues body, but it unleashed a wave of cold from the stump where its left hand had been, extinguishing the flames and forcing Spyro to turn away to avoid getting caught in the same blast.

Immediately the statue struck out against him its unhurt right arm and Spyro ascended to get clear. Though the blow itself missed, Spyro suddenly felt a sudden cold near his feet, and he stopped in the air unable to move.

Looking down Spyro saw  stands of ice reaching out of the statues right arm and grasping his feet, preventing him from flying away.

Looking up Spyro saw the left arm coming towards him, ice flowing around the stump where the hand had been forming a giant blade.

Spyro could see he did not have time to get free and so readied himself for the blow with several layers of protective rocks, but he could not help wonder if it would be enough…

"Spyro!" yelled Cynder desperately as she had seen the danger he was in, but though she flew as fast as she could, she was not sure she could reach it in time. That was when she saw Ravina.

Ravina flew at the left arm with no other thought in her head than to protect Spyro. Opening her mouth she unleashed the most powerful shriek she could muster and the resulting shockwave shattered the ice blade.

But the rest of the left arm was still moving towards Spyro with dangerous force and so Ravina rammed into the side of it with all the speed she could muster. Though she turned just before hitting the left arm, so that her side impacted the arm and not her head, she still felt her breath leave her and pain overwhelmed her. But she also felt the arm shift a little.

The statues left arm was indeed shifted a little, sliding of Spyro´s rock barriers to minimal damage instead of impacting them directly.

Spyro reacted to this by dislodging his armor, turning it into a projectile he aimed at the left arm, knocking it further away. With his vision free he saw Ravina gliding weakly towards the ground and guessed what had happened.

But just as quickly he realized this was their best chance. Not even bothering to free himself first he then turned towards the statues head and launched a massive fireball at it.

The fireball impacted the head with tremendous force enveloping it in a sphere of flames.

But that only lasted a second before Cynder opened a path through the roaring flames with her wind and surrounded in a layer of protective acid she flew at the head. She weakened its structure with a quick shriek before smashing straight through it.

The statue immediately stopped moving and like the other two started transforming into a giant hourglass.

But neither Spyro, nor Cynder saw any of that as they both quickly landed near Ravina. She was lying on the ground breathing heavily and watched as the statue crumbled. She then looked at Spyro as he came over to her.

"Are you okay?" she asked slowly.

Spyro smiled a bit. "I am the one who should be asking that" said Spyro sounding a bit worried.

Ravina chuckled a bit, but it made her entire body quiver with pain and she quickly stopped. "I am a bit dizzy and it hurts a bit when I breathe, but I don't think it is anything severe" she said with a small smile.

"Might be a broken rib" suggested Cynder from hearing the description.

"That is correct, Black Dragoness" said the Observer as he walked over to them. "But there is nothing we can do about it here unless we stay put until it is healed." Though his voice was it usual cold tone, the Observer had his face turned towards Ravina the entire time. "Sorry" he added in a whisper as he looked at her.

Ravina did not respond at first, but instead rose to her feet though the movement caused her obvious pain. "I am not asking for anything to be done about it, I won't be slowed down by this" said Ravina firmly, though her face still had twitches of pain.

"Are you sure?" asked Spyro sounding a bit worried. "You could rest a bit while we continue" he suggested.

Ravina shook her head. "I won't slow you down" she said firmly even though her breathing still sounded pained.

"No you won't" said Cynder and walking forward quickly she stabbed Ravina´s leg with one of her claws. It was only just enough to pierce Ravina´s skin.

Ravina looked at Cynder with anger and surprise in her eyes, but before she could say anything she felt the pain in her stomach lessen and the pain she felt from breathing disappeared…

"What did you do?" asked Ravina surprised.

"Just a weak poison which should lowers your feelings. You won´t be able to fight at peak capacity if you're in constant pain and that might bring us in danger" said Cynder firmly. "It should have no negative effects besides that."

"Should have?" asked Ravina skeptically, but did not wait for an answer before continuing more calmly. "Thank you, it is probably going to help me a lot."

"It is I who should thank you" said Cynder sounding less firm and mistrustful than when she usually addressed Ravina. "You protected Spyro and that deserves my thanks."
Ravina looked a bit surprised and then smiled.

Together they all continued through the door that had opened, heading ever deeper into the complex.