"Kelstor, withdraw and prepare Scorching Lance!" Cass shouted over the battlefield. "Pellen, hold your spell until the last moment. Everyone else, keep the queen busy!"

She could have ordered Kelstor back silently via Salos, but there was no need to hide their maneuver from a monster that didn't understand language, and announcing it would give everyone else a better idea of what was happening.

Kelstor's claws tore off another hunk of the queen's flank as he pulled back.

"Fairy Fire!" Cass shouted next, pointing at Alyx. Salos lit the swordswoman in purple flames.

The queen snarled, thrashing after Alyx, entirely ignoring the retreating Kelstor. Ice materialized over the queen's head, razor shards pointed at Alyx.

Their timer had started.

"Marco, between Kelstor and the queen!" Cass ordered. "Everyone else spread out!"

There wasn't a lot of 'everyone else' left. Sir Kaiz had found another spear and was lurking around the edges. A few of the caravan guards remained on their feet, their levels about equal with Cass's.

Cass Sprinted to stand behind the queen, opposite Alyx. She drew a Tempest Blade along her staff and darted in, the lightning cutting into the queen's back leg.

Swap Fairy Fire, Cass said to Salos as the queen grunted in pain.

Cass's skin erupted in flames.

The queen jerked around, its ice projectiles turning and firing on Cass.

Cass darted back, using Elemental Manipulation to turn the ice spears aside.

Seven seconds remaining.

The queen charged Cass, its horns stabbing for her.

Sir Kaiz lunged from the side, stabbing a spear into the queen. He twisted the shaft and yanked it out again with a fount of blood.

Salos, swap Fairy Fire, Cass said. The flames bloomed around the noble.

The queen snarled, its charge drifting toward the spearman.

Alyx was already behind the queen, her sword glowing with her aura. She slashed down, the gold aura biting deep into rhynselk flesh.

Purple flames flickered around Alyx, dying around the spearman. The queen tossed its head in frustration, rounding toward Alyx again.

<<Five seconds,>> Kelstor warned, his telepathic voice crossing clearly across the battlefield.

Salos, Cass prompted him.

I know, Salos grunted. Fairy Fire erupted around Marco.

The guardsman slammed his sword against his shield. "Over here, beasty!"

The queen veered off Alyx, its eyes glowing with the purple of Fairy Fire's taunt. It charged Marco, ice shards growing around it.

Four seconds.

Marco's aura bloomed before him, creating a glowing shield.

The queen slammed into it, its forward nose horn hitting it with all the force of a semi-truck. Marco grunted, his feet skidding back through the gravel.

His aura shield held.

Three seconds.

The queen reared back, mana accumulating in its hooves, preparing a stomping attack.

Prepared but never to be released.

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Pellen shouted the last word of her chant. Silver bands wrapped around the queen's body.

The queen's head thrashed, but it couldn't move. It was caught, perfectly aligned to expose its underbelly to Kelstor's charging attack.

It could still fire off ice shards, though.

They careened through the air, all aimed at Marco. His shield flickered as shard after shard slammed against it.

Two seconds.

Marco's shield failed. One too many ice shard hit his aura. The construct fell. He staggered.

The ice kept coming.

But Cass was already at his side. She held her staff out, pushing Elemental Manipulation through it, shoving every ice shard aside.

One second.

Kelstor's jaw opened.

The queen squealed. Mana twisted around the beast and ice sprang into existence between them. Another ice shield.

Would Scorching Lance cut through it and the queen's hide?

Cass couldn't risk it. She needed to do something.

Alacrity slowed her perception of time. The last second crawled.

She Wind Stepped past Marco and rode the wind into the floating ice wall. She slammed into it, her hands slapping Elemental Manipulation into it as they collided.

Unlike the earlier ice shards, the wall was teeming with the monster's Wll. It rebuked Cass's touch. It demanded that the water hold this form. That it freeze. That it reject all heat.

Cass shoved her Wll into it anyway. It would melt. It would fall. Her Wll was greater. Her Wll aligned with nature.

This shield would MELT.

Zero seconds.

Scorching Lance released from Kelstor's maw.

Water and ice sloshed around Cass as she and it fell from the air. As her 100 Wll overpowered the beast's control of the material. As Scorching Lance burned through the space she and the ice had occupied barely moments before.

It burned into the queen's exposed chest.

It was so bright, Cass couldn't see.

It was so hot, the formless water around her boiled.

The scent of burning leather filled the air.

The queen screamed.

Kelstor's lance sputtered out, revealing a scorched pit in the rhynselk queen's chest. Revealing a slowly pulsing heart and burned organs.

Pellen's spell broke. The little mage collapsed to her knees.

The queen's hooves crashed down onto the stony ground. The mana in them exploded out in every direction, materializing ice in razor spears.

It was still alive?

How was it still alive? Cass could see its heart. Nothing should be able to survive with a heart visible to the elements, never mind the damage to its other organs.

Even as she watched, ice crept up and over the gaping wound, as if a sheet of ice could somehow act as skin. Maybe for the rhynselk it could.

Vitality specialists, Salos said it like it was a curse.

Cass pushed herself to her feet, her hands clenching around her staff.

Focus: 63/630

Vitality or not, there was no way that thing could take much more. What did they have left?

Marco was down, an ice spear impaled his thigh. He was breathing.

Pellen was out of Focus and collapsed on the back line. Out of spells, but also out of immediate danger.

The handful of other martials stood unsteady on their feet, most with new bleeding holes in their armor.

Kelstor shot over Cass's shoulder, slamming his entire body into the queen. His claws scraped against the ice sheet, ice and fire sizzling against one another.

Alyx was at his side a moment later. Her sword, dripping with her aura, slammed into the ice sheet. It cracked under her Strength.

But the queen was already repairing it. Mana swirled cold and fast around the wound, the cracks resealing.

Alyx swung again, stressing the cracks. Kelstor clawed at it, heat robbing integrity from the cold.

It wasn't enough. They needed just a little more.

Cass Sprinted in. She just needed to break the ice. Alyx could do the rest.

Ice was brittle. Brittle enough to shatter under force.

She summoned a Tempest Blade. It hummed in anticipation.

The queen roared. Ice materialized around it in a sea of spears. They slammed down on the attackers.

Kelstor unleashed another wave of Dragon Fire, the heat of his breath matching the cold of the queen's attack.

Alyx's sword slammed against the ice sheet, aura digging into the patch but not breaking it.

Cass swung, thunder roaring as it crashed into the ice wall, all the power of Tempest Blade roaring in her ears, backed by her staggering Wll and the bonuses of her staff.

Thunder rolled through the ice and the sheer force shattered the crystalline structure.

The cavity beyond was scorched black. Water vapor wafted through it, condensing in the unnatural cold of the beast's body. The heart pumped slow and methodic in the center.

More ice grew around the edges. Another second and the gap would reseal.

Alyx was faster.

Her sword, drenched in her amber aura, plunged into the cavity and stabbed through the bulbous tissue of the heart. Steam exploded around them as the cold blood of the rhynselk boiled around Alyx's blade.

The queen screamed. Ice spiked around them in a last desperate attempt to fend off its attackers.

The heart stilled. The ice shattered, dissolving into delicate powdered snow. The queen collapsed.

They'd won.

Cass dropped to her knees as adrenaline gave way to exhaustion. System notifications pinged in the back of her mind, accompanied by the rush of power that came with another level.

Alyx pulled her sword from the beast's heart, dark blood spraying from the suddenly still organ and steaming where it hit the surrounding snow.

They'd done it. Cass could feel the survivors. Their breaths were soft on the cold air. Some ragged from fighting. Some shallow from fear, slowly realizing their safety had been won.

They'd won. Cass repeated that to herself as she forced herself to her feet, leaning on her staff.

The air smelled of iron and char. The ground crunched with frozen blood with every step.

She'd saved more than had died this time. They'd won.

Even if she hadn't saved all of them.

Even if she'd stripped a man of his autonomy to do it.

They won.

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