ALL NOVEL Chapter 61: Elemental
It is said that the process of creating ensouled artifacts is lost, but that is not strictly true. Many accounts of creating ensouled artifacts still exist. It is simply that following those procedures today doesn’t result in the creation of an ensouled artifact.
-Deckard’s Compendium of Ensouled Artifacts
—
Kole had to fight his way upstream of the villagers fleeing towards him through the tunnel. An icy wind blew down the caves, carrying the sound of chaos even over the screams.
When Kole reached the opening to the large cavern, he found his friends standing at the cave opening, facing a twenty-foot-tall roughly humanoid creature made of ice. The proportions were generally human, but much thicker, and it was the same blue-tinged ice crystals of the fox he’d just found.
The ceiling of the cavern had caved in, and snow was flooding the chamber. The elemental rampaged about, flipping tables, in search of something and ignoring all the people that fled.
“I found an ice elemental fox thing in that guy’s room!” Kole blurted out.
“Hah!” Rakin shouted, “That’s it!”
“What ‘it’? Zale asked him, sword drawn ready for the elementals attack, should it ever come.
“I’ve been pissed off all week, and I couldn’t place why,” Rakin growled. He pointed to the elemental. “And this thing is making me feel the same way! It’s like its presence is attacking my soul.”
Kole could feel the dwarf radiate heat and the ice of the tunnel floor was to melting beneath him.
As if it heard them, the head of the giant ice elemental turned towards them.
“Run!” Zale commanded, turning to flee down the tunnel as the creature came for them. “It must be looking for the fox!”
They ran, heading back to the in at full tilt.
While normally the fastest, Rakin’s uncontrolled heat was melting the ground beneath his feet, causing him to slip and fall behind. The ice behemoth ran after them, each step shaking the cave and bringing chunks of the ceiling down on them. It charged, seemingly unconcerned that it was twice the size of the opening it ran toward.
When it reached to tunnel mouth, there was no crash or crack as one would expect from the collusion of two masses of ice. Instead, the creature seemed to meld into the walls and floor around it, causing the tunnel to narrow. The dirty white ice walls closed in on themselves until the tunnel itself was gone, leaving a clear icy blue wall that continued toward them.
“Run faster!” Zale shouted, risking a glance back.
Zale was out front, followed by Doug, with Kole a few strides behind.
Kole drew his blasting rod and risked a glance back. He saw that Rakin was only a few strides behind him and the wall was twenty yards back. Pointing his blasting rod back over his shoulder as he ran, Kole sent a bolt of Force down the tunnel at the wall. As he looked back, he saw Doug suddenly appear behind him, Kole’s bolt nearly striking him as it flew.
“Flood!” Doug cursed, as surprised by his appearance as Kole.
Behind Doug, the bolt hit with a satisfying crack, barely audible over the rumbling of the approaching wall, but when Kole risked another glance back, he saw no evidence of any damage and Doug had already overtaken Rakin.
“Turn!” Zale shouted from ahead, and Kole saw her turn left at the next intersection towards the inn.
Kole slowed as he approached the turn, the ground slick from the mad dash of those who fled before him. As he turned, he looked at the encroaching wall and watched in horror as it merged with the ice of the tunnel, disappearing from view and heading straight towards the inn.
“It’s going through the ice!” Kole called ahead.
Zale, sensing something Kole didn’t, dove to the ground, just as jagged icicles grew from the wall, aiming for her head. Doug slid under the obstacles and helped Zale to her feet as they continued on. As they ran, icicles continued to burst from the left wall. Doug hid behind Zale, her armor protecting her from the fragile ice spears, but the assault slowed them enough that Kole and Rakin were able to catch up.
Rakin charged through the ice, shattering them with his fists, both empowered by the control of his ki and nearly glowing with heat from his uncontrolled fury. The elemental didn’t take kindly to Rakin’s presence and the tunnel began to close in around him, clear blue ice seeping out of the walls and engulfing him as it sealed the way.
“I’ll be back!” Zale shouted as she ran at Rakin.
Just as she was about to reach him, she vanished into a cloud of black, only to reappear moment later, dimly viewed through the ice running on. Rakin was soon completely swallowed by the ice, but Kole and Doug watched as he fought back within. The dwarf gave up any semblance of control over his Fire abilities, and flames began to wreath off of him, melting the ice around him and creating a pocket of water. The outside of the elemental seemed to panic, as it tried to retreat into the walls.
“Run!” Kole shouted, but it was too late.
The water within the elemental cage rapidly turned to steam, and then the elemental exploded, sending a shock wave of icy shards everywhere.
“Bo!” Kole shouted, stepping between Doug and Rakin.
A Shield appeared before him, a dim flicker in the poorly lit tunnel, only visible as it diverted the shards of deadly ice and steam around them.
The shards melted into the floor around them, merging with the ice, as a fiery Rakin emerged from the steam, no sanity left in his eyes.
“What in—“ Doug began, but Kole pulled him along down the hall.
“Run!”
Rakin began to chase them, but the ice elemental wasn’t done. The tunnel above him collapsed, and he was crushed under a pile of ice.
Kole and Doug stopped, looking around for signs of attack.
“Is he—“ Doug once more began, bow drawn uselessly pointing at the walls around him.
He trailed off when he saw the steam rising from the pile of icy rubble as it collapsed in on itself. Kole and Doug watched on in awe as Rakin burst from the pile, only to be struck down by another chunk of ice from above.
“Who do we shoot?” Doug asked Kole, who was also pointing his blasting rod around uncertainly.
Seemingly forgotten, they watched as the Fire primal fought against the malicious tunnel. With each strike of ice he took, Rakin’s flames seemed to dim a little, but the malice in his eyes stayed hot.
Through the chaos, they heard Zale’s shouting.
“I have it!”
Rakin paused, in his rage against the elemental, turning toward the familiar voice, but his momentary calm vanished when he spotted the small ice elemental in her arms.
“Argh!” he screamed and ran at his cousin.
The ice too then noticed Zale, and the attacks on Rakin ceased. A clear streak, much diminished from what Kole originally fled slid into the wall in pursuit, dashed to Zale through the ice, quickly outpacing Rakin whose traction had only worsened after the battle and his increased heat. An icy arm reached out of the ceiling above Zale, and the fox climbed up her, yipping happily as it jumped into the hand and then disappeared into the ceiling.
“Rakin! Calm down!” Zale shouted, drawing her sword.
The dwarf didn’t listen and continued to lurch toward Zale. Steam rose, filling the tunnel as the water boiled in the pools of Rakin’s feet
“Sorry!” Kole shouted as he sent his Will into the rod.
A bolt flew across the tunnel, striking Rakin in the back, and causing him to stumble again. Where he fell, the ground melted further, creating a pit several inches deep. Kole sent another bolt at him as he tried to rise again, toppling him once more, and by then the steam was too thick for Kole to see anything but a red glow. Zale took the opportunity of the first two falls to close in on Rakin, and using her Willsight to see through the steam, she struck her cousin on the side of his head with the flat of her sword.
“I think he’s out!” Zale called through the steam, and shortly after the red glow began to die down.
Doug and Zale moved in cautiously. Up close, they saw Rakin, as he lay in a small pool of rapidly cooling water on the icy floor.
“We need to find a better solution for this if it’s going to keep happening,” Kole said as he examined Rakin.
The water was tinged red with his blood as he bled through dozens of wounds, both from Kole and the elemental.
“What the Fauell was that!?” Doug demanded. “I know that’s not a normal dwarven thing… right?”