[01] Forest Sector FIGHT

[DA 2009]

SAGE VS. FROZEN

Sage took another step back, her nerves threatening to overtake her. It had been a fluke what she’d just done, and one that bore a double-edged result. She had injured him; that was good. She’d also made him angry; that was bad. The blue-haired hybrid was unsure if she could repeat the small victory. Frozen Dragon began to advance towards her, menacingly. Both joined Dante’s Abyss willingly, so both had as much at stake to win.

Frozen rotated the joint of his left arm; it was beginning to go numb from blood loss, with purple liquid streaking stains down his otherwise unblemished white skin.

“That was a lucky shot, my dear,” Frozen growled. The changeling was a tactician at heart. Although it displeased him to act with anything more than proper etiquette, he was, first and foremost, calculating. By taking advantage of her fears, keeping her on defense, he assured himself the upper hand. He could sense her vulnerability, and saw her as he would see a frightened animal backed into a corner. It was like a scent that drove him to go in for the kill. If he didn’t, she would surely kill him. All the better that she happened to have saiyan and human blood, his two most favorite things in the world to eradicate. “But now, I’m going to have to end this little skirmish. If it’s any consolation, I will always remember you after I’m done killing you.”

He held up his right hand, the powers of his icy elemental ki coming to life. Sage’s rosy eyes widened, knowing now that she wasn’t as immune to the cold as she thought she was. Briefly, her mind flashed back to the conversation shared between her and Sophia, not at all long enough ago. Sophia told her what it felt like to die, to be dead, and the fleeting thought that maybe Sage was about to experience that same feeling firsthand danced through her brain. Frozen roared and leaped into the air.

Everything happened so fast.

Purely on instinct, or maybe a latent resurfacing of her early combat training, prompted Sage to react. She squeezed her eyes shut and sent out a frigid blast of bone chilling snow flurries. They pierced Frozen Dragon’s skin like razors. Having already charged up the blast of elemental ki in his right hand, Frozen impulsively brought up his left hand to shield. Unfortunately, this focused all of Sage’s defense in one location. The snow flurries devoured away at his extremity like little magnets, encasing the entire limb in ice first, and then slowly penetrating all the way to the bone until it began to crack. Without any chance of stopping it, his left arm shattered like glass into a thousand pieces. It was too late to stop now, though; Frozen was already committed. He used the power of flight to push through the miniature snowstorm. If he could just reach her with his right hand, he would go for her head, and then it would all be over.

The recoil of the blast sent Sage stumbling backwards. Once more, her ice powers summoned, seemingly of their own accord, as she tried to formulate another attack. Then Frozen crashed into her, and she jerked her head to one side as they both tumbled onto the ground. Sage slammed hard onto the forest floor, surprisingly not feeling the weight of the changeling pinning her down.

Briefly, she wondered if she might be dead. She opened her eyes and turned her head to face forward. Frozen was staring down at her, mere inches away. His face was contorted in pain, and his throat expanded and contracted in strangled gasps. The girl couldn’t understand why, until she glanced down. At the center of his body, threads of ice pushed into his flesh and out the other side. It was just like she’d done before with Orion, only this time, she hadn’t stopped; she hadn’t even realized she was doing it. Sage looked back at Frozen, into his good eye. Somehow, she found herself overwhelmed with the urge to cry as realization flooded her mind.

“I-it’s…not real…it’s…n-not r-r-real…” Sage pleaded brokenly, unsure of which of the two she was trying to convince more.

“I…wasn’t…supposed to die…” Frozen choked. Blood dribbled from his mouth and splattered onto Sage’s cheeks.

She squeezed her eyes shut, and pushed Frozen off. The threads broke, and the changeling rolled onto his back, pushing the ice spears up through the front. Sage sat up and scooted herself backwards, drawing her knees close to her chest, and covered her mouth with her hands. She wanted to look away, to tear her eyes off of the creature before her, but she couldn’t.

Frozen’s chest heaved violently, and then he let out a long, sickeningly peaceful sigh as his last breath left his lungs. Then he went still.