[03] Arctic Sector FIGHT

[DA 2009]

SAGE VS. MAL NOVA

As the Fiend Wind ripped at Sage, she found herself somewhat defenseless. This was her playground, her environment, but wind did not equal cold, and thus, she was completely vulnerable to Mal Nova’s elemental attacks. Had she the mind for strategy, she could have figured out a way to turn the situation to her favor, but right now her focus lay in not getting sliced up like salami. Her victories chalked up to accident and inexplicable rage through manipulation. What hope did she have in direct face-to-face combat?

Mal pushed his energy forward, placing all of his might behind the single attack; he could leave nothing to chance. Not this time, not again. The beast was slowly overtaking him, and if he was to rise to the greatness destined upon him, sooner or later, he had to embrace it and harness it.

Once again in the fight, Sage had no recourse but to become surrounded by a bunker of ice, preventing the Fiend Wind from lacerating her skin. Instead, the furious gusts merely shaved uselessly at ice. It was a good defense, but provided little latitude for offense. Frustrated, and realizing that his prey was completely immobilized, Mal Nova launched himself at the ice-covered girl and tore viciously at the frozen casing with his bare hands. He was tired of them running, running from him, and somehow managing to get away. Eventually, the Glacier shattered, just as it had done before, and Mal cut the girl four bloody gashes across the cheek. She recoiled, and the Frostroots came of their own accord. Maleficus, however, by this point was wise to that seemingly automated defense, and quickly teleported away on lightning reflexes.

He reappeared in the air, and sent another burst of Fiend Wind from above. Sage felt her body being wrenched to the side from the blast, and quickly gathered enough of her senses to start running, albeit somewhat aimlessly. Where was there to go? Eventually she’d reach the barrier, but this fight, she didn’t intend to run away. Maybe it was the cocktail surging through her veins, or maybe it was a bit of confidence she’d managed to muster in her skills, but thus far, she’d been able to hold her own…without help.

Mal took great delight at throwing gusts of wind, almost like he was shooting fish in a barrel. He followed her from above, like a great aerial bomber of doom. The only thing that could have possibly completed the terrifying bombardier maneuvers would have been Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” playing in the background. Bits of snow flew up as the tunneling drills of wind struck everywhere but the intended target, as if the arctic field was filled with deadly landmines. Suddenly, she cut around and started running the opposite direction, catching him off-guard. Sage threw up a bit of Frostbite, causing the namek’s dominant position to be compromised. Immediately afterward, the entire battlefield became trenched in a thick fog that permeated from the mistress of ice herself. The temperature quickly dropped, but suddenly heated back up at an insane pace, causing a thick obscurity to the environment. Mal projected a quick burst of wind to counteract the Frostbite, but the goal had already been accomplished.

He breathed heavily, unable to see through the density. All that was visible were strange, glittery bits dispersed throughout the mist. Then, shapes and shadows began to dance along the emptiness. Mal just shook his head: pathetic. It took more than a few tricks to scare him, the son of Retane, a spawn to ascend to the mantle of Reaper. He was the monster here. The imperfect namek sucked in a deep breath, and expelled a gale in all directions, whipping up the fog and dissipating the blanket it cast over the snow.

Sage could sense that her many distractions were failing to set up a decent enough attack to keep the namek down for good. She sighed, more of mental exhaustion than physical. The emerald-skinned creature was proving to be completely relentless, a trait shared with her first opponent—had she even remembered the second, or could discern without doubt what was real and what was not about that encounter. Suddenly, a second wave of fresh euphoria overcame her, cementing her resolve. Unbidden, her cryokinetic energy came to the surface, faster than she could control it, faster than she could realize what was going on. It reached a pinnacle, and as it boiled over, she let out a shriek.

Mal, of course, being keen of hearing, pinpointed the sound exactly, and sought to swoop down upon his prey, a trail of wind blazing in his wake.

Sage screamed, and kept on screaming, as her power completely exploded like a nuclear blast. Mal was stopped in his tracks by arctic winds that rivaled…no, surpassed…that of anything the master of airstream had ever created. The ground beneath erupted in glacial spikes, and snow furiously kicked up into the air. It was as if the entire Arctic Sector had bent to her will, and focused on a single target: Maleficus Nova. He threw his arms up, surrounding himself in another torrent of wind to try and ward off the inevitable. A thick sheen of frost slowly crept along his clothes, and eventually his skin. And then, finally, the swirling torrent of the storm closed in on him, completely encasing him in ice. Not once did he scream.

As the last of Sage’s energy left her, she collapsed to her knees and fell over on her palms, and the storm subsided, leaving behind a trail of devastation in its wake. Within the bubble of the stasis field, everything remained as she had initially willed it. She raggedly caught her breath, and looked up. Oddly, she saw nothing. She doggedly got to her feet and walked over to where her opponent had last been located. As she neared closer, she saw a smattering of ice chunks scattered across the spear-like glaciers. Upon further inspection she realized that the chunks…weren’t…colored like normal ice. Bits of green…and black…and metal…glistened within…

She looked at it, putting the pieces together in her mind. The worst thing was, she couldn’t be sure, but she felt…happy? She was happy that this happened?