[03] Prisoners vs. Magnus!

[Sage]

The fire that suddenly ignited behind Sage’s coral irises was something Xenia hadn’t been privy to before. She hadn’t seen what Sage had done in Dante’s Abyss. She hadn’t seen Sage help summon the legendary, eternal dragon, either. She hadn’t seen power like Sage’s, either. Not in a long, long time.

“Leave him alone,” she said. Her tone was even, and soft. A quiet venom lingered behind it, that convinced Magnus to half-turn toward the girl. His long, black bangs swayed over his eyes as he tilted his head, before casually raising a hand to Wolfgang. A bright blue spark erupted between his dangling fingers, and he grinned.

“And what if I don’t?”

“Leave him alone,” Sage repeated. Magnus simply laughed, and, with a flick of his wrist, propelled the deadly ki spark toward the child. The azure haired girl didn’t move, but a chunk of rock hard ice suddenly materialized between the boy and the incoming missile. The frozen projectile hurled itself at Magnus’ attack, and crashed into it, forcing the crackling sphere to detonate before it could reach Wolfgang.

“The timid girl has-” Magnus cut himself off in order to jump out of the way as a half-dozen icy spikes tore out of the ground beneath him. Just as he landed, a half-dozen more burst out from the earth, narrowly missing him again. One after another, the spears shot out of the earth, chasing him away from the little boy. “Wh-?!”

Sage wasn’t finished. A vicious, arctic chill suddenly buffeted the trenchcoat-clad hacker, forcing him to shield his eyes from the blinding flurry. When he finally lowered his arm, he found himself surrounded by dozens of levitating, razor-sharp spears. The fire in Sage’s eyes had not yet gone out, either.

In an instant, each deadly missile hurled itself forward, and Magnus could do nothing but curl up in a pitiful defensive posture as they converged upon him. At the last second, an explosion tore out, and consumed the dark clothed man in a dusty haze.

Sage watched with apprehension, while the snowstorm got worse and temperature continued to plummet. Wolfgang trembled like a leaf, and the man in Asian clothing didn’t seem to be doing any better. Xenia composed herself, though Sage knew she must have been freezing. The scaly woman seemed worse off than all of them combined, and a part of Sage wanted to relent, but she knew it was for the greater good. She could only hope that she didn’t freeze the poor lizard girl.

As the dust cleared, however, it was Sage’s turn to stare in shock. A huge sphere of ice, imbedded with dozens of the girl’s ice spears, sat where Magnus had been standing before the explosion. “H-He...” she managed. “That’s... not possible. Nobody else...”

The ice cracked, and then shattered, revealing Magnus, his arms spread wide. “‘Nobody else’ what?” he inquired, brushing his hair out of his eyes. “Nobody else can use ice?” he chuckled, forming a spike in his palm. “You idiot.”

Magnus hurled the deadly artifact at Sage, but, to her surprise, the reptile girl suddenly grasped her wrist and the both of them... well, Sage didn’t really know what happened, but she found herself standing next to Xenia, a good twenty or more feet from where she was just a second ago.

Suddenly, her head swam, and that awful, awful pain blazed through her neurons anew. And she had just started to forget about it. She half-moaned, half-gurgled something unintelligible, while the Asian man - or Asian-clothed man, at least - launched himself at Magnus. Xenia flanked him at the same time. Sage just watched in a contorted stupor.

“What’s wrong with you?” hissed the blue woman.

“N-Nothing,” Sage managed through clenched teeth. She was shaking, and sweating, despite the ludicrous cold. “I- just- need...” Sage looked up at Alura, who was shivering uncontrollably. “...You’re freezing.”

“No, I’m alright. I’ll just-”

“N-No,” the crystal haired addict interrupted. “Magnus can use ice anyway. I don’t think the cold is doing anything to help...” Sage mumbled, more to herself than to the reptile in front of her. She closed her eyes, and in moments, the raging storm quelled, and the intense cold gave way to much more tolerable conditions.

“I...” Sage shook her head, and watched as Magnus threw a backhand into Xenia’s cheek. “I’m doing this for you,” she whispered. Ice crept over her hands and shot from her fingertips, turning her delicate hands into fearsome claws. She spoke again, louder. “Let’s see what you do with this.”

A heavy fog suddenly fell upon the battlefield, and Sage raced into it, arms extended. Dazzling, sparkling lights danced all around Magnus, and behind them, shadows came and went every which way. Some seemed shaped like Xenia, some like Sage, others like Zhu and Alura. But there were too many of them. Far too many.

Magnus opened fire on the nearest shadow, hurling a blast of energy at it. Nothing happened. He loosed an attack at another. Nothing. In a panic, Magnus fired at everything that moved all around him, giving Sage enormous opportunity to charge at him from behind.

The gothic hacker was completely unprepared for the four savage claws that raked straight through his trench coat and across his back. He stumbled forward as his blood spattered on the ground, but he didn’t fall.

Instead, a sharp elbow connected with Sage’s face, shattering the thin ice that protected it, and launching the girl flat onto her back. Magnus grinned, his eyes wide and... crazy. “Not nice,” he growled.