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Her blades sank into ice, sliding down that formidable vertical drop again. But Thea rammed her remaining spike into the wall below. Pain blazed at her ankle as that one joint took her whole weight suddenly. It jarred and she let out a wild scream. But she did not let go, did not falter as she clawed her way up.
Axe, axe, spike. Axe, axe, spike. Three motions again and again, her teeth clenched so hard her jaw burned. She could taste blood on her tongue. She could feel the fire of multiple lacerations to her body, and she could see the smear of her blood across the frozen wall where the tail had nearly crushed her.
Axe, axe, spike. Axe, axe, spike.
On the next swing of her blade, Thea met no resistance, nothing for her axe to sink into.
With a rattling breath, she reached up with her fingers…
There, she found the edge of the wall.
There, she found her salvation.
With every ounce of strength she had left, Thea climbed to that ledge and hauled herself over the top of the wall.
A sudden ear-splitting roar nearly sent her sprawling back over the edge to her doom. And then she looked up.
A broken cry of terror bubbled from her lips as she gazed upon a monster not of this world. Crystalline scales gleamed like tears of the gods themselves, and piercing sapphire eyes left ice in their wake.
Thea scrambled back, careful not to look directly into its stare, lest it freeze her completely.
For it was an ice basilisk.
An ancient creature, an embodiment of winter’s wrath.
Its roar sounded again, ending on a high-pitched note that threatened to bring down the mountains around them.
Instinctively, Thea reached for her power —
Only to find it gone.
No magic would save her now.
She grasped her dagger with a trembling hand. The basilisk’s body writhed in the mess of snow and icy shards around it, as though it had just woken from a great slumber beneath the ice. Its scales shimmered in shades of glacial blue and silver, and it tried to pierce her with those deadly eyes, twin orbs of frosted fire desperate to freeze her in her tracks.
Its massive form coiled, ready to strike.
But magic or not, Thea had never been one to wait.
With a silent cry on her lips, she lunged with her dagger, aiming for the softer underbelly of the monster.
But the basilisk was fast. Much faster than a creature of its size had any right to be.
It lashed out at Thea with its barbed tail, and now, she could see the poison that tipped its sharp point.
She leapt from its path, grateful for a lifetime of Dancing Alchemists, grateful for all the shadows she’d fought that hadmade her nimble. Avoiding another strike of that horrific barb, she managed to drag her blade across the softer scales, spilling its blood across the snow.
But scales were tough, and her blade hadn’t stuck in deep enough.
Her efforts only served to enrage the creature further.
A blast of ice nearly hit her. She threw herself out of its path. A shriek pierced the air and she ducked, rolling through the bloodied snow to avoid the vicious slash of two fangs now sinking into the ground.
Panicked and exhausted, Thea felt the loss of her magic profoundly. She wanted nothing more than to reach within and find that surge of power to blast the fucking basilisk off the mountain. But all was silent within. No crackle of lightning answered her call. No rumble of thunder in the distance…
Instead, the ground beneath her shook with so much force she couldn’t stand, and that deadly barb pierced the snow mere inches from her side.
Thea scrambled up, brandishing her dagger in her aching hand, swaying on her feet. She dodged another strike, and another, but her energy reserves were empty, her movements sluggish. Desperate, she tried to use her magic again —
