Chapter 8 - Ice and Dragons
The dirt caved under him, Giu kicking off to avoid the cascade of ice flying in his direction. Pillars arched in the air. He dodged low, sidestepping a few but letting the others slide against his armored left arm as he closed the distance. The thief threw an icy wave from his hands, but Giu jumped right into it, breaking the cast with a heavy dropkick.
The thief staggered backward. Giu tried a follow-up attack, but the thief was quick to retaliate, blocking and knocking him back with an icy lance to the chest.
His fur stiffened. With each blow, he could feel a chill down to his bones. And every time he attacked, he got a slight twinge from Tea's flames burning him.
But none of that stopped Giu from acting. With each hit, his smile grew. Contact. Sweet contact. He went in for another strike only to dodge away as an avalanche of lances flew in his direction.
Trees split in two, icicles tearing through everything they touched. One grazed Giu's cheek, the biting chill cutting through his armor though the form change held.
The thief tried to gain distance, but Giu went on the offense again.
His eyes darted to one of the lances. With a shrug, he kicked off a chunk, using it like a spear to launch back at its creator.
Steady.
The thief raised a hand to deflect the blow.
Now!
Giu leapt forward the instant the ice made contact. The thief turned his way, ice channeling in his palm, but the canine struck mid-spell, sending his enemy sprawling backward. The jeers of the bear squadron roared behind him.
“Kick his tail, Dragon Dog!”
“That’s how you do it!”
“Show no mercy!”
Though he kept his tail wrapped around his waist, the urge to wag grew with every shout. Especially as Giu heard a certain pixie among them. He bounced off the ground, trying to decide between another three-piece jab combo or a roundhouse. He'd almost committed to the three-piece when the thief slammed his hands on the ground.
The grass below them froze on contact.
Giu almost slipped instantly, but he dug in his heels to keep himself rooted. Or at least he tried to before the ground shook under him. His body stumbled, dropping on all fours. Wind blew on his fur. A cold chill. Realization slapped him across the face when he looked down.
The ground wasn't shaking. It was rising.
Trees below became little more than bushes. Both Tea and the bears were invisible beyond the stretch of puddles that Giu knew marked massive riverbanks. They were thousands of feet in the air, suspended solely by an icy pillar.
The thief rose, flames burning bright as he stomped on his newly made platform.
Giu flashed his fangs. Is he challenging me? Almost as if in response, the thief extended a hand out, beckoning the canine. Giu growled. He forced himself to his feet, rushing in for an attack only for his boot to slide forward, gravity pulling him down hard on his back.
“Ow.”
The thief laughed from behind his mask. Giu managed to stand again only for his legs to slide away the minute he took a step forward. Son of a- When he rose the third time, he made sure to stay on all fours. That seemed to help. He glared up at the thief. Alright. Guess I gotta go feral now. He extended his tail, a primal snarl rising in his throat.
“Stubborn canine, aren’t you?”
The snarl dropped away.
“You can talk?” Giu asked.
The thief tapped his dragon mask. “Just because I wear this doesn’t mean I’m a mute.”
The canine’s ears twitched. He bared his fangs again if only a bluff. Just trying to stand up had taken as much effort as he could muster. On all fours, his options had shrunk to two. One of which he could very well see ending with him plummeting to his doom.
He channeled energy into his hands, smashing the ice to create more footing.
“You’ve got spirit kid,” the thief said. “But you’re in my element now. Call off your bears, and you might live through this.”
Giu smashed the ice with his feet, the sliding stopping as he tucked himself among the freshly created craters. They would have to do. His tail unfurled from his waist, Giu rising to his feet.
“They don’t work for me,” the canine said. “Besides…”
He raised his hands at the ready.
“No way that pixie would let me live a third loss down.”
The thief’s head tilted.
“That so, huh? Well, don't say I didn't warn you. Wescrogan."
The man sprung forward, rocketing across the ice. Giu moved to dodge but felt shots across his face long before he had time to react.
The thief darted to his side. Giu blocked the first hit, but the next swept his legs from under him. He managed to roll away. Was this another illusion? The pain in his cheeks told him it was real. He climbed back up.
Chips crunched under his heels. Every time he took a step he had to create a new footpath. But it did little to help. The thief hadn't been bluffing. He skated to and fro, flaming attacks coming from all directions. The right. Behind. Above. Giu threw a punch only to feel it grabbed and countered, the canine stumbling back in a daze.
A sudden tug yanked on his frame.
His tail swished behind him, arms flailing as he felt his feet hanging over the edge of the pillar. The pull of gravity was unrelenting. He shifted every ounce of his weight forward, squatting low and using his backside like a rudder.
It helped. Phew. But when he turned his attention to the thief, that relief quickly dissipated.
As fast as his enemy was, catching them in his sights was a vital rarity. One he knew wouldn't last. And at the edge of the pillar, there was little he could do but try to avoid an easy plummet. And even that was pushing it.
When the thief sprung forward, Giu's mind jumped to a single reaction. He felt a boot make contact. But his arms were ready and waiting.
“Hey, whaaa!”
Both combatants fell over the edge. Gravity quickly took over.
Giu smiled, arms wrapped around the thief's leg as he felt wind blowing over his head. The forest turned from a bundle of soft grass and puddles to a fast-approaching green deathtrap. The thief's free foot collided with Giu's face.
“You idiot! Let go! You’re gonna kill us both!”
Giu smiled, his grip tightening around his plummeting companion.
"Guess that means I’ll see you on the other side then, eh?”
The thief growled, stomping harder. Giu forced himself to withstand the abuse.
They were thousands of feet in the air. A height that Giu knew without a shadow of a doubt would shatter their bones on contact. Form change or not. But in the moment, dragging them both down had seemed preferable to just falling off the edge like an idiot.
On the ice, the thief had the advantage. On the ground, Giu did. But in the air...Perhaps it was wishful thinking on the canine's part, but it was the best idea he could come up with in a pinch.
The thief grabbed Giu’s leg.
"Let go, or I freeze you solid!"
Ice ran up Giu's leg. His teeth clenched, the grip of frost spreading from his foot up his thigh. He sucked in a breath, fighting back his instincts as he screamed at the top of his lungs.
“TEA!"
He could see the pixie in the distance. Them, the bears, and the hard ground below.
As the ice climbed up one leg, so too did his energy fall down another. As it had been ever since he'd fallen off the pillar. Ever since he'd realized his chances of winning a slugfest on ice were nonexistent.
The frost spread to his waist. He felt his joints locking up. But at that moment, his wild gaze was locked on a single target. The person he could see staring at him from above. Giu's voice rose once more.
“You owe me a raise for this!”
He finally released the energy, leg swinging as the canine arced himself in the air.
The ice spread to his stomach only to stop dead. His boot carved forward, landing with a hard shatter at its target. Straight through the snout of the dragon mask. Pieces crunched away, his foot burying deep into the thief's face.
A close-range kick. Impossible to dodge for someone too focused on freezing an enemy solid.
“That’s for blocking my punch,” Giu said.
The thief's grip dropped away, his head hanging as his body went limp. Giu kept hold of his leg anyhow, watching as the floor soared at his face. All things considered, it wasn't that bad a way to die.
A hard yank stopped his inevitable plummet.
Giu's nose floated inches from the ground. His body suddenly turned upright, air moving with a mind of its own. Both he and the unconscious thief dropped to the ground.
Giu patted the grass. It was no hallucination. He sighed.
“Too close. Thanks for the save, guys!”
One of the bears gave a nod of acknowledgment. He lowered his hands, his spell fading away, along with the living air currents. Giu made a mental note to pay tribute to the Holy Dragon later. The other bears were quick to move in, chains at the ready.
With leg and torso frozen solid, Giu could only collapse on the ground, exhaustion hitting him like a brick wall.
“So was turning to mush your plan or what?”
He looked up to see a floating pixie in his face. Tea's eyes narrowed down at him.
“You know that would have killed you if you hit the ground, right?” Tea asked.
Giu sat up. “Probably. But I figured either you or the bears would keep me from dying too bad. And I guess I was right.”
He flashed a smile. The pixie groaned. They lowered themself to the ground, sitting down next to him.
“Don’t make a habit of it, will you? It’s annoying.”
“No promises. Ow.”
The pixie retracted their wooden spoon, the material disappearing into wherever it was Tea kept all their stuff. Giu rubbed his forehead. Was this the thanks he got for all his hard work?
Tea flung a bit of alcohol onto the ground, a fire springing up moments later.
“But it was a good call. I'll admit that.”
His ears twitched. Tea evaded his gaze.
“I’m not saying it, again,” the pixie declared. "You're still a dummy."
Giu smirked. "I can live with that. This dummy did get you to finish this job after all."
The pixie rolled their eyes. One more victory for the canine.
Laying against the grass, Giu let the flames work their magic on his icy appendages. While Tea was no healer, their fiery spell had an almost soothing aura resonating from its center. It took a while to work, but at that moment, he didn’t quite mind being patient.
"Y'know this makes thrice I've had to save you, Gi," Tea said.
"Put it on my tab," Giu said. "Wait. Scratch that. Forget I said anything."
"Smart choice, dummy. But your request is denied."
