The Ironshade Warden hit the snow in a silent crouch.
Its eyes flicked between them, Olivia catching her breath, Azrael's hand still linked to his returning spear, and the warden's legs flexed then bent.
It wasn't done. If anything…
It looked offended that they'd survived.
Bending its legs, the warden took off into the air again, jumping from the snow-covered floor into the frost-chilled air.
Reaching the air, it froze the air beneath its feet before taking off again, this time towards Azreal.
Azreal narrowed his eyes and quickly called his spear back, allowing it to land directly into his open hand to waste mana.
The Warden, hopping through the air, closed the distance in a blink.
Azrael shifted his stance and readied his spear, the bell at the end ringing, but even that did nothing to stop the warden's dissent.
Its foot came down like a hammer.
CLANG—SKREE!
The impact of its kick slammed into Azrael's raised spear, the vibration rattling up his arms, ice blooming across the weapon's haft.
The force launched Azrael backward, skidding deep trenches through the snow.
Before he was finally able to balance himself, he didn't miss the chance to attack the warden as it set its feet onto the snowy terrain after attacking Azreal.
Olivia ran as fast as she could, pushing her legs to their limits as she dashed through the snowy terrain towards the black rabbit.
Her pitch-black sword cut through the air as she swung towards it, but not to cut it; no, she knew it was too fast to be caught off guard like that, and she was right because right as her sword was about to connect to the warden's midnight fur, it jumped back four inches.
Just barely dodging her sword, but that was just as she intended. Just as the sword missed and landed in the snow, Olivia muttered,
Umber-vapor
And as she muttered those words, it was almost as if her sword pulsed in her hand, and a sickly dark smoke began to rise from it, turning the snow it touched a darker shade.
As the smoke rose, it quickly circled the warden before it began to force its way into its body, as apparently the rabbit had stopped breathing as soon as the dark smoke appeared.
But that didn't matter in the slightest, as the smoke forced its way into its body before it could take to air again. But the smoke didn't seem to do anything weird.
As Olivia obviously looked to be happy with the results the smoke gave, which only left the warden with a bad feeling like its fur was tingling—wait, why would its fur be tingling?
Suddenly it looked up only to see a long black and gold spear coming right for it fast.
Pushing aside the uncomfortable feeling it had gotten from seeing Olivia's wide smile
It jumped back into the air, like that was its natural habitat, freezing the air into a small step; it pushed off it, throwing itself right in front of Azreal.
Pulling back its right leg before reaching him and swinging its leg forward towards Azreal's head with all the strength in its little body.
Having thrown his spear he had no choice but to put up his arms to block the kick
Tung!!!
As the kick connected with his arms, it was like metal colliding with wood; he was sent flying back through the snow, rolling and struggling to regain his stance as his arms were aching from that single kick.
But apparently, the warden was nowhere done with him yet, as it froze and pushed off the air again.
He went right for him not even five seconds after it kicked him across the room.
Its tiny body twisted mid-flight, red eyes locked onto him with cold, calculated intent. Snow spiraled beneath it from the force of its movement.
Azrael dug his heels into the snow.
"Come on, then," he hissed as a wide manic smile found its way onto his face. Even in the face of death he would have a smile on his face
Why?, Isn't it obvious? Because he was having the time of his life, even as the Warden was zeroing in on him, even as his arms screamed from the earlier impact.
Even as he might die, he was having the time of his life together with someone he had come to love in this cold, desolate dungeon.
The warden reached him in a single breath.
KSH—TINK!
It swung its left leg this time, the hard metal limb scything toward his ribs.
Azrael barely managed to twist, letting the kick graze along his side instead of landing cleanly, but the contact alone made a sharp, biting pain explode along his ribcage.
He slid across the snow again, carving deep lines as he fought for traction.
The warden didn't let him.
It hit the air, froze it, kicked off again
CRACK—SHH!
Another ice step shattered behind it as it launched straight down toward Azrael like a falling star.
But right before it could connect its legs with his body again, something slapped it out of the air mid-launch.
Olivia punched the warden right out of the air while taking the time to push more black smoke into its body, and by the looks of it, it was finally bearing fruit.
As the warden twisted its body to kick its legs off the air again, but sadly for it, this time its legs moved slower than before, resulting in the warden falling face-first into the snow before quickly getting up.
Its legs weren't moving anymore as black veins were working their way up its legs, but not even that could stop it from advancing.
But even crippled, even slowed, the Ironshade Warden refused to stop
It snarled, a low, metallic sound, like ice grinding against steel, and dragged its stiffening legs forward anyway, each step jerking, unnatural, and stubborn.
Olivia's eyes narrowed, her smile widening.
"It's spreading slower than I expected," she muttered, tightening her grip on her sword as more of that sickly vapor coiled off the blade.
"Azreal snorted a laugh, wiping blood from his lip as he straightened.
"What took you so long, Liv? , I almost thought you bailed without me."
"Az how could you ever think that I would leave you behind? I could never leave my lovely ride behind, right?"
The warden lunged.