Holden stepped forward, his Solar-Forged Sword raised.
He was ready to deliver the final blow.
Then the Blood-Fiend's body lurched.
The frozen left side cracked, not from any outside force but from within. The dark red tissue beneath the armor shifted and swelled, generating heat that steamed against Lyra's frost. Ice hissed and thinned, melting from the inside out as the mutation adapted.
Tsssss.
"It's making its own heat." Emric kept his shield raised, his voice still tight from the blow he'd taken earlier. "The mutation's compensating for the frost. It's burning through its own body to do it."
"Translation?" Renna shouted from the right flank.
"It's melting the ice with its own flesh. It's hurting itself to get free."
The Blood-Fiend slammed its good hand into the floor.
BANG!
Stone cracked beneath its palm, and the shockwave rang against Emric's shield like a bell. The ice covering its body shattered at once, sending shards of frost in every direction.
