"Where is my brother?" Vy asked.
"I don't know what you're talking about," the scorpion clicked and crackled.
Vy placed a hand on one of the dark ice shards that impaled Orkin's body. Blue blood oozed out of each wound and dripped down the smooth surface of the ice shards. Vy looked at the blood that stained her fingers in a shade of sapphire blue.
She rubbed it between her fingers to examine its viscosity.
She made eye contact with Orkin as she placed her hand back on one of the ice shards.
"I can grant you a swift death. Or one in agony,"
As Vy spoke those words, the ice shard grew larger, piercing through Orkin's body. The ice shard seemed to have a mind of its own. It pierced through the scorpion's body, slithering through to deal out the maximum amount of agony.
"To beat down on someone when they're already weakened is truly a low move, I have to say," Vy remarked.
"I will not ask again," Vy continued, "Where is my brother?"
Orkin clicked and crackled a spew of vulgarities as the pain intensified all over his body. He begged for a quick death, but he was unwilling to divulge anything. It was the final thing he could do to toy with Vyrena.
Vy grinned.
She did not leave him with any parting words, she merely turned her back on him and walked towards the direction of the village. Orkin cursed at her. Vy stopped in her tracks. She did not turn back to face the scorpion.
Vy raised her right hand and clicked her fingers. The ice shards listened to her commands. The shards grew thorns, sprouting new, sharpened edges like a tree with sprouting branches. Everything happened agonisingly slowly to enhance the layers of pain.
Each shard carefully avoided any vital organs, to ensure that Orkin lived to feel each new wound. Vy did not need him to tell her where Lycster was. She just wanted to give the creature a chance to right the wrong. But it chose the path of greater resistance.
Vy refused to crumble into the snow. Her muscles ached and screamed out in pain but she resisted falling into the snow. Her mission was not complete. Lycster was still missing. She lifted her head and sniffed the air.
She blocked out the heavy stench of death, scorpion blood, smoke and sulphur. She searched for her brother's scent.
-I'm coming for you, Lycster.-
Vy moved swiftly through the snow. Despite the intense pain she felt pulsing through her entire body, she persisted. She used the pain to fuel herself. She pushed her body to its limits. The more she pushed, the more the Dark Kyu gained control of her movements.
Oh the other side of the village, Shin had taken Lycster away on the orders of the glacier scorpions. But the further away they moved from the hot spring, the effects of the mist wore off. Lycster stirred awake and realised that he was being carried and taken away.
Uncertain about what was going on, Lycster instinctively turned into his mountain goat form immediately. He struggled out of the grasp of the person who took him away. When he looked up and realised it was Shin, Lycster was confused.
He looked around and realised he was no longer at the hot spring pools. His sister was not here either.
"Where is my sister!" Lycster shouted at Shin.
The frost elf was surprised by Lycster's transformation. He had fallen into the snow, but quickly stood back up and materialised an ice spear into his hands.
"Yield if you want to live!" the frost elf shouted back.
"I said where is my sister!" Lycster asked again as he double-tapped his right front hoof in the snow.
Just as he was about to charge at the frost elf, Lycster realised there were enemies approaching him. Upon realising they were coming up from beneath the ground, Lycster took a few steps back.
The enemies burst through the snow, it was another group of glacier scorpions.
"Grab the goat!" one of them clicked to his comrades.
Lycster could not understand what they were saying. But seeing that they had their full attention on him, he was certain that he was their target. Since his enemies were land creatures, Lycster transformed into his owl form and took to the sky, safe from their clutches.
The glacier scorpions tried to leap into the air and pull him down with their pincers, but they could not get high enough. One of the scorpions turned to Shin.
"Frost elf, get him!" the scorpion clicked an order.
Shin was hesitant for a moment, but he did as he was told. Shin turned the spear in his hands into a bow and began to shoot at Lycster. The boy carefully avoided each ice arrow that was being shot. He wanted to fly higher into the sky but he could not. The air above was getting too cold.
From where he was, Lycster scanned the surrounding areas. He noticed a lone figure moving fast through the snow. The figure came from where the hot spring pools were. Even from where he was, he could see that the snow had been dyed blue.
"Vy?" Lycster muttered to himself as he tracked the lone figure.
Vy followed her brother's scent. When she saw the group of glacier scorpions and the frost elf shooting the owl in the sky, she was ready to take them on. The scorpions never saw her coming. Vy stopped in her tracks and raised her hands. Dark ice shards shot through the air, catching the scorpions off guard.
The combined speed and force pinned some of the scorpions onto the nearby buildings. Some shards shot through the scorpions' body entirely, leaving them with a gaping wound that you could look through.
Shin was shocked by the power Vy displayed with her use of ice shards. He could feel the cold air that surrounded each shard. She was not someone he wanted to mess with. Only two scorpions remained unscathed.
They clicked and cackled in an attack stance. They tried to get Vy to attack them, and she did. She launched herself at them and ripped them open limb for limb. One of the scorpions tried to use its poison-tipped tail to poison Vy, but she dodged the attack.
The scorpion poisoned its comrade, moments before Vy put it out of its misery. Not giving any of them a chance to escape or live, Vy summoned a blaze of black flames. The combination of cold ice shards and black flames burned the scorpions alive.
Shin watched as the fire blazed on, he no longer cared about the owl in the sky. He was focused on his own survival, as he gripped the ice spear in his hands tightly. Taking in a deep breath, he launched his spear at Vy.
He aimed for her heart.
The ice spear went straight through Vy's body, wedged into the snow-covered ground behind her.
"Vy!" Lycster screamed from the sky.
But there was no blood splattered on the snow. Vy did not show any sign of pain on her face. The hole that the ice spear had created was soon covered up by dark coloured flames. Her body had become one with the Dark Kyu. Her body was a shadow. Nothing could pierce through it.
But Shin had made a terrible mistake.
He had given away his position.