Flames flared up in front of Heather.
Usually, fire is weak against water.
And ice wouldn’t be much different.
It was a situation where she was at a disadvantage in terms of both power and elemental match-ups.
But even so, there was no way for her to retreat.
The moment she turned her back, a sword and magic would fly at her.
The fire that burned in front of her grew large enough to split a person’s upper body.
Flash—
Without hesitation, she threw that giant flame this way.
Despite its size, it flew quite fast.
“……!”
I was about to let Levatein absorb it immediately.
But as I tried to take a step forward, Klen completely blocked my path.
Even if he had the elemental advantage, it wouldn’t be easy to block magic like that.
“Klen!”
“Do not step forward.”
[Can you block it?!]
Clang—!
“Huh?”
All Klen threw were three sharp chunks of ice.
Two of the pieces that flew straight through pierced the top and bottom of the flame.
While the fire wavered and weakened as if resisting, the last piece, which started a bit later, pierced the center.
The flame vanished far too easily because of that.
However, the ice that pierced the center didn’t melt and headed straight for Heather.
“Damn it……!”
Her movements were slow because of the injuries to her arms and legs.
Because of that, she couldn’t think of dodging the magic and immediately reached her hands forward.
A light shone from her hands, and the frozen ground suddenly rose to block her.
It was tiny compared to the flames, but it was a decent shield.
Thud—
“Argh!”
But even that solid shield was pierced and broken in half with ridiculous ease.
No, ice piercing through a rock?
This was an attack that completely ignored elemental match-ups.
Soon after, the sharp ice that followed pierced her shoulder one by one.
Heather bit her lip while holding her bleeding shoulder.
When she showed she still hadn’t given up, the area around us began to change.
Crack— Crack—
Sharp ice thorns began to pop up one by one on the icy path where one would slip with just one step.
Surrounding us, it was like a thorn bush.
Or like standing on the body of a curled-up hedgehog.
I expected Klen to be strong, but I never imagined he would be this powerful.
“Ugh. What is this… you use this kind of magic?”
Heather, not wanting to lose, summoned flames around herself.
Having learned that one large fireball was easily pierced, she created several small fires that circled her.
But just as she was about to throw them before she could be attacked—
Pshhh—
“Ugh!”
I was shocked by what happened before my eyes.
Heather stood with her mouth wide open, staring in disbelief, seemingly speechless at the impossible situation.
The chill in the air had grown even thicker the moment she started her fire.
When she tried to throw the flames, the cold reached its peak, and the brilliantly burning fire instantly flickered out and vanished into smoke.
She hurriedly reached out to cast another spell, but I couldn’t tell what it was.
This time, as if it were his turn, the sharp ice thorns that had popped out of the ground rose into the air.
The floating ice surrounded her, centering on one spot.
“Wait, hold on!”
[Do not stop him. There are times when you must let anger be expressed. If the opponent dies because of it, there is nothing to be done. Did they not bring this upon themselves?]
“……!”
Aren’s words as he blocked me were unexpectedly cold.
Since he had always been cute, I hadn’t anticipated this attitude.
He didn’t say to trust Klen because he wouldn’t kill her, or that he would stop it.
He simply said if she dies, she dies.
There was no way Klen could understand Aren’s words.
Nevertheless, he glanced back.
His amber eyes radiated a chill colder than ever before.
The coldness entering through his gaze felt like it dropped straight into my heart, freezing me from the inside out.
But before my body could freeze over, his head turned back to the front.
Thud-thud-thud—!
The surrounding ice also dropped toward the target.
Boom!
“Ugh!”
Heather’s resistance was fierce.
As she gathered her strength, a large flame erupted around her like an explosion, wrapping her entire body.
Because it was her own power, it was completely different from Heinz’s.
The violently burning flames flickered like a fortress wall protecting her body.
The ice fragments flying toward her looked weak, as if they would melt before even touching the fire.
Whoosh—*
But I suppose elemental match-ups cannot be ignored.
A few pieces melted, but countless ice shards passed through the flames without much trouble.
Every time one passed through, the flames grew smaller, as if taking damage.
“Hiiieek!”
Behind the flames that vanished in an instant due to the rapid ice attack, Heather appeared again.
“Wait……? She’s frozen?!”
There were no new wounds.
However, she was covered in ice from her feet to her upper body.
Clang!
And then, one piece of ice fell on top of her.
The ice, freezing over its “brothers,” became one giant mass that reached up to her neck.
While I stood there blankly watching the scene, Klen took a bottle from his pocket and opened the cap.
He walked up to Heather and poured the contents over her head.
“Ugh!”
“With this, you won’t freeze to death.”
“Unbelievable……. How could I be caught so… easily.”
Even if she wasn’t dying, she clearly felt the cold, as her words shook so much they were hard to understand.
Only then, as I saw Klen approaching me, did I snap back to my senses.
“Are you not going to kill them?”
“I have no intention of letting them go that easily, but if you want, even now…….”
“No, no!”
The cold eyes that had almost frozen my heart were gone.
But they weren’t warm either.
Only a tiny bit of warmth had returned.
At least his slightly lifted lips added a touch of humanity.
“But, how did you get here?”
That was my biggest question.
How Klen got all the way here.
We had agreed to meet in the garden after gathering information.
I had even left a mark on the ground that I had been there.
But only a few hours had passed since I followed them; it hadn’t even been half a day.
It wasn’t even time to feel that my absence was strange, and finding this place should have been nearly impossible.
“They sent a carrier pigeon saying they kidnapped you.”
“……What?”
A carrier pigeon.
‘Are they idiots?’
I couldn’t help but have that thought first.
No, maybe it was a properly thought-out plan.
That’s probably why they circled the underground while searching the area, and they might have intended to pass through here while the others looked further away or in different places.
After that, they could just hide deep in a remote area.
Since their goal was to buy time, it was a possible story.
They probably wanted to make people focus more on me than on finding Rodney.
But that trick backfired on them this time.
