10. Frosted & Dangerous

  Gabriel ran.

  His breath came quick but steady, his heartbeat thumping heavily, loud enough for him to hear.

  The halls twisted ahead of him, the sterile glow of overhead lights casting long, sharp-edged shadows. He didn't need to check behind him—he knew the guards were still in pursuit, though their numbers were thinning, and the distance between them was now palpable.

  He had no idea where he was, even worse, his pursuers knew the surroundings far better than he did.

  But He had to keep moving.

  Just then, the sound of bashing metal met Gabriel's ears as three guards shot at him from ahead.

  Gabriel ducked around a corner, narrowly dodging the volley of bullets. Still holding onto the discarded metal shard from the wreckage, he swung it in a wide arc, deflecting the shots he could.

  Some bit into his flesh, leaving finger-wide gnashes on his thigh and left arm.

  The pain was raw and searing, but he couldn't let it stall his escape. So, he pushed forward, barrelling down another hall.

  More guards came after that, although they never seemed to be more than four or five. Gabriel tried his best to incapacitate them as quickly as he could, then moved on.

  He had to escape. These bastards had him sealed in a container. Whatever plans they had for him, it definitely couldn't be good.

  Gabriel had just turned a corner when he suddenly felt it.

  A chill.

  Not the kind that came from fear or exhaustion. No, this was something else—something unnatural.

  The air grew heavy, and crisp, like the first bite of winter.

  His breath misted, his skin prickled, and an instinct—sharper than thought, honed by survival—screamed at him to jump.

  He leapt just in time.

  Ice surged beneath him, jagged shards stabbing up from the floor where his feet had been an instant before. A second too late and his leg would have been frozen solid.

  Gabriel twisted in midair, preparing to land—but something else was coming.

  He barely managed to raise his arms in defence before someone's shin slammed into him.

  The impact sent him skidding back, his boots scraping against the frozen floor. His arms stung—not from pain, but from the creeping cold spreading along his skin. His hands were starting to freeze over, albeit slowly.

  A light yelp drew his attention to a girl standing a few steps away, hunched slightly, her blue eyes staring bleakly at the floor.

  Gabriel scowled, his patience wearing thin. "What the hell—"

  "P-P-PERVERT!" she shrieked, hastily throwing a palm over her eyes.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Gabriel blinked. Then, with a sinking feeling, he followed her gaze to himself.

  …He was still naked.

  His scowl deepened. "Of course."

  He exhaled sharply through his nose, shifting his focus back to the girl. She was dressed in a blue dress that seemed to be freezing over as they spoke, with patches of ice clinging to her skin.

  Her ears were bright red, her shoulders trembling slightly. One hand was still plastered over her eyes, with the other clenched into a fist at her side.

  "You absolute degenerate! Running around like this—what if you ran into a little girl?!"

  Gabriel gave her a flat look. "I did. And she’s wasting my time."

  She looked younger than him—thirteen, maybe.

  "Tsk. Damned brat." He muttered as he struggled to endure the numbing pain that crept up his arms.

  "P-Perv—" she stammered again, her fingers still crudely placed over her eyes.

  For some reason, that actually stung. Maybe because he really was naked. Or maybe because a kid, who hadn’t even hit puberty, had just called him out. Either way, it pissed him off.

  A slight shudder ran through the girl as she stood upright.

  Gabriel's gaze followed, watching as her lips curled into a quaking grin.

  "I–I'll make you p‐pay for your d–disregard of public decency."

  Gabriel narrowed his eyes, his words thick and deathly. "Get out of my way."

  Her grin only widened, utterly unphased by the warning. "Make me."

  His irritation flared. He didn't have time for this.

  So, he bolted forward, intending to slip past her, but the moment his foot touched the ground, ice spears erupted in his path.

  Gabriel skidded to a halt, barely avoiding being skewered by the child's frozen spikes.

  It seemed she could control ice on command, to a very frightening level.

  Just how many strong assholes can one building hold? The tall man from earlier was plenty strong too. If Gabriel were to place him anywhere, it would probably be a C-rank hero.

  This child, however, showed prowess slightly beyond that. She was still just a child though.

  With his patience thinning, Gabriel took in a deep breath. Fine, If she wanted a fight, he'd give her one.

  He lunged, closing the distance between them in mere seconds. But she was quick to react, summoning another ice lance that immediately shot right for him.

  He parried with his metal shard, knocking the lance to the side.

  Gabriel was right before her now, two icy blue eyes staring up at him. He didn't want to kill her, so he aimed at her with the dull end of his makeshift blade.

  The next second, something materialized in the girls' palms and before Gabriel could notice, their weapons had kissed with a sharp crack.

  His makeshift blade took the weight of the blow but folded right after, turning to just another piece of scrap metal.

  The girl didn't hesitate, closing the distance between them pretty quickly. She had two frost daggers in hand now, effortlessly skidding across the frozen floor, aiming both daggers at Gabriel.

  She moved like a whirlwind of snow and hail, using the lack of proper friction to spin faster, making her strikes deadly and hard to predict.

  Her daggers were everywhere from his knees to his neck and even his calves. But Gabriel had no qualms about evading, always one step ahead, just enough to dodge and redirect her attacks. Every now and again he would throw a blow of his own for good measure.

  Gabriel was holding back—he would rather not hurt a kid—but it quickly became apparent that she wasn't sharing the same sentiment.

  She moved with lethal precision, every strike aimed to kill.

  Her attacks were relentless, cold, and sharp, forcing Gabriel onto the defensive. The ice on his arms spread with every blow he blocked, slowly numbing his movements.

  What made her so terrifying was how she managed to mix terrain attacks with her melee. Every now and again, the frozen floor would release spikes tall enough to reach his head.

  Luckily, Gabriel's uncanny senses were plenty sharp, allowing him enough time to evade and anticipate them. She couldn't do them quickly enough though and with how much focus he forced out of her in melee, the rate at which she realized the Ice mines were few and far between.

  Yet, the child still made it work.

  She was fast. Trained. And completely fearless.

  But also reckless.

  Gabriel saw it the moment she overextended. She lunged too hard, putting too much force behind her next attack. He shifted to counter—

  —only for her ice to betray her.

  A sudden frost spike shot from the floor, disrupting her footing. She gasped, her balance breaking, her momentum carrying her forward.

  Gabriel's eyes widened.

  She's going to skewer herself—

  Without thinking, he moved, grabbing her by the wrist to yank her back before she could impale herself on her weapon. The motion sent them both tumbling to the ground.

  For a brief second, there was silence.

  Then he realized—she wasn't moving.

  Gabriel pushed himself up, looking down at her unconscious form. She had hit the ground hard, her body limp in his arms, with a slight bruise on her temple.

  He exhaled sharply, annoyed.

  "Dumbass."

  Just then, a new presence entered the room. Gabriel turned to catch the bulky man from earlier waltzing towards them.

  He had his hands on his mace with a calm but smouldering anger bursting between the seams of his stale expression.

  Gabriel glanced at him, then at the girl who lay underneath him.

  "Oh shit."