Cryonis recognized the frozen silhouette, even though he had never seen one before. A Shirogane sorcerer. They remained invisible despite being encased in ice, and if he hadn’t piled several layers on top of the first, they would have been able to escape once more without him knowing their position.
The one he caught had their arm stretched with a blade aimed straight ahead. They were trying to stab someone, or maybe slash them, and since he was the only one standing in that spot a moment before, the cold hero knew his neck had been the target.
A shadow fell over Cryonis just as the thought crossed his mind, and before he could look up, something fell on the ice sculpture, smashing it into pieces. The force of the strike washed over the surroundings, and if his hands hadn’t been stuck to the ice on the ground, the cold hero could have been blown away by now.
A layer of ice was forming on the creature that fell from above. It was almost entirely red, but the color didn’t come from a simple paint but from the deep wounds littering its body. Watching it move filled Cryonis with a sense of dread, but it was only when it shifted around and pierced him with a glare from its glowing red eyes that an inexplicable horror filled his heart.
"Cryonis! Stop it with the ice! You’re freezing me!"
Though its voice was far too gruff, the words were still intelligible, which snapped the cold hero out of his horrified state. It still took him a moment, but eventually he realized who he was looking at.
"Werewolf? Since when were you red?"
"Not the time." The beast replied while shaking the frost off his fur. "We’re kinda having trouble."
"Tell me about it." As he pulled himself up, the cold hero noticed a flash in the corner of his eye and quickly raised an ice pillar, successfully blocking the torrent of flames looking to incinerate him. "I’m guessing you aren’t here to back me up."
"Unfortunately, no." Werewolf ducked behind the ice pillar, trying to make himself look smaller. "Who are you fighting anyway?"
"Whoever stole your relic. Still got your comms? We need to contact operation command."
"Yeah, that won’t be happening. All our tech got destroyed. Arrow almost lost half his face."
It only made sense that the Diver would go after the other heroes to minimize the chances of their accomplices being caught. Still, infiltrating and disabling government equipment was far too powerful a skill for just a random Diver to have, and that added to the doubt Cryonis had about the identity of the third party interfering with the operation.
The fire began to act strangely just as the wind began picking up speed. Such a phenomenon was obviously unnatural, since they were inside an enclosed space, but with only one Enhances Individual being capable of something like that, it wasn’t difficult to guess who was responsible for it.
The flames retreat, pushed away by the powerful winds and sealed at the center of a hurricane.
"Wow, for a spot that was just blasted by fire, this place sure is cold."
A poncho wearing woman arrived run over to Werewolf’s side, followed by a petite girl in a silver tunic and a man in a white cloak. Team Silver Wind was whole once again, and as soon as the distance between them was small enough, a dome of razor-sharp gales formed around them, forming a shell that wasn’t easily penetrated.
"You don’t look very good." Cryonis asked, having noticed the bloody state most of the others were in.
"Well, this is what happens when you fight invisible enemies." White Arrow replied, his voice lacking the slightest bit of humor. His hands glowed with the white energy of his ability, but he had yet to form any weapons from it.
"Cryonis, would you mind freezing the area outside my wind shield?" Night Gale asked.
"Not without freezing anything inside it." The cold hero replied.
"Huh... no wonder your team only has winter people in it." Pressing her lips into a line, she turned to the trashed forest. "And who’s that red thing?"
Since she turned her focus to creating the wind shield, her focus on the hurricane was severed, freeing the red demon from its prison.
"All I know is that they work with whoever stole your relic."
As if just noticing, Night Gale’s eyes split wide open. Sunray paused healing Werewolf, and together with White Arrow, they all turned to look at their cold colleague, eyes full of disbelief.
"You let the purple woman escape!!?"
Night Gale echoed everyone’s question and Cryonis didn’t like to be on the receiving end.
"Hey, you can’t blame me for that! Getting the relic was your job!"
"And stopping the assassins was yours!" The petite hero sighed. "Why can’t things go our way for once!!?"
[Because you underestimated your enemies.]
The wind shield spins air particles at very high speeds, which creates a barrier separating its interior from the outside. As a side effect, it becomes very difficult for sound to travel through it, meaning any voice heard by those inside the dome should belong to one of them.
The last speaker wasn’t one of the heroes and they all recognized that fact. Without their notice, a blue-faced demon had appeared in their midst, standing there as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
[You let your misguided sense of superiority dictate your actions.] The blue demon spoke. [I bet every last thing I own that you thought those genetic enhancements of yours would allow you to easily crush me and my allies. Oh, how wrong you were!]
Werewolf whipped his arm, intending to swat it, but the blue demon raised a hand and easily blocked.
[You will need a lot more than that, beast. Unlike you, I came prepared for a much bigger fight.]
Several compartments popped open on the blue demon’s back, and from each one, a silver stream poured out, gathering on his free hand.
[To be honest, we were expecting Flame Guard. I’m sure they would have put up a better fight.] The demon’s obsidian gauntlet was quickly coated in a layer of silver, altering its design as it hardened. [Well, I guess you B-list heroes will be enough to send a message.]
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