Smoke chased after Queen into a large dining hall. A large hanging chandeliers light up the room with its soft white light. Queen stood on top of the long dining table, pointing her pistol at Smoke. She fired several shots, but Smoke blocked them with a barrier made of mana.
Smoke jumped on top of the table and ran to her. Queen dropped her gun and pulled another one out of her sweater, fully loaded. She back stepped while firing. Smoke produced an electric current from his bronze war club. The electricity zapped the bullets in the air away from Smoke. "You're one tough customer." She said.
"Some say I'm electrifying."
"Oh my, and I never knew you could be a jokester too."
Queen jumped off the table and reloaded her gun. While reloading, Smoke took the initiative and threw a ball of electricity at her. She ducked, and the electric ball hit the marble wall. It exploded on impact, destroying the wall. "No more playing around." Queen shot the table Smoke was standing on, and it quickly turned into ice.
Smoke slipped off the table, landing on his butt. He slammed his warclub on the ground and released a wave of electricity in Queen's direction. The frozen table was between them and it shattered into pieces from Smoke's attack. Queen put her hand on the floor and created an ice wall, blocking his attack. Smoke jumped over the wreckage and broke the ice wall in half with his heavy club. Then he grabbed sleeves, "Hope you're not made of rubber." He told her.
Smoke shocked her with his mana current. She gritted her teeth and used the mana coursing through her veins to lessen the pain. Then she concentrated her remaining mana on her forehead. Hard pressurized ice began to form on her head, and like the head of a hammer, she slammed headbutted Smoke as if he was a nail, and he fell on his knees.
But this fall only made him more determined. Smoke yelled to the ceiling and released an unprecedented amount of electricity from his body. Pagasa hardened his body during their months of training. He learned how to control mana that was seemingly running with chaos. The flow of electricity was fast and vibrant but also wild and untamable — wilder than the fire burning within his brother. And unlike fire, a different form of control must be used to have some tangible control over such an element.
Lightning was like water, it flows freely, and a dam would only flood the body. Instead, he built canals along his body and safely away from his internal organs. And the mana flowed down his veins and into his source of output, the Krepkiy warclub.
Smoke jabbed it on Queen's belly and released the power within the bronze cog. The electricity coursed through her and discharged behind her and onto the walls. "I said no more," Queen said with her static voice while grabbing the Krepkiy, "Playing around!"
Queen's hand released her cold mana and it covered the Krepkiy in ice, blocking the electrical charge. And without the only exit damned, the mana flooded back into Smoke's shoulders. "Shit!" Smoke yelled from the pain. And the discharge created an explosion that sent him flying to the opposite wall.
Queen looked at the warclub and was surprised to see an arm from of goblin kinds worst enemy is being used as a club. She giggled, finding the irony humorous before tossing it aside. She leaped towards him. Her cold hands turned blue, and ice began to form on its knuckles. Then she punched Smoke's face, breaking through the wall, and two fell into a gallery decorated with white canvases in gold painting frames. Smoke rolled away from Queen and got back on his feet. His warclub was frozen in the other room and without it, he could not use his electrical attacks at their most strength.
Smoke drummed on his chest, and the beat produced electricity that circled around his fist. Smoke stared at the dining hall and at Krepkiy. "Let's go!" Smoke yelled.
Queen smiled at him then ran to him with her fist held high. They threw blows at each other, but neither of them could land a hit. They were equal in speed and strength, but Smoke's punches still shocked her even they missed. Queen grew irritated from constant stings so she used her mana to cover the floor in ice. "Let us skate."
"How much mana do you have?" Smoke asked. The level of difficulty of creating ice is similar to Smoke's lightning. For ice to form, one must have a large mana pool to draw from, and then they must expel the heart from their body for the mana to come out and freeze. It's easy to understand, but it's nearly impossible to accomplish in practice because it takes a special type of body to succeed in using this technique.
A body of coldness. The ice must be as cold as the heart inside, and indifferent to the world.
Queen removed her mask, "More than you could imagine." Blue blades tore apart the soles of her boot, and she used it to skate to Smoke.
He didn't try to run away because he'll just slip. Instead, Smoke clasped his hands together and smashed the floor. Queen fell on her side, and Smoke got on top of her. "No touching!" Spikes made of ice appeared out from her skin. The ice penetrated Smoke's gambeson and pushed him towards the ceiling.
Queen crawled out the spikes, passing through it like a ghost. Smoke was trapped on the ceiling, being pushed by the spikes. "Look at you," Queen climbed back on her feet. "You look just like the chandelier. Come on, show me your lightning. Let it bring light to this room."
"Why are you not killing me?" Smoke asked.
"Huh?"
"I'm trapped. You could easily pierce me with an ice shard and be done with it."
"I like to savor the moment. Besides, my ice didn't even penetrate your skin. Which means I have a lot more skin to peel off you."
Smoke noticed her hand shivering, "Or maybe you just can't move. You used up too much."
Queen threw an ice shard, and it lodged itself next to Smoke's head. "I have a lot more in me!"
"So does he." Smoke nodded.
"What?" Suddenly, a cold metallic hand grabbed her thigh. She looked down and saw the Krepkiy defrosted and animated.
"I hope you're not made of rubber," Smoke taunted.
The Krepkiy released a strong discharge that lit up the room. The heat shattered the ice pillars and burned the white canvases around them. And the energy from Krepkiy burst the walls open, opening the city horizon for Smoke to view. Then it stopped, leaving Queen unconscious while standing.
Smoke fell to the floor and caught Queen before she collapsed. Krepkiy crawled up Queen's body, stood on its cog head, and raised his hand for a high five. "Good job Krepkiy," Smoke slapped the metallic hand then carried Queen out the room.
Krepkiy crawled close behind him. Smoke trained hard to control his kas to use the lightning technique. But during his training, his warclub turned from the output rod he needed to release his energy to a separate entity. Pagasa theorizes that Smoke's attempts to create a connection between him and his weapon to conduct his mana safely caused an unforeseen side effect.
The mana spell he wrote in his body to control his mana was similar to the golem spell inscriptions inside them. And as a result, the arm reacted to the inscription as a golem. It puzzled them how when it lacked a power source such as a nucleus, but Smoke was essentially a battery. His electric currents can power the arm and even control it as if it was an extension of his body and mind. But Krepkiy still had a character of its own, and it viewed Smoke like a father.
Despite its little fingers, it can still keep up with Smoke's long strides. But then it suddenly stopped. It sensed something is coming towards them, something stronger than Queen. Terrifyingly by a large margin.
Krepkiy jumped on Smoke's shoulders and bonked him on the head. "Ouch," Smoke flinched, "What was that for?" Krepkiy stood on Queen and pointed at the giant hole to the outside world. A goblin stood on the rumbles of the wall and glared at them. "You have a lot of explaining to do, invader."