The room was illuminated by light blue crystals floating in the air. They moved slowly and gently around with no discernible pattern or reason. The air was still, despite the burst of air from earlier. The floor was covered in a thick even layer of ice. Growing out of the floors were icicles. Upon closer inspection revealed a sight even more chilling. There were people, trapped in the ice. Their gear was similar to that of Garrett's, the kind that adventurers would wear. There was a pile of armor scattered about in one corner of the room.
Slowly, Garrett walked inside with Iadre on his shoulder. To make sure they weren't trapped, Garrett stuck a dagger in the door frame. As they walked in, the ice crunched underneath his feet, echoing in the frozen chamber. Oddly enough, there seemed to be strange traction of the ice. He could feel that it was slippery enough that if he tried, he could glide right across it, but at the same time, he could walk on it with relative ease.
"What happened here?" Garrett asked as he approached one of the frozen corpses. This one had one arm that would have been sticking out of the ice, but it had long froze and broken off. It laid on the ground, clutching a shattered bottle of unknown content.
"I don't know," Iadre said, shivering, "But I don't like it at all. Let's find this 'key' and get out of here." Garrett nodded and proceeded to walk further into the chamber.
Then, he stopped. There was another sound besides him walking and Iadre's breath in his ear. Something sliding along the ice.
"Did you hear that?" Garrett asked, gripping onto his sword.
"Yeah," Iadre said, looking around for the source. She had her orb at the ready and was softly chanting to charge it with energy. "It sounds big."
The two of them waited with tense breath for whatever was in the room with them to reveal itself. The sounds of something sliding along the ice grew louder and louder, but the room echoed the sounds everywhere, giving no indication of the source's direction. Then, it was dead silent.
Out of nowhere, a hissing sound came, then the face of a massive light blue serpent from the darkness. Garrett barely managed to push himself off a nearby ice spike with his sword to get out of the way. The large serpent crashed itself into the ice and slithered towards Garrett. He kept launching himself from ice spike to ice spike while Iadre began to fire blasts of energy at the serpent.
"What in Bilun's name is that thing!?" Iadre shouted.
"No idea, but it's coming for us." Garrett was barely able to keep the distance between him and the serpent as he moved around the room like a human sled. With this next launch, he aimed himself towards the door. "Let's get out of here."
The serpent, upon noticing its prey was attempting to escape, shot a beam of energy at the door. The doorway was covered in a thick layer of ice, solid enough that Garrett bounced right off of it.
"Great, not only is this thing smart, but it can freeze things and blocked our escape," Garrett said, taking a quick breath and survey of the situation.
"What do we do?" Iadre asked, shivering slightly.
Slowly, Garrett rose to his feet and held his sword in front of him with both hands. "We're going to have to fight this thing."
"Okay," Iadre said with a nod. "What do we do?"
As Garrett and the serpent stared at each other, waiting for the other to make a move, Garrett's mind began to process. "You're not restricted to the floor. Fly around and see if how much damage you can do to it with those energy blasts of yours. I'll try and get close to it and hack it apart."
"You be safe, Hero Garrett!" Iadre flew upwards. Upon seeing this, the serpent lunged at Garrett. Quickly, Garrett pushed himself off an ice spike to avoid the attack. "Hey! Ice Snake! Behold! A taste of the power of Bilun, the World Feaster! All shall learn and hail his power, for he shall be our salvation!" Beams of energy came from her orb, striking the creature. However, it didn't have too much of a noticeable effect.
The serpent began to charge an energy blast, but Garrett pushed himself off a different ice spike toward it with his sword, slashing the underbelly. The serpent recoiled in pain, causing the energy beam to miss Iadre and hit the ceiling. A large icicle began to form from the impact. The serpent turned its attention to Garrett and lunged at him, narrowly missing his leg. As it passed by him, he could see that his sword didn't draw any blood.
"This thing is much tougher than I thought," Garrett said as he stared at the massive beast. He had small goblin daggers, but those wouldn't be able to do anything against the hide of this serpent. He also had some bow and arrows, but the slippery nature of the room and the frantic dodging he had to do to avoid the attacks meant he wouldn't be able to get any good shots right now. He looked down at his bracelet and aimed it at the serpent. "If you're ice, then how about this? Flariseo!" He launched a fireball at the serpent, which hit it square in the face. It recoiled back in pain, much more so than the sword. "Iadre! Keep up the blasts! Aim for its face!"
"You got it!"
Iadre channeled more energy into her orb, flying near the serpent's face to aim for weak points. The serpent flailed around wildly trying to hit Iadre, but the pixie was far too nimble. For the most part. Garrett could see that Iadre's movements were getting progressively slower. Then, the serpent managed to clip her wing with the side of its face, sending her into a nosedive towards Garrett. He reached out and caught her in his hands. Her body was cold and she was shivering severely. Garrett turned his attention to the serpent, who hissed and stared down at Garrett.
None of their attacks were making a dent in this thing. Worse was that Garrett and Iadre were starting to feel the effects of the chill. If they didn't figure out a way to put this thing down soon, it would be the end of them. Garrett looked down at his bracelet and the one charged jewel that was on it. The one that he used to free Iadre was nowhere near charged. This would be his last use of it for several minutes. He would have to make it count.
Then, Garrett noticed something out of the corner of his eye.