Garrett looked down at the shivering Iadre in his hands, then down to the bracelet with the fire magic. He only had one use of the fire left before he would have to let it recharge. He had a plan, which he hoped would work and help them all, but if it failed, they'd be snake food.
"Okay, let's hope this works!" He held Iadre up near an ice spike with a person inside of it. The serpent, seeing Garrett move, lunged towards the two of them. Garrett put his other hand against the ice spike. "Flariseo!"
The fire burst forth from Garrett's hand, warming up Iadre slightly. More importantly, the sudden shift in temperature and energy did exactly what Garrett expected. It blasted apart the ice spike, pushing Garrett backward, out of the reach of the ice serpent. It also freed what was trapped in the ice. Garrett watched as a purple pointy wizard hat softly fluttered to the ground. He wasn't entirely certain, but it was the only play that he had left.
Now, he had to protect Iadre. The fire was warm, but it wasn't enough to warm her up completely. He could put her into his bag, but given the bizarre infinite size of his bag's interior, he figured it might have some adverse effects on a living creature. "Here, try and stay warm," Garrett said, tucking Iadre into his shirt. "I'll keep you safe." Iadre gently nodded and pressed herself against him.
Her skin felt cold, but right now, the adrenaline pumping through his body was keeping him warm enough. Now, he needed to get to that hat. Using an ice spike behind him, he pushed himself off with his legs and slid towards the serpent. As the serpent shot a blast of energy towards Garrett, he propelled himself faster by digging his sword into the ground and using it as a makeshift pole to launch himself from. With enough force, Garrett launched himself off an ice spike and over the ice serpent. He skidded on the ground, careful to land on his back so he wouldn't fall on Iadre, and ended up near the hat. Slowly, one eye opened up in the hat.
"Huh? What's going on?"
There was no more doubt. That was the only talking magical hat that Garrett knew. As much as he wanted to feign ignorance, there were more pressing matters at hand. "Giant ice snake!" Garrett picked up Zerat and threw it into the pile of armor in the corner. The serpent lunged at Garrett quicker than Garrett could attempt to get out of the way. He held his shield up and managed to jam it into the jaw of the serpent, the fangs inches from his face. "I'm not going down that easy!"
The serpent hissed and Garrett could see a blue light building up from inside of the snake. Seeing no other alternative, Garrett unstrapped the shield and ducked out of the way of the blast. Ice formed around his shield and froze it in a large spike of ice into the ground. He felt his chest, quickly making sure that Iadre was still fine. The serpent turned its head and was ready to lunge at Garrett again. He looked around, with no ice spikes to launch himself off of in reach. He braced himself to protect Iadre when he heard a blast of energy and the serpent hiss violently.
"Yeah, take that, yah miserable scalely freak!" Emerging out of the pile of armor was a suit of armor with Zerat sitting on top of them. It had six floating arms, two of which were glowing from energy blasts. "Now then, you and me! Round 2!" The armor charged at the serpent, attempting its best to grapple it. It wasn't completely successful, but Zerat was able to restrict its movement.
Using this time, Garrett got to his feet and began to think of a plan. The scorch marks from Iadre, his own, and Zerat's energy blasts were marking the serpent, but it wasn't doing too much to actually stop it. There had to be something that would finish this creature off once and for all. Then, Garrett looked up and saw it. The massive icicle it had made from when it tried to shoot Iadre.
"Hey! Snake! Over here!" Garrett shouted, waving his arms frantically.
"What do yah think you're doing?" Zerat shouted as the serpent began to focus on Garrett. Garrett quickly pointed up at the icicle. "You got it!" Zerat let go of the serpent, which immediately went to lunge at Garrett.
"Now!"
Garrett tried to bait the serpent, then throw his bag to move in the opposite direction, but the awkward movements only made him end up falling down onto his back. He crossed his hands over his face and closed his eyes.
With a brilliant burst of energy, Zerat fired at the icicle, breaking it off at its base. It crashed down onto the serpent, shattering into pieces and causing the serpent to fall limp onto the ground. Slowly, Garrett opened his eyes to see the outline of the serpent on the ground, motionless. As the cloud of ice settled, Garrett could see that a large chunk of ice had pierced right through the serpent's skull. Its blood spilled out and froze along the ground. Garrett took a few breaths as he noticed at the serpent was inches from where he stood. If Zerat's blasts had been any seconds later, he would be dead.
"Whew! Now that's a way to start yer morning!" Zerat's new armor body walked over to Garrett and helped him up. "Now then, what's today?"
"Huh?" Garrett asked, a bit confused by the question.
"How long was I stuck in that ice?" Zerat asked. If their new body had eyes, they would be squinting at Garrett right now. "Wait, don't tell me that you were trapped in the ice too?"
"Oh, no, I wasn't trapped in any ice, thankfully," Garrett said, beginning to realize the corner he was starting to be trapped in.
"I hear a new voice and the fighting seemed to stop. What's going on?" Iadre popped her head out from Garrett's shirt and looked around. Immediately, her eyes fell onto Zerat and she screamed a little in fear and ducked back into his shirt.
"And you got a little pixie in there? Ain't that cute." Zerat cross their arms and chuckled before the posture and tone went dead serious. "Now then. I know I was trapped in there for a long time, and I was on someone else's head while I was in there." Zerat stepped closer to Garrett. "How exactly did you know to throw me into that pile of armor?"