As everyone else reached the next floor, they found themselves in what seemed to be a frozen, misty wasteland of a room. Vinea slipped almost immediately as Avis began lightly flying above the ground. "Ha. Imagine not having wings." She said with a giggle as Vinea tried again and again to get up.
Grey motioned a sigh and mimicked Vinea's voice to say; "Ven, go on ahead with the others. I can handle this." He said as his feet extended into bony ice skates. "Grey... Be careful." Biz smiled as Ven and Tika opened a portal across the room to the next floor. "Though I must say, these Decaynines... They seem familiar." She mumbled as the three quickly left Avis and Vinea behind in their haste.
"W-Wait up!" Vinea began trying to slide across the floor to the portal, only for it to close and cut off the tip of his vine. He laid on the ground defeated as a white jackal headed woman appeared through the mist. She wore a white combat outfit as she began skating across the ice, doing a twirl in the air.
"And now presenting... Chew!" She said as she stuck the landing, raising her fingers to make some frozen prisoners hold up signs with perfect tens across the board. Avis found it rather funny, clapping with Vinea, who was slowly drifting around. "Impressive!" They both complimented.
Grey looked between the two in annoyance. "She's our enemy, don't compliment her."
"Why not? I am an excellent ice skater, along with many other things." The barely rotted and more canine Decaynine said with a laugh as she raised a sword of ice towards them. "Now, shall we dual?"
"I suppose we have to..." Vinea grumbled, shooting and attaching his vines to the ceiling. Grey began skating towards her with Avis as Vinea aimed his leg vines, intending on keeping his distance as the other two went up close and personal.
"Then let the ice freeze you solid." She said in a cold tone as she stabbed her sword into the frozen ground, creating a glacier of ice spikes that shot towards the two. Grey dropped down and slid as he shifted his hand into a sword, slicing the icicles off before they could get any further.
Avis began throwing her feathers, towards Chew, who summoned a wall of ice to block it before kicking it towards the two, but Vinea came in for the support, extending his leg vines to quickly knock the block away.
"You shall know the sheer cold of Panila's wrath." She smirked, raising her sword upwards as the air itself began to freeze. Avis was quick on the uptake, yanking Grey backwards, sliding him to Vinea before she herself was frozen solid.
"Oh... OH that ain't good." Vinea nervously yelped, but saw that Avis was still alive with an eye twitch. He let out a sigh of relief as Chew slid the ice sculptured Harpy across the room. "She won't last long sadly... Pure ice is like that." She said with a smug look before firing icicles from her sword like bullets.
Grey quickly shifted out Red and Blue pistols, shooting each shot out of the air as Vinea was using his legs to slide Avis over to them. It had gone from a close range battle to a long ranged shoot out, which the trio where luckily pretty good at, despite Avis being an ice cube.
Grey began speeding up, though he knew he wouldn't be able to keep up forever with Chew's heart. Vinea quickly came up with a plan as he saw her begin skating around. "Grey, charge her!"
Grey nodded his head as his form shifted to that of a gigantic penguin, sliding towards Chew with incredible speed. But Chew gave another smug look as she skated towards him and jumping over, doing a flip mid air just for the extra style points.
But as she did, Vinea repositioned himself with a swing. Now right above her, he slammed his vines down, catching her in place. Grey quickly shifted into a shark, jumping up and biting down onto Chew's legs and ripping them to shreds. She let out a howl, not from pain, but from frustration at the thought of not being able to skate anymore.
She fell to the ground with a thud, slowly skidding across the ground as a black, inky substance that resembled blood began scraping along the ground with her. "Damnit! I-I wasn't going to lose!" She cried out, slowly dragging herself away as Vinea and Grey looked over Avis.
"How... How do we get her out?" Vinea mumbled but Grey motioned to the sub-mind on her waist. "She had Desire's Heart with her the entire time. She could easily escape in her phoenix form..." He mumbled as Avis's eyes seemed a bit sheepish inside the block of ice.
Grey injected a finger into the block of ice, activating the heart for her. The ice in the room quickly began to melt as Avis became enveloped in flames. She stepped out of the melted ice while stretching slightly. "I'm... Pretty cold." She chirped, holding up the sub-mind with a giggle, deactivating it as she reverted back to a harpy.
"Well, that's one done. Rat should have hers done by now... Let's go catch up with Ven!" Vinea laughed, patting Avis on the back with a vine, but she slipped, accidentally dropping both Desire's and Diminutive's hearts.
Everyone quickly scrambled to get the hearts, but were blocked off by a wall of ice appearing in an instant. They all looked at Chew, battered and bruised, cackling as she took the hearts and slowly crawled away as everyone began bashing against the wall to break it.
But they were too late, as Chew had managed to escape. The ice in the room began to melt as the two slowly turned to Vinea with glares colder then Chew's ice. "Uhm... Sorry 'bout that one, guys." He nervously laughed.
The two began heading for the stairs, going to meet up with Ven as they heard what sounded like lightning constantly crackling upstairs. Vinea quickly ran behind, though slipping on a patch of ice.
"W-Wait up! I-I'm not being the reason w-we die!"