Waves of scorching power rippled outward, the temperature instantly rising to levels that would have reduced a weaker mage to ash in seconds. The ground at their feet began to smoke, tiny fissures appearing as the intense heat caused the stone to expand and crack.
Yet Arianna merely smiled, as casual as if she were taking a stroll through a garden on a pleasant spring day.
"Well now," she said, her voice light and playful despite the dire situation, "isn't this a warm welcome? Allow me to return the favor with a little chill!"
With a graceful motion that belied the immense power behind it, she pointed her staff forward. A ray of beautiful, crystalline ice shot forth, so cold it seemed to freeze the very molecules of air it passed through. Frost patterns bloomed in its wake, delicate and deadly in equal measure.
The ice struck the lava tendril head-on, an ear-splitting crack echoing across the landscape as the two opposing forces clashed.
