Tyler was tired. Very, very tired. It wasn’t just from a lack of sleep, he’d never fought like this before.
It had been months, months of fighting. The Yoolikan were absolutely no joke. Not to mention the Yeti’s, snowstorm and endless climbing. So much climbing. He and Riary weren’t doing so well. He’d done his best to protect her, to be her shield, but sometimes he just wasn’t enough. Long wounds across her midsection from a Yeti that had been hiding in the snow had gotten her. Watching her grit in pain as she had cauterized her wound… Tyler would never forgive himself.
But it had made him sloppy in their next fight with a Yoolikan. And… well…
He’d lost an eye.
It was far from the only wound he’d taken while up here, his whole body slowly becoming a patchwork of small wounds and big wounds. He had never realized just how much he’d relied on Konohora. She would do a small check up after every battle and even consistently outside of it. He had never had to fight for so long with so many wounds.
Then there was nutrition. Despite everything, they were still human. They still needed to eat. And the only thing to eat up here… was Yeti and Yoolikan. And Yoolkian were just 100% ice. He’d checked. It felt… disgusting and horrifying to eat Yeti. But they had to, if they wanted to survive for long. Mama’s rations hadn’t lasted very long, even less long when they’d been ripped to shreds when they’d been ambushed by two Yoolikans at once. But no matter how much they ate, Tyler could still practically feel himself getting weaker week by week. No one can survive off a pure meat diet forever. Or well, at least a pure yeti diet.
And last nail in the coffin had been the stupid height. They were so high now. The mountain had started narrowing more and more. From a mountain, back down to an ice wall, and finally, finally, to a narrow ice tower.
He looked to Riary and she looked at him but that was all they could manage. They were tired, hungry, sore, wounded, and hadn’t had a good sleep in months. Tyler had never felt so tore down in his life. The ice was going to kill them both, not quickly, but slowly. Dragging them down and across it until they succumbed.
He wouldn’t die. He wouldn’t let Riary die. They were getting the damn Gem and getting out of here.
They kept climbing.
Grab.
Step.
Grab.
Step.
Grab.
Step.
Grab.
Step.
Grab.
Crack.
Crack?
Tyler looked up at his hand… and his eyes widened in horror. His fingers were freezing solid and had just cracked apart. He couldn’t even feel his hand, in fact, he was only realizing now he couldn’t feel most of his body.
“Tyler.” The word chilled him further, more than just physically. The voice was strained like a shout but came out like a whisper in the wind.
He turned towards Riary… only to see it wasn’t just his hands becoming frozen over into ice. Riary’s face was starting to turn into solid ice. His heart leapt into his chest and he quickly looked up, only to curse.
The Gem, the top, was nowhere to be seen! They… they were going to die.
NO!
“Tyler.” Riary said again, stronger now. “Let. Gooo.”
Riary seemed like she was fading but Tyler’s eyes almost bulged out of his head as she leapt towards him, and grabbed onto him. What had Riary said? Let go? But… Tyler didn’t look down. They were… so high. He took a deep breath.
And let go.
For a horrible, horrifying second, he began to fall.
Then Riary exploded.
The air actually got even colder now trying to literally seep into his bones and soul. The reason for that, they were going up. Up and up and up. He could feel it. Riary was using her freezing flames to blast them up into the sky but there’s no way she could do that for long.
Riary began to falter and he stared in horror as his arms slowly turned to ice. He couldn’t feel. Couldn’t feel it at all. He was so cold. Had been so cold… for so long. He was… They were…
A ledge!
Riary began to fall but Tyler gripped it with both hands and pulled. Both of his hands shattered at they rolled over the top.
There was no time to focus on that, they were going to die. He looked and not twenty feet from him, an Icy blue gem radiating out pure cold floated there. He moved quickly, Riary actually a step ahead, but when he got within fifteen feet, it was like battling the universe itself. The temperature dropped and heat and energy ceased. Riary’s soul flared in what could only be denial and they moved closer. Ten feet and even that wasn’t enough, as Riary seemed to be turning into an ice statue in the blink of an eye.
Tyler fought, teeth grit, not looking back. She’d be okay. He would stop this gem, would save them both. He wouldn’t let them die.
He would protect her.
He could feel it now, feel the pain from a million wounds, as his own body became less human and more ice. Feel himself cracking apart. But he didn’t, wouldn’t, stop. He believed that wholeheartedly.
Till he did.
Five feet and the temperature ceased. Not dropped, not lowered, ceased. There was no lower it could go. There was no energy that could move. No heat, no life, nothing. Absolute Zero. Tyler could see it now, so close to the Gem. It was so, strange. It didn’t radiate energy, it merely existed and everything else froze.
Even his body had stopped falling apart. Had stopped everything. There was nothing left. Tyler’s body, his mind, his soul, all frozen in a single moment of time, five feet from his goal. Forever a statue that almost made it.
.
.
.
Tyler wasn’t like Riary. He was not refusal or wrath, he wasn’t angry or hateful, he was not a mage nor did his soul refuse at its basest depths to be frozen. He was none of that and probably never would be.
But Tyler’s mind had frozen before. It had frozen before and in that eternity, in that forever, a single thought had lingered within him, a single fear that put everything else to shame.
Riary is going to die.
Frozen in time, but frozen forever.
Riary is going to die.
Riary is going to die.
Riary is going to die.
Riary is going to die.
Riary is going to…
On and on and on, forever and ever.
The ice around Tyler began to crack.
Tyler may not be all those things. But he was something else. There had been so many titles thrown his way but his soul only registered one. Only cared about one thing. One thing he would always do.
He would protect people.
A step was taken.
Not just Riary, not just his friends and family, he would protect everyone. He wouldn’t let people be killed and harmed, used, shattered and frozen by this cruel world.
Another step.
He was a Hero, a friend, a lover, a son. But more than all of that…
A body moved.
He was a Guardian.
And he wouldn’t let anyone die!
A roar almost blasphemous shook the mountain as a hand made of pure aura reached and grabbed. Tyler could feel it, feel the enormity of what he grabbed, the impossible size of an existence he couldn’t imagine. A place of other, a place where nothing moved, where heat and movements weren’t even concepts.
The cold, that existence, now had him in the way of the door. What was once broad was now tightened, his existence under attack by a freeze he could never overcome.
But he didn’t need to overcome.
He only needed to defend!
He was just a man, just some teen picked up off the street. A warrior? Him? Laughable. Smart? Nah. He was average at best. A Hero? Insanity.
But he could stand there. He could defend. He could protect.
He could be their Shield!
The weight of a universe hit him and he could feel himself beginning to be pushed back.
Tyler’s soul and aura flared, a shield coming to life in his hand.
DEFEND.
PROTECT.
SHIELD.
He could feel even his soul beginning to crack, but he wouldn’t give in, wouldn’t give up, and would never break.
DEFEND!
PROTECT!
“SHIELD!” He yelled out with a roar.
The Gem pushed… and Tyler Held.
All of a sudden it felt like the whole stopped, frozen again a horrible existence.
And then everything happened all at once.
The ice that Tyler and Riary had become, that strange ice like magical state, seemed to end. Riary took a breath and Tyler nearly doubled over from pain. Time seemed to move again in a way that it hadn’t. He could feel heat again, not even remembering when it had left.
But the largest change was to the mountain spire. Everything started shaking.
“We need to get out of here!” Riary yelled and Tyler had a brief moment of happiness to hear her so lively again.
But she was right. It seemed like the whole mountain was shaking. They needed to get out of here right now.
Tyler noticed a black glow coming from Riary’s hand but it wasn’t just her. His own-
His hand was gone. And yet it wasn’t. He grabbed a gem with an arm made of aura and on that hand, was a black glow. Tyler nearly blanked out at that but suddenly he saw something begin to crack in the middle of the air.
A portal! A portal had appeared!
Tyler wasted no time, running for it as he heard the mountain already start to crumble.
Riary followed after him but her words did reach in his ears.
“Is that another fucking Gem?!”
Tyler was tired. Very, very tired. It wasn’t just from a lack of sleep, he’d never fought like this before.
It had been months, months of fighting. The Yoolikan were absolutely no joke. Not to mention the Yeti’s, snowstorm and endless climbing. So much climbing. He and Riary weren’t doing so well. He’d done his best to protect her, to be her shield, but sometimes he just wasn’t enough. Long wounds across her midsection from a Yeti that had been hiding in the snow had gotten her. Watching her grit in pain as she had cauterized her wound… Tyler would never forgive himself.
But it had made him sloppy in their next fight with a Yoolikan. And… well…
He’d lost an eye.
It was far from the only wound he’d taken while up here, his whole body slowly becoming a patchwork of small wounds and big wounds. He had never realized just how much he’d relied on Konohora. She would do a small check up after every battle and even consistently outside of it. He had never had to fight for so long with so many wounds.
Then there was nutrition. Despite everything, they were still human. They still needed to eat. And the only thing to eat up here… was Yeti and Yoolikan. And Yoolkian were just 100% ice. He’d checked. It felt… disgusting and horrifying to eat Yeti. But they had to, if they wanted to survive for long. Mama’s rations hadn’t lasted very long, even less long when they’d been ripped to shreds when they’d been ambushed by two Yoolikans at once. But no matter how much they ate, Tyler could still practically feel himself getting weaker week by week. No one can survive off a pure meat diet forever. Or well, at least a pure yeti diet.
And last nail in the coffin had been the stupid height. They were so high now. The mountain had started narrowing more and more. From a mountain, back down to an ice wall, and finally, finally, to a narrow ice tower.
He looked to Riary and she looked at him but that was all they could manage. They were tired, hungry, sore, wounded, and hadn’t had a good sleep in months. Tyler had never felt so tore down in his life. The ice was going to kill them both, not quickly, but slowly. Dragging them down and across it until they succumbed.
He wouldn’t die. He wouldn’t let Riary die. They were getting the damn Gem and getting out of here.
They kept climbing.
Grab.
Step.
Grab.
Step.
Grab.
Step.
Grab.
Step.
Grab.
Crack.
Crack?
Tyler looked up at his hand… and his eyes widened in horror. His fingers were freezing solid and had just cracked apart. He couldn’t even feel his hand, in fact, he was only realizing now he couldn’t feel most of his body.
“Tyler.” The word chilled him further, more than just physically. The voice was strained like a shout but came out like a whisper in the wind.
He turned towards Riary… only to see it wasn’t just his hands becoming frozen over into ice. Riary’s face was starting to turn into solid ice. His heart leapt into his chest and he quickly looked up, only to curse.
The Gem, the top, was nowhere to be seen! They… they were going to die.
NO!
“Tyler.” Riary said again, stronger now. “Let. Gooo.”
Riary seemed like she was fading but Tyler’s eyes almost bulged out of his head as she leapt towards him, and grabbed onto him. What had Riary said? Let go? But… Tyler didn’t look down. They were… so high. He took a deep breath.
And let go.
For a horrible, horrifying second, he began to fall.
Then Riary exploded.
The air actually got even colder now trying to literally seep into his bones and soul. The reason for that, they were going up. Up and up and up. He could feel it. Riary was using her freezing flames to blast them up into the sky but there’s no way she could do that for long.
Riary began to falter and he stared in horror as his arms slowly turned to ice. He couldn’t feel. Couldn’t feel it at all. He was so cold. Had been so cold… for so long. He was… They were…
A ledge!
Riary began to fall but Tyler gripped it with both hands and pulled. Both of his hands shattered at they rolled over the top.
There was no time to focus on that, they were going to die. He looked and not twenty feet from him, an Icy blue gem radiating out pure cold floated there. He moved quickly, Riary actually a step ahead, but when he got within fifteen feet, it was like battling the universe itself. The temperature dropped and heat and energy ceased. Riary’s soul flared in what could only be denial and they moved closer. Ten feet and even that wasn’t enough, as Riary seemed to be turning into an ice statue in the blink of an eye.
Tyler fought, teeth grit, not looking back. She’d be okay. He would stop this gem, would save them both. He wouldn’t let them die.
He would protect her.
He could feel it now, feel the pain from a million wounds, as his own body became less human and more ice. Feel himself cracking apart. But he didn’t, wouldn’t, stop. He believed that wholeheartedly.
Till he did.
Five feet and the temperature ceased. Not dropped, not lowered, ceased. There was no lower it could go. There was no energy that could move. No heat, no life, nothing. Absolute Zero. Tyler could see it now, so close to the Gem. It was so, strange. It didn’t radiate energy, it merely existed and everything else froze.
Even his body had stopped falling apart. Had stopped everything. There was nothing left. Tyler’s body, his mind, his soul, all frozen in a single moment of time, five feet from his goal. Forever a statue that almost made it.
.
.
.
Tyler wasn’t like Riary. He was not refusal or wrath, he wasn’t angry or hateful, he was not a mage nor did his soul refuse at its basest depths to be frozen. He was none of that and probably never would be.
But Tyler’s mind had frozen before. It had frozen before and in that eternity, in that forever, a single thought had lingered within him, a single fear that put everything else to shame.
Riary is going to die.
Frozen in time, but frozen forever.
Riary is going to die.
Riary is going to die.
Riary is going to die.
Riary is going to die.
Riary is going to…
On and on and on, forever and ever.
The ice around Tyler began to crack.
Tyler may not be all those things. But he was something else. There had been so many titles thrown his way but his soul only registered one. Only cared about one thing. One thing he would always do.
He would protect people.
A step was taken.
Not just Riary, not just his friends and family, he would protect everyone. He wouldn’t let people be killed and harmed, used, shattered and frozen by this cruel world.
Another step.
He was a Hero, a friend, a lover, a son. But more than all of that…
A body moved.
He was a Guardian.
And he wouldn’t let anyone die!
A roar almost blasphemous shook the mountain as a hand made of pure aura reached and grabbed. Tyler could feel it, feel the enormity of what he grabbed, the impossible size of an existence he couldn’t imagine. A place of other, a place where nothing moved, where heat and movements weren’t even concepts.
The cold, that existence, now had him in the way of the door. What was once broad was now tightened, his existence under attack by a freeze he could never overcome.
But he didn’t need to overcome.
He only needed to defend!
He was just a man, just some teen picked up off the street. A warrior? Him? Laughable. Smart? Nah. He was average at best. A Hero? Insanity.
But he could stand there. He could defend. He could protect.
He could be their Shield!
The weight of a universe hit him and he could feel himself beginning to be pushed back.
Tyler’s soul and aura flared, a shield coming to life in his hand.
DEFEND.
PROTECT.
SHIELD.
He could feel even his soul beginning to crack, but he wouldn’t give in, wouldn’t give up, and would never break.
DEFEND!
PROTECT!
“SHIELD!” He yelled out with a roar.
The Gem pushed… and Tyler Held.
All of a sudden it felt like the whole stopped, frozen again a horrible existence.
And then everything happened all at once.
The ice that Tyler and Riary had become, that strange ice like magical state, seemed to end. Riary took a breath and Tyler nearly doubled over from pain. Time seemed to move again in a way that it hadn’t. He could feel heat again, not even remembering when it had left.
But the largest change was to the mountain spire. Everything started shaking.
“We need to get out of here!” Riary yelled and Tyler had a brief moment of happiness to hear her so lively again.
But she was right. It seemed like the whole mountain was shaking. They needed to get out of here right now.
Tyler noticed a black glow coming from Riary’s hand but it wasn’t just her. His own-
His hand was gone. And yet it wasn’t. He grabbed a gem with an arm made of aura and on that hand, was a black glow. Tyler nearly blanked out at that but suddenly he saw something begin to crack in the middle of the air.
A portal! A portal had appeared!
Tyler wasted no time, running for it as he heard the mountain already start to crumble.
Riary followed after him but her words did reach in his ears.
“Is that another fucking Gem?!”
