Count it down.

Xue stands ahead of the rest. With a stoic stance, he eyes over his opponents while the little hair of his which is visible wafts in the still blowing arctic wind. Then in one quick motion, he flicks his wrist to the side, and curls in his fingers like gnarled claws. "There is only one who rules over the ice and snow, and it isn't you, demon." Suddenly, it's as if said wind was coming from Xue himself. Snow rises from his feet, and drifts around him like fresh snowflakes. His had next wings over in front of him as he thrusts his other to the ground, and as he does, a massive wall of solid ice forms in a semicircle around the entire approaching army.

"Now they can't escape," says Captain Silver.

"Correct. Now go!" Xue shouts.

You dive forth just as the nearest swordsman attacks. It takes a mere thrust of your flaming sword to not only shatter the midsection of the frozeman body, but cause the rest of it to crack and melt, until it's nothing but a misty puddle being absorbed into the ground. You unleash a flurry of blows. You're like a twister of fire and steel. One you drop with a slice, and next you use another stab of the weapon's pointed tip. Your fourth takes two, as first you must destroy the shield, but you flip over that one to immediately take on the fifth.

Xue isn't sitting on his ass though. With two palms forwards, he conjures and unleashes a barrage of arrows in a manner somewhat similar to what frozemen are capable of doing. Several are pierced and many of them fall. Though then two near him, Captain Silver slays one, while Xue pivots with expert dexterity around the other, before driving a dagger of ice into its back, then again, and again, until it falls to pieces behind him.

"Look," growls Vyzia to the sunheart atop her head. "More."

Lynx stares off towards a nearly hidden pathway which seems to eventually lead down through the valley where Malakae and Lalarin would first be encountered, and upon it, a dozen more are coming. "I've got it."

"Should we travel so far from the rest?"

"They'll be fine. And we hardly need to go far at all. Take us a little closer, and then leave the rest to me."

There.

You see it. Your eyes focus on it immediately. One of the bodies amongst the few remaining wields two blades, attached to its hands, though more importantly, a deep crimson light pulses within its chest. The core has been located at last. With a squat, you ready to jump, and then... Bunny Hop!

In an instant, you're directly in front of it. You thrust your flaming sword towards the core. It pierces through the ice, though the second it does, both weapons are raised to prevent the momentum from continuing farther. It leaps back--chest smouldering, body cracking. You could swear it was wheezing despite not needing to breathe.

"Look out!" Fava cries. Though she isn't defenseless. In her hand is a strange small device, though not only can you not make it out from here, you have more immediate concerns. She throws it towards two approaching soldiers of ice, and once it hits the ground, a wave of magic bursts forth. It isn't an explosion, however. It almost seems to do nothing immediately. But then a hardly visible energy field pulls all around it towards where it sits. From loose snow to rocks to the enemies themselves, all is sucked towards the ground as the gravity becomes intense, with the center mass being the device itself. It looks as if the soldiers have been glued together.

"Ooh. Useful trinket," Eva says.

"It won't hold forever."

"It doesn't need to!" Still garbed in Malakae's qipao, Eva raises up her arms as mana travels along her skin like an electrical charge. Then after shouting the magic words, "Chain Lightning!" at the top of her lungs, she thrusts the tip of her wand towards the trapped men of ice. Lightning crashes down upon them, and there's nothing they can do to dodge. The heat cracks the ice apart, leaving them unable to stand once the spell has completed.

Then you hear, "Kame..."

Xue turns around, confused as well.

"You go, Lynx!" you shout.

"Ha... me..." the sunheart continues. She's standing atop Vyzia's head with hands to her sides. A bright light balls up between her fingers. Then at last she screams, "HAAAAA!" as a devastating blast of raw **** tears out through the air and across the hillside. Snow bursts into the sky, causing it to slowly fall back down. The attack eventually reaches the oncoming army, and those who aren't shattered to bits by the beam itself are instead buried in the aftermath.

Vyzia stares in awe for a moment. Her eye turns upward. "What was that?" she asks.

"Dragon Ball!"

"A dragon's what?"

The frozeman's true body stumbles back up against the conjured wall of ice, unable to escape by a barricade made from the very element it controls. It trembles, perhaps in fear or rage, until finally it leaps at you like a rapid animal. The first swing narrowly misses your forehead, but the next isn't even close. Then with one firm thrust of Lauo, you penetrate through the core, pining it straight up against the wall. The impact cobwebs out from the center of its body while every loose shard of ice vibrates violently. You cover your eyes a moment before it bursts, and the creature becomes no more than dust in the wind.

After the core is destroyed, the remaining bodies fall one at a time.

You whip your sword out to the side, the flames vanish to smoke, and you slide it back into the scabbard at your hip.

"... I was incorrect," says Xue.

You turn back. "About what?" you ask.

He holds up nine fingers. "From the moment I initiated the battle, it took only nine seconds. Not ten."

Captain Silver snorts and grabs the man by the shoulder. "You kill me, Xue. You really do."

After hustling up to the edge of the cliff, you call down. "Is everyone all right?!"

"Sure are!" Niki yells back.

Lynx leaps from Vyzia's head and perches at the edge of the opposite peak. "All good on our end too!"

"Not a single one remains," Rabbit's Foot assures the others.

You groan. "This place is exhausting. I know we just had a fight, but let's get going. We need to either find the Empress of Ice soon, or whatever means we can find to reach Thunderbeard, before the island wears us down. If anything though, that battle warmed me up."

"Now that we've stopped, that wind is piercing," Captain Silver says.

"We might be able to find our way without the Empress," says Xue.

His captain looks him over, and once again they share a silent exchange by eyes alone.

"Xue. Do you have some history with this lady?" you ask.

He looks to you for a moment, but then turns away before making his way along the hillside, gradually descending towards the lower path. Just when you think he doesn't wish to reply, however, he speaks quietly. "You may learn soon."