Adelano was not what Silanus expected; he expected a small, novice elf cryomanger… Not… Not this. Not a giant frost golem. He was obviously not prepared for this situation, a spear and a sword are not a potential threat for an ice monster. Before Adelano unleashed his attack, the madman said: "Oh, what a pity! A long shield would be handy at this moment, oh, but no! Silanus did not bring his'!" 

When Adelano created his ice spikes and one of them hit the "soldier"'s helmet. Silanus knew it was time to protect himself, but how? Hiding behind the hill would not be a bad idea, but… There is no honor in hiding unless it's for planning an ambush. And there is no glory in not doing honorable things… 

So it was decided. Silanus knew what would be his next move… He threw his spear to Adelano, hitting his shoulder, then Silanus unsheated his sword and jumped to his enemy's shoulder, grabbed the spear that was digged inside the golem and then he climbed him. Once he was in top of Adelano, Silanus slashed the monster's Beck area. While swinging his sword, he said: "Oh, stupid Natsumi! Hiding behind her stinky barrier while Silanus does the tough job!"

As anticipated, the expected distraction came from the madman atop a ledge. Whilst Natsumi remained in the safety of her barrier, waiting for a chance to strike, she listened to the sounds of the battlefield. Only when she heard Adelano roar from getting his shoulder pierced by a spear did she know her companion was still alive and attacking their mutual opponent.  Then, and only then, did she finally act.
 
"Combat systems initiating," Kino said aloud as the chance to strike arose. Natsumi's entire ensemble began changing at the artifact's behest. Her visor appeared on her face and her cloak exchanged for a winter coat before the status check continued. "Visor online. Targeting system, activated. Fire Bow, summoning." The aforementioned visor lit up and displayed targeting reticules over the creature's eyes for Natsumi to see. Her fire bow would soon appear in her hand, along with several arrows contained within a side-bound quiver; all before Kino finally finished her speech with, "Good afternoon, Natsumi. Do you require a map?"


"No, not now, but perhaps later." Silanus took the opportunity to insult the young druid at this point, but his words had barely finished leaving his mouth before she peeked over her "stinky barrier" and let loose two arrows in quick succession. Both were dead on the mark, igniting just before plunging into Adelano's eyes and blinding him. This was just before he was about to try grabbing Silanus off his back and throwing him to the ground. In other words, the warrior had received his own, more than welcome distraction; one his attitude was less than worthy of.
 
"Remind me, again," Natsumi shouted with an acerbic sneer while watching the effects of this development, "who forgot his shield and didn't bring the means to generate one on the fly while facing a cryomancer? That's 'fighting mages' basic class." She didn't wait for a response, instead choosing to duck behind her barrier once more. Because of her visor, she didn't need direct eye contact to look at Adelano. She was exploiting this fact in that moment, secretly observing him while looking for the source of his power. He had mentioned a shard during his earlier bragging. Destroying it – or, at the very least, removing it from the frost hybrid's possession – would be the key to winning this battle. All Natsumi or Silanus needed to do was find it and then pound it into oblivion.

(OOC: Ehm I wrote beck in the other area, I wanted to write neck, sorry.)

When Adelano was blinded, the golem went berserk, creating and throwing ice spikes everywhere, moving and stamping in many places trying to both crush Natsumi or to make Silanus fall from his body. As Adelano stamped the ground with fury, the ground started to shake. At the beggining, it looked like the least important thing for Silanus, but then, when he saw that the constant earth shaking caused some avalanches, he knew that things were going worse than expected, even if they were not in an area with many mountains, the cliffs could become a real danger… 

A powerful and huge avalanche crashed against the golem´s lower body area, at the beggining Adelano handled it pretty well, however then more and more snow began to hit him, not even his mighty streght could save him from this, so he fell to the ground, making the ground shake even more that before. But, what happened to Silanus? Did he survive? When Silanus saw that it the fall of Adelano would be inminent, he jumped off him. The now incredibly big amount of snow made the warrior´s fall softer… 

Silanus stood up and took a look at the area; the pieces of wood that remained from Adelano´s cabin dissapeared in the snow, some trees and rocks were also completely covered by it. And what happened to Adelano? The mighty golem was obviously alive, but after that great fall, he was deep under the snow, somehow trapped… Silanus wondered what happened to Natsumi, did she use her filthy magic to survive somehow? Silanus said in a high voice tone, to make sure that if the druid was alive, she would hear him: "Ehm… Natsumi? Could you cast poor Silanus a shield or something? It would be useful right now. Where are you? Ugh, do not tell Silanus you are dead! Figures, now who will shoot pathetic yet powerful things at Adelano? Why does Silanus ALWAYS remains alone in deserted places, ugh!" As Silanus was whining, the earth started to shake again, Adelano was rising, and now angrier that before.

When Natsumi worked her arrow to blind Adelano, she had expected a rampage, not an avalanche.  The amount of snowfall on the surrounding, elevated ledges had seemed minute at best; certainly smaller than would be required for a proper, white deluge. That observation of hers was clearly in error.
 
A torrent of snow followed the ice golem's thrashing, strong enough to topple him and sweep the woman away. In any other situation, she would have easily recalled away before the worst of the avalanche arrived. However, seeing as Adelano needed to be killed before the authorities arrived, she did her best to weather the storm while maintaining her position. 
 
Just as the white powder was about to cover her head, she teleported to a new altitude. This process repeated for a while, continuing so long as the snow pile grew in size; and each jump was measured carefully so as to avoid heavy recurrence of fixed mana costs. Eventually, the pile-on stopped, even if Natsumi's head still ended up buried just beneath the surface at the end of her methodical adjustments.
 
The world grew quiet at that finale, giving off the aura of the reaper. Adelano certainly wasn't dead, but he was, at the very least, stunned, for the moment. Only the ravings of Silanus broke the silence, enough, at least, to move Natsumi to emerge from her snow tomb. Her hand burst from the field at the call of her name, and her head was soon to follow.
 
"Not yet," the druid said as she pulled the rest of her body from the snow. A portion of stone wall erupted from the valley below to aid in this excavation, just the right dimensions to serve as a crude shield. Having remembered the "inquisitor's" request before hand, she used earth weaving to fashion such a shield for him from the portion of wall left above the powder; but only once she was completely free of her icy prison. Then, as she handed the implement to the man who had, conveniently, ended up next to her now, she gave him a deathly stare paired with annoyed rhetoric. "Did I ever mention how much I hate the cold?"
 
Adelano's rumbling grew louder before a response to this rhetorical question could be had: a testament to his nearing return. He would soon burst from the snow, but not before Natsumi told Silanus his ill-kept secret.
 
"We need to hurry this up, or the Tarishtar authorities will do it for us. Find whatever shard this bastard has in him and break it or tear it out. His power is a lot more fragile than he would like us to think, and doing what I just described will transform him back into a 'puny' mage. After that, we need to get out of here."

Silanus was too busy and could not see Natsumi doing rather impressive tricks to avoid the avalanche and saving herself from a secure death. When the avalanche was finally over, Adelano's body got completely buried beneath the snow and Silanus' spear got lost…

It was incredible how resistant this golem was, well, after all this is his perfect enviroment… When Natsumi finally rose up from the snow and told him about the disgust she felt from the cold, Silanus answered: "This horrible cold is killing poor Silanus!" After that, a powerful, cold breeze hit both of the warriors, then an ice cold blizzard stormed the place… Adelano was apparently growing stronger… It was a good thing that Natsumi was there willing to help; The well-made stone shield she crafted for him would probably give him a big advantage due to the protection it offered, plus, it was not too thick so it would surely be light.

Tacitus Silanus did not understeand why Natsumi did not want some vigilants of the province to come. If they were brave enough they would help them against Adelamo; usually the patrols of those areas were three archers and two battlemages. Despite Silanus' hatred towards magic users, he had respect for battlemages. They wore armor, were trained with melee weapons and most times summoned their own weapons… But patrols were nowhere to be seen…

Suddenly, a new Adelano appeared. He was way smaller, had no legs, short arms, no hands and his face was in his torso. Not to mention the fact that the new golem was levitating… It was easy to understand why Adelano transformed, melee combat and brute force were not working… He created many short ice spikes and spinned them in the air around him, then created a strong, spectral fog… It was nearly impossible to see anything.

Silanus was too busy and could not see Natsumi doing rather impressive tricks to avoid the avalanche and saving herself from a secure death. When the avalanche was finally over, Adelano's body got completely buried beneath the snow and Silanus' spear got lost…

It was incredible how resistant this golem was, well, after all this is his perfect enviroment… When Natsumi finally rose up from the snow and told him about the disgust she felt from the cold, Silanus answered: "This horrible cold is killing poor Silanus!" After that, a powerful, cold breeze hit both of the warriors, then an ice cold blizzard stormed the place… Adelano was apparently growing stronger… It was a good thing that Natsumi was there willing to help; The well-made stone shield she crafted for him would probably give him a big advantage due to the protection it offered, plus, it was not too thick so it would surely be light.

Tacitus Silanus did not understeand why Natsumi did not want some vigilants of the province to come. If they were brave enough they would help them against Adelamo; usually the patrols of those areas were three archers and two battlemages. Despite Silanus' hatred towards magic users, he had respect for battlemages. They wore armor, were trained with melee weapons and most times summoned their own weapons… But patrols were nowhere to be seen…

Suddenly, a new Adelano appeared. He was way smaller, had no legs, short arms, no hands and his face was in his torso. Not to mention the fact that the new golem was levitating… It was easy to understand why Adelano transformed, melee combat and brute force were not working… He created many short ice spikes and spinned them in the air around him, then created a strong, spectral fog… It was nearly impossible to see anything.

Power corrupts and blinds until only ego remains. This proverbial saying had often held true in Natsumi's experience, as a great majority of the villains she had encountered had allowed their power to blind them to hers at one point or another. It made them easy targets, especially when they stopped thinking of her as a credible threat. Adelano was no different.
 
He thought himself clever, no doubt, cutting down his size so he could hide in the fog.  His new defense, though, was far from perfect. Less volume made him harder to hit, but it also made it harder for him to hide his power source. It was easy enough to see now, embedded in his torso, and Natsumi could effortlessly pinpoint it through the spectral shroud with her visor still on. She was already cocking an arrow once she spotted it in spite of the blizzard, and waiting for the inevitable gloat.
 
"You can't hit what you can't see! This battle is-" Crash! Before Adelano could finish his sentence, a flaming arrow smashed through his ice spike shield and into his chest. A purple shard flew from the resultant debris, marking the end of the cryomancer's grasp on power. His blizzard died down, and his form reverted to that of an elf with bloodied eyes and an arrow in his sternum. "No… my shard," the newly weakened mortal croaked whilst reaching toward the artifact fragment's aura. His hand was too far away to reach it, and, even if it weren't, Natsumi was already positioning herself between the two entities to prevent a revival.
 
"Pride goeth before a fall, Adelano," she said while watching the dying man. She had half a mind to end him now with another arrow through his skull, but decided to offer the kill to Silanus instead. That had been his purpose in Parvpora anyway. "Do you want the honors, Silanus?"
 
In truth, Natsumi had lost sight of the warrior up till this point. The blizzard had been too thick, and her attention had been focused on the levitating nuisance as opposed to shielded companions. Who could say if the soldier was still in one piece after so many randomized attacks?
 

Silanus was some meters behind Natsumi, watching how she finished Adelano. It was very satisfying for Silanus to see the fearsome frost golem turn into a little elf. The blizzard he caused dissapeared, just like his fog. Adelano´s "great" plan just quickened his defeat; the elf had no mana left to cast anything, now all he could do was wait for his death, nothing more, nothing less… At least Adelano tried to face his death with a little courage, or was it? Maybe his energy got drained so much during his golem form that he could not even beg for mercy, but it did not matter for Silanus, right now, the most important thing for the warrior was to end this elf´s miserable life, he sheated his sword and walked towards him, threw the newly made stone shield to the ground and held his sword with both hands, ready to do the long-waited final slash…

Silanus was not laughing, nor mocking, and of course, not smiling. Killing his enemies was something he did quietly, because even if he hated his enemy with all his soul, he deserved a rather honourable last minute. Silanus looked at Natsumi and said: "Oh, how kind of you to let Silanus do the final blow!" After that, with a quick movement, his short sword slashed Adelano´s neck, beheading him. Now that the battle was finally over, Silanus could sheat his bloody sword and rest. No more ice flying everywhere, no more fog, and no more huge frost golems attacking him… Just this god damn snow. Tacitus found a big piece of ice that fell from Adelano when his shard was removed and sat in it, after that he said to Natsumi: "Have you seen Silanus´spear? It should be here somewhere, oh, poor Silanus he loved that spear! It was a family heirloom! Oh, there it is! Covered with snow and pointy pieces of ice, but there it is!" The "soldier" smiled as he grabbed his spear and put it in his back. The place was each time more silent, the only thing that could be heard was the wind… The strong wind… This wind made Tacitus Silanus tremble, it was just too cold for him and his armor did not even have sleeves, and let´s not forget his skirt was not very long…

Silanus decided to break that long silence and said: "Silanus is freezing alive damn it! Damn Tarishitar, place´s so cold almost nobody comes there! Ugh!" When he finished complaining he looked at Natsumi, and with a little hatred said: "Damn it, this is ugh, this will probably turn out to be the worst question Silanus has ever asked, but since you are a mage, can you summon poor little Silanus a coat? A warm coat? Please… If you do Silanus promises not to kill you like the filthy mage you are, deal?" 

[OOC: Gmode permission was given for the portal.]
 
Nothing about the visit with Adelano had gone according to plan; but, then again, rarely did anything go according to plan in the druid's life. Natsumi's hope, from the beginning, had been to use the elf to get to his superiors, perhaps even to play him against the insane warrior who had become her ally of circumstance, the very same one who was, unfortunately, still alive. The cryomancer's own madness, though, made both of these options impossible. A combination between explosion and avalanche ruined any evidence the woman might have found, and the mage's wounds made him useless as an informant. Even if neither of the fighters present had dealt the finishing blow, he would have bled out in less than an hour. Silanus' grim beheading was, therefore, merciful in some small way.
 
Mercy did little to quench Natsumi's disappointment about the whole affair, though. Flecks of blood hit her face as she backed away from the headless corpse, pondering on her next move while dismissing all the battle implements she had used mere moments ago. All the while, the madman nearby began shouting once more, complaining about the chill in the air and his poor taste in proper attire. He was quite the nuisance, but a useful one who knew how to taunt.
 
"I'll buy you a coat," the woman said after using a piece of snow to wipe the blood from her tanned facade. "I don't have any clothes that would fit you, and I get the feeling you'd prefer something made in a more mundane fashion anyway." Without even a moment's notice, Natsumi opened a gate that transported both her and her tagalong up to the proper city of Tarishitar. By sheer luck, the pair ended up in front of a clothing store named The Commoner's Garb, and, once there, Natsumi took out exactly 25 silver crescents from her coin pouch. She begrudgingly offered every single one of them to Silanus, and then finally continued to speak. "That should be enough for an overcoat or a thick cloak. Try not to cause trouble."
 
Although outward appearances might have depicted otherwise – considering how calm the cloaked woman was in giving away her hard-earned money – the mad soldier was damn lucky that Natsumi was being generous enough to help him at all. She realized that the price of an overcoat was a paltry sum to pay for reduced tensions, however, and also wasn't sure that she could get away without more aid from her guest. Irritatingly enough, the two were stuck together, at least until Natsumi found a more capable person.  

Silanus got teleported to the city of Tarishitar; of course it was not very usual for him to dissapear and then re-appear infront of a store… Teleporting was not his favorite method of transport… Tacitus saw many people in the city, since it was a cold place, most of them were wearing thick winter coats, other were just using magician garbs, surely they were mages… Only mages dress that stupid, or atleast that´s what Silanus thinks. 

Silanus saw how Natsumi, with a neutral mood, offered him the money to buy something to wear, with that quantity he could get a cloak or a coat, most people would kindly accept that offer, but Silanus is not most people… Instead of accepting the money, the offer galled him, and he refused to accept it. Silanus removed his galea helmet, his short hair was moist, possibly because the heat of battle made him sweat, or just some snow melted in his head, but that did not matter now; Silanus answered to Natsumi: "Ohhh, Silanus understands what you are trying to do… You, YOU! Oh you, wizards always want to gain someone´s trust to then DESTROY them, ohhh don´t you do that face, what do you think Silanus is, uh? A mercenary? YOU think good little Silanus is a foul mercenary?" It was obvious what would occur now, once again, the paranoic man would get angry…

Silanus continued talking: "Or maybe you just don´t want to earn Silanus´trust, eh? Helping him to murder stupid Adelano would be enough, don´t you think? Perhaps YOU think Silanus does not have any money, UH?! WHAT!? Just because he uses this rusty, antique armor and sword, he is poor, right? RIGHT? NO! You disgust me, like every other mage, you ARE a miserable wretch" Silanus CAN buy his own cloak, or what? You think he is poor? Uh? Maybe if SILANUS pierces your skull with his dear spear and throws it to the sea he could prove he is wealthy, no? OF COURSE NOT! Silanus is not a barbaric person, did you REALLY think Silanus would do something like that? Silanus would simply CRUCIFY you! Too bad he does not have any wood… What if you stop talking and let me buy a cloak in peace, uh? Keep your money, I don´t want to know what foul methods you used to earn it…" 

As Silanus talked, many people looked at them, some got worried, other laughed, other just tried to ignore it. A group of guards kept an eye on him to see if he would do something… But he simply entered to the store, bought a thick coat and returned to Natsumi. He acted as nothing had happened and said: "Uff, that place smells good. Silanus likes good smells, who doesn´t? So, what´s the next plan, eh?"