Cannon Fodder To Villainess

🏮21. Ribbon of Ice

The gray blue light visibly shines out from Amber's hand until she has to squint from the glow. Doctor Denari's already squinting eyes turn into almost invisible slits as he tries to force himself to not look away.

Was this some sort of strange light magic? He wasn't sure, but he couldn't allow himself to lose a second time. Meanwhile, Poppy and Anwen have their heads lowered and their hands shielding their faces. Momo is staring at Amber unflinchingly with an odd sort of fascination spread across her face.

Denari's heart jumps in his chest as he looks at the increasingly eerie blue light. He involuntarily swallows, his jaw repeatedly clenching, and his hands involuntarily shake.

Then he shakes his head in frustration and his hands clenched into fists. Who's This girl to him? He's already decided that she's his fourth concubine. He has to teach her a lesson or she won't know which one of them the master is.

He shakes out his long wide sleeves and then takes bold stems towards Amber. When he stands six cubes in front of her, he raises his hand up high with the intention of slapping her down. Today he will beat her into submission and by tomorrow she will meekly know her place.

Just as his hand starts to come down on her, the light that had been building up in Amber's palm explodes outwards into a bitterly cold stream of gray-blue ice. The ice shoots out of her hand in a solid stream. It swirls around the air like a thick ribbon and wraps Denari into an ice shell; trapping him in a thick layer of ice. 

Beads of sweat form on Amber's brow as she looks at Denari frozen in place. A strange half smile can be seen on her face, since this outcome wasn't exactly what she had in mind. She looks at Denari who's only able to move his eyes now. She quickly puts her hands behind her back and interlocks her fingers.

As she clears her throat, the three concubines who'd been transfixed on Denari gasp. They look at her with wide, terrified eyes and step back from her.

Amber attempts to give them a reassuring smile, but it still looks painfully forced and mildly frightening. She's not very practiced at smiling yet. She chuckles a little to try to relieve some of the tension, but it comes out sounding more maniacal than reassuring. Then Poppy, whose face is already white, falls to the ground in a dead faint.

Amber sighs, her future plans for these three won't work properly if they all remain terrified of her. She'll have to come back to these women at a later time. Yes, she'd planned their encounter from the very beginning. It would be remiss of her to not pick such a low hanging fruit. These three would definitely be valuable to her in the future and would have suffered more and be wasted in the hands of the foolish heroine anyway. Unfortunately she'll have to allow their suffering a little while longer so that at that time they turn to her. Right now she wouldn't be able to make them change where their loyalty lies so easily. It's more convenient to leave things as they are with the thought of Amber in the back of their minds. They'll eventually come begging for her help and she'll oblige, with steep conditions of course; everything has a price.

"I have some other business to complete tonight, so I don't have any more time to spend playing around here. Although this game has been somewhat entertaining, I will have to trust that you can finish up things here by yourself. You will need to thaw this quack doctor before he suffers permanent damage. Normally I would not mind him freezing to death, but he has some promises to me that he needs to fulfill. I'll expect the payment that we agreed upon brought to me by tomorrow night. I'll be at the hotel across the street. Of-course, if he decides that he doesn't want to stand by his words after he's free and tries to run away again, it won't be too late to freeze him into a solid ice statue at that time. I'm a pretty big fan of ice statues, but I don't think he'd make a very attractive one, so I hope you advise him against running. He can't hear my voice under the thick layer of ice, advise him well," Amber says to Anwen and Momo.

The two women stare at Amber with wide and frightened eyes, but both manage to shake their heads in affirmation. Amber gives the two women a smirk and then suddenly disappears. Momo stumbles back and falls on her butt while Anwen stares at the place where Amber used to be with squinted eyes and concentration. At this time, Amber is quickly walking across the street with Ena sitting on her shoulder.

"What kind of monster is she?" says Momo.

"I don't know, but never forget that she is not someone we can ever afford to offend." Anwen glances at the immobile Denari and turns her face away from him so that he can't see her lips move and quiets her voice. "Remember this well, even if Denari wishes for you to go up against that girl in the future, don't do it. His wrath will be preferable to hers."

Momo shakes her head yes and pushes herself up off the ground just as the crowd who'd been at the clinic starts to come over. They'd been too busy gossiping over by the viewing window so they missed a truly unique sight. As the first of the crowd reaches them, a startled gasp escapes her lips followed by several other gasps. The sound of the crowd gasping mingles and fills the air with a strange melody as more people join them.

Denari can do nothing to salvage his pride or even escape this situation as he is frozen in place. His heart aches from this humiliation and anger boils up inside him. If his anger could produce heat, he would already be free from this ice shell. He vows in his heart that someday soon, he will avenge his pride and destroy that overly proud eyesore of a woman. Who taught her no manners? He will no longer offer her the enviable position as one of his concubines! he will have her tortured and find out all of her secrets. Then he will turn her into his slave and work her to death. How she was able to do the things she did, he will find out and then use those secrets to elevate his position to the heavens. His eyes glow with lust as he makes plans for the future in his mind.

Anwen recognizes that expression in Denari's eyes and looks over at Momo. The look in her eyes says all that Momo needs to know and she subtly shakes her head. They both agree that when the time comes when Denari wants to confront Jinks, they won't get involved. Whatever happens to him, will be his business alone. Anwen looks down at Poppy, still unconscious on the ground, she won't like it. Hopefully by the time this is all over, Poppy won't hate her.

Anwen's eyes glare slightly as she looks at Denari who's stuck in his own little world of make-believe. If she were able to just leave him trapped here in ice, it would be better. It's truly disgusting to have to endure being touched by a man that she hates. However, she knew that now wasn't the time, since Jinks specifically said that she wasn't done with Denari yet. Anwen didn't want to risk Jinks ire falling onto her shoulders with Denari gone and unable to be the target of her wrath. Anwen would have to wait to take her revenge after Jinks was done with Denari, if there was anything left of him.

"Do any of you wield fire magic?" Anwen asked the growing crowd.

A young man with flaming red hair steps forward. "I can," says Phillip.