Frozen

Grandmaster

Get up!

Anna, get up!

You can't die like this, you almost have him beat!

GET THE FUCK UP!

Anna's upper body jolted upwards as a bulbous purple spade shaped entity stared back at her with bright white eyes and a tail that was attached to her head.

"What?"

Danny fell in the belly of the cavern, Alex's voice spoke as the entity seemed to display his physical mannerisms and Anna accepted that this was his new form. We can kill him if we find the Paragon before he does, I'm ready to finish this if you are. Anna inhaled deeply through her nose and swallowed her apprehension as she stood up and ran for the lowest point in the ravine.

"Hey, Alex?" Anna asked as she stared down into the dimly lit cavern and Alex's purple, gaseous form appeared before her in response. "Thank you for giving me the strength to do this."

It's nothing compared to the service you're doing to all of humanity, Alex responded as he retreated back into Anna's head and left her to finally finish her job. Anna stepped off the solid ground in the ravine and plummeted into the shallow cavern as Vestra tackled her by the waist before she hit the ground and bit into her neck with her sharp, crystal teeth. Anna stabbed Vestra beneath her jaw to release her bite and clasped her right hand over her bleeding neck as she scraped labored breaths down her windpipe.

"Why do you persist?" Vestra asked as blood trickled down between her fangs and Anna tried to summon the energy to speak from within her dying, human body.

"Because," Anna struggled to squeeze out as she stepped forward deliberately and scanned her surroundings for the violet glow given off by the Mind Paragon. "I... have to."

"Even if it means your own demise?"

"When are you going to learn?" Anna asked genuinely as her boot slid off of a lumpy rock pile on her death march to her enemy and collided with the cave floor on her chest. Anna pushed herself to her feet and stumbled forward slightly as she stared furiously into her nemesis's eyes. "I've been expecting to die this entire fight." Rage overtook Vestra's pure purple face and turned her skin a deep shade of maroon as she uppercutted Anna out of the cavern and leapt out after her relentlessly. The Ancient swung both of her fists down on Anna's stomach before she could land and spiked her at the ground as she crashed brutally down on her sternum with one knee. Vestra panted heavily over Anna as her crystalline skin faded back into its natural purple hue and she cracked her neck preparedly as Anna began to draw herself to her feet.

"You refuse to give up," Vestra said respectfully as her knuckles clenched tight enough to flush of color and her wings folded to Danny's back to increase her mobility. "It will be an honor to assimilate you." With her right hand still pressed tightly to her bleeding neck, Anna spun her sword in her hand like a drill bit as she took a step forward to pressure the Ancient. Anna faked a horizontal slash to Vestra's head as Danny's vessel ducked predictably and Anna's steel-toed boot came up like a pendulum into Vestra's flat face. Her rage boiled over in seconds as she attacked the Ancient god with a relentless torrent of stabs and slashes and finished off her onslaught brutally as she used both of her hands to repeatedly hack away at Danny's broken arm until the tendons in his bicep split from the weight of the appendage and dropped the useless slab of meat to the ground.

You are gaining ground, a raspy, unfamiliar voice said to Anna as she planted a solid kick in the center of Vestra's stomach. Come to me, I will guide you. Vestra groaned in pain as she made her way to her feet again and almost had time to intercept Anna's attack as Earth's defender slashed diagonally across Danny's torso from left shoulder to right hip. Anna could physically feel the color draining from her face and her skin becoming clammy as her right hand shot back to her neck and she cursed herself under her breath for being so close to dying. Suddenly, before her eyes, a shockwave of purple ran across the floor of the ravine and surrounded the soles of her boots as a trail thinned out into a point, aiming directly into a large pile of shattered Earth at the opposite end of the chasm from her. Seek me out, the voice echoed in her head, you will finish this yourself.