Join Iah, Lei, Nyima, Adela and their friends as they embark on a treasure hunt to uncover the secrets of the map found in the ancient ruins of Rios. But what they discover in Mina may lead them to regret ever finding the ancient tablet in the first...
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I stayed still on my small iceberg as the pillars of brown water closed in on me. The crocodile was determined not to be caught by me. Was it because it hated the idea of being subservient to another, or because it disliked me?
I held out my hands as the pillars of water came within a few meters of me. Cold air poured out of both of my hands, turning the crocodile's attack into a bunch of ice statues.
My eyes lowered to the iceberg I stood on. Something was directly beneath the ice. I smiled and slammed both of my hands down. The submerged part of the iceberg grew in size as it wrapped itself around what lurked below.
Suddenly, I started to sway back and forth as the creature thrashed against the ice. The amount of strength it still had was undoubtedly remarkable, especially for a cold-blooded animal surrounded by ice. It should've gone into a state of dormancy right about now, yet, here it was, fighting back with all it had.
I jumped into the air as the iceberg shattered. Burrowing its way up was the crocodile, with its eyes directed straight at me. It opened its mouth, but the water prana was slower to gather than before.
Seems it's tired, or my ice did have some effect on it. Now's my chance. If I do the ritual, I should be able to bind it.
I formed a disk of ice underneath me and created a slide, propelling myself over to one of the frozen water pillars.
I held out my index and middle fingers toward the crocodile and covered them with my prana as my father had taught me to do.
"What's he doing?" Yen asked.
"It's the old Wahkanian style of familiar contract formation," Nahimana said, smiling.
I shot the prana from my fingers and rained down several arrow-like projectiles at it. The crocodile struggled as string-like objects wrapped around its body. Its thrashing caused more of the ice around it to shatter.
"Got it!" I yelled. I closed my eyes and brought the fingers toward my forehead.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself in the middle of a sky-blue platform surrounded by eight pillars of ice.
The crocodile lingered on the floor, shaken by what had happened.
"Hey there," I said, smiling.
It rose its head and stared at me, or better yet, at what stood behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw a man with long white hair and long horns of ice.
"Long time no see, Wanikiya," he said, smirking.
I stepped away from him. "You're..."
He held his hand out, forming a sphere of ice. "The old god of your people who was overthrown by the invaders? Indeed I am. Previously, you refused to go to Mt. Ankaku as I had asked."
"I tried, but my body couldn't handle the outpouring of cold air," I said, swinging my arm forward. I narrowed my eyes at him. "I remember that you tried to take over my body by force. If not for Zelde and Nahimana, I likely would've died."
