#fire vs ice

Ashley stared at Cynthia not in the craving of revenge, but for mercy. She was angry on the inside with no doubt as Cynthia toyed with her pain, but she noticed how inferior she was in comparison to Cynthia’s wit and strategy. Her heart beat in despair. The muscle beat hopelessly not due to the fear of death, but the precise process of it. The painful and agonizing experience. Ashley knew that she wouldn’t be facing such a quick demise.

“You know, I was one of those cryomancers that you’ve heard of from your leaders..,” Cynthia said, forging another sharp knife with her freezing powers. “One of those Frost ‘cretins’ who dissected one of your warriors.. alive..” 

Ashley panted in panic. Her heart started began with a palpitation and advanced into the same hasty hammering it had during Cynthia’s turn of the Exchange. Dissection? she thought, trying her utmost best to unleash herself from Cynthia’s knees repressing her arms from moving. Cynthia detected the movement and knelt down harder, virtually blocking out the blood circulation in the two limbs. Ashley’s eyes widened in terror. She saw Cynthia’s frosty knife appear in her sight. Her heart beating faster than ever now; never mind the constant pain it was causing as it kept bumping into her injured ribs. She began to whimper and pant in sheer hysteria. She wanted to summon her flames, but the chilly ambience and Cynthia’s absolute dominance over her victim hindered any fire to burn now. Cynthia lower the sharp tip of her blade at the center of Ashley’s bosom. It moved up and down hard and fast. 

“Isn’t it ironic? You thought you’d be the one to scrape down my flesh with a blade.. But don’t worry, girl.. I have better plans for a more delicious lunch..” Cynthia said, withdrawing her blade again. Ashley momentarily relaxed from the relief; of the immediate anguish. But she couldn’t be more foolish.

Cynthia lifted her hands, nails-first, and engraved her all eight fingers excluding her thumbs right in between Ashley’s breasts. The ice-enforced fingers bore their way into all the veils protecting Ashley’s kernel. The prize heart. Ashley couldn’t make a sound but a few whimpers leaking out of her throat. She felt blood rushing in her mouth, with two streams already streaking down the side of her cheeks as she lied down; Cynthia’s fingers puncturing her flesh and bones. Cynthia then pulled with all her strength. Ashley screamed out her worst as Cynthia literally ripped apart her chest; pulling each breast in opposite directions and quite precisely created a fissure on the thorax. Even her ribs were crushed apart so that there was utterly nothing but the very air itself separating Cynthia from Ashley’s thoracic organs, all panicking; with the heart hammering at almost 250 bpm and her lungs struggling so hard to breathe. Cynthia then lifted the small, exact ice knives and proceeded on.

“That kinda hurt, didn’t it? Don’t worry.. Your heart will actually serve a purpose other than being the victor’s mere trophy. It’s so healthy though.. I actually admire how strong and powerful you pyromancers are.. This heart! No wonder you and the others have so much stamina and agility!” Cynthia said. 

“Huck..! Nnggh….!!!” Ashley couldn’t speak. The pain itself did not allow it. Her mouth was filled with blood, anyway. 

Cynthia began by clenching on to the fast-pounding organ. The heart disliked it. The cold sensation of a cryomancer’s hand constricting and arresting it from beating properly. It beat tremendously hard onto her palm. Cynthia loved the struggle she was forcing. 

“You wanna see something cool?” she said, as she repeatedly massaged the bloody heart. Ashley whimpered even more as Cynthia artificially pumped excessive amounts of blood into her circulation, causing her to puke and spit out blood all over the place. Her eyes teared up and frowned as the artificial pump continued to torture her into her very soul. Cynthia chuckled for a moment and stopped. She held on very tight. She wanted to enjoy every last beat of the organ before she cut into it.

Ashley was furious at Cynthia, but also at how much her body could withstand. How was she not dead already? It was a nightmare, having her heart being played around with, causing so many outbreaks of agony each time Cynthia fiddled with her vital organ.

“If you were a machine, this would be your engine.. The turbine that constantly supplied the computer with energy, your motor.. And such an important part of you - actually, this literally the most crucial part of your physical body - is in my grasp. No effort. No nothing. Torturing you just with this slimy yet energetic heart of yours is going to be my pleasure..”

Cynthia’s blades came in contact with the surface of Ashley’s beating, living heart. It panicked; as if it were an entity on its own; as the icy, sharp tips cut into the delicate walls of its body. 

“I can’t believe that you’re still alive.. If you were a normal human, you’d have died straight after I split your breasts apart.. Now, I’m going to show you your heart.. This is the right atrium…” 

Ashley felt her spirit come and go as her eyes lost focus on her enemy. Cynthia noticed it at the right time.

“Alright, maybe it is your time…” 

Cynthia finally grasped the beating heart tightly, waking Ashley up again one last time to feel the pain of her own heart being torn out of her chest. 

“Uggh..!!”

Cynthia stretched out the organ, pulling it upwards and cutting off any left over veins or arteries clinging on to the organ with her blade.

It was still beating energetically. Cynthia couldn’t believe it. Yet, the small gap her blade had made leaked out Ashley’s scorching blood. Cynthia grinned and held Ashley’s still-pumping heart right in front of her eyes. Ashley felt her own hot blood drop on her cheek during her last moments, until Cynthia squeezed the organ hard and spewed out the rest of her fuel all around her bloody face.

Ashley swung again, but this time, Cynthia summoned another ice hammer and putt the Aruval out of Ashley’s hands. The blade flew far away from the two of them, which disarmed her. Ashley wasn’t without weapons, though. Her body itself was a potent compound of flames. Her first fast punch hit Cynthia directly on her cheek, shattering the ice armor surrounding it. 

Cynthia still held on. She enforced her fists with ice and backfired, smashing the diamond-like seal on the left side of Ashley’s chin. Ashley’s eye momentarily lost focus at such a direct and firm blow. She lost strength in her legs and fell back-first to the hard ground. Cynthia was now slightly delighted. She saw her enemy become bewildered to the might of the frost, trying her best to keep Cynthia from hitting her again. Ashley was not down yet, but the shock was immense. It was even more powerful than the one she had taken from Cynthia’s hammers. After all, the hidden flaw of Ashley was that she had close to no experience in fighting a cryomancer, especially one who could utilize the cold as well as Cynthia could. 

Ashley began to panic. She had not considered this before. She thought that rage and her superior elemental powers of fire would merely overpower and engulf cryomancers, with no relation to their actual strength. She thought that the flames could melt down even the biggest glaciers. The thing she had never understood was that she was only a campfire in the eyes of the experienced such as her own enemy. Although the two did not show much age difference, Cynthia had participated in the tournaments before. She had laid down at least two pyromancers with the strategic use of her powers. Most importantly, she had the some of the strongest willpower of the Frost clan. 

Cynthia formed ice hooves and stomped on the ground to flatten Ashley’s limbs. Ashley desperately rolled and dodged the sudden strikes of her superior. She got back on her feet and attempted to retrieve her blade, but at that moment, Cynthia smashed another hardened hammer on Ashley’s bosom, having her fly back 6 feet and gasp in pain of the consolidated impact. The body of her rib cage was severely dented, and she could even feel the harrowing sore coming from within. It hurt tremendously. Her heart was not helping; it continued to pump and thump and hammer onto the center of her broken rib cage. Ashley could not recover her stance. She was lying down back-first again, and this time, she could not erect herself back up again. She panted powerlessly, feeling her heart punish her by ramming itself back and forth on to her skeleton. She had never felt such agony inside her chest. Now the only thing she had in mind was the horror of having Cynthia’s stable hand cling onto her beating heart. She saw how her own teammate had ripped apart Anastasia’s physique. The sight of the scene itself seemed to hurt. She was still having a hard time believing that she was now to be the victim of such tortuous fate. 

Cynthia approached Ashley’s helpless body and smirked, exactly in the manner that she was approached by during the Exchange.

“How do you feel, tough girl?” Cynthia began, lowering her body to reduce the distance between the two. “Looks like you won’t be able to see how big my heart is..” Ashley was paralyzed. Cynthia now looked at her as a demon. The source of all her pain to the last of her defeated breath, the reaper of her core, the harbinger of the torment involved in the heart removal. 

“No..,” Ashley whispered, barely able to take a breath without provoking pain in chest. “No..!”

“You were pretty easy-off for a pyromancer your size,” Cynthia said, as she now knelt down top of Ashley. “Let me see.. May I expose you again?”

Without a second thought, Cynthia humiliated Ashley by coarsely taking off her orange top. Ashley groaned and moaned as her broken ribs constantly ached accordingly to every movement she had to make while Cynthia forced her top off. Tears of pain screened her vision. She could still feel substantial amount of pain constantly bumping up and down as her heart pounded in hopelessness. Cynthia then forged a sharp ice knife and cut the front connectors of Ashley’s black bra. She opened it up and threw the knife away.

“Now…, let me see…,” Cynthia murmured, lightly placing her index finger right on the center of Ashley’s upper bosom. She drew a line down in between the contours of her two breasts and stopped right in the central point. It was impeccably in line with the crack formed in the body of Ashley’s ribs. “Is it here?”

With increased force, Cynthia pushed her index and middle fingers into the center. Ashley let out a high-pitched groan as the rapid pounding of her heart and the pressure from Cynthia’s fingers caught the skeletal frame right in between and induced an excruciating ache inside of her chest.

The Frost clan members watched enthusiastically, seeing the first victim of their warriors suffer tremendously as their champion almost teasingly impaired and abused her plaything of a pyromancer.

The signal was given. Ashley did not waste a moment of the fight. She immediately focused firepower toward her back and rocketed herself toward Cynthia with her Aruval blade pointing straight at her. Cynthia expected such abrupt motion and quickly moved aside, forging a basic layer of frosty protection while doing so. She knew that she had to balance out her defense and offense throughout the fight, which Anastasia could not pull off due to the raging effect of Daisy’s distasteful smooch. Cynthia then created an ice hammer for the offense. She was well aware of the fact that ice-forged weapons could not stand the power of fiery metal, so she reminded herself not to have any attachments to her recent projection.

The two weapons collided with each other, with Cynthia being able to slam Ashley’s blade out of balance. She continued her attack by letting out a rapid swing, pummeling the hammerhead onto Ashley’s stomach. Ashley flew quite a distance until she hit the ground with a thud, but stood right back up as if nothing had hit her. Her rage was overwhelming her mind, letting her forget anything about feeling pain. No pain. Just the trophy. Cynthia was not intimidated, though. She knew that the irrational fury flowing Ashley’s veins would undermine the chance of her body actually being damaged, never mind notifying her sense of the pain she would have felt. Cynthia expected a single rib to be cracked.

As expected, Ashley used combustion to fire herself back in range. She picked her blade back up and put down Cynthia’s hammer. Cynthia immediately let go and froze the atmosphere around her hands to summon an ice staff to push on the fight. A frost shield was assembled within a second as well, as Cynthia did not overlook the possibility of being lashed by the formidable blade. The two fought on. Ashley was incredibly fast, almost matching Daisy’s. Cynthia did not fear, however, as she learned from Anastasia’s case that even a slight hint of panic toward any pyromancer could lead her defense to be weakened. 

The audience admired the audacity of the two warriors. Colliding, shattering, freezing back and burning with all their might. It was very difficult to tell who the victor would be. Both sides of the audience watched in stifling silence. 

After raging minutes of fast-forward action, Cynthia noticed that Ashley was tiring out. It was easy to see, as Cynthia had focused on guarding herself from the vicious swings while Ashley put in all that she’s got in order to melt down Cynthia’s unbreakable defense. Yet, this did not necessarily mean that Ashley’s power itself had burned out. Her feverish heart was swallowing and flooding out her blood repetitively in order to fuel her rapid and solid hits. Ashley felt as if someone was punching her chest from the inside as her heart continued to nourish her with burning hot blood.

As confident and wise as Cynthia was, she was still in a mess. Her apparel had been wetted as much as Ashley’s was, with sweat smearing all across the strained fabric covering her thorax; wet marks making the sky blue turn navy. Both paused for a moment, although not taking their eyes off each other. The two panted and sweat, with Cynthia trying her best to cool herself down for more energy. 

All of a sudden, Ashley’s eyes spat out pure, orange flames. She swung her weapon once more and shattered the shield Cynthia was fortunate enough to create just in time, although it was very sloppy and weak. Cynthia stood her ground and rolled across. She dodged a few of Ashley’s frightening attacks and shot icicles, despite the fact that they all melted down before even reaching Ashley’s skin. The two were evenly matched. It was just a matter of time before one ran out of energy or the physical strength to withstand the other and fall immediately to their death.

Anastasia’s horribly disfigured corpse was carried out of the arena by the judges. They could still smell and feel the cold blood stinging through their nostrils as they hauled the body. 

Next up was Cynthia from the Frost clan and Ashley from Ember. 10 minutes remained til the match began. Cynthia’s mind was frenzied by the way her comrade was killed. During the previous fight, she saw the screen close in on Daisy and Anastasia and had witnessed the whole process of her murder. The sadistic and barbaric way of Daisy’s hand forcing itself into her opponent’s pounding chest, the fragile and dissatisfying breadth of Anastasia’s counterattacks, the contortion and frown on her face; revealing the audience how helpless she was when Daisy sturdily held on to the most essential organ competing against the infiltrator’s bondage, and lastly, the repugnant and infuriating sight of Daisy shoving Anastasia’s isolated head into the bloody crater formed on the victim’s chest. The very sight of Anastasia’s vile corpse being dragged across to the Frost warrior’s side of the burial grounds petrified her and at the same time, slowly fueled her heart with the misty, bleak poison of resentment toward the Ember women. She could not let a single one of them get away with this dishonorable savagery while their side of the audience cheered for Anastasia’s demise. They won’t be doing so any time soon..

Cynthia decided to take a different approach. She saw how aggressive the Ember warrior was, and how Anastasia failed miserably in contending against such fire. She decided to use the art of defense in order to face her enemy. Of course, mere ice shields and armor would not be enough to do so effectively.

The gates on both sides of the arena were drawn up, and Cynthia stepped foot on to the gritty ground. The arena was not cleaned until the end of each day. There was a thick, red line formed in front of Cynthia, which was the track of leaking blood left on the sand as Anastasia’s carcass was being hauled by the judges. She was now filling herself with anger. She looked directly into her adversary’s eyes. Those annoying, pompous orange pupils gleaming towards her. Cynthia’s outfit was not much different from Anastasia’s. A sky blue sports bra, tight black leggings, a utility belt, and her long, ebony black hair tied up with two moderate strands hanging down either side of her forehead.

Ashley was around the same size as Cynthia. Her outfit seemed to be almost identical to hers, besides the Aruval blade hanging from the sheath tightened on her back, and had plates of metal protecting her wrists and shoulders. Cynthia was not so concerned about the plating. They all seemed quite light. They would crack if frozen. Ashley had a disgusting smirk on her face. The tips of her eyes were applied with a dark, thin layer of eye shadow which intensified the self-satisfied look on her face. 

Cynthia was the first to be tied up on the Exchangescaffold, as Frost had lost the first match against the Ember. Cynthia remained calm to regulate her heart rate. Nevertheless, ice cold spikes of anger were hiding beneath her circulating veins. As soon as the judges finished tying Cynthia to the scaffold, Ashley unveiled her unusual blade. The sword itself was shaped like a long sickle, and already had scorched marks on its coarse surface. Ashley gradually walked toward her opponent and placed the sharp end of the hooked blade lightly on the fleshy surface of Cynthia’s chest. The blade was sharp; even its nasty little hook on the end would be able to cut through Cynthia’s soft spots in a matter of seconds if she were not careful enough. Ashley then took off the blade and rushed toward Cynthia. Cynthia did not even blink. Her heart was circulating her cold blood regularly, and it seemed to show no discernible reaction toward Ashley’s sudden movements. Ashley then wrapped her arms around Cynthia’s waist and struck her left breast fair and square with her right ear and sank in. Ashley could hear the strong pumping of Cynthia’s engine. Its hard beats were as if Cynthia’s heart was trying to push Ashley’s ear off of her chest, but that was not going to happen for a while. Ashley listened and sighed in satisfaction in order to taunt her enemy’s obviously raging emotions even more. She even began to mimic the sound of Cynthia’s heartbeat as the pounding became stronger; the pace getting faster and brisker. All Cynthia wanted was to get Ashley’s irritating ear off her chest and start her turn with the Exchange. She was about to lose it. Above all else, she wanted Ashley to stop with the aggravating mimicry of her heartbeat. 

“D-d.. D-d.. D-d..” Ashley kept on going. She didn’t want Cynthia’s heart to slow down. She wanted it nice and warm, with the heat of anger having it all cooked up for Ashley to dig into. Cynthia tried her best not to look concerned, but the audience had already detected the stress drawn on her expression. After a few more seconds, Ashley took off her head, carried out her right arm off of Cynthia’s waist and let it crawl into the sky blue sports apparel, the white bra and lightly squeezed her left bosom.

“I hope your heart’s bigger than this,” Ashley mumbled as she finished her turn.

Cynthia’s heart was almost full of hatred. It was now pouring and swirling all around her body. She felt her own face turn a little red, but she knew that she had to stay cold. The judges released her from the wires and readied Ashley.

Cynthia strolled toward Ashley. Ashley was still smirking at her. Cynthia thought of the perfect idea to wipe that smug grin off her face. She started with the basic form mockery in the Heartosseum. It was a classic, just like Ashley did to her. She placed her ear on her enemy’s chest and closed her eyes, counting each beat of her heart out loud. Ashley remained silent, but was not intimidated. She was rather laughing inside at how elementary Cynthia was in her tactic of spooking her enemy. But of course, this wasn’t it.

Cynthia climbed onto Ashley just like Daisy had done to Anastasia when her heart was still throbbing healthily inside her chest. Ashley expected a smooch from Cynthia. She was almost wanting it now, considering how similar this tactic was to the mere previous match. However, instead of aiming for Ashley’s lips, Cynthia’s right hand advanced to Ashley’s top while her left arm clung onto Ashley’s neck. Cynthia began to lift the sports bra upward. Detecting this movement, Ashley shook for moment and her heartbeat started to increase at a very fast pace. Cynthia continued to pull up and unveiled Ashley’s black bra, with it being the only piece of clothing covering her naked breasts. Cynthia wrapped her arms around Ashley’s waist as well and reached for the connectors on her back. Ashley’s breath seemed to get faster as well, feeling the insecurity of an opponent revealing her body to the others. Cynthia took off the whole thing and hung the piece of clothing on Ashley’s shoulder. Ashley’s eyes were burning hot. Rage and humiliation rushed through her veins and arteries. Cynthia smirked back, staring at her enemy’s open chest. 

“Speak for yourself, you pathetic Ember imbecile,” Cynthia spat, gouging her right thumb on Ashley’s flesh, feeling it thump almost 200 beats per minute. “At least your heart seems to be intimidated enough.” Cynthia was not done. She forged a handful of crystal-clear ice into the shape of a human heart. She then placed it in between the pair and gave the center of Ashley’s chest a light push. Then she crushed the ice heart and shattered it into pieces merely using her grip. 

“You’d wish I crush your heart that quick,” Cynthia said, showing Ashley the broken pieces of ice on her palm. “Wait, you need help putting your clothes back on, don’t you?” Cynthia took the bra off Ashley’s shoulder and placed it nice and neat around her breasts again. She then roughly pulled the tight orange clothing back down. “What, you were expecting a kiss?” Ashley was now full of hatred; she would be ready to burn Cynthia the second their lips encountered each other. But Cynthia knew Ashley wouldn’t do something so outrageous as to kill her enemy in an Exchange. Cynthia slammed her ice-cold lips onto Ashley’s, protruded her tongue into her mouth and gave her a demeaning, thorough smooch to maximize the indignity.

That was it.

Ashley planned to rip her opponent apart from the inside out.

Cynthia shrugged and winked, jumping off Ashley’s body to announce the end of her Exchange. She was satisfied now. She could now retain the cold, decisive movements and keep her rational combativeness awake. Her heart pounded confidently after succeeding in disorienting her savage opponent’s mentality. 

But had Cynthia misplaced her boldness?

Ashley’s raging, infuriated heart continued to pound beneath her warmed up chest, vitalizing the infernal ferocity that was unwillingly curbed by her cockiness during the Exchange.

The two warriors awaited the cue to commence their bloody match.