Einar was the fastest. Abandoning physical form entirely, he liquefied into a streaming torrent of icy mist, riding the high draft along the vaulted ceiling. He moved like a spectral serpent, outrunning Magnus in seconds.
Above me!
Magnus snapped his head up just as Einar condensed out of the mist directly over a chandelier, plunging downward with twin curved daggers dripping with black frost.
Instead of turning to block, Magnus slid on a flash conjured patch of ice under his soles, shooting beneath Einar's descent. As Einar's daggers bit into the empty marble, Magnus released an arrow, which morphed mid air into a thick anvil of ice connected to a chain.
Magnus pulled down with his full body weight. The massive ice anivl and hundreds of ice crystals plummeted directly onto Einar. Einar hissed, forced to instantly phase back into mist to avoid being crushed, stalling his momentum completely.
