"Ice Shard!" Darian positioned his left arm over his right one and began to charge a powerful shard. As the time around him started to slow down, while for the other people only two seconds had passed, for Darian it was more than ten. As the shard was shot, the temperature around Darian decreased drastically. In fact, Tyel behind him started to shake because of the cold.
The shard was shot at extreme speed. The plushie, who wasn't caught by surprise, swung his club to smash the shard, but as the two objects smashed against each other, the shard wasn't stopped and the plushie took a step back because of the strength of the attack.
The plushie hadn't been able to smash the shard; in fact, after a few seconds, the plushie was only able to make the shard change its trajectory, and it continued rushing towards the hall behind the plushie for multiple seconds until it crashed against the wall.
The Seamstress looked first at the plushie, who was having difficulty moving the club after the hit, and then at Darian, who was unharmed after that attack.
The Seamstress emitted a strong cry, and from where the shard had traveled until it crashed against the wall, countless plushies emerged. Even though Vane and Orechin were in their path, the plushies' eyes were only focused on one person, they were looking directly at Darian.
'The first tail makes each shard resistant,' said a voice inside Darian's head as he began to charge another one. It was Snowy who spoke.
'And the second makes time move slower while I'm charging an attack?' asked Darian.
'With the second tail, once you charge an attack, time becomes slower for you to give you enough time to make it stronger,' answered Snowy. As Darian shot another powerful shard, this time towards the countless plushies, the bigger one launched its ball high, and as it hit the sphere with its club, the ball rushed at extreme speed towards Darian.
As the shard came out of Darian's arm, it was huge; nothing could stop it. In fact, it rushed directly towards the plushies, killing multiple of them as the attack passed right through their bodies without stopping.
The shard was significantly faster than the sphere launched by the plushie, but still, no human could have dodged it, especially right after an attack.
But as the sphere arrived in front of Darian, his body moved extremely fast. He stepped to the right, and the sphere went crashing against the wall where Darian had been standing before activating this power-up.
Darian, confused, looked at his body. For a normal human, especially seeing the speed of the ball, it would have been impossible to dodge that. 'Did she throw the ball slower?' But Darian was even more confused because the ball now wasn't as fast as the last time, when it had been impossible for a human to dodge.
'And the third tail… it makes your reflexes 10 times faster than any normal human,' answered Snowy. Darian, still confused, looked at everything in front of him moving significantly slower than normal.
'I had noticed it before too… but I didn't think it would be because of this.' Darian looked at his right arm, at the exact point where Snowy had fused with him, and now there were exactly three tails. 'I guess I'll have to write about this in the dia—' As Darian passed his left hand over the tails, his attention was caught by the plushie's ball, which had been called back and was about to smash into his body.
With an abnormal jump at the last moment, Darian was able to dodge the attack, and the ball crashed against the wall, creating multiple holes and making the wall fall.
As Darian turned again towards the enemy, he noticed a plushie with its mouth open, flying towards him while moving really slowly. Behind it, the Seamstress was launching them towards Darian with all her strength.
'I can either dodge it or create an armor… It's better to create an armor… especially because it's attacking again.' Darian noticed that the big plushie was about to launch the ball towards him once again, but thanks to his superhuman reflexes, he was able to think about his next move without any problem.
"Ice Armor!" As Darian began creating the armor, the world slowed down again. 'It's so strange… thanks to my superhuman reflexes and the fact that time slows down when I cast magic… everything feels surreal.'
As Darian was creating the armor, he glanced around and noticed Tyel, who was trying to take cover behind some debris. In front of Tyel, the plushies were about to bite directly into his skin, and the sphere had just been hit by the club and was rushing towards Darian.
'I guess it is enough…' Darian looked down at his chest and realized that he had never created an armor this resistant with these many shards. Nodding his head, he stopped the creation of the armor, and time began to flow like before.
The plushie, still moving slowly for Darian, reached his skin and bit the armor that had just been created with its teeth. The shards exploded at a speed that surprised Tyel and the enemy nearby. As the shards flew out, the plushie was completely disintegrated, and not even ash remained of the small one. By the time the ball reached Darian, the armor was still shooting shards.
As the shards collided against the sphere, the large object wasn't able to overcome the pressure of the armor; in fact, the sphere was shot away towards the huge plushie, which was sent flying multiple meters back. As its body crashed against the floor, the whole sanctuary began to tremble. Tyel, who was hiding behind a rock, opened his mouth wide, as he couldn't believe his eyes.
"Darian… are you actually human?" asked Tyel in surprise after the Seamstress stopped launching the plushies, which had all been annihilated by the shards of the armor. The huge plushie was slowly getting back onto its feet, while Vane was slowly opening his eyes again.
"Hey, what happened here? I tried to block it b—woahhhh, how did you do that??!!" The first thing Vane noticed upon opening his eyes was the huge plushie flying away with the sphere against its body.
"Vane, get out of there!" Darian began to rush towards Vane as he noticed the Seamstress charging at him with her powerful claws. Vane, caught by surprise, could only hear Darian's words, and as he turned around, he noticed the Seamstress's claws just a few inches from his face.
'I won't be able to stop her with my fists…' Darian knelt down and began to cast another spell.
"Radial Freeze!!" Darian looked directly at the Seamstress's claws. With time slowed down, he was able to calculate the exact moment the wall needed to be erected. While for the others only half a second passed, for Darian it was more than two seconds, and a huge wall made of ice shielded Vane from the attack.
The Seamstress clashed her claws against the wall and was sent a few steps back by the sudden impact. "Vane, grab Orechin and come here!" shouted Darian. Vane nodded his head, turned into a polar bear, and began to rush towards the unconscious Orechin in front of him on the other side of the wall.
Vane grabbed Orechin by his clothes with his claws and positioned him on top of his body while running on all four paws. Shortly after, Orechin started to open his eyes.
"Eh? What?" Confused, Orechin opened his eyes and realized that he was currently riding a polar bear. As he glanced behind, he noticed a huge ice wall and the bigger plushie walking towards them again, with the Seamstress smashing the ice wall with all her strength non-stop.
'Did I fall unconscious?' he thought, confused. As he looked at Darian, who was charging another attack, and Tyel hiding behind a rock, he realized that he was safe. "Hahaha! First I started crushing them while riding a buffalo, and now I'm escaping while riding a polar bear!" Orechin kept laughing, and Vane below him couldn't hold it in either; even though he had been seconds away from certain death just a moment before, he laughed too.
Darian now shot another powerful shard towards the enemy, which had just launched its sphere. As the two objects crashed against each other, to no one's surprise, the shard won against the sphere, completely shattering it. The sphere was destroyed right in front of the Seamstress's eyes, and the shard rushed directly towards the plushie.
As the shard arrived at its hand, a huge hole appeared, and the hand it had used for the sphere was completely disintegrated.
"Eh? How was Darian able to do something like that?" asked Vane, confused, as he returned to human form, and together with Orechin, positioned himself near Tyel.
"Do you remember the last time he saved us with two tails?" asked Tyel. The other two nodded their heads. "Now he has three of them… and he's completely dominating the fight!" he added happily. A smile appeared on both of their faces.
'Darian… I can't resist much longer; we should end this quickly,' said Snowy. Darian nodded his head, while in front of him, the ice wall collapsed as the Seamstress kept hitting it in anger.
'Don't worry, Snowy, I'm going to end this now. I'll kill the huge plushie, and we will send the Seamstress directly to Liro and Lily.' With that, Darian began to rush at extreme speed towards the huge plushie, which was ready to swing its club.
"I want to try something… I've already done it before, yeah… but now it will be stronger." While rushing towards the huge plushie, he passed right in front of the Seamstress, who closed her hands together in anger. As she emitted another loud cry, the remaining plushies all tried to hit Darian together.
'They aren't a problem… I can dodge them.' Darian realized that because of how slowly the plushies were moving, he could dodge them without any problem. But the main problem wasn't them; it was the huge club that was about to smash his head.
"Ice Armor!" Darian created the same armor on his body, but not on every part—only on his right arm. "Take this!!" With all his strength, right before the plushie was about to smash its club on Darian, he slammed his fist against its body. If it doesn't work, I might be fucked… thought Darian right before landing the punch.
His idea was based on the fact that every time he uses Ice Armor and enemies try to hit him, the shards explode. 'But what will happen if I'm the one hitting the enemy with the armor?' Darian thought that if he did it that way, the shards would still explode.
Once his fist crashed against the body of the plushie, what Darian expected became reality, and the shards rushed at extreme speed directly into the stomach of the big plushie. Meanwhile, the smaller ones were hit by shards rushing in multiple directions, sending them flying against the wall, lifeless.
"Arghh!!!" Darian shouted. The enemy, who could do nothing to defend himself, was sent flying, his body crashing against the wall as a new crater appeared.
Darian, now breathing heavily, looked at his fist and could only think that it had worked. The plushie couldn't move anymore and was now dead; every plushie around him had been killed, and the Seamstress emitted another strong cry.
After the cry, the whole place began to shake. "It's falling down!!" shouted Vane as a boulder fell right next to him.
Darian looked around and closed his eyes for a moment. 'Snowy, can you still cast another spell?' asked Darian.
'Yes… but be fast, I'm running out of strength,' answered the creature. Darian knelt down and smirked.
'Don't worry, I'll be fast.' With that, he positioned his hand on the ground and closed his eyes.
"Radial Freeze!" As time began to stop, Darian started to build ice walls sturdy enough to support the place after multiple original walls had already fallen.
A huge ice wall appeared next to Vane, Orechin, and Tyel, while another one appeared right next to the Seamstress. The wall where Orechin had been sent flying and knocked unconscious was soon reinforced, and each crater created in the walls from them being thrown was covered too.
'I guess it should be enough… it isn't shaking anymore.' Darian had just finished using the spell when his eyes started to close, and he couldn't stay on his feet anymore.
"Oh, are you finished, Snowy?" With that, Darian looked one last time at Snowy being ejected from his body, and he then collapsed to the ground.
"He saved us…" whispered Tyel as he gently touched the ice wall. "Ouch!" Tyel instinctively pulled his hand away from the wall, as it was extremely cold.
"Everything has stopped shaking… we've survive—" Orechin began to speak in a reassuring tone, but following another scream emitted by the Seamstress, more plushies, each still with red wires attached to them, emerged right behind the unconscious Darian.
"No way… she has more of them?" Tyel, who couldn't believe his eyes, fell to his knees. 'Maybe killing myself really was the right option… Sorry for making you work so hard, Darian… but I'll never forget this amazing rescue…' Tyel was about to grab the knife from his pocket when suddenly he heard a clapping of hands behind him.
"Okay, okay… stop the plushies, we've done enough for now." Everyone recognized that voice. The Seamstress, Vane, and Tyel all recognized it, in fact, their hearts began beating extremely fast.
Orechin hadn't heard that voice for a long time. The first time he had heard it was during the fight against Ashikunz last year, when most of the rebels were decimated, but once he realized whose voice it was, he had never forgotten it.
As they turned around, they noticed him. It was Zrelekai, who was smiling warmly. Hearing what he said, the Seamstress blocked the plushies that were about to devour Darian.
"And now, everyone… you're coming with me." With that, Zrelekai clapped his hands and smiled warmly, while everyone broke out into a cold sweat.