Chapter 441: Explosive Clash (Part Two)
No matter where people stood, everyone with a view of the clash between Ashlynn and Ansgar seemed to lean forward, some taking involuntary steps and many stretching out their necks, hoping to see what had happened when two powerful artifacts, one formed of the coldest ice in the world and the other forged to call upon the heat of the sun, met in a ground shaking collision.
-CLANG- -TING- -TING-
-CRUNCH-
The Holy Flame Blade clattered to the ground, dropped by a hand so badly abused by the battle that it couldn’t possibly endure the force of Ansgar’s heavy overhand blow. An instant later, the Runic Blade of Eternal Ice cleaved into the stone and ice beside Ashlynn, embedding itself in the ground just inches from the witch’s feet.
"Let my friend go!" Ashlynn shouted, ignoring the fallen sword and lunging toward Hauke with her Severing Knife held high. Everything from the moment she charged forward to her desperate deflection of the icy blade had been for this moment, but if she couldn’t cut the horns away from Hauke’s body then all of this would have been for nothing.
"Frozen Sleep," Eugen’s childish voice echoed in Hauke’s mind as the juvenile Greenwind Healer made his move at last, unleashing a powerful burst of soothing wind that enveloped Ansgar’s mind, dulling his senses and trapping him within a moment of perfect, restful sleep.
"Eugen! Traitor," Eraric roared, summoning chains of ice to bind the youngest of the ancestors in place.
"Already decided, you have, and acted already too," Eugen said softly. Originally, he’d spoken in support of capturing the witch who bore a forbidden blade, carved from the horn of one of their descendants. Once the walls of the ice prison shattered, however, and the young healer had a chance to see the bodies piled up by Hauke’s father or tumbling from the walls above, he realized that the price Hauke’s clan was paying for their actions was already far too high, and everything he’d seen since then only made his earlier support feel like a greater sin.
"Wrong we were, to choose for Hauke. The witch, for him she fights, but for whom do we? For whom did we do this?" he asked, staring at the wall that showed the world outside Hauke’s mind and watching the young witch give her all not to obtain victory, but to rescue a young Frost Walker from his own ancestors. "Asked to do this, we weren’t..."
Before anyone could respond to Eugen’s words, a tearing sensation filled Hauke’s mind. Ashlynn’s knife was wickedly sharp and sheared instantly through the leather bandolier that held the Ancestral horns firmly to Hauke’s chest. Along with the leather, the curved knife descended rapidly, cutting away the bonds of magic that allowed the ancestors to control Hauke as they pleased.