Daniel, Hunter, and Tak flew around the evolved young frost wyvern as it labored through the air, trying to catch them. Its one main difference from the others thus far was the ability to change parts of its body to ice, blocking damage, though when it did this to its wings it lost some of its mobility. Daniel had noticed the weakness when he'd tried to send his third Power Shot of his dive through one, only for ice to block the shot. The wyvern had jerked in the air and lost some of the speed it would have gained, leading to their current strategy.

Steadily, they were wearing it down. Daniel would aim for the wings, not doing anything fancy other than Snap Shot, while Tak and Hunter danced around and got what damage they could through the defensive ice block. The other skirmishes above seemed to be going well, though Daniel had yet to hear Evalyn restart her group buff and knew Investiture of Song had a high mana drain. The Bard might have already needed to drop her personal buff were it not for the benefit Alex had given them through Glimpse of Dawn before they left.

Unfortunately, the most crushing of blows had already been dealt. Namely, Daniel hadn't gotten an affix from his scan of the evolved frost wyvern, and in fact had only unlocked more of their general encyclopedia page which in no way detailed what else its evolution was hiding.

I can't use Beast Mode now, he thought as he loaded another round. The fourth one has to give it to me. His desire went further than just for variety's sake. With a third elemental affix, he could create magazines with one type of jacket, fire for example, and then alternate lightning and ice bullets to help build Elemental Onslaught's chain effect. Alternating the jackets was just not feasible, as he would have to toggle Invest Affix on the firestarter and that cost a decent amount of mana each time he used it.

While he might have been zero'ing his build in too much on one ability, the affix would also be great for enemies that took increased damage from different elements. Should a certain sparrow get out of hand again, Daniel wanted to have ice bullets ready.

By that logic, I should be using fire now. He'd gone with lightning damage initially as a neutral element, saving the fire bullets for riskier and/or more dangerous circumstances. They were steadily reaching that point, with the team's mana falling as time went on. He'd have liked to have been using fire shot from the start, but he could only make so many with the time and bone he had. That reminds me, now that Tak's on the team I'll need him to butcher these. Some wyvern bone bullets would be nice.

Dragging himself out of his own head, Daniel quickly swapped magazines, investing the lightning affix into his trigger mechanism at the same time. Now, his blast bow would detonate the spineshard jackets attuned to lightning and propel the fire splitting ammo, rather than make the weapon slightly hotter while doing nothing.

Toss me Lion Charge, Daniel thought toward Hunter. I'll do a quick Power Shot. I want to see if I can crack that ice.

Will make me vulnerable. The ringcat, currently in hybrid form, somewhat unsteadily brought himself to a stop above a cloud and sighed as he saw the wyvern try to go after Tak next. Fine. Mana's getting low though. I won't be able to Flash Jaunt too many times.

I'll use Alex's thing after this, Daniel promised, activating Power Shot and watching the fur of his weapon's overwrap begin to stand on end. Assuming it's not a full restore, which would be insane, you can use it too without wasting it.

Hunter grunted in agreement and Daniel swooped in on the evolved wyvern, both arms outstretched as he flew to keep his maneuverability as high as possible. He had to approach carefully, as if he didn't mind where Tak was, or his allies above him, he could feasibly hit someone with the scatter of his attack.

Still, he mentally warned the two allies closest to him as he triggered his blast bow. Might and Magic combined his Power Shot with Hunter's Lion Charge, the effect creating a stream of lightning that his projectiles passed through. When used with anything but lightning spineshard bullets, which would explode when exposed to the stream, it would concentrate and increase the damage of short-range shots. Targeting anything outside Lion Charge's normal range would only result in an attack that did not benefit from the mana Hunter put into the ability.

As before, Daniel had aimed for one of the wyvern's wings, and it anticipated his shot by turning a section to ice. Unlike before, the combined factors behind his attack finally managed to do something no other had before: crack the ice. It might have been that fire damage was all that was needed, for there was a brief sizzle after his attack.

When the wyvern's wing reverted into its normal form, things changed. For one, the leather of that part of the wing was warped. Not completely broken, but stretched and wrinkled where the protective transmutation had failed. In a way it was worse, because it didn't look like traditional damage but that the section was just like that now, and any healing would return it to that state.

Whether it was realizing this, or Daniel's use of fire against it, the wyvern had decided it had had enough. A pulse of mana issued out with a roar. Similar to the sparrow, it should have been impossible for a level 3 creature to have done this, and it signaled that the fight had reached the next stage.

Oh crap, it's too early for this. He hadn't expected for the wyvern's defensive ability to carry that kind of risk, Daniel had just wanted to test fire ammo against it. It was good in that he now knew he could counter the ice block effect.

The only downside was that the evolved wyvern was growing a second head. That was the most dramatic change, but not the only one. Its entire body froze over, the section of the wing he'd damaged still showing cracks from where the pellets had hit, while a second, slightly smaller wyvern head arose from the back and began spewing out frost almost nonstop.

Get back! Daniel sent out mentally, though the surprise second source of ice breath had already caught Tak as the Totem Warrior had tried to fly over and outside the reach of the wyvern. It was a good thing the avianoid hadn't Grown Wings but relied on Daniel's items, since his earth-affiliated powers didn't combine well with his race's signature power, as his limbs became stiff and hard to move.

So cold, Tak thought to them as his items finished propelling him out of field. I could not survive in that for long.

It's moving, Hunter warned, a little pained himself from sharing Tak's damage, and Daniel saw he was talking about the second head. It didn't appear fixed to any one place on the ice armor that now completely covered the wyvern, but could flow across the surface.

This thing is a fucking tank, Daniel complained. Not much long range potential, not that we've seen so far, but I don't see how you guys can fight that.

Have you used Alex's thing?

Right. Daniel had his phone to tell him what Alex had given him, but at the same time there was a feeling from his seventh sense acting as a constant, if light, reminder as well. It was like there was a present right next to him that had yet to be unwrapped. Tearing off the packaging, Daniel saw for just a moment the image of a rising sun in his mind as echoes of Alex's song played unbidden. As mana rushed into him, he felt he could knock loose features he'd heightened to regain the mana he'd used to temporarily improve them, but had no reason to reset them right now.

When the process ended, only taking a second or two in real time, he'd gotten around a third of his mana back. Worse than a level 2 potion, but that was if you considered the amount they gave over time after the initial burst. Alex's ability had matched that in far less time, and with him only having to give a mental command to use it.

For someone's first power, that's completely broken. For level 3 though? He'd take whatever help the Spoke was throwing his way, so long as it didn't have some terrible cost down the road. Right now, his problems were wyvern shaped.

Daniel was relaying his findings and debating whether to grab the sending stone linked to Evalyn, the team still yet to be able to afford a full set and himself without any of the special material required to make the formulae possible, when Tak's eyes caught something.

The second head, watch out! Daniel and Hunter's heads moved as one as they saw what looked like the second icy head of the wyvern inhaling. It's flight had actually suffered from turning its entire body to ice and hadn't managed to catch up to them after they'd pulled back, though they were all keeping their guards up. That turned out to be a good idea.

Whatever air the second head was impossibly taking in was released all at once as a winter storm from anti-hell blasted across the sky. The reach was in the tens of meters, not enough to hit Shuni and Sigron above them, but farther than they had expected. It wasn't just pure frost either, but spikes of ice mixed in that punched through Daniel's armor as he desperately flew out of the area of effect.

Take Regeneration back! Hunter thought to him as the ringcat appeared at the end of where he had Flash Jaunted away. Shivering, Daniel would have, only to notice that Hunter's body was still frosted and torn from where Tak had been injured.

Instead of accepting the effect of his own power back, Daniel activated the smoke cloud effect of his boots and rapidly flew away from the aura of the wyvern. You both need it. I'm… I'm fucking cold, but the armor stopped anything important from being hurt. Worst case, I'll take a potion. We need to figure out how to beat that. He looked up to Evalyn's aura and saw her still contesting the third wyvern, though one of its wings was listing with every flap. Buy me time.

Ok, Hunter replied, clearly not liking his role.

"Evalyn, the evolved wyvern buffed itself. We can't take it," he quickly said into the sending stone. They were close enough that they might have been able to hear each other shout, but this wasn't communication that should be misunderstood. "I want to bait it toward the rest of the group."

He left the smoke cloud out the other end and could see, barely, the frown on the Bard's face. "Tlara's about ready to pounce on this wyvern, but it looks like Shuni is having trouble doing anything meaningful to the other one. I'm not sure, because half the time I try to ask her something she doesn't answer for half a minute!"

"Yes or no? Because I'm not sure it's shown us everything and we're already hurt."

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He heard Evalyn sigh through the stone as above, she disabled her boosting power, shot a Songbolt into the wyvern, and peeled off as Tlara landed on her prey. "Yes. I saw that breath attack, I don't want this thing ever having a chance of getting to town."

Daniel agreed. He also noticed that the evolved wyvern was trying to charge him. It's freely moving head was breathing out the lower-power, constant frost breath at anything go close, but otherwise it was trying to catch up to him and either deep-freeze or eat him.

Now that the team had Hunter again there was a trick they could pull, using his status as a monster adjacent to senselessly enrage any true monsters nearby, but that wasn't an option as Daniel wanted to keep the aura on the fourth wyvern active. It looked like it had crashed onto an island further down after seeing that it wasn't being pursued, completely unaware they were just saving it for later.

Continuing to fly up, Daniel heard a telepathic warning and turned to see that the evolved wyvern was pulling the mega breath trick again, although there was a twist this time. Where's the second head? Wait, it almost looks like- Not good!

He instantly activated the smoke bomb effect on his armor while pulling out a sacrificial wall. Evolved and elite monsters alike apparently loved to trash his remaining fur supplies because they kept throwing out attacks he needed to make temporary cover from. In this case, the second head of the wyvern had overlapped with the physical one, and both were charging the breath attack together. A cynical part of him knew it wasn't going to be just as powerful as the first time.

"Bulwark!" Rather than throw the wall at the enemy, Daniel pressed the blast bow against it and commanded the overwrap to cling to the fur as it unfolded. "Evalyn, big blast coming up!"

"Area Denial!" Sigron incanted above him as he braced, a dome of light spreading around him to enclose the wyvern, Shuni, and himself. Evalyn was flying to be in its shadow while Tlara and the wyvern she was in the process of dominating looked to be outside of any reasonable cone the evolved enemy was preparing. It was a good move from the Knight assuming the shield would block the blizzard in addition to the ice spikes, but Daniel was still below him.

Hunter, hit Flash Jaunt as soon as it breathes and give it to me. The fact that he still had time to prepare for the attack worried him. The evolved wyvern was taking in so much air there was likely a suction effect around its mouth. This wouldn't be something that hit the entire screen, would it?

Twenty seconds after the wyvern had begun charging its breath attack, it unleashed a devastation of pure cold.

…

"Commander?" someone Zolyra would place as Janice by voice asked through the door. Warily, the draconoid placed a hand on the desk and physically depressed several runes on the web that appeared over it, which acted to temporarily disable some of the stronger countermeasures she had in place. She trusted Soraso exactly as far as she could throw him, and as an air gestalt he could normally prevent her from gripping him. With what she had in place she could barely defend against him directly cutting into the room with his Spoke, though the interconnected defenses would also kill someone like Janice who tried to force their way in.

Thankfully, the Martialist had waited for permission. "Come in, what is it?"

The Martialist was one Zolyra had her eyes on, for different reasons than Wingcraft. Were these normal times, someone like Janice would be the unsung hero of society. Loyal, determined, and willing to make use of powers to keep laws enforced justly. Soraso wasn't the first to show that a person could be a monster in disguise, nor Lagori's apparent abuse of his sons the first to be ignored due to his standing. She hadn't known, and if she had? Kahvin had been the sharpest thorn under her scales, but he'd been in her guild. He still technically was.

That was an issue for later, though. "Trouble in town?"

"No, Commander." The Martialist was breathing heavily, probably having just run here. "I think something's wrong with Wingcraft."

"Oh, why do you say that?" In answer, Janice quickly pulled something out of her bag of holding, and the ridges above Zolyra's eyes rose in surprise as the sending stone was thrown on her desk. It was frozen solid, so infused with cold magic that frost began to spread across the wood, only for her runes to react and crush the foreign energy.

Zolyra's claws flashed in the air, scribing a spell without any medium. It took more mana to do it this way, much more, but this was a simple spell. "Tounaki, report to me immediately. I have a team that needs backup. This might be the push you're looking for to hit 4." She then immediately reached for and began scribing a spell on viridian-threaded parchment. Using two costly scrolls in such a short amount of time was wasteful, but if the wyverns she'd sent Wingcraft to fight could freeze a sending stone through its mana connection, they'd need more firepower than they had.

…

The world was frozen. It was unlike the sparrow's aura in that it had come in a huge burst, and was far more potent. All the wall had done was offer minor protection from shards of ice that had flown toward him, but the wyvern's last move had expelled more than just that.

It's like… hostile mana, Daniel thought, and even that part of him was slowed as he fell through the air turned light blue, covered in a few centimeters of ice.

The initial burst had completely numbed him for a few seconds, but though his mind had recovered, everything was far from fine. For one, his gear wasn't working. His boots had stopped propelling him, the extra control from the wings was gone, and he'd probably have dropped the blast bow as the cling effect subsided if his hand hadn't been frozen to it.

Internally, his mana still moved, but slower. It was similar to the Iridescent whitespring's suppression, though in this case it just made it more difficult to use powers. This… this isn't an aura, Daniel decided, taking several torturous seconds to turn his head and note the wyvern's movement in the air was unaided. It's like a mobile lair. A domain.

Not in the sense of the domains of the gods, but a field effect the wyvern could put down to dramatically tilt a fight in its favor. This was like Sigron's dome shield on steroids. The evolved wyvern had been struggling to catch up to him when he was flying, but now everything everyone else did was slower.

Too cold, Tak's voice shivered in his head, more serious than he normally got on hunts. Can't move.

Wyvern's coming for us, Daniel thought back, noting that at the very least, its ice armor was gone. Sigron and Shuni are fine, but it looks like the wyvern iced his shield sphere to turn their fight into a cage match. Evalyn's falling too. Even Khiat's arrows…

One of the guided missiles aiming for the evolved wyvern lost its tracking as he watched, and without the control the dusker could have on her arrows it only glanced off the tough scales of the wyvern. At the very least it suggested its defensive ability was restricted while the field effect was in place, but that didn't matter if they couldn't fight within it.

Daniel, recognizing a bad situation, activated Moment of Clarity. Compared to his experiences with the ability before, it took a couple of seconds before time slowed, though at least the dilation was unaffected when it settled.

Need to fight this, Hunter growled. It comes for you first. Give me the cold.

I can't, Daniel discovered, otherwise willing despite the risk that would put Hunter in. Whatever this is isn't fully physical, it's affecting our mana too. I think my bags of holding are frozen shut. Countering the cold with flame was the obvious solution, but the wyvern could bully them through sheer level disparity. Fuck. The sparrow might be our only option.

Not the best idea, Tak replied, wavering on the idea. But if it is dying or letting him run free, I would prefer not dying.

Can't. Daniel was confused at that until Hunter reminded him, Willow has to put him in when Tlara summons something. No time.

Yeah, the Astral might not be thin enough here either. That option out, Daniel began to think on bonds. There was a quasi-magic suppression going on, and the hope was bond benefits would ignore that like they did normal suppression. Ok, the plan is to get out of the field effect and warm up. Mirror Strike moves you guys out, then Hunter moves into my body and Flash Jaunts out.

I don't have enough mana for both. The cold goes far from the enemy. Daniel cursed internally as he saw Hunter's point. The wyvern was affecting space within at least a hundred meters of it, and that distance required at least three Flash Jaunts to cross. Considering the wyvern would be following at least one of them, they'd need more.

Alright. Let's assume I can still use my blast bow. He really hoped he could, though it would depend on whether the lightning trigger still worked. I can use telekinesis to fire it. I've done it before, it's just messy. The two of you get out and let it chase me. When it's about to hit me, we do Slow Mirror and use the phasing like we did with Rikoor.

What about Evalyn? That was the problem with using the ultimate get out of jail free card. It effectively took three members of the team out of the fight for entire minutes, and without a reset power like Thomas', there was no ending it early. If Daniel wasn't a viable target the wyvern would likely go for the other prey caught in its domain.

With both Khiat and I firing on the wyvern, it'll have to be evasive, Daniel decided. I'll have to give you back Slow Mirror, but it's the best we can do. Tak, once your gear works you need to fly up and make sure Tlara sends the wyvern she dominated down, it could be the only thing that can fight in the cold, and it needs to pick up Evalyn.

I can do that, Tak affirmed. Plan set, Daniel stopped wasting mana and resumed time. Tak and Hunter began jerking away in the sky below him, each Mirror Strike dragging their limp bodies farther toward the edge of the field effect.

Above, the wyvern continued to gain on him. Threst's odd effect on gravity meant that without specific powers, everything had the same maximum fall speed. Daniel wasn't sure, but whatever the evolved wyvern's field effect was doing was contesting that to some degree, slowing him in air while allowing the wyvern to go at whatever speed it pleased.

Using telekinesis, Daniel felt the same grip of fearful anticipation any horror movie protagonist did as they tried to close an elevator before the monster made it to him. The continual use of his power was contested both by the wyvern's field effect, and the ice still covering him. It was worth pointing out that he was in a considerable amount of pain, and would have died upon being exposed to this cold were he normal.

He just managed to get his weapon roughly pointed toward the wyvern, but there were two issues facing him compared to when he'd done this against the hexscuttle stalker. First, he couldn't both keep his arm steady while falling and engage the trigger, not while power usage was slowed. Second, the wyvern was about to bite him in half.

Opening a mouth wide enough to wrap around his torso, but thankfully not tall enough to swallow him in one bite, the blue devil was prepared to get revenge for the mild inconvenience Daniel had caused to its wing. With Hunter and Tak still escaping the field effect, he couldn't ask them to use Slow Mirror early or else they'd just be stuck again.

Seeing nothing for it, Daniel abandoned his attempts to fire his weapon and moved his other arm with telekinesis. The jaw closed and teeth pierced him in several places, Daniel's armor enough to at least give some resistance. The largest fang roughly resembling what a canine would be to a human had been blocked by his Focus shield, however, protecting his face and upper chest.

Anytime guys, Daniel thought as he felt a tremendous force begin to crush him. Ow, ow, wait, fuck it, Hunter, Flash Jaunt now!

After several cracks were heard from the ice around his legs, and the bones underneath, Daniel's body became incorporeal as Hunter activated Flash Jaunt and then sent its physical effect over to him. That freed him from the wyvern's jaws, but ultimately it just bought a few more seconds before it would swing around and bite him again.

This is way out of our league, Daniel thought, not liking the growing sense of helplessness. This thing is completely elemental focused, even more than the sparrow was. If I'd known it'd be like this I'd have spent a week slapping the fire affix on everything I could make and covering myself with it. It has to be as close as you can get to level 4 without crossing the threshold.

If Lograve were here, they'd have a shot. He could possibly manipulate the water vapor in the air and warm it that way, though the wyvern was beating even the Arcanist's mastery of his element. No, if Lograve was to fight this thing he'd have to pull out his other tools. There was only one person Daniel could think of that could counter this monster through anything other than brute force, but there was no way she could-

A mana pulse rippled through the air, stronger than the one that had summoned the field effect, and for a moment Daniel was worried the wyvern had yet to reach its final phase. Instead, about half a kilometer above them where Khiat was trying to catch up and the Knight and the Rogue fought what looked like a wyvern on its last legs, a pink flare lit the sky. It matched with Zolyra's traditional color, and a second later, Tounaki Splitswift appeared.

"Hey!" she called down, avian voice better suited to project across the distance. "Don't freeze on me now. We're just getting warmed up."

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