[CoolNard]

"What's the matter, Tatsu?" I question his limp stature, subjugating Zanden's uncouth noises of delight. "Don't tell me your advanced elven magic can't even handle commanding a couple of legendary supernatural creatures over time and space, and take on one of the strongest dragons, altogether?"

Tatsu peers up at me and relief washes over his face immediately. A sphere of ice encloses Tatsu's friend and me, freezing the tree and the atmosphere within a radius of five metres. My eyes are purple due to the natural blueness of Frost's barrier and the excited, scarlet state I have to conjure and sustain in myself, required to 'Unleash' Frost. Arctic Globe. With this defense, no mediocrity like that can pass through.

Zanden is incredulous. "What?" He exclaims, in denial that a direct attack from him could be stopped so efficaciously.

"Seems to me you've only tapped into half your powers, Tat!" I smirk, ignoring the fiery abomination.

"No, I've actually spent less than half," he corrects me, grinning back.

I am confounded. "Isn't this fellow a friend of yours? You didn't even try to protect him!"

"That's because I knew you were there! I'm still testing my limits and it'd be otiose to use anymore strength against a dragon of this level.., Although I'm quite disappointed that I couldn't protect him myself with this amount of skill. I still need training," he adds in an afterthought.

"Well, next time warn me a little ahead of time?" Even if it'd make no difference. I think to myself. "Incidentally, Tat, I've knocked your friend out so he wouldn't have to suffer from the pain."

"That's fine with me, the coldness ought to numb the governor's aches, too!"

Are my ears going bad? "The what?"

A fire ball suddenly hits and erupts into a miniature volcanic blast at the base of the tree, on which I am harbouring the governor. Its roots dissipate into splinters and the tree bends over, unable to hold its own weight. The ice sphere with us inside plunges downward. It is completely flawless in its making - physical isolation - there is no wind tugging at our clothes or twigs flying at us as the tree is dismantled by flames; the air is stagant with only the sunset orange from the flames refracted through the ice, almost blinding me. For the same reason, our body inertia is the only thing Arctic Globe cannot manipulate. With one arm around the governor, I stretch my limbs to steady myself on its inner surface, as our footing leaves the trough of the sphere and the top nears us, and begin counting the seconds it will take for us to hit the ground. A spread of fire over grass, like butter over bread, lay beneath us, impatient to consume our tragic fates. I dig my nails into the ice and hold my breath.

"Guess it's outta the pan and into the fire, huh?" I told the unconscious governor. "But... Hell would freeze over if that happened!" Arctic Globe has already set into my expectations. Five metres above the ground, it has frozen everything within range. It is sitting on frozen air and atmosphere. The silhouettes of the blazes below spike up motionlessly, cold and dead. Beyond the five metre boundary, the fires lick the ice in futility.

"What do you know? Hell did freeze over on my first try!" I declare in triumph, pleased with the results of my first maneuver of Arctic Globe.

"Are you crazy, betting on a first-timer with your lives at stake?!" chides a hysterical Tatsu.

"Hmph, right back at you for before!" I reply, equally raving. But smiles are listed all over our faces despite the cold sweat. "Eight seconds... That's how long it took for a five metre sphere to reach the ground. You singlehandedly threw this poor guy up forty metres!"

"Right back at you, you singlehandedly dragged him down the same height!"

"ROAR!!" Zanden screams, enraged by how underrated he is. Swirls of ignited gas spiral around him. "Enough of your frivolous foolery! This ends, NOW!"