Ain't Cutting no Ice [Gin/Alain/Mami/Jack Mitchell]

[Alain the Carnedge]

The moment Lubbock had mentioned an intruder, Alain had evacuated under his invisibility, levitating over the snow to leave no footprints and make no noise. Beginning the analysis of his target immediately, he held his hood up and kept an eye on them. The mercenary also tried to watch out for any backup she might have, but while the blizzard had passed, if only for a few moments, it still wasn't easy to see.

The mercenary kept where he was, waiting for an opportunity to strike or for his new friend to leave. They were watching the cave entrance rather intently, but didn't approach. Which meant they were either an enemy, or just wary of who was lurking there. But suddenly, icicles flew through the air at incredible speed, and when there was screaming from the cave, they just came faster. Alain scowled in annoyance and flew a bit higher to see where they'd try to escape to, but by the point he'd got into position, they were already on the move.

Rolling his eyes, he flew after them, but made sure not to descend just yet. He was thankful that he couldn't really feel the cold, otherwise this would probably be a lot harder. He took a moment to take in the information from the analysis. Alain had a few advantages; more abilities, better weapon variety, more skilled, faster, but she was stronger and was more durable. Also, she had ranged attacks, but dodging them hopefully wouldn't be too hard.

Alain went in with a rapier and a parrying dagger, just to make sure he had a slight advantage weapon-wise, and descended, going straight for his target. Landing and aiming for their back, but not anything vital as he'd prefer taking the woman alive instead of just decapitating her, he stabbed, invisibility fading for a second. The rapier pierced Esdeath's flesh, but just barely. She gasped in pain and he took a step back, pulling the blade out as he did so.

Esdeath turned around, not too happy with the sudden attack, and Alain went for a second lunge. She sidestepped it and tried to retaliate with a stab of her own, but the mercenary trapped her blade with the dagger in his right hand, kicking snow in her face and taking a few more steps back as he caught his breath. Icicles flew through the air and the mercenary took to the skies, gaining a burst of speed to get out of her sight for a moment. He didn't know when the invisibility went off, but it had. He went into stealth and descended slowly, making the most of the short break.

Esdeath was slowly moving away from where her opponent had taken flight, watching out for an attack from above. A green-skinned "person" approached her in the blizzard. Looked to be a troll. A scout, or reinforcements, perhaps. The rapier and dagger disappeared, reappearing as his usual blade as he descended once more, this time aiming for the troll's head.

While they were wearing a helmet and trolls were incredibly resilient, the troll wasn't prepared for a sword nearly as large as he was tall going straight through the back of his skull. The mercenary reappeared for a few seconds, realizing he failed to take into account that maybe getting the blade out would be a problem. The problem became ever more evident when he had to dive out of the way of a giant horn of ice appearing from the ground, which impaled the troll's corpse and took it off into the distance. He could vaguely see something crimson falling into the snow, likely a broken part of his sword, but now wasn't the time to investigate.

The mercenary ran, weaponless, gaining a burst of speed and delivering an uppercut to his foe's jaw when they looked like they themselves were starting to move. He could hear his knuckles breaking for that one, but the lack of feeling made it a minor concern. Esdeath staggered and he advanced, but he saw the blade moving and instinctively moved his arm to block it, the rapier piercing his arm far easier than it rightfully should have.

Trying to ignore the blood, Alain kicked his opponent in the knee and followed up with an elbow to the forehead, knocking Esdeath to the ground. The mercenary took the opportunity to start transforming, his hands starting to change into hellish claws, but stopped. He could hear voices, and the marching of multiple people, sounded like they were wearing armour. Alain knew his luck, and immediately assumed it was more trolls rather than dwarves. He thought he might be able to kill his foe, but doing that would undo a significant amount of the work he did to take them alive, death was just an inconvenience for who he assumed was a Prime, and whether or not he'd survive the trolls was a different question entirely.

Rolling his eyes, he started to take flight again, only barely levitating quickly enough to evade another frozen horn heading his way. He caught the sight of the armoured humanoids, though unable to get much more detail than that due to the distance. "We're done here. At least for now." Alain rasped before taking off again, gaining multiple bursts of speed just to make sure that any projectiles fired would be more likely to miss.

The mercenary dropped to the ground at the first opportunity to catch his breath and evaluate the situation, and realized a few more icicles had hit than he'd originally thought, though by sheer chance they hadn't hit anything vital. Or he didn't think so, the lack of pain made it hard to tell whether or not he was dying. Sighing in a way that made it seem he was a lot less injured than he was, Alain faded from sight and started to summon some medical supplies before heading back to the cave.