[Event] Steam and Frost (LibertyGear/Lily Ambrosia)

Event Details:

Winter wasn't the best time for Lily. She wasn't as vulnerable to it as most plants because she had a lot of raw magic and life force running through her body but she could still feel herself becoming more sluggish as the cold and the limited sunlight slowed her down. That said she was still functional enough to go out and enjoy the festivities that the civilized folk organized for this time of the year. She wondered why it was the case that the winter was known as the festival season. Maybe they just didn't have much else to do since at that point the harvest was already in?

Whatever the reason civilization was in sharp contrast to nature during this time of year: where nature retreated and preserved its strength for the coming spring civilization became alive with many lights and colours and sounds. The dryad found it quite the spectacle to behold, so she was glad that she'd come to Magnolia Town where the festivals were supposed to be the most cheery and lively of all the towns.

And she wasn't alone either. Rakshasa might have disappeared but she was still in contact with some of the members. After searching around for a bit she'd managed to find Libbier and asked her whether she wanted to attend the festivities together with her. Lily never had the opportunity to get to know the other woman very well but she thought the two of them could get along if they took the time to interact a bit more.

Sitting on top of Basin Lily's dress of leafs had expanded to cover her entire body and with thicker leafs to help keep out the cold. She also had a scarf of leafs which was big enough that it occasionally hid her mouth. The earth guardian was standing at the edge of the town, awaiting for Libbier and her companion to arrive.

WC: 320
TWC: 320/1,500

Libbier had always been an easy person to befriend, that is until she awakened a different side of her by accident. Ever since then she had been avoiding others, even if she wanted to make friends. If it was not for Nero, she would have completely distanced herself away from others. However, she had been contacted by an old friend, or at least that was how she considered every member of her old guild, asking her to meet up and partake in some festivities. When Nero heard the news he almost drowned on his own tears before telling Libbier to go and enjoy herself.

It had been a long time since Libbier had last acted separately from Nero, and she would be lying if she said she wasn't nervous. Nero had become a constant in her life, to the point she almost considered him more like family than a friend, so in a way, this would be the first time in a while she would actually go out with friends. In a way, although she was nervous, at the same time, she was excited about the possible activities she would be able to do that she hadn't done with others.

It was a simple meet up for some, but Libbier was slightly hyped, and Nero was actually pushing her forward saying weird stuff like 'The chick is finally leaving the nest.' while crying. Still, it took her a while to get ready, as she overslept a little after having trouble to fall asleep, and had to sprint, her way to the meeting point. Due to Nero's insistence, Libbier was forced out of her combat outfit, which she usually automatically gets into in the mourning due to habit, and into some casual clothes, Nero had prepared, consisting of a black skirt since she isn't affected by the cold, a blue shirt and a green jacket to not look too under dressed.

She couldn't fly as to not damage her clothes unnecessarily so she ran all the way there. And as soon as she saw Lily.

"LILY!", she shouted and waved before braking hard and stopping in front of her friend, "Sorry. I had some trouble getting ready. Were you waiting long?"



[370//370]

Basin and Lily both felt the vibrations through the earth as Libbier approached, her footsteps enough of an announcement that the two of them barely needed to watch her arrive. The guardian didn't show any strong reaction but Lily perked up and turned her head in the direction from which the slayer was approaching.

Once Libbier was in sight Lily raised one hand and waved back. "LIBBIER!" She shouted back just as enthusiastically. Aside from the thick-leafed dress that covered most of her body and the broad scarf wrapped around her neck the dryad also had thick, fluffy and dry moss covering her hands and feet and a fair portion of her arms and legs underneath her clothes. The moss served as a strange combination of fur and gloves/shoes, helping to keep Lily's extremities warm without sacrificing her dexterity or ability to feel with them.

"Not at all! We were just enjoying the sounds of the festivities." Lily pushed herself off of Basin, sliding down his smooth surface to land in front of Libbier. Spreading her arms the dryad gave the slayer a hug as way of greeting, followed by her using one hand to indicate Basin while the other was still on the taller girl's shoulder. "I don't think you two have met each other yet, so Libbier, this is Basin. He's my companion and he's a lot friendlier than he looks."

The stone-formed behemoth raised one large hand in greeting, its single blue eye glowing as it looked at Libbier. Once introductions were out of the way Lily would return her full attention to Libbier, smiling happily. "So how've you been Libbier? And where's your friend? I thought he was always with you." She quickly glanced around as if Nero would be hiding behind one of the buildings. Of course that wasn't the case as Lily would have felt his weight upon the earth, but from what she remembered Libbier was almost never without the exceed so she was very curious that the girl would have come alone.

WC: 340
TWC: 660/1,500

Libbier was happy to see Lily and was glad that she was on time after all. Libbier never got to know much about her fellow companions from her former guild, but she always enjoyed how Lily always seemed to be wearing leaves and flowers like it was natural, and today was no different. She was still checking out Lily's outfit when the girl skidded down from the rock she was on and hugged Libbier as soon as she landed. This caught Libbier by surprise, but she soon returned the hug as well.

"Smells like berries.", Libbier thought to herself immediately.

Then Lily introduced her companion, who she said to be called Basin while gesturing towards the rock she came down from. It took Libbier a few moments to realize her companion was not on the rock but was in fact the rock itself. She immediately thought about it as a kind of golem-like creature, like the ones she usually finds sitting inside old ruins when she goes exploring. Although this one was different. It felt more alive, which would also explain why it was moving when compared to the ones she usually finds. Libbier couldn't but think it looked rather cute when it raised its arm as a greeting, and she returned it by raising her own in response.

Then as if noticing something Lily asked a few questions while looking as if trying to find something.

"I've been fine. Although the disbandment did catch us all by surprise, I was never one to be in the same place for long anyway.", Libbier replied with a chuckle, "And if you're speaking about Nero then he decided to stay in bed, after saying something like 'I don't want to get in the way of you girls fun.' or something. So it will just be us three."

As she finished talking, Libbier took out a folded piece of paper that was, in fact, a flyer about the festivities.

"So what should we do first?", Libbier asked as she opened the flyer, before raising it and showing it, enthusiastically, to Lily as she pointed to one event, in particular, with large amounts of drool escaping from one corner of her mouth and wide sparkling eyes, then she continued, "I strongly suggest the Hot Chocolate tasting one to be one of our choices today."

390//760

Lily and Basin were used to people having trouble recognizing Basin as being a person, so neither of them was very offended when Libbier took a moment to realize that the dryad had been talking about her guardian. Libbier still did a better job recovering than most: a lot of humans needed a while to process the idea of Basin being a living creature. Once the girl had returned its gesture the guardian lowered its hand back to the ground, nearly completely motionless as it led Lily do the talking.

The dryad nodded in agreement with Libbier. "It really was a surprise, but I'm glad to hear that it hasn't slowed you down." Although the news that Nero wasn't with them resulted in the green-haired girl making a disappointed sound. "Aww, I wanted to see him as well." She pouted for a moment before her expression cleared up again. "But let's have fun anyway! There's a lot to do at this festival!"

She looked at the flyer as Libbier presented it, the dryad noticing how eager her friend was to taste the hot chocolate and giggling. "Let's do that first then. We can figure out what else we want to do after." She herself couldn't immediately think of anything she would really want to do, but she was happy to go along with Libbier's wishes. She was more than happy wandering around and looking at the variety of ideas humans had to celebrate the Winter Solstice.

Taking Libbier by the hand she began to head into town, Basin lifting itself so it could lumber after the two girls. Magnolia Town was a large settlement with wide roads for carts and other vehicles, which meant that the guardian could enter the town without being in danger of crushing anything as long as it kept to the middle of the road. Although of course everyone else had to be careful to move around Basin's large bulk. It was a good thing that Lily had taught it how to move carefully so it didn't crack the pavement with every step.

The leaf-dressed girl led the way towards a plaza where the hot chocolate tasting was organized, her contact with the earth allowing her to easily navigate despite being a stranger in town. Her holding Libbier's hand also meant she didn't have to worry about being separated from her friend, the golden lily on her head bobbing with every lively step.

WC: 407
TWC: 1,067/1,500

Libbier was very happy to the fact that Lily agreed to go to the Hot Chocolate tasting event first. The thought of drinking hot chocolate with various tastes made the drool hard to control if Libbier tried to control it that is. Libbier was imagining how much chocolate she would be able to eat and or drink today and even went as far as seeing herself dive into a pool of chocolate which then was quickly drained as she slurped it dry. Heaven on her own mind, pure and sweet dark brown heaven.

It was only when Lily grabbed her hand that Libbier recovered from her delusions, quickly following behind.

The streets were full of people that came to enjoy the festivities. Libbier was rather surprised how simple it seemed to be walking within the crowd, especially being two girls on their own in such a massive city. Not that Magnolia had a reputation of having those sorts of men, but then again, they also had a massive bodyguard, of sorts, following behind them. Not to mention, Lily seemed to know exactly where to go. It was both surprising and impressive for Libbier, who had a good way of knowing her way thru smell, so she knew where the place where the event was being held, as it created a strong localized smell of chocolate. She wondered how others could do it, but considering magic was unique to everyone, she figured she wouldn't be able to replicate it, or need to for that matter.

Soon they arrived, and Libbier could see the large bowls of chocolate just sitting there on top of tables, waiting for people to scoop a cup. On that moment, rather than being led by the hand, Libbier began to lead, gently pulling Lily along, towards the place where the cups were stacked up, and a clear sign marked the simple rules.

"So 'Take a cup and drink all the twelve different hot chocolate drinks. Write your favourite in a piece of paper and place it in the box at the end.'.", Libbier read out loud, before picking her own cup and turning to Lily, "Want to see how fast we can get to the other side?"

370//1130

Libbier did have a point that Basin's presence probably played a role in making sure nobody bothered them as they navigated their way towards the chocolate tasting event. The guardian might have learned how to move with enough care to not destroy its surroundings but that didn't mean it'd become any slower. As the two girls made their way along it plodded behind them, a clear warning for anyone with ill intent that if they tried anything Basin would be on them like a pile of rocks. Almost literally.

Of course, while Lily did most of her navigating through the ground she also had enhanced senses like Libbier: the crystal formed of hightly condensed nature energy which served as her heart supposedly bore a strong similarity to the slayer lachrimas humans used to augment their bodies. This helped a lot with making sure she was going in the right direction, although she was somewhat hindered by the fact she wasn't actually familiar with chocolate.

When they reached the plaza Lily at first wanted to look around a bit only to be pulled along by Libbier, who clearly was looking forward to this. The dryad didn't mind although she did motion for Basin that he could stand there and wait for them: the guardian didn't have a mouth or taste buds, so a hot chocolate contest had little meaning for it. It much preferred to quietly observe its surroundings and the people enjoying the festival.

Reading the rules Lily looked up as Libbier suggested trying to get to the opposite side as quickly as possible. "Sure, but aren't we supposed to take our time to taste each one?" She had never participated in a taste competition before but she hadn't imagined that speed would be a factor. However she figured Libbier knew what she was talking about and the dryad just grabbed a cup for herself while she waited for Libbier to take the lead.

Assuming that her chocolate-loving friend were to start the tasting the dryad would follow along, showing a great interest in each of the twelve offered bowls of hot chocolate as each one was a taste she'd never experienced before. "This is really good! What is it?"

---

Basin meanwhile was as unmoving as a boulder, but that didn't mean that it wasn't paying attention. Its original home had been a place where it was always warm, but its nature as an earth guardian left it unmoved by the cold. What did draw its attention was the sensation of ancient magics moving about. It was faint, very faint, so faint that Basin figured even Lily probably wouldn't have noticed: while the dryad's roots could run surprisingly deep it was still the earth which supported everything and ran underneath everything.

Lily, its companion, seemed to be having the time of her life right now: it noticed that even during the chocolate testing it hadn't occurred to the foliage-haired girl to let go of her friend's hand. She was probably too distracted by the festival. Regardless Basin would have to keep an eye out for the ancient magic which felt like winter's heart. If it tried to disturb the fun its friend was having the guardian would have to put a stop to it.

WC: 545
TWC: 1,612/1,500

Moving towards the first table, Libbier wanted to try the hot chocolate recipe that was on it. She could barely wait to drink it and every single one of the recipes that were available. That is when she heard Lily's question about the need to be fast. This helped Libbier calm down a little and realize, there was truly no reason for her to rush it. The hot chocolate was not going to disappear any time soon so she could just enjoy it slowly. They still had the entire day ahead of them, and a lot of things to have fun with.

"Well, you're right.", Libbier finally replied, and after filling her cup she added, "There's no reason to rush it. Let's just enjoy ourselves at our own pace."

The smell of chocolate was so intense now that Libbier could already taste it, but she needed to taste it and not rush it. So she gulped down her excess drool and took a small sip of the warm drink. She felt the sweetness of the chocolate flow through her with the comfortable warming effect it carried on this cold day. Libbier waited for the effect to end before taking another sip, trying to keep it going. It actually felt nice, and a welcome change to her usual wait to chow down everything. Then she heard something from Lily that would make her jaw hit the floor if it wasn't for the fact that it is attached to her skull.

"Wait. You have never eaten chocolate before?", Libbier asked, dumbfounded at the cheer idea that someone had never eaten chocolate before, but she quickly recovered. She was happy that this was the perfect place to fix such heresy, "This was a rather simple recipe of hot chocolate with cream, maybe its the first for that reason, so if you liked it, I'm sure you are going to love every single other one there is."

Then Libbier walked to the next table slowly pulling Lily along, encouraging Lily to finish her cup, by taking another sip from her own.

"By the way.", Libbier said happily as they reached the next table, "What do you propose we do next? I got the first pick, now it's your turn to choose. There is a lot to choose from, but it is going to take us a while to finish here so we do have time.", Libbier momentarily placed her cup on the table to free her hand so that she could reach and show Lily the available events during the festivities.

---

In the sky, using the wind to his favor, Nero was flying while looking down using a pair of binoculars. It was the only way he could keep an eye on Libbier without interrupting her alone time with a friend, as even if Libbier had a good sense of smell, as long as he was far enough and against the wind, even her would have a hard time to notice him. He was happy that she was enjoying herself, although the fact that Lily had brought her golem had annoyed Nero at the start, the fact that the golem had been waiting at a distance at all times quickly made things look good again. So Nero kept watching his best friend on her first 'day out with friends' in a very long time.

"Look at that.", Nero sighed, but kept a smile on his face, "She is so damn excited she didn't even notice she is still holding Lily's hand."

587//1717

Lily giggled as Libbier visibly calmed down and admitted that they might as well take their time and enjoy the chocolate. She knew how much her friend loved sweets so she wasn't very surprised that at the opportunity to taste so many tasty things the slayer would get ahead of herself. She couldn't help but find it kind of funny. "If we rushed it we wouldn't enjoy it as much, right?" These words were meant to voice agreement with Libbier, the dryad smiling as she waited for Libbier to take the first sip before she began to drink from her own cup.

Hot chocolate definitely was very tasty, the dryad humming in pleasant surprise. She could see why her companion would be so eager to drink it. She tilted her head in mild surprise as Libbier acted like Lily never having tasted hot chocolate before was madness. At the question whether she really had never eaten it before she shrugged and shook her head. "It's something humans make, right? I've eaten bread before but I'm not a part of the civilized folk so there's a lot of stuff I haven't experienced for myself." She took another sip from her cup, then licked the chocolate moustache from her upper lip. "I can see why you like it so much though! So this is a simple version?" She obediently followed Libbier when the other mage began to walk, pulled along even as she drank some more from her cup.

By the time Libbier asked her what else she wanted to do next the foliage-haired girl had finished her first cup, once again requiring some time to clean the brown liquid from where it stained her already brown skin before answering. "Hmmm~ There was something with ice yes?" She leaned forward to look at the flyer showing all the available activities. "Sled racing sounds like fun, but so does ice sculpting... And open skating! That's sliding over a big ice field right? But what's a frozen t-shirt contest?" Eagerly looking over all the options the dryad blinked as suddenly got a great idea. "Wait! I have an idea!" She pointed at Libbier, empty cup still in hand. "You can melt ice and freeze it again yes? I can control water!" The way she was enthusiastically motioning with her hand should make people glad that the cup had already been emptied. "We could sculp whatever we want together! I mean you could do that already but I can help make it even better!"

---

It looked like Lily and Libbier would be having a lot of fun together and also keep themselves busy for the remainder of the day. That gave Basin the opportunity to take care of that ancient, cold magic that it could feel moving through the ground. It was also in the air, but since it was cold anyway nobody was picking up on it.

Lifting itself from its immobile position Basin silently lumbered away from the hot chocolate testing area, moving towards where the open skating was held. It was a large field of ice with clear borders and plenty of supervision for the little kids. However there wasn't anybody on the lookout for the kind of trouble that the guardian was expecting. Fortunately the ice was solid enough that it could stand on top of it without sinking right through.

As Basin had been tracking the ominous essence of winter the trouble was already starting when it arrived. Near the middle of the rink the ice was cracking, small shards flying upwards as something was forcing its way out of the ice. People were slow to notice at first, but as Basin stepped onto the rink and headed towards the centre and the cracking of the ice became worse the skaters quickly caught on and began to move away. Here on the ice Basin could be argued to be at its weakest, with nothing but frozen water underneath it and no earth nearby... but it would have to be enough.

The first of a horde of tiny creatures burst forth from underground, a scorpion with a shiny, blue-purple carapace. It looked a lot like ice, except for the tip of its stinger which actually was ice. It clearly was not an entirely natural creature, and it was the same for its numerous siblings which were climbing out after it.

Unfortunately for them when they climbed out of the ice what met them was Basin's stone fists stomping them all flat. Their icy stingers carried that dark winter essence that Basin didn't care for, but a guardian made of earth and stone couldn't suffer frostbite. And these scorpions were still the size of normal scorpions, and thus easily flattened.

Making short work of the intruders Basin's thoughts went to its bonded companion, the dryad Lily. She wanted it to enjoy itself and learn more about the world. Basin had no reason to refuse its friend and did in fact enjoy travelling with her. However to guard and protect was natural to it. It was like breathing if it did breathe. And it was clear to the guardian that it was Lily who was really having the time of her life here.

Basin's path was clear: Lily and Libbier would enjoy the festivities, and the guardian would ensure that whatever this malicious spirit of winter was it wouldn't get in the way of the two girls. Or the people of Magnolia Town. Already it could feel the ancient magic stirring again, heading for another part of town to try wreaking havoc in that direction.

WC: 933
TWC: 2,545/1,500

Listening to Lily, Libbier was also thinking about which of the events were the best to have fun with, but she couldn't but be somewhat confused about the frozen t-shirt contest the same way Lily was. Libbier did know what a wet t-shirt event was, so it would be normal to think that this one was something similar? Still, it was hard to imagine the point of wearing a frozen t-shirt, to begin with, much less the appeal to it.

As she thought this, Lily pointed out an idea she had just come to.

"Ice sculpting eh?", Libbier said to herself, thinking it over, before turning to Lily while putting the flyer away, "That's a great idea, it sounds fun and I'm sure we can make a big one if we do it together.", then picking up her cup again and moving to the next table, "Let's go through the rest of the different tastes, while we think on what to sculpt."

---

Nero kept his watch over the two girls like a hawk. A hawk that constantly gets distracted by any tasty looking food he sees. But then again, the girls weren't in a dangerous place, to begin with so...

"... so there is no need to worry about it, right?", Nero paused as if waiting for an answer before answering himself, "Of course I'm right.", then, as if mocking his self-assured monologue, he noticed, "Wait, where did the golem go?"

First, Nero thought that the golem had gotten tired of waiting and went somewhere else, but then wondered if golem can get bored, to begin with. Then he thought about if he should look for the golem or let it roam around. After all, it was not likely to cause a ruckus by itself, right?

"Why do I feel like I've been hitting a few flags in this last few minutes.", Nero commented to himself as he started to search for the golems using the binoculars.

Then Nero noticed movement in the distance. It appeared as if people were running away from something. Nero had a bad feeling and went to investigate. But considering he still wanted to avoid being noticed by Libbier, he took a slightly longer route, arriving at the skating event location a little after whatever happened, had happened, only to find the missing golem standing next to a few icy looking shards that appeared to have been something before having been smashed by a rocky fist.

"O-kay? What the hell happened here?", Nero asked, to no one in particular.

It was clear that the golem had just taken out something, but at this point, it was hard to figure out what exactly it was before becoming smashed, and considering everyone else had just pretty much cleared the area at full speed, there wasn't really anyone else he could ask.

"Hi.", Nero greeted the golem as he slowly approached, "I'm a friend of the girl with the tattoo under her right eye. Could you explain what is going on here?", Nero asked, and then waited for a reply, "Can you speak?", and waited, "Hello?", and waited, "Great. It's like I'm talking to a wall... No offense my massive, rocky friend, that can totally squash me like a bug just by falling on me."

Nero wanted to know what was going on, and the golem had come straight here so certainly it had some sort of awareness of what could be happening. But Nero couldn't speak golem so, he had to improvise.

"I don't know if you can understand but.", Nero sighed, before starting to speak loudly and gesturing, in an attempt to get the golem to understand him, "I. WANT. TO. HELP. YOU!"

Nero was pretty much looking like a crazed person, waving his arms in a poor attempt at sign language. He just wished no one was actually paying attention to him. His hope was that the golem would understand what he wanted to convey, or at the very least not deem him as a dangerous person and bodyslam him.

---

Having been moving around between the tables with Lily, tasting all the chocolate as she could, Libbier was pretty much having the time of her life. Eating sweet chocolate, while discussing the different tastes with her friend. There was hardly anything more that she could ask for at this time. Libbier then realized, there was not much that she knew about her friend. They were pretty much halfway thru when something clicked inside her mind.

"Wait. You had never eaten chocolate before?", a normal person would have immediately noticed that this was pretty much-asking something that had just been asked a few minutes ago and facepalmed themselves, and as much as Libbier wished she didn't, she had indeed noticed that she had goofed, so she quickly tried to reformulate the question, red from embarrassment, "What I mean is. Erm. What do you eat normally?", this time, Libbier felt like punching herself, "I mean, what do you eat for dessert normally? What is it that you like to eat?"

842//2559

By the time Nero arrived Basin had already thoroughly turned the ice scorpions into little more than a smashed pile of shards and powder. The guardian turned to face the exceed when ze heard movement, although since ze didn't sense that ominous magic the rocky guardian stayed zirs hand. It didn't take long before Basin recognized the exceed as Libbier's companion, although ze wondered why the cat-person was here since the slayer had said that Nero had stayed behind to give her the opportunity to hang out with friends without supervision. At least, that's what Basin thought she had said...

When Nero asked what had happened Basin raised one hand in greeting the same way as ze had greeted Libbier, but it looked like there would be some communication problems as the black cat tried to convince the mute earth guardian to speak. Basin knew of a way to communicate but ze had to wait for Nero to calm down first and pay attention... and it seemed like the exceed might take a while before he would be willing to give Basin the time to explain the situation in zirs own way.

Once ze figured that Nero would pay attention Basin used the same hand ze had raised as greeting to point at zirself, specifically zirs torso where moss was quickly growing in particular shapes... letters. Lily had taught Basin how to write but ze was too big for pen and paper. Instead ze used zirs magic to make the moss that covered zirs body grow into the right shapes, forming large and blocky but easily read words.

'There is something trying to attack the town. It is magic of winter but bad.'

Ze stood still for Nero to read, but already ze could feel the magic beginning to manifest in another location. Dropping zirs hand the guardian began to lumber towards the next location, moving with an inevitably which suggested that if necessary ze would walk straight through buildings without slowing down. And ze was slowly accelerating.

At the location where things were getting nasty the icicles that hung from the rooftops had broken off and come together to form thin and jagged-looking humanoids, all cold and hard with no kindness or warmth. Their first act was to launch icicles in every direction, sending everyone running with a couple of people getting wounded as the icicles managed to pierce skin before shattering. From the wounds the cold quickly spread, the ice elemental's magic doing its work...

Basin's fist interrupted the magic by ramming the source. A mighty punch with the guardian's momentum behind it sent one of the elementals flying, and the other two were checked by a shoulder bash and sent tumbling. The humans who hadn't left the area yet quickly did so as the earthen behemoth finally came to a halt and prepared zirself to face the ice elementals. The first elemental had taken serious damage but was already recovering, and now all three elementals were focusing on the earth guardian who was standing in their way. Icicles as long and hard as lances formed on their arms, the triplet of cold-hearted spirits preparing to face off. Basin lifted zirs fists, magic power gathering in them so zir could deliver some truly devastating punches...

---

"I think we should try to create a tree." Lily said even as she was dragged along by the thermal slayer. "I can use my control over water to create the right shape and you can slowly freeze it. We could even have there be leafs of ice on the branches." The idea sounded fantastic to her even though she normally wasn't that fond of the cold. However she was having a lot of fun right now and she loved the idea of creating something beautiful out of water and ice together with Libbier.

While giving Libbier the time to provide her own suggestions for what to sculpt the dryad eagerly went along with the tasting of the various types of chocolate, enjoying each type greatly. It really was amazing what the civilized folk had managed to create.

When Libbier repeated the question of whether Lily had ever tasted chocolate before the dryad tilted her head in confusion, but her expression cleared up when her friend elaborated on her question. "If I'm sharing a meal with creatures that need food I usually just eat what they eat, but if I'm by myself I just drink water and sunlight." She pointed upwards towards the skies with her free hand, then giggled. "I'm a dryad after all. But I'm definitely glad I've learned what chocolate is. I couldn't imagine that the civilized folks could create such things, with such variation!" After all the main reason why there was a hot chocolate tasting contest was because there were so many different ways to prepare hot chocolate.

The foliage-haired girl tilted her head again, this time in curiosity. "Is there a type of food you like best Libbier? I know you like all types of snacks but is there something which really stands out for you?"

WC: 850
TWC: 3,395/1,500

Still trying to figure out a way to communicate with the golem, Nero was scratching his neck as he tilted his head. It was then that he noticed the golem changing position to face him, and as if ink, the moss itself on the golem's body began to shift and grow. At first, Nero had no idea what was happening. Was it an attack? Not likely, considering the applicable offensive uses of moss. But then Nero noticed a word, and then the next.

"Holy hell!", Nero exclaimed as if he could not believe what he was seeing, and as he read he added, "And it seems he can understand my words too... Let's see... Attacking the town and magic of winter? What?"

Nero had yet to understand the current situation when he saw the golem move again. This time it appeared as if he was seriously going somewhere, and despite not knowing what was going on, Nero decided to follow. And it was a good thing he did, as after following the golem for a few minutes he quickly found another scene of complete chaos. Injured people everywhere, and three things attacking everything in sight. Nero pondered if he should engage or focus on evacuating, but before he could come to a decision, the golem went forward and slugged one of the enemies. But looking around, Nero understood something. If these guys weren't stopped here while the damage was still comparable to a brawl between mages, Libbier and Lily would realize something was happening, so this needed to be concluded fast.

"Well, guess that's what we are going to do.", Nero sighed as he took flight. All attention was on the golem at this point so Nero took advantage of it and decided to finish off the injured one first. So flying at full speed and activating his Rage Burst ability, Nero performed a dropkick from the sky, while shouting to the golem, "I will finish off the icicle at the back, you hold off the other two until then."

The drop kick caught the elemental off guard, but what Nero didn't like seeing was that it seemed to have recovered far more than he was expecting. Still, Nero managed to deal a pretty chunk of damage, and he proceeded to push the elemental farther apart from the other two with consecutive punches and throws, using his pumped strength as much as possible, trying to out damage the elemental self-healing, or simply tire it out.

---

Meanwhile, Libbier was listening to Lily's reply to her previous question. It was interesting for Libbier to learn things about her friends, and considering her friend was not human, that added an extra layer to Libbier's curiosity. Learning that Lily did not actually need to eat normally, and only did so as to, in a way, partake in the ways of those around her, made Libbier feel respect for her friend. Listening to the fact that Lily liked chocolate now, made Libbier feel all fuzzy inside with happiness.

As Libbier listened to Lily, they continued to move through the tables as they tested the last half of the available recipes of hot chocolate. However, Libbier was no longer dragging Lily around by the hand, and they were instead walking side by side at the same pace, as Libbier's attention shifted more towards Lily rather than the chocolate.

After finishing her reply to Libbier's question, Lily posed her own, questioning Libbier about her own tastes.

"Well.", Libbier began, slightly red from embarrassment from being pointed out about her sweet tooth, "I guess there is something that I like as much, if not more than sweets.", Libbier answered while thinking that she couldn't say that the reason she might like it more than sweets was that it was rarer for her to eat it than to eat sweets, "It's a food called spaghetti, or to be more precise, the dish that uses it, called spaghetti bolognese."

Then, Libbier went on explaining what spaghetti was, and what it looked like, before explaining that the dish she mentioned was basically spaghetti with minced meat and some herbs. She could feel her saliva trying to escape her mouth as she talked about it.

By the time she finished explaining, they were already on the last three tables, so Libbier decided to go back to talking about the next event.

"About the sculpture.", Libbier began, "Making a tree would definitely be a great idea.", then she approached Lily's face, with a determined smug, "But I think we should go further. Remember the trees we can see outside? Full of decorations? I think we should make one of those, decorations and all. What do you say?"

784//3343

With Nero attacking one of the three ice elementals Basin only had two left to worry about, which was already a lot easier. The guardian had experience with fighting more than one enemy at a time but since ze wasn't necessarily the fastest it helped a lot when ze didn't have to worry about enemies taking the opportunity to act while ze was busy with one of them. Two at a time the rocky guardian could handle.

The two ice elementals who weren't under assault by a giant cat looked at Nero with a cold hatred, but before they could move to help their friend the both of them were ripped apart by spikes of stone. Basin's smooth surface was already forming more spikes for the next barrage as ze lumbered towards one of the ice elementals, who was quickly recovering. The distance between them was small enough that the guardian could close the gap in time to slam the elemental into the ground with both hands, sending fragments of ice everywhere while the stone spikes on zirs body shot towards the other elemental to keep it busy. Of course those stone spikes also smashed in the surrounding buildings but Basin was careful enough that at least ze wasn't hurting any bystanders. The damage to the structures could be repaired once this winter festival was no longer being disrupted by these invaders.

The shards on the ground vibrated, lifting off of the ground to fly toward each other and reform into an exceedingly angry ice elemental. However the guardian kept smashing it back into the ground, not giving it the chance to recover or counter attack even as with every smash the pavement cracked and trembled. Basin was quite gentle towards living things but when it came to lifeless bundles of ice magic like these creatures ze had little mercy.

---

Lily was happy to talk about her biology with her friend. For her it was completely normal but she understood that for animals, including most civilized folk, the idea of creating your own nutrients from sunlight, minerals and water was quite strange. In nature the plants were the ones who created the nutrients which the animals then also used to survive, with some rare exceptions. She had much to learn about the civilized folk but the reverse was also true so she was happy that Libbier showed an interest.

When her multi-haired friend showed some embarrassment after the dryad asked her about what kind of food she especially liked Lily was both somewhat confused and admittedly found it endearing. From what little she really knew of Libbier the girl wasn't exactly shy so watching her blush made Lily wonder just what might be going through her head.

"Spaghetti? I might have heard of that before." Lily listened attentively as Libbier did her best to explain the wonders of spaghetti bolognese to someone who wasn't very familiar with the art of cuisine. She'd never tried preparing a meal before mostly because there'd never been any need, but it sounded like for the civilized folk prepared food was very important... and very tasty.

"I'd like to try that out someday. You make it sound very tasty. Maybe we could make some together?" The dryad would be happy to try making it by herself but she'd have to admit that she'd need the supervision of someone familiar with cooking. Besides she wouldn't pass up the opportunity to spend more time with her friend.

She leaned in to Libbier when the slayer did so, looking intrigued as the other mage suggested making one of those decorated trees instead of a normal tree. "It should be possible... We'd have to do it carefully since with all the decorations there's a lot of details to keep track of. We'd have to take a closer look at one of those trees so I know what it should look like..." She looked thoughtful, then smiled brightly and nodded. "Let's do it!"

WC: 664
TWC: 4,059/1,500

It had been a while since Nero fought a foe by himself, and honestly, he wanted to take it slow to get back into the mood. However, his adversary seemed eager to finish this fight, as it continuously threw ice shards. Normally having no way to fight at long ranges, Nero would need to get used to the tempo of the ranged attacks that were thrown at him. Or at least that was what he thought, and yet, it gave him a deja vu feeling, as he dodged the attacks while closing the distance.

"Funny.", Nero thought to himself, "It feels like the early days when Libbier was still practicing her ice powers. Throwing ice everywhere without really aiming."

That was it, the attacks were actually similar to the way Libbier attacked before she became used to her powers. It was like there at the time where she would continuously use ice with no variance to the abilities used, almost as she had forgotten she was also a Magma Dragon Slayer.

"I guess she really wanted to get used to the cold... maybe.", Nero was reminiscing the old times, as he closing in, "This guy actually seems faster than me but as completely forgotten to keep its distance."

Like Nero noticed, the elemental he was fighting really was throwing everything it had at Nero in hopes of taking him down before the golem returned, or was just flustered that its recovery had been hampered by Nero's flying dropkick. Unfortunately, its tunnel visioning was actually giving Nero the full advantage of the engagement, and soon enough, Nero got close enough to deliver straight punch, quickly followed by a forward kick. This caused the elemental to be projected backward a good 5 meters.

"Come on. Get up.", Nero said while taunting the elemental to come at him with his raised hand, "If you go down this easily, all this cold will make it hard to even call this a warm-up."

---

Libbier was extremely excited when she heard Lily's positive response to her suggestion. Libbier was aware that the suggestion was going to increase the level of difficulty, especially for Lily since it was her that had to control the water to form the tree. Libbier hoped Lily would agree, but the fact she did was enough to send Libbier over the moon.

"YEAH! LET'S DO IT!", Libbier shouted in response to Lily's answer, raising her cup high to cheer, before recalling where she was and what she was doing. She shyly lowered her cup back down, beet red from all the sudden becoming the center of attention of everyone around, before lightly coughing and turning back to Lily, "I mean. I'm glad you approve. Then after we are done here, we can go to the contest site while looking closely at decorated trees we find along the way."

With this, Libbier walked side by side Lily as they finished the remaining recipes, talking about the spaghetti, making plans to a new outing to make it together, which Libbier really wanted to do since, "I may not be much of a cook, but I am confident when it comes to spaghetti.", she bragged, even despite the fact that the only recipe she could do was, in fact, the simplest of them all.

As they talked, the two girls finally reached the final table, and Libbier found a small paper pad with detachable pages, containing the name of all the hot chocolate recipes followed by a small square, and a pen next to with attached to a string, most likely to deter people from taking the pen with them.

"Well.", Libbier started as she took a sip from her cup, containing the last recipe of hot chocolate, "I guess we are supposed to take one of these and put a cross on the recipe we liked the best.", Libbier then finished her cup and placed it on the table with the used cups, before taking a page and crossing the very first recipe, the simplest of all, "Sometimes, the simple things are the best.", Libbier told Lily with a light chuckle and smile, before putting the piece of paper in the box designed to be used for such occasions.

705//4047

Basin kept bashing away until the ice which ze had been pulverizing stopped trying to reform, the guardian waiting for several seconds to make sure that the ice elemental was in fact dead. While its ability to survive being smashed to bits had been impressive it looked like it couldn't keep it up forever.

That was the point when the third ice elemental stabbed Basin from behind with a giant lance made of ice, the sharp tip actually managing to dig into the guardian's body. Basin had hoped that the stone spikes would have kept the third of the icy enemies busy but it looked like ze had underestimated the elemental's abilities.

However the same could be said for the elemental.

When it tried to pull its lance back out the large ice shard refused to budge, solidly stuck inside the guardian's solid mass. Turning around basin broke the lance, then before the ice elemental could retreat grabbed it and slammed it against the ground, repeating the ground and pound move which had proven a successful tactic. Zirs current theory was that while these ice elementals could reform they lost their sense of self if not allowed to do so for long enough. This would result in them effectively dying, their consciousness or whatever it was that fuelled them merging back into their respective element.

Sure enough after Basin had taken the time to thoroughly turn the ice elemental back into a fine crystalline powder that powder stopped moving as well, the guardian pulling out the ice lance and smashing that as well before turning around to see how Nero was faring. It looked like the giant cat would be fine, but the guardian still wanted to speed things up and help him out. Unfortunately ze could sense that the dark winter magic was moving again, faster this time.

Whatever it was it didn't like that its efforts were being thwarted.

With little time to waste Basin quickly carved a message into the pavement before running towards the next area where trouble was arising. This time it looked like the magic was manifesting into a snowman which already looked somewhat alive, more snow rapidly gathering to increase its size while shards of ice grew on its back. Opening a frosty mouth it roared, which gave Basin the perfect opportunity to ram zirs fist into its throat and send it flying against a nearby wall. Once again people were forced to evacuate the area, and Basin really hoped that ze and Nero could get this under control before the two girls began to notice. Their luck couldn't last forever...

'More danger forming. Heading to next formation.'

---

Lily smiled happily as Libbier seemed to be really enthusiastic about the idea of making one of those decorated trees. It would take some doing but it would definitely be worth it, especially since other people would also be able to enjoy the sight once it was complete. Although there would be the issue of frail ice...

When the slayer got embarrassed after she realized that everyone could hear her the dryad giggled. It was kind of cute to watch the energetic woman suddenly try to escape being the centre of attention. "Sounds good to me! There's a lot of them so we shouldn't have trouble finding references." During Winter Solstice a festival town like Magnolia didn't hesitate to go all out after all.

With Libbier on board with the idea of making spaghetti together the dryad was in about a good a mood as she could get, nearly humming as she nodded fervently. "I'll make sure to watch you closely then." She looked at the pieces of paper as her friend explained how the voting probably worked, then put her cup down so she had a free hand.

After some deliberation she chose the third option, where one had decided to make the hot chocolate even sweeter. While it was true that trees only needed sunlight, water and carbon for nourishment the reason for this was that their leafs allowed them to turn these three things into their actual food: sugar. Which meant that, although she wasn't as focused on it as Libbier, the dryad's favourite food was sweet things.

"That's definitely true." Lily wholeheartedly agreed with Libbier even if she had in the end settled on one of the other drinks. She then closed her eyes and focused briefly before opening them again. "I know where the contest is. Come!" Pulling Libbier along the foliage-haired girl made her way through the town, still completely oblivious of the fighting that was going on in the distance as she was fully focused on enjoying the day with her friend.

WC: 785
TWC: 4,844/1,500

Nero looked down on the elemental he was facing, the thing was recovering the damage it had just taken at a decent speed, but even so, Nero could tell it was far slower than what had happened the first time it healed itself. Nero was sure this would end in his victory, but even so, he needed to loosen up his muscles since he didn't want to end up getting a sprain from this sudden fight, which Nero had a feeling wasn't going to end with just dealing with this guys here.

Every time the ice elemental even tried to get up, Nero would just punch it. Every time it tried to launch an ice attack, Nero would just kick it. With this, each attack that Nero made, just reduced the speed of recovery of the elemental, more and more.

"This is not going as expected.", Nero sighed, as he took out his pipe between attacks and began smoking, "How is that golem doing against those other two?"

Nero wondered how the golem was fairing against two opponents, but as he looked at Basin, Nero was sure there would be nothing to worry about. On that note, Nero also realized that even if the recovery of the elementals was slowing down, they were almost recovering from being, pretty much, turned into fine dust, so Nero was afraid that if he was to go slow, his own target would just keep recovering.

"Guess I need to end this mah dude.", Nero said as he turned back to the elemental that had almost recovered entirely once again, but before it could attack, Nero began mimicking Basin, by repeatedly bashing his fists into his foe, to the point where soon enough, Nero was already just hitting the floor as the ice dust began to float away in the wind.

Taking the pipe from his mouth, Nero threw the remaining tobacco into the floor and cleaned the pipe before storing it away once again. At this point, Nero saw Basin moving at full speed to somewhere else.

"Holy sh-", Nero started as he began to chase after the golem, before noticing the writing on the floor, "Heading to next what? That rock head went on his own again."

Nero took to the sky to catch up with the golem, determined to not be left behind.

---

Walking out of the hot chocolate tasting event area, Libbier was pulled long by Lily towards the next event area they had planned to participate in, the ice sculpting event. The event itself wasn't that important, but she was having so much fun by spending time with her friend that the event was just an excuse to do something fun together with Lily. Of course, Libbier did not fail to point out at the different trees and decorations they passed by, after all, even if Libbier had good control over ice, creating such detailed sculptures would require Lily to be the one to mold then into shape so Libbier could freeze them.

It didn't take long for then to arrive at their destination tho, as Lily once again showed her ability to navigate the city with pinpoint accuracy. If one didn't know, it was easy to think Lily actually lived in this city, but of course, Libbier knew better. Not that she knew much about Lily yet, but she knew at least this much... maybe. There Libbier was amazed at the number of people that were participating in the event. It was to be expected that a sculpting event would be held in a large area, but the sheer number of people made the space used actually look small.

"Wow! So many people here!", Libbier exclaimed, before realizing that if they took too long they could be unable to participate, and turning to Lily, "Let's go check out how to enter the contest before they close the event or something."

After looking for the people in charge, the pair approached them, or to be exact, Libbier now drew Lily towards the closest person with the staff uniform she could find.

"Hi there. We would like to participate in this ice sculpting event.", Libbier quickly informed the staff member.

"Certainly.", the staff, that was a young man, replied before adding, "This contest is open too all, just find a block of ice and make your sculpture. And do not worry if you cannot find fresh ice block, we will be bringing new blocks until the sun sets."

"Thank you.", Libbier said before turning to Lily, "Well, Lily. You are the one that suggested we did this, so you get to pick the ice we will be using.", and as she finished Libbier noticed she was still holding hands with Lily, so she added with an embarrassed smile, "How about you guide me there?"

803//4850

The snow brute's more malleable form might make it more easily reshaped but also meant it handled impacts a lot better than the ice elementals could hope to have done. Smashing against the wall it didn't suffer anything more than having its back spread across the wall, and when it pushed itself away from the stone texture it rapidly returned to its former shape looking none the worst for wear.

Another issue was that this creature was a lot bigger and, as quickly became apparent, a lot stronger. Rather than trying to assault Basin with fragile ice spikes it roared and charged the guardian, raising one big white fish to send the earth creature flying in return. Basin managed to catch the fist but there was enough force behind it to push zir back until zir raised the stone pavement behind zirs feet to serve as support.

Grabbing the snow brute's other fist as well the two large creatures entered a contest of strength, the stone beneath their feet slowly beginning to crack as both of them refused to budge despite the amount of force they were throwing about. While it looked rather mild from the outside anything caught between their hands would quickly have been crushed and compressed.

Slowly Basin began to push the brute back, in part because zir was made of a stronger material. The brute's snow-formed feet were leaving a trail on the pavement as the guardian pushed harder and harder, zirs big fingers digging into the brute's white hands and compacting the snow into ice. The snow brute roared again and began to push harder as well, managing to force Basin to a halt so the two big bulky figures were in a deadlock once more. It looked like Basin would have to keep the brute occupied until Nero arrived to help tip the odds... or Basin would have to become a bit less restrained even if that meant the girls might catch onto what was going on.

---

Lily would slow down every time Libbier pointed out another tree which could serve as an example, curiously studying the way the civilized folk had used various toys and shiny trinkets to make the trees look more festive. The lights were also something to behold, although the dryad couldn't immediately imagine how the two of them could mimic those. Her elements didn't include anything which generated light and putting fire or magma inside the ice sculpture would quickly make it stop being an ice sculpture.

Being able to sense your surroundings through the ground really made navigating a lot easier. She could sense the footsteps of the people around them, the way the streets curved, joined and split up. The only reason she hadn't noticed Basin and Nero's efforts yet was that she was distracted and through sheer luck all the fighting was happening on the other side of town.

"The sculpting is very popular it seems." Lily agreed with Libbier, also looking around with some awe at just how many people were doing their best to carve something impressive out of giant blocks of ice. When Libbier pointed out that they should join the others quickly the leaf-dressed woman nodded and quickly began to look for whoever seemed to be in charge. "You know, the people from Rakshasa said things like that civilization was harmful and bad, but a lot of civilization was made by people who just wanted to use what was available to make something new. Civilized folk have a strong spark to create."

Once Libbier informed the nearest official that they wanted to participate and got their approval Lily mimicked Libbier's thank you before turning her attention back to her friend. Finally realizing that from the very beginning she hadn't let go of Libbier's hand the dryad's thoughts went into overdrive for a moment before she decided that while Libbier was blushing she didn't appear to be unhappy about it. So instead of letting go she gave Libbier's hand a quick squeeze along with a wink. "Sure!" Pulling the slayer along Lily looked around at the various ice blocks still available, humming thoughtfully. "I think... that one." She pointed to a larger ice block which, to her eyes, looked like a good option for making an ice tree. "Can you melt that one for me?"

WC: 722
TWC: 5,566/1,500

The member 'Lily Ambrosia' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Monster Dice' :

Flying at full speed it did not take long for Nero to reach Basin's location and considering the way things were going, it didn't look like Nero would have missed it even if he wanted too. There he saw two hulking bodies slamming against each other like mountains. It looked like one on one tug of war with massive proportions

"Rock versus ice, huh?", Nero said with surprise, wondering about the possibilities of such a face-off, "This really would have been an interesting match to commentate on... if this wasn't the in the middle of a busy area of a major city that is."

Still, considering the things he had seen Basin do so far, Nero couldn't help but feel like the golem had been holding out on using everything it had, but then again, Nero had never seen it fight seriously before in order to have a term of comparison. Either way, Nero was grateful for having someone else to fight with, hopefully wrapping things up before more of the city gets wrecked and Libbier comes to complain about it. So Nero swooped down from behind the ice monster, slamming as hard as he could, against the leg that the ice monster was using to support most of the power being thrown at, with a shoulder tackle, causing it to go off balance and allowing Basin to push it back.

Of course, Nero didn't stay behind the monster and take the change of letting himself be squashed, even so, Nero couldn't help but frown.

"Damn.", Nero complained, while slightly massaging his own shoulder, as he remembers all the times he sparred with Libbier, "Why on earth is this thing so hard and cold, I'm getting some painful flashbacks."

---

When Lily winked Libbier's mind blanked out, and she became even redder, with a surprised blushed face. She wasn't really even sure what she felt at first.

This was supposed to be a normal day. A meeting with a friend to hang out at the festivities that occurred at this time of the year. That was what it was supposed to be, and Libbier would be happy enough to say it had been the best day of the year. There had even been somethings that, looking back, were not something that she would normally do, or at least, Libbier didn't imagine doing something like holding hands with someone else. So of course, normally she wouldn't be surprised or bothered if Lily were to let go of her hand at any point now that Libbier had pointed out the situation. But the moment Lily squeezed her hand tighter, Libbier knew this was not a normal situation. She knew, somehow, that if Lily had indeed let go, she would have felt sad.

Additionally, adding the wink to the hand-holding, Lily had pretty much landed a high destruction spell on Libbier's already confused mind. It was like time had stood still.

"Am I really thinking clearly?","We are just friends, I'm just overthinking it.","Am I allowed this?","After all that 'I've' done. What 'I' might still do.", all this and much more crossed Libbier's mind, but slowly, her mind began to recover, and she found herself being pulled by Lily. At this point, only one thought crossed her mind, as she felt Lily's hand on her own, "Warm."

Libbier couldn't tell how long it took since she asked Lily to find them an ice block, but she was suddenly brought back to reality when Lily spoke to her.

"Oh!", Libbier exclaimed before she shook her head for a moment, to force her brain to reboot, and clear her thoughts, "This one is it?", she added as she looked at the block of ice in from of her.

Trying to act naturally, Libbier approached it, placing her free hand on the block's surface.

"This will work nicely.", Libbier said as she felt the block's properties through her senses and experience with her own magic, "I do not think it will take long at all.", then turning to Lily she added, "I will begin melting it, you use the water as it comes out. If we manage to keep the center part frozen, it will be easier to freeze the melted ice again."

When she finished informing Lily, Libbier began focusing her magic into her hand and into the ice block's surface. Libbier was not very good at using magic at the range, but like this, there would be zero issues with her magic control.

750//5600

The two behemoths were too busy trying to topple each other to pay much attention to Nero's arrival. Basin would have liked to coordinate with the cat but this snow brute was showing a lot more strength than you might expel from a big old pile of snow, even if it did have ice shards growing out of its back. The guardian wasn't about to lose the contest of strength but ze wasn't making any real headway either.

Nero ramming his shoulder against one of the snow brute's legs was the opportunity Basin needed. Taking a step forward ze forced the big terrible snowman further off balance, the white beast roaring as it was pushed further and further until it fell onto the ground with a loud but muffled thump, the snow absorbing most of the impact. The ice spikes shattered and Basin began to systematically pull the creature apart, large hands acting like shovels as ze threw large chunks of the snow brute away from its main body.

The frosty behemoth took another swing at Basin but now that it no longer was on equal footing the guardian could answer the swing with one of zirs own, ripping the fist off and away from the snow brute. The second arm followed soon after, leaving the brute with little but to roar as the guardian kept tearing off chunks.

However the guardian's movements were slowing down. As a creature of earth it wasn't affected by the cold but now that ze was close enough to the snow brute to dig zirs hands into its body ice was forming on zirs joints, forcing zir to break the ice shards if ze wanted to move. The snow brute still wasn't in the position to properly fight back but it was slowly absorbing snow from the surroundings to repair the parts of its body that Basin had tossed away. If the guardian kept having to deal with the increasing amount of ice on zirs joints the snow brute might recover and counterattack.

---

Lily wasn't completely oblivious and she did realize that her behaviour sparked something in Libbier. However the dryad figured that while her friend definitely looked like she could have melted some ice with her the heat emanating from her blushing face it didn't seem to be anything serious. More than likely Libbier had just been caught off guard. As such the dryad kept pulling the slayer along in her search for the perfect ice to melt and manipulate, leading Libbier along by the hand as she let her friend sort things out inside her head.

She nodded when Libbier asked for confirmation regarding the block of ice. "That's the one yes. It looks like it should be melted pretty easily." Not that the dryad was an expert on the qualities of ice. She just thought that since this piece of ice was smooth and a nice blue it might be a good choice.

Following Libbier towards the block of ice she smiled as the slayer confirmed that this ice block was a good choice, then nodded as Libbier suggested a smooth transition from melting the ice to shaping the water. "Got it! Just do it slowly so I've got time to shape the water." Complex shapes took some effort and thinking after all.

As the multi-elemental slayer got to work melting the block of ice Lily placed her hand on the cold surface as well, a light shiver travelling down her arm as even the thick moss covering her hand didn't completely protect her from the chill. Nevertheless it was bearable... and holding Libbier's hand with her other hand was also helping her stay warm. Once the ice began to melt on the surface Lily began to move the water, focusing as the element of frost leaked out of the water and she gained control over it. Given that she had to wait for Libbier to melt most of the ice she started out with gathering the water and moving it out of the way so the other mage had an easier time getting to the ice which hadn't been melted yet.

Once a sizeable portion of the ice was fluid the dryad began to form the christmas tree, starting with the roots at the bottom and working her way up. As long as she had control of it she could at least prevent the cold ground from freezing the water. The tree growed the same way as it would have done if it was a real true, roots spreading across the ground and the trunk shooting upwards while branches began to spread outwards. Once the branches were there the needles followed, Lily drawing on the memories she had of travelling through a wide variety of forests.

Once the tree itself was done what water remained began to take the shape of ornaments, tinsel spiralling around the tree and balls hanging from the branches. Various other decorations showed up as well, although Lily had to make some sacrifices to deal with the fact that once the tree was turned back into ice the thinner branches couldn't possibly hope to hold the bigger decorations. Wood had a lot more tensile strength, ice would break if you put that much weight on an elongated tip.

WC: 883
TWC: 6,449/1,500

Quickly recovering from the chill that affected his shoulder, Nero positioned himself to backup Basin in any way he could as he golem began to push the icy hulk back with increased momentum. When Basin managed to throw the monster down and began to pummel the heck out of it, Nero thought it wouldn't take much longer to finish it off. Stil Nero could see that staying idle was not a realistic option, as he could see the monster recovering, albeit slowly, and the golem become covered with ice as well. Nero had no idea what kind of effect ice would have on the golem, but the extra weight could not be good in a close combat situation. As such, Nero clenched his fists and decided to jump onto the ice monster's back. The footing was not that great, but even so, Nero began to claw and punch at the softer or weaker places he could find on the monster's back while taking some time to rip out some ice spikes that were sticking out.

"Keep at it!", Nero shouted at Basin, "I will take care of his recovery speed as best as I can. You just focus one dealing the finishing blow as soon as possible."

This, of course, was not without repercussions, as Nero could feel both his feet and hands slowly become covered in ice, which numbed out his sense of touch, reducing his ability to move around. It was a good thing that Basin was the immediate focus of the monster as Nero would find it hard to avoid its big ass arms were it to start thrashing around in his direction. Even so, Nero kept attacking with all he could, even with the size difference he could at least counter the recovery of the monster, and Basin would eventually deal a strong enough blow that would destroy the monster, it was only a matter of time if there were no surprises, that is.

---

Libbier focused herself into melting the ice as fast as she could, while still keeping the center from melting. This allowed Lily to have a good amount of water to control and form the tree from the ground up. Lily placed her hand on the melting ice and began to use her magic. It was something that Libbier had yet to see, and she marveled at the way the tree began to grow so naturally, as if a real tree, from the ground it. using the center core of ice as support.

At this point, Libbier noticed Lily's hand on the tree. Libbier had her own hand on it as she was keeping the water warm to prevent it from freezing over, but she could not raise the heat to a comfortable temperature as it would melt the center ice, and so the water was barely above freeze level, which Libbier could feel thru her hand. Of course, this did not bother her since Libbier was used to cold, but seeing Lily's hand on the water, Libbier could but wonder how bad it was. Libbier could feel the warm hand of Lily on her own, so she knew that Lily's other hand would certainly be causing her to lose a lot of body heat. Libbier wanted to punch her past self for agreeing to something like this, but seeing Lily's focused face she could not say anything.

Of course, this didn't mean that Libbier would just let it stand like this, so she focused her magic and used her spell Fire For Effect. The ability created a link between Libbier and Lily, sharing her magma slayer magic, hence increasing Lily's spell power, but more importantly, the magic nature of the spell also caused Lily's body temperature to increase, as the warm magma slayer energy began to circle between her and Libbier.

Happy with herself, Libbier returned her attention to the growing tree. And was in awe at the way it began to take form, decorations and all. It would not take long for it to be finished.

"It looks amazing.", Libbier said, incapable of hiding her surprise, "Keep it up while I begin to solidify the water from the center outwards."

As she said so, Libbier began to channel her ice slayer magic towards the center of the tree, where the ice core remained and began to grow, creating a stable base and allowing Lily to focus herself on the outwards details of the tree.

743//6343

The problem of the ice wasn't so much the weight as that it was locking the guardian's joints. While ze didn't have muscles or bones or other parts of the standard biological anatomy ze still had to obey physics and a joint which was frozen couldn't move properly. While ze could still swing zirs arms like clubs until its shoulders had frozen it wasn't as effective, especially since frozen hands meant ze couldn't grab chunks of snow and throw them away.

Fortunately Nero understood what he had to do. Having the giant cat attack the snow brute as well gave Basin time to figure out how to deal with the current situation. Nero's help didn't remove the problem but gave zir time to think. Ze had wanted to avoid dealing damage to the town but it looked like that might be impossible... ze had to get rid of the snow brute as quickly as possible. Nero was also beginning to suffer from the ice forming all over his body so his aid wasn't going to stave off the inevitable either.

Making up zirs mind the earth guardian forcefully shattered the ice surrounding one arm as ze raised it high, the hand curling into a fist. Letting the power of the earth flow through zirs arm and fist Basin waited several seconds before ze slammed the fist down with a sudden force and speed that made the empowered limb go straight through the snow brute and slam into the ground below. The only thing keeping stone shrapnel from flying around was the snow brute's body, and even then large cracks spread throughout the area as Basin's punch carried enough force to inflict some severe structural damage.

The snow brute didn't suffer any better than the ground. So far Basin had only been able to claw away at its outsides, but now the guardian had punched straight through its core. Unlike most animals who had their core part inside their head elementals tended to have their core inside their torso, with the head merely serving as another extremity. The ice elementals didn't have a material core which had allowed them to keep recovering from fatal damage as long as they didn't lose their grip on themselves and the plane they were residing on. However an elemental as big as the snow brute either needed to be immensely powerful or to possess a core to keep its form stable.

With that core destroyed the snow brute returned to being a big lump of snow and ice shards, and the ice which had been growing on Basin and Nero weakened and fell away. But the two of them were not done yet, as the biggest and most powerful of threats had yet to arrive: Basin could sense it, the winter magic which had been causing all the trouble so far returning to its origin, only for that origin to start moving towards where the guardian and the cat had just destroyed its final puppet.

---

As had been mentioned before Lily was not very good with the cold. As a dryad she was essentially a plant taking on properties of animals and other mobile creatures, which included said mobility and warmth. If she lost warmth she'd have a harder time moving even if it wasn't directly fatal. If she cooled down too far she'd have trouble moving at all. The water she was currently handling wasn't so cold as for that to be a real threat, but it definitely wasn't comfortable.

Which was why Lily was immensely grateful when she felt Libbier use her magma slayer magic to warm her up, the dryad giving her friend a grateful smile. It might be because Libbier's magic utilized the element of earth which Lily also possessed but the slayer's magic flowed through the dryad's body with little difficulty, making her feel as if she was bathing in warm water but from the inside out.

"Thanks! Sorry, I'm not very good with the cold." She said by way of explanation and apology. However she didn't want to lose concentration so she still kept most of her attention on the water tree, which was now fully shaped but which she needed to maintain so it wouldn't fall apart. Liquids were rather susceptible to gravity.

"Take your time. If we do this too fast it'll be bad." Lily wasn't an ice mage but she did know a thing or two about how freezing changed water. For one thing it caused expansion, so the tree girl would have to make sure the water adapted to the changes so the tree didn't become disjointed. She was also worried that flash freezing the tree could result in the entire thing exploding into a cloud of ice shrapnel.

Luckily she was working together with a good partner, Libbier carefully controlling the progression of the freezing effect while Lily held a firm grip on the shape of the water. As the frozen core began to expand Lily would feel the essence of frost flow into the water, weakening her grip on it until she couldn't move it at all. Well, that wasn't entirely true: it was still water so in theory the dryad could still move it. However she'd only be capable of crude manipulation, and she'd have to move the entire ice chunk because she couldn't force the ice to split up.

She held her grip on the water near the core until she could feel that it had frozen solid, shifting the water around the ice to adapt for the change in structure the ice brought with it. It was the first time she tried something like this so she couldn't call it a flawless process but she thought that it was a pretty good first attempt, the water smoothly turning into ice while the surrounding water slightly moved to make sure the final product would still look good.

Once Libbier and Lily were done there would be a christmas tree made of ice standing tall in front of them, the icy needles and the frozen decorations glistening and glittering in the lights of the festival.

WC: 1024
TWC: 7,473/1,500

Looking at the way things were going Nero couldn't but realize how lucky he was. Yeah, there had been a few small fries before, and this giant ice brute was definitely something even he could take down by himself, but just thinking of the time it would take him, and the amount of ice that had already formed on his fur from just this short fight, he can imagine that Libbier would eventually learn of what was happening here. The thought of what could happen gave him shivers in the literal sense. In the best outcome, even if Libbier was able to ignore the problem as long as her day wasn't ruined, Nero can't imagine that her other side would stay quiet, and that alone would be enough to ruin Libbier's mood. In the worst-case scenario, Libbier's day would be interrupted by the scaling conflict and her other side would come out when she came in contact with someone strong looking. If that would happen, never mind wrecking the day, Libbier could end up destroying half the city during the fight before she regained control or someone stopped her, which would seriously affect her freedom to walk around populated areas without being branded a criminal.

Fortunately, Basin sheer strength was able to go through the ice monster's defenses and wear it down enough for a strong blow to reach its core and turn the ice monster into a simple pile of ice and snow. And even if it looked like it could regenerate like the previous elementals, the fact that the ice that had formed on Nero's fur started to melt almost immediately after Basin's last blow, was all the confirmation needed to know that their foe had been defeated.

"God, I need a smoke."; Nero said exasperatedly as he sat down crosslegged and took out his pipe, setting up his tobacco, lighting it up and quickly beginning to smoke, "Ah. That's the stuff.", he ended saying with a relaxed face, "Nothing beats a good smoke after a strong exercise."

But as if to mock his statement, a strong power was felt. One stronger than every other so far, that even Nero in all his lack of magical sensing was able to detect.

"God damn it, I just had to jinx it.", Nero complained as he irritatedly smoked, before turning to Basin, "Oy, big guy. Do you think this is the last boss or something? Cause if not, then we are in deep trouble."

Nero wasn't really worried about the strength of the incoming foe, but if there was something stronger coming then his efforts to keep Libbier out of the loop would definitely go to waste.

---

"Don't worry."; Libbier replied to Lily's suggestion, before adding, "I will make sure to make this perfectly."

At this point, more than the need to make a great sculpture, Libbier wanted to be sure that it was perfect from start to finish. Not because she wanted to look good, but because she didn't want the effort that Lily was putting in forming the tree to go to waste due to some mistake caused by rushing the job. It had been a while since Libbier had felt the joy and motivation that came from working with someone else towards the same goal. Yeah, she did have Nero with her since a long time ago, but that was mostly a long-lived relationship of cooperation that had grown to the point of Nero pretty much a part of her already, almost as if he could read her mind. Working with someone else entirely, like Lily, although similar in most ways, felt different. Or maybe it was just Lily? Libbier could not figure it out, after all, it had been so long since that time. It almost felt nostalgic.

Despite the memories that Libbier recalled were not necessarily happy, especially due to that accident, recalling the times she spent with them and how similar it felt to what she was feeling now, rather than sad, Libbier felt strangely motivated to do her best. The water that was forming the tree and its decorations, the ice that was growing from within flawlessly strengthing the large sculpture. Libbier couldn't be happier right now.

Then finally all the water was frozen once again, and the once ice block had turned into a giant tree that would make all wonder if it was made of ice, to begin with, or it was an especial kind of real tree.

After making sure that the ice was strong enough to hold the weight, by reducing the ice temperature a few degrees lower, Libbier felt a sense of accomplishment she hadn't felt in a while. A sense a pride-filled her heart, and Libbier looked at Lily with a wide smile.

"We did it.", Libbier said while reaching out to Lily's cold hand, channeling warm magic to warm it up, "This looks amazing does it not?"

821//7164

With the ice melting and falling off Basin could straighten up, the guardian looking around to see if there was any sign of their opponent reforming or something else problematic happening. Ze also assessed the damage their fight had inflicted on the surroundings: unlike the previous two encounters this fight had included two big strong creatures ramming into each other, and it showed. There were cracks all over the place and now that the snow and ice was now longer clumping it all up you could see how there were chunks of stone and other construction materials lying around. It looked like they'd managed to devoid destroying entire buildings but Magnolia would definitely have to employ public services to help undo the damage done.

Turning towards Nero the guardian watched as the cat lit up a pipe and began to breathe out smoke. Basin knew nothing about smoking and the like so ze was more curious than anything else, although Lily would probably have been worried for the cat's health. Then again unlike the average human the cat might have the fortitude to just shrug off the effects of breathing smoke.

If Basin knew what Nero was thinking the giant stone figure would have agreed with zirs smoking companion. They had been very lucky so far that all the fighting had happened far enough away from the two mages that they hadn't noticed anything combined with how happily they were enjoying their date (because that was essentially what it had evolved into as it turned out that neither woman was against the idea even if it had never been spoken out loud). Basin just hoped that their luck would continue because ze didn't want Lily to have to waste time fighting when she could be having fun with her friend.

As the latest and hopefully last threat approached Basin once again formed moss on zirs bulk to communicate with Nero, the green letters forming faster than before:

'Magic from other threats moved to new threat. Probably the boss.'

Ze wasn't really troubled about the boss either: while it was definitely powerful the stone guardian was unreasonably difficult to defeat in a fair fight mostly due to just being ridiculously resilient. However like Nero ze wanted to keep the fight hidden from the mages so ze hoped that this new threat wasn't going to make too much noise.

To that end ze began to run again, heading straight towards the incoming danger with footsteps that made the earth shake and tremble. Ze even used zirs hands to add more momentum to zirs movements, charging straight towards where the final boss was charging towards zir. If Nero were to follow it wouldn't take long before the yeti came in sight, roaring as it threw itself forward by grabbing the surroundings walls and heaving. It was actually bigger than Basin, a giant of a creature made of flesh and blood and tough-looking fur, with horns and tusks and murderous blue eyes.

Being bigger, however, did not prevent Basin tackling it while it was mid-jump, the boulder of a guardian ramming the yeti back onto the ground with a heavy impact which sent dust flying in all directions. While the creature was definitely strong it wasn't so strong that there was nothing Basin could do to fight back, and for now zirs tactic consisted of sitting on top of the monster and beating it before it got the chance to recover from the collision and actually react.

---

Lily watched as Libbier made the finishing touches, perfecting the ice so it would last longer and be stronger so the tree wouldn't fall apart at the slightest touch. There were definitely plenty of onlookers who would be upset if the beautifully creatured frozen christmas tree were to just shatter. The dryad and the slayer had gone all out for this project and it showed.

"It looks great!" Lily affirmed as she watched Libbier take her hand, immediately feeling the warmth flow back into the cooled down appendage. She gave her friend a brilliant grateful smile, squeezing both hands and leaning forward. "And they like it as well!" She nodded towards the onlookers. Many people were still working on their own blocks of ice but it was clear that the two mages had made one of the more spectacular pieces on display if not the most spectacular. A mage who could melt and freeze ice and one would could shape water... if this had been a competition they would have been disqualified for cheating, but as it was nearly everyone was just impressed at the art created by combining magic and winter.

The girl with foliage for hair then looked up at the skies. While their date had begun early in the day it had taken more time than they might have realized, distracted by the fun they were having. The skies were beginning to darken, which in winter meant that it wouldn't take long before night had fallen. "Shall we go try the ice skating next? It's probably too late to join any of the contests." The sled racing might still be available since they probably had that occur several times over the course of the day, but Lily was in the mood for something a little bit less hectic. So far she'd been having a great time just doing things together with Libbier, talking and laughing and cooperating.

Besides, there was always next time for the sled racing.

WC: 914
TWC: 8,387/1,500

Considering what Basin wrote, it was apparent that this was going to be the last fight. This left Nero a lot less worried but it was still going to be a long hard-fought battle if his instincts were right, and considering the speed at which their foe was approaching it would undoubtedly be something that caused a lot of commotion. This, of course, was not something that plagued Nero's mind, but the fact that larger commotions equal to larger chances of the two girls noticing the battle.

So far the battles began to push farther and farther from the area where the girls were, thanks to Basin quickly and actively searching for the next target, reducing not only the damage caused by the surroundings but also catching them before they got too far into the city. This all had started in the area where people were skating and while it had been battle after battle inside the city, they had pretty much moved away towards the outskirts where the number of people was less concentrated.

Charging towards the target, Basin was certainly still trying to move the battles away from the city little by little, or at least Nero guessed to be the case, but even so, the one foe coming at them now was fast enough to enter the city before it had been detected so another battle in the city was unavoidable. The interception was the only viable option for the two combatants, so they rushed to meet their new foe, by land and air.

The moment Nero spotted the monster, the only thing that came to his mind was, 'It's a freaking Yeti', and it was without a doubt a big one at that too, as it immediately began to throw all kinds of large objects at Basin. Fortunately, it did not seem to notice Nero, either because he was in the air, or because he looked less threatening than the large golem that was counter charging, otherwise, Nero could not imagine the kind of damage the city would suffer if the damned yeti began to throw that kind of debris into the air to hit Nero. Considering things, it could even cause damage close enough to the two girls for them to notice.

"Wait a second.", Nero thought while cold sweat began to pour out as he realized something, "Wasn't there an ice skating event on the flyer I got for Lib?"

Nero looked back at the area this had all begun on, and it was clear that if the two girls decided to participate, nevermind the fact that they could see the skating ring destroyed, at this range, the fight here would definitely be sensed by one if not both of them.

Knowing this, Nero did not hesitate as he flew at full speed into the yeti which was now in a contest of strength with Basin. Nero landed with such force on its head that the yeti was momentarily stunned by the impact, and before it was able to recover Nero grabbed one of its horns and channeled every single bit of strength he could muster, using Rage Burst to its outmost. His muscles bulged as veins could be clearly seen under his short fur, and soon enough cracking sounds were momentarily heard before a loud snap indicated the horn had been completely severed from the yeti's head.

"OY, BIG GUY!", Nero shouted at Basin, as the yeti screamed in pain, "We need to get this guy as far away from the city as we can.", Nero told Basin as the yeti tried to shake Nero away, but Nero grabbed hold of the other horn and forced it back, pulling the yeti's chin up, "Give it your best shot.", Nero added, hoping that Basin would quickly follow up on his idea.

---

Hearing the positive words from Lily made Libbier ever happier, and as Lily said, I appeared that the surrounding people were beginning to take notice of their sculpture. This made Libbier chuckle, as she knew that unless they had the same kind of magic or were a full-fledged artist, no one would be able to make something like what they had just done.

Looking at Lily, Libbier noticed her looking up to the sky and was glad that she had managed to wake up relatively soon this day, otherwise they would not have had the time to do all this. She thought that she needed to give some gift to Nero after this as thanks for helping her get ready for today, unaware that the efforts the exceed was making to make her day a good one was going far beyond what she could possibly imagine.

While thinking this, Lily suggested that they should go ice-skating next. Libbier wondered for a while but then recalled that there was indeed something like that written on the flyer. She had been so focused on the time spent with Lily that she didn't even remember what other events there were. "That's a great idea.", Libbier replied. So she unwillingly let go of one of Lily's hands and grabbed the flyer from her pocket to check the location of the event.

"Hmm. It seems to be a little out of the way from here.", Libbier said, as she noticed the small map on the flyer, which indicated the are of the city that held the events, "It's going to take a while to get there but we can sightsee the night lights while one the way so I guess it's even better than going somewhere close. Besides we can just relax when we get there too.", Libbier said as she returned the flyer to her pocket, "Shall we go then?"

They were not in a rush, it was already going to be night time when they got there anyway due to the distance, so might as well enjoy the night view of the city's festivities as they made their way to the next event area. Libbier was going to burn this day on her mind for a long time.

1012//8076