Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

It took a second for Hanna’s vision to adjust to the bright light of the room she entered. Hanna found herself in another large arena. She swallowed the dread rising up as the door slid shut behind her. In front of her were waves upon waves of enemies. Guards, stormtroopers, robots, and snakes. “You sure are worried about defeating me,” Hanna muttered. 

“Farewell, hero,” EDJ’s voice echoed through the chamber. “You’ll never make it out of this room alive.”

Hanna stood her ground. You can do this. You can make it. As soon as the soldiers lifted their weapons to fire, Hanna put up a wall of ice and covered her ears. The sound of the rifles firing in such an enclosed area was deafening. As before, Hanna continually reinforced the ice barrier while being pelted. MOVE! a voice in the back of her head screamed. Hanna dropped to the ground a split second before the wall shattered. Instead of the pieces of ice falling to the ground, they broke down into sharpened spikes and shot back at the soldiers. Without waiting for retaliation, Hanna jumped into the air and flew to the ceiling. Adding snow to the ice spikes below, Hanna created a blizzard in the room, trying to keep visibility to a minimum. She landed on the floor again amidst the soldiers, freezing patches of ice on the ground before taking flight again. Some of the guards and stormtroopers took themselves out slipping on the ice. 

EDJ frowned at the snowblind screens. “That’s no fun.” He turned the thermal infrared settings on for the cameras. The cameras could make out his soldiers in the storm, but the heat signature for Hanna was harder to detect. He pressed another button on the control panel. Inside the arena, a door on the side opened. Monstrous-looking troll and orc creatures walked into the room while flying monkeys swarmed to the ceiling, more of EDJ’s spliced abominations. Hanna grimaced and tried to increase the intensity of the blizzard, dark hair freely whipping around her. The flying monkeys did not seem to be deterred by the storm. Hanna had to use her sword and aerial movements to fend them off. She swooped down too low and was grabbed by one of the robots.
“EEK!” Hanna turned and froze the robot solid, wrenching herself free. Two more monkeys attacked from the air and soldiers somewhere turned to shoot at her again. Hanna ducked and flew low to the ground, swerving between enemies. There are so many of them! Too many… 

I can take them, a confident voice in the back of her mind spoke up. 

Hanna shook her head. No! I’m not letting you out. 

You don’t have a choice, darling, the voice answered. Hanna squeaked and dodged as an orc dove at her. She blocked a sword from another soldier. Let me out or we both die. 

“NO!” Hanna shouted, frantically trying to avoid enemies, defend herself, and keep the blizzard going at the same time. The storm had to come down. It was taking too much of a toll. But if she let the storm stop, she’d be a sitting duck. Or swan, in Hanna’s case. Hanna dove to a corner of the room and let the storm slow down enough to see how large the attacking force was. A quarter of the initial force littered the ground and it seemed that the rest of it was gaining reinforcements. A nearby troll spotted her and went for the kill. Hanna gasped and jumped out of the way. She batted away an attack from an orc with a spear and another from a robot with a buzzsaw. Fear was setting in.

LET ME OUT! the voice screamed. 

“NO!” Hanna repeated, dodging another attack. “I can’t- ACK!” One of the enemies blindsided Hanna, knocking her to the ground. She rolled out of the way of another robot. I can’t lose this way! I can’t let her out! 

EDJ’s voice echoed through the room’s PA system again. “Try harder than that, dear. The producer wants more action!” 

Hanna narrowly avoided three more enemies in panic. She took to the air again. A troll grabbed Hanna and flung her into a wall. She wasn’t able to catch herself in time, smashing into the surface and dropping to the floor. “...Ungh…”  Hanna coughed and gasped for air. She looked up in fear to see the troll lift its foot to crush her. …no…not like this…I can’t lose…like this…

Instantaneously, the fear in Hanna’s blue eyes was swallowed with red rage. I never lose. An ice spike shot up from the ground and into the troll’s foot. Hanna dashed out from under the creature as it roared. The blizzard came back with a vengeance, swallowing the entire room in white. An evil cackle rang out from the midst of the storm as the soldiers looked around for their target. The flying monkeys attacked the center of the storm, only to fall to the ground either with their wings frozen or with their bodies full of icicles. Large blocks of ice formed and spun around the center of the room before exploding outward in the form of jagged projectiles. 

Every person in the main control room watched the screens in eerie silence. The cameras picked up a faint, light purple figure moving quickly between the orange shapes of the soldiers and creatures. EDJ watched the bright orange bodies drop to the floor one by one in quick succession. While it might not have been the best quality visual for EDJ’s movie footage, it was enough to send a shiver down anyone’s spine. Anyone except EDJ. The level of brutality on display was exactly what he was hoping for. Even so, he was glad not to be in the same room as his men. 

The storm slowed down to reveal Hanna flying in the air, hair loose, sword saturated, and an overconfident bloodlust in her red eyes. She cackled again. “BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Hanna lifted her free hand, creating a rain of icicles from the air. Stalagmites of ice shot up from the floor in three waves, eradicating most of the remaining force. The storm stopped and Hanna landed on the ground to deal with the stragglers. Four guards with melee weapons tried to rush her, but Hanna slashed her way through them. Three orcs turned and ran back to the door they had entered from, only to be shot in the back with more icy projectiles. A stormtrooper and a troll tried to attack. The first, Hanna kicked in the throat, breaking the stormtrooper's neck. The second, Hanna flipped away from while sending a wave of ice to freeze the troll’s feet to the floor. The momentum carried the falling troll into a jutting ice spike. Glancing over the wreckage of bodies that was once EDJ’s army, Hanna spotted something orange on the ground. Somehow, through everything, one snake was still alive. Hanna stomped the heel of her boot on the snake’s head. Silence. Complete silence. 

Only once everything else in the room was dead did Hanna’s wicked grin fade. Just as quickly as the rage overwhelmed her, it left. Hanna’s eyes turned from red to blue. She blinked and looked around, realization crossing her face as she stared at the gory scene in horror. Hanna gasped and let go of her sword, letting it clatter on the icy ground. Nothing moved. Everything was either frozen, impaled, or in pieces. Hanna dropped to her knees in the center of the massacre, sick to her stomach. “...I…I lost…”