[X] 'Her.' Who is 'Her?' The Undine might not be alone. Slip away from the fight and look around for who 'Her' might be.
"You're hesitating." Winter said to the Undine, as Yang watched.
The yellow-haired girl only paid the slightest bit of intention, as she thought.
The Undine kept telling people to 'Die for her.' So the Undine wasn't alone, and whoever was with it, she was important enough that the Undine's reason for trying to kill Yang and Winter was related to her.
"You're weakening, aren't you?" Winter continued. "You tried too hard to kill Yang, and didn't manage it. You're trying to avoid using your magic for a moment so you can recuperate. Like a sprinter slowing down while they catch their breath."
The Undine didn't reply, and Yang took that into account. The Undine wasn't at it's peak. Winter alone should be able to handle it, Yang wouldn't be needed to shoot or help. Which meant that if she slipped away and looked around for whoever the Undine's friend was...
"Your a burst fight." Winter continued. "You can do impressive things, but not for long. You have a few minutes of controlling the fight, especially in a place like this, but then you need to recover, and you're weak enough that someone who can maintain the pressure could turn the tables, and you need to back off to prepare yourself."
With the Undine distracted by Winter, Yang started making her way down the tree, slowly and quietly. If they started fighting, they'd be distracted enough for her to just jump down and run, but until then-
"The question is, if I know all that, why haven't I attacked yet?" Winter asked.
In response, the snow surrounding the partially melted battlefield began to glow, and several summons emerged from it. Not weak ones, either. One of the human-looking ones took a few steps forward before bursting into flames. To it's left, a legless dragon-like thing flapped it's wings and opened it's mouth, a ball of fire emerging from it's mouth, and to it's right, multiple King Taijitu rose up, the two-headed snake Grimm slithering around.
All at once, they attacked. The wyvern thing flew into the air, setting to fire the trees around the Undine except for the one Yang was in, and the snake-Grimm circled around and struck at the weakening, burning trees to knock them down, toppling them towards the Undine and opening the skyline for the wyvern to attack from above.
The Undine's magic lashed out, turning snow to icy explosions around the battlefield, forcing Winter to defend and entrapping the King Taijitu.
Well, that seemed like a big enough diversion. Yang leaped from the tree branch, rolling in the snow to bleed off the momentum of her fall, and starting running towards the direction the Undine had originally come from, looping around the fight in the process.
Winter dismissed her summons as the Undine trapped them, and created more and more ghostly figures from her position. The Undine's ice speared outwards, stabbing through most of the summons, before it tried to flee.
One of Winter's glyphs appeared, cutting it off from it's escape in the direction Yang was heading towards.
"Leaving so soon?" Winter asked. "Looking for a chance to catch your breath? Well, I'm afraid I can't allow you that."
A second glyph appeared, on the other side of the Undine, and the two runes started drawing closer together. Ice suddenly emerged out of nowhere next to the Undine, holding the glyphs apart while the Undine dashed out of it and into the snow, hiding it from view.
Winter's burning summon flared up, melting the snow around it, and slowly uncovered more and more of the ground, denying the Undine the ability to recuperate as much as it could.
The air above Winter suddenly stilled, and hardened into hail. Before it could be flung at Winter, however, a bullet rang out.
Yang looked back for a moment from her running position, and saw Blast aiming a revolver at the icy situation. The bullet flew out at the hail, and hit one piece, which redirected the bullet and sent the hail flying. Both the piece of hail and bullet hit more hail, which changed directions and hit even more hail. In only a second, all the hail had been hit and was sent flying to the ground, whilst the bullet struck into the snow, causing a cry of pain from the Undine. The water-ish spirit thing rose out of the snow, which then shot up to surround it, and solidified into ice.
"I love my Semblance." Blast said. "It's amazing."
Winter didn't respond, pointing her sword at the slowly expanding block of ice. All of her summons converged on it, and the flaming man and Wyvern both shot flame at it, melting the ice slightly faster than it could expand.
Yeah, that was handled. Yang really needed to look into who the 'Her' person is.
Setting off faster now, even as the ice block melted completely and revealed an absence of crazy murderess glowing water snake, followed by jets of water shooting out at Winter and Blast from the opposite direction.
The Undine had forgotten about her completely. Good.
Running through the forest, ignoring the roars of the dragon-ghost-thing and the gunshots behind her, Yang started looking for some sort of sign of another presence. Footsteps in the snow, pathways where the trees weren't growing, maybe even-
Yang paused in her run, as she saw something ahead. Curious, she drew closer for a moment, looking at what seemed to be a fairly obvious hint.
A tree stump, without an attached tree. Several, in fact. Though it was hard to see, it looked like someone had cut down a bunch of trees in the area.
Which meant people cam here occasionally, at the bare minimum. And there was probably a living area nearby, since people wouldn't want to carry firewood to far away. Though, if people were trying to remain hidden, it probably wasn't too close...
Yang heard a growl, and looked around. Nearby, hidden near the trees, there was a patch of black contrasting against the white snow.
A Beowulf?
It sniffed around, and Yang briefly wondered back to a discussion she had sat through in class in Signal last year. There was a talk on theory regarding Grimm, and it was wondered how exactly Grimm sensed negative emotions. It was still unproven if they were able to just feel it, or if they detected it through scent and sight or something like that.
Well, if they did detect negative emotion through smell, then the Beowulf was hunting around for something. If not, it was still smelling something interesting. Either way, it could potentially lead to some interesting clues.
Yang hid behind a tree and looked after the Beowulf for a moment, watching it smell around. It looked towards the direction of the cliff face, sniffed around, and moved on an angle that was both drawing closer to the cliffs and heading towards the area where all the trees where cut.
Well, that was a good enough direction to look into. Dashing towards it, Yang crushed the Beowulf's skull with her hand, firing Ember Celica as she pushed it to the ground and fired downwards. It died, and it's body faded.
Heading off in the direction it was sniffing around in, Yang ran.
It only took a few moments to start getting suspicious. The snow in the area was piling up more and more as it approached the cliff, and there was something that could manipulate snow who could be hiding something. Perhaps...
Walking towards the snow, Yang allowed herself to burn up more, as she walked towards the centre of it, where the snow was piled the highest.
It took a while, constantly flaring her aura up more to keep up with the increased amount of snow as she went in, and eventually she had to punch through ice even as she melted it. Eventually, however, with the snow piled up four times her size either side of her, Yang reached the stone cliff face.
Nothing.
...Well, there was still a lot of snow. Looking around, Yang flared her Aura even more, and quickly ran up the cliff a bit to evaporate the snow at the top first, so she didn't accidentally bury herself. Clinging to the cliff on level with the highest pile of snow, Yang looked around, looking for a sign of something hidden in it.
To her left, she saw a wooden plank defrost.
Bingo.
Kicking off the cliff in the direction of the wood, Yang landed on top of it, and kept melting the snow around her. Even as her boots got wet from the water hitting them before it evaporated, Yang could see more and more of a roof of a smallish cabin emerging.
Walking around for a bit, Yang determined the size, then jumped down and started melting a path around the cabin, looking for the door.
It only took a moment to find it, and when she did, Yang reached to open the door.
Locked.
...Of course it was.
Yang took a moment to think. That Undine thing was the only one who could have stacked that snow up and move through it with enough ease to go back and forth, but it was locked, and it didn't look like a snake made of water could carry a key. So, how would it get in and out? And if it had a friend, how would she get in and out, assuming it wasn't another Undine?
Yang thought it over for a moment, then made her first guess.
Her knuckle rapped against the door three times, and after exactly three seconds, something started moving around inside. Yang heard a latch open, and then a moment later, the door swung inwards.
The girl who was on the other side was small. Not just in height, but she was rather thin as well. Her skin was pale, there were bags under her eyes, and she seemed to have difficulty focusing on Yang. For a moment, it didn't seem like the girl was really looking at Yang at all.
"Undi..." The girl began, before her eyes focused more, and then widened in fear. The door slammed shut before Yang could stop it.
"Hey!" Yang objected, trying and failing to pry it open again. It may be made of wood, but apparently it was... Super wood, or something. "Open up!"
The girl didn't look healthy. She looked sick, and her skin was clinging to her bones, which was never a good sign. And Yang had heard what she had almost said.
'Undi.' As in, 'Undine.' Whoever this girl was, she was related to the watery snake-
Yang heard a scream, which echoed through the forest and mountains. Not one of fear, or pain. It sounded more like...
Rage. Anger. Hate.
The snow around yang shuddered, then crushed in towards her. She flared her Aura to melt as much of it as she could, but the amount of snow ws still enough that Yang was pushed to the side, as it wretched her away from the door.
As the snow did melt, though, Yang saw the humanoid fish-faced form of the Undine standing above her, a look of sheer loathing marring her expression as she looked down at Yang.
"Die." She said, in a voice that was unchanging, even now. Above her, Yang hear a rumbling sound, and looked up to see rocks start falling from the top of the cliff.
Ice and snow and water covered the cabin once more, in many more layers now. Distinct ones, too, with a layer of water between every layer of snow and ice. Designed to slow down momentum to make the next slower. Almost as if-
"You are a threat." The Undine said. "She is in danger while you are alive. Die."
"Is that what this is about?" Yang asked. "You're just killing me because I'm near someone who you're trying to protect? The one who I wouldn't have thought to look for in the snow if you didn't attack?"
"No." Undine replied, looking at Yang. "You are meat. She starves. Your death solves two problems."
Yang's eyes widened in shock. "You- I'm not food, you monster. You're going to feed human flesh to a little girl? How do you think someone will react to that!"
"She does not need to know." The Undine said. "She did not ask last time."
Yang felt sick as the mental images came to her automatically.
"That's kinda messed up." A voice said from behind the Undine, and Yang looked past it to see-
"Cent?" She asked.
The man in black smiled. "Yep! Blast gave Two a call, and she sent me- Or rather, cent me- To go investigate what all the fighting was about. Feeling a little tired, had to run a long way, but that scream gave away your position and trees are great for blocking falls. That's why they have leaves, you know? Trees grew leaves because humans kept falling on them and breaking the bark, so they evolved to grow leaves to protect themselves."
The Undine looked at him for a moment, then screamed again.
Above the two, the earth shook, and Yang looked up just in time to see the avalanche launching down the cliff.
[X] Run for the cabin. The Undine had put protective layers around it, she wouldn't risk tearing that apart just to kill Yang. Stay near it.
[X] Run away, avoid the avalanche, come back when it stops. Don't take any unnecessary risks.
[X] Attack the Undine. It won't be expecting it, and you could probably dodge most of the rocks, maybe climb up them as they fell even.
