[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.
The snow and stone slid down the side of the mountainous cliff, and Yang watched it come down for a moment, before her instincts overrode her shock.
Her mind blocked out the Undine, for the moment. The Undine wasn't a threat. Winter had pointed out that it could only do so much before it became tired, and between the avalanche and the defensive barrier, there was no way it had enough energy left to attack Yang or Cent mid-avalanche. Which just became an issue of not being buried alive.
Running away from the avalanche would be hard. She didn't know how far the avalanche would go, and she'd be leaving the Undine behind, giving it time to catch it's breath and try again. Meanwhile, the cabin was right there.
Setting off into a sprint, Yang flared her Aura to make it easier to burst through the ice and snow, and lunged forward as she reached the water. Her momentum bled out through the first layer of water, but not enough to stop her shattering the ice layer. The second water layer did slow her more, and the snow layer had her putting more effort in to move through. Yang heard rumbling around her as the avalanche started landing all around the cabin.
Holding her breath through the next layer of water, Yang extended Ember Celica and fired into the next lot of ice, pre-shattering it, and then whipping her arms around and firing behind her to force herself through the water for a moment. Firing several times to get through the water layer, the ice, and another water layer, Yang allowed her Aura to melt the ice slightly and breath for a moment, before the finally reached the cabin door.
Behind her, Yang could feel the layers of different states of water suddenly crushing inwards, drawing closer as she heard the avalanche continue rumbling. The increased pressure sealed up the layers around her, trapping Yang against the cabin and knocking the breath out of her lungs with the sudden tightness. The snow around her melted quickly, but water and ice still closed in around her, constantly constricting in a way that kept the pressure up constantly.
Struggling to move her arm, Yang twisted it just enough to point Ember Celica towards the door, and fired.
The door burst open inwards, flying off the hinges, and the pressure around Yang forced her inside. She hit the ground and was almost buried by the snow and water coming in after her, before she rolled out of the way and got to her feet.
She was in the cabin again. Good. But...
Looking towards the door, Yang saw how much was blocking the door.
...It'd probably take a while to get out of there, when the avalanche was over. And if the Undine regained their full ability to control it's magic while she was halfway through it, completely surrounded by the element it casually controlled...
That was dangerous. A risk even Yang wasn't entirely willing to take for a fight. But, on the other hand, Cent was alone outside with the Undine, and if he didn't managed to hold his own...
...Well, Winter and Blast should be on their way as well, if the Undine ran away from them. They'd help him out. In the meantime, Yang had another priority to focus on.
Keeping an eye on the snow pile bursting from the door, in case the Undine came out of it to attack her inside the cabin, Yang looked around.
The cabin wasn't too big, and the entrance room looked like it covered most living requirements. There were door to other rooms, but there was a shelve covered in books, a fireplace that was currently also filled with snow, a wardrobe against the wall, and a small bed on the floor.
As her eyes scanned past the wardrobe, Yang noticed that the door was shaking somewhat. As if someone was trying to hold it still with shaking hands.
That was where the girl was hiding, then?
Walking towards the door slowly, careful not to make too much noise but also not trying to seem like she was trying to be undetected, Yang spoke in a soft voice. "Hey? Hey, are you in there?"
There was stuttered breathing from within the wardrobe, but no reply.
"It's okay." Yang said, trying to sound reassuring. "I'm not here to hurt you."
"G-Go away!" The girl's voice sobbed, and the doors slammed inwards more, as if the girl was trying to move away from the doors of the wardrobe.
Yang stopped walking closer, hoping not to spook the girl. "I just want to talk." She said.
"Don't..." The girl whimpered, but was unable to finish the thought.
Yang tried stepping away from the wardrobe. "I'm backing off, okay? Not coming closer. I just want to talk. Can we talk?"
There wasn't a reply, and Yang let the silence hang for a moment, trying to figure out how to communicate with the girl.
"My name is Yang." She tried. "I'm from Vale. I'm helping a friend of mine who just wants to help people like you. We don't want to hurt you."
Still no reply.
"I need you to talk with me." Yang tried. "Your friend, Undine, she's fighting my friends outside. We don't need to fight. Just... Please, talk to me, we can make them stop fighting. I don't want anyone to get hurt. Does that sound good to you?"
Once again, there was no reply. Yang felt a moment of frustration, but then immediately ignored it. The girl in there...
She had nobody but that Undine with her. Who knows what had happened to her parents. She looked sick and starved when Yang got a look at her earlier. Of course she didn't trust Yang enough to try talking.
Yang heard the rumbling of the avalanche finally stop as this thought crossed her mind, and as it did, Yang looked over towards the door. The snow there shuddered for a moment, before a water-snake-thing burst through it and formed back into a humanoid form.
The Undine was back.
It looked at Yang with loathing for a moment, but was hunched over, exhausted. It extended an unsteady hand, and the snow around it formed into ice and prepared to strike out at Yang.
Looking at it, Yang took a moment to consider how to get out of this situation without further conflict.
Well, there was an obvious answer.
Just before the icicles could fly at her, Yang raised her arms into the air.
"I surrender."
The Undine stopped, looking at her for a moment, with a slight glare.
"Trick." It said.
"No trick." Yang replied. "I don't want to fight. I'm not a threat to you."
"Liar."
"Not lying." Yang contradicted. "You tried to kill me first, I was just defending myself."
Yang took note on how the Undine paused, right where it would have brought up the point of Yang being meat, and looked over at the wardrobe for a moment. Trying to keep the girl from realising what she had been eating, was it?
"We're not here to hurt her." Yang continued. "The opposite, if anything. Two came to the mountains because she heard there was people here who were in a bad way or something. If you just tried talking, we could have tried to make things bette-"
"Liar." The Undine repeated. "How would you know?"
"I don't know how Two found out." Yang replied, keeping her voice calm to avoid frightening the girl. "I was out at the time. There was a village that got attacked, and people died, and Two wanted to go find any kids who lost parents-"
The Undine lunged at Yang, and the teenager was shocked enough that she didn't react in time. Her Aura would let her defend against an attack, but if she had seen an attack coming, she could have defended herself first.
But it wasn't an attack. The Undine placed a hand on Yang's mouth, generating water from nowhere and freezing it over Yang's lips to stop her talking. She was confused, for a moment, before she realised her mistake.
From the wardrobe, a small voice spoke.
"...Dad?" The girl said to herself, and Yang's heart plummeted. "You said you'd be back soon, dad. You said..."
The Undine looked at Yang with an expression of sheer hatred, and reached a hand to Yang's throat for a moment, but simply froze her to the wall from her throat. Leaving her there, the Undine went to the wardrobe, opened it up, and tried to hug the girl.
"Do not cry." The Undine said. "Everything is fine."
"B-But..." The girl whimpered. "He's been gone so long. He-He was only here for a little bit and he said he'd be back soon and he'd make everything better and he-"
"She is wrong." The Undine said. "Your father must be alive.
"But..." The girl sniffed. "I-It's like m-mother all over a-again. S-She goes away and n-never comes back and d-dad tells m-me she's just lost b-but he looks sad whenever I ask about h-her and she's not coming back and he d-doesn't want to tell me but I know and-"
"He will be back." The Undine said again, it's monotone voice beginning to betray a sort of desperation.
"You don't even care!" The girl shrieked, pushing her away. "You p-pretend and you smile but it's all because of the Pact because if I die you die, you don't care about me, you just didn't want to die then and don't want to die now and-"
The Undine shook her head quickly, but didn't seem to know what to say.
"D-Dad's always leaving and he's barely talking to me while he's here, he just looks guilty and can't look at me most of the time and he goes away for a long time and you never stay here, you just look for food and never talk to me and it's just me, just... Just..."
The girl sobbed, and Yang, watching her, felt a pang of pity at the sight.
Over at the door of the cabin, there was the sound of shifting stone and snow, as if someone was shovelling into it. Help on the way?
Feeling her Aura melt the ice around her mouth and neck, Yang struggled free, falling off the wall as she did so. Then, looking at the girl, Yang took a step forward.
"Hey-"
The Undine turned to Yang, the death glare returning to its eyes, and the snow from the door turned to icicles again, all of which started stabbing at Yang.
"Shut up!" The Undine hissed. "This is your fault!"
The first icicle speared itself against Yang's chest and shattered, before all the shards grew into icicles of their own and stabbed towards her again. In only a few seconds, her Aura received a dozen blows. Yang wanted to fight back, but the girl...
She was in a bad enough way. She didn't need to be near a fight, not in a state like this. She needed help, not to be ignored.
Dodging to the side of the icicles flying at her, Yang kept her voice level.
"Is now the best time?" She asked. "Your friend needs your help more than my life needs to end."
The girl, sobbing in front of the wardrobe, didn't react, and the Undine seemed to grow even more angry at the comment.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" It slowly grew more intense, it's monotone long gone, overwritten by anger, hate, the desire to see Yang dead. More and more snow from the door was pulled away to be turned into a projectile against Yang, and the yellow-haired teenager saw the Undine start sweating, breathing more and more heavily, as it did it's best to kill her.
There was no way for Yang to avoid all the attacks. Her Aura strained as the countless projectiles danced through the air. Much longer of this, and...
...Well, the Undine would tire itself out soon. Yang would be able to try and talk her down when she couldn't do anything.
Snow from outside begun being dragged into the cabin, creating more and more projectiles to be flung at Yang. For a second, before she had to dodge another cloud of projectiles, Yang saw a ray of light shine in, as the doorway began growing unblocked.
Another projectile hit Yang in the arm, and the girl felt her Aura nearly fade away. Another hit like that...
The wave of projectiles stopped for a moment, as all the ice and snow formed into a spiked barricade keeping Yang away from the Undine. Too thick for Ember Celica to shoot through and do anything. Yang could run through it, but with her Aura how it was, getting through it would take the last of her Aura. Right as she was surrounded by sharpened shrapnel that could dig into her flesh.
The fight stopped for a moment, as the Undine breathed heavily, exhausted from it's efforts. The unblocked doorway momentarily became filled, as a figure ran in. Looking towards it for a moment, Yang's eyes widened.
Cent had entered first, his sword raised, positioned just right that it'd take him only another few steps and a swing to behead the humanoid form of the Undine.
Right in front of the crying little girl.
The crying little girl who said she'd die if the Undine did.
Acting on instinct, Yang-
[X] Moved to stop Cent. He had too much momentum to stop, there wasn't any stopping at this point, but if she just charged through the wall and took the hit, she could shove him out of the way. She'd be hurt back, but wasn't that what a Hunter's job was?
[X] Froze. Ember Celica couldn't fire through the wall in time, by the time Cent heard Yang say to stop the Undine would be missing a head, and if she ran through the wall she could end up n the brink of death herself. What could she do?
