Anna

  “Ngh!”

  Anna’s vision was flooded with ice.

  She had been read perfectly. Liesel erected the ice wall purposefully to block her path, knowing that she would likely try to power through the obstacle. It was the most rational decision for her, given the limitations of Anna’s Gift and the overwhelming advantage she possessed in close quarters. Her desperation also made it an obvious read.

  And so, the Ice Maiden baited her into abandoning her defenses. Once Anna was committed to breaking down the wall, Liesel shattered it to create an explosive of ice.

  The effect was devastating.

  Ice shards ravaged her body. Her arms. Her legs. Her torso. Her face. Everything screamed, flooding her head with incessant signals of agony. The frost from the ice shard embedded in her limbs were also scalding—they dulled and numbed the responses from her limbs. Anna could feel her entire body thrown in disarray as warm blood poured from her wounds, only to be immediately chilled by the glacial fragments.

  Tears filled her eyes. It was her body’s natural response to the screeching pains tearing her apart. Anna was about to collapse. Her head dazed; her consciousness was on the precipice of fading—until she caught a glimpse of Liesel’s face through the icy mist.

  Their eyes met. The Ice Maiden stared her down as Anna fell. Liesel’s eyes were rigid—frozen, cold, brimming with a chilly indifference, completely unlike the savage glee she shown like a second ago. Anna felt her heart race. The expression was eerily familiar. She’s witnessed it so many times now that she instinctively winced each time she was faced with that sickening gaze.

  It was the look she received from her estranged parents.

  Regret. Disillusioned. And bitter disappointment.

  Don’t you dare look down on me!

  Anna stomped the ground. Electricity snapped across her body. She clenched her teeth, willing the electric currents through her tore muscles, stimulating the nerves and forcing her screaming limbs to move. She suppressed the resulting agony, killing the painful signals of self-preservation.

  She lunged. Liesel was now directly in front of her. The Ice Maiden’s eyes went wide for the first time, losing the unflappable dignity and composure carried by her moniker. A shield of ice was forming in her hands as Anna entered into range.

  “Shock!”

  Electricity cackled with glee. The air splintered, popping in distinct cracks, electrifying the surroundings in a web of current. Liesel was in the middle of it. The shocks rippled through her body, causing her to convulse as her body flayed and jerked about. A pained groan escaped her mouth as she tried to step back from the electric field.

  Anna refused to let her leave. She rushed in with an outstretched arm—intent to grab the fleeing noble in a destructive embrace. Electricity continued to pulsate around her. Every second the web of current snapped outwards, engulfing Liesel in another jolt of electricity. Inadvertently, Anna felt the sides of her mouth curve up. The sight of the Ice Maiden writhing helplessly brought her immense joy.

  The bottom of her feet suddenly clamped up.

  Huh?

  Confused, she glanced down. Her left foot had been entangled in a flower of ice. The frigid sensation stabbed into her ankles, temporarily immobilizing her.

  She can still channel mana in this state?!

  Her brief hesitation was deadly. A pillar of ice exploded beneath Liesel’s feet, moving her out of the static field. Quickly, the distance between them was widening.

  Anna’s chance for victory was slipping away. Desperate, she reached into the inside of her pockets. Five copper coins. That’s what the Academy permitted her to have for the duration of this match. She rested one of above her index finger and took aim. Atop of her ice platform, Liesel was making her escape towards the other end of the Nautilus field. The Ice Maiden would not allow her to get up close again.

  “Ionize!” Anna screamed. Sparks around her fingers cackled, producing a spontaneous force that shot the coin forward at a lightning speed. The projectile blasted into the ice platform, cleaving off a chunk of the fragment. Liesel’s platform teetered on the verge of collapse.

  Anna fired another coin. This time, the platform shattered. Without a foothold to keep her airborne, Liesel descended towards the ground amidst falling masses of ice.

  Anna no longer had a clear line of attack with Ionize. Instead, she decided to seize the opening and launch herself towards Liesel’s position. The Ice Maiden continued to plummet head-first, making no effort to right her body—seemingly still paralyzed from the earlier shocks.

  Step by step, Anna got closer. What’s going on? The edge of her skin tingled with unease. Dread and discomfort crept in the back of her mind. Something was off—her instincts screamed as she loomed ever closer towards Liesel’s landing spot.

  It can’t be this easy, can’t it? Her eyes darted around, looking for signs of Liesel’s Gift manifesting in the vicinity. Nothing. Her abyssal mana sensitivity did her no favors as she ran into the foray blind.

  Then suddenly, she saw it. Their eyes met. A faint smirk emerged on Liesel’s face.

  Boom!

  The first chunk of ice from the broken platform smashed into the ground. The ensuing explosion of fragments suddenly spread, condensing into a thick mist as the ice shards immediately sublimed into gaseous vapors. Anna screeched into a halt as more chunks fall. Running blindly into the mist was a death sentence. The air was suffused with Liesel’s mana. In there, without visibility and her piss poor mana sensitivity, she would be helpless against any attacks.

  One by one, the field of the Nautilus was covered in a dense shroud as Liesel’s falling body disappeared. Desperate, Anna unleashed two of her last three coins in Liesel’s general direction. The magnetized coins tore through the icy mist with a blaring scream before disappearing out of sight. Anna listened to the commentary—desperately hoping for Melody to call for a pre-emptive victory.

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  Her wish never came.

  Instead, the ambient temperature suddenly dropped.

  Frost clung to her skin, stabbing into her arms. Anna stepped back, startled, ready to retreat, until she found herself unable to move. Ice encaged her feet, rapidly climbing the length of her leg as it threatened to swallow her whole.

  “Repel!” she yelled, sending a wave of high-frequency current at the encroaching ice. The icy cage shattered for a brief moment, before surging back with an even greater fervor.

  Refusing to give up, she tried again. This time, however, static weakly flickered around her body. The voracity from just a second earlier had suddenly vanished.

  No! Not when I’m so close!

  “Repel! Repel! Repel!”

  She desperately tried to manifest her Gift while thrashing violently to pry herself free from the icy cage. Her head suddenly shook. An intense wave of nausea struck her with a thunderous force. She looked down at her fingers. The edges were colored in blue. It wasn’t frostbite.

  It was the symptom of Overclock.

  Footsteps resounded from the mist before her. Soon, she spotted the silhouette of her despicable opponent.

  “Well done, Anna. I wanted a challenge, but I didn’t expect you to drive me into a corner like this,” Liesel said, emerging from the frosty shroud. Mana glowed radiantly from her outstretched palms, powering the icy environment around her.

  Niflheim. The name of the specialty that granted Liesel her moniker of the Ice Maiden. It was a power that transformed her surroundings into a freezing landscape. In this field, she was indomitable.

  “To think that I would have to use this to keep you pinned down,” Liesel remarked, the expression on her face was one of genuine delight, “I haven’t felt my heart race this fast in such a long time.”

  Anna narrowed her eyes. Aside from the edge of her hair that was slightly singed from the heat of the electric field, Liesel’s visage remained unblemished. Meanwhile, her own body was littered in open wounds and throbbing pains. Ironically, her injuries were only manageable because of the icy temperatures.

  “…Are you mocking me?” she spat.

  “No.” Liesel tilted her head, perplexed. “I’m being honest.”

  “Then let me strike you once. I can’t feel satisfied without leaving a mark on your pretty face.”

  “Nuh-uh,” Liesel giggled, “You have to earn the right to do that. You came close. Perhaps next time. But for now—”

  Liesel raised her hand with an outstretched finger. Mana bloomed. Anna felt the icy cage surround her torso, growing steadily towards her neck. Slowly, her consciousness began to fade.

  “—Sleep. Rest well. Dwell in this indignation. And next time, use it to reach me.”

  “Fuck you,” Anna muttered as she closed her eyes to the chilly embrace.

  ***

  A heart-wrenching memory.

  Anna remembered the first time she spoke with her parents after their nasty fallout. The source of their strife was a deal that went awry—one that would have catapulted the Seibert Merchant Company into a dominant monopoly in the competitive markets of Ardair.

  One that she thoroughly and meticulously dismantled.

  Understandably, her parents were outraged. The ensuing confrontation lasted nearly an hour. The seething rage in her father’s eyes was something that Anna had never witnessed before—not from a man who was known for his calm and level-headed approach to business. Nor did she ever hear those nasty, venomous words spat out of her dignified mother’s mouth—much less directed at their formerly beloved daughter. Their fight nearly tore apart half of the house as Anna and her parents took turns destroying and flinging items at each other to vent out their displeasure.

  Anna didn’t regret her decision. Even now, after the dust long settled, she was sure that she had made the right call. Being a merchant was a cutthroat business—one that prioritized transactions and profit above all.

  But there were limits. There were lines that should never be crossed, even if it produced unfathomable profits. Anna was proud of the Seibert name and the legacy that her family had created. As a result, she would have never allowed a permanent stain to tarnish her family’s name. Even if meant sacrificing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

  What broke her heart, however, was how her parents didn’t agree.

  There would be another week before her parents spoke another word to her. By then, the warm, adoring look in their eyes had long vanished. Even the fury and venom in their gazes disappeared. All that was left was a chilling indifference.

  “Put this on,” her mother said with a glacial glint in her eyes. In her hands was a long frilly dress that stretched from her neck to her ankles. The style that was currently trending amongst the nobility.

  “…Why?” Anna asked, hesitant.

  Dread clawed up her spine. Her mother knew that she hated these sorts of outfits. They were gaudy and overly restrictive. She hated how they accentuated her babyish face. Cute things were underestimated and looked down upon, and Anna wanted only to be known for her mercantile skills. She also couldn’t stand the lecherous stares of the elites each time she wore a dress. It was why she refused to attend banquets and instead preferred negotiating in taverns and conferences.

  “You’re attending a banquet. There are a few nobles in attendance with sons that are interested in you.”

  “Huh? Interested? In me? For what?”

  “Marriage.”

  The word thundered in her ears. Anna stared at her mother—dumbfounded and jaw dropped. Her mind blanked, stunned, unable to formulate a single thought. Once the initial shock passed, indignation blazed in her chest.

  “…You’re marrying me off? Why?!”

  “It would be for the best of the business,” her mother replied, “The Seibert family needs a backer from a noble family for the company to penetrate the noble market. You were judged to have the prettiest face out of your siblings.”

  “Excuse me?! I refuse!” Anna screamed.

  “You don’t have a choice.”

  “I am your daughter! You’re going to ship me off to a random noble who cares for nothing except how fertile my womb is?!”

  Her mother narrowed her eyes. The detached look on her face was horrific to watch. “Yes,” she uttered. Contempt dangled with every syllable. “It would benefit this family that you so dearly adore.”

  Anna stepped back. The rancor in her mother’s voice pierced her heart. The warm memories of her childhood suddenly shattered. The scenes of her parents smiling, laughing, praising her for her accomplishments had fractured. It was all a lie. A farce. They never saw me as their daughter. To them, she was just another asset. Another tool. Another thing that can be used in a transaction and exchanged for value. The love she received was all just pretense—make-believe, something to enrapture her to the Seibert family.

  Once Anna dismantled that deal, her value as a merchant plummeted. The only thing left for the family was her assets as a woman.

  ***

  Anna opened her eyes.

  She shot up—nearly falling off the bed until she realized she was confined in the medical bay within the Nautilus. She grabbed her chest, heaving—her heart pounding against her ribs at the recollection of that wretched memory.

  As she regained some semblance of composure, she sunk back into the bed with an exhausted sigh. Snapped out of her restless stupor, her body began to complain as pains and headaches struck her at once.

  Right, I lost.

  Pathetically too, at that. She recalled Liesel’s sneering face—perfect and unblemished, absent of even a single speck of tarnish. That’s how badly she lost.

  I fought with my hardest as well.

  Her chest ached at the results. She had pushed herself to her utmost limits. She overrode the pains that should have downed her, she forced herself to brink of Overclock, and she even made the Ice Maiden retreat. It didn’t matter though. The end result was that she lost. She failed. She didn’t elevate her value.

  She was just another victim to Liesel’s overpowering dominance.

  “Dammit…”

  Tears poured from her eyes, cascading down the length of her chin.

  “I lost…and I had to relive that stupid memory!”

  Defeat was already bitter enough, and now she had to be reminded of her parent’s lack of love for her. The combination was too much to bear.

  Anna laid there, alone in the medical bay, sobbing as the announcement of the next match blared in the background.