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Suddenly, Wren shot higher into the sky. As she did so, Naomi was about to follow, but she felt the atmosphere abruptly change.
Did she speed up the tornado? Naomi thought. Next thing she knew, the air from within the calm area was sucked from its perimeters, causing Naomi's body to naturally switch to its restricted state to keep her from suffocating.
Guess this means you won't be able to talk to her now. Up above, Naomi noticed a fiery red-orange added to Wren's aura as flames sparked to like on her hands. This shouldn't have been possible in an area without oxygen, but Naomi wasn't too surprised since those spiritual flames weren't natural.
Wren held out her hands close together and pointed them down at Naomi. The tops of the clouds swirled into the eye of the storm and circulated her hands, amplifying the flames on them as Wren concentrated more and more of her energy into a focus point just beneath her hands.
The flames grew and grew until a mass of fire wholly blocked out the tops of the eye's edges. The concentration of flames illuminated the area and gave off a sweltering heat, unlike the fire used before.
Naomi turned and looked in each direction, panicking a bit, but she was trapped. There was nowhere she could escape to. Then, a sudden downdraft was felt as air and oxygen returned to the area.
"AGHHHHHH," Naomi heard Wren's pained wail as she felt the mass of flames be shot into the eye.
Naomi attempted to protect herself with spirit enhancement, her frost tails, and extra ice formed from her energy. Still, the enormous blast erupted into a molting explosion as it collided with her. Several pieces of her armor flew off as she failed to fend it off, and her entire body was swallowed by the furnace. She'd never felt anything like it. All she could feel was an indescribable heat accompanied by untold pain all over her.
When the blast was over, Naomi was barely conscious as she fell deeper into the abyss. The nerves in her body were on fire. Even the air blowing past as she descended was pure agony. She was back in her normal form. Her body must've reached its limit.
Wren must have released her hold on the water because Naomi was suddenly hit with water from all sides as it rushed in to fill the hole. She submerged instantly and was thrown around in the violet water, barely hanging on to consciousness. Once the waters finally calmed, there was nothing but darkness. She wondered how many hundreds, if not thousands, of feet she'd fallen to.
She supposed that didn't really matter. It wasn't like the pressure would kill her. Her body was safe. Naomi was safe there. She'd done her best. Now, she was exhausted. Maybe if she reached out to Tymon or one of the others, they could handle the rest....
Her head was ringing. Her body screamed. Naomi began to fall asleep.
No! Stay awake! Naomi suddenly heard her younger self yell, jolting her awake slightly. If you fall unconscious, we'll drown! We'll die! You're supposed to protect us!
Despite what her mind told her, for some reason, Naomi didn't feel like she was underwater anymore. She felt like she was in the world's most comfortable bed after a long day working to the bone. She started to slip again as her mind wandered, and Naomi's voice was muffled. Then, in the final moment of sanity, she heard Naomi's muffled voice scream something about Alissia.
An image of Alissia popped into Naomi's head at the sound of her name. She began to think about Alissia and the others—how they were each likely risking their lives fighting. She had no doubt that they'd each succeed. Then, there was a sudden influx of guilt. Naomi didn't want to be a burden to them. She didn't want to let them down...
But how could she win now? Even if she could muster the strength, how could she beat Wren? Using the amount of power she just used likely put her near empty, too, but what good did that do when she could still use multiple elements?
What would Tymon do? She found herself thinking. Naomi's younger self may be terrified of Tymon, but it was that exact power, his strength, and his conviction that made Naomi, at some point, realize she'd started looking up to him. She remembered Tymon's advice during their training together in Michael's manor. When she was assigned to take care of Wren, she asked him for some tips. He hadn't said much but told her she'd have to stay close. Be feral.
Feral...okay. One more time, body...just a little more, moveee. Mustering all her remaining energy, Naomi almost forced herself unconscious from the effort.
Naomi? This doesn't feel right; I think you should stop. I want you to stop, younger Naomi pleaded with concern.
But Naomi continued until she saw a flash of purple and felt her body swell with an unfamiliar, overwhelming, sinister energy that pushed her beyond her limits as she transformed again and froze everything around her.
She shot herself through the frozen ocean until she broke through the surface and was met with the clear, moonlit sky. When she looked down at her hands, she couldn't recognize herself due to being covered in third-degree burns. But she was so filled with adrenaline she couldn't feel the pain.
Her ears perked, and she tracked toward Wren, who she heard say, "Thanks, Trevor. Turns out I did learn something from you."
As she sped over, she saw Wren looking down at the frozen ocean and saying, "She's still not dead?!"
Upon arriving, Naomi blitzed in front of Wren before she could react and gripped her by the face before using considerable force to smash her head into the iced-over ocean. The impact caused the ice to tremble as Wren's head was placed firmly within it.
Wren grasped at Naomi's wrist as her scream was muffled. Still gripping her face, Naomi began to drag Wren forward several dozen feet, trenching the ice until she lifted and heaved her high into the air.
Wren was able to stop some distance up, but Naomi wasn't planning to give her any time to unleash another attack. While she still had the strength to move, Naomi appeared above Wren, who turned around just as she was hit with a powerful, concussive blast of shockwaves, sending her rapidly plummeting back down deep into the ice.
A vast crack broke across part of the ice as Wren's body disappeared into a hole. Naomi landed with a thud as Wren crawled out, grunting.
Without wasting a moment, Naomi used Silent Nebula, a technique where she expanded her frost tails to create a dome around her and Wren. Inside the dome, Naomi's frost tails released an icy mist from their snowflakes and obstructed their vision, leaving them with sound as their only helpful sense. In the still air, sound was clear. The sound of Wren's erratic breathing. The sound of both of their footsteps crunching the ice beneath their feet.
Using Sonic Grip, Naomi was able to strip them of even that sense. With a flick of her fingers, she produced small shockwaves within the dome and instantly froze them in place due to the mist. Once this was done, she created a protective wall of sound around herself before releasing her sonic grip and removing the mist. This revealed Wren standing mostly covered in frost as she was surrounded by a field of frozen shockwaves that were suspended in the air.
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