Jack peeked between the two men in front of him, staring past Brandt as the Overseer approached the roiling ball of snow.

  The creature struck the ground and rolled to a stop, slowly unfurling and standing tall. Well, maybe "standing" wasn't the right word; it seemed to flow into a strangely vortex-like shape. Snow and jagged shards of ice swirled around it, and as if stretching, two arm-like appendages formed from its central mass.

  Brandt held the still-growing rod out to the side as he quickened his approach. It was over three metres long at this point and as thick as Jack's arm, it had to be difficult to hold. A shrieking sound filled the air as the creature continued to grow, seemingly pulling all of the snow falling from the portal into itself.

  It began to move towards one of the flashing red lights, away from the Overseer. There was a loud metallic ring as Brandt smashed his rod into the ground twice in quick succession. As he lifted it from the ground the second time, the creature stopped moving and reversed its direction, drawn by the noise.

  As the rod rose, the silver mass raced down the shaft and surged over Brandt's body, covering him in a quicksilver-like bubble. A moment later, the mass snapped into place with a loud metallic clang, and Brandt was covered in a full suit of armour. The metal seemed to mould to his body; he looked more Iron Man than medieval knight.

  “Brandt is one of the rare people who have a dual frequency they are able to manipulate. He has access to the central Earth band, but he is also able to manipulate the specific Metal frequency as well. As he said, he uses equipment much more readily than other people, as one of the properties the metal frequency is known for is reinforcement,” Turrel said.

  Jack heard the words, but his eyes were trained on the scene before him. Brandt pulsed mana into the rod again. This time it formed into a massive shield, slightly curved on the edges and top and as tall as he was. Still, he continued his steady march forward.

  “The Snow Elemental should be a difficult opponent for him regardless. I am interested to see how he approaches this. Jack, I will be creating a barrier around us, but I will keep the front transparent. There will be shrapnel soon, I feel,” Turrel said.

  Jack felt the air that had been gently flowing towards the elemental stop. A quiet calm fell over the area. Turrel drew in ambient mana, and a dome of suspended water a metre thick materialised around them. It obscured the battlefield slightly, and Jack was about to comment when a square in front of them suddenly became clear.

  Jack was about to thank Turrel when he saw Brandt duck behind his shield. The next moment, a high-pitched whistling filled the air, followed by a barrage of loud crystalline chimes that rang out as large icicles crashed against Brandt's shield and shattered on the ground around him.

  Brandt held his shield to his shoulder and slowly continued forward, leaning into the barrage as it passed over him. Muffled sounds like shattering glass approached Jack as stray icicles flew in their direction.

  Staring through their small window, Jack watched a ripple race across the surface as one of the shards pierced into the wall of water. As soon as it was fully enclosed, it stopped dead; Turrel held his hand up, and it flowed calmly towards him.

  The calmness of Turrel slowly plucking the projectile from the water and examining it amidst the crash and ring of the deadly battle outside was striking.

  “How did you know this was coming?” Jack asked, waving at the icicle and the continuing barrage being fired from the Elemental. It was no longer pulling snow into itself and seemed a little smaller than before.

  “Always be aware of your surroundings and the environment, Jack. If there is a wind blowing and it suddenly stops, you should wonder why.” Turrel winced for a moment. “Sorry, it is hard to maintain my trait without resting properly in between. I need to focus for now, questions later.”

  Jack nodded. Turning his eyes back outside, he saw Brandt still slowly approaching the elemental. His shield was constantly being battered, but there were no marks left on the surface, and his momentum didn’t stop. The icicle barrage slowed down as the elemental shrank back to its original size.

  Moving his shield to the side, Brandt crouched down and took a knee. A stray icicle flew towards him, but he deflected it effortlessly with his armoured wrist. The shield changed shape slightly, becoming a square with a number of pointed spikes on the front.

  Bracing the shield against his shoulder, there was a sudden rush of air towards Jack, followed by a rapid gunfire-like sound. The spikes that had formed on the shield shot forth towards the elemental at a blistering pace. Most seemed to simply fly through the air, slightly disrupting the swirling snow that made up its body but doing nothing more.

  Some made contact with something solid; shattering sounds echoed, and shards of ice exploded out of the creature. Then, suddenly, a much larger spike was shot from the shield. It impacted with a heavy thud, and there was a shrieking howl as an explosion of ice was expelled from the creature's centre.

  The swirling snow collapsed to the ground instantly, forming a huge mound on top of glowing blue shards of ice-like crystal. Jack let out a sigh of relief.

  “It isn’t over yet, Jack. If it was that simple to take out an elemental, it wouldn’t be Tier 3. Keep watching,” Monty said. Jack looked over at him and noticed the man pulling a little mana into his body, constantly clenching and unclenching his fist.

  Brandt seemed to be in agreement. He had not stopped his approach. He thrust his shield out to the left, and it morphed again, forming an enormous hammerhead on a shaft that was at least three metres long.

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  The wind started to pick up around them again, and Jack tried to pay more attention to the direction it was flowing. He felt a tug on the mana flowing from the portal, and the blue glow from the pile of snow intensified. The wind was definitely flowing towards the creature's body.

  As Jack watched, the core floated up into the air, hovering slightly off the ground. It pulsed a bright blue light rapidly.

  Brandt was still closing the distance, now about fifteen metres away. He reached out with one hand, somehow supporting the massive hammer alone in his other. As he made a motion with his hand, a thick pillar of what looked like rock burst forth from the ground in front of him.

  He swung his hammer into it, and shards of stone, dust, and debris flew everywhere. He repeated this motion again while the core of the elemental pulsed.

  As the wind started to pick up speed, the snow beneath the core whirled into the air, once again forming the vortex-like body around the pulsing blue gem.

  Brandt destroyed a third pillar at this point, and Jack struggled to understand the strategy. Then, as a gust of wind blew past Brandt and was pulled towards the elemental, Jack saw it pull the loose dirt and dust with it.

  Following it with his eyes, he saw some of the debris get pulled into the creature itself, while most of it simply scattered away. Being from central Australia, Jack had almost no experience with snow, but all the dust in the air seemed to be slowing down the elemental’s reconstruction.

  Less of the snow from the ground was being lifted into the air, and with every metre that Brandt advanced, another pillar was crushed. More and more dust was being pulled into its reconstituting body.

  The pulsing light flashed brightly, steadying into a constant blue glow again. Seeming to sense the danger, the creature started to move away from the approaching man in metal. It dragged on the mana in the area more forcefully than Jack had ever felt before; an enormous amount flowed towards it.

  A stream of snow burst from its form, racing towards Brandt, who had seemingly sensed the mana shift as well and changed the hammer back into the towering rounded shield.

  As the wall of snow closed the distance between them, it left a frozen wall of ice a metre tall and wide in its path. Overseer Brandt stopped moving forward for the first time since this had begun. He took a wide stance and slightly lifted the shield; as he did, a point formed at the bottom, which he stabbed into the ground.

  A moment later, Jack lost sight of him as the shield morphed into a perfect metal dome, covering the man completely. The wall of snow reached the dome, and Jack heard a painful screeching sound, like fingers on a chalkboard, as tiny shards of ice and snow swirled and scratched at the surface of his shelter.

  Jack felt another large burst of mana, this one however was a different frequency. This was Earth mana, the same as when the pillars were created, just much, much more.

  Jack felt the ground tremble slightly, and he watched ripples race over the surface of Turrel’s barrier. A wall of dust and stone started to rise slightly off the ground as it rattled away.

  The elemental stopped moving. Some of the snow that made up its body seemed to be peeling away from it, drawn towards Brandt. With a sudden and violent lurch, the rattling stone and debris launched at the elemental.

  As the stone collided with ice, the path that had been left behind by the snow wall shattered. The elemental reeled as it was covered in dust and pierced with stone. There was much less force with this attack from Brandt, but the volume was imposing.

  The blue light from the elemental seemed dimmer as the snow swirling around it merged with the dirt and dust. Brandt emerged from his dome as the elemental shuddered. It seemed like it was trying to shed parts of its body that were contaminated; a large part of it fell to the ground as it shrank again.

  Unexpectedly, Brandt exploded forward as Jack felt another massive pulse of Earth mana. It seemed as if the ground itself was propelling him forward as the distance between Brandt and the elemental shrank rapidly.

  Sensing the danger, the elemental tried to flee but seemed to have trouble moving; being heavier than expected, it tried to shed more of its mass. As another pile of snow appeared underneath it, Brandt reached out with a hand, and a pillar of earth shot from the ground.

  For a fraction of a second, the remaining dirt mixed in with its body pulled back, halting its movement. That moment was all that was needed. The pillar burst open beneath the struggling elemental. Erupting around the creature, it quickly reformed into an orb of earth significantly smaller than the creature had been.

  The orb was yanked to the ground, and Jack could hear a muffled shriek mixed with a rattling and grinding sound. Brandt had closed the distance as the creature was captured; he had his weapon stretched out over his head in two hands as it morphed once more, forming into a huge pointed hammer. The handle was at least three metres long, and the head of the hammer was the size of a fridge, ending in a pyramid-like tip.

  The earthen dome started to crack in places, and the shrieking sound grew louder as blue light began to shine through the fissures.

  Brandt's rapid approach stopped as he planted his feet and swung the hammer down; the earth reached up and grabbed his boots, holding him steady. The enormous hammer flew through the air as all of his built-up momentum was transferred through his body into the weapon.

  As if it could sense its impending doom, the wail intensified as a burst of snow pulsed out of the tiny cracks in the stone prison. It was too late, however. As the snow raced towards Brandt, Jack felt another large pulse of mana. This one was the Metal frequency, and a second before the hammer crushed the dome, a terrifying keening sound radiated from the weapon. Jack swore he could see the edges begin to blur as it vibrated at an insane speed.

  The hammer crashed into the stone, and the entire thing erupted outwards. There was a blinding flash of blue light followed by a second explosion as the elemental core was shattered into thousands of pieces by the vibrating tip of Brandt's hammer.

  Jack, letting out a breath he forgot he had been holding, stared at the battlefield in front of him. The lights from the perimeter pulsed red but slowly faded to a pale yellow. The whole area around them was covered with littered pieces of stone and shards of ice. Many were embedded directly into the stone flooring, they had been fired with such force.

  The whole fight had taken no longer than a few minutes, but the destruction here was immense, and only half of that was from Overseer Brandt. Thinking about the encounter with the Yeti and how the Zerraians struggled… He was happy Brandt was here and decided to intervene.

  He looked over at Turrel who, after seeing the outcome of the battle, was staring down at the shard of ice he was holding. Jack did a double take as he saw it; in the heat of the moment, he had not been paying much attention, but now he got a good look.

  It was less of an icicle and more like a massive diamond-shaped blade, almost half a metre long and jagged all along its edges. He stared back out across the space in front of him and saw hundreds, if not thousands, of them scattered across the ground.

  He placed his hand on his forehead and wondered what the hell he had gotten himself into.

  Hi Amazing people, just wanted to say wow 50 chapters down and thank you all for reading.

  The experience posting has far exceeded my expectations and I really do thank everyone for reading, commenting and enjoying the story so far.

  This is the first of the promised bonus chapters so we have 4 more to go at some point in the future.

  If you are here reading this then I assume you have read the rest of the story, I know the start is a little slow and could use a bit of a touch up. I will be having a revamp soon but I feel the decision to continue the story as my writing has improved has been the right choice.

  That being said with some of the added visibility some comments while valid are likely not having a chance to get through the rough start.

  For those of you who already have rated / reviewed or commented I just wanted to say I really do appreciate it and thank you, it means a lot.

  I am just asking once again if you happen to have the time and have been enjoying the story. It would be amazing if you could drop a rating or review, hopefully it might help some people push through the rough start to enjoy the rest of the story.

  Thanks again for reading so far and here's to another 50 chapters for Jack and his friends.