"I know your every move now." Glacius admitted.
Venox's grin faltered. "What?"
"That's the specialty of the Ice Tribe," Glacius said smoothly.
"We observe. We endure. We adapt." His fingers flexed, forming razor-sharp icicles along his knuckles. "The longer you fight us, the stronger we become. Like ice in a storm."
He moved faster now, his attacks sharper, more precise.
Venox's defenses cracked.
A blast of ice shattered one of Venox's wings, sending him crashing to the frozen ground.
Glacius was relentless — freezing his opponent's legs, impaling his side with a frozen spear. The once-confident bug general now struggled, his breathing labored, his movements sluggish under the spreading frost.
"Looks like the Bug Tribe isn't so endless after all," Glacius sneered, stepping closer.
Victory seemed certain.
Until Venox's expression twisted — not in fear, but satisfaction.
"You think you've won, ice-demon?" Venox coughed, blood dripping from his mouth. His claws trembled, but a faint buzzing sound echoed from his back — a sound Glacius didn't like.
And then —
A final resort.
From the wound on his side, where Glacius had struck him, hundreds of smaller bugs began to crawl out of his body.
His own children.
They poured from him like a living flood — tiny, venomous creatures bred inside their general, a last-ditch effort to overwhelm his enemy.
Glacius' eyes narrowed in disgust. "…You're infested with your own offspring?"
Venox laughed weakly. "That's the strength of the Bug Tribe… we are never alone."
The swarm rushed toward Glacius — a living tide of venom and pincers.
And just like that — the battle shifted again.
The air grew even more suffocating as the wave of bugs poured from Venox's wounded body, a sickening, squirming mass of venomous offspring flooding the frozen battlefield. The ice beneath them cracked and hissed as their tiny bodies slithered over it — hundreds, maybe thousands of them.
Glacius grimaced. "Disgusting."
Venox, still slumped and half-frozen, cackled weakly. "I told you… we never fight alone."
The bug swarm was fast — faster than Glacius could freeze them all. They latched onto his legs, his arms, crawling up his back, biting into his skin with venomous fangs.
Glacius clenched his jaw, refusing to cry out, but the pain was searing. His ice armor cracked as the bugs dug into him, their venom beginning to eat away at the protective frost. His vision blurred for a moment — the poison was working fast.
"Dammit…" he muttered, trying to swat them away with a blast of cold, but they just kept coming.
Suddenly —
A golden light flashed.
Peggy.
Her shining wings — though slightly tattered — flared open, and she darted through the swarm like a golden comet.
"Don't just stand there, Ice Prince!" she shouted, swinging her light crafted blade that she crafted right then and slicing through clusters of bugs. Each swing of her blade sent a ripple of warm energy, burning the tiny pests to ash.
Glacius winced as the weight of the swarm lessened, his body finally free enough to move again. He shot an icy glare at Peggy.
"You're getting in my way again," he said through gritted teeth. "You'll regret helping me."
Peggy didn't stop fighting. "Yeah? Then maybe you should fight harder, so I don't have to!"
Her voice was fierce, but Glacius noticed the slight tremor in her wings — the pain in her expression. She was exhausted, still hurt from Venox's earlier attack — yet she was shielding him again.
It twisted something deep inside him.
He shook the feeling off. "You're an idiot. You're four years younger than me — act your age and run."
Peggy scoffed. "Oh, sorry. Didn't know '24' made you a wise old man."
Glacius' eye twitched, but before he could respond, Venox let out a wheezing laugh.
"Aw… how sweet," the bug general sneered, still half-frozen. "The ice demon… getting all soft for a little fairy?"
Glacius' gaze went ice-cold. "Don't talk nonsense."
But Venox grinned wider. "Oh, I see it now… you're worried about her, aren't you?"
Glacius' fist tightened, frost swirling around it. "I couldn't care less. She's just a bothersome gnat."
Peggy shot him a sideways glance but didn't comment.
Venox hissed. "Good… because when I tear her wings off, I want to see how 'indifferent' you really are."
And with that, Venox commanded his remaining bugs to swarm Peggy.
The smaller creatures moved like a tidal wave, spiraling straight toward her.
Peggy braced herself but before a single bug could reach her—
CRACK.
A sharp wave of ice exploded from Glacius' feet, freezing the incoming swarm solid in a blink.
The air turned deadly cold.
"You won't touch her."
The words left Glacius' mouth before he could stop them, an icy threat, laced with fury.
Peggy's heart pounded at his sudden shift.
Venox's smirk twitched. "Touched a nerve, didn't I?"
Glacius didn't answer — he just charged.
This time, his ice wasn't calculated or calm — it was brutal. His frost surged with raw force, spreading across the battlefield like an unstoppable blizzard. His strikes were quicker, sharper, his anger manifesting in every ice spike that shot from his hands.
Venox could barely react.
In the blink of an eye, Glacius had frozen the rest of the bugs and Venox's legs.
The bug general snarled, but Glacius wasn't done.
He crafted an ice spear so sharp it gleamed like glass.
"You think your numbers make you strong?" Glacius growled. "Without them, you're nothing."
And with a final, merciless thrust —
he drove the ice spear straight through Venox's chest.
The bug general gasped, frozen in place — both by shock and by the frost creeping over his entire body.
His buzzing wings stopped.
Venox's last words were a faint whisper. "The swarm… never ends…"
And then —
he froze solid.
Glacius let out a slow breath, his hand still gripping the ice spear. The battlefield was silent now — the bugs, their general — all reduced to frozen statues.
Peggy stood a few feet away, wide-eyed. "You… you actually did it."
Glacius yanked the spear free, Venox's icy form cracking apart into frozen shards.
"Of course I did," he muttered, his voice cool again. "Did you think I needed saving?"
Peggy tilted her head, her golden hair glowing faintly. "You didn't, huh?"
He refused to meet her gaze. "Obviously not."
But Peggy smiled softly. "Then why did you came for me?"
Glacius froze for a split second but quickly masked it with a scoff.
"Don't flatter yourself. I just couldn't let him kill you before I had the chance to silence you myself."
Peggy laughed a tired, but genuine laugh. "Sure, Ice Prince. Whatever helps you sleep at night."
Glacius turned away, his cheeks ever so slightly red. "We're leaving."
As they walked away from the frozen remains of Venox, the tension between them hung in the cold air — unspoken, but undeniable.