but it bit nastily all the same. Abaddon kept swinging, scoring hit after rapid hit on Balto’s exposed head. Finally, he swung up, hitting Balto in the jaw so hard it knocked him into the air, after which he landed hard on the ice a few feet away. Balto prepared to defend himself, but Abaddon was fighting with sportsmanship; he backed up out of attack range and gestured for Balto to stand up. Balto got to his feet, licking blood from a cut lip off his mouth.

Sorrow smirked and looked at Jenna. “Abaddon is far too powerful. Balto is doomed. You may as well not even watch, considering what will happen when he dies.” Jenna looked back up at the pair, who had begun the attack again. “Balto…” she whispered, fear in her face.

Balto flung his virus arms back and forth, knocking aside each rapid thrust by the spikes, beginning to get the balance. He began to swing right after blocking one attack, and as Abaddon lashed out with two tentacles, Balto’s incoming swing knocked aside first one, then the other. Abaddon tried to bring the tentacles around again, but it was too late. Balto wound back and hammered a mighty blow into Abaddon’s chest, sending the advance form somersaulting backwards and crashing into a rock, dust and chunks of stone breaking off from the impact as he fell to the ground. He stood up slowly, needing all six legs to get up after the impact. Shaking his head to clear his senses, he walked calmly toward Balto, then broke into a violent flurry of blows, now using all four tentacles, driving him back. Balto used both his own eyes and those of his virus arms to spot incoming attacks and block them, moving with incredible speed, fighting Abaddon’s advance to a standstill and beginning to swing back. They were trapped in a combative stalemate for a moment before Abaddon simply shoved forward with all four tentacles, rather than swinging. Balto easily blocked them, but nonetheless, the desired effect was achieved; Balto was pushed back, sliding a short distance on the ice. This time, Abaddon didn’t approach him again, but rather stayed back and put two of his tentacles together above his body. A round, rough-edged violet orb formed at their tip, and Balto realized that it was a cloud of plague bacteria. Abaddon launched the orb, and Balto dove to the side, escaping the attack and rolling back to his feet. Abaddon shot out another orb, and another, and another. Balto took off, running like lightning, charging up and jumping off the walls and stalagmites, trusting more to instinct than his senses. Finally, as he came down to his original position, he saw one projectile coming right for his face. He yelled and threw the virus arms in front of him, forming a wall of Ebola in between himself and the missile, and the two collided, exploding violently as the two swarms of pathogens annihilated each other almost instantly. Balto was forced to take a couple of steps back, the force of the explosion and the strain from forming the barrier taking a toll on him. He stared at Abaddon, refusing to sit down or avert his gaze.

The advance form walked back and forth in front of him, speaking with a voice that for some reason contained no anger or frustration. “I am impressed. You are worth your salt, as they say.” He burned away some plague bacteria that were leaking from his spikes into the air. “I had hoped you wouldn’t crack easily. But the question is, how long can you go?” Balto stood tall. “Longer than this,” he said. “Let’s get going, eh?” Abaddon nodded. “I will no longer weaponize my pathogens if you will act in kind. Deal?” Balto nodded. “Deal.” They went at each other again, now using more calculated attacks instead of raw, furious speed. Abaddon struck Balto’s head, but got an uppercut in one jaw for it, subsequently moving back and trying to defend. Balto scored a hard blow and went to attack again, but Abaddon recovered too quickly and tried to counter. Balto grabbed Abaddon’s tentacles with his virus arms, and they struggled for a moment. Balto yanked on the tentacles, causing both of them to tumble backwards. They landed painfully on the ice, and Abaddon rolled off of Balto and stood, taking a few steps away. Getting up and turning around, Balto saw the beast standing over Jenna, the spikes pointed right down at her. “I love you,” she whispered. “NO!” Balto cried. “Abaddon, don’t! Please!” Abaddon looked at Balto, then back at Jenna. Small amounts of plague bacteria sputtered from the spikes, creating purple smoke. Balto could see there was no hope. “I love you, too,” he whispered to Jenna. They kept their eyes locked together, just waiting… Then, Abaddon merely turned away from her and faced him. “I don’t want to kill her,” he said. “Why would I?” Balto almost began sobbing with gratitude, and Sorrow growled angrily. “What are you…” Abaddon pointed two of his spikes toward the advance form, shutting him up quickly. He and Balto kept fighting, but Balto was hesitant to strike, considering the mercy Abaddon had just showed. He got struck across the face for it, sprawling backwards. “I know you are grateful,” said Abaddon, “but I will beat you if you let me. Fight, or else.” Balto nodded and pressed the attack. They both kept swinging faster and harder, gaining a little ground only to lose it immediately. Balto jumped up and out of the way of a vicious upward-aimed strike, and after coming down, he lashed out with mantis speed at one of Abaddon’s necks, smashing it painfully and causing the head to emit a choked shout. Balto grabbed the other neck with one virus arm and punched the head as hard as he could, weakening the advance form noticeably. Abaddon backed away gradually, now on the defensive. As they climbed an ice arch, Abaddon missed a low block, and Balto was able to trip him. He grabbed the fallen advance form and charged at the wall, running straight up a high pillar of stone. When they were nearly at the top, Balto pushed off, holding Abaddon beneath him as they barreled toward the ground. They struck like a cannonball, splintering and cracking the ice from the impact, sending a circular wave of white shrapnel flying. Balto shoved Abaddon to the floor and raised a virus arm, preparing to strike again…but the advance form held up a foot. “I yield,” he said, his faces twisted with pain. “WHAT?” Sorrow roared. “You cannot yield! I forbid it! Don’t even think about betraying me.” Abaddon rotated one of his heads to look at Sorrow. “That would be impossible…because I was never with you in the first place.”

Sorrow stood frozen with rage and shock, and Abaddon looked up at Balto. “Trust me,” he said. Balto only had a second to think; Sorrow was now charging them. He moved off of Abaddon and flung a large, broken ice stalactite into Sorrow’s face, and it shattered, knocking him flat. Balto heard a stabbing noise right behind him, and he whirled around, fearing that Abaddon had lied and killed Jenna. He saw her, standing there, unharmed, her back facing him, and he looked beyond her. Abaddon raised the two screaming advance forms, each impaled on two of his spikes, into the air. Their bodies became swollen and blackened, turned to the consistency of plaster, and exploded with a brilliant blue flash. “Run!” Abaddon said, urgently. Balto saw that Sorrow was getting up, and more advance forms were coming into the cavern from another entrance. He picked Jenna up with his virus arms and sprinted out through the way he and Jenna had entered, intending to go out the main entrance to the cavern. However, his plan was quickly foiled; an advance form behind them hurled a stone at an ice formation on the side of the cave mouth, bringing down the ice and snow above, creating an impenetrable barrier. He changed direction, turning left and sprinting further into the cave, going around the corner and accelerating to a speed much higher than normal running. “Do you know where this goes?” Jenna asked nervously. Balto used his virus powers to heighten his perception of the air quality, and discovered that there was non-stagnant air a good distance away down the cavern, obviously coming from an exit. “I know where to go to get out,” he replied.

The area around the pair turned to a veritable sea of ice crystals, all in the shape of spikes a little less than a foot long. It was beautiful, but it limited the space for running to a flat ice floor that cut an avenue through the middle of the crystals. An advance form sprinted up beside them and swung its claws, barely missing Balto’s shoulder. He snatched a crystal from the floor and stabbed it into the advance form’s leg, and it screamed as it tripped over a bump and flew into the air, silenced when it came down on the sea of spikes, sending up a shower of blood. Another advance form ran full tilt down a ledge on the right wall behind them, gaining distance until it finally decided to make a move. It leapt from the ledge, landing hard enough to break some of the ice. This turned out to be advantageous for Balto and Jenna as the cracked chunks protruding from the floor tripped up almost all of their pursuers. The now-nearby advance form began tried to grab Jenna, getting a grip on her. She bit its hand, and Balto punched it in the stomach. He was now forced to hold Jenna with only one virus arm, using the other to keep the advance form at a relatively safe distance. He nearly lost his balance and dropped Jenna after blocking a blow, but managed to keep his feet. Taking up another crystal, he prepared to use it for a leg stab as before, but the advance form moved out of his reach. Balto looked ahead and saw an ice bridge coming up, and decided to change his attack plan. Now, he simply threw it at the advance form’s legs with great force. The impact made the beast slip, and it fell off the bridge, breaking its neck on an ice pillar. Balto pulled Jenna close to him as he ducked, jumped, and dodged his way through a tricky series of holes in a convoluted ice formation. He jumped high, making it