Angel Monarch

The air grew unbearably cold. The heavy winds battered Melinda's body. Each breath caused a large white cloud to appear around her face, only to get blown away moments later.

Joan was much worse. Everyone felt her shivering body through the tied chain. Yvonne and Astrid didn't feel the freezing temperatures, or at least their bodies ignored it.

The strong winds pushed Melinda back a few steps. Her weak legs couldn't withstand the constant barrage of snow and ice.

However, just as she fell and began tumbling away, Astrid's powerful arm grabbed the chain. Her muscles bulged under the golden armor as with a single, strong contraction, she pulled Melinda back to the group.

Melinda tried thanking Astrid when a loud screech echoed through the surrounding storm.

Everything became darker as the storm pushed forward. Strikes of lightning periodically illuminated the surroundings, revealing strange silhouettes of riders.

Through the layers of snowy wind, Melinda saw a pair of icy blue eyes staring from the depths of the dark snowstorm.

"Here they come!" shouted Yvonne while summoning a simple longsword and long dagger.

Heavy galloping met the sound of thunder and strong winds. Through the layer of frost, a frozen rider came forth.

A skeletal body with pieces of frozen meat and broken armor covering its bones. It rode upon a dead horse, with half its face missing. Both creatures looked like corpses with glowing, icy blue eyes.

The skeletal warrior screeched again, then brandished its frozen lance and rode towards Yvonne.

The tall woman tossed her dagger and caught it by the blade. She then threw it straight at the skeleton's skull. The dagger stabbed through the frozen bone, sending the skeleton's head flying. However, it continued riding even without its head.

"Shit..." said Yvonne, just as the lance stabbed her shoulder.

The frozen weapon's metal tip and wooden shaft broke into splinters. Yvonne barely felt any resistance as the enemy's weapon disintegrated.

A wide grin grew on her lips upon witnessing the lack of damage to her body.

The horse aimed to plow her down, but Yvonne wasn't caught off guard a second time. She stepped out of the dead horse's way, then bent her knees and slashed horizontally.

With a loud, pained screech, the horse buckled as all four of its legs went flying in a shower of frozen blood. The skeletal body riding upon it flew forward and hit Astrid's body.

The Valkyrie didn't move as the skeleton turned to bone fragments. Astrid's armor drains the enemy's essence with each defended attack. It instantly killed the skeleton, and soon the horse also stopped struggling as its body became alight with many diseases.

Melinda knew a wide array of deadly afflictions, including ones that can destroy dead tissue or even bone! She would've been a menace on the battlefield if her power could've worked instantly!

For now, she could only support her group from their safety. The diseases needed a few seconds to take effect, but at least she could affect a wide area, even without having a direct line of sight.

A few seconds passed after killing the skeleton until more screeches echoed all around the group. Melinda instantly began afflicting them, as multiple galloping corpse horses appeared in their line of sight.

Yvonne and Astrid intercepted most, but a few managed to slip through. Melinda stood mostly defenseless as an especially large skeletal horse ran towards her. The corpse rider atop raised an Old World gunpowder rifle with a knife attached to its barrel.

The barrel glowed brightly as a bullet shot towards Melinda's uncovered head. As a Transcended, she easily evaded the projectile, but the bayonet was a different question.

The corpse rider screeched as the knife aimed to behead Melinda. That's when a loud thunder echoed, and for a single moment everything became alight.

The smell of ozone reached Melinda's nose as her blue-green eyes fluttered open. Only a burned spot remained of the horse and its rider.

A small smirk grew on her lips as she instantly understood what happened. She glanced back at Joan gratefully.

Her lover stood straight, electricity dancing along her blue armor and longsword. Melinda couldn't help but admire how captivating her girlfriend was. However, sadly, she could spare only a few moments to marvel at Joan's voluptuous body.

The dozens of riders gradually died as the bone and flesh-eating diseases set in.

Yvonne also killed many using a wide array of weaponry. However, she soon settled on an enormous greatsword with a wide blade. She used it both as a shield and as a weapon, which decimated every rider.

The skeletal corpse riders kept coming in waves, yet they all perished without causing issues.

But while they fought against them, Melinda had a bad feeling. None of these creatures seemed alive. They were like animated corpses, controlled or commanded by someone else.

The air kept getting colder while the winds grew stronger. Yvonne summoned a few long spears and stabbed them into the solid ice ground. Melinda and Joan held onto one, since the winds were strong enough to lift their bodies off the ground.

The constant noise of snow and ice particles hitting their armor drowned out even the thunder above. The lightning kept flashing though, and through the snowstorm, everyone spotted a single being approaching.

It rode atop a particularly massive dead horse, covered in frozen metal armor. Its glowing icy blue eyes glanced around with deep hunger. It wanted to charge, but its rider held the reins with a firm, gloved hand.

The creature riding the horse looked strange, unfitting of this frozen land. It wore a long black trench coat, which seemed to disobey the wind as it stood absolutely still. Underneath the trench coat, it wore a dark brown leather jacket and a white shirt.

Its face didn't look mutilated, but it wasn't alive either. It looked like a frozen corpse with a pair of glowing icy blue eyes and wearing a wide-brimmed leather hat similar to the type Chang, the Asian weirdo, wore.

The corpse stopped two dozen meters away from the group. Its freezing eyes glanced over the four women before it opened its mouth and screeched so loudly that everyone's ears began bleeding.

The rider then, while nobody could pay attention, pulled out a revolver. The bullets inside their dark metal casings glowed with ethereal blue light. It aimed the beautiful, carved frozen weapon right at Melinda, whose hand began slipping on the metal spear's shaft.

A loud gunshot echoed, and the glowing blue bullet shot forward with incredible speed. No Transcended could've dodged the bullet, and while Melinda still struggled to hold on, she never even saw it coming.

The bullet was only centimeters away from her skull when a golden shield appeared around her body. The glowing projectile hit the shield with full force, like a drill trying to pierce through a sudden layer of bedrock.

Sparks flew as the bullet continued pushing further in. Cracks appeared all across the golden shield as Astrid poured more essence into Melinda's defensive barrier.

The cracks gradually widened, but the glow within the bullet also lessened. The moments seemed to stretch into eternity as the race between the projectile and the shield came close to ending.

Melinda's blue-green eyes went wide as the golden shield broke and the bullet continued moving with way less velocity.

Its frozen point hit Melinda's forehead, sending a shiver across her entire body. Her fingers went slack, and she lost her grip on the metal spear... Who would've guessed that losing her grip would save her life...

The bullet continued pushing against Melinda's forehead, but since she flew through the air faster than the bullet moved, it never actually penetrated her skull.

After a few dozen meters, the chain tied around Melinda's waist went taut. She floated midair, still stunned from the bullet's freezing effect.

She felt someone reel in her chain, while the sound of gunshots continued echoing near the group. Melinda tried focusing, but the snow's movement blocked her vision. The only clear images came when Joan used her lightning to strike back against the revolver-wielding dead rider.

Back at the group, Yvonne held and pulled on Melinda's chain, while Astrid defended against the incoming bullets. Unlike with Melinda, she was prepared and could summon much better suited defensive measures.

Instead of one strong layer, she made multiple thinner shields, which gradually slowed the bullet's velocity. It worked perfectly, and nobody else got hit after Melinda went flying.

Joan was the only person who could retaliate against the shooter, since her attacks were ranged and most powerful against single targets.

Electricity danced along her armor and longsword. With one hand she hugged the metal spear tightly, while she pointed the other at the dead rider.

The electricity turned the air into hot plasma as it arced towards the corpse and its horse. The strange creature, however, didn't attempt to dodge the lightning strike. Instead, it raised its revolver and shot the approaching plasma.

The bullet met the hot electricity. A small blue explosion went off, and a moment later, frozen lightning fell to the ice ground.

A shiver went down Joan and Astrid's spines, while Yvonne kept groaning and reeling in Melinda.

The corpse rider glanced between the frozen lightning and Joan. It then raised the revolver once again, and for the first time, the corpse showed emotion as a cocky grin grew on its frozen blue lips.

It shot a few more bullets, each one aimed at Astrid. The corpse must've recognized her as the golden shield's owner, so it decided to take her out first.

However, Astrid didn't let a single bullet hit her body. Her legs bent, and her golden wings beat the air with all her power.

She flew into the air, then spread her feathered wings to catch the heavy, freezing current. As she moved away from the group, all their chains went taut, and soon all four women flew through the storm.