Mathias was the first to recover from the shock of the frigid water enveloping them. He saw ten scaly bodies in the azure-world, with ice overhead.

Each naga varied slightly in shape and size, but they all carried tridents - and all were alerted to the two's entrance.

Each had white fur covering their shoulders, stomach, and nether-regions; however, the men's fur covered their chest as compared to the women's who did not.

They all paused. Lisanna was gasping and flailing, taking in water, and Mathias groaned as he saw five more slither into the water from above. He swam up with Lisanna's forearm locked in his grasp, grabbed the hard, icy ridge and forced her on the ice sheet they just fell from. He turned below and felt his feet pulled from underneath as the world became blue once again.

The force of the sudden throw knocked the water from Lisanna's lungs; however, her subsequent gags brought the attention of the four that remained on the surface. They were some distance away, but she barely managed to focus her gaze towards them before she rolled to the side blankly.

Her burnt arm was submerged in frozen waters and she screamed in pain at the sudden, conscious explosive crack of her skin. The trident the first threw was trapped into the marble wall behind her head.

'The orb?!'

She dropped it in the water.

The air orb was still safely stowed, but she did not see Mathias.

However, it wouldn't have helped her much.

The first naga who threw the spear jolted its body forward, swimming across the water without the slightest decrease in speed, and beached itself on the icy ridge she stood on.

She cut down at the creature clawing at her legs as it pushed itself up, but it merely flicked its body to the side and pulled her leg. Lisanna fell hard as the blade fell from her grasp.

Mathias was staring down the face of a naga whose trident was blocked by his spear. He was pressed all the way against the submerged, icy cliff underneath a roofed glacial cove, but the trident was staved off.

And a ruby red glimmer appeared in the corner of his eye. He pushed the naga away, pushing off the wall, and he extended his cracked, left arm out.

The icy straps reformed more easily than before and his spear regained the spear-tip he lost in the air trial.

There was more than enough water to pull from now; even if the sudden clarity only brought remembrance of the pain he was largely able to ignore before.

The trident pierced the wall beside his head.

He was able to move his head just out of the way as he stabbed into the naga's chest.

Blue-blood.

It was strange, but he could do nothing else besides force himself to concentrate and fight the water to stab into the thrust of another's incoming trident.

It was the only way to avoid the difficult medium's pull.

Both clashed and he was pushed up into an icy ridge, and pressed upside down, without air again - and another appeared at his side.

Lisanna felt the cold brush of death as the creature's claws missed her face by a hair's breadth; the sudden shock below jolted it just enough for her to grab its scaly neck for support, turn, and drive the fumbling blade she pawed for into its stomach.

It thrashed around for a moment, but it soon ceased its movements and the ridge she stood on stabilized once more.

Two were standing at a distance and another slithered forward cautiously.

It kept the trident in its grasp tightly as it stood on the edge of the icy ridge, waiting for her.

Lisanna took the time to carefully step from ice to snow - and she jumped back as the once cautious naga jolted forward.

She locked blades with the naga just in front of the path they took to get here.

And a furious howl from outside beckoned them.

Lisanna's gaze shifted from forward to side rapidly and she jumped back.

The naga was a step too slow and three axes cleaved its head, arm, and tail as it moved forward into Lisanna's spot. Naga were not good as backward movements by virtue of their biology.

Eleven other axes cut straight into the water.

Mathias narrowly dodged the claws of the second after its trident was pinned into the wall. He overpowered the first he was locked with, and stabbed it right in the chest.

A furious swipe appeared, dying the water red for a moment as his upper left arm was cleaved open. The ice was not bracing that section.

He rotated the butt end of the spear, withdrawing the spear point and throwing the slain naga to the side, added a small point, and drove it into the second's throat. It only punctured the scales before breaking, but he pushed it the rest of the way.

Even his body was growing numb at the oppressive cold in the water. He was fine for holding his breath a little longer, but the remaining twelve naga were charging at him en-mass.

Until ashen steel cut through the water.

Five were killed cleanly from the chance blow, three wounded severely, and the last four stopped a few meters from him, shell-shocked at the attack.

Mathias pressed his feet against the icy wall, pushed off, and stabbed one in the throat before it realized he was there and took another in the chest as it belatedly raised its trident to defend.

Lisanna peaked towards the furious oxen. They were stomping and roaring, slamming their fists into the marble walls and shaking the reinforced structure with their abuse.

However, the two nagas' expressions darkened at the roars. They stared at Lisanna accusingly as she tried to stop her frozen limbs from shaking.

It was not possible.

The two glanced at one another, before slipping forward to the edge of the entrance. Lisanna stepped back. They, too, verified that the ox could not attack again and slicked their lips with a predatory glint in their eyes.

The first, a woman, moved. She jolted forward, deftly moving across the ice, and slashed the trident down towards Lisanna. Lisanna dodged the cut just as her body was smashed into the wall by the male's sidelong charge.

The woman jolted forward the moment the male circled past, driving the trident towards Lisanna's heart.

She was already collapsing and the blow hit the side of her head and she fell.

The man arrived seconds after, slowly, but what he saw made him freeze. With a defiant expression, Lisanna drew the sabre from the woman's heart and dragged herself to her feet.

Her eyes were dull and she was only operating on instinct from her training in swordsmanship; however, since the snow was solid enough, she was able to get a footing and cut down into the naga's wrist before it retreated.

Mathias, all the while, saw the blue world a little more clearly. His numb body started to register the currents the two made as they circled around him. He was floating in a pool of thick, blue blood that seemed to congeal onto the mud, blood, gore, and ash he collected earlier.

Even being underwater for three-minutes, being thrown around at fast speeds, little actually came off.

He just kept the spear straight in front of him as he treaded water five meters below the surface.

One went high and another low. On either side of him.

He expected it.

He kicked harder and started shooting up as he turned and parried the trident of the first above him.

He took advantage of the force pushing him away as he contorted his body - but the other still cut his calf as he was shoved further below the surface of the water.

Summoning all the strength in his arms, he forced the trident down - and the fracture turned to a break -, climbed on top of the naga, and rotated his spear to deliver a weak jab to the naga's throat. It barely broke skin, but the creature gasped and retreated.

Blood was quickly flowing out and Mathias was forced to block the charge of the other. Rather than take it with his back, he managed to hit the wall with his feet. With the extra leverage, he pushed off and force the trident up and the spear through its heart with his good arm.

The other was at the far edge of the water and was clambering up to an icy ridge.

Mathias swam to get the sapphire orb before it could return just as Lisanna collapsed atop the mutilated corpse of the male naga.