Honor and Glory | ATEEZ

015 MIST

Wooyoung crouched down on the icy floor of the temple, shuffling closer to the pedestal as the flame in his hand grew to twice the size it had been just a couple of seconds ago.

"We don't need that pick's help anyway," he mumbled, and even though he didn't mention any names, in particular, we were all very aware of who the pink-haired man was referring to.

Wooyoung moved the flame closer to the pedestal.

By the time I realized what he was about to do, Jongho had already moved out of his spot, sliding across the slippery floor as he tried to stop him.

Mingi reached out a hand and grabbed the earth elemental before he got too close to the flame, though, holding Jongho back.

"We'll just take this with us and then-" Wooyoung continued, slowly melting away at the ice before he was interrupted.

A loud rumbling sound split the air, as if the thunder was coming from everywhere around us.

It might as well have been the case, I thought, shuffling closer to the others as we looked out through the gaps between the pillars all along the walls.

My heart fell as the familiar smell of electricity and rain spread through the air, but I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion as I realized that there were no storm clouds anywhere to be seen.

Something wasn't right. The rumbling got louder and louder, closer and closer, and I could feel the wind pick up as I backed up against Yunho.

No, I thought. This wasn't right. We had been so careful.

We had kept out of sight, and we had chosen the least likely district considering that our team had two fire elementals in it.

Daios couldn't have found us.

He couldn't.

The icy doors to the temple blast open with a strong gust of wind, but the five silhouettes in the doorway didn't look human.

Their obscure, shifting figures kept changing, shifting, as an eerie purple light shone from within them, creating two balls of light at the top that could have been glowing eyes.

"What in the world is that?" Jongho mumbled from somewhere behind me.

But before any of us got a chance to figure out, a strong blast of northern wind rushed through the temple, cutting through the air like a knife as our group staggered back a few steps.

The five figures saw this as their chance, and they literally blasted through the room toward us as their figures changed into minor storm clouds.

I couldn't help it. I stood completely frozen as one of the cloud-men, no, that didn't sound right, storm spirits, charged straight in my direction.

I stared into those electric purple eyes and realized at that moment, that I had no idea how to stop him.

Wooyoung yelled out my name, and our of the corner of my eye, I could see Yunho making a move toward me as well before he was toppled over by one of the storm spirits.

He hit his head against the icy floor with a sickening crack before complete chaos broke out in the temple.

Thunder rumbled again, and the man was now so close that I could see the bolts of electricity within him flashing in shifting hues of purple and white.

Those same lights that made our the two orbs that shone eerily at my shaking figure, like a predators' eyes locked onto a weak target.

I tried my best to clear my head, bracing myself as I felt my inner fire awakening, my eyes turning red as I took a step back.