Well, Chase would have been joking if he said that his effort led to anything, in fact it did the complete opposite.
His blade crashed against the impenetrable skin of the serpent, and threw him back about twenty meters, crashing into the thick layer of ice... and breaking straight through it.
He was immediately submerged in frozen water moving far faster than any frozen river should have been.
He watched as the light faded from the world around him, and his flames were immediately killed off by sheer temperature of the river.
Gasping for air, he tried to break himself from the current, but it was no use.
All above him was just thick layers of ice, that hadn't been met by the cracks caused from the serpent.
Panicking, he did everything in his power to attack the ice above him, and then felt the terrible urge to look behind him.
'No no no no no no no!'
Then he felt multiple giant blades rip into his skin from behind with powerful force, his back, and probably his thigh were primarily caught inside of the bite of the serpent.
"Not here..."
And just as he let out one last gasp, green flames swirled around him in the water, and the serpent released its grip, and let out a horrifying hiss at the now fully tangible Hellhound with a look of rage in its canine eyes.
Sparky pounced into the face of the serpent, and with a surprising amount of force, bit into the maw of the serpent.
Then above him, part of the ice began to break from the force of the serpent, so he reached up, and feeling his hand rip up from the jagged ice, he screamed into the frozen water, as he pulled himself up with all of the strength that he could muster up.
With a gasp of air that had saved his life, he quickly looked around and was filled with a terrible sense of dread.
Everyone was standing, sitting, or barely hanging onto their own piece of jagged ice flowing swiftly down the river.
He thought as swiftly as humanly possible, and tried to pinpoint the location of the closest town from where they were, which was pretty hard to tell when the entire river became a battleground for a colossal monster.
With a terrible pain, he screamed into the evening sky around them.
"Head North! Try to group up, and meet me at the closest village!"
With that, Onyx had already been dead set on getting closer to Chase, he jumped from one of the shattered blocks of ice, and slid down its giant slope, onto another layer of ice below it.
Summer and Talon were also close, trying their hardest in order to reach the ice that Chase was kneeling on.
Feeling blood pour out of his wounds, he couldn't help but curse at the monster.
As he could hear Sparky battling the creature from underneath the ice, he waited for a whimper or something that would notify Chase to bring the Hellhound back into his catalyst, but no such call came.
"Damnit all!"
He summoned the Hellhound back into his soul against Sparky's will and braced himself for a fight that he no chance of winning.
Then before he knew it, The Black Dragon was standing at his side.
"The team knows where to meet up, we just have to get off this river."
Summer pulled herself up and out of the water right next to Onyx, and Talon landed with little balance on the same slab of ice.
Then Dragon, as if reluctant, jumped back into the water.
"What the hell is he doing!"
Talon yelled from behind Chase.
But the heir of Phoenix couldn't help but watch in amazement as Onyx, grabbed the jagged slab of ice, and two faint purple glowing eyes lit up the entire river from below.
Then as if on perfect timing, the slab of ice began to flow much faster with the current, out speeding the serpent by nearly twice its speed.
Chase had to hang on for dear life, when he felt two warm hands touch his back.
"Try to hold still please."
Summer frantically tried to remain calm herself, as a yellow glow began to radiate from behind him.
Looking around at the once terrible scene, the beauty of the world that they lived in seemed to perfectly sync with the colors of his team's affinities.
The vibrant orange sky, and the purple glowing river, mixing perfectly with the yellow hue escaping Summer's hands from behind him.
The distant forest to his left, covered in a blanket of magical snow, and the ever seeing plains to his right, with a view so vast that he could see the entire Phoenix mountains in the very far horizon.
Feeling his wounds start to close on his back, he couldn't help but be amazed at the people that were on his side for once, they were truly unimaginable forces, and yet none of them were stronger than nine star output.
His face turned grim.
Just how far did he have to go, before he could even reach the weakest of Paladins in terms of strength.
With his wounds closed, and the slab of ice about to crash into the icy land of The Frozen Forest, he closed his eyes, and he hoped for the best.