Before Henry could even take a breather, he heard more sounds of windows crashing all around him. It doesn't take a genius to realize what is about to happen.
So before he could get surrounded again, he immediately grabbed Elsa's hand and bolted out of the center of the ballroom, dodging the guests who were all running blindly.
He quickly made his way to his parents who were trying to mitigate the chaos, even Rapunzel was with them, trying her best to help in any way she could. His father had his sword brandished while his mother carried Lily in her arms. They were flanked by several royal knights who had just arrived.
"Henry wait! My sister, Anna!" Elsa tugged his hand and pointed in a certain direction.
There, her sister was being hugged by Kristoff, as they both tried to make sense of what was going on. Thankfully, they brought two of their finest Arendellian knights, but unfortunately, due to certain rules for attending the ballroom, any sort of weapon had to be temporarily forfeited.
Needless to say, they're defenseless and only Elsa could save them.
"Take them quickly! I'll handle the rest." He gave her a brief peck on the lips just in time as a lightning bolt crackled past above their heads, hitting the framed painting of Henry in his early childhood right in the face.
Boom!
"Seriously? I had to stay put for 3 hours just to get that right!" Henry grumbled when he saw what happened.
He counted the new intruders and this time, they were thrice as many as the previous ones, not to mention that only a few of them wore the black cloaks, some of them had cloaks with varied colors.
Some were blue, some red, while others were yellow.
Henry doesn't know what each of those colors means at first but he had a guess that the color of their cloaks defines their strength. It took him a while to realize that only after getting to fight them close-hand.
They were stronger and faster than the others. Not to mention, their arsenal of magic spells was more than just a single element.
Each of them could unleash different kinds of magic spells and even use them together as a combo without overpowering one another. Henry had to learn that when they mixed water and lightning magic that almost electrified him.
'This is troublesome.' Henry clicked his tongue after dodging yet another lightning bolt past his cheek before jumping at the same time as the ground below him turned into quicksand.
Every single magic spell is being thrown at him to the point that he can barely make any moves. These guys were really relentless; it's as if they've studied how he fights and knew the only way to defeat him is to make sure he's too occupied to make his move.
'I feel like one of those final bosses in video games…' Henry mused in his mind as he once again dodged another magic spell.
But as all creatures are equals, these guys made a mistake, the one that they just threw at him was too fast and he was able to dodge and land right at the same time as the next magic spell was about to be cast.
'Gotcha!'
With a grin, he quickly hurled a massive blue flame tornado towards the crowd of cloaked magicians, forcing them to separate while others, especially the black cloaks, reacted too late and got burned to a crisp.
That gave Henry enough time to unleash another series of flame Magic spells. Fireballs, flame rings, and Henry even made a ring of flames surround him, courtesy of that certain scene he watched in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
"Come!"
The cloaked figures seemed to be agitated by his words, especially the remaining black ones who eagerly channelled their magic spells.
But before they could do so, in a blink of an eye, their entire bodies were coated in thick ice, making them immobile.
Behind them, Elsa stood with an icy mist escaping her fingertips.
Elsa has rejoined the fray!
Some of the intruders reacted and this time, they cast flame Magic spells. Earlier, they avoided doing so when against Henry but that rule doesn't apply to Elsa, not to mention she's using ice magic, which flame magic greatly counters.
Unfortunately for them, Elsa is not just any normal ice magic user. She's the personification of ice itself!
She scoffed when she saw the pathetic excuse of their flame magic, it's laughable compared to her soon-to-be husband, Henry.
With a stomp of her feet, the floor got covered in ice before encroaching towards all of them at a fast speed. They all failed to dodge in time, though some reacted fast enough to destroy the ice on their feet before it could fully coat their bodies.
But Elsa already prepared a surprise for them, an ice lance launched towards their shoulders.
Puchi!
Puchi!
Behind them, Henry was already onto them. However, it seemed the blue-cloaked ones managed to grit through the pain on their shoulders as they had been waiting for Henry to make his move.
One of them raised her hand towards him, and in an instant, Henry felt something grasp his entire body, like an invisible hand holding him tight.
"Now!" The high-pitched female voice of the owner of the unusual magic spell shouted.
The other blue cloaks quickly raised their hands to barrage Henry with spells. Too bad for them, he's not alone in this fight as Ariel finally swooped in with her Ember in hand.
Several water tendrils erupted out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around the blue-cloaked ones, yanking them away from their position, some hit the wall while others hit the ceiling.
The grasp on Henry's body didn't last long as the caster of the spell fell on the ground from exhaustion.
'No wonder the spell is overpowered, it only lasts 3 seconds, the drainage must be crazy high.' Henry analyzed in his mind.
"Useless dimwits! I'll do it myself!" From a distance, one of the three red-cloaked magicians who had been holding the minor god of the sea back, finally separated.
The golden rope wrapped around King Triton slightly loosened and its thickness lessened, he could feel a small bit of his herculean strength recover. The minor god of the sea furrowed his eyebrows as he focused on trying to further loosen the rope.
The red-cloaked woman took a single step and instantly disappeared, when she reappeared, she was now high up in the air.
"Move for me!" With a raise of both her hands, she unleashed a devastating dark magic that swept across the ballroom.
Aside from a certain few, everyone inside immediately turned dazed, their minds had been grasped by her dark magic. Be it the nobles who were still attempting to escape, or the knights who arrived to help, everyone was affected.
And the next second, they all turned to Henry in unison.
"What's going on?" Maximus held his wife and daughter close to him, he didn't know what was going on but the royal knights flanking him turned into the opposite of protection.
'Must be the ring Elias gave to us.' Maximus murmured to himself, guessing that the reason they weren't affected by whatever was happening was due to the ring that Elias gifted to him and his wife years ago.
But Lily wasn't an exception. She too was dazed like the others.
He turned to his wife and Rapunzel who was standing behind her, "Olivia, Rapunzel get out of here. I'll make some room, head to the doors!"
At the same time, the red-cloaked woman yelled again, "Kill them all!"
Maximus tightened his grip on his sword, he rushed towards one of the royal knights, slashing the unfortunate man on his chest plate before kicking straight into his abdomen.
At the same time, he blocked the next royal knight who attacked him, before turning to Olivia, "Now! Run!"
Olivia knew better than to delay, so she used her free hand to grab Rapunzel's and dragged her past Maximus and out of the encirclement. One of the royal knights swung his sword towards her but only managed to graze her dress.
Maximus saw this and with a burst of strength, he pushed through the band of knights and sliced his sword hard enough to disarm the knight that grazed his wife's dress.
Meanwhile, Henry couldn't afford to hurt the controlled civilians and guests. Especially those of wealthy and noble backgrounds. If they were to die here, right in the center of their Kingdom, the political fallout would be severe, something that he can't afford.
"Elsa, Ariel. Be gentle. Just knock them out if you can." Henry relayed this to the two of them. Elsa nodded her head, she already knew what to do even if Henry didn't tell her. As a royal princess herself, she was aware of the consequences that would happen if something were to happen to them.
Meanwhile, when Ariel heard him, she immediately knew what to do. So she shifted her attacks from throwing them with water tendrils to a huge ball of water that rose into the sky.
Several tendrils warped on the surface and started pulling every mind-controlled individual inside, submerging their entire body minus their heads into the big water blob.
Out of the three of them, her strategy was the most effective as almost half of the guests were now tangled together inside the ball.
Meanwhile, Elsa would simply freeze their bodies except for the heads.
For the first time, Henry was the most useless out of the three. Most of his magic spells were designed to kill and hurt people.
'Note to self, start focusing on other elements.' He murmured under his breath.
So instead of subduing the mind-controlled guests, he decided to dedicate his focus entirely to the red-cloaked intruder.
With a burst of flames on his feet, he rose into the air, matching the same level of height as the red witch.
Channeling his magic, he hurled several giant fireballs towards the witch, each the size of a carriage; he was no longer holding himself back this time.
The red witch scoffed as she waved her hand, summoning a block of earth that rose from the ground below her, forming a pillar in front of her. It took two of his fireballs for the pillar to crumble but when it did, she was no longer in the same place.
Instead, she's now floating higher than before, her head reaching the ceiling, "So much for Elias's student, you're weaker than his previous ones!"
Henry wanted to ask why she mentioned his master and what she knows about him but he knew better than to do something unnecessary while in a crucial situation.
'Weaker? I'm holding myself back from exploding this entire place to smithereens!' Henry grumbled and wanted to retort but found himself unable to do so.
Still maintaining his level in the air, Henry coated his hands in blue flames while conjuring several fireballs rotating around him.
The only way to defeat the red witch is through close combat. Everyone knows that a mage is extremely squishy in terms of physique.
And he's applying that same logic as of now.
"Trying to get close to me instead of running away? I respect your foolish bravery boy!" Even with her hood covering her face, Henry had an inkling that the woman was giving him a devilish grin.
His sharp hearing picked up a crackle of lightning behind him. Without turning around to look, Henry instinctively bent his body sideways, dodging the red lightning just in time.
But before he could breathe, several more lightning bolts struck all around him.
'She definitely specializes in lightning magic. I've never touched that magic before…I wonder if I can learn it in the middle of the fight.'
Of course, he's not just blindly hoping for his talent to shine in a crucial moment, no.
He could actually feel like he could pull the impossible right here and right now!
It was only a few seconds later when the eyes of the red witch widened at the sound of thunder that resonated across the ballroom and before she knew it, a bolt of golden lightning flashed in front of her eyes.
'This…wasn't in our intel about him…'