Chapter 31: Crazy Offense
The Beast-Veined Glacial Peak was located to the south, less than an hour away from where Priam and Lumiere were. If this young man hadn’t pointed out the direction, Priam, who had been moving north, would never have stumbled across it.
Lumiere hadn’t lost much of his Ether, and shortly after the poison disappeared, he was already able to fight again. Thus, the two of them rushed toward the location.
...
Soon, Priam saw the mountain rising against the sky like a colossal ivory fang, tearing through the clouds with its relentless silhouette.
Under the icy glow of the sun, the mountain reflected not only the pure white of snow, but also displayed a pulsating network of scarlet crystals infiltrating the ice, creating a subtle blood-colored mist around the entire area.
A circular path wound upward around the whole mountain.
When they were only a few meters away, Priam stopped and focused.
Now was not the time to be frugal or careless. He took a deep breath and moved the energy of a petal from the Celestial Aconite, together with the energy of a healing pill he possessed.
This time, Lumiere clearly saw and felt Priam. His eyes trembled in shock when he saw the golden halo and felt an abnormal aura flowing from him. It made his heart race, giving him absolute certainty that Priam was not some simple farmer from a side branch of the clan.
A new power rune was created, since he had already burned the previous one.
[Celestial Restoration Rune: Effect of restoring even the most severe injuries.]
’This is much better than that old one.’
Priam checked the effect and turned toward Lumiere.
"You and your sister are more focused on long-range combat, right?"
Lumiere nodded, surprised that Priam had noticed. Since they had never activated their powers in front of him, there was no way he should know their classes. But indeed, Lumiere was an Arcanist Mage.
Shione was a Mystic Mage. However, since her main power was the water element, she performed the roles of a Holy Mage and an Arcanist Mage better than the others. Of course, she also had potential for the other roles.
"Good. I’m the opposite. I’ll take the front line, and you stay as far away as possible, preferably hidden. When they’re all focused on me and surrounding me, you attack and try to cause as much damage as possible. You can kill them like that, right?"
Hearing that, Lumiere’s eyes widened.
"You don’t understand. Those beasts are really strong, and their power is equivalent to a level 6 to level 8 Acolyte Mage. You’ll get injured very easily, and we won’t make it far..."
"Don’t worry about that. I have my own healing methods, and I can keep it up for a long time."
Priam cut him off without explaining much.
His heart ached, but he would use the entire Celestial Aconite if necessary in order to create healing power runes.
He wasn’t doing this because he desperately wanted to save that brat.
He was doing it because saving her would create a huge problem for Gangrel.
Priam was certain he needed to deal with him and eliminate him as quickly as possible. Helping those two would make that idiot restless, because his previous plan had been perfect. As a result, he would try other things and leave traces behind.
With Priam keeping an eye on him, he would eventually catch him.
In other words, sacrificing his treasures now and helping those brats was the same as helping himself.
"Let’s go."
Priam gestured and moved forward.
Lumiere took a deep breath and focused completely.
Just by looking at the entrance from afar, they could see hundreds of beasts of all sizes standing relatively close to one another.
Lumiere clenched his fists tightly.
He had to reach his sister quickly. They probably had only one or two hours left at most.
She should be near the entrance, inside the mountain, since that was where they had been cornered.
It was obvious that when the trap had been activated and the poison released, some other component had also invaded their bodies.
That was what had driven the beasts mad and attracted them toward the siblings.
Lumiere had mentioned this to Priam on the way there, but Priam assured him that everything that had invaded his body earlier had already been purified.
However, his sister, even though she was sealed inside the mountain, clearly still had that thing inside her.
And the beasts remained there because of her.
...
The two of them approached the critical distance.
The air between them and the horde seemed ready to explode.
"DIE!"
Priam’s roar wasn’t merely a shout; it was the pull of a trigger.
He surged forward like a bolt of lightning, plunging into the sea of beasts with suicidal ferocity.
His Ether burst into combustion, activated at the absolute limit of his power.
"!"
Lumiere saw a golden-colored aura erupt from Priam and widened his eyes. He had expected him to be a Mystic Mage like Shione, or perhaps a Physical Mage...
Golden?
What the hell did that mean?
What class was he?
Priam didn’t stop.
To any observer, he was doomed to die. Hundreds of beasts were ready to tear him apart.
But for Priam, the world changed in an instant.
The moment his focus reached its peak, his abnormal Anima manifested. Time, once a raging river, became a sluggish swamp. He could see the movement of the beasts’ muscles, the trajectory of saliva through the air, and the exact angle of every claw and fang.
He was still an amateur in real combat, but when his enemies moved in slow motion, survival stopped being luck and became precision.
Ether wrapped around his fists in a golden glow.
He struck, using the Light Fists his mother had taught him. It wasn’t a Magic Art, but rather an instinctive unarmed fighting style. The speed and precision of his fists combined with Ether became abnormal and strange.
With the reinforcement of his extreme physical training, Priam moved like a veteran boxer in a young man’s body.
*BANG!*
His fist collided with the skull of a beast that resembled a black bull with flaming horns. The impact was brutal. The several-hundred-kilogram creature was launched backward, carving a small trench into the ground before roaring in fury.
*ROAR!*
Armored gorillas, ice wolves, and small dinosaurs leaped from every direction with thunderous roars.
The battle became a chaotic dance.
Within seconds, Priam stopped attacking. He merely slipped through the gaps, every dodge being a matter of millimeters between life and death.
But obviously, it was impossible for him to dodge so many attacks.
Before long...
The price of the dance was paid in blood.
Teeth grazed his shoulder.
Claws carved furrows into his back.
He felt the pain, but he didn’t stop.
*WORLD IN FLAMES!*
A thunderous shout echoed out, and reality changed color.
The sky of the High Firmament Field turned a sickly crimson, as if the clouds themselves had become molten lava.
Priam looked toward a distant point atop a ridge.
There, Lumiere was surrounded by a black aura.
"Fuck! I’m inside the area of effect too!"
**BOOOM!**
Fire descended like divine judgment.
Priam felt his skin blistering and his lungs burning as the flames devoured the beasts around him.
But the potential of his new Purification Rune, together with its healing power, acted like an invisible shield.
While the beasts became charred carcasses, Priam rose back to his feet, completely healed at the cost of all the power stored within that rune.
He spat out some soot and looked toward the mountain entrance.
"NOW!"
Lumiere shot forward at his side.
Both of them took advantage of the ten seconds of silence created by the slaughter to break through the encirclement.
They climbed the first rise at the foot of the Beast-Veined Glacial Peak.
Shortly after ascending, everything became strangely silent.
Priam didn’t waste any time. As they ran, he created another power rune.
After climbing for a minute...
...a gigantic shadow appeared ahead.
It was an enormous black tiger with three yellow horns crackling with energy, blocking the path.
It was a beast with power equivalent to the eighth level, an existence that radiated overwhelming physical pressure, far superior to any enemy Priam had ever faced.
It was as if that idiot girl from before, who possessed the same level of power as this beast, was mud on the ground, while this enemy was the majestic clouds in the sky.
"SHIONE!!"
Lumiere roared, his voice choked with terror.
Priam followed his gaze.
Near the beast’s paws, the mountain ice was stained with vivid red blood.
A short distance ahead, fragments were scattered everywhere, along with pieces of black earth runes.
Those were the shredded remains of the runic clothes Shione had been wearing.
Priam’s heart turned cold.
Shione was supposed to be sealed inside the mountain to protect herself from the beasts.
Had that beast found a weakness?
Had Gangrel’s plan been even more effective than they had anticipated?
