Chapter 24: You reap what you sow (3)
"This place… doesn't really feel like inside the Academy, right?"
Victoria stepped inside cautiously, gazing at the towering trees and dense overgrowth that swallowed the entire night sky.
Elijah, walking beside her, casually stretched his arms. "Nope. Still the Academy. You just didn't know because you haven't explored this part yet."
She frowned. "Is that so?"
"Look over there."
Elijah pointed to a small, nearly crumbling building hidden between the trees. The walls were cracked, the windows shattered, and vines crawled up its sides like it had been abandoned for centuries.
Victoria's face twisted in horror. "That's a haunted house."
"How rude!" Elijah gasped, clutching his chest. "That's our dormitory."
Victoria took a step back. "Class F's dormitory?"
"That's right."
Silence.
The wind howled through the broken windows.
"…I see why no one wants to be in Class F."
Elijah ignored the jab and suddenly stopped in his tracks. He glanced around before his eyes lit up, spotting something nearby.
A shovel, half-buried in the dirt.
Without hesitation, he grabbed it and began digging like his life depended on it.
Victoria raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"
"Retrieving my emergency supplies."
Her eye twitched. "You buried your important stuff?"
"Kind of." Elijah grinned as he hit something solid. He reached down and pulled it out with triumph.
A lunchbox.
Victoria stared at it. Then at him. Then back at the lunchbox.
"T-That's…?" Her expression morphed from shock to utter disappointment. "Seriously? A lunchbox?!"
Elijah nodded sagely. "Tsk, tsk. It's important to keep your stomach full during crucial times."
Victoria's eye twitched even harder. "Eww! No way am I eating anything that's been buried underground!"
"It's perfectly sealed, so it's fine!"
Her stomach churned. "Aeeeerrrghhh—!" She gagged, turning away as if the sheer thought of it physically hurt her.
Elijah just patted his precious lunchbox fondly. "Alright, let's keep going."
The eerie white light in the distance grew closer and closer until…
Slash!!
A powerful gust of ice-cold wind blasted through the clearing.
Elijah and Victoria finally found him.
A man stood alone, his pure white hair tousled from battle. He held a steel sword, his breaths ragged, his skin turning pale under a thin layer of frost.
Elijah's gaze flickered. As a slow smirk crept onto his lips.
'Finally…' he thought to himself. 'I found the most important chess piece…'
The Queen.
A hologram system flickered above the man's head.
[ Lucian Winterhold || The Ice Monarch ]
*****
"Huff... hah... dammit..."
Ice spikes jutted out from the ground like jagged teeth, with frost steam rising in the ground.
In the center of the battlefield, remained a young boy with snow white hair, as his blue eyes remained locked onto the monstrous nightmare behind him—a seemingly shadowy eldritch being who was akin to a fly that had a human form.
Lucian gritted his teeth, his breath remained visible in the freezing air.
As soon as seconds passed by, he began swinging his sword with every strike releasing a shockwave of frost that cracked the ground beneath his feet.
"Haaaa!"
With a swift motion, he summoned jagged ice walls to encase the creature, hoping to trap it, if only for a moment.
The nightmare didn't flinch, as it simply moved its hand making the frozen walls shattered into a storm of shards, using it as a shield on the incoming strikes.
It then lunged forward, closing the distance in an instant, with its claws slicing through the air.
"Weak...human..."
Lucian barely managed to dodge, rolling to the side as the creature's attack carved a deep gash into the ground where he once stood.
"For a nightmare who can speak... you seem to be a lot weaker to be considered as a S rank."
"It's... only... a... matter...of... time... before...I... regained...my... original... strength...." the monster replied.
Sweat beaded on Lucian's brow despite the freezing cold. His movements, grew more sluggish.
He raised his hand, summoning an array of spears made of ice. They shot forward with deadly intent, piercing the air like falling stars.
But the nightmare was relentless. With a sweep of its arm, it deflected the icy projectiles, the dark tendrils twisted and wrapping around Lucian's body. He struggled against the suffocating grip.
Summoning all his remaining strength, Lucian eventually unleashed a powerful burst of frost, freezing the tendrils that bound him. Then, leaping back to create some distance.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.
His hands eventually trembled as he prepared another attack—a massive glacial wave rising behind him, ready to engulf the nightmare.
Yet, the creature seemed unfazed. Its form shifted as it released a deafening roar.
The wave of ice crashed into it, but the nightmare emerged unscathed, its dark aura consuming the frost-like fire devouring paper.
Lucian fell to one knee, his breaths came in ragged gasps, frost coating his hair and armor.
For the first time, Lucian felt fear, realizing that this might be a foe beyond even his abilities.
"This... cannot be..."
The nightmare raised its clawed hand, ready to deliver the final blow.
Yet...
'Swoosh!'
A sudden breeze of a gust wind descends, making the nightmare leap away for a bit.
What comes in front of Lucian, is a small figure of a woman, with braided yellow hair.
"Are you okay?"