Chapter 924: The Realm of Ice Elves (21)
Beneath her, the ground cracked and splintered under her weight, each step she took sending shockwaves through the ice, making deep fissures that threatened to swallow everything around her. Her presence alone seemed to distort the elements to her will, the air thickening with an almost sentient cold, forming a wreath of spectral frost that clung to her like a deathly aura.
She was not merely a queen—she was a living force of destruction, the embodiment of winter’s cruelest wrath, a primordial terror born from the heart of the eternal ice.
And she descended upon them with wrath.
The Frostbound Queen’s screech reverberated through the ravine, a sound so sharp and grating that Orion felt it in his bones, like an unnatural pressure trying to crush him from the inside. Yet he held his ground, gritting his teeth as his Crimson Colossus form surged, molten veins pulsing with raw and completely utter power.
Her recoiling limb lashed out in retaliation, a backhand strike fueled by raw titanic force, aimed to obliterate him entirely. Orion planted his feet, twisting his body at the last possible second, allowing the claw to graze his shoulder instead of taking the full brunt. Even so, the impact sent a shockwave through his frame, his blood-forged armor cracking slightly under the strain. He rolled with the momentum, spinning around and bringing his sword in a brutal, upward arc, slamming the molten blade into the underside of her wrist joint.
The Queen shrieked, her crystalline veins flaring a bright, unnatural blue as she recoiled her injured limb, but her other claw was already coming down—fast and merciless. Orion reacted instantly, switching into a defensive low stance, his shield surging with Bloodfortify, expanding with reinforced crimson energy.
The second claw crashed down like a meteor, and Orion took the blow head-on. The impact sent cracks webbing through the ice, but his footing held—barely. He let the force sink into his shield, absorbing as much of it as possible before redirecting it into a violent outward blast using Battlefield Mastery. The explosion of kinetic force knocked the Queen’s claw off-course, giving him just enough time to lunge forward.
With his enhanced speed, he ducked under the shadow of her massive bulk, gripping his sword with both hands and plunging it deep into a gap in her abdomen plating. A gout of freezing ichor sprayed outward, splattering across his armor, rapidly solidifying into jagged frost. His muscles tensed against the numbing chill, but he refused to let go.
Instead of retreating, Orion drove his weight forward, using his immense bulk to twist the embedded blade deeper. The Queen thrashed violently, her entire body shuddering as she lurched back, attempting to shake him off.
"You’re not going anywhere!" Orion growled, his molten aura intensifying, veins of crimson energy flaring up. With a surge of raw, unrelenting power, he ripped the sword sideways, widening the wound just as Findir’s daggers and Aisa’s ghostly blades struck from above.
The Queen screeched again, but Orion wasn’t done. As her body arched back in pain, he used the opening to slam his shield into the ravine floor, sending a crimson shockwave outward, creating an eruption of jagged blood-forged spikes around her wounded leg.
Her movements became slow, even as she tried to tear herself free, ice conflicting against the spikes in a chorus of snapping cracks. Orion stepped back, chest heaving, but his stance remained unshaken.
He knew it was far from over. The Queen was already rebalancing herself, her wings fluttering in rage, her multi-faceted eyes locking onto him with a hateful glimmer.
Orion tightened his grip on his sword, his eyes blazing.
"Come on, then," he muttered under his breath, preparing for the next clash.
Findir hit the ice running, his feet barely making a sound as he slid effortlessly across the battlefield, another set of daggers already slipping into his grasp. The Queen’s massive, serrated tail arced toward him again, moving faster than something so large had any right to.
Instead of retreating, Findir dove forward, his body twisting just under the lethal sweep, the frigid wind from its passing barely grazing the edges of his cloak. As he rolled up onto his feet, his daggers left his hands in a perfect arc, each one aimed with surgical precision.
The first struck an ice drone mid-lunge, sinking into the soft joint between its chitinous plates. The second embedded itself in another drone’s eye cluster, sending it convulsing backward in a shower of frozen ichor.
But Findir had no time to savor his kills. The Queen shrieked, her wings beating violently, sending a cyclone of ice shards spiraling outward. Findir pivoted on his heel, dodging left, then right, barely avoiding the razor-sharp projectiles.
Just as another drone lunged from his blind spot, he dropped low, his leg sweeping outward in a fluid motion. The drone’s legs were kicked out from under it, and before it could recover, Findir sprang up with a dagger in each hand, plunging them both into the creature’s exposed underside.
His momentum never stopped. Using the drone’s body as a springboard, he vaulted upward, twisting in midair, landing lightly on the Queen’s lower abdomen once more. He had to be fast—he couldn’t stay in one place for more than a second.
Her chitin flexed violently beneath him, the Queen instinctively trying to shake him off. But Findir was ready. He kicked off the plating just as it convulsed, launching himself even higher—right toward the Queen’s head.
As he flipped in midair, his eyes locked onto the weak points around her massive throat, where his Void Dagger was still embedded.
With perfect accuracy, he snapped his wrist, sending another dagger flying.
The blade sank deep into the same weak joint, and for a brief moment, the Queen’s shriek cracked with pain.
But she wasn’t done. Her upper limbs swung up like spears, aiming to impale him mid-fall.
Findir twisted, tucking his body into a tight spin, narrowly avoiding the razor-sharp edges of her claws.
As he landed on a crumbling ice outcrop, he barely had a second before another group of drones swarmed him from all sides.
He exhaled sharply. Time to clean up.
With a flick of his wrist, his daggers found their marks before the drones could even react, each blade sinking into vital points. But even as the drones fell, the Queen was already pivoting to attack again.
Findir’s golden eyes narrowed, calculating his next move. He knew he couldn’t fight her alone—but he didn’t have to.
"Aisa!" he called sharply, already moving into position for their next deadly dance.
Cy planted his feet, his massive frame radiating dark energy as he dug his boots into the ice. His muscles coiled, his Armor of the Abyss pulsing with raw, inky power, as his shield absorbed the impact of the Queen’s monstrous blow. The force sent a shockwave through his body, but he refused to yield.
As the Queen drew back for another strike, Cy roared, slamming his spear into the ice. The ground erupted in a wave of black tendrils, snaring her nearest limb, binding it in writhing shadows.
Seizing the opening, he surged forward, his shield raised high, and slammed it into the trapped limb with enough force to shatter a boulder. The impact sent splinters of frozen chitin flying, and for the first time, the Queen visibly buckled, her massive form struggling against the encroaching darkness gripping her leg.
But she was fast. Too fast.
Her other limb came sweeping toward him in a brutal counterattack. Cy had no time to dodge—so he met force with force.
His Abyssal Shield flared, black energy coalescing around it, and as the **Queen’s claw smashed down, Cy braced and angled the shield just right—redirecting the momentum.
Instead of crushing him, her claw skidded off his shield’s surface, slamming into the ice beside him, leaving her momentarily exposed.
He didn’t hesitate.
With a grunt of effort, he twisted his entire body into a brutal spear thrust, his shadow-forged weapon screaming through the air as he drove it into the gap between her armored plating at the knee joint.
The Queen shrieked, her leg buckling as icy ichor gushed from the wound.
Cy’s eyes burned with battle fury. He had drawn first blood—but he wasn’t finished.
Before she could pull back, he yanked his spear free, spun it behind his back in a sweeping arc, and slammed the blunt end upward—directly into the joint of her secondary limb.
The bone-crunching impact sent a deep crack splintering through the armor, and Cy followed up immediately, slamming his shield into the weakened point with the force of an avalanche.
The Queen stumbled, shrieking in pain, but even as Cy prepared to press the attack, her glistening wings snapped outward.
Before he could react, a cyclone of ice and razor-sharp frost shards exploded outward.
The sheer force lifted him off his feet, sending him hurtling backward. He gritted his teeth, twisting midair to absorb the landing, but the shockwave still sent him skidding across the battlefield, his boots carving trenches into the ice.
