We were staring down the Ice Devil, which had just stood up. There were no two ways about this. We were going to have to fight it if we wanted to escape. And I really hated that idea. The creature was massive, and it was clearly higher level than either of us. Not to mention that Astrid had just gotten her Tier 1 class. There was no world where this would be an easy fight, but complaining about it wouldn’t change a thing.
Before we started to move, I took advantage of the physical connection I still had with Astrid and sent her a message.
Cassandra: I know you want revenge, but we need to be smart about this. Try to stay cool.
Astrid: I’ll try.
Without saying anything else, we started moving. Battles usually benefited those who made the first move, and we needed every advantage we could find.
While Astrid started walking to the left, never looking away from the creature, I did the same in the opposite direction. The Frosted Lumberjack and I weren’t comfortable enough with each other to fight as one, so the best option was to flank the creature and hope each of us could distract it enough to protect the other. Or, even better, create an opening to strike.
The massive creature, with its snow-white coat of fur and crystals of ice protruding from its joints, just stared at us with a confused expression. It was almost as if it couldn’t understand why its food was moving.
It glanced at Astrid and then at me, snow falling from beneath its neck as it moved. For some reason, maybe because I was moving faster or maybe because it could tell I had more particles than her, the creature started walking in my direction.
I tried to find something in the environment that could help me. A ledge, a large ice spike, maybe a loose rock near the ceiling. Hell, I would have accepted a boulder on the ground to trip it, but there was nothing.
The creature continued walking in my direction, each step causing tremors around it, each movement lazy and uncaring. My heart started beating faster as the 4-meter [13.1ft] tall beast got closer and closer, the surrounding cold becoming even more intense as its body approached. Even then, its movement was so slow. The creature might have been nearly able to reach me, and there was nowhere to run, but it was like watching someone fall from a cliff in slow motion. Part of me even wondered if {Mind of Possibility} had activated by mistake.
Unable to hold back anymore, I triggered {Compression} on my staff, launching myself upwards at the head of the monster. With a flip, the staff changed sizes again to become more manageable just before I slammed it against the creature’s head. The impact sent a shockwave through my arm. It wasn’t like hitting bone or even something living. It felt more like hitting a mountain of solid rock. There was no give. If anything, I was the one who got more injured from the attack.
Landing back on the ground, my feet slid across the ice as the Ice Devil continued to move without even acknowledging the blow. Its nostrils flared as air rushed into its lungs before the monster opened its mouth. Glowing pieces of ice were lodged in its throat in a configuration very similar to the mouth of an Eater, except the ice wasn’t spinning like the teeth of those creatures.
Instead, the Ice Devil exhaled a cone of frost. The very air in the area hit by its breath began to freeze. Without thinking twice, I rushed to the side, hoping to escape the attack. The low-temperature wave spread out, turning the already frozen ice into something even colder. Parts of my clothes hardened as they entered the early stages of being frozen. Even the edges of my hair felt heavier under the weight of the ice now latching onto it.
Yet all of that was just collateral damage. The monster’s actual breath never hit me, but the effect was so strong that even the surrounding air became dangerous. The spot directly hit by the breath attack cracked apart as more shards of ice grew from the rocks inside it.
The burning cold that hit my legs did something strange to my muscles as I tumbled forward, the skin of my shoulder turning purple from frostbite caused by the environment.
While I got back to my feet, Astrid rushed forward. She swung her axe at the Ice Devil’s leg as if it were a tree she was trying to bring down. Yet her attack barely managed to cut through the monster’s thick coat of fur. When she pulled back the axe, I saw a trickle of blood. If that had come from either of us, it would have been enough to be worried about. But for a creature of this size, it was nothing.
The Ice Devil seemed bothered by the attack but not truly hurt. Its expression was closer to someone who had just been stung by a mosquito. Still, that was enough for the beast to change targets. It slowly lumbered to the side, moving in a painfully dragged motion. Part of me swore it was doing it on purpose, just to make the entire experience even more unsettling.
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It was one thing to fight something that fought back. Two living creatures fighting for survival. But this felt very different. The Ice Devil was obviously stronger than us. Its breath could freeze even ice itself, and with a simple motion of its claws, it could change the environment. Yet instead of going for the kill and finishing the job, it was playing with us.
The Ice Devil taunted us with every step. Even if it truly couldn’t move faster than it was showing, it didn’t change the fact that it was like watching death approach.
Now that I wasn’t its target, I kept moving to reach the other side. As bad as it sounded, the best move might be targeting its weak spots. The only thing that came to mind was aiming for its nuts or its rectum.
It wasn’t pretty, but it was a way to survive.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, I couldn’t see either of those locations through its thick coat of fur. As much as I hated not being able to follow through on a plan, part of me was relieved I wouldn’t be traumatized by the sight. I shivered at the thought of how the ice mutations might have affected those parts.
Astrid was now on the back foot, trying her best to stay away from the creature and avoid its attacks. For some reason, the Ice Devil wasn’t using its breath again. Instead, it was going for wide swipes with its claws. Even if the actual limb of the beast was nowhere near the Frosted Lumberjack, the claws seemed to grow almost half a meter [1.6ft] every time they passed by. Astrid struggled to evade each attack, but she endured. Her face still didn’t show a single trace of fear or fatigue.
The attacks might have been slow, but because of the sheer size of the Ice Devil, they gained a lot of momentum. Realizing that, I decided to try a stupid plan. One of my new skills, {Glacial Rend}, had an added effect of slowing down those hit by the fissures it created. But since I had never tested the skill, I only had one way to see how it worked.
Running toward the same leg Astrid had struck earlier, I activated the skill. The particles left my body, enveloping the staff in my hands. The SP behaved like an army of ants, forming a talon at the tip of my weapon. Putting all my strength behind the attack, I slammed the staff into the wounded leg, making sure the invisible claw struck the open wound directly.
At first, the attack didn’t seem to do anything aside from sending a shockwave through my arms. The Ice Devil continued without even acknowledging the impact. But I could feel something happening. The particles traveled down its leg and onto the ground. Then they started to spread, forming invisible cracks across the floor.
The cracks exploded, shooting out large shards of ice in every direction. One of the pieces, shot up directly beneath the Ice Devil’s feet. The monster roared in pain as the jagged spike tore into its flesh, like someone stepping on a thorny vine.
A river of blood began to flow from under its feet, but even its blood was colder than our surroundings while still somehow maintaining its liquid form. Most of the shards of ice created by my skill were knee-high, rising 30 to 40 centimeters [11.8 to 15.7 inches] at most. However, a few of the larger ones, the ones directly under the Ice Devil, were double or even triple that size. These were wider and sturdier, almost like jagged pillars.
This was enough for the monster to change its target once more time, but the moment I looked into its eyes, I could tell it would be harder to pull the same move again. The giant polar bear no longer wore a curious expression, much less one of boredom. Now, the lazy giant was furious. Furious at me, specifically.
It groaned as its entire body turned to face me. The shards of ice covering its body expanding. The small crown on its head shifted into a full helmet, leaving only its eyes and snout exposed. Every epic that once covered its legs connected to the pieces on its back, transforming into an exoskeleton resembling that of a spider. Extra leg-like structures even emerged from its midsection.
Could this be a skill it learned after eating those monsters? Or was it the other way around? The spiders grew because of this devil.
Yet, it wasn’t fully protected. While the outer layer of the beast was now encased in ice, its belly and the insides of its legs were still exposed. Only its neck had any sort of ice reinforcement.
The creature stood on its back legs, its head almost reaching the ceiling of the cavern. From my point of view, it now looked like a monstrous polar bear, but Astrid would have seen something entirely different. A giant behemoth of frozen water.
The Ice Devil roared, causing the entire cave to shake. Stalactites hanging from the ceiling fell from the vibrations, crashing to the ground and sending shards of ice flying everywhere. A strange layer of mist began forming as the impact spread across the area. My focus briefly shifted to dodge a few of the falling ice spikes heading my way, but once I turned back to the Ice Devil, it had changed again.
Its fur now looked even longer, somehow whiter than before. Another thing I noticed was a feeling, a strange sensation that the Ice Devil was currently covered in SP.
It took me a moment to understand what I was seeing. It was as if the bear had just emerged from a snowstorm, its body covered in fresh snow. The creature glared down at me, its anger flashing in its pale, pupil-less eyes. Then it thrust its massive body forward, slamming into the ground with terrifying force. If its earlier roar had shaken the cave, this was a full-blown earthquake.
But that wasn’t all. While I struggled to stay on my feet, a wave of white approached quickly. And it wasn’t just light, it was an avalanche. Or perhaps more accurately, a snow tsunami, since it wasn’t coming down a mountain.
With nowhere to run, there was only one thing to try. I slammed my staff into the ground and triggered {Compression}, making it as big as I could. But before I could even confirm if the skill had activated, the entire world was swallowed by white, followed by pitch-black darkness.