Chris

I pushed my Law to go further. Both in the strength of my Ice and the cold it produced. Some of the constant growth I had felt from the tutorial was missing and I wanted to make up for that.

It was obvious that I wouldn't grow as fast now that we were out of the tutorial, but it still felt weird to be the same level for weeks on end. Even though each level took longer and I didn't have ample opportunity to get essence, it still felt like I wasn't doing anything.

At this point, the tutorial had been over for longer than we were in it. I knew that would be the case, I knew that it would pick up again when we finally settled down and I could run dungeons on a regular basis, but it was still disappointing.

The wolves tried to stop me from approaching the pack leader but they weren't able to hold up. It wasn't even necessary to wait for [Avalanche] to build.

The bodies accumulated as I carved my way toward the leader and I finally laid eyes on him after almost half an hour of fighting. It dwarfed the other wolves by a head and a half in both bulk and height.

Plus, it had a different feel to it, like it was above the rest. It watched me approach with a deep snarl in its throat and rage in its eyes, well beyond the emotions the wave monsters would show.

It did not like what I was doing to its pack and it spent no time sizing me up before charging toward me. It pushed its pack mates out of the way and charged directly at me.

I pushed on [Sweeping Snow] and dumped more of my mana into it, trying to speed up the rate at which I killed the lesser pack. Something about the leader told me to finish the ones around me quickly so more of my attention would be free to deal with it. It had a feeling about it that reminded me of the bosses from the waves. A quality to it that signaled a wellspring of power.

Keeping track of its charge was difficult with all of the bodies around me but I managed to do so just in time to brace myself for its attack.

The wolf came in with jaws wide and teeth glistening with mana ready to chomp down on me. It took every bit of my reaction time to snap my hammer around to defend against it, knocking its head out of the way with my swing.

If it was the average monster, almost every monster, it would have died to that kind of swing with their head caved in, but the leader brushed it off without a scratch. After my hit knocked the wolf of course, it charged past me with its excess momentum.

Its body was fine and it only needed to right itself in the correct direction and charge again. It didn't show any sign of injury or of being hurt from what I did.

As it recovered, I pushed [Sweeping Snow] to cut it, to rip and tear at the leader while it was staggered but nothing happened. The snowflakes bounced off its fur like they were rubber balls rather than the sharp blades they were. After cutting it failed, I pushed on the cold to penetrate into the beast but that too failed.

My snow was too weak to cut it and the cold couldn't penetrate past its fur. Where the pack members were cut and pulverized, the leader brushed it off like it was nothing.

It gave me hope of a challenge.

Mana mixed with something else formed back onto the wolf's snout and it came in for another attack. A Law of some kind was mixed into its skills but I wasn't sure what type it was. It wasn't elemental, as I was familiar with those by now and it intrigued me. The power coming off of it was similar in strength to my own Law.

It was a Lesser Law.

The first beast I had seen with an upgraded law.

By this point all the other wolves had either died or backed off to give us room to duke it out creating a circle around us to fight in and the leader wasted no time restarting the bout.

The weight and speed it charged with forced me to brace myself against the ground less I be pushed back. Similar to the Vine Bears so long ago, it tried to use its size and mass against me. Where that once surprised me, it failed to do so this time.

The ground was covered in snow and standing atop it made my footing more secure than ever. It was a paltry effort of will to freeze the ice covering my boots to what was blanketing the earth. The connection webbed out giving me the secured base to take any charge. It was with a same flex of will that let me pick up my foot again without being stuck to the ground. There was a fine line between bracing myself by securing my feet to the ground and rooting myself in place detrimentally and I had trained to keep that from happening.

No matter how hard the wolf charged or pushed, I wouldn't be moved. It bit chunks out of my armor and I returned with heavy blows rained down upon it. For every bite landed, I smashed one of my own.

Hit for hit.

It nearly caused me to smile when I saw blood leaking down my armor. Streaks of red originating from the rents of ice missing and teeth marks.

The wolf wasn't much better, blood leaked out of its mouth and one of its front legs was smashed beyond recognition, but it still held a stout growling in its throat. It wasn't giving up and neither was I.

The resilience it showed caused me to pull harder, dig deeper. Dragging out every scrap of strength my stats gave me and then some. Fighting the lesser wolves took more controlled hammer swings to make me as efficient as possible, the leader took a different approach. Fighting something strong like the pack leader took swings of all the strength I could put behind it.

There were times I missed, and great chunks of earth exploded in my face as my hammer hit the ground instead of my target, but those were necessary to land a hit of any significant effectiveness.

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[Mighty Blow] and [Pervading Cold] lit up my hammer while similar skills flowed out of the wolf to match. The lesser ones circled around, only attacking when they sensed an opportunity. Flying in to bite at my feet of lower legs while I was focused on my swings.

At the rate it was going, we were both landing hits and I wasn't sure who would last longer without something changing. The state we were in reminded me of how I formed my Anchor in the first place. A brutal fight which took everything in me to power one more swing. The incessant urge to take just one more down.

It made me smile to have that feeling come back and I unleashed it inside of me. My Anchor was what kept me going through longer fights and from flagging during intense ones like this. I couldn't hold it back any longer nor did I want to.

[Frozen Patchwork] was already struggling to keep up with some of the more serious wounds it had managed to get on me. I managed to land a few good hits on it to match, but it had an entire pack to help it, I did not.

My Anchor flowed into me and did what it could to right what was broken. It held no healing properties, but it made it easier to work through what was wrong. Like dulling the pain of walking with broken ribs rather than setting them back into place. A resiliency to push through rather than fixing what was wrong.

It strengthened my form and pushed [Reinforced Body] past where the lesser wolves could injure. Making their attacks only annoying rather than harmful.

The leader nipped and chomped at me the best it could but we were both evenly matched. Its size and bulk weren't enough to overpower my strength and mine wasn't enough to get through its fortitude.

Even with [Mighty Blow] and [Pervading Cold] to layer on my hammer, it wasn't enough to leave lasting damage. A mana type I wasn't familiar with purged any ice mana in its system with ruthless efficiency. Like it was offended at the thought of being impure. Whatever mana type it was, it was strong enough to eliminate the cold I was trying to press into it.

The wolf started glowing in a luminescence similar to Austin but not as bright. A stunning silver radiated out but that wasn't what I focused on. What I focused on was the glowing effect spread to all the wolves surrounding us as well and the beacon of light extending unnaturally high in the sky. It was trivial to sense it getting stronger, so I pulled on [Righteous Fury] to match it. If it was pulling on its pack for strength, I would pull on my rage. Even after all this time, there was enough rage still in me to go around.

We clashed again and again to the same effect. Both pulling on everything but neither able to finish the other. If it were alone and not supported by the numerous wolves surrounding us, it would have died then. [Righteous Fury] provided a good enough boost I would've been able to overpower it, but with a boost of its own we remained matched.

It was now that I had two paths from here. The fight could take one of two turns and I had to choose which I preferred. I could start chipping away at the wolves surrounding us, eliminated the source of its strength. Or, push through and kill the boss regardless of how many wolves it wanted to pull strength from.

I knew which I preferred and the wolf made a move to facilitate doing that exact thing.

The wolf growled menacingly at not being able to defeat me and jumped back, creating space between us. I wasn't sure what it was doing, but I wasn't about to let it have time to attack freely and it gave me ample chance to prepare my finisher. One final attack to end things and see who was left standing.

It was fitting in a primal way I enjoyed immensely.

I knew any attempt to interrupt what it was doing would be met by the wolves surrounding us throwing themselves at me. They had changed their formation to protect the leader and it was obvious what it was planning. It would use its pack to delay and buy time for whatever attack it was trying to power.

With only one option before me, I charged straight toward the leader. The lesser wolves were relentless in their assault to stop me, but [Avalanche] was near full and my stats were nearing their peak. The fight had gone on for longer than anticipated and the bursting strength inside me, I would not be denied. Just when I pushed past the last one separating me from the stationary leader, I felt its power get a boost. It cocked its head back and howled at a moon I didn't even know was there.

Clouds parted the sky revealing a glistening beam of moonlight streaming down, spotlighting the wolf in front of me.

The wolf was a Lunar Wolf.

It made sense now, the purging of my ice from its system and the unfamiliar Law I felt. I hadn't seen anyone with Lunar powers yet and this was a first.

It was similar to what Austin could do with the sun, except it could call upon the moon.

I hadn't expected to need a full [Avalanche] to deal with some wolves up here, but I was glad I had it now. I could feel the skill the pack leader was powering and it was making my hairs stand on end. Nothing else we had come across needed this kind of force to put down.

Instead of worrying me about the area we were choosing to settle in, it gladdened me to know there were still challenges out there.

It put a smile on my face to be pushed this far, to be required to pull out my newest addition that I only just recently received. I tried not to use it because it wasted the materials of whatever I killed but it was warranted this time, without it, I wasn't sure I would win.

The skill I received for reaching level 60 and the second my Legendary class had offered. The skill itself wasn't legendary, but it felt powerful enough to be one to me. The few times I had used it were enough to understand the power it held, even if the backlash it caused would take a while to recover from.

Forcing mana into the skill for only the fifth time, I felt it flow into my hammer. The rush of energy from the skill was a marvel to see even if I had done this before. I didn't think I would ever get over how it felt. If I still wielded my old hammer, it would have shattered to pieces at this point. I was grateful the class gave me my hammer first, before I picked up my new skill.

Even still, as the skill flowed into the hammer, cracks and rifts began to form and groan along its length. The wood creaked and the ice frozen to it splintered and cracked. It sounded like standing upon a frozen lake that was just thick enough to hold your weight but not enough to bear it without struggle.

Not sharp pops that made you scared of breaking through, but low groans that made you cautious of what you were doing and proceed carefully.

The carved lines running the shaft of the weapon slightly glowed but only the barest portion of the runes did so. Most remained dark and void of power, but a single string of Runes running the length pulsed as the skill ran through it.

It flowed up the wooden shaft along the string of runes and once it reached the head of the weapon, it began to alter its shape. The flat hammer head began to crack and shatter but held together enough to show it was designed to do that, rather than buckling under the skill's strength.

It was like the hammer and skill were made to go together and it was taking on a different appearance to match. If the hammer was once one pristine block of ice, it was now a cobbled mess of chunks. But even as the hammer broke apart, it didn't appear weakened. It still held the power it once did, only in a different form.

As the last pops and groans of shifting ice sounded out, and the skill was ready, I brought my hammer down with every ounce of strength I could muster.

The wolf must have sensed something different with this blow but it couldn't get out of the way quick enough to escape its path.

As the hammer descended, I chanted the name of the skill in my head,

[Shattering Hammer]