A chill drifted lazily out of Elizabeth’s body as she churned her Aether. All of her attributes had been reduced to D grade which hindered her pretty heavily as she’d long since reached level thirty. Luckily, the System couldn’t remove her Skills or her Domain nor her ability with either.

Frost had crept along the ground, giving a slowing effect to anyone that didn’t possess an Ice aspected Constitution like her Undying Cold Body. It would slow her otter allies who even now had shuffled away from her, but it didn’t matter. All of this was just to slow the adventurers so she could accomplish her true goal.

Her progress as an Independent Monster had been halted for far too long.

The adventurers entered her cavern with the guardian leading with his shield. Each of them taking wary steps as they looked constantly for any more ambushes. The far end of the cavern was pockmarked and rough, making it difficult to walk or even stand on. They stopped as soon as they felt the chill in the air.

“Is that a human?” The chain mailed Cleric, Eitina, cried out.

She’d learned all of her victims names from watching the Dungeon’s view with Gi. She'd also learned quite a bit about their abilities as well. No adventurer expects a monster to understand them. Careless.

“Stay focused!” Fader yelled, lifting his demon steel shield. The man’s armor must have been astronomical in cost, but no armor could keep out the cold. She just needed to wait for the perfect moment as she kept her eyes roaming for her prey as she spoke.

Her dead words carried across the cavern, reverberating in the area. Shock registered on their faces as she spoke Common to them.

“Do you feel that chill? That chill that consumes your body and invades your soul? Everything that it touches attenuates. It stumbles and moves closer towards the ultimate stillness. That chill… is death.”

Frost misted out of her mouth as she finished speaking. Every adventurer froze as though they’d heard her words as a command, giving up a piece of their mortality to let that part of the chill enter them. While they hesitated, Elizabeth turned her dull eyes to the otters who’d likewise frozen at hearing her utter the foreign words.

“Charge them.”

It took a moment for their little brains to catch up, but the danger that radiated in her visage had them hurrying to obey. The two Paladins rushed forward with their makeshift two handed maces and the Cleric was just behind despite not having any offensive skill.

That woke the adventurers out of their stupor. Fader charged into the incoming otters who managed to not get knocked backwards by the clinging shadows of his charge. A fire whip ignited into the air, but Elizabeth dismissed it. None of these mages used Air so she would live no matter what happened here.

Clerics burst forth from the sidelines and fired their light attacks into the adventurers, but they’d expected the sudden attack. A wall of mud shot upward and protected them from one side while Eitina had deflected the others with her buckler, allowing Fader to keep their primary assailants engaged. Letting Eitina and the dead Trisphine push forward while Fader hung back would have been a better tactic, but the duelist was dead.

A smile cracked Elizabeth’s fixed demeanor and she started to laugh. Her cackling seemed to force everyone to pause as they could hear the bloodthirsty malevolence in it. She didn’t care though. She was laughing because her goal was finally within reach.

Her arm lashed out behind her and she palmed the face of the dwarf who'd materialized. Ry tried to bring his dagger down, but Elizabeth used her rank D strength to whip the dwarf around in front of her, throwing his aim off.

At the same instant, she sent Aether pouring into her domain skill, [Chilling Breath]. Ry screamed as ice crept over his face underneath her palm, the sound soon muffled by the expanding frost. He tried to fight back, but she simply caught his dagger and let his weak kicks and punches fall across her body.

Leaving the otters alone, the Prince flicked his fire whip towards her, but he was too timid, unwilling to hurt the rogue. All it took was a calm step backwards to dodge his strike. "Fader!," he yelled out. "Help Ry!"

Fader's helmeted face looked between the otters he'd engaged and their closeness to the Prince. He didn't move. Eitina stepped up instead. "I'll handle it."

The Cleric rushed towards her, ripping a small gravestone pendant from around her neck, and activated an area skill as she ran forward. Prismatic light burst out behind her, somehow both blurred and faded. Life aspected Aether. With a whisper of divinity in it, she might be in trouble if she was a regular undead of her current strength.

But she was not born of death Aether.

Her Heart, Body, and Soul were all of the advanced water aspect- Ice. The powerful undead killing Life skill she'd used had no effect.

As the prismatic light washed harmlessly over her, she cackled and the Cleric stumbled to a halt, no longer confident about defeating her as she watched her strongest skill fail.

Ry's screams never lost their intensity, but they started to slow as though time moved at a difference pace for him. Elizabeth didn't owe the otter more than taking out one of these humans, but she was reluctant to leave if they were just going to let her kill them.

With Ry's movements now restricted, she freed up a hand to pluck the air and start sending her [Ice Butterflies] floating towards the Cleric. The slow moving projectile startled her out of her shock.

"I need help here!," she yelled.

The Prince cursed and then yelled out to the guardian. "Fader! Get out of the way in two seconds!"

The Prince didn't wait for acknowledgement and started doing broad gestures and Wild Aether started pouring in towards his hands. This was a reckless skill.

"Scatter!" Elizabeth snapped to the otters tied to her, but they couldn't move fast enough. One of the Paladins flung the Cleric towards the river just as a giant pillar of flame bigger than her house in Underbridge engulfed the two Paladins.

The guardian had jumped out of the way, but the overwhelming fire caused him to continue stepping away and shielding it with one hand. The overbearing heat coming off of the pillar of fire had all but banished her chill from the room. Amazingly, the prince's attack had been that strong even after she'd shifted the primary aspect of the cavern...

The swamp mage collapsed backwards from the blaze, even being that close was too much for the simple mage. Having lost her fodder, the situation had grown dangerous for Elizabeth while the conversion process still continued.

"Help Gale!" The Prince shouted and started to stumble his way closer to her, but the real threat was the guardian. He activated his leap and waves of fire burst out from where slammed into the ground. Activating [Delayed Spring] teleported her from his path, but he'd also gotten between her and the crevice leading to the river.

Ry's screams had slowly started to die down as frost had crept completely over his skin draining all the color from his cheeks. Unfortunately, it still wasn't complete. She couldn't drop him or all of her effort would be wasted. She'd have to engage. Activating [Frostblades], a single blade made of ice that bulged outward for a broad head leading to a wicked point materialized in her hand.

Fader charged, not willing to let her finish her work with Ry. Springing into the air, she flipped over him, but the guardian forced his skill to end early, completely arresting his momentum. In that same breath, he activated another skill that send a burst of Aether down his weapon. His sword cut a path through the air traveling unerringly towards her.

Some of guided attack skill Elizabeth knew, but those were only good against someone that couldn't block. She very much could.

Ice met demon steel and it was only the rank of her Wisdom that kept it strong enough to resist the blow from the advanced metal. Not being able to ground herself in the air, the blow sent her rocketing backwards towards the ceiling. She continued her flip and gracefully landed on the ceiling and kicked off before gravity could take its hold on her.

The guardian sprinted towards her as she landed, but she used another charge of [Delayed Spring] and easily evaded his underpowered movement in a swirl of frost. As her movement slowed from skill winding down, a whip of fire lashed towards her. Her ice blade caught it, but the two of them were almost equal in Wisdom as weakened as she was.

Almost. Her Ice Aspected Soul blazed empowering her blade to cut through the fire whip, its workings breaking apart into wild Aether. Reinforcing it with more Aether, he pulled it back for another strike. That delay gave Elizabeth just enough time to duck another slash from Fader.

Like an acrobat, Elizabeth would dodge a strike from one while she blocked one from the other. If anything came close to hitting her, she'd simply use [Delayed Spring] to dodge around it. All the while she continued to push her Domain into Ry and into the air itself.

If it continued like this, Elizabeth had no concerns about ending the two adventurers. She was both more skilled and more powerful and the only reason they weren't already dead is because she was carrying a dwarf in one hand.

Out of the corner of her eye, Elizabeth watched Eitina getting Gale up with her healing and she knew couldn't afford to draw this fight out. Two she could fight by herself. Four would be too much. She didn't have a reckless ability like the Prince had used nor would she be truly saved if she had to use her life saving measure.

Her only hope was on her own technique.

Dodging another strike from Fader's demonsteel sword, she waited for him to use one of his movement abilities. That would be her moment to flee with her prize. As she dodged waiting patiently for an opening, something unexpected happened. Two of Gi's Elites popped up from the river including the strange twinned otters. Two powerful spears of light corkscrewed across the cavern directly towards the prince.

That was her opening.

Protecting the Prince was clearly the Fader's primary focus and Elizabeth grinned to herself as he activated his interception skill. As Fader skidded across the cavern to block the incoming attack, the prince lashed out with another attack from his fire whip. Not wanting to get stalled blocking, she activated [Delayed Spring]. Unexpectantly, the line of fire anticipated her teleport and forced her to dodge immediately after reappearing. A random deluge of mud also shot towards her, but the useless mage had missed not even making Elizabeth dodge it.

It gave her just enough time to grin wickedly at the group of adventurers and hold up the dwarf by his face. At this point, his entire body had grown slack and turned to a deep blue.

"Thanks for the gift."

With her passing remark, she jumped backward into the river and disappeared. Letting the water carry her back towards the main room, she could do nothing but wait now that her primary goal had been accomplished. If that otter acted as instructed and simply let the adventurers pass, she should be able to make it out safely with her prize.

She was going to be pissed if that damn otter screwed this up.

***

Gi looked across at Samba, Kumo, and both Wax and Wane as the vision of light died. The adventurers had taken a brief moment to heal up and recover before pushing towards the boss room.

This room.

It hadn't changed much from what had been here when they materialized. It was a plain cavern with a handful of stalactites hanging from the ceiling. What he'd added were a handful of boulders on each side of the space as well as two open lines of rock that pointed out to the river room.

On one side was three Clerics that could cast [Divine Bolt]. The other held a Paladin and three Fighters. Gi would have preferred to have more Clerics as their spells could cross the boundary, but all of his other Clerics had died other than the three with [Danna's Touch] instead.

They'd taken the biggest losses of any of his clan mates.

Gi clenched his fists. Half of his clan had already died. It hadn't been a stratagem or tactic. The adventurers had just been stronger. He knew the smart thing was to listen to Elizabeth and take the more secure victory of making a strong showing, but letting them through.

He hated that.

He was so tired of other monsters forcing him to do things. First, the brand on his chest that compelled him to join Igna's war. Jalx and Elizabeth threatening to kill him if he didn't save Hazz which a great lot of good that did them. Why would Jalx just bring the stupid kid here to immediately die?

No. He wouldn't do that. His clan wouldn't do that. They would be strong and they would be ruthless. Churning his Aether, he activated [Bishop] and three albino otters were standing beside him. With hard eyes, Gi started giving commands to his Elites.

This would not be a fair fight.