“[Sanctuary]!” the noble said in prayer, and a soft, warm light surrounded her.
“As long as you stay within ten meters of me, you will be shielded from status effects and the cold.”
The never-ending blizzard blew as harshly as it always did. Where does all of this snow come from, and where does it go?
“Okay, everyone. Just like we did in the second layer, stay close to the entrance and to each other as you scout for a monster to hunt. Do not engage anything alone if you can help it.” Nisos said, and we spread out – within line of sight of each other – and peeled our eyes for a rank B monster. It didn’t take long for me to find one with the help of my draconic eyes. I signaled the others with a few snowballs, and they came over grumbling. And by ‘they,’ I mostly meant Jezibel, who had snow on her face.
“Take a look over there. That’s our target.” I whispered.
[Abyssal Frost Tyrannosaurus Rex]
HP: 29180/29180
MP: 1230/1230
SP: 4490/4490
Vitality: 1309
Strength: 1082
Dexterity: 205
Intelligence: 681
Wisdom: 42
Rank B creature. Possessing monstrous strength and an even more ferocious bite, the Abyssal Frost Tyrannosaurus Rex uses ice elemental magic to slow down its prey and harass it until it is within jaw’s reach.
The moment the party laid eyes on our foe, Nisos and Jezibel froze where they stood. Even the normally collected Ati seemed unnerved. The noble remained stoic with no visible expression on her face as I prepared myself mentally to fight with a titan from my nightmares.
“What the hell are you thinking?! We need to get out of here before that thing sees us!” Jezibel would have sounded livid if she wasn’t busy being horrified.
“No. Don’t let its appearance fool you; it’s the exact same rank as the Quetzalcoatl from the second layer. There’s five of us and I killed rank B monsters like it on my own. This isn’t the time for cowardice!” I said, launching myself at the rex before the others could stop me.
“ROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARR!” I bellowed in challenge, and the rex roared back in kind.
Its mouth glowed with a familiar soft, blue light, and I did not need to rely on my mana sight to be alarmed by the rapidly approaching projectile it sent my way.
[Mirror Space]!
I cast my defensive mana spell in its path, hoping to send the attack back to its sender. That hope was dashed as my mirror space was shattered by the weight of the rex’s spell, and it was nearly upon me.
Thinking quickly, I launched a fire-infused [Dragon Breath] from my mouth and watched as the attacks annihilated each other just meters away from my face. My opponent was rapidly coming within view, and I recalled how quickly it was able to lunge at the Eagle, likely with a skill considering its pathetic dexterity. With that in mind, I decided to keep a respectable distance from it in the sky as I began to bombard it with breath attacks.
I had a very slight advantage in intelligence and an overwhelming advantage in mana, so this should be a reliable strategy against the rex, which should be as helpless against me as it was against the eagle. I suddenly felt connected to the other four, which meant that they were rapidly approaching the battle. I signaled to them to stay back as I whittled down the rex before they can finish it off and claim the kill with me.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Kiara, above you!”
I had barely turned to look upwards when sharp talons slammed into me and sent me crashing into the snow, in a repeat of my attack on the Quetzalcoatl.
“Gah!” I spat blood as I stepped out of the crater, noticing that the attack shaved over half my health away.
I felt dizzy as the world spun in circles, but my link with the others rang in alarm once more.
“Behind you! THE REX!” Jezibel screamed as I turned around and watched the rex’s jaws cover the sky above me.
At the same moment, a shield of light slammed into the monster’s face, launching it away from me like a siege ram slamming into a city gate.
“[Greater Heal]!”
The noble cast a powerful healing incantation on me, healing me back to full health as her sanctuary incantation chased away my sense of imbalance. Nisos alerted us once more to the monster above us diving to strike again, though it was forced to halt in its tracks by a wind arrow from Ati.
Without a word, the noble and I agreed through the telepathic link to each take an opponent as the others supported us. She dashed to intercept the bloodied and furious rex, which was already on its way back. I launched myself through the air with my field of oppression and force inversion combo, then sped it up further with my wings as I took in the monster that killed me once before – the frost eagle. It cried in challenge, and instead tried to attack Jezibel.
A quick look at it with appraisal confirmed my fears; it wielded an incredible advantage over me in dexterity and a moderate advantage in intelligence but held a much weaker vitality and strength. That meant that I couldn’t match it in speed or in magic, and it was going to reach the Tyrian girl before I could.
My breath attacks and the few spells under my belt are unlikely to overpower it, and my under-leveled class skills had even less hope of stopping or slowing down the eagle enough. I saw the horror in Jezibel’s eyes as she knew that none of us could intervene in time to save her. She was going to die because of me and my arrogance. If I was unable to chase after or stop the eagle, then Ati was even less capable of doing that. The noble was busy fighting off the overgrown lizard, and Nisos had moved to aid her earlier, leaving him too far away to step in the eagle’s way. Not that it would’ve accomplished anything besides adding another person to the party’s death count.
The desperation, fear, guilt, and shame flooded me and the connection to the others as I desperately searched for a solution to save Jezibel.
Think!
In a brief moment, an insane idea ran in my mind, and I rattled a set of instructions to Jezibel. Her eyes blinked before she got into action and jumped away from me and the eagle, as I’d asked her to. I fired a wind-infused [Dragon Breath] a short distance from her; the blast launching her away from us. I activated [Lady of Attraction] on her and the opposite wall, then amplified it with [Gravitational Multiplier] just to push her away even the tiniest bit further. She then summoned her tiger, which covered her with its body, as she flew away almost as fast as the noble had launched the rex. It still wouldn’t be enough to get her away from the eagle, and she flooded the telepathic connection with a desperate request for more instructions and help.
But I hadn’t launched her away to protect her from the eagle.
Memories of my life flashed by me. I remembered my new-found family. I had just promised mom that I wouldn’t risk my life without reason. Losing me so soon after losing Azzid was going to devastate her beyond anything I could imagine. Aunt Ighir wouldn’t be much better, and even my dumb but reliable cousin was not going to be able to shrug it off easily. I wasn’t going to be able to visit old man Hurun again, like he asked me to. I wouldn’t learn about my past life after all. The Goddess of Fortune said that I was going to be in the center of a number of events, but it seems that my life was going to end before any of those occur. I wasn’t even going to be there to witness the birth of my kin who were born from my blood.
And yet, letting Jezibel die because of my mistake was even worse than all of that. The party trusted me – Jezibel trusted me – and I let them all down. Sacrificing my life to correct this failure is something that my family can be proud of, even if they may be too blinded by grief to see it initially.
I took a deep breath and launched [Black Hole] at the monster, who was struck by it and instantly devoured. Naturally, since I was chasing the eagle as quickly as I could, the black hole pulled on me intensely as well. I glanced at Jezibel and saw that the black hole slowed down her descent into a pile of snow; the connection between us telling me that she was alive and well. I removed [Lady of Attraction] and [Gravitational Multiplier] from her just to make sure she won’t be dragged around further. The last thing I could do was to make sure the black hole’s spat out everything into the distance, perpendicular to everyone ahead of and behind me.
Tears streamed down my face as the darkness took me.
“I am sorry, mama…”