"Are you going to be able to dodge that?" I asked.

"No, my lord," Taur said. "My body is done. Sorry."

"You were tasked with getting through the killing field," I said. "You achieved that, as well as testing the limitations of the new armour. A job well done. I'll get you back up after I've dealt with the progenitor."

The armour had failed the test in the end, but it had blocked hundreds of enchanted ice shards and several large explosions, and it had only failed because of a lack of mana. Multiple mana crystals to backup the enchantment in the design, and being able to swap out mana crystals for full ones...

"My lord, I am ready," Taur said. "If you would allow time to move forward again?"

"Right, sorry," I said. "Got distracted with redesigning and improving the layout of the armour enchantment."

I put the simulation back up to normal speed and the progenitor's war axe cut cleanly through Taur's neck. Taur had managed to punch through both of the progenitor's arms, but his punches went right through and out the other side. Taur's head was still alive and sending his senses as it fell to the ground, his horns causing him to end up facing his head towards the progenitor.

Taur's body fell forward, pressing the portal against the floor of the tunnel. I pushed my hands through the edge of the portal and pulled them apart, lifting the outside of the portal and Taur's body off of the ground enough for me to push through.

Taur's vision was fading but he could still see well enough to see the progenitor swing his axe down at me. I rolled to the side, towards the top of the portal from the perspective of the army room, and the axe bit into the stone where my head would have been.

Ursula put her paws on my feet and shoved me through at the same time as I kicked off of her and I avoided the axe as the progenitor drew it back towards him. I rolled to my feet and pushed off of the wall, turning to face the progenitor. I was standing near the exit of the tunnel, the progenitor four meters further in from me.

I equipped my shield and sword from my inventory and settled down into a stance with my shield leading. The progenitor had a much greater reach than I did, but I was much quicker. If I could figure out where to hit him then this should be an easy win for me.

The snow man progenitor was obviously looking forward to the fight as well, a grin carving itself onto the compacted snow of his face. He stepped forward and closer to the right wall, reaching back with his axe to launch a full-strength roundhouse attack.

The edge of his axe was wider than the one meter width of my shield, but it was curved and I was confident it would stop his attack. I stepped forward into it, stabbing through his head with my sword and lining up the center of my shield with the center of his axe blade. It slammed into the stone backing of my shield in my Pocket Dimension and sank in a few centimeters before coming to a stop.

The progenitor frowned at me as he stepped back, pulling his axe free. He was completely unaffected by my sword passing through his head, but I could see what he was thinking. I should have been thrown back by the force of his attack, but I took it while moving forward into him.

He was just winding up for another attack, this time coming up at an angle from the ground, when the Instructor popped into existence behind him, placing a hand against the progenitor's side.

I let out a curse and was about to dash forward when the progenitor backhanded the Instructor away towards the far wall. The instructor teleported away before he hit the wall. The God Banishment ward had obviously drained to empty as well, having been running for several hours in the accelerated drain it was under in the winter realm.

I felt a tug on my whole being, pulling me in place, but after a few moments it faded and nothing else happened. At a guess the winter god just tried to phase me out of the winter realm, but it didn't work for some reason.

The progenitor swung forward with his axe again, from the ground and up at an angle to bury it in the wall, with me in between. I stepped forward and into the attack, slashing down with my sword to cut the progenitor in half from his head to between his legs.

My attack went right through the progenitor to no effect. His attack, after sinking into the stone of my shield he stepped into me and dragged the edge of his axe across the edge of my shield, cutting the thread and collapsing the portal.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

The progenitor's axe was thrown backwards slightly as the portal collapsed, giving me enough time to roll sideways under the line of attack. The axe buried itself in the stone of the wall and I swiped my sword through the progenitor at his waist height. Nothing. I returned the remains of my shield to my inventory and stepped back from the progenitor.

"I apologise for interrupting, my lord," Jenny said. "But if you could move the fight away from the portal then Conor or myself could identify the weak points of the enemy for you."

"That would be very helpful, thank you," I said.

As the progenitor pulled his axe from the wall I dashed down the tunnel, stopping and turning to face him after I had gone fifteen meters. In response he cocked his head to the side and walked to the exit of the tunnel, beckoning for me to follow with his axe as he stepped outside.

It would definitely be to my disadvantage to follow him out into the killing field, but I didn't see much of a choice if I wanted to get close enough to take out the weak points that Jenny would be pointing out. I walked back up out of the tunnel, refreshing the energy in my muscles as I went, stopping just outside of the exit.

I felt the tug against my whole being again, but this time the winter realm started to become hazy, the steep slopes of valley walls fading into view.

"I've got it, my lord," Jacqueline said.

I wondered what a human air mage would be able to do, but a few seconds later everything snapped back into focus to my senses. I shifted my focus in the war room simulation to see Jacqueline's input into the simulation, she was transferring mana in a stream from her large mana crystal into the mana crystal that the God Banishment ward was tied to, and the ward had snapped back into place.

Ursula followed Jacqueline through the portal and I detached the ward and the portal from Taur's body so that she could take his body back through the portal to the army room. I moved the portal to the wall and Jenny came through, joining me at the exit of the tunnel.

As soon as the progenitor came into her view four large spheres appeared within him, one in each shoulder and one at the tops of each of his legs. There was also a fifth one that was flickering and fading into view in his head.

The progenitor gestured for me to come out and meet him in the open, spreading his arms wide. He was standing twenty meters away, just in front of a hole in the ground that was caused by the last exploding trap that Taur had triggered.

I folded my arms in front of my chest and then gestured at the progenitor for him to come back to fight me, returning my arms to their folded position. The progenitor shook his head and slammed his axe into the ground, the army of snow men behind him walking slowly to form up at his back.

Stalia joined Jenny two meters behind me, at the exit of the tunnel.

"My lord, if you want to try fighting him out there I can give you warning of any threats," Stalia said.

That would be a terrible idea, I was sure. I would do it if I had to, but I wanted to try other things first. I summoned a throwing blade from my inventory and threw it, sending it stabbing through the progenitor's right shoulder weak point. It flickered in Jenny's senses before being reformed into a solid black sphere over the next five seconds.

I sighed and began walking out to the progenitor. I had made it five meters when Stalia sent me an emergency ping. The guns that lined the walls were about to open fire, and half a dozen marksmen had accurate shots lined up to hit me all over my body.

I still couldn't push my power into the enchanted ground, and without that I didn't have enough traction to dash backwards fast enough to avoid the coming shards. I stabbed my sword into the ground as quickly as I could, using the entirety of the energy in my right arm, and then used that as an anchor to kick off of, sliding along the ground on my back.

I made it back to the tunnel before any of the shards could hit me, and Conor, Jenny, and Stalia each grabbed me as I went by to slow me down. I dragged them all down the tunnel until we reached Ursula at the portal, who stopped us.

Conor and Jenny were having a discussion that I hadn't been paying attention to as I was walking out into the killing field, but I played it back now.

"Why don't we just shoot him?" Conor asked.

"Our lord wants to fight him himself," Jenny said. "You wouldn't want to deprive him of that, surely."

"Oh, he just threw one of his projectiles," Conor said. "And it didn't work. So much for that."

Right, I didn't have to do everything myself. And I even had something that should work. I opened my inventory list and filtered it to arrows. There they are, enchanted explosive arrows, twelve. I summoned them out of my inventory and held them out to our two archers.

"You're right that I wanted to fight the progenitor myself," I said. "But that isn't practical now. These are explosive arrows."

Conor and Jenny took six arrows each, putting them in their inventory, and we headed back to the exit of the tunnel. The downpour of ice shards from outside had come to a stop. The ground covered in shattered ice from just inside the tunnel to five meters in front of the progenitor, who was still standing in the same place, his axe buried in the ground.

Conor and Jenny equipped their bows and shot two arrows each. The first arrows hit and detonated, obliterating the top half of the progenitor before the second arrows were half drawn. The progenitor's lower half was being pushed down into the ground by the explosion of the first two arrows when the second two arrows exploded, taking out the lower half of the progenitor.

He was completely gone, nothing left. But his army was still standing and they began to run toward us.

"Weren't they supposed to die when the progenitor did?" I asked.