Chương 42: Chaos in the Frozen lake

Panic rippled through the group for exactly as long as it took Doran to shout them out of it.

"HOLD!" His voice cracked across the ice like a physical blow, cutting through the air before panic could fully take hold.

"Formation! Now!" It barely worked, only because every one of them had already learned, over the last two days, that his voice was the one thing on this mountain more reliable than the ground beneath their feet. Stelle didn't waste the moment he'd bought them. She was already running calculations, cold and exact, her eyes fixed on the two shapes still watching from the shattered cliff edge above. [KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE SEARCH...] [Keyword: Ancient Mana Beast, snow-bound.] [Result: One match located.] Kangmi.

The name surfaced from The Heart of the Ancient Dragon with unsettling speed, as though some part of her had already suspected it before her archive confirmed the shape of it. Even half-consumed by corruption, its appearance was unmistakable—a Kangmi an Ancient Mana Beast. According to the old text, the beast was birthed from the whispered breath of the God of Snow itself. At its true peak or Tier 5, such an entity could rival a Tier 7 Awakened with Saint Mastery.

But what stood on that cliff now registered, by raw core density alone, as barely Tier 2. Bloodline doesn't care what the tier says, she reminded herself, recalling the same lesson that had first unsettled her weeks ago. A Tier 1 Ancient beast could already match a Tier 3 or 4 Awakened. But a Tier 2 Ancient Beast was well above that.

Beside it stood the second figure—a lone Blood Tribe elder unlike any she'd catalogued so far, a worn staff held loosely in one hand, robes marking him unmistakably as something closer to a shaman than a warrior. His stillness carried none of the frantic urgency she'd come to associate with the rest of his kind. An entity of intelligence. [TARGET SCAN: Unknown Blood Tribe entity.] [Mana Output: Tier 4.] [Elemental signature: Frost.] Movement caught her attention at the lake's far edge—another wave of bluish pale, wiry shapes emerging from the treeline on the opposite shore, spreading out across the ice with the same eerie, coordinated silence as always. They're too far for my range to have caught them approaching. The lake is simply too wide for my hundred-meter limit. She turned the realization over with cold, unhurried precision. Their approach… did they sense my utility and prepare, and let us walk into their trap?

Stelle cold calculation reviewing the possibilities. I underestimated them. I thought they were just mindless monsters, but I missed the possibility of someone intelligent enough to pull this kind of move. Stelle glancing at the lone Blood Tribe above. High-tier entities could feel Echo-Mapping's pulse but It was still up to them to decipher what those pulses meant and how they will response for it. Whatever the truth of it, the trap had already closed.

There was no version of this where explaining the mechanism to herself changed the number of enemies now converging on eight exhausted people and four barely conscious survivors in the middle of an open, frozen lake. She reached for the Shadow Lantern at her hip.

"They're coming from both sides—Tier 1 and Tier 2 signatures."

"Don't try to leave the formation! We will kill those who try to enter! protect the survivors!" Doran command them, already moving to shield Aroy's huddled group with his own body.

"We fight by not dying long enough to find a way to survive this. Marlon, Gareth—flanks! Haland, front line with me! Lidia, Sable as the ranged supports, pick your angles! Elsie, stay behind the line no matter what happens!" The first wave of warriors reached them. Gareth's shield met three at once, planted and immovable, his mace answering every attempt to break past with brutal force. Nearby, Marlon's hatchets carved through the press in short, vicious strokes.

The creatures didn't bleed; instead, their bodies dissolved into bursts of snow particles and steam, vaporizing off the ice with every fallen foe. Haland met the charge beside Doran with his spear already braced. As the first warrior closed, the muscle along his forearms rippled and thickened, skin hardening into something closer to stone-grained hide, his hands reshaping into broad, clawed extensions the color of raw earth.

He caught an incoming axe on one transformed forearm without so much as flinching, the blow glancing off harmlessly, and drove his spear through the attacker's chest in the same motion.

"Die," he said, low and grim, already resetting his stance for the next. Lidia's crossbow sang from a position just behind the front line, each bolt wrapped in a crackling thread of thunder mana, dropping their enemies.

Sable moved beside her, casting with both hands as fire blades flew toward the horde—a roaring burst that swept outward in a wide arc, catching six of them at once and dropping them where they stood, the flame clinging and spreading across frost-slicked fur in a way ordinary fire never should have managed. But one slipped in toward Sable holding a spear, charging directly in her direction.

She was about to cast another spell when the enemy in front of her burned in a dark fire, scorching and melting it's body before it could reach her. Stelle followed up and shot another burst of shadow-fire from the lantern, the compressed thermal charge detonating directly against a cluster of approaching Blood Tribe warriors. The dark flames tore through them instantly, killing them in a blinding spray of steam and vaporized snow before they could even close the distance to the rear line.

Sable paused for a moment, her eyes darting between the steaming crater on the ice and the small girl holding the dark lantern. Even Marlon paused his hatchets for a fraction of a second, throwing a stunned glance over his shoulder before driving his blades into the next attacker.

"Well, I didn't know you had those, little girl!" Sable said, breathless, already resetting for the next wave, sweat beading despite the cold.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one burning them!"

"I can't afford to just stand idle anymore," Stelle replied, her voice remaining a steady as she adjusted her grip on the lantern and prepared the next charge. It bought them minutes, not victory. The warriors kept coming, wave after wave breaking against the formation and falling, only for more to take their place from the treeline, patient and endless in a way that made Stelle's internal reserves feel increasingly depleted. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author.

Report it. [Current reserves: 45%... declining.] In the rear, Elsie successfully healed one of the fallen adventurers. The man slowly stepped up, looking confused for a moment before Elsie shouted at him.

"Hey! Can you fight?! We need every bit of strength!" The man, confused for a moment, suddenly stood up before grabbing his curved sword from the ground.

"Thank you..." He stepped in near Marlon, holding a wide stance to help reinforce the line. Sensing the cover, Marlon stopped holding back entirely. Shadow wreathed his body and weapons as he broke to the flank, allowing the healed man to step in and cover his previous position. Marlon dashed faster than any of them, decapitating and tearing through every opponent he met.

"DIE BASTARDS!!!" Marlon raged, his vicious strikes driving the flank back. Behind them, Elsie retrieved a few items from her satchel: a book, a quill, a small knife, and a bottle of special ink. She sliced her palm with the knife, letting her blood drip into the ink. Dipping her quill, she began to draw glowing symbols directly into the air while referencing the open book. Each stroke left a floating trail of light that hung suspended in the freezing air.

Doran, recognizing what she was channeling, torqued every muscle in his body to push his water mana into his broadsword. The water-slicked aura surrounding the blade began to spin rapidly, expanding outward until the reach of his weapon had tripled.

"Raging Tide!" Doran roared, swinging the massive, water-encased blade horizontally. The wave swept through eleven Blood Tribe warriors in a single attack, cutting them down before their bodies turned to snow. Doran dropped to one knee, breathing heavily. Behind him, Elsie finished her final symbol. A brilliant magic circle expanded beneath their feet, covering the entire group. Marlon, sensing the surge of power, began to fall back into formation immediately.

A sudden burst of restorative energy flooded through them, rapidly knitting torn muscle and refreshing their spent mana. Elsie collapsed onto the frozen floor, blood running from her nose.

"Elsie!" Gareth called out. She lay on the icy ground, her shoulders trembling with every shallow breath. The vivid glow of her magic circle was already beginning to flake away into pale, harmless sparks, drifting like embers over the frost. She opened her eyes weakly, her blurred vision fixing on Gareth as he knelt beside her.

"I'm… fine… just need to rest…" She squeezed her fingers shut around her empty satchel, forcing a faint, reassuring nod before her eyelids fluttered half-closed again, spent to her absolute limit. Behind her, the four who had been huddled in the center began to move. Aroy pressed a hand to the ice, pushing himself up on shaky legs, his knuckles white around the hilt of his weapon.

Beside him, the other two adventurers drew their blades, the fresh surge of Elsie's restorative energy clearing the deathly pale hue from their faces and filling their lungs with warm air.

"Please leave Elsie to us!" Aroy called out, his voice steadying as he stepped over the fallen healer, planting his feet in a firm defensive ring alongside the other.

"We'll guard the rear!" Doran nodded at them before he took a single deep, shuddering breath, feeling the tiredness fade as the lingering traces of light magic settled into his bloodstream. He gripped the leather wrap of his broadsword, the faint, water-slicked sheen instantly rushing back across the steel.

"Marlon! Haland! Charge with me!" Doran roared. Without waiting, the three launched forward, their boots kicking up sprays of crushed ice as they hit the horde. The momentum shifted instantly. Doran took the lead, his broadsword sweeping in lethal, heavy arcs that parted the front rank before the Blood Tribe could set their spears.

Beside him, Haland's transformed rocky beast arms slammed into incoming targets, throwing warriors back into one another, while Marlon moved like a specter along their flank, his twin hatchets blurring with dark shadow-mana that left trails of black mist in the air. The fight ground on, the group's formation tightening as exhaustion wore away at them, until only a few enemy remained on the field. Then, without warning, the Guardian jumped.

It cleared the cliff's full height in a single, contemptuous leap, the ice shattering outward in a wide radius the instant its full weight came down, throwing half the remaining Blood Tribe warriors and several party members off their feet.

"It's finally moved..." Doran said, bringing his blade to a guard. The Corrupted Guardian stood motionless amidst the steaming, cracked ice. Before the large beast move. Then beast charged. Both massive hands slammed into the ice, and a burst of corrupted spikes tore upward in a wide, radiating pattern, forcing the entire group into a desperate, scattered scramble.

Doran barely cleared the nearest spike; Lidia rolled clear of a second by a margin thin enough to leave a shallow cut along her calf; and Stelle threw herself sideways only for a third spike to catch the trailing edge of her cloak, pinning her for a fraction of a second before the fabric tore free. Haland transformed his legs into a heavy, stone-bound beast form. Lidia leaped onto his broad shoulders, balancing herself before firing a thundering bolt toward the beast.

The bolt struck the Guardian's chest, staggering it. Haland used his beast legs to dart around its flank, but the corrupted Guardian opened its jaws, pulling in and compressing raw frost energy.

"Look out!" Marlon shouted, already moving. The beam lanced out across the ice, freezing everything in its direct path toward the two of them. Before the beam could reach them, Stelle fired a concentrated stream of shadow-fire to intercept it, creating a massive explosion of boiling mist that obscured Haland and Lidia.

"Good job, girl!" Marlon called out, sprinting through the mist toward the beast with his hatchets wreathed in shadow. He jumped and spun through the air, cutting across the beast's back, but the attack only left shallow scratches against its thick hide. The beast swung its massive hand, nearly crushing Marlon, but he dodged back just in time to create distance. Doran and Gareth worked together on the side, systematically cutting down the remaining Blood Tribe warriors.

Exhausted as they were, their years of long companionship gave them a seamless combat rhythm. Nearby, Aroy and the recovered survivors fought off the last few stragglers, protecting Elsie.... The battle raged across the ice until the Guardian stood alone. They converged on its opening—Gareth absorbing blows on a heavily damaged shield, Haland's clawed hands tearing through weakened hide, and Marlon landing rapid, furious swings.

In the rear, Sable stood quietly before a floating sphere of white-hot fire she had been weaving throughout the entire battle.

"Move now!" Sable shouted. The group near the beast scattered as fast as they could. Sable unleashed the spell, sending the fireball crashing into the beast. The explosion shook the frozen lake, the sudden heat melting the surface snow and shifting the air from freezing cold to scorching warm. Sable dropped to her knees, breathing heavily. The strike tore through half the Guardian's shoulder and face, violet light and dark matter scattering across the ice in a wide, smoking radius.

For one long, agonizing second, silence fell over the basin. Heavy clouds of steam rose into the frigid sky, masking the shape of the creature as the heat dissipated. Then, the steam parted. The Corrupted Guardian stood motionless amidst the ruined, melting ice. It didn't stagger. It didn't rage, breathe heavy, or display even a single trace of fatigue.

The creature simply stared down at the exhausted, bleeding group with an unbearable, hollow stillness—looking at them not as adversaries who had just pushed it to the brink, but as insignificant specks beneath its notice, entirely undeserving of its presence. Then the snow around them began to move. It rose off the frozen lake in a slow, gathering swirl, drawn from every direction at once.

The snow remains of every fallen Blood Tribe warrior scattered across the ice lifted free, streaming toward the Guardian's ruined body in a converging, glittering torrent. The wound began to close.

"No," Sable said, her voice breaking entirely, flame guttering weakly around fingers that no longer had the strength to sustain it.

"No, no... How..." The Guardian's face reassembled itself in front of them, corrupted and violet-veined but completely whole again, the last of the absorbed snow settling into place with a final, sickening shimmer. Slowly, the beast shifted its weight, ignoring the rest of the scattered, spent fighters as if they had already ceased to exist, its dark, hollow gaze locking onto Sable. Sable tried to scramble backward, nearly slipping in panic, as the corrupted beast leapt into the air above her.

"NO!" Doran shouted, his voice echoing across the lake. Haland closed the distance, punching the Guardian with his stone fist, but the beast didn't even budge. With a swift, powerful counter-swing, Haland was sent flying through the air, rolling meters across the ice. As the beast brought its claws down to crush Sable, a burst of shadow-flame erupted beneath her, and her body vanished. A moment later, Stelle materialized in the air from the flames, carrying Sable before setting her down gently beside Elsie.

The Corrupted Guardian turned it's head toward the girl, completely unbothered. Stelle clipped the lantern to her waist, reached for her belt before drawing Cael's dark steel blade.