#56 Frost Valley (4)
#56 Frost Valley (4)
The Frost Dragon's judgment was swift. The moment it saw the dozens of meters of Fearful Flame blanketing the vast sky—the four-verse incantation now complete—it held its breath in reserve, prioritized escape, and beat its wings. Wolf's judgment was swifter still.
"———!"
Even as it fled, the Frost Bone caught sight of the Haze. Banking to avoid it was the correct call, but it bought the Flame Demon enough time to engulf the Frost Bone.
'Good instincts.'
Same as when it had targeted Hong Yuri earlier—it dodged the Void at all costs. Whether that's confidence or just instinct, I can't say. Wrapped in the Flame Demon's fire, the Frost Bone beat its wings and tried to tear free.
"You think I'd just let you go?"
Hong Yuri clenched her fist, and the broad swath of flame collapsed inward, compressing. The tightening fire shattered the Magical Power Armor and seared the Frost Dragon's white bones black—
'But still.'
The moment the Frost Bone's jaw slowly parted, the flames bled blue.
"......!"
The breath attack swallowed Hong Yuri's magic as it traveled. Its momentum was diminished from before, but that was more than enough to be lethal. The blizzard that the Fearful Flame had reduced to vapor hardened into solid hail and poured down. I watched the breath closing in, hoisted Hong Yuri with a tentacle, kicked off a foothold, and vaulted clear. By the time the breath died, the snowfield and Frost Valley had frozen solid, transformed into a land of absolute ice.
'......It's taken damage.'
You could tell just from the scorched-black bones. A solid impact now might shatter it. I glanced back at Hong Yuri, but there didn't seem to be any need for concern. A mage's nature is to reach for the next incantation rather than waste time agonizing. With Perry here, nothing should go wrong. I shaped a foothold, leaped skyward, called up Ghost Flame (C), and the frozen earth began to slowly thaw.
'...Running away?'
Almost as if it sensed something, the Frost Bone refused to face me head-on. Even so, it wasn't fleeing outright—it kept its distance, watching for a chance to strike at Hong Yuri. It looked seriously heated over that last spell. I read its movement and launched spikes, but the bastard dodged without much trouble.
'I've got to close the gap more.'
I made a foothold, latched onto it with a tentacle, and flung myself forward. Elasticity carried me dozens of meters in a bound, but the creature's eyes flared wide and it steadily pulled away. Wolf bared its teeth at the fleeing dragon. Hundreds and hundreds of spikes wreathed in black flame blocked the Frost Bone's path, but it simply barreled through. Not dodged—took the damage and kept going. It was wary of me as if my mere approach was the greater threat. Spikes lodged all over its body, the Magical Power Armor still not reformed, and the Frost Bone paid them no mind at all.
'......!'
Catching a Frost Bone that had put its mind to fleeing was a distant hope. Just when I thought there was no way—
"Multiplexare cu lanț de flacără!"
—Hong Yuri's magic. Countless Crimson chains. Hundreds, thousands of red lines embroidered the sky, moving with her hand as they hunted the Frost Bone. The Frost Dragon was plainly faster than chains. But every direction it tried to run, the Void blocked the way, same as before.
'That'll do.'
No escape route left. The red chains closed their net and swarmed the Frost Bone, and in that instant, the flame flickering in its eye sockets flared cold blue.
—The Eye of Freezing. A cursed eye that flash-freezes whatever meets its gaze.
Wolf's Mitigation cut its effect in half, and the black flame melted that Evil Eye's power in an instant. The same result as before played out again. Against Wolf, it meant absolutely nothing.
"......!"
The shackled Frost Bone tried to thrash free but was held fast. Bound in chains beyond counting, it twisted its body in desperation, coughing out another breath from its jaws—no, calling it a breath at this point was charitable. Just anemic clumps of mana. The chains dragged the Frost Bone down from the sky regardless, until it crashed into the valley floor. It could call up its mana and whip up a Storm to escape, of course, but with bones scorched black—it didn't have the stamina left to survive that collision. Trying that now would shatter it to pieces.
Wolf hurled itself off the valley edge toward the fallen dragon.
***
"It fell..."
They had watched the dungeon boss that strutted across the sky, crushed under countless chains, finally crash to the earth. —An undeniable victory. Yet Baekrok's expression was troubled.
"......This is dangerous."
At the sudden remark, Baek So-yul looked over. Baekrok frowned.
"It's collapsing."
—The black flame and fire magic. The forces they had been using had melted the frozen snow and earth. More critically, the impact of the mana clumps the chained Frost Bone had fired had triggered an avalanche on the snowfield, and it had begun pouring toward the valley. That wasn't all—the valley itself was caving in. Monsters that had sensed the danger early and scrambled up the cliffs toward the snowfield were caught and swept under. In the midst of this natural disaster, Wolf and the mage were still nowhere to be seen.
"......We'll have to pull out first."
If the avalanche grew any larger, this spot wouldn't be safe either.
"You can't mean to leave them behind...!"
Even under that disbelieving stare, Baekrok nodded.
"That is the correct judgment."
As the ground crumbled underfoot, Baekrok threw himself toward the boundary as if he could wait no longer. The last thing Baek So-yul saw as she bit her cheek was an uncountable mass of snow crashing down into the valley.
***
Dragged to the earth by the Crimson chains, the Frost Bone tried to spread its wings and launch itself into the air again—and realized it had no wings left. Spiritual Field wrapped in Void was corroding and consuming the Frost Bone's entire body. Meeting Wolf's red eyes, the Frost Bone understood. There was no surviving this.
"———."
—Then at least. Without hesitation, the Frost Bone pulled up what mana it had left, the reserves it had held back for fear of collapsing under the strain. A strange black fog bore down and crushed its mana. But the floor it was touching, the one spot the fog hadn't covered, was beyond control. The Storm erupted, struck with immense force, and shattered the ground. The snow-packed floor buckled hard, the ledge where Hong Yuri stood collapsed—Wolf's tentacles shot out, snatched her up, and the chill of her skin made him grimace.
'Damn it...'
"———!"
With that final, spasmodic effort—almost anticlimactically—the Frost Bone was fully swallowed into the shadow.
[Frost Bone consumed. Experience Points and Satiety increased.]
[Experience Points at maximum. Lv.17 → Lv.19]
He had gained ample experience. Wolf sighed anyway.
"Kyuuuuu!"
Perry cried out. Wolf nodded grimly. Just before the red chains closed around it, the Frost Bone had used its Evil Eye. It had no effect on Wolf. —On Wolf, that is. The eye was exceptional and the Frost Dragon's mana formidable, but not quite enough to freeze Hong Yuri solid. She could have abandoned the chains, raised her mana, and resisted. Hong Yuri had chosen to bind the Frost Bone regardless.
'Stubbornness? Or else...'
Wolf gritted his teeth, gathered the frozen Hong Yuri, and tried to leap—only to see the endless masses of snow crashing down into the valley. The sight of the colossal avalanche made him grimace.
'If I use Blink...'
It had risen to C-rank, but Blink's range wasn't long. Wolf met Perry's eyes, and as if each had read the other's thought, they used Blink.
—Into the cave where the Frost Bone had slumbered.
***
RRRUMBLE...!
The avalanche ultimately swallowed the valley whole. The cave the Frost Bone had made its nest in. The passage sloped downward from the entrance into the earth, so even amid the avalanche the snow couldn't reach them—but the entrance was sealed shut.
'Doesn't matter.'
There might not be any space to Blink out to, but with Ghost Flame (C), I could burn through whatever was in the way given enough time.
"Kyuuuu."
The problem was the frozen Hong Yuri. I'd raised Black Fog and removed the ice that had coated her long ago, but that didn't bring back lost body heat. It wasn't just Hong Yuri—Perry, battered by the blizzard, was shivering from the cold too. Wolf called up Ghost Flame (C) and let the cave grow hot. Perry basked in the Ghost Flame (C) like a campfire and caught her breath, and soon the cave began to warm.
***
Unconscious again—it was starting to feel routine.
"......?"
Then, a strangely cozy sensation. When she lifted her eyelids, she realized she was cradled against something. The black fur was oddly familiar. Dazedly, she reached out and let the coarse texture slip through her fingers. Hong Yuri jolted when Perry suddenly poked her head into view, then let out a sigh of relief.
"Kyuuuu~!"
A cry that seemed to be announcing something. Only then did Hong Yuri remember: at the end, she had brought the Frost Dragon crashing down. She had been filled with nothing but the thought that she had to hold the bastard, even as the cold pierced through her. She had told herself she couldn't let the shame she'd felt coming into this dungeon trip her up again.......
'Did we take it down?'
So they must be alive. After all that, if he hadn't caught it, he'd be a moron. Alpha (Jirisan Warg) probably handled the rest......?
'......?'
Then, abruptly, Hong Yuri's mind landed on the black fur she was clutching. ...Coarse and fairly long fur. The kind you'd find on a large wolf...? The moment the thought reached that point, a low voice seeped into her ears.
"You're awake."
—A bass deeper than any voice she had heard from him before resonated through the cave. Hong Yuri went rigid. The instant she understood whose fur this was and whose voice she was hearing, her mind went blank.
"Don't try to move yet. Your body hasn't fully thawed."
We'd taken down the Frost Bone, but an avalanche started, we sheltered in a cave, she'd been frozen by the Eye of Freezing, I'd held her to thaw her body, outside was completely buried in snow...... The stream of Wolf's explanation didn't register in her head at all. In the chaos of it all, Hong Yuri's eyes just spun in circles.