Frozen Assault and the Pulsing Seal
“L-Lady Elise…!”
Aria clung to me as she said it.
Her face was a mess of tears.
Her gaze fixed on my shoulder, where the wolf had torn away a chunk of flesh.
Red blood was surging out from between the shreds of my torn academy jacket.
“Don’t cry. It’s not over yet.”
I pushed her shoulder away with my bloodied hand and stared straight ahead.
I’d just blown the heads off two of them, but four survivors still remained.
Having witnessed their comrades’ deaths, they didn’t charge recklessly.
Instead, they growled low, starting to encircle me in a semicircle.
A cunning move to tighten the noose.
Warning: Bleeding status continues.
HP continuously decreasing.
A system window blinked annoyingly in the corner of my vision.
It hurts like a bitch.
My shoulder burned like fire.
The sensation of flesh ripped away, blood oozing thickly from the wound.
My head spun.
But I couldn’t collapse here.
“Grrr…!”
The wolf directly in front of me scraped its claws against the ground.
Poised to leap at any second.
I aimed my right index finger at it.
HP’s still got some margin.
The bleeding wasn’t that severe.
But the pain was throwing off my aim—that was the problem.
My fingertip trembled faintly.
Miss even once, and it was over.
If all four lunged at once, my reaction speed couldn’t block them all.
“Aria.”
I called softly to her, hiding behind me.
“Can you freeze the ground?”
At my words, she looked down at the floor.
Mucky sludge flowing with sewage.
“Just bind their feet. The moment they charge, freeze everything in front of me.”
With their numbers down, it was worth a shot.
Even weak ice would slash their mobility on frozen ground.
That brief window would be enough.
“You can do it, right?”
Aria wiped her tears and gripped her staff tighter.
Blue mana began to rise like heat haze from her fingertips.
Did they sense us preparing something? The wolves’ magic stone eyes gleamed viciously.
“Graaang!”
The biggest one kicked off the ground first.
Using that as the signal, the other three launched into the air simultaneously.
Sharp fangs and claws closing in from all sides.
“Now!”
At my shout, Aria slammed her staff into the ground.
Crack!
Cold spread instantly in all directions.
The slimy sewage and mud froze white.
“Yelp?!”
The wolves’ paws slipped on the ice as they tried to leap.
Unable to control their momentum, their bodies tumbled clumsily across the floor.
Finally, my pain-shaken aim steadied.
“Good job.”
I targeted the fallen wolves’ heads one by one.
Life force draining away in gasps.
“Bang.”
Splat!
A magic bullet lodged precisely in the forehead of the nearest tumbling one.
Its skull burst, black blood splattering across the ice.
“Bang.”
Crunch!
The second shot pierced the throat of one trying to rise beside it.
The wolf slammed into the ground, head half-twisted.
Two left.
Seeing their comrades explode in seconds, instinct drove them to recoil in terror.
But the ice didn’t even allow escape.
“Bang. Bang.”
Headshots dropped them without a final cry.
The system alert blocking my view finally stopped.
Wolf corpses littered the ground.
Nothing moved anymore.
“Hoo…”
Only after confirming every last one was down did I exhale the breath I’d held.
The taut string of tension snapped.
Pain I’d suppressed crashed over me like a wave.
“Ugh.”
My legs buckled.
I lost balance and dropped to one knee.
Fresh red blood gushed from my shoulder wound.
“L-Lady Elise!”
My academy jacket was soaked through, and now even the white shirt beneath turned dark crimson in seconds.
“So much blood… What do we do…!”
“I won’t die from a little scratch like this. Don’t freak out.”
“It’s not little! Look at all this blood!”
Aria dropped to her knees and clutched my sleeve tight.
“S-Stay still. I’ll stop the bleeding. I-I can’t do healing magic, but I know basic first aid.”
She fumbled to tear the hem of her academy skirt.
But her hands, still shaky from the ordeal, lacked the strength—the fabric wouldn’t rip.
“Ugh… Why won’t it tear…”
Tears splashed onto the back of her hands.
A sob mixed with misery and guilt.
Her shoulders trembled faintly.
“Move.”
I grabbed the hem of her skirt with my good left hand.
And yanked lightly.
Riiip.
The cloth tore cleanly with a crisp sound.
I handed the strip to her.
“Here. Stop the bleeding, you said.”
Aria took it blankly.
She sniffled, then pressed it firmly to my shoulder with resolve.
Her hands covered the wound and squeezed hard.
“Ow.”
“Bear it! You have to press hard to stop the blood.”
The girl who usually watched my mood was surprisingly firm.
Her two hands clamped my shoulder.
The warm, soft feel of her palms.
Watching her white hands stain red with my blood stirred something odd in me.
“Because of me… You got hurt trying to save me…”
Aria murmured in a choked voice, her head drooping.
“If I’d cast better magic… If the barrier hadn’t broken, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt…”
Logically, it was my fault for dragging her here.
But seeing her blame herself so openly weighed heavy on me.
“Not your fault.”
I placed my hand over hers as she helped staunch the flow.
“I brought you here. Responsibility’s on me.”
“Still… I feel like I was just dead weight…”
Aria sniffled, head bowed low.
Tears poured endlessly from her big eyes, soaking my forearm.
Warm tears mixed with cooling blood and dripped to the floor.
“If you were dead weight, I’d have ditched you and run solo ages ago.”
I reached out with my good left hand and roughly wiped her eyes.
She didn’t flinch at my rough touch, just let me.
“Without your magic just now, I wouldn’t have made it either.”
This was sincere.
Alone, I’d have been a cold corpse the moment I faced nine magic-beast wolves.
“Really… Did I really help…?”
“Yeah. You basically saved my life.”
I smirked and ruffled her hair lightly with my good hand.
“So quit crying. I’m the one hurt—why are you bawling harder?”
“Hic… B-But… the blood won’t stop…”
Aria sniffled and pressed her hands harder on my shoulder.
Thanks to her firm pressure, the bleeding finally slowed.
The flashing red warning faded.
“Looks like the blood’s stopping now.”
I patted the back of her hand lightly.
“You can ease up. It’s staunched enough.”
“B-But it’s still red…”
“I said it’s fine. Doesn’t even hurt anymore.”
At my words, Aria cautiously released the pressure and pulled her hands away.
The makeshift bandage from her skirt hem was soaked dark red.
But no more blood seeped from the wound—good enough.
“Phew. Starting to feel alive again.”
As I stood, Aria scrambled to grab my arm and help support me.
Her gaze lingered on my shoulder, then shifted to the wolf corpses strewn about.
“But… what are these wolves? There’s no way something like this could be in the academy underground.”
“Magic-beast undead.”
I kicked the red magic stone embedded in one corpse’s head.
“Someone deliberately released them here. No way these spawn naturally in the sewers.”
“Deliberately? Why on earth…”
“Reason’s obvious.”
I nodded toward the center of the vast, shadowed space.
“What else? Guard dogs.”
Aria’s eyes slowly followed to the center.
The light from her staff tip illuminated it, revealing what had been hidden.
“Lady Elise, that’s…”
Aria’s lips parted in shock.
A massive geometric pattern covering the floor.
Red glowing lines pulsed like a heartbeat.