Chapter 171: A Flower Blooming in Winter (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 171: A Flower Blooming in Winter (2)
Skadia stared in horror at Azyeth, who stood proudly before him.
He had sealed her in ice for hundreds of years to preserve her beauty for eternity. He had frozen her emotions, her memories, her very ability to think.
But what of the Azyeth before him now?
Her delicate brows were furrowed.
Her eyes, blue as a lake, were filled with hostility.
The doll he had cherished more than any treasure in the world was rebelling against its master.
Time was of the essence. Like a dish left at room temperature, Azyeth was spoiling in real time.
“P-Princess. Your beauty is fading. Come to me at once.”
Skadia’s voice was filled with genuine concern.
“I don’t want to…”
But Azyeth simply shook her head.
“W-Why?”
“You. You froze people. You froze our kingdom. I… won’t forgive you.”
Thump!
Skadia’s heart sank.
He staggered in mid-air, reeling from the shock.
“M-My princess…”
To put Skadia’s feelings into an easily understandable analogy, it was like watching a beautiful young girl transform into a middle-aged woman. The sense of loss was indescribable.
That sense of loss soon turned to rage, and that rage was directed at the dwarves.
“How dare you lay a hand on my princess! I will freeze you alive and make you feel the agony of your bodies shattering to pieces! Your souls will never escape your fragmented flesh!”
Kwang!
“Ugh!”
“Don’t… make people sad.”
“P-Princess…!”
As Azyeth struck the top of his head with her sword, Skadia pressed a massive hand to the point of impact, his eyes welling with tears.
Meanwhile, the dwarves on the ground were witnessing a sight they had never seen before.
“This is… not what I expected.”
“He got hit by the princess.”
They knew they shouldn’t, but they couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for Skadia. A few dwarves even considered it a reward.
But that feeling lasted only for a moment.
Skadia soon came to his senses.
“Very well. If you will not come willingly, then I shall take you by force, Princess!”
Boldly declaring his intent to kidnap her, Skadia roared, signaling the resumption of the battle.
His opponent was a dragon, one of the strongest species.
There was no room for carelessness.
Azyeth heightened her senses to their peak.
Skadia floated in the sky, observing the situation on the ground.
His opponent was a kingdom representing an entire race. This was on a different level from a mere city he had once defeated with a snort. Even for Skadia, fighting recklessly was risky.
Moreover, if he misjudged his strength and hurt Azyeth, it would be a disaster.
Therefore, his first priority was to make full use of his advantage as a dragon.
“I shall engrave upon your tiny bodies the true meaning of the Incarnation of Winter!”
Skadia beat his wings.
A breath attack consumed a significant amount of power. It wasn’t something to be spammed recklessly.
But of course, a breath attack wasn’t his only weapon.
Ice formed high in the sky.
An enormous ice meteor, reminiscent of a glacier, began to fall.
“Whoa.”
It was an overwhelming sight, one you might see once in a lifetime. One dwarf stood frozen, letting out a sound of awe.
“What are you gawking at? Fire, unless you want to become an ice-walnut!”
Startled by Hargran's roar, the dwarves snapped to their senses, adjusted the angle of their ballistae, and aimed. They released the strings, launching the loaded bolts.
“Do you think you can stop my ice with mere bolts?!”
Just after Skadia roared, dozens of large bolts exploded the moment they neared the ice meteor.
BOOM!
The meteor shattered, scattering fragments in all directions. The remaining debris fell toward the legion below, but the turret barriers deployed, blocking them without any damage.
“Kyahaha! How do you like the taste of my bombs! Explosions are art, after all!”
It was an explosive bolt designed by Perka, the explosive-maniac and eldest daughter of the Nobel family—an eccentric among eccentrics in the dwarven race, and suspiciously skilled with gunpowder.
By activating the detonator, it was possible to make them explode at the desired moment. It was a weapon that maximized explosive power, focusing on damage from the blast rather than precision strikes.
Even Skadia, who had lived for eons, had never seen such a thing.
“Don’t stop! Keep firing!”
The dwarves loaded new bolts onto the ballistae and fired. The bolts flew near Skadia and exploded one after another.
“Fire! Don’t hold back! Give him everything you’ve got!”
BOOM! K-K-K-KABOOM!
Flames embroidered the sky.
The world grew so bright it felt as if dawn had broken.
Caught in the raging aftershock, Skadia curled his wings to shield his body.
In contrast to the violent surroundings, Skadia was completely unshaken. Not a single scratch marred his pale blue scales.
This was no lesser dragon, but the Ice Dragon Skadia. Ordinary attacks could not damage his scales of ice.
Knowing this better than anyone, Skadia remained unhurried amidst the baptism of explosions. He waited behind the curtain of smoke for his moment.
Resources were finite.
They had barely a month to prepare.
The longer the battle dragged on, the greater the disadvantage for the dwarves, and they knew it. Perka Nobel's explosive bolts were also quickly running out.
The real battle would begin when the bolts ran out.
The dwarves gathered what little saliva they had and swallowed hard.
The number of bolts, which had been raining down, decreased sharply. The light of the explosions that had flashed across the night sky began to fade, and just before it died out completely…
“Fire!”
Harpoons connected to chains were fired from four directions.
The chains wrapped around Skadia's wings.
Chains with maximized resistance to cold.
There was a limit to what projectiles could achieve.
Ultimately, if they couldn't drag Skadia down, they couldn't proceed.
“Puuuuull!”
At the signal, the dwarves pulled on the chains.
The chains grew taut.
The world's greatest tug-of-war between the dwarves and Skadia had begun.
“Heave, ho! Heave, ho!”
“Don't just empty your heads, pull with the rhythm! Like you're pounding your wife!”
“What about those of us without a wife?”
“Do it like you're doing it to the neighbor's wife!”
The dwarves, united as one, pulled on the chains with all their might.
Among the many races, dwarves boasted exceptional strength. Even their rivals, the elves, acknowledged their raw power.
As these dwarves combined their strength, Skadia's colossal body, which had seemed immovable as it floated high in the sky, began to slowly descend.
“How dare you rabble!”
Skadia flexed his wings, and the chains whipped violently. Dwarves went tumbling one after another.
He gave them no time to regroup.
Fweee.
A sharp, piercing sound.
Thousands of ice awls rained down from the sky.
It was uncertain if the barriers could block them completely.
Just as hundreds of dwarf skewers were about to be made by the sharp awls…
Kiiiiing!
The sharp hum of mana activating.
Azyeth, who had been waiting in the sky, had already leaped into action.
She swung her sword, and a flash of cold light erupted.
The sword energy swept the awls away.
“Hnngh!”
On the ground, Hargran sent the awls flying with the wind from a full swing of his hammer.
In that time, the dwarves who had reformed their ranks pulled on the chains once more.
“Heave, ho! Heave, ho! Heave… ho!”
“Grk…! These bastards…!”
Skadia drew closer and closer to the ground.
And then, finally.
THUD…!
The dragon fell to the earth.
“Now! Everyone, charge!”
The dwarves not holding the chains grabbed their weapons and ran. Layers of war cries and stomping feet shook the earth like thunder.
“Fools! Do you think dragging me down will accomplish anything?!”
Dragon Roar.
With a single roar from Skadia, the faint of heart collapsed.
They numbered half of the charging warriors.
“Ugh! Don’t fall back! Keep advancing!”
Someone shouted, but even managing to get close was a problem.
The cold radiating from Skadia's heart—the Frost Heart that made him an Ice Dragon—was dozens of times more powerful than the aura Azyeth emitted under his grace.
It operated twenty-four-seven, freezing all unworthy matter.
Even with cold-resistant gear, there was a limit; not becoming an ice statue was the best they could hope for. Most couldn't even attack, struggling just to stay on their feet.
Skadia swiped his claws. There was no technique to it, but dozens of dwarven warriors were helplessly swept away by the overwhelming mass.
“Tch!”
Hargran raised his mana to maximum output.
He pulled his hammer back as far as it would go and slammed it into the ground with all his might.
KRA-KOOM!
A blast accompanied by a deafening roar shot up and rushed toward Skadia. The ground where Skadia stood exploded, sending up a massive cloud of earth.
“How was that! My hammer! I bet that left a nice dent in your gut!” Hargran shouted confidently.
Fwoosh!
As soon as he boasted, the dust cloud vanished as if sucked into a single point.
A colossal shadow moved.
Skadia slammed his foreleg onto the ground.
In the blink of an eye.
When they opened their eyes, the dwarves were no longer standing on earth, but on a sheet of ice.
The dwarves' solid ground had been transformed into a fragile ice rink.
Crack.
Cra-crack.
A grating, ominous cracking sound.
Countless fissures began to spread across the floor.
“W-What the?”
The cold had penetrated to the very roots of the earth.
They were standing on the ground, but it was also the ceiling of the underground city of Doomheim.
Skadia's target wasn't the dwarves, but Doomheim itself. If they could block his attacks, he would simply use an attack they couldn't block.
Rumble…!
The ground swayed violently with a tremor.
No one was mistaken about what it meant.
“Everyone, evacuate! The floor is collapsing!”
By the time they realized it, it was already too late.
They couldn't run fast on their short legs. As dwarves who shunned the mystical arts, they lacked the time and means to respond to a sudden cataclysm.
Skadia spoke coldly.
“Your spirit is commendable, but for dwarves to crawl out from underground… this place is far too high for the likes of you.”
CRASH.
The ground shattered.
The dwarves' endless fall began.