AoP | B2 | Chapter 54: Ice Elemental (Patreon)

Seth ran a few steps behind Kaelen, Nightmare pacing silently at his side. The direwolf remained tense, a low growl rumbling in his chest as his crimson eyes lingered on the assassin's back.

They took a left, their boots skidding and dashed down a steep slope. With an unnerving sense of direction, the assassin had found a narrow, winding path that descended several levels into the heart of the cave. They weaved through the labyrinth of tunnels, catching fleeting glimpses of Elementals—mostly Earth ones—that snapped their heads toward the sound of their passing, only to find them already gone.

Kaelen stayed silent at the front. He hadn't spoken a word since they'd begun to make their way down the chasm, and Seth was pleased with that.

What was there to say? In two weeks, they would be on opposite sides of a war, fated to clash until one—or both—wind up dead. Killing him now wouldn't make much of a difference, either; the Empire would just send another combatant into the Warfare Rift. Still, a primal part of Seth yearned for the fight, an instinct that craved the chance to test his strength against another apex predator again.

"I can feel both of your bloodlust," Kaelen said at the front, not even glancing back. "It's starting to annoy me. Tone it down."

Seth glared at the assassin's back. The order grated on him, but he reined in his instincts, reminding himself of the reason he had chosen to make a truce. Colossus came first.

'I get it,' Nightmare said through Link beside Seth. 'Better to find Little Bite before we attack that person again.'

Seth was caught off guard by the direwolf's moment of introspection. The months of having a younger member in their party were starting to show in him. 'Yeah. We hold our fangs. For Colossus.'

'You don't have fangs,' Nightmare retorted.

'It's a figure of speech, dummy.' 

When Kaelen turned into another tunnel, Seth cast his consciousness inward, reaching through Link for any sign of Colossus, but was met once more with only emptiness. A moment later, they found yet another slope that led deeper into the cave, but as they stepped onto it, Seth saw two figures blocking their path: an Earth Elemental and a Wind Elemental.

Kaelen glanced at Seth. "Kill the Earth one. Those shadow blades of yours seem to ignore a good chunk of Toughness."

Seth's hands tightened in his gauntlets. Using his most powerful spell now would put it on cooldown and leave him weaker for an ambush. "No. You kill it with that shadow spell of yours."

Kaelen let out an exasperated sigh and dashed toward the Earth Elemental, his dagger igniting with a phantom purple energy. He flowed around the golem's clumsy attacks with a deadly grace.

Seth immediately charged toward the Wind one, which was already launching crescent-shaped blades of air toward the Dark Assassin. Seth intercepted them and used Iron Fists to disperse the projectiles. The next instant, Nightmare lunged in, tearing through the creature of swirling air with a devastating Shadow Bite. Seth joined in as he reared back his arm and cast Phantom Punch.

A second later, the massive fist of teal aether slammed into the Wind Elemental and shattered its torso, causing it to dissipate in a violent blast of air. A green crystal clinked to the cavern floor. Seth spun to help Kaelen, but saw the Earth Elemental was already a pile of lifeless rubble at the assassin's feet. 

Without even glancing at the beaststone, Kaelen dashed down the slope to move to the next cave's level. Seth left the Wind Elemental's stone behind and followed, Nightmare huffing in annoyance at the abandoned loot as he trailed after them.

For the next eight to ten hours, they fell into a rhythm while descending deeper and deeper into the Rift. They navigated treacherous ledges and crossed more subterranean chasms, often forced to cut down small patrols of elementals that stood in their way. After a few more clashes, the knot of tension in Seth's gut began to loosen. He felt no threat from the assassin, no simmering bloodlust; it was now evident that he only wanted to find his sister as quickly as possible.

After what felt like an eternity, the trio finally reached the bottom of the chasm. The air was thick with mist as the deafening roar of the river filled the cavern. They stood on a gravel-strewn shore directly next to the wide, violent river that snaked through the immense cavern. Seth's gaze shot upward to the jagged edges of the broken bridges far above, then scanned the shoreline—there were no bodies.

No sign of Kaelen's sister. No sign of Colossus.

Both Seth and Kaelen peered into the turbulent water, but the speed of the current turned the riverbed into a murky, indecipherable blur. All they could do was hope their partners had stayed afloat long enough to reach the shore.

"Let's follow the river," Seth said, hoping it would lead them to wherever their companions had been carried.

Kaelen gave a brief nod and took off along the bank, Nightmare pacing beside him. They hadn't gone far before all three stopped dead. Nightmare's Danger Sense flared like a wildfire, and Seth's core pulsed with a frantic warning; even Kaelen's expression tightened, his hand drifting to his dagger.

Ahead, a lone figure hovered in the gloom.

It was an Elemental—though unlike any Seth had seen before. Its body wasn't made of rock or wind, but from solid, translucent ice that caught the faint light and fractured it into rays of blue and white. A freezing gale spiraled around its base, suspending its torso above the ground like a specter of winter. Two jagged arms hovered at its sides, detached yet perfectly synchronized, while its triangular head bore twin hollows that burned with an eerie, glacial light. From its aura and the intensity of Danger Sense, it was either at the Peak of the Iron Tier… or low Silver.

Kaelen hesitated, his body already turning. "Let's head back to the upper floor and find another path."

"No," Seth said at once. "It could take us hours to find another way down. Hours that your sister and my friend might not have."

The Dark Assassin's brow furrowed, frustration flashing across his face. "So you'd rather prefer we die here? How exactly does that help us?"

A low, guttural rumble rolled from Nightmare's throat, laced with aetheric menace. "We're not dying, knife boy. If you don't want to fight, then stand back and watch."

Kaelen's eyes widened, clearly taken aback that the direwolf could speak aloud, while Seth cast a quick glance at Nightmare. He wasn't as confident as his companion, since the distortion field was still up, preventing him from using his artifacts—but with Beastmaster Rage now off cooldown, their chances weren't zero.

If Seth's gut was right, the creature ahead could be at Silver Tier.

Just as the jump from Copper to Iron granted a hundred attributes, the leap from Iron to Silver offered three hundred—an almost insurmountable gap. Without Colossus to take the brunt of the blows, this fight would be brutal.

But when had they ever turned away from a fight they could possibly win?

Seth felt a spark of excitement stir—not from his hungry core this time, but his own heart. He wanted this fight. Finding the easiest solution had never been his way. 

'Ready?' he asked through the Link to Nightmare.

'Oh yeah!' the direwolf growled back.

Kaelen's gaze flicked between Seth and the Ice Elemental, disbelief flashing across his features. "You Primalists really don't value your lives, do you. This isn't danger—it's suicide. It's a waste of—"

Seth and Nightmare charged before he could finish. The direwolf disappeared into Illusionary Emptiness, and as the glacial blue eyes of the creature locked onto Seth, Intermediate Identify's information appeared in the corner of his vision.

Ice Elemental

Potential: Silver Tier            Rank: 62 (Low-Silver)

Affinity: Ice                         

Strength: 149                       Arcane Power: 191

Toughness: 201                   Well Capacity: 193

Agility: 115                           Regeneration: 169

Just as he'd thought, a Silver-Tier beast. Its stats were staggering. 

The power gap was one most Wielders could never hope to cross. And yet a savage, predatory smile spread across Seth's face. They had killed the Iron-Tier Night Beetle while only Copper. How was this any different?

Seth's core exploded in his chest, flooding him with its primal energy. He cast Beastmaster Rage, and the spell's crimson veil descended over his vision. Its raw power coursed through his body in a burning tide and surged through Link, enveloping Nightmare with the same fiery aura. 

The direwolf let out a guttural howl, and the aether-infused sound boomed across the cavern to plunge into the Ice Elemental. Without wasting a second, Nightmare cast Chains of Darkness. A wolf of pure shadow lunged from his maw, but the Elemental reacted instantly by raising its arms to summon a translucent wall of ice. At Nightmare's command, the dark wolf flowed around the barrier and pounced to turn into binds. Yet the thorny vines struggled to find any grip on the creature's slick, crystalline body, sliding off with a sound like screeching metal.

Seth dashed forward, aether surging into Huntbound Rush. Before he could reach the Silver creature, though, the hollow sockets of its icy skull glowed with a flash of glacial blue light. With a simple gesture, it unleashed a hailstorm of razor-sharp ice shards that tore through the air with a high-pitched shriek. 

Nightmare blurred to the side, dodging the deadly barrage, while Seth used Shadow Step. He vanished and reappeared directly beside the Elemental, his gauntlets already encased in the stony gray power of Iron Fists. He drove a punch into the foe's side. The impact was like punching a mountain; a deep boom echoed through the cavern, and tiny fractures spiderwebbed across the elemental's icy form, but it barely staggered.

In retaliation, the creature unleashed a point-blank spell. The explosion of frigid energy blasted Seth backward. He crossed his arms to shield himself, but his leather armor was instantly coated in a thick layer of frost that sapped both strength and speed from his limbs as he skidded across the ground. Nightmare seized the opening to launch the counter.

His fangs, dripping with the corrosive black miasma of Shadow Bite, clamped down on the lowest part of Elemental's torso. The smoke hissed violently against the ice, melting and charring the crystalline surface, but the damage was superficial; worse, the creature's body regenerated almost as fast as it was being corroded.

A beat later, the Elemental's left upper limb shifted, and a blade of pure, translucent ice appeared in its hand. The frigid blade instantly slashed down toward the direwolf. Nightmare leaped aside but didn't fully evade and took a glancing blow that sent him tumbling across the cavern with a pained yelp. 

A fresh surge of rage surged through Seth's chest as he summoned his Dusk Scythes. The dark blades of condensed aether flared to life along his forearms, and he lunged forward. Besides, Nightmare scrambled to his feet and vanished into the shadows.

The battle's intensity spiked. Seth weaved around the Elemental's sweeping ice blade, his own scythes slicing through the air in blurs of darkness. Each strike carved deep gashes into the creature's crystalline form, driving it backward step by step. Whenever the Elemental turned its focus on him, Nightmare struck from the flank, his corrosive bite tearing through the already-weakened ice.

Together, they fought with a brutal, coordinated fury—a storm of fang, claws, and shadow that repeatedly battered a fortress of unyielding frost.

They landed blow after blow, the sound of their strikes echoing in the cavern each time they chipped away at the Elemental, sending showers of ice crystals into the air. But for every wound they inflicted, every deep gouge left in its crystalline body, the creature drew on the frosty air and regenerated with infuriating persistence.

It then returned their attacks with powerful swings of its blade that slammed into Seth's Dusk Scythes and blasts of freezing wind that clung to their limbs, slowing their movements to a crawl. Seth gritted his teeth as the shadow blades on his forearms faded.

As if sensing his irritation, the Elemental changed tactics. 

It slammed its fist into the ground with a deafening boom. A wave of intense cold radiated outward and the cavern floor flash-froze, the stone turning into a treacherous sheet of nearly invisible ice. Without warning, jagged spikes erupted from the icy ground. Seth threw himself into a desperate roll, a frozen spike tearing through the air where he had been a moment before. 

Nightmare, however, was caught off guard. He managed to use Shadow Step and evade the spell, but as he reappeared, his paws found no grip on the slick surface. He slipped, and in that instant of vulnerability, a cage of ice shot up from the floor, trapping his hind legs in an unbreakable grip.

The Elemental slid forward and raised its bladed arm, the glacial blue light in its eyes intensifying for the killing blow. Seth scrambled to his feet, but he was too far away. Still, he dashed forward, his muscles swelling as he tried to close the distance, to get in range for Shadow Step—with a sickening certainty, he knew he wouldn't make it in time.

Clang!

The sound of metal on ice was deafening, a high-pitched shriek that vibrated through Seth's bones. Kaelen had appeared from nowhere between Nightmare and the Elemental. His twin daggers, glowing with the phantom purple energy, had caught the descending blade, stopping the fatal strike inches from the direwolf's head.

Sparks of ice and shadow flew as Kaelen's weapons screamed against the Elemental's sword, the sheer force of the blow pushing him backward, his boots carving trenches in the ground. 

"Free your beast!" he yelled at Seth.

Seth didn't need to be told twice; he ignored the Elemental and Shadow Stepped to Nightmare's side, driving his gauntleted fist into the crystalline prison. The ice fractured but held.

Cursing, Seth gathered aether and unleashed Phantom Punch. The massive teal fist erupted from his arm and smashed into the prison with a thunderous crack, shattering it into a storm of glittering shards.

Freed, the direwolf sprang back and immediately cast Chains of Darkness. The shadow wolf burst forth in a thorny vine that wrapped tightly around the Elemental's torso. Its movements faltered, and the cold precision of its strikes dulled as the spell drained its Agility.

Kaelen disengaged briefly, then began to launch short clashes against the hindered Elemental, his glowing daggers becoming a series of impossibly fast strikes that chipped and scored the creature's icy hide. Seth joined in, his rage-fueled punches hammering the elemental's torso while Nightmare harried its back. Each of Seth's impacts created new, deep fractures across its form, and together the three of them slowly overwhelmed the Silver-Tier beast.

The Ice Elemental let out a sound like grinding glaciers as it fully ignored their attacks. The next moment, it began to draw in the frigid air of the cavern, the temperature around it plummeting to an unbearable, bone-aching cold. The blinding blue light in its hollow sockets grew in intensity with each passing second as if two miniature stars were being born from within. 

"Shit!" Seth bellowed, whipping around. "Get back!"

He, Kaelen, and Nightmare bolted in unison, sprinting across the uneven ground, desperate to put as much distance between themselves and the creature. A heartbeat later, the spell erupted. 

A blizzard of ice exploded from the Elemental, spear-like shards ripping through the cavern in all directions.

They were all caught in the blast. Kaelen tried to melt into the shadows, but one of the lances clipped him mid-transition, sending his blurry form hurling violently to the side. Nightmare's Shadow Step came a fraction too late, and the direwolf took the brunt of a strike with a pained howl.

Seth, with nowhere to go, spun and crossed his gauntlets before his face while trying to activate his Protecting Belt—but the distortion field was still up. The impact hit like an avalanche, hurling him backward as the world shattered into a blur of ice, light, and crushing force. The rocks covering his arm crumbled instantly, and like Nightmare and Kaelen, he was sent flying.

A second later, he crashed into the far cavern walls, and pain shot through his creaking bones and frosted skin. The crimson veil of Beastmaster Rage faded at almost the same time, and the backlash hit him like a physical blow, his Toughness plummeting and leaving him vulnerable. 

He pushed himself to his knees, his body screaming in protest. Across the chamber, Kaelen also struggled to his feet, a deep gash bleeding freely from his side. Nearby, Nightmare lay in a whimpering heap, his black fur caked with ice and blood.

But the next instant, Seth's eyes widened—the Elemental had paid a price for its attack. Its body was fractured and deformed, the brilliant blue light of its core flickering as streams of aether leaked into the air like steam from a cracked boiler.

Kaelen, though bleeding significantly, was the fastest to recover. He turned into a dark streak, and an instant later his daggers found a deep fissure in the Elemental's chest and twisted to pry it wider. Nightmare followed and drew on a desperate surge of aether from his Well before casting his most potent Shadow Bite. He lunged, biting down on the Elemental's fissured body and pouring every bit of his strength into the corrosive smoke that flooded the creature's core. Light seemed to cease to exist inside; Darkness became the sole sovereign.

The Elemental shrieked and tried to swat them away, its movements now disjointed. But Seth was already there. He pulled the last dregs of aether from his own Well, channeling all of it into one final, all-or-nothing Phantom Punch. The spectral, skeletal fist materialized around his gauntlet, larger and more terrifying than every other time he'd used it before—besides against Lucius. He drove it straight into the smoking fissure with a thunderous crash.

For a heartbeat, the cavern fell silent. Then came a deep groan.

A single crack appeared across the Ice Elemental's body before spreading like a broken piece of glass. With a deafening snap, the creature then shattered into millions of lifeless ice crystals that flew in all directions.

The three of them stood, or rather, slumped amid the cold rain of shards. Seth dropped to one knee, gasping, the sharp stab in his chest confirming what he already knew: broken ribs. Kaelen leaned heavily against the cavern wall, one hand clamped to his bleeding side while Nightmare, battered and bleeding, forced himself upright with a low, pained growl.

Joy and pride flashed in the direwolf's eyes as he looked at Seth, who grinned in return. Only Kaelen remained stone-faced, his expression as grim as ever.

Apparently, smiling was not part of his skill set.