Chapter 102: Absolute Immunity
Margaret wore a dazed expression.
She stared at the situation unfolding before her as if she couldn’t believe it. Then, realizing that what she was seeing was real, she opened her mouth.
"W-Walfred? Why are you here...?"
"It’s a long story to explain."
Without taking his eyes off the Spirit King.
Walfred answered flatly.
"There’s plenty I’d like to ask too, but..."
Why the Spirit King had taken on a form like that.
Where the countless Frost Spirits that had been around here had vanished to. What exactly had happened that led to the failed extermination, and so on. All sorts of questions circled in his mouth.
But this was no time for that.
"Let’s talk about the details later."
Right now, he had to deal with that thing.
Gripping an ice axe in each hand, Walfred kept a careful watch on the Spirit King’s movements.
For something that had unleashed a ferocious assault on Margaret just moments ago, it looked relatively calm. The thing simply hovered in midair, gazing in their direction.
’No, more precisely...’
It was looking at Elsa.
Was it conscious of that gaze? Elsa looked back at the Spirit King, and quickly furrowed her brow.
"Yuck, it got ugly."
"...Weren’t you saying it was cute earlier?"
"It was back then, but now it’s weird!"
It had only sprouted horns and spikes from the shape it had first appeared in, but Elsa clearly wasn’t fond of the Spirit King’s changed look at all.
The Spirit King, on the other hand, didn’t waver in the slightest, simply staring silently at Elsa.
’Some kind of feeling-out match?’
From a Hunter’s point of view, both Elsa and the Spirit King were Boss Monsters. So maybe it was trying to size up its opponent’s caliber, stay wary, and probe.
As he was forming that guess.
"Cough, cough!"
"Ngh, m-my legs..."
Pained sounds came from behind him.
Margaret, Damon, and Julie.
The three of them were being eroded by the cold the Spirit King gave off, slowly freezing over. Noticing it belatedly, Walfred turned to Elsa at once.
"Elsa."
"Yeah?"
"Could you go over to those people who look like they’re about to freeze to death and absorb some of the cold?"
"Okay!"
Elsa promptly ran over to the three of them.
Then she crouched on the ground and pressed her palms to their bodies. When [Cold Absorption] activated, something amazing soon happened.
Shhhhhhhh!
The cold, frigid enough to freeze them to the bone, began rapidly disappearing. At that astonishing phenomenon, Margaret and the Hunters widened their eyes.
"H-how...?"
Surprise, bewilderment, shock, and more.
The three looked at Elsa with eyes full of mixed emotions. Meanwhile, having absorbed all the cold, Elsa waved toward Walfred.
"Daddy, all done!"
"Nice work. Then, do you think you could absorb the rest of the cold spread around this area too?"
"Hmm... Okay!"
Elsa made a momentarily reluctant face, but moved to follow Walfred’s words without complaint.
Elsa’s [Cold Absorption] didn’t simply end with absorbing cold. It had the effect of converting the absorbed cold into mana and stockpiling it.
’Right now Elsa’s remaining mana is around 40%.’
That was the result of using [Dragon Tongue] over and over.
So while the chance was there, it was better to bank a decent amount of mana. Having settled his thoughts, Walfred turned his gaze back to the Spirit King.
’Still no intention of coming at me?’
If so, all the better.
It meant he had time to prepare for the fight.
Walfred snatched one of the ice marbles orbiting his body like a satellite. It was an [Ice Orb], formed in response to [Cold Emission].
Crunch! Crrk!
He popped it into his mouth like hard candy and crunched it down.
And a moment later.
-----
[You have consumed an Ice Orb.]
[Physical abilities are enhanced.]
[Physical Enhancement]: +500%
[Duration]: 180 seconds
-----
Strength surged through his whole body.
Now he had two [Ice Orb]s left.
He’d confirmed before that this buff didn’t stack, so he decided to eat the remaining [Ice Orb]s once the duration ran out.
’The next thing to do is...’
Walfred quietly stepped back.
Then, keeping his eyes fixed on the Spirit King, he spoke to Damon.
"Damon."
"...Yes?"
"Use [Shadow Man] on me, please."
A shadow-attribute A-rank Hunter.
Damon’s unique skill, [Shadow Man], could create a shadow double that copied 50% of the target’s physical abilities and skills.
Used well, it would be a considerable help in the fight. Damon nodded silently, as if to say he understood.
And a moment later.
-----
[A skill-grant request has arrived.]
[Unique: Shadow Man (Lv.5)]
[Do you wish to accept this request?]
[YES] / [NO]
-----
He accepted the request without hesitation.
And in that instant.
Shhhrrrk!
Walfred’s shadow vanished without a trace.
Then, where the shadow had been, a double with a face identical to his rose up. Same height, same build, same face, even the same clothing, all of it identical.
At the appearance of this so-called shadow Walfred, Elsa, who had been absorbing cold, opened her eyes wide.
"Oh! There’s two Daddies now!"
Elsa giggled as if it were great fun.
Meanwhile, had it finished its probing?
The Spirit King, which had been keeping a careful watch on Elsa the whole time, finally moved.
Grrriiink!
The enormous ice horns sprouting from its outer shell shifted direction and took aim at Elsa. Then, with tremendous propulsion, a dozen or so ice horns launched.
The ice horns hurtled at Elsa with a terrifying momentum, as if to grind her into paste.
And then.
Thwack! Krsh! Thwoooom!
Before they could even reach Elsa.
Every one of them shattered.
"Not happening."
Walfred had read the Spirit King’s action and blocked the way in front of Elsa in advance.
Now that he’d grasped the thing’s attack trajectory, Walfred immediately closed the distance with [Instant Burst]. Then he swung his ice axe and struck the thing’s body.
CLAAAANG!
The sound of ice colliding with ice.
A warning message appeared right after.
[Warning! Warning!]
[The target is immune to frost/cold.]
[No damage can be dealt.]
’Just as I expected.’
Every monster of a given attribute is immune to that attribute. In other words, against the Frost Spirit King, every frost-attribute skill was useless.
With one exception, [Ice Shatter].
"Ice Needle. Launch."
After lightly dodging the counterattack that followed.
Dozens of ice needles Walfred had created poured toward the Spirit King. The Spirit King, for its part, didn’t dodge and took all of them with its body.
Of course it would.
Since they were made of ice, it knew they couldn’t hurt it.
Fwit-fwit-fwit-fwit! Thwack!
And in time with Walfred’s attack, shadow Walfred poured out [Ice Needle] as well.
The number of needles generated was only half, but that didn’t matter at all. From the start, what he was after was just one thing.
’The goal is to rack up the number of hits.’
That way the chance of an [Ice Shatter] mark being applied went up. And this expectation hit the mark perfectly.
The instant the Spirit King took every [Ice Needle] fired by Walfred and shadow Walfred, a vivid brand was seared onto its outer shell.
[Blessing of the Frost Dragon: ’Ice Shatter’ mark applied]
[Ignores the target’s frost resistance.]
[Duration: 30 seconds]
The moment he saw it.
Walfred bored into the Spirit King’s chest with [Instant Burst]. Then, with all his might, he swung his axe straight at the dead center of its shell.
And then.
KA-THWOOOOOM!
Along with a sound utterly different from before.
The Spirit King, which had been standing so imposingly, was driven straight into the ground. At the intense impact, the Spirit King let out a bizarre scream.
[⍎⚸⟐⌖⍜···?!?!]
Plainly, it looked flustered.
There was no helping it.
It must have believed it had absolute immunity to the frost attribute, and that belief had just been broken.
Walfred, meanwhile, didn’t care whether it was flustered or not and rained down a fierce assault.
Whump! Thwk! Thwk-thwk! Crack!
A crazed flurry of axe blows, like chopping firewood.
Shadow Walfred, who’d rushed in from the other side, also swung his axe and battered the Spirit King. Under the merciless pounding, cracks ran even through the hard outer shell.
[────!]
Did it sense the danger?
Coming to its senses, the Spirit King began to counterattack.
Skrrrk! Fwit-fwit-fwit-fwit!
From the gaps in its swelling shell, the ice horns it had used to attack Elsa earlier shot out like missiles.
Dozens of ice horns.
They all broke away from its body at once and came flying at Walfred and shadow Walfred.
"Tch!"
The distance was too close.
Walfred hurriedly swung his axe and knocked away the incoming ice horns, but he couldn’t knock away the ones flying in from his blind spots.
In the end, three or four ice horns he couldn’t dodge struck home in his side.