Chapter 103: The Vital Spot
Thwack!
"N-no!"
"Walfred...!"
Watching from the rear of the battlefield, Margaret and the Hunters cried out in shock.
But Walfred himself was perfectly fine.
There were two reasons.
[Defense: Frost Shield activated]
[Damage received: Frost attribute]
[70% of damage absorbed]
One was that [Frost Shield], which he’d set up like insurance, had activated.
The other was that Walfred’s own cold resistance was excessively high.
-----
[Frost-attribute damage confirmed]
[Passive: Cold Resistance] - Activated
[Blessing of the Frost Dragon: Cold/Frost Tolerance] - Activated
[90% of final damage is reduced.]
-----
After absorbing the attribute damage, the final damage was dramatically reduced on top of that. If the ice horns’ damage was 100, he’d taken a mere 3.
Maybe that was why.
’I figured it’d hurt quite a bit, but...’
It was less than nothing.
If he had to put it into words, it was about the pain of someone punching him through a padded winter coat.
At this level...
’Couldn’t I just fight while taking the hits?’
Right after arriving at that simple conclusion.
Walfred shifted his approach. He’d minimize dodging and defense and pour everything into attacking.
He applied an [Ice Shatter] mark once more with [Ice Needle], and this time, instead of dodging the attacks, he traded blows head-on.
Thwack! Thwk-thwk-thwk! Whump!
The Spirit King firing off ice horns.
Walfred taking every one of them with his body and swinging his axe like a madman. The two of them did nothing but trade attacks, over and over.
Margaret and the Hunters gaped.
"G-good lord..."
"He’s fighting while taking all of that?"
Attacks that seemed fatal from a single hit, Walfred had already taken dozens of times over.
Enough to leave his winter coat in tatters.
His momentum, on the other hand, didn’t waver. If anything, he kept pressing the offensive harder and harder.
At that, the one who panicked was the Spirit King.
[⟁⧌⫷! ⚸⚸⚸⟐⌖─!?]
It had no face, so the exact emotion was hard to read, but the voice it had just let out clearly carried confusion and bewilderment.
In the end, it was the Spirit King that backed down first.
Apparently anticipating that, at this rate, Walfred’s axe would shatter its shell, the thing suddenly contracted its massive body like a balloon deflating.
Skrrrrrnk!
The enormous body, over thirty feet tall, shrank down to about ten feet in an instant. Then, with a violent re-expansion, it spewed out a powerful blast of cold.
BWOOOOM!
"Guh!"
In the aftermath of the strong repulsive force from the sudden expansion, Walfred’s body was shoved far back.
Having succeeded in shaking Walfred off, the Spirit King dyed its whole body a deep blue. At the ominous change, Walfred narrowed his eyes.
’What’s it trying to do?’
As he steadied himself and stayed wary.
A warning message appeared.
[Warning! Warning!]
[The Frost Spirit King reinforces its domain.]
[Powerful cold spreads through the Permafrost.]
[The ambient temperature is plummeting.]
[Current temperature: -148°F]
The temperature dropped in an instant.
It seemed the thing meant to lower the temperature to the extreme and slow Walfred’s movements.
Walfred snorted a laugh.
"Heh, yeah. Bring it lower."
His basic passive skill [Cold Resistance].
On top of that, the Cold/Frost Tolerance included in [Blessing of the Frost Dragon]. Thanks to the synergy of those two skills, Walfred no longer felt the cold at all.
’And more than anything, if the temperature drops...’
The whole area would fill with powerful cold.
That would be a huge help to Elsa, who was still busily absorbing cold. It meant she could stockpile mana even faster.
Inwardly mocking the Spirit King’s wasted effort, Walfred readied himself for battle once again. And just as he was about to charge the thing again.
Ding!
[Special skill unlock conditions met.]
[A new special skill has been acquired.]
[Blessing of the Frost Dragon: Absolute Zero]
"...?"
An unexpected notification suddenly appeared.
It said that one of the three special skills that had remained locked within [Blessing of the Frost Dragon] had now been unlocked.
In the meantime, the effects of [Absolute Zero] appeared.
-----
[Blessing of the Frost Dragon: Absolute Zero]
[When the ambient temperature falls below -148°F, for every additional degree the temperature drops, all physical abilities increase slightly.]
[This skill can only activate while the Blessing of the Frost Dragon is active.]
▷Physical ability increase: +20%
▶Upon reaching absolute zero, all physical abilities accumulated so far are doubled.
-----
A special skill included in the Blessing of the Frost Dragon.
The activation mechanism and effects of [Absolute Zero] were quite similar to Walfred’s [Frost Domain].
The difference, if any, was that it only activated when the surrounding environment was below -148°F.
And right now, thanks to the Spirit King reinforcing its domain, this place met that condition.
’The current temperature is -184°F.’
Walfred’s body had been enhanced by +400%.
No, more precisely, all of his physical abilities were being enhanced in real time. Because even at this very moment, the temperature was still dropping.
’Nice.’
Along with a powerful surge of exhilaration.
Walfred gripped his ice axe.
"Accelerate."
And immediately kicked off the ground.
Then he used [Ice Needle] to attack the thing again. He’d apply an [Ice Shatter] mark, and this time he meant to break its shell for good.
But the Spirit King wasn’t a pushover either.
Apparently having learned the power of [Ice Shatter], it conjured a strong wind and destroyed every [Ice Needle].
Fwit-fwit-fwit! Crrk!
And that wasn’t all.
The Spirit King, seeming to realize that close-quarters combat was disadvantageous, began to dodge and dart about.
Whenever Walfred closed the distance, it quickly soared into the sky, and while keeping a set interval, it rained down attacks with its ice horns and spikes.
’...Annoying.’
Walfred furrowed his brow.
Just a little more.
If his body were enhanced just a bit more, he felt he could latch onto the thing before it ran.
Walfred put the third [Ice Orb] into his mouth and swallowed it. Then he glared at the Spirit King in the air, timing his leap.
And then.
Wuuuuum!
The Spirit King’s body, up in the sky, began to glow blue once again.
’This pattern...’
The same phenomenon as when it reinforced its domain earlier.
What kind of stunt was it going to pull this time?
As he narrowed his eyes, Julie and Damon behind him made startled faces.
"L-look over there!"
"The spirits...!"
The place the two were pointing to.
It was the entrance of the liberated gate. The instant Walfred’s gaze turned that way, beings of a familiar shape came pouring out from beyond the gate.
It was the Frost Spirits.
"Kyaaaaah!"
"Skreeee!"
Blanketing the sky, the things let out enraged roars at Walfred, who stood against their king.
Watching that.
"Ha."
Walfred let out a dry laugh.
Then, with a sneer, he asked back.
"Can’t take me one-on-one, so you’ll gang up with numbers?"
Hundreds of Frost Spirits.
But Walfred wasn’t flustered.
If anything, he was pleased.
Because he had a Mark that enhanced his body the more enemies there were around him.
[Mark activation conditions met.]
[Mark of One-Versus-a-Hundred: Activated]
The Mark of One-Versus-a-Hundred, activated right on cue.
As the tattoo carved into his forearm blazed bright red, an additional notification message appeared.
-----
[Mark of One-Versus-a-Hundred]
▷Physical abilities: +10% per enemy
▷Maximum increase: +1,000%
[Currently detected hostile forces: 347]
[Condition maximum exceeded]
[The Mark holder’s physical abilities are enhanced by the maximum limit (+1,000%).]
-----
An effect that grew stronger in proportion to the number of enemies.
The Frost Spirits easily exceeded the maximum applicable count of one hundred, and thanks to that, he gained a whopping +1,000% physical enhancement.
"...Whew."
Power erupting madly throughout his whole body.
Along with a sensation like his blood was boiling, all of his senses expanded far beyond what they’d been.
At the same time, his confidence soared.
Enough that he felt he could reach the Spirit King just by leaping.
And then.
"────!"
"──!"
Hundreds of Frost Spirits came flying at Walfred. Maybe because they’d attacked the Spirit King, the effect of [Frost Resonance] seemed to have worn off.
Walfred gripped his axe in a reverse hold.
To tear through the spirits in one go and leap toward the Spirit King. Then, just as he bent his knees and was about to kick off the ground.
[Don’t go near my daddy!]
Elsa’s Dragon Tongue activated.
The Dragon Tongue, ringing thunderously through the area, swept over the Frost Spirits like a wave, and the ones lunging at Walfred instantly froze in place.
Halt!
As if someone had hit a pause button.
At that overwhelming control, the Spirit King flinched, seemingly flustered. And Walfred didn’t miss the small opening it created.
KABOOOOOM!
Walfred kicked off the ground in a single burst.
Launched like a missile, he reached the Spirit King’s face in the blink of an eye. Then, with his enhanced grip, he seized the thing’s outer shell in one motion.
"Finally got you."
[─!?]
The Spirit King in a panic.
Clinging tightly to the thing, Walfred used [Ice Needle] one after another. After successfully carving an [Ice Shatter] mark.
He drove his axe in with everything he had.
KA-THWOOOOOM! Crrrunch!
The blow, loaded with monstrous force, shattered the Spirit King’s outer shell in a single stroke and tore a huge wound into it.
Walfred grabbed the wounded section with both hands and began to force it open.
Crrrk! Krrk!
The inner layer steadily prying apart.
Feeling an extreme crisis, the Spirit King thrashed with a scream, but Walfred clung on like a leech and wouldn’t come off.
And then.
Crrrraaack!
The wound tore wide open.
Along with it, deep inside the Spirit King’s body, he saw something glowing a deep blue. An unidentified substance pulsing regularly like a heart.
The moment he saw it, he knew by instinct.
That this was the thing’s vital spot.
"So that’s where you were."
Walfred smiled coldly.