Kyle and his team carefully looked at the clearing.
"Should be here somewhere," Kyle said. "The client said that it is somewhere underground, but they also said it wouldn't be hard to find."
Everyone looked around.
Icy mist was almost everywhere.
A normal person wouldn't be able to see their hand in front of their eyes.
Luckily, the team's senses were quite advanced, but that also only allowed them to sense the surrounding meters.
Eyes were not very useful here.
The way they sensed the surroundings was by sensing the Ether.
"Falk, can you check things out?" Kyle asked.
Falk was way faster and more agile than Kyle. If he accidentally came across the Icestone Fiend, he would be able to escape.
"Sure," Falk said, summoning his True Body and charging into the icy mist.
The team waited for almost 30 seconds until Falk returned.
"I think I found it," Falk reported.
"Think?" Sven asked with a raised brow.
"You've had one job!" Lily shouted. "This is the only thing-"
"Lily, not now," Kyle said with a serious expression.
Lily looked like she was about to explode with anger, but she simply looked at Kyle like she wanted to kill him.
Falk threw an annoyed glance at Lily before looking back at Kyle. "I found a big sheet of ice that's vibrating a bit."
Kyle nodded and looked at his team. "Let's go."
Falk led everyone to the sheet of ice.
The sheet was level with the ground and was about ten meters across.
From time to time, Kyle could feel some vibrations in the ground.
"That could be the Icestone Fiend," Kyle said. "It's an elemental Ore Fiend, which means it could have any kind of shape."
"I don't think it has noticed us yet. It is probably too busy consuming the surrounding Ice Ether. This is our chance," Kyle said.
"Sven, Michael, prepare to strike but let me be the one to initiate. Lily, I want your flying golems to fire later. In case I am in trouble, I want your ground golems to protect me."
Sven and Michael nodded while Lily looked with unwilling annoyance at Kyle.
Yet, she didn't protest.
"What about me?" Falk asked.
"You do your thing," Kyle said with a smile.
Falk looked at Kyle with a bit of uncertainty but nodded regardless.
When Kyle saw that everyone was ready, he nodded and walked forward.
He had already summoned his True Body, and his huge form slowly approached the sheet of ice.
As Kyle walked forward, his entire demeanor changed.
His eyes became steely, and his grip on his hammer tightened.
His instincts were already telling him that he was approaching tremendous danger.
According to his instincts, Kyle was approaching certain death.
This was not something he could fight on his own.
Luckily, he wasn't alone.
He stopped for a short moment.
Then, he jumped towards the sheet of ice.
He lifted his hammer and struck down.
Wind Dash and Boost increased Kyle's speed, which then got infused into his strike.
Air Current and another Boost increased the speed of his hammer even more.
Ether Strike made his hammer move faster and gave it much more power.
Finally, just before impact, the flat end of his hammer shone in a grey light.
This was a pretty advanced and expensive technique Kyle hadn't needed to use yet.
Blunt.
Blunt was part of a set of two techniques for Fighters with Metal Affinities.
Blunt increased the weight of metal momentarily.
The other technique, Sharp, increased a weapon's sharpness.
Sharp was not very useful to Kyle. He already had Pilebunker for that.
However, Blunt was amazing if he needed to actually break the enemy's armor.
A moment later, the hammer hit the sheet of ice with all of Kyle's power.
BOOOOOOOM!
The icy mist around Kyle was blown into the distance, revealing his location to everyone.
The runes of the mining weapon spread the impact over a greater surface but also increased its penetrative power.
CRK!
Tons of deep cracks appeared all over the icy sheet as Kyle's hammer hit it.
Then, nothing happened for a seemingly long time.
BANG!
Kyle jumped back just as the sheet of ice suddenly shot out of the ground.
Just as Kyle went past the rising sheet of ice, he saw the Icestone Fiend's actual appearance.
'A fucking crab!' he thought.
Sure enough, the Icestone Fiend was essentially a gigantic Dungeness Crab.
The gigantic ice sheet was just the top of its body.
Luckily, the crab was facing them with its back, which meant Kyle wasn't immediately being attacked.
Yet, while Kyle was still in the air, the feet of the crab rapidly spun it around, and Kyle's eyes widened as one of its huge claws rapidly approached his body.
Kyle barely managed to put his hammer between him and the claw.
BOOOOM!
Kyle shot through the air, flying for over 30 meters.
From a distance, the team heard the sounds of several trees exploding.
They weren't sure how injured Kyle was, but technically, that wouldn't matter for the next couple of seconds.
After all, he would need to run back anyway.
One way or another, he was not available for the next couple of seconds.
BANG!
At that moment, a huge bolt of lightning pierced through the air, hitting the crab in one of its eyes.
Almost immediately, the entire clearing became filled with steam.
The lightning bolt denatured a huge chunk of the Icestone Fiend's Ice Ether, turning it into Water Ether before turning it into Steam Ether.
On top of that, the Steam Ether in the surroundings started to eat away at the Icestone Fiend's Ice Ether, weakening it even further.
BANG!
Yet, despite the massive damage the Icestone Fiend took, it wasn't slowed down in the least bit.
It acted like it hadn't felt the lightning bolt at all.
Usually, when someone was hit with a lightning bolt, they were stuck for a moment since it messed with their nerves and brain.
But this was an Ore Fiend.
It didn't have nerves or a brain.
It was just a big pile of magical ore.
The Icestone Fiend charged at the group with incredible speed.
Meanwhile, Sven let go of his arrow.
Naturally, he used his Armor Breaker ability, Sand Arrow.
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