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Chapter 93 - Shatter
🕑 Added 2024-07-29 20:00:05 +0000 UTCMy hands gripped the frosty wood as I brought the hammer down on yet another bear.
The fight had been going on for almost an hour and wounds found their way through my armor. Two or three bears clawing and pounding on my armor simultaneously caused injuries to get through.
The blood seeping out of me didn't diminish the feeling of euphoria though.
This was some of the most fun I had in a while. A paw swipe clattered off my armor and my hammer came screaming around in retaliation.
A jaw clamped down but I managed to interspace the shaft of my hammer in the way in time. Hammer locked up in the beast's mouth, I took both hands on either side of the snout and twisted.
The bear's neck snapped before it thought to let go. Stupid thing died because it didn't let go.
With [Avalanche] over half built, I shifted my hand down the haft to the last handhold before the pommel and whipped it around one-handed at the bear charging at me. The bear's head turned to mist.
My other hand pointed out and an [Ice Arrow] flew out in the opposite direction to skewer a bear through the throat coming up behind me. Getting over the crutch of using my hand to cast was hard in the heat of battle.
[Shatter] ripped the artery open as the arrow inside its throat exploded. More red-tinted ice was added to my arsenal. An unnoticed foe bit down on my leg while I was distracted watching the red river freeze into weapons.
My fortitude stopped my leg from breaking but the teeth pinching my skin and mounting pressure still hurt. Punching down on the beast fixed that problem but another took that opportunity to swipe me in the back.
After getting thrown off balance, more piled on. A paw pounded into my chest before I could right myself which led to another ramming into me.
I was getting pushed around by their sheer mass. They had over a half-ton of body weight on me and it was proving effective.
Somehow, I ended up on the ground with all of them piling on top of me. Open maws filled with teeth obscured my vision and descended on me.
Each one sought blood as they clamped closed. Pressure built up on my body and [Frost Armor] started to crack. Teeth wiggled through and pierced my skin, drawing red liquid from me rather than them.
This was one of the first times my armor had failed. Sure, it had cracked and let things through, but not like this. Panic bubbled up in me and a hint of regret flashed in my head as the pressure on me mounted.
After those thoughts, a boisterous laugh exploded out of me.
Pressure, the heat of battle, the fight to the death.
This! This was what I wanted. This got me going. It wasn't the same kind of pressure as before, it was different. A good kind of pressure.
My body began to rev up like an engine but instead of heating up, it cooled down. My mind whirled through ideas to get out of this situation while the bears continued crunching through my armor.
After getting knocked over, I activated [Reinforced Body] to help defend but it couldn't stop the wounds from appearing all over my body.
Only one came to mind right away and it was dumb. A good kind of dumb.
I took hold of my armor with my Law and strengthened it as much as possible, packing more ice into it as the bears sought to rip it apart.
After empowering it as much as I could [Shatter] detonated it, causing it to erupt around me.
Since it was frozen to my body, ice shards pelted me just the same as the bears. The only difference was that I had the fortitude and affinity to help defend, the bears did not.
Still, ice found its way past my skin and prickled all over where there wasn't metal armor to defend it.
As condensed and durable as my armor was, [Shatter] was even more effective. The broken pieces of armor ripped through flesh with ease, creating rivers of blood that poured down on me.
I hadn't thought the idea completely through and had my mouth open.
It was... unpleasant.
The bears nearest died and I scrambled up before more could pile on. My armor was gone, leaving me vulnerable.
Before I could refreeze it, the bears took advantage. Claws drew blood and teeth bit through skin.
Grunts of pain and anguish escaped from me.
I fought and swung my hammer as fast as possible while switching to using [Ice Fortress] instead of [Frost Armor]. The bears broke the armor down before it had time to finish covering me.
Four stout walls of ice rose into place around me and let me kill everything near me before more could jump on.
As the last bear died, I took a second to catch my breath. I used a lot more energy getting up than the entire hour before it. Blood streaked down my form and dyed my armor red.
Both mine and theirs.
I had a slight limp and my body hurt all over. Pain shot through my hand as I picked up my hammer. I had discarded it after getting knocked down and used my fists instead. Now that I was up I meant to pick it back up.
As my fingers wrapped around the shaft, only nine digits coiled the wood. A bloody stump was the only thing left of my left index finger. The pain shot up my arm after flexing my hand muscles, realizing the missing finger.
How did I miss losing a finger?
That was something I thought I would feel happening. The mixture of panic, adrenaline, and euphoria must have covered up the pain when I must have lost it. They were powerful drugs.
A tighter grit of my teeth was my only response. At least it wasn't my pinky finger, that was where all the grip strength came from.
I hadn't felt this bad since the 10th wave when the wolves broke the gate down. The thought I might actually die bubbled up.
[Frost Armor] froze into place over a bleeding stump, staunching the flow of blood. It was a nice addition to the armor and all it took to do that was a nudge with [Ice Manipulation]
After the armor was back in place, [Shatter] brought the walls down and began the fight anew.
Pain lanced up my hand every now and again but it wasn't something I couldn't fight through. The wounds elsewhere caused more pain than it, especially my leg. Every time I planted it to swing, pain laced up it. Something was fractured or strained.
The rising momentum worked to stave off the exhaustion of battle and my rising stats canceled out the fatigue but it wouldn't last forever.
My hammer took on a new life as it smashed into heads, torsos, and limbs alike. Shatter a ribcage of one before reversing direction and a slight twist of hand to have it flying hammer first in the other direction to rip off the bottom jaw of another.
As soon as my boost hit 100%, my fists, let alone my hammer, punched through skulls. The bone protection providing little defense.
My killing speed reached its peak.
My injuries had reached a peak as well. The lesser monsters fell quickly after that but they gave their own before going. After the last expired, another change of the waves was revealed. I was right in that it wasn't just a new direction.
Four beefed-up Vine Bears all roared from the open gateways. [Identify] revealed their level to be higher than the normal bears.
[Vine Bear – Level 43]
They were in the middle of the lesser bears and what the boss should be. The lesser bears started at level 40 and the boss should be at level 46. These fell in the middle and looked stronger than what their level should suggest.
They were half again as tall as the previous bears and had rippling muscles tensed and ready for battle.
It was too early to determine if these replaced the boss or they were in addition to the boss but it would seem that every direction now got its own mini-boss for the waves.
Lovely.
Facing down the new quartet, I did something I hadn't done in a while. A massive [Ice Fortress] isolated one of the bears from the rest leaving me one on one with it.
Separate and conquer was my strategy. I wasn't sure if there was another big bad to act as the cherry on top for the wave and couldn't afford to fight all four at the same time recklessly. I was already huffing and puffing from the monsters before them.
After raising the cage, I hobbled toward the singular occupant other than me.
The other three started to pound on the ice surrounding the marked-off battlefield trying to get in to no avail. The cold atmosphere worked to keep the ice frozen and even regenerated it somewhat.
My foe isolated, I wasted no time attacking it. Even though it was bigger and stronger than the lesser mobs, it couldn't hold up to my strength, especially alone. My hammer condemned it the moment it trapped in here against me.
After giving it my full attention and harassing it with all my skills, I used both hands to bring down a mighty blow layered with both [Heavy Blow] and [Frostbite] that smashed open its head. It didn't live much longer after that.
After the first met its demise, I moved on to another.
Separate with [Ice Fortress], harass and wear down with [Frostbite] and [Ice Arrow] before finishing off with a hammer to the head.
The last one didn't even last long enough to receive my hammer. With only one left, I didn't use [Ice Fortress] to isolate it, instead, I picked up all the ice from the area and smothered the beast in it.
All of the ice I was controlling flew to the bear, packing the over half-ton ball of fur in an icy prison. After packing it all down, [Shatter] made it all explode.
The bear died quickly.
I fell to a knee out of breath from the fight. I didn't give the four a chance to attack with any real strength. My mana pool took a hit to make that happen but it was better than letting them hit me. I wanted to save [Fury] just in case.
Their strength wasn't just for show and I didn't risk a crippling injury.
After the last mini-boss died, no notification chimed signaling the end of the battle. There was still one more.
It made its presence known with an unmistakable roar. A massive beast over 10 feet tall shouldered its way into the northern gateway. The size of the boss made it barely fit inside the gateway.
After getting inside the gate it stood on its hind legs, rising to over 20 feet in the air, and let out a challenging roar.
[Vine Bear Patriarch – Level 46]
A mixture of a grimace and a smirk found its way on my face as I straightened up, putting both feet under me. A wince escaped while standing that I couldn't stop.
Frost plumed out from my mouth as my lungs bellowed air in and out as fast as they could.
"Ha... maybe I am crazy," I huffed.
I knew this would be hard. I knew this was borderline insane. But I couldn't help it. This was a battle. This was a fight!
The ground thundered as the bear pounded into it, falling from its two-leg stance. The ground had two massive indents from the weighty paws impacting it.
"Alright, you big bastard. You want a fight?"
"I'll give you a FIGHT!" [Fury] flared out giving a small reprieve.
My hammer streaked through the air as I hurled the massive weapon at the beast. Its head recoiled from the impact and managed to look even angrier.
I brought the hammer back with [Ice Manipulation] as the bear charged at me. The attack wasn't the most damaging nor most effective I could have done but it was the fastest way to get the beast to shut up.
This was my house and it was challenging ME! It didn't get to sit back and roar. It had no dominance to assert.
My mana was low, my muscles burning from exertion and near failure. My Law caused sharp spikes of pain behind my eyes from overdrawing on it.
Even still, I rose to meet it.
The bear lumbered toward me in a thundering gait as I rushed to meet it.
Ice built up around my hammer as I ran, packing itself on the weapon. It ballooned in size to near comical proportions as more added on.
Pulling back the enormous icy head, even more of my dwindling mana flowed into it taking a decent chunk of what was left. [Heavy Blow] and [Frostbite] worked to saturate all the new ice added to the head.
With the additional anchors, [Ice Manipulation] worked overtime to propel it forward faster than my muscles could bear.
Even with my massive boosts. My body was failing me. The fight had been going on for over 3 hours by now and my body couldn't take it much longer.
[Momentum of the Avalanche] was a powerful skill but it put a heavy strain on my body the longer it was active. As it built up, the ever-rising stats mitigated that strain. After peaking, not so much.
I had pushed it past what my body was able to handle.
The band-aid [Fury] provided wouldn't last long. This was going to be a fast and brutal fight and I would either win or lose quickly.
I pulled on everything. All the ice around me responded to my call and flew to join my hammerhead as I brought it down in one massive blow.
My swing met its and force exploded out pushing all the snow on the ground and in the air away.
My hammer recoiled back as well as the bear.
Brief silence before another shockwave sounded, once, twice, thrice. Booms from the force rattled my bones.
One last swing and I did something different.
All the building ice transferred from the impact and built onto the limb of the bear, leaving my hammer barren. My hammer returned to its original size as ice crawled up the arm reaching higher every second as more ice transferred over.
As the bear swiped at the growing icy cast my Law worked through it, strengthening it and condensing it down. I wrung what little I could out of it before it hit rock bottom. My Law was shot.
The bear started to panic and I could see hints of confusion behind the madness in its eyes as the ice rose higher up the limb.
It was questioning why I would forfeit the ice from my weapon.
It didn't have to wonder long.
"[SHATTER]!" I even screamed the name like a weeb. Luckily Austin wasn't here, I would never hear the end of it.
I staggered to the ground as the last of my mental power was expanded trying to direct the blast with [Ice Manipulation].
What was once a few hundred pounds of meat, bone, and fur turned into a twisted grotesque stump. A wave of pink mist escaped the area in all directions before swinging back and forth as it fluttered to the ground as pinkish snow.
Pain and anguish tainted a roar as the bear tried to process what happened. It waved the mangled limb around in the false hope what it was seeing was a lie.
It wasn't.
Blood poured from the limb in rivers.
It tried to lumber toward me but fell to the ground on its mangled limb. It got back up quickly but its three remaining limbs wouldn't let it move with any semblance of swiftness.
Its remaining front leg hopped as it pulled itself toward my haggard form. Neither of us was in the best shape.
This last blow would end it. The bear was a dead man walking as blood poured from the wound and it wanted to take me down with it.
Using both hands on my weapon to prop myself up, I readied for my last attack.
My pace matched that of the hobbling three-legged boss.
I flipped my hammer around spike first and lined up my blow.
[Heavy Blow] failed to activate leaving the blow skill-less save for what was left of my strength.
I brought the hammer down with as much power as my nine digits would allow using the last of my strength.
The spike buried itself 6 inches into the brain of the boss as blood leaked out of all the facial orifices.
A chime sounded out and I sagged. A torrent of energy flooded my body from the levels but did little to help how shitty I felt. I could tell from the amount it was more than one or two levels.
Hammer forgotten, [Frost Armor] fell off my supine form in pieces with a few chunks left behind.
I did it!
I felt the black encroaching on my vision and battled mentally to keep it at bay. My arm flopped around grasping my tunic under my armor ripping pieces of it off. I reached for my prepared health potions and only found broken bottles.
Shit.
I didn't even react to the pain as I smothered the stump of my index finger with the patches of torn tunic to stop the bleeding. During the fight it never got a chance to clot.
After shoving cloth over all the bleeding wounds I could see and feel [Meditation] activated.
I fought for as long as I could against the threatening black to give the skill as much time as possible before sleep claimed me.
A bird fluttered and hopped down next to me before unconsciousness clouded over.
Comments
Gus
Ahh cliff hanger. An amazing chapter. I wonder how much he leveled and how many points he got.
Demonlord
Thanks for the amazing chapter 😊 That was an absolutely awesome fight😎 I hope the healers are at a level now that they can regrow limbs. Otherwise he has to use many points for a potion that can do that OR he has to use his ice as a replacement.
