By the time I gain conciousness, I realise that I am in a risky position. Both of my arms and one of my legs are presently covered by ice and I can't move at all. I can escape from it, but it will take time. The first thing that I check out is the giant. I sigh in relief as I confirm that he can't move.
I don't know what magic he was trying to pull off, but he must have known something would happen. The center of that spell was the man himself, after all. If it was anybody but a Snowlord, I am sure that it would be a corpse under the statue. Still, this is the best time to kill him. The man is completely frozen. I really should get out of this ice, I think as I begin to transfer mana to my arms.
The spell has failed by the way. If he had managed to use the entirety of the mana he had absorbed the fort would have been wrecked completely. I have to admit that if he had succeeded in doing it properly, I would be dead at this moment. Hells, if he had bothered to attack in a place where he had just a bit more access to ice mana. Let's just say that it would have frozen me into a piece of ice even in this half failed state.
The funny thing is, the man wasn't trying to kill me. He was trying to blow away the fort. That is the reason that I am presently alive. The magic's effects were too dispersed. He did succeed in destroying a major chunk of the fort, but he ultimately failed. The reason for this is that the barrier is working, pushing the ice mana away from the fort. That greatly reduced the mana that he could control.
Even now, I can feel the ice mana brought in by this man being pushed away from the fort. That is good because I am in a shitty position right now. A lot of ice mana has made its way into my body, you see.
I can feel it rampaging in my body, fighting my vital mana wherever they meet. I am sure that my flesh would have already frozen to ice if it were not for the vital mana guarding me. Well, this is a proper mess. I can manage it for now, but it is not going to be pretty.
Regardless, it is time for me to focus. After all, this is the only chance that I will get to kill the giant in front of me. I begin to cycle my mana. I have to keep ramping up the mana being cycled until I can finally ignore the cold. The strengthened arm is also strong enough to finally shatter through the ice covering it.
I won't be maintaining it for long, but lets return to the giant now. He is about as helpless as he can be. One stab into his skull and I am sure that he will die. Better to do it quickly since the third Snowlord could be hidden anywhere. (I refuse to believe that the giant cast such a powerful spell without a guard.) To speed it up a bit, I begin to hack at the ice with my sword. (I am leaving tiny cuts on myself in the process, but I don't have the time to bother about that now.)
There, the ice is finally out of the way. Grasping my sword, I begin to move, though not particularly fast. It feels like the world around me has turned to jelly. It takes me what feels like an eternity to reach the giant. Just as I am about to plunge my sword in, I can see the glint of steel. I barely raise my sword to block the enemy's strike. The force makes me want to fly away, though I hold my stance. (With how enhanced my strength is, this is unexpected.)
"To think that you managed to block the Snow Drive of the young master," A voice echoes from the side. "Not many can do that, you brat."
Blocking his strike, I look at the third Snowlord standing to my left. Blocking his strike, it is clear he does not have a lot of mana. (Even he is not unscathed from that strike.) If anything, he is releasing even less mana than me at this moment. The only reason blocking him is so hard is that the man has a much stronger body than me. (significantly stronger than mine.)
"Are you sure that you are a Snowlord?" I speak to the man, as tauntingly as possible. Now is not the time to fight calm enemies. "I have more mana than you, and I have already beaten two Snowlords before you."
"Hiding our tracks was no easy feat, Legioner. Without me, the Commander would be here...." he replies, fear clear in his voice at the mention of the man.
I don't interrupt him. Every moment he wastes is just going to enhance the barrier around me. Fuck, The barrier creation has stopped in the time that I had lost my conciousness. Before the enemy can notice, though, tiny control strings leave my arms as I search for the formation, reactivating it. The barrier would have started collapsing due to my lack of focus eventually. That would have been embarassing if it happened. (Especially since I don't have enough mana to activate it again.)
".....Not even the young master can do what I have done in the last week. Magic like that naturally comes with costs. My connection to the freeze has been damaged."
As he speaks, the other side keeps striking me with his dagger. Even with his limited connection to the freeze (which I assume is their word for the external ice mana), the man packs quite a punch. I barely managed to dodge his strike.
"I have leaked enough secrets of my people, Legioner," he says, as he realizes that he has been blabbering. "If you die, this little bubble of yours should be broken. To be able to stop the young master's Snow Drive. This fort cannot be allowed to exist."
The man doesn't stop his attack. With each strike, he hurts me a bit more. The only reason that I can handle his strikes is that I am also getting better at handling the chill. (and also at reading his movements.)
Every moment, the barrier is pushing out the ice mana from my surroundings, making it more favourable for me. Not that my situation is getting better. The ice mana inside me just seems to be getting wilder. (Most likely due to the enemy.)
"How long are you going to be retreating like that, Legioner? Your death is fixed. It might be in the next strike or the tenth strike after this, but your death is fixed," he says. If that was meant to be trash talk he is very bad at it.
Still, I can feel my heart sink. The man is supremely confident in his words and why should he not? He can kill me easily. Already, I can feel the very act of thinking becoming harder. I don't normally burn this much vital mana this quickly. I certainly can't maintain it for a full fight.
I have only one option here, and that is the soldiers who are hiding in the formation room. Quite a bit of the fort has been decimated, but the formation room should be safe. The formation room is where the barrier is the strongest, after all.
The soldiers will be able to take this man, as long as they have the element of surprise. (Such powerful folks don't tend to take such weaklings seriously so that is not a worry.) The only problem now is how to take him there. The other party is no fool.
"That might be the case, but do you think that you will be able to leave this place alive? The Commander must be on his way. He must be after such obviously powerful magic has been cast," I speak, dodging another strike of his.
"We have taken care to cover our tracks, bastard. The Commander won't be coming here any time soon. Granted, we were not supposed to be fighting. We were just sent here to threaten a rogue sage not following the treaty," he admits, getting more annoyed as he speaks. "How were we supposed to know that we would be finding an orphan of the legion here? You certainly have balls of steel. To think that you dare to barge this deep into this land."
"Last I remembered, this was the territory of the Snowwind Empire. What claim do you have here?" I reply, as sarcastically as I can. Such things really seem to piss of the other party. (and keep him disoriented.)
"This is our land, Legioner. Make no mistake about that. The empire might be hanging their flag in that fort of theirs, but out here is our land," he replies. There is clear anger in his voice now. "We children of the freeze can destroy anything. Even that paltry empire of theirs."
"You certainly seem to be struggling against the Frozen Peak in that case, my friend," I reply. "It isn't even that impressive of a fort, you know. I have seen better."
"It will be destroyed ultimately, bastard. What are you planning to do, I wonder. What trick is up your sleeve?" he asks, his tone getting calmer as he speaks. "Your steps have too much purpose for a man on the verge of death."
As he speaks, I am not able to block his dagger. It cuts my left arm. Rather than the wound itself, it is the ice mana that it imparts that is the problem. I can't feel the pain of the strike at all. That is not a good thing. Taking a step back, I enter into a defensive stance.
I can't say for certain, but I am sure the formation room is behind me. I can sense it with my control strings, but the exact location is harder to find. (What, a cloak to hide the core is an important part of any formation core.)
"Killing you is not so hard, Snowlord. I am of the Legion, do you think that I haven't handled worse?" I reply, trying to sound confident. Even I can hear my voice cracking, though.
"Are you sure you are of the Legion, though, young man?" he speaks. "I know the status that you orphans have at the place. You are not even considered proper warriors. I can see you shivering, "Legioner", and it is not the cold causing it."
The man is well-informed. I will give him that, but does he need to be so insulting? Regardless, I have finally found the location of the room. It is right behind me, pretty close by too. Now all I have to do is take the man there with me in such a way that he doesn't realise what I plan.
"A soldier of the Legion is wasted on you," I reply, smirking at him. (I think I am smirking at least.) "Leave them for our true opponents."
"You will die, young man," he replies, brandishing his dagger at me.
(After about a minute or so)
The man has stopped speaking as he keeps striking me. Most of them I can still barely block, with the odd one hitting me. He makes full use of his physical superiority for this. This is to the point that I can't even dodge the man anymore. All I can do is block him with each strike feeling like a hammer striking my chest.
He also does not need to keep cycling mana to push out the chill like I have to. Even now, I can feel my limbs shivering. How in the hells did I even end up in this situation?
Regardless, I guess that I should be quite happy that, at the very least, the man has yet to kill me. That is what would have happened if he had more access to mana.
"You are certainly tenacious, Legioner," he says. "Most people would be dead by now."
"I am not so easy to kill," I reply. I hope that the man cannot detect the exhaustion in my voice. I just need a bit more time.
"The next time you say that, make sure that you are not standing there like a half-dead zombie," he replies to that. "Not that there is going to be a next time."
He stresses this point with another strike. This time, the man is aiming at my throat. I block it, though, his dagger too close for my comfort. I cannot feel my right hand anymore. That is not a good sign, is it? Also, why is everything fading around me?
I do not have long. Not that I need it. The man just needs to follow me. Just a bit more, and I will be able to get rid of him.
"Why exactly did they send three of you? Even one of you would have been enough to destroy the fort," I ask the man. I am so exhausted that this question is the only thing that pops up in my head. How exactly was I supposed to beat three of them?
He replies with a strike that I am not able to block. (I can't even tell where he has struck me.) Just a bit more. Thankfully, he speaks, which jolts me awake. (What can I say? A man of the Black Mountain is always curious.)
"Do you think I am stupid enough to answer that? We know the magic your Scholars practice," he replies. "You really should pick better methods of tricking information out of us."
Saying that he strikes me again. This time, the force of the strike is enough to floor me. My legs feel like jelly. I could try and get up, but my legs have other plans as I collapse back to the ground.
Screw it, this is going to hurt. With all of my will, I pull every bit of mana that I have put into fighting the ice mana and send it to my legs and my arms. It takes every iota of my will to do this. I can feel my body freezing even as I jump at the man, grasping him in an iron grip.
"You bastards down there, what are you waiting for? Come and kill him already," I scream. Let's hope that I can keep a grip on the man for long enough. Otherwise, the soldiers are in for a crazy fight. (And I will most likely be dead.)
I hear the noise of people shuffling and the men below realizing what my plan finally is. At the same time as the idiot in my grasp. He begins to trash about like crazy trying to get away, but I hold on. As the soldiers begin to gut him, I can feel the world fading away.