Chapter 21 Blood and French on the Frozen Lake
As Adrenaline surged through my veins as I stared up at the towering Molgurath.
Its glowing red eyes locked onto me, and for a split second the entire frozen lake seemed to hold its breath.
Then, with an ear-splitting roar, the beast lunged forward, its massive bulk crashing down toward me like a falling mountain.
I rolled to the side, the ice shattering where I had been standing an instant before.
Shards exploded into the air, spraying across my cheek like knives.
The Molgurath snarled, its tongue lashing out like a whip.
I crossed my blades and deflected the strike, but the force sent me skidding backward across the frozen surface.
It didn’t let up. The monster bounded forward again, leaping high before slamming its colossal body down.
The impact cracked the frozen lake like thunder, spiderweb fractures racing outward beneath my feet.
Each time it landed, the shockwaves tore through the ice that imprisoned the smaller Groomcroaks.
I gritted my teeth. “Tch—damn it…”
With every smash, with every whip of its monstrous tongue, the ice cages weakened.
And then I heard it—the first break. A sickening crack echoed across the lake as one of the icy prisons shattered, freeing a Groomcroak.
Its slimy body dragged itself from the broken ice, croaking hungrily, its eyes gleaming with the same corrupted glow.
The Molgurath slammed down again. More cracks. More ice giving way. Several Groomcroaks broke free, croaking in unison as they hopped toward me, their tongues snapping through the air like spears.
I slashed one down with my Flare Sword, its body bursting into ash, then spun with my Glacier Sword to cut another in half, ice following the blade’s arc. But for every one I killed, more clawed their way out of the shattered prisons.
The battlefield was turning against me fast.
Still, I tightened my grip, planted my feet on the trembling ice, and glared up at the Molgurath as it loomed above, its breath steaming in the cold night air. “Guess this just got a whole lot more difficult.”
The Molgurath bellowed, the sound rolling across the frozen lake like a storm. At its cry, the freed Groomcroaks stirred as one, their glowing eyes snapping toward me. Then, in a hideous chorus of croaks, they lunged.
In an instant, the battlefield shifted. Dozens of slimy bodies hopped and scrambled across the shattered ice, their tongues lashing like living whips. The Molgurath surged forward with them, a wall of muscle and malice, its steps shaking the frozen ground with each bound.
I met them head-on. My Flare Sword ignited with a roar, its blade trailing embers as I cut through the first Groomcroak, reducing it to ash.
I pivoted, Glacier Sword slashing in a wide arc, freezing another in mid-leap before shattering it with a follow-up strike.
But for every one that fell, two more came, their tongues striking like spears from every angle.
“Damn it—too many!” I hissed, ducking under a whip of slime, only to feel another lash across my shoulder. Pain seared through me, my grip faltering for a heartbeat. I forced myself to push on, cutting down another that leapt for my throat, but even then the swarm pressed harder.
One Groomcroak’s tongue caught my ankle, dragging me off balance before I slashed it apart. Another snapped at my side—I barely deflected it, only for another tongue to rake across my ribs. Every wound stung, every dodge slowed, and every breath felt heavier than the last.
And then the shadow fell over me.
The Molgurath loomed above, its massive tongue snapping out faster than lightning.
I twisted, trying to cut it mid-strike, but I was a second too slow.
The slick, iron-strong tongue coiled around my torso, squeezing the air from my lungs.
My arms were pinned against my sides, both blades still clutched in my grip but useless.
“Gh—damn… it!” I strained against the crushing pressure, but the beast’s strength was overwhelming.
With a guttural roar, the Molgurath whipped its head back and hurled me like a ragdoll.
The world spun into a blur of ice and darkness as I was flung across the frozen lake.
My body smashed through one towering pillar of ice, shards exploding outward like shattered glass.
Another followed, the impact jolting pain through my entire frame.
And then—
I broke through the last pillar, ice cascading around me in a glittering storm.
My body slammed against the frozen surface of the lake with a bone-rattling crash, the impact sending cracks spiderwebbing beneath me.
Shards of ice rained down, clattering across the ground, until I lay surrounded by jagged fragments glinting under the moonlight.
As I lay sprawled across the shattered surface of the lake, the cold biting into my skin, I saw the swarm surging toward me like a tide of shadows.
Their guttural croaks echoed in my ears, growing louder, closer.
I tried to push myself up, but pain lanced through my body—my arms trembling, my legs refusing to move.
The wounds I had sustained burned with every breath, and my vision blurred at the edges.
My strength was failing me. Darkness clawed at my mind, threatening to pull me under. I could barely see as the Groomcroaks reached the edge of my broken form, their tongues twitching eagerly, their eyes glowing with hunger.
With what little strength I had left, I closed my eyes and exhaled, preparing myself for the end.
Then—ping.
A sharp, crystalline chime rang in my ears, like the sound of a notification echoing from within my very soul. In the same instant, an overwhelming surge of mana erupted from deep inside me.
BOOM!
The frozen lake trembled as an explosion of energy blasted outward from my body.
The swarm was hurled backward, tumbling through the air like ragdolls.
Shards of ice and snow erupted skyward, scattering across the night sky in a storm of glittering frost. Even the massive pillars of ice shattered, breaking apart under the sheer force of the mana wave.
My eyes shot open. Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to stand, my legs shaky but holding.
I glanced at my hands—and froze. They were glowing, engulfed in a searing red aura that pulsed with violent power.
Then, as I watched in disbelief, strands of emerald-green light coiled out from within the crimson glow.
The green energy slipped into my wounds, searing yet soothing, knitting torn flesh and easing the pain as if my very body was being reforged.
A ragged breath left my lips, but this time it wasn’t despair—it was exhilaration. I reached down, gripped the hilts of the Flare Sword and Glacier Sword, and pulled them up in one fluid motion. Their blades hummed in resonance with the torrent of mana flooding through me.
The ground rumbled. A chorus of guttural roars split the silence. From every direction, dozens of Groomcroaks lashed out at once, their tongues whipping toward me like a barrage of spears.
My lips curled into a grin.
“Wind Walk.”
In the blink of an eye, my body vanished. The tongues slammed into the ice where I had been lying, shattering it into craters of broken frost.
But I was no longer there.
In the next heartbeat, I reappeared high above the frozen lake, the night air rushing around me, both swords drawn and glowing with crimson and icy light. The swarm turned their glowing eyes upward to meet mine.
The moment our eyes met, the Molgurath let out a roar so deafening it shattered the silence of the frozen night, the sound reverberating across the lake like thunder. The ground trembled beneath its fury, the shockwave sending loose shards of ice tumbling.
In response, dozens of Groomcroaks launched themselves into the air, their grotesque bodies twisting mid-leap, tongues snapping in anticipation of tearing me apart. They blotted out the moonlight, a swarm of death raining down from above.
But I wasn’t afraid.
I raised the Flare Sword to my side, the blade burning with a crimson blaze that painted the air around me red. My grip tightened, my eyes narrowed. Heat pulsed through my veins as the mana swirling around me gathered in a violent surge.
“Mach One…” My voice cut through the chaos like steel.
I shot forward in an instant, a streak of scarlet light ripping across the night sky. The world blurred around me as I vanished into the swarm, my blade singing as it carved through flesh, scale, and bone alike.
An instant later, I was standing once more on the frozen lake’s surface, the Flare Sword lowered at my side, its glow dimming into a faint shimmer. My breath steamed in the cold air, my eyes fixed straight ahead.
Then the silence broke.
Above me, every Groomcroak that had leapt into the sky froze mid-air for a single heartbeat—before splitting apart.
Blood sprayed like crimson rain, bodies severed into grotesque pieces that scattered against the night. Severed limbs, and twitching tongues fell from the heavens, raining down onto the shattered lake in a grisly storm.
I stood unmoving as their remains splattered across the ice, my expression calm, almost cold. The red light of my sword glowed faintly against the darkness, illuminating the carnage I had left.
The Molgurath bellowed again, its roar dripping with fury. The sound shook the lake, echoing through the night like the cry of a god of war. Then, with terrifying power, it coiled its massive legs and leapt.
The monster’s colossal body tore across the frozen ground, shattering ice beneath its weight before launching skyward. Its shadow swallowed me whole as it came crashing down, aiming to crush me beneath sheer force.
I didn’t wait.
“Wind Walk!” I shouted, and in an instant, my form dissolved into a swirling cloud of crimson smoke. The Molgurath’s slam struck where I had stood, exploding the ice into jagged shards that flew outward in a deadly spray. But I was already gone.
I reappeared in front of a cluster of Groomcroaks, their bulbous eyes widening in confusion. Without hesitation, I shifted my stance and raised the Glacier Sword to my left. Mana surged through me, pouring into the blade until it pulsed with a pale blue radiance that shimmered like winter stars.
“Arctic Pillar!”
The Glacier Sword roared to life. In a heartbeat, its blade expanded, lengthening and thickening with crystalline ice until it resembled a massive frozen greatsword. The air around it dropped in temperature, frost instantly spreading across the surface of the lake.
I swung.
The strike cleaved through the Groomcroaks before me, splitting them in half with brutal precision. Their bodies were frozen solid mid-scream, shattering into chunks of flesh and ice as they hit the ground.
The force of the swing unleashed a shockwave—an arctic whirlwind that spiraled outward in a violent gale.
Razor-sharp winds of frost howled across the lake, sweeping up loose shards of ice and driving them like daggers through the air.
The ground crackled beneath the pressure, and the temperature plummeted even further, coating the battlefield in a veil of glittering frost.
I didn’t let the momentum fade. My breath came out sharp, my blood singing with power.
“Mach One!” I roared.
In the blink of an eye, my body vanished, swallowed in a streak of crimson light.
I reappeared beside a Groomcroak before it could even twitch. My Flare Sword cut downward in a blazing arc, splitting it from head to belly in a single strike. Blood hissed against the heated blade before I vanished again.
Another blink—another kill.
Each time I reappeared, a Groomcroak fell. Their croaks of panic echoed across the frozen battlefield, but they couldn’t even follow my movements. To them, I was everywhere at once, a scarlet phantom carving death into their ranks.
A crimson afterimage lingered in the air, trailing behind me with every flash-step, painting streaks of red light across the frozen lake.
Frozen Groomcroaks trapped in the ice didn’t escape my wrath either. As I appeared beside them, the Flare Sword cleaved through their icy prisons, cutting both ice and flesh in a single merciless strike. Shattered fragments rained across the battlefield like bloody snow.
Again and again I vanished, again and again I struck. My heartbeat was a war drum, my vision consumed only by streaks of red and the sound of splitting flesh.
By the time I stopped moving, the frozen lake had turned into a crimson graveyard. Shattered ice, broken bodies, and blood painted the ground in a grotesque tapestry.
And then—silence.
The swarm was no more. Not a single Groomcroak remained.
Only the Molgurath stood across the lake, its hulking form steaming with rage, its glowing red eyes locked onto me. The beast’s breath came out in heavy, guttural hisses, each exhale misting the frigid air.
Now, it was just the two of us
I raised my Flare Sword, the crimson glow still crackling off its edge, and let a sharp grin tug at my lips.
“Let’s dance, ugly.”