Chapter 317: White Frost (Part 2)

The Frost Guardian towered ahead, its body a colossal shell of layered ice, and every step it took sent fresh frost racing across the ground.

THOOM.

Another wave of cold spread out from its feet.

Kai gripped the Fractured Blade tighter. Sera moved to his side without a word. Behind them, Mira raised her voice across the formation. "Nobody breaks formation!"

Kai studied the giant’s slow, deliberate advance. "We don’t need to kill it."

"Good," Raze said, glancing down at his own trembling arms. "Because I’m not sure I could."

"We just need to keep it away from everyone."

[White Frost Duration: 6:52.]

Kai read the timer. "Three minutes."

"Then survive three minutes," Tiamat said.

The Guardian raised one enormous arm, the air around it crackling as it froze solid.

"Move!" Kai shouted.

The arm crashed down.

BOOOOOOM!

Ice spread across the street in a widening ring, and several hunters were thrown backward by the shockwave. Mira raised her shield to cover the retreat. Sera cut left, Kai moving with her, and instead of attacking the Guardian head-on they simply kept moving, drawing it further from the huddled hunters behind them.

The Guardian turned to follow.

"It’s following us," Kai said.

"Good," Sera said.

"Good?"

"If it’s following us, it isn’t attacking them."

He smiled. "Right."

It swung again, and Kai raised one hand, a small amount of water gathering and freezing instantly into a hard barrier directly in the arm’s path.

BOOM!

The barrier shattered on impact, but the blow slowed just enough for him to slip clear, Distortion nudging his body away from the remaining force before it could catch him.

"Better," Tiamat said.

"I’m learning."

"You’re finally listening."

"Don’t get used to it."

Sera drove her blade into the Guardian’s leg.

CRACK!

Mira followed with a hammer strike.

BOOM!

Raze added his own swing to the same spot, and the ice there began to splinter under the repeated pressure. The Guardian staggered.

"Its left leg is weaker!" Elden called out.

Lily redirected what little was left of the environmental network toward the damage, a thin thread of heat bleeding into the cracked ice.

Kai saw the opening. "Everyone back!"

He rushed in, blade flashing.

SLASH!

A massive chunk of ice sheared away, and the Guardian roared, but it didn’t fall.

"...Still standing," Kai said, stepping back.

"It is not meant to be defeated quickly," Tiamat said.

"I figured."

[White Frost Duration: 7:18.]

He looked around. Hunters still standing. Network still holding, barely. The Guardian contained, if not beaten.

"We don’t need to beat it," he said.

"We just keep it occupied," Sera finished.

"Exactly."

Mira caught the exchange and raised her voice. "Everyone! Don’t waste attacks trying to kill it! Keep it away from the evacuation routes!"

The hunters adjusted instantly, falling into a loose net around the Guardian instead of a wall against it, herding it through the districts already ruined by Burning Earth. When it smashed through a building, no one stood inside. When it froze a street solid, the hunters had already crossed it minutes earlier. Lily kept marking safe corridors. Elden rerouted what power remained. Mira moved bodies. Gabriel kept the Church coordinated. Kai and Sera stayed glued to the Guardian’s flank, keeping its attention locked wherever it did the least damage.

The whole city had narrowed down to one single objective.

Survive.

The Guardian swung again, and Kai ducked beneath it, the ice passing a hair over his scalp. He stepped forward and cut the joint.

SLASH!

It turned, and another strike came for him. He blocked this time, his sword arm shaking from the impact. "...Heavy."

"Stop blocking it directly," Tiamat said.

He shifted his stance immediately. The next swing came, and instead of meeting it, he pivoted around it entirely, the attack missing clean, and he struck the exposed side while it was still overextended.

SLASH!

"Better," he said, smiling despite the ache in his shoulder.

"Much."

He tried Air Run once more, testing it, one step upward holding, a second holding, and then the cold reached through and stripped the ground out from under him entirely. He fell, catching himself with a fast Air Step a heartbeat before impact.

"...Still unreliable."

"The environment suppresses it," Tiamat said.

He looked at the swirling snow. "Then I won’t depend on it." He kept fighting from the ground after that.

[White Frost Duration: 8:01.]

The temperature dropped again, sharp enough that everyone felt it at once, hunters struggling just to keep their footing. The Guardian itself seemed to grow, ice thickening visibly across its shoulders.

Gabriel watched it swell. "It’s getting stronger."

Kai checked the timer. "It’s running out of time."

"The Calamity is accelerating," Tiamat said.

"Then we accelerate too."

Mira reorganized the formation on the spot. "Three layers!" The strongest hunters moved to the front, mid-rank behind them, healers and support tucked safely in the center. Lily kept the last of the systems alive. Elden watched the structural readouts. Gabriel moved between clusters, keeping everyone accounted for. Sera stayed pressed to Kai’s side.

He looked around at all of them. "Nobody needs to win." He raised his sword. "We just need to last."

"Understood!" the hunters answered as one.

The Guardian charged.

THOOM!

It crashed straight through an abandoned building, ice exploding outward in every direction. Kai ran in, Sera close behind. It swung, he ducked, she struck, it turned, he struck. "Move the hunters!" Mira ordered, and the Guardian’s attention locked fully onto Kai now, chasing him through the ruins while he pulled it further and further from anyone still exposed. He used Air Step only when there was no other choice, letting his sword do the rest, finding weak points again and again.

His breathing grew ragged. His hands had gone numb somewhere along the way.

"You’re tired," Tiamat said.

"A little."

"Your body is losing heat."

He glanced at his own fingers, faintly blue at the tips. "I noticed."

"Then stop using unnecessary mana."

He laughed, breathless. "You really like saying that."

"Because you keep wasting it."

"Fine."

He let go of the Authority entirely for the moment, relying on nothing but the blade in his hand, Distortion’s quiet guidance, his own exhausted legs, and the people fighting beside him.

[White Frost Duration: 9:00.]

Lily’s voice cut through, tight. "One minute."

"Hold," Kai said.

The Guardian let out a roar that shook the whole street, another layer of frost sweeping outward across the city. Sera’s breath fogged visibly in front of her. Mira’s grip tightened on her weapon. Raze forced himself upright despite his shaking legs. Gabriel watched the sky. Elden kept his hands moving over the console, refusing to let the network die.

One minute.

The Guardian raised both arms, a massive wave of frost gathering above it, ready to crash down over the entire street.

"Everyone!" Kai shouted.

The hunters braced together. Sera glanced at him. "Ready?"

He smiled, exhausted but steady. "Always."

The wave crashed. Distortion carried him along the safest line through it, Sera following a half-step behind, Mira’s shield catching what the network couldn’t absorb on its own. The ground shook violently.

Nobody fell.

[9:50.]

The Guardian gathered itself for one final attack.

[9:55.]

"Five seconds," Sera said quietly.

[9:56.]

"Hold!" Mira shouted.

[9:57.]

Raze planted his feet, bracing with everything he had left.

[9:58.]

Lily watched the last flickering readout on her console.

[9:59.]

Kai looked out over the frozen, battered city one last time.

[10:00.]

Silence.

The Frost Guardian froze completely mid-motion, its enormous body seizing in place.

CRACK.

Another fracture spread across its chest.

CRACK.

Then—

BOOOOOOM!

It shattered into thousands of glittering fragments, ice raining down harmlessly across the street. The snowfall stopped. The frost began receding, slow at first, then faster, the temperature climbing back toward something bearable.

[Calamity Four: White Frost — Survived.]

Nobody spoke for a moment.

Then Raze let out a laugh, hoarse and disbelieving. "Four."

"Four," Mira echoed, smiling.

Kai lowered his sword, arms shaking with exhaustion. "Halfway."

Mythal sat buried under white, snow blanketing every street, ice sheeting the buildings, roads cracked wide from the cold. Whole clusters of the network had frozen solid and gone dark.

"We lost several relay clusters," Lily reported.

"But the central network survived," Elden said.

Mira looked around at the exhausted hunters. "Everyone accounted for?"

"Still confirming," Gabriel said.

"Do it," Kai said, looking out at the frozen city.

Damaged. Still standing.

The hunters began settling where they stood, someone dropping straight onto the frozen ground with a relieved groan. Another laughed. "Four disasters."

"Only two left," another answered.

"Don’t say it like that," Raze groaned immediately.

Everyone laughed, and for the first time since the sky had first turned crimson, the tension actually broke.

Gabriel looked up at the clearing sky, something quiet crossing her face.

Kai noticed. "Something wrong?"

She shook her head. "No." A pause. "We should prepare for the Black Swarm."

He nodded. "Right."

They gathered what was left of their strength and started talking through it. "If the fifth disaster matches the simulations," Lily began.

"We’re dealing with a massive monster swarm," Elden finished.

"How massive?" Mira asked.

"Different civilizations recorded different numbers," Gabriel said.

Raze grimaced. "That’s not reassuring."

She allowed a small, tired smile. "Some records described tens of thousands."

"...And the others?"

"Far more."

Raze gripped his sword. "Great."

Kai looked upward at the clearing sky. "We’ll handle it."

They waited.

Nothing happened. The sky stayed completely clear, not a cloud in sight, no sound, no wind.

Seconds passed. Then more.

Lily checked her readout, frowning. "Calamity Five should have started."

"Maybe there’s a delay," Elden offered.

Gabriel shook her head. "There shouldn’t be."

Kai stared toward the horizon. "Then what’s happening?"

Nobody had an answer.

A notification finally appeared.

[Calamity Five Detected.]

Everyone looked at it at once.

Lily scanned the environmental readings. "It’s active."

"Where?" Mira asked.

Lily shook her head slowly. "I don’t know."

Raze scanned the empty streets. "No monsters."

Gabriel’s expression shifted, uneasy. "That’s not right."

Kai looked up. "Everyone look up."

A single point of light appeared high overhead, small at first, then brightening steadily. A shape began forming inside it.

A blade. A sword made entirely of white light, hanging motionless in the sky, its tip aimed directly down at Mythal.

Raze slowly raised his own sword on instinct. "...That’s not a monster."

"No," Kai said quietly.

Another light appeared.

SHING.

Then another.

SHING.

Then another.

SHING.

More followed after that, ten, then fifty, then hundreds, then thousands, the entire sky filling with blades of brilliant white light, each one pointed straight down toward the city below.

The hunters went silent.

Lily’s face drained of color. "How many?"

Elden stared upward, unable to finish counting. "...I can’t."

Mira’s grip tightened on her weapon. Raze looked around desperately. "Where’s the swarm?"

Nobody answered.

Kai stared up at the endless field of light hanging over Mythal and murmured, "...That isn’t the Black Swarm."

Tiamat stayed silent for several long seconds.

Then: "No."

His expression sharpened. "You recognize this?"

"Not exactly." A pause, her voice growing more serious than he’d ever heard it. "It seems you weren’t lucky."

He looked at the sky. "What do you mean?"

"This disaster is different from what was planned."

"...Different?"

"The records you saw showed one possibility." The swords brightened overhead, thousands of points of light sharpening in unison. "Not necessarily yours."

His jaw tightened. The System window updated once more.

[Calamity Five: Active.]

No swarm anywhere in sight. Only an endless sky of light, waiting.

One sword shifted.

SHING.

It turned, aiming directly at Kai.

He raised the Fractured Blade, voice carrying across the frozen street.

"...Everyone."

The entire sky began to glow brighter.