It takes me a while to escape from the ice binding me. The first thing I see is the place where the giant was standing. Right now, the giant is the main threat that I have to fight. I sigh in relief as the man has frozen completely into a block of ice.
I don't know what magic he was trying to pull off, but the man has failed. 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 more access to ice mana. Let's just say that it would have frozen me into a piece of ice.
The funny thing is, the spell's power was distributed. The man was trying to blow away the fort. Well, he did succeed in destroying a major chunk of the fort. The only reason that I am not dead is that the barrier is working, pushing the ice mana away from the place. That greatly reduced the mana that he had control over.
Even now, I can feel the ice mana being pushed away from the place. It is slow, but the ice mana is moving away from the place. That is good because I am in a shitty position right now. Even now, I can feel the massive amount of ice mana that has made its way into my body.
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 well and proper mess.
Regardless, it is time for me to focus. After all, this is the only chance that I will get to kill the giant. (It is the only way that I will be able to kill the man.) I begin to cycle my mana. I have to keep ramping up the mana being cycled until I can finally ignore the cold.
I won't be maintaining it for long, but I 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. Well, better to do it quickly. There is a lot of ice surrounding me. To speed it up a bit, I begin to hack at it with my sword. (I am leaving tiny cuts on myself, but I don't have the time to bother about that.)
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 in front of me. I can 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 right now, anybody at my level would not be able to pull off something like this.)
"To think that you managed to block the snow drive of the young master.", he says. "Not many can do that, you brat."
Blocking his strike, I realise one thing. The man does not have a lot of mana. If anything, he is releasing even less mana than me. The only reason blocking him is so hard is that the man has a much stronger body than me.
"Are you sure that you are a snowlord? "I speak to the man, as tauntingly as possible. "I have more mana than you, and I have already beaten two more 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 is just going to enhance the barrier around me. "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."
The other side strikes 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 this strike.
"I have leaked enough secrets of my people, legioner.", he says, as he realizes what he is speaking about. "If you die, this little bubble of yours should be broken. To take in the young master's snow drive. This cannot be allowed to exist."
As he speaks, the man keeps throwing strikes at me. 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.
Every moment, the barrier is pushing out the ice mana from my surroundings. Not that my situation is getting better. The ice mana inside me seems to be getting wilder, most likely due to the man in front of me.
"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.
Hearing the man speak, I can feel my heart sink. The man is supremely confident in his words. Not that he is lying, though. 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 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 have been safe. The formation room is where the barrier will be the strongest. (That is part of the reason that I have put them all there.).
The soldiers will be able to take this man, as long as they have the element of surprise. The only problem now is how to take him there.
"Well, 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 being cast." I speak, dodging another strike of his.
"Well, we were not supposed to be here for fighting. We were just sent here to threaten a rogue sage not following the treaty.", he admits. "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 into this land and then come this deep into our lands."
"Last I remembered, this was the territory of the Snowwind empire. What claim do you have here?" I reply, as sarcastically as I can.
"Well, 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. "The freeze can destroy anything. Even that paltry empire of theirs."
"Well, this freeze of yours does seem to be struggling against the frozen peak, my friend.", I reply. "It isn't even that Impressive of a fort."
"It will be destroyed ultimately. I can see that you are struggling. What are you planning to do, I wonder. What trick is up your sleeve?" he speaks, his tone getting more and more agitated. "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, 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. It is not visible in my mana sense. (Well, a cloak to hide the core is an important part of the formation core. I didn't think it would come back to bite me in the ass like this.)
"Well, killing you is the trick. 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.
"Are you sure you are of the legion, young man?" he speaks. "I know the status that you orphans have at the place. You are not even proper warriors. I can see you shivering, legioner, and it is not the cold causing it."
Well, the man is well-informed. I will give him that, but did 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 who is down there.
"A soldier of the legion is wasted on you.", I reply, smirking at him. I think I am smirking at least. "Leave them for true opponents of the legion."
"You will die, young man.", he replies.
(After about a minute or so)
The man has stopped speaking completely as he begins to strike me with a barrage of blows. Most of them I barely manage to block. He makes full use of his physical superiority as he keeps striking me like a cannon. This is to the point that I cannot even dodge the man anymore. All I can do is block him.
He also does not need to keep cycling mana to push out the chill like I am having to. Even now, I can feel my limbs shivering. How the hell 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 the man had the mana he normally had access to.
"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 and a few more steps.
"Well, the next time you say that, make sure that you are not standing 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 also 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 needs to follow me. Just a bit more, and I will be able to get rid of him.
"Well, 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 is the only insult that pops up in my mind. Is it even an insult?
He replies with a strike that I am not able to block. Just a bit more. Thankfully, he speaks, which jolts me awake. (What can I say? A man of the black mountain is always curious.)
"Well, are you sure that you want to know the answer to that? You are on the verge of death here.", he replies. "You really should pick better methods of showing bravado, young man."
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.
Screw it, this is going to hurt. With all of my will, I pull every bit of mana that I had put into pushing out 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 as I jump at the man, grasping him in an iron grip.
"You bastards down there, what are you waiting for? Come and kill the damn bastard already.", I scream. Let's hope that my calculations are right and I can hold the man for long enough. Otherwise, the soldiers are in for a crazy fight. (And I am most likely dead.)
I hear the noise of people shuffling and the men below realizing what my plan finally is. At the same time as the bastard in my grasp, actually. He begins to trash about like a crazy man trying to get away, but I hold on. As the soldiers begin to gut him, I can feel the world fading away and everything becoming black again.