His ice spears slowed just a fraction, his frost creeping a little less efficiently. His breathing was steady, but the signs of exhaustion were creeping in.
The bugs were relentless, and even the Ice Prince couldn't freeze an infinite swarm without limits.
Peggy noticed it too — his attacks, though still deadly, were becoming just a little less precise.
"Glacius…" she muttered, worried, as she continued protecting the villagers.
Venox clicked his mandibles again. "Getting tired, Prince?"
Glacius' eye twitched. His calm was slipping.
The endless, mindless buzzing. The never-ending waves of soldiers. The feeling that, no matter how many he killed, there would always be more.
It was like trying to freeze the wind.
Still, despite his frustration, Glacius remained standing tall, his back straight, his cold eyes locked on Venox.
"I'm not tired," he said coolly, though the faintest crack in his voice hinted at the truth.
The air was thick with tension — the buzzing of the bugs, the faint crackle of Glacius' ice, and the panicked whispers of the neutrals.
Glacius, though slowing down, was still fighting — impaling bug soldiers, freezing their wings mid-flight, and shattering their bodies with ice-cold precision. His irritation was growing, but his icy exterior remained.
Then — a flash.
From the crowd of terrified aquatic neutrals, a few bold ones raised their rifles — crude weapons likely hidden for emergencies. Their hands trembled, but their intent was clear.
They fired.
A volley of bullets sliced through the air — aimed directly at Glacius.
The moment seemed to stretch in slow motion.
Glacius' sharp gaze caught the movement. His instincts kicked in, and with a swift motion of his hand, a thick wall of ice erupted between him and the gunfire.
The bullets slammed into the ice, embedding themselves in the frozen barrier with loud cracks. Shards of ice fell to the ground.
Silence.
The villagers flinched.
Glacius' cold blue eyes blazed as the ice wall shattered with a flick of his wrist. He stepped forward.
"That's how you treat your ruler?" His voice, usually calm, now carried a dangerous edge.
The villagers cowered.
"I came here to preserve the peace of your village," he said icily. "I freeze you to protect you — to save you from yourselves." His gaze darkened, the frost at his feet spreading with every word. "But you dare fire at me?"
Peggy's heart thudded — she could tell his frustration was reaching a boiling point.
"The Bug Tribe is the one disrupting your peace — not me," Glacius continued. "I'm the only one keeping order."
The villagers said nothing. Fear clamped their throats shut.
But that brief moment of tension — that tiny distraction — was all Venox needed.
The Bug Tribe general's mandibles clicked in satisfaction.
"NOW!" he screeched.
The bug soldiers, sensing their chance, swarmed Glacius.
The wave of black, writhing bodies crashed into him, a relentless tide of infestation.
"Glacius!" Peggy shouted, horrified.
The bugs crawled over his body — his arms, his legs, his back. Some dug their claws into his frozen cloak, others gnawed at the edges of his armor, leaving trails of acidic slime that hissed against the ice.
More bugs burrowed into the ice beneath his feet, trying to shatter it from below.
And the worst of it — they began infesting his skin.
Patches of corruption spread across his arms and neck — the bugs' venom seeping into his frostbitten flesh, creating an eerie mix of black and pale blue.
Glacius' calm composure finally cracked.
"GET. OFF. ME."
His voice echoed like a winter storm.
Ice erupted from his body — spikes shooting out in all directions, impaling some bugs, knocking others away. The frozen landscape around him expanded, but the infestation clung stubbornly.
The more he tried to freeze them off, the more they seemed to multiply — like roaches thriving in the cold.
His once-pristine hair was tangled with bug slime. His cloak was torn, revealing more of the corruption spreading along his back.
For the first time, Glacius looked sick.
Not just physically — but with an uncharacteristic flicker of distress in his cold, sharp gaze.
Peggy, still guarding the villagers, clenched her teeth.
"Glacius—!"
She'd never seen him like this. Always cool, always composed — but now, beneath the infestation and his growing rage, he looked almost… fragile.
Venox laughed from a distance. "You freeze everything in your path, yet you can't freeze us all, can you, Prince?"
Glacius' breathing was slow but heavy — each exhale misting the freezing air around him. His body trembled, not from fear — but from a dangerous mix of exhaustion and unrelenting fury.
The Ice Prince was now a frozen figure smeared with corruption — and Peggy knew the longer this went on, the harder it would be for him to fight back.