“We’ve managed to take out the generator!” Katerine called out as she saw Bu Dong desperately trying to push the Evil Santa’s sleigh out to the front of the house once he was done lifting the heavy chains of the garage shutters.
“Great job that should stop those elves from interfering later! Now help me push this out of the garage before the reindeers manage to destroy their stable gates!” Bu Dong said with a strained voice.
For some reason, he could feel his strength waning the moment he touched the sleigh, but Bu Dong had no choice but to endure, they… he needed this sleigh for the next part of the plan.
The rest quickly came over and tried their best to help push it, however their combined effort amount to almost nothing compared to Bu Dong. Soon, they could hear the footsteps from afar and the reindeers who were bashing onto the stable gates suddenly quieten down. There was only one possible explanation for this.
Evil Santa had been informed about their location.
“Damn it! Argh, I wanted to save my chi for later, but guess we have to gamble it all!” Bu Dong grumbled as he took out a large chi regenerating potion and chugged it down forcibly. It was thick, and his body felt like rejecting the contents in his stomach due to the excess amount he drank, but there was no other way he could think of.
“Secret Art! Angry Ape Pronounces Its Superiority!! ” Bu Dong shouted as the five angry ape silhouettes above him pounded their chest loudly. Finally, he and the girls had enough power to push with all their might into the snowy open right outside the house.
Just as he had expected, the elves did not move out of the house despite their beady eyes staring through the windows. Even the toy spartan soldiers were seemingly not allowed to be used out in the open. Only after Bu Dong enabled the HUD in his mask interface, did he find out the reason for this.
The ice cold winter winds itself had an environmental effect. According to the information he was currently suffering from, it was a Freezing I debuff, which slightly slowed him down and also inflicted a small amount of DoT (Damage over Time) which seemed minuscule right now.
Bu Dong could discern that the thermometer at the side of his mask’s interface was dropping drastically. Without immediate warmth, the debuff would only worsen, making them slower and numbing them even more. The only upside was that the weather did not differentiate between friend and foe.
For fairness’ sake, teams that started in the cold at the start of the instance, received a grace period of five minutes before the weather turned stormy. Before then, it was in their best interest to disable or circumvent the traps in front of the house. Hence, starting in the house like what Bu Dong went through was not without advantages.
“Nia, Shanice! We need to burn this sleigh right here and now! Use your strongest spells to ignite it! I’ll assist you with my techniques as well. Jasmin, do whatever you can to delay Evil Santa for as long as possible!” Bu Dong ordered as he used his Intermediate Sword Art, Sword Throw of the Angry Ape to break the garage shutter chains, slamming the shutters right in front of Evil Santa.
The garage shook a little after a delayed explosion (from his sword inscription), and Bu Dong took out his main damaging sword assist with turning the sleigh into firewood. Katerine already knew what to do without Bu Dong having to tell her.
She was taking her time to chant out her Level 3 Fire Wisps which was already considered the Intermediate Grade of magic and one of the most potent support spells she could cast.
She had only recently learned it and was, therefore, a bit nervous about using it in the midst of battle. With the help of her summoned grimoire, Katerine read the words out loud and slowly as it could have catastrophic consequences if she made a mistake now.
Shamans received the source of magic from their patrons, who were usually gods (sometimes animalistic spirits). In the case of the four girls, they worshipped Tiw, a god of war. Most people might know him by another name, Tyr. As a famous being in Norse Mythology too, he had so much influence over Germanic people that a day of the week had been named after him. (Tuesday = Tiw’s Day).
Through Tiw’s blessing, all four fire shamans commanded their version of fire to life. Katerine’s Fire Wisp spell had begun to take physical form and fire sprites formed around her which she transferred to the entire group.
Nia and Shanice did not use their instant spells as well since Bu Dong had given them enough time to conjure their fire spells. The image of a bearded old man appeared with a Tiwaz rune (ᛏ) shining above them, fire enveloped their hands and subsequently their arms, generating warm and heat into a concentrated orb of energy.
Level 2 Tiw’s Fireball.
The two offensive fire shamans were making Tiw’s fireball as large as possible by combining their powers together so they had a bigger chance of burning the sleigh in one go. Bu Dong, on the other hand, took a deep breath in and recirculated his chi after using his signature technique and an intermediate technique.
He was not going to waste the large chi potion for he now ignited his Grade 5 sword with his own chi. “Intermediate Sword Art, Lacerate in the Blazing Edge of the Angry Ape!” Bu Dong shouted, and the name made his teammate smile a bit as they continued to chant their spells.
The sword was burning brightly in the dark winter skies like a beacon of hope as he started hacking his sword on the other side of the sleigh, hoping it was sufficient for it to start burning.
He knew that Evil Santa’s sleigh was not some regular wooden cart.
Cultivators in the forums had already discovered that it was made from ‘legendary’ wood materials by gathering snippets of information scattered around the house. (Some people were just pure lore junkies, and they loved how Jin had begun to put meaning in their dungeon runs.)
While it would not be easy for it to be burned into a crisp, Bu Dong was taking the most radical and logical method to stay alive. To make the sleigh a living burning campfire, so they have enough warmth to fight against Evil Santa in the open, away from all the elves and toy soldiers.
