With great difficulty, the Ice Demon Spawn tore itself away from the flame pillar. Jack saw that its appearance had undergone a great change. All the ice scales covering its body were no more. The demon’s naked skin which was badly burnt was visible for everyone to see. It looked even more grotesque now.
The Ice Demon Spawn walked limply down the mound, trying to get further away from the pillar of fire that was still raging. Its HP bar had also depleted by a large deal. It had only a quarter of life left.
“Shoot it!” Jack shouted to Kirsi, who jerked from her daze and promptly aimed her crossbow at the limping monster.
The bolt hit the monster’s exposed flesh, producing over 200 damage. Previously when Kirsi shot her crossbow, it only resulted in damage in two digits.
“Its physical damage resistance had gone. Samuel, do your worst!” Jack commanded.
Samuel immediately lunged. His axe bit deep into the Ice Demon Spawn’s flesh. The creature screamed in agony. It was only a normal attack but it produced damage close to 1000 damage, similar to the previous result when he was using a skill.
The pain snapped the Ice Demon Scale back to attention. It forced itself to engage Samuel. Although its physical defense had been nullified, its strength was still fearsome. It also used Its icy aura again. The holy water’s effect was no more as it lasted only two minutes. Samuel felt his movement getting slower. He struggled under the monster’s frantic assault.
“Stay in the blue area!” Peniel shouted. She cast Healing Field which continuously healed all allies within an area of fifteen-meter radius and bestowed immunity to all status effects.
Seeing the Healing Field, Jack did not hesitate to dive in as well. Combined with his HP recovery, he should be able to survive as long as he didn’t receive consecutive fatal hits.
Jack again took position opposite of Samuel. The Knight Lieutenant used an aggressive approach to force the monster to face him, while Jack struck stealthily from the back whenever there was a chance. Kirsi also shot her crossbow from time to time.
The Ice Demon Spawn’s HP continued to fall. When its HP reached a critical state, it decided to make a last gamble. It again took the pose when it last used the icicle rain move. This time, though, the tremor was greater and the clinking sound was louder.
Jack looked at the surrounding icicle walls. Previously only one section of the icicle wall was used. This time, all the walls were shaking. The monster had decided to use all the icicle walls within this huge cavern!
Jack didn’t see any way to escape once all these icicles were unleashed. There was only one option left. “Finish it!” Jack issued his command.
All three of them redoubled their efforts. Now that the Ice Demon Spawn stayed still, they could focus on offense. It was a race against time now.
Samuel seemed to activate a skill as his body grew larger. There was also a thin translucent light covering both his tomahawk axes. Each of his axe strikes now produced more damage as he relentlessly hacked at the monster.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Jack saw the icicle walls get sucked up. The whole bunch of them. The cavern floor was now devoid of any maze wall. They could see the whole place now. They could even see some Snow Minotaurs roaming some distance away.
‘Shit! Is it too late?’ Jack thought.
“If you kill the demon, its skill will disappear as well!” Peniel yelled out.
Jack grabbed both his sword tightly. “It’s now or never!” He shouted just as uncountable icicle spears dropped from the darkness above.
His two swords danced, creating forty-eight sword lights that hit all the critical parts of the Ice Demon Spawn’s body. The damage produced by the later slashes was slightly more than the previous. When it hit the thirtieth slash, the combo multiplier increased even more.
Jack summoned his Runestone of Luck as he saw the Ice Demon Spawn’s HP fell rapidly. Its HP fell to zero just as the icicles were about to impale them. Jack saw with dread as the densely packed icicles fell on them.
Was it too late? Was there a lapse between when the monster died and this world system canceling its skill?
Suddenly the world became white. Jack thought for a second that the white screen was because he had died. But then he remembered that he had died before at Valley of Tempus, it was supposed to be black, not white. After he had a better look, what he saw were ice flakes. So dense that it was white all over
He shook his head and the ice flakes disintegrated. The icicles were created by the Ice Demon Spawn and were part of itself. So when it died, these icicles did as well.
Jack saw Samuel and Kirsi, their expressions still displayed their tense feelings. They were like Jack, still trying to make sure that everything was over. Jack looked down at the ground where the Ice Demon Spawn was before. There were loots. He also heard a notification informing him that both his Blade Dancer and Archmage’s class had increased a level. He knew then that it was truly over.
He exhaled a relief and tried to move towards the loots, but his legs buckled and he fell down.
He put a hand on his leg, both his hand and leg were trembling. He then decided to sit on the ground for a while. It seemed the second phase of Formless Flowing Sword style’s burst attack was giving his body too much pressure. He would need to become stronger to be able to use this sword art as he wished.
Samuel came and sat next to him. “That was close,” he said.
“It was,” Jack replied with a laugh.
“You can still laugh? You are crazy,” Samuel said.
Kirsi came over to them. She said, “We still need to clean out those Snow Minotaurs. Now that the Ice Demon Spawn which provided the cold environment was gone, they should leave by themselves, but we should still make sure.”
“Lady, can you give us two a minute to rest first? We almost die, for goodness sake,” Jack said.
“I am good,” Samuel said as he stood up. “The earlier we finished this, the earlier we can return.”
Since those two were so eager, Jack had no choice but to follow. He stood up. “I am… not good,” he said as his knees buckled again and he fell back down.
“I am afraid you two have to do the cleaning without me,” Jack said.
“No problem,” Samuel said and to Kirsi, he said, “on me!” The two then headed over to the closest group of Snow Minotaurs.
While they went and did their business, Jack crawled over to the loots dropped by the Ice Demon Spawn. There were the occasional gold coins and mana cores, aside from that, there were only two other items. However, these two items were marked with Silver and Orange colors, representing Unique and Super Rare items respectively.
He stored the coins and mana cores before taking a better look at the two items. The Super Rare was a longsword. Jack was ecstatic from the find. Despite using guild warehouse’s excess stocks, he still lacked another five rare longswords to fuse into a super rare one. Now he could directly feed this longsword to his Storm Breaker.
Fire Eating Estoc, level 32/62 (super rare, one-handed sword)
Physical damage 190
Attack speed 2
Durability: 80
Strength +12
Fire resistance +30
When user receives fire damage, attributes are increased by 25% for 30 seconds (cannot stack)
He stored this sword in his inventory. He needed to increase its level to the limit where he could still use it before feeding it to his Storm Breaker.
As for the unique item. It was not equipment. ‘Is it another consumable again?’ He thought.
Ice Throne Legacy (Unique Legacy, for guild purpose)
Activate Ice Throne legacy dungeon
“A legacy item? Your luck is very good!” Peniel exclaimed.
“There is no need to state the obvious,” Jack said. “What is this legacy item do, anyway? I see from its description that it is only for guild use?”
“You know about the Training Cave, right?” Peniel asked back.
“Yes, Our Guild Headquarters already has that structure built. Why?”
“The training cave is for level increasing, but it only grants exp, no loots. If you have that legacy item. You can build a legacy cave. Entering this cave will provide you with a dungeon-like adventure, complete with rewards for clearing it. The monsters inside the dungeon also drop loots and coins aside from providing exp. Imagine having a personalized dungeon entrance inside your Guild Headquarters. Any members can delve into this dungeon as long as they pay sufficient contribution points.. With this legacy cave, members don’t even have to venture out into the wilderness to grind anymore.”
