Chapter Twenty-Three: Big Bigger They Are…

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Lurching out of the way of the attack, Aiden quickly activated Arcana Channel and reformed his weapon. The blade instantly formed.

Three Shards appeared over his shoulder, Icy Touch funneling into the Pen. When he brought his trusty Pen to bear, the air whistled and whined in protest. An Ice Shield wrapped around his left arm, securing the thick slabs heavy but comforting.

Last but not least, a Hoarspike followed after the massive boss monster. It hard banked left, and the ability went wide. As it turned around to reorient itself, Aiden casted three more Icy Touches. The presence of the Shards over his shoulder slowed his racing heart some, but it didn’t completely ease the stress.

He still had to last long enough for the stacks to accumulate. From the wicked grin on the boss’s face, that might prove more challenging than not.

Speaking of, a notification demanded his attention in the corner of his vision, but he didn’t dare give it attention now. Not when his opponent could utilize the moment of distraction to gobble him up like a tasty turkey on Thanksgiving.

That was just Bad News Bears waiting to happen. Best not even entertain the idea.

Anxiety filled Aiden as he cast another Icy Touch. The boss was on the move again, but he circled around the large Glacial Fang embedded in the ground. From what he could tell, the boss didn’t like No-Shadowland.

His theory was quickly proven correct as it stopped outside the area of ice that continued to seep outward, hissing angrily. Its large center eye started to glow ominously.

Aiden closed off his mind and moved. His thoughts were getting in the way, paralyzing him with fear. Pumping his legs, he crossed the small domain of ice and threw himself forward, knife poised forward.

“Crystalline Embodiment!”

Time seemed to slow as a dozen massive waves of cold energy thrummed through his body. The air around him screamed in protest as he became the eye of the storm. Thin ice layered repeatedly over his body, covering him from head to toe.

A visor even snapped into existence over his face, comfortably sculpting to fit his face.

The storm dissipated, leaving his momentum to carry him into the boss. An invisible force slammed into him, but he bulldozed through it easily, the effect surprisingly feeble, crumbling like soggy tissue paper.

His blade punched through the thick layers of shadowy skin, frost spreading from the wound even as he drove it deeper. To add insult to injury, he even cast another Icy Touch, the zone of frost rapidly spreading across the boss’s body.

But alas, gravity decided that his plans meant little in the face of worldly laws.

He sunk like a rock, exerting his full weight on his Pen-knife still within the boss as he fell a few feet to the ground. Rolling forward to soften his landing got him out of the splash zone as vile ichor sizzled into the ground.

Big-Bad-And-Scary let out a massive roar that shook the courtyard, stumbling Aiden. He quickly decided to give another untested ability a test run. “Arctic Gale!”

Fwoosh!

The air came alive, buzzing with chilled energy. Within another second, he had his own mini-storm brewing around him. The cold swirled around him slowly. Now that the ability completed, he felt as though he could shape its intent.

With Crystalline Embodiment already active, he decided to see if he could shape the ability into something offensive. Attack, kill, get it!

It didn’t. His mental prodding did little to the ability, but he did feel a thrum of energy connecting them. Focusing on the cloud for a brief second, he realized that he could manipulate the target of the ability.

Grabbing the strand that connected the cloud to him, he reached out and targeted the boss. A headache started to form as he manipulated the ability, but the connection eventually snapped into place.

Fwoosh!

That seemed to do the trick. The aura of coldness did exactly as he wanted it to, though, Aiden wasn’t sure what the ability did exactly. If things took a turn for the worst, he had the rest of his life to find out.

“Hoarspike!” The three foot ability snapped to, flying through the air toward the boss.

Oddly, when it passed through the Arctic Gale’s frosty zone, it slowed down. Aiden raised a brow in confusion, but that passed when the attack found its mark. When the Hoarspike pierced the thick flesh protecting the boss’s back, everything froze.

The entire right side of the boss, weird arms and all, jerked to a stop. An ear piercing shriek made Aiden dizzy, and he knelt to catch his balance. His vision blurred as his brain turned to mush inside his skull.

As the scream continued, the headache escalated to the point that bile stung his throat and he spewed the little in his stomach across the ground in front of him.

When it finally came to an end, there was zero smog left in the courtyard. Instead, it all accumulated across the boss.

Its three pronged talons? Their length extended to nearly triple what it was before, shadowy tendrils connecting them to the boss’s back. The two wounds he made? Nada. The boss even created a pointed tail that split half way.

On the bright side, Proliferation doubled how many Shards hovered over his shoulders. The activation of the passive reminded him to cast another Icy Touch into his Pen-knife. He needed to keep pushing his Shards upward.

The boss didn’t stay idle as his foggy brain mused. Its rotund form floated toward him in all its glory. Aiden tried to leap away, but he more or less belly flopped a couple feet.

It was then he realized how screwed he was. Two clawed fists slammed onto his armored back, further disorienting him and knocking the breath from his lungs.

Not good. His icy armor held against the raking talons of the boss, whining in protest as the nails scraped away at layer after layer.

Rolling onto his back, he brought his Ice Shield to bear, defending himself against the onslaught. Icy Touch helped keep the shield stable for just that much longer, allowing him to dig his feet into the ground and push himself out of the way of the attacks. The shield fractured, splintering in half under the boss’s vicious administrations.

They kept coming, and he kept rolling and kicking against the ground, evading as best he could. More than once, he found himself rolling over discarded bones in his haste. Ultimately, there were too many to avoid completely, but Crystalline Embodiment fended off the odd claw here and there.

All the while, that wicked grin the boss wore from the very get-go only widened as Aiden struggled to survive, let alone kill the thing. Finally, his back scooted onto what he was searching for.

Glacial Fang’s icy radius.

The boss’s onslaught lessened, not daring to enter the zone of frost. Aiden counted his blessings, rolling away from an errant shadowy limb, and continued to push his pained body against the large spike.

He propped himself against it, groaning and cradling his head in his left hand. Staring at the boss with his uncovered right, he watched as it floated casually to and fro without a care. Haughtiness oozed from its being, its red eyes raised in amusement, silenting awaiting for him to make a second attempt on its life.

Its expressive gaze unnerved him, its tongue excitedly wriggling in its mouth. It seemed to say, “I’m gonna get you. No matter what you do, you’ll be mine.”

Then again, that could be his own isecurity talking. Aiden definitely felt like he fared well the first bout, but that scream left his brain and body a sad mess. The taste of acrid vomit still assaulted his tongue, his eyes blurry from the non-so-fun experience.

So, he took refuge within his little slice of land and continued to cast Icy Touch every three seconds. The Shards continued to stack, Proliferation continued to do its work dutifully, and he did mental gymnastics to bandaid his reeling mind.

Not fair, he groused internally. It was childish, it was foolish, and the piles of bones should’ve keyed him into the danger, but here he was. The aches in his body only grew worse, so he knew he needed to move.

But if the enemy gave him time to prepare, prepare he would.

Crystalline Embodiment persisted through the duration of his “recovery”, so that gave him a small boost of confidence when he stood up again. With his entire repertoire ready, his Shards stacked fully, he stepped toward the boss.

Ignoring the pain in mind and body, he stepped forward. If he didn’t move, he would die, so he moved. The closer he got to the edge, the more excited the boss got. Slowly, Aiden started to get in range of the other taloned limbs, and the fun began again in earnest.

When the first limb clawed at him, his Pen-knife was there to greet it. The blade cut through the shadowy limb, dissipating it. “Ice Shield!”

The ability snapped into place, slapping away a second limb.

“Arctic Gale!” Now that he had some idea what to do with the ability, he targeted the boss from the get go.

Fwoosh!

“Hoarspike!” After last time, the monster realized that the combo was not something it could just absorb and be fine, so it crossed several limbs across its body to defend.

The combination of the abilities wasn’t so easy to ignore though. Aiden smirked derisively as the two limbs froze and shattered. He didn’t relent, pumping his legs to drive him forward. The closer he got, the harder it was to deal with the numerous limbs.

The shadow connection bent like cooked noodles, so it had more range of motion to maneuver than Aiden was happy with. However, the limbs still couldn’t cross paths, so getting as close to it as he could was ideal.

It seemed to recognize his plan and slowly hovered away from him, dragging their confrontation further and further from the comfort of Glacial Fang’s frosty domain. Aiden didn’t care. He wouldn’t retreat again.

This ends now.

Frankly, it had to. If the boss could repeat the ability from earlier, he would die a dog’s death. His body and mind were rallied to push now, but he doubted his ability to push himself again if things didn’t work out again.

The speed in which it floated backward was a fraction of what it could do forward. Unlike the first bout, he kept his feet on the ground. He didn’t need to do anything fancy to win.

He only needed an opening. It wouldn’t come on its own, so he had to create one. The simplest solution? Take away its method of defense.

The limbs kept coming, and he fell into a routine. Despite the different potential approaches of attack, the boss fought very one directionally. The more familiar he became with its attack patterns, the less he felt pressured.

Having said that, the ever present threat of that scream forced him to fight with everything he had. When he dissipated another limb, the boss’s brows furrowed. The same light began to glow in its eye, but Aiden had something to say.

“Hoarspike!”

The three foot ice spear pierced into the glowing eye, eliciting a shrill cry from the monster. Black ichor oozed down its face and arcing sparks of built up shadowy power wisped out angrily, oozing from the interrupted ability activation warping it.

Rage-filled bellows grated against his ears, but he pressed the attack. “Glacial Fang!”

He cast the ability with the boss monster’s eye as the target, wishing to inflict further harm to the damned thing. The Shards instantly slammed together, booming as it cut across the distance and joined the Hoarspike.

But the power disparity of the two skills couldn’t be compared. If Hoarspike were a toothpick, Glacial Fang was an accurate description of its namesake - a fang, piercing into the thick flesh of the boss without issue.

The ability poked through the back of the monster, icy shards shredding the few remaining limbs. Frost spread across its body, layering over and over again until it was completely encapsulated.

Its smug face was frozen, preserved for the sake of posterity. He fell back onto his butt, but even that hurt too much. Spreading his limbs, he laid out on the ground spread eagle. The dome above disappeared and all traces of the shadow mage faded.

Too many notifications to count cued in the corner of his vision, but he refused to pay them any mind. His body ached, his mind roiled from the confrontation, and he just wanted to not for a bit.

The sky has never looked so pretty.

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