After waking up, Amaya gathered up the adventurers and headed through the giant gates and into the castle made of Ice.
(Castle of Ice)
Amaya swung her blade, shattering the creature's ice body.
Slash! Shatter!
[Ice Knight: Hp: 0/9,891,000]
"That's the fifth one we've come across." said Atsuya.
"Be careful when we come across more. This is a newly discovered kind of monster." Humbert stated.
Creatures with ice bodies in the shape of knights. Some male, some female. So far, each of these monsters had great skill when swinging swords made of ice.
Amaya continued to lead the adventurers through the labyrinth-like castle.
The entire structure was gigantic and hard to navigate inside of. Surprisingly, the floors weren't slippery at all, even for being made of Ice.
"I wish the walls were see-through. Then we'd know where we're going." said one of the adventurers from behind.
"Yes, but they're not. We can't know where we're going in every situation. You'll just have to deal with it." Humbert replied.
"Bummer."
As Amaya led them down a large hallway, she stopped. There, towards the end of the giant hallway was a giant pair of doors.
"There. That must be the boss room." Atsuya stated.
"It's your call, Amaya." said Humbert.
Amaya was confused as there weren't any Ice Knights anywhere near.
'If they acted as real knights, shouldn't they be guarding the boss room?'
She decided to pay no mind to it as it was better to not run into any monsters.
"Ok, let's go in."
Amaya led everyone to the end of the hall until they reached the doors.
"Everyone! Let's get ready!" Humbert shouted.
Amaya took a deep breath. Before stepping up to shove the doors.
Shove! Bmp!
'What?'
To her surprise, the pair of doors didn't budge or even move at all.
A message came into her view.
[Key of 'Ice' is needed.]
[Hint: The key is somewhere inside this castle of ice.]
'Wow...very helpful.' Amaya thought to herself in disappointment.
"What's bothering you?" Akemi asked.
"Nothing. It looks like I need a key to open it."
"A key?" Akemi asked.
Amaya nodded.
"So what's the plan?" Humbert asked.
Amaya explained that it would be faster to search in small numbers. So, she herself would go look for the key, alongside Humbert and Akemi.
Atsuya, Alison and Kioshi would stay and wait with the other adventurers.
"I'll try to be quick. I'm leaving you incharge, Atsuya." said Amaya.
"Got it." Atsuya replied.
Amaya then sprinted off as Akemi and Humbert followed.
Each hallway they came across, they checked. Every room they encountered, they went in. Nearly four hours passed and there was still no luck finding the key.
Tmp. Tmp. Tmp. Tmp.
"Enemies approaching!" Akmi shouted as she drew her sword.
Behind came a group of Ice Knights. Some had spears,some had swords and some had axe's.
"It's ok. I got it." said Amaya.
One step forward, she aimed her hand at the group of monsters and spoke a phrase.
"Fire Wave."
A spark lit from her palm, quickly expanding until a wide blast of fire shot forward.
Fwssshhhh!
The fire passed through the halls, melting the Ice Knights in the way.
"There."
"Nice work," said Akemi.
"You are truly worthy of Legendary-rank." Humbert complimented.
It was a small detail but Amaya found it funny how the walls or floor didn't melt a bit.
'Indestructible ice?' she thought to herself.
That's when a sparkle caught Amaya's eye. Where the Ice knights once stood was now a purple marble, laying on the floor. It was amazingly small and didn't seem like anything dangerous, so Amaya walked over and picked it up. Lifted it above her face, she continued to observe it's small and shiny form.
[You have obtained 'Orb Transportation' - When used, will teleport you and those with you to the room of the 'Ice Golem'. You will not be able to return back until you defeat the 'Ice Golem'.]
"What did you find?" Humbert asked.
"It looks like this will move us to a room. But, it looks like we might be facing a boss. Most likely a mini boss." Amaya replied.
"It is your call." Akemi stated.
Amaya stepped close to the two and held the marble into the air.
"Here it goes."
[You have used 'Orb Transportation']
A purple light covered each of their bodies as they faded from sight.
(Room of the Ice Golem)
The three of them blinked, revealing that they were now in a different place. Ice crystals hung from the ceiling, giving light. There were eight different chests all around. But most importantly, a giant Golem made of ice stood at the far end of the room. It's size was nearly as big as most buildings. The Golem had nine separate eyes which all glowed yellow.
Amaya used her 'Analyze' skill and was a little surprised by the creature's stats.
[Ice Golem: HP: 1,000,000,000/1,000,000,000 | Atk: 15,000,000 | MP: 250,000,000 |
Speed: 912 | Endurance: 1,456]
'So now I've reached the point where a monster's health is in the billions. This is definitely stronger than the bosses I fought in the other dungeon.' Amaya thought to herself.
"When do we begin attacking?" Akemi asked.
"You guys can stay back. I can probably take it out in one shot." Amaya claimed.
Humbert's face grew shocked by her claim. So, he went on to make sure she understood the monster's power.
"You can what?! You do understand that it's health is beyond anything you've come across, right?"
"Yeah. There's a chance if I attack with melee attacks, it will dodge. If that happens, It might take us a while to kill it." said Amaya.
"Then what is your plan?" Humbert asked.
Amaya took one step forward and aimed her palm in Golem's direction, replying.
"I'll just blast it away."
[You have used 'Attack Amplifier']
A giant needle of ice appeared into the air above, then in a single change of a second it launched toward the monster. The very second it made contact, the Golem's ice body blew apart, sending pieces into the air.
Swoossshhh!!!!! Booommm!!! Shaterrrrr!!!!
'Hmmm, I think that's the first time I used Ice magic.' Amaya thought to herself before going on to speak out loud to Akemi and Humbert.
"So, how about we open all the chests…."
As Amaya fully turned around, she could see the surprised looks on their faces. It was almost as if they've seen true horror.
"Or not?" Amaya asked.
Slow and surprised, Humbert went on to mumble.
".....Amaya, I think your power has far surpassed Legendary-rank."
"That's protector level power if I've ever seen it." said Akemi.
Amaya gave a firm flick to Humbert's forehead, but she made sure not to do any damage.
Flick!
"Guys, snap out of it. We need to search for the key."
Both Akemi and Humbert roughly shook their heads before replying.
"Right!"
Amaya went on and checked all twenty chests in the room but there were no signs of any keys. Instead, there were only things like shards of ice, diamonds and pearls.
From across the room, Humbert walked over to Amaya's side and asked "Any luck?"
"No. I haven't even found anything close to a key."
"That's unfortunate."
The two of them were left to stand in thought. That's when Akemi's voice called from where the Golem's body once stood.
"I think I found something."
Amaya and Humbert quickly ran over.
"What is it?" they asked.
Akemi showed off a blue key made of ice.
"Perhaps this the key?"
"Hmmm. Could be." said Humbert.
As the key was given to Amaya, she received a message in her view.
[You have obtained the 'Key of Ice']
"Yep. This a hundred percent the key."
"Really? Lady fortune was with us. Shall we head back now?" Akemi asked.
"Now how do we get out of here?" Humbert asked.
Akemi noted that there was a teleportation circle in the far corner of the room, however Amaya shook her head at the idea and spoke.
"Yeah, that could get us out of the room but, we'd still have to walk the rest of the way…."
A large portal appeared in front of them as Amaya continued.
"...Unless we use one of my gates."
"You can even use something such as a gate? That's pretty amazing." said Humbert.
"Yes. It really is." Akemi agreed.
The three of them walked through the portal. As they came out the other end, they were now back at the giant pair of doors. The three of them grew confused as all the other adventurers surrounded them with their weapons out.
"Uhhhh, what's going on?" Amaya asked.
"Yes, I would like to know the meaning of this?" said Akemi.
Humbert then went on to voice his opinion as well.
"Come on now. Is this how we treat allies?"
The many adventures let out a breath of relief, lowering their weapons and apologizing.
"Oh, it's you guys. My apologies." said Atsuya as he stepped forward. There was a visible wound to his shoulder that he was holding with a white cloth. Despite that, his blood had already soaked the center of the cloth.
"It's fine. But, can you explain what happened?" Humbert asked.
Though, it was obvious what had gone down. The bodies of adventurers were scattered all around. Some were bloody, some were heavily disfigured and some had been completely torn to pieces. Alongside the deceased adventurers were the broken bodies of Ice Knights.
"Well, as you can see, quite a lot of Ice knights caught us off guard. One of them even managed to hit me in my shoulder. The cold reduced my healing time, but the wound should close in a couple minutes or so."
Kioshi then also came from the back. He had some wounds of his own, but they were all decently small. He went on to speak on the number of adventurers left.
"In the fight we lost exactly seventy-nine adventurers. Thirty-four were injured, including myself, Atsuya and Alison."
[Current Number of Allies: 27]
While everyone discussed different issues, Amaya found herself looking upon the deceased. Seeing people who were once alive just motionless didn't feel right. Each of these people, now dead, all had dreams, things they liked and some even had family. Amaya had seen lifeless monsters and the bodies of people she had to kill before, but they were all bad, so she didn't feel bad about those lives she took in the past. But seeing adventurers who fought for the sake of clearing this dungeon made her uneasy. Longer, longer and longer, she continued to stare. Never once, she had ever seen such gory corpses.
Tears filled Amaya's eyes as she fell to her knees and vomited on the ice-cold floors. The regret of making the decision to split up had filled my mind. Deep down, she knew that this was her fault.
After taking 30 minutes or to sit and think, Amaya was finally able to calm down. The deaths still bothered her quite a bit, but she was now able to focus on the goal at hand.
"When will we attempt the boss fight?" Akemi asked.
Amaya took a brief second to glance at the others, before answering.
"I'm not sure. Can we fight with everyone injured?"
Akemi then went on to reply.
"Me, Atsuya, Alison and Kisohi's strength combined with yours is a lot. Even with our current force's situation, there's a high chance we'll pull off this win. But keep in mind, we don't know the boss's power yet."
Amaya took a breath to relieve the shaky feeling in her body.
"Okay. Please gather everyone."
"Understood." Akemi replied.
By the time Amaya reached the doors, everyone was already behind her, ready for the battle, seconds ahead.
Amaya looked at Atsuya who nodded with the meaning that himself and everyone was prepared.
Amaya placed the key into the door before shoving them open.
Fwsh!
The moment they started to all walk in, Humbert yelled.
"Get down!"
Right away, loud sounds of shattering and crashing ice shoot all around. A strong force had knocked Amaya to the ground before she even had a chance to realize anything.
'.what...happened?' her body felt as if it was immediately bruised and she could fill an overwhelming pain in her chest. Her vision is blurry and her limbs felt weak. Amaya managed to turn her head and check on the others. Her eyes widened as she saw the terror. Spikes of ice had been stabbed into the ground all around. Right away, she noticed that the entire force was killed. The only ones alive were herself, Atsuya, Akemi, Alison and Kioshi.
'Good...they're alive.' Amaya thought to herself.
But something was off. While Atsuya stared towards the threat in the boss room, everyone else looked at Amaya with a worried expression.
'Why… is everyone looking at me weird?' She wondered.
Now even more than before, the pain in her chest was great. It was so great that Amaya looked to see what the cause was. That when she saw it. A great area of her stomach and chest was missing. The only thing still there was her heart which was hanging from her insides.
'What...hit me?'
Almost all of her Heath had been deleted in an instant.
[HP: 5,076,754/95,417,376]
Humbert Quickly ran over to her side.
"Amaya! Amaya! Are you okay?"
Amaya tried to talk, but she couldn't as her lungs had been destroyed.
So instead She could only think of her reply.
'No….this hurts.'
Her neck grew weak and she lost consciousness, fully bleeding out.
[HP: 0/95,417,376]
[AL: 0/47,708,688]
"No! Amaya!"
Amaya found herself falling in a never ending pit of darkness. The only light she could see was from the memories that flashed in front of her.
'So I died again, huh. I should be coming back right about…'
['Second Chance' has activated]
'...Now!'
Amaya quickly sat up as the hole in her chest instantly healed.
"Okay. I'm fine now." she reassured everyone.
"I don't even know how you just healed but now that you're okay, you should take a look at our current threat." said Humbert.
From across the way, Akemi butted in.
"Amaya, let's consider retreating!"
Those words even surprised Amaya. When they saw the Ice Golem, Akemi only asked "When do we begin attacking?" and showed no sign of fear.
But now it was different.
'What could be so scary to make her even want to run?' Amaya thought to herself.
She got back on her feet and looked towards the boss room. Inside was a slim tall creature that had four arms that held swords of Ice. It's eyes were glowing white and it's body was completely made of ice. But the monster's appearance was the least of their worries as Amaya read it's stats.
[Ice Leader: Hp: 11,734,987,130 | Atk: 123,981,714 | Mp: 870,000,000 | Speed: 1,345 | Endurance: 5,670]
Even for herself, the outcome of the fight would be unclear.
"Guys! Let's run for now!"
Everyone agreed and quickly turned away from the room and sprinted off.
Swoosh Shh.
A mighty gust if the wind filled the hall, and began slowly moving them back. They each tried to grab onto the floor or wall but the wind only got stronger by the second, until completely sucking them into the room.
Slam!
The doors firmly shut behind them.
"Oh no. This isn't good." Said Humbert.
"Damn. Now we're locked in." said Atsuya.
Alison quickly pulled out two daggers and held them tightly.
"Our only option is to fight. I'm ready when you guys are."
Amaya stepped forward, gripping a blue dagger.
"Yeah. I hate to say this but. We might die here." Amaya could reduce the cooldown of [Second Chance] and use it one more time, but if she died again after that, she would be dead for good.
Akemi then stepped forward, pointing her sword towards the ceiling. Closing her eyes tightly, she began chanting as a haze of light started to surround her body.
"Combined Attack. Combined Heath. Immunity. "
As Akemi's eyes quickly opened, they began to glow. Right after, she went on to speak one more phrase.
"Perfection."
A wave of energy filled the air and her stats dramatically increased.
[Akemi: HP: >>>119,878,134,430 | Atk: >>>3,498,736,640 |
MP: >>> 1,150,000 | Speed: >>> 7,780 | Endurance: 8,920]
"What did you just do and how did your stats increase so much?" Amaya asked. But she wasn't the only one surprised, so was everyone else.
"I copied some of everyone's stats, including that monster. Then I added them on my own and increased my stats time ten." Said Akemi.
"With that kind of ability, you're like a god among people." Said Humbert from the back.
Akemi shook her head.
"Unfortunately that is not the case. I have not mastered these powers like my brother has. So, I can only stay like this for five minutes at most. When it wears off, I'll be left immobilized. If i don't win within that time, we'll all die here. So I ask you guys, please stand back.``
Akemi took a step forward and vanished from sight. All across the gigantic room, the many swings of her sword created sparks that were sent flying all around.
None of the others were able to see her movements, not even Amaya was capable. All they could see was the impacts of Akemi's attacks, smashing the ice floors and creating orange and yellow lights. But there was an issue, the monster was standing still, taking no damage. Akemi felt herself growing tired but still continued towing her sword. Left, right, left, right.
Everyone watched as the scene was like a war, but between only two individuals.
Akemi continued to attack for 15 more seconds until she suddenly stopped and fell against the floor.
"I ...reached my limit."
"Akemi!" Humbert shouted as he began to run over to her. That was when a cold breeze flew from the monsters mouth, freezing Humbert in place, turning him into an ice statue.
"No! Dammit!1" Atsuya shouted in pure rage as started charging towards the boss.
A cold breeze flew forward, freezing his body until he was no more than an ice statue.
Alison launched her dagger through the air, stabbing the monster's body. Her attempt had done nothing as the boss stepped forward. A chilling breeze flowed forward, turning Alison into a frozen ice statue.
This left only two adventurers now, being only Amaya and the immobilized Akemi.
Amaya aimed her hand in the monster's direction and shouted.
"Shadow Blast!"
A black beam of energy shot forward and blasted against the face of the Ice leader.
[Ice leader: Hp: 11,734,987,130/11,734,987,130]
No damage was done.
Amaya found herself backing away while she was left to just stare at the monster in fear.
"No...this is bad."
The first time in a long time, she felt true terror overcoming her body.
Bmp.
There was nowhere left to run as she was fully backed up against the door. The Ice leader seemed to know this because it didn't even move from its spot at all. Instead, the monster lifted it's sword and threw it across the room. Before Amaya even tried to dodge, the blade shot passed her, slicing her arm from her body.
Thump!
As it hit the floor, she fell down in pain, panic and shock.
'My arm...it's gone. It's gone.'
Her blood continued to spill out at a fast rate. All she could do was lay there and hope for a miracle to happen.
With Amaya helpless and Akemi unable to move, death was almost guaranteed.
Akemi found the strength and reached inside her side pocket, and pulled out a card. She tossed it on the floor in front of her and thought.
'I know you're busy overseas, brother. I'm sorry, but I have to call on you."
The Ice leader held it's swords into the air, casting a spell.
Above everything in the room, a giant spike of ice slowly began to form, until it was the size of a small meteor. The monster let out a single, horrendous laugh and the spike of ice moved through the air, towards Akemi and Amaya's direction.
There was only enough time for Akemi to let out a cry for help.
"ACE!!"
Fwsh!!
Smash!!!CRASSSHHHH!!!!
Amaya and Akemi tightly closed their eyes and waited for the unstoppable death.
But, it never came.
Instead, a man with light-blue hair stood in the spike's original path, but the spike was nowhere to be seen. The only thing that remained of it was shattered ice, scattered across the room.
The man then spoke.
"Akemi. I told you there's no need for you to be an adventurer and put your life at risk. Aside from that, you all fought bravely. I will take it from here."
Tears nearly started to form in Akemi's eyes. They were tears of Joy.
"Ace. You actually came."
The man that stood before them was none other than one of the protectors known as 'Ace Skyman.'
Ace spoke as he looked at the boss.
"Ah, I see why you guys had such a hard time now. This kind of monster hides it's really body behind it's thick layer of indestructible ice. I know it seems impossible to beat, but there's a way. It's actually really simple. If you hit it's body with even the weakest of fire spells, its ice body will melt right off."
As he finished, he drew his sword and engulfed it's blade in fire, speaking further more.
"I will take it from here. Just stay back."
As Ace got closer, the Ice Leader swung its sword, hitting him many times.
Shnk. Shnk. Shnk. Shnk. Chink!
Amaya watched in panic as she thought to herself.
'NO. He's definitely dead after being hit all those times.'
She was wrong.
Instead, Ace was fully fine and took no damage as the attacks didn't even move him.
"Now, allow it to be my turn." he said in a bold tone.
Slash!!
A blinding beam of light followed the swing of his sword, followed by a thundering boom. The Ice Leader stood in place as nothing had happened. But when Ace placed his sword back in it's scavern, the monster's body blasted apart.
Crasssshhhh!!!
"The threat has been put down. You can rest easy now." were the words he spoke while looking towards Akemi and Amaya.