Another bonus to Authority control? Kaius hoped it was a simple indicator of importance — and not future difficulty.
He pored over it quickly, pleased with what he found. At the very least, they were in the first five and had a solid chance of being the ones to reap the rewards for sharing. Likely, they were first — Xenanra had certainly implied as much.
“What now?” Porkchop asked from behind him.
“Well, my first thought is that we have a beast to slay,” Kenva replied. “But we’d talked about how we should keep pushing for some honours before we go through our class selection, right?”
Kaius nodded, but it was a conversation that could wait.
“Let’s save it. We’ve been through much, and I think we all deserve to blow off a little steam. How about we summit these peaks, maybe take on a couple of Champions if they happen to be nearby our destination? Then we can camp out near the Guardian and plan out what we do next.”
“Sounds good to me. Though, I hope I can entice you to top it all off with a hot meal amongst everything else,” Ianmus interjected with a grin.
Kaius returned it with one of his own. That he could do. It wasn’t camp without something hot to eat, after all.
“Well, let’s get going then.”
They set off, their boots clacking on the void glass beneath their feet. They walked at a fast clip, still fizzing and eager to actualise the growth they had earned within. Their skills were almost entirely capped; they’d gained honours and touched on something ineffable.
All in all, well worth the detour.
….
Glacial winds cut through him like a knife. Sinking through Kaius’s thick woollen cloak, it slipped through the gaps in his scalemail to assault him directly. For all that his Vitality did to him from mortal worries of frostbite and exposure, it did little for the biting discomfort.
Kaius pulled his cloak tighter around him, hunching his shoulders against the wind. Crouching down, he huddled behind a rocky outcropping at the very peak of a mountain.
Their camp was a bare few longstrides behind him. The rest of his team was huddled inside their dimensional tent, enjoying the warmth within. He would join them soon — he’d had his fill of the fresh air. He just wanted a last look at their next challenge.
One he hoped would be simple, after all they had experienced.
A quarter league below and across from him was another mountain peak. It looked as though it had been shorn by the sword of a titan. Flat and open, snow and ice made it into a treacherous battleground.
Deep within himself, he felt a tug pulling him straight towards the plateau — or more accurately, toward the swirling behemoth of ice and snow masquerading as a snowdrift in its centre. That was no beast, he was damned sure.
It would make it one of the few he’d fought that was not a creature of flesh or blood. It was a thing of pure magic, aspected to the elements of winter that forged its form.
It was a large quadruped, ten strides at the shoulder, with a squat body and a blocky head, reminiscent of a bull’s head stitched onto a wolf's body. Gossamer-thin icicles glinted in the summer light, sparkling crystals in place of hair. Every pseudo-breath it made puffed frost and fog, and when it hunkered down it was utterly camouflaged.
Not that it could hide from him, with Persistent Survivor leading him straight for it. Kaius grinned hungrily. Staring at the behemoth, he pulled up its system description with Truesight once more.
Glacial Sovereign - Level 256:
Guardian, Depths-born, Spirit, Vanguard
He couldn’t wait for their fight.
On their ascent up the mountain they’d gotten into plenty of fights with ridgechargers and other beasts. Unfortunately, they’d all fallen like wheat before them and their new strength.
To make matters worse, their hopes of finding a Champion close to the Guardian's peak were dashed - the nearest one was at least two days' diversion, something none of them were eager for.
It meant they hadn’t had a fight that had pushed his blood to the boiling like he so craved. It would have been easy enough to hold his want at bay, knowing that a challenge lay on the horizon, but having it sitting right in front of him was almost torturous.
Oh, how he longed to sprint down the mountainside with his team at his back and charge into the fray, hacking at a living ice sculpture with blade and spell.
It had to wait, they had some important planning to do.
At the very least, for all their fights had been easy, there had been many of them. It was good to take a moment to rest — to centre the body and mind before contending with a true threat.
It bloody better still be a true threat. It was lower level than the Crucible Guardian, and likely had lower stat scaling, and they had all grown stronger.
Kaius scowled.
Still. A spirit. There was hope — they were hard creatures to put down.
Rare things, he’d barely even seen them before. Hells, before the integration had increased the mana density, they were quite impossible to find outside of high-mana zones.
One of the few notable times had been the brambleball he had fought so long ago — on their way to their first mission for the Guild, and others of the same kind they had occasionally encountered on the plains. Those had been alien things that glowed virulently in his mana sight, and this one would no doubt be far more potent in its magic and durability. Somewhere inside it, there would be a core, and until they destroyed it, it could simply reform itself with its mana endlessly — or until they managed to burn out its reserves, of course.
Ianmus and Kenva had done their best to watch it over the last day in an attempt to ferret out any weaknesses or abilities. Unfortunately, nothing had challenged the Guardian’s domain, and it seemed happy to lie limp and rest next to the circle of system runes at the centre of the plateau.
Kaius breathed, a cloud of fog billowing out.
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Soon.
It would be good to properly put his blade and his growing mastery of VOS through their paces. The latter, of course, would not be something he could use much, considering the cost of Muthryn’s spell, Redoubt of the Speaker. At the very least, with his new control of how far he fell into the great rune, he could use it at least once without damaging his ability to fight.
Rising to his feet, Kaius sighed longingly at the creature before turning back and stomping his way to the tent.
Grasping for a tent flap that masqueraded as part of a jumble of rocks, Kaius held it open and hurried inside so as not to let out the warm air within. Shaking off his cloak at the entrance, he hung it from a stretch and took his place on the thick fuzz as his team gave him welcoming smiles.
“Any change with our friend?” Kenva asked.
“No,” Kaius shook his head. “It’s still just lying there, doing its best impression of a snowdrift.”
“A damn shame,” Porkchop replied. “But by my Matriarchs, that won’t last when we encroach on its territory, that’s for sure.”
Kaius grinned hungrily, matching the earnest fire flowing through his bond with Porkchop.
“So, Honours,” he said, sitting down.
“Honours,” Ianmus agreed with a nod.
“I can see three we have a good shot at, three maybes, and a handful that are a shot in the dark. Have any of you thought of any others that we didn’t cover at the start of our last trial?”
He’d tried his best to think of some, but had come up blank. Other than attempting to find later versions of solo and team Champion kills, Kenva’s range and multi-kill Honours, Hordebreaker, and maybe another Ruthless Underdog, they were running into the limits of what they already knew of.
There was still hope for more, potentially relating to spellcasting or Resource usage, but those chances seemed even lower than diving beyond the thirtieth layer for a shot at another Ruthless Underdog.
“No new ideas, but I have a few about how we could approach our hunt?” Ianmus suggested.
Kaius shot the mage a smile.
….
“So, what’s our plan?” Kenva asked.
They were crouched at the very edge of the plateau, watching the Glacial Sovereign for any signs of movement. It was, thankfully, a clear day, so there was little snow or storm to obscure their vision. Yet despite watching for half an hour, the spirit did not move — blending into the snowbanks that littered the flat-topped mountain. It wasn’t too surprising; its periods of activity were few and far between, mostly consisting of wandering around its domain before settling in a new location.
Kaius bore into it, trying to peel apart the layers of snow and ice, searching for a core. He was unsuccessful. He knew it must be there somewhere in the monster, but no matter how much he tried, neither he nor Kenva had been able to spot it.
“Porkchop and I will hold its attention from the front using his Warden’s Challenge and my Compel Obsession.” Kaius said, refocusing on Kenva. “You circle around, try to get close. Don’t attack it or draw any attention to yourself. All you need to do is find that core. When you’re safely back at the edges, that’s when you can engage.”
“And me?” Ianmus asked.
“We know it’s common for most monsters at this point to have some form of mana sight — judging by the amount they’ve been able to read your casts, at least. I don’t think we should open with a large beam and risk drawing it to you. However, once we’ve found the core, start to prepare. Before then… perhaps use your light weaving to strike it from the rear or the sides. Anything we can do to keep it off balance.”
Ianmus frowned. “I doubt that will do much to injure it.”
“Nothing will until we find its core,” Porkchop replied, “There is no blood to bleed, no brain to crush — just that nexus. I know it galls to feel like you aren’t contributing, but it’s for the best you save your mana until it matters.”
“I’ll try to stay close for long enough to see if its core moves then. I know most powerful spirits are supposed to have some form of capability in that regard, but few are smart enough to do it preemptively. If it doesn’t, perhaps we should try to layer our strikes.”
“A good idea. If Porkchop and I can get it to commit to a single attack, we should have our opening while he binds it with his defensive skill. I’ve got plenty of practice from the trial, so I’m confident in using Vos without crippling myself — although I can probably only do it once, and it won’t be anywhere near as powerful as the Hateful Nail I used against the manticore.”
“Still,” Ianmus said, “if we combine Kenva’s charge shot with one of my beams layered with Armour-shredding Spell, and a Vos-empowered Nail, we should be able to crack it right open.”
“Do you have Redoubt of the Speaker prepared?” Porkchop asked. “I wasn’t paying attention to what you were doing with your mana while you inscribed.”
Kaius nodded. He’d been diligent, going for a broad collection of spells that consumed a chunk of his pool. He had already used Warhaven five times over to create a small but long-lasting redoubt at the very edge of the mountaintop. It was still unknown if they’d be able to reach it, as his only previous experience fighting a Guardian had locked them into the arena. He didn’t want to risk triggering the creature with half his pool consumed. It was still worth the extra couple of hours of preparation, just in case.
The rest of his mana was split between his spells. He’d gone heavy on Bound Maelstrom and Expedient Shunt for his defensive measures — swift movement and magic defense would be vital. For offense, he’d leaned more on his Nails than Stormlash. The spirit was a creature of winter, ice and glacial affinities — ones naturally opposed to the storm and electricity of his spell. He hadn’t discounted it entirely — he had mana to spare, and it was his major non-physical method of attack.
From Eirnith, he’d leaned more towards Compel Obsession. It would be useful for baiting his feints, and making Porkchop’s job a little easier. His Zone lasted long enough he would only need a few for the duration of their normal fights.
“Well then, if we’re ready, shall we start? I’m getting sick of standing around and waiting,” Porkchop said.
Kaius nodded to his brother, drawing his blade and enjoying the heft of it in his hand as he admired the way it warped snow and ice through its crystalline edge.
It would be his first true and proper battle since he had upgraded his blade, and he was looking forward to seeing how it performed against a Guardian. Until recently, it would have been an utterly lethal threat. Against a creature made of solid ice, there was no doubt that the old form of A Father’s Gift would have struggled.
“Let’s move,” Kaius said. “Stay at the edge of the arena until Porkchop and I have thoroughly grabbed its attention.” He directed his last words to his back line.
Porkchop shared a hungry grin with his brother, and they both charged — their feet pounding against icy snow as they ripped inwards towards the Guardian.
In the space of a heartbeat, Kaius cast two spells. Both Aelina and Vyrthane lit up with internal fire as mana discharged through Slipstep and Bound Maelstrom. His form wavered, slipping in and out of the world as his steps lengthened through space. Wind howled, ripping around him in a great magical funnel — tearing at the snow as he was hidden in a pillar of living storm.
The second he used his mana, the Guardian awoke.