Chapter 99: The Hunt Arrives
POV: Adam
Three days should have been enough time to prepare.
Three days of rest, training, and meditation at the stone circles where ley lines converged. Three days of Ciri practicing Elder Blood control with increasing success, her power stabilizing in ways that suggested Skellige's magic suited her. Three days of peace that felt earned after months of running.
On the night before the final trial, peace ended.
The temperature dropped without warning. One moment I lay in my quarters, reviewing elemental combinations in my mind. The next, frost crept across the window, my breath misted in suddenly frigid air, and something wrong pressed against my consciousness like a hand closing around my throat.
"Ciri." I was moving before the thought completed, reaching her room through corridors that had become ice-slicked tunnels. "CIRI!"
She met me at her door, face pale, Elder Blood already flaring in response to threat she could feel approaching.
"They're here."
Alarm bells shattered the night. Warriors poured from barracks, grabbing weapons and armor, years of drills converting confusion into coordinated response. The fortress came alive with torchlight and shouting, but all of it felt pale against the cold that continued spreading.
We reached the battlements together. What waited above turned my blood to ice.
Ten riders circled Kaer Trolde like vultures over dying prey. Their ice portals hung in the sky—tears in reality that bled frost and wrongness. Each rider radiated power that made the Hunt manifestation we'd faced on the continent seem like a shadow of the truth.
And leading them, largest and most terrible of all, was a figure in armor of living frost.
"King Eredin." Geralt's voice came from behind us, the witcher having arrived with silver sword already drawn. "The Hunt's ruler. I'd hoped we'd never face him directly."
"You hoped wrong." Eredin's voice echoed across the islands without apparent effort, carrying to every defender, every civilian, every cowering child. "Child of Elder Blood. We tire of pursuit. Surrender now, or we claim you from this fortress's ruins."
—Scene Break—
POV: Crach
The Jarl of Skellige had faced monsters before.
Sea serpents that threatened shipping lanes. Sirens that devoured fishermen. Giants from the high mountains, trolls from the deep forests, every manner of creature that called these islands home.
He'd never faced anything like this.
"All warriors to battlements!" His voice carried across the fortress, authority cutting through panic. "Druids—protective wards, now! Every blade, every bow, every man and woman who can fight!"
Beside him, the mainlander element-speaker stood rigid, face pale but determined. The girl clung to his arm, her strange power making the air around her shimmer.
"Trials are suspended." Crach grabbed Adam's shoulder, forcing the young man to meet his eyes. "You want sanctuary? Prove yourself now. In real battle, not tests."
"I understand."
"Do you?" Crach gestured toward the circling riders. "Those are legends made flesh. Beings who've raided Skellige since before my grandfather's grandfather was born. We've never defeated them—only survived long enough for them to lose interest."
"Then tonight we give them reason to find new interests." The element-speaker's voice carried something that might have been confidence or might have been madness. "Where do you need me?"
"Everywhere." Crach turned to his commanders, already assembling behind him. "But start with the fortress gates. If they breach those, we lose civilian corridors."
—Scene Break—
POV: Adam
The Hunt descended like judgment.
Five riders dove toward the fortress walls, spectral ice weapons materializing as they approached. Five more banked toward the town below, where civilians huddled in buildings that wouldn't protect them from supernatural assault.
"Split up!" I shouted over the chaos. "Geralt, Lambert—take the town! Protect the civilians!"
"You're not fighting these things alone—"
"I'm not alone." Ciri stepped beside me, power crackling around her hands. "Go. We'll hold here."
The witchers hesitated only a moment before nodding and racing for the stairs. They understood tactical necessity even when protective instinct demanded otherwise.
I turned to face the approaching riders.
[ COMBAT INITIATED ]
[ Enemies: Wild Hunt Riders x5 (Level 45-48) ]
[ Allies: Ciri (Elder Blood Active), Skellige Warriors (Various), Jarl Crach (Level 45) ]
[ Objective: Defend Fortress ]
Earth answered my call. Walls erupted along the battlements, creating barriers between defenders and attackers. The first Hunt rider crashed into solid stone, momentum arrested, surprise evident in its recoil.
Water followed earth. The ocean surrounding Skellige responded with eagerness I'd learned to expect—jets of pressurized seawater launched toward riders who'd expected no resistance. Ice formed around spectral limbs, momentarily binding.
Air compressed. Concentrated bursts threw two riders back from their assault vectors, buying precious seconds for Skellige warriors to organize.
[ MP: 890/890 → 750/890 ]
But the Hunt adapted quickly.
"Impressive." The nearest rider spoke with a voice like breaking glaciers. "Three elements coordinated against us. Your kind rarely manages more than one." Its ice blade reformed, longer now, crackling with power that made my teeth ache. "But elements cannot defeat what exists beyond elements."
The strike came faster than I could track. Earth Armor absorbed the blow—barely—and the impact sent me sliding back across frozen stone.
[ HP: 560/560 → 520/560 ]
[ Earth Armor: Cracked ]
"ADAM!" Ciri's scream preceded her intervention. She phased through the rider's follow-up strike, becoming briefly non-corporeal, then solidified with her hand against its chest.
The Hunt rider screamed.
Elder Blood burned against spectral essence like acid against flesh. The creature recoiled, form flickering, momentarily vulnerable. I seized the opening—ice spear through its chest while it couldn't defend, air blast to drive the weapon deeper.
The rider dissolved into frost and shadow, dispersing rather than dying.
[ Wild Hunt Rider: Temporarily Dispersed ]
[ Will Reconstitute in: 2 hours ]
"They don't stay dead!" I shouted to nearby warriors. "Disperse them, buy time, but they'll come back!"
—Scene Break—
POV: Ciri
Her power surged with terrifying intensity.
Every time she touched a Hunt rider, Elder Blood responded by burning through their spectral essence. The pain they felt transmitted through contact—ancient beings experiencing something they'd rarely encountered, something they'd learned to fear.
But each contact drained her. Energy bleeding away with every burn, leaving her weaker while the riders merely dispersed and reformed.
"This isn't sustainable!" Adam fought beside her, three elements weaving together in combinations that would have seemed impossible months ago. "We're delaying, not winning!"
"Eredin hasn't engaged yet." She pointed toward the figure still circling above, observing rather than participating. "He's watching. Measuring us."
"Measuring what?"
"Our limits. How much we can handle before we break." Understanding crystallized with horrible clarity. "He's not trying to win tonight. He's testing our defenses, learning our capabilities. So when he comes again—"
"He'll know exactly how to destroy us."
A rider broke through Adam's barriers, ice blade descending toward her head. She phased—became insubstantial—and the weapon passed through empty air. Her counter-touch burned through its shoulder, dispersing the arm entirely.
But the effort cost her. She staggered, vision blurring, Elder Blood demanding rest she couldn't take.
"CIRI!" Adam's water barrier caught the next attack, buying her recovery time. "Stay with me!"
"I'm trying." But the words came weak, and she felt something shifting in the battle's rhythm.
Eredin had stopped circling.
—Scene Break—
POV: Adam
The Hunt King descended like winter itself.
Where his riders had been dangerous, Eredin was catastrophic. His presence alone dropped temperature further—Skellige warriors froze where they stood, their life heat stolen by proximity to something that had never been alive.
"Element-speaker." His voice carried across the battlefield without effort. "You've surprised me. Mortals rarely manage that."
[ Enemy Identified: King Eredin (Level 60) ]
[ Warning: Combat Not Recommended ]
[ Power Differential: Extreme ]
"Stay back." I positioned myself between Eredin and Ciri, knowing the gesture was probably futile. "You want her, you go through me."
"Admirable loyalty. Pointless, but admirable." Eredin's ice blade materialized—larger than any weapon I'd faced, crackling with power that made my elemental senses scream warnings. "Watch closely, girl. Watch your protector fail. Then come willingly, and perhaps I'll let him live as reward for entertainment provided."
He attacked.
The strike should have killed me. Speed beyond human tracking, power beyond human endurance, technique refined through centuries of practice. Everything I'd learned, every skill I'd developed, every element I commanded—none of it should have mattered.
Earth Armor absorbed the first impact and shattered completely.
[ HP: 520/560 → 380/560 ]
[ Earth Armor: Destroyed ]
[ Status: Critically Endangered ]
Water barriers rose and froze instantly, converted from defense to weapon by Eredin's mere proximity. Air blasts accomplished nothing against his mass. Earth pillars crumbled before touching him.
I fell back, blood streaming from a wound I couldn't remember receiving, and understood with perfect clarity that I was going to die.
"Not like this. Not without trying everything."
MORE POWER STONES == MORE CHAPTERS
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