Snow screamed across the clearing as the blizzard clawed through the forest.
The storm had not weakened with the death of the first ogre. If anything, it had grown more violent, the wind whipping between the broken pines and shattered river ice like an animal that had finally been allowed to bare its teeth.
Beneath that storm, two frost ogres stood in silence.
They had felt their sibling die.
They had heard it.
The dull impact of my fists against its skull. The final crack of bone giving way beneath the last blow. The way its body had gone still while the storm raged around us.
Blind though they were, the two remaining giants knew exactly what had happened.
For several seconds they did not move.
Their massive heads tilted slowly toward the corpse of their fallen kin. Their nostrils flared as the wind carried the scent of blood across the clearing. Their enormous chests rose and fell with slow, deliberate breaths.
The air itself seemed to tighten.
Then the rage arrived.
Both giants roared at the same time.
The sound detonated through the storm like two glaciers splitting apart. Snow fell from the surrounding trees in a violent cascade as the blizzard twisted in response to their fury.
The ground trembled beneath their feet as they turned toward me.
They had found me now.
The moment their sibling's body stopped moving, the vibrations of my weight pressing against the frozen earth betrayed my position.
Two enormous heads locked onto the exact point where I stood.
Their rage was immediate.
Unrestrained.
The ogre on the left moved first.
Its massive hand rose slowly through the storm while the wind around the clearing suddenly shifted direction. The blizzard that had filled the battlefield began collapsing inward toward the giant's palm as if gravity itself had changed.
Snow. Ice. Wind. Everything.
All of it spiraled toward its hand.
The swirling storm compressed violently as the ogre condensed the blizzard into a dense sphere of frozen power. Ice crystals shrieked against one another as they were crushed together, the ball of condensed frost glowing faintly with violent energy.
The temperature of the clearing dropped even further.
The giant turned its head toward me.
Then it launched the sphere.
The frozen sphere screamed through the storm like a comet.
My body moved instinctively.
I stepped forward and lifted my hand to deflect the attack the same way I had done a dozen times during the bear fight.
The moment my palm met the sphere, something changed.
The force didn't move.
It locked in place.
The frozen sphere clung to my hand like gravity had suddenly decided I was its center. The violent storm of energy trapped inside it continued to spin against my palm, the condensed blizzard grinding against my armored glove. Ice immediately began forming across my fingers. Pain surged through my hand as the freezing energy tried to consume it. My arm trembled beneath the strain.
For a moment I simply stared at the attack.
Level 3.
The realization struck without warning.
I wasn't pushing the force away.
I was holding it in place.
The sphere remained locked to my hand while the power inside it continued trying to tear itself free. Snow and frost spiraled violently around my arm as the condensed blizzard fought against my control.
The system flickered faintly at the edge of my vision.
Successful Hit Registered
1 / 600
Each second the attack remained attached to my hand, the system chimed again.
Successful Hit Registered
3 / 600
The energy inside the sphere began crawling up my forearm as frost spread across the armor. The cold burned against my skin like acid.
I couldn't hold it for long.
The pain intensified with every passing moment.
The attack was killing me.
My hand began freezing solid.
Successful Hit Registered
5 / 600
"Alright," I muttered quietly.
"That's enough."
I swung my arm.
The motion wasn't precise.
I simply threw the sphere away from my body in an attempt to stop the pain spreading up my arm.
The moment it left my hand, the world exploded.
The sphere launched forward with catastrophic acceleration.
The air itself ripped apart as the condensed blizzard tore through the clearing faster than sound. The frozen projectile crossed the distance between us in less than the blink of an eye.
The ogre that had thrown it never had time to react.
The sphere struck the center of its face.
Then it detonated.
The explosion erased the top half of the giant's body.
For a fraction of a second the blast carved a perfect semicircle through the ogre's torso just below the shoulders before everything above that point vanished. Bone, muscle, armor, and flesh were simply… gone.
The attack continued forward.
The energy that had once formed the blizzard erupted forward in a catastrophic wave of frozen destruction. The forest behind the ogre disappeared as the attack carved a path through the trees, vaporizing everything in its path.
Half a mile of forest ceased to exist.
Then the sound arrived.
A half-second after the blast, the shockwave finally caught up.
The thunderclap detonated across the battlefield like the sky itself had shattered.
The remaining ogre staggered violently as blood burst from both of its ears. The concussion rolled outward, ripping trees from the earth like weeds and throwing them across the snow.
The entire forest buckled beneath the pressure wave.
Snow blasted outward from the clearing in a massive expanding ring as the sound tore across the frozen wilderness.
Then silence returned.
Where the second ogre had been standing, only the lower half of its body remained. The rest had simply been erased.
I stared at the destruction quietly.
The cold wind moved slowly through the clearing again as snow began settling across the torn earth.
Level 3.
That had not been deflection. I had held the attack. Then the force amplified when I released it.
Interesting.
Across the clearing the final ogre stood alone. Blood ran down the sides of its massive head as it slowly turned toward me, the ruptured eardrums doing nothing to dull its fury.
It knew exactly what had happened.
It knew its kin were dead.
I looked at it calmly.
"This is what you wanted."
I stepped forward, but my foot never touched the ground. The moment I shifted my weight, the force beneath my body detonated. My body lifted off the ground as my momentum exploded forward with violent acceleration. I launched across the clearing low to the ground. Ice shattered beneath the pressure wave of my movement as snow erupted behind me in a massive plume.
The ogre reacted instantly.
Its enormous hands slammed against the frozen river.
Ice surged upward from the ground in response.
A translucent dome of frozen crystal formed around the giant, the barrier expanding outward in a perfect sphere of layered ice thicker than steel.
I began extending my index finger instinctively to penetrate the barrier, but I realized that would kill it instantly. I wasn't finished with this one yet, so I changed my approach. At the last moment I twisted my body.
My boots hit first.
The barrier shattered like glass.
My momentum punched a perfectly circular hole through the frozen sphere as I passed through it without slowing down. The layers of ice cracked and collapsed behind me while the ogre barely had time to raise its head.
Both boots slammed into the side of its skull. The impact launched the giant across the frozen river.
Its massive body skipped violently across the ice, carving trenches through the snow as it tumbled through the forest the same way the bear had earlier.
Trees.
Ice.
Rock.
Everything exploded around it as the ogre rolled through the clearing.
I stopped in midair.
The force beneath my body shifted direction as I hovered above the battlefield and watched the giant tumble across the frozen terrain.
I cracked my knuckles slowly while hovering above the shattered clearing.
"I hope you live long enough," I said calmly, watching the ogre's body tear through ice and splintered trees like something the world had already given up trying to stop. "For me to level up again."