Chapter 451 – Battle of the Ice Field

As if testing the waters, the snowmen at the front unleashed a frigid blast mixed with ice pellets toward us.

Their projectile power wasn’t particularly impressive. However, having even the grunts equipped with ranged attacks was quite troublesome. Flamia responded – one of the floating fox fires writhed as if it were a separate creature, expanding greatly to engulf both the cold air and ice pellets.

The sound of water evaporating and steam spread around us, and without a moment’s delay, Sheila, Pietro, and their clones charged into it.

Each moved as if crawling along the ground. As Sheila and Pietro burst through the steam, the snowmen’s mouths unleashed another cold blast toward them.

Sheila leaped diagonally upward. Pietro and his clones scattered left and right across the ground. For just an instant, the snowmen’s attention shifted toward them – and in that moment!

“Fall back!”

Grace broke through the blizzard while deploying a Shield with her left hand. She charged straight toward the Snow Golems – no, toward the Yeti waiting behind them. As her twin axes wrapped in Fighting Spirit flashed, the snowmen in Grace’s path were sliced in half and sent flying.

Responding to Grace’s movement, one of the Yeti roared and brought its club straight down. Grace met it head-on, slamming her axe against it.

And Grace wasn’t the only one launching a charge to break their formation. Corulis, covered in crystals, charged toward the other Yeti at cannonball-like speed.

The Snow Golems in its path were either sent flying by Corulis’s massive body or crushed beneath it – those were their only fates. Great mass, brute strength, and the solid hardness of crystals. The destructive power born from these was straightforward.

What stopped Corulis’s movement was, as expected, the other Yeti. Corulis blocked the roaring Yeti’s club swing with its crystal shield. Without a moment’s delay, Corulis swung its massive claw as if scooping upward.

The male Yeti seemed surprisingly agile for its large frame, performing a spinning backward leap to evade the claw, then grabbing onto the top of a frozen tree.

While keeping its eyes on Corulis, it twisted the corner of its mouth and charged in again.

As for the snowmen – while their formation was disrupted and their attention drawn by Grace and Corulis, they were being cut down by Sheila, Pietro, and Flamia.

“Over here–“

Sheila, who had vanished, passed by the Snow Golems leaving only her voice and the gleam of Fighting Spirit. The Snow Golems that had their heads sliced off lost their vision, showing confused behavior like touching their heads, but that lasted only a moment. Once their bodies were melted by Flamia, who trailed long flames from her tail, they were clearly Incapacitated.

Flamia seemed capable of flying without Magic Tools – she flew through the gaps between snowmen while wreathed in flames. Her long tail became a fiery whip, mowing down Snow Golems as she passed.

For the Snow Golems too, Flamia with her fire Element seemed to be a threat, as their attention inevitably went more toward her than the others… but Pietro and his clones’ movements were also remarkable. The clones dashed in, leaping left and right with cat-like agility, and the moment the enemies were distracted, Pietro’s main body stepped in like the wind.

“What are you looking at!”

The sword in Pietro’s hand wrapped in lightning. It cleanly severed the Snow Golem’s head. A nearby Snow Golem grew ice pillars from both hands and leaped at him, but the instant he cut it down, he leaped back as if switching places with a clone.

The clones’ combat abilities were also quite impressive – they neatly blocked the Snow Golems’ ice pillars with their swords, then tore through the Snow Golems’ faces with the claws of their free hands.

Agility and explosive power. And lightning magic swords for the clones. They do seem inferior in terms of raw strength, but they appear to have considerable capability in both offense and defense.

While the Vanguard members Grace and Corulis were holding back the major threats, and Sheila, Pietro, and Flamia were wreaking havoc among the snowmen, the construction of the defensive position in the rearguard was completed.

Ashley activated a Defense Field while creating ice walls, establishing a position to avoid being surrounded by enemies and make it difficult for them to shoot at us.

“We’re ready.”

Responding to Ashley’s words, those who had been focused on defending the Rearguard until now – Dullahan, Ignis, and Lavigne – also charged into the enemy lines.

Just before Dullahan and Ignis collided with a group of snowmen – Irmhild, who had circled around from the side, and Seraphina riding on her shoulder, fired arrows that crossed over the Snow Golems’ heads. A high-pitched sound echoed through the air.

It was an arrow with a Cursed Melody that Seraphina had amplified. The hindering effect against Magical Creatures like Golems was remarkably strong.

Into the greatly disrupted snowmen, Dullahan and Ignis charged. Snowmen were literally sent flying, dancing through the air. Unable to fly, they flailed their arms in panic, only to be incinerated by Rosemary’s Fireballs, the fire Spirits commanded by Auria, and Eclair’s Lightning Strikes.

As for Lavigne – one might say she was like a fish in water. She raced across the ice at even greater speed than usual, running freely in all directions while releasing chunks of ice. Though she might share the same Element as the Snow Golems, it didn’t matter when using ice as a physical Weapon, it seemed.

Rather than using Slash Attacks or stabs, she was destroying them by smashing chunks against them – which was probably the correct approach. As for the Vanguard, we’re pushing them. Though their numbers are somewhat large, as long as they can’t make organized movements, we should be able to push through like this.

The snowmen who found themselves getting nowhere and tried to head toward the Rearguard were caught by Marlene’s Saucer interference, Rosemary’s Magic Threads, and Claudia’s shadow brambles, then mercilessly shot down by Irmhilt.

“My, this is quite simple.”

Furthermore, Rosemary released Puppet Strings from her Magic Slave, taking control of Snow Golems and making them fight each other.

As for me, I had Caduceus positioned forward as an Escort for the Vanguard members, ready to rescue or support the Vanguard if needed while maintaining vigilance of our surroundings.

Responding to the Yeti’s earlier roar, more Monsters were being drawn here. We had to deal with them. That was why Dullahan and Ignis hadn’t moved forward until the defensive position was completed.

From the distance, further reinforcements of snowmen gathering. And breaking through the trees appeared – a subspecies of Elephas Soldier. A hairy-bodied, long-tusked elephant Monster adapted to cold regions. In other words, a bipedal mammoth – but its frame was one or two sizes larger than an Elephas Soldier.

“This is – not an area where one could easily venture under normal circumstances.”

Between the number of snowmen and the nature of the terrain… this is a place with considerably high danger level. The presence of major threats like Yeti and Mammoth Soldiers further increases the danger.

If one absolutely had to come here, it would be the kind of place where you’d form a Raid with multiple Adventurer Parties to take advantage of the wide open space.

“Go!”

I unleashed Balor, wreathed in golden light, toward the gathering snowmen. The golden light transformed into golden Light Bullets, with golden light spreading like wings to Balor’s left and right.

While the main body easily pierced through the snowmen, the golden blades deployed to the sides sliced several of them together in one sweep. After breaking through the group, it changed trajectory, trampling the Snow Golems as if stitching through them.

Magical Power Circulation and amplification. Feeling the swelling sensation of magical power contained within Ouroboros, I charged toward the Mammoth Soldier with the aid of the Chimera Coat’s power.

If it’s large – can I test something even greater?

Pouring in unreserved magical power, I unleashed a Strike from the new Ouroboros. The Mammoth Soldier tried to block it with its giant axe – but it didn’t use Fighting Spirit against my first attack.

That was likely a miscalculation – but I paid it no mind and slammed the rapidly swelling mass of magical power against it.

It was like being hit with a giant Mace comparable to the mammoth’s head. It broke the axe, shattered the tusks, directly hit the mammoth’s head, and sent the massive body flying. The huge frame slid across the ice burn.

Position directly above. Converting the magical power used for the Strike into a Spell Formula. Deploying a Magic Circle. Transforming the magical power at the tip of the raised Staff into a Lightning Strike, I slammed it down, swallowing the mammoth’s entire body.

Though it’s seventh-rank Lightning Magic – both the power of the Magic itself and the activation speed have increased. Perfect.

The charred mammoth emitted white smoke and didn’t move. I turned my eyes to the Vanguard.

A barrage of crystal projectiles. The male Yeti, leaping from tree to tree while evading them. It fired ice bullets from its mouth, engaging in a Shooting battle with the ground-based Corulis.

Crystals and ice collided, scattering glittering fragments around while echoing with shattering sounds.

Corulis advanced as if sliding across the ground. Just before hitting a tree, it reversed its body. Kicking down trees as it closed in on the Yeti. The Yeti, suddenly receiving a tree-top Charge after the Shooting battle, widened its eyes for just a moment – but only for a moment. It tried to slam its club down in response to Corulis’s movement.

But – before entering the Yeti’s range, it hooked its claw on a deployed Shield and spun its body in another direction. A movement that seemed to mock the trajectory of the descending club. Inside the Yeti’s range. Point-blank distance.

In that instant, countless Spears burst out from the crystal Armor covering Corulis at explosive speed in all directions.

“Guh–“

No time to dodge or even scream. Its upper body swallowed by crystal Spears, it fell to the ground together with Corulis, which had become like a pincushion.

Shattering ice and crystals. From within, Corulis stood up calmly, but the Yeti would never rise again.

It had made the Yeti focus on the Shooting battle, made it mistakenly think the treetops were advantageous, then launched an Ambush with a special trajectory and finished it off completely. …I can see refinement in aerial combat. Probably from watching the Knight Order’s training regularly?

The other Yeti was engaged in combat with Grace.

It slammed its ice club toward Grace, who stood using Shields in the air – but it couldn’t deal damage to Grace, who should be far superior in physique.

When Grace parried with her axe, cracks ran through the club that should have been reinforced with Fighting Spirit and ice. If it was ice created with magical power, it should boast strength beyond normal ice, but Grace’s single strike apparently contained power that even surpassed that.

However, the Yeti continued to fight Grace while repairing its Weapon with ice. That was probably why it could keep crossing blades with Grace… but as it consumed magical power to reinforce its constantly breaking Weapon, the longer time passed, the more disadvantageous it would be for the Yeti.

Realizing this, it ripped a frozen tree from the ground with its free hand and slammed it toward Grace.

But that too was futile.

The tree shattered against Grace’s Back Fist wrapped in Fighting Spirit. Grace stepped forward as if breaking through the fragments, and the Yeti bared its fangs while stepping back, still swinging its club to fight back.

Again blocked with her axe. While stepping in, her right-hand axe swung multiple times at high speed. The sound of shattering ice. Heavy sounds echoed through the frozen forest as Fighting Spirit clashed with Fighting Spirit, scattering sparks.

Cracks running through the ice. The Weapon repair couldn’t keep up. It was the moment when the Yeti took a deep breath, trying to create that timing.

A Chain wrapped in Fighting Spirit came swinging around in a large arc. The Chain had wrapped around the previously shattered tree – and slammed it like a battering ram against the Yeti’s temple from the side.

“Guh!?”

An Ice Shotgun was fired from its mouth. But it wasn’t fired toward Grace’s direction – instead, it was spat toward an unexpected direction. That is, toward the group of snowmen that had rushed over.

“–Got you.”

Grace kicked off her Shield and stepped in – a single strike as she passed by.

The Yeti tried to block with its club, but since it couldn’t buy time with an ice Bless, that meant the repair hadn’t been completed.

Finally reaching its strength limit, it shattered along with the club, and the Yeti took Grace’s Slash Attack head-on.

Behind Grace, who stood in her follow-through pose after swinging her axe, the Yeti’s massive body slowly crumbled to the ground.