Frostfire Legacy

Aster jumped back, his shock evident on his face as he watched Crysta's ice wall crumble before his very eyes.

The stinging pain on his cheeks, a result of the shrapnel flying past him, was hardly worth mentioning, but the fact that Sebastian had managed to breach the ice wall was a significant blow to Aster's carefully laid plans. It felt as if the ground had shifted beneath him, leaving him vulnerable and exposed.

Now, he couldn't move to rescue Cassy! Panic surged within him, mingling with a growing frustration that churned in his stomach.

"BACK OFF!" Aster growled, fury igniting his resolve as he rushed forward, wielding his sword in a flurry of desperate strikes.

His movements were quick, each slash intended to find its mark. However, the truth was undeniable—his stamina had dwindled, and he could feel the effects weighing him down.

His once lightning-fast strikes had become sluggish, allowing Sebastian to anticipate his movements with an unsettling ease. The slightest shifts of Sebastian's body only served to rile Aster further, pushing him to the edge of his patience.

"Let… go!"

To add to his mounting frustration, Cassy's pained voice reached his ears intermittently, each cry tugging at his heartstrings and filling him with an unshakeable dread. Gritting his teeth, Aster pushed himself to fight harder, feeling the urgency of the moment.

"You've lost your bite…" Sebastian muttered, a chilling frown gracing his lips as he dodged yet another slash with minimal effort. His eyes glimmered with an unfiltered, cold killing intent that sent shivers down Aster's spine.

"It'd be too pitiful to watch you struggle like this any longer. Let me cut your suffering short."

*SHRAKK!* *SHRAKK!*

Before Aster could react, Sebastian pulled the trigger, aiming directly at Aster's forehead from almost point-blank range.

"...!"

Instinct kicked in as Aster moved fast, barely dodging the bullet's path. Even before Sebastian had squeezed the trigger, Aster had already been in motion, propelled by sheer adrenaline. The two bullets whizzed past him, so close that they took a few strands of his hair along with them, a reminder of how perilously close he had come to death.

But Sebastian wasn't done. He continued pulling the trigger, forcing Aster to shift sideways repeatedly to avoid becoming a target. Each evasive maneuver drained Aster's energy, wasting precious stamina and halting his offensive.

"Fuck...!" Aster growled under his breath, frustration boiling over.

Impatience gnawed at him; he couldn't even dare to turn and glance at Cassy's situation, and it made his heart race with worry, a heavy weight pressing down on his chest.

Meanwhile, Vanessa was still struggling against the relentless combination attacks of Arima and Lionel. The two worked together with unsettling precision, and Vanessa found herself increasingly overwhelmed. Every time she thought she could counterattack, Arima would press the advantage, while Lionel flanked her, ensuring her focus remained divided.

'We'll just get slowly grounded to our deaths if this continues!'

Vanessa thought, panic rising within her.

Though every instinct screamed at her to move and protect Cassy, she found herself shackled by the pressure of the battle. Her hands felt tied, restricted by the sheer ferocity of her opponents.

*CLANG!*

With a swift movement, Vanessa raised her weapon—a rapier she had summoned from her Storage Ring—and managed to block Arima's swift cut. However, the rapier was too slender to serve as an effective shield. Instead of blocking outright, she deftly allowed Arima's blade to slide across her weapon's edge, executing a parry that gave her the tiniest openings to exploit.

But it came at a cost. Although parrying allowed her to maintain her balance and position for a counterattack, it also meant that her focus was precariously split between the two foes.

"Tsk!" she spat, frustration mounting as Arima displayed an opening, only to have Lionel rush in, effectively covering for him. His attacks, though not particularly threatening, served to pull her attention away—an act that could prove fatal against someone of Arima's caliber.

"Hack…!"

Just as she suspected, that fleeting moment where her gaze flickered toward Lionel was more than enough to turn the tide of the battle in an instant.

Arima's sword came slicing back, embedding itself deep over her right shoulder, plunging in a few inches! The pain was immediate and sharp, a searing wound that threatened to spill her lifeblood. It was a significant injury, one that would have left most warriors incapacitated or worse.

"Is that all you've got?" Armia asked, his moon-like crescent smile never fading.

He twisted his blade like a maniac before pulling it out, aggravating her wound even further. A fountain of blood burst from her injury, a tell-tale sign that a major blood vessel had been severed, causing severe bleeding.

Vanessa was forced to take another step back, staggering. Her vision faltered from the mix of pain and lethargy from losing so much blood.

Fortunately, she was a vampire. With her innate ability to manipulate blood—even her own blood—she could lessen the bleeding in an instant. At least she shouldn't die from the shock of losing so much blood.

"Damn, that hurts like hell...!"

She growled in discontent before popping a blood-red potion out of her Storage Ring and gulping it down in one go. Although her potion was potent, it was still hard for her to recover from the damage she had sustained.

Slowly but surely, Vanessa was getting pushed into a corner!

Arima's assault continued as soon as Vanessa was done drinking her potion. He was so sure of their victory that he didn't even bother stopping Vanessa from taking it!

"Come on! Entertain me more!" He cackled like a madman.

Vanessa was forced to take one step back after another. Wounds began appearing on her body, mainly light cuts opened by Arima's blade slicing her skin. In just moments, Vanessa looked bloody and pitiful; she might have been taken as a beggar!

*CRACK!*

Just as their hopes were almost nonexistent, the space around them began to crack. It was a strange phenomenon, as if they were looking at the world through a cracked, broken glass window.

The cracks expanded, with gigantic roots stretching out of them in a rush.

Arima frowned upon seeing this. He tried destroying the root approaching him in a snap—but even though the root got mangled all throughout, the mushy end began to regenerate as a new root formed.

More of the hundreds of roots moved quickly, targeting one person each. Arima was able to successfully thwart the roots trying to grab him, but the rest weren't so lucky. Lionel had a root piercing through his abdomen, going from the back and out the front.

Sebastian, who was supposedly locked in a deadly exchange with Aster, was caught by another root around his neck. His feet dangled freely as his hands tried to pry off the root holding him. It was like he was sentenced to death by hanging, agony etched on his face.

Yinfa, who was carrying the fainted Cassy, was also caught by a random root. It snagged her leg, letting her dangle from the air, upside down.

In just a single moment, the entire unfavorable situation flipped once again!

The one who caused all this emerged from one of the myriad of cracks in the space. She stood on top of a proud root, towering at a 45° angle—a blonde elf with a flushed face, as if intoxicated.

Her eyes glowed in radiant gold, and her fierce gaze was enough to send shivers down anyone's spine. It was none other than Faeloria Shadowleaf, who was supposedly already out of commission, unable to continue fighting!

But for some reason, even Aster was receiving a warning from his sixth sense. He felt an urgent need to run away all of a sudden, lest he face tragedy!

"... Ahh~" When Faeloria's gaze locked onto Aster's direction, her short frown turned upside down, a sloppy smile spreading across her face. "It's Aster~!"

Her figure disappeared for a moment before reappearing right behind Aster, moving to embrace him from behind.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"...!"

Aster was surprised, but more than that, the twin peaks pressed against his back gnawed away at his reasoning. Faeloria hummed as she rubbed her cheeks against Aster's, before whispering into his ear.

"... I'm so horny I could fuck anyone~!"

"Fae—"

Aster wanted to counter her words, but she continued. "But there are too many obstacles here. I'll clean them all up first."

Without even giving a signal, the roots moved. The ones squeezing Sebastian tightened, wringing him like an old rag, blood falling down to the black ground along with some of his meat and organs.

Lionel was already dead, as the root that attacked him pierced through his heart. But still, the root wasn't choosy—it began to split into four and started to break Lionel's body like a brittle clay figurine. It was a grotesque sight, but the fact that he was an enemy and that it all happened within a second didn't impact Aster much mentally.

"Urk!"

Yinfa was a little lucky, as she didn't have to die as brutally as the other two. Aster wasn't sure if the World Tree was a feminist, but it pointed a root's tip over her face and blasted away.

A pure green beam fired, leaving only the leg grabbed by the roots beforehand, up to half its shin remaining. In a flash, only Arima and Lorelai were left alive!