Chapter 9: C09.Ice Domain

“Ice Domain.”

A sweet but icy cold voice echoed in it’s ears as it felt his knees weakened, about to give out. Looking around in shock and vigilance to find who had interrupted it’s kill. He saw a young lady behind him, her skin was as white as snow her eyes were icy blue as she looked at him with zero expressions on her face.

Her whitish-blue long hair was let down to her waist, it flowed like a river as it complimented her pale skin in a way that made her look like a beautiful ice sculpture or maybe the goddess of ice.

Looking at those cold emotionless eyes staring at him, the Rykir felt a chill run down it’s spine and penetrates its bones. It didn’t take long for it to figure out what was going on. Without any hesitation it immediately turned around and fled at breakneck speed.

It had lived a long life, it’s instinct had been developed over hundreds of years through various life and death situation, it could practically smell when death was approaching.

To his dismay the lady behind him reeks of death, and it was all directed at him. It didn’t have time to activate or deactivate any skills neither was it able to think in that direction, it had to act fast and escape, any wrong move could mean the end. Unfortunately for the Rykir the lady had plans of her own.

“Ice prism.”

With his skill “Shadow body flames of hell” and Body of the Reaper it could cross a distance of tens of meters in a few seconds but Ice Domain covered a range of 150 meters, it was too late to escape in just the time it took for ice

prism to form.

Four angular transparent surfaces emerged from the icy grounds as they trapped the Rykir in a semi transparent prism. Without any hesitation it launched an attack with his fiery claws at the transparent wall in front of him.

°Reaping Slash°

Three terrifying Crimson flames in the shape a a claw escaped the Rykir’s claws as it flew at the prism with great intensity. This was a subsidiary skill that could only be activated after the main skill was activated. The main skill was usually not an attack skill but a control skill like ice Domain, the main skill was impossible to learn so it was rare to see anyone using it, not to mention the backlash.

Boom!!

The attack was reflected back at him two folds, flustered and confused the Rykir was unable to dodge the more terrifying attack, it slammed him straight to the ground and the Rykir was wounded by it’s own attack. It started to panic, filled with foreign emotions like fear and confusion it tried shooting out it’s horn, only to receive the same results, it was hopeless, every attempt was doomed to fail, one thought kept reappearing in it’s head over and over again, DEATH.

‘What is this? Who is this Monster!’

••••••

A distance away in the Darknar forest, in a barren area of the forest, the area was void of life, both plant and animals avoided the space, even though birds would occasionally fly through the air, no monster could be found within a quarter of a mile radius. Even though this was the middle of the forest, unlike the rest of the place the area was void of trees and vines , it was a sandy plains that extend within a 300 meter radius.

Smoke could be seen coming from the middle of this area, as a group of people sat around a camp fire as they roasted one of the most common animal that are found in the Darknar forest, a red hawk.

The area was considered a safe zone as the beast and monsters in the forest actively tries their best to avoid the place, there were a handful of places such as this in the forest, each ranging between 200 and 1000 metre radius.

Darknar forest was expansive, after the Demon King’s region fell into ruins the forest had swallowed a large amount of the land around the castle. It was large enough to fit a few large cites.

In the barren land the men sitting around the campfire, merrily chatting and laughed with one another when they suddenly stopped as they simultaneously turned their heads and stared intensely towards the south-east of the forest, the hairs on their backs standing on edge. “Did you guys feel that?” One of the men asked his companions with a frightened expression, he had dark orange skin an average appearance and two small horns on his forehead.

“I’ve never felt anything like this before, what kind of monster is that.” another man replied with a similar expression on his face. He had a similar appearance to the one that had spoken previously only he had a single horn on his forehead.

The four men look visibly shaken as they felt a chill deep in their bones, this was the first time they ever experience something like this, it felt like the temperature had dropped a few degrees as well. “That’s not a monster.” A voice came from behind as the four men turned their heads simultaneously. “Ha boss you’re back, what do you mean by that?” Bam the first to had spoken previously ask in surprise at the figure that had appeared behind them without them ever noticing.

“If there was a monster that strong in the forest we would have died a long time a ago. It’s coming from the direction. of the castle.” The figure spoke as he stared at the same direction as the others were previously looking at. “We need to report this to Lord Aur.”

••••••

In the Demon King’s castle.

Standing behind the throne Tyler suddenly turned his head to the right staring at the wall. “What in the world is that?” he was surprised and anxious by what he was sensing, having never felt this before he didn’t know what to make of it.

He took a step towards the wall and came out from behind the throne, back at the large hall with the statues, there were no Windows in the fifth floor of the North wing, walking back the way he came, he left the fifth floor. Soon he arrive by a window overlooking the direction he had sense the strange aura from.

He was in the fourth floor, but it didn’t bother him as he jumped down from the window without hesitation, as a Warrior Swordsman he could do things like this quite easily although he had trained his butt off to achieve it. What surprised him was his soft landing, almost like he didn’t have any weight. He felt the incredible sense of balance he possessed, but now was not a time to investigate this change, there was something he was more interested in.

Looking at the direction the aura was coming from, it seemed like it was in the strange forest. ‘ I’ve only seen low level monsters but i don’t think a monster should feel like this.’ He thought as he headed for the direction the aura was coming from.

There was something strange about what he was sensing, something sad, lonely, something that reminds Tyler of himself.

•••••

In the Darknar forest

Staring at the transparent ice walls that formed a prism trapping it, the Rykir was getting more aggravated and rash.

Even though all it’s attacks were getting reflected back with twice the strength____ like an aggravated beast the Rykir was getting more irrational, it intelligence no where to be found.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Launching one attacks after another, it tried it’s best to avoid as much of the reflected ones as possible which proved almost impossible. The only reason it was still standing was the two skills it had activated, still, this was a testament to how resilient the beast was. Even in this state the Rykir wasn’t stupid it could feel the temperature in the prism dropping rapidly as time passes, it didn’t want to find out what would happen when the temperature reach a certain extent.

The flames that engulfed its body was the only thing keeping him alive, it didn’t have much time untill the skill times out and it would be reduce to an ice sculpture.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

It launched each attack at a single spot with one aim in mind, To escape.

°Blood Rage!°

The greyish-black flames that engulfed its body bust in a Golden red hue, as the flames intensified the Rykir increased in size, until it was almost four metre in height standing on all fours. As its size increased the intensity of his aura skyrocketed tremendously, it raised his right claws and slashed at the ice wall with insane speed and strength.

BOOM! Crack…

The ice wall visibly cracked, it was a small crack that didn’t extend more than a couple inches but, it didn’t reflect the attack like it did the previous times. The Rykir was visibly relieved, if this had not worked it would had to just sit there and make a pose for him to become an ice sculpture.

Just as it was preparing his next attack the spot that had crack started to repair itself, the Rykir started to panic, even with his final Trump card he still wasn’t strong enough to shatter the wall in one hit. Why did it come here to begin with, he had seen two fairly wounded females running through its territory and thought he would teach them a lesson, now however, he was on the verge of dying because of that mistake.

The Rykir began to regret why it did not just let the two girls pass in peace. He had activated three skills already and one of them was very dangerous the longer it was used.

Activating another one might have serious consequences, but he did not have time to consider what might or might not happen, it only had one thought escape and he would do everything in his power to do so no matter the consequences.

°Hell’s descent.°

The amount of flames his body emitted multiplied once more, the temperature in the prism started to rapidly increase, it’s scales show signs of melting. The Ryrik did not wait a second longer it launched a barrage of attacks at the spot that was about to be repaired.

Crack… Crack… Shatter!

The ice wall shattered under the shear force of so many attacks. The Rykir rushed out of the prism as soon as it could, it turned around to find the lady but it could not locate her.

The entire forest around him was covered in ice, the mist made visibility almost impossible, it was interfering with his senses, the trees and vines were encased in ice, it was like a forest made of ice. The Rykir was alarmed, without knowing where the enemy was it was hard to make a decision on his next action running in a random direction was foolish and would lead to death.

Roar!!!

The Rykir roar echoed around him the sound carried intense flames that blew away the mist and restored it’s vision, it saw the lady again, standing in the same spot she had been, several meters away.

It had tried running away but had failed miserably, it was obvious that would be pointless now, his best option was to distract the enemy with one of it’s skills, then use that to create an opportunity to escape.

“Ice Prism.”

Before the Rykir could even take a step he heard that icy cold and emotionless voice again. He was devastated, he spent all he’s life saving skills just to escape the prism once, it did not expect the lady to be able to use such a powerful skill in such quick successions.

There was no time for despair, it still had some time left on hi skills, as long as it acted now he had a chance to escape. Just as he was about to repeat it’s barrage of attacks he heard the dagger of a voice again.

Ice Prism____ Ice void.

As the last words left her mouth the space within the prism lost all forms of an atmosphere, it was as cold and desolate as the vacuum of space. The Rykir skills where now burning through his mana like gas and because of the skill blood rage it’s life force was draining as fast a his mana.

The multitude of bad news didn’t end there as the Rykir body became stiffer by the second, it body was freezing from the inside.

The Ancient Rykir didn’t have a counter for this as his skill had been rendered useless, they kept his body warm but now the cold was coming from the inside, it had no idea of how to solve this problem non the less it refused to die like this, in an act of desperation it burned through its life force faster as it dashed towards it’s opponent with bloodshot eyes, the beast moved at near light speed and arrived near the lady in an instant as it prepared to launch a kamikaze attack, taking the lady with him.

The Rykir watched as the lady stared at him emotionlessly with her ice-blue eyes, she hadn’t move an inch since the very beginning, even as he launched his suicidal attack, it made him realize one thing, he was out of his league, there was no hope in winning and worst of all it did not even scratch his opponent.

the Rykir was stuck in place only a few inches from it’s target, it’s leges frozen stiff, It could only look on in despair as he froze to death.