Whispers of panic spread through the ranks, the heavy iron shields trembling as the warriors looked from Rhys to the silent red-haired woman at his flank, whose fire wisps hissed steadily against the freezing air.
The heavy permafrost gates at the rear of the courtyard groaned open with the sound of grinding ice.
Stepping out into the center of the arena was the Clan Leader of the Frost Demons.
He was a colossal, four-meter-tall titan whose pale-blue skin was completely hidden beneath interlocking plates of crystallized ice armor that radiated intense, oppressive waves of raw ice mana.
Six massive horns of dark azure ice spiraled from his heavy skull, crowning a face etched with deep scars from ancient Spire wars.
In his right hand, he held a massive, double-bladed battleaxe forged from abyss iron, its edges weeping visible mists of flash-freezing frost.
The Clan Leader strode past his trembling sentinels, stopping five paces before Rhys.
