Rowan fought to catch his breath despite the overwhelming cold that permeated his bones. The snow was a foot deep, and as he struggled to get off his knees, he found his hands plunging into the snow, the biting cold immediately gnawing at his fingertips.
Looking around briefly to ensure he as safe, Rowan saw a seemingly endless plain of white snow, with not another thing to be seen. It was at this moment that the grey screen appeared once more.
---
The Barren Fields
The denizens of these plains have long enjoyed their isolation, and are not keen to welcome a visitor.
---
Rowan skimmed it, barely comprehending it amidst his desire to be out of the cold. Even the complex had never felt this cold during the winter. The sky was a grey ceiling, with no sign of the sun anywhere in sight.
Rowan shovelled some of the snow away, ignoring the ache in his arms as he did so. The ground underneath was dirt, with no sign of any grass or weeds underneath. He began to shiver in the cold, the feeling in his fingers already starting to fade.
He felt a sense of panic set into his bones as he realised his regeneration likely wouldn't help much here. He could recover from injuries, but would the encroaching cold be something that healed? He doubted it.
'I'll have to rush the end of this, I think. I don't know how long I can last in a place like this.'
With that thought he began to flick through what the different options for the core were, but he made it no further than the first before he felt the soft breeze grow stronger, and a fresh chill fill the air.
'Makes sense, I suppose. If it wasn't the cold, it'd be pretty damn strange.'
---
The Barron Fields
You have discerned the core of the Barren Fields
The brutal cold and lack of warmth have failed to overcome you in the barren fields, leaving you victorious.
---
as the system faded away, he braced himself against the wind, wondering when the real challenge would begin. Around him, patches of snow began to shift and rise, as the denizens of this Hell were awoken by its call.
Creatures made of ice began to sit up, humanoid in nature, though slightly shorter than Rowan. They didn't wield any weapons, though Rowan was still wary of their fists, which would likely be painful to be hit by.
Not wanting to waste any time, Rowan dashed to the first, unbuckling his sword as he did. While heavier from his lack of aether, it still hummed through the air, before it slammed into the creature's chest.
His fingers and wrists suffered from the blow, the reverberations making their way through his entire arms, the lasting pain intensified by the cold. Yet the creature did fall, a massive fracturing crack spreading from where Rowan had struck it.
Its body crumbled into pieces, and Rowan turned to see who he would hunt next. he spotted a dozen other creatures rising to their feet, and even more shifting the snow above them as they woke. Rowan realised that this was likely to be a long fight, so he removed part of his ruined armour.
Taking leather scraps, he wrapped them around his fingers and hands, a meagre protection from the pain of the strikes. Flexing his hands, he regrasped his blade, and raised it in preparation for the beast closing in.
His body felt stiff as a block of ice, yet he cut down the approaching beast, the pain in his fingers lessened by the padding. Muttering under his breath about tiredness and pain, he continued to fight through the various beasts, as his wounds caused by the flock healed gradually.
None of the beasts had managed to lay a hand on him yet, they moved in a clunky way, their joints not extending properly. So despite his own stiffness and exhaustion, Rowan found it not easy, but manageable, to fight them one by one as they approached him.
Until he found himself surrounded on all sides, four of them less than a few metres apart, and closing in towards him. He didn't give them a chance to close in any further, and dashed towards one, raising his sword above his head.
He slammed it down, the familiar pain making its way through his bones, though he managed to squeeze out before the adjacent monsters could get a hand on him. He stumbled away, trying to briefly reassess the situation, and saw that there were many more of these ice monsters than he had expected.
'The size of the Hell was two… So I'm fighting double the amount a regular person could handle… well, they won't kill themselves. Though I can hope, I suppose'
Clumps of ice littered the battlefield, and more and more of the beasts continued to rise around the snowy plain. From a brief count, Rowan thought there might be two dozen closing in towards him. Rowan briefly doubted whether or not he would be able to kill all of them, but as his mind was thinking, his body was already moving to the next beast he saw.
Shards of ice sprayed across snow as he swung, again and again, his body fighting as his mind fought off the increasing cold that he couldn't escape. His lips pursed as the fighting continued to drag on, until he found his path away from an approaching cluster blocked by rubble strewn across the ground.
He grit his teeth as he turned around, not trusting himself to make the jump while his joints creaked like a tree about to snap. Cursing, he swung his sword at the closest, hoping he would be able to recover his balance before the second and third had closed the distance, but he was wrong.
An icy grip grabbed his arm and pulled hard, causing Rowan to lurch towards the one holding him. Meanwhile, the other raised an icy fist in the air, and brought it down with such strength that Rowan was winded instantly.
His breath came in short gasps as he watched the fist get raised once more, and another came to join it as the one holding him raised its other fist.