"I am the fury of winter!"
The late-arriving Sejuani mounted Bristle once again. The weapon forged from True Ice swept out, and the frost it unleashed sealed the remaining bear-men.
"We need to pick up the pace!"
Sejuani paid no attention to the bear-men trapped in ice. The few warriors charging forward with her all launched into an assault, and as their giant axes came crashing down, the frozen bear-men were already gone without a trace.
"Yeah, sure. Finding a great cauldron that can extend someone's life on a mountain this huge is totally the kind of simple thing we can do just by moving faster."
Caleb slid his blade back into its sheath, and the Doran's Blade was once again stored inside his system inventory.
"Isn't that exactly what makes life interesting? Hah!"
Olaf had both axes in hand, just as he had the whole time they were on the move.
"I love that brainless style of yours."
Caleb did not slow down in the slightest as he kept pace with Bristle.
"Hahaha, you hear that, Zev? I like the way this kid talks."
"I heard. I happen to share his opinion."
Once they started charging, the different degrees of Iceborn blood began to show. Bristle took the lead, with Olaf and Caleb beside him. Zev lagged slightly behind. As for the armored warriors behind them, their gear had already made them seem somewhat heavy, so naturally, they fell back during this all-out charge.
"You know where that guy's treasure vault is, right?"
With an Arcane Shift, Caleb's figure flickered and appeared in front of Bristle.
"I learned a few things when we were allied with the bear-men."
Sejuani had not retrieved her helmet. It was still in the hands of a warrior behind them, and she would only put it back on when she needed it.
"I just hope they don't have the habit of keeping three backup dens."
Caleb slowed slightly.
During the attack just now, he had seen it clearly. The horns on Sejuani's helmet were made of True Ice. That explained how, at the center of a thunderstorm filled with such dense lightning, Sejuani had been able to get knocked off her boar, then climb back up unharmed and stand in the snow in a daze.
Caleb caught the helmet a warrior behind them tossed over and landed steadily on Bristle's broad back.
"Honestly, you look a lot better without the helmet."
Yes, while fighting that pack of bear-men, Caleb had still found time to glance at Sejuani with her three thousand strands of silver hair falling loose. Apparently, the "Boar Girl" was not nearly as rough-looking as people had said in his previous life.
"I get what you mean, but it's dignified and practical."
Sejuani was surprised that Caleb could still make jokes in such an urgent situation.
"Oh, looks like someone's wine jar definitely doesn't have wine in it anymore."
Seeing the faintly unwilling expression on Zev's face behind them, Olaf clapped Caleb on the shoulder.
"Whatever."
Caleb did not care much about any of that. In the current situation, the safest place for that helmet was still on Sejuani's head. After all, judging by the reflection in the clouds, that earlier call had definitely startled Volibear.
As for how much of him it had stirred, only the gods knew.
Well, maybe even they did not.
None of them were slow on their feet. Their earlier cautious pace had only been meant to avoid alerting the bear-men. Since their luck had turned bad, or rather, since this outcome had been inevitable, Caleb decided to accept it.
As long as they ran fast enough, maybe everyone would make it back safely.
Well, Caleb could not be sure about that either.
But there was no time left for regret.
"It's up ahead!"
Sejuani pointed forward, and an enormous cave appeared before everyone.
"Fine, fine. He's already on the level of a demigod, and his lair really is still the kind of place a bear would like living in."
The boulder at the entrance did not look like something any ordinary person could move. In fact, even someone at the peak of human strength probably could not budge it.
"I'll help you!"
Seeing Caleb and Olaf rush ahead, Zev, as the Wildclaw Shaman, also wanted to step forward and help.
But in the end, he was still one step too late. Under the strikes of twin axes and twin blades, the huge boulder slowly split in two.
"Now we can be sure we've definitely alerted him!"
Caleb shouted loudly.
It was called a boulder, but it was actually a long, flat stone, simply used to cover the entire cave entrance.
"Grab the cauldron, then leave!"
Although Sejuani said that, it sounded more like she was reminding herself. Volibear's treasure vault held all kinds of artifacts looted over the years, and naturally, it could stir greed in anyone.
"There might be guards inside!"
Caleb, of course, was not as reckless as the brutes around him. Suppose you had a treasure vault, and inside it happened to be a cauldron that could let someone go at least half a year without eating after just one sip. Maybe you would consider leaving two guards behind to drink soup there, then if some idiot barged in, they could kill the bastard.
Maybe the bear-men were too frenzied to maintain calm thoughts.
But what about a demigod?
Over the long, endless years, perhaps a sudden idea like that was not so difficult to achieve.
So Caleb rushed into the treasure vault almost at the same time as Olaf. Caleb was even faster than Olaf, after all, one shift alone could carry him over a dozen extra yards.
"Support!"
Sure enough, a voice rang out from inside right on time. Freljordians really were reckless. Once they said they were going in, they went in without the slightest hesitation.
Impressive.
Caleb could not help remembering a famous line from his previous life.
"Blindness gives you courage, because it keeps you from seeing danger."
Caleb sighed softly. Mortal Steel was no longer like it had been when he had first started using it, when he still needed to build up the wind along the blade. Now, any slash he made could use the raging wind on the sword to launch enemies into the air.
"Eat my axe!"
Olaf was still saying the same thing, which really made people doubt his education level.
Well, aside from speaking and knowing myths and legends, he probably had none.
He had not gone to school a single day in his life. No wonder his lines were so repetitive.
Caleb stepped forward, and wind still surged along his sword, like the howling gale outside mixed with snow. Yet when Caleb entered the cave, a guard twice the size of the bear-men from before had already been sealed in True Ice.
Caleb sliced the bear in half with one strike, and the rest was swept up by the gale, bursting apart into chunks.
Olaf's thrown axe came a little later, but it still struck the other bear-man guard in the chest.
"Damn it..."
Seeing that the bear-man would not dodge a sharp weapon aimed at the vital point in his chest, insisting instead on maintaining that strange posture that looked like he was pulling noodles, Caleb's heart began pounding wildly.
This was a warning. The lightning this bear-man was sacrificing his life to summon aligned even more closely with Volibear's creed. Compared with the lightning that had struck Sejuani earlier, this would only be stronger, not weaker.
There was no time left to think. Roaring lightning began flashing over Caleb's body as well.
"I call upon the old ways! I call upon the undying storm!"
Caleb's use of skills had already evolved greatly, so this time, the lightning did not come from above. Instead, it fired out from Caleb's palm.
Two thick bolts of lightning almost engulfed the entire chamber, making the inside of the cave look as though a thousand suns were erupting at once. The warriors outside could only see a field of blazing white light, unable to confirm what exactly had happened inside the cave.
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