"So... so cold. What's happening?" Behind him, the silver-haired girl huddled, clutching her shoulders and shivering.
"It's dangerous here. Get out, now," Raven said.
"But I'm so scared... my legs were tied up for so long, I can't move," the girl stammered, her voice trembling.
"You have to be strong. Your companions would have wanted you to live." Raven pulled out his Finger Seal and tapped her with an Emergency Heal incantation.
"Eek!" The girl let out a startled yelp as Raven's hand made contact with her chest. Before she could react further, she felt herself being hoisted up by the waist. "You—"
"Heave!" With a powerful swing of his arms, Raven tossed the girl horizontally through the massive hole in the wall. He then turned back to face the warrior, who stood like an avatar of frost itself. "You don't seem like a Frenzied Flame cultist. Who are you?"
"I have wandered this sweltering land for too long and used too many names." The warrior pulled an exotic, curved greatsword from the floorboards. The wood beneath the blade instantly turned to icy slush and collapsed. "Enough talk. This is the final battle of my long life. I hope you can make it worth my while."
"Hmph!" Raven flicked his blade, sending a plume of fire to drive back the biting wind. He scanned the room, thinking of how to lure the warrior outside to give the trolls an opening to smash him with those massive iron stakes.
"Hmm? That flame?" The warrior seemed taken aback. "Boy, what is your connection to the Giants?"
"This sword was forged by them," Raven said tentatively. "Were you a friend of the Giant race?"
"Haha! We were mortal enemies! We Zamor warriors fought the Giants upon the mountaintops for ages." The warrior let out a hollow laugh, like the echoing wind of a bottomless glacial abyss. "I see now. That is the Sword of Night and Flame, a gift from the Giants to their Carian allies. You are a Liurnian?"
"I am Raven, Prince of Caria," Raven replied. He had hoped to turn a foe into a friend just as he had with the trolls, but it seemed such luck wouldn't strike twice in a row. "If you fought the Giants, then I suppose you are an enemy of the Carian Kingdom as well."
"Perhaps. But that is all in the past—a past so distant that even the Giants have long since gone extinct," the Zamor warrior said tonelessly. "Sometimes I wonder... if the Zamor had temporarily set aside their hatred and chosen to stand with the Giants against the Golden Order, instead of foolishly allying with them, perhaps things would be different. But there is no 'if' in history."
"The Zamor allied with the Golden Order?" Raven asked, confused.
"They erased that history. And just as well! I am deeply ashamed of that foolish era where we fought side-by-side with them. I would prefer it if no one ever knew."
The Zamor warrior raised his curved blade. "I did not expect even Caria to succumb to the Erdtree. Ha! Even if the leaves of the Erdtree shroud the heavens and every race crawls on its knees in submission, the Zamor shall fight alone. A Zamor warrior only dies on the road back to the frostlands!"
Hearing this, Raven slowly lowered the Sword of Night and Flame.
"Caria has never submitted to the Erdtree," Raven stated. "Perhaps we don't need to fight here. You may leave, but I suggest you stop associating with these Frenzied Flame cultists. They've lost their minds."
"I have fled too many times. Assa, Guard of the Frostlands, will flee no more. The final contribution I can make to the revival of the Zamor is to fight a magnificent battle here. As for the rest, let the clan elders worry about it; I have no desire to meddle in their schemes any longer."
Assa swung his curved sword in a massive arc, stirring up a localized storm.
"Draw your sword, Raven of Caria. Heh... the fire of the Giants against the frost of the Zamor, clashing once more upon this earth after hundreds of years. This ending is far better than I ever imagined!"
Raven refused to be intimidated. Waves of fire surged from his blade, clashing and biting against the encroaching frost.
Instead of rushing in for a direct melee, Raven began setting fire to everything around him. The entire council hall was made of wood, with dry straw piled against the walls to keep out the damp. Even though the fire was extinguished wherever Assa's cold front passed, the hall quickly transformed into an inferno.
"The Altus Plateau doesn't see snow, Assa! This isn't your home turf—you can't beat me here!" Raven shouted through the smoke and flames. He realized he sounded a bit like a villain, but he pressed on. "There's no point in continuing this!"
"Wherever a Zamor warrior stands is the frozen tundra!" Assa laughed wildly. "The frost is with me!"
An even more violent surge of cold pushed back the flames. The air began to crackle and pop as the hot and cold currents collided, creating a terrifying vortex. Raven felt himself being pulled toward the eye of the storm, nearly lifted off his feet. Debris from the building rained down; caught off guard, a nail protruding from a wooden plank grazed his cheek.
Conjuring a magical shield above his head, Raven used the footwork of a Black Knife Assassin to circle Assa, firing off successive volleys of Glintstone and Crystal sorceries. Assa, standing at the center of the storm, was under far more pressure; he was using his own strength to combat the flames of the entire burning hall. If the fight dragged on, it would only favor Raven.
Assa moved with incredible speed, gliding as if on ice, yet he still couldn't catch Raven. The rhythm of the battle shifted into a war of attrition. However, after several minutes, the ice storm showed no signs of weakening.
Is the cost of maintaining this storm actually that low? Raven wondered. Suddenly, a Glintstone Pebble blasted a hole through a wooden wall. Amidst the swirling dust, Raven's figure vanished.
"Don't you dare run!" Assa roared. Genuinely enraged, he channeled the surging ice wind and gave chase.
A flash of sword light.
The frost tornado lost control and dissipated.
Assa came to a sudden halt. With a feral shout, he pulled the collapsing frost storm back into his grasp, and a pillar of solid air erupted from the ground. Raven groaned. He threw his magical shield in front of him, but the force of the blast sent him crashing through the roof and nearly a hundred meters into the sky.
The magical shield began to flicker and warp unstable, but an instant before it shattered completely, Raven finished charging the Sword of Night and Flame. A blinding torrent of magical energy erupted from the tip of the blade.
BOOM!
The beam of light and the frost collided in a spectacular display, shimmering in the sky for several seconds before fading. On the battlefield, the mercenaries looked up in awe and uncertainty; the sheer scale of the clash seemed almost equal to the thunderous Dragonbolt of Lord Godwyn.
Raven descended from the sky, his legs slamming into the floorboards. He landed in a half-kneel, the impact creating a shallow crater in the ground beneath the wood. He slowly stood up, shaking off the frost and icicles clinging to his clothes. With his right hand, he straightened the Longtail Cat brooch on his chest.
Assa stood perfectly still. His curved greatsword was driven into the ground, a severed hand still gripping the hilt tightly.
"Freezing Mist," Assa said, his back to Raven. "I did not expect anyone outside the Snow Witches to be interested in Zamor ice magic."
Just moments ago, Raven had cast Freezing Mist, blending his own ice magic into Assa's storm. Assa hadn't noticed the source of the power was identical to his own. Using the mist as cover, Raven had closed the distance and severed Assa's arm with a single strike.
Though Assa's final counterattack had been more explosive than Raven anticipated, the warrior's sword arm was gone. A raw explosion of energy wasn't enough to truly harm Raven.
"The match is decided," Raven said. "You've lost."How should Raven handle Assa now—finish him off as a worthy opponent, or try once more to recruit this ancient warrior to the Carian cause?
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Elden Ring: The Unborn One's Journey Through Elden Ring(87 Chapter - Ongoing)
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