The Monster King's Legacy - Chapter 124

Chapter 124: The Frozen Pass
The largest elemental, standing nearly twice Lance’s height, raised an arm, sending a spear of ice hurtling toward him. Lance barely managed to dodge, the projectile shattering against the rocky wall behind him.

“Stay behind me,” Aelyndra growled, stepping forward.

With a deep inhale, she unleashed a torrent of fire that engulfed the nearest elementals, but it didn’t do much, as the fire itself appeared to die down before it hit its target.

‘Water won’t work either.’ She thought to herself. ‘If I remember correctly…’

Forming in front of her, what appeared to be several spiraling runic symbols and formations appeared before Aelyndra, after a few seconds, sinking into the ground. During the time she was preparing the spell, she still worked to defend against the attacks sent towards her, while trusting that Lance could handle himself without any issues.

Just moments later, the surrounding grounds around them of about fifteen meters started to melt, the temperature rising rapidly. Steam hissed and roared as the icy forms of the elementals melted under the intense heat, the ethereal ones fading away.

Looking at the scene before him, Lance was more than impressed, he was shocked and surprised all at the same time, because it appeared that Aelyndra didn’t just know how to breath fire and had brawns, but she also knew a lot about magic, or at least that was how it seemed.

Just as they seemed to be gaining the upper hand, the wind intensified, and the snow swirled into a blinding blizzard. The heat immediately died down, the environment returning to its natural cold and frozen state. Out of nowhere, attacks came towards them from all directions. It seemed that there were elementals that had been outside the zone of Aelyndra’s magic earlier. They used the cover to strike from multiple directions, their sharp claws and projectiles forcing Lance and Aelyndra to fight defensively.

In a moment of slight confusion, one elemental lunged at Lance, exploiting his blind spot, knowingly or not, its icy claws slashing across his arm, creating a deep injury that immediately froze, preventing him from even bleeding. He grunted in pain but quickly countered, his blade finding its mark and shattering the creature, though it simply formed back moments later.

“Lance.” Aelyndra turned, her voice tinged with worry.

“I’m fine!” he shouted back, though the injury on his arm looked bad. Because of the freeze effect, those cells had immediately died completely, causing necrosis in the area. There was no way for such an injury to be easily healed… of course, by normal healing magic.

Lance placed a hand over the wound, activating his healing magic quickly. A faint golden glow surrounded the gash, and within moments, colour returned to his skin and the gash closed back up.

Meanwhile, Aelyndra’s magic and fiery breath turned the battlefield into a chaotic mix of steam and snow, lance drawing closer to stay protected within her heat zone, just maintaining some distance, because the heat was also detrimental to him as he couldn’t handle it.

While Aelyndra became a natural counter for the elementals, her actions didn’t go unnoticed.

From the depths of the blizzard, a larger elemental emerged, its icy body crackling with magic. It hurled a massive shard of ice at Aelyndra, catching her off guard and slamming into her side.

She roared in pain, stumbling slightly as she tried to shake off the attack.

“Aelyndra!” Lance called out, almost running to her side. “Are you okay?”

“It takes more than that to bring me down,” she growled.

Lance checked, and since he didn’t see any injury our wound on her, he assumed she was still good. Regardless, if there was something capable of making Aelyndra feel pain so much that it made her roar in pain, Lance didn’t want to face it, and he thought it a good time to exit the fight.

As Lance looked past Aelyndra, he caught the eyes of the creature staring at their direction, is gaze a luminesce blue that shone through the cloud of snowy blizzard. The massive elemental advanced, its glowing eyes locked on Aelyndra. Lance stepped forward, his sword drawn, but the creature was faster. He wasn’t sure what hit him, but it sent him tumbling into the snow some distance away. He had only been able to block at the very last minute, sensing an incoming force.

Gritting his teeth, Lance forced himself to his feet, his body screaming in protest. Immediately, he used his healing on himself, turning towards Aelyndra.

“Aelyndra,” he called, his voice steady despite the fear gripping him. “Burn it down!”

The dragon let out a fierce roar, her golden eyes blazing with fury. She unleashed another torrent of fire, this one different from her normal fire breath, but the elemental absorbed the heat, its icy form glowing brighter.

“What?! It’s feeding on your flames?!” Lance shouted, his mind racing. “Aelyndra?! We need a new plan!”

Just then, Lance noticed where the heat it absorbed was most focus, realizing the possibility of that being its core. With no time to think, he lunged at the elemental that stood about eleven metres tall, aiming for its glowing core. His blade struck true, but the icy surface was too thick to pierce completely. The elemental retaliated, a glacial flare erupting from its very core, slamming into Lance and sending him sprawling.

Lance coughed, blood staining the snow beneath him. His vision blurred, and his body felt like it was on the verge of breaking, but immediately, he was back to peak after healing himself.

He regained his vision just in time to see Aelyndra reach out her arm towards the creature’s core, and in that very moment, the ice surrounding the core turned to water and she plucked out its fiery core, crushing it in-between her teeth all in one motion.

Slowly, the massive body of the elemental shattered, collapsing onto the ground in large ice chunks, the heat stored in it evaporating the falling snow and disappearing. Slowly, the blizzard subsided, the snowfall lightening.

As the blizzard subsided, Lance approached Aelyndra, stretching a hand out to heal her. “That was, amazing. I didn’t know you could use magic to this extent. Dragons really are something, aren’t they?” he said, looking around, the ethereal elementals slowly fading away.

Aelyndra snorted, a faint plume of smoke escaping her nostrils. “Of course. You didn’t think I was just bragging all this while, did you?”

“Haha, true.”

Aelyndra lowered herself beside him, allowing him to climb on top easily with a jump. “You need to grow stronger, Lance. If you’re going to stand beside dragons, you can’t be ordinary.”

Lance nodded, his expression somber. “I know, I know. That’s why I’m headed to your lands, to learn and become extraordinary. I’m more than constantly reminded of how far I still have to go.”

“When we reach the sacred draconic region, you will learn what it means to be strong.” Aelyndra said, her voice firm but encouraging.