With a ferocious roar, I slamd into the charging Demons with all I had. With the boost from [Fury] and [Avalanche], even as small as it was at the start, I swung my hamr with over a thousand points of strength behind it.
That didn't even include the boost from burning my bloodline. My bloodline didn't show up on my status sheet in the form of additional points, it was a more foundational boost, pushing every point of those thousand further than before.
Honestly, my Bloodline was the largest boost I had even if it wouldn't last as long.
With all the strength I could muster behind my leading swing, I didn't even use any attacking skill. Only sheer force.
The leading Hellhound that had the honor of receiving my opening blow vaporized. Not even its bones could withstand the force of my swing, turning into a boneal mist rather than white projectile shards. The poor thing wasn't even in E-rank, and now never would be.
Even with all my dungeon running and training, I had never leveraged my entire strength for such a weak monster, and seeing the resulting death was... sothing. My swing didn't even slow down from the impact, carrying on to gift the sa treatnt to three more beasts.
My charge didn't slow, it couldn't slow, and I wouldn't allow it to slow.
My legs pumped just as hard and fast as before and I rocketed into their front lines. The warriors behind would land in a softened line or I couldn't call myself a leader.
While I knew not every leader was the sa, I had had a lot of ti to think about the kind I wanted to be. Spending nearly a year being in charge of people had made ponder about it a lot.
While I might not have solidified every aspect of the kind of leader I wanted to be, I knew one thing at least.
I was the kind to lead from the front.
Charging through their ranks left broken and devastated corpses in my wake and I didn't stop. Their density of bodies and sheer number of enemies made it nearly impossible to miss with my wide swings.
Even when my hamr was in motion sowhere else, just my body was enough to run through beasts. Using myself as a human missile to kill even more as I charged deeper in.
While the front lines of both sides collided with each other with vigorous explosions of skills, I torpedoed through it all. The other designated 'champions' tried to follow my lead but most were left stalled out only a few ranks in.
So made it farther than others, but it wasn't long before I left them all in the dust. Extending my breakthrough deep into the army of Demons.
Then, only when I was right and truly surrounded, did I finally shine. I went so far into their lines I could see the flashes of light the other half of the army was flinging on the opposing side.
Faint and distant as they were, I could still see them over the sea of Demon bodies.
Standing alone, in a sea of bodies. I wasn't sure if it was the rush of power, the feeling of my bloodline coursing through , or it if was sothing else entirely, but sothing was different.
I could feel a part deep inside of myself that was coming alive. Reveling in what I was doing.
Knowing I could go a step further, I pushed everything I had.
My Spirit flowed out into my budding domain and it exploded in size. Where once [Permafrost] and [Blizzard] only went tens of feet, it reached nearly a hundred in every direction around and size wasn't the only increase.
While my Spirit rushed through the skills, my bloodline pumped through them as well, strengthening and empowering it further. And not only my bloodline but both my Law of Ice and my Law of Wind pushed into it.
For the first ti, everything I had was pushed into the skills with no reservations and it was marvelous. The temperature drop was enough for [Glacial Presence] to fill with strength, pushing all of my stats even further.
It still wasn't the largest boost I had ever received from the skill as the dark days of Winter eclipsed what I could do alone, but it was close.
The numbers on my status sheet wouldn't represent how strong I felt at the mont, but if I had to guess, it felt like my strength was north of fifteen hundred, maybe even two thousand.
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With both skills billowing out at full power, they started to mix. Swirling around each other and combining, becoming more than their standalone parts. Stronger than when they were separated.
The skills were using my Spirit and my Law as conduits to combine and mix in interesting ways. I had never rged a skill before, but this felt like one of the first steps to doing so.
As the frost built up on the ground and the foliage froze and popped, as snow fell from the sky, the Demons weren't spared either.
The lowest-leveled Demonlings froze over and died just from my domain of skills alone. The other weak Demons fared little better. Ice built up on their skin and even with the bestial vitality pulsing through them, they couldn't combat the Ice ripping away their body heat.
They slowed as they lost more and more of their heat until they couldn't move any longer. After that, it wasn't long until they fell into a sleep they would never wake from.
While the weakest froze and died instantly, they had a better death than those who died slowly. At least in my opinion. The ones who died to the swings of my hamr at least had the honor of dying to a weapon instead of the weather.
The Hellhounds fared the best out of the Demon races, as they had flas rolling off them to combat to cold, but even so, they were visibly affected.
The lowest leveled of the hounds could only watch pitifully as their prized flas extinguished completely, leaving their skin bare to the elents. Holding on purely based on the inner fire their species carried.
The higher-level hounds didn't have their flas extinguished, but they still greatly reduced in size. Not even E-ranked hounds were spared from the suppression because it wasn't just a power disparity, but a Law disparity.
They didn't have a sufficient Law to back themselves up and shrug off the cold I was forcing on them.
The least affected were the Lesser Demons and the hulking Giants of combined Demonlings. They were able to power through my skills the best, but even they showed hints of weakness from the cold.
All of this happened within the first few minutes of combat they got to witness firsthand as my swings only got more powerful.
They would soon realize the [Avalanche] building inside .
Elliot
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.
He was dead. He was so going to die. Only if he hadn't deluded himself into getting stronger, he might not have been given the job he was.
After seeing their leader silence the pack of wolves like it was nothing a few months ago, Elliot had rededicated himself to getting stronger.
He no longer wanted to be average and he pushed himself to go further. He even finished comprehending a Law and could step into E-rank. His Least Law of tal was helping him stay alive now, even if he knew for sure he was going to die.
They had all known the risks, City Lord Christopher didn't shy away from telling them. Everyone knew it was going to be a hard battle but Elliot hadn't known it then, but he did now.
He wanted to go back and beat up his past self for getting stronger. Now, with his elevated strength compared to his peers, he was given the job of 'champion.'
Sure, it sounded cool, but in reality, it was a one-way ticket to the Underworld. An express ticket at that. Charging into their lines and being a disrupting force would only make him be targeted by attacks he couldn't handle.
His Law of tal could only protect him from so much, and opening himself up to thousands of attacks was a quick way to die.
That realization of his pending death didn't really hit until they were charging headlong into the thousands of Demons but by then it was too late. His body was carrying him forward even if his mind wished to be anywhere else in the world.
The charge started fine, they weren't given an inspiring speech but were told of the honor of their actions. It worked on so and even he conjured the courage to run knowing he was protecting those he loved, but that all fled him when faced with what they were up against.
Their magic barrage was a sight to behold, but when the smoke cleared, the Demon's numbers didn't even look affected! They had just as many charging toward them as before, even if he knew they lost hundreds.
What didn't help his confidence was the structured line the Warriors charged in started to break up. Their City lord encased himself in Ice and seed to be unaffected by the Demon's return attack charging ahead of the rest while others broke apart depending on their defensive abilities.
Christopher charged through it all unflinchingly. No, he even increased in speed sohow. Watching him mist the first few Demons helped even Elliot's heart, but that didn't last long when it fell to his turn to do the sa.
As best he could, he steeled himself and dove in.
Luckily, he was one of the ones close to the center where his City Lord plunged ever deeper in, making his job a bit easier. His entry wasn't as smooth or dominating as pulverizing four Demons with a hamr, but he still ran in.
His sword grew and extended under his skills and sliced through a score of bodies in his first swing and before he knew it, he was in the thick of it.
Leveraging his new Law for all it was worth let him cut through the first few ranks of demons but he couldn't go further than that. The Demons only got stronger the further in he got and his skills weren't powerful enough to keep going.
His job now was to survive as long as possible.
His mind didn't even have ti to lant volunteering as he couldn't afford any distractions. His sword and shield were his only focus. Blocking claws with his left and taking limbs with his right.
The tal in both glowed under his control, sotis even shifting unnaturally to take an arm or defend an attack he didn't see coming.
That all changed when he felt the explosion of power from ahead of him. Not many were further in than he was but it wasn't hard to know who was responsible.
He had felt this bone-deep chill before, only it was multitudes stronger now than it was then.
Snow began to fall from the sky, even as the sweat beaded up on his face from the near sumr heat. Even when his underclothes were soaked through with sweat, his tal armor feeling like a sauna, snow fell from the sky.
The flakes cascaded down on everyone in the area and they could only look up in wonder at the oddity.
They were a week away from the heart of sumr and it was snowing.
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