Cryo Knight

by Tim Johnson

  Outside, Sulfur had pulled the team into a circle. “Finally. As, I was saying, this doesn’t add up. An entire camp is missing. Lord Sark’s scouts are missing. I want us to explore these mountains. Meet back here at sunset. Something is here and it’s killing people. Christian and Alexia with me. We will take the path north. The rest of you take that path west. If you find something interesting, bring word back. We will meet back here for camp tonight and explore what we find tomorrow, together.”

  Christian, Alexia and Sulfur set off on the northern path which rose higher and deeper into the mountains. Step by step they pushed upwards. Their boots crunched through thick snow with each step. Ahead, Sulfur led them. His breath came out in clouds. The higher they got, the thicker the snow, and the colder the weather. They trekked all morning and stopped for a few mouths of cold bread and swigs of icy water.

  The path continued, one side cresting high, the other falling away down the mountain.

  They walked up for another hour and the path widened considerably. The sheer wall fell to a waist height ridge. Sulfur quickly held his fist up. They stopped.

  Up ahead was a lone figure standing up on the ridge, dressed in a thick jerkin, cloak and with a bow on their back. The figure was inspecting the ridge, they seemed to be sniffing the air. Even in their thick clothing Christian could see it was a woman, tall and slim, white-blonde hair fell from the cloak down her shoulders.

  Sulfur turned back to Christian and Alexia with a finger pressed to his lips as they all crept forward.

  The woman turned and Christian saw her features. White skin, her ears were pointed up.

  An elf.

  She saw them and turned to run.

  Sulfur pulled his sword and charged forward, “Don’t move!”

  Christian and Alexia followed behind.

  The elf turned and let off and arrow. It thudded into Sulfur’s armor. Sulfur yelled and powered ahead, catching up to her.

  Christian was close behind, her name unfurled above her

  Estrella Thorne

  Archer

  Level 10

  An archer versus a knight in close-quarters combat was a one-way fight. Sulfur knocked her down. Soon the elf was on her back, disarmed. She looked up at them, hands up in surrender.

  “Who are you?” she said.

  “Elf, you are far away from home,” Sulfur replied, lifting his sword. “Sark told your kind to stay on your side of the mountain range on pain of death,”

  “Don’t,” she said, her hands raised up. “I’ve been sent by our leader to seek help. Our lands are in peril… but I sensed something back there. Some powerful magic.”

  Christian could feel it too. It was an indescribable pull in his center, like standing waist-deep in a current of water, leading him back to the ridge.

  Sulfur didn’t care. “Rules are rules, elf.”

  “Sulfur, don’t,” Alexia said. “She’s obviously not what we are looking for out here.”

  “Shut up,” Sulfur walked towards Alexia. “We’ve dealt with these mountain elves before, wanderer. They can’t be trusted. Knight Lord Sark’s orders have been spoken. His word is my word.” He turned back to the elf. “She dies,”

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” Christian said.

  Sulfur moved to finish her, but the ice elf gripped something from her pocket and threw it in Sulfur’s face. Dark smoke surrounded Sulfur’s head that crackled, like a miniature lightning storm.

  He couldn’t see and staggered back, swiping his sword about blindly.

  Christian darted forward and hauled the elf to her feet. “Get out of here.”

  She didn’t need to be told twice; within moments she was gone, running fast back the way she had come.

  Sulfur was wiping his eyes furiously. “Damn their tricks! We need to hunt down that elf.”

  “Wait,” Christian said.

  He was inspecting the ridge where the elf had been standing. He could feel something tug at him.

  “Whatever that elf could feel, I can feel it too.”

  He rested his gloved hand on the ridge, then he saw it. A path off from that exact point, heading into the mountain. “A secret path…”

  “What are you talking about?” Sulfur vaulted up onto the ridge. “Well, well…”

  Sulfur swung his big head each way, back the way the elf had run and then to Christian’s new path, weighing his options. “A hidden path,” he said, almost to himself. “Elves are attuned to natural magic, perhaps that’s what she was sensing. Let’s explore this. There could be something here. Alexia, behind Christian and me. Be ready.”

  The path twisted into the mountain, but once they had vaulted over the ridge and walked along it, they could see it was as well-worn into the ice. Christian felt the current pull him along.

  Finally, the path widened and led down to a bowl like depression in the mountain range. In the center of this, etched into a sheer cliff face, was a huge gate made from knobby ice. From afar it looked like it was decorated with snowballs.

  As they got closer, Christian could see that the snowballs were frosted skulls and, worse, around the door were thirty or more fresh human heads, their mouths gaping, tongues loose and eyes rolled up into their heads.

  “The bandits…” Sulfur said. “This is the work of a Demon, that’s for sure.”

  “We should go back and get the others,” Alexia said.

  “A fresh dungeon,” Sulfur said wistfully. Christian could tell he was thinking of the possible treasures that lay inside. He can never stick to the plan and always does the opposite of whatever I suggest.

  “Alexia’s right,” Christian said. “We really should take the path back and find the rest. It could be dangerous. And the elf might come back with back up.”

  Sulfur looked at him with a sneer.

  “That pathetic elf? She will be fleeing home with the rest of her pitiful kind. Are you scared, wanderer? No. We shall take a quick look. If we come across anything that I can’t handle we will return for the rest.”

  Christian and Alexia exchanged a look.

  This could get interesting.

  Despite the morbid door, Christian could still feel the strange pull of the dungeon inside of him, and the desire to follow it. He wanted to get inside.

  Sulfur nodded to Christian to move ahead. Christian approached the gruesome door with his sword drawn. It was made from thick oak, colored with a flaking blue paint. He reached forwards to push the door inward, when he stopped, his hand frozen in mid-air.

  Something felt wrong.

  Everything seemed to melt away. He stared at the handle; it was a frosted silver that sparkled unnaturally. The ground at the foot of the door had holes bored into it.

  It’s a trap.

  Christian had an idea. He pulled off his glove and took several steps back, then he slowly charged his mana into his palm, and ice slowly spun forward from his palm. He mentally directed it towards the door, solidifying it as he did and then, using a bit more mana, pushed.

  The door clicked and the trap triggered. Four human-sized icicles shot up from the earth, which would have skewered whoever was standing over them.

  Then the dungeon door opened by itself with a creak.

  Christian was awarded with the sound of a bell and gold script wound across his vision.

  Ice Manipulation I Unlocked!

  You can now manipulate your ice mana to craft simple items from ice.

  He was becoming more and more at one with his ice mana, and this cold environment was helping. It seemed to unite him closer with the ice. He stepped forward. Sulfur and Alexia fell in behind.

  Christian’s boots crunched against the icy ground. The tunnel was wide and well-made. It was lit by great glowing icicles that reached down from the roof and bathed the halls in a soft blue hue. They walked forward in silence. Ahead, life-size ice statues littered the passage, all imbued with the same glow. They passed the form of a warrior striding forward, his mouth set in a snarl and weapon ra
ised.

  It’s not a statue, Christian realized. The details were too perfect. This warrior had been frozen into this glowing ice-like form.

  Something has done this to him.

  Sulfur stalked around it, inspecting it carefully, and likely drawing the same conclusion.

  “Perhaps we should go back for the others?” Alexia said, her voice echoing down the chamber.

  “A little further,” Sulfur said. He gently tapped his sword on the side of the warrior’s frozen face. “I have not seen this magic before,” he said.

  It’s some powerful ice magic, that’s for sure, Christian thought.

  Ahead were more of the glowing ice statues, bands of warriors this time, mages with their staffs raised, Vikings running with their axes up.

  Sulfur recognized one of the warriors; a lone giant of a man wearing plated armor with a broadsword. “Tison went missing several years back. Now I know where he ended up.”

  A veteran warrior, frozen solid, Christian thought. At just a level nine, I don’t stand a chance.

  “I wonder what this could mean for you wanderers,” Sulfur said, an evil glimmer in his eye. “Are these people dead? Or just frozen? Could this be a way of trapping your kind and stopping your gods from bringing you back?” He smiled at Alexia and Christian wickedly. “There is more at stake here. Let’s continue.”

  Christian again wondered if they could take Sulfur. No, not yet. He’s still too strong.

  As they continued, they could hear a sound: a fast, high-pitched see-sawing echoing in the distance.

  The noise got louder as they stepped down the slope. Alexia’s bow was pulled taut, and Christian could practically feel the mana from this place filtering through his body. His mouth was dry.

  They passed another collection of frozen warriors, and then, ahead, the tunnel opened up wide into a small cavern.

  The cavern was packed with thousands of statues. Sulfur pressed his finger to his lips, urging them to move quietly, and they crept forward in silence, slowly working their way through the army of frozen forms. It was darker, but the rear wall sparkled with decorations formed in a great geometrical pattern, with swirling shapes like a frozen ice-storm.

  Ahead, Christian could see some movement. Something was rocking back and forth, although its form remained hidden, refracted through the ice statues.

  Christian picked his way forward in a crouch, his sword at the ready.

  Alexia was a few people across from him and Sulfur was a little further back, coming up through the center. Finally, Christian reached the front.

  He crouched behind the icy figure of a woman, peeking over her shoulder, which gave him a good view.

  He could see the creature. It was seven-foot-tall, sinewy and long-limbed, its flesh a pale blue. It was bent double as it pushed a sword back and forth under a spinning grindstone.

  Tarquen

  Ancient Ice Demon

  Level: 33

  Quest: Investigate the Frontier Mountains – success!

  Christian mentally swiped the notification away. He had much bigger problems to focus on now.

  Beside the demon was an ice forge, the inside bright and white with the licking flames of ice mana. Swords, maces, axes and spears, were racked up beside it. It was then Christian saw that the geometric patterns at the back of the cavern wall were made by thousands of glistening weapons of every size and type, painstakingly arranged in swirling patterns and shapes.

  This creature likes crafting weaponry, that’s for sure.

  The Ice Demon stopped working, raising its head and sniffing the air.

  Whereas the Fire Demon Arnook had been huge and thick with muscle, the Ice Demon was the opposite. Her form was undoubtedly female, with a small waist, wide hips and a large bosom covered only in icy scales for modesty. Her arms were long and sinewy, her face in the shape of a crescent moon with sharp cheekbones pushed out by bone, her horns rolled around each side of her head like a ram.

  Her eyes were big, the pupils in sharp slits like a cat. The demon slowly stood, the weapon she was most recently sharpening in her large claws.

  She let out a low clicking snarl “Show yourselves, humans. I’ve been able to smell your stink since you entered.”

  Christian stayed frozen where he was, crouched low. He turned his head slowly to see Sulfur slowly stand.

  “We are emissaries from the Knight Lord Sark,” Sulfur said.

  What the hell is he doing? Christian stayed exactly where he was. The Demon’s nose crinkled in disgust.

  “We mean you no harm,” Sulfur said walking forward, his big lips pushed up into a fake smile. “We are allies with a great Demon, and you can find greatness working with us. I am Knight Sulfur.”

  The Demon stood to her full height and took a step forward, her clawed feet clacking against the icy ground. “I am Tarquen. You have invaded my home, disturbed my work and I can smell your lies from here. Humans only want two things from me Knight Sulfur: my army or my weapons, and you will have neither.”

  Sulfur licked his lips. “It’s not that what we want. We want to give you greatness and the chance to kill wanderers. I assure if you would only speak with Knight Lord Sark…” he stammered.

  It’s very different negotiating with an entire army at your back rather than two low-level wanderers.

  Christian could see which way this was going to go; he needed to fetch Alexia and get the hell out of here.

  He took a half step back and slipped in-between two statues. Something didn’t seem quite right. The frozen statue behind him seemed… different. He looked up to see the statue’s eyes were on him.

  Staring at him.

  With one jolting movement, the statue lurched forward, it grabbed Christian’s arms with an ungodly strength

  Another ice statue grabbed him in a bearhug from behind.

  He was dragged forward, the other statues parting way. Their lifeless, glassy eyes following his every move.

  He heard a shriek and swiveled to see the ice statues holding Alexia too. In the center Sulfur tried to thrash against the four large ice statues that detained him.

  “I’ll have your head for this, Demon,” he spat. “Sark will come looking for me. You won’t get away with this! I’ll–”

  “Silence,” Tarquen said with a casual wave. Her ice statues wrapped their hands around Sulfur’s mouth. “You’ll do nothing.”

  Christian struggled against the arms that bound him, but their grip was impossible to break.

  Tarquen stepped forward, appraising them, starting with Alexia. “Very nice, I wanted more archers for my collection.” She looked at Sulfur, who was still struggling fiercely against the ice-soldiers. “I’ll keep you at the back, so I don’t have to look at that ugly face, but I’m sure you’ll be useful too. That big sword will get melted down and I’ll use it to create my weapons.” She approached Christian and paused. She sniffed Christian again, her head tilting down close.

  Christian stared up into her blue eyes. Sharp white teeth flashed behind azure lips. Blue hair cascaded down between her horns.

  She sniffed. “Impossible.”

  Christian felt the ice mana that emanated from the creature. It was the Demon he had been drawn to, but why? Just so she could kill him, or worse, so he could become one of her frozen soldiers?

  The Demon clicked at him. “A shame. I can smell the ice mana in you, boy. But you’re too weak to be any use. Best you join your friends as one of my ice children where you shall serve me forever.”

  Tarquen cast her arms up wide, and a great swirl of mana encircled the room. Christian could feel the coldness reach down into his core. Immediately his health started to get hit, his HP draining as the temperature fell.

  He tried to shake himself free of the ice statues, as ice blanched across his hands. He looked over to see ice crawl up Alexia’s neck, her eyes swiveling in panic.

  It was cryo all over again. I won’t go down like this. Not again.

  He activated his Ice A
rmor. The ice sprung from his skin and the helm slammed over his face. The armor created a protective barrier and gave him a few moments of blissful release.

  Christian closed his eyes and focused.

  This is ice. This is my magic, mine and I won’t be frozen, not again, not ever.

  Breathing deeply, he tried to tune into the mana around him.

  His mana ticked down with the exertion.

  It was like trying to match a reverberation, tuning into it he could feel the mana pushing against his own, and he could feel it to guide the ice into every crevice of his armor.

  The cold began to compromise his Ice Armor as it encased him. His health continued to drop, but slower – 30% had whittled away.

  But then Christian managed to match the Demon’s spell. The reverberations synced in harmony. He could feel the Demon’s mana and direct his own against it.

  Gritting his teeth, he channeled his mana against hers – ice against ice.

  And it worked. He could push back against it. He could feel the ice retreat from and soften against his cold skin. He pulled her spell off from him, wrapping it around the hands and wrists of the frozen ice-soldiers who were holding him in place.

  I’ll show you.

  Tarquen’s attention was on him. The tall Demon stepped forward towards Christian, one long limb still directing the spell.

  Christian’s Ice Armor retreated, smashing the casing of ice off him. He snapped forward, using the ice to break the grip of the ice-soldiers and stepped forward, free of their clutches to face the Demon.

  The spell was over. But Sulfur and Alexia were frozen solid.

  Around Christian, the ice-soldiers began to move, until they had him completely surrounded.

  “Well,” Tarquen said, her breathy voice like a whisper of winter air, “this is interesting.”

  24

  Tarquen circled Christian. Her army of ice-warriors closed in, but they didn’t try to grab him again.

  Christian summoned his mana into his palm, for little good more ice would do against thousands of ice-soldiers and an Ice Demon.