Chương 40: 1-39 Building pressure

The good news, Josef figured out, was that the knight attacking him was indeed so enraged that his attacks became somewhat telegraphed. The bad news was that he himself had very little actual skill in close combat, so there was little he could do to capitalize on that advantage. If he ever made it out of this dungeon alive, he was going to ask someone to train him in melee combat.

Preferably Bezzo, as the younger sibling appeared to be very good at evasive maneuvers, and he was all for not getting hit at all, if he could help it. Then again, considering his capabilities at self-healing, Zippa's in-your-face style might be more appropriate for him, capitalizing on every opening he could get by outright ignoring the opponent's attack. Right now, for lack of skill and other options, he would have to go for the latter, hoping to bring down this knight before he got seriously injured himself.

With some luck, any damage he sustained would be small enough to passively heal whenever he flooded his body with restorative mana. Unfortunately, most plans didn't survive first contact, and he was already half a dozen swings into the encounter, so the odds were bound to be even worse. After successfully landing a straight right to the knight's helmet, using a fist reinforced by earth mana, he accomplished little more than leaving a small dent and a ringing sound as if he had rung a gong.

While the hit surely left the elf disoriented, it did nothing to divert the armored fist that was shooting out to hit him straight in the chest. Josef might have been prepared to trade blows when he went for that strike, but he hadn't expected just how bad getting hit by that magically glowing gauntlet would be. What affected him on impact wasn't a bone-crushing force, though it did drive the air from his lungs, but a stinging cold that crawled all over his upper torso, as ice encased his chest, spreading quickly.

That bastard was trying to freeze him alive!

"How'd you like that, you lizard fucker! You must love the cold if you keep those two around, you freak!" That knight, Akinat, immediately followed up with a verbal attack, and Josef could almost picture the angry yet smug face under that helmet. Fortunately, growing up in the 21st century had seen him face much worse and creative insults than that, so the effect was nonexistent.

Instead, he used the time his opponent's taunt gave him to find a way out of this dilemma, because healing magic probably could not fix a shell of ice that accumulated on the surface of his body, only the frostbite that was bound to build underneath. That meant he was only going to prolong the time he spent suffering as a living ice sculpture should he engage Regeneration while fighting an enemy like this.

A feeling of dread settled in the back of Josef's mind, when he realized that his opponent had already outplayed him without even knowing what he was holding back. He tried peeling pieces of ice off his chest with little success, as only a couple of small fragments came loose. Even worse, a thin layer of ice had begun to accumulate on his fingertips where his hand touched the ice. That stuff could spread on its own, and now it had even more areas to work with. But if that stuff can spread…

With a startled thought, he took a glance in Bezzo's direction, only to realize his fear was a reality, as thin strips of frost marred the reptile's body where the icicles had grazed him before. The only upside to his situation was the proximity of his brother, whose blazing scales radiated enough heat to keep the ice in check, even if it wasn't enough to fully remove it in the middle of the fight.

This was as much room to deliberate as Josef was going to get, though, as the knight named Akinat once again rushed at him, set on finishing his handiwork. Having lost his option of achieving victory through pure attrition, he was forced to go on the defensive, dodging the disastrous freezing attacks of his opponent. However, that didn't mean that he was out of things to try, as he still had other types of magic at his disposal.

Water was his favorite magic for killing the monsters he had encountered so far, as his spell efficiently dealt with any creature trapped inside it. While he probably wouldn't have the power needed to penetrate the knight's armor with any of the more offensive applications he had thought up before, his Water Prison would bypass that issue altogether, if only he could get it around that man's head.

With a new plan in mind, he prepared a small sphere of water in one hand, with enough mana stored in his arm to expand it quickly into a larger size, before baiting the enemy into another punch. Seizing the opening created as the attack grazed him, adding another patch of frost to his left shoulder, his arm whipped up and sent the water straight at the knight's head, threatening to trap his face.

However, just as the sphere touched the gleaming silver metal of the helmet, it immediately stopped in its tracks, shuddered, and fell down, exploding into countless tiny fragments. The orb of water had frozen solid on contact, breaking his spell and removing his control over the liquid.

"Throwing water at a frost mage? That ought to be the dumbest thing I've ever seen," came the unhelpful commentary of his opponent. Maybe he shouldn't have started this verbal spat, but unfortunately it was too late to return to killing each other in companionable silence. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Using water was off the table, as he couldn' keep control of his own attack when it inevitably got frozen by this mage.

Though what had happened just now did give him a crazy idea, one that was stupid enough to possibly work. He just needed some time to prepare his Blink spell and an opening. Silently he asked Dusty, who was still skulking around the battle silently, for help in creating that opening. He hoped that would work, as he had never properly checked if his familiars actually followed his words or his intent.

Considering they were shaped from his mana, and that stuff ran on intent, so he hoped that whatever connected him to his familiar would ensure that the message reached his little buddy. Dodging back further than before, Josef prepared himself to use his sole space magic spell as disaster struck. It wasn't Josef who suffered from it though, but the bodyguard of the lady knight, who finally fell under the continued attack of his adversary.

His slashed and dented shield had given out, torn apart under the weight of his opponent's blows, it broke into several large pieces. Worse than that, the sword strike that destroyed the shield hadn't stopped there, but continued to bite deep into the man's wrist, almost severing it all at once. Loosely attached by a strip of flesh, the mangled limb spouted blood like a geyser, wrenching a scream from the knight's throat, which was quickly silenced as the assailant's second sword buried itself into his chest.

In a display of sheer willpower, however, he jammed the remains of his own sword into the armpit of his adversary before staggering back and falling down on his back, going silent. Josef didn't know if that man was still alive, but he sure as hell needed to be healed soon, or it would certainly be too late to do so.

The fallen knight's companion, the armored lady, clearly thought him dead, going by the enraged screech that broke out of her throat as she began hacking and slashing at her opponent, who despite the damage to his one arm showed no trouble handling her assault. Admittedly, even Josef himself wouldn't have had any issue dodging those overhead swings that were as obvious as they were devastating.

It was clear she wouldn't last long in that state, and soon the entire battle would turn into a 3 on 3, where his own side would be thoroughly outclassed by the skills displayed so far. Unfortunately, even those odds appeared to be too good for them, as another enraged roar joined the first, as Zippa began to swing wildly at the mace-wielding knight with sheer fury and balled fists. The reason for that was apparent, as Bezzo's luck must have finally run out, or the cold had suppressed his speed too much.

He had pulled back from the fight, clutching a mangled shoulder that looked like someone had turned it into mashed tomatoes, blood running down the length of his arm. His face was scrunched up in pain, betraying a barely suppressed snarl, as he futilely tried to stench the bleeding, all while more frost crept along his body, his distance to his brother's flames now too large to fend it off.

It was no longer an option to hide his healing magic, and with the two knights they teamed up with almost completely out of the fight, there no longer was a reason to do so. Before he could treat anyone's wounds though, he first had to deal with the frost mage right in front of him, because if that man ever had enough breathing room to cast spells again, this fight would end in an immediate disaster.

"It's over, you lizard lover. Your friends will die, and so will you!" Josef's opponent must have been very sure in his assessment, taking his time to rub it in his face, but that moment wasted on gloating was the signal to make his own gambit. Acting as if they were one, both Dusty and Josef engaged their enemy in the same second.

One, small and quick, appeared in a dead angle behind the armored elf and delivered a powerful kick to the inside of right knee, causing his target to almost fall over under the weight of his armor, as his balance was suddenly thrown off. The other appeared behind the knight and, taking advantage of the momentary lack of balance, pushed the remaining space mana into one heavy, double-handed strike to the back of the man's helmet.

This was enough to send the frosty knight sprawling on the ground, dazed and overwhelmed, possibly concussed, but very much awake and alive, going by his flailing limbs. Josef hadn't expected that one strike to be enough on its own anyway, so he immediately began the second part of his assault, climbing on top of the man and pinning his shoulders with his knees. He knew it wouldn't be long before his opponent could think clearly enough to resume freezing him, but he wouldn't give him the time to recuperate.

Pressing his right hand down on the knight's head, he drew out more of his shrinking supply of mana, to form a spell right around his head. Rapid Water Prison. There was no reason to fix what wasn't broken. If that elf wanted to freeze his spell again, then Josef welcomed him to do so. As mana turned into liquid, a devastating chain reaction began to take place, as the resulting sphere froze within seconds of wrapping around its target.

That small delay in the man's reaction, enough for the spell to fully form, was all that Josef had needed to finish his fight. There was a sickening crunch as the metal of the helmet split under the pressure of the expanding ice that was trapped underneath it, leaving little doubt whether the elf's head was in a much better state. However, even now this knight appeared to refuse death out of sheer spite, as his magic continued to move, and the ice around his head dissolved slowly.

"Oh no, you don't!" Josef wouldn't let it, pouring even more water on the frozen orb that wrapped entirely around the man's head. Layer after layer of freshly frozen liquid was added to this lethal construction, making sure that the knight may never again take another breath of air. Dusty had taken off to God knows where, as both men continued their struggle, even as the expanding layers of ice wrapped more and more of Josef's own hand, driving all feeling out of his limb.

That absence of any feeling was almost soothing to Josef, as the painful degradation of low mana had begun to spread through his hand, heralding the end of this struggle. Finally, be it under the building frost, or the lack of sustaining mana, his hand gave out and crumbled away, starting from his fingers and continuing up to just above his wrist. The man under him had stopped struggling moments ago, his icy power going inert. Josef felt dizzy and sick.

He wanted to cry and throw up, while also lying down and doing nothing. For the first time, he had killed a person, and he didn't get the time to deal with his own emotions, as the surrounding battle continued to rage on.