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121
Hiss—!
The vortex of cold surging from above grew steadily stronger.
The players simply stood frozen in place.
“Isn’t a pattern like that supposed to happen when health is at rock bottom?”
Amid the tension, one vanguard offered an opinion.
That now was the time to attack.
“You’re saying this is the final phase?”
“There are high-level monsters like that.”
“Did we actually knock off a lot of health?”
The players remaining on the field cautiously agreed with the assessment.
After all, they had poured in attacks with everything they had.
-That much health got cut?
-Hmm, think so?
-One more swing and we hit the emerald vein……
-For real, a few more hits and it’s dead.
-It still looks way too healthy though;
-Should we just try hitting it?
The viewers showed mixed reactions.
“We can’t pull back now. Concentrate firepower.”
With the total combat strength visibly reduced, Mars made a quick decision.
“Tch. Absurdly durable.”
Thump—!
Blood clicked her tongue and charged at the Snow Drake again.
The remaining players who had been hesitantly watching also followed behind.
Hanbit said quietly to Liwei standing beside him:
“Attack only the reverse scale until I give the signal.”
“Only the reverse scale?”
“I need to build up that creature’s stress as much as possible. Zenon, please head over there and join up with the people waiting.”
“Understood.”
Zenon gave a nod and moved in the direction Hanbit indicated.
Avantgarde’s group should have already arrived.
“Let’s go.”
Hanbit kicked off toward the boss alongside Liwei.
The players were already pouring in attacks with everything they had.
Swoosh—!
Boom—!
Each of their skills landed clearly on the Snow Drake.
Even amid all of that, the creature did not move.
“…The pattern is holding in this state?”
“Stop talking and keep pouring it in! This is probably a pattern that needs to be neutralized within a time limit!”
With attacks raining down without pause,
Hanbit, attacking the reverse scale, focused on the Snow Drake’s technique.
Whoosh—!
The crystal above its stubbornly raised head growing larger and larger.
The vortex of cold was growing stronger alongside it.
By now it was white enough to block even the surrounding field of vision.
“Why won’t it even flinch!”
“Anyone holding back their mana potions is getting autopsied later!”
The players who had been using skills without stop were thrown off.
Because the Snow Drake, which had taken all their damage squarely, showed absolutely no reaction.
“Do not stop!”
Mars trusted his own judgment.
That cold sphere gathering above was dangerous.
The Snow Drake had to be killed before something happened.
Boom—!
In the midst of the continued assault,
Hanbit quietly withdrew and gestured to Liwei.
He, stopping his attacks, slipped out of the battle at that signal.
“Black Dragon-nim!”
Avantgarde greeted the two who had immediately relocated to the rally point.
Hanbit looked at Gorik, standing with hammer in hand.
“Congratulations on recovering the heirloom.”
“…Yes. All thanks to all of you.”
The quietly nodding dwarf shifted his gaze toward the Snow Drake.
“What are you planning to do about that? It seems quite ominous.”
Hiss—
The cold sphere, grown to an intimidating scale, was affecting even distant areas.
Hanbit turned back and crouched down.
The snow-white White Wyvern’s Heart placed on the ground.
Something he had quietly hidden away before entering the battle.
“Damn!”
“Give it a little more!”
Players were still chugging mana potions and pouring in attacks.
The field of vision gone snow-white from the scattered chill.
There was no way to even notice what was happening to other players.
Shhk—
In an instant, the vortex surging into the crystal gradually subsided.
Naturally, when the obscured vision cleared, someone raised their voice.
“Huh? Where did Black Dragon and Liwei go?”
“You should have kept monitoring!”
“You do it then! Where would anyone have the presence of mind for that!”
The players, belatedly realizing the two’s absence, quickly checked the stream.
What their eyes saw was Black Dragon and his party, evacuated to one side.
“Huh?”
“What the ——! They bolted right away!”
“Get clear! They’re trying to dodge that skill!”
Players who belatedly grasped Black Dragon’s party’s position felt the danger and tried to break away.
At that moment.
Hum—!
A sharp resonance rang from the sphere above.
“Everyone gather here.”
Hanbit called everyone over.
Then, raising his sword, he took aim at the White Wyvern’s Heart placed on the ground.
“What the hell are you pulling!”
Blood, watching the stream, sensed something was off and came charging in at tremendous speed.
But Hanbit’s sword had already been driven downward.
Crack—!
The sword cleanly piercing the White Wyvern’s Heart.
At the same moment, the condensed cold exploded outward like a burst.
“What?”
“What’s happening——!”
Crack crack crack—!
With no time to be surprised, a powerful cloud of cold enveloped everyone.
And the moment Hanbit’s entire party was frozen in one fell swoop—
Boom—!
The Snow Drake’s crystal exploded from above.
Boom boom boom—!
The wind that had been concentrated there burst outward like an explosion.
A blizzard of cold powerful enough to overturn the collapsed floor.
It swept through the entire fortress in an instant.
Crack crack crack—!
The storm that turned everything snow-white crumbled the edges of the fortress walls as it dispersed.
Every player except Hanbit’s already-frozen party was swept up in the storm without even being able to react.
Whoosh—
And so the space where everything had been frozen solid was left with nothing but cold drifting through it.
All that could be seen throughout the vast fortress was ice.
-What;
-Insane wide-area attack.
-It was enduring the beatings for this?
-A noble man’s revenge takes time……
-Wide-area (instant kill)
-But Black Dragon still hasn’t respawned?
The camera still showing the fortress interior.
Meaning Black Dragon was still alive.
Hiss—
Even the Snow Drake had stopped moving, leaving an eerie silence that had settled.
It was not broken until a mere minute had passed.
Craaack—
Something cracking rang out in the fortress where the snow-white cold had subsided.
Crack— craaack—!
The increasingly stronger sound continued irregularly.
And the moment the sound turned dull—
Crash—!
The ice that had covered one side came crumbling down.
Tap tap—
Hanbit moving from within.
Having broken free from the ice bind, he moved his limbs and shook off the remaining ice.
-Huh?
-Breaking free insanely fast. Lol.
-But why is only he coming out?
-No no, others are breaking free too.
-But people like Blood are still frozen.
As viewers’ questions multiplied,
Hanbit’s party also broke free from the ice.
“Ugh, this…….”
“Were we truly frozen just now?”
“…An impossible sight.”
The people who had been frozen alongside him all regained their freedom equally.
Avantgarde, eyes sparkling with curiosity, looked around and asked:
“But are only we the ones who’ve been freed?”
The majority of players near the Snow Drake.
Blood, who had been charging toward them, was frozen at almost the precise position she had been about to reach.
Hanbit pointed to the shattered White Wyvern’s Heart on the floor.
“You remember the Heart’s information, don’t you? The part about there seeming to be some other use.”
“Ah, so it was blocking the wide-area technique! But didn’t you say it couldn’t block strong cold?”
“The cold condensed in the Heart is incomparable to what merely flows outward. It’s a one-time use when you detonate it, though.”
-What, it was a mechanic?
-Black Dragon scores another win today.
-Wyvern Heart re-evaluation.
-A game where you can’t figure out the instant-kill pattern would be trash;
-Info) Surprisingly, games that screw you over do always exist.
“Such a secret…….”
Avantgarde nodding as though he understood.
Liwei, who had been listening, shifted his gaze to the Snow Drake, which had stopped in the center.
“Is that thing staying that way?”
“No, it’ll wake up soon.”
Crunch—
Hanbit answered briefly and moved his feet toward the boss.
The recoil that came after using the wide-area technique.
Because of the ice covering its surface, damage couldn’t even be dealt right now.
But that was not Hanbit’s purpose.
Shhk—
Moving close, he arrived below the Snow Drake’s jaw.
Tap tap—
Kicking away ice with his foot, he began examining the floor.
Finding what he wanted was quick.
“Found it.”
A dark blue scale fragment buried in the ice.
Hanbit crouched down and picked up the palm-sized piece.
[Snow Drake’s Reverse Scale Fragment]
Rank: 6
Grade: Epic
Description: A scale fragment that broke off from the Snow Drake’s reverse scale. It possesses very high mana affinity and cold attribute resistance, but it seems it will be quite difficult to handle.
-??
-Rank 6 Epic?
-A fragment being this ridiculous?
-How much if put up for auction?
-Name your price;
-Frozen players weeping.
-Should’ve read the situation and used the Heart well. Lol.
The chat blazed at the appearance of an item of tremendous value.
The only two things Hanbit had targeted in the fortress were exactly these.
The dwarves’ heirloom and the reverse scale fragment.
“Let’s head back. It’ll be waking up soon.”
Having achieved his objectives, Hanbit moved his feet toward the fortress entrance with his party.
And when they reached the firmly closed gate—
Grrk—
The awakened Snow Drake rumbled in its throat.
“It, it woke up!”
The master of the fortress, eyes opening, steadied its neck and regained consciousness.
The taut tension that fell over everything again made the air feel heavy.
“Want me to stall for time?”
Liwei nudged his spear and asked.
But Hanbit shook his head.
“It’s fine. That thing has its own business to attend to.”
“Business?”
Crash—!
In an instant, the Snow Drake moved with a tremor shaking the ground.
Then it began sweeping its tail toward the other frozen players nearby.
Bang—!
Boom—!
People being mercilessly destroyed by anger-fueled attacks.
Emotional behavior that looked like releasing stress.
-Insane. Lol.
-A dinosaur is rampaging;
-Info) Those guys weren’t dead — just their bodies were frozen.
-For real, it’s freeze tag. Lol.
-Tag (death).
-Thank you for your noble sacrifice.
Thud—
Hanbit lightly knocked on the gate ahead.
The structure of this gate was solid ice.
Having endured even the Snow Drake’s wide-area skill head-on, it was now several times more solid than before.
Whoosh—!
Readjusting his sword, Hanbit simultaneously used Elemental Manifestation and Elemental Amplification.
Flames blazing in one burst, consuming physical capacity and mana.
A sword fully imbued with Saelion’s flame could definitely cut through it.
Whoosh—!
The rapidly depleting mana gradually made his mind hazy.
And the moment he reached near his limit, he swung his sword toward the gate.
Slash—!
Flames driving in along the diagonal arc traced by the sword.
They instantly melted the solid ice, carving out a passage.
Grrk—!
Just then, the Snow Drake, which had been massacring frozen players, turned its gaze toward the entrance.
“Go through!”
Meeting its eyes, Hanbit quickly pushed his party out.
Bang—!
At the same moment, the boss leaped off the ground.
Hanbit, the last one, launched himself through the passage just before the creature came down.
Boom boom boom boom—!
The Snow Drake, coming down a hair’s breadth late, sent out an enormous shockwave.
But that was as far as it went.
The creature stared at the hole Hanbit had escaped through and roared — but it could not come out of the fortress.
“Phew.”
Hanbit, having survived, lightly exhaled and pulled himself up.
He turned his eyes to his party and said:
“Let’s head back.”
