1711-1712 eng

1711 On Thin Ice

Rain was ready to step on the ice when something inside her screamed. Perhaps it was because of the subtle change in the sounds behind her, or perhaps it was because of the change in the currents of the wind.

Perhaps she had subconsciously noticed the shadow moving unnaturally around her.

In any case, she didn't hesitate even for a split second before throwing her body down. An experienced warrior did not alloy themselves to be ruled by instinct, but they also never ignored it.

A warrior's instinct was the result of countless hours of training and rich battle experience, after all. Blood, sweat, and tears went into honing it into a life-saving tool.

Rain dodged, and in the next moment, her side was pierced by a flash of blinding pain.

She spun in the air and crashed into the ice, throwing herself into a roll. A moment later, Rain was already on her feet, sliding back as she held the javelin between herself and the enemy.

A muffled groan escaped from her lips.

The Huntsman was spinning his grotesque battleaxe, a few drops of blood marring its heavy green blade.

'Damn it.'

Rain briefly glanced down to assess the damage. It wasn't anything serious — the axe barely grazed her, leaving a long cut across her ribs. But if she had been even a little bit slower, it would have split her open like a log.

'More stitching...'

It was a little absurd, but she was more upset about having to mend her bodysuit than about receiving a wound. Her body was much more resilient than the threadbare bodysuit, after all.

"You bastard..."

As soon as the words left her mouth, the demon took a step forward.

Suddenly, they were surrounded by silence. The Huntsman entered the vast clearing, his armored boot sinking into the snow. Simultaneously, Rain backed away from his towering figure.

They were like a fearsome predator and its powerless prey, the predator preparing for a lethal lunge, the prey raising its quills in a vain hope to save itself. The heavy javelin usually gave Rain confidence, but in front of the dreadful master of frozen forest, it seemed a fragile willow branch.

'Come on, come closer.'

She needed to lure him into the depths of the swamp.

But, to Rain's outrage, the abomination halted after barely stepping on the ice. The darkness nestling in his helmet moved mockingly, and he raised the axe, pointing it at her.

'Curse you!'

The demon was just as smart as she was. So, he seemed to have easily recognized the threat that a thin layer of ice hiding the treacherous swamp posed to him.

Rain had expected as much.

She smiled darkly and continued backing away, increasing the distance between them with each passing moment.

Demons were intelligent, but they were also absolutely crazy, like all Nightmare Creatures were. She could allow herself to walk away from the battle if she wanted to. But could the Huntsman allow a human soul to escape from his clutches?

She didn't think so.

And indeed, out there on the shore of the frozen swamp, the demon's fingers twitched. He stared at her silently, making Rain's skin crawl, and then let out a frenzied growl.

Coming from inside the Huntsman's helmet, which was shaped to resemble the snarling snout of a beast, his growl sounded more than a little bit menacing.

Rain's mouth was suddenly dry.

"...Really? Wow. Come get me, then."

The demon struck the ground with his axe, sending a tremor through it, and then took another step.

An echoing, melodious sound resounded from below them as the cover of ice started to crack.

She prepared herself.

In the next moment, the Huntsman lunged forward with stunning speed. The wind howled as his massive body tore through it, the terrible axe rising to deliver a fatal strike.

It all happened very fast.

As the demon was advancing, his foot fell through the ice, and in the next moment, he plummeted down. Black water and pieces of ice flew into the air as if there was an explosion, and Rain felt the swamp tremble.

Cold drops pelted her face.

Of course, water alone was not going to slow the Huntsman down.

A human would have been rendered helpless by the need to struggle against its weight, but an Awakened Demon was powerful enough to shrug such a burden off without any effort. At that distance from the shore, the water was only to the Huntsman's waist, so he continued moving forward after a momentary delay.

But, still...

It wasn't a lake or a river. There was no ground under his feet, only the treacherous mass of the ancient swamp. Although the abominations managed to prevent himself from sinking... for now... its speed still dropped.

More than that, the moment he fell through the ice, Rain was already moving.

And before the Huntsman could regain his bearing, the heavy tip of her javelin had already crashed into his helmet.

She did not get greedy with that attack. Greed was the third most common cause of death among experienced fighters, following directly behind arrogance and bad luck. After delivering a strong blow to the demon's face, Rain immediately pulled back and jumped away.

And just in time — a split second later, his axe whistled past the spot where she had stood before, colliding with the ice and splitting it.

The attack was much too fast for her to perceive and react in time. If Rain had not anticipated the danger and disengaged in advance, she would have died.

Her side burned with cold pain, but that pain only made her mind sharper. Her heart was beating steadily, pumping blood throughout her body. Her muscles seemed to have come alive, making her body light and alert, brimming with energy.

It was a state of absolute focus and awareness, so heightened that it couldn't last for too long.

'Let's see which one of us is the real demon...'

Brandishing her javelin, Rain grinned and escaped the cracking ice, already searching for a way to deliver another blow to the frenzied abomination.

1712 Icebreaker

Less than a minute later, a vast swath of the frozen swamp had turned into a ravaged scene of devastation. The pure white snow was washed away, the ice was broken and shattered, its shards floating in the black water like dirty glass. The water itself was restless, boiling and rippling from the furious movements of the Huntsman and the escaping gas.

The swamp was trying to swallow the frenzied abomination, but was getting battered by him instead. The demon would sink deeper from time to time, but then tear himself from the insidious embrace of the marsh... even though that struggle allowed Rain to survive so far, it was not enough to grant her victory.

She was breathing laboriously.

Rain had continued to retreat deeper into the swamp, and the demon continued to pursue her like a demented executioner. She had delivered more than a dozen strikes to him, but none dealt any serious damage —even when her javelin pierced the cracks of the Huntsman's armor, it felt as if she was trying to cut wet fur. Rain did do some damage to the hidden flesh of the demon, but not nearly enough to matter.

At the same time, her own body was not faring well. She had not been cut by the dreadful battleaxe again, so there was little blood... relatively speaking... however, there were bruises. In fact, after being tossed around by the furious power of the demon's blows, Rain felt like her entire body was one giant bruise, by now.

And that was even considering that she fought as cautiously and cowardly as she could.

The Huntsman had much longer limbs, and his battleaxe had much more reach than the black sword her teacher had given her. So, even if Rain was willing to risk clashing with the abomination face-to-face despite being slower and weaker than him, he would have held a great advantage.

Stories like to speak about exalted skill and unbreakable resolve, but in a real fight, the outcome was often decided by the most mundane of things. Reach trumped skill, and weight definitely trumped will.

Well, perhaps it was different for the Awakened, whose power refused to obey common sense. But for someone like Rain, having a longer weapon meant emerging victorious more often than not.

Which was why she did not draw her sword yet, relying instead on the heavy javelin.

'It's alright...'

Her javelin was crafted from the same material as her arrows, and it was not as if a mundane human could not leave a scratch on the body of an Awakened abomination — in fact, it was entirely possible to slay one, just a bit hard.

Things would have been different if Rain was facing a Fallen Nightmare Creature, but then again, she would have never allowed herself to end up in such a situation. Her teacher tasked her with slaying an Awakened Demon precisely because it was not impossible for her to succeed.

It was just that...

The Huntsman had proven to be much tougher than she had anticipated. Rain had expected to be powerless against his armor, but even when she managed to bypass it, the result was minimal. It as a though there was another layer of protection hiding behind the suit of rusted green armor.

Something had to change.

The demon was just as domineering and frightening as before, his movements just as foreboding... Rain, on the other hand, was starting to feel tired. Not only did she have to attack and dodge the terrible axe, but she also had to be careful about the ice — if she fell under it, then she would die from her own trap.

And with more and more of the ice ending up shattered, staying away from the black swamp was becoming more and more difficult.

Her lungs felt like they were on fire. And not only because she was pushing her resilient body too far — the air reeked, as well, full of foul gasses released when the ice encasing the swamp was broken.

Something had to change soon...

Luckily, a change was coming up.

Not too far behind her, and drawing closer with each frenetic sequence of offense and retreat, was a twisted tree. The tree itself did not mean anything, but the fact that it stood in the middle of a swamp meant that there was enough soil there to support its roots.

There was a tiny island underneath the tree, which could save Rain, or doom her.

'To hell with it.'

Rain was about to take another step back, but then paused and stood her ground instead. Her body tensed like a powerful spring, and surged with strength. From her feet to her thighs, through her core to her shoulder, and finally into her arm — a powerful force was transferred and multiplied, and as Rain's torso turned, her arm flew forward like a whip.

She let go of the javelin.

The heavy weapon flashed through frigid air, dove under the Huntsman's axe, and plunged deeply into the crack on his rusty breastplate.

The power of her throw was dire enough to give the demon a momentary pause.

...Using that short moment, Rain turned around and dashed toward the distant tree. She knew that the abomination would follow... but it was slowed down by the swamp, sinking deeper the deeper they ventured into it. By now, the dirty water was already above the Huntsman's waist, and his speed had dropped significantly.

Rain ran to the tiny island, pursued by the sound of breaking ice and surging water.

There was just barely enough time.

Reaching the tree, she ignored the quiver of arrows hidden beneath its branches — without a bow, they were all but useless now. Instead, she grabbed something else... a bottle of hard liquor her teacher had procured somewhere the day she turned twenty. Currently, there was a length of cloth dangling from the mouth of the bottle.

His voice suddenly resounded from the shadows:

"W—wait... what are you doing, ungrateful brat? That's my most expensive bottle, you know!"

Rain ignored the startled voice and produced a brass lighter. She wasn't fond of drinking, anyway... no, really, what had he been thinking, gifting a young girl alcohol? What kind of attitude was that for a teacher?

Had her teacher been a delinquent in his youth?

Igniting the cloth, Rain stood up and swiftly turned around.

The Huntsman was barreling toward her like a frenzied icebreaker. He had long torn her javelin from his chest and snapped it in two, leaving the broken pieces far behind.

For a moment, her heart ached for her trusty weapon.

Then, Rain gritted her teeth and tossed the bottle at the demon.

"Catch this, you rusty piece of..."

The Huntsman did not even bother to move his axe, swiping the bottle away with his gauntlet.

Of course, it shattered instantly, spilling burning alcohol all over his towering figure.

The flammable cocktail was not going to damage an Awakened Demon.

But that stench in the air...

There was a lot of gas trapped beneath the ice, and currently, all of it had been released, surrounding the abomination like an invisible cloud.

And when the bottle shattered, the cloud instantly turned into a sea of raging flame.

Of course, Rain did not see any of it, because she was already diving behind the twisted tree.