Timeless [Yuuki Konno X OC]

Chp. 50 - Heart to Heart

[Alfheim Online, New Aincrad, Floor 29]

[Malzeno's POV]

Floor 29 was a vast frozen tundra, dotted with snow plains, frozen lakes, and ruins of lost civilizations buried in ice. Red 'veins' of an unknown mineral ran under patches of the ice like magma, giving the land a sinister sensation as well as the isolating stretch of white. Seliana was the main settlement of this floor; built in and around the massive husk of a giant iron golem sunken into the earth. It stood directly south with the north horizon on clearer days giving a very faint view of the labyrinth piercing the sky. 

Venturing far as we had led us to the western side of the floor, the location of the only mountain present as the blizzard continued to eat away at my face's warmth despite the Hot Drink buff keeping the tick damage at bay.

To make the cold that much greater in potency, I threw myself right, evading the wave of semi-opaque blue shards of ice that formed underfoot, puncturing through the snow like hidden blades. Then a howl followed, and the large body lunged overhead as my wings flexed, propelling me away from the slam that shot a halo of rime around the monster.

It was a giant arctic wolf, only its fur was snow white, making it almost vanish into the blizzard's haze. There was a gradient of blue at the tips of its back to the tip of the tail hardened like a carapace of dark rime, same could be seen for the claws, like vambraces. The head was much the same with cold blue eyes leaving a contrail as the head swayed.

<<Ave, The Cold Front>>

Another howl, and five clusters of ice formed around it, even as Nori struck its side with a hammer, forcing it to pounce away, unleashing its spell as my arrows flew through the snow, shattering them as quickly as possible. 

Though, not to be outdone, Nori charged, tanking a blast of ice shards to her side as she dug her heels through the snow, sweeping a cloud of white mist with her hammer's dark blue coating as I plucked another arrow, sinking a red arrowhead into her shoulder, damaging her a little but increasing her strength. Power Coating, gotta love it.

The force behind Fissure tore ice and snow across the tundra like a deadly crescent, forcing Ave to dive overhead, spitting three blasts of ice around us as it landed straight into Asuna's Quadruple Pain straight to the flank as she ducked at the last second, evading the snaking bite of Ave's jaws as a body dove over both, a pair of claws turning amber in the blizzard's haze.

From the shadows, a blur of olive green spun like a buzz-saw, the 6-Hit claw skill, Frenzy, spun Argo's body through the back of the wolf's neck, stripping sparks of red from its flesh as it snarled, metal ringing when Argo switched for the deadly Shield Bash from the big giant of our guild, Tecchi throwing the wolf off-balance before it could cast a new spell, spiking it atop the head with a follow-up Power Strike, the blast sending a shockwave of snow and kinetic energy through the earth.

Clawing at his shield, Ave ran around us, creating a curving ice wave of push the others back as it charged me as Buckshot bounced off its now reinforced skull coated in rime. So I stepped aside, allowing the lime green hue coating Talken's spear to pierce the heavy ice armour, with Sonic Charge, stunning the beast with a crackling smash of glass.

The combined twirl of Jun's Tempest strike and Asuna's Oblique broke through more of the wolf's enchanted ice armour, leaving it weaker with each break as it performed a backflip, kicking up snow and ice as it came to land further away, howling to conjure more shards of ice above its head.

"He's all yours!" Jun raised a thumb to me as I flew towards the beast with Yuuki taking the vanguard, her blade drawn into an elegant pirouette, swatting the clusters of ice, granting me the time to coat an arrow in a thick secretion of orange liquid, drawing it back as far as possible.