Arc | Chapter. 44: The Hero of Frost (Patreon)

Chapter. 44: The Hero of Frost

Dragons.

Monsters of legend; the peak of beings and strongest of all races. Children of Arlas, blessed beings that were worshiped by certain religions across the world. They were holy, they were ancient and commanding of respect. And amongst them, there existed the Grand Dragons and the Grand Dragon Elders.

The latter were the strongest and rarest of them all, they were known to be legendary creatures that commanded great respect, each of their  names as commanding and as terrifying as the last one, their appearances marked in history books for those that bothered to remember.

And today, one of such creatures descended upon the small town of Ranedale. The town of the Black Forest, and one of the least visited ones in all of Draliz in spite of its economic importance. Yet in spite of circumstances, one of those creatures of legends was here.

It was the Dragon of Flames, the Creator of the First True Flame, the Herald of Crimson, and one of the Grand Dragon Elders.

Dergan couldn’t believe his eyes, all of the spiders had died in an instant by spears of ice and now, a legendary beast was here. Descending in front of him with a mighty flap of its crimson wings, the ice around melted simply by the presence of its body temperature, and even though there was chaos in the town, it all quieted down in the presence of the sacred beast.

There were so many questions Dergan had in mind, he had thought Arc was around and somehow had saved them, but now he wasn’t so sure. The Dragon of Flames had descended, only a person of legendary status could possibly be around the dragon⁠— given the timing it only meant one thing.

Someone had made the Dragon of Flames submit, and this someone was…

Dergan stood there in shock, all while the bystanders stood there, their mouths agape as they stared. Perhaps not everyone understood what was about to happen, but Dergan did⁠. With a gulp he waited, for things to happen, and they did⁠—

A shockwave of ice blasted through the vicinity, the houses and streets became frozen over and yet, everyone present was unaffected by the cold. It was a weird experience that sent the entirety of everyone present into a wave of hushed whispers.

But it didn’t take long before a figure leapt from the dragon. It was a knight of ice blue armor, the most delicate in the land with intricate patterns and on their back, there were three spears. At that moment, Dergan knew, everyone knew who it was. Perhaps, they had never heard of him before, perhaps no one had seen them before, but everyone instinctively knew it.

Dergan swallowed.

It was the Hero of Frost. He who commanded all ice and the temperature itself. Even Arc, the S Tier adventurer he met, wouldn't compare with this person. This person was a hero, and their presence was overwhelming.

The air seemed to change, and breathing became hard as the tension rose. Some of the townspeople stared from their houses, but everyone present outside were adventurers and guards, all fighting to wipe the spiders, however now that they were gone, what could they possibly want?

Were they friendly?

Or were they foe…?

Then, they took a step. All of the guards and adventurers tensed, weapons were immediately raised, but contrary to expectations the Hero of Frost turned to Dergan. He paused, and without hesitation, the man strode up to him.

The Hero of Frost was tall, enough to tower over him, and then they spoke.

“The Hero of Spiders, where is he?” It was a… weird voice, it sounded almost like the one of a boy rather than a man.

But yet, the oppressive aura increased. Enough for Dergan to immediately forget about the weird dissonance. He blinked.

“The Hero of Spiders…?” Dergan took a moment before it all clicked⁠— “It must be his work! The spiders returned soon after they were quelled, and now they are more rampant than ever!”

He gritted his teeth.

“I do not know where the Hero of Spiders is, but that bastard must be responsible for this!”

“So you don’t know.” The Hero of Frost lowered his head. “Very well, then I shall take my leave.”

At that moment Dergan and the rest of the people blinked; he was going to leave just like that? He hastily spoke up.

“Oh, surely you can stay around for a bit! I’m sure Ranedale would adore to throw a party in your stead!”

“No.” The Hero of Frost turned around. “I must make haste.”

With those words, the towering yet weird man walked up to the dragon who just so happened to have an… ice block on his back? It was incredibly confusing, but everyone watched as the Hero of Frost departed, the Dragon of Flames took flight and left the town, riding towards the sea.

Dergan couldn't believe it.

He met a hero in the flesh…

There was no doubt about it, someone as strong as him had to be the chosen to control the element of Frost. And Dergan was sure of it, and he’d remember this for many years to come.

He met a hero…

With a smile, he turned around.

It was time to get Ranedale back in order.

* * * * *

We flew for around thirty minutes before I decided it was far enough, then Regis performed a landing. Shortly after, Ceylon got up, shivering from being covered in a thin ice cube, but in the end, I had no other choice to disguise her identity.

“P-Please warn me before doing that…” she said.

“Sorry, but even if I warn you it wouldn’t change how you feel right now, however. I really am sorry, Ceylon.” I closed my eyes, deciding to forget my annoyance for a moment. “I hope this really doesn’t happen again.”

She nodded very slowly and decided to sit down given that it was more than clear that my mood was less than perfect. Regis slowly turned back into a human teen, and I just stood there with my arms crossed.

I had just engaged in cringe roleplay just to save my identity, I heard it in the crowd too, people were calling me the Hero of Frost, which actually wasn’t a bad idea to have as a cover up identity, but that was logically speaking. From a sentimental side, I was fucking annoyed, annoyed that I had to pretend to be some badass mysterious hero and force my voice to sound like a guyish.

But I was even more annoyed, that somehow and in some way, Regis seemed thick enough to not even realize what he had done. He hadn’t apologized once during the entire trip, and now that I saw him in his human form I knew why.

The fucker was smiling as he strode up to me.

“That was great wasn’t it?” He opened his arms wide. “You got to display your status for the entirety of the town to see! All managed by me!”

And at that moment, I couldn’t hold back.

I walked up to him, as he met my gaze.

“Well, what do you say⁠—?”

I raised my arm, and I smacked him. He squeaked as the ground shattered beneath us, his face dug into the dirt as he groaned in pain.

“Dumbass.”

It didn’t completely erase my anger, but at least, it was enough to improve my mood. Regis lacked common sense, I knew that, I just didn’t think he lacked that much of it. Perhaps his gesture came from a good place, but it completely violated my goals and aspirations.

“If he wasn’t a legendary beast, I’d say that’s overkill, but honestly I think you went easy on him.” Ceylon breathed. “Regis’karr, sorry to say, but that really was a terrible idea.”

I closed my eyes.

So, in the end, it seemed that I was going to need to teach my new dragon companion how to behave before even going to Ranedale.

* * * * *

The day turned into night, and finally a long battle came to an end. A sea of black engulfed the Heroine of Crows, killing her once in for all. Feathers rained, pieces of birds and holy beasts littered the ground, and the small town of Drekell was no more.

The Hero of Shadows laughed, cackled as he realized that this was just the beginning in his rise to power.

[ You have leveled up. ]

[ You have leveled up. ]

…

[ You have ascended to the next Tier: SS. ]

It had been so easy, and this was just one hero, just killing a few more would do the trick.

With a grin, he vanished as the sun rose, not even the keeper of order would touch him. This was just the first of many battles to come.

* * * * *

Gisele snorted from her hideout, she couldn’t believe it. The Hero of Frost existed now? What was next, the Hero of Wind? Fuck, she was the Hero of Spiders, what was next, fucking Hero of Rats? I mean, she was sure the Hero of Wind did exist, but it was still fucking ridiculous.

“Broken ass system, glitched out of its mind.” She shook her head.

The assault on Ranedale failed, and that was okay, she didn’t expect to bring the town down in a single attack. This was a planned scheme after all, one that had been happening for years. Unlike other Heroes she was alone, mostly because they called her goals insane. No organization agreed to her terms, and considering altercations between heroes were hard, that also meant they couldn’t exactly force her hand.

Of course there was even a time she died, after all, unlike the strong fuckers she was a mere S Tier hero, sure she was strong enough to destroy almost all S Tier beings in existence, but it wasn’t enough. Not for her dreams.

She even tried to have an apprentice at some point, but the man became delusional and claimed to be a hero, and even went and started shit with Ranedale before planned. So in the end, she had to kill the man.

But that didn’t matter, for she knew she had something she could truly rely on.

Spiders.

Gisele smiled as she walked down the cave she resided in, and soon enough she reached a ravine from where screeches came from, and looking down, she could see it⁠— it was so close⁠—

And at that moment, the Grand Emera Spider killed its opponent.

Then she paused.

“Oh… I really did it…”

She smiled seeing the [Appraisal] information, it was her masterpiece, she had really done it, she had created a legendary beast.

[Ancient Emera Spider. Tier: SS]

She watched as the gigantic spider slowly collapsed on the ground and began the lengthy process of shedding its exoskeleton. With its help, she’d finally be able to fulfill her long insane dream.

The dream of razing an entire country.

And with the help of the Ancient Emera Spider, no one would be able to stop her.

That night, Gisele laughed like never before, as the rest of her spiders gave up their life all to fulfill her dream.

* * * * *

Teaching Regis common sense had proven to be difficult, whether it was his misconceptions born from the fact that he was ancient, or just overthinking things; neither of them helped. But somehow, I managed to at least get him to understand that attention drawn towards my power and true identity was bad.

And finally, after that, he apologized and said he’d try to behave more normally. Though Ceylon and I met what he said with skepticism.

This time around, we decided to sneak into Ranedale straight away rather than go through the gate. Where we appeared, was a random alley defunct of people, though there were some spider corpses here and there, but it was something to ignore.

Afterwards, we headed to an inn to spend the night, though it proved to be difficult for most of the inns were crowded for whatever reason.

But eventually, we found a place to stay, with the caveat being we all three had to share a room; I honestly didn’t care but Ceylon seemed bothered with the concept of sharing a room with Regis, because well, the Dragon of Flames was a he.

Though after a lot of back and forth conversation, and Regis essentially saying that humans were disgusting and unsightly, Ceylon finally became somewhat comfortable with his presence. Though I mean, he was a dragon.

I certainly couldn’t care less if a dragon was male or female, so I didn’t see the problem, but alas.

Finally, after all of that was settled I set off to confront the Guildmaster of Ranedale.

* * * * *

Dergan was in a good mood, Ranedale was back to mostly functioning in a single day thanks to the joint efforts of all the adventurers that had come from afar. So all in all, things were going well. It had been a long day, but he could finally rest.

He entered his home humming, and closed the door behind him, only to turn and pause.

“What…?”

Arc was sitting down at his dining table, eating soup but before he could say anything, she turned to him as an overbearing pressure overcame him.

“We need to talk in regards to the ice spear I left.”

And at that moment, Dergan felt all blood drain from his face.