The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 3 - Chapter 37 - Fire versus Ice (Patreon)

                                                                                           Wolf

Let’s see… if I use my ice element to make several daggers of ice, I will eventually be able to throw them at it from down here. The main issue is that the stupid pest doesn’t seem to want to give me enough time to make the daggers.

That said, it’s level is below mine, so…

I quickly roll out of the way of another attack before focusing almost entirely on creating a dome of ice as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, the most I can manage is cooling down the area around me before another wave of flames blasts straight at me and I have to roll away again.

Damn it!

I quickly open up my skills list and begin searching through it for ranged ice attacks.

Maybe it might work if I use a skill instead of using my manipulation…

Soon enough, my eyes focus on the Ice Flow skill that I used to use a decent amount before learning how to do it myself with my ability. I quickly point my hands up towards the air and activate the skill, causing a wave of cold water close to the level of liquid nitrogen to blast out straight towards the efreet, only to fall short and end up splashing against the ground a few meters past the mini boss.

My eyebrows jump up slightly in surprise as the ground freezes over where the ice flow landed, sand and all.

That… worked?

Is it because the skills are perfect in their manipulation of the ice element? Or do the skills just have an unknown boost to their effect?

I lightly shake my head before looking up again and dodging out of the way of another attack.

Whatever the reason is, it works. And it might also explain why the ice flow skill costs more stamina than just using my ability to replicate it does.

The mini boss begins to breathe in deeply again for another attack, but I break into a sprint, jumping straight upwards towards it before it can do so. I then raise both of my hands and point them towards the efreet, activating ice flow and shooting a large volume of the freezing liquid straight towards the mini boss, causing steam to fill the area as the nearby air is rapidly cooled down by my attack.

At the same time, the mini boss exhales another breath attack directly towards my ice flow. Both of the attacks collide in midair before diverting the other, with the flames dissipating slightly from the collision.

I frown at the sight as I land on the ground far below the mini boss.

It looks like the mini boss’s flames aren’t all that much lacking behind my ice; only barely weaker, along with the fact that it can’t actually break, melt, or dispel my ice.

But it can still push my ice aside, even if the fire loses some of its strength in the process.

This mini boss is a pain.

I look back up at the mini boss to find it breathing heavily in exhaustion.

Oh?

Well, I guess it does make sense. Considering my recovery items and skills.

Stamina isn’t much of a problem for me anymore, but for monsters?

A small grin spreads across my face as I lower my center of gravity slightly and leap up into the air again to use ice flow. This time, the mini boss doesn’t seem ready and is directly hit on its forearm by my attack, with the arm almost completely freezing over.

I land back onto the ground as the efreet’s pained screams echo through the stadium, only barely louder than the roar of the audience watching us.

When I look back at the efreet, my grin immediately vanishes.

“The hell?” I mutter at the sight of the efreet coating its entire body in flames and flying straight towards me with a mad look in its eyes as it roars extremely loudly.

It can do that?

I roll out of the way of its charge, causing a large amount of sand to pick up into the air before the monster crashes straight into the ground of the arena pit. An even larger amount of sand is kicked up in the impact, forcing me to raise my arm up to my eyes to block any from getting in.

As I’m blinded by the sand, I hear the sound of something approaching at a very fast speed, but before I can get out of the way of whatever it is, I find myself getting sent hurtling backwards with a grunt as something impacts my chest.

My vision clears up almost immediately during my impromptu flight to reveal the efreet somehow standing on two legs that weren’t there before, with one of them raised upwards as if it had just kicked someone.

It has legs?!

I grunt again in pain as I land against the wall of the arena. When I look down, I see my pale, bluish-red blood covering the inside of the undamaged portions of my armor that’s made up of my ice.

Without wasting a single second, I get back up from the ground whilst healing my wounds before looking up at the desert efreet. The monster now has two sturdy legs, with small plumes of flames occasionally jetting out of the surface. Along with the legs somehow came a pair of trousers that fit with the style of the rest of its outfit, and two sandals, none of which seems to be affected at all by the flames licking at them.

The efreet roars again and breaks into a sprint directly towards me. I jump out of the way with a grimace, still healing my wounds, before raising one of my arms and shooting another ice flow at it.

Surprisingly, the efreet actually manages to avoid the attack, only to slam straight into the wall where I was previously at.

Does it have difficulty stopping or something?

I quickly top off my healing to make it good enough to fight before sprinting towards the efreet while it is still trying to get back up from its impromptu embrace with the wall. The creature manages to turn its head around slightly to look at me, its eyes widening in surprise, only for a look of pain to flash across its face as my claws slice straight through the tunic on its back into its skin, leaving behind bluish-black claw marks mixed in with its flaming red blood.

Ignoring the mini boss’s roar of pain, I avoid it as it swings its flame-coated arm towards me – the one that isn’t frozen – and climb up its back to sink my fangs straight into its open neck.

This time, the roar that comes out of its mouth has a hint of terror mixed in, along with a lot of gurgling due to it being drowned by its own blood.

I grunt as the efreet slams its frozen arm into my side, knocking me off of its back to land a few meters away, with several more bruises and what are likely a couple of broken bones.

“Named mini bosses are definitely stronger than nameless ones…” I mutter with a grimace as I slowly get back to my feet, healing my wounds at the same time whilst looking at the mini boss.

The desert efreet’s roars last for several more seconds as it struggles to get up until it finally falls dead, with its upper body supported by the arena wall.

I stay on my guard until I hear the chime signifying the mini boss’s death and immediately drop exhausted to the ground.

At the same time, Sapphire – who had been hiding in my shadow the entire duration of the fight – comes out and begins rubbing her tiny little head against my head. It was rather obvious that she had wanted to help in the fight, but I didn’t want to risk the mini boss hitting her with a powerful flame attack, so I had her stay in my shadow.

After all, I may be able to revive her, but not only must dying not be a very pleasant experience, but it’s expensive to bring her back after the first time.

A few seconds pass as the audience roars its approval of the fight before I hear the mini boss’s corpse break apart into lights, followed by the landing of something heavy on the ground – likely the mini boss chest.

I continue laying on the ground for several more seconds until I finally begin to get up after finally finishing healing my injuries.

That fight was harder than most of the fights I’ve had so far.

I glance at Sapphire, who is climbing up my leg to get to her place on my shoulder, before turning my attention towards the mini boss chest sitting right where the efreet’s corpse was. It has the image of a jinn inscribed on the front of the chest, with four flaming tips pointing outwards from each of the chests corners.

This chest probably won’t have anything useful to me, considering the mini boss’s element…

That aside…

Maybe I should start researching what skills actually are.

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