The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 3 - Chapter 68 - Sacrifice (Patreon)

                                                                                        Wolf

The ice around the kraken continues to crack and make groaning noises as I rush across the distance between us with my right claw stretched behind me, ready to strike.

Suddenly, my eyes are drawn towards the creature’s eyes as they suddenly flare red and it begins to fight even harder to break out, causing the ice to begin shattering at a much faster pace.

Damn it!

By the time I reach the creature, almost a third of its body has already been freed from the ice. In an attempt to stop it from breaking itself out, I swipe my clawed hand straight towards one of the tentacles currently pounding against the ice, only for my claws to let out an ear piercing screech as they scrape against the scales without piercing through.

My eyes narrow slightly before I jump backwards to avoid another tentacle as it sweeps right past where I was, sending a literal shockwave in its path that I manage to resist by using the ice beneath me to grab onto my legs. After resisting the shockwave, I reach forwards with one of my clawed hands whilst controlling the ice beneath me to shoot me towards the creature’s tentacle where I then land and begin my search for its reverse scale.

And as expected, the kraken doesn’t like having someone run all over its tentacle and begins trying to swing it around like crazy, but I manage to pry my claws underneath its top layer of scales whilst also using the bonus effect of my boots to increase my gravity towards the tentacle to begin scaling it like a mountain, without being shaken off. Unfortunately, I can’t dig in any deeper than just the small space beneath the scales, so I continue my search through the tentacle for its reverse scale.

After a few minutes of waving its tentacle around like crazy, the kraken seems to give up on that plan and goes back to trying to shatter the ice with the tentacle. Meanwhile, I eventually find its reverse scale, just barely covered in the ice still, closer to the main body of the creature. The scale looks just like its called. It looks just like the other scales, except backwards, and is pointed directly upwards, leaving a gap to the fleshy surface of the tentacle beneath.

A grin splits my face before I pull my arm back and infuse a large amount of ice element into both my new armor, and my gauntlets, causing my strength to increase by a lot, while also making a seething blue liquid begin to drip from the gauntlet’s claws that mixes with my claws’ venom. I then jab it forwards, straight into the scale, forcing it into the creature’s body, followed soon after by my claw and the icy venom coating it.

The kraken’s entire body suddenly freezes in place as a sudden whiny shriek echoes throughout the area, followed by the creature going berserk and thrashing around like crazy, shattering the rest of the ice keeping it in place. Meanwhile, a vicious, light blue colored liquid begins to spread through its tentacle from the venom on my claws, mixed with the element from my gauntlets.

However, I can’t get a good look for long, because the creature finally manages to shake me off during its thrashing, sending me flying through the air for a couple dozen meters before I crash into the surface of the enormous frozen iceberg of my own making.

I cough out a mouthful of pale blood before wiping my mouth and the fur around it with my arm as I climb back to my feet, relying on the fast regeneration from both my lycanthropy and my superior recovery skill to deal with the minor injuries from the crash.

When I look up, I find the tentacle that I had hit locking up in place, likely from being frozen from the inside out. But what surprises me more is that, after only a dozen or so seconds, the tentacle suddenly locks up entirely before literally falling off of the creature’s body.

The hell…?

Without giving me a chance to think about what I had just witnessed, the kraken finally begins to raise up to its full height, towering far above me whilst radiating me with the faintly glowing red light from its center. If it weren’t for what the source of the light is, I’d probably pause to take in the beauty of the red glow reflecting off of the falling rain and the ice beneath my feet.

Suddenly, the monster lets out an ear piercing shriek; one without the usual whining noise as the flesh of the stump left behind from its missing tentacle begins to wiggle around before growing outwards at a decent pace.

Shit, I almost forgot it could regenerate!

I begin to sprint over towards it again, only for it to swipe three of its tentacles at me at the same time.

It’s only weakness is its heart or tiring it out, so…

I drop to the ground in a slide to avoid one of the tentacles, before using my ice manipulation to launch me into the air with the ice in the iceberg beneath us to avoid the second. Unfortunately, however, the third one comes straight at me in midair, striking me directly and sending me flying for several dozen meters. Once I land, I end up digging through the ice until I stop, coughing out mouthfuls of blood with several shattered bones at a depth that must be almost a dozen meters deep into the ice.

“Shit…” I mutter in between coughs before attempting to get up, only to barely be able to move, causing me to fall onto my back again after lifting myself only a single inch.

This isn’t good…

I try to focus entirely on healing as quickly as possible, but as I’m doing so, my eyes widen at the sight of another approaching tentacle that quickly slams into the ice with the kraken’s full strength that it couldn’t use whilst partially frozen earlier. The tentacle shatters through the already damaged ice with relative ease before stopping right in front of me and raising back up again, likely to prepare for another strike.

I grimace as I try to move again, only to fall back down onto the ice.

This can’t be where I die…

I speed up my healing with all of my might whilst watching the tentacle return to sight at a frightening speed, shooting straight for me.

Shit, will I have to use the skill?

My eyes narrow further at that thought before blinking slightly as some of the rain dripping from my fur gets into them.

Maybe…

I divert some of my attention towards manipulating the ice to get into the way of the tentacle, but it fails to do anything as the tentacle cleanly smashes straight through it with its momentum.

Right as I’m about to give up and activate the skill to save myself, a shadow suddenly flashes by before I find Sapphire growing to her full size right in front of the tentacle.

“Sapphire!” I shout, my eyes widening to the size of saucers as I watch her jump up at her full size to block the tentacle. “Don’t!”

Right before the tentacle hits her, I hear a faint purring sound through the rain outside of the iceberg.

Then a menu appears in front of me, notifying me of her death and how her first revival will be free.

But the message goes to the back of my mind for now.

Because a surge of emotion, even more powerful than the one I felt when I heard about Lexi’s death, hits me, making me put every last bit of my attention on healing myself as the tentacle raises back up into the air again for another blow.

However, this time, I finally manage to move as I finish healing myself and jump straight out of the pit before the tentacle strikes.

Once I land on the surface, I raise my head to the moon and let out a howl filled with pain and anger before focusing my gaze on the enormous creature in front of me, whose tentacle stops in the middle of the attack after it sees me leave the pit.

This thing’s going to pay. In blood.

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