Conquering His Cold Heart

He was only distracted for a brief moment, yet he was already being attacked, thankfully it was just a D-rank ice wolf.

Frost moved his head back to avoid the canine\'s sharp teeth while at the same time punching upwards with an ice encrusted fist.

Bang!

His fist smashed into the ice wolf\'s chin and sent it careening through the air without mercy, knocking out many of its teeth as he did.

"Get your head in the game Frost you can\'t let your guard down for even a moment." Major Bullen arrived by his side and offered a shoulder, genuinely worried about his state of mind.

\'Can\'t believe I forgot that despite his strength he\'s still young. That was probably the first time he\'d been so close to death.\' Bullen frowned as normally a more gentle approach would be better but unfortunately this was war, so they didn\'t have time for such luxuries.

Frost quickly found his bearings thanks to Bullen\'s aid, steadiness returning to his limbs as the shock passed and he could think clearly again. He raised his glaive and stood shoulder to shoulder with Bullen.

"Where\'s Kiba?" He asked while searching the sky.

"He\'s fine, damaged wings and some nasty burns but he made it back to behind the northern wall." A different voice sounded in reply, a voice Frost didn\'t recognise.

He turned around to see a young man with hawkish eyes and a large intricate bow in his hands.

"Artemis!" Major Bullen cried out in shock not expecting to see the young archer captain down here in the thick of it.

\'So this is Artemis, the archer who was working in concert with Kiba to back me up.\' He was also the first one to lend him aid against the dark violet fist sent by the eldest rindar.

Artemis gave Frost a quick once over and smiled before looking towards Major Bullen.

"Kiba took most of the beam\'s impact thus it affected his flying capabilities especially with me on his back, so I jumped off. Without my weight he was able to barely make it to the northern wall where I\'m sure the medical team will take good care of him." The last part was said to put Frost at ease.

"But why are you here?" Bullen quickly asked while knocking back a couple ice wolves.

Artemis\'s gaze moved to Frost and then to the treeline that was gradually being pried open.

"Helping out a comrade as well as revenge I guess." He spoke with a smile when his eyes were on Frost but portrayed a fierce expression as he eyed the creature coming from the Northrend forest. His skin however was visibly trembling, and a cold sweat accumulated down his neck.

Bullen and Frost both felt a change in the air and focused solely northward.

Crash!

Trees were crushed and knocked down as a giant monster moved forward with heavy steps. The beast was easily ten metres tall and chock full of muscle. Massive arms that wielded a giant club made of some sort of incredibly dense stone. Fur covered legs that looked like those of a goat\'s. Grey, stone like skin that was easily several centimetres thick making standard arrows all but useless.

A massive single violet eye occupied the majority of its skull, blinking as it gazed upon the three men.

This monster was a cyclops, a member of the giant species though less intelligent and far more feral in nature still a giant, a dangerous and powerful monster.

Bullen frowned as the creature revealed itself, his hands cracking as his grip intensified. A cyclops was beyond his abilities even with Frost and Artemis by his side, an entity at the peak of entry level B-rank rivalling the eldest rindar and in many cases a far more dangerous foe to directly contend with.

Frost felt the monster\'s violent and oppressive aura, it caused his skin to crawl and his legs to feel heavy but despite that a smile was evident on his face. The cyclops was clearly in the power category, the easiest to manage for someone like him who was confident in his speed. He just needed to make sure he didn\'t get hit.

Artemis however was not like Frost and Bullen, he wasn\'t B-rank yet, so his aura hadn\'t developed. The best he could do was stand his ground in the face of it, but his battle capabilities would take a hit. The amount of damage and aid he could effectively dish out would be minimal at best as long as he was affected by its aura.

Kiba was no longer in action so he couldn\'t take to the skies and eliminate that problem plus with his strength and battle style he needed to be wary of more than just the cyclops.

He suddenly felt the folly of his actions, he shouldn\'t have been so gung-ho to lend aid and face off against what shot him down.

As Frost and Bullen prepared themselves for a dire battle, exchanging silent looks and entering combat stances the cyclops giant single eye glowed with a purple light.

"Shit dodge it!" Bullen roared out while dashing to the left. This was the attack that knocked Kiba and Artemis out of the sky, a long range energy attack that was quick and destructive.

Frost quickly went to move to the right but caught sight of Artemis being frozen in place, his reactions dulled thanks to the creature\'s overbearing aura.

"Tsk!" He clicked his tongue and frowned before halting his escape and heading towards Artemis. He couldn\'t exactly abandon the young man after he risked himself to save him a minute earlier.

"[Ice shield]" he didn\'t have time to speak an aria, so Frost shortened his casting, focusing on speed. As he placed himself before Artemis, his glaive twirling at pace in front of him, covered in a dense set of cold flames and his body adorned in a thickening ice armour a magic crest appeared before the two of them summoning a large shield of ice a few centimetres thick.

\'Fuck!\' Artemis cursed himself internally as his body finally started listening to him, but it was too late all he could do was hide behind Frost and hope that his defences would hold.

Hooooowwwwwwwllllll!!!!!!

The air howled as a thick violet beam escaped from the cyclops eye and arrived before Frost and Artemis in a fraction of a second, like a purple lightning bolt.

Baaaannnnngggg!

The purple beam slammed against the hastily generated ice shield and swiftly blew it apart without much effort before continuing to smash against Frost and his twirling glaive.

"Urgh!" Frost groaned as the impact passed through his weapon to his organs, he felt blood rush up his throat and threaten to paint the air red. The force extended to his legs causing the ground he stood on to sink and crack as he did his best to remain stationary.

His cold flames enhanced by the wind engraving did their best to compete against the purple beam, gradually breaking it down fragment by fragment.

Fractions of seconds passed, and Frost felt the ice armour around his hands and arms flake away soon revealing his unprotected skin. His flames were being snubbed out faster than he could regenerate them and despite his best efforts he was being pushed back.

Blood dripped from his lips and a pained expression appeared on his face as the beam touched his skin, burning it. This beam attack was stronger than the one sent towards Kiba and in much closer proximity. He\'d just used a lot of strength to repel the attack from the B-rank poison herald, so he was out of additional reserves.

Slowly Frost was pushed backwards, his feet leaving trails in the ground, but he was ultimately stopped by Artemis who he was protecting. The archer couldn\'t do much in the current situation, but he could push his back, helping alleviate at least some of the weight.

The two of them roared out as they pushed back against the beam, surviving until it lost all its power.

There was no large explosion or booming sound as the beam fizzled out, the colour simply dimmed before the beam shrank and then vanished all together. Frost fell to a half kneeling position, breathing heavily with his hands trembling. Energy burns covered his hands and upper wrists. His chakra armour failed to endure the onslaught.

Artemis wasted no time at all, he removed a low level health potion from his pack, popped the cork and poured the concoction onto the burns. Wounds such as this healed quicker if the potion was applied directly rather than consumed plus it had the bonus of not having to endure the nasty taste.

"Urgh!" Frost groaned out as the potion got to work. An intense feeling of itchiness filled his hands making it hard for him to hold onto his glaive, but he could see the burns visibly fading unfortunately it wasn\'t working fast enough.

Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!

The cyclops didn\'t waste any time either. The moment the beam disconnected from its eye it began running forward with its massive club, aiming to pulverise the survivors.

"Well shit!" Frost swore while fighting through the itchiness. He gripped his glaive hard with one hand while he grabbed Artemis with the other planning to carry him with him as he evaded the cyclops\' swing. Thankfully the thing really was quite slow and cumbersome, even with the fluid transition between firing the eye beam and dashing towards them Frost still felt he had enough time to evade.

It was just annoying having to move so soon.

Just as he was about to kick off with Artemis in tow he heard the voice of a woman coming from behind them, filled with authority and strength.

"Relax kids Maggie\'s here to save the day."