Chapter 200.5. - Interlude Eugene 3

Dressed head to toe in his best armor, with enchanted chainmail worn underneath and his gold-tipped helmet on, Eugene felt torn between feeling like he was walking toward his execution and heading into battle.The Moss Oni had been formidable, and its regeneration alone would have made it an impossible foe. Still, through his son’s incredibly varied abilities, his own efforts, and the sacrifices made by his men, he had brought it down.

Now… Now Eugene had no idea what to expect, and he would face it alone.

It wasn’t as if he could have refused, so he didn’t blame himself. It was just how things had unfolded. When the King asked, his nobles answered, even if they were hardly worth being called such.

“We’re almost there,” the Shadow said, casually matching his pace as he sped through the tall grass, leaving behind no disturbance.

It was the first time he had spoken since they left Floria, and Eugene was almost startled by the sudden sound.

He slowed down, the Shadow falling into step behind him. “Anything I should know before I go in?”

He didn’t expect a briefing, but asking never hurt. He had learned during his brief stint as an adventurer that having more information when facing unknown monsters could make the difference between life and death.

The other man fell silent, staring ahead at something Eugene still couldn’t see.

Grunting to himself, the Shadow signaled for him to stop. “As I have said before, it is the king’s personal decision that you are to receive a chance at advancement. That is all I am allowed to give you.”

Eugene nodded, resigned to facing his fate.

“That does not mean I cannot inform you of what is expected of you,” the Shadow continued, never changing his expression.

Despite this, Eugene felt a sense of amusement from the man, as if skirting the rules by technicality was his greatest pleasure. For an Order that was supposed to devote their entire lives to enforcing the king’s will, such an opportunity was probably very rare.

“As you know, the northern provinces have been experiencing some trouble maintaining their trade routes, mostly due to the dark dwarves’ involvement, but not solely because of them. Some dangerous creatures that usually remain stable within their valleys have begun to roam, and one has moved further south than we’d expected.”

Eugene did his best to maintain an impassive expression and merely nodded in acknowledgment. He doubted that the Shadow had any involvement in the matter. It was probably some old general who thought he could control the dwarves with the limited forces at his disposal and ended up caught off guard, and was now scrambling to recover.

Given the significant resources that had been diverted east to combat piracy over the last decade, it was not surprising that the northern defense had deteriorated.

“Though contact hasn’t been made with this specific creature, the royal divinatory managed to locate it despite its resistance to such magics and concluded that if left alone, it would not only threaten local communities but also upset the balance within the Green Ocean, possibly attracting the attention of something from the deep reaches.”

“Which is why it fell to me to deal with it,” Eugene said in realization. This was likely a way to both punish him for keeping the dungeon quiet, reward him for his growth as an asset of the crown, and test his effectiveness in keeping the Green Ocean in check.

It shouldn’t have been his duty, especially since this monster was still too far from his territory. But this was unclaimed land, and the only other man who could have been responsible for it was the Duke of Alluria. And he wasn’t a man who could be called upon like a common dog, not even by the king.

“Indeed,” the Shadow didn’t seem bothered by the matter. Considering his power, he could have probably killed the monster and returned to the capital in the time it took Eugene to get here.

“Any information on what it is?” He dared to ask.

A beat of silence followed, and he worried he had reached too far, but the Shadow eventually replied. “It is an Ice Elemental.”

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Eugene smiled.

Elemental interaction wasn’t as straightforward as most people believed. Sure, weaker spells and skills could be overpowered by their opposites, but that only applied at lower levels. Once both opponents began using Expert-tier skills, things became less predictable.

Eugene had personally seen Arthur use his lightning to kill a mud golem, despite it also being a Prestige creature. He’d been young then, and it had just been a very cool fight, but now he knew exactly how much skill that took.

It also told him that he shouldn’t expect to emerge victorious merely because this ice elemental was supposedly weak to his fire.

It had the advantage of being an entire rank higher than him, which alone would have been sufficient to bridge the gap; moreover, it was a pure elemental.

Not a spirit with an affinity, like the fae were. Those could be powerful, and certainly very tricky to deal with, but they could be safely handled by treating them as a particularly skilled mage-rogue hybrid.

Pure elementals existed in a different category. They were their elements. They didn’t wield them; every skill was merely an extension of their bodies.

It was often said that where humans had affinities and could develop more than one with sufficient time and effort—or by being extraordinarily talented, like Nick—elementals compensated by being so much better at their singular power that they couldn’t be compared to a human with the same affinity.

Therefore, Eugene entered the icy clearing with high expectations.

The ice elemental had not yet altered the environment, but its mere presence was enough to significantly lower the temperature, as evidenced by the frozen blades of grass he had to step around, lest he be noticed.

Eugene didn’t suffer the consequences of the cold due to his fire affinity, but that didn’t mean such an environmental hazard wouldn’t slow him down.

The elemental was there, just as the Shadow had said. At first glance, it appeared to be nothing out of the ordinary. A humanoid figure with vaguely defined features, adorned with icicles for hair and twin glittering crystals of blue ice for eyes.

The only things that set the alarm bells ringing were the surprisingly long claws it was idly dragging through a rock, exerting no more effort than one would in cutting butter, and the way it was staring at something.

It took Eugene a moment to realize it wasn’t looking at him, but rather at the spot where the Shadow had been before it disappeared.

With the element of surprise lost, he decided to just get this over with. If the monster was beyond him, he would find out soon enough.

Fire bloomed around his feet as his sword scraped from its sheath. Eugene took a step, feeling familiar warmth spread through his limbs. Yes, if he had to die today, he’d put on a good spectacle.

In the blink of an eye, he was on the elemental, swinging down in a fiery arc.

It reacted just as quickly, using its claws to block his first attack. The sound that the burning metal made when it met the ice was akin to a tortured shriek, but neither yielded.

It was only the beginning, however, and soon Eugene was swinging again, having summoned a burst of fire from his back foot to give himself an extra boost.

Combining with , he attempted to overwhelm his foe before it could regain its composure, but it didn’t even flinch, simply moving from one defensive stance to the next.

The arc of flames exploding from his sword was not so easy to avoid, though, and so the elemental let out its first real sound.

It was a hissing noise, but it felt far removed from anything an animal might create. It was simply too alien a creature to replicate the sounds of life.

Eugene didn’t even blink before moving on to the next attack. Although he had scored a hit, the damage was already regenerating, and he adjusted his plans while on the move.

Though he hadn’t exactly held back, he certainly hadn’t put his full power behind those first two blows. It was a result of his long captaincy, understanding how to pace himself. Fighting in the Green Ocean could last for hours, if not days.

None of that would work now. It didn’t even matter if he was too tired to defend himself later since he’d earn enough exp for Prestige, and there was a Shadow present to watch over him.

exploded in angry waves around him as Eugene placed his determination in opposition to the World, forcing everything within him to suppress the elemental.

Its reaction was immediate. Cold spread in a blue pulse, freezing everything from whatever living creature that had managed to survive so far to the very air. Mist billowed as the impossible temperature clashed with Eugene’s flames, and he felt his control flicker, such was the elemental’s raw might.

But that was what he expected. He knew Aura would be seen as a challenge, all so he could be given a free opportunity to actually use the power that came with that skill.

came to him like an old friend, absorbing all the power he was willing to give it. The resulting wave of fire was more solid than mere flames.

It was intensely bright, cutting through the flesh of the elemental without hesitation, carving deep into the frozen ground behind it.

Eugene smiled, watching the severed arm fall, until a strange pain washed over him.

His eyes instinctively lowered, drawn to the source. What he found there was another arm, protruding from his chest.

He hadn’t even seen the creature move.

With tremendous effort, he raised his gaze, locking eyes with his would-be murderer.

The ice elemental showed no emotion whatsoever. If it had enjoyed playing with him, it didn’t express it. If anything, it appeared indifferent, as if killing Eugene was a foregone conclusion.

In fact, its eyes had already moved past him, searching for the much greater threat that was the King’s Shadow.

Eugene felt the coldness spread as the arm retreated from his chest, and a pained moan escaped his lips as he realized that it wasn’t empty-handed.

His heart. That was his heart that the elemental was holding. It pulsed weakly, dark blood splattering on the ground and hissing as the cold froze it.

For a moment, his vision faded, and he thought that was it. He was finished. What else could he do?

“Is this all you are? Have you taken my heart just to die so pathetically?”

The voice felt distant, as if it were coming from a different room. Yet, it was all Eugene could perceive. It filled his mind, echoing off the fading synapses with enough power to restart their firing.

He was on the verge of death. Some might argue that he had already crossed that line. Nevertheless, Eugene had another ace up his sleeve.

The that erupted from him was less a controlled skill and more a cry of defiance. A roar against the indifferent heavens.

Heat rose vertiginously, sublimating the frozen blood around him into vapor. Grass turned to ash, and the ground boiled. The air caught fire.

Eugene roared as the heart of a Fire Drake began pumping blood anew.