I can freeze things too
Dex barely had time to gloat over this quick kill because he felt his entire body freezing.
Cold sneaked up on him, invading his blood stream, shrinking his bones and holding him in one place. It was a dreadful and nasty feeling, one that evoked panic in his heart.
"Alibe Isi" he heard the words through the whispers of the wind.
He recognized the chanting and knew the spell by heart. It was one used by water mages, high level ones at that with the skill of blood ice magic to freeze their enemies.
They could freeze one's blood, turning your warm blood into the very thing that killed you from the inside.
All that was required was a slight cut on one's body and a a drop of water and they would have a way in.
Dex had been injured, he had a cut somewhere that he did not notice, but apparently, the water mage had done so.
The chanting came closer and became clearer. As it did, Dex's eyes further widened. This water mage intended to freeze his heart.
The spell had worked successfully so far, and he was frozen from the feet to the chest. The ice, like trickled and moved within him, approaching his heart like a poisonous needle.
His body felt heavy and drowsiness started to set in. He could hear the crunching and slow movement of feet. The water mage was coming around to finish him off.
With a labored breath, Dex struggled to pull in air as he said, "Time freeze, system, time freeze,"
Dex was grateful, more than ever that he did not need to chant and he had been wise enough to ask for this skill before he came for this hunt.
If he hadn't he would be about to lose his life in a matter of seconds.
Everything froze, as he wished and time came to a stop. The wild flames which were dancing ceased their movements, the cloud of black smoke was suspended in the air, and the little flickers of fire in the wind paused.
Dex moved his head around, amazed at the kind of magic which he had never before seen or experienced. Nothing was moving and the world was silent.
"The seconds are counting down, you better focus." the system reminded him.
The limit on the time froze spell was a minute, after a minute if he was not free, he would have to freeze time again.
"What do I do?" he asked himself.
The astral clone could probably help, it was inside looting the wealth of the Adama guild. But how would it help him in this situation even if he called for it?
He needed to be a fire mage because they could warm themselves from the inside, their blood it was said, run hot. Or he needed a pill that would warm him up and make him sweat the ice out of his body in the form of water beads.
Those were the only two ways to fight off the invasion of ice in one's body. It was also the reason why the spell was one of the most deadly and one which was not taught in ordinary academies.
It was a pill or death.
"System when the time freeze elapses, restart it again." he said.
"That will leave you with only three chances to freeze time today." It reminded him.
Dex was aware of this already and he was fine with it and if need be he would use it a third and forth time as well.
"That's okay. Now, I want the magic of all the fire mages here, you said I could take the magic of the prey I kill, right?" He definitely remembered the system saying this.
"The magic of fire mages will make you a dual elemental mage." The system told him.
"All the better." he answered.
Only dark mages had the ability to steal the magic of others. They killed other mages for their cores and used the most unconventional magic to transfer their magic to themselves.
It was a magic which was whispered about and frowned upon.
Those who practiced it once found would be put to death by the high council of mages immediately.
Dex did not care whether it was dark or light magic, what he cared about was his survival.
Before his very eyes, from the corpses of different mages around, red light flew from their bodies and came together, forming one round red ball.
It was suspend in the air, and rotated around at a speed that even Dex could not keep up with.
"Open your mouth." The system told him.
His did as it said and the round ball, at the speed of lighting shot inside of his mouth and went down his throat.
It was hot, and it burned his throat, if his hands could move, he would be clawing at his neck, probably trying to rip the red ball out.
Just as quickly as it burned him, so did the ice in his blood melt and push it's way out of his body like the sweat of a man running under ten hot suns.
He gritted his teeth and groaned, the timer was already on the last thirty seconds of the second time freeze spell. He had to succeed in this and when he was finished, he would take the magic of the water mage as well.
His eyes held steady on his virtual screen as feeling returned to his chest, arms, and feet.
As the countdown entered the last ten seconds, he got a sharp blade that he bought from the system and hid it in his hands.
Then, he stayed still, as if the ice spell had worked, truly.
The time freeze spell elapsed, and everything suddenly started to move again, as it had before.
The water mage, cloaked in a midnight blue hooded robe that jingled as he moved finally came around to look Dex in the eye.
He lowered his hood, and revealed his face.
Dex almost gasped, it was a woman, not a man as he assumed. She had snow white hair and so were her eyes, something Dex had not seen before in any human.
"What are you?" she raised her hand and touched his cheek. "It doesn't matter, you are going to die anyway."
Immediately, her eyes widened.
"You are warm," she gasped.
Just before she could say something else, a long sword went through her chest from the back, taking her by surprise.
Without hesitation, Dex stuck the sharp knife in her neck as well.
The white haired mage, with surprise looked at Dex and tilted her head to the side.
Again, she saw another Dex, a naked one and it confused her. Two of them, how did she not sense the other one? That was not possible.
Again, the sword went through her, and blood poured out of her mouth.
Dex chuckled and said to her, "I can freeze things too."
"Give me her magic." he told the system.