21 The Frost King...

With Scales as white as snow and eyes as blue as ice, It looked like the incarnation of the Frost God. The Frost King was as tall as a small mountain and could decimate a city with ease with it's size alone. The Frost King was a dragon type beast and had a soul at the peak-level of Stage Six. It was over ten thousand years old and had witnessed the rise and fall of many nations, even causing some of said nation's downfalls itself.

Axel and his comrades already knew they had no chance of defeating it. Axel and his companions were all Stage Three through Five. They could be considered geniuses because of their age and strength. But compared to the Frost King, they were nothing special. Even if they were all peak-level Stage Five, they still wouldn't be able to beat the Frost King. That's just how big the disparity is between higher Stages is. With Axel and his group's current strength, they could only block it's attacks, trying to attack it was out of the question.

The Frost King leaned down towards the party that was considered ants in it's eyes.

Seeing the dragon known as 'The Frost King' up close, they could only feel fear towards it's majestic appearance.

A breath of cold air came from the dragon's snout. With an imposing tone, the Frost King spoke. "Why are you little... ants... in my territory?"

Axel, being the leader, stepped forward and bowed respectfully. If possible, he wanted to avoid conflict and just pass through. Gathering his courage, he said, "Frost King, we are just passing through..."

Letting out another cold breath from it's snout, it merely laughed at them. "To think you lowly ants would say such a thing!" With a serious tone, it said, "...Give me the entire reason for you coming here. If you lie, I will turn you all into frozen statues for eternity..."

Gulp!

Axel swallowed the saliva in his throat. "We were assigned a mission to investigate an area about half a day's journey from here. The people who assigned us to this didn't tell us why..."

The Dragon, after thinking about it for a moment, realized where they were heading. It was instantly enraged. "You... You people... You people are going to that wretched human camp! Treacherous, you lesser species are truly evil!"

"wha-"

"I'll FREEZE YOU ALL TO HELL !!!"

Rooooaaaaaarrrr!!!

An earsplitting roar erupted from the Frost King, being strong enough that even the snow storm calmed down for a moment.

'Human camp?!? Just what the hell are the higher ups sending us here for?!?'

Seeing that they were going to have to fight, he called out to start the plan. "Nate! Zaria!"

""On it!""

Nate whipped out a large shield that radiated power. It was made of the materials from a Stage Six beast and was Nate's pride and joy.

[Flame Guard!]

[Flaming Guardian!]

Nate's body began to be enveloped in blue flames. Simultaneously, a towering flaming giant with a shield manifested behind him towering at nearly 150 meters. However, it was barely half the height of the dragon.

The Frost King was not idle either, it raised one of it's claw's preparing to swipe at the flaming guardian.

Swinging down it's talons in a burst of speed, the air rippled with shock waves.

Mimicking Nate's movements, the flaming giant raised it's shield preparing to intercept the attack. Nate was no fool and knew that he would lose in a contest of strength so he positioned the flame giant's shield to deflect the attack rather than stop it.

The claw slid off the flaming shield and hit the ground.

BOOM!

Spiderweb-like cracks spanned out across the entire landscape under the force of the blow.

A tall woman with purple hair cast a group utility skill to buff their movement speed.

[One With the Wind!]

With astonishing speed, they quickly made their way out to leave the Frost King's territory.

The three remaining members, being Zaria, Nate, and Axel, were still fighting the Frost King to stall for time.

Constant tremors could be felt throughout the land. By now, all of the nearby beasts had run away upon feeling the intense mana fluctuations.

"Puny Insects! Just die already!"

[Ice Storm!]

Thousands upon thousands of spears of ice formed around the Frost King, the sheer number was enough to make someone pass out from shock.

Axel couldn't help but curse at this situation. "Well fuck..."

Swoosh! BOOM!

The spears of ice rained down at a speed fast enough to break the sound barrier.

If it wasn't a cataclysmic level attack, one would think it was beautiful. The three didn't lose focus and Zaria was a step ahead of the Frost King.

[Genesis: Flood of Fire!]

Flames filled the ground, the sea, and the sky. It was like a red sun had lit up the mountains.

The members who were almost out of the territory head the thousands of explosive sounds and saw the sky turn a red orange hue. They paled imagining what kind of attack it was but they could only hope for the best and that their friends survived the attack.

The thousands of ice spears were eaten up by the flames, they incinerated everything. Even the air they breathed was not spared.

The only reason they were still fine was because of Nate's skill, [Flame Guard], it protected an area using the ambient fire mana.

"Holy crap..." Nate was in awe.

They breathed out a sigh of relief. They knew that this wouldn't kill the Frost King but it would at least injure it, Right?

Unfortunately, they thought this too soon.

Like a candle had been snuffed out, the dragon let out a burst of ice mana and overwhelmed the flames in an instant. The mana concentration was so dense that they could feel their fingers and toes go numb despite the protective gear.

The Frost King snarled, " This has gone on long enough... I will send you all to your icy tomb!"

[Domain: The Frost of Niflheim!]

The time seemed to freeze as the snow was held in place by an eruption of mana dense enough to kill a Stage One with mana saturation alone.

"Fuck, he has a domain skill!"

Axel was now incredibly nervous. Without a doubt he knew that if the fight continued, they would perish. Each domain skill was unique to the user and were dangerous to face against. Even those of a Stage higher could perish if they encountered an especially strong one. The only downside they had was a colossal mana consumption.

Numerous towering-arches made of snow and ice began to rise from various surfaces across the landscape. They protruded at various angles and would inspire a sense of awe in anyone. Each had intricate runes and a carving of a dragon on each arch. The runes on each arch began to light up a bright blue. Ice blue chains shot out from the ground and began to zig-zag, weave, and connect the arches together.

Axel suddenly felt like he was suffocating.

The dragon had a ridiculing gaze, "The Frost of Niflheim freezes everything, even the mana itself..."

'Crap, the mana is being frozen?!?'

Without mana, the soul would slowly drain its pool of mana until it eventually ran out. When that happened, and there was no mana available in the environment to be absorbed, the soul would begin to consume the life force of the host. It was very dangerous, it was essentially a guaranteed win for the user as long as the domain was active.

Axel estimated that he had less than a minute until he was unable to use his magic. If that happened, they would die in a frosty grave.

Like a beacon of hope, he saw a bright pink light of a flare pierce the snow storm. It was the signal that the others had made it out.

He tried to move, but found that he had started to freeze and become a chilly statue.

'This domain is truly a peak level domain... No wonder he is known as the Frost King.'

He quickly made his way to his two companions and placed his hands on their shoulders. They were already almost frozen solid.

"We are getting out of this icy hell hole!"

[Space Jump!]

They disappeared with a flash of white and blue light.

At the same time they vanished from the Frost King, they appeared with another flash of light in front of their companions.

ROARRRRRRRR!!!

Markus just chuckled, "seems like you guys pissed someone off..."

"I-In c-case you didn't n-notice, we are a-almost i-icicles... If we could get some h-healing *achoo!*" complained Zaria.

"Yes, Yes..." A blonde haired girl stepped forward with a warm smile. She pointed at the trio and a white glow surrounding them followed.

After a minute or two, they were fully healed and could move about normally.

Back in the Frost King's territory, said dragon was thoroughly enraged. He wanted to kill them, but he dared not approach the human camp. It possessed something that even he was afraid of.

'Those ants are truly foolish, to be experimenting on something like that... it was no wonder why all but one died to it...'

-=-=-

The group of eleven stood on an elevation, looking down at a man made laboratory camp. It was in ruins and the snow was stained red.

Axel addressed the group, "This is probably what the higher ups wanted us to investigate. Be careful, we don't know what is down there. Going by the massacre that seems to have taken place, we can assume that something happened here... stay on your guard.

The thing the Frost King had said kept ringing in his echoing in his mind and it gave him an unsettled feeling...

- ...You people are going to that wretched human camp! Treacherous, you lesser species are truly evil!... -

'Just what went on down here?'