Chapter 195: Anticlimactic End
Beyond the Wall, True North
POV of Domeric Bolton
Domeric grimaced at how easily the White Walker had neutralized the wildfire orb, and he picked up his sword again.
He knew he didn't have the apparent advantage in strength or speed against the White Walker, and the fact that the monster he faced was no less skilled or experienced than he was didn't make his job any easier.
The only apparent advantage he had over the White Walker was his Valyrian armor, which had yet to be penetrated by anything.
But there were ways to kill him, even despite his wearing the armor. It was only a matter of time before the White Walker would figure it out.
It raised its sword, then Domeric raised his own swords, and the battle began.
Although the White Walker appeared to have the upper hand, Domeric was no less powerful.
Now that he knew his limits, Domeric was able to fight more clearly.
He began using spells with his foci swords to disrupt his opponent's rhythm. While his spells were short-range, weak-impact, and delayed, Domeric managed to wedge them into his attacks and, at times, put the White Walker at a slight disadvantage.
The fight was now neck-and-neck, and it didn't look like it would end anytime soon. Domeric had his enhanced stamina to thank for that.
Otherwise, a normal human wouldn't have lasted more than a few seconds in such a grueling fight.
But everything changed in an instant. With the sudden increase in magical dominance over him from the environment, the White Walker began swinging his sword impulsively with a sudden surge of strength.
Domeric managed to hold on for a few rounds, but a sudden and powerful swing from the White Walker knocked Excalibur from his hand, sending it crashing to the ground.
And then the White Walker swung his sword powerfully, aiming for Domeric's head.
Domeric knew this attack was unlike any other. It possessed far greater power than the others, and he knew that if he took this blow to the head, even if his armor protected him from the sword, he would be unable to fight for some time due to the impact.
Domeric lifted the Gryffindor with both hands to protect himself and managed to block the White Walker's attack. Feeling the power behind the attack, he was grateful he hadn't used one hand, as it would have been impossible to block it with one.
But the White Walker's strength was still greater than Domeric's, and he began to push his sword back. Anymore, and Domeric would surely lose his balance and fall at the White Walker's feet.
As a last resort, Domeric began to imbue Gryffindor with magic. Regardless of the spell, he aimed to cast a powerful spell and create a breathing space.
But at that moment, something Domeric never expected happened. Gryffindor suddenly began to freeze and be covered in ice.
At first, Domeric thought the White Walker had done this with the Ice Sword, but from the way the White Walker watched Gryffindor, it was clear it hadn't expected this either.
Moreover, Gryffindor wasn't being covered in ice like normal. It was as if the metal of the sword was elegantly turning into ice. It even had various patterns on it, like snowflakes and runes.
Frankly, it looked quite beautiful to Domeric.
And in that moment, Domeric felt it. The dominance the White Walker's magic had on his magic was easing.
Domeric looked at Gryffindor. He knew it was because of it. Then he suddenly understood why.
When he killed the first White Walker he encountered, he had struck it with Gryffindor.
And as a magical sword, Gryffindor had the power to absorb the properties of other beings. It must have partially absorbed the White Walker's Ice and Death attributes when he stabbed it, and Domeric unleashed this power by imbuing the sword with magic just now.
Domeric quickly cast a powerful Depulso, the banishing charm, pushing the White Walker back and creating a gap between them. With Gryffindor's power weakening the White Walker's magical dominance, he could now unleash even more powerful spells.
He quickly picked up Excalibur and pursued the White Walker.
He could feel it. Now he had a chance to defeat it.
"Agggghhhh!"
The White Walker let out a strange cry and lunged at Domeric again, apparently angered by the Gryffindor's ability to use the same power as it did.
The two of them engaged in a renewed battle. Despite the White Walker's recent power surge, the two were neck and neck. Domeric even seemed to be gaining the upper hand with his spells.
And just as Domeric found an opening and swung Excalibur at the White Walker's neck, a blow to his side sent him to the ground.
As he fell to the ground, he turned his head and saw only a wight leaping from the snowstorm and charging at him.
Apparently, the White Walker's cry had been a call to the wights' aid.
Domeric swung his sword, intending to kill the wights, but then his hand was pinned to the ground as a few Wights came out of the other side of the snowstorm and jumped at his hand. Locking it on the ground with their combined weight.
He looked at the White Walker in shock as a few more wights came and pinned his other hand to the ground.
Domeric looked up at White Walker, and it put a foot on his chest, raising its sword, ready to bring it down at his throat, where even if the sword doesn't pierce the armor, the force behind it would definitely crush his throat.
The White Walker then raised its sword, ready to crush his throat, but it suddenly jerked and looked down at its own throat, where the head of a Dragonglass-tipped arrow was coming out.
The White Walker blinked, but it never got to open its eyes again as its whole magical structure simply crumbled, and it broke into thousands of ice crystals.
The Ice Sword fell and embedded halfway down the ground, a few centimeters from his neck.
A moment later, the wights holding him down shattered into fragments of bones as the magic holding their bodies dissolved. The newer wights with skins still on them simply fell to the ground, their blue eyes dimming, and they didn't move again.
Domeric let out a sigh as he saw Ygritte standing on a tree branch a good twenty meters away. As the snowstorm cleared, he could see Varko standing underneath the tree, his two Valyrian Steel Swords buried in the tree for footholds, while he looked relieved beyond words.
He let out a chuckle at the absurdity of it all, and the chuckle then turned into full-blown laughter as he lay there on the ground and laughed at the anticlimactic end of the White Walker.
"Fuck…" he said for the fifth time that day.
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Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.196: We're Heading Back
Ch.197: Don't Worry, I Will Save Your Brother