The air temperature dropped to fifty degrees below zero.
Sebastian's breath froze instantly upon leaving his mouth, turning into tiny crystals that fell to the ground. The environmental debuff [Deep Freeze] was ticking away at his health, bypassing his natural resistances. Even with the [Void Ocean] generating heat, his movements felt stiff, sluggish.
Velkhana, the Frost Monarch, did not land. It knew its advantage. It hovered fifty meters out from the cliff edge, beating its massive crystalline wings to send gusts of freezing wind slamming into Sebastian and Valerie.
"It's not landing!" Valerie shouted over the wind. She was hovering twenty feet in the air, her [Arcane Valkyrie] wings—constructs of pure mana—flaring behind her. "My fire spells are dissipating before they reach it! The air is too cold!"
Sebastian tried to cast [Solar Flare]. A ball of fire formed in his hand, but it was pathetic—a flickering candle flame that sputtered and died within seconds. The ambient mana in the zone was 90% Cryo. Fire magic cost triple the mana and dealt half the damage.
"It's an elemental domain," Sebastian analyzed, dodging a shard of ice the size of a spear that Velkhana spat at him. The shard shattered against the rock where he had stood, embedding shrapnel into the stone. "We can't out-shoot it."
Velkhana roared and strafed the cliff. It opened its mouth, unleashing a torrent of blue flame. Sebastian leaped backward, activating [Gravity Press] on himself to drop faster than gravity allowed, slamming onto a lower ledge just as the blue fire glassed the rock above him.
"Zero! I can't get a lock!" Valerie cried out. She tried to flank the dragon, firing bolts of arcane energy, but the dragon's scales were like mirrors. The spells bounced off harmlessly.
"Distract it!" Sebastian commanded. "I need an opening to get close!"
Valerie gritted her teeth. She was a CEO's daughter, not a soldier, but survival had forged her into something harder. She flared her wings. "Hey! Over here, you oversized lizard!"
She cast [Flare], a blinding flash of light directly in the dragon's eyes. Velkhana screeched, shaking its head. It turned its massive neck toward the flying mage, snapping its jaws.
Valerie dove. She moved with the chaotic grace of a leaf in a storm, twisting and rolling through the air as the dragon snapped at her heels. It was a dogfight. She was agile, but the dragon was faster.
Sebastian watched, his mind racing. He couldn't fly. His [Sky Walk] allowed him to step on air, but he couldn't match the speed of a dragon in flight. If he tried to run up to it, he'd be a sitting duck for the breath attack.
Suddenly, a hand clamped onto the ledge.
General Iron pulled himself up. His helmet was gone, revealing a face masked in blood and fury. His silver armor was rent open at the shoulder, exposing bruised flesh. He looked like a revenant.
"You..." Iron wheezed, pulling his heavy greatsword from his inventory. "You killed my men."
"Gravity killed your men," Sebastian said without looking away from the dragon. "I just provided the drop."
"I will bury you," Iron roared, charging.
Sebastian cursed. He didn't have time for this. The dragon was chasing Valerie, closing the distance. If she died, he lost his air support.
Iron swung his greatsword. It was a clumsy, rage-fueled strike. Sebastian ducked under it, the blade sparking against the rock wall. He didn't counter-attack. He used Iron's momentum.
"System. Engineering. Quick-Craft."
He grabbed a coil of high-tensile wire from his inventory—leftovers from the railgun project. In a motion that blurred with speed, he looped the wire around Iron's ankle as the General stumbled past him.
"You want to fight the dragon?" Sebastian hissed. "Go ahead."
He grabbed the other end of the wire. He spun. With his Strength stat pushed to the limit, he threw General Iron off the cliff.
"WHAT THE—" Iron screamed as he was launched into the void.
But Sebastian didn't let go of the wire. He waited for the dragon to swoop low, chasing Valerie.
"Valerie! Dive!"
She obeyed, dropping like a stone. Velkhana overshot, its underbelly exposed for a fraction of a second.
Sebastian whipped the wire. At the end of it, General Iron dangled helplessly. Sebastian used the General as a counterweight, a living anchor. He leaped off the cliff, swinging out into the open air.
He wasn't aiming for the ground. He was aiming for the dragon.
Using the physics of the pendulum, Sebastian swung upward. He released the wire—sending a screaming General Iron plummeting into a snowdrift hundreds of feet below—and propelled himself through the air.
[Skill: Sky Walk]
He kicked off the empty air, correcting his trajectory. He was on a collision course with the dragon's flank.
Velkhana sensed him. The dragon twisted mid-air, its tail whipping around like a siege weapon. The tail was covered in spikes of ice as thick as swords.
Sebastian couldn't dodge. He was mid-jump.
"Defense," he whispered.
He didn't use a shield. He crossed his arms and activated [Stone Skin] layered with [Iron Body].
WHAM.
The tail slammed into him with the force of a freight train. Sebastian heard his ribs crack. The breath was driven from his lungs in a wet cough of blood. He was batted out of the air, sent spiraling toward the cliff face.
He smashed into the ice wall, embedding himself three feet deep into the frozen rock.
[-3,500 HP]
His health bar flashed red. 15% remaining.
"Zero!" Valerie screamed, firing a desperate barrage of fireballs to keep the dragon from finishing him off.
Sebastian pulled himself out of the crater in the wall. He coughed, spitting a glob of blood that froze before it hit the ground. His chest burned. His arm was bent at a wrong angle, though the high-level regeneration was already snapping the bones back into place with sickening pops.
"Tough..." Sebastian grunted, his eyes fixated on the dragon circling for another pass. "Physical attacks are suicide. Magic is dampened."
He wiped the blood from his mask.
"Time to cheat."