General Iron didn't laugh. He wasn't the type of villain who monologued or underestimated his opponent. He had watched the replay of the Valley of Cinders. He knew exactly what Sebastian was capable of.
"Shield Wall!" Iron barked the command instantly.
CLANG.
Two hundred tower shields slammed into the permafrost in perfect unison, creating a wall of steel reinforced by golden mana. The Paladins behind the shields activated [Holy Aura], linking their health pools together. It was a defense designed to tank raid bosses, a literal wall of hit points that could absorb millions of damage.
"Mages! Suppression Fire! Pattern Delta!"
The air above the plateau sizzled. A hundred mages cast simultaneously. Ice spears, fireballs, and lightning bolts filled the sky, blotting out the pale sun. It was a grid-pattern bombardment, leaving no room to dodge.
"Zero, get back!" Valerie screamed, raising a shield that cracked instantly under the pressure.
Sebastian didn't retreat. He looked at the incoming storm of magic with eyes that saw the underlying code of the world.
"Physics," Sebastian whispered. "It's all just physics."
He stomped his foot.
[Skill: Gravity Domain (Localized)]
He didn't cast it on the enemy. He cast it on himself. He increased his own personal gravity to fifty times the norm.
The bombardment hit. The fireballs exploded. The ice spears shattered. The ground around Sebastian erupted in a geyser of snow and rock. But Sebastian didn't move. He stood in the center of the crater, anchored by his immense weight. The explosions washed over him, damaging his clothes, singing his skin, but failing to knock him back.
When the smoke cleared, he was still standing. His HP bar had dropped by 10%, but his [Void Ocean] passive was regenerating him visibly.
"My turn," Sebastian said.
He didn't charge the shield wall. That would be inefficient. He looked up at the overhanging cliff of ice and snow that loomed a thousand feet above the Iron Covenant's position.
"You positioned yourself on the plateau for stability," Sebastian analyzed, his voice cutting through the wind. "But you forgot to look up."
He pointed a finger at the mountain peak.
[Skill: Solar Flare]
[Target: Snow Pack]
"Burn."
A beam of concentrated sunlight shot from his finger, streaking over the heads of the army. It didn't hit a player. It hit the massive, unstable cornice of ice hanging over the valley.
BOOM.
The ice vaporized instantly. The sudden expansion of steam acted like a blasting cap. A crack, loud as a gunshot, echoed across the range. Then, a deep, rumbling groan.
General Iron's eyes widened. He looked up.
Millions of tons of snow and ice were detaching from the mountain.
"AVALANCHE!" Iron roared. "BRACE! TURTLESHELL FORMATION!"
The discipline of the Iron Covenant was absolute. Even in the face of nature's wrath, they didn't run. The shield wall shifted, angling upward, forming a roof of steel and magic over the mages.
But Sebastian wasn't done.
"Avalanche isn't enough," he muttered. "Let's add some weight."
He raised both hands. He poured 10,000 Skill Points into [Gravity Well].
[Evolution: Gravitational Collapse]
He cast the spell directly into the center of the falling snow. The white wave turned grey, then black, as the gravity condensed the snow into ice, and the ice into rock-hard projectiles. The avalanche accelerated, pulled down by 100x gravity.
It hit the shield wall with the force of a meteor shower.
CRASH.
The sound was sickening. The "absolute defense" buckled. Shields crumpled like tin foil. Players were crushed instantly, their bodies flattened into paste before turning into blue pixels. The formation shattered. The carefully positioned mages were swept away, screaming as they were buried under tons of super-dense ice.
[Ding! You have killed Player...]
[Ding! You have killed Player...]
The notifications scrolled by in a blur. Within ten seconds, half of the Iron Covenant was gone. Buried. Dead.
General Iron stood amidst the ruin of his army. His [Invulnerability] skill had saved him, a golden bubble shielding him from the crushing weight. He looked around at the devastation, his face a mask of fury.
"You..." Iron pointed his greatsword at Sebastian. "You didn't fight them. You buried them."
"I told you," Sebastian said, floating down from the ridge using [Sky Walk], hovering just out of reach of the melee fighters. "I don't share."
Iron roared and leaped. His strength was immense, boosted by high-tier buffs. He cleared the twenty feet between them in a single bound, his sword swinging in a glowing arc meant to cleave Sebastian in two.
Sebastian drew [Shadowfang].
He didn't block. He couldn't block a two-handed greatsword with a dagger. He phased.
[Skill: Void Walk]
Iron's sword passed through Sebastian's chest as if he were smoke. The General stumbled, his momentum carrying him forward.
Sebastian solidified behind him.
"You have discipline," Sebastian whispered in Iron's ear. "But you lack imagination."
He drove the dagger into the gap of Iron's armor, right at the back of the neck.
[god-Slayer's Edge Activated]
[Ignore Defense: 100%]
The blade sank in. Iron gasped, his health bar plummeting. But he didn't die. He spun, backhanding Sebastian with a gauntleted fist.
Sebastian took the hit. He flew backward, landing in the snow. He tasted blood. Iron was strong. Level 45 was no joke.
"I am not Baron_K," Iron growled, ripping the dagger out of his neck. A healing potion appeared in his hand and he crushed it, the golden liquid closing the wound instantly. "I don't break. Squad B! Suppression!"
From the snowdrifts, fifty survivors emerged. They were the elites Iron had kept in reserve. They opened fire with crossbows and magic.
Sebastian rolled, dodging a volley of ice spikes.
"Boss!" Galleon's voice crackled over the comms. "The Railgun! It's cooled down! I can take a shot!"
"No," Sebastian said, wiping blood from his lip. "Save the ammo for the Dragon. This... I'll handle this myself."
He looked at General Iron, who was advancing like a tank.
"You want a fight, General?" Sebastian stood up, his eyes glowing with the golden light of the [Eye of the Void God]. "Fine. Let's fight."
The ground beneath Sebastian began to melt. The snow turned to steam. A red aura flared around him, pushing back the cold of the north.
"But we're not fighting alone."
He pointed at the cave entrance above them.
"Wake up!" Sebastian shouted, projecting his voice into the cavern. "Dinner is served!"
ROOOOAAAAR!
The mountain shook. A blast of frost breath, cold enough to freeze air into solid blocks, erupted from the cave. A massive, scaled head emerged, followed by a body the size of a castle tower. Wings of crystalline blue spread wide, blotting out the sky.
Velkhana, the Frost Dragon, had awakened.
And it was looking directly at the army standing on its doorstep.
"New plan," Sebastian grinned at the horrified General. "Survive."