Velik occasionally had an issue where certain monsters were too well defended to be easily killed. Usually, this was some combination of high physical, thick natural armor, and some sort of skill that helped them resist damage. To counter this, Velik had his own high physical, a legendary ranked weapon with a [Sharp] enchantment on it, and a full set of skills designed to help him mangle whatever was giving him trouble.

Lately, however, he’d noticed that it was the monsters who were having trouble hurting him. Part of it was the fact that his physical was closing in on 200—a ridiculously high amount for anybody—and that meant his skin was literally tougher than steel, but he’d upgraded his gear when he’d started pulling in hundreds of thousands of decarmas from Jensen’s expeditions. His clothing was all [Armored] now, and his shirt was also enchanted with [Elemental Drain] to help protect him from extreme heat or cold.

Even if he did get hurt, [True Form] allowed him to regenerate from practically anything, though he hadn’t tested the skill against dismemberment. Nor was he looking to. Even in his human shape, his newest purchase, a life giver’s ring, also provided healing in the form of [Full Regeneration]. It was difficult to injure Velik, and even when he did get hurt, he healed extremely quickly.

In short, Velik had gone to great lengths to make himself damn near invincible. So he wasn’t worried when half a dozen yetis tried to pile on him while a massive ice elemental did its best to skewer him. The throwing knives he controlled telekinetically were protecting him from most of the ice shards anyway.

He tore into the yetis, careful not to let them pile on him as he danced around them. Black blood stained the snow as one, and then another fell to his strikes, but that did nothing to deter the rest of them. Velik wasn’t surprised. Monsters practically never retreated, and if they did, it was only to come back from a different angle and try again.

More snow kept pouring down through the hole in the ceiling, so much that the mound eventually started blocking the light. That didn’t worry Velik, though he certainly didn’t enjoy the idea of having to dig his way back out when he was done. Of more concern was that the snow wouldn’t stop filling the chamber. If nothing changed, he’d be buried in it, and he somehow doubted it would stop the yetis from getting to him.

Stinging slivers of ice pelted the side of his head as a shattered iceflake rushed through the knife he’d sent crashing through the delicate formation. The ice elemental was adapting, but the attacks weren’t strong enough to actually hurt him. As long as it didn’t up the pressure, he felt like he could safely ignore it while he dealt with the remaining yetis.

The avalanche of snow pouring in completely coated the chamber, filling it up to Velik’s knees. Great plumes of it burst into the air as he crashed through the drifts, partially blinding him and giving the yetis yet another advantage. Despite all of that, Velik wasn’t worried. The monsters were around the same level as him, excluding that ice elemental, but they just weren’t a threat. If he stood there and let them do their best to kill him, he still wasn’t sure they could get the job done.

He was focused. He was in the moment. But, ultimately, the work had become routine. A year ago, a single yeti would have been a life-and-death struggle. Now, it was ten seconds’ of work to leave another bloody corpse half-buried in the snow. Velik slipped through them, their numbers worth nothing, and he slaughtered them while they impotently raged behind him.

At least they’re helping push me to the next level. They’re a lot better than those wyverns were.

And then something strange happened. At first, Velik thought it was the yetis doing it, but that didn’t make sense. The snow was moving, but not in the natural way of gravity pulling it down from the mountain slope into a hole. In fact, the more yetis Velik killed, the more the snow started shifting. When there were only two left, long, frosted tendrils started writhing out of the mounds.

Their snow-controlling skill was the obvious culprit, but that wasn’t something he could confirm they even had. And when he slew the last two with a single swipe of his spear that decapitated both of them, the snow tendrils actually got longer and thicker.

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Only one enemy left, he thought as he turned back to the ice elemental. His knives had done a decent job of counteracting the razor-sharp ice snowflakes slicing through the airs, but they couldn’t keep up with the volume and he’d been hit a few dozen times over the last thirty seconds. His enchanted clothing and his own natural toughness had kept him safe from any real harm.

Then the snow rose up like a living thing, a great wave that slammed into him. There was no dodging it, and even his enchanted clothing wasn’t able to protect him from the cold and the sharpness of every individual snowflake. They scoured his exposed flesh, scratching against skin that could turn a sword aside with ease and drawing blood.

It was obviously the ice elemental’s doing, which begged the question of why it had been using weak, ineffectual shards of snowflake-shaped ice shed from its main body up to this point. The yetis! Velik realized. They both have some sort of snow shaping skill. They were fighting the elemental for control of the same resource, but now that one side is dead…

He’d unintentionally made the fight harder for himself by killing all the yetis off. If he’d known, he’d have left a few alive to fight against the ice elemental’s control. Instead, he’d gotten himself swamped in a tidal wave of living snow that was trying to scrape the skin off his body.

The pull was strong, but if Velik could get his feet under him, he knew he could resist it. Failing that, he could make a temporary platform out of [Air Walk], but he wasn’t sure how much that would stress his cloak’s magic. He didn’t want to be stuck down here for hours while it recharged once he destroyed the elemental.

His back slammed into a stone wall, and Velik twisted to get his feet against a solid surface. With a surge of power, he launched himself into the air. Tendrils of snow reached up after him like a thousand grasping tentacles, but they were too slow to drag him back down. More snow loomed ahead, a cresting wave ready to drown him in a sea of fine-edged shards of cold. And past them, the main pillar that made up the elemental’s body waited.

Velik kept himself out of the snow with two steps on [Air Walk], then blew a hole in the wall of snow with [Dread Lance]. That cleared a way to the elemental, and his plan was to plant a second [Dread Lance] in the base of the pillar. With any luck, that would be enough to topple it over, where it would hopefully shatter upon impact.

A man made out of what looked like glass stepped out of the ice and raised a hand in Velik’s direction.

Aw. Shit.

Velik was already twisting in mid-air to dodge when a beam of cold so intense that mist rolled off it even in the frozen mountain air lanced through the chamber. The initial blast missed him, but the beam didn’t stop. It just kept going, splashing against the far wall and leaving a foot-thick layer of ice where it hit while frost formed beneath its path. Then the man waved his hand toward Velik, sweeping the beam with him.

It wasn’t really a man so much as a sentient manifestation of the elemental’s mind, a statue of living ice bound with the very concept of cold. The sad thing was that Velik was almost completely sure that even if he was able to reach such a tempting target and destroy it, it would mean nothing to the ice elemental that had spawned it.

The cold magic swept across his leg, penetrating the enchantment in his clothes and freezing his blood in place. Immediately, his ring went to work restoring the limb while Velik set his teeth against the pain. Unfortunately for him, the ice elemental wasn’t done. It held the beam on him as he rolled through the air, sapping more heat from his body.

He needed to destroy the construct quickly, but there was still a good fifty feet between them and more snow was already coming to intercept his leap. Even if it hadn’t, his own evasion had thrown him off target. Fortunately, he wasn’t defenseless.

Three of his [Telekinetic] throwing knives slammed into the glass man’s arm, forcing it out wide and sending spider webs of cracks running through it. Velik took a second to drop an [Air Walk] on his feet, straightening out his path and renewing his momentum.

Sunlight suddenly filled the cavern as literal tons of snow shifted in response to the ice elemental’s command. It rolled across the empty space, a solid wall ready to drag him under and hold him locked for eternity in a frozen tomb.

A yeti fell through the suddenly open hole, a dozen arrows sticking out of its fur. It roared and grabbed at the snow, trying to do something with it. Two more yetis joined it, and their combined effort usurped the ice elemental’s full control.

Perfect. Good job, Torwin.

That threat momentarily stymied, Velik turned his attention to the ice pillar and its attendant. His leg wasn’t fully mobile yet, but it had enough function to do what he needed it to do. Spear leading, he crashed into the glass man, shattering the construct into a million little shards of transparent ice. Then the world went dark and cold as a thousand tons of snow rushed into the cavern.