Maeve’s voice came through the earpiece, quieter than usual.
"Holden."
He touched the communicator.
"Go ahead. I can hear you clearly."
"Lyra’s target is at the bottom of the valley. At the deepest section, past the thermal vents."
There was a brief pause.
"Be careful, Holden. The temperature reading down there is lethal. My instruments are showing negative sixty and dropping the further you go. That’s before you even reach the beast’s lair."
"What the target we are looking at?"
"Glacial Tyrant. Rank 3, 1-Star."
Holden looked at Lyra.
She stood with her spear resting against her shoulder. She had been patient all day, watching Emric and Renna break through to rank 2, waiting for her turn without complaining.
Then she met his eyes.
"I can handle it."
"I know. That’s why you are getting the biggest core."
Renna bounced on her heels. "So we are going deeper? Because I just hit Rank 2 and I really want to hit something with it."
"You will get your chance," Emric said, adjusting his shield. "Rank 3 beast’s lair means guardians. We should expect swarm-class resistance before we reach the primary target."
Renna blinked at him. "You could’ve just said there’d be small monsters."
"I prefer precision."
"You prefer sounding smart."
"Those aren’t mutually exclusive."
Holden started walking. "Start gearing up. We move in five minutes."
The descent took about thirty minutes.
The path down was narrow, carved into the canyon wall like a spiral staircase.
The temperature dropped with every step they took.
By the time they reached the bottom, their breath came out in thick clouds. Frost clung to the rock walls in crystalline patterns. The cave entrance ahead was enormous, an arch of natural ice that looked like the jaw of something massive.
Cold air poured out of it in a steady, howling stream.
whoooosh.
Maeve’s voice crackled through his earpiece again. "I’m reading the lair entrance. Temperature inside will be significantly lower. The Tyrant generates its own microclimate. Do not engage it until you have a clear approach. Gargoyle clusters are dense in the outer tunnel."
"Copy that."
He turned to his team. "Get into positions. Emric and Renna take point. Clear the small ones. Lyra, stay in the middle. I’ll handle the Tyrant."
Emric nodded. Renna cracked her knuckles, lightning arcing between her fingers. "Finally."
Lyra gripped her spear. "Don’t get reckless."
"I never get reckless. I get enthusiastic."
They entered the cave.
The interior was a cathedral of ice.
Massive crystal formations jutted out from the floor and ceiling, some as thick as tree trunks, others thin as needles. The walls reflected what little light existed, creating a dim blue and white glow that turned everything into a frozen dreamscape.
The cold was aggressive. The air itself felt heavy, like the cold had weight and substance.
Then they heard the scraping.
click. click. click. click.
Dozens of shapes peeled away from the walls.
Ice gargoyles. They had been frozen to the crystal formations, camouflaged as part of the cave itself. Suddenly, they snapped loose and dropped to the ground with cracking sounds. They were about four feet tall, made entirely of dense, blue-white ice, with sharp crystal wings and hollow eyes lit by a pale glow.
thud. thud. thud. thud.
Emric counted them in half a second.
"Twenty-six. No, twenty-nine. Three more are showing up from the ceiling."
Renna was already moving. "Left side, left side!"
She drew her bow and fired three arrows in rapid succession, each one crackling with Storm energy as it left the string.
zzt. zzt. zt.
The first arrow punched straight through a gargoyle’s chest, blowing it apart in a shower of ice fragments. The second broke a wing. The third missed and buried itself in the wall.
"Two out of three," Emric called out.
"Now is not the time!"
He raised his shield and charged forward, slamming into a group of three gargoyles head-on.
BOOM!
The impact was brutal. Emric’s Rank 2 body, reinforced with metal-durability skin, hit the ice creatures like a battering ram. Two shattered on contact. The third stumbled back, and Emric followed up with a shield bash that crushed its skull.
He didn’t even feel it.
"They’re brittle!" he shouted.
"Save the breakdown for later!" Renna dodged a sharp wing, firing arrows right into the monster’s eyes. "They are in my space!"
"Move sideways!"
"I am moving sideways dummy!"
Renna’s movement had changed. Her Rank 2 body was faster and more responsive. She wasn’t just shooting arrows anymore. She was flowing between targets, using her bow at range and her fists up close, lightning crackling across her knuckles whenever a gargoyle got too near.
pop.
A charged jab punched through a gargoyle’s torso.
crack.
Emric’s shield flattened another one against the wall.
Lyra held the middle of the formation, guarding against anything that slipped through. A gargoyle lunged at her from a crystal pillar.
Her spear swept upward in a clean arc, the cold metal tip shearing through the gargoyle’s midsection. It split in half and crashed to the ground behind her.
"Hold the perimeter," she said, calm and steady. "Don’t let them flank."
Emric and Renna pushed forward, cutting down the remaining gargoyles. Emric absorbed hits that would have broken his bones a day ago. Renna’s arrows punched through ice like cardboard.
The last gargoyle lunged at Renna’s back.
Emric stepped in front. His shield caught the strike, and he drove his fist into its chest.
BOOM!
Ice shards scattered across the floor.
Renna stared at the wreckage, breathing hard. "That was fun."
Emric flexed his hand, looking at it with something close to wonder. "My durability is... significantly higher than I projected."
"Emric."
"Yes?"
"Save it."
He nodded in agreement.
The deeper they went, the colder it got.
The ice formations became larger and denser. The blue glow intensified until the entire tunnel looked like the inside of a glacier. The floor was slick with frost. Every breath felt like swallowing needles.
Then the tunnel opened.
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