Frostbound [LitRPG Apocalypse]-Chapter 220 - Second Sun

Austin

A second Sun exploded into existence on his shout and he could feel the power coursing through him. It was a high he'd never experienced before and it was enough to wash away the onset of his fatigue.

It didn't restore his spent energies, but it made him forget about the tiredness.

The rush and feeling wiped away even the smothering humidity and sticky heat they had been fighting through like the sun cutting through fog.

It was more than just power that ran through him, but freedom.

His eyes, still enhanced with his Bloodline, scanned the net of insects around him, and openings he couldn't exploit before were now child's play to slip through.

His feet drank in his Spirit, and with three quick steps, he was out of the encasement. Free once more.

It was time for him to truly shine now.

Without the space around him being forcefully encroached on, he shot around like a beam of light to anywhere and anything that caught his fancy. Most often, it was a bug he sought as he was primed with vengeance and revenge for the infernal bastards and sons of bitc-

His mother would've blanched at what he was thinking but he was reaping what they sowed.

They, with their chitin-covered abdomens and stabby stabby forearms that poked him one too many times, just wouldn't take the hint and DIE OFF. NO, they just kept popping up, one right after the other.

The only way to fix that was to kill them so fast they couldn't keep up.

So that was what Austin did.

His spearmanship didn't become more masterful, he didn't upgrade [Spear Mastery] to Adept, but it did take on a new form. Speed, pure speed, made all technique irrelevant.

Just like the first rays of dawn were inevitable to usher in the new day, his spear reached its target no matter what they did to evade it.

They just weren't fast enough.

Riding the high of his new power, and the thrill of ending the creatures that locked him down for so long, he laughed as he zipped through their ranks slaughtering all in his wake.

They tried to surround him, to contain him, but they couldn't.

How could they tie something down that was Unfettered?

The speed came at a cost, and just like Chris couldn't use his Spirit to stay standing forever, Austin couldn't sustain the speed he was moving at now, but it was enough to free up the others.

He aimed directly toward his trapped allies and began gleefully dismantling the insects surrounding them.

He nearly wanted to giggle.

Marcus was his first target to free and as soon as he broke out, he began building up silent waves around him in what Austin had come to learn was a very powerful skill. Luckily, Austin was long gone before it was released and only his feet splashed in the rising wake as he rushed on toward another.

His next captive freed didn't start launching signature skills, but they did go on the offensive now that they weren't surrounded.

It was here that Austin liked to fight, he wasn't one to barrel into foes headfirst and his new speed made that monumentally stupid. Why fight head-on when he could run around them and stab them in the back?

The few D-rank insects on the field who had once been so fast they blurred, were now barely keeping up. It took more energy to go that fast, but he didn't have to sustain it for long.

He could drop down to a more normal speed after they had a spear through their bodies tearing their head from the rest of them.

The best part was that his abilities could keep up. If he were Chris, or Jonathan, or even Marcus, they wouldn't be able to use their Skills while moving at such speeds because they physically couldn't.

If Austin tried to launch icicles at the speed he was going, his spear would arrive long before the Ice traveled that far, but Light, light was different.

Nothing was faster than Light, and his skills were the same as they ever were, no matter how fast he was going.

After freeing the last captive and their front line reforming, it was the beginning of the end for the bugs. The tide had turned and once that happened, there was no turning it back.

Marcus would make sure of that.

When Austin first met the man, he reminded him of Chris, and seeing the way he fought only made the resemblance closer.

They both approached battle the same, with unwavering conviction and the unstoppable momentum to always move forward. Once the enemy was on the back foot, they pressed on unceasingly until they were dead.

Chris did it one bloody step at a time in an inescapable march of death with his hammer.

Marcus did it differently.

It was like he knew when the tide of battle was in their favor and pressed on with it at his back. Somehow drawing power from that fact and using it like it belonged to him.

If Austin hadn't noticed his power grow stronger as they pressed on and conquered the three Dungeons himself, he would have claimed that was impossible, but he had and he was seeing it again for the fourth time.

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Fire raged ahead of him in intense flames from someone's spell but Austin didn't alter his course. Heat took time to transfer and he would be through the fire quicker than it could burn him. Especially with his resistance against it.

Rachel -no- Clarissa rained down fire like an angry god smiting all before her. It was so intense he'd mistaken her as Rachel for a second. The heat in her flame didn't carry the Dragon might, but they had something else stoking them hotter.

Hot enough for Austin to be wary, at least before he could speed through.

Now, he charged through with his spearhead leading as he skewered a line of bugs, one with his physical weapon, and two more with the Light that shot out of it. [Solar Beam] was a favorite of his ever since he upgraded it from [Light Beam].

The way it mixed both his elements was a beauty to behold. The light was so intense it carried a heat of its own, but that was only the start, the skill had its own searing intensity following in its wake.

Being able to move faster and see clearer, Austin noticed that those two aspects weren't in perfect sync. The light would hit first and the heat would come second. It was a flaw in the skill, one that now he knew it was there, bugged him.

He hadn't seen it before as it always seemed to hit at the same time. Light and Heat, but now that illusion was broken and he couldn't go back to not knowing.

It took him longer to admit to figure out why.

His Light Law was Tier 2.

His Fire Law was Tier 1.

While he usually pumped both his Laws into his solar skills equally, the difference in power caused an imbalance. He'd fixed it, evened out how much he used each so they were equal again, but that only masked the problem, not solved it.

The Tier difference couldn't be solved as easily as using them at different strengths.

If he could...

Ferry the Heat attached to the light? No... that doesn't work.

It clicked. Light carried energy already. All he had to do was intensify it, and then it would carry its own heat and didn't need a separate wave of it.

He had been trying to treat them as two different entities, shoving both his Laws into the skill to enhance separate aspects, when they were one in the same. Heat was energy and light was its transportation.

He gained his Fire Law initially on the concept of combustion. The moment fire began. It had taken days of watching fire ignite to do it, even with Rachel's occasional help.

Now, it was the concept of Heat that he wanted. Not flame, burning, searing, or any of the other after-effects of Heat, but the cause itself.

The conversion from Light's energy into Heat was what he sought and, like his Anchor, he achieved it.

Law Upgraded:

Least Law of Fire -> Lesser Law of Fire

"Hahaha!" He couldn't hold his laughter in now. Everything was coming up Austin today. After so long of reaching out and achieving nothing, it was finally time to take in the harvest.

Nothing stood a chance after that. Numbers didn't matter in the face of both speed and power.

Having an army at his back was only the kicker.

Channeling his inner Chris, he went to work.

One man versus an army.

The fight was long but it was pretty much over once they regrouped. Even if he hadn't achieved the power-up he had, they still would have won. They just did it quicker.

A lot quicker.

And with a lot fewer deaths.

Marcus commanded the attack masterfully, not letting up the pressure which only made the tide worse. Austin, after dealing with the entrapping bugs, sought out the D-ranks and quickly dismantled them before they could attack the rest of the army.

His mother rained down death from above until she ran out of arrows. Fires raged until Clarissa ran out of mana. It took a few hours to march down the center slaughtering all in their wake, but they did it.

The Queen wasn't even challenging. It was solely dedicated to reproducing the Swarm and had the combat abilities of peak E-rank even though it was the highest level of them all.

Marcus gave Austin the honors, and he received a giant chunk of essence because of it.

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But the main thing, and the biggest thing he was excited for, was the feeling urging him from his Profession finally let up. He reached the center and gazed at what had been urging him all this time and nearly cursed.

He knew it was going to be a Water treasure, the thick Water Mana made that obvious, but he was hoping to claim it as his prize for helping. It would take some concessions from him, most likely calling on Chris to help with payment, but he planned to come home prize in hand, but he couldn't.

The fucking thing was immovable.

Even if he offered up the whole World, he wouldn't be able to take it with him.

Before he could start cursing again, Marcus saddled up next to him with a rare smile. The man had been all scowls and frowns during the fighting and he rarely showed anything other than pensiveness while in his City.

To see him with a smile creeped Austin out. It didn't suit him.

"I don't think I could've given that up." He said ruefully, "If you'd asked for it as payment, I wouldn't have been able to do it."

Another reason Marcus reminded him of Chris, he was terribly blunt.

"Well, it isn't like I can ask for it. Now I need to figure out what to take instead." Austin muttered. While he thought the treasure was cool, it didn't seem that impressive to him. The fact he couldn't take it with him had ruined any excitement he felt.

Not that he couldn't move it, he most certainly could, but it would destroy what he'd taken so long to seek out. The natural treasure wasn't something you could pull out and carry with you.

It was intrinsically tied to the area and once it was removed, it would be worthless.

He was lucky his mother wasn't around to hear the storm he cursed up when he saw it. It wasn't until Marcus put a name to the treasure that he could curse it rightly.

It was the Heart of a River's Origin.

Calling what he was looking at a heart was a bit of a misnomer. It wasn't made of flesh and blood, but stone instead. Honestly, it looked more like a stone or gem than a heart.

It was about the size of his head and was anchored into where the creek just started becoming big enough to be considered a River. It was odd to think that the piddly flow that was barely a stream would later turn into the monstrosity of raging water down the line called the Mississippi, but it somehow did.

And it was one of the biggest Rivers in the world to boot.

Everyone came to gaze on the item that was creating so much pressure and it was a sight to have so many people staring down at what could generously be called a budding stream.

Before, without stats, it would have been risky to try and cross, now, it wasn't worth the thought. Austin could jump over to the other side.

Considering Marcus' bluntness and the fact he wasn't the type to go back on his work without good reason, if confused Austin slightly.

"It doesn't seem that special to me," Austin said. Sure, it was a fountain of Water Mana and it was some of the purist Water Mana he'd ever felt, but it wasn't that valuable. He'd be excited for a Solar treasure of similar nature, but not that excited.

Marcus looked at him oddly, "You don't feel it?"

He snorted, "Feel what? The pressure-"

"No, not the pressure," Marcus interrupted and took a deep breath, funneling the Water mana in through his nose, "The calling."

Austin scrunched his eyebrows.

"It's like it resonates with my soul. All my body wants to do right now is jump down there and bask in it." Marcus said as his gaze turned hungry.

Austin felt nothing like that. Maybe you have to have a Water affinity to feel it?

"You know, my family has a lot of Water affinity users in it... we could-" Austin began before Marcus waived him off.

"They've already negotiated for whatever the treasure may be."

"What? When? I didn't get any letters about it?" Austin challenged affronted.

For the first time, Marcus looked unsettled, "The woman who runs your City can be... persistent."

"HAH!" Austin laughed out loud, a genuine belly laugh from the description. "Persistent doesn't even begin to describe Abigail!"

"Let me tell you, one time when I was eleven, she chased me for four blocks because..."

It would be dark before Austin ran out of stories to tell about Abigail being persistent.