Re: Elf Prince—A Degenerate's Second Chance-Chapter 46. Shattered Ice

46. Shattered Ice

Eryndor staggered to his feet, breathing heavily. He sheathed his blade and approached the core of the beast he had just slain; it pulsed faintly. He reached out his hand, feeling its warmth despite the cold surrounding him.

"Guess I can do it alone after all," he muttered, pocketing the core. Happy that all his time training had paid off, he could not stop to think what would have happened had he relented in his own personal training. Now that was a dreary thought.

The mountain was silent once more, save for the whispers of the wind. Eryndor turned his gaze upward, the peak looming in the distance. His journey wasn’t over, but for the moment, he let himself feel a flicker of hope and immediately regretted it.

Hope was something that put one’s mind at ease at times of trouble. Hope was a sickness, a ruthless killer. He had spent the last moments of his past life hoping things would get better, and that hope had got him killed. Hope was a killer at best and a liar too.

"This mountain might try to kill me," he thought, "but I’m not going down without a fight."

He recalled the news the legacy had given him moments after he had killed the ice serpent and dismissed it for the moment. He made getting to safety his main priority. The noise of the battle could have given away his position to any other stalking prey he had no knowledge of— or perhaps a pack of white fur mountain wolves. Eryndor could not take any chances; he had used a considerable amount of power to defeat this threat, and handling another was a risk to his life.

Eryndor moved forward as quickly as he could, sticking close to the cover of the ice covered trees. He felt he had to get as far away as he could from the scene of his last battle. Little did he know, this would be the worst decision he could possibly make.

The events that transpired next were a mystery to him. The ground beneath him started to shatter and tremble greatly as huge cracks formed all around him. Eryndor panicked and ran even faster than before. No matter how fast he ran, it seemed the cracks were coming after him. He was still fatigued from his battle with the ice worm, and running was already a burden while maintaining the flame tempering art. He was faced with two options: to use his magic to defend himself and forsake having warmth in the blistering cold, or to keep up his body tempering art and rely on his muscles to avoid the coming threat.

He feared that whichever choice he chose he would still be putting his life on the line.

Before he could come to a conclusion, the unknown danger burst through the ground, sending him and mounds of ice flying. He had no way to control his momentum, and this time, instead of having snow to cushion his fall, he flew into the branch of a frozen tree. The long, crooked wood drove through his stomach and came out the other end. A loud grunt left his lungs as thick red fluid oozed out of him and dyed the snow beneath him red.

Eryndor’s eyes went white with fear as he grabbed onto the tree branch and let out a pained scream. He could feel the piercing cold going through him and the warmth escaping. His body reverberated and tingled with a strange sensation. It was the first time he was experiencing such intense pain in both of his lives, so he let his body do the talking. And that might have been his next big mistake.

His body shook wildly, and his mind raced with random thoughts and fear, not allowing him to focus on the true task at hand: the cause of the explosion. A shadow loomed over him, keeping him in the dark. It wasn’t until he heard a loud growl that he shook free of his trance. His eyes, still white with fear, looked over his shoulder and caught sight of a huge long pole reaching into the sky.

It only took a minute for him to identify it as another ice serpent, this one much bigger than the last. It had huge, glassy eyes that beamed with a bright blue glow. It opened its mouth to reveal a few dozen rows of sharp teeth, reaching halfway down the gaping funnel that constituted its throat. With that many teeth, Eryndor could not stop thinking of the horrors a body would experience before it fully went down into the beast’s gullet.

Seeing the beast in full, he noticed something that distinguished it from the previous one. The first serpent looked almost similar, except the second had what looked like a pair of long, whip-like whiskers coming out on top of its head, right under its eyes. He guessed this one was a male species of the ice serpent he had killed previously. That would explain why it was much bigger and louder. But none of this was Eryndor’s concern at the moment. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

His eyes were now bloodshot, his heart palpitating as it rose to a crescendo, and his skin turned pale. He had never felt this level of fear before, and it paralyzed him. His brain kept repeating the same sentence to him over and over again.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!"

Was this the end? Did all his confidence and hard work really go for nothing? As the ice serpent let out another loud, guttural roar, Eryndor unknowingly accepted his fate.

The ice serpent brought down its mouth on its prey. Despite the sharp branches of the tree sticking out, it smashed through them, leaving huge cuts in its mouth and between its teeth, causing thick blue fluid to ooze out. The last sound Eryndor’s ears picked up was a deafening roar before the endless darkness of the ice serpent’s throat devoured him, and his scream was drained out.