Chronicles of Valor

Frostbane

Yuri and Flamma stood at the entrance of the large cavern, but found themselves unable to admire the handiwork because of the grizzly ritual happening inside. A robed man was standing over a muscular and well-preserved corpse. The corpse had blue skin and had frost and ice all over its body. The robed man turned around to greet the two of them and smiled as he removed his hood.

His face made Yuri gasp because despite him looking no older than 30 his skin was extremely pale as if he hadn't seen the sun in years and he had dark circles under his eyes that seemed to be exacerbated by his chalky white skin. His teeth are black and yellow as if completely rotten and ready to fall out.

"It looks like you rushed into your practice without actually taking precautions." Flamma said. "It shows how inexperienced you are."

"I can't really argue with that." The necromancer said in a pained voice. "Being self-taught has a few drawbacks."

"What's wrong with him?!" Yuri asked.

"The effect of necromancy on the body without magical protection." Flamma said. "Unfortunately even with protection this degradation is often unavoidable."

"I see that you're well informed on the dark arts," the necromancer said with genuine approval. "Unfortunately you're too late."

"How so," Flamma asked while glancing at the body on the table. "What did you do?!"

In response all the necromancer did was smile as the creature beside him began moving. Within seconds this undead grabbed the necromancer by the throat. before Flamma or Yuri could react The necromancer turned to a shade of purplish blue as frost formed on his skin and robes, But the necromancer never lost his smile, In fact seeing his success his smile seemed to grow even brighter as he died at the hands of his own creation.

This undead proceeded to drop his creator to the ground unceremoniously causing parts of him to break off. The creature looked at Yuri and Flamma with a look of pure hatred before Frost and ice started to form around its feet and on its body.

"A frost bane!" Flamma said before turning to Yuri. "You need to leave now! I'll handle it from here!

"but..."

"NO BUT'S!"

The Frost bane held both of his arms out and swords formed out of ice and he held one in each hand. These weren't short swords like you typically see a dual wielder using, But instead they were great swords that would take two hands to wield just one. The Frost bane took a moment to twirl the blades around in his hands as if they were short swords. The creature looked apprehensive for a moment before letting out a roar. Yuri and Flamma both felt an icy wind as cold as a frozen tundra, and frost began forming on the walls of the cavern.

"I'll let them know what happened." Yuri said not taking a second thought before running out of the cave.

The Frost bane had its icy white eyes on Yuri, so Flamma threw a small ball of fire nailing the creature in the face with a small explosion. He didn't have time to make it a good one but the small pop was enough to get the creatures attention. Even if it wasn't his best fireball the creature still took a ball of fire to the face and wasn't hurt in the slightest.

The Frost bane began forming armor around its body, the armor was extremely detailed resembling armor from the northernmost part of the Northern continent. Flamma did not know who this man was, but obviously he was a man of great influence or status because in the center of what would be his chest piece, a crest was formed only discernible by the bluish white tint. The armor if you could call it that was just sheets of ice that was crudely fashioned together, but the fact that it had a crest meant it was something important to him in life.

Perhaps out of some dormant reflex, The creature took a breath and exhaled, It's icy breath hung in the air for several seconds before dissipating. Flamma started the battle by condensing flames in his hands as he had done outside of the mine and threw them at the frostbane. The creature began running at him he let loose and created an even more condensed explosion that could be felt even outside of the mine.

_____

Yuri ran out of the mine, William and Suzuran quickly grew concerned because of her panic-stricken face

"Frostbane." was all she could get out between her heavy panting.

"Don't tell me that i***t stayed to fight it alone!" William said. "I know he can handle it but still wouldn't hurt to have let her stay for some backup."

"What's a frostbane?" Suzuran asked.

"A bane is a type of undead that's different from the ones we just fought." William said gesturing to the corpse at his feet. "A bane can stay active even after their creator is killed. The reason The last few dropped dead is because I assume the necromancer is dead."

Yuri nodded her head as he continued explaining.

"Under normal circumstances a bane is what happens when an undead is created and it is allowed to remain active for years sometimes even decades or centuries, But this depends on how much time it takes their dead flesh to absorb the mana in the area," William said. "But they can be artificially created in some ways, In this case it was likely because it was infused with elemental magic."

"If the creature was infused with ice magic, does that mean it's the reason why it's been so cold?" yuri said, finally regaining her breath.

"No, ice magic alone wouldn't have done this." William said, no sooner had the words left his mouth that he really thought about it and went pale. "It can't be, I've only ever heard about this in books, I didn't think it'd be possible!"

Before he explained anything William took off running for the mine when an explosion rang out sending him falling on his face and the two girls needing to support each other to remain standing.

_____

This explosion was as brilliant as the first although the only difference is Flamma kept the fire contained to a single area making it even hotter. As it dissipated and the tremors in the mine subsided the creature had its arms up in a defensive position, but remained standing I'll be it with its skin singed and its armor slightly melted. Flamma still recovering from the shockwave from the explosion, was shocked to see the creature was only slightly injured. That should have been enough to finish it off normally, but He didn't have time to think as the creature took in a deep breath and exhaled a massive wave of frost that in some areas condensed into clumps of ice with jagged edges.

Flamma only had time to raise his hands and create a wall of fire large enough to shield most of his body but unfortunately his arms and legs still took some damage when some ice got through. they were only superficial cuts because he had his arms crossed in a defensive stance shielding his chest from being pierced, But if even one of these shards managed to pierce his heart or his lungs, He'd be in bad shape even with his magic to keep his life sustained temporarily.

The creature stood there with a look of fury on its face having failed to kill its target. Flamma could see it clearly now because it had exposed itself when it fired that blast of raw elemental fury. The creature was obviously fused with an elemental. Flamma realized just how much danger he was in in this moment, But more than that he knew for certain that if this creature made it out of this mine not only would his comrades be in danger, but the village would quickly fall and worst case scenario is they rise due to the serious necrotic and elemental infusion in the area.

Flamma knew for certain that defeating an elemental spirit was borderline impossible for an ordinary mage, But he did have a backup plan. It was dangerous even when he was completely healthy. His body was badly injured because of the shockwave of his explosion and the cuts and bruises from the Frostbane's previous attack causing minor blood loss.

Flamma couldn't help but curse himself a little because he kind of brought the situation on himself by risking it all on a one-off attack to finish it quickly. He was concerned with Yuri's safety so he wanted to ensure that this creature couldn't get out. The explosion unfortunately popped several blood vessels and he likely had pressure fractures on several bones. He had to make a split second decision because the creature was already reforming its armor and it was walking towards him.

He looked at the ring on his finger. It was made of cold iron and the center of the ring was set with a red gemstone that seemed to glow. Flamma took a breath and removed the ring ready for whatever came next.