Chronicles of Valor

burning catalyst

William got up off the ground and looked back at the girls, "this is very important, But I need you girls to get back to the village and evacuate it."

"It sounds like Flamma just destroyed it." Suzuran said happily.

"Sis, I think he might have thought about something else." Yuri said.

"Yeah," William said. "I read an old manuscript detailing the fusion of elemental spirits with undead."

"That'd be impossible." Yuri said. "Elemental spirits are pure nature and nearly impossible to subjugate. Corrupting one and implanting it into an undead should be next to impossible."

"Under normal circumstances you would be right," William said. "But he didn't need to corrupt it, instead he implanted it directly into the body of an undead already on the verge of resurrection."

"Ok?" Yuri said not really sure of how feasible it was.

"What happens if this thing goes and wipes out the village." Suzuran asked, her face said that she didn't really want the answer because she knew it was going to be bad.

"The problem with a bane is that just their presence is enough to cause the dead to rise." William said. "Anyone it kills would rise and they could quickly become an army, But even worse is that this frostbane would quickly make other undead infused with elemental magic."

"You're saying it would create more Frostbane's!" Yuri asked.

"not normally but an elemental spirit is condensed elemental magic," William said. "so there is a possibility the process would be sped up and they would likely travel with the frostbane anyway."

It hit home just how serious the situation was. if the village is destroyed and its residents turned into undead, they could quickly spread across the region and destroy countless cities before someone manages to stop them. Given that the port town of voltaren is only about 10 mi away, The numbers would be exponential. At any given time the city has between 200 to 1000 people in it and if even half of them were to succumb to the frost bane or its minions, It would mean disaster for the continent.

The two girls understood the situation and ran back to the village while William took a breath and began going towards the mine. He felt the chill subside as he reached the entrance and he knew instantly what Flamma had done. That told him immediately that he made the right decision and how dangerous the situation was and proceeded to run into the mine.

_____

Flamma felt his body heat up for the first time since he entered the area and some of the frost around him both on the walls and floor began melting slightly. He looked at the ring and the crystal had become black and looked more like a piece of obsidian. He could feel his body become lighter as his wounds and internal injuries began healing slightly due to the influx of elemental power.

The Frost bane formed a battle ax in its hands and swung down at Flamma aiming to cut him in half. Flamma infused his hand with raw fire magic and grabbed the battle ax mid-swing. The creature was shocked for a moment as Flamma held his hand up and an explosion came out of his palm. The frostbane jumped back just in time to avoid the full impact of the explosion, but even still some of the ice serving as armor cracked and weakened as the battle ax melted in Flamma's hand.

The Frost bane for the first time in the battle actually seemed to take him seriously and immediately repaired its armor and generated two great swords as it had done at the moment of its creation. As it charged at Flamma the swords changed to a more blue coloration that seemed to swirl inside of the ice. This was the added magical energy to ensure that it was more durable than the battle ax. The Frost bane swung the left sword at him horizontally, but he jumped back dodging only to have the creature spin around and follow with another s***h from the right sword traveling in the same direction. Flamma managed to dodge the second strike, But it was still a close call.

This told Flamma that the Frostbane's body likely belonged to a warrior, Even if it was an ordinary bane this particular specimen would have been a dangerous foe. It wasn't unheard of for a bane to retain their combat experience and even some memories, regardless of what the necromancer gave it. A bane was essentially what it was in life, but more and less than that.

Flamma encased his hands and feet in fire before leaping at the frostbane and giving a punch right into the chest plate. The fire was so condensed that it was basically like a steel gauntlet and it was so hot that it could melt copper near instantly. The chest plate was half shattered and half melted as he punched through, But unfortunately he didn't actually hit flesh. It wasn't meant to deal much damage, It was only meant to knock it off balance while he reared back and slammed his other fist into the creature's face. It didn't deal as much as he had hoped but it did stun the creature long enough for him to make an escape across the room. He used the flames as a sort of propulsion to essentially leap about 15 ft.

The frostbane had an elemental spirit of ice in its body. This meant that it was not only durable as a hard lump of ice, but it didn't follow the same rules as an ordinary undead. This thing would likely have to be destroyed down to its last lump of flesh before it actually died for good. If Flamma could damage it enough to disable its ability to move easily then it would become a lot simpler to destroy it.

The Frostbane lunged at Flamma and swung its left sword down at him. Flamma sidestepped as the other sword came from underneath an attempt to slice him from below. Flamma did a pirouette narrowly missing the blade and proceeded to punch the creature in the face again, But it was prepared this time and reinforced its face to be more solid with a sheet of ice across its skin to help cushion the blow. The Frostbane jumped back slightly feigning a retreat, But it quickly brought both of the blades toward Flamma from both the right and the left.

Flamma held both of his arms up unable to get out of the way in time and further increase the intensity and density of the flames. He managed to get it hard enough to save himself, but unfortunately it did cut into the skin of his forearms a little bit before it started to melt. He wasted no time and put both of his hands out to the creature before creating an explosion and sending it careening against the wall about 10 ft away.

Flamma looked down to assess the damage and could see his blood boiling under his skin. He wasn't surprised because even he was starting to feel hot and as he looked at the skin around his fingertips, He could see it charring slightly. He would only have another 5 minutes or so before he hit the limit and had to either stop and make a retreat or go down fighting. He would much rather avoid the second outcome.

The Frostbane began to get back to its feet only to discover that its arm on the left refused to move at all and it was only hanging on by a thread of skin. The Frost bane stared at Flamma and It looked at him with something other than anger for the first time. It had a smile on its face as if it had found something It never had before. It ripped off its arm before it created an ax out of the severed limb.

It's hand functioned as a grip and the end of the arm which would have been about where his elbow was formed the head of an ax and it held it out as if challenging Flamma to a duel.

"You want to have a duel or something." Flamma said curiously. "we're already in the middle of that, so let's skip the formalities and finish it."

Flamma wasn't tone deaf by any means. He knew for sure that this warrior probably met his death without ever finding a warrior as strong as himself. It's ironic that the necromancer gave him a second chance to find a worthy adversary.

Flamma felt the flames begin to char the flesh around his wrist and his feet weren't faring any better having already been charred up to his knees. Flamma had one final move, But whether he lived or died this would be the last thing he could do before he had to put the ring back on and seal his powers again.

Flamma let the flames engulf him completely as he rushed in and began launching a flurry of punches and kicks at any vulnerable spot he could land a blow on. He called this technique his flame armor, But he would never use this if he wasn't desperate. It did offer extra defense and melted and burned everything around him, But if he wasn't careful it could kill him as well.

As the two of them traded blows the air had become so hot that anyone in the vicinity couldn't breathe without magical help. In fact the ground beneath them started to melt and the ceiling of the cavern was also starting to liquefy. The Frostbane started to become unsteady as its muscles began to sear and become useless. It fell to the ground and rather than look afraid or in pain, All anyone who stared at it would see is a look of peace and tranquility.

As it began burning up the last light of the ice elemental from within it dissipated. Flamma put on his ring and fell backward unable to support himself on his burned limbs.