Chapter 172: A Deadly Duel on the Ice

Blood streaked across the smooth ice in a long crimson trail as Fenrir staggered backward, breathing heavily while half his body became soaked in red.

Agonizing pain surged from his left shoulder. The sensation of flesh and bone being violently torn apart was enough to make anyone with weak resolve faint on the spot.

But Fenrir did not. The fury in his eyes had already settled into cold composure, the kind of calm a wounded beast possessed when preparing for a desperate final struggle.

He had not underestimated Nolan in the slightest. Right from the beginning, he had unleashed his proudest large-scale technique, only for the other party to dismantle it instantly through some bizarre method he could not even comprehend before turning the situation against him.

This Nolan kid was no ordinary opponent. No wonder Yuri had fallen at his hands.

Fenrir was ruthless, both toward enemies and toward himself.

He glanced at his empty left shoulder. Brilliant golden flames still burned at the wound, searing flesh and preventing it from healing. At the same time, a heavy sluggishness spread from the injury, making the entire left side of his body feel numb and stiff.

Gritting his teeth so hard that the muscles in his face twisted from pain, Fenrir nevertheless kept his movements terrifyingly steady.

Raising his remaining right hand, he swung the ice-blue sword in a clean arc and, without the slightest hesitation, sliced directly into the ruined flesh around his own shoulder wound.

Slash! A chunk of burning flesh imbued with golden holy fire was carved away and fell onto the ice, sizzling loudly before quickly turning into blackened ash.

Using this brutal act of self-mutilation, Fenrir forcibly removed both the holy flame damage from Nolan’s Divine Infusion and the gravity effect imposed by Mountain’s Resonance.

By the time he finished, veins bulged across his forehead and cold sweat poured down his face, yet he did not make a single sound.

Then he pressed the tip of his sword against the wound. Frost surged backward from the blade and instantly covered the mangled flesh. Crack. A thin layer of ice rapidly formed, sealing the ruptured blood vessels completely and stopping the bleeding.

At that moment, the physique of a Gold-rank powerhouse revealed itself in full. An ordinary person would have died from blood loss alone, not to mention enduring the agony of losing an arm.

Only after stabilizing himself did Fenrir finally take the time to reassess the enemy before him, his gaze lingering on the black heavy armor Nolan wore.

Earlier, his “Frostfall Slash” had originally aimed for Nolan’s neck, only to be redirected by an exquisite sword technique and end up striking the shoulder armor instead.

But that single exchange had instantly set off alarm bells in his mind. The feeling of impact had been strange. It was not simply the sensation of striking sturdy metal.

Fenrir understood the force behind every swing of his sword perfectly. That strike should have cut deeply into flesh and bone even if it failed to sever the arm entirely. But instead, it felt as though he had struck some strange energy-absorbing cotton. Most of the force had been inexplicably swallowed away, leaving behind only a shallow white mark on the armor.

That armor… was absolutely no ordinary equipment.

Everything about this bastard felt unnatural. Endless bizarre abilities, explosive power far beyond what a Silver-rank should possess, and armor with monstrous defensive capabilities. Just who the hell was he?

Nolan was also quietly adjusting his breathing while cursing inwardly.

Damn. This guy’s tough.

The combo he had just unleashed, Regicide Assault combined with Oathguard Judgment and Divine Infusion, was currently the strongest burst damage he could produce. He had assumed that even if it failed to kill Fenrir outright, it would at least cripple him completely. Instead, the man had stabilized the situation through sheer ruthlessness toward himself.

Nolan also wanted to press the advantage immediately, but both his stamina and his already pitiful mana pool had been consumed heavily by that flashy sequence of skills.

After drinking the “Dragon Blood’s Oath” potion earlier, he had originally thought he would break through to Gold rank just like Hank and the others.

But the potion’s effects had turned out strangely different. The system had displayed a notification saying, “Conditions fulfilled. Temporary early contact with Origin available,” yet his power level remained firmly stuck at Silver peak without advancing any further.

It seemed that some rules remained beyond even a transmigrator’s full understanding.

Nolan guessed it might have something to do with his special identity as a “player,” or perhaps because the potion contained his blood.

His own leveling depended on experience points, unlike the natives of this world who could break through bottlenecks through enlightenment or alchemical potions.

Originally, he had assumed his half-NPC status would let him enjoy the same treatment.

Keeping his expression calm, Nolan silently regulated his breathing rhythm. He knew he absolutely could not show weakness right now.

Fenrir might have lost an arm, but he was an experienced fighter. The slightest sign of fatigue would make him pounce like a shark smelling blood.

The two men stood facing each other across more than ten meters, one on the riverbank and the other atop the frozen river. Neither made the first move.

For a brief moment, the only things intertwining in the air were the cold mist radiating from Fenrir’s severed shoulder and the white vapor escaping Nolan’s lips.

“…Hah.”

After only a few breaths of tense silence, Nolan moved first. The vulnerability effect from Oathguard Judgment had a time limit. He needed to end this quickly. His feet exploded with force as the hooks beneath his metal boots screeched across the ice, and his entire body shot forward once more like a black afterimage.

The moment Nolan moved, Fenrir understood. The true death match was only beginning now.

“You really have surprised me, kid.” Fenrir gripped the ice-blue sword with one hand. “But this ends here!”

The instant he finished speaking, he plunged the sword back into the frozen river beneath his feet.

Bzzzz.

The entire surface of Frostbite Domain trembled violently around him as the frozen Somme River came alive. The ice cracked apart, and countless claws formed from water and ice burst upward from below, layering over one another like a forest growing madly as they lunged toward Nolan from every direction. At the same time, a massive ice wall several meters high erupted between the two of them, completely blocking Nolan’s line of sight. After suffering once in close combat, Fenrir had clearly learned his lesson.

He’s trying to use the terrain to wear me down.

Nolan instantly understood Fenrir’s intentions.

Both of his gap-closing mobility skills, Radiant Sun Charge and Regicide Assault, were still on cooldown.

Fenrir was obviously gambling on that fact. Rather than clash head-on again, he intended to exploit his control over ice to create obstacles and slowly trap Nolan to death within this frozen battlefield.

As if. Nolan snorted coldly as Mountain’s Resonance shifted into greatsword form in his hands.

The heavy blade swept through the air with overwhelming force. Every swing shattered the incoming ice claws into fragments while golden runes pulsed along the sword’s surface. Each collision exploded with small bursts of holy flame that melted the shattered ice into steam.

But the claws seemed endless. Every wave he destroyed was instantly replaced by more erupting from beneath the frozen river, surging forward relentlessly. Just as Fenrir had said, a battlefield with abundant water was his domain.

While continuously cutting down the claws, Nolan kept advancing forward. He knew he could not stop. If those claws fully bound him, the consequences would be disastrous. The towering ice wall completely obscured his vision, preventing him from locating Fenrir at all.

This can’t continue.

He had to break through the wall.

“Hah!” Nolan roared as power surged through his body once more.

Drawing on twenty years of gaming experience, he identified the weakness of the ice wall almost instantly.

Any magically constructed object inevitably possessed an unstable energy core. Destroy that point, and the entire structure would collapse.

Ignoring the ice claws completely, Nolan allowed them to wrap around his greaves as he raised Mountain’s Resonance high overhead.

“Break!”

With a furious roar, he poured all his strength into his arms and brought the sword crashing down toward an utterly inconspicuous point near the middle-lower section of the wall.

BOOM!!! The massive ice wall trembled violently.

Then, starting from the impact point, spiderweb-like cracks spread across its surface at explosive speed.

Crash!

Amid deafening thunder, the seemingly indestructible wall shattered beneath the terrifying force and holy flames infused into Mountain’s Resonance. The edges of the breach rapidly melted, releasing enormous amounts of white steam.

The entire wall collapsed into countless fragments, and even the ice claws binding Nolan’s legs shattered apart from the impact.

Without the slightest hesitation, Nolan charged straight through the steam.

But the sight beyond the wall made him halt abruptly.

Behind it stood not one Fenrir, but six. Six completely identical Fenrirs stood before him, each carrying the same aura, each wielding a sword one-handed while wearing the exact same sinister grin.

They approached from different directions in identical attack stances. Their appearance, clothing, even the vicious expressions on their faces were perfectly indistinguishable.

Then all six charged toward Nolan simultaneously.

Ice Crystal Body. 

He immediately recalled the skill’s name.

It was one of Fenrir’s signature techniques, creating clones out of ice that were identical to himself. Not only could they confuse enemies, but the clones also possessed a certain degree of combat capability.

Back in the game, this move had tricked countless players to death. The clones shared not only the same appearance, but also the same icy aura, making it nearly impossible to distinguish the real one.

But that wasn’t enough to fool him. Because in Nolan’s vision, only one of the six Fenrirs was shrouded in faint red light.

That was the vulnerability mark from Oathguard Judgment. 

And on that Fenrir’s back and left knee, the two glowing weak-point markers shone with striking clarity.

Found you.

Nolan instantly locked onto Fenrir’s true body.

Lowering his center of gravity, he swept Mountain’s Resonance in a black arc beside him before slashing viciously toward the marked Fenrir.