Sunlight filtered through the clouds as the freezing wind wailed.
The snow-draped glacier glinted with a biting, razor-sharp chill.
This was the Vahara Glacier, known to the world as the "Frozen Forbidden Land"—the domain where frost giants had survived for millennia, and the stronghold guarded generation after generation by the Everfrost Tribe.
Upon the Vahara Glacier, the frost giants had erected crude fortresses, carving hollows into the frigid mountains.
Cruel and devastatingly destructive pillagers, they reared massive tundra landwyrms, remorhazes, and frost worms. Millennia ago, at the height of the Everfrost Tribe's power, they had even tamed white dragons, turning those genuine evil dragons into fortress sentinels.
Today, however, the Everfrost Tribe was about to face its most dreadful calamity.
Every young warrior in the tribe had taken up arms, standing at high alert.
The hands of several frost giant warriors even trembled with nervous tension. The hopes of countless generations weighed heavy on their shoulders; this was a life-and-death battle that would decide the survival of their people.
"We can do this."
"Chieftain Kasa already fought him. There's no way the red dragon came out unscathed."
"That red dragon is probably heavily wounded."
"We still have nearly a hundred frost giant warriors right here!"
The young frost giants bolstered one another's spirits. Having witnessed the magical projection, they knew full well how perilous this battle would be, yet they still clung to hope for a miracle.
Nur stood at the highest peak of the great glacier, his eyes slightly squinted, his expression placid. Feeling the stirring of the wind, he looked as though he were on the verge of drifting into a deep slumber.
Suddenly, the frost giant priest snapped his eyes open, a sharp gleam flashing through his murky, pale-blue pupils.
"The time has come."
"He... is coming."
The vigorous frost giant warrior attending at his side immediately swung his bone clubs, beating the war drums and bellowing:
"Warriors of the Everfrost! Ready yourselves!"
"The dragon is almost here! We're going to slaughter it!"
At his words, accompanied by the thundering drumbeats, the frost giant warriors turned their gazes to the sky in unison, praying they would spot the red dragon's approach before it struck.
Yet they had no idea that Cassius never traveled by such inefficient means.
—He preferred magic.
"Look!"
"What is that?"
Shouts of alarm rose from the frost giants.
Ripples disturbed the space before the glacier, twisting, warping, and folding. In stark defiance of the biting arctic air, a flaming portal gradually widened and opened over the great glacier, sending plumes of white steam billowing into the surrounding air.
First, a ferocious head thrust out from within, followed by a powerful, muscular body, and finally the tapered tip of a tail.
The red dragon had finally descended upon the Vahara Glacier.
"The coordinates provided by your kinsmen were quite accurate."
Cassius scanned the gathered frost giants, who wielded an assortment of crude weapons, before finally locking his gaze onto the aged priest.
Nur spoke in a raspy voice:
"You have finally arrived, fated calamity."
"Oh?"
"Old giant, you know of me?"
A look of faint amusement glinted in the red dragon's golden pupils.
Nur strove to keep his voice steady, answering in a low, resonant tone, "Of course I do. This is a trial bestowed upon us by the great Thrym, Father of the Frost Giants."
He stared back at the red dragon, a resolute light burning in his eyes.
"It is an indispensable trial to restore the glory of the frost giants and revive the splendor of the Everfrost Tribe."
Hearing this, a spark of hope rekindled within the eyes of the frost giant warriors. As champions tasked with guarding their sacred grounds, most were devout followers of Thrym. Their glares toward the red dragon burned with hatred and fighting spirit; learning that this red dragon was merely a "divine trial" invigorated them all the more.
Cassius's gaze turned chillingly cold.
"Then did that bullshit god of yours happen to tell you—"
"—that the Everfrost Tribe is about to be wiped out?"
The red dragon snapped his wings, surging nearly a hundred meters into the air.
Koch, the leader of the frost giant warriors, raised his weapon and roared, "To battle! This reptile cannot terrify the warriors of the Everfrost!"
"Lord Thrym watches over us! The millennium-long survival of the Everfrost Tribe is decided this day!"
A long, mournful war horn blared.
The frost giants hurled spear after spear, boulders, and even icicles up at the red dragon aloft.
Elite archers drew great bone bows nearly five meters long, loosing massive arrows as thick as bowls straight toward the dragon's heart.
For thousands of years, the frost giants bred on the Vahara Glacier had hunted countless white dragons in this manner. Yet against Cassius, none of it proved effective. Shimmering shields and abjuration shards glowing with magical radiance enveloped him, deflecting the barrage with ease.
Cassius looked down upon them from above, mocking them mercilessly.
"Is this the best resistance you can muster?"
"Utterly laughable—"
Torrential flames poured from the red dragon's maw. Wherever his breath swept, the land transformed into a purgatory. Ice and snow rapidly melted under the blistering heat, casting dense white clouds of steam across the glacier.
A frost giant hunter blew a bone whistle.
A piercing shriek tore through the air.
The glacier rumbled, trembling so violently that loose ice and gravel cascaded down.
Through the steam, colossal centipede-like beasts burst from beneath the snow and ice. Their bodies were coated in frost, yet infernal fires coursed within them; wing-like fins flared back from their heads, and serrated fangs wriggled along the edges of their gaping maws.
Cassius glanced down, his expression unchanging.
"Remorhazes..."
Those were remorhazes—among the most terrifying predators of the polar wastes. They possessed furnace-like magical organs within their bodies that generated heat against the cold, granting them dual resistance to both fire and ice.
Frost giant hunters sought their eggs across the frigid wastes, taming them from hatchlings to serve as guardians of their frozen redoubts.
And now, they were finally being unleashed.
The ground quaked violently as if struck by an earthquake. Vast fractures opened across the ice sheet as eleven remorhazes burst forth, lunging toward the red dragon like towering pillars thrusting into the sky—a truly spectacular sight.
"Is this where your confidence comes from?"
"A mere dozen worms?"
Cassius's voice remained detached as he snapped his wings.
The air popped and cracked with concussive snaps. Blinding arcs of lightning wrapped around his frame and surged into the remorhazes recklessly hurtling toward him—it was the Body of Storm's Echo!
The red dragon swung his claws fiercely. Flashing claw-shaped force fields materialized in the midair nearby, cleaving several remorhazes cleanly in two with a single blow.
In an instant, the remorhazes that the frost giants had spent generations rearing at the cost of countless provisions were mostly obliterated. The survivors hastily burrowed back into the glacier, not daring to show their heads again.
The frost giants continued their frantic assault, but Cassius flew too swiftly in the open sky. Most of the boulders, spears, and arrows missed their mark entirely, and even those that struck failed to pierce his layered defenses.
This was still an utterly one-sided battle. Groundbound and helpless, they could only watch in despair as the red dragon rained flames from above, burning the frost giants until they wailed and shrieked in agony.
Chapter 184