The giant continued charging. Even with an arm severed, he still snapped off an icicle as an improvised weapon with his remaining hand, lunging toward the red dragon with relentless, unyielding fury.
Cassius merely beat his wings, hovering in place.
"What a curious thing..."
"I wonder how long it can hold out."
He had no intention of leaving the center of the storm. For one thing, Storm of Vengeance was no longer under his control, making it perilous even for him to step inside.
For another, he possessed absolute confidence in the might of his handcrafted masterpiece; he did not believe this giant could reach him alive.
Storm of Vengeance had already raged for over a dozen rounds. Gale-force winds and biting rain lashed the entire expanse beneath the thunderclouds.
The giant's frame grew increasingly gaunt, several sizes smaller than at the beginning, like layers of outer rind stripped away to expose the fragile structure within.
Its movements became ever more sluggish, fighting forward through the tempest, yet it still charged stubbornly toward Cassius.
"Enemy... of the Everfrost!"
"I will never... let you live..."
The voice was like a skiff tossed in a tempest. Though growing fainter, it remained stubbornly resolute—a worthy incarnation of the dying will of the sanctuary's frost giant guardians.
Yet under the empowerment of Sorcery Surge, Storm of Vengeance did not abate; instead, it intensified. White, blue, and purple lightning tore through the pitch-black sky again and again, unleashing immense power upon the icy plains. The savage thunderbolts mercilessly obliterated everything on the ground.
Black mists churned and storm clouds surged. Through the thick, dark fog shone an irrepressible brilliance that illuminated the snow and ice with blinding glare—the most terrifying lightning of all.
Yet the giant on the ground remained oblivious. Only a few hundred meters from the red dragon, he thrust forward with the sharp icicle raised high.
Boom!
Earth-shaking thunder pealed once more.
Dozens of blinding lightning bolts struck together. The pillars of thunder coalesced in the sky into a colossal claw tearing through the shroud of storm clouds. Gathering their frenzied fury, they crashed down upon the defenseless crystal giant's head.
"No—!"
Endless, blinding lightning engulfed the massive figure, illuminating the surroundings as bright as day while thick white steam billowed upward.
Across the vast expanse of the Vahara Glacier, nearly every living creature could hear a shrill, agonizing wail mingled with the sizzling crackle of detonating thunder.
When the lightning faded and the white smoke dispersed, the crystal giant was shattered and fragmented, on the very verge of this strange life-form's end.
Only half of its head remained, grotesque and horrifying.
Its massive left arm had also shattered, crashing to the ground.
The giant's pelvis had been split in half. Below the hip, its right leg was completely gone, and its left lower leg was broken in two; only the left thigh could still move.
Just maintaining this form had pushed it past its limits. The crystal giant was covered in fractures from head to toe, looking as though it would disintegrate at any moment into a heap of ice shards.
Yet that half a mouth still moved faintly.
"En... emy... of the... Everfrost..."
The crystal giant, no longer even vaguely humanoid, scraped its remaining left thigh against the ground. Its torso writhed constantly, adopting a bizarre, grotesque posture like a crawling maggot. Slow as it was, it inexorably dragged itself toward the red dragon.
The red dragon watched in silence, observing the giant crawl closer.
With every meter it edged forward, the parts of its body scraping the ground ground away slightly more, leaving crushed ice grit behind.
In its wake lay a trailing streak of pulverized ice.
The giant on the ground barely managed to touch the tip of the red dragon's claws with his left shoulder. He raised his head with immense effort, his half-mouth moving faintly.
"Got... you..."
"Ever... frost's..."
Before that final word "enemy" could leave its mouth, a series of brittle crunches echoed. The crystal giant could no longer hold its fractured form together and shattered completely. Its body, still nearly twenty meters long despite the devastating damage, collapsed into a small iceberg, standing silently upon the frozen expanse of the Vahara Glacier.
Cassius casually picked up a shard of ice crystal and held it in his claw, feeling a coldness that repulsed him on an instinctual level.
"A magical creature driven purely by hatred, completely devoid of intelligence, yet capable of reaching a legendary tier of existence."
"What a bizarre creature. I'll have Trump examine it closely once we're back."
"Perhaps this thing... can become a sharp axe in my hands."
Cassius looked around, quietly admiring the natural catastrophe he had brought about with his own hands.
Though the crystal giant was dead, the horrifying Storm of Vengeance had by no means ended. Under the effect of Sorcery Surge, it would continue expanding until the laws of nature balanced it out and pacified this volatile factor disrupting the world.
Endless gales and freezing rain lashed everything beneath the thunderclouds. Countless bolts of lightning crashed down, shattering iceberg after iceberg.
The frost giants' icy fortresses split under the thunderbolts and came crashing down. The sanctuary they had guarded for thousands of years was buried beneath collapsed ice; within it, the tomes and chronicles of ancient giants would sink deep underground, sealed forever within ice hundreds of meters thick.
The frost giants' hunting grounds, scoured by acid rain, were altered beyond recognition. Crude war horns, bone spears, and shields melted into nourishment for the earth.
Even the glacial valleys that the frost giants had relied on for survival were buried under collapsing glaciers amid rolling peals of thunder. Every trace of their existence—tailored furs, gnawed beast bones, and even ice figurines carved by children—would be sealed beneath the frost, lost to history forever.
Tracing back to the ancient war and scraping by for nearly ten thousand years through hardship and decline, the Everfrost Tribe was at last obliterated by a single red dragon.
Kobar Everfrost's tribe had risen by slaying a red dragon and had fallen by provoking one. It could well be considered a minor joke played by the god of destiny across ten millennia.
"The Frost Calamity is over..."
"Because I brought calamity to the 'Frost Calamity.'"
Looking around at the scene of utter ruin, Cassius found the thought amusing—it felt almost like a grammatical contradiction.
He raised his head slightly as notifications refreshed across his panel.
[You have slain Thrym's Winter Avatar (Challenge Rating: 20), gaining 25,000 XP]
[You have destroyed the racial faction: Everfrost Tribe]
[Obtained special achievement: Frost Giant Destroyer]
Achievement: Frost Giant Destroyer
"Frost giants are the easiest things to kill. None of the disgusting spells of storm giants or cloud giants—all you have to do is engage them in melee. Even garbage white dragons can slaughter them with ease. The only downside is their flesh tastes like ice shards, like it was just pulled out of a freezing cave. Downright impossible to swallow. —Cabaliahorce, Ancient Red Dragon"
Gained Trait: Frost Giant Slayer
Strength +2
Proficiency: Intimidation +3
As the destroyer of a frost giant tribe, your renown is enough to make them tremble in terror. Your damage against the frost giant race is substantially increased, carrying an innate deterrent effect.
At the same time, the experience of destroying the Everfrost has made your strength even greater. This confidence allows your will to warp reality, granting you a degree of cold resistance.
Chapter 187