Overwhelming Firepower

Frost Titan, one of the titan-class monsters that you could see near the endgame content. Similar to the dragons, they only appear in specific routes.

They weren't as strong as the dragons, but the frost titans, similar to the other titans, were hard to deal with as their elemental control was a force of nature.

The Frost Titan was a nightmare stitched from storm and flesh. Its body was half-human, half-aberration, with muscles that bulged like glaciers beneath skin of cracked frost.

Great slabs of ice jutted from its shoulders and arms like jagged armor, shards grinding together whenever it shifted. Each breath it exhaled poured out as a gale of freezing mist, and where it touched the earth, stone screamed and split under sheets of ice.

Its face was almost human, but stretched, wrong. Skin torn away in places to reveal sinew frozen solid, jagged teeth rimed with frost jutting from a mouth too wide.

When it opened that maw, the sound it made split the blizzard itself, a roar that shook the gorge and rattled every chain of the fortress.

With each step, the frozen river groaned and cracked, spiderwebs of ice racing outward. Smaller monsters scattered before it, only to be crushed beneath its stride, their corpses freezing solid in an instant. It was less a creature and more a living calamity, an ancient hunger wrapped in ice and hate.

Once upon a time, these creatures were not called monsters at all, but deities. Villages in the far North whispered their names in the dark, offering food, firewood, or even blood to keep the 'Ice Lords' from descending from the peaks.

Hunters spoke of titans who could call down a storm with a gesture, who could freeze a river just by crossing it.

To see one was an omen that an age was about to end. Later, when the true deities revealed themselves and humans learned power enough to kill these beings, the reverence turned to hatred.

Of course, in the past and even now, these walking calamities were hard to kill. They were nature incarnate.

The air itself froze around it. Soldiers on the walls gasped as their breath turned to brittle frost in their lungs, teeth aching from the sudden cold. The blizzard bent with its stride, the storm drawn into its wake like a cloak of shrieking ice.

Even the fortress walls, the stone reforged through centuries of battle, creaked as though they too feared collapse in its presence.

'What the f*ck is Titan coming out now?! These sh*tters might be weaker than dragons overall, but they're basically elements taken physical form. This is going to be f*cking hard to kill.'

Lucne couldn't help but grit his teeth and curse in his mind. If this were just the game, he wouldn't worry this much, but this was reality, and as he had seen with different monsters, stats are overwritten by lore.

Meaning the stats he remembered in-game were the base, but the lore written in the flavor text takes higher priority.

They do have weaknesses depending on what type of Titan they are, but even then, their magic resistance is pretty high, making elemental counters only a little bit effective.

'Is this the reason why Stellhart slowly became weaker?' Lucen looked at the Frost Titan and then at the nearby Dire Wendigo that turned into an ice sculpture. 'That thing is a smaller Frost Titan than the one in-game. Maybe that means it's a little weaker.'

Lucen then looked around the battlefield, despite the Frost Titan turning the monsters near it into ice sculptures, the other monsters did not flee. Instead, they continued attacking.

'Still, this isn't all that bad. That Frost Titan is killing off the other monsters by simply getting near them. In a way, it is helping us reduce the enemies. Now we can focus more on it.'

The Frost Titan loomed higher with every step, its roar smothering even the noise of the monster wave.

The veterans of the First Fortress did not falter in front of the Ancient Monster and instead strengthened their resolve. It's not like this was the first time they had seen a powerful monster.

They had stared into the abyss too many times to break now. Fear had no place left in them; only defiance remained.

Thornefang, in turn, moved with unnerving precision. Harlik's voice barked orders, arquebuses snapped open and shut, powder packed, and iron rammed home.

On the wall, Vardon stood unmoving, cloak snapping in the gale, his hand resting on his blade.

"Sir Thalos and I will deal with the other monster. Everyone else, focus all your attacks on the Titan!"

Once he gave the command, Vardon swung his sword a few times, and most of the wyverns in the air were cut down.

Sir Thalos started punching and kicking the trolls on the ground. Each punch and kick shattered bones and burst bodies.

Seeing how Sir Thalos fought, Thrall wanted to join him, but even he, the wild child, understood if he truly went, he would not be fighting side by side with Thalos instea,d he would only be in the way.

The Frost Titan halted mid-stride, its burning eyes narrowing as though it had finally noticed the fortress in full. Its chest expanded, ice plates grinding like avalanches. Then it exhaled.

A blizzard erupted from its maw. Not mere snow, but razors of frozen wind, each shard howling like a banshee as it shredded through the sky.

The wards screamed, light flaring as cracks spidered across the runes etched into the stone. Soldiers staggered back, frost racing up the walls, freezing weapons in their hands.

"Thunderspears! FIRE!" Lucen's command stirred everyone into action.

The cannons roared. Metal balls, blazing with powder's fury, tore through the gale and slammed into the Titan's chest.

Several of the metal balls hit, but when they got close, they seemed to slow down a little. The metal ball made the ice that was like armor surrounding the Titan shatter.

The ice-like armor bore the damage, and it was being recreated at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Still, before it could recreate it, the mages bombarded the Frost Titan with fire spells, making it take a step back.

As the Frost Titan staggered, steam rose where fire clashed against frost. It was hurt, but the fire that was created by several dozen Third Circle mages and a few Fourth Circle mages disappeared.

Then the creature roared, and the sound was different this time. It was laughter. Mocking, jagged, and cold.

The shattered plates of ice along its chest knitted together once more, frost crawling like living veins until the wounds were nothing but pale scars. Its hand swept outward.

The frozen river answered. Shards erupted skyward in a forest of spears, skewering monsters in their path. Some of the ice spears were able to bypass the runes and the other defenses, injuring and killing a few men.

One tore through the chains stretched across the gorge, iron snapping like twine. The fortress shook, walls trembling under the strain.

Lucen, using his skill battle instincts, was able to dodge the incoing spears of ice. He also shot down a few using the Arquebus: Thunderstorm.

Vardon made a move. His sword flashed, arcs of silver cutting through the storm itself, cleaving spears of ice before they could impale the wall. Each strike was precise; his mantle, as ice cold as the North itself, enveloped him.

Below, Thalos was no less relentless. He leapt, fist crashing into the ground, shattering a line of ice spires before they reached the gate. Blood steamed from his knuckles, but he only grinned, eyes burning brighter.

"Don't stop firing! Keep on attacking!" Lucen's voice was raw as he continued shooting while giving commands.

Arquebuses and Thunderspears thundered once more, flashes of fire and smoke rising from the fortress.

The mages used every kind of fire spell they could muster. The balistae were fired, aiming at what they guessed were the vitals of the Frost Titan that looked humanoid.

The clerics were doing their best with blessings. They were also healing the wounded and moving the deceased.

The battle priest of Varkun used enhancement-type blessings on every soldier that they could bless.

The Titan reeled under the storm of iron and flame, and it then raised both its arms to the sky. Its great height that made it look like a mountain moving, also made it look like his hands could touch the clouds in the sky.

The storm bent. The blizzard twisted around its body, condensed into a single, spiraling vortex of shrieking snow and razors of ice.

The temperature plummeted in an instant; men dropped to their knees as their blood seemed to freeze in their veins.

The clerics used a blessing to counteract the freezing. The aura users used their mantles to strengthen their bodies to the limit, and the mages used various spells to heat themselves up.

Robert, who had been bombarding the Frost Titan with various spells, looked at the Frost Titan in awe as a manic smile appeared on his face.

"Heh, well, this is quite the sight. To think I would be able to witness the power of a being once hailed as a deity."

Lucen clicked his tongue as he knew that pose of the Frost Titan. 'It's about to use its ultimate skill.'

The Frost Titan's arms trembled with power as the vortex of shrieking ice swelled above it. The clouds in the sky turned even darker than before.

"Continue firing!" Lucen shouted; his voice was still steady due to Acting Adept, but deep down, he was panicking.

The Frost Titan's ultimate skill was something that could turn everything into ice. The only thing he could do now was hope the fortress defenses, as well as the blessing, could withstand it, or that their attacks would be able to interrupt it.

"Father! Sir Thalos!"

When Vardon and Sir Thalos heard Lucen's shout, they didn't need to hear more and simply moved toward the Frost Titan.

Sir Thalos roared, his voice echoing over the blizzard like a beast loosed from chains, and his fist smashed into the Titan's arm with the force of an avalanche. Ice shattered, spraying shards the size of blades across the battlefield. The shattered ice wounded the monsters nearby.

The second that happened, Vardon made a move. Vardon breathed inward and then exhaled, his sword gleaming like captured moonlight.

His Aura burst out, a wave of killing intent so sharp that those watching felt like they were being cut. Then the blade swung, a horizontal slash. The entire right arm of the Frost Titan was sliced cleanly off.

Vardon and Sir Thalos felt their bodies aching as they had used a lot of their power on that single move, but they knew they could not stop here. They needed to do the same to the other arm, but before they could make a move, the Frost Titan swung his remaining arm downward.

Vardon and Sir Thalos had their aura burst out as they quickly retreated back to the fortress.

The hand of the Frost Titan hit the ground, and then, before everyone's eyes, everything turned white.