SSS Frost Sovereign: Rewinding The Apocalypse!-Chapter 31: Thief

Seeing the situation unfold, the pressure on the other incarnations eased slightly.

The ant lizards had already reached the trucks earlier, overwhelming many of the people there.

Eric barely managed to hold them back alongside a few others, his fists erupting in controlled bursts of flame as he forced the creatures away from the injured.

Not far from him, Alia was visibly reaching her limit. Her breathing was ragged, shoulders rising and falling sharply as she struggled to maintain control.

When Eric noticed the pressure easing on that side, his gaze shifted instinctively toward the center of the battlefield.

The queen.

The ant lizard queen reeled violently from Albert’s earlier attack. Its massive body scraped across the shattered road as it was driven back, claws carving deep grooves into asphalt and stone alike.

But Icard was already charging again.

Ant lizards surged toward him almost immediately, abandoning other targets as they converged in a desperate attempt to shield their queen.

They threw themselves at him without hesitation, bodies piling atop one another.

"Tch."

He clicked his tongue and swung his frost hammer in wide arcs. Each strike crushed through shell and flesh alike, freezing and shattering ant lizards in a single blow as fragments scattered across the ground.

’I can’t hold on to this skill for much longer.’

The frost creeping along his arm grew heavier with each swing as his mana drained rapidly.

He forced himself forward, but his advance stalled as an unbroken wall of snapping jaws and armored bodies blocked his path.

And not far from him, Albert was no better off.

By the time the swarm thinned slightly, the queen had forced itself upright again. Its screech tore through the battlefield, loud and full, announcing its return. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Their momentum had died.

They had planned to kill it before it recovered, but now it stood once more.

That grim realization crossed both Icard’s and Albert’s minds at the same time

But just then, a blazing fireball slammed into the queen’s side, followed immediately by a concentrated beam of brilliant light.

The fireball detonated against its cracked armor, heat searing deep into the fractures Albert had already created.

Before the queen could react, the beam followed, originally aimed at cutting shearing off its head.

However, it shifted, leaving the beam to slice cleanly through one of its massive forelimbs.

The severed arm crashed to the ground, and the queen shrieked in agony, with its roar echoing through the ruined district.

Eric and Luna had entered the fray.

The ant lizards reacted instantly, turning toward them in defense of their queen.

Luna staggered slightly after releasing the beam, her face pale as her mana reserves dipped dangerously low.

But before the swarm could overwhelm her, Marcus stepped in with a glow first, followed by a burst of electricity driving the ant lizards away.

Eric fended for himself, flames surging brighter as he punched through anything that came too close. But even he was dangerously close to his limit.

Meanwhile, Icard had no choice but to keep killing.

The frost hammer gnawed relentlessly at his remaining mana, each second making the weapon heavier in his grasp.

It was getting hopeless again, when the others closed in.

With pressure on the outer lines reduced, incarnations surged forward from all sides, unleashing everything they had on the hundreds of ant lizards crowded tightly around their queen.

Seeing it had been somewhat cornered, the queen lashed out at its attackers then.

It lunged suddenly, its massive jaws snapped open as it rushed straight for Icard who was closest.

Rows of razor sharp teeth revealed as its mouth widened unnaturally. The stench of blood and decay washed over him as it closed the distance in an instant.

It pushed forward really fast and suddenly.

But before it could reach him, another fireball detonated against the side of its face.

The explosion forced its head violently aside, flames crawling across its damaged armor as it staggered away.

Icard seized the opening immediately.

He poured a lot of his remaining mana into this single strike.

Using the bodies beneath his feet, he stepped onto snapping ant lizards, gaining height as frost surged violently along his hammer.

Twisting midair, he swung from the left and sent the hammer crashing into the queen’s head with a loud, frosty thud.

Its massive skull snapped sideways as part of it shattered apart.

Frost spread instantly from the point of contact, creeping across its face and jaw. Cracks on its face sealed, freezing flesh beneath.

The queen tried to scream, but the sound came out broken and muffled as its jaws locked stiffly.

Albert followed next.

Energy erupted around him, blowing ant lizards away. The compressed force screaming as it propelled him forward.

His leap carved a visible path through the air as he descended upon the queen.

With his power condensed just as before, he struck, concentrating his strike on its head.

The impact obliterated what remained of the queen’s head, slamming its colossal body into the ground with bone shaking force.

But even headless, it wasn’t dead.

Icard was already moving again.

With the rest of his mana, a long blue white icicle formed in his grasp as he charged.

He shoulder checked one ant lizard aside, crushed another beneath his foot, and forced his way through snapping jaws and flailing claws.

Using their bodies as stepping stones once more, he rose above the swarm.

Holding the icicle in a downward thrust, he drove it into the queen’s torso.

The tip shattered on impact, but he did not stop.

He forced the remaining shard deeper, ice spreading violently from the wound as frost surged through its chest.

The pressure hollowed the torso from within, freezing it solid as white mist burst outward.

The mist drifted quietly over the queen’s now still body.

[You Have Killed A D Grade Ant Lizard Chieftain!]

[You Have Earned 16 AP!]

The effect was immediate.

The remaining ant lizards lost all synchrony. Their coordinated movements collapsed as they scattered in confusion.

Some screeched wildly, others turned and fled without attacking anything at all as they scrambled over rubble, crashing blindly through ruined buildings.

What had been a unified swarm dissolved into chaos.

The humans there weren’t targets any mkre. And so, the state of the swarm became a free feast.

Those with energy to spare hunted down stragglers until exhaustion finally forced them to stop.

Slowly, the area around the queen cleared as the surviving ant lizards wandered far from its corpse confusedly.

After delivering the final blow, Icard staggered back.

He managed a few unsteady steps before collapsing onto a pile of ant lizard remains. He sat there as he struggled to catch his breath.

Nearby stood Luna, Marcus, Eric, and Albert, each visibly exhausted. Around them, injured people were being tended to.

Some leaned against trucks, while others lay on the ground as those who could, administered first aid.

A few bodies lay covered nearby.

Icard lifted his head and looked at the queen and the surrounding mess.

’We were lucky to escape with only this many casualties’ Icard said in his thoughts. ’If it continued for long without the reed, we’d definitely be wiped out’.

The queen’s massive body lay frozen and hollowed. A white fog steadily escaped from the cavity left by his final strike.

Frost coated its remains as the cold lingering unnaturally in the air.

Within the frozen chest, a faint light slowly gathered.

’Its core stone.’

Core stones were rare treasures, far more valuable than ordinary mana essence.

’It wasn’t as tough as the garlyk chieftain, but it was still formidable.’

And that thought puzzled him. Ant lizards rarely reached such a level unless they had lived for a long time, consuming other spawns.

Then realised almost immediately.

’It must have been the same one that attacked us earlier.’

"Impressive" a small brown horned Erwald said, looking toward the queen’s direction. It stood near a few incarnations who sat tiredly on the battered asphalt.

The creature looked almost harmless, round bodied and softly furred, with gentle eyes that contrasted sharply with the devastation around it.

"That young man has great talent" it said calmly.

"You’re impressed with him, Eithyl?" a girl from their group asked.

"I didn’t see any Erwald with him. Maybe he doesn’t have one" a young man from the group added.

"It’s impossible to achieve that much without guidance. He must already belong somewhere" Eithyl said. "And his Erwald must be really capable to raise him this fast"

More Erwalds approached, observing the scene with quiet curiosity.

"You’ve survived another plague, Albert" Gremit said.

Albert pushed himself up, dried blood streaking across his jaw and arm.

"But there is no time to rest" Gremit continued. "Battles like this attract other spawns. You must leave immediately".

Albert straightened as Luna and Marcus joined him.

Icard glanced toward Eric, Reya, and the others. Reya bore a deep cut but remained standing, while Matt, Alia and Eric were injured as well, though their wounds were manageable.

As for Icard, he had taken less damage than most, though his body ached from the strain.

Then his eyes drifted back to the core stone. Since he had delivered the final blow, he technically had a claim over the core stone.

He wanted it.

But taking it could complicate things. Albert would return it to the mayor, as agreed before the raid, so it wasn’t something he could claim outrightly.

So Icard let it be.

But, just as he took his eyes off it, he felt it.

A familiar, repulsive energy seeped from around the queen’s corpse. The dark aura quietly and quickly, moved toward the core stone.

Icard moved instantly.

An ice shard formed in his left hand and he hurled it without hesitation. The shard sliced through the air and pierced the core stone, shattering it into fine-dust-like essence which then vanished.

[You Have Absorbed A Core Stone!]

[Core Stone Assimilation In Progress. Please Wait For Your Rewards]

The panel flickered before him.

He had acted on instinct.

And now eyes glared at him, sharp and accusing, as though he had just committed a grave crime.