Chapter 19 - The King Of The Mountain

Leah, Ibbi, and Gabriel pressed on through the wide corridor. The mana pressing against them thickened with every step, wrapping around their limbs like cold mist. At the end of the hallway stood a massive set of regal double doors. Leah pressed her hand against the doors, and the three of them slowly pushed them open.

Beyond, a colossal hall stretched before them, so vast that the far end faded into mist. Towering white pillars lined the hall like sentinels, rising endlessly towards a ceiling lost in shadow. A long red carpet led directly through the centre, guiding them towards whatever waited in the distance.

As they stepped inside, the crushing pressure of mana intensified.

Ibbi’s legs gave out. She dropped to her knees with a grunt, her fingers clawing at the red carpet as she struggled to breathe. Her face was drenched in sweat, and she trembled violently.

Leah looked down at her. "Are you going to continue?"

For a moment, Ibbi said nothing. But then, with a strained grunt, she pushed herself up, inch by inch, until she stood, barely supported by her axe.

"I’m fine." Ibbi muttered, though her voice cracked under the strain.

Leah gave a nod and resumed walking. Gabriel followed, glancing once at Ibbi to make sure she kept pace.

The red carpet stretched endlessly beneath their feet. The mana grew more oppressive with each step, crawling over Leah’s skin like cold insects whispering death. The air warned her to turn back. It promised doom. But still, her boots moved forward.

Eventually, the carpet sloped upwards into a long, ascending staircase. They ascended it together, step by step. Leah looked to the side and saw Ibbi again struggling. Every step looked like it might be her last, but still, she climbed.

At the top, the hall opened wider. Ahead of them, standing in the distance, were four towering hobgoblins clad in brilliant white armour. Silver glaives gleamed in their hands, and they stood in a perfect square formation, like statues awaiting command.

Behind them loomed a jagged throne carved from what looked like blackened ice. Resting on the throne was a hobgoblin, draped in a sleeveless fur coat. From his bald head, a crown of sharp, crystalline ice jutted upwards. His long sword, sheathed in white leather, leaned lazily against the armrest.

Leah's gaze shifted to the titles above the figures. The four armoured hobgoblins bore red text that stated that they were hobgoblin royal guards.

Then Leah’s eyes settled on the one in the throne. It said 'Snow Goblin King', but the title was completely in black. It was a colour Leah had never seen before.

The Goblin King tilted his head, his white pupils dull and half-lidded. He rested his cheek against his fist, and then yawned. With a lazy wave of his hand, he gestured forward. Then the four royal guards began to march.

Leah’s hand went to her sword, and she drew it in one swift motion.

"Stay sharp," she said low. "These ones are strong."

The guards broke into a sprint. In a flash, they were on them.

Two went for Ibbi, and one went for Gabriel. Leah jumped higher into the air, wings flaring. The remaining guard went after her. His feet exploded with a burst of ice, propelling himself upwards like a missile. He swung his glaive in a deadly arc.

Leah brought her sword up just in time. The impact rocked her. She was thrown backwards through the air, spinning as she tried to regain balance.

Below, Ibbi swung her axe at one of the two guards charging her. Her strike was powerful, but it missed. The guards moved faster than she could track. With perfect timing, they each slashed at her in unison. Glaives bit deep into her flesh, blood spurting from her arms and legs.

Ibbi leaped back, but they didn’t let up. She raised her axe to swing again, but the guards struck first. Their glaives sliced through her defences and opened fresh wounds. Blood spilled onto the carpet beneath her.

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Not far from her, Gabriel danced in his own deadly struggle. He ducked under a high swing, his claws flashing as he slashed at the guard’s abdomen, but his strikes glanced uselessly off the hobgoblin’s reinforced armour.

He tried to retreat, but he was too slow. The guard’s glaive came down hard on his shoulder. Gabriel's eyes widened as the blade cut deeper, tearing into his side, slicing towards his ribs.

Up above, Leah was still locked in aerial combat with her own guard, blades clashing mid-air. But out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ibbi bleeding, Gabriel falling.

She turned and dove, wings snapping shut as she plummeted towards the floor.

Leah landed hard, her boots cracking the stone beneath her. In one breath, she activated her Blood Empowerment skill.

A blood tendril burst from her back, whipping through the air and coiling tightly around the wrist of the hobgoblin guard attacking Gabriel. With a snarl, Leah yanked the guard off his feet and hurled him like a spear towards the two guards mauling Ibbi.

The guard crashed into them with brutal force, sending the trio tumbling into a heap. At the same time, two more blood tendrils shot out from Leah. They coiled around Ibbi and Gabriel like lifelines. She dragged them backward towards her, and as they reached her, the tips of the tendrils plunged into their bodies. As blood flooded into them, their wounds began healing.

But there was no time to rest. The guards recovered fast. All three were charging again.

Leah lashed out with a bigger tendril that cracked through the air like a whip, striking towards the oncoming enemies, but one of the guards spun and cleaved clean through it with his glaive. Before Leah could react, the guards slammed into them.

All three were tackled and thrown backwards over the edge of the staircase. They plummeted, rolling and tumbling down the wide red-carpeted steps, tangled with the enemy.

Leah hit the stone hard, her ribs protesting. One guard landed atop her, blade ready, but she drove her foot into his chest and kicked him off her.

She rolled to a crouch, just in time to see Ibbi and Gabriel still tumbling down, each with a guard attacking them mid-fall.

Two more guards remained above. As they stood they raised their glaives high, and frost began to gather on the blades.

The guards brought their weapons down, and an explosion of ice ripped through the staircase, blasting down in a shimmering wave. Leah surged to the side and took flight, narrowly dodging the cascade of deadly frost. Shards of ice licked at her boots as she spun into the air and steadied herself.

Leah then spread out her arms and unleashed a barrage of blood tendrils. They fired out from her like red javelins, aiming for the two guards still on the steps.

The guards responded instantly. With unnatural speed and coordination, they slashed and parried, cutting down the tendrils as they came. Then they leapt into the air, glaives flashing. As they ascended, they fired arcing slashes of ice towards Leah.

Leah twisted midair, weaving between the icy crescents. She spun just in time to deflect the glaive of one of the guards. A battle in the air then erupted.

Tendrils whipped and snapped. Ice attacks flared through the air like frost comets.

Leah parried a strike, dodged another, then sent a tendril coiling around one guard’s glaive. It slithered up the shaft like a snake, coiling around the guard’s forearm.

With a yell, Leah yanked hard, spinning the guard in midair, and then slammed him into a nearby pillar. Cracks webbed through the marble as the guard peeled off and plummeted to the floor.

She turned just as the second airborne guard lifted his glaive and slashed at her, releasing a massive wave of frost.

Leah activated Blood Armour.

A crimson sheen flared across her body as she flew straight through the icy blast. Frost crackled against her armour, but she didn’t stop. She thrust her blade forward, straight for the gap between the guard’s eyes. Steel met flesh.

Her sword stabbed deep into the guard’s skull. She pulled her sword free and then shoved her palm into his face, sending a tendril to burrow into his head. She pumped blood into him, and then with a final kick, she launched him towards the ground.

Panting, she hovered in place and glanced downwards.

Below, Ibbi and Gabriel had regrouped and were fighting together, fending off the two guards on them. The one Leah had thrown on the pillar earlier had recovered and was now rushing towards them.

Leah lifted and aimed her hand at all of them. Dozens of tendrils burst from her palm. They shot through the air, wrapping tightly around the limbs of all three guards.

Before they could move, Leah pumped more blood into the tendrils, thickening them like constricting muscle.

Like a python, the tendrils coiled around the guards, binding them completely. The hobgoblins struggled violently, but it was too late.

Leah crushed them into cocoon-like prisons. The tendrils inside of her cocoon pierced the guards, injecting them with her blood.

Moments passed. Then the tendrils unraveled.

The guards collapsed to the floor, their skin now a red hue.

Leah descended, chest rising and falling. They had beaten the guards.

She turned and released two tendrils that embedded into Ibbi and Gabriel again, healing them further.

Then a chill ran up her spine. The hairs on her neck stood. She turned sharply, and looked up.

There, at the top of the staircase, stood the snow goblin king.

His unsheathed glowing white longsword rested lazily in his hand, his cold eyes sweeping over the fallen guards.

He uttered a single word. "Useless."

Then, he raised his sword.

Leah’s eyes went wide. She quickly grabbed Ibbi and Gabriel with tendrils and flew back at full speed.

The Goblin King swung his sword downwards, and unleashed a wave of frost so powerful it turned the world white. Everything it touched froze solid.

Leah skidded to a halt. She exhaled, and her breath came out clouded and white.

Then, from the swirling mist of frost ahead, a shadow moved forward. The king was coming.