The air was filled with pungent sulfur, the smell of wet ash from acid-corroded concrete, and the nauseating metallic stench of heaps of corpses.
I stood on the half-collapsed watchtower, holding the empty nail gun.
The middle finger I just raised still hung stiffly in the air.
It was a stupid provocation. Suicidal, even.
The Wolf King, "Ironfang" Garza, stood three hundred meters from the ruined main gate.
He didn't roar or beat his chest like those low-level Beastmen. He just stood there quietly. His pitch-black heavy plate armor was carved with dizzyingly complex frost runes. Helmetless, his massive, scar-covered white wolf head was exposed to the cold wind, ice-blue eyes devoid of emotion.
Neither anger nor contempt.
Only absolute indifference, like looking at a dead ant on the road.
"System." My throat felt dry, like sand was stuck there. "Scan target."
The blue grid in my vision flickered, then shook violently, as if the graphics card was thermal throttling.
"Physical Damage Reduction 90%..."
I looked at the data, feeling like I swallowed a chunk of ice. "How do we fight this? This is like digging through a bank vault with a plastic spoon."
Garza moved.
Not a charge. Not even a run.
He just stepped forward. But with every step, a dull, rhythmic resonance traveled through the earth, like a heavy hammer striking the core of the world. Behind him, the two-meter-long, door-wide greatsword—[Winter's Bite]—dragged on the frozen soil. The tip scratched the ground not with friction, but with a tooth-aching shriek as if the fabric of space was being torn apart.
As he advanced, the surrounding temperature plummeted.
Blood pools froze into red ice shards instantly. Water vapor condensed into visible ice crystals, forming a white domain of death around him.
"Stop him! Don't let him near the wall!"
Ron screamed desperately from the flank tower.
"Loose! Armor-piercing arrows! Aim for the eyes!"
The air tore apart as thirty refined steel armor-piercing arrows whistled through the wind. They traced black parabolas of death, covering Garza's path perfectly.
Garza didn't even look up.
He just waved his black iron-gauntleted left hand casually, like shooing a fly.
The air in that area instantly "solidified."
The high-speed arrows hit an invisible gel wall five meters from Garza. White frost crawled up the shafts instantly, and the deadly kinetic energy was stripped away by extreme cold.
Then came the sound. Not the thud of arrows hitting flesh, but the crisp, fragile chiming of falling icicles.
Thirty arrows fell vertically like frozen dead birds, hitting the ground with a delicate tinkling sound. Some shattered into powder upon impact because the steel had become brittle as glass.
"Impossible..." Ron's eyes widened. "... how can steel shatter like glass?"
Garza didn't stop.
He stepped over the shattered arrows, looking calmly at the most conspicuous structure ahead—
Sarak's treasured "Heavy Ballista Tower" .
"Aim! Aim!"
On the tower, Sarak screamed shrilly, cranking the winch madly.
"Die! You giant white rug!"
Sarak slammed down the firing lever.
The massive steel leaf springs groaned in protest before releasing a thunderous snap that vibrated through the tower. The two-meter rebar blasted toward Garza's chest at subsonic speed with devastating kinetic energy.
This time, Garza didn't wave his hand.
He stopped.
Facing the giant steel nail capable of pinning a Siege Beast, he made a suffocating move.
He gripped the dragging greatsword with both hands and performed a simple upward slash.
Pure strength. Absolute speed.
A deafening metallic impact erupted, sharp enough to rupture eardrums. Sparks exploded like fireworks.
The subsonic rebar was hit precisely on the tip by the ice greatsword.
The terrifying kinetic energy didn't push Garza back a step. Instead, guided by the artifact-level sword, its direction was forcibly changed.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
The rebar was deflected like a boomerang, howling into the sky with even more terrifying rotation speed, before smashing deep into the cliff face hundreds of meters away.
Dead silence.
"Now, my turn."
Garza spoke for the first time. His voice wasn't loud, but it rolled over everyone's heart like heavy granite.
He raised the greatsword high.
Runes on the blade flashed madly, turning the black edge blindingly ice-blue. The ground shook violently, as if an ancient frost dragon was waking up underground.
"Sarak! Jump! Jump now!" I screamed down the pipe.
Too late.
Garza smashed the greatsword into the earth.
A blinding blue fissure spread rapidly from his sword tip, tearing through the earth like lightning, straight toward the steel tower.
The sound of structural failure began as a sharp snap, quickly overtaken by the roar of collapsing steel and concrete.
The fissure passed through the tower base.
Not an explosion.
But Structural Disintegration.
The sturdy base was instantly eroded by extreme cold. Steel lost toughness, and concrete lost strength. The ten-meter tower shattered under its own weight like a Lego toy dipped in liquid nitrogen.
"NO————!!!"
Sarak's scream was drowned in the cacophony of destruction. Her small figure fell with the tower, vanishing into the rising white ice dust.
Dust settled.
The ballista tower was now a pile of glistening, cold ruins.
Garza lowered the sword, letting it drag once more. He remained spotless, breathing rhythmically unchanged.
He looked up, ice-blue eyes locking onto Alex again.
He didn't smile. But that calm gaze was more despairing than any mockery. As if saying:
Is this your Industrial Revolution?
Is this your Physics?
In front of me, child's play.
"The defense line is gone..." Zayla trembled beside me.
"That was Sarak... the best engineer..."
I didn't speak.
I stared at the ruins, despairing blue light reflected in my lenses.
I took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to vomit.
"Everyone."
"Abandon the outer wall."
"Do not fight him in the open. That is suicide."
"Retreat into the alleys. Into the Zone C Ruins."
Zone C Ruins.
Wood splintered and concrete groaned as Garza walked through a wall.
To him, there were no doors; just walk through, and walls become doors.
Through the gap in the cover, I saw him slice through a three-story wooden watchtower like cutting a cardboard box.
"Scatter! Don't bunch up!"
I hid behind a rusty water tank, whispering into the nearest brass funnel embedded in the wall.
"Ron, archers to the roof! Shoot his eyes if he stops!"
"Bjorn, bait at junction A3! Lead that white monster into 'that' trap!"
Center of the Battlefield.
Garza stopped.
He stood at a crossroads, dead silence around him.
But I felt his ears twitching.
He could hear. The heartbeats are hiding like rats behind walls, under floors.
"Hide and seek?"
Garza smirked. He snapped the fingers of his left hand.
The sound of rapid crystallization filled the air, like a million tiny glass panes shattering at once.
The ground within fifty meters froze instantly. The temperature dropped to -40°C.
Fox sappers in the sewers found manhole covers frozen shut; Cat archers on roofs found tiles slippery as oil.
This Boss had a built-in AoE. He didn't need to find people; he just changed the environment, and people died.
Just then.
"Hey! Big Dog!"
Bjorn rushed out from an alley.
He hugged a huge, sparking wine barrel.
Inside wasn't wine, but Kaelas's Vintage High-Explosive Keg.
"Eat this! Bear Clan Special Brew!"
Bjorn roared, rolling the heavy keg like a bowling ball towards Garza.
Garza didn't even blink.
He just swatted it lightly with the flat of his ice sword.
A dull, heavy thud echoed as the blade struck the wood.
No explosion.
The moment the blade touched the wood, extreme cold penetrated. Gunpowder, fuse, and even air inside froze in a microsecond.
The keg became a giant ice block, rolling into a corner like trash.
"What..." Bjorn froze.
"Boring tricks."
Garza raised his hand and clenched it.
The wet, sickening sound of flesh being pierced broke the silence.
An ice spike shot out from the ground without warning, piercing Bjorn's thigh, pinning him to the ground.
"ARGH!!" Bjorn roared in pain.
Garza walked slowly toward the immobilized prey.
"This is your warrior?" Garza looked down at Bjorn. "Not even qualified to make me draw my sword."
"Screw... Screw you..." Bjorn spat bloody saliva onto Garza's shiny boot. "Our boss... will take you apart..."
Garza frowned, disgusted by the stain. He raised the greatsword.
Now.
I took a deep breath and pulled the lever beside me.
"Ron! Fire!"
The tension cables supporting the buildings parted with sharp, whip-like reports.
Not arrows.
But the support pillars of the surrounding four buildings.
These dilapidated buildings were modified into gravity traps. Their load-bearing pillars were sawed halfway through, held only by ropes.
Now, the ropes snapped.
Four three-story concrete buildings, totaling over two hundred tons of debris, collapsed inward simultaneously.
Target: Garza.
The earth roared, and the ground convulsed as hundreds of tons of debris crashed down, drowning out the blizzard.
Dust covered the sky.
The entire block was flattened. Garza disappeared completely under a mountain of reinforced concrete.
"Got him?" Ron asked nervously from a distant roof.
I stared at the ruins, sweat on my palms.
However.
A chilling, grinding noise emanated from deep within the ruins.
Not stone breaking. But the stone is frozen and shattered.
Blue-white cold mist seeped out from the cracks.
"Is this... all?"
The low voice came through the heavy debris, calm and arrogant.
A blinding blue shockwave blasted outward into the sky.
The concrete slabs pressing on him were blown away instantly. Or rather, shattered into powder.
Garza walked out.
His black iron plate armor finally had a scratch, and some dust on his shoulder.
That was all.
The "Gravity Trap" was just a minor annoyance to him.
"No..." I felt my blood run cold.
Garza patted the dust off his shoulder and looked up at my hiding spot.
"Human, done with your block games?"
He pointed the sword tip at me.
"Now, it's my turn."
Garza is basically Thanos with a sword.
Question of the Day: How do you kill something that ignores physics?
(Click to formulate a strategy)
?? A) More physics.
Result: The Newton Protocol. If force doesn't work, you aren't using enough. There is no problem in the universe that cannot be solved by applying sufficient acceleration to a heavy object. Strategy: Kinetic Bombardment.
?? B) Run.
Result: The Cardiorespiratory Failure. You can run, but he has Agility stats higher than a cheetah on espresso. You'll just die tired. Survival Chance: 0%.
?? C) Wait for the plot twist.
Result: Buffering... The Author is typing furiously. The Plot Armor is currently charging at 99%. Please do not disconnect. Loading...
Follow and Rate. The final duel approaches.