Chapter 156: Monsters In The Middle Of Dinner [II]
Klaus stared at her.
He looked at the proud grieving noble daughter who was desperately searching for a reason to keep going and desperately trying to prove that she wasn’t just broken baggage.
Internally, Klaus let out a quiet sigh.
’She really has no idea that I’m the one who ruined her life,’ Klaus thought, the familiar bitter pang of irony touching his chest.
He didn’t refuse her.
Klaus reached over his shoulder, gripping the heavy leather sheath of his weapon.
With a metallic shing, he unslotted his massive Soul Broadsword and held it out toward her by the hilt.
"Knock yourself out," Klaus drawled lazily. "Just don’t dull the edge."
Tasha’s eyes lit up with gratitude. "Thank you!"
She reached out, wrapping both of her hands securely around the heavy, leather-wrapped hilt of the colossal broadsword.
"I’ve got it... WOAH!"
The exact second Klaus let go of the weapon, the sheer, unimaginable physical weight of the Soul Broadsword hit Tasha like a falling boulder.
"Hnngh?!" Tasha gasped with her arms violently dropping as the heavy iron blade plummeted toward the snow.
The sword weighed easily over two hundred pounds... a weapon forged for a divinely reconstructed titan like Klaus, not a standard mortal swords-woman.
The heavy tip of the blade slammed into the frozen ground with a loud crunch, nearly pulling Tasha face-first into the snowpack.
Her knees buckled violently with her boots skidding across the slippery ice as she fought with everything she had just to keep the weapon from dragging her down.
Her face instantly flushed red from the sudden massive physical exertion with the veins in her forearms bulging as she gasped for air.
’Holy light...’ Tasha screamed internally, her eyes wide with shock. ’How does he carry this thing with one hand?! It feels like it’s forged from solid lead!’
"Need help?" Klaus asked deadpan, propping his chin on his hand as he watched her struggle.
"N-No!" Tasha grunted through gritted teeth, her pride completely refusing to yield.
She took a deep breath, circulating her internal mana core.
Light blue magic flared around her boots and arms, reinforcing her muscle fibers.
With a heavy, agonizing grunt, Tasha forced her spine straight, hauling the massive broadsword up off the ground and resting the heavy flat of the blade over her shoulder.
She was panting heavily with sweat breaking out across her forehead despite the sub-zero wind, but she held the weapon.
"I can do this," Tasha whispered fiercely to herself, her blue eyes hardening into cold steel.
She turned away from the campfire and marched straight toward the approaching horde of monsters.
ROAAAR!
The lead Frost-Stalker let out a deafening growl, launching its massive, ice-armored bulk forward in a terrifying leap with its saber-teeth aimed directly for her throat.
Tasha didn’t panic as her little training kicked in.
She waited until the monster was five feet away, planted her boots firmly into the snowpack, and swung the colossal broadsword in a wide horizontal arc.
Because the sword was so heavy, she couldn’t rely on speed.
She used the weapon’s massive inertia, pouring her frost magic into the swing to accelerate the heavy iron blade.
KRA-SLASH!
The impact was brutal as the heavy edge of the Soul Broadsword struck the Frost-Stalker mid-air.
The monster’s natural ice-armor didn’t just crack... it shattered like cheap glass. The massive blade cleaved straight through the monster’s thick neck and chest, tearing out the other side in a spray of steaming dark blood.
The severed upper half of the beast flew ten feet into the snow, dead before it hit the ground.
’I did it!’ Tasha thought, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs as she spun around with the momentum of the heavy swing. ’It works! The blade is incredible!’
A second, emaciated dire wolf lunged at her from the left flank, snapping at her exposed thigh.
Tasha didn’t pull the sword back.
She reversed her footing, using the downward momentum of the broadsword to drive the heavy jagged tip directly backward in a blind thrust.
SHCK!
The broadsword impaled the dire wolf straight through its gaping maw, punching cleanly through its skull and pinning it to the frozen earth.
’Two down!’ Tasha thought triumphantly, panted heavily as she planted her boot on the dead wolf’s snout and yanked the heavy blade free.
Her mind was racing, fueled by a chaotic mix of adrenaline and desperate determination.
’I need to prove myself...’ Tasha repeated like a mantra, her vision blurring slightly from physical exhaustion as the heavy sword drained her mana reserves at a terrifying rate. ’I need to prove I’m not weak... I need to show them I’m worth keeping... I can’t be a burden... I have to pay them back... I have to—’
ROAAAR!
A third massive Apex Frost-Stalker... easily twice the size of the first one, covered in thick jagged spikes of black ice erupted from the blind spot directly behind her.
Tasha gasped, spinning around in the snow.
She tried to lift the broadsword to block, but her arms were trembling violently.
The weight of the oversized weapon, combined with the momentum of her previous swing, threw her center of gravity completely off balance.
Her left boot slipped on a patch of slick ice and her foot slid out from under her.
Her stance completely collapsed!
She was wide open as the massive black-ice armored beast was mid-air, its giant, razor-sharp claws extended, descending directly onto her unprotected chest.
’No!’ Tasha screamed mentally, her eyes widening in pure horror as death rushed toward her. ’Not like this—!’
Before the monster’s claws could touch a single strand of her hair, the world around her violently blurred.
SHHHHK!
A sudden overwhelming wave of intense suffocating heat hit her back like a physical wall of fire.
The scent of clean snow completely erased the stench of the monster’s breath.
Klaus materialized directly beside her.
He didn’t draw a secondary weapon.
Moving with casual velocity, Klaus stepped directly into her collapsed guard. He reached out with his broad muscled arms, coming up behind her.
His large, calloused right hand wrapped firmly over both of her trembling hands on the broadsword’s hilt, while his left hand pressed firmly against her right hip, physically hauling her slipping body back upright.
Tasha’s breath caught hard in her throat.
Her back was pressed flush against his broad iron-hard chest with his long silver hair blowing across her cheek.
The terrifying heat radiating from his divine core seeped through her furs, instantly flushing her freezing skin with warmth.
Before she could even register his presence, Klaus adjusted her footing with a subtle kick of his boot, instantly correcting her flawed stance.
With his iron grip locking her hands into place on the hilt, Klaus casually guided her arms, swinging the massive Soul Broadsword forward in a effortless perfect vertical arc.
KRA-BOOM!
The massive black-ice armored Frost-Stalker was mid-air when the blade met its skull.
The roaring, black-ice armored Frost-Stalker didn’t even have time to register its own annihilation.
The force Klaus funneled through the massive Soul Broadsword completely vaporized the beast into a wet, steaming cloud of crimson mist and shattered ice shards that sprayed fifty yards across the snowpack.
The howling wind blew the red fog away, leaving the frozen clearing dead silent once more.
Tasha stood frozen in Klaus’s grip.
Her small calloused hands were still locked around the hilt beneath his massive palms with her chest heaving in rapid ragged gasps as she stared at the empty space where the predator had been mid-air a microsecond prior.
Her heart was hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.
Her legs felt like lead, trembling violently from the physical strain of lifting a two-hundred-pound slab of iron, but the overwhelming heat radiating from Klaus’s broad chest pressed against her back kept her from collapsing onto the ice.
"Focus, Tasha." Klaus’s voice rumbled directly against her ear, carrying a cold unflinching authority that sent a shiver down her spine. "You’re leaning too far back on the swing. Keep your knees bent, or the weight will tear your shoulders straight out of their sockets."
Tasha bit her lower lip so hard she nearly drew blood.
A wave of intense embarrassment, frustration, and helpless indignation flared in her chest.
"I—I know!" Tasha gritted out, her voice raspy and breathless as she tried to pull her hands away from his grip. "It’s just... this sword is ridiculously heavy! How do you expect anyone to maintain proper footwork while swinging an entire iron anvil?!"
"I expect you to adapt," Klaus drawled deadpan into her ear. H
e didn’t release her hands. Instead, his iron grip tightened over her knuckles, manually forcing her arms back up into a high defensive guard. "Because the monsters out here aren’t going to pause the fight so you can complain about ergonomics. Look up."
Tasha gasped, her light blue eyes snapping toward the dark pine tree line.
Emerging from the shadow of the frozen cliffs were four more abominations.
Two heavily armored Frost-Stalkers, their saber-teeth dripping freezing saliva, prowled along the flank, while two massive emaciated dire wolves bounded through the snowpack directly toward them with their glowing red eyes locked onto her exposed throat.
"Master!" Mirela called out from near the campfire, her hand tightening around her moon-crystal staff as her goat ears were pinned back in alarm. "Should I—"
"Stay back, Mirela," Klaus commanded smoothly, his voice cutting through the wind. "Tasha wants to earn her dinner so let her work."
"W-Wait!" Tasha stammered, her mind racing in a sudden panic as the four beasts closed the distance. "Klaus, wait! My arms are completely numb! I can’t lift it again on my own!"
"I’m not asking you to lift it with your arms," Klaus instructed, his left hand remaining firmly planted on her right hip, physically holding her center of gravity stable against the slippery ice. "Drive from your hips... Use my momentum. When I say swing, release your breath and push."
Before Tasha could process the instruction, the two dire wolves launched themselves into the air with their gaping maws closing in from both sides simultaneously.
"Swing!" Klaus barked in her ear.
Klaus didn’t take over the movement entirely... he acted as a living indestructible frame behind her.
He twisted his hips, forcefully rotating her torso to the left while guiding her hands through the arc.
Tasha let out a sharp breathless gasp, releasing her held air as Klaus guided the movement.
KRA-SLASH!
The massive Soul Broadsword cut through the freezing air in a perfect horizontal crescent.
The heavy iron edge caught the first dire wolf squarely across its midsection with the momentum shearing cleanly through hide, bone, and muscle.
The blade didn’t even slow down... it carried through the arc, striking the second wolf mid-leap and slicing its lower jaw completely off.
Blood and severed limbs rained down across the snow.
’Holy light...’ Tasha thought, her eyes widening in mesmerized shock.
When she had tried to swing the weapon on her own, it had felt like trying to move a mountain... it was clumsy, incredibly slow, and wildly off-balance.
But with Klaus’s broad body anchored behind her, steering her hips and guiding her wrists, the two-hundred-pound weapon moved with the fluid grace of a razor blade.
It felt weightless.
"Don’t admire the scenery," Klaus’s voice cut through her shock, his tone completely flat. "The Stalkers are diving low. Plant your left boot."
The remaining two Frost-Stalkers dropped flat onto their bellies, sliding across the slick ice at terrifying speeds, aiming their razor-sharp ice-armored claws straight for Tasha’s ankles.
"I... I can use magic!" Tasha gritted out, her eyes hardening with fierce determination.
She didn’t just rely on Klaus’s physical force this time as Tasha tapped directly into the deepest recess of her internal core, circulating her mana.
A soft ethereal light-blue aura flared to life around her hands and arms.
It wasn’t the dense element of standard ice magic, nor was it the destructive plasma of an elemental.
It was Spirit Mana... a rare and highly refined form of magical energy designed specifically to resonate with and embody spiritual entities.
"Spirit Edge!" Tasha shouted, her voice echoing off the frozen cliffs.
She pushed her light-blue Spirit Mana directly into the hilt of Klaus’s broadsword, attempting to coat the heavy iron blade in a razor-sharp wave of spiritual force.
The light-blue aura flowed onto the steel... and then immediately sputtered out.
Without a contracted elemental spirit bound to her core to act as a catalyst, her Spirit Mana was unrefined and drastically weakened.
It leaked away into the ambient cold wind like smoke through a screen, unable to maintain a stable physical form on the heavy weapon.
’Dammit!’ Tasha cursed bitterly in her mind with her teeth grinding together as she felt the spell collapse. ’Without a spirit... my mana is practically useless! I’m just leaking energy!’
"Focus on the steel, not the flashy aura," Klaus grunted behind her, entirely unfazed by her failed spell. "You don’t need magic to break ice when you’re holding two hundred pounds of iron. Drive down!"
Klaus shifted his weight, pulling her upper body slightly backward while forcing her right knee to bend.
He guided her hands downward, driving the massive broadsword straight into the ice path of the sliding beasts like a guillotine.
KRA-CRUNCH!
The heavy tip of the broadsword slammed squarely through the skull of the first Frost-Stalker, pinning its head directly to the permafrost.
The impact shattered the ice-armor covering its back into thousands of tiny shards.