Conquering His Cold Heart

Karrick charged forward with precision; his spear aimed directly at Frost's heart. He held nothing back as internal energy filled his weapon.

"[Piercing flame]" Fire erupted from the spear's shaft and spread across its entire frame, covering it in a protective cloak. Tails of fire grew from the butt of the spear, pushing the weapon forward, increasing Karrick's thrust. This [piercing flame] was an adept level spear skill of the fire element, equal to Frost's [wyvern's maw].

Frost fully prepared this time stood his ground, flourishing his glaive in an attempt to parry the oncoming spear. The speed and force behind Karrick's attack was well within his capabilities to withstand, the addition of the fire element however was something he struggled to quantify without personally experiencing it.

He activated no skills of his own given his superior level of weapon mastery instead he gripped his glaive hard with both hands and covered the blade edge with thick tendrils of cold flame chakra. He waited for the right moment and swung, hard.

Clang!

The sound of metal crashing into metal was heard as Karrick's spear collided with Frost's glaive. The spear that shot dead ahead was pushed to the side and brought to a complete stop, but the red flames wrapped around the spear continued to fiercely battle against Frost's silver flames and quite surprisingly they were starting to win.

Schwing

Karrick struggling to compete against Frost in terms of physical strength pulled back his spear and readied himself for another attack. From that simple exchange he was able to work out where he stood in this battle. His physical strength, speed, reaction and even weapon mastery were below Frost's but thanks to their local environment as well as his element he possessed an advantage.

As long as he leveraged it correctly victory may yet be his this day.

Frost frowned as Karrick pulled away, he too noticed that although his silver flames were less burdened by the environment than ice they didn't receive any enhancements.

"Interesting." He smiled and reapplied the snuffed out cold flames to the glaive's blade edge. Then with quick steps he went on the attack and again he utilised no skills so as to accurately weigh in his opponent. He did however add a little kick to his cold flames. Wind from the equipped engraving bolstered the silver fire, kicking it into high gear.

Karrick fully expecting Frost to attack was light on his feet. His spear was embalmed in flame chakra as it quickly pierced the air and stabbed at Frost's glaive for about a millisecond before swiftly retreating. An instant later another deadly stab was shot out before once again pulling back a moment later.

Karrick's spear shot out three times in quick succession, each thrust cutting away at the momentum behind Frost's attack. And with each thrust Karrick took one step backwards, distancing himself from his attacker.

With three steps and three thrusts Frost's slash was defused of nearly half its strength, leaving a mere husk of a blow, one that Karrick could easily handle but that was not the end of his movements. The three steps allowed him to build up momentum which was used the moment Frost extended himself and his spear had returned to its origin for the third time.

Karrick's lips turned upwards as his entire body tensed and starting from his feet a sudden surge of power rose up through his legs. With but a simple twist the momentum he had built up was transferred to his arms and back all of which allowed him to thrust out his spear at a speed incomparable to the previous thrusts.

And this blow was not aimed at Frost's glaive but at himself, his face to be exact. The spear was a weapon of devasting speed, and he was on the receiving end of a perfect display.

Frost panicked slightly not expecting such a fierce reprisal from Karrick. He saw the spear at his side and the next moment the sharp tip was inches away from his face. He fiercely twisted and rotated his neck to avoid the attack, but he wasn't quick enough to avoid injury.

A red scaled lizardman stood with his spear outstretched, ruby red blood covering the tip.

Drip Drip ssss ssss Stay tuned with m,v le,mpyr

The blood dripped down onto the red hot ground and boiled away in but a few seconds, leaving not but a strong smell of blood in the air.

Opposite to the lizardman was a handsome elf with a deep wound running across the middle of his face. The elf looked to be in a state of shock, he brought his hand up to his wound and flinched the instant his finger made contact, it hurt and not just a little.

Frost and Karrick stayed in this state for a few seconds before pulling back at the exact same time.

Karrick though the clear victor of the recent exchange trembled from head to toe, his heart screaming for him to get away from Frost. It was just for a moment, but Frost released the full extent of his aura. He felt death grip his heart, like a spectre looming over him waiting to deprive him of his life. He knew that Frost had been going easy on him so far, but he didn't know by how much….now he did.

Frost meanwhile felt the wound that stretched from one side of his face to the other, cutting deep across his nose. It stung and continued to bleed profusely. He had underestimated Karrick once again. While he acted like some sort of superior who was merely playing along in a spar Karrick was fighting as if his life depended on it.

He withdrew a mid-level health potion from his spatial ring and downed 80% of the contents and splashed the remaining 20% directly on the wound. Karrick simply waited for his elder brother to finish, too nervous to take action beforehand.

"…..That counter of yours…is quite deadly Karrick." Once the pain went away and he could feel the wound across his face closing Frost turned to face his younger brother with a chilling gaze. It was clear that he was done messing around, his aura even started to envelop him and radiate outward.

Karrick grimaced as pressure assailed his body "It's a technique of the Blazing flash spear style of which I am a student of." He channelled his pseudo aura to fight against the pressure threatening to overwhelm his body before explaining its origins.

"Blazing flash spear style?" Frost had heard rumours of weapons style schools but never came across one personally. Furano was rather lacking in that regard.

A weapon style such as the Blazing flash spear supports the user's weapon mastery and known skills with a unique fighting style that incorporates unique steps, moves and techniques such as the counter Karrick just pulled off. No internal energy or chakra is used, instead it relies solely on his skill with the spear.

It's a shame that despite being rather common across Nova, Furano held no such schools. The capital Arkheart had plenty but Frost had yet to visit and with the ongoing political situation he'd likely be unable to do so for quite a while. He was now slightly jealous of his younger brother but that could be addressed later. Now, it was time for him to let loose for real.

Frost's aura was released without restraint, greatly increasing his presence as well as the physical capabilities of his already powerful body. The cold flames that were wrapped around his body and glaive seemed to evolve, forcibly cooling the surrounding temperature. There was even a layer of frost appearing around the hem of his robes.

Karrick stood his ground with heavy limbs, his pseudo aura protecting him from the majority of the pressure but not so much the instinctual fear that he felt. Frost was dangerous, an opponent far beyond his current skills even with the homefield advantage but despite his fear his face showed an expression of ecstasy, unadulterated joy.

He wanted to fight such a battle, to put everything he had into a fight without having to worry about anything else. The chaos of the battles around him were but a distant whisper.

He could no longer hear the cries of monsters dying, his subordinates cheering him on or the enemy carving their way towards his core, no all he witnessed was the man standing before him with his glaive resting on his shoulders, staring at him with a frigid gaze.

"Round 2 brother." He readied his spear and wreathed himself in flames no less vibrant than Frost's.

"Round 2 Karrick." Frost nodded his head before pointing forward with his left hand. [Freezing fireball]" With a short aria he summoned a ball of silver flames and shot it directly at Karrick.

Karrick knowing that shit just got real didn't relax for a moment. He strafed to the right to avoid the ball of freezing fire while at the same time casting his own magic -which to be honest wasn't exactly his forte.

"[Fireball]" Responding with the regular version a ball of red flames that was at least 30% smaller was fired back at Frost.

"[Freezing fireball]" Frost countered back by summoning two balls of ice fire and moving to the left. The first [freezing fireball] exploded upon on contact with Karrick's but the second carried on ahead preventing him from double backing.

"[Wyvern's maw]" A moment later in the shadow of the second [freezing fireball] a large wyvern's maw infused with aura and cold flames flew after Karrick from the left leaving him little wiggle room.

"Shit!"