Arcane: The Gods Want Me to Pick a Route

Chapter 217: Bear Spirit’s Roar (EC)

"Awoo!"

Beneath the piercing howl of a wolf, a snow-white wolf burst from the forest, stretching its massive body beneath the night sky and the firelight. The woman riding it had a cloak whipping violently in the freezing wind, her white hair fluttering like willow catkins in a gale. Raising her beautiful face, she lifted the ice bow in her hand high and shouted in fury:

"My name is Ashe! Reborn Avarosa! Everyone here, hear my command!"

"Donna, take the Winter’s Claw warriors and set up a defensive line. Do not charge forward. Your priority is rescuing the wounded clan warriors!"

"Hildhur, work with Donna and get the injured out of there! Gouma, take a team and help the elders and children of this clan. Make sure every last one of them evacuates safely!"

"Sejuani—"

The white wolf landed. Ashe sat atop it with bow in one hand and reins in the other. She turned the wolf around and looked at Sejuani, hesitating for a moment.

"Say it," Sejuani replied calmly from Bristle’s back.

She knew this was not the time to fight Ashe for authority. After all, the Avarosans had a far better reputation than the Winter’s Claw. If Ashe announced her name, this clan being slaughtered by a demon would feel hope blooming out of despair.

But if Sejuani shouted that the Winter’s Claw had arrived, the clan would only panic even more. They might even believe the demon attacking them was working with the Winter’s Claw.

With that in mind, Sejuani naturally chose the bigger picture.

"You, Tryndamere, and Fura go help Logan!"

The moment Sejuani heard that, she urged Bristle forward and charged toward Logan.

But she had only just rushed over when Logan’s body came flying backward, sent more than fifty meters through the air before finally stopping beside Fura.

And in his hands, one on the left and one on the right, he was carrying a middle-aged woman and a little girl.

Naya’s body trembled, her lips pale white as Logan held her tucked under one arm. She stared blankly at the people in front of her.

W-we’re saved?

The Avarosan Warmother came to help them?

That thought flashed through her mind, and then she suddenly cried out for her mother and looked toward Roaldo. She saw that the bleeding from her mother’s wound had already stopped. Roaldo was not Iceborn, but she did carry a faint trace of the ice-bloodline. She could touch True Ice for a short time, and you could tell from her half-gray, half-brown hair.

Logan set Roaldo and Naya down, then rolled his neck, stretched his body, and bared his teeth as he looked toward the towering monster ahead.

Aatrox, the Darkin Blade.

Logan had already become very strong. In terms of sheer power alone, he considered himself among the absolute peak of humanity, especially when it came to raw strength. Logan almost never lost there.

He was even confident enough to test strength against Jax. After all, Jax’s near-demigod status came more from his own martial prowess. In terms of combat skill, Jax had reached a level far beyond Logan, and Logan obviously couldn’t compare to him in pure technique or killing power.

But in raw strength?

Even if Logan was weaker than Jax, the gap probably shouldn’t have been that huge... right?

And yet when he had just clashed with Aatrox, he had been smacked clean away in a single blow.

Damn it.

That made Logan start seriously wondering how Atreus, after losing the War Aspect’s power, had managed to cut off Aatrox’s arm in the first place.

No, really.

Was this thing actually something a human could fight?

Even if Aatrox had been careless, his physical strength was not something a mortal like Atreus should have been able to challenge head-on.

Or were Aspect weapons really just that absurd?

Aatrox’s current strength was already infinitely close to demigod level.

And if this had been Ascended-era Aatrox...

Heh.

Then the smartest move would’ve been to run immediately.

"Can we really do this?"

Ashe lowered her head and looked at Logan, worry flashing in her eyes.

Aatrox was simply too large. His whole body was black and radiated bloodlust, and that pair of enormous horns only made it worse. Under the moonlight, the pressure he gave off was overwhelming—so overwhelming that Ashe felt like if all of them rushed him together, they’d just be throwing themselves into the meat grinder.

"Of course we can," Logan answered after glancing at her.

And he wasn’t bluffing.

From the exchange just now, Logan had already gotten a feel for it.

Even though he himself was far stronger now than he had been in Bilgewater, Aatrox still genuinely wasn’t on the level of Nagakabouros.

Of course, Aatrox was unbelievably powerful. At full strength, he could absolutely kill Nagakabouros.

But that wasn’t the issue.

From a timeline perspective, this seemed to be right around when Aatrox had only just started becoming active in the Freljord. Which meant Logan guessed he had only recently been dug up, and had used the people of the Freljord to assemble a temporary body for himself.

Because he wasn’t particularly skilled in blood magic despite possessing monstrous power, Aatrox could only stitch together a body using the corpses of living creatures.

In other words, the giant monster in front of them had effectively been cobbled together from mangled flesh and broken corpses. Aatrox needed constant slaughter to replenish blood energy and maintain his body. Without that body, in his Darkin greatsword form, he couldn’t do anything at all.

All Darkin were like that.

He couldn’t even do what other Darkin could and use blood magic to lure living things closer to him.

And as for why he didn’t just find a host and possess them like the others?

That was because Aatrox’s original power was simply too overwhelming. An ordinary human body couldn’t serve as a proper vessel for him. He’d burn through it after a short time and have to replace it, which would only consume even more blood energy.

Even Tryndamere’s body was barely acceptable in Aatrox’s eyes.

And in the Freljord, Tryndamere’s physical ability was only slightly below people like Braum and Olaf.

So in the end, the truth was simple: Aatrox just couldn’t find a body suitable enough for himself. Without the right vessel, and without real mastery over blood magic, Aatrox could not display his true power.

As time moved forward and he later drove a horde of barbarians to the foot of Mount Targon, the Aatrox of that era had already slaughtered at least thousands of Freljordians. Naturally, his blood energy would have been abundant, and he would have become much stronger.

But right now?

Logan felt like this version of Aatrox was someone he could actually fight.

And if they could beat him and force Aatrox back into his true sword form, then the number of things Logan could do with that would be endless.

Throw Aatrox straight into one of Icathia’s Void rifts and let him go fight the Void.

Wouldn’t that be perfect?

"Together!" Logan shouted.

With a shake of his right hand, a sword forged from stormwind formed in his grip, and he charged straight at Aatrox.

Beside him, Fura—her white hair trailing behind her like a wolf’s tail—heard the call. She crossed her hands at her waist and drew out two short daggers.

They were both True Ice daggers.

Among everyone present, if you excluded Udyr—the demigod-level fighter standing by in reserve—then the strongest were naturally Logan and Fura.

As an ice-blooded warrior who had lived for more than four hundred years, trained and molded by Lissandra herself, Fura no longer truly belonged within the category of humanity.

Her body blurred into an afterimage as she followed close behind Logan.

After her came Tryndamere, gripping his great blade, no longer able to suppress his fury after laying eyes on Aatrox.

"Bristle, hit him!"

Sejuani moved too, charging from the flank atop her drüvask boar, while Ashe raised her sacred bow, condensed a long arrow of ice in her right hand, aimed— and fired.

Faced with a group rushing him all at once, Aatrox seemed angered.

"What exactly is he babbling about?" mockery flashed in Sejuani’s eyes as she shouted toward him again. "Can you even speak like a normal person?"

The flail flew from her hand, turning into freezing ice as it slammed into Aatrox’s left leg, and Ashe’s arrow hit an instant later, striking him in the waist.

Fura leapt several meters into the air and landed at Aatrox’s shoulder. Bringing both daggers together overhead, she drove them down hard into the left side of his face.

The terrifying part of True Ice weapons wasn’t their sharpness. It was the fact that anything other than those with the ice-bloodline would begin freezing wherever a True Ice weapon struck.

As a result, Aatrox’s body was already covered in a layer of frost. It was only a thin layer, but it still slowed his movements.

Logan rushed at Aatrox’s chest, thrusting the sword in his hand toward his heart.

"#￥@, I—"

"I’m saying this: no matter how many insects there are, they’re still just insects!"

A strange look flashed through Logan’s eyes as he stared at Aatrox’s throat.

The flesh there twisted and rolled, as if trying to force something into shape.

At last, Aatrox began speaking Valoran.

His voice was hideously unnatural, as though it mixed the sounds of children and women together.

But then it shifted again, becoming a low, hoarse male roar.

"And a swarm of vermin dares challenge me?!"

Aatrox felt no pain.

After all, his true body was a sword. A body made from stitched-together corpses had no senses to begin with.

So he simply ignored the attacks from Fura and Ashe and kept his eyes locked on Logan.

The massive Darkin blade rose high—

and then smashed downward at Logan’s face.

Logan reacted instantly and raised his sword overhead.

"Condensing Wind Slash!"

Wind gathered around the blade, turning into crescent-like scythes of air.

But under Aatrox’s monstrous strength, Logan’s attack barely did anything at all. Instead, he himself was blasted away yet again in a single strike.

But just as Logan stabilized himself, facing Aatrox head-on, his right hand tightened around the sword. Air flowed into his mouth, and a violent gust hissed between his teeth. Green light flared in his grip, and in the next moment, the hand holding the invisible blade ripped sharply upward in a direct slash at Aatrox’s face.

Draw Slash!

This was Logan’s most lethal move at the moment, the strongest killing technique in his wind swordsmanship.

Sword energy tore outward for dozens of meters. Shattered ice along the path was hurled skyward by the Draw Slash, and beneath the countless fragments of floating frost, Logan’s figure disappeared once again.

When he reappeared, his blade was already slashing at Aatrox’s right arm—the arm holding the sword.

He wanted to imitate Atreus, sever the link between Aatrox and this body, and knock him offline.

But amid the shards of ice flying through the air, Aatrox’s savage face reflected from every floating fragment.

And Aatrox was laughing.

Blood energy burst out of him in waves, and his shrill laughter shook the entire forest. In an instant, the Ice Needle Forest rang with the cries of fleeing beasts in the darkness.

Birds and animals scattered in all directions. Aatrox stared at Logan with satisfaction, hunger gleaming in his wicked eyes.

"Now that’s more like it!"

The blood energy pulled at the greatsword.

The moment Aatrox raised his arm, Sejuani and Bristle were both blown away by the pressure of the wind. Fura sprang agilely from his shoulder, and Ashe’s arrows embedded in him all shattered into fragments of ice.

"I want your body!" the Darkin Blade shouted excitedly at Logan.

The massive blade turned upright before him, instantly ruining Logan’s plan to attack his arm. Then, with speed utterly at odds with his size, Aatrox lifted the Darkin broadsword—now like a gigantic shield—and thrust it straight at Logan’s face.

Clang!

The wind sword in Logan’s hand shattered. He immediately reached out to the side, formed another wind blade, and used it to block the heavy sword stabbing toward him.

By then, the people of the Icestone clan had already all been evacuated.

Udyr stood silently beside Ashe, his fists clenched tight.

Ashe, meanwhile, stared anxiously at the battle ahead, drawing her bow but unable to release another ice arrow.

Condensing those arrows took a tremendous amount of effort, and the ones she had just fired had done almost nothing to the Darkin.

That made her deeply anxious.

What frustrated her even more was that after Tryndamere had charged forward and then been swatted away like a bug by Aatrox, he hadn’t made another sound since.

Ashe wasn’t worried about his life. She knew Tryndamere’s body was abnormal. He had terrifying regenerative power, to the point that calling him immortal wouldn’t even be much of an exaggeration.

But even so, he still couldn’t take part in a battle like this.

"Udyr, are you still not going to move?" Ashe finally turned and shouted at the man beside her.

But before Udyr could answer, Logan yelled from the distance.

"Udyr, don’t interfere!"

Ashe froze.

Udyr, meanwhile, took a deep breath. He understood exactly what Logan meant.

Just like Lissandra could not make a move, Udyr also could not make a move right now.

If he called upon the spirits of the beasts to strengthen himself, Volibear would sense it immediately. Even though Udyr had never entered into a pact with Volibear, a demigod like that would never fail to notice when Udyr communed with other beast spirits.

And once that battle-loving maniac noticed...

Then it wouldn’t be long before he joined the war himself.

"It’s fine! I can still keep going!" Logan shouted.

He had never planned to truly defeat Aatrox outright.

What Logan was doing now was simply draining away Aatrox’s blood energy.

As long as he could withstand Aatrox’s attacks, that was enough.

"Sejuani, stay on support! Fura and I will handle the fighting!"

"Raelna, go get Tryndamere out of here. Once he wakes up, don’t let him come back into the fight!"

Logan shouted out the orders.

Raelna answered and ran quickly into the snow, where she found the unconscious Tryndamere.

His chest had caved in, and one broken rib had punched through and was jutting out of his chest.

But his breathing... was unbelievably steady.

That left Raelna genuinely astonished.

No wonder he could become Ashe’s bloodsworn.

That barbarian was pretty strange too.

Back on the main battlefield, Logan was badly injured under Aatrox’s savage attacks.

But under the effect of Lamb’s Respite, Logan’s rate of recovery far surpassed even Tryndamere’s.

Blessed and cherished by Kindred, Logan was the one who truly possessed an immortal body.

"Come on, then! Let’s see which one of us runs out of juice first!"

Logan raised his sword crosswise. His control over the elements frantically drew in the magical energy of the Freljord, reinforcing his body as he fought against Aatrox.

But after another round of collision—after Sejuani’s repeated use of True Ice had left her arms numb and stiff from the freezing backlash, after Fura had cut open Aatrox’s ankle and hindered his movement, and after Logan had coughed up several mouthfuls of blood— a roar suddenly exploded through heaven and earth.

ROAR!

In the crowd, Udyr abruptly lifted his head and looked northwest.

Far off in the distance—so far away it couldn’t even be measured—the sky was already swirling with storm clouds, and a giant phantom made of lightning, towering over a thousand meters high, had appeared.

Logan heard it too and turned toward the northwest.

"Shit!"

The moment he saw it, he cursed out loud.

"Looks like your plan failed, Logan," Udyr said as he stepped out from the crowd and slowly walked toward him.

His eyes began to glow as he continued, "Thinking about it, that makes sense. Even if Lissandra and I did nothing, the battle between you and the Darkin was still enough to wake Volibear from his sleep."

"Now Volibear is awake. He’ll be here soon. What do we do next?"

"What else is there to do? Fura, call Lissandra. She can’t stay out of this now," Logan said, suddenly feeling a headache coming on.

But honestly, he had considered from the very beginning that this might happen.

After all, the battle between himself and Aatrox had not truly reached the level of a demigod clash. Logan was still far from demigod level, while Aatrox, in his weakened Darkin state, was a shadow of what he had been. Compared to Ascended-era Aatrox, the current one was probably only about a tenth as strong.

Even the Darkin Blade at the peak of the Darkin War was still noticeably weaker than Ascended Aatrox had once been.

But even so, the disturbance they had caused was already massive.

The mammoth herds had fled the tundra because of Aatrox’s roar and bloodlust.

The beasts in the forest had been driven into a stampede by Aatrox’s blood energy.

Damn it.

In the end, Aatrox was the one making too much noise.

Realizing that, Logan didn’t hesitate any longer.

"Sejuani, get everyone out of here! Leave Aatrox to Udyr!"

Sejuani agreed at once. In fact, even if Logan hadn’t said it, she had already been planning to withdraw her people.

Because once the bear spirit roared, the Ursine would march south.

And the place they would march south toward...

would be the Winter’s Claw stronghold.

At the same time, Fura pulled back from Aatrox and moved to one corner. She slit open her palm with a dagger and began drawing strange runes on the ground with her blood.

She needed to tell Lissandra what had happened here.

Though Fura suspected Lady Lissandra had probably been watching this place the whole time already.

And Logan?

He was getting ready to call in reinforcements too.

Was this a joke...?

Swain, Janna, Karma—every last one of you, if you can come, get here now!

Because from this point on, this war would no longer be a battle between merely powerful supernatural beings.

The battlefield to come would belong to demigods.

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