novelraw Chapter 81 : Frost Dragon
Chapter 81 : Frost Dragon
After clearing the third floor, Thomas didn’t rush to lead the group into the fourth.
The first expedition had only reached the third floor, so all intelligence stopped there. Beyond that was uncharted territory. As a seasoned adventurer, he knew they had to be ready for anything—because nobody could predict what kind of monsters awaited on the next floor.
So Thomas decided they would rest for half a day on the spot, recovering their spent stamina and mana to ensure they entered the fourth floor in peak condition.
Veteran adventurers never forced themselves to attempt requests beyond their means.
To complete a commission safely and efficiently—that was the mark of a professional.
Still…
“There’s been losses…”
Thomas muttered, glancing at the resting adventurers.
The third floor’s difficulty was far beyond the second.
Stronger monsters, more complex formations—clearing it required both raw strength and tight coordination.
Even with the Blue Falcon absorbing most of the pressure at the front, many C-rank teams had suffered casualties, and even B-ranks weren’t spared.
Several teams had already slipped away quietly from the expedition.
Only a few A-rank parties still maintained decent strength, but exhaustion was written all over them.
“Is this the limit?”
Winnie’s voice came from nearby.
“The deeper you go, the harder it gets. We already had to give everything just to clear the third. The fourth floor… probably impossible.”
“Mm.”
Thomas nodded.
“By my estimate, the fourth floor would require at least three S-rank teams working together just to stand a chance.”
“And your decision?”
“Forward.”
Thomas crossed his arms.
“At this stage, accurate intel is more valuable than any materials we gather. It’s the only guarantee that this expedition won’t be a loss. As long as we can secure some information on the fourth floor, we’ll withdraw. I’ll give the order when the time comes. As for the others… they’ll likely follow suit.”
“Hah, sounds just like you.”
“I just know my limits.”
Time ticked away.
The great door at the end of the third floor hung silently in the air, waiting for them to enter.
Once everyone was ready, Thomas was the first to push open the gate to the fourth floor.
As before, nothing beyond the doorway could be seen until one stepped through. Chris entered first, Thomas close behind, then Winnie and Kate. The other adventurers exchanged glances, then followed.
Unlike the pitch-black depths of the earlier floors—
The instant they stepped into the fourth, an icy gale slammed into them. Every patch of exposed skin burned as if whipped by shards of ice.
Before them stretched a boundless frozen wasteland.
A pale, lifeless light seeped through rents in the leaden gray clouds, glinting off the iron-hard permafrost beneath their feet.
The cold bit to the marrow; every breath escaped as a long white plume. The air was so still, so silent, it made one’s heart clench.
In the distance, jagged black peaks of ice jutted like the fangs of titans into the oppressive sky.
“Whoa, this floor is way too vast!”
Chris gaped.
The others frowned. This wasn’t a labyrinth floor—it was an entire world. The endless plain of ice and snow stretched to the horizon, nothing but frozen ground and pale sky.
The ice underfoot was rock-solid, a thin blanket of snow crunching beneath each step with sharp squeaks that grated on the nerves.
An unseen pressure weighed down on everyone. Seasoned adventurers instinctively tightened their grips on weapons, eyes sweeping the barren expanse and the brooding clouds above.
“Stay sharp. Forward,” Thomas ordered.
The group nodded, following him straight out from the gate.
They walked a hundred meters, yet the distant peaks looked no closer.
Whether it was simply too far, or just another illusion of the labyrinth—they couldn’t tell.
Suddenly, without warning, a gale of frigid wind tore across the ice field. It carried jagged shards of ice that lashed their faces.
The shrieking gust howled like tortured ghosts.
Thomas snapped his head up, pupils narrowing.
Winnie’s hand flew to her sword hilt. Chris and Kate braced, taut as bowstrings.
The pallid clouds above churned violently, ripping apart.
From within came a hoarse, guttural roar.
Then—a colossal shadow broke through the clouds, and their breath caught.
Its entire body was armored in scales the color of ancient glacial ice, each plate shimmering with a deathly chill. Vast frozen wings beat the air, lifting its titanic bulk as it circled in the sky, casting a pall of death over the intruders below.
Twin eyes of frozen blue—like imprisoned stars—glared down coldly at them.
“A Frost Dragon…”
Faces went white.
Dragon-type monsters—the absolute last thing any adventurer wanted to fight, especially on open ground.
Most of the time, once a dragon took to the skies, humans were powerless.
Officially, dragons were only ranked S-class. But in truth, slaying one was far beyond what even S-rank adventurers could achieve.
Not even three teams—thirty wouldn’t suffice. Against a Frost Dragon in the skies, they were helpless.
And while the adventurers stood frozen in dread—
The dragon opened its jaws wide.
A suffocating chill surged in its throat, compressing into a vortex of blinding frost visible to the naked eye.
“Scatter! Find cover!”
Thomas barked instinctively.
But what cover was there on an open ice plain?
The next instant, the Frost Dragon dove.
Its breath erupted downward like a flood of glacial death, drowning the land.
Adventurers scrambled to dodge.
The slower ones were caught. They froze solid in an instant, statues of ice.
The survivors barely had time to breathe—
Before the dragon’s wings beat, summoning a dozen titanic spears of ice.
They hurtled down like giant javelins hurled by unseen gods, shrieking as they tore the air.
“Rrraaaaghhh!”
Thomas roared, muscles bulging, swinging his greatsword in a black blur.
The massive blade became an impenetrable wall.
Ice spears slammed into it with deafening blasts, shards exploding. The force spiderwebbed cracks across the ice beneath his feet. He gritted his teeth, refusing to give an inch, holding off the barrage that would have impaled those behind him.
Winnie was already a phantom, weaving and flipping through the deadly rain of ice with impossible grace.
The others weren’t so lucky.
Screams tore through the gale.
A shield and the arm behind it were skewered together. A man’s weapon was smashed aside, his body hurled broken and bleeding. Another was pinned to the ice, lifeblood freezing into crimson blossoms.
Death.
The ice field became a slaughterhouse.
“This floor’s on a whole other level from the first three?!”
Chris cursed furiously.
“What lunatic designed a labyrinth like this?!”
“Kate! Can you hit its eye?!”
Thomas bellowed as he fended off another barrage.
Kate already had his bow drawn, a special armor-piercing arrow glowing faintly with magic.
He steadied his breath, ignoring the chaos—the howling wind, the rain of ice, the screams of dying comrades. His focus locked on the Frost Dragon’s glacial eyes.
Twang!
The bowstring thrummed.
The arrow streaked through the cold, a shaft of light aimed straight for the beast’s right eye.
The Frost Dragon’s eyelid lowered, just slightly.
The arrow struck true at the dragon’s eye—but the thick layer of crystalline ice armor above it deflected the shot. Only a faint white mark remained before the arrow was flicked away, vanishing into the storm.
That trivial attack only enraged the Frost Dragon.
With a deafening roar, its massive body descended, trailing a storm of icy wind. In its throat, frigid energy condensed—ready to unleash its breath at point-blank range and annihilate everyone.
“This is the chance!”
Thomas and Winnie surged forward instead of retreating.
At the instant the Frost Dragon neared the ground, Winnie dashed toward Thomas. Their eyes met, and in that instant Thomas understood. He swung his massive sword sideways like a steel platform.
Winnie leapt. Her light frame landed on the flat of the blade, and like an arrow from a bowstring, she shot into the sky.
Her sword flashed from its sheath, lightning-quick, cutting straight toward a single inverted scale on the Frost Dragon’s neck!
Time itself seemed to freeze. The dragon’s movements slowed, its breath faltered.
The tip of her blade was about to strike—
Then the Frost Dragon roared. From its jaws erupted a visible wave of ice-blue energy, rippling outward in all directions.
Woom!
Her sword plunged into the wave, as if into viscous glue, its speed cut sharply.
Sparks screamed as steel scraped against scale. The screech was enough to set teeth on edge. Not even a scratch was left on the dragon’s armor.
The backlash traveled down her sword. Winnie grunted, her arm shuddered violently—and the overwhelming force hurled her through the air. She crashed hard onto the ice below.
Thomas leapt and caught her mid-fall, handing her off to Chris the moment he landed.
“Retreat!”
Thomas roared.
“Everyone back to the gate! I’ll hold it off—fall back!”
But his words had barely left his mouth when another storm of ice spears rained down from above.
Despair coiled around every heart like a serpent of frost.
Thomas whirled his greatsword, intercepting the falling spears.
The survivors, faces pale with terror, sprinted toward the lone gate that shimmered faintly at the edge of the ice field.
They shoved, stumbled, clawed their way forward, cursing their legs for not being faster.
Thomas blocked what he could, covering their retreat.
At last, the first few adventurers reached the door. One man hurled himself against its swirling black surface with all his strength.
Bang!
He slammed into it as if into a wall of steel. Blood spurted from his nose as he was thrown back, dizzy, crashing onto the ice.
The others, unable to stop, collided in turn. The result was the same.
“What’s happening?!”
“The door won’t open!”
“Why?!”
Panic replaced all hope.
Thomas’s heart sank.
He rushed to the gate, pressed his palm against it. Cold, unyielding—like a single solid block of glacial ice fused with the world itself.
When they had entered, there had been no barrier. But now it was immovable.
A one-way passage.
“No… no, that’s not it!”
Thomas suddenly realized.
“This is… a boss room!”
Some boss rooms didn’t allow escape until the boss was defeated. Seasoned adventurers had heard of such things before. But none had expected an entire space this vast to be one.
Now it made sense—there hadn’t been a true boss on any of the earlier floors.
Because the real boss had been waiting here all along.
If they wanted to leave, there was no choice.
They had to defeat the Frost Dragon circling overhead.
Above, the dragon’s shadow fell again. Its frigid eyes locked onto the desperate humans below.
Frost gathered once more in its throat, heralding their doom.
“…So this is the end?”
Even Thomas, hardened by countless battles, had no answer.
The gap in power was too vast.
Between the third floor and the fourth yawned a gulf like heaven and earth.
Winnie clenched her sword hilt, biting her lip.
“Was her pursuit of a free life truly going to end here?”
She refused to accept it.
But she wasn’t the only one. Every face was ashen, yet none were ready to surrender.
Adventuring was always dangerous. But to have come this far, each of them had survived countless brushes with death. Everyone knew—until the final moment, you never gave up.
And yet, before this overwhelming despair, even hope itself seemed crushed.
Among the panicked crowd—
A small figure, unnoticed until now, quietly stepped back to the rear.
She lowered her oversized hood, revealing a face as exquisite as a work of art.
Her gaze lifted to the Frost Dragon circling above.
Rozelite whispered, “Mr. Slime… should we use that move?”
“…No choice. We have to.”
“Then…”
Rozelite drew a deep breath.
Slowly, she raised her left hand, reaching forward.
Her fingertip pressed against the Astral Silver Ring on her finger, as if waiting for a cue.
“Say the line! You have to say the line!”
Russell urged.
“O-oh…”
Rozelite’s cheeks flushed. She looked embarrassed.
“Ar—Armor Fusion!”