Frostbound

Chris

It felt like I was having an out-of-body experience. My mind would send the signal for my legs to move but it was delayed, lagging behind for some reason. My body was racked with so much aching pain that I worked hard to tune all of it out which didn't help matters.

The only positive was that I didn't pass out. I sure wanted to, and I knew sleep was calling my name soon, but I forced myself to stay awake. Conscious as we walked through the scenes of destruction.

The scenes of my destruction.

It didn't fill me with joy to see what I had done. It didn't invoke pride to see the slaughter I had handed out. Sure, the fight was brutal and I took satisfaction in knowing I had won. Knowing I stood above those that lay dead, but it was hollow.

Seeing all the human bodies mixed in with the Orc bodies made it so.

Still, even the burning grief was dull, just like everything else.

The feeling was like a river already worn through me and now it was just new water running through old grooves. The banks had already been viciously carved, it was just time to fill it with the most recent waters.

My morose thoughts were hard to banish while gazing upon the battlefield.

Abigail also said nothing. We were both reeling in our own way. While I wasn't that close to my cousin Alice, she was still family. Family that wasn't with us anymore.

Sam was going to be devastated. She'd already lost a husband and son, now she lost a daughter as well. Allison wasn't family by blood, as she had married Mitchell to enter the Zalenski family, but her loss was still felt.

I wouldn't be surprised if Mitchell was out there cradling her lifeless body with tears streaming down his face. The image was unpleasant but impossible to push away.

Other than the grief of loss, I felt guilty.

Guilty that my first thought after hearing who had fallen wasn't sorrow, but relief. My worst fear was my Mother or Gabriel dying. I'd seen Abigail so I knew one of the names wasn't hers. Then I'd thought of Jon and Austin.

When I heard it was Alice and Allison, I felt relieved and a part of me hated that. I felt ashamed.

Getting closer to the Wall only made the sight more ugly. The roaring fire that I'd felt when the battle started was thoroughly smothered seeing its aftermath.

Blood saturated the land and ran in streams so thick it made me want to gag. Body parts were strewn about every which way, taken off by sword, spell, or explosion. Bodies in states better left unmentioned and would burn into my memory.

I looked at my notifications to distract myself. I didn't want to see the bodies. The eyes staring up at me.

~~

You have slain...

You have slain...

You have slain...You have slain...You have slain...You have slain...You have slain... You have slain... You have slain... You have slain... You have slain... You have slain... You have slain... You have slain... You have slain... You have slain...You have slain...

...

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

*Skills Available*

~~

Name: Christopher Zalenski

Race: (E) Human*

Class: (E) Hammer of the Jotnar(Legendary) – Level 100

Profession: (E) Runesmith(Rare) – Level 88

Affinity: Arctic

Faction: Frostheim (Leader)

Title: Baron

Strength - 1822

Agility - 879

Perception - 534

Fortitude - 1348

Endurance - 1061

Vitality - 669

Intelligence - 447

Wisdom - 767

Acumen - 430

Free Points: 50

~~

Level 100. I was ready to evolve. Of course, I was going to wait until my Profession was ready along with getting materials somehow, but I was ready.

If felt... I didn't know how it felt.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The excitement, the achievement was still there. I was proud of reaching it, but... I couldn't bring myself to feel it.

Numb.

If that was even the right word for it. A new skill, my final skill for this Class, didn't even bring joy like it should have.

My eyes drooped and I felt sleep call me once again but I pushed it away. Not yet.

"Did you hit 100," I asked at nearly a whisper. It hurt to speak and it took everything in me to get my voice at even that volume.

Abigail was silent for a moment, "Yes."

She was even closer than I was. Her Profession had hit 100 a while ago. The upgrade to a Small City along with the monthly Waves earned her a lot of experience for her Profession. Every successful defense of the City she administered was an influx of essence straight into her Profession. The rapid growth and production also helped. How well we did in trade, how much coin we pulled in from taxes, and the productivity of those she ruled over.

All of it worked to rocket her Profession to the level cap quicker than anyone else. Maybe a few had beaten her, but they didn't speak of it. I suspected Austin did, but he didn't say. The rare time he liked to keep it mysterious.

Now we just needed to find her a Naiad part. Somehow...

While the notifications had rolled in from the fight, the Assessment was still not completed. Kill notifications, level-up notifications, and Skill selections were all there, but there was nothing from the Assessment.

Maybe another Obelisk is still fighting?

The Storm still rumbled overhead but the ear-piercing cracks from supercharged lightning were dormant. The Winds were losing their edge and the rain fell normally now, not the deluge of thick sheets it once was.

None of the sounds of battle were still heard. Trebuchets and Catapults were silent. Arrows didn't whistle through the air. Dying roars or clashes of weapons were absent.

Our fight was over.

The Wall looked demolished. Any resonance my Anchor once felt with the energy I had saturated it with was long gone. Used up to keep it standing for as long as possible.

Jonathan's too. It didn't feel like anything anymore. Just normal, mundane stone. The Laws and Mana it once held from Mason skills or Earth Mages was also gone.

It once stood over a dozen feet tall and gleamed in my mana senses. It once shouted its defense to all those who could hear.

It was in pieces now.

Blocks torn down, holes smashed through it, and what was once great, sundered. The bodies were deeper here. Row upon row lay on top of one another. Orc atop Human atop Orc.

All of the death melded together. It became hard to distinguish one body from the next. Some even had patches of Wolves and Bears upon them. Members of Orders. Guards sworn to me.

Now they were dead.

Nothing more was said. With Abigail's help, I limped over the rubble of the Wall and toward where our camp stood. We had moved it in preparation and it was still intact.

A few tents and structures collapsed from the foul weather or an attack gone awry, but it was still functional.

Passing by the first aid camps was a bloody sight. It felt like there were more dismembered limbs piled there than the entire battlefield. I knew that wasn't true, and was just the fact I saw them in piles thrown away, but that didn't make it any less gruesome.

Moans of pain. Screams of anguish.

I let the Healers work undisturbed. I could do nothing and frankly, I didn't want to be there.

While my body was a mess, I wasn't in any threat of dying just yet. Without having to expend my energy to fight, all my effort turned to keeping myself kicking. [Frozen Patchwork], without any additional injuries or blight to fight off, finally frosted over my wounds and staunched the bleeding.

The disease was still there, I could feel it working its way into my body, but it could be Healed later. Others were in greater need.

Walking through our camp was nearly as morose as the quiet battlefield. People sat on logs with blank expressions. Haunted expressions. Silence reigned as uttering a word somehow felt wrong.

Everyone mended one injury or another. Some were worse off with either a leg or arm missing, while others only had small cuts or scrapes.

All energy was drained. Used up for survival.

Breaking through to where my family camped was little better. Austin sat missing an arm with black wounds festering on his bare chest. His armor lost similar to my own.

Gabriel and my Mother were both next to him but still had all their appendages. Jonathan... I wasn't sure where Jonathan was but Abigail said he was alive. Hal's bow was broken at his feet and bandages were wrapped generously around his head and chest.

Rachel, the once roaring fire, sputtered in my senses. Her once fountain of mana gone. Her wounds were light considering the rest. Most of the Mages had light wounds.

Alice and Allison's bodies were set to the side. Pale. Lifeless. Eyes closed never to open again.

Mitchell cried over his wife while his sister lay not five feet away in the same state. Everyone else sat in silence. Some shed silent tears of their own and others just watched on listlessly.

Abigail set me down on a seat before leaving back the way she had come but I didn't focus on what she was doing.

My eyes were focused on the bodies.

How is someone supposed to process this?

Where do I even start?

The sun poked through the clouds intermittently and from its brief arrival, I could tell that time was passing but I couldn't bring myself to notice.

We'd fought for who knows how long and I'd sat there afterward for an amount of time I couldn't remember. I just sat and did nothing.

Sat and watched.

Sat and pondered.

Sat and grieved.

Abigail had returned at one point carrying an unconscious Jonathan with her not unsimilar to how she had carried me. The man still had pieces of mud caked on him with clumps of harder earth in some places. It looked like the man had been buried and recently dug up.

His wounds were similar to Austin's and my own, except he had both arms intact. His twin shields were broken somewhere on the battlefield, like my own weapon had been.

Something felt odd with him though. Different than before.

It didn't feel like a wound, and it wasn't cause for alarm, but he felt... diminished. I wasn't sure if anyone else felt it as no one mentioned it.

He had held his ground admirably. That much was clear from the state of him. I'd seen a fair amount of crushed Orc bodies to know who was responsible.

I wanted to ask where she found him but couldn't bring myself to do it. It felt wrong to speak.

A number of times, I caught sight of Sophia out of the corner of my eye but never had the energy to call her over. I noticed her rushing throughout the camp doing something, but I didn't care enough to know right now.

It was probably taking stock, compiling casualty reports, or making lists of the state of everything, but I just didn't care. Sure, I would have to at some point. I couldn't wallow forever, but just not now.

Grace, Abigail's Assistant, was with her and both were doing several things by how busy they looked.

Someone had sent for the non-combatants at some point. It felt like the fight had just ended yet a stream of people came rushing in. They had been sent across the river to stay behind the Walls of the City, but now that the fight was over, they came streaming back.

They did what little they could. A few more Healers tended the wounded, a few builders made camp for those that had been destroyed. Merchants... well, I wasn't quite sure what they did. All stores of potions or herbs had already been sold.

Even the civilians from the City came out to help. Some were still F-rank, yet they stood and chipped in with whatever they could do.

My Heart, once roaring and the cause of rivers of mana rushing through me, sputtered and choked. I had ridden it hard. Pushed it as far as it could go.

The Mana pumping through me was diminished. My regeneration scuttled, but it was enough. Enough for what I needed to do.

My muscles protested, but they'd been given time to rest. A few hours if I had to guess.

The soreness and aching were very real, and I was dreading the next day as it would only be worse, but today, right now, I pushed through.

Walking was hard. Any Healer would probably say I should be resting, but those thoughts were meaningless.

The first thing I did after rising was walk over to Alice. She'd just turned 21. An age that used to be a cause for celebration. Where her only worry would have been getting IDed at a bar or liquor store.

Instead, at the age of 19, she'd been dragged off to hell where she watched those she loved fall around her. Her father, her brother, her cousins, her aunts and uncles, and even her boyfriend.

She'd survived that hell only to see it happen again. She'd fought beasts, dungeons, even demons, but had fallen to Orcs.

Her once-blonde hair was matted down with blood and mud. Caked on like she'd been stepped on and pushed into it.

Abigail, sensing what I was about to do, obliged me.

Her mana was in the same state as my own. As everyone's was, but she did it anyway.

A gentle rush of water washed away the blood and grime. The mud broke off and she was restored to a fitting condition.

An arrow hole still pierced her chest. The hole to where her heart once vibrantly beat still marred her, but at least she wasn't covered in mud.

After Abigail's waters receded, I pulled. It was painful, and I felt the mana channels turned blood vessels ache, but I pulled anyway.

Ice froze around her until she was encased.

Mitchell looked up pleadingly, not willing to let his wife go, so I gave him time. I'd come back for Allison. There were others that I had to go get.