CHAPTER 336: IS THIS THE END?

The beast scales glittered like diamonds of death as it dove downward.

The wind from its descent alone sent snow exploding outward. Victor leapt over a frozen log, rolling through the snow as shards of ice slammed into the spot where he had just been.

The flying beast roared causing the icy terrain to tremble.

Victor spun as his eyes narrowed. "Alright, big bird. I didn’t want to do this... mostly because I can’t feel my fingers... but fine."

He inhaled deeply, nearly activating Dragon Breathing Arts but paused when he realized it would freeze before it got anywhere.

"Shit..." Victor cussed before unsheathing his legacy sword strapped behind his back and swinging it forward.

A concentrated burst of wind swept forward and slapped into the beast, causing it to recoil with a shriek.

Victor noticed the frost around his finger tips cracked and split open when he wrapped it around his sword’s hilt.

With part of his fingers exposed, ice swiftly crawled up.

Victor hissed in pain and instantly circulated frost bloom to cover his hand. This time he increased the concentration around his palm which ended up covering his entire hilt in frost as well.

Now his palm was glued to the his sword hilt in a fisted grip.

The beast on the other hand, recovered from the recoil and flapped its wings to summon a flurry of frost that rippled across the surroundings.

Victor dashed sideways, turning into a blur as Wind Dash propelled him across the snow.

The ground cracked due to his acceleration. He leapt upward with Wind Glide, soaring above the remnants of the frost ripple to meet the beast at eye level.

With his sword raised high, he swung downward while in mid air.

The instant contact was made, a loud flesh rendering soun rang out, causing the beast to be blasted backwards with a long gash across its head.

Blood spluttered out as the beast regained its balance after a few moments and sped forward aggressively once more.

It thrashed wildly with its spiky tail whipping through the air in Victor’s direction.

Victor twisted mid-fall, evading the tail sweep.

The moment he landed back on the snow covered terrain, his figure split into afterimages as he activated Phantom Mirage step.

As he split into dozens of flickering forms, the beast’s claws swiped through illusions, hitting nothing but cold air.

Meanwhile the real Victor appeared behind the beast. "You swing like my math teacher when she found out I skipped homework!"

With another swing of his legacy sword, he hacked into the back of the beast, sending it sweeping forward uncontrollably and rolling into a ball.

Although, Victor put a lot of strength into that Strike, only a twelve inch gash appeared on the creature’s back.

There was no doubt that beasts in this terrain were much sturdier than usual magical beasts.

The beast charged straight out of the snow up ahead and ascended into the sky while roaring angrier than earlier.

Its maw opened forming a dense blueish orb between its fangs. The air trembled, and an icy beam exploded forth, cutting a trench through the landscape.

Victor’s eyes widened. "Oh, come on!"

He Shadow Blinked to the side causing the beam to barely miss him. But the aftershock sent him crashing into a frozen boulder. His ribs screamed in protest as parts of the frost bloom layer surrounding his body cracked.

He coughed, staining the snow with blood.

"This is bad..." he groaned while pushing himself up.

The drake swooped forward again.

Victor’s raised his sword, preparing to attack despite the pain but then his fingers began trembling.

"Fuck..." he could feel his qi had delved to a dangerously low zone.

There was no doubt that if he didn’t end this fight now, he would completely run out.

He channeled what remained into one last burst. "Shadow Crescent Strike!"

A dark crescent shot forth, slicing through the air.

The beast, dove sideways in a bid to evade but Victor flicked his fingers to the side, causing the dark cresent to curve mid-flight.

It appeared directly before it and phased through the beast’s outer covering, past the thick layers and struck clean through its left side, cleaving off a sizable chunk of its flesh and an entire wing.

The beast let out a piercing cry as it spiraled downward, crashing into the ice-covered ground.

Victor stumbled toward it, panting as his limbs trembled from fatigue and lack of qi.

The beast tried to rise with one wing shredded and the other coated with frost.

He clenched his Legacy sword and dashed forward, before thrusting his blade straight through the creature’s chest and unleashing his last bit of gale strike along with it.

The turbulence wind coursed through its inside, blasting a hole straight out of the beast’s back.

Blood and a couple of organs fizzled out as the beast collapsed, breathing raggedly.

Victor staggered to one knee, exhausted while watching the beast take it final sips of breath.

"Ha... told you..." he panted, "This... wasn’t going to... end well... for you."

But his victory smile didn’t last.

The final attack had drained the last of his qi. He felt his dantian flicker weakly, then go still.

His vision blurred as he tried to keep his balance.

However, the beast’s dying spasm sent a final blast of energy through the air.

An icy blast that struck Victor squarely in the chest causing the frost bloom covering his body to shatter violently.

Fragments of frozen qi scattered like glass shards as Victor was sent flying across the air.

In an instant, the exposed flesh froze solid.

The cold burrowed deep, locking his right arm in place. He tried to move, but his muscles refused.

Unfortunately, he had no more qi so he couldn’t even recirculate the frost bloom to cover the exposed part.

"C-cold... damn it..." he hissed through gritted teeth while struggling to rise.

The warmth radiating from his exposed skin didn’t just freeze upon expose with the atmosphere of this frosty terrain, it was also a beacon.

And the frozen silence of the tundra... was suddenly not so silent anymore.

The sounds of rustling, crunching and cracking flowed in from the edges of the icy terrain.

Shapes began to emerge in the distance.

Shadows that were no doubt beastly in nature...

Dozens of eyes glimmered in the mist as a chorus of deep rumbling growls rose in unison, echoing across the frozen plain.

Victor could only smirk bitterly in his half conscious state. "Well... this is awkward."

A wolf-like beast padded forward with steam curling from its mouth... Another slithered along the ground with sparkling scales.

Above, dark avian shapes circled, drawn to the faint heat of his body.

Victor’s hand trembled as he reached for his Legacy Sword. His fingers barely moved. "Can’t even move my damn arm... looks like dinner’s served — and I’m the main course."

He chuckled weakly, eyes narrowing even as the beasts closed in. "Guess... I’ll just have to make them choke on it."

Victor couldn’t feel his fingers anymore.

The frost had eaten through his flesh like hungry snakes, coiling up his arm and freezing everything it touched.

The world around him was a blur of white breath and pain. Each inhale stung like swallowing knives. Each heartbeat echoed hollowly through his ribs, reminding him that this might actually be where it all ended.

The beasts had formed a brutal ring around him. Their howls mixed with the roar of the wind. Blue and crimson eyes flickered in the shadows and their teeth gleamed like icicles.

Victor managed a dry chuckle through cracked lips.

"Well, this is just perfect," he muttered with a trembling tone. "Surrounded, half frozen, and my good hand’s about to fall off. Ten out of ten, Victor. Peak decision-making."

The nearest beast which was a hulking white lizard with wings of smoke snarled with steam curling from its nostrils.

Victor’s body tensed, but he couldn’t even muster enough qi to move an inch.

Pain and exhaustion clouded everything.

The beast charged forward towards Victor and it looked like this was this end...

And yet... somewhere deep inside his fading consciousness... a thought sparked.

He remembered something.

He had always wondered how far did the boundaries blur between his two worlds?

Ascendant Realms and here...

The other beasts had leapt forward now with their claws slicing the air and their teeth flashing.

There was no doubt that he’d be ripped to pieces here and now...

But Victor wasn’t about to accept his fate...

So what if his qi was expended? At the moment of life and death, his mind spun faster than it ever had, leaving the charging beasts in a state of suspended animation as a myriad of thoughts flashed through his mind.

Victor exhaled...

His eyes rolled back as his consciousness plunged into his inner bank.

And at this same moment... he activated another ability privy only to Nascent Soul Realm cultivators.

A soul pressure suddenly expanded outward like a silent explosion from his being, causing the very air to quake.