Chapter 742: Frozen Over

As the inside of the arena had frozen over due to Askr's ability, mist appeared around the warrior's body. The heat that she was giving off mixed in with the freezing cold created by this ability, and immediately encased her in this. As long as she was using her flames, this wouldn't change either.

While the warrior was trying to figure out what was happening, Askr tightly held his sword in his hands, ready to attack in this space that had just become his own.

"What did you just do?!" The Grandour looked at Eisen, "You cast some sort of spell, didn't you? How da-"

"I didn't cast a spell. I simply gave Askr a command, telling him to use one of his own abilities. I myself haven't used or even moved a speck of mana this entire time." Eisen smirked slightly, "Come on, just keep on watching. This next part is going to be quite fun to watch, I assume."

The Grandour ground his teeth together, and looked forward back at the arena. Truly, more than anything else, he was excited about seeing what was going to happen. And in the first place, there was a barrier placed around the arena that would stop anyone else from casting spells within the arena, to stop any sort of interference.

For a short while longer, both Askr and the warrior now encased in a cloud of mist were standing still, waiting for just anything to happen at all. And then, all of a sudden, one of the two finally broke through this silence. The warrior jumped out of the cloud of mist, propelling herself further with her flames. A stream of mist was being left behind her, but it wasn't fast enough to truly encase her as she was moving like earlier.

However, in order to be able to truly see what was going on around her, she had been forced to constantly  be in motion, limiting her possibilities to an extent. The moment that Askr laid eyes on the warrior, he began to move as well. He pushed his foot forward and started to swing his sword. But he didn't just swing it normally. It was like a wave of ice was being pulled out of thin air as he was moving it, following behind the edge, as if the way that the blade cut the air had become visible.

Askr's blade itself had passed by once the warrior came into range, but the wave of ice that was still growing and following after it was in the perfect place. Although the warrior tried to stop, the wave of ice advanced nonetheless and made an impact with her stomach, and despite it moving comparatively slowly, the impact was more than enough to throw the warrior across the arena. It was that kind of heavy impact.

As the warrior was trying to figure out what had happened, she was once more covered in a layer of mist, hiding her body. But this time, Askr didn't stop. Instead, he swung his sword around and slashed it upward, right in her direction, despite the fact that she was far outside of his range of attack. While he was doing so, he also cut into the ground, or rather, the layer of ice that was now covering the ground. Once more, a wave of ice was created, but this time, it didn't follow Askr's sword, but rather, traveled in a straight line starting from where he had cut into the ground. The arena rumbled, and soon, the wave reached the cloud of mist. Since her sight was obstructed, she shouldn't have been able to see it, but most likely by relying on her other senses, the warrior was able to dodge by jumping into the air while propelling herself with her flames.

However, with the battle sense that he had inherited from the greatest fighter in this world, Askr had already anticipated something like this might happen. He stabbed his sword into the ground, causing an explosion of ice around him that pushed him upward. Usually, with their huge bodies, you wouldn't image the possibility that they could jump and fly around in such agile ways, but it was exactly what happened.

Askr stretched out his arm and grabbed onto the warrior's. The ice covering his body was melting the moment that he touched her burning hot armor, but he was still confident in this body created by Eisen. He pulled the warrior onto him, and tightly held onto her. He wrapped his legs around her stomach from behind, and held onto her head and neck with his arms, trying to make sure she couldn't move.

Struggling to escape from this mid-air grapple, the warrior expelled flames from her armor, propelling the two of them at the ground at high speed. The floor of the arena cracked apart, and Askr's body had clearly been damaged to an extent. But Eisen knew that he could fix any damage later, and Askr knew this as well, so he didn't worry. Instead, his grip simply strengthened.

Now, the two of them were in the center of this frozen-over arena, while Askr kept holding onto his opponent. She was blasting even more heat than before, causing mist to rise around above the two of them, completely obstructing the sight of the audience.

But Eisen could see what was happening. While holding onto her like that, Askr was using the frost magic that Eisen had given to him, strengthened by Niflheim, to make ice encroach on the warrior's body. First, her legs, then her belly, and soon her torso and arms were completely covered in it, until she was completely frozen in a block of ice.

As the heat of her flames wasn't able to escape anymore, the mist soon settled, showing this sight to everyone else as well. Askr stood up, pulling his arms and legs out of the block of ice, before pressing his foot on top of it, declaring his victory wordlessly.

The audience cheered as the winner had become clear, and Eisen turned his head toward the shocked Grandour, "And that makes three. Now, the next fight is going to be a bit different, though." Eisen pointed out with a light smile, as the Grandour stared at him confused, "What do you mean?"

"Well, the first two fights were two of my companions. This third fight was my golem, a creation of mine. The next fight will be between one of your warriors, and one of mine. Of course, he is strong enough to have been chosen to come here with me, but he's not particularly more skilled than most of my other guards and servants. He's going to be the representative of all of them. I will show you that even a generic guard can beat whoever you pit against him." Eisen explained as he locked eyes with the Grandour, who slowly turned his head into the arena. Through the skilled mages on both Eisen and the Grandour's side, the arena had already been prepared for the next fight, and the two next warriors stepped into the arena.

On the Grandour's side, it was a large, bulking warrior. Even amongst other giants he was on the large side of things. And meanwhile, on the other side... was a Koblin, a Goblin and Kobold halfling. He didn't look particularly special, that was clear to everyone here. And even once he drank the potion supplied by Eisen, there didn't seem to be anything special about him. Certainly, this fight was Eisen's greatest gamble. For everyone else, he was absolutely positive that they would win, but for this one... he wasn't.

But more than that, it seemed like the audience was confused what they were even looking at. These sort of monster mix breeds weren't known anywhere, except on the central island of Asgard, Prototype. Koblins didn't look particularly grotesque, they simply were something new and thus far unseen.

Amongst all the guards that Eisen had brought, this one was the most skilled, and even had the highest stats. He had been assigned the head guard. There was a reason why he was sent along, after all. He couldn't compare to the others in Eisen's immediate party of course, but that didn't change that he was generally quite skilled, but the same could be said about the giant that he was going to face.

Well, there was one more reason why Eisen put his trust in this Koblin. He was a Knight candidate that Kiron had personally picked out, despite just recently joining the guard program. Kiron was the one that suggested this Koblin to be one of the fighters as well.

Eisen closed his eyes, waiting for the fight to start. He was just hoping that this guy wasn't going to mess up his plan. And then, the signal for the duel to start could be heard, and the fight started with the Giant Warrior mocking the Koblin, asking what sort of 'abomination' he was. It quite annoyed Eisen, but he just had to listen for now.

But then, something unexpected happened. Eisen could hear footsteps, most likely those of the Koblin, followed by the Giant's footsteps. With a loud groan, the Giant seemed to attack, which was when Eisen opened his eyes. The Giant Warrior clearly had underestimated his opponent... But now, he was left with the Koblin's spear pierced through his stomach. The Koblin pulled the spear back out of the warrior's torso, and watched him collapse, holding his wound, "F-Fuck, how'd you..?" The warrior asked, falling to the ground.

"I am a servant of the ones that peaked. Such a fight is nothing to me." The Koblin explained briefly, not saying any more as his opponent collapsed. 

Truly, a surprising and quick ending to this fight, that had just started a few moments prior.