Conquering His Cold Heart

Along with selling the half step 4 star glaive, Borris finally mustered up the courage to start handing over the family business to the next generation. Doing so lifted a heavy weight from his shoulders, allowing him to finally get some fresh air after being submerged in the quagmire of responsibility.

From that moment on he started forging weapons and repairing equipment out want rather than need. He once again enjoyed his craft and could once again hear that voice in his heart that always said \'I can do better\' after finishing a piece.

He smiled more and felt young again, able to work the forges for hours without needing a break. The coming of the monster stampede served to knock off all the rust that he had accumulated, returning him to his prime but with all the experience of an old master.

When Frost came to see him the other day everything fell into place, the sudden urge to breakthrough the threshold to 4 star status overwhelmed him as he caught sight of the weapon he believed was one of his greatest works, damaged and in desperate need of repair.

With unbridled confidence he staked his reputation as a smith and promised to hand the young man a 4 star glaive worthy of his strength within 48 hours, and after slogging alongside his most skilled daughter and son they managed to produce a weapon that was unparalleled to any that had ever been forged by them before.

A solid 4 star glaive that almost reached mid stage quality, beautiful, strong, durable and razor sharp. Every material used was brought to their peak condition and flowed together with great synergy, forming a mighty weapon that easily sliced a rindar in twain.

Borris had outdone himself and despite being completely exhausted from 40 hours of forging he personally ran to the northern wall with the freshly finished glaive in hand. He wanted to be the one to hand over his finest work and personally see it being christened and he was not disappointed.

Frost upheld his promise and now radiated the aura of royalty, affecting everyone in the vicinity, himself included.

His masterpiece would be the weapon of a king, the honour was something Borris struggled to contain. His tired body was filled with vigour and his eyes sparkled with fascination as he laughed and smiled from ear to ear. He made a decision in that moment; he would take Frost up on his offer.

He may be old, but he wasn\'t feeble. A trip into the glacial mountains, he could manage that at least. His potential wasn\'t spent yet and staying here would only stifle him and his descendants. It was time for a new chapter in his life and one which he now embraced wholeheartedly.

While Borris laughed without restraint and Hamon and Douglas looked on with amazement, Frost himself felt his tired body fill with energy as the pleasurable substance that was DP flowed through his veins and into his heart. His mind then connected with his aura and his new weapon to produce a terrifying effect that filled his allies with awe and his enemies with dread.

Royal aura wasn\'t necessarily stronger in comparison to regular aura, but it had a certain quality to it that made others feel inferior regardless of their strength. A dominion component that was of higher quality akin to the difference between divine energy and mana but on a smaller scale.

The fear the surrounding monsters felt when Frost released his royal aura was far greater than when it was his normal aura. His image that would already be large and imposing thanks to aura seemed to shine with an intense lustre forcing them to instinctively advert their eyes from his form and feel an pressure far greater than normal despite the weight being the same.

The one most shocked by this situation however was the frost monarch.

Bang!

Several trees were obliterated by lord Frostine as his anger or rather jealously overwhelmed him. He was already disappointed by the eldest rindar\'s failure to kill as single greenhorn but now that young greenhorn was radiating a pressure that caused even him to shake in instinctual fear. A pressure that he desired from the bottom of his heart.

"Why the fuck does a brat like him have royal aura!" He roared out with a horrifying visage, his fury on full display. He was a monarch, a ruler of a large territory in the internal regions of the glacial mountains. Part of a dignified royal species and a powerful mid B-rank monster with a great deal of potential still to be unearthed yet he failed to awaken even the slightest crumb of royal aura.

Frost\'s vibrant display made it seem as if he was mocking him for that fact.

Frostine in his anger conjured a 4th circle spell and fired what looked like a ballista sized bolt of ice at the unsuspecting Frost.

This spell was known as [glacial harpoon] and was very similar to the 1st circle spell [ice bolt] except the bolt was of far higher quality, larger and shot out at a speed several times faster than an arrow, a spell that was great for catching people unaware.

The sharp ice harpoon flew through the air faster than the speed of sound and arrived before Frost in an instant. Frost caught the spell from the corner of his eye but instead of dodging or prepping his glaive he turned and faced the oncoming attack with a gentle smile.

"[Magma shield]" before the ice harpoon could reach Frost a thick shield of magma formed between the two protecting him from any danger.

Don!

The ice harpoon slammed into the magma shield, penetrating slightly through the other side before stopping completely and dissolving under the intense heat of the magma.

Frost was not alone on the battlefield and the frost monarch was not his concern but Ryuu\'s and Jessie\'s. The two of them though taken aback by Frost\'s royal aura for a moment never took their eyes off of the frost monarch. They saw his anger and prepared to block anything he dished out.

[Magma shield] was a combined spell fusing Ryuu\'s mastery of fire magic and Jessie\'s mastery of earth magic. A very powerful 4th circle defence spell that not only benefitted from an elemental advantage over Frostine but served to not simply add Ryuu\'s and Jessie\'s magic prowess together but multiply them.

Of course such magic wasn\'t exactly easy to do, the mages in question need to have great synergy and both know the spell in question thoroughly. Thankfully given their positions the two were quite adept in working with other mages.

As the magma shield dissipated revealing Frost unharmed from the exchange the two enemies locked eyes. Frostine\'s full of fury and frustration while Frost\'s contained what appeared to be indifference. Frostine was not his enemy to deal with.

Frostine\'s anger level rose even further and he took several steps forward wanting to pluck Frost\'s arrogant eyes from his pretty little skull but the moment he moved he could sense a great build up of mana upon the northern wall forcing him to halt in place and change his focus back towards the two entities that had been getting in his way.

"Lord Frostine please calm your fury otherwise you\'ll go against the very plan you created." One of Frostine\'s loyal subordinates braved his lord\'s anger and reproached him for his actions. This of course angered Frostine more, he thus turned around and grabbed hold of his subordinates neck with a fierce grip.

His aura was activated at full strength and the air around him rapidly dropped in temperature causing fragments of ice to build up on everyone\'s bodies.

The subordinate struggled to breathe and suffered from great amounts of pain as Frostine lifted him from the ground and brought him to eye level. Panic and fear filled the subordinate\'s body, but he did his best to remain calm and look at his lord with an unperturbed expression. Flaying, begging for mercy and apologising would only see him swiftly killed, Frostine was just momentarily angry.

The best course was for him to stick to his guns and wait it out, hoping his honoured lord would realise his devotion and listen to his words logically.

Seconds passed with Frostine\'s grip growing stronger and stronger, the subordinate was moments away from passing out, his eyes had even started rolling back into his skull.

"Hmph!" However just before that eventuality Frostine released his grip, allowing his subordinate to live. He had managed to control his anger and once again think objectively, his eyes now revealed a level of respect for the subordinate.

\'He\'s got guts and isn\'t afraid to point out my mistakes for the sake of the bigger picture. Once this war is over I\'ll reassign him.\' Frostine internally praised his subordinate and made plans for his future once they were victorious and returned to their territory.

"Cough Cough!" The subordinate loudly coughed while desperately filling his lungs with air, internally he applauding himself for being right.

Frostine waved his hand, immediately summoning a second and third subordinate who carefully took away the first one before he conjured up another ice throne and sat down comfortably, his previous outburst completely forgotten about.

"Those two mages have their eyes on me and won\'t let me interfere with the battle any further…..taking out that talented greenhorn isn\'t possible at the moment given the plan, but it doesn\'t matter. All of them will fall eventually, a day or two later makes no difference." Frostine spoke calmly surprising the nearby B-ranks who thought for sure their time had come to fully let loose.

"We\'ll stick to the plan, no other B-rank will enter the fray. Send the rest of weaklings, I want that frontline in complete tatters come tomorrow morning." An insidious smile grew on Frostine\'s lips as he thought of what was coming.

"However it would be rude for me not to respond at all to this fervent monitoring.

If they want to fight with magic let\'s fight, I\'ll consider it a warm-up before tomorrow." While remaining seated on his ice throne Lord Frostine summoned the nearby mana as well as what dwelled within him to start firing off spells aimed at Ryuu and Jessie with the occasional one sent at key points on the battlefield just to keep them on their toes.

Cascades of colourful and devasting magic rained over the battlefield as Frostine, Ryuu and Jessie faced off against one another for supremacy. However even with two of them, the assortment of magic devices and their elemental advantage they were roughly coming out even.

Whenever Frostine was starting to get pushed back he\'d simply target the soldiers on the frontline forcing Ryuu and Jessie to become defensive, an insidious but effective tactic.

For the two of them this was a dire battle in which they couldn\'t relax for even a second but for Frostine it was nothing but a warm-up. Where they had to fiercely protect their ground Frostine could lose his without batting an eye, the monsters on the field were just chaff after all, completely expendable.