Conquering His Cold Heart

Bella's frost giant subordinates were no match for the mighty General Bando. Even with their priestess' morale boosting roar they couldn't even summon a third of their normal strength.

"Argh!" Angry howls of anguish reverberated throughout the surroundings as General Bando easily danced between the hulking giants. His axe lashing out with a frightening speed and dexterity, like a controlled bolt of lightning, far beyond anything these giants had ever seen before.

He required no skills to take down his foes, just simple and accurate cuts across their vitals. His natural speed, quality of his weapon and the imbuement of his aura allowed his axe to easily slice through their thick skin and dense muscles like butter.

First cut; a neck is split open.

Second cut, an arm is severed.

Third cut, a femoral artery is carved open.

Fourth cut, a heart is eviscerated.

Each and every one of General Bando's attacks were lethal and resulted in literal geysers of thick giant blood dyeing the snow covered ground.

So much carnage in so little time.

Bella forced herself to ignore the screams of her subordinates and the stench of fresh blood assailing her nostrils. While her C-rank subordinates charged at General Bando in a maddened frenzy she focused on the only thing that could save her life.

She moved to take Frost hostage.

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Frost quickly noticed his predicament but unfortunately his legs were still shot and the pain wreaking havoc throughout his body made even the slightest of movements an ordeal.

Thankfully he never let go of the flash crystal hidden within his robes. With a brief and blurry glance Frost estimated that Jared was too far away to reach him in time thus he'd have to take matters into his own hands.

He could see madness in Bella's expression and knew that the moment he entered her grasp only hell awaited him.

Bella reached out with her massive right hand in an attempt to take hold of his skull. To her it was akin to the size of an apple and just as easy to crush. With this Frost's life would be completely under her control, one wrong move from General Bando and crunch! The high status elf would become nothing but a bag of useless meat.

Frost started to funnel mana into the flash crystal and was prepared to make it explode at the very last second but once again his actions appeared unnecessary.

Boom!

Bella's outstretched hand crashed into an invisible wall halting her advance.

"Impossible!" She screeched in disbelief before repeatedly punching at the wall or rather shield that prevented her from reaching Frost. He was her only hope, without him in her clutches she was as good as dead.

With a tightly clenched fist she punched the invisible shield twice yet all she got in return was a pair of bloody knuckles.

"It can't be! That's impossible!" Fuelled by desperation she gripped the shaft of her hammer and raised it high above her head.

Boom!

With a mighty downward swing of her hammer the invisible shield appeared to distort in shape, a gnarly grinding could be heard as the shield met with the face of her hammer but that was the extent of the damage, a deformation but no break.

"Ahhhh! [Crescent Moon's impact]!" Since a regular blow wasn't enough Bella summoned every last shred of her internal energy to use one of her most powerful hammer skills. A dense violet light covered her hammer, greatly multiplying its weight before conjuring what appeared to be a miniature version of the moon in its crescent form.

Frost could feel the pressure even while protected by the invisible shield, his legs sunk deep into the snow and his organs felt as though they could burst at any moment. If he was hit by this attack not even bone dust would remain.

He wasn't worried though, in fact a smile adorned his lips because he could see behind Bella, he could see the prone forms of all her subordinates squirming on the ground in the throes of death as well as the face of the man who killed them, well his calm unperturbed smile at least.

Jared was staring right at Bella yet there wasn't a hint of worry in his expression, so Frost felt completely at ease, so at ease in fact that he struggled to remain conscious. The constant tension and thrill of battle that had kept him going was now beginning to loosen. His already blurry and fogged sight was growing darker by the second and a strong urge to sleep was beginning to overwhelm him.

The last thing he saw before darkness took hold was the sight of Bella's hammer skill fracturing open the invisible shield only to be met with Jared standing below with his axe in hand.

He managed to hear Bella utter something about 'aura manifestation' before ultimately passing out, his body falling forward onto the blood dyed snow.

"How can you manifest your aura to such a degree already?" Bella asked in shock moments after Frost fell unconscious.

"Trade secret priestess." General Bando replied after easily enduring one of her strongest skills. He quickly used his powerful senses to check on Frost's condition before nodding his head and prying his other axe from the ground.

"…..The frost giant tribe won't stay silent dog of Runak." Bella once again threatened General Bando with retaliation from her tribe in a desperate attempt to save her life but once again the 'ravenous beast' ignored her efforts.

General Bando simply smiled in an evil manner before saying "….I certainly hope not priestess, my axes have grown rather fond of giant blood after all."

"Bastaaard!" With veins throbbing across her forehead and her muscles bulging to the point that her armour and clothes groaned from the strain Bella roared out in anger. She wielded her hammer with both hands and began the greatest battle of her life.

Ten maybe fifteen minutes later Frost who was sound asleep felt a stinging pain on his left cheek. He was forcibly brought out of his slumber and the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was Jared Bando looking down on him with a gentle expression.

"Good you're up."

"Why'd you wake me?" He passed out from exhaustion and sheer damage; his body was literally telling him he needed to sleep.

"This isn't the time nor the place to sleep Frost even if you need it….here drink this, it's a military grade mid-level health potion. It should heal most of your wounds and make you stable enough to move." Jared gestured towards their surroundings before retrieving a health potion from his storage ring.

"Thanks but I've actually got something better." Normally he wouldn't pass up the chance to get free stuff but considering the extent of his wounds he didn't want to take any chances.

With strained movements Frost retrieved his sole high level health potion from his storage ring. Jared kindly removed the cork and helped pour the liquid down his throat being very careful not to waste even a single drop.

"To think that you have a high level health potion, impressive Lad." Jared's surprise was warranted as within the Northrend empire the royal family and several dukes held a strict monopoly over any manufactured high level potions. One either had to have significant connections, a hell of a lot of capital or immense luck to get their hands on just one bottle.

The taste of the high level health potion was sublime but unfortunately given his pain Frost failed to fully enjoy the flavour. The results of the potion's effects however were most impressive. Within a few seconds his entire body felt warm and fuzzy, the pain that was wreaking havoc melted away. He could literally see his wounds being rapidly closed and his lost blood regenerating.

And after a few minutes he was practically 90% healed. He was still exhausted and drained of mana, but his wounds had disappeared, leaving not even a single scar across his pristine skin.

"I can count the times I've seen someone using a high level health potion with a single hand, it's truly miraculous how such devastation can be remedied in just a matter of minutes." Jared couldn't help but shake his head in amazement.

"Really? I thought someone of your standing would have free access to such medicine." Jared was now a General of the War Ursa Battalion, an A-rank individual.

"Pah even the Duke can't use high level potions willy nilly let alone me who only recently attained A-rank." The resource budget for Icethorne was quite meagre in comparison to its duties. Even Jared a newly crowned General was only allowed to carry two high level potions on his person and only when there was no other choice was he allowed to use them.

"Congratulations by the way and….thank you for saving me." With his wounds pretty much healed and the pain dissipating more every second Frost rose to his feet and bowed to Jared, giving his genuine thanks.

"No need for that Frost, you can just consider our debt paid, besides if you want to thank someone you should thank the Princess, she refused to budge an inch and even threatened to take her own life unless I agreed to help you."

"Haaaaa sorry that must have put you in a difficult spot." Frost could easily picture the scene of Avira balling her eyes out with her rapier resting against the front of her neck as she demanded Jared to take action.

"Not really, if I wished I could have easily knocked her out and dragged her back to Icethorne." It wouldn't be much of an issue for an A-rank individual like himself to apprehend Avira before she harmed herself.

"Hoh….why didn't you just do that then?" Surely the safety of the Princess was of upmost importance.

Jared gazed directly into Frost's eyes with a serious expression before saying. "Because my liege gave me an order and for me to disobey it would be tantamount to treason." The moment he recognised Avira as the Princess of Northrend, the rightful ruler of the empire her every word became a decree for the loyal soldier.