Chapter 309: Duel

Every attack, Karl was forced further from the group, isolated from any chance of reinforcement, but the Blizzard was fading as the leader felt that her mana would be better used on combat than distraction, now that they were fifty metres away from the main battle, and well outside the encirclement.

Karl flicked his blade down, parrying an attack coming for his legs, but couldn't react fast enough for the left hand that she took off her blade and punched him square in the chest with.

His barriers held, but he was rolling in the snow, and the blade was coming for him again, while he didn't have the footing to force it away.

Remi intervened, hitting the Giant with [Chain Lightning] and making her arm twitch, sending the attack wide as Karl rolled to his feet.

Her expression was startled, not having expected the attack from what she thought was a defeated opponent.

Karl sent a flurry of [Rend] attacks at her, coated with [Flaming Body] the same as Hawk did it. There was no way to block them all, but the Giant twirled, sending her cloak billowing and taking a large part of the damage before the thick monster fur was destroyed, leaving it in shreds on the ground while the remainder of the attacks hit her back.

Karl almost fell for the fake opening, and leapt to the right, back in front of her as her blade shrieked through the air, right where he would have been if he had tried to attack her vulnerable back.

His jump had given him a little distance, and Karl quickly switched to his bow to fire a [Chain Lightning] Arrow into her stomach.

It only sunk in a few centimetres, and made her eyelid twitch before she pulled it out, but it bought Karl a second to retreat further and keep firing.

Her snarl shook the air, carrying some sort of magic with it, and Karl felt his mind go blank, while his hands continued to fire arrows.

[Mental Fortitude] kept him from cowering in fear before the might of the Frost Giant leader's [Intimidation] ability, and well-trained hands kept his attacks going, while Remi set up her Poison Flame Totems on either side of the Giant.

The pain had to have been incredible as the first balls of poison and fire hit her body, and the Frost Giant turned, looking for the insect that dared to try to ambush her while still at the Ascended Rank.

But all she found were the totems, and one of Karl's arrows buried itself deep into her ribs, sending numbing Lightning through her body, slowing her reactions.

Powerful strides brought her back to Karl, who hastily switched back to his blade and clashed with the weakened Giant, who was still taking fireballs to the back, distracting her from the fight, and coating her in agonizing poison.

The damage might be negligible, but with every attack it stacked, and when she tried to stomp the totems out of existence, Remi simply moved them out of reach, another dozen metres away, and behind her again.

Then, their knight in shining feathers was there to take his vengeance on the Ice Element, and Hawk was bombarding her from above with Royal Rank fireballs.

Those ones were causing real damage, and while Karl was still on the defensive, she was slowing.

A direct hit to the back of her head dropped her to one knee and made her eyes roll back, giving Karl the opening he had been waiting for. His blade streaked toward her neck, aiming to decapitate the Frost Giant, or at least slit her throat and take her out of the fight. Three on one, even a Royal Rank Frost Giant was no match for them.

That overconfidence was what cost him the most dearly. Without looking, her blade flashed out, slicing cleanly through his left arm and burying itself in the chest plate of his armour.

His strike came up short, barely clipping her throat, but sending out a fountain of blood as the artery was severed.

Pain shot through Karl's body as he watched the Frost Giant woman fading in the distance. He realized that he was flying through the air from the force of the strike, and he could still see his severed hand holding his sword laying on the ground in front of her.

But the fight was over. Hawk's [Shred] hit the back of her neck, and the Giant's head rolled free of her body, coming to a stop next to Karl's sword.

Karl slammed into a tree, and his barriers shattered along with his ribs, but he landed on his feet, before falling to his knees gasping for air.

Everything around him was fuzzy, and he could feel the world fading, but there was one thought in his mind.

He needed his sword back.

That drove him to crawl through the snow as the buzz of Remi's voice in his head faded in and out.

The last thing he knew before the world went dark, and he felt himself fall to his side, was his hand grasping his sword.

Karl's entire world was pain and blackness, then there was a strange pressure on his arm, and a voice in his ear, saying something that he couldn't understand.

Rae had hurled Lotus over the battle, sending her flying into the snow next to Karl, where the Nature Priestess got to work, pinning Karl's arm in place with a number of hasty stitches and a bandaged splint before she began her healing spells. That was her only chance of reattaching the arm. If it healed with the arm off, it would have to be cut again to reattach the two, and that would just be unnecessarily painful.

At least it was clean, as the deep white snow had nothing but mixed purple blood in it.

"Stay with me. You need to stay awake." Lotus was shouting at him, dragging Karl back out of the darkness.

"There you are, open your eyes. We need to move, my vines will only hold off those Giants for a few more seconds." She explained.

Karl blinked away the fuzziness, and saw that there were two Commander Rank Frost Giants being torn apart by Thorned Vines, while Remi was sitting on the ground in front of him, hurling lightning at them.

Karl staggered to his feet, using his sword as a crutch, and realized that while his arm was back, and in a sling across his chest, he couldn't use it. It was just there, numb and motionless.

Using the oversized blade one-handed wouldn't be easy, but it would be impossible to use the maul or the bow. He took a deep breath as [Refreshing Lightning] cleared his mind a little and prepared to fight again.

The two Giants smirked at him as they realized the warrior was heavily wounded, and wouldn't be able to recover fast enough to stop them. But Karl didn't need to lift his blade to fight.

Arcs of [Rend] coated in [Flaming Body] raced for the two Commander Rank Giants, who laughed and easily blocked the strikes, then fell forward, dead, as Hawk's strikes from behind broke their necks.

[The classics are always the best.] Hawk bragged as the flame enhanced [Rend] attacks did their job.

There was a braying noise, and Tessa ran back toward the main battle, leaving Karl to scoop up Remi and stumble after her.

The fight wasn't over yet, but the number of Giants was much lower than it had been.

Karl felt the power transferred from the sword sinking into his body, bringing a tingling to his immobile fingers, and a rush of clarity to his mind.

Karl attacked from behind, joining Hawk in ambushing the Giants and making a path to Thor, who was standing on three legs, while one hung limply, broken by a Frost Giant club.

Rae was protecting the Wagon still, and magic missiles were still casting steadily, with all four Golems on defence.

Harry was under the wagon, nursing injuries, while Ty was kneeling in front of him, firing his bow into the Frost Giants from the relative safety under Rae.

The sudden assault from behind distracted the attackers, and two fell in quick succession to the Spider Golems, then two more from Karl and Hawk, followed by another from Rae herself.

The last few tried to run, but Hawk and the Spider Golems were on them, and before they had made it a hundred metres, they were all taken down.

Lotus vanished into the wagon, which her healing spell was centred on, covering the whole group. Tessa ducked under the wagon to check on Ty and Harry, and Karl did a quick head count. Bob was still standing next to Ophelia, who was panting as she leaned against a Frost Giant corpse, with all her limbs intact. Tessa was in the wagon, as was Lotus. Thor's leg was visibly healing, Dana's Golems were still active, and Rae looked fine.

But there were two that he couldn't see.

Doug and Tori.