A snowstorm was raging over the battlefield.
"Shoot!"
The mournful sound of war horns echoed across the mountains. If it weren't for the fact that the accumulation of snow on the slopes seemed to have become strangely thin, it was quite possible that the echo would have triggered an avalanche.
Hundreds of arrows streaked across the sky, momentarily obscuring the falling snowflakes. However, the blizzard surrounding the ice giant formed a natural shield, deflecting all the arrows before they could reach him.
At the same time the giant raised his left hand to cover his eyes. The arrows, weakened by the wind, barely managed to hit his blue skin as if they were simple pebbles, without causing the slightest damage.
Except the one shot by Milva.
[Puff!]
"God!" The ice giant roared in anger. It had been many years since he had suffered an injury, and yet in the recent short period of time he had been wounded twice.
An arrow, longer than usual, had embedded itself superficially in the palm of his hand, causing a slight sting. The giant shook his hand violently, as if he had been shocked. The arrow broke loose and flew off in an unknown direction.
The damage was insignificant, just a scratch. Not even deep enough for the arrow to get stuck.
Milva notched another arrow onto her bowstring and, without taking her eyes off the target, asked Kolgrim, "With such a shallow wound, would your poison do any good?"
Kolgrim unsheathed his silver sword and, without hesitation, tossed Milva a small leather bag containing specially prepared poison. "Can you make the arrow penetrate deeper? According to Lann, you are able to hit the same spot multiple times."
Milva aimed carefully for a few seconds and then shook her head. "The wind is too strong."
…
A flash of lightning flashed in Yennefer's hand.
[Crack!]
The lightning bolt streaked across the battlefield and struck the ice giant's shoulder, causing him to let out a roar of pain. At the same time, his fur vest began to burn, and the fire clung to his frozen body, causing him to let out a piercing scream.
But Yennefer did not stop. She launched a second bolt of lightning, then a third, a fourth... The succession of lightning bolts lit up the sky with tremendous intensity.
However, despite his screams of pain, the ice giant was barely injured. The lightning bolts were merely magical manifestations of a natural phenomenon, and not the fury of an actual storm.
Yennefer understood this too. But she just needed to slow down his movements with the paralyzing effect of the lightning.
The giant soon grew accustomed to the pain. With a grunt, he tore a huge rock from the ground, much larger than Yennefer herself, and hurled it furiously.
The sorceress opened a portal in the air and the rock disappeared without a trace.
Panting, Yennefer took a few steps back, her face pale from the effort.
Taking advantage of the giant's attention on her, Fritjof finally finished his preparation, stood up, and his oak staff, stuck in the ground, connected with the energy in the heavens.
In an instant, the wind stopped blowing. The snow stopped swirling. The clouds, which until a moment ago had hidden the sun, disappeared as if they had melted, and a ray of light illuminated the mountains, which were finally emerging from the storm.
The sky was clear.
The ice giant squinted, blinded by the sunlight, unaccustomed to its glare after spending centuries in the depths of his cave.
And then, a golden flash appeared between his face and the hand he was trying to block the sun with.
Lann had teleported. With a single movement, he pulled an alchemy backpack from his inventory and threw it straight at the giant's face.
Lann wasted no time. As soon as he completed his task, he disappeared in the blink of an eye and returned to the Allied ranks. An instant later, the ten dimeritium bombs exploded in the giant's face.
A thick cloud of dark green smoke enveloped his torso, with thin blue sparkles of static energy running through the haze.
"Ahem, God... Ahem, God!" The ice giant coughed, staggering. The metal particles from the dimeritium bombs seeped into his airways, entering his body. At his metabolic rate, his body would expel them completely in a day. But the fight was not going to last that long.
The wind on the mountain completely calmed down. And then, the arrows rained down again, undeflected by the blizzard.
The sound of strings being pulled taut and arrows flying through the air filled the valley. Skellige's soldiers fired until their quivers were empty, until their shaking hands could no longer hold the bow.
Their arrows could barely hurt the giant. But at this moment, it was the best attack they had.
The Skellige soldiers drew their melee weapons. They knew their role in this battle was not to defeat the giant, but to distract him long enough for the real fighters to do their work.
One of them, a short axe in hand, turned to Lann. "My lord, please stand back and bide your time. If anyone can kill this creature, it is you."
Lann gave a light laugh and shook his head. "No. You are to stand back and protect the king and the mages. That is your task."
Geralt, Kolgrim, Coen and Gerd were already at his side. Bill, with a roar, transformed into a huge Skellige bear. Black Wind stamped his feet impatiently and snorted, as if disapproving of his master choosing to fight on foot.
…
Using Dimeritium to disable the enemy's magic skills and let the others distract them was a good strategy. However, if he wanted to finish off the Ice Giant in one blow, the only viable option for Lann was to use the [Rend] skill, a sword skill capable of completely ignoring the enemy's defense.
But that posed a problem: where would Lann find the time to charge his attack without interruption?
The attacks of the other witchers would only serve to distract for a short time. Yennefer and Fritjof's spells were of no help either. Against an enemy with such absurd stamina, the mages were even less effective than the witchers, as their magical energy was not as inexhaustible as the latter's stamina.
Seeing this situation, Lann could only try to find a viable solution in an anomaly like the system.
Maybe he didn't need a method as powerful as the [Rend] skill, but at least one that could deal constant damage without needing such a long charge.
Lann remembered what Yennefer had done moments ago: using lightning to set the Ice Giant's fur vest on fire. That gave him an idea.
He opened his system panel. He had two ability points available. Immediately, he navigated to the [Signs] branch.
It's been a long time since he invested in his skills.
After his adventure in the Circle of Elements at the School of the Wolf, he had unlocked all of the Tier 3 abilities of the Signs. He could now access the Tier 4 abilities, but he had decided to save his points for the abilities of the second mutation.
However, he now noticed that the Tier 4 ability of the Igni Sign might be the solution to his current problem.
[Pyromaniac]: Increases the chance of Igni Sign inflicting the Burning status on enemies by 20%. (1/5)
In-game, Burning was an extremely powerful debuff, capable of draining life from enemies over time. It was a key tactic when players faced higher-level bosses in the early stages of the game.
Unfortunately, for Lann, this effect had always been somewhat irrelevant. First, because it was no longer in the early stages; setting an enemy on fire and waiting for it to die was not as effective as killing it in one hit. Second, because the probability of Burning in reality did not depend on an arbitrary calculation: if a spark landed on something flammable, the fire would ignite without the need for a percentage chance.
However, he knew that this ability was not as useless as it seemed at first glance. The key was to interpret it in another way: increasing the probability of NON-flammable objects catching fire.
Because in the game, the [Igni Sign] can ignite gargoyles and golems carved from pure stone with the blessing of the ability.
A fire capable of consuming any material equally. Only in this way could this ability justify its place as the most powerful of the Igni Sign.
In other words, this ability was perfect against the Ice Giant. Against a beast that barely took damage from conventional weapons, Lann needed a debuff that dealt progressive and constant damage. In a fight against an enemy of this caliber, [Pyromaniac] showed its true worth.
Without hesitation, he invested an ability point:
[Sign of Igni - Pyromaniac] unlocked.
[Pyromaniac]: Increases the chance of the Sign of Igni inflicting the Burning status on enemies by 40%. (2/5)
…
By this time, the Ice Giant was less than twenty paces away from them. His stench of rotting flesh, the product of years of living among the mountains, permeated the air.
"Let's go!"
Four pairs of amber eyes with slanted pupils and a golden lion's gaze shone in the gloom of the mountain.
A colossal oak trunk crashed down upon them with crushing force. The gale it generated caused Lann's griffin cloak to flap violently.
The witchers and battle squires dodged skillfully, taking distance from the Giant. Only Lann rolled nimbly across the ground, sliding through the attack without flinching, appearing at the creature's feet to counterattack.
With his left palm raised, he activated his new ability:
[Igni Sign - Pyromaniac]!
The next moment a conical flame engulfed the Ice Giant's legs.
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