The Forest Held Its Breath
Kaito's fingers twitched against his sword hilt. The wind had died. The birds had gone silent. Even the ever-present creak of ancient pines had stilled, as if the forest itself was afraid to breathe.
Then—
Crunch.
A single branch snapped in the distance.
Too loud. Too deliberate.
The Frostborn Patriarch, an evolved frost giant. emerged not with a roar, but with the quiet inevitability of an avalanche. Fifteen feet of corded muscle sheathed in frost-rimed fur, its tusks gleamed like polished bone in the weak sunlight. Its breath came in slow, measured plumes, each exhale carrying the scent of iron and frozen earth.
But worst of all were its eyes.
Not the mindless hunger of normal monsters. Not even the cunning glare of elites.
This thing watched them. Studied them.
Commander-rank. B-Class Threat.
Mira's totem shrieked in her hands, the wood cracking along its carvings as the last elemental inside thrashed against its prison. "I-It's not just strong," she whispered. "It's old. The forest remembers its hunts."
Jiro spat blood onto the snow and hefted his greatsword. "Well. That's fucking ominous."
---
Yuriko moved first.
Her fingers flicked outward, conjuring a glacial spear mid-stride. The ice shimmered with compressed mana, its tip honed to molecular sharpness—a technique that had pierced elite-rank hides without resistance.
The Patriarch didn't dodge.
It blinked.
The spear shattered against its eyelid like glass against steel.
Kael was already in motion, black flames wreathing his claws as he lunged low, aiming for the beast's hamstring. The Patriarch's tail snapped like a whip.
THOOM.
Kael flew backward, crashing through three pines before skidding to a stop. Blood painted his teeth crimson. His ribs groaned audibly.
Dain's golden chains erupted after his chant, coiling around the beast's forelegs. "Radiant—!"
The Patriarch shifted its weight.
The chains shattered like frozen porcelain.
Dain gasped, his holy energy recoiling violently up his arms. The backlash left his fingers numb, his palms weeping golden light where the magic had torn free.
Kaito exhaled slowly, watching his breath curl in the air.
Then he moved.
Mirage Step carried him behind the beast in a blur, his sword humming with compressed mana. He struck at the tendon behind its knee—
CLANG!
The blade bounced off as if he'd struck solid iron.
The Patriarch turned. Not with the sluggishness of a massive beast, but with the deliberate grace of something that had killed hundreds of creatures far more dangerous than him.
Its claw rose.
Kaito twisted mid-air, but the wind pressure alone sent him tumbling across the frozen ground. His ribs screamed in protest.
Jiro charged with a wordless roar, his greatsword gleaming as it arced toward the beast's skull. The Patriarch met him head-on.
BOOM.
Steel met tusk in a shockwave that shook snow from the trees. For one impossible moment, Jiro held his ground, muscles straining against the beast's strength—
Then the Patriarch bit down.
CRACK.
The greatsword snapped like dry kindling.
A backhand sent Jiro flying. He hit a tree trunk with enough force to splinter the wood, then slumped into the snow, motionless.
Yuriko's breath didn't fog. Her expression didn't change.
She raised both hands.
The air itself froze.
Not just cold—absolute zero. A glacier's wrath made manifest. Ice erupted from the ground in jagged spires, encasing the Patriarch's limbs, crawling toward its heart—
The beast inhaled.
ROAR.
The ice detonated.
Shrapnel peppered the clearing, forcing Kaito to raise his arms against the barrage. When he lowered them, Yuriko stood perfectly still—but her fingertips trembled.
Mira sobbed into her shattered totem. Kael couldn't rise. Dain's holy energy flickered like a dying candle.
And the Patriarch smiled.
---
Kaito's vision tunneled.
Not from fear. Not from rage.
Clarity.
He saw,
The way the Patriarch's left foreleg favored weight—possible old injury.
The frost clinging thicker around its joints—slowing it, just slightly.
The gleam in its eyes—not just intelligence, but amusement.
This wasn't a fight.
This was a predator playing with its food.
And Kaito had had enough.
His sword rose. Not in desperation. Not in hope.
In certainty.
"Yuriko," he said, voice flat. "Freeze the ground beneath it."
She didn't question. Ice spread in a perfect circle under the Patriarch's paws.
"Mira." Kaito didn't look at her. "Can you still call the wind?"
A whimper. Then—"Y-Yes. But only once."
"Do it when I say."
Dain forced himself to his knees. "What... what's the plan?"
Kaito's lips curled. "We cheat."
---
The Patriarch charged.
"NOW!"
Mira screamed—not in fear, but in defiance. Her shattered totem flared as the last elemental answered. Wind howled, driving snow into the beast's eyes.
Blind, it stumbled—just as its paws hit Yuriko's ice.
Kael moved without prompting, black flames roaring to life around his fists. Not to attack.
To ignite Dain's chains.
Holy and demonic energy collided. The resulting explosion sent Kaito flying upward, carried by the concussive force.
The Patriarch swung wildly, tusks grazing Kaito's side—
But he was already past it.
His sword flashed.
Not at the beast.
At the frost clinging to its back.
The ice shattered—and with it, the Patriarch's balance.
For one heartbeat, it teetered.
Yuriko's dagger took it in the eye.
---
Silence.
Then—
THUD.
The Patriarch collapsed, shaking the earth.
No one cheered.
Jiro lay unconscious, his breathing shallow. Kael's demonic veins had turned black, the energy poisoning his blood. Dain's hands were burned raw from channeling corrupted holy energy.
Mira cradled her broken totem, whispering to the dying elemental inside.
Yuriko stood perfectly still—but her ice dagger had melted.
And Kaito?
He wiped his blade clean on the Patriarch's fur, then sheathed it with a click.
"Wake Jiro," he said, voice hoarse. "We're not done yet."
Somewhere in the distance, another roar answered.
---
End chapter 12