Chapter 44: Warm Blood...?
Chapter 44: Warm Blood...?
It was humanoid, roughly. Two arms, two legs, a head that might have contained something like a face if faces were made of jagged crystal and malice. Even frozen solid, Nacho could feel the power radiating off it like cold off a glacier.
[Frost Titan (Epic) | Level 45]
[HP: 25,000 / 25,000]
[Status: Dormant. Will awaken when dungeon threshold is crossed.]
Twenty-five thousand HP. That’s nearly double the Magma Wyrm.
He took a moment to assess the situation. His mana had recovered to about 6,000 during the climb down from floor two, and his HP was sitting at a comfortable 2,800 after the environmental damage from the lava chamber had ticked away. The new Flame Resistance from Titan Body meant the heat hadn’t been as bad as it could have been, but ice was a different beast entirely.
The cold was already seeping into his bones, his regeneration struggling to keep pace with the constant HP drain. He needed to either find a way to mitigate the temperature damage or finish this fight fast.
Water Manipulation worked great against fire. Maybe I can use it to control the ice too?
He reached out with his will, trying to sense the moisture in the air. There was plenty of it, frozen solid in the walls and ceiling, suspended in the frigid atmosphere like invisible crystals. But when he tried to pull it toward him, nothing happened. The ice was too cold, too stable. It didn’t want to move.
Okay, so Water Manipulation is basically useless here. Good to know.
He scanned the chamber for minions, expecting the same wave of enemies he’d faced on the previous floors. But the room was empty except for the frozen Titan and a scattering of what looked like preserved corpses half-buried in the ice.
The Rat King’s smugglers. Found them.
There were seven bodies in total, their faces frozen in expressions of terror. They’d died fast, probably within seconds of entering the chamber. Whatever had killed them hadn’t given them time to fight back.
Nacho approached the ice pillar slowly, his Combat Precognition humming at the edge of his awareness. The Titan was dormant, yes, but that could change at any moment. He needed to find the threshold that would wake it up, figure out the room’s mechanics before committing to a fight.
A thin line of blue light ran across the floor about twenty feet from the pillar. Some kind of trigger, probably. Cross it and the boss wakes up.
He stopped just short of the line and studied the Titan more closely.
The creature’s body was made entirely of ice, but there was something different about the core. A darker spot near the center of its chest, pulsing with a faint blue glow that seemed to be the only source of warmth in the entire chamber.
That’s the weak point... It has to be. Destroy the core, kill the Titan.
But getting to that core would require getting through however many inches of enchanted ice made up the creature’s body. His daggers could cut through stone and metal, but ice this cold might shatter them on contact.
Storm Manipulation, maybe? Lightning generates heat. If I can channel enough electricity into the core...
He ran the numbers in his head. At 30% power, Storm Manipulation cost about 3,000 MP and dealt roughly 4,500 damage. To burn through 25,000 HP, he’d need to hit the Titan at least six times with critical strikes. That was 18,000 MP minimum, assuming every hit landed perfectly.
He had 6,000.
So I need to be smarter about this.
The frozen corpses caught his attention again. The smugglers had been carrying equipment when they died, most of it now buried under layers of frost. But one of them had been clutching something in his hand, something that glinted faintly in the dim light.
Nacho crossed to the body and pried the object loose. It was a flask, made of some kind of insulated metal that had prevented its contents from freezing. He popped the cork and sniffed.
Fire whiskey. Strong enough to strip paint off a wall.
Not useful for drinking. But maybe...
An idea formed in his mind. Stupid, reckless, and probably going to get him killed. In other words, exactly his style.
He gathered every flask and bottle he could find from the frozen corpses, eight containers in total. Most were empty or frozen solid, but three still held liquid, and two of those were the same fire whiskey as the first.
Then he pulled every Silverion Dagger from his inventory. Twelve blades total, including the ones he’d recovered from the first two floors.
Alright. Here goes nothing.
He stepped across the blue line.
The effect was immediate and dramatic. The ice pillar shattered like glass, fragments flying in every direction as the Frost Titan came alive. It rose from its prison with a sound like a glacier calving, chunks of frozen stone falling from its body as it turned to face him.
"WARM BLOOD." The words came out as a blast of frigid air that nearly knocked Nacho off his feet. "FINALLY."
"Yeah, yeah. Warm blood, cold death, heard it all before." Nacho was already moving, circling to the side as the Titan took its first thundering step toward him.
He threw the first flask.
The fire whiskey arced through the air, spinning end over end, and shattered against the Titan’s chest. The liquid splashed across the ice, immediately beginning to steam as the alcohol reacted with the supernatural cold.
The Titan looked down at itself, confusion evident in the tilt of its massive head.
"WHAT—"
Nacho threw the second flask. Then the third. Then all five remaining containers, one after another, coating the Titan’s upper body in a layer of flammable liquid.
Then he activated Storm Manipulation at 50% power and hurled a bolt of lightning directly at the creature’s chest.
[-4,000 MP | 2,000 / 6,000]
The whiskey ignited.
[Critical Hit! -6,200 Damage!]
[Frost Titan: 18,800 / 25,000 HP]
The Titan screamed. Not the confident bellow of a predator toying with its prey, but the shocked shriek of something that had never expected to feel pain. Fire blazed across its torso, melting the outer layer of ice and exposing the darker core beneath.
There it is.
Nacho didn’t hesitate. He launched all twelve Silverion Daggers in a single concentrated burst, every blade aimed at the glowing weak point now visible through the flames.
[-3,000 MP | -1,000 / 6,000]
[Warning: Mana overdraft detected. HP conversion active.]
[-1,000 HP | 1,800 / 2,960]