Harem System In A fantasy World - Chapter 152: Frostbound Colossus
Chapter 152: Frostbound Colossus
As they continued walking, the mood grew relaxed again.
Tessa swung her arms lazily. “You know, if all floors are like this, we’ll clear fifteen by tomorrow.”
“We should pace ourselves,” Aria said softly. “We don’t know what’s deeper.”
“Are you worried?” Mira asked.
“No,” Aria replied. “Just cautious.”
Isolde walked beside Elion.
“You really don’t need the experience?” she asked quietly.
“No.”
“And you’re not even trying.”
“Not yet.”
She gave him a long look.
Behind them, Aria watched that exchange quietly.
The next chamber was different.
The air was colder.
Mist clung to the ground.
And in the center stood a pack of C+ Grade Frostfang Direwolves.
At least eight of them.
Their eyes glowed pale blue.
“Formation?” Tessa asked.
Aria nodded.
The wolves attacked as one.
What followed was not a fight. It was pure art.
Wind boosted Tessa’s leaps. Fire forced the wolves into choke points. Earth shaped the battlefield. Water froze the mist into slippery traps.
Elion used water to bind a wolf mid-dash, then flash-evaporated it with Mira’s fire.
The combination stunned the girls.
He could coordinate elements fluidly.
The wolves fell within seconds while they stood among fallen beasts.
Breathing steadily and barely scratched. And they were only warming up.
Elion looked deeper into the cavern passage ahead.
The deeper they went, the quieter the dungeon became.
Floors nine, where they had begun today, to the entrance of floor fourteen had been simple. Almost relaxing. The beasts there were aggressive, but predictable.
They relied on brute force and instinct, not strategy. Even the C+ Grade Frostfang Direwolves had fought like animals instead of coordinated predators.
Now the air felt different.
The stone corridor narrowed as they descended the spiral passage toward the deeper parts of floor fourteen. Torches embedded in the dungeon walls flickered with faint blue flames, casting long shadows that moved unnaturally along the rock.
Tessa walked ahead of the group, rolling her shoulders lazily, though her eyes were sharp.
“I hope the next floor is less disappointing,” she said, cracking her knuckles. “My fists are barely warmed up.”
“You shattered two troll skulls and cracked an A-Grade’s ribs,” Mira replied calmly. “That is not what most people call disappointing.”
“It died too fast,” Tessa answered simply.
Aria walked beside Elion, her fingers lightly brushing against his sleeve as she moved.
“You are holding back too much,” she murmured quietly so the others would not hear.
Elion smiled faintly. “I am pacing myself.”
“You do not need to pace yourself.”
He did not respond to that.
Ahead, the stone corridor opened into a wide cavern filled with jagged pillars and uneven terrain.
Water dripped from the ceiling. The ground was damp and slick, creating unstable footing for anyone who did not pay attention.
The smell hit them first. Rot and decay. And something metallic.
“Blood,” Isolde said softly.
From the darkness, a low growl echoed.
Then another.
And another.
Red eyes opened one by one.
This time, there were no lesser beasts.
Three figures stepped forward slowly.
B-Grade Blackclaw Ravagers.
Each stood nearly two and a half meters tall, hunched but muscular, their elongated arms ending in claws that scraped sparks against the stone floor. Their bodies were lean, built for speed rather than brute strength.
“These are faster than the Cave Reaver,” Isolde observed calmly.
Tessa grinned.
“Good.”
The Ravagers did not roar.
They vanished.
The first one reappeared directly behind Mira.
Before it could strike, wind exploded sideways. Isolde had anticipated the movement. The gust knocked the Ravager off balance mid-swipe.
Tessa was already moving.
She dashed forward, her gauntlets glowing brighter than before. Instead of meeting it head-on, she ducked low and drove her fist upward into its ribs. Bone cracked.
The Ravager twisted unnaturally and slashed at her face.
Aria stomped the ground.
Stone erupted upward between them like a shield. The claws screeched against rock instead of flesh.
“Left!” Mira shouted.
The second Ravager lunged for Isolde.
Elion moved.
This time, he did not hold back his water.
A thick whip of high-pressure water snapped around the Ravager’s ankle mid-leap, yanking it downward violently. Its face smashed into the stone floor.
Mira stepped forward and released a focused jet of flame directly into its exposed back.
The fire burned hotter than before.
The Ravager screamed.
Elion flicked his wrist again. The water whip tightened and snapped, tearing the beast’s leg clean off.
The cavern filled with the smell of burning flesh.
The third Ravager had not attacked yet.
It was watching.
It dashed toward Aria instead.
Earth mages were usually slower to react.
It miscalculated.
Aria did not move backward.
She moved forward.
The ground beneath the Ravager’s feet liquefied into loose sand, swallowing its momentum. At the same time, thick stone pillars rose around it, boxing it in tightly.
Tessa leapt onto the pillar.
She brought both fists down.
The impact crushed the Ravager’s skull into the stone floor beneath it.
Silence followed.
All three B-Grade beasts lay dead.
The fight had lasted perhaps ninety seconds.
Tessa exhaled slowly, rolling her neck.
“Better.”
Mira brushed ash from her sleeve.
“You are enjoying this too much.”
“Of course I am.”
Isolde glanced at Elion.
“You adjusted your water pressure mid-cast,” she said quietly.
He looked at her.
“And?”
“That is not something most mages do instinctively.”
He smiled faintly.
“I practice.”
…
They reached the depths of the fourteenth floor faster than expected.
The air temperature dropped significantly. Frost formed along the cavern walls, and the stone beneath their feet became brittle and pale.
“This floor is colder than the previous one,” Aria observed.
“And there is less noise,” Mira added.
The dungeon here felt larger. The ceilings were higher, and the shadows deeper. Large claw marks covered the walls, as though something massive had dragged itself through the corridors repeatedly.
They did not need to wait long.
A tremor shook the ground.
From a tunnel to their right, something enormous emerged.
An A-Grade Frostbound Colossus.
It was easily four meters tall, its body formed of ice-encrusted stone and hardened crystal plates. Each step it took left cracks in the ground.
Tessa’s grin widened.
“That is more like it.”
The Colossus raised one massive arm and brought it down.
Aria reacted instantly.
Stone surged upward beneath them, lifting the entire team onto a raised platform just as the Colossus’ fist smashed into the ground where they had stood. The shockwave cracked the cavern floor.
“Break the joints,” Isolde called.
Wind gathered around her arms, compressing into razor-thin blades. She launched them at the Colossus’ knee.
The blades struck and shattered against the crystalline armor.
“Harder than expected,” she muttered.
Mira stepped forward and unleashed a spiral of flame. The fire wrapped around the Colossus’ arm, melting frost but barely affecting the core stone beneath.
“It resists fire,” she said.
Tessa did not wait.
She leapt from the platform directly toward the Colossus’ chest. She twisted midair and drove both gauntlets forward.
The impact sent cracks across its upper body.
The Colossus roared and swatted her away.
Elion moved faster this time.
Water condensed instantly around Tessa’s falling body, cushioning her landing with a thick liquid barrier before evaporating harmlessly.
She landed safely and shot him a quick look.
“Thanks.”
He nodded once.
Then he stepped forward.
Water gathered around his hand. But it did not remain liquid. It froze instantly. A spear of compressed ice formed.
The girls froze.
“You can freeze water?” Mira asked.
Elion did not answer. He hurled the spear.
It pierced directly into a crack Tessa had created earlier. The impact expanded the fracture violently.
“Now!” Aria shouted.
Stone pillars erupted beneath the Colossus’ feet, destabilizing it.
Mira unleashed her strongest flame yet, concentrating heat directly into the cracked chest plate.
Isolde followed with a focused wind drill aimed at the same weak point. Tessa charged and drove her fist straight into the exposed core. The Colossus shattered.
Ice fragments rained across the cavern floor.
The team stood there, breathing slightly heavier now.
That fight had lasted almost three full minutes.
Tessa wiped frost from her knuckles.
“That was satisfying.”
