Frostbound

Chapter 250 - Dominance

Chris

I wasn't sure whether to call it progress or not that my Mother didn't ask any questions about my request.

I'd spent a month training, sparring, and fighting with the Guard Orders while also doing my daily trips into the Dungeons and now that the time was coming to depart, there were a few last things to do.

One was to upgrade my Body, as the chamber was ready and waiting, and the other was to increase my Wind Law to Tier 2 finally.

My Wind law had been set aside for a while to focus on everything else I needed to focus on and it was now time to fix that. I wanted to get my Laws back to even before I went through the Body of Stone refinement.

Partially because a phantom voice in my mind was trying to delay the pain the Refinement would cause, and partially because I felt having my Laws equal for the procedure would make it easier.

Like the first one, I was continuing down the path of the Northern Winds Body, which was one of Wind and Ice.

I felt it was still one of my best options, not that I had any different ones, but I had looked over a few other ones in the Rewards and this was one I wished to stick to for now.

Other than the obvious, increasing my Affinity to both Ice and Wind, the main reason was the higher defense to slashing attacks.

Our city had grown leaps and bounds as refugees flooded in along with The Fort. In total, there were over fifteen thousand people between our two Cities and nearly all of them used a slashing weapon of some kind.

Those who used weapons, of course.

Daggers were a mix of thrust and slash, and so were swords, but nearly every weapon people used was meant to cut in some way and my technique guarded against that.

Hammers, maces, and clubs were still used, just disproportionally less than bladed weapons. Which I found odd, but not one to complain. It made preparing against them easier.

In order to push my Wind Law to the next Tier, I did the same thing I did to get it in the first place. Asked everyone I knew with a Wind Law to attack me.

Well, not everyone, as that would be complete overkill, but a select few that had ones that aligned with what I was going for. The concepts behind Laws being similar helped tremendously.

Which was where my Mother came in. She had upgraded her Law into an even more devastating form than before. She'd gained her Law on the concept of ripping and tearing that Wind could do. Making her Wind Blades penetrate further and do more damage.

She then extended that into Razor Sharp cutting to push it into Tier 2.

Both times focusing on the sheer damage output.

If she had to go all out, she turned into a small tornado of razor-sharp Wind blades that diced up anything that got close. Watching her train against the Dungeons was one of the scarier things I'd witnessed.

Watching my Mother, the loving woman who birthed and raised me, turn into a windstorm of blades with blood and chunks of body parts flying everywhere was... something.

When I asked her to hit me with her best shot, much like I had before, she didn't hesitate or ask any questions.

All she said was, "Where do you want to do it?"

It felt like she would've unleashed everything she had then and there if I asked her to. It was a far cry from how the first time she reacted.

It was somewhat odd to compare the two. Not yet two years apart, yet the reactions were so different.

Other than gathering my Mother, I also grabbed Hal for the project. His Wind Law had similarly reached Tier 2 not that long ago and was close to the concept I was going for.

His Tier 1 was gained on rotation and drilling to mix with his arrows, while his Tier 2 was gained on penetration. I didn't care for the first part, but penetration was close enough to what I was going for.

I had gained my own Wind Law on nearly to same concept. He wanted his Winds to penetrate further while I wanted my Winds to cause my Cold to penetrate further.

For my Tier 2, I wanted more power. I'd gained the inspiration from my trip to the Arctic and had tried to gain it there, but it wasn't meant to be.

I wasn't completely sure, but if my mind hadn't been focused on something else, I thought I would have gained it then and there.

Being so focused on my Mana Heart and Bloodline had distracted me from clearing my mind enough to realize a deeper Wind Law.

Or that was what I was telling myself.

There were enough Law backed snowstorms I either ran through or detoured around that the Wind Law I was going for was prominent in my Mind. The feeling, pressure, and the combination of Ice and Wind that the snowstorms had were the exact feeling I was going for.

It helped to have a base to build off of, yet no matter how much extra time I spent thinking about it, or 'meditating', I couldn't upgrade it.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

The feeling of being so close, for so long, was... aggravating.

Aggravating wasn't a strong enough word to describe it. It was agonizing some days.

To fix that, my idea was to put myself under pressure. To have a host of people smothering me in Wind Law attacks so it would help stimulate what I was going for and push me over the edge.

Uh, I should work on the wording.

Jokes aside, I was sick of the feeling and today was the day I would achieve it.

Finding a clearing outside the gates was easy enough. All we had to do was get far enough away from the fields and it was fine. The trees would take a hit, but that was alright. Magic did wonderous things. It both made the trees stronger or if they were blown down, regrow much faster.

Abigail had future plans to clear them anyway and we'd be doing her job for her. The people needed food and that meant more farms.

"Alright, I won't be using any skills to defend myself, so start off slow," I called out to the small crowd. I feared Hal and my Mother weren't enough on my own and gathered a few more people who had Wind Laws.

Not all of them were Tier 2, but that was fine.

"When I call for more, take it up a notch." I readied myself. Being bare-chested wasn't my first choice, but I didn't want to ruin a good shirt. Plus, I wanted to feel the Winds hit my body, not feel them break on my armor. That was also why I wasn't using any skills. [Jotun's Resistance] would make fighting off the attacks trivial, which was the opposite of what I wanted.

The one thing I did do was anchor myself to the ground.

With the combined Winds of nearly a dozen people, there was a high chance of getting blown off my feet. Especially if I didn't defend myself. A gentle application of some frost to my boots and the surrounding dirt was enough to keep that from happening.

"Begin!" I called once I was ready.

Some were more hesitant than others, but they all launched their various attacks down on me. It was clear that some were wary of attacking me while I was undefended, but they would soon take a different stance.

My Mother's Wind Blades and Hal's Wind enhanced arrows hit the hardest, but all the attacks launched broke against my chest with ease.

"Come on, you can do better than that. I barely felt that." It wasn't my goal to antagonize them, but by the looks I was getting, that was exactly what I did.

The next round was decidedly stronger and not by a small margin.

I wasn't lying when I said I barely felt it. My Fortitude was strong enough and my Body was specifically refined to defend against the attacks I was under. Half-hearted attacks, even a dozen of them, weren't enough to harm me.

"More!" I called over the growing Winds.

The next blast was a lot more forceful and I had to dig my feet in a bit more, but did little else.

"Those with Tier 1 Laws go all out!"

I initially wasn't sure how tough my body was, my bare body, but it was hard not to smile at direct proof. It wasn't often that I got to test it. Whenever I fought, I usually wore my armor or used [Frost Armor]. If it wasn't that, I used [Jotun's Resistance].

Even before gaining the legendary skill, [Reinforced Body] or [Fortified Body] were a staple in my build.

The wall of wind that crashed over me next was the strongest yet, but it still wasn't enough. I could feel it trying to dig into my skin and cut me, but it wasn't enough.

"More!" I called.

A veritable typhoon was launched at me. Now we're getting somewhere.

Two attacks stood out from the rest, they dug deeper, and pushed further, but they still weren't enough to get past my Fortitude.

"More!"

The various Tier 1 Laws started to mix together and the winds grew with every passing volley but now there was something more in the mix. The Tier 2 Laws.

Only a portion of the attacks I felt wash over me had that kind of power behind them, but they dwarfed all the rest. The step between Tier 1 and 2 was a large one.

I'd felt it myself with my Ice Law.

"More!"

The pressure built again and I could feel it. The picture of what I was going for was in sight.

Now I can begin.

Power was a wide concept to gain insight into. It meant different things to different people. The power of Wind that Hal was going for was different than mine and subsequently, mine was different than my Mothers.

The Power I wanted- craved, was something I'd seen happen 27 times before. I'd lived through 27 Winters and every time they came, they pushed everything out.

Cold, arctic Winds came from the North, and pushed everything else away. And that was what I was going for. Not just Power, but Dominance.

While I had a plethora of Ice skills, the ones I had using Wind were lacking. Only one skill came to mind, [Desolate Blizzard].

But that wasn't what I wanted. I didn't want the skill to do the work, I wanted my Law to do it.

I'd practiced my Wind Manipulation countless times and while it would never be as good as my Ice, especially without the skill for it, that didn't mean I was untrained.

Similar to how I launched unstructured magic at the Demon, I did the same now. Leveraging my Law and ability to manipulate Winds, I pushed back.

It burned through my mana but I had enough to spare now. My Heart pumped it out at a pace my manual manipulation could barely keep up with.

Being backed by my Arctic mana, what I conjured carried an inherent chill with it but that was even better. It wasn't my goal to separate one from the other. I eventually wished to combine them.

No one was sure how that worked or what that looked like, but that was above what I was trying to do and I had to reign in my errant thoughts.

Don't think ahead when you don't even have the building blocks.

Refocusing, I pushed harder.

Seeing I was pushed back, I didn't even have to call out for more, they knew what I needed. The pressure began to build and my smile widened. This was exactly what I was going for.

My Winds are stronger and push all others out. Just like Boreas, I need the Northern Winds to reign supreme.

I wasn't sure if calling on Greek Mythology, and the idea of Boreas, would work or not but I felt no harm in comparing the two.

With the force of me pushing back against the attacks, they began to get diverted around me and I had to grit my teeth.

I didn't want to divert them, I wanted to dominate them.

Spreading out my mana, I dug deeper. I created a wall in front of me so the winds couldn't be diverted. It added to the pressure and threatened to send me tumbling back, but I pressed through.

My mind felt like it was on fire. I didn't have the [Wind Manipulation] skill to take up some of the burden and it fell all on my mind, but I pushed through. I activated [Mental Freeze] to alleviate some of the burn even though that wasn't what it was made for.

It carried Arctic mana to my brain and that was enough.

I debated calling on my Bloodline but stopped myself. Similar to not wanting to rely on a skill, I didn't want to rely on my Bloodline either.

One of Hal's arrows threatened to break through, but I rallied back in time to keep it from happening. Every time I tried to gain ground, the others pushed harder to keep it from happening.

With a roar and a mental shove, I gave it my all and I felt the difference. It fell into place and I knew I did it.

All at once my resistance dropped and I got a blast to the face that sent me flying.

I didn't think that through.·