Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

Although this was the first moment since he created his account in RO that Kaizen was truly intimidated, he looked steadily at the beast, which was getting closer and closer, and felt as if he had all the time in the world.

Before, he could barely follow this creature's movements with his eyes, but at this moment Kaizen's mind was clear, and he was free of any weight, so he saw everything more clearly.

"I'm going to need something else to finish this." He knew he couldn't defeat the creature using the usual methods.

So Kaizen pulled the Snowy Limbo from the ground, deflected the beast's onslaught as if it were nothing, and pointed his great sword skyward.

From the tip of the sword, a brief bolt of ice shot toward the low clouds. An instant later, the gale, which accompanied the dark sky and the rain, stopped blowing, and then the drops falling from the sky began to freeze around the sword blade, also being absorbed. From this moment on, the raindrops turned into snowflakes and pure ice.

The beast was very confused, because it had never seen those tiny white crystals plummeting from the sky. These crystals were fragile and melted at the slightest touch with the skin.

"I guess it's dumb of me to try to explain something to a dumb beast like you, but now I have a spectator watching me, so I'll brag a little." Kaizen said as he made the Snowy Limbo absorb all that cold that surrounded them now. "That sword was forged using Icy Ore....  I had to research it thoroughly so I wouldn't screw up when I decided to use it, but all my effort was worth it, because this weapon, created by myself, is capable of freezing an entire forest if I command it."

As soon as Kaizen spoke, he brandished the Snowy Limbo in the direction of the beast, releasing all the frigidity absorbed by the sword. Everything in the direction the sword cut toward began to freeze rapidly. The grasses, the gravel, the stones, the ground and the waterfalls too. Absolutely everything.

As at the moment of wielding he used <Deep Cut>, a skill derived from the <Sword Art> skill, every single one of the millions of snowflakes released by the Snowy Limb was thrown violently. The wave of wind generated by this movement would have the same feeling as thousands of needles piercing through the skin millimeter by millimeter. Not even for mysterious beast such pain was bearable.

The beast grunted in pain as it was hit by the violent wind.

"Grrrrraaarrrr!"

Even so, for a few moments it still seemed that the part man and part wolf monster was coping well, because unlike the trees, which were forced backwards by the force of the wind, the beast was still standing firmly in the same place, only protecting its head with its arms. However, the fact that this creature had not moved was crucial for the frigidity that was proliferating on the ground to completely envelop its legs.

Without a doubt, Kaizen realized when this happened, so he quickly wielded the Snowy Limbo and wedged it back into the ground, increasing the wave of cold that froze the entire place.

Not even Kaizen's own feet were spared from this, and Klank was only not reached by the ice as well because he fled seconds earlier into the forest.

Although the beast was momentarily getting stuck to the ground, there was no guarantee that it couldn't break free, so Kaizen gave it his all, releasing all the ice from his sword. On this occasion, Kaizen was proud of himself for having managed to handle an ore as unstable as the Icy Ore, because this turned the Snowy Limb into an unusual sword, an elemental sword.

Elemental swords are different from enchanted swords. An enchanted sword can have the power of cold, however, it will never have the same power as an elemental sword. Every elemental sword is made with an elemental ore, which allows the forged ore of the sword to absorb the mana of its bearer after exceeding its limit, which in the case of the Snowy Limb its limit was not its strength, but its coldness stock.

However, using elemental ores is exactly like making contracts with demons. There are always big penalties for big rewards.

After releasing all the ice stored in the Snowy Limbo, the ore converted mana and turned that into ice while also wearing down the sword. With each use of this method, the life span of the Snowy Limbo decreased, as well as using this took a lot of HP away from Kaizen, because he was also in the attack radius of the sword's releasing power. Still, Kaizen made Snowy Limbo release frigidity until the beast ended up entirely frozen.

Psyker's legs were covered by a layer of ice up to near the knee, and he was only not frozen entirely because he used some fire to warm himself.

After his triumph, Kaizen couldn't help the fatigue that washed over him. He leaned on the Snowy Limbo still wedged in the ground and sighed with fatigue.

The atmosphere was so freezing that the warm air that came out of his mouth was visible, as if it were winter.

Hiding behind a tree, Klank couldn't believe what he was seeing with his own eyes. He could now clearly see the completely frozen monster.

"He... really did it!" Klank was stunned. "Whew! What a relief... That means we won..."

As Klank was talking to himself, he saw Kaizen getting up and stopped talking.

Although the clouds were already less concentrated in the sky, the rain returned, and the ice statue created by the beast's silhouette began to shake, then crack. The battle was not over yet, this creature would not die with a mini ice storm alone.

Kaizen knew he hadn't won yet, so he stood up and then opened his inventory. After that, he equipped another powerful sword, the Næġling Falske, and walked toward the beast.

As the Psyker approached carefully so as not to slip on the ice, the beast gradually broke free from the ice that held it and roared with much more anger than before when it finally managed to break free.

"ROARRRRRR!"

However, her roar was interrupted by her astonishment as she realized that her opponent was too close. The beast understood nothing, because it could have sworn that just a few seconds ago Kaizen was a considerable distance away.

Without giving the beast any chance to react, Kaizen took advantage of the cold debuff that slowed the beast down and nailed her Næġling Falske, also using the <Touch of Death> skill, a skill he had personally copied from the Guardian of the Gates of Nielfheim.

[Skill: Touch of Death

Death is the essence of life and life the essence of death. If you can control this kind of power, you can reach unimaginable places. When you use this skill, you will apply a cumulative damage equivalent to all creatures you have killed.

(Note: the stored damage count will reset each time you die and/or use this ability.)

Acquisition Difficulty: A.]

An instant later, a bright, strong light spread across the entire region. All the damage accumulated from the dozens of kills made by Kaizen in various other battles was suddenly hurled against the beast.

The creature was completely destroyed by Kaizen's attack, and Klank, who was watching from afar, once again could not believe what he had just seen.

[You have killed a Beast of Charon, a Corrilário, you have gained +20000 XP].

[Congratulations, you have just risen to level 48!]

Kaizen smiled to himself, proud. Although he had worked hard to win and was low on HP and MP, he was also relieved that his idiotic, selfish, thoughtless attitude hadn't ruined everything. Now that he had actually managed to win, he felt more confident than ever because he was pushed to the limit.

As Psyker put away his weapons in his inventory, Klank approached.

"You really won, man!" Klank exclaimed. "Seriously, how strong are you really? I think the only other person I know who could also handle an invisible creature would be Bleeding Lily, and she's been playing since beta!"

Kaizen looked at Kank with strangeness.  "Invisible creature?" he asked.

"Yes!" Klank nodded. "Lily would be the only one, outside of you, who could fight something like that.... Still, I think she would have a little more trouble finding the monster than you did. You were so confident that you seemed to be able to see the monster! That was so cool! Do you have any tracking skills or anything like that?"

Psyker smiled and turned to look at the forest. "Yeah, I have something like that.... But don't tell anyone about what happened here today, all right? Let's go look for the old man and finish the mission, after all that's what we came here for."

Now that Kaizen had defeated the beast, he felt a huge relief, but it wasn't all over yet. He had many questions on his mind, starting with: what exactly was a Charon Beast? And why was only Kaizen able to see it normally?

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

If you want to see original illustrations of Rise Online characters, consider helping me on pa treon: Pa treon.com/NandoFalske

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https://discord.gg/bpqq9u4gS8

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