Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Chapter 152: End of the challenge

As the weapons of the soldiers were about to hit Adam, a wave of frost and an icy wind erupted from his foot. At a speed too quick for the soldiers to react, the frost spread on the ground, and anyone in contact with it was frozen in a Popsicle.

In merely a second, the ice traveled for five hundred meters in all directions before stopping. Anyone within those five hundred meters was dead, and had turned into a statue of ice.

From his point, Adam could only see ice everywhere, even the sky above him had taken a light bluish color as a freezing wind appeared.

The scene around him looked quite poetic, but Adam still had things to do, and couldn't last here for too long. This attack was very powerful, and had probably killed more than of the army, or maybe even more.

But general of the army, alongside his strongest soldiers, most probably stood out of the field of ice as they were standing at the back of the army like the cowards they were. At least, this was his assumption since he hadn't seen any of them when he made his way over here.

Adam's initial plan was to come here, set off his skill, and retreat into the lake to recover his Aura. With how much the lake allowed him to recover, it would take less than two minutes for him to recover all his aura if he recovered actively.

But he had a slight change in his plan as the ice field appeared around him. He hadn't expected it, but being surrounded by this ice actually had the same effect as the lake. Even though there were still enemies, if they had to find him across this field of ice, they would take at least five minutes.

Still, just to be sure Adam moved from where he was initially before sitting down and starting to meditate.

Meanwhile, in the back of the army, the general, alongside with his closest Knights, was looking at the countless ice statues in terror.

A few seconds ago, he was confidant he wouldn't even see the corpse of their enemy after he got stomped on by his army. But suddenly, a chill made it's way across his army as he saw countless of his soldiers turn into ice.

Now, he wanted nothing but to flee from here, how were they supposed to fight a monster like this? Was the one who killed the kings under the Empire's protection the one who did this? Were they chasing a man or a beast?

However, as he was panicking and about to give the order for a retreat, one of the mages following him said "Sir, no matter how strong our enemy is, to release a spell of such an intensity, they must have used all their energy. Even a Saint Mage, who has the almighty power of flying in the sky, would need to use all their mana pool as well as a treasure to cause such destruction."

The general looked at his mage and asked "What are you implying?" The mage replied, meeting the general eye to eye "I think that this is the best moment to strike our enemy. If we let him recover his energy, then all he has to do is step into our Holy Empire's capital, and he would be able to destroy our city using this skill, leaving only the Saint Masters to survive."

On the side, a knight caught on what the mage was trying to do, and he said "Our opponent is most certainly a Saint If general was able to kill a Saint, then losing the army wouldn't matter, the Emperor would even reward your Excellency."

The general's fear was finally replaced by greed as he looked at his remaining men and said "FIND HIM! QUICKLY!"

His men, although they were scared of approaching the deadly field of ice, still decidedly walked toward it. But only when they entered the field of ice did they understand what cold meant. Shivering from the cold, the soldiers still began their search, but they were losing a lot of time trying not to touch their friends.

Although they had all been turned into ice, there was still a chance for them to be alive, they just needed to wait for the sun to thaw the ice covering them.

However, what they didn't know was that those soldiers had already been killed by the initial wave of frost. Although their inside hadn't been turned completely in ice, their blood had already turned solid and their heart had stopped beating.

Although the AOE version of [Ice Statue] wasn't as brutal as the single target version, which literally turned their inner body into ice, meaning their blood and flesh isn't just hardened, they are TURNED into ice. But even if it wasn't to this degree, it was more than enough to kill those soldiers.

Two minutes went by, but because the soldiers were trying to avoid touching their friends, they didn't even close in to Adam.

However, Adam had already recovered all of his Aura, unfortunately for them. As he stood up, he started moving toward the back of the army.

Because he didn't want to waste time, Adam used [Charge], and every ice statue he hit exploded into bits of frozen flesh. The bodies that littered the ground looked like meat that had been abandoned inside a freezer for months.

Quickly, Adam started seeing soldiers. When the soldiers saw him make their friends explode, they were furious, but they couldn't attack him because they would kill their friends doing so.

Bad mistake though, as Adam didn't care and sent a few [Aqua Slash] using his fist toward them, hitting them all in the chest, and punching a hole through them from afar.

When Adam left the field of ice, he finally saw what remained of the enemy's army. A poor ten thousand men. He had hit them harder than he first thought as it seemed.

Adam also spotted the enemy general, as well as his men. Adam approached toward them, and saw that none of the soldiers were attacking because the general had raised his hand.

As Adam approached closer the general asked "Where is the one who did this?" Adam tilted his head and said "Aren't I standing in front of you?"

The general scoffed "Don't take me for a fool, only a Saint Mage could have caused such destruction, and you are obviously neither a Saint, nor a mage."

But Adam only shrugged as he said "I don't have to prove myself to you anyway." Before the general could say anything, or any of his strongest warriors could prepare for the fight, Adam once again stomped the ground.

When they saw him about to stomp the ground, they didn't even prepare any way to protect themselves, because they couldn't see what this warrior could do to them by simply stomping his foot.

And this was what killed them. Had they been prepared, the mages could have raised magical shields, and the warrior could have protected themselves, or they even could have simply jumped, but because they underestimated Adam and didn't know how his attack was executed, they couldn't even react as the frost invaded their bodies and froze them to death.

This time, Adam hadn't used his entire Aura, but only the normal version of the skill. Still, this allowed him to kill the general alongside his strongest men, as well as a few thousands of the ten thousand left.

Adam saw the survivors finally wanted to flee, but before they could make a step, they all shuddered, and their eyes turned hazy, before they started rushing toward Adam. This made Adam smirk, now he was almost certain that the challenge was fighting this army, and the reason they weren't allowed to flee was because they had to fight until either all of their men died, or Adam himself died.

Five minutes later, fresh blood was added to the frozen scenery, and Adam felt a force envelop him as he left this challenge world.