The giant Frost Beast took one more running stride. Its hindquarters dropped, claws ripping into the old road, and the enormous body launched upward.
By the time Averik looked up, the bear was already above them, belly and frost-armored limbs blotting out the gray sky.
Caedren’s head snapped back. "What the fu-"
"Evelyn."
She moved at Averik voice. A pale barrier curved up from the snow and sealed over them in a half-dome. Before it finished forming, Tovan threw a second ward over it, armor over armor.
It came down before Tovan’s layer finished settling. BOOM!
The impact drove through the road cut. Snow burst away from the dome in a white ring. Outside their protected footprint, the road split in jagged lines and sank into a broad bowl. The young Breaker staggered with the sudden tilt, a curse dying in his throat. Beside him, the young woman’s eyes went wide as one hand slapped down to keep her from sliding.
Tovan’s ward shuddered overhead. One crack crawled across it, then a second forked toward the rim. Averik felt the outer protection coming apart under more than weight.
’Shit. You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s bad news.’
"Outer layer’s going!" Tovan barked, but Bram was already moving. The impact had crushed air around the curved shell and sent it rebounding along both sides. Bram’s fire caught that rushing pressure, and ran with it around the outside of the dome.
He snapped his arm upward. WHUMP!
Air slammed back into the Frost Beast with Fire riding through it. Flame burst under its chest and along one shoulder. The bear lifted off the ward, scorched fur smoking, and flew down-route hard enough to hit the road on its side and plow a trench through snow and broken stone.
"Now!" Caedren shouted. Tovan dropped his fractured shell before it folded inward. Evelyn released the inner dome a beat later, and the group scattered out of the depression.
Already, the bear was getting up. Blue-gray flesh pulled tight beneath blackened fur. Rime crawled over the burned shoulder, and the torn skin underneath began drawing together before Bram had even reset his grip.
Averik took front-center. Snow peeled wide to his right. Evelyn stayed close enough to cover his flank with the spear while Caedren and Bram opened opposite angles. Tovan planted himself between the bear and the rookies.
The Frost Beast lunged again, and Caedren cut across the broken left edge at an angle Averik hadn’t noticed until Caedren took it, reaching the bear’s forequarter without giving away speed. His sword went for the inside of its leg. The bear twisted before steel reached the joint, but Snow hit from the other side and flashed Frost beneath one rear paw as it tried to pivot.
Its paw slid. Evelyn’s spear was already there. Holy light flared along the point, punched through the frost caked over the bear’s shoulder, and came back blue. The beast roared and swept a forelimb through the space she had occupied, but Evelyn had already cleared the claws.
Bram stepped into the opening she left and buried his broad axe in the same shoulder, Fire following the steel. The bear slammed sideways before he could clear. Bram ripped the axe free, took the body check across his shoulder, and flew several paces through the snow. He rolled to one knee with his coat intact.
"Still fucking ugly," he grunted.
A frost-coated paw crashed toward the rookies before Tovan could answer him. Tovan caught it on the head of his long axe with a ward braced across the haft. BAM! The barrier flashed and drove him backward over broken pavement, boots gouging twin tracks, but the paw never reached the two behind him.
Seeing the opening, the young Breaker charged. His axe bit into the bear’s flank, and a pale fracture raced away from the edge, splitting hide and flesh much farther than the metal had cut. His grin came too early.
The bear’s head snapped around. "Back!" Tovan shouted.
The rookie moved, less than a heartbeat late. At their speed, that was plenty. The Frost Beast crossed the gap in a blur. He threw his heavy axe across his body and flooded the weapon and his arms with Essence.
Claw met steel. The reinforcement flickered. KRAK!
His axe head split instead of turning the blow. The haft burst apart in his hands. Claws tore through the broken defense, opened his side, and sprayed blood across clean snow.
That same strike sent him spinning up-route-left. He hit the edge of the road hard enough to crater it and slid to a stop near the cleaner regroup ground.
The young woman reached him before the loose stone finished falling.
"Hey. Stay with me." Her voice broke once as she caught his shoulder and kept him from rolling back toward the fight.
He tried to rise, but pain folded him back down. The young woman slapped her palm against the fractured road beside him. Stone buckled upward into a low crooked lip between the wounded man and the center lane.
Averik saw cyan creeping through the torn edge of the rookie’s coat.
The bear saw the opening too. "Keep it off them." Averik shifted with the beast. "Evelyn, fall back to them. Snow, with her."
Evelyn was already moving. "Yes, Averik. I’ll keep you covered from there."
Snow broke away from her flank and went with her. He wasn’t leaving Evelyn or Snow where one turn could put claws on them.
Before the thought had time to become anything longer, the bear hit him.
Averik slipped the first claw. Frost snapped over shattered pavement under his boot and gave him purchase where loose stone should have rolled. He drove his palm up under the beast’s jaw.
Its head jerked sideways as Darkness folded across one eye.
Its jaws closed on empty air where Averik’s forearm had been. Caedren’s sword flashed over its neck and opened a blue line. The bear twisted toward him, but Bram caught the pressure rolling off that missed turn and shoved Fire back through it.
Flame burst across the bear’s ribs as Tovan came in from the opposite side and struck low. The long axe hit with enough force to crack the road under the beast’s paw.
For the first time, all four fighters drove it back, though only for two steps.
The Frost Beast planted its forelimbs. Rime hardened under its paws. Caedren cut for its throat; the bear met the blade with a claw, and a pale fracture jumped through the sword’s Essence coating. Caedren broke contact before the fracture could spread and cleared the line.
It whirled after him, and Averik froze the snow beneath its rear paws and drove a spike of Frost up along one leg. The beast ripped free with raw force. White ice exploded away, but the break stole just enough of its turn for Bram to land another burning axe strike.
This time the bear caught Bram’s weapon arm with its shoulder instead of taking the edge cleanly.
Bram went airborne again, twisted before landing, and came down on both feet. He skidded backward through the snow, rolled one shoulder, and reset his grip.
"Persistent bastard," Bram spat.
"You’re one to talk," Caedren said, already moving as the bear lunged between them.
Tovan threw a ward across the crossing. Claws hit it, and the surface didn’t merely crack. The center of the protection went dull, its shape losing coherence as the paw pushed through.
Tovan dropped the failing ward and turned the strike onto his axe instead. The impact drove him backward across the road, but it kept the claws off his body.
Averik came over the beast’s shoulder. His heel crashed into the side of its skull. Before it could recover, he sent Soul pressure through the contact.
The bear staggered half a step out of rhythm with itself.
Not enough. Its corrupted flesh was already closing the cuts Evelyn and Caedren had made. Averik pushed Corruption Authority into that recovery. The blue-gray wound shivered and stopped knitting cleanly.
A roar tore out of it. A blind backhand split a ridge of old pavement where Averik had been.
Stone burst upward, and Caedren’s voice cut through the flying stone. "Right!"
Averik trusted the angle. He moved right as the bear barreled across the center. Bram came in behind it and chopped into the ribs; Fire rolled over frost-armored hide, but the beast twisted through the hit and drove its shoulder into him. Bram skidded away instead of falling.
Tovan stepped into the gap before the bear could turn that momentum toward the casualty side. A ward flashed over his axe. The next claw punched through half the protection, yet the delay gave Caedren time to cut behind the beast and open the back of one hind leg.
The bear spun. Averik froze its front paw to the road for an instant. Bram recovered and struck the same flank again. Frost shattered, Fire washed across blue-gray flesh, and Tovan drove his long axe into the shoulder as the bear overextended. The beast tore itself free before Tovan could sink the edge deeper.
It came out of the exchange angrier . Its eyes fixed on Averik.
Averik saw the left claw coming. So did Evelyn. Protection snapped around him from the casualty side and stopped the claws a finger’s breadth from his coat. Cracks raced over the barrier almost immediately.
Averik slipped beneath the failing edge and drove a Frost-coated elbow into the bear’s lower jaw. Its head snapped up. Somewhere behind him, Evelyn’s breath caught.
Landing hard, the Frost Beast spread both forepaws and stopped chasing anyone. Its weight sank as Essence drove down through its shoulders. Caedren saw the change too. "Clear the center!"
Averik launched backward. Bram and Tovan broke in opposite directions. Caedren cleared the fractured bowl in one bound.
The bear smashed both forepaws into the road. KRAAAM!
Road and snow erupted under the impact. Pavement split apart in slabs. Fractures tore outward beneath the snow, and the depression from the first landing widened as the old road gave way again.
Averik landed beyond the worst of it, boots cutting shallow grooves before Frost caught beneath him.
"Averik, please tell me you’re all right!" Evelyn stood beside the wounded rookie. Worry tightened her face. Averik straightened.
’Woy, woy, woy. Don’t play with me, you oversized bastard.’
The bear’s head turned at Evelyn’s voice and found her. Averik’s expression emptied. ’Fuck. Now you’re after my wife.’
Its shoulders lowered. ’Fine. Let’s try it.’
It launched. Averik crossed the gap in instant. His body answered before the bear had completed its first stride, Frost snapping beneath his feet in white bursts, and he stopped between the charge and Evelyn.
At the same instant, he let the Primordial Frost Devil Bloodline surface in one place only. His eyes turned red.
The world sharpened. Snow grains spinning through the air separated from one another.
When the Frost Beast met his eyes, its charge broke into hesitation. Its claws gouged the road as the enormous body tried to stop and pull away at the same time. Momentum still carried it closer.
Averik pressed his Devil and Corruption presence forward. The bear wanted distance now; he gave it none. When that sliding mass came within arm’s reach, Frost erupted around all four limbs, thickening around each paw and biting deep into the road. The bear stopped so violently its shoulders pitched forward.
"Nobody comes closer," Averik said without looking away from it. "Stay where you are."
A roar blasted into his face as the bear hauled backward.
Under the strain, the road groaned. Hairline cracks appeared through the Frost around one foreleg. Averik stared into its eyes.
Darkness spilled outward.
To the bear, everyone else vanished. Road, snow, sky, Evelyn, movement at the edges, all of it drowned behind a black curtain. The beast could still hear. It could still smell blood and people. It still knew itself.
But in front of it, the only thing left to see was Averik and two red eyes burning through the dark.
He drew Roderic’s revolver and put the muzzle against the line of its skull. "What’s wrong? Feeling small now?"
It strained again. Krrk. The crack in the restraint widened. Averik smiled.
’Oh. You’re really not an ordinary Frost Beast.’
He could kill it from here. That would also waste the more interesting answer. He had a better use for it alive. If take this one made the next claim easier, better.
’Maybe I’ll use you for practice.’
He holstered the revolver and raised his palm toward the bear’s head and reached through Beast Tamer.
The connection caught at once, and the bear hit back through it just as quickly.
Rage crashed against the forming bond. Frost groaned around the beast’s limbs while its shoulders twisted and its claws tore for purchase.
Averik leaned into the resistance. The bear jerked its head toward an escape line Darkness had erased and hauled against the Frost hard enough to split one hind restraint halfway through. Devil pressure kept its instinct caught between attacking him and getting away.
It shoved back hard enough to make Averik’s teeth show. Then the resistance buckled.
The bond locked.
::···:::···:::···::
[Target Successfully Tamed]
::···:::···:::···::
The new connection had barely settled when Corruption stabbed backward through it.
The Corruption hanging over the feeding ground had pressed against Averik all morning without trying to take hold. This did. It came through the bond with direction, clawing for a place inside him.
His Bloodline reacted before the intrusion could settle. Averik closed Authority around it and crushed the invasion against the bond. It still pushed hard enough to make him work, but he wasn’t guessing anymore. He forced his control back through the connection until the thrashing flattened.
Corruption still ran through the Frost Beast. It was simply his now.
Averik felt its existence through the completed bond for the first time, dense and heavy against the other beast-bonds he had formed. ’I was right.’ He focused on what he now owned.
::···:::···:::···::
[Species: Rimeback Greatbear]
[Core: Corruption Core - Tier 5]
[Talent: Breaker]
[Path: Sequence 6 - Disruptor]
[Affinity: Frost]
::···:::···:::···::
Averik looked over the shattered road, Tovan’s broken wards, and the rookie bleeding beyond the ruined center. ’So that’s what you are.’
He pushed his intent deeper into the recognized Talent and Path.
::···:::···:::···::
[Talent: Breaker]
[Fundamental O: Break, sever, rupture, dismantle, or negate a target, connection, structure, restriction, or governing continuity.]
[Path: Sequence 6 - Disruptor]
[Ability: Can break the functioning of energy flows, abilities, regeneration, rituals, formations, and active phenomena.]
::···:::···:::···::
Averik let the Darkness fall away. his eyes back to normal. "You can move." He released the Frost around the Greatbear’s limbs. Its muscles stayed tight, violence still visible in the set of its shoulders, but when Averik sent ’Down-route. Hold.’ through the bond, the beast immediately and lowered its head.
Averik placed his palm on the crown of the massive skull. Nobody rushed closer.
Caedren had a clear view of him when averik eyes become red from across the torn road. His eyes stayed on Averik’s red ones for a long moment before dropping to the subdued bear.
When Caedren looked back up, the half-relaxed look he usually wore around Averik was gone. He gave one small, deliberate nod.
Bram stared at the Greatbear, then at Averik. "That thing’s fully corrupted. How the hell did you tame-"
"I tamed it." Averik ran his palm once over the frost-ridged head. "So stop measuring me by the Tamers you know."
Bram’s mouth stayed open for half a second before he shut it.
Tovan glanced from the broken outer ward to the bear and gave a low breath.
Evelyn came to Averik and caught the edge of his coat between her fingers. Her gaze checked his face first, then his shoulders, then returned to his face.
"I’m glad you’re safe," she said softly. Her fingers tightened once in his coat. "I knew the ward caught the claw, but I still worried."
Averik brushed a dusting of snow from her cheek with his thumb. "My beautiful wife worries too much."
Evelyn’s mouth softened. "About you? I always will. Averik."
A rough groan from the cleaner edge ended the moment. The Breaker rookie was still conscious.
Beside him, young woman knelt with one hand braced at his shoulder to stop him twisting. The wound across his side should have been closing by now. It wasn’t.
Blood darkened the torn layers of his coat. Thin cyan lines had spread away from the claw marks, and pale rime crusted the cloth around them. His body shook in short, ugly bursts.
"Fuck..." He sucked air between clenched teeth. "Cold,under my skin. It keeps biting deeper."
Averik stepped closer. Through Spirit Sight, the injury looked worse beneath the flesh. Essence around the wound stuttered instead of circulating cleanly. The rookie’s body kept trying to close the torn flesh, and each attempt broke apart before it could start. Corruption kept working inward through the wound, and deeper than that, the pressure had already abraded his soul.
Averik drew the revolver. Young woman went still when the muzzle came down toward her companion’s head.
Caedren’s voice changed. "Averik."
Bram took one step closer. "Don’t. Hold on." Averik let the warnings pass and put the sights where he wanted them.
The wounded Breaker looked up at him. Pain had wrecked his breathing, but not quite his pride. "This..." He swallowed, face twisting. "This because I laughed at you? Go on, then"
Averik almost smiled. "That? Too pathetic to be worth my revenge. I remember it, though." His finger settled against the trigger.
He glanced once at Evelyn. "Right now, you’re a different problem. I’d rather kill you now than spend the next hours dealing with you while you rot from the inside, can turn into a Frost Zombie at any time and become a risk to my wife."
The muzzle came a little closer.
The young woman’s hand tightened against the rookie’s shoulder.
Caedren moved into Averik’s peripheral vision, careful not to step into the muzzle line. "Wait. You stopped this before."
Averik looked at him.
Caedren’s eyes narrowed. "Back at the gate, you stopped the spread. Can you do that here?"
"I can" Averik kept the gun up. "That won’t make the rest of this disappear."
He nodded toward the Greatbear. "It’s a Breaker. Sequence 6 Disruptor.
Bram’s face tightened.
"His regeneration keeps failing. Essence circulation is a mess. Corruption’s already inside him." His gaze settled on the rookie’s face. "His soul took damage too."
Averik looked down-route at the feeding ground. Bodies from the first fight still lay in churned snow, blue blood staining the road around them. "And this whole cut is soaked in Corruption."
He looked up-route toward Vardel. The gray-black bank from earlier had swallowed the return horizon. Wind drove snow across the road in thick sheets. The nearest route poles still showed through it; the farther ones disappeared one after another into moving white beneath a dark sky.
Averik watched the storm for a moment, then looked back at the man under his gun.
"And now we’ve got that."
Caedren followed his gaze. Averik’s voice stayed flat. "We might not make Vardel today."
No one answered immediately. Averik lowered the muzzle until it nearly touched the rookie’s forehead. "So give me a reason not to kill him now."
The young woman opened her mouth and failed to find one. Bram’s jaw tightened. Averik began to squeeze the trigger.
"Wait!" Caedren stepped forward. "Averik, wait!"