Frostfire Legacy

"Everyone! To your positions!" Lizandrea's command echoed once more, alerting all parties.

As the main tank, she ran ahead of her teammates. Then, as soon as she passed by the tired Party 4, she stood her ground and used her skill once more.

"Knight's Challenge!"

Of course, her skills had a limited range. As such, other than the spiders within ten meters around her, the rest were still going forward without any target in mind.

"Tina!"

Seeing this, Aster knew it was their time to do their job. Tina, who was also a tank, rushed toward the other side, making sure not to overlap with Lizandrea's skill, and activated her two skills.

"TAUNT! METAL BODY!"

Unlike Lizandrea's skill, which gathers enemies within ten meters around her, Celestinya's taunt was more focused on enemies within audible range. Although the range was limited to a conical area ahead of her, it could go for a hundred meters, at least!

*SCREEECH!*

Spiders that slipped past Lizandrea's taunt started to swarm over to Celestinya's side, keeping an impenetrable wall upfront. With the two tanks holding back the enemies, Parties 5 to 7 started to launch an all-out attack.

Skills and arrows, with a few magic attacks, flew forward and eliminated the spiders from one small group after another.

"Shit! There's too many!"

But of course, with hundreds—nearly thousands—of Small Cave Spiders swarming toward them, it seemed as if the enemy was endlessly rushing forward!

"Star!"

Cassy shouted as she kicked away two spiders that had slipped past.

The person in question, as if waiting for her voice, opened his eyes at that moment before shouting out loud. "Everyone, stand behind me!"

"...!"

The two tanks and the melee fighters started to retreat, while Aster ran forward as if to switch with them. Then, just as he switched places with them, he pointed both hands forward and raised a howl.

"FREEZE!"

A cold breeze swept across the entire battlefield. Aster controlled the area that his seal affected, limiting it to "everything ahead of him, up to half a foot from the ground."

In a flash, the spiders within two hundred meters of him started to freeze from their legs, up to half of their bodies. A large number of them were immobilized!

Of course, there were still more spiders coming forward, but those who tried to step into the icy field ended up getting frozen themselves, increasing the chaoticness of the situation.

"Don't step into the icy region!" Aster warned. "Use long-range attacks!"

Although he could disable the continuous freezing effect, now that the spiders were immobilized, he wanted to keep the region there to limit the enemies' route. With the large white region ahead of them, the spiders would have to take a long detour to either side just to reach the Raid Party!

A few of the members started to follow his words, attacking the frozen spiders with crossbows, guns, and spells. Before the new batch of spiders reached them, half of the frozen spiders had already died.

During that time, Aster had already moved to their detour location and prepared his next move.

"Freeze!"

He cast it once more, freezing another section ahead of him. With this, the front and left sides were now protected by a frozen area, limiting the directions from which the spiders could swarm.

After that, he then moved to the back, following the spiders that were trying to detour the newly created icy area, and cast his Legacy Level Magic Carved Seal once more.

A sizable icy zone was now blocking three of the four directions!

"Great work, Sir Aster!" Lizandrea praised him before standing in the middle of the last zone, the only area where the spiders could try and approach them. "Leave the rest to us!"

Seeing that the frozen spiders weren't able to move an inch, the other parties started to prioritize clearing the spiders that weren't caught in his "spell." As such, all the frozen ones were up for grabs!

Aster sighed before taking out his sword. Unlike the rest, he was able to walk on the icy field, as the cold didn't have any effect on him. He swung his sword, killing the little critters one after another in a boring manner, like doing a menial task.

With only one side left open, the defense became easier. As such, Lizandrea and Celestinya's blockade was able to hold back all the spiders at once. This made it easier to clear the waves and led their siege to end in just under ten minutes.

Spider corpses scattered around the place, making it a gruesome sight.

"I leveled up!"

"Damn it! Me too! This is nice!"

"Shit, I need a few more to level up... Right, those frozen ones!"

After they cleared the spiders, they turned back to the regions where Aster froze, but of the three regions, only the first frozen region had a few live ones remaining. Aster had already cleared almost all of the spiders!

"Hmm?"

Seeing that the other adventurers tried to enter the icy field as if to copy him, he quickly stopped the continuous freezing effect he was maintaining. It was a bit too late, however, as some adventurers got their boots frozen in place.

Well, they were still lucky, as only their boots got covered in ice. If it reached their legs, then they'd have been in bigger trouble.

Only the first ones were unlucky, as those who entered after Aster disabled his control only felt extreme cold and didn't get their boots frozen. They braved the cold air and waved their weapons, killing off the remaining spiders with smiles on their faces.

Aster didn't plan to hog all the experience, of course. He was just doing his job earlier, killing enemies. As such, as the other adventurers came, he returned to the center where the other parties were present, drinking potions, water, or just taking a rest.

"Great work, Sir Aster." Lizandrea, who saw him approach, gave a genuine smile as she praised him. "We might have perished if you hadn't restricted their path to a single direction."

"That's an exaggeration." Aster smiled, dismissing her overpraising. "At most, a few would be injured, but I doubt just a thousand spiders are enough to wipe us out."

"Haha, that's true too." She chuckled. "But please don't force yourself too much. You've used such a large-scale spell three times; you must be out of mana already."

Aster paused for a brief moment before nodding his head. "... Yeah. I can use it one more time if I'm forced to."

Of course, this was a lie! Using his Carved Seal doesn't take up his mana, so he could technically use it endlessly if he wanted to! However, if he told her the truth, he feared that she would end up relying on him for everything, up to the boss fight.

'I'd better keep my cards hidden for now.' He mused as he turned to the girls who were listening in nearby and winked.

Other than Celestinya, who seemed to have misunderstood his signal's meaning, the other two got his intentions and kept their mouths shut.