Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Calculated Risks and Close Calls

The smoke of Sector 7 didn’t just choke the lungs; it froze them. As Kaelion and Nyvara rounded the corner into the Commercial Plaza, the world shifted from a burning wasteland to a jagged, crystalline nightmare. Towering pillars of black ice pierced through the asphalt, and the air was thick with a mist that tasted like old copper and frostbite.

“I hate my life!” Kaelion yelled, his voice cracking as they skidded to a halt in front of a fallen barricade. “I really, really hate my life!”

“Save the complaining for the afterlife!” Nyvara laughed, her silver hair whipping behind her as she scanned the carnage.

“You said that already! It wasn't funny the first time!” Kaelion pointed a trembling finger at a twelve-foot-tall humanoid composed of translucent blue ice and hatred. “That’s a Frost Giant, Nyvara! A real one! I’ve only seen those in textbooks, and the textbooks said ‘Run away and pray for a quick death’!”

“Then today’s a good day for a lesson,” a deep, gravelly voice rumbled from the shadows of a collapsed department store.

A massive man in heavy, runic plate armor stepped out, resting a hammer the size of a refrigerator on his shoulder. Beside him, a woman with short-cropped red hair and glowing green eyes toyed with a pair of obsidian daggers.

“Nyvara,” the man said, nodding toward the Silver Valkyrie. “You’re late. And you brought… a civilian?”

“Draven, Riven, meet Kaelion,” Nyvara said, her tone snapping back to professional steel. “He’s not a civilian. He’s… an experimental asset.”

“He looks like he’s about to wet himself,” Riven said, her green eyes scanning Kaelion with blatant dismissal. “Nyv, we’re dealing with a Grave-Walker event. We don’t have time to babysit an F-rank who found a shiny jacket.”

“I’m right here, you know!” Kaelion snapped, his indignation momentarily outweighing his terror. “And for your information, this jacket is vintage! Or it was, before it got scorched by a Slag-Beast.”

“A Slag-Beast?” Draven let out a bark of a laugh. “Kid, if you saw a Slag-Beast, you’d be a pile of ash. Stop dreaming.”

“He killed it,” Nyvara said flatly.

The silence that followed was heavier than the ice pillars. Draven lowered his hammer, his eyes narrowing. “You’re joking.”

“I don’t joke about combat,” Nyvara replied. “He’s got raw power, but zero brains. He thinks the best way to get stronger is to let things hit him.”

Kaelion’s eyes lit up as he looked at the Frost Giant currently smashing a parked car into a pancake. “Wait, wait! Nyvara, look at that thing’s club! If that hits me, it’s definitely a one-shot. That’s at least a twenty-percent defense buff waiting to happen!”

“Don’t you dare, Vexaris,” Nyvara warned, her hand drifting to her side.

“Think about the efficiency, Nyvara!” Kaelion started walking toward the giant, his pace quickening with a manic sort of logic. “One hit, a quick nap, and I wake up as a tank! It’s basic math!”

“Is he suicidal?” Riven whispered, her daggers stopping their spin.

“Worse,” Nyvara hissed. “He’s a gamer with a glitch.”

The Frost Giant roared, its icy breath clouding the air as it spotted Kaelion. It raised a massive, spiked club made of permafrost.

“Hey! Iceberg!” Kaelion screamed, waving his arms like a madman. “Yeah, you! Your mother was a snow-cone and your father was a slushie! Come on! Give me your best shot! Hit me right in the sternum!”

“Kid, get back here!” Draven roared, stepping forward to intervene.

“Stay back, Draven!” Nyvara commanded. “I’ll handle the idiot!”

The giant swung. The club descended with the force of a falling skyscraper, whistling through the air. Kaelion closed his eyes, a weird, hopeful smile on his face. Come on, Solar Resurrection. Daddy needs a new pair of stats!

CLANG.

The impact never came. Instead, Kaelion felt a sharp, cold jerk around his waist. He opened his eyes to see a shimmering chain of violet shadow wrapped around his midsection. He was flying backward through the air, landing in a heap at Nyvara’s feet.

“What the hell?!” Kaelion scrambled up, glaring at her. “I was right there! He was mid-swing! That was a perfect death!”

“And I’m a perfect S-rank,” Nyvara said, her eyes glowing with a possessive, frustrated heat. She didn’t look at him; she was staring down the giant, her shadow-chains pulsing with mana. “I told you, Vexaris. You don’t die unless I say so.”

“But you’re ruining my grind!” Kaelion threw his hands up. “Do you know how hard it is to find a willing participant for a homicide? That giant was a volunteer!”

“It was a threat,” Nyvara snapped. “Draven, take the left flank! Riven, eyes on the rooftops! I’m keeping the asset on a short leash.”

“Asset?” Draven grunted, swinging his hammer into the giant’s knee with a sound like a mountain cracking. “He’s a liability, Nyv! He just tried to headbutt a Frost Giant’s weapon!”

“I wasn't headbutting it! I was receiving it!” Kaelion corrected, trying to duck under Nyvara’s arm to get back into the fray.

“Sit. Down,” Nyvara commanded, flicking her wrist. A second shadow-chain latched onto Kaelion’s ankle, anchoring him to a rusted lamp post.

“Oh, come on! This is kidnapping! This is literal, magical kidnapping!” Kaelion tugged at the chain, but it was like trying to pull a mountain. “I’m an F-rank! I have rights!”

“You have 250 Strength, Kaelion. If you really wanted to break that chain, you could,” Nyvara said, glancing back at him with a smirk that was half-challenge, half-threat. “But we both know you’re too scared of hurting me to try.”

Kaelion paused, his face heating up. “That’s… that’s not it! I just… I don’t want to break the sidewalk! It’s public property!”

“Sure, kid,” Riven called out, her daggers blurring as she sliced through the giant’s Achilles tendon. “Keep telling yourself that while the big boys and girls do the work!”

The giant fell to its knees, letting out a pained, glaciated shriek. Two more giants emerged from the mist, their eyes glowing with a malevolent blue light.

“Nyvara, we’ve got company!” Draven yelled, his hammer glowing with white-hot energy as he parried a massive icy fist. “This isn't just a breach! They’re coordinated!”

“I see them!” Nyvara leapt into the air, her silver hair streaming behind her like a comet’s tail. She rained down bolts of concentrated mana, each explosion turning chunks of the giants into slush.

Kaelion watched from the lamp post, his heart racing. The system screen hovered in his peripheral vision, mocking him.

[ RECOMMENDATION: INCREASE PHYSICAL RESISTANCE TO PROCEED WITH EVOLUTION. ]

“I’m trying!” he yelled at the screen. “I’m really trying, but my bodyguard is a psycho!”

He looked at the shadow-chain on his ankle. Then he looked at the giants. He could see a small, jagged piece of debris—a piece of a fallen building—near the giants' feet. If he could just get over there, maybe he could ‘accidentally’ get stepped on while they were distracted by Nyvara.

“Hey, System,” Kaelion whispered. “Is there a ‘Sneak’ skill? Because I could really use one right now.”

[ SNEAK SKILL NOT FOUND. ]

[ ADVISORY: STRENGTH STAT EXCEEDS SHADOW-CHAIN INTEGRITY. PULL HARDER. ]

“Fine,” Kaelion muttered. He looked up at Nyvara, who was currently mid-air, weaving a complex web of mana to trap the two new giants. She was focused. She was magnificent. She was also completely distracted.

“Sorry, Nyv,” Kaelion said, gritting his teeth.

He didn't just pull; he lunged. His 250 Strength kicked in like a nitro-boosted engine. The shadow-chain groaned, the violet light flickering as the lamp post was ripped straight out of the concrete.

“Whoa! Too much! Too much!” Kaelion stumbled, dragging the six-foot metal pole behind him like a oversized tail.

He didn't wait. He bolted toward the fog, ducking behind a burnt-out bus just as a massive shockwave from Nyvara’s attack leveled the area he had just been standing in.

“Kaelion!” he heard her scream, her voice sharp with a mix of anger and genuine panic. “Kaelion, if you’re dead, I’m going to kill you again!”

“Can’t hear you! Busy being an asset!” Kaelion whispered to himself, crawling through the rubble.

He moved away from the main fight, heading deeper into the Commercial Plaza where the mist was thickest. The sounds of Draven’s hammer and Riven’s blades grew muffled. The temperature dropped another twenty degrees.

Suddenly, the ground didn't just shake; it groaned.

A shadow loomed through the mist, so massive it made the Frost Giants look like toddlers. It wasn't made of ice. It was made of bone, wrapped in a shroud of necro-fire that burned a sickly, ethereal green.

Kaelion stopped, his breath hitching.

[ WARNING: HIGH-RANK RIFT ENTITY DETECTED. ]

[ SPECIES: GRAVE-WALKER ARCHON. ]

[ THREAT LEVEL: S-RANK. ]

The Archon looked down, its empty eye sockets igniting with green flame as it locked onto the tiny human dragging a lamp post.

“Holy… crap,” Kaelion breathed, a nervous, high-pitched giggle escaping his lips. “Now that… that is a one-shot.”

He looked back toward where Nyvara was fighting, her silver light still visible through the fog. She was too far away to stop this.

“System,” Kaelion said, his hand tightening on the metal pole. “Record this. This is going to be the most legendary level-up in history.”

The Archon raised a hand made of a thousand fused skulls, and the world began to scream. Kaelion didn't run. He stood his ground, a wide, terrifyingly happy grin spreading across his face as the green fire descended.

“Come on, you big ugly bone-pile,” he whispered. “Make me a god.”