Chapter 182: Second Trial
Just as Vahn was wondering how to complete the Trial, a second window appeared, informing him that he had to weather the Queen of the Frozen Abyss's fury for ten minutes. Fimbulwinter's Encroachment took precisely ten minutes to reach maximum stacks if the person in question held their ground, but if they moved around, they would gain an additional stack for every 2.5 meters moved.
'In other words, I need to stand my ground...' concluded Vahn, spreading his feet and adopting a horse stance with his Touki erupting outward like a golden flame, encompassing an area of nearly five meters. Immediately after, two additional wolves broke free of the swirling blizzard, charging at him from his flanks.
'Too easy...' thought Vahn, a second layer of gold enveloping his body as he abruptly opened his eyes, revealing glowing golden irises. At the same time, the bodies of the wolves flattened as they leaped at him, crushed by pure telekinetic might and his domain.
Sweeping out and flourishing his hands to form a cross in front of him, Vahn created a tempest of his own, enveloping nearly a hundred meters of the stone platform in swirling golden light.
fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh
Hinting at a pattern, Vahn noticed four wolves emerge in the third wave, which, after running headfirst into the energy swirling around him, burst apart into frigid white mist. Ten seconds later, eight wolves appeared, all but confirming that each wave would be twice the size of the last.
'But if their strength remains the same, their numbers shouldn't matter...' thought Vahn, immediately refuted by Sis pointing out (If a new wave spawns precisely every ten seconds, then by the time ten minutes have passed, their numbers will have increased to 1,152,921,504,606,846,975. I believe that matters a great deal.)
'I stand corrected...' mused Vahn, immediately retracting his destructive tempest of Touki to confirm if the wolves spawned every ten seconds or only when slain. Unfortunately, it seemed to be the former, as thirty-two wolves appeared while he was fending off the previous batch of sixteen.
'How are a quintillion wolves expected to fit in such a small arena...?' Vahn wondered, clenching his teeth as, even with A-Rank Pain Tolerance, the pervasive chill of Fimbulwinter's Encroachment caused extreme, growing pain in his extremities.