Book 7 - Prologue
Kidra twisted under the slaver’s desperate swing, a boot connecting against the wretch’s chestplate, slamming him back into the wall for a second time. Between the structure’s already failing integrity and the relic armor he wore, one eventually won.
Pressure exploded as the poorly constructed wall cracked inwards, Kidra’s kick suddenly magnified as the warm air within the room rushed out to meet the night sky, further ripping apart the destroyed wall. And with it, even a four hundred pound armor couldn’t hold its ground.
The man soared backwards onto the surface, slamming against the frozen ice and snow, tumbling uncontrollably. In comparison Kidra flew out as if commanding the very wind herself.
He rolled out of his tumble, blade swinging wildly out. Kidra landed with a half step forward, her own longsword’s occult hilt easily catching the man’s blade and parrying it away with a ripost.
The technique sliced through the enemy’s blade, cutting it down from a dagger to a souvenir. She didn’t let him have a moment to consider his next move.
Her second blade swung down against the slaver’s addled attempt to belay his death, a hand reaching out as if to ask for mercy or to shield his face.
It was promptly cut off, the shield finally failing.
She didn’t care to continue the fight, taking a few steps past the screaming slaver, letting her initial speed from the earlier bleed away. Ice was already freezing the red stump of his hand, cauterizing the wound. It wouldn’t save him, as the white wastes greedily sucked out all the heat of the armor from that small exposed opening, sinking through in exchange. Flowing across the slaver’s arm, freezing the skin and burrowing deeper into his muscles, down to his very bone.
He thrashed, his other hand having already dropped the ruined dagger, desperately trying to cover the wound. That wouldn’t help. A few fingers covering his stump wouldn’t make any kind of permanent seal. Kidra watched in grim satisfaction as the man faced his end. Relic armor was powerful, but besides its ability to shed itself off a trapped user, it had no means to seal off sections of the armor in case of a temperature breach. There were limits to what even golden age armor could do, and the makers had clearly decided stronger overall integrity was preferable to being able to isolate sections.