Frostbound

Chris

A sharp groan escaped my lips as the Boss hammered down on me for what felt like the millionth time. With me playing the tank, all of its attacks were generally aimed my way.

Austin got to flit around stabbing out when the opportunity arose with nothing to hinder him.

The Boss would occasionally turn to face him instead of me, but a well-placed [Shattering Hammer] or [Frozen Rift] made it focus back on me.

[Shattering Hammer] was doing more internal damage than first assumed, it was just taking longer to surface. Usually, the skill ripped and shredded anything in its way, but this thing was handling the skill much better than anything else I'd used it on.

[Frozen Rift] had to be used unconventionally.

The spikes and pillars it could form worked, but they weren't what worked best. From the extensive fighting, I found a few other uses for it that worked better.

Taking inspiration from Gabriel's skill [Spreading Ice], I had the skill turn into a debilitating encasement rather than an attack. Wherever the hit landed, thick sheets of Ice extended out in every direction seeking to encase the entire creature.

It usually flailed around and retaliated before too much could be covered in ice, but enough that the limb or area I hit was firmly covered and its movement impaired.

Austin would waylay the beast for a few moments following and before the thing could break out of it or break the ice off, [Shatter] sent it imploding into its skin.

A subtle, but powerful, side effect to using [Frozen Rift] like that was it pervaded the area in Arctic mana. It was similar to a much more effective and damaging [Pervading Cold].

Every subsequent hit in the same area was more powerful and spread further than before, building on the mana that was already there rather than having to start anew.