Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Nine - Ice Test

  First, I wanted to see just how tough the ice elementals were. They didn't seem particularly hard to kill, at the outset.

  The one I found patrolling furthest from the group was... more intimidating from up close than I might have expected originally. The elemental was about five, maybe six feet tall. It was one of the smaller ones, from what I could tell.

  It noticed me, then started to skitter my way, so I backed up, keeping just close enough that I was still in its range and it was still interested in attacking me. For something so goofy looking, it was pretty aggressive.

  The area I led it towards had a few old sheds and a big container. There was plenty of crap between the spot and the rest of the elementals, and I figured that if I wasn't too loud about killing this one, I would probably not alert the entire group.

  "Come on, big baby," I said, teasing the ice elemental.

  It was very... top heavy? The majority of its mass was in the big lumpy stone that made up most of its body, and this guy's seven little legs barely looked strong enough to lift its body up. It managed, obviously, but its movement made it sway from side to side so much that I was genuinely surprised that it wasn't crashing over with every other step.

  A slight incline would be the downfall of this guy.

  I was almost at the spot I'd picked out when the ice elemental reminded me that it was still a portal monster. It glowed brighter for a moment, then a tiny crack split open on its surface. A moment later I was flinging myself around a corner as a wash of whitish steam shot by with a faint whistle.

  Some of the steam rubbed past my back and hit my elbow. I instantly felt a sharp, burning cold. It was like dunking my elbow into a large bucket of ice water and leaving it there for a few minutes.

  Okay, goofy boy was dangerous, even if he looked like his mom was a rock and his dad was a heap of road slush.

  I moved my arm, bending and unbending it before I checked on my jacket. There was a thin layer of frost stuck to the faux-leather that cracked and peeled off with ease. And that had been from the edge of a blast.

  How cold was the middle?

  My boy stopped scuttling after me a few steps later, and I paused. Had it stopped seeing and then decided that I didn't exist? Did ice elementals just not have object permanence?

  That felt disturbingly plausible as the ice elemental stood there, then turned this way then that before it started to slowly wander off in a random direction.

  I picked a rock off the floor, came around the corner and threw it.

  It went wide.

  I was very glad that this was a loop I wasn't keeping and that no one had seen that, because it was humiliating as hell. I defended my pride by justifying the miss on account of the poor lightning. The courtyard back here was lit only by a trio of large lights on the back of a few of the buildings. The sort of automated light that would turn on whenever it got dark enough. It wasn't exactly clear as day... to anyone without fresh new eyes that could see in the dark.

  My second throw clinked off the back, and surprisingly broke a tiny chunk of ice off the elemental's back.

  Brittle, huh?

  The ice elemental spun around and toddled over. This time, when it spat a wash of icy air, I just hid behind cover and let it waste its energy on nothing.

  Then it was time to fight. I whipped my sword out and lunged. The strike was pretty clean, but I felt it in my wrist anyway. The elemental was heavy, being a large blob of icy water and mud, and it was hard. The tip of my blade dug in, but not much more than an inch or so.

  A few chips of ice fell off, but that was it. So I tugged my sword back and stabbed it again. This time, I managed to chop a crack into the front of the elemental. It didn't seem to react much at all.

  "Slow one, huh?" I asked. I swung from the side, then winced at the feedback. A hard chop did crack through the surface and dislodged some of the ice that made the monster up, but it was also hard on my sword.

  What I needed was an axe, or something made for chopping. A sword could do it, of course, but it was kind of the wrong tool.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Since I was here to test things, my next attack was a Shadow Bolt straight into the elemental's middle. The tiny ball of darkened energy shot out and crashed into the monster with the force of a decent punch and did all of nothing.

  Too hard. It was probably like trying to break a wall with a bare fist.

  The ice elemental started to glow and I noticed another fresh crack opening on its chest. Instead of moving back, I came up close to it and basically walked around it. It spat out its little geyser of steam and slowly turned to try and bring me into range, but it was slow and clumsy, and it was easy to keep pace with it, completely dodging the attack.

  "Okay," I muttered. That was easy.

  It would be a lot tougher in the tight confines of a portal, however. And if I got ambushed, then that same attack could be deadly. I walked through the space it had splashed, and even several seconds later, it was still cool enough to make me shiver.

  So, sword didn't work, magic didn't do much... I pulled out my revolver, took a few steps back, then fired.

  The results were pretty obvious. The bullet punched into the monster's front and left a hole the size of an old dollar coin. A few sheets of ice fell off its back and crashed to the floor. The noise might have alerted the others, so I was a little worried. For that matter, it might have alerted anyone still up and around. The courtyard was large, but still surrounded by walls, and the gunshot echoed in the space.

  As for the ice elemental, it swayed back, little legs scurrying to keep it up, then it lowered itself back down and faced me again.

  "Well, shit," I said. "You know, you're the first monster that hasn't gone down to this puppy in one hit?"

  The ice elemental had nothing to say about that.

  I jabbed forward with my sword again, managing to stick the end into the hold left by the bullet. It wasn't hard from there to pry to the side, which sheered off a large chunk of ice. It also bent my blade a little.

  I grimaced, then tried something else. Slashing down at the joints of its little feet.

  That worked a lot better. It was tricky, since they were so relatively low, like aiming at someone's ankles, but they broke with relative ease, and then once I took out three of them the ice elemental slowly toppled to the side and crashed onto the ground.

  It glowed again, and I ducked back, making space, only it fired its little ice attack into the air, creating a small, inoffensive rain of snowflakes.

  I backed up some more, then looked around for something to throw. Instead, I found a large chuck of broken concrete to one side. I tried to sheathe my sword, found it too hard, then let it drop to pick up the large lump in both hands. Bringing it over the ice elemental, I grunted, raised it high overhead, then let it come crashing down onto the monster.

  It kind of just exploded at the middle, pieces of ice the size of my fist flying off, and the glow trapped within flickered, then faded.

  "Alright, so blunt damage it is," I said.

  I kicked the bits and bobs of the ice elemental around a bit, just to make sure, but it was well and truly dead. And no one had showed up to check on the noise, either. Interesting.

  Picking up my sword again, I looked it over, then winced. There was a slight bend near the middle of the blade. Not too much of one, but when I gave it an experimental swing, I could tell that the edge was off and the weight was pulling to one side.

  I held it by the flat and pressed it over my knee, trying to straighten it, only I think I made it a little worse, if anything.

  "Wrong tool," I muttered.

  Frustrating, but... yeah, it wasn't the right tool for this job. What I needed was an axe, or maybe a large hammer?

  Hmm... what would be better? A hammer would smash through the ice. It seemed somewhat brittle, for all that it was plenty hard. An axe would be better for chopping into the ice, though.

  A sledgehammer was also heavy. I wasn't sure I could just casually swing one around all evening, D-ranker strength or no.

  I sighed, then Reloaded. Time for a bit of late-night shopping, then.

  ***