The Cryomancer

The area under the volcano was slowly descending into chaos.

The remaining fighters, who had taken refuge on the high ground found their backs pressed against the hot wall of the volcano.

The air was thick with ash and blood, the relentless drone of stone locusts filled the sky to no end. 

Iris stood at the front, her shield branches lashing out like living spears, slamming into the creatures that dared breach their last defense. The other Aegis-class fighters followed her lead, interlocking their barriers, forming a shimmering dome of protection over the exhausted survivors.

Above them, Sol and the artillery squads from the Order of the Crow had turned the slopes into a death trap. Their cannons roared, cutting fiery streaks through the night, vaporizing swarms before they could get close. The ground trembled beneath the constant bombardment, but the locusts came anyway.

Kol and Cyanide fought in the open, darting between the chaos like specters. Kol's cape carved through the horde in flashes of red light. His movements were so precise that not a single strike was wasted.

Cyanide, wreathed in his poisonous mist, tore through the enemy like a horseman of the apocalypse, each motion fluid, each killing a deadly work of art. 

Yet even they were slowing. Their breath was ragged. Their bodies burned from exhaustion.

The locusts were winning because of the sheer number of the swarms.

Pax and his group were watching the livestream while grinning. " A two-for-one deal." Kalix said."Do you really want to kill them, brother? Why not call for the rescue team?" His brother Leon spoke.

"I didn't force them to stay they could have fallen back. I doubt that the monarch would let his precious grandchildren die. Don't be too hasty" Pax responded chiming his naive little brother.

On the screen, the temperature plummeted.

A sharp, unnatural cold swept through the battlefield, causing steam to rise and molten rock to freeze solid. The air crackled with ice, and a thin layer of frost spread from a single point—a figure standing at the bottom of the defense high ground.

Cryo.

His bracers pulsed with cold energy, as intricate veins of ice-blue light snaked up his arms, coating his shoulders in shimmering frost. He exhaled, a cloud of vapor escaped his lips, his eyes locked on the endless swarm above. The others turned to him, sensing the shift in the air.

"What is he doing?" a commentator's voice crackled through the live feed of the hunt.

SilentWatcher8:"Holy hell, is he gonna solo flank them?" Another gasped.

ColdSnap89: "He's wasting his energy! That's suicide!" A veteran hunter scoffed.

Cryo raised his arms.

A powerful blast of subzero energy erupted from his bracers sending a tidal wave of ice crashing down the slope, freezing stone locusts mid-air. They shattered upon impact, their crystalized bodies breaking like fragile glass. A second wave followed, then a third, spreading outward in jagged sheets of frozen death.

The audience watching the hunt exploded."HE JUST FROZE FIFTY IN ONE GO!"

ColdSnap89: "No way. No way he's still standing after that!"

TempestVanguard: "But the swarm… it's still coming…"

Cryo's breath was breathing hard, but he wasn't done. He gritted his teeth. "Not enough."He lunged forward—freezing wave after wave.

"Cryo, stop!" Iris shouted, but the cryomancer was already gone, diving straight into the horde.

A battle cry ripped from his throat. "I AM CRYO, THE ICE KING. I WILL CHILL YOU UNTIL MY LAST BREATH" 

He hit the ground hard, rolling into a crouch. His bracers flared—ice geysers exploded from the earth, impaling locusts in massive frozen spires. He spun, his fists a blur, each strike unleashing blasts of frost that froze entire swarms mid-flight. His power howled through the battlefield, the land itself bending to his will.

[Live Chat – 7.3M Viewers]

FrostFury22: "It's a majestic display of his mastery over ice..."

TempestVanguard: "After his defeat last hunt, we forgot how much of a beast he is too!"

ColdSnap89: "IS HE TRYING TO BECOME A LEGEND RIGHT NOW?!"

Lunatic66: "He is an S-tier cryomancer after all!"

IcePhoenixX: "This hunt is just BANGERS after BANGERS!"

ShatteredBlade93: "He won't last like this! Someone pull him back!!"

SilentWatcher8: "He's pushing it too far, that kind of power needs to be managed!"

ElementalRage19: "If anyone can handle this, it's Cryo. Trust me, he's got this."

StormBreaker94: "He's playing with fire, but he's doing it beautifully!"

BlizzardWraithX: "I've never seen ice like this... He's turning the battlefield into his own frozen realm."

Cryo didn't care.

He moved like a storm. His bracers were glowing now, overcharged, pushing past their limit. Frost coated the ground beneath him, the air so cold that the moisture cracked into tiny ice shards. He could feel his skin numbing, his muscles stiffening. But he pushed forward, wading deeper into the horde, taking hit after hit.

They tore into him, claws scraping against his reinforced armor, mandibles snapping at his limbs. Blood dripped from his side. His movements became sluggish.

And yet—

"NOT ENOUGH!" Cryo bellowed, slamming his bracers together.

A shockwave of absolute zero erupted outward, freezing hundreds of locusts at once. The frost spread through their bodies, turning them into fragile sculptures of ice. Then, with a final stomp—SHATTER.

The swarm broke apart. Crystalized corpses rained down, lifeless.

The battlefield fell silent.

Cryo stood at the center, panting, shaking. His vision blurred, his body on the verge of collapse. He could hear Iris shouting his name, the distant echoes of his team rushing forward. The world spun.

"Did he… win?" A voice from the audience whispered.

But then—

The ice cracked.

And the swarm moved again.

A new wave of locusts descended from the darkness, untouched by the cold. The air vibrated with their chittering cries.

Cryo laughed. A tired, broken sound. "In the end it wasn't enough". Iris, and the twins had broken the formation as they ran to his side. 

But a loud roar erupted from the heart of the volcano. The ground quaked, fissures splintering across the cliffs. Molten stone seethed beneath the surface, and then, with a violent detonation, the volcano erupted.

The sky turned to fire.

Lava and rock spewed into the air, raining down like the wrath of an angry god. Plumes of black smoke coiled, twisting into the heavens, backlit by the infernal glow of the eruption. The battlefield froze once more.

The survivors turned their eyes toward the volcano's maw, expressions shifting from bewilderment to dread.

"What the hell is that?!"

"Another feral biocore?! Are we cursed?!"

But then—From the inferno, it emerged.

A Wyvern, its wings spread wide, its body of burnt precious metals and volcanic rock , and draconic structures dotted with blazing runes crawled in to view as it emerged from the larva /

The air was boiling with the heat of its awakening, and lava poured off its armor. Molten slag dripped from its body like fresh blood as its spear-like talons flexed. The moment it rose, the swarm of stone locusts staggered mid-flight, their shrill cries faltering, as if something in their hive mind recognized death itself.

The archipelago's guardian had returned.