Frostbound [LitRPG Apocalypse]-Chapter 219 - Shackles

Austin

He had gone and done it now. He'd truly fucked up.

It was something he had experienced a blessed few times. One time when he crashed his first car. Rest in peace, Betsy. He was just driving along in the rain when a split second later, he was hydroplaning off the road and into a ditch.

The car ended up totaled and he was in a world of pain, but it being one of the few times he feared for his life was much more memorable than the pain. Well, Before fearing for his life became common practice.

The tutorial had a few moments where he thought he wouldn't make it as well. Somehow, he pulled through it all, but this was different.

None of those feelings compared to what he was feeling now.

Mitchell, his mother, and even Alice came down to help fight but none of them expected what they had found.

They were attacking the hive and it was not going well.

The swarm of insects they'd faced before was nothing compared to the ones closer to the Hive.

Closer to the treasure.

Everyone could feel it now. It was palpable in the air and Austin could taste the pressure it gave off. It smelled of Rain and a summer storm. It made the air thick with Water Mana and the humidity it gave off made everything harder.

He was drenched in sweat, much like everyone else and it ran down his armor in rivers of salty water.

After reaching the area, Marcus had initially been a pillar of power.

As the group neared the center, and the Water Mana thickened, his skills grew powerful and he was sending them out in waves. It felt like nothing could stop his advance and for a second, Austin pictured Chris and his hammer fighting next to him, rather than Marcus and his glaive.

It gave them a good initial headway into enemy territory and raised everyone's spirits. The fear in the air before they advanced was obvious, but seeing Marcus slaughter the bugs like it was nothing made everyone come around.

Until a D-rank bug came and ended that advance abruptly.

Austin didn't even know the Swarm had a D-rank, let alone multiple.

They kicked the hornet's nest and now they were facing the consequences.

The speed with which the bugs over level 100 could move made it hard for even Austin to keep up, let alone anyone else. Marcus had been standing stout at the Vanguard one second, and hurtling through the air with blood in his wake the next.

Slicing through bugs with his blade, then being sliced through himself.

Marcus had lost a hand, chopped off just below the elbow before he was sent flying.

The emergence of the D-ranks sent everything into chaos and Austin couldn't afford to think about anyone else, let alone protect anyone else. Mitchell had retreated at some point, the trail of poisoned bugs lying dead on the ground was evidence of that.

His power had grown since the last time Austin had seen him and it was likely the only reason he made it out.

Others were trapped fighting. He was trapped fighting.

The split-second decision had cost him. The flicker of idea had spelled his doom.

For others to make it out and fall back to the secondary fall back line, he had to stay. That much was clear.

Marcus came to the same decision and even with being less effective with one hand, he stood and did his best. Even using his own blood as a weapon against any that came his way.

His glaive whipped around him as fast as his one hand could propel it, Water danced around him and sliced through everything. The streams rotating around him forming a miniature hurricane with the one-armed man at its center.

Reminiscent of a one-man Blizzard.

Austin's spear stabbed out, piercing clean through another of the bugs before coming back coated in the greenish-yellow of their blood. Or whatever insects had for blood.

His eyes sharpened, his body glowed, and heat rolled off him in waves.

[Flurry] caused his spear to blur, and mixed with his enhanced vision, it stabbed through three separate throats before it came back to normal speed.

The throat was the easiest way to kill them. The narrow section of chitin where their head connected to the abdomen. The natural armor protecting their chest was too thick and their head was rounded just right that if he didn't hit right, his spear skittered off instead of penetrating.

Whatever Chris and Vincent had done to his spear, it was saving his life now. It bypassed the thinner defense with ease and plunged deep into their insides.

[Sun Burst] was tearing his body apart on the inside, as it wasn't meant to hold the skill for so long. Not in conjunction with [Burning Light], his upgraded boosting skill.

His eyes caught sight of four of the flying enemies lining up and he grinned savagely.

Perfect.

His Class's namesake skill lit up the end of his spear. [Spear of Dawn] sucked up the mana he was giving it and he even paid some Bloodline energy to make sure they all went down.

Skill ready and enemies moving to line themselves up, he roared and unleashed his skill in a powerful thrust.

Light burst from the end of his spear in a line, extending out and through the first insect before it could even burn.

The light carried more than just luminescence, as it was based on both his Laws.

Fire and Light.

The second was both pierced and burned while the third had its wings melted, causing it to drop from the sky. The fourth was injured, but still left fluttering in the air unsteadily.

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Fuck, I thought it would go through all of them.

As he powered and launched his skill, the bugs he wasn't aiming at jumped on him. He knew it would happen and deemed it a worthy trade-off. Their scythe hands ripped at his armor and skin, tearing and rending what they could.

He wanted to scream. But more than that, he wanted to rage.

The feeling had built for a while now but he hadn't known what it was. Now, with it dangerously close to the surface, he could feel its simmering anger for what it was.

Pent-up aggression.

It began building not long after arriving at Marcus's City. It was his continued frustration at being stymied. It was the constant stalling of what he wanted to do.

He wanted to be free.

To do what he wanted when he wanted. What was the point of all the power he had if he couldn't even do that?

It made him mad and frustrated him to no end.

And now, with ample targets and what would most likely be his last fight, he let it out.

Stabbing through another bug, he felt the essence rush into him but dismissed it as he spun his weapon around to do it again. And again. And again.

With endless enemies to kill, he lost himself in battle.

It was kill or be killed and he sure as hell wasn't going down quietly. There was so much he still wanted to see. So much he still wanted to experience.

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They were told and lectured of all the possible Worlds out there and he was about to die without seeing any of them. Left to live and die on the Planet he was born on. The tutorial didn't count, as that was all conjured, as insane as that sounded.

Something in him rebelled at the thought. Wanted to revolt at the mere insinuation that he'd be forced to miss out on adventure.

It was the same part of him he'd been trying to coax out. The hiding power he wished to finally grasp firmly in both hands and wield as his own.

He'd seen Chris do it. Seen Jonathan do it.

And he wished with everything he had to do it too.

It was poetic that the one time the feeling poked its head out of its shell he wasn't in a position to do anything about it. If he diverted his attention now, he would be finished.

[Solar Ray] ripped through the nearest insects but more filled the hole. A stab to his back sent him stumbling and another stab capitalized on his error.

The feeling pulsed again indignantly.

Austin chuckled ruefully, blood leaking down his chin.

How poetic for it to happen now.

Ignoring it again, [Solar Flare] burst out of him in a wave. Before any more opportunistic fuckers could get another stab in, heat blasted out of him.

Chitin melted and the sharp-tipped legs that descended to seek his doom drooped, unable to maintain themselves. It wasn't long until numerous streams of essence filled into him again.

Given the brief opportunity, he activated a skill that would either kill him or give him room to finally breathe.

When initially offered the skill, he nearly dismissed it for the drawback it had but ended up picking it up.

[Solar Eclipse] worked differently than any other skill he had. It would drain his mana and stamina, gradually weakening him and slowing him down, before he exploded out in a giant burst.

The sun was slowly covered up before it violently burst forth once again.

His arms felt sluggish, his prized speed lagging while the skill drew from him. The spear tip that was once dazzling through the air too fast for the eye, revealed itself.

He still reaped lives with it, it didn't lose any of its deadliness, but just not as quickly as before.

The after-effects of [Solar Flare] were ending and Austin could see the insects at the edge of his sphere of blistering heat waiting to charge in. The ones permanently grounded with their wings burnt off were already charging him, not afraid of further damage from the heat.

The draining effect intensified, slowing him that much more.

It would only get worse from there.

His eyes, slitted to resemble a bird of prey, searched for a way out. A way to break out of the cage he was trapped in but came up lacking.

Drops of water still rained down on him occasionally, marking him as not the only one still trapped.

Arrows and blasts of magic did their best to relieve the pressure, but it wasn't enough. Not until he spotted a particular grouping of arrows that all looked the same.

A hail of them impacted the ground around him before all but one faded away. His mother. Only she could create that many with [Arrow Rain]. No other Ranger he knew could come close.

She was watching.

It was the chance he needed. The arrows delayed the bugs just long enough for [Solar Eclipse] to finish and light burst out of him. It blinded the eyes and burned with a searing intensity. It was like staring wide-eyed at the sun like every child was told not to.

His spear snaked out following behind the burst of light and ended all of the blinded insects, not missing the chance to get some breathing room. His speed came back greater than it was. The air rushed by faster than his spear could push it away.

The deluge of essence from that group gave him a rush greater than ever before. Quickly checking his notifications, he saw multiple D-ranks among his kill list.

Hah.

Austin knew that it wasn't that large an accomplishment. The bugs didn't have Laws. They were D-rank in toughness only, not in the full sense of the Rank.

The how and why behind it was unimportant, but it was the only reason he could fight up a rank. He and all the others.

The surge he felt was waning.

His skill had run its course.

Austin stood and observed the battlefield. The bugs were rallying to defend their Hive in numbers they hadn't predicted. Especially the number of D-ranks they hadn't expected. The endless stream of magic and volleys of arrows were barely enough so that the front line didn't get overwhelmed.

He, Marcus, and a few others who had been caught out and unable to retreat with the rest of the line were alone. Separated by ranks of the enemy and with no hope to get through.

Their only chance was to hold on long enough that the gap could be shortened from the other side. That or die.

A few had already discovered the second option.

Sweat dripped into his eye bringing the stinging sensation with it and he didn't even bother to wipe it away. He had bigger concerns than sweat.

His spear was chipped. His armor was torn. His body leaking blood.

Austin watched the cage around him close in. After killing everything near him with [Solar Eclipse], the swarm filled in around him before closing in. They were behind him, in front of him, on both sides and flew above him.

Even the wings he dreamed of having wouldn't be able to get him out.

He could do nothing but watch as the net closed around him.

His core surged and he could contain it no more. The urging he felt before refused to be contained. It didn't care that he didn't have time, it demanded to be realized now, taking the closing net as an affront.

Austin was trapped, had nowhere to go, and his core felt like it was on fire.

He was well and truly fucked.

"Fine. Fuck it! We'll do it now!" He screamed to no one, "What do you want from me!"

He knew what it wanted. He'd always known. It wanted to know who he was.

Austin had spent a long time thinking about it. A long time coming up with all the wrong answers. It wasn't so easily fooled. It was the core of his being, he couldn't delude it like he could his brain.

It didn't want what he thought was cool. It didn't want what wished the answer was.

It wanted the bare truth.

He wasn't a bulwark like Jonathan. He wasn't a warrior like Christopher.

Austin was a slacker. He'd run from responsibility at every opportunity. His Father had lectured him many times on the topic.

What his father saw as slacking, he saw differently. Austin was free-spirited.

He was adventurous.

But most of all, he refused to be tied down.

The power shifted, moving on to demand something else. It demanded an Anchor.

All the many possibilities flooded his brain. The cool phrases he had thought up during his journey but he knew they weren't right. They weren't the perfect match he was looking for.

It just wasn't until now that he realized what it was.

He'd spent so long being tied down with his family. He stayed with them through everything even when he wanted to do anything but. When finally given the chance to finally explore, he was tied down once again. He ended up trading one shackle for another.

Watching the latest shackle, one made from ichor and chitin, tighten around him, he knew out of everything else his Anchor could do, he wanted it to help him be free.

That idea of freedom resonated but it wasn't all of it. It was half, but not the full picture.

It was more than just freedom.

He wanted to be Unfettered.

With that, the power surged and his Anchor was accepted.

With no one around to hear his shout, he yelled it to the world, finally Forming what had eluded him for so long. Formed with a mixture of the idea of being free and the phrase that slotted in perfectly.

"Unfettered Light!"