The Ice Road

The remorhaz attacked. It lunged at Harim. The monk ran at the lung, dodged the attack by jumping onto the monstrous creature. Its body was hot, extremely hot, emanating a fiery aura, In direct contrast to the freezing air from its mouth and the environment. Harim could feel it through his feet, starting to burn him. He held on anyways. The insect found its next target ignoring the dark elf on its back. Erigos brought his shield up and drew the lightning sword from his back leaving his own sword sheathed on his waist. The remorhaz coiled back, sucking in the cold air before breathing a magical frost towards Erigos. The shield protected him as the magical blizzard crystalized the outside of the metal, super freezing the cone of air. Rothox and Alissa were far enough back the freezing blast didn't reach them.

Harim started to punch the creature's skeletal body, four daggers flew past Erigos as Rothox rushed forward. The daggers found the soft underbelly of the remorhaz. Erigos channeled his divine energy into the sword and he attacked. Lightning jumped out of the sword as he cut into the distracted creature, now focusing on Harim. It screeched in pain as the magic crackled through its exoskeleton. Harim jumped off its back before the lightning reached him.

Alissa watched her friends fighting this giant insect, she waited till Harim was off its back before she fired a bolt of lightning from her hand. It crackled through the creature adding to the electrical energy from the sword. With a roar, the creature tried to shake off the current coursing through its body. It burrowed into the glacier, its superheated body melting a large hole. They all stared at each other, there was no way the creature was fleeing. A couple of seconds past and the shaking stopped.

"Is it go--" Rothox started to ask before he got knocked off his feet along with Erigos as the creature emerged from the ice. It had only pretended to flee. It snapped its jaw down, engulfing Rothox with one bite. His friends could see the lump of his body get swallowed into the belly.

"Rothox!" Alissa cried out.

Rothox felt the immense heat but the demonblood in his veins helped resist the pain of the fire around him. Rothox knew he only had a few seconds to get out or die. Frantically he summoned daggers, slashing the inside as best he could with his arms pinned to his sides. He could feel his skin sizzling with every strike. The more he cut the more he could move his arms.

Harim went into a rampage after watching his friend get swallowed by the creature. His attacks came at twice the speed. With each punch, he burned his knuckles, as he tried to find pressure points on the insect hoping to stun the creature. The monk tactic focused on hitting the nerves of beings to prevent their movement. This creature resisted his attempts but still took the damage from his punches.

Erigos pulled himself to his feet and summoned another blast of lightning into the remorhaz. Rothox was insulated from the lightning due to the nature of the fiery stomach. The remorhaz spun around using its tail to whip Harim back. He felt a rib crack as he flew into a pile of snow. Alissa pulled in arcana, her eyes went black before she sent a blast of black energy toward the remorhaz. It writhed in pain, as its life force was sucked out of its body.

The remorhaz teetered on the edge of life as the dark magic nearly killed it. Its primal nature and impulse to survive took over. It dived into the ice. Halfway into its hole it stopped moving, its tail sticking out, and a purple blood streak along the ice and snow. Erigos rushed over to the body, just in time to see Rothox split the stomach open and crawl out from inside, coughing, covered in blood and entrails. He had killed it from the inside.

Erigos pulled him out of the hole. "I thought you were dead."

"Not that easy…" he coughed, "...to kill." He grunted, his entire body had been burnt. Fortunately, they were only minor, a second longer and he could have died.

Alissa helped Harim up, beginning to heal his cracked rib as she did.

"What was that thing?" she asked him.

"I don't know…" He winced as the rib cracked back into place. It was rare he didn't know. She led him towards the body, already starting to cool and freeze as its body was no longer a raging furnace. Together they managed to pull the twenty-foot-long body of the remorhaz out of the hole. None of them had seen a creature like this before. After inspecting it for a few minutes they cut off any parts they found interesting and could carry.

From the incident onwards their pace quickened and they managed to reach the next inn just as night fell. This went on for three weeks. They encountered a couple more remorhaz but they were prepared to face them after learning from the first time. There were a few other travelers coming from Dubahar that they passed staying safe at the inns. For the most part, they kept to themselves only engaging in small talk and surface conversations. One of these travelers was a giant, not a half-giant but a full-sized frost giant. The Sect's encounters with giants in the past had always ended in conflict but in Xecatan some giants had left their clans trying to become part of society. It was a new experience for them. He was traveling to Dubahar having come from the deep north of the Ice Desert. For the last week of their journey, they traveled with the frost giant Molkner. He was a great ally for the last leg of their trip, an expert at dealing with the frozen creatures.

"Molkner, why are you heading to Dubahar?" Harim asked the giant. They all sat around a table at the last inn before reaching the city. They didn't know much about their new ally, except for his ferocity in a fight. It was hard to communicate while on the frozen road and because Molkner's grasp on the common language was mediocre at best. Harim figured this might be their last chance to learn from Molkner.

Molkner set his large beer down, "Brother…city."

"Your brother is in the city?" Alissa repeated. Molkner nodded. He sat on the floor of the inn and was still taller than all of them at the table. At full height, Molkner stood almost twenty feet tall and Alissa was not quite five feet tall, she only came up to his knees.

"What is he doing there?" Harim asked.

Molkner turned his head, he wasn't understanding. He looked to Alissa. For some reason, she was able to communicate best with him.

"What is your brother's name?" She asked, starting with something simple.

"Fangmar."

Erigos knew that name. "That's the ice giant who was chosen as Champion of Xecatan." He spoke to Harim and Rothox. Molkner heard the word Champion and understood it.

"Champion, Fangmar is." Molkner smiled.

"Your brother is Fangmar Icefirst, the Champion of Xecatan?" Harim wanted confirmation.

Molkner nodded excitedly and grabbed his beer, holding it out over the table. "Fangmar!"

"I think he wants us to cheer with him," Alissa said. They grabbed their mugs and cheered with the giant who drank the remainder of his drink before slamming the mug down. It hit with too much force and shattered, a thin crack appeared along the width of the table.

That night Harim and Rothox stayed up talking.

"This could be very advantageous to us. Making friends with the other Champions could potentially help us." Harim said.

"I was wondering, what are we to do once we have these items?

Harim shook his head, "I'm not sure, maybe. However, as long as another Champion defeats Garrok, Ottothal's claim to the Empire is lost. He would have to show his true self to the world in order to keep it illegally and I feel he wouldn't risk that. He will just try again at the next trial."

"Are you suggesting we give these incredibly powerful artifacts to a different Champion? Someone we don't know..." Rothox rolled his eyes, "That sounds very stupid."

"Well that is an option but I was thinking that one of us could fight in the Trail… but we still have some time before we have to make that decision. Until then let's focus on finding Orudon."

"Why us?" Rothox fiddled with his bracers.

"I may come across as having lots of answers…that is one I have asked myself over and over again, and still have no idea." Harim stared at Rothoxs fingers spinning the bracers. "Let's get some sleep." Harim rolled over on his ice bed.

Erigos lay still listening to their conversation. They were right, someone would have to fight the other Champions. He knew what he had to do.