The Ded of Winter [Event]

In a nondescript building within the frozen country of Iceberg, the Imperial Paladin Akio stood watching the blizzard outside through a window. He was dressed in a Pergrande style winter uniform, with his paladin rank on display. In addition, he wore the pin of the United Front Party he had recently become a member of. Two Midi style katana hung from his waste, the hallmarks of the twin bladed style passed down through his family. One of the few aspects of his blood that he had not cast off.

Winters in Pergrande had been difficult to adapt to at first, Midi winters were significantly more mild and the first couple he had been certain he would freeze to death. Here in Iceberg, they were even worse. If not for orders to come here, he certainly would have done his best to avoid the country. It may be a part of the Ironheart Pact alongside Pergrande, but it was the most miserable one to live in as far as he was concerned. Unfortunately some creature had been causing issues with the supply line for the war, and so he had been dispatched to help bring things back under control.

Not that he had been sent alone. A small unit of winter trained Army soldiers had been sent along, as well as a woman he had not yet met. A single paladin was considered enough to handle most situations, that he was not alone showed this was not most situations. Either the scouts had determined their target was exceptionally dangerous, or the war supplies on the front were in a critical situation. Either way he was to handle the situation as expediently as possible. Turning away from the window, he faced the others who had been assigned to the mission.

“Our target today is a creature called ‘Ded Moroz’ by the locals,” he said with his slight Midian accent. “It apparently appears every so often during the winter to harass the locals. That it showed up during war time is either bad timing, or a deliberate act of harassment. Either way we are to eliminate the threat once and for all. We have very little intelligence to work off of, but are there any questions?”

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Veronica, Vi as she preferred to be called, stood in line with the unit of soldiers that had been assigned to Paladin Akio’s command. Despite her extended tenure within the research and development division of the Pergrande military she hadn’t interacted much with the rank and file soldiers that made up the bulk of the army’s infantry forces. What brief time she had spent with them in the mess hall and on the journey here had proven that she needn’t be too concerned with them. However well trained and well bred they might be, she could hardly argue that they had the vision to appreciate the depth of the work they were doing in the labs of Pergrande. By her measure, the Paladin leading the force was quite different. Naturally, she expected him to be not only a talented fighter, but a gifted mind. She was quite interested to see how he commanded the platoon she had been assigned to as part of this experiment, though not as interested as she was to witness the first test-run of her beloved invention.

Vi raised a gloved hand. She wore a white, fur-lined heavy winter coat with matching gloves, boots and tall, round hat. Her burgundy winter pants were tucked tightly into the ankles of her boots, and her neck was covered by both the turtleneck of her black sweater, as well as a thick complementary burgundy scarf. In truth, she wasn’t one to be bothered much by the cold, but she wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to wear one of her nicer winter outfits. Standing amidst the uniformed soldiers, she most certainly looked out of place.

“Dear Paladin, may I inquire,” she spoke, lowering her hand, ”May I inquire as to the intended strategy we are to employ against this monster once we locate him? Forgive me if I lack the experience of having been drilled in any obvious military strategy, but I assure you I will not get in the way as long as I am aware of the unit formation and tactics you mean to use against this ‘Ded Moroz.’”

Her thoughts drifted to the cargo vehicle which currently housed a heavy metal box. The plan was for the vehicle to follow them to the battlefield before depositing the box, which housed the subject of the tests she intended to run today.

Politely, Vi bowed her head, ”Allow me to offer my thanks again to you and this squadron for allowing me to represent R&D on this mission, I am eager to show you all our latest breakthrough. I am certain it will be of use to you on the battlefield.”

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At her question, Akio looked over at the woman who had spoken. It was a valid question, one that he found difficult to answer. “We will be using standard Pergrande battle tactics, but I realize that you are likely not as intimately familiar with those as we are. Ideally I would have you do drills with us so that we might get used to working together; unfortunately we lack the time to do so, and will have to adapt as best we can.”

Honestly he was not entirely sure about the sense of sending a scientist to the frontlines, so matter how brilliant she might be. Which was not to say he did not respect her. It was because of researchers like her that Pergrande’s military was more advanced than any other country in the world, and by a significant margin. He was just also aware that a scientific mind was typically far removed from the mindset of a soldier. Especially if they were not used to death. But as his superiors had deemed it acceptable for her to accompany them on this mission, he would have to trust that she was capable of handling herself.

“I will be leading the rest of the unit directly into battle, with the intention of engaging the target directly. The rest will be offering fire support as needed. For today I will trust in your judgement in how best to assist in the matter. Should you see an opportunity to test your new device, then please take it and we will adjust. Now if there are no further questions, let us be off.”

His words might have sounded like they did not care what she did, but in actuality Akio was keeping in mind that she might have some new and powerful weapon on that transport of hers. Given that he did not have enough knowledge of its capabilities to integrate it into his plans, it was better that the specialist use it when she believed it was best and the rest of them would deal with it. They had training that allowed them to work as a team, and that would have to be enough to handle whatever came.

Satisfied that they were as ready as they could be, Akio led the others out of the building and into the blistering cold. Even with the heavy winter gear he could feel the cold trying to sap his strength, and all he could do was keep moving. As they trudged through the snow, a wicked wind picked up and filled the air with snow so thick they could barely see each other. Then as quickly as the wind had started, it stopped. In front of them was a massive building of ice that was most definitely not on any local maps. The doors were open, clearly inviting them inside. Waiting for them inside on top of a throne was a figure far too large to be human. With skin as pale as a corpse and glowing red eyes, Akio had no doubt that this was their target.

“You who dare to thread upon the domain of Ded Moroz shall become frozen statues to adorn my walls,” the huge man said. He then stood up and tapped his staff against the ground. Just like outside wind began to fill the room, dropping the temperature far below what seemed possible even in a country as cold as Iceberg.

“Keep moving, do not stop or you’ll just freeze to death!” Akio called as he sprinted forward. His gloved hands removed his katanas from their sheaths, and with his superhuman strength he slashed at Ded Moroz’s leg in a cross cut. His blade cut into flesh, but the blue blood that emerged quickly froze, closing the wound. Behind him the soldiers he had brought with him opened fire with their rifles, pelting the figure with bullets that seemed about as effective as bug bites. The fight had just begun and already it did not seem to be going well.

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Vi watched the fighting in the distance with rapt attention. Before the platoon had encountered close to the enemy, she split off with the caravan that carried her special creation. Akio had indeed offered good advice to Veronica, which was to observe and seek out a good opportunity to test the weapon she had brought. Thanks to the range of the weapon, she was able to stay relatively far from the fighting. Though she’s sure a powerful magically empowered monster like Ded Moroz could strike her down from a distance, the infantry seemed to be keeping him quite busy.

Two of the more junior soldiers stood by her, keeping guard, though she doubted they could do much to protect the three people stationed out here should they attract the ire of the icy beast. And icy was a great way to describe the whole situation the scientist found herself in. Even though Veronica was equipped to fight the cold, especially in by way of her current outfit, she could feel a certain stiffness in her joints. She was moving slower and thinking slower, and was rubbing her hands together for friction, even through her gloves.

She peered through a set of red lensed binoculars, the technology in them helping her see the heat signatures of her comrades, even when the interesting moments were not happening in the small window provided by the open doors of the icy building. Funnily enough, the body of Ded Moroz was so cold that it was also visible, just as a blur of ridiculously cold temperatures versus warm ones.

“Well, I suppose in any case now is the time to prepare the weapon. Darling soldiers, please press the red release switches on either side of the metal box and take a few steps back.”

The pergrandian soldiers followed orders diligently, activating the release switches and stepping back as the walls of the box fell down in front of them. Standing in the middle of the collapsed box was what appeared to be a warmly dressed, purple haired woman, standing a massive 6 foot 3 inches with a serene look on her face.

”Chamomile. Activate all systems at full testing capacity. Respond when all systems are online,” Vi said calmly, feeling the neurolink in her brain buzz to life an connect directly with the computer that controlled Chamomile, who happened to be the weapon she was sent out here to test.

Eyes flickering open and mouth moving with her words, Chamomile, the android, responded, with the Pergrandian soldiers stoic but nonetheless surprised, ”Yes, Vi. Good morning. Is there something I can assist you with?”

Vi tsked her tongue against the roof of her mouth in mild dissapointment, “I’d like to get your personality dialed in later. It’s still a bit deferential for my tastes, Chamomile. Make sure to take a note on that so we can workshop afterwards, but for now do a dry run and make sure all your weapons, defenses, and auxiliary protocols are functioning properly in these temperatures.”

The Pergrandian soldiers watched as bits of Chamomiles body broke apart, reconnected, whirred to life, shot flames, and moved in ways that a normal flesh and blood body would simply be unable to.

Things don’t seem so dire in there just yet, I’ll make sure Chamomile is in tip-top shape before I send her in there to help.

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While fighting large enemies was rare for the Pergrande military, they were trained to do so anyway. One never knew what tricks an enemy mage might stoop to after all. With his specialized anti-mage training, Akio was even more practiced with such fighting. All of that mattered little in the current battle, where it felt more like they were fighting the weather itself instead of a large man. Their attacks would draw blood, only for the wounds to freeze close and disappear. Even Akio with his experience was not sure exactly how to battle such a foe.

Then suddenly with a blast of cold air, Ded Moroz was gone. Or that was how it appeared, but Akio’s instincts caused him to turn around in time to see the man’s staff, now the size of a normal human’s, flying toward him. The paladin brought up his blades to block the staff, yet there was enough force behind the blow that he was still sent flying backward. Using the momentum of his flight to roll back onto his feet, he watched the smaller Ded Moroz carefully.

“You humans disappoint me,” the ice man said coldly. “I expected something more entertaining. Enough of these droll games.”

Sweeping his staff after speaking, the winds within the ice building whipped up to unnatural speed knocking the other soldiers off their feet. Before they could recover, Ded Moroz had returned to his gargantuan size and stepped forward. Forward, and directly onto one of the prone soldiers. There was a sound like fruit being crushed and crunch of bone, and when next the giant lifted his foot only a red colored cluster of ice remained.

“Private!” Akio called in dismay. Thankfully the death of one of their fellow soldiers did not break the well trained soldiers, and they quickly scrambled to their feet and opened fire once more. Little good this did. For the next while the soldiers continued to do their best to fend off Ded Moroz futility, until the ice giant raised his staff again. Once again a storm of wind and ice bombarded the soldiers. This time a flurry of ice shards were carried by the wind and it was all he could do to deflect them one after another. There proved to be too many for two swords alone to defend against, and one got through his guard and embedded itself into his side. Only then did the attack finally relent.

Taking quick stock of the injury, he determined that he was not likely to bleed out. Instead he had to worry about freezing to death, as he could feel the icy chill spreading from where the icicle dug into his flesh. Looking at the rest of the soldiers, he seemed to have gotten off lucky. Several were down with multiple ice shards sticking out of their bodies and at least two more were obviously dead. Putting his injury aside, Akio rushed again at their target to give the downed soldiers a chance to recover. Dodging around the massive feet of Ded Moroz, he jumped up and stabbed his blades deep into his back wondering as he did when the weapon outside would be ready.

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As the heat signatures began to fade in the lenses of her binoculars, Veronica let out a pitiful sigh, and gave a brief prayer. The soldiers by her side might have interpreted the gesture as one which honored the soldiers dying in the icy walls of the structure. In fact, that was not the case.

Dreadful indeed, had I sent Cammy in before we fully grasped the power set of this creature, she might have sustained some serious damage. Thank you for your sacrifice, dear soldiers, you have cleared the path for me quite nicely, she thought, finishing preparations and confirming that Chamomile was ready for combat.

She nodded at the android, “Chamomile, my sweet, please activate Auxiliary Protocol: Jet Boost. Join Paladin Akio in fighting that dreadful beast. And prioritize damage mitigation before going on the offense, we seem to have incurred heavy losses already.”

While the soldiers took her callous mention of their comrades’ deaths with battle-hardened resolution, the purple haired humanoid weapon gave her creator a warm smile, “At once,” Chamomile said, engines humming loudly. From her feet, jets of flame and hot air burst forth. The android quickly achieved airborne status, soaring towards the building at rapid speeds, and breaking an edge off the doorway as she appeared in the large hall. Quickly assessing the situation. She raised a hand, ”Defensive Protocol: Repulsion Coating.”

Akio and the surviving foot soldiers would feel the air hum around them as an electromagnetic field was generated which would help to reduce the impact of both magical and physical attacks against the person. Chamomile also received the benefit of the field, but her propulsion rockets began to sputter out, forcing an emergency landing near Akio.

”Temperatures too cold for rocket propulsion and flamethrower to function properly. All other functions still online. Paladin Akio located. Hello, Akio, I am Chamomile, please allow me to assist you.”

Hardly the time for niceties Chamomile, but noted about the temperature. I will research solutions. For the time being, please activate Offensive Protocol: Shred, and provide cover fire for Akio. It seems the soldiers that were already doing so are no longer capable.

”At once. Paladin Akio, Vi has instructed me to provide cover fire and allow you to take the lead, please direct me as needed should you require something else,” Chamomile said, raising her hands as her fingertips popped off with a crisp snap, stiffer due to the supernaturally cold weather. With a burst of light, tiny shreds of metal began to shoot out from the androids fingers, covering a wide area as she focused fire on the tough as ever ice giant.

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Even with the full length of his katanas embedded into the giant’s back, Ded Moroz seemed to find them more an annoyance than actually painful. With a violent shake, the ice man threw Akio off of him and it was all the paladin could do to keep a hold of his swords. Flipping himself upright in the air, he landed hard on the ice castle’s floor. Just as he was trying to decide what to do next, an unknown woman flew into the battle. Or was it actually a woman? Humans did not typically fly in on jets of fire from their feet or break through doors without even noticing. Not without magic at least, and such things were banned from the Pergrande Army.

The sense that this was not just a normal human was intensified when a difficult to describe feeling washed over him. There was no visible effect of whatever happened, yet as he could feel the creep of cold in his side slowing there was no doubt something had changed. Such concerns could wait for later, so instead he turned to address the woman(?) as she landed next to him.

“So far our bullets have proven ineffective,” he said as he readied his swords. “My weapons cannot dig deep enough to do real harm while he is that large. I think if we separate him from that staff his powers may weaken. Keep him distracted while I attempt to do so and if you see an opening, take it.”

His instructions given, Akio sped forward again keeping himself out of the line of fire from the others. Slashing the ankles of the giant man was about all the paladin could do at the moment, but that was hopefully enough. With how little damage the bullets of the soldiers had done so far, they needed something more decisive. If he could be a great enough nuisance while dodging Ded Moroz’s attacks, he hoped an opening would appear.

After dodging another crushing stomp of the giant’s foot, Akio saw frustration on his face. Once again he swept his staff and disappeared into thin air. However, this time the paladin was expecting it. Moving more on instinct than thought he spun in place to find the human sized Ded Moroz standing behind him, staff raised. Without hesitation Akio brought up his sword as part of his turn and with the sound of metal slicing through flesh Ded Moroz’s arm and the staff it had held went flying to the side. Stunned by the unexpected disarmament, the ice man stumbled backward.

“Now!” Akio cried to the others, taking a step back himself so as not to be in the line of fire. This proved to be as much movement as he could achieve, as the cold inside of him continued to spread, causing him to collapse to one knee. Without his staff and at a proportion better suited for infantry weapons, Akio hoped his comrades’ weapons would be more effective this time. If not, they would probably die.

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The battle was hard to follow for the android, whose systems were all starting to slow down in the cold. The friction and heat generated from her rapid fire fingertips caused moisture to collect around the barrels of her built in weaponry, frost forming rapidly anytime there was a lull in firing speed.

Worry not, Chamomile, I am noting all the areas in which your design can be improved. I have decent theory for how we might have been able to increase the velocity of your shred protocol high enough to pierce Moroz's skin, alas, I'll have to convince the doctor to help us secure more funds for that.

Chamomile stopped firing as her target moved, searching around the room before her optical sensors identified Akio slicing the arm clean off their enemy, his size shrinking down. The footsoldiers around her who were still alive and conscious rose, ready to make one last attempt to blow the frosty man to smithereens.

Vi's voice rang out from the speaker installed in Chamomile's throat, "Akio, a great many thanks for leading this charge. It would have been rather tragic if Moroz had not been weakened so, for this weapon has no quick way to escape the room without her rocket propulsion functioning properly. Surely she would have been smashed to bits. So again, deepest gratitude."

As Chamomile's fingertips closed back up, ice crunching between the joints, the soldiers began to open fire on Ded Moroz, the menace stumbling backwards as their shots hit home, piercing through his hide at long last. Though the android's torch protocol would not activate properly, electricity still surged through her body. She opened her mouth and with a flash of light, let loose a blast of electricity.

The javelin of lightning sprung from the robot's mouth, looking as though it had pierced through the skull of Ded Moroz before it dispersed through his lead-filled body, causing him to convulse as he collapsed to the ground, his name finally an apt descriptor.

The surge of electricity subsiding, Chamomile tapped into her neurolink, "Target defeated, Vi. Your next orders?"

Vi was busy running calculations and revisiting the detailed notes she had made throughout the battle, she looked at the soldiers who guarded her, the two of them seemingly relieved that the experience was over for everyone, Quite busy at the moment, Cammy, perhaps assist the wounded in exiting the building unless otherwise directed by Akio? Now please do not ask another question of me unless it's completely urgent.

The robot got to work helping people to their feet and hauling the dead on to her shoulders. Meanwhile Vi imagined just how powerful this new weapon could be with the right resources at her disposal, preparing to pitch this success of a mission to the doctor and the higher ups in the science branch.

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