"Haaaa-!"
SSHHHHHHRRKK!
Snow scattered in a storm, swirling the pale landscape to deeper shades of white.
THRUM!
It was immediate.
An attack that sent shivers down Riven's spine, but aimed to rip his jugular.
It came too fast to retreat...
But he wasn't going to anyways.
He couldn't.
From a white blur, its entirety emerged at last.
A wolf--
but wrong in every proportion.
It didn't mirror the scavenger he'd rested earlier.
Its shoulders hunched higher than its head.
Limbs stretched too long.
Paws were tipped with curved black claws that scraped the ice.
He had seen a glimpse in the previous exchange, but this.....
Its fur shimmered pale, the coat vanishing in the storm as if the blizzard itself had birthed it.
That wasn't all.
Its mouth was stretched too wide....corners breaking the barrier of jaw and cheek.
It pulled at him.
Warning as its eyes glowed faint, two orbs of blue fire that burned steady.
THRUM!
This wasn't a simple beast.
It was a predator made for this terrain.
Made for this whiteout.
He knew....
The way its ribs rose and fell sharply.
Each inhale drawing in frost.
Each exhale thickening the air?
He had to focus....he'd already been struck.
'Come o-'
As those claws aimed for his throat, the world muted around him.
His eyes narrowed, black claws as sharp as his own blade, raking forward.
"Ha-"
It was then his blade twisted the space, redirecting the attack as he spun round...
THRUM!
Aimed to kill...
Redirected to avoid.
Steel had tilted not as shield, but as silence.
The intent was clear, and so Riven was able to react accordingly....
"Haak-"
A sharp breath exhaled, as the blow threw sparks flying against the edge, snow exploding at the soles of the silhouettes.
His grey eyes stared at the space where he'd redirected the beast.
"Haa....haa".
'Where!'
Glazed eyes scanned the area as the swirled snow slowly dissipated, revealing another disappearance....
It had moved.
Strike and retreat. A true hunter.
The frost had bit into his gash on his thigh.
Every movement had aggravated its aggression, a prior lesson he'd received in assumptions and reading into things too early.
"Haa...."
It was still dripping faintly into the snow....
A smell that invigorated the stalker behind the veil of white.
Riven's eyes narrowed as he could feel the chill numbing his legs, feet cemented in thick layers of snow.
As he stared, eyes flicking corners of haze, the clash floated through his mind.
Sparks had flew.
Steel had made contact with claw.
But it was still missing.
There was no sound.
He quickly pulled his numb hand up, tapping the lobes of his ear.
'What is it?'
"Haak-"
His breath rasped, a thundering pulse reverberating:
Cough!
Only thrums and a call of eerie origin had escaped through the air before it struck.
That clash was in a void....as if it didn't even happen.
It wasn't Null Edge.
It wasn't Mael's Fang.
'....It's doing it.'
Mist clouded the air as the thought came slow, meaningful with heaviness.
The echo earlier?
Misdirection.
It was choosing what he heard, and what he couldn't.
'Controllin-'
Before the thought could come....
Instincts took over as Riven immediately dodged.
It had struck without noise this time.
No thrum.
"Hkk!"
Riven had slipped aside, appearing a few steps away.
He had dodged.
Barely.
The feeling of death ever present.
So close.
The beast didn't recoiled.
It's ribs sunk low to the ground as its maw snapped.
It lunged relentlessly towards his new position...
THRUMMM!!!
It had sensed weakness, the smell of blood floating in the air.
He had expected another pierce like before, the memory of the weight clashing into him.
Instead....
A burst of frost roared from its abyss of a jaw.
Magic.
It flowed through the air as the void between them thickened in an instant.
The previous small radius of vision was swallowed by churning ice and snow particles.
"Haaa...."
That needed breath as fatigue waned?
It dragged frost into his lungs, stabbing him from within.
'Shit...'
His body convulsed. Cough! Cough!
Movement--!
His eyes shot open from its previous squints of pain.
The void between had shifted. A menacing shape had tore free, closer than anyone would like.
Those pale orbs stared through his soul, an image of nightmares as its jaw could almost taste the being.
Hungry.
THRUMM!
His instincts roared. Grip tightening as Mael's Fang shot up, slower than before due to the growing fatigue.
The world had shrank to that single instant.
He slashed the sword with the notion his life was on the line.
"Haa!"
It was.
SSHHHHRRKK!
For a second it appeared the blade wasn't cutting...
As if it simply wasn't there.
But it was.
It reappeared inside the beasts guard, phasing back into reality as the swing finished.
THRU-
The beasts charge faltered momentarily, centimetres away from Riven's would be corpse.
It's hide had never been touched....yet the cut was already there.
"Haaa....ha....."
Riven immediately jumped back, creating separation as his lungs seared.
Cough!
The cold was peaking.
In the beasts presence it seemed the cold reached new heights....something Riven thought was impossible compared to Frostveil's base horror.
Steam rose faintly.
A scene that struck out to Riven, for it was a product of his attack.
A shallow one at that.
It hadn't weakened it.
If anything....the beast grew colder.
SSHHRKKKK!!
A low rumbling escaped. Its elongated limbs seemed to hover over the harsh snow, contrasting to Riven's cement.
"Haa....."
His chest heaved as the taste of copper ran through his mouth.
Everything burned.
His body screamed, sections bitten due to the frost.
Cough! Cough!
His eyes wavered, glazed as the scene shook.
In that moment of vulnerability, it vanished once more.
"Haa...."
Cough!
'Stop disappearing....'
His patience was being tested truly.
The continuous attacks and departure in this climate?
COUGH!
It ran through the veil hidden from Riven, circling him as it released breaths of frost.
'My body...I'll give out soon.'
Fighting something like this, with the weather at his side....
Cough! Cough!
It was death guaranteed.
His footing almost betrayed him as his leg couldn't hold much weight.
He dropped slightly, his knee bent to the snow.
Bent to the frost.
Sound was still no ally of his.
It was never.
SCRRRPPP!
Left.
SCRRRPPP!
Right.
Both ways, the sound of dread echoed.
Phantom noises?
Which one?
Which--
He lunged, blade flashing through the snow.
A risk.
The blade cut reality, reappearing a few spaces in the air.
Wind flung his hair at the speed of the strike.
"Hkk-"
Cough!
Nothing.
SHHRRRKKK!
"AGHH!!"
Agony tore across his shoulder.
Claws dug deep.
"Haaa! Haa...."
The arm that held Mael's Fang faltered, blood spraying red against white.
Truly a familiar scene for him.
Another nightmare.
His grip slipped as his teeth clenched.
He forced it steady....but the weight of the blade was heavier than ever.
This wasn't a hunt.
It was a dismantling.
Cough! Cough!
A breaking of Riven.
Truly ironic.
THRUM!
A low beat passed as the beast vanished once more, leaving Riven to kneel once more. Both shoulder and thigh now cut, fresh to consume.
"Ha-...."
Breaths came strained.
Came non existent.
He couldn't inhale as plentiful as previous.
In that snow, a pair of grey eyes dulled.
He looked around:
'The end waits here....'
It was the apex.
Cough! Cough!Cough!