Chapter 17: When the Ice Between Us Shatters: Aislin's Challenge to the Heir of the North
From the moment our eyes met, I realized something had broken between us… or perhaps something had just been born.
She was no longer the mischievous girl who used to hide behind innocent laughter and childish chatter.
Now she was different… her gaze overflowed with a sharp power, a fierce ambition, and a hunger for dominance that could no longer be concealed.
But I am not someone who lets a storm drag me without resistance.
I spoke quietly, my tone tight with tension:Aislin… are you serious about what you're saying?
If you think I'm standing in the way of your happiness, then do what you believe is right."
I watched her eyes, glowing with an uncharacteristic resolve…
A soft chill pulsed behind them, like the omen of an oncoming glacial storm.
She raised her head lightly and spoke in a sharp voice, filled with fire despite its cold edge:I want to fight you, but this time it's different!
Aison… I want to test your strength! The bond between two dragons like us isn't built on words—it's built on greatness!
If I defeat you now, you'll have no right to stop me from anything ever again!"
I could only let out a sigh.
You're a thousand years weaker than me, Aislin… don't let pride blind you."
But she didn't wait for me to finish.
A chilling cry split the air as she lunged at me with incredible speed.
Her wings glimmered with a dark-blue glow, scattering cold light around her, and her claws stretched toward me like blades of living crystal.
She was serious—there wasn't a trace of hesitation in her movements.
Well then…" I murmured, spreading my wings wide, facing her head-on.
Her claw collided with my wing, and an immense force erupted between us, cracking the very air. The ground beneath our feet trembled.
The sound of impact thundered like a storm, and the ice shattered outward in rippling circles around us.
I caught her right claw just before it could pierce my chest, then focused my icy energy into my other fist and drove a punch straight into her abdomen.
Aislin gasped, her body shuddering from the blow, her eyes widening in pain—yet even then… she did not fall.
Instead, she raised her head again, crying out with every ounce of her defiance: An Ice Dragon does not fall from a single strike!"
Then she retreated gracefully, her wings spreading wide enough to cover the sky, tracing a massive circle of crystallized ice around us.
In the next moment, ice began to rise from the ground, sealing off the space between us… a battlefield of pure frost.
Her voice echoed again from within the storm:Come, Aison… show me why they call you the Heir of the North!
I let out a thunderous roar—one that tore through the air like lightning awakening the slumbering glacial mountains.
Around Aislin, icy vapor gathered and thickened, condensing in an instant into dozens of spears of frost that shot toward me at a deadly speed, like arrows of doom.
I raised my broad wings to block the first wave.
The first spear shattered against them like glass, but the second slid in at a cunning angle and struck me square in the shoulder.
For a sharp moment, the muscle froze; I felt a knife-like cold pierce into my flesh, but I refused to let the pain scatter my focus.
I roared, my voice rumbling deep enough to shake the ice:
"You're not the only one who commands the frost!"
I sank my claws into the ground, power surging up from my core, making the frozen earth beneath her tremble.
The icy crust split suddenly, and waves of jagged cracks surged toward her like charging serpents.
She dodged two with grace, but the third wrapped around her leg, catching her for a heartbeat.
That heartbeat… was all I needed.
I lunged at her like a thunderbolt, knocking her to the ground, standing over her, my shadow pressing against her as I stared into her defiant eyes.
The air between us burned with cold, a heavy silence before the storm's break.
I spoke in a low voice, one that rumbled like shattering ice:
"Aislin… this isn't just a battle for you, is it?"
She raised her head, her white-and-blue scales glinting with defiance, and replied between ragged breaths: I wanted to test you… to know who deserves… who dominates!"
I looked into her eyes, aflame with the will to fight, and saw in them a blend of challenge, pain, and ambition. A cold smile curved my lips.
"Very well then…" I whispered, my voice now carrying the echo of the coming storm.
"I'll show you why they call Aison Drakon MANZARI the true Heir of the North."
I spread my wings in one swift motion, unleashing a storm of razor-sharp ice blades that spiraled upward, whirling around us like a deadly vortex.
This was not the end of the battle… but its true beginning.
The ground quaked beneath our feet, and the air spun into shards of glass-like frost around me. This was no time for hesitation.
Aislin shoved me away with sudden strength, rising slowly to face me again, her blue eyes now burning with a wild defiance—like fire beneath the ice.
I roared once more, the sound exploding from deep in my chest like a polar storm carrying the stillness of death.
But she… did not retreat.
I unfurled my wings, and with each beat, crystalline shards scattered like blades toward her.
But instead of falling back, she leapt into the air, spinning like a living snowstorm, blocking my attack with a shield of pure ice bursting from her body like frozen crystal aflame with cold.
"Aislin!" I roared as I surged toward her, my claws sheathed in frost, gleaming like lethal blades.
"Show me how far you've come!"
Then I growled, voice resonating like cracking glaciers: I won't go easy on you… even if you're my only cousin, the last kin I have left in this life!"
In that moment, our powers collided like two storms crashing at the heart of eternal winter. The sky above us split with an azure flash while the earth trembled beneath our feet.
Our bodies collided in midair, and a massive surge of ice exploded around us like a raging white sea.
Even the air itself froze in that instant… everything vanished; sound, thought, everything outside this battle dissolved away.
All that remained was the blind desire to surpass, to prove who had the right to dominate.
We traded blows like two storms crashing together, every movement a lightning strike, every roar a peal of thunder.
Her claws dug into my wings, the chill sinking all the way to the bone, but I seized her by the neck and hurled her toward the ground with a thunderous drive.
She screamed as she fell, but at the last instant she froze the air beneath her and landed with astonishing lightness. Then, with a sudden flick of her hand, she hurled an ice spear at me.
It shot toward me like a flash of death. I barely dodged, feeling its edge graze past my face, and kept pushing forward, my body spinning through the air like a glacial meteor hurtling toward its mark.
"This isn't enough!" I roared, wings spreading wide.
A cascade of ice blades streamed from my wings, each one glittering like blue diamond, streaking toward her at impossible speed.
The strikes erupted around her in cascading vortices, shards of ice scattering as though the very sky were splintering apart.
Despite the bruises beginning to form on her body, despite the small wounds etching red lines across her pale scales—she smiled.
A clear smile of defiance, her eyes shining with a light that had nothing of fear in it.
Her voice thundered through the storm:
"I want you to fight me with everything you have, Aison! Show me… don't disappoint me!"
Ice power gathered in my chest like an ocean of raw frost.
I opened my jaws and unleashed a breath of ice unlike any other—a dense wave of pure snow, a crushing cold that froze everything it touched, surging toward her with the force of a collapsing glacier.
For a heartbeat her form vanished in the icy mist, as though she'd melted into the void.
But I could feel her… that familiar pulse in the heart of the storm. She was closing in.
Suddenly she appeared behind me, her claw aimed straight for my neck, moving at a deadly flash.
But I was ready.
I spun like lightning, my ice-clad fist striking at the critical moment, seizing her in an unrelenting grip as a shell of pure frost erupted around her, freezing her in place.
Now it was I who held control of the battle.
"I'm the one in control here, Aislin…" I whispered, my voice low and resonant, laced with frost—each breath carrying the chill of the ice itself. Then I slammed her into the ground with a force greater than before.
Her body struck the ice-covered rocks, shards of frozen crystal scattering around her like sparks of frozen light.
But instead of screaming in pain… she laughed.
It was a soft laugh—yet it burned, a fire that didn't melt the ice but ignited it from within.
In that moment, I understood—what bound us wasn't just battle.
It was a dance, a challenge, a fusion of fury and acknowledgment, of dominance and desire, of pain and pride.
When I loosened my grip, thinking the fight was over, I caught a familiar glint in her eyes… the glint of deception.
Suddenly—
Her claw struck my chest with ruthless cunning, the shockwave hurling my body backward more than ten meters.
I crashed into the ground, the icy stone trembling beneath my weight. A dizzying pain pierced through my head as the frigid air slapped against my face.
I lifted my gaze—and saw her.
Aislin soared into the sky with wild grace, her wings spreading wide enough to cover the heavens as whirlwinds of frost gathered around her.
She floated amidst swirling snow and ice clouds, her glowing blue eyes blazing with untamed resolve, and her voice thundered down from above:
"Prepare yourself, Aison… this time, I'm not that little girl anymore!"
In the next instant, thick clouds of ice rolled across the sky, swallowing the light.
A cold unlike any I had ever felt crept into my very bones.
I recognized that technique immediately—The words froze on my tongue.
"This… this is the skill I taught you myself…" I muttered, my voice heavy with bitter astonishment.
I had never imagined she would one day turn it against me.
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