336 Chapter 336: Blizzard (2/2)

Of course, as Harrison rightly pointed out, they cost quite a lot of mana. I didn't know how long the blizzard would continue for, but it wasn't practical for me to maintain a magical barrier for hours on end. I didn't have that much mana to spare.

”Give me five minutes and I'll be able to construct a strong enough barrier,” Harrison told me. I nodded, but wondered about why he needed that much time. It took me five minutes to summon Black Tortoise, which I had already started casting the moment I saw the blizzard. Pearl's Guardian Sphere bought me another few precious minutes, or I would have done it sooner to spare her the suffering. Then I realized that Harrison had his hands full trying to help Pearl. Not only that, he had been silently buffing Pearl's spell with his holy spells before she was forced to dismiss it, which was the only reason why our healer's hastily cast protective spell lasted as long as it did.

Additionally, Harrison was busily calculating a schedule. He decided to let me maintain the barrier for another five minutes so that he could keep his up for as long as possible. Currently, he was also glancing around to take stock of our team and see who was capable of constructing barriers. He swiftly spoke to Dong Fang Yue Chu, who nodded.

”Yeah, I think my firewall should be able to protect us from the blizzard for an hour or so.”

”Good. I'll take the first hour or two.”

”Wait!” Pearl raised a hand, still breathless from her earlier exertion. ”Yue Chu is one of our combatants. I should take the second or third hour. By then I should recover enough mana to be able to maintain a higher level Guardian Sphere.”

”Good point,” Harrison conceded as he glanced at me. By that logic, he might as well allow me to take the brunt of the blizzard for the first hour since there wasn't much of a difference between getting me to do it and getting Yue Chu to do it. ”We'll do that then. But Richard and Yue Chu, both of you should still standby with your spells.”

”Gotcha.”

Both Yue Chu and I nodded in understanding. As long as we didn't move, we could indefinitely standby with our spells. Like I said, casting spells were akin to downloading a file from the Internet. Theoretically we could pause the casting process at 99% and standby until we needed to complete the casting. While we couldn't cancel the spell once it reached 100% - it would manifest no matter what – we could still pause it at near completion indefinitely…until we moved out of the 100 meter boundary from where we first started casting the spell.

With the blizzard battering at our defenses, it was clear that we wouldn't be going anywhere for a long while, so we wouldn't be wasting our time or mana casting the spells and remaining on standby. Hell, most of the mana expenditure happened during the manifestation and complete casting of the spell (literally 100% download completed), so it wasn't even a waste of mana, to be honest. Of course, we would still have to spend quite a bit of mana, but it was a mere fraction of the amount we would have to spend if we were to complete the spell and manifest it in reality.

If that was the case, it wasn't going to affect us much even if our goal was to conserve our mana for a future battle. Besides, we were a team. We had to share the load, not leave everything to Harrison and Pearl. If something happened to either or both of them, then we would be in trouble if we weren't prepared.

The blizzard continued pounding away at my defenses, as well as the cliff, with gigantic hailstones. My friends instinctively shrank away from the edge, backing away from the sheer drop and going near a second cliff wall that made up the mountain we were now perched on. Since the Den of Dragons was a valley, to skirt around it, we had chosen to follow a ridge atop a mountain that ran along its circumference.

I stayed near Black Tortoise, listening as the massive hailstones bombarded his water sphere and the face of the cliff, shaking large sludges of snow loose and causing them to crash down below. I was reminded of the avalanche that the Assassins sprang on us a few days ago, and idly wondered if it would work on monsters.

Speaking of which, the Boariceratops were no longer present. They had long since fled the area, with the majority of them having outrun the blizzard. Good for them. Even though they were monsters, I wasn't vicious enough to wish such a freezing death upon them. Or something.

”All right, I'm ready! Get ready to dismiss your Black Tortoise, and back away from the edge!” Harrison was looking at me disapprovingly. ”It's dangerous.”

”Yeah, but I can't just leave my Celestial Guardian alone, especially when he's the one protecting us all.”

”Well…I understand, but I don't want you to fall off the edge.”

I scoffed at that. ”Are you serious? Come on, man. I can't be that unlucky.”

”Better safe than sorry. Anyway…Holy Barrier!”

He raised a hand and conjured a golden sphere of light that settled over us. A few seconds later, I dismissed the water sphere and nodded at Black Tortoise, getting ready to return him to whatever spectral dimension he resided in before I summoned him.

That was when I heard an ominous crack.

”…eh?”

None of us realized it, but the constant and relentless pounding of the hailstones had weakened the cliff tremendously, loosening the rock and rendering it very fragile. The massive weight of Black Tortoise – I mean, look at that huge shell, man – amplified the effects of the erosion, and the cliff had been steadily cracking and crumbling below our feet without us noticing it.

To be fair, how could we have noticed it? Not unless we were hanging off the edge and staring directly at the face of the cliff.

Unfortunately, that fact didn't help me one bit. Before I realized it, the ground beneath me and my Black Tortoise gave way and broke apart as a particularly huge hailstone struck the cliff somewhere below. It was a chain reaction. As the hailstone gouged out a huge chunk of rock, the edge of the cliff – already weakened from the merciless bombardment of hail – began to fall apart, and so the ground disintegrated, spilling both me and my Black Tortoise into the chasm below.

”Whoa!”

”Richard!”

”Richie!”

”NO!”

The last thing I saw before I was swept up and away by the blizzard – along with my disappearing Black Tortoise – was the terrified faces of my friends. Good thing Harrison had managed to erect that Holy Barrier of his. All of my friends were safely protected behind that shimmering gold screen.

Not that it was of much help to me.

I tried to summon Cygnus or Aquila, but I knew inwardly it would be useless. I could attempt to summon any flying Constellation spirit – or even Vermillion Phoenix – but there was no way they would be able to fly inside such a violent storm. Like me, they would be caught by the ferocious, freezing winds and sent tumbling helplessly in the air, unable to control their movements.

That didn't mean I wasn't going to try, however. Taking a deep breath, even though the chilling air burned my lungs, I tried to gather as much mana as possible, to complete my summoning spell.

Unfortunately for me, while I was struggling in midair, a particularly large hailstone slammed into my head.

Then everything went dark.