The Innkeeper

Outside the castle-cum-mountainrange, the war was still ongoing, although a few minor details had changed. Instead of the many nobles working together to fight against the forces of the royal family, they were now all fighting together as brothers in arms and members of the same race, all against the icy abominations that had so suddenly appeared. They were surrounded, and though the situation had not become dire yet, anything could happen at any time. 

No one understood where these abominations came from, but they understood well what their obsession with the castle was. These… things hated heat, and hated the Frigals who had immense heat inside their bodies. But the greatest source of heat on the entire planet was on the last floor of the dragon's hoard in the castle behind them, and that was attracting the abominations from across the planet.

Of course, none of them felt for even a second that the creatures could succeed in extinguishing the heat source, but even if they wanted to passively let them go by, the creatures would not permit it. After all, even if their bodies had less hea compared to their main target, they could not be ignored.

Just as the battle was reaching its pinnacle, the sound of hundreds of rockets seemed to fill the air. Though Frigals could not see, they used other senses to detect that the sounds were not rockets, but countless ships entering the planet's atmosphere from orbit. They were all aiming for the castle.

But they made one miscalculation in their plans to bypass the battle on the ground and directly enter the castle. The abominations were called as such because they had no fixed shape or identity. The only thing that was fixed was that they seemed to have bodies made of ice. That meant that… all they needed to do was alter their bodies to take flight.

With hundreds of new massive heat sources appearing to aggravate them, the abominations let out howls of fury before they took flight. There were two battlefields now: one in the air and one on the ground.

*****

Although motivation, passion and dedication all burned within his heart, standing up was easier said than done. Will power was one thing, but accomplishing something seemingly impossible required more than something as ethereal as thoughts and prayers. He needed something more.

He hesitated for only a mere second before he made a decision. He could either rely on arrays, a few of which could somewhat help him. Or, he could use his current situation to run his cultivation technique.

Unfortunately, he could not run his cultivation technique and use his spirit energy for other tasks at the same time, so he had to choose. Ultimately, the choice was simple. Arrays could provide him immediate but limited relief. The technique, however, had the potential to use his current situation and adapt to it to give him greater benefits. Maybe he could even develop a resistance to Dragons Might. There was only one way to find out.

With his decision made, he began cultivating while he continued to lift himself up. Lex could not help but release a guttural cry as he pushed himself up right. He felt like he was deadlifting a planet!

His cultivation technique was not hampered at all by his movement or the pressure around him, and in fact ran even smoother in these harsh conditions. Slowly, he could tell that it was already bringing about some changes in him, but he could not spare the thought to observe these changes. He had to use every ounce of willpower, and actual power, to move even a few inches. 

Despite the hardship, the ultimate winner was Lex - if one could consider standing up a victory at all. Unfortunately for him, standing up did not give him any release , nor did it make it easier for him.

He looked forward and estimated how far the dragon was. Normally this was not an issue, but at the moment the dragon seemed to occupy his entire mind, so it was difficult for him to pay attention to the gap between them.

In the end, he gave up. What did it matter anyway? How far could it really be? He tried to drag his foot forward, so as to avoid lifting it, but the friction with the ground was too great. It was not possible. Taking in a deep yet painful breath, he lifted his left foot up and stepped forward.

"Fuck!" Lex cursed as he fell down and lost nearly all his progress. How had walking turned into an impossible task?

He had put his foot down incorrectly, causing him to stumble. Moreover, the immense pressure and the horrible angle caused something in his left knee to crack. As someone who generally avoided cursing, not at all due to childhood trauma of getting his rear whupped for doing so, the fact that he cursed so loud spoke of his frustration.

It was not the bone crushing pain that caused Lex the frustration as much as knowing that with an injured knee, another hurdle on his already impossible task was added. With clenched fists, he tolerated the pain as he pushed himself back up again. Fortunately, as a cultivator, he was not subject to the same weaknesses he was back when he was a pure mortal.

Although his knee was injured, he could use the various muscles in his leg to accommodate his weight as well as forcefully divert the pressure on his knee.

Finally, when he pushed himself back up, with unsurpassed focus, Lex once again lifted his leg and took a step. This time he did not mess up, so he was able to divert his weight onto his other leg, and ready himself for his next step.

He looked up at the dragon one more time, which was only a few miles away from him, and realized he needed to speed up. If he took 10 minutes on each step, he'd never make it before the others arrived. Suddenly, he felt like cursing again.