Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 186 - 90 Avalanche

Chapter 186: Chapter 90 Avalanche

"Up there!" the mercenary from Steel Cross shouted ahead.

Everyone hastily looked up, only to see the vague silhouettes of numerous Snow Monsters emerging atop the mountain cliff on the left side of the trail.

Without hesitation, the gunmen from Steel Cross tilted their heads upward and began shooting in that direction.

Bullets flew chaotically through the air; the Snow Monsters roared furiously. Aske stared at the gruesome scene above, with flesh and blood flying everywhere, and suddenly furrowed his brows.

As social creatures, Snow Monsters were certainly not devoid of intelligence like the Thorn Birds. They lacked long-range combat abilities, so why would they deliberately expose themselves above, only to be shot at for no reason?

Reversing the thought process, if they were forced to expose themselves, that meant...were the Snow Monsters trying to lure the mercenaries into shooting?

Shooting...

Aske’s face suddenly changed, recalling a story from another life that circulated on a forum about an instance.

Of course, it wasn’t on Taigetes Mountain, but at the northernmost peak of the continent, Gajeh Peak, where two player groups clashed while raiding the instance. Since both sides were positioned far apart, the gunmen and Mages initiated the attack first.

Then, the dense gunfire triggered an even greater Heavenly Disaster.

Avalanche.

"Everyone, group up on me!" As Aske’s shout burst forth, the ground beneath had already begun to tremble ominously.

The Snow Monsters on the cliff had collectively buried their heads and were frantically digging and burrowing into the snow below, using the layers to conceal themselves.

Above, a torrential avalanche of snow and slush was cascading down from the higher mountains. Worse still, as most of the mercenary gunmen had grouped together to shoot the Snow Monsters above, they were now right in the middle of the avalanche’s path.

In just three or four seconds, the avalanche reached where everyone stood, and numerous mercenaries were caught off guard and swallowed by the icy torrent. Amidst the chaos, there were screams, gunfire, and the sinister rustling noise of ice and snow grinding together, reminiscent of the Devil grinding its teeth.

The Azure Longsword was the quickest to react—more precisely, Aske was the first to realize and warn the others. Although the girls didn’t understand what was about to happen, they still hurried towards him.

By the time Andrea and Herman realized what was happening, it was too late to react as the avalanche was upon them, a mere arm’s length away.

On the inside of the trail, where the group was, was a nearly 90-degree rock cliff.

In theory, huddling at the bottom of the cliff in a recess was a perfect way to avoid getting swept away.

However, the danger of an avalanche wasn’t just in being carried off, but also in being buried alive. If the scale of the avalanche was too large, the base of the cliff could quickly become sealed by a 5-10 meter layer of snow.

In this world, one couldn’t expect any mountain rescue helicopters to come after such an event. Being buried in snow and unable to escape meant a slow, inevitable death.

On the outside of the trail was a gentle slope, at about a 30-degree incline, descending around 100 meters before becoming steep.

At this moment, teleporting back to Fire Island was too risky, especially with a large number of Steel Cross Mercenaries around—too many eyes.

Should anyone witness the team collectively teleporting away, Aske would have no choice but to turn hostile against Steel Cross and silence them all.

Otherwise, such an incident would attract unwanted covetousness when word got out—a collective teleportation, even if not a Half-plane Fragment, was surely some kind of High Rank and rare Extraordinary Item.

His gaze swept over the outside in the blink of an eye, and Aske finally spotted a protruding rock.

He quickly led everyone to take cover under the rock, only to realize that it was not as safe as anticipated.

The rock could block the avalanche— but only within a small area directly beneath it.

Eleanor and Sigrdrifa were wearing heavy armor, which took up most of the space at the time.

As a result, the other girls had almost no place to stand and could only squeeze desperately underneath the rock, hugging each other to keep their bodies stable, their faces pale with fright.

Aske and Medea stood on the outermost side, the former grabbing Eleanor’s Arm Armor, the latter about to grab Aske’s arm, when her movements hesitated noticeably.

Her phobia of men surged forth.

Just for a moment, before Medea could make up her mind to catch Aske, she slipped and was swept away by the avalanche beside her.

"Damn it!" Amidst the girls’ screams, Aske decisively released Eleanor’s Arm Armor and leaped into the snow below.

His mind was stretched to the limit, and his gaze swept over the terrain below like that of a hawk.

The snow was rushing down with incredible speed, but Aske’s descent was even faster. Each time he plunged down to land, he aimed for barely visible protrusions in the snow—underneath which were rocks not yet fully covered by the snow layer.

The friction of the snow was much less than that of the rock. If he didn’t manage to break through the snow to step on rock for his next foothold, there was a perilous risk of his boots slipping and his body toppling over.

At this moment, Medea was still over 20 meters away. Aske sprinted down the slope, his eyes locked onto the fiery red hair in the flow of snow, when suddenly, his foot slipped.

It wasn’t that he had misstepped; the rock he had landed on was coincidentally covered with a thin layer of ice, which immediately caused his boot to slide out from under him.

As his body started to tilt and he was about to lose balance, Aske suddenly spun around and drew his sword, stabbing it through the snow and into the earth below, quickly leveraging it to regain his center of gravity.

The next second, he released the hilt and pushed off hard against the slope with both feet.

During the brief moment he stabilized himself, Medea was carried another ten meters or so downhill by the avalanche, forcing him to adopt an even more aggressive chase strategy.

He switched from running to jumping, using gravity to speed himself up.

Aske, leaping through the air seemed like an eagle gliding over the snow, his body almost curled into a ball, with arms extended only to maintain balance.

Just before touching down again, his legs fiercely stomped on the snow, propelling his body back into the air.

After three or four high jumps, he closed the gap to Medea, close enough to see the expressions on her face—like a small animal facing a heavenly disaster, filled with fear, desperation, and unwillingness.

Then Aske lunged forward, wrapping his arms around Medea, who was engulfed by the avalanche’s torrent.

"You!" Dizzy from being tossed by the avalanche, it took Medea a few seconds to realize that it was Aske grabbing onto her tightly.

The fear flared up all around her, immediately scattered by the surrounding snow and ice.

"Let go!" Medea cried out.

"If I let go, you’ll die!" Aske yelled back.

"Don’t let him let go!" The voice of Medusa inside her also screamed, sensing an endless surge of pain.

The panic and dread of being held by a man, along with the pain Aske was experiencing from flames and high temperature, were rapidly enhancing her own power.

"You’ll die if you don’t let go!" Medea said in terror as she saw flames rising from her skin, swiftly climbing up his arms.

Aske’s Cotton Armor was burning, and the Lock Armor underneath was glowing red-hot. The flames, serpent-like, scorched his cheeks, contending with the scattering ice and snow in a deadly struggle.

His hair had caught fire, his eyebrows were singed, and sparks flew through the air like dancing fireflies.

Yet, the man’s expression remained resolute and calm, as if the flames held no heat, as if he felt no pain, only fiercely holding onto her to prevent the avalanche’s flow from dragging her into the abyss of death.

Damn it! I must... suppress...

This damn flame!

Medea screamed hysterically, not even able to hear what she was screaming about. It seemed as if her consciousness had ascended into the clouds, below which lay a continuous mountain range formed by infinite fear, disgust, and hostility.

A huge cloud was pressing down quickly—that was her will, her thunderous thoughts, her determination to use a power that felt as if it would burn her soul to forcefully suppress the uncontrollable negative instincts rising from her body!

Finally.

Aske’s body suddenly shuddered, and Medea’s heart did as well.

As they hit the valley’s floor, the man fiercely twisted his body to take the potentially fatal impact on his back for her.

Suddenly, the boundless snow crashed down, engulfing both of them in a vast white world.