Dominic laughed as he moved forward, inside the club swing of the nearest Brute.

With [Monstrous Strength] at level thirteen, he was more than twice as strong as his base strength, and his claws cut easily through the brute’s leg muscle as he grabbed and lifted, throwing the creature over backward.

Amie was nearly glowing with power as she loaded [Explosion] spells into her pistol shots, causing fire to ripple through the fight, missing allies by half a metre or less.

But that was her best spell, unlike the other mages, who specialized in lightning.

Chain Lightning was much more ally-friendly.

With their rapid rate of fire, the brutes were no longer reaching the duo, allowing them to remain on the front lines with the warriors, while Amie’s reduced height allowed everyone in the middle of the formation to fire over her head with impunity.

Unfortunately, the Ogre Clan brutes were not the only ones who had noticed that there were intruders nearby, and the chilling howl of a Frosthound echoed through the trees, calling reinforcements to their location as the massive beast approached, sauntering through the trees at a casual walk

"Frosthound Alpha." Amie whispered, audible only to Dominic.

Indeed, it was far larger than Dominic had heard the creatures were supposed to be, and it had an adult male Yeti in battle armour on its back.

Not a subspecies, not one of the slender framed Yeti Scouts. But a Yeti Clan Chief.

"Well, that’s not good. That thing is going to eat us." Dominic agreed.

"Maybe shoot it a bunch of times?" Amie suggested.

"Better than nothing."

Bullets rang off the armour of the Clan Chief, who threw his head back and laughed. Until one hit him in the bottom of the jaw and left him spitting blood.

The Yeti climbed down from his mount, which snarled and snapped as it waited for a chance to bypass the Brutes, who were too stupid to get out of the way.

"We need four warriors to keep the hound off us. We will take care of the barriers and the damage." The mages insisted, as the number of Brutes rapidly dwindled.

"On it." Wiz replied, then moved away from the group to engage the oversized beast.

The Frosthound was taller at the shoulder than even the massive berserker was, close to five hundred kilos by Dominic’s best guess. Keeping it from doing as it pleased would not be easy, but they had cut down most of the brutes already, and if someone didn’t contain it, the beast would work in tandem with its rider to eliminate them all.

The Clan Chief roared at them, and instinctively, Dominic roared right back. The power of the two magical lineages scared off every small creature in the forest, but the Yeti Clan Chief looked pleased that someone had dared to answer his challenge.

Dominic moved away from the main fight with two warriors at his side, but he waved them off.

"Finish the Brutes first. There will be more riders coming." He instructed.

"We can’t let a Duke go out like that." The warrior on Dominic’s right declared.

"Don’t worry about me. I will hold him until you have the rest of the battlefield cleared. Now, go."

His words were much more confident than he was, but Dominic also knew that he was the only one here who could heal himself.

The Clan Chief smirked at Dominic as the dragonkin approached. Why a creature a third of his size intended to fight him could only be put down to fearlessness or idiocy. Whichever it was, he would know soon.

The Yeti stabbed his blade into a nearby tree, setting it aside until it was needed, and Dominic smiled as he put his pistol away and let his claws extend.

Then, the Clan Chief charged.

Massive claws extended with magical ice as they raked through the air, while Dominic slid to the side and hurled a barrage of [Arcane Blasts] at the chest of the Yeti.

[Area Barrier] held as a massive ice claw crashed into it, and Dominic spun behind a tree to fire another volley of magical attacks into his opponent.

Frustrated at the agile dragonkin playing hide and seek with him, the Yeti grabbed the tree in a bear hug and tore it from the ground. The fallen tree made an excellent obstacle for Dominic’s smaller frame, and gave him one less thing to hide behind.

But he was still attacking, and blue blood began to flow through cracks in the Clan Chief’s armour.

Whatever it screamed at him was almost guaranteed to be a string of curse words, but Dominic didn’t speak Yeti. Not that he needed it just to understand the level of rage he was facing.

[Area Barrier] shattered as an ice magic boulder crashed down at him from above. Dominic blocked with crossed arms, and was knocked to the ground, then kicked in the stomach and sent flying.

He hit a tree with a disturbing crunch that didn’t sound like wood, but the next volley of [Arcane Blast] strikes dulled the pain in his back, though Dominic could feel his armour swinging freely, where the impact had torn a strap free.

With a claw, he cut the breastplate from his body, leaving him in Sorcerer’s Robes and chain mail.

That would help against the claws, but the Clan Chief was significantly stronger than an Ogre, in both body and magical strength. His armour wouldn’t take much abuse from that sort of opponent.

Dominic was forced to leap behind another tree as the Yeti charged again, and then dodge as ice bullets tore through the tree trunk.

[Area Barrier] came up just in time to block the next round of ice bullets, but the claws that followed them clashed with Dominic’s claws, and he found himself airborne again.

There was no option but to physically block the strikes, as the Clan Chief’s claws would tear through his armour like cloth, but the brute force behind the attacks was treating him like a pinball.

Not a great option when you were in a dense stand of trees.

Dominic fired another round of spells at the Yeti, then got a brilliant idea.

Area Barrier was incorporeal, pure magic. But if he used [Fieldstone Wall] it should hold up a bit better against the attacks.