Apocalypse Harem System: Frozen Kingdom

Chapter 5: Confrontation at the Penthouse

The biting arctic wind howled through the shattered balcony doors, driving the ambient temperature of the penthouse toward a lethal freeze within seconds. Snow swirling into the living room settled over the expensive silk rugs, but Ethan stood unbothered at the center of the storm, his thermal aura radiating a faint, golden hue.

Mrs Sterling huddled behind the sofa, her knees knocking together in blind panic as she pointed a trembling, withered finger at Ethan. 

"He's alive! Marcus, kill him! He's come to murder us all!"

Laura scrambled backward into the far corner of the room, her hands pressed over her mouth in sheer horror. She stared at Ethan's bare arms, at his complete lack of shivering, and at the flickering amber sparks dancing across his knuckles. The weak, desperate fiancé she had thrown into the stairwell just hours ago was gone, replaced by a cold, imposing figure that terrified her to her core.

"Ethan...?" 

Laura stammered, her voice shaking violently. 

"How... how are you not dead?"

Ethan didn't even grant her a glance. His dark eyes remained fixed entirely on Marcus Vance.

Marcus let out a deep, guttural roar, stepping forward as his metallic gray skin hummed with dull, bulletproof power. He raised his massive, iron-coated fists, his boots cracking the hardwood floorboards with every heavy step.

"I don't know how you survived the cold, you little parasite!"

 Marcus snarled, his eyes bloodshot with rage. 

"And I don't care what kind of trick you used to break that glass! My Iron-Skin Affinity makes me invincible! You're still just a weakling playing with matches!"

Marcus lunged forward like an armored freight train, throwing a devastating right hook straight for Ethan's jaw. The sheer weight behind the strike threatened to cave in a normal man's skull.

Thanks to Sarah's passive Medical Accuracy buff, Ethan's perception operated in hyper-drive. The world around him slowed to a crawl. He didn't try to block the blow head-on. 

Instead, he took a crisp, calculated step to the left, letting Marcus's iron fist whistle harmlessly past his ear, shattering a concrete pillar behind him.

In that fraction of a second, glowing red reticles flared in Ethan's vision, pinpointing the critical vulnerability in Marcus's Awakened armor. His hardened skin turned his muscle tissue bulletproof, but to maintain mobility, the nerve cluster directly behind his left knee joint remained rigid, unarmored, and highly susceptible to extreme thermal expansion.

"Invincible?" 

Ethan asked softly, his voice echoing over the roar of the wind. 

"You're just a bully who doesn't understand physics."

Ethan dipped his shoulder, drove his palm straight beneath Marcus's guard, and pressed his fingertips directly against the gap behind Marcus's left knee.

FLAME!

A concentrated, needle-thin beam of white-hot 800°C fire erupted from Ethan's palm, driving pure thermal energy deep into the joint.

CRACK!

The sudden, violent temperature shift instantly fractured the metallic structure of the joint. 

Marcus let out a bloodcurdling scream of pure agony that vibrated the high-rise windows. His iron skin shattered around his leg like brittle glass, pouring blood onto the floor as his knee gave out completely. He collapsed onto his good leg, grovelling at Ethan's feet like a slaughtered beast.

"ARGH! MY LEG! MY KNEE!"

 Marcus shrieked, clutching his ruined joint as his metallic skin faded back into pale, bleeding flesh.

Laura stared in absolute horror. Seeing Marcus broken, she scrambled forward on her hands and knees toward Ethan, tears streaming down her face.

 "Ethan! I'm sorry! Marcus forced me to do it! I still love you! Please, take me back!"

Ethan pulled his leg back with utter disgust. 

"You made your choice, Laura."

Before Ethan could secure them, Marcus’s eyes flashed with venomous desperation. Knowing he couldn't win, Marcus reached into his tactical vest, pulled out an emergency military smoke grenade, and slammed it onto the floorboards!

THWACK! DENSE GREY SMOKE ERUPTED!

"Run!" 

Marcus roared, ignoring the blinding pain in his knee. He grabbed Laura by her arm and shoved Mrs. Sterling toward the open stairwell door, dragging them both out into the dark corridors of the lower floors to escape into the city ruins.

Ethan raised his hand, preparing to sweep the smoke away with a wave of flame and hunt them down through the stairwells. But right as he took his first step toward the door, a sharp, red alert flashed across his System interface with deafening urgency.

[WARNING! PRIORITY DISTRESS SIGNAL DETECTED WITHIN 3KM!]

[HIGH-VALUE TARGET IN MORTAL DANGER!]

[Location: Northport Military Supply Depot.]

[Target Profile: Captain Victoria Vance (Grade-SS Potential — Military & Ice Specialist). Condition: Surrounded by Mutated Frost Beasts / Near Power Depletion.]

[System Warning: Target survival probability drops to 0% in 10 minutes. Abandon pursuit to save target?]

Ethan paused, his hand hovering near the doorframe. He looked down the pitch-black, howling stairwell where Marcus's heavy, limping footsteps receded into the dark.

"Let them run." 

Ethan murmured coldly, a dark smile touching his lips.

 "In a world this frozen, they have nowhere to hide. We'll finish this later."

Ethan turned away from the door, accessed his System interface, and selected his territory reward.

[DEPLOY DELUXE RADIANT HEATER CORE (LEVEL 1)?]

"Deploy."

 Ethan commanded.

WHOOSH!

A brilliant sphere of golden, sun-like energy materialized in the air above the living room. Waves of divine warmth swept outward in a thirty-meter radius. The frost on the walls melted into mist, the icy drafts evaporated, and the temperature inside the penthouse rose rapidly, settling at a lush, comfortable 25°C.

With his base secured and heated, Ethan checked his gear, called Sarah to secure Floor 35, and prepared to head out into the storm toward the military depot.