The glacier housing the Nexus was eerily silent. Dense fog turned the visibility to nearly zero and a cold wind swept through it at all times. How the fog could linger, despite the wind, I had no clue but maybe, the sensation of the cold wind, or maybe even the fog, were caused by the uncontrolled Ice Astral Power constantly flowing out of the Nexus, turning the entire area in one of Wild Magic. Here, the normal laws governing reality were partially suspended and magic ruled, potentially turning the impossible possible and the laws of nature into something more akin to a set of mild suggestions. Something generally followed but only if nobody set about breaking them.
We advanced cautiously, under no illusion that we were the most powerful beings far and wide but at the same time, we were here to take over. If the natives didn’t give way voluntarily, that was too bad and I would gain some more EXP. Just the close vicinity to the nexus was exhilarating to me, the sheer amount of Astral Power in the air making the use of Ice-Magic trivial, allowing me to wield far more power than I normally could. The only problem was, those living here had the same advantage and were most likely used to the cold, attuned to it as much as I was.
We hadn’t gone far when I felt something in the mist. Thanks to my vast experience in using cold mist to attack, to the point that I considered it one of my signature spells, I had managed to gain a faint connection to the mist around us. Not to the point that I could fully control it but enough to get an impression of our unseen environment.
I could feel a vague sensation of hunger, a cold need to devour the warmth and life of these intruders. The creature out there wasn’t just hunting for food, it was searching for warmth just as much, needing the warm blood of its prey to sustain itself and thrive.
Its approach was perfectly silent, what noise it might have made swallowed by the dense, dampening mist. That, together with the coat of white fur that blended into the mist and snow meant the creature’s assault was supposed to come as a complete surprise, just like Rai’s attacks in the past. Only, the mist wasn’t a hindrance to my senses, it complemented them. I couldn’t see through it, but by knowing that there was a roughly two metres high, vaguely bipedal, void in the mist, a void that moved towards us, I didn’t need to be a genius to realise that we were being attacked.
Shifting to the side, the creature’s first attack missed, its long arms and wicked claws harmlessly waving through the air in an attempt to grapple me. Now, I could finally see our foe and for a moment, I was stunned. I had seen a few ugly creatures during my time on Mundus, especially the malformed Nethersprites, but this thing easily took the top spot. While its coat of white fur wasn’t too bad, it fell far behind the beautiful silver coat of Ylva, the thing’s fur tangled and dirty, as if it had wallowed in its own filth. Worse was that the thing only had a vaguely humanoid shape, its head dominated by a massive, oddly simian, nose, with a pair of small, beady black eyes on either side of it and no mouth. At least no mouth on its head, the mouth had migrated downward and expanded, to the point that its entire chest area gaped open, revealing massive, jagged teeth, ready to shred whatever prey those long arms could catch. Finishing the thing off was a pair of short, stubby legs that would look more suitable for a dwarf than a creature towering far above me.
“Ugh,” I muttered, unwilling to even look at the thing, but I couldn’t just walk away. No, I had to murder the thing and all its friends. Using Observe, I learned that the system referred to it as a Yeti, with an impressive level of hundred-twenty. Fairly powerful, especially for a wild creature, but nothing we wouldn’t be able to deal with.
In an attempt to gain a bit of space, I used my Ice-Magic to whip up some of the snow around us, using it to create a wall between the Yeti and me. The wall promptly blocked another swipe of the Yeti, forcing it to pull back a little, or its momentum would have had it run into the wall and while I had only hastily pulled it from the everlasting Ice around us, that didn’t mean that it was weak.
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After the Yeti’s swipe bounced off, the Yeti took a step back and lumbered around the wall, while Ylva got ready to flank it from the side. Observing it, I realised that the thing had abundant strength and good dexterity but its agility was utter crap. It could sneak, it could strike but it was slow and cumbersome, likely more used to tanking and enduring hits than avoiding them.
Watching as it started to gain speed after moving around the wall, I decided to put my idea to the test and continued using my Ice-Magic, only that this time, instead of pulling a wall from the glacier, I pulled up a few icicles, sharp spikes of ice, even equipped with nice, sturdy barbs, right in front of the things face. If not for the abundant Ice around us, I would have had to work much harder but with that much Ice and power to work with, such feats were trivial.
When the Yeti proved my idea correct, I couldn’t help but smile. Instead of moving around the spikes, it barrelled right into them, impaling itself on them, one even going into and through its mouth. Curiously, despite it being skewered like an incredibly ugly butterfly for later preservation, it didn’t look like the thing was in pain, it even briefly tried to munch on the ice spike, only to immediately give up on that.
“I think there’s more to that maw,” Lenore observed, pushing her sight onto me. Now that we had more time, the thing wasn’t going anywhere soon, I took on her view and had to agree. It looked like the maw was some sort of vortex, drawing in and devouring heat, or something like that. I couldn’t fully make out the details, but that was the impression it gave me. Not that it truly mattered for me, if I got caught and munched on, it hardly mattered whether my flesh was ground up by those massive teeth or if the heat of my body was siphoned away, both would be equally deadly.
“That thing is tough,” Ylva had to compliment, watching how the Yeti struggled, trying to free itself. If not for the angle of my spikes, stopping it from using its legs to leverage itself, I had no doubt it could have pushed against the ground, breaking the spikes, even if it would have taken massive damage from such a move. So far, it was restrained but it didn’t look truly hurt, even with multiple spikes going through its body.
Luckily, we only had to deal with one of them so far, giving us some time to experiment.
“Death-Magic or Blood-Magic, which should I try first? Maybe some Mind-Magic, but I think that would be better for the next test subject,” I mused, deciding to go with Blood-Magic first, as getting a restrained subject wasn’t always possible.
Stepping up, I slipped past the thing’s swiping arms that tried to get me despite its precarious position and pulled my Athame out. From up close, the fur looked even worse than from afar and the smell was nauseating, to the point that I wanted to step back, just to get out of the stench. But needs must and to get a blade into its back, I had to get close, as much as I hated it.
Piercing the flesh was easier than expected, but the moment I used my Blood Magic, I ran into a problem. Sure, the thing had blood and vitality but it wasn’t about to give either of those away. If trying to drain the vitality of the trees in the Elven Forest had been akin to trying to suck wood through a straw, trying to drain the Yeti’s vitality gave me the impression that something was sucking on the other side of my straw. It tried to drain my Blood Magic into itself, take away the power that I tried to use to drain it. If not for my Perfect Magic Control, I was pretty sure it could have drained me faster than I could drain it. At the same time, as I drained it, it turned berserk, frantically moving around to the point that it managed to shatter the thick spikes I had driven through its body.
Shaking my head, I focused on those spikes and channelled a bit of magic shattering them into sharp Icicles and wreaking havoc on its insides. Few creatures could defend against such an attack and the Yeti was no different. The moment the Ice shredded its insides, blood started to flow from its maw and when it moved to attack me again, I simply shot another Icicle into that maw, before exploding it.
Heavily wounded, it staggered a little and I began channelling some Death-Magic, quickly finishing it off. However, doing so allowed me to realise that the thing was quite resistant to Death-Magic, not to the point of immunity but not as vulnerable as I might have hoped.
Still, the first Yeti was dead, allowing me to understand them a little better. Even if it only allowed me to understand that they were incredibly dumb and sturdy.
Well, one gone, only who knows how many more to go.