Mark was at a loss. He had waited a while, but no other human had appeared to help him clear this area. He had hoped that the activities of the others would help him pinpoint where the vortex had hidden itself. To his shock, there had been no such activity, and there was not even one person stationed to supervise the situation.

"I cannot stay here and wait for reinforcements any longer. If I do not make a move, then I will be in greater danger than I am in now." Mark heaved a sigh, tightening his grip around his weapon, the frown on his face growing as he began marching forward, "Hopefully I can get myself out of this area in one piece."

As he marched forth, Mark took his time to observe his surroundings. He did not know a single thing about the plane he had descended into and wanted to gather as much information as he could. But as he moved, the area grew more confusing: not only the botany of the area but the lifeforms it housed and how they interacted with their environment.

There were few similarities with his world, and he needed to adapt to the area so he would not be at a disadvantage in the battle against the locals. He needed to take his time and survey first, even though it would be too sad for him if he wasted too much time in this strange place. The penalty for being late was not something he could ignore at this point.

After spending minutes marching around in circles, Mark came to a halt as he found himself in a new area. He perceived a thick stench of blood in the distance, and it unsettled his heart. He drew in a deep breath, deciding to continue forward despite the numerous red flags raised against the idea in his heart.

"What happened here?" Mark spat out as he ended his march, and gazed around himself. There were a lot of dead bodies around him, and the stench of blood he perceived was the thickest in the area. The dead bodies were all halved, missing their lower limbs, and they all left a trail of blood that led even deeper into the area. It was as if they all crawled here to die, trying to escape something.

There was not a single one of them alive, and the inability of his sensors to detect life from anybody lying on the ground confirmed it. Mark maintained a plain expression as he stepped forward, his eyes scanning the environment calmly. He wondered what race of humanoids they were, finally getting to notice their abnormally pale skin and pointed ears.

He noticed that every one of them wore a strange kind of armour indicating that they had some battling experience and it was not just a mindless massacre of powerless civilians. Although he made that speculation, he failed to find a single weapon amongst the crowd and was stumped on why none of them were armed.

"I wonder what kind of enemy they had engaged that had killed them in such a grand manner. In all the dead, the upper part of their bodies seemed to have been separated from the lower part cleanly." Mark's eyes glistened as he observed the wounds on the bodies calmly, his aura calm as he praised the killer in his heart.

Bang — Shatter!

Mark froze, wondering what had stabbed into his lower back. He calmly turned around to see a stunned "unknown entity" staggering back with a shattered dagger in its hand, and Mark aimed his canon at the unwanted assailant. He opened fire instantly, and the sound of gunfire ran through the silence of the area just as quickly.

Blood sprayed all over the area, but Mark did not loosen his stance. He seized fire, waiting for his canon to cool down as he observed the area. He noticed the assailant dashed into the bushes, but he did not chase. The assailant just now was of a different race than those on the ground, but she didn’t give off the aura of someone who could have wiped out an army in such a beautiful way.

A few life forces were being read deeper into the area, and he did not have the luxury of a single entity. He marched on calmly, deciding to unravel the unknown before dealing with an assassin who got flustered after missing only one attack. Mark wanted to laugh, but he maintained himself as he felt he was not in a position to mock the skills of an enemy…

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Yet.

——

"Huh? Did it shatter your dagger? A monster not in our database? It was intelligent for you to run away from an alien with such firepower, but I believe we need to do something about it. The monster should not reach the arena, we do not want it messing up all our plans." Narrowing his crimson eyes, he turned off the communication device it held in his hands.

He stared down at the table before his eyes, and he wondered if it would be that easy to handle outside annoyances. From what he had heard, the weapon the alien possessed was far beyond what anyone in this part of the galaxy could develop, and decided it must be from a further space or some rim hidden off in this galaxy he knew nothing about.

"I wonder if the Raz'ki have any hand in this pest's sudden appearance. I should have expected it to turn out like this, but it does not matter. It will end soon, hopefully, before the pest meddles in our business." The crimson-eyed native stood up to his feet and powered his communication device, his eyes gleaming as he opened his mouth to give commands to the one on the other end.

——

After walking across a mountain of dead bodies, Mark finally reached the first life form he had sensed. It was hidden behind a door, and the readings he got dictated it was not quite as strong as any of the others. After preparing himself, he raised his leg and kicked down the door with all his might, watching as it came down crashing upon the ground.

Mark marched in, his eyes scanning the room to find a figure quaking at a corner. The interior of the room was quite cold, so its reaction was expected — the temperature of the room read a low of -35°. For a life form to survive under such temperature, their tolerance to the cold must be quite high. It was unknown how much of an impact this had on their lifestyle and Mark could care less.

The quaking figure had curled into a ball with its head bowed and arms hugging its knees. As Mark stepped closer, he noticed that the skin of the quaking figure was just as pale as that of the dead he had seen outside, and related it to a member of their race. Although, he wondered what it was doing here in the room that seemed to be a massive cooler, and what had caused it to hide here.

“Hello.”

He did not know what language they spoke in this area, so he decided to greet them in the universally accepted language common amongst numerous rims. Mark waited calmly for a reply with his hands still wrapped tight around his canon-like machine gun, prepared to tear the target to shreds if it made any dumb moves instead.

"Run away… Leave this place…" The figure warned without lifting its head, speaking in an accent that was extremely peculiar to Mark. Its voice seemed monotonous and lacking in vitality but difficult to guess as it was natural or a cause of an unknown action, leaving Mark quite curious as she continued to speak, "It killed everyone… ambush… deceivers…"

An ambush? A deceiver? Mark frowned as he calmed down to think.

Of course, an ambush would explain the absence of weapons on the terminated party as they must not have been expectant of a fight. The deceiver must be the entity that led the group into the ambush, and he could only wonder how it managed to do that. He wondered if the area of slaughter was inside the arena. Was the boss he needed to eliminate related to this mess somehow?

"Hey, shut up for a second and answer my question. I am looking for the creature that lords over the arena, and I am guessing you have a lot of information on it?" Mark questioned coldly. He was short on time although, he was interested in the bigger plot behind his test. His curiosity was piqued by the origin of that unlearned assassin and what was its place in this mess.

The figure raised its head and nodded. Tears and snot had frozen up all over its face, and Mark was at a loss for words for a second. He also noted the fact that this one in particular was not geared up like the others he had come across before it, and it hinted at something interesting but Mark felt it was not important enough. Time waits for no man, and he lost more waiting here to investigate.

“Can you stand?” Mark asked calmly.

The alien shook her head, and he frowned in response. She must have sustained a fatal wound from the battle, and he wondered if it would be okay to leave her in this freezer. He shook his head calmly, the cold gleam in his eyes narrowing. He discovered a use for her and thought it would be unwise for him to abandon her here when he could do something about the situation.

"I'll help you, but you have to decide something for yourself before that. Are you sure you can follow me back to that place, or do you want to freeze to death in this place?" Mark extended his hand, a few thoughts running through his mind as he maintained a plain expression, "Be decisive…"

Just as he waited for her reply, an alert popped up before his eyes, and he frowned.

[Alliance Form, Path Discovered — Soul of Blistering Ice]