“Congratulations, I sense fear towards you from all of them. After the initial shock of watching their representative getting beaten so fast.” Ning Xin took out a handkerchief from…somewhere and wiped his bloody nose. He could sense her gulping and her jaw clenching. If breakfast didn’t just happen, he was sure he would hear a stomach rumbling.

“You can have some later.”

“N-no. I shouldn’t. I no longer need it.” She was healed from the spiders’ instinct and was back in control of herself. Henceforth, she controlled herself and didn’t rely on his blood. She didn’t want to start getting addicted to human blood by her own will and not because of a monster’s essence running rampant in her. In short, she no longer had a viable excuse for wanting to drink his blood. The excuse was only for herself as he didn’t care if she liked human blood or not.

She did carry some of his blood within a vial and her mantle should have some stored but that was only for emergencies.

The Kobolds had a moment of silence that was quickly absorbed by roars and rocks tossed at the old warrior. Normal rocks.

‘How harsh. Should I have killed him or her? Is that more honourable for them? But I don’t stand to gain anything from killing them…’ As he pondered, he blocked all the rocks tossed at the old warrior and summoned some of his body’s mana to convince them to stop. ‘That works really well, I should thank Sister Jing for teaching me that.’

After the numerous Kobolds quieted down, he retrieved his mana. Retrieving mana and putting it back into his body was something other mages seemed to be unable to do well. Not even the Frost Elves, as far as he could tell. They only used whatever overflowed and compressed instead of pulling out whatever they had in their mana pools.

Another Kobold walked out but didn’t confront them. They confronted the old warrior as if to challenge the right to be a leader or Alpha.

The challengers were quickly put back in their place. Even without a weapon and being injured, the old Kobold showed its superiority.

“It could have done better against me.”

“They probably aren’t used to fighting humans, gravity magic, vibrational reflections or something cold enough to freeze them.”

“Fair point. Do you want to go back?”

“That one still wants to fight.” She pointed to Mr Alpha.

“He’s looking at me. You should go back, I haven’t fixed some of my Models.”

“I have a bad feeling that hasn’t gone away so I’ll stay.” She fidgeted. It was already clear that she was wrong about the Kobolds but there was something that bothered her. A different threat in the vicinity that neither of them could pinpoint.

“Alright, I’ll keep an eye out and stay out of a trance as much as possible.” So he said, but he didn’t see himself falling into a trance right now. The fight wasn’t as entrancing as the battle with Gao’larg. It wasn’t enough to let him test his new skills. Not unless they were trying to kill each other or they had the whole race start ganging up. One-on-one wasn’t these guys' forte.

The fact that they brought him away from the maple forest meant he didn’t have to hold back as the risk of environmental damage was no longer an issue. Worse comes to worse, he needed to spend all his mana and the fight would be extended should they decide to remove him. They were cold-resistant, not immune. If there was something he learned in this world it was that there was no such thing as immunity. Even the so-called Elementals could be damaged by their element in front of a greater wielder of said element.

‘Unless that’s not how Elementals work. Maybe they can absorb each other? Meh, I’ve only heard of Elementals from one of Clovis’s books and there aren’t any on Elcra.’

“Grahh!”

“Alright, come on.”

The scrawny monster had more strength than a giant Troll of the same level but it didn’t have the skills of one. From technique to pure power buff from skill levels, the Kobold wasn’t as impressive as the Trolls. But this Alpha truly raged and aimed to kill him. The edge missing from daily spars was another opportunity for him to brush up on his lacking sword skill.

‘I shouldn’t have used gravity magic to assist my swordsmanship. Now I’m reliant on it to make moves that I wouldn’t be able to do without mana.’ He saw a right slash coming at his neck but realised he wasn’t able to pull back his greatsword in time without Firm Path. He allowed the bone weapon to cut into the ice scales of his raised shoulders. The force behind the strike caused him to barrel towards the edge of the clearing, slamming into one of the giant, unyielding trees.

Ebony understood that pain was the most effective way for him to learn.

The younger Alpha wasn’t nearly as strong as its elder but strong enough for him to feel feedback.

It might have been a bit underwhelming for him but he took it as seriously as every battle. However, he would be lying if he didn’t think it was out of his expectations to fight another weapon wielder in the Glades. He might have been hoping for some unknown biological horror that threw him off his game. Like the massive creature with tentacles that almost killed them in one of their previous hunting trips for seal meat. They haven’t seen what the creature looks like. If the Frost Elves were right, it was just that creature's tantrum for having its hibernation disturbed. They teased him by not telling him what kind of creature it was.

‘Definitely some octopus. One with many more legs. Snow kraken? Hoarfrost Kraken?’ Ebony slapped the cracked bone blade aside with Icicle. They sadly did not have good craftsmanship. All weapons were natural monster material and just ground down to sharp edges or tied with branches to give them stability and form. With no proper crafter working on it, it was no surprise their weapons weren’t up to standard.

He noted that the Kobold got more panicked in its movements when its weapon started cracking.

“Don’t panic.” He unknowingly broke his silence. “Why do you think they’re so reliant on weapons?”

“For monsters, monsters here. They don’t seem to have high stats for their level. Maybe they depend on these worn-out bones from stronger hunts to break the defence of the surrounding creatures or protect their territory.” The masked one had a wisp of steam wafting off her in preparation to burst into battle at any time.

“I see.”

Unable to control its anxious fervour, it went for the kill and Ebony didn’t control his Sunder either. He expected to split the Kobold in two but there was unexpected feedback. The elder Kobold protected the youthful Alpha with its own body.

At the very last fraction of a second, Sonic Intrusion and his flames stopped from exploding outwards but his strike already broke through ribs and through the elder’s heart.

“Hey, hang on.” Ebony didn’t let the old Kobold hit the ground.

“Grrhhh…da.” The Kobold mumbled.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The young Alpha broke out of its stunned silence with his elder’s blood all over their skinny bodies.

“I think he wants you to spare the kid.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, you’re not dying either. I’ll take it as your loss, just keep the end of the deal and rein in your…clan.” He knew the old Kobold was dying very slowly.

He took out some general healing potions and hoped it would work on them. He hoped it would work as killing this old Kobold somehow didn’t feel right. As for why…he would have to ponder on that. ‘Watching more movies might help with that.’

“What are y-I’m not poisoning you.” The old Kobold crushed his wrist and stopped him from feeding the potion.

The struggle didn’t stop until he heard a bell ring.

“...Now that feels weirdly bad.”

The younger Alpha might have been a direct family member with the intense outrage when it saw the old Kobold pass away. He was about to use force when the ground trembled lightly. The vibrations were weak but they came from far away.

Ning Xin noticed something was up slightly earlier as she pulled him by the wrist. He grabbed back and Flickered away.

“I know what danger you were sensing.”

“Let’s just hurry back for now.”

They were seconds away from the burning forest and the swordswoman knew what he was talking about before they returned.

The mountains in the distance grew taller.

The ‘mountains’ stood up.

They shook off their icy, snowy blanket.

“Get them quick.” Ful’s voice entered their heads. The spirit was evidently talking to Ton and Sei.

It was decided that the entire maple forest would be swallowed underground without any input from the partial humans. A single maple tree might not absorb and convert as much ambient mana as Ebony but an entire forest almost 20 kilometres in diameter was providing Ful far more mana than he could. It was another reason why Gen even pulled them so deep into the Glades. Even Gen wasn’t able to fully support Ful and depended on the forest and the general location.

The maple forest’s production was also used to support their blizzard spell but that was released as it required Gen to control. Saving up a portion of the mana that would’ve been used.

Instead of asking Ful what those mountains were, he turned to the fiery one.

“You said it was harder to conjure mana or any elements than before?”

“Yes, I told you it’s because of ambient mana density. It’s about the same as in Xienor now but still much easier than when you flood the area with your compressed mana.”

“Interesting effect. Some sort of diffusion resistance…” He pondered on the science of differing mana densities. ‘I got distracted again…’

“Mumbling again. Go sit down and meditate or something. We'll be in trouble since we can’t hide for too long.”

“Right. Ful, are they coming our way? What are they?”

“Berg Mammoths. Migrating pack species. Rather, that’s the only pack and the entire race sticks together. They are responsible for the change in terrain in the Glades for the past two to three thousand years. They would’ve stayed asleep if Gen was awake.”

“How strong are they?”

“Hmm, the second strongest Grandmaster species in the Glades? Third if you include Gen. The most feared because they are in such a large pack but also the least because they only hunt weaker King species for food. They’ve grown a lot stronger but only 2 of them reached King-ranked. I’m not sure how, but they might be thinking they have a chance to bite me since Gen didn’t show up for some time with the forest exposed.” Ful spoke highly of the Berg Mammoth’s capabilities.

“How many of them are there?” Ning Xin didn’t fear the beasts and could’ve hidden the gulping better. If a single mammoth was the size of a mountain that could be seen from a distance, it meant a mountain of flesh for her to consume—an entire river of blood to drink.

“Let me check if their numbers have increased.” A moment of silence passed. “Yeah, their population rose to 4522. Still only two Kings but the majority is stuck at level five hundred.”

‘That’s a whole mountain range that moves. Yet, I can’t feel any vibrations since I got pulled underground. In any case, I have to do the math to see how long we can safely hide.’

“They know where we are and we can’t move without Gen, will they leave if they don’t find you?” Ebony didn’t think they could last as long as Gen’s evolution would take without the forest.

“They might just sit right on top of us.” Ful didn’t seem to care. The spirit didn’t gain much desire to live despite Ebony’s presence or Gen’s growth.

“Can the trees absorb mana underground?”

“Far less efficient.”

“Alright, Ton fire me out there.”

“You’re planning on leading them away since our auras are similar,” Ful stated. It silenced any burst of anger from the swordswoman but there was none to begin with. She was too busy being stunned. Likely thinking about what to do with Mammoth meat and blood.

“I forgot about the aura part but yeah, that’s the plan. They’re large and numerous, I might be smaller than a bug to them which helps.” Ful reminded him of their similar auras and his dense essence might make him better bait despite his bug-like size in comparison.

“They are relatively sluggish but…no. They can trap you with an iceberg larger than your traversal speed and distance. I wasn’t kidding when I said they changed the terrain of the glades. The skies aren’t safe either as they carry quite a large number of aerial creatures that serve as backscratchers. Although, they shouldn’t be too difficult to evade for you.”

“Do they have good perception?”

“Trying to hide in cracks and crevasses won’t work. The only caves in the ice on their backs are homes for their backscratchers. Gen got eaten before, he said they had internal defences as well. Something about casting magic in their stomachs periodically to deal with creatures that they eat whole. As with enhancement magic, they have far better control with magic within their bodies.”

“If it's just ice magic-”

“Strong enough to put a crack on young Gen. I would say dozens of times more dangerous than anything Scarlet can dish out currently. Oh please, they're at the peak of their rank and you’re barely at the peak of a rank lower so stop bargaining.”

“You’re absolutely right.” Ebony nodded. It seemed like acting as bait was thrown out of the window.

If he assumed that there were over 4000 more Gens then, it was pretty much impossible for him to do anything. Unless they were as inexperienced as an Imperial Minor General but that wasn’t the case here and the Minor Generals were mostly under level 400.

He had hoped that he could at least outrun the monsters or depended on his small size but he was sufficiently dissuaded before any attempts. Ebony came up with other plans such as getting Ton to bring him underground and pop up somewhere further before he baited them and escaped again but the turtles couldn’t traverse under the earth. It was just the weird snow underground dome that they had freedom of movement in.

‘So in terms of grades, it’ll be like a grandmaster with a full set of tier 4 and 5 skills? A Grade 4 or 5 Grandmaster.’

“But hiding here isn’t a solution, they are supposed to be hibernating and they might just sleep above us till winter comes around again,” Ebony argued. They had to do something.

He didn’t take into account the chance that the underground dome would be found or exposed because the more experienced tree didn’t even consider that a possibility.

“It’s alright. If I die before Gen evolves then so be it. You’ll be safe here and Gen will open a way out for you once he wakes up.”

“Sei, let me out.” Ning Xin interrupted him. He was about to call out the nonsense. Gen wouldn’t be able to stop Ful from dying if it wanted to die. Gen’s parents and grandparents were said to be less talented than Gen himself and they kept Ful alive as a joint effort. Yet, it wasn’t a matter of talent now.

The young turtle either didn’t understand spoken language or didn’t bother with whatever her ancestor said. He grabbed onto her shell before they dashed off. The turtle was pretty easy to catch up with.

“So what’s your plan?”

“Give me your hand.” She reached out with her palms facing up.

They hit the snow dome and he held her hand. She couldn’t speak since Sei no longer made an air bubble and they were smashing through the snow with her rising speed. Their bodies can withstand it and the turtle was too lazy to protect them now that it wasn’t necessary.

“Slow down and don’t surface Sei.” He transmitted while his hand was getting crushed in a vice grip.

“Why are you gripping so hard?” Vibrating mana was not easy in the snow dome but not impossible. She had a callstone in her mask and the mask helped prevent snow from getting in.

“I didn’t ask you to hold me!”

“...” Ebony was speechless once again.

‘Do I have hearing problems or is my communication skill still non-existent?’