The snow wraith being a mindless creature quickly moves to attack. It reaches into its own body pulling out a long javelin-like ice spike and throwing it at Ke’an. His eyes open wide seeing how big the spikes are as wraiths are normally only able to make arrow sized projectiles. He had not considered that with it being so cold on the mountain the wraith is more powerful than normal. He jumps out of the way and starts running again. The creature chases after him as soon as Ke’an’s back is turned. The wraith recovery is slowed thanks to the heat but not enough to keep it from healing itself.

“Keep your distance and just keep firing.” Ke’an reminds himself. “You still got a plan.”

He makes it to his second trap tree and jumps behind it as an ice spike narrowly misses him and plants itself deep into the tree behind him with a thunk sound. It approaches Ke’an as he once again ignites the tree in a massive fireball scorching the wraith before absorbing the heat and magic into his war machete. The blade erupts into a blazing heat at his side as he unloads all six shots of his revolver into the chest of the creature. Each shot burns clean through the wraith's torso but it is still not enough to put the creature down.

The wraith’s bone-like fingers elongate into sharp ice daggers as it finally closes the distance on Ke’an. He is only able to dodge the onslaught because of his wolf attributes and reflexes. Once he sees an opening he backflips over the wraith. While in the air he channels the power of a different animal. His muscles grow to the point his clothing struggles to contain him. He holsters his gun and pulls out his war machete in a smooth well practiced motion that looks more like choreographed flip than like an actual maneuver anyone would attempt in a fight. He lands as a massive monster of a man with the strength of an enraged bear.

The wraith is undeterred by the changes to its opponent only interested in killing the human in front of it. Ke’an dashes towards the creature with his blade in hand slashing it down on the creature with the force of five men. The wraith used its magic ice spears to clumsily defend itself which saved its life. Ke’an’s machete slowed down just enough to not be able to cleave the creature in two and instead sent it flying further into the winter woodland, disappearing from Ke’an’s line of sight.

“Oh come on, just die already.” Ke’an yells.

Ke’an now nearly at his limit in terms of using his magic needed to finish the creature off in one final gambit before it recovered. He reached out his hand and the final three trees all burst into flames. Ke’an relinquishes the power of the bear, returning to his normal size as he pulls out his revolver and holds it into the air. All of the magic in the area is drawn into the gun including the remaining magic in the machete. Fire flows around Ke’an like glowing ribbons rushing into a single chamber in his gun as he loads a single round.

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The wraith finally stands up and shows itself with an angry screech. Ke’an has to jump out of the way of an ice javelin which manages to slice through his pants as it zoomed past but otherwise caused no damage. As he lands he takes a low tactical marksman position with one knee digging into the ground and his other leg steadying his body. His eyes are locked directly on target. He pulls the trigger and the force from the shot rattles the forest. The wraith is blown in half, killing it instantly and sending the pieces all over the forest.

Ke’an lets out a long breath of relief as he slowly lowers his gun. This was his first time fighting a snow wraith alone and he admonished himself for such a poor performance. Still all he needs is to find a single piece of the creature to steal an attribute from it and he could finally return home. Suddenly he feels a tremor shake the mountain. Ke'an's eyes open wide as he sees snow and ice tumbling from the peak of the mountain down towards him.

“Avalanche!” Ke'an yells.

He starts running down the mountain face searching for some shelter he could use to protect himself from the approaching rush of mother nature. He is unable to find anything that could protect him as trees and rock are ripped up and toppled by the weight of the wave of snow and ice. By sheer luck Ke'an is pushed into a cavern instead of being buried alive. The fall knocks him out cold.

Ke'an wakes up a few hours later with a few bruises and a headache. He takes stock seeing that he lost his travelers pack at some point in the avalanche. Leaving him with just his machete, pistol and the clothes on his back. He was in a cavern at least fifteen meters deep with no clear way to climb out. The cavern extends into a deep cave network.

“Thank Batri I am still alive!” Ke'an says as he laughs in disbelief. “Now, how do I get out of here?”

“Come…” a weak voice echoes from the cave.

Ke'an's head snaps around looking at the dark caves in the distance. He stares into the darkness half expecting something to hop out and attack him. After staring intensely at the opening for a minute with no changes he turns back to the cavern walls looking for a way to climb out.

“I must just be hearing things.” Ke'an says to himself.

“Come… child…” the voice once again echoes this time much stronger but still weak.

Ke'an turns back to the caves and sees a faint light shining from one of the cave entrances. As soon as he sees the light he feels warmth radiate out. Before he can register what is going on his legs start to move him in the direction of the cave. He takes out his pistol and cautiously looks inside. The light he was seeing along with the warmth seems to retract further into the cave as he approaches.

“Okay, this is obviously a trap of some kind.” Ke'an says to himself. “Let's see, what could this be? I am hearing voices, feeling heat magic and possibly seeing hallucinations. Could be a weather witch or wraith mother. Either would give me telekinetic magic and possibly illusionary or light weather control. I have six shots and my machete… should be more than enough. Okay, looks like I am going in.”