-Break-

Φ Walking next to a merry smiling Anouk, I say, “It looks like you had a rather fun time while I was unconscious.”

Cheerfully, she says, “I really did boss, the nap I took really woke me up. I am sure I will be able to handle the cold today thanks to that.”

Turning my head around I look at a beaten and battered Guāng and say, “Is that all that happened last night?”

“Of course, it is! Isn’t that right Guāng?” She says whilst giving Guāng an evil stare.

Shaking his head up and down Guāng says, “Yesh!”

He can barely talk!

“See boss he is fine so let’s continue on.”

Christopher says, “Truly a demonic path you have chosen Anouk.”

“What am I ever going to do with you guys.”

-Break-

Φ Sitting down against a fallen tree trunk, Anouk says, “I am so tired!”

“You’re so inconsistent you might as well be mercury.”

Glaring at me, Anouk says, “Guāng you dare speak back to me, did I not beat you enough last night?”

“Sorry!”

Hitting me against my back, Thorgrim says, “You really have a big mouth, I like it!”

Sitting down as well, Casandra says, “Sorry guys but can we rest for a bit, I am feeling a bit weak.”

Looking down, I say, “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry, I am the one who wanted to come to Fimbulwinter in the first place.”

As I sit down, Anouk says, “Why did you even accept this mission in the first place? I know the reward was good but none of us are exactly strapped for money.”

“Well let’s just say I have a reason to believe the rumours about Fimbulwinter.”

“Eh, really. What is it?”

Putting her fingers against her lips, she says, “I will tell you if we find anything.”

Anouk says, “That isn’t fair boss.”

“Too bad then, that sounds like a you problem.”

Under my breath, I mutter, “You really are a child.”

Grabbing me by my collar, Anouk says, “I forgot when dead weight gained the ability to speak.”

Getting in between us, Christopher says, “Anouk, you know violence isn’t the answer.”

“Christopher she is going to hurt you too!”

Relaxing Anouk says, “Ok then, whatever.”

Shocked, I say, “That worked?”

Turning to me, Christopher says, “It seems Anouk now has a certain amount of infatuation with me since I saved her.”

Embarrassed, Anouk says, “NO I DON’T!”

Looking at her in disbelief, I say, “This guy really does it for you?”

As Anouk is about to scream at me Christopher puts his finger against her lips and says, “No need to be abashed Anouk, I mean how could you even resist. But I am sorry this body of mine is for God first, so until it is the same for you I can’t give it to you.”

Punching him in the face with a fist infused with spirit energy, she says, “SHUT UP!!!”

The punch sends Christopher through the forest.

Standing up, Casandra says, “Did you just punch the man we are supposed to be escorting!”

“Umm, it was a mistake?”

“YOU IDIOT! Everyone let’s go.”

As we all run over to him, Anouk says, “But I wanted to rest my legs.”

“Then you should have used your head.”

“Boss I believe you are setting unrealistic expectations for someone of Anouk’s mental capacity.”

Dodging Anouk’s kick, she says, “I will kill you bastard!”

“Why, I was defending you?”

“Don’t pretend like that was some sort of compliment.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Well, maybe I would have phrased it nicer if you didn’t beat me so hard.”

“I ALMOST DIED!”

“I APOLOGISED!”

Turning her face, to us Casandra says, “BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!”

After running for a little bit, we come across Christopher lying on the ground. Going over to him Anouk shakes him awake, and says, “Sorry!”

“Don’t worry I know your love for me was just too strong of course you wouldn’t take the rejection well!”

Slamming him back into the snow, Anouk says, “In your dreams!”

“ANOUK,” Casandra shouts.

“Sorry boss but he started it.”

“I don’t care who started i-; ANOUK DODGE!”

Grabbing Christopher, Anouk jumps out of the way. Then seconds later a large ice projectile lands where she was.

“What the hell was that?”

Thorgrim shouts, “OVER THERE.”

Looking where he points, I see a reptile-like quadrupedal wonderbeast, about 5 meters, and is quite chunky with a sharp blade-like head. But most notably it has tall plates through its entire backside that are made of ice, about a quarter of its face is ice as well.

Christopher says, “It’s a Razordon!”

From its back, it shoots four more of the ice plate projectiles towards us, so Thorgrim immediately gets in front of us and blocks all the shots, then he says, “I don’t remember hearing about any Razordon’s being here.”

Casandra says, “It’s probably another Wonderbeast from further up Fimbulwinter.”

“Still don’t they normally just shoot scaled projectiles, not ice ones? In fact, it looks way too different with all that ice around its body, this can’t be an adaption.”

Christopher says, “Thorgrim is right, an adaption will usually help a wonderbeast for survival this is something else, it must have been cursed. Guys we are probably dealing with a cursed beast.”

Scared, I say, “It’s that really bad then.”

Suddenly I see a smile appear on all three of my companions' faces.

Thorgrim says, “Lucky aren’t we.”

“I always wanted some ice projectiles.”

“Looks like we have to maintain the body as well as possible.”

“What are they smiling about?”

Christopher says, “Cursed and Anamtaised beasts, are the best ones when it comes to crafting armour and weapons out of them. So, I guess these three are just happy.”

“No, they're insane.”

“Well, you must be a little crazy to be an adventurer anyway.”

Suddenly the beast shoots more projectiles which Thorgrim blocks, and from that Casandra starts to move forward trying to reach the beast.

The Razordon continues to shoot more and more projectiles towards Casandra, but then Anouk starts to shoot them out of the air as they approach.

Φ Good it has used up all its ice plates, so I should be able to cut it down now. Holding my sword tight, I say, “Four beast battle arts; Predator fang,” Then I strike the nape of its neck.

Feeling my sword stop halfway, I try to pull it out, but it won’t move. Looking down towards it, I say, “It’s frozen within the beast.” Then seeing the ice spread up my sword towards my arm I let go and jump backwards.

Anouk screams, “What are we going to do?”

Pulling out my other sword, I say, “I will just have to try a second time.”

“Don’t kid me, you’re already out of breath after that last attack, you're still injured.”

Taking a moment to glance at Guāng, I say, “We have no other choice we need someone with enough instantaneous power to strike its neck, so now let’s g-.”

In disbelief, I freeze for a moment, because all of the ice plates on its back have grown back and the moment, they do we are assaulted with a barrage of shots.

“DODGE!” I scream as they come towards us.

As we barely dodge the shots, Thorgrim says, “I thought Razordon’s had to naturally regrowth their plates over time.”

“It looks like since the plates are now made out of ice, that isn’t a factor anymore.”

Jumping to the right to dodge a shot, I see that after the shot hit where I was standing it sprouted up into a mass of ice and froze my leg that was trying to escape.

“BOSS!” Thorgrim shouts as he moves towards me, but he is too late; 4 different shots are heading towards me.

But they all vanish moments later, and then in front of me, I see Guāng.

Seeing him shake, I say, “Go back, this is too dangerous.”

Still shaking, he says, “I know it is. But I will believe in the skills I cultivated and the effort I put in.” Taking a deep breath Guāng stops shaking entirely and faces the Razordon.

Φ “Boss just watch me.” Finishing my sentence, I instantly dash forward, and in response, the Razordon fires off more shots, so I cut them all down while keeping my form.

Φ In disbelief of Guāng movements, I hear Christopher say behind me, “In the kingdom of Dá, there lies a crimson lotus that protects the kingdom and the continent, and those that pray to the lotus do so with a sword in hand. Over time that prayer, no that dance evolved into a battle art and was named.”

Φ “Bloody lotus battle arts; Diverging blood.” Just like the roots of a tree 1 slash leads to 2 slashes which leads to 4 slashes which lead to 8 slashes which leads to 16.

In front of me, the Razordon continues to shoot more and more shots directly at me, but they are all cut down again and again. As my dance intensifies so do my slashes, again and again until I reach the beast.

While still in my dance I lock eyes with the beast, and in that moment, I say, “Look at all the weak points, you really are just like a human.” Moments later I carve slashes all through its body.

Standing behind it, I say, “But it does seem you are sturdier than we are.”

With its tail it tries to swipe me, but I say, “Too bad for you that I wasn’t going for the kill shot.”

Φ With my shield, I smash it directly into the gash that Casandra made and scream, “ARGHHHHHHHHH!”

As it lays on the floor dead, I walk over to Guāng and hit him on the back, saying, “Good job boy.”

After receiving my hit he falls over into the snow.

“Are you alright!?”

“Yeah, I am fine, it is just that the Bloody lotus uses up most of my stamina instantly so I just have to rest for a moment.”

Looking around, I say, “Casandra and Guāng are both exhausted, Anouk is lazy, not to mention we have to carry this big beast.” Walking past the Razordon, I say, “And the path in front of us is a rather slippery slope, it seems we aren’t going anywhere for a while.”

Christopher hoping beside me says, “I believe I have an answer for all these issues.”

“Now what would that be?”

“First the only part of the Razordon we need are the parts that create ice, so if you would rip it open for me.”

Following his instructions, I do. “Now we can see the part that creates the ice plates, and if we were to trigger them to activate like so.”

From its back, all the ice plates appear again. “We can take these specific parts to lower our burdens, and the bonus is that the plates we just made can now be used for transport all we got to do is stick them together.”

-Break-

Φ Sitting on cobbled-together ice plates directly on the edge of a slope, I say, “Christopher are you sure this is safe?”

“It has about a 35% chance of death for us all if it breaks apart.”

“I DON’T FEEL SAFE WITH THOSE ODDS.”

Casandra says, “That feeling shows you're now a true adventurer, now let’s go.”

She pushes all of us down the slope with her, and I start to freak out. But as I scream, I look around and see that everyone else is screaming, but they have smiles on their faces.

Seeing that the slope ends with an upward curve I say, “Christopher where the hell does that lead.”

“WHO KNOWS!”

“YOU BASTARD!”

As we fly high into the air, I see Fimbulwinter from high up with all of the golden trees lying around on the ground and a smile falls upon my face and with everyone else I start to smile.

But suddenly instead of going forward our cobbled-together sled starts to fall towards the ground.

“LOOKS LIKE WE ARE FALLING!!”

“I WILL SEE YOU IN HELL CHRISTOPHER!”