Basil and Auriz were in front of the fog, hiding the hot pools from the outside. Ready to part and search for new preys both moved onward, Basil taking the lead, Auriz behind him.

Moments later and some dead nurns disintegrating on the ground, both sailed through the mist successfully, taking a complete view of what this icy ridge peak offered. Just as Basil remembered, a white wasteland filled with rocks and snow. He recognized some points of reference. The big mountain range in the north, a spire of ice to the northwest, and the unknown on the northeast.

Basil saw in the center the small cave he used as a refuge. He noticed that the freezing climate was yet a nuisance for him. Basil understood he needed protection against the elements if he wanted to survive this environment. For Auriz, it didn’t matter, making him feel jealous.

Auriz noted Basil trying to walk in the snow with difficulty, and trembling from the bitter cold. The morning sun rising slowly on the horizon gave a bit of warmth, but not enough for the frozen lizard. Auriz wanted to help him somehow, but neither of them had the means to produce warmth, so they moved on towards the cave Basil used to escape the caverns below.

When they reached the cavern, Basil bolted inside to regain his warmth. Auriz could only look at him, wondering if the sensation of temperature was this awful.

“Are you ok?” — She asked.

“I hate the cold. It feels like my body is being hurt just from staying outside. I wish I couldn’t feel cold like you.”

“Actually, I am curious of how it is, to feel, I mean.” — Said Auriz kicking the snow with her legs.

Basil didn’t know if it would be beneficial to feel some things for her, but he let her dream in that aspect. Already in place, Basil activated his energy sight to find creatures in the vicinity. The lizard found various spots nearby, and he already knew from what creature they belonged.

“Auriz, I am going to need your help. Can you see those small creatures roaming this area?”

“I can see them. The Asther calls them Pacimola or moss bunny.”

“… I didn’t know that. Anyway, I need you to hunt some of them to do something against the cold and… wait, what’s that?” — Said Basil, pointing with the tip of his nose at a bigger Moss Bunny.

“The Asther doesn’t seem to know its name, but it could be a mutant of the Pacimola”

What Basil and Auriz were seeing was indeed a mutant, a bigger and more belligerent version of the bunny; a Hare. This variation appeared to protect its calmer and cowardly cousin, the bunny. The hare has a hardier moss protecting its core, and more power on its legs to attack any hunter in the vicinity, while the smaller versions of it just reproduce in the snowy plain.

“It seems to be some kind of guardian for the Pacimola while being a mutant of the same group.”

“Like me.”

“Exactly. What do you want to do now?”

“If we attack, it is going to defend the others. Let’s use that to our advantage… really, from where are these words coming from?”

“Basil, focus.”

“Ok, ok. Because I can’t abandon this place unless I have something to protect my body from the elements. I need you to get that guy’s attention and bring him near the cave for me to hunt and use its strange ‘meat’ as a shield against the cold.”

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“Wow, that’s pretty intelligent.”

“That’s how I survived in this place when I got here. So, hunt the smaller ones and that should attract the hare’s attention.”

‘Seems like a solid plan”

“What’s a ‘plan’?”

“You surprise me every day.” — If Auriz had a face, she would give a perplexed look at how Basil thinks sometimes.

Auriz left the entrance of the cavern and looked for a suitable spot where they won’t see her. From a small mountain of snow near the cavern, she saw a group of bunnies frolicking around one Hare, while this had a vigilant disposition looking for predators in the vicinity.

Auriz knew from the moment she attacked one of the smaller ones, the mutant would hunt her, but she wanted to study the corpses of these entities. Maybe she would learn how to create a complete body from them. But first, she created five spikes in front of her, this time in a different shape. Because Auriz wanted to trap or instantly kill the moss bunnies, she needed them to stay in place, thus creating a trident of ice.

Of course, it was not perfect. The ice tridents had a rough shape, but would work for now. This is what her practice produced, and she was proud of it, but now she had to use it. Auriz launched three of the tridents towards the nearest bunnies, two of them got impaled to the ground with a meek sound. The others fled at the sight of the dead, but the hare looked for her in rage instead.

Auriz got its attention and moved towards the cavern, giving the creature time to catch up to her. She was curious about how the creatures, being part elementals or golemites itself, could adopt an animalistic behaviour, while she didn’t have that kind of mindset in herself. She would have to see later.

Basil could see Auriz coming back already, knowing she was successful in getting the attention of the Hare. He got out of the cavern to intercept the creature. Basil hid inside the snow, and Auriz could see him do it. Realizing what he was thinking, she pushed forward with the Hare basically behind her.

When she passed next to Basil, he sprung to action with his bone spikes, surprising the Hare, giving it no time to react. Basil tried to impale the creature, but it surprised him when the spike stopped mid insertion to its core. The moss was harder, and the creature seemed to have partial control over it. The hare kicked Basil in the snout, putting some distance between them, but Basil wouldn’t give up on the prey. Auriz instead supported him in preventing the creature from escaping.

The creature was faster than Basil in this environment, giving him a hard time to catch it, but with the new abilities from Auriz she maintained the creature near the cavern at all times. Basil tried something himself too, infusing his bone spikes with toxic Asther.

The lizard tried to catch the fleeing hare, but the animal didn’t stay put, and this was putting Basil on edge.

“Auriz, try to pin him on the floor. He is faster than me and is giving me a hard time.”

“You don’t want to catch it yourself?”

“I can’t! my legs are too short to move faster!” — Said Basil, ashamed of his shortcomings.

Auriz helped him in the end, pinning down the hare with one ice trident on its leg. Still, the creature wanted to flee and was ripping its leg off, seeing it had no chance of winning against them. Basil took hold of the situation and pushed another bone spike infused now with the Toxic energy.

A spike pierced most of the body to the core, but again it stopped by the many layers of hardened moss. The Hare tried to defend itself, kicking Basil again, but the lizard didn’t give up and pushed its energy and spike inside the creature. The toxic asther didn’t seem to poison the creature but its energy instead giving many questions to Basil about how his energy worked exactly.

Finally, the Hare stopped moving, and Basil brought it inside the cave. Auriz said there were two more corpses where she attacked the Pacimolas first. Basil said they would search for them later, but first he needed to take away the ‘skin’ of the plant based animal.

After some time, Basil cut most of the layers from the moss hare and put it on himself with some help from Auriz and her telekinesis. Basil looked like a camouflaged lizard with all that moss on him. It surprised Auriz how Basil sometimes had good ideas, being who he is with his attitude sometime.

The remains of the Hare were a strange sight. It had some sort of skeleton made of comprised moss and what seemed to be roots. The sight fascinated Auriz and gave her some ideas for when she need to create a body herself. Another thing that surprised both of them was the core. It was full of Basil Toxic Asther and was degrading slowly. Auriz took it and tried to analyze it before the poisonous energy destroyed it.

“So that’s how it works. Your energy, that is.”

“What do you mean?” — Asked Basil, intrigued.

“It affects your target’s energy instead of its organs. If you inject this Toxic Asther in golemites, you would kill them slowly without destroying their cores.”

“And that means?”

“That we can get as many cores and materials as we want without destroying them.”