It didn’t take long for him to reach the place where the icehowlers retreated. And that was a great thing, since a fresh layer of snow quickly covered their tracks.

The discovery of an opening to a cave surprised Kade.

He heard a faint growl from its depths, but didn’t move from his spot. It sounded like there was only one icehowler blocking him from entering. He wouldn’t have cared if there were more. His issue was that something blocked his vision.

A snowy veil blocked the top of the mountain from being seen from below. Now, a black veil blocked him from seeing into the cave. Unlike the wall of falling snow, this black veil had no explanation.

Kade felt the encroaching chill. He still didn’t move. The most important thing was to fully recover his [MP] before entering the cave. If he needed to take a minor hit to his health to do so, then so be it.

He tightened his grip around his [Soulrend]’s shaft as the growls he heard at the mouth of the cave multiplied. More icehowlers had joined the single one that had been guarding the entrance.

Warning: You are experiencing extreme cold!

Kade immediately felt his health being sapped away. However, it would take a few minutes for him to be in mortal danger. He didn’t need much longer to fill his [MP].

He kept listening to the threatening growls, ready for an unexpected attack. It would be something he would’ve done in the icehowlers’ place.

Kade waited for a few more seconds before he moved. His [MP] was full.

The cave’s opening was surprisingly wide—several tens of feet at the minimum—and growls rumbled out from the center. He targeted the right side.

Kade was only a foot away from passing the black veil when he suddenly changed directions. The speed at which he could redirect his momentum surprised even himself.

The growls he heard had conveniently stopped right before he was about to enter. He gambled on the icehowlers moving their positions to surprise him and meet him head-on.

He would turn it on them.

Kade had his [Soulrend] at the ready. He was prepared to contort his body, however necessary, to bring a swift end to the first icehowler he saw.

He burst into the cave, forcibly ignored the surprising brightness within, and cursed loudly. “Fuck!”

The icehowlers didn’t need to shift their position to give themselves an advantage. They quite literally filled the cave. The icehowlers filled the cave to where there was nowhere he could look that didn’t have an icehowler glaring at him.

Kade instinctively swept his [Soulrend] to the right with full power. It snapped the neck of an icehowler that was a little too close to him and shoved three others away, giving him a little space to move.

He already knew this was far beyond his ability to manage. He had to retreat.

Kade planted his feet and jumped back as hard as he could as icehowlers lunged at him.

The result was a disaster.

Kade gasped as he collided with an impenetrable wall, knocking the air out of him. He had no chance to see what the hell he could’ve hit when there should’ve been nothing there. He was too busy trying to stay alive.

Warning: Your health has fallen below 50%!

Kade growled as he kicked away the icehowlers that had sunk their teeth into him. His [Soulrend] finished the job, but it wasn’t anywhere close to being enough.

He extended his [Soulrend] and swept it back and forth rapidly. It didn’t catch any icehowlers with its tip, but it was enough to make them back up. He gave him a precious second to think about what to do.

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There’s no escape. My health is low. I need to kill as many as I can to stay alive.

Kade lunged straight into the icehowler before him. He wouldn’t only defend the bare minimum to stay alive. It was more important to kill as many as he could, despite any damage he took.

Having this many monsters available was not ideal for staying alive, but it perfectly suited his advantage of being able to recover health after leveling up.

His [Soulrend] pierced his targeted icehowler and immediately jumped as high as he could toward the middle of the cave.

Warning: Your health has fallen below 25%!

Kade felt a sharp pain and yelled when an icehowler, who seemed stronger than the rest, yanked down his right foot and nearly ripped it apart. He decided he was close enough to the middle to proceed.

He allowed himself to fall toward the pack of icehowlers that were waiting to rip him apart before thrusting his [Soulrend] down and activating [Inferno Burst].

The explosion of flames was a sweet sight to Kade’s reddened eyes. The sound of the icehowlers yelping in pain was equally sweet. But he didn’t allow himself to put his guard down.

Kade immediately jumped as he ignored the tremendous pain of his body being healed. He had increased his level.

He perfectly timed the jump. Half-burned, near-dead, raging icehowlers snapped their jaws where his body used to be before glaring at him with furious eyes.

There were too many. He might’ve killed ten at most, and there were still several times that left alive. He would’ve died long ago if it wasn’t for the overcrowding. Killing them actually gave the icehowlers more space to attack him, but he had no other choice since leaving them alive would ensure his death.

Kade impaled the injured icehowlers with quick thrusts, killing three in quick succession before he landed back on the ground. He swept his [Soulrend] in wide arcs to keep the surrounding icehowlers at bay and quickly realized that it was unlikely for him to survive this.

His blood pumped faster. He would not admit it was from excitement, but it wasn’t far off. He truly had nothing to lose at this point.

Kade was like a storm as he stabbed, impaled, and dodged his way through the crowd of icehowlers. He didn’t go unscathed, not at all.

Warning: Your health has fallen below 10%!

Warning: You are experiencing excessive bleeding!

Chunks of his flesh were just as often ripped off as his [Soulrend] found a home in an icehowler’s skull. He felt himself leveling up twice more, but it was nowhere near enough to offset the near continuous damage he was taking.

Kade was on his last legs. He had discovered a dangerous fact. The level-up restored his body to full health, but it did not return his stamina.

He was nearly wheezing for air as he stared at icehowlers slowly prowling towards him. He could barely lift his [Soulrend], let alone fight over thirty of these things.

His [Endurance] had to be increased. But not immediately. He couldn’t allow the icehowlers to know he had recovered.

Kade realized they had calibrated themselves to his level of reflexes, even after the increases the level-ups had given him. A sudden return to the peak would break that, but he had to do it at the right moment.

He mustered up the last dregs of energy left his body and lunged. He became so proficient in using his [Soulrend] that he could keep multiple at bay while impaling his intended target.

He somehow still had some stamina remaining.

Kade fell to his knees and pretended like he was out of juice. He ‘prevented’ a collapse by hanging onto his [Soulrend]. The icehowlers took the bait.

Several snarled in glee and jumped in for the kill, the rest eagerly following behind.

He sneered while he glared into the eyes of the icehowler inches away from his face and activated [Inferno Burst].

Kade felt his health recovering with impressive speed, but he didn’t stop there. He had fought for so long that he had recovered all of his [MP]. There was another shot left in him, so he activated [Inferno Burst] again.

The howls of pain filled the cave as Kade’s plan went off exactly as he intended. He felt some energy injected into his body by the level-ups, but it still wasn’t enough to do more than let them fight for several seconds.

The cave rumbled loudly when he was about to dump his [Free Points] into [Endurance]. It drowned out the pained howls of the icehowlers.

Kade looked around frantically at the ceiling and noticed rocks falling down. The multiple uses of [Inferno Burst] had made the cave unstable.

He ignored the surviving icehowlers. He had shattered too much of their pack for them to be a significant threat. Plus, he noticed that the icehowlers also saw the cave’s instability.

Kade saw an icehowler dart deeper into the cave before a falling rock crushed it long before it could reach its target.

That’s the only escape route.

He suddenly realized why the icehowlers hadn’t tried to attack him outside the cave. They couldn’t leave. If they could, the crushed icehowler would have escaped in that direction instead of choosing to take a longer distance and try to get the tiny opening on that end.

Kade stored his [Soulrend] and abandoned the fight. He sprinted to the opening. His stamina was depleting quickly, but he directed all his physical and mental faculties towards avoiding being crushed to death by the collapsing cave.

Kade felt the ground rumble as the roof gave way behind them. He didn’t look back. He was almost there. Only a few feet away.

He felt the shockwaves of the mountain filling in the cave and lunged towards the opening. His upper body successfully passed through, and just when he thought he was safe, he felt a blinding pain that overcame his considerable tolerance and admirable willpower.

Kade’s vision went black.