Four dwarves were slogging through the snow, the hard ice crystals that filled the air constantly assaulted their bodies, small surface wounds covered their exposed skins as they tried to get back to the stronghold. Their breaths labored as they marched forward without rest. Mason, Tyler, Paul and Richard supported each other, the moment one of them fell behind they got pulled along by the others. No one would be left behind, they could never abandon anybody, not after the bonds forged during the tutorial. Mason, the quiet one roared in defiance as he pulled Paul’s body along after he dropped to his knees. “You won’t give up on me, not today and not in the future Paul, move you ass!”
The snow around them was already covered by their blood, red stains that quickly got covered by new snow and ice. With a mighty pull Paul got pulled back to his feet and forced along, the dwarves not stopping for anything. In the distance the painful calls of the elk sound out, a dark look appears on their faces for a moment as they pick up the pace.
It took them longer than anticipated. Once they saw the torches near the tunnel entrance Mason pulled out a curved horn and blew into it, a deep sound filled the air. He quickly repeated it twice before he fell face first into the snow. Still a smile appeared on his face when he heard the answer, maybe not everything was lost, he thought when strong hands grabbed him.
Ethan got thrown through the air, gasping for air as the sickly looking antler crushed into him, while he managed to put a shield up it didn’t hold long enough, the air rushed out of him while one of the sharp points ripped his side open, his only luck was that he didn’t get impaled by the elk. He tumbled through the snow and came to a sudden stop when he hit his back on a boulder that was hidden under the snow.
When he got back to his feet he saw the elk standing not far away from him, while it was still alive the beast was barely on its feet, it was still leaking from multiple wounds with sludge dripping from its wide open mouth, red bloodshot eyes filled with madness looked at him like it was the solution to its pain and hunger.
Slowly he pushed himself back to his feet, using his staff as support. While standing up he summoned new soldiers, in place of the two spear wielders from before he created shield bearers equipped with spiked maces. They loomed over Ethan, their shield slamming together to form a wall in front of him. He managed to get back to his feet, swaying a bit from his wounds and the lack of mana, he was running on fumes at this point same as the elk.
Without hesitation the elk charged forward, slamming right into the shield bearers but they got only pushed back two steps. The moment they stopped the elk’s charge they pushed it back with their shield, their maces slamming into the sickly body in front of them, bones cracked, flesh got rendered from its body but the thing survived once again. It screamed in defiance, before throwing up parts of its own innards, the soldiers used this moment of weakness and got to work. Their spiked maces were hitting it over and over again, pushing it back when necessary before slamming their weapons into its body for another round.
Every time they tried to hit the head the elk moved its antlers into the path of the weapon. Ethan tapped his staff on the ground, a thick chain launching from the earth right underneath from the elk, the serrated hood wrapped itself around the monster’s neck, pulling it down to the ground. Some mental commands later one of the soldiers abandoned his equipment, frozen hands grabbing the antlers. The other one discarded his shield, grabbing his mace with both hands. One foot firmly planted on the elk’s neck, the weapon held high, ready to strike.
The beast screamed one last time, the snowstorm picking up again, sharp crystals slamming into Ethan and his summons. The elf cracked a smile, his eyes glowing brightly as he looked into the elk’s crazy eyes. “You can try all you want, you fucking monster but there is a new lord of winter now you piece of shit.” he grinned while the mace descended, slamming into the elk’s head. The crack of its thick skull rang out into the distance. Its head got pushed deep into the frozen ground. “Fucking waste of a good piece of meat.” Ethan shook his head before landing on his back, all strength sapped from his body.
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Labored breaths sounded out over the valley, metal boots cracking the frozen snow, the dwarves were on the march, Andrew standing at the front his eyes burning with determination, his mouth pressed into a thin line. The scouts had reported what happened, at least what they knew. They followed their directions as best as possible, finding some signs of battle along the way. When they finally saw a line of weird looking blood that they could follow and what looked like steaming pus in the snow they walked alongside it while still keeping their distance. At the end of the blood trail they saw the aftermath.
Two massive soldiers bearing shields covered in a snowflake motif, their helmets turning towards the dwarves. The frozen blood covering them didn’t help convey a lot of trust. Still they stepped aside and between them sat Ethan, his side was frozen over covering a bloody wound and despite looking exhausted he smiled at Andrew. “You don’t know how good it is to see your friend.” he pushed himself to his feet, groaning. “We might have a problem…come.”
Andrew walked up to Ethan and when the elf gestured behind him his eyes opened wide, the amalgamation in front of him looked barely like an animal at this point. The body was covered in big growths that were slowly pulsing, the entire corpse seemed to steam from the heat it gave off. Ethan stood behind him and pointed at the corpse with his staff. “It’s dead, whatever is growing on it…is not. After we cracked its skull the thing finally stopped moving, but then those things grew. I had one of my soldiers destroy them before, those sacks are filled with blood, pus and some corrosive liquid. What they’re for, I can’t tell. But the kill notification worries me.”
The dwarfs head snapped around to Ethan, he couldn’t look at the thing any longer instead he gestures for Ethan to step away from the corpse with him. He heard the wet sounds of flesh popping when the ice soldiers got back to keeping the thing down. Ethan looked worried and sat down on the boulder he had been thrown against during the fight. Only then did Andrew finally ask his question. “What did the notification say? Did you identify it?”
Ethan shook his head. “I tried identifying it but only after it was dead, I must admit that thought didn’t really come to mind. You need to understand Andrew, this thing was fast and could control the snowstorm around us. Even when using a dog sled made from ice wolves, I couldn’t escape it. The fact that its entire body was changed to such a degree…” he rubbed his face and took a deep breath, the cold air doing wonders for him while others would struggle with breathing.
“...I might know what it is but I really don’t want to believe it but my guess is that this creature was infected by the use of skills, in other terms we are now dealing with a system user creating plague ridden monsters. Because the kill notification called it a plague infested frost elk. The thing is, as far as I know, the plague could take any form and this seems rather aggressive and highly invasive. Increased resilience, regeneration too maybe, complete change of behavior and body structure and the fact…” a wet burst sounded out behind them. “...that it's still doing something even when dead, which means there is still life inside of the corpse or rather there is still enough energy inside the corpse.”
Andrew crossed his arms, his forehead furrowed as he thought about what Ethan just told him, when there is really a system user behind this, it could be an enemy or just someone leveling their skills, either way it was bad for them. Based on what Ethan just told him these things were hard to kill and the elf even had an advantage because he was almost unaffected by the snowstorm and this faced such difficulty.
“For now let’s return to the cave and work things out from there, we have to stop our scouting for now and seal the cave off if possible. There is already enough to deal with, those mole things might come back when they find the new mine we started. The more I think about it Ethan, the more your words make sense. The system just doesn’t care about us.” He smiled and offered Ethan his hand, pulling the tall elf up to his feet.
“Let’s go back for now, no sense in freezing to death here when there is still so much to live for right?” Ethan laughed and nodded along, before they could go he froze the remains of the elk into a thick block of ice, his eternal ice should hold it back indefinitely, satisfied the dwarves, his soldier and he turned away walking back towards the cave.
A smiling figure stood in the distance, its body covered in white furs, the head obscured by the hood only the lower half of the face was visible, a green glowing eye focused on the dwarves, but on the tall elf in particular. “You got all of that?”
