Reiji Kurozuma stood up and put on his katana, so the scabbard was on his back.

  He jumped out of the hole and slowly made his way through the forest.

  After walking for a short while he found a drop off that no human nor animal could survive.

  He turned to the left and walked along the cliff's edge. It was now completely dark outside.

  The only sound that accompanied Reiji was the cracking of snow under his boots.

  The forest was so dark, so quiet. Any movement could be heard, and he could already have a bow aimed at him.

  He walked father and reached a place where the cliff curved to his left.

  After walking for a short time, the cliff evened out. This was the only pathway down the cliff.

  It was a single point that went downhill and not a deadly drop off. It created a walkable path both down and uphill.

  Reiji was standing in the middle of the path right before it went downhill, looking down with his back facing the forest. He sighed and turned to face the forest.

  He very slowly made his way deeper inside of the forest.

  After walking for a short time, he stopped. He looked around, slowly looking from left-to-right and back.

  "Alright, you can start."

  Nothing. Absolutely nothing. After a moment the wind picked up, making the ends of his obi flap in the wind.

  Suddenly, an arrow flies towards him, directly at his head. The next moment, the snow starts turning red.

  However, the arrow was stopped at the last moment by Reiji's right forearm. The arrow's head stopped just before piercing his eye.

  The arrow fully penetrated his forearm and pulling it out will hurt.

  "I should've known. Don't you think you guys have enough territory already?"

  Reiji spoke in the direction the arrow came from. His words were met with another arrow.

  He moved his left shoulder back and leaned to the right. The arrow flew past him; it was aimed right at his heart.

  He calmly walked back towards the direction he came from. He snapped off the stone head of the arrow and pulled it out.

  Blood trickled down his forearm and created a trail of bloody snow.

  "Tsk, now my clothes will be stained by blood."

  A small creature, about the height of a ten-year-old child, ran at him with a spear.

  It was fast, faster than any human could ever hope to be in the snow.

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  He slapped the spear head with his left hand and grabbed the little man by his winter coat with his right hand.

  The speed at which the little man was running caused him to almost break free of Reiji's grip.

  With a grunt of anger Reiji stopped him, lifted him up and slammed him into the snow.

  The little man was wearing a fur coat, fur pants and winter boots. He also had a white mask with dried blood on it.

  The mask had deer antlers, eye and breathing holes. He was also wearing mittens.

  Reiji then stepped on the creature with his left foot. It tried to block using its spear but the place where Reiji's boot impacted caused the wood to snap.

  Reiji's boot then pressed against the creature's chest with crushing force, causing it to let out a wheeze.

  Its head tilted forward before leaning back against the snow. There was no crack, so Reiji was unsure if he had killed the little man.

  A short moment after he stepped on the little man he almost got shot by an arrow from probably the same archer.

  He quickly took the broken spear, dropped to the ground and crawled towards a tree. He sat against the tree, catching his breath.

  "Shouldn't there be more?"

  He muttered to himself. He looked at the spear. It was snapped in half, and he was holding the part with the stone tip.

  He also took a moment to inspect his bleeding forearm. He sighed in an annoyed manner and crawled back to the little man.

  He took off his fur coat. The skin underneath was pale, almost as if the creature had no blood in its body.

  He ripped the coat and took the strings that the creature tied around its body to keep the coat secure.

  He wrapped the fur around his forearm and tied the strings around it, securing it.

  He looked at the tree he used for cover and decided he was going to make a run for a more distant tree that should be closer to the archer.

  He stood up and ran towards a distant tree. He dropped down and sat against the tree.

  No arrows were fired so he did it again. This time he stared in what he thought was the direction the next arrow would come from.

  Suddenly, an arrow whipped past in front of him from his right. He dropped down and crawled towards the tree he planned to use for cover.

  The archer had moved to catch Reiji off guard. He wanted to get a side profile but just as it got into a shooting position Reiji Kurozuma started running to another tree.

  "Will he go left or right? He just went right to flank me so going in the opposite direction is the obvious move and that's why he won't do it but if he knows I expect him to go right again he'll go left."

  The wind masked sounds well so trying to identify its position via footsteps was out of the question for Reiji Kurozuma.

  He decided to run to another tree and purposefully show off a part of his body. What he didn't expect was for the shot to come from the exact same spot and miss.

  Reiji stood up and threw the broken spear.

  Thud!

  He must have hit it. He crawled through the snow until he visually confirmed it. Even after he still didn't get up.

  He crawled towards the body. It had the same attire, just a bag with eye and breathing holes instead of a mask.

  He saw that it had no arrows left on it. He took its bow, laid on his side and pulled it back.

  "Yeah, you frost people are known for having bows of ridiculously small draw weight for the amount of power they have. If this bow had more draw weight that arrow would have hit me but now…"

  He looked at the spear that he threw. It was a direct hit, right between its eyes.

  "...You're dead."

  After a moment he decided the coast was clear and stood up. He broke the bow and threw it in a random direction.

  He then stripped the body of its clothes and the bag on its head. This frost person had no gloves.

  He balled it up and took the boots into his left hand. With the ball of clothes pressed against his chest, he left the body there. He then walked over to the other body and did the same, but he crushed its mask.

  Reiji wanted to make sure the frost people couldn't just come back and retrieve their weapons and clothes. He wanted to stop the expansion of their territory to protect human life.

  He balled up all of the clothing into one ball and tied all of the laces on the boots together.

  As he was about to leave, rhythmic stomping was heard. It got louder and louder, closer and closer until he felt it in the ground he stood on.

  He tossed the clothes and boots to the side.

  He sighed and reached behind him, grabbing the handle of his katana.

  "There's no way."

  What was currently hurdling at Reiji at a speed upwards of 30 kilometres per hour was a Frostgnasher. A creature thirteen meters in length, three meters in height and weighing eight tons.