Alex gritted his teeth.
If he had to take one of the two spears, he would take the one that hit a less vital area!
SHING! SHING!
The two spears shot forward, and Alex's sword blocked one of them.
SHING!
However, the other one punched through Alex's left shoulder.
Before Alex's left arm completely froze, he issued one last command to it.
Whoosh!
Alex's coat was thrown up as his left arm lifted upward.
Then, Alex's left arm and a huge part of his torso froze over in nearly an instant.
"Now!"
Alex shouted.
As Alex's coat was thrown upward, his torso was revealed, and something new with it.
How had Alex been able to stay warm in such insanely cold weather?
Around Alex's torso was a large, green lizard! It was curled around Alex's torso, and it radiated a ton of heat!
It was the lizard that Alex had met on his first day!
The lizard had already prepared itself.
BANG!
The lizard shot a fireball in the bear's face.
BOOM!
The fireball exploded on the bear's head, making it scream in fear and pain.
Its eyes were completely destroyed!
Its fur was singed, and burns littered its face. However, it wasn't dead yet.
In the chaos, the bear stood up.
CRK! CRK!
The bear's hind legs broke through the ice again, and the bear's torso hit the front of the ice as it lost its balance.
CRK!
Suddenly, the ice in a rough circle around the bear broke.
Back when Alex had slid around the bear, he had cut out the part of the ice where the bear was standing on. The bear's fall broke the ice.
CREEEAAK!
Suddenly, the icecap started tilting towards one side. The bear's hind legs were in the center of the icecap, while its torso was on one side.
Like a human that leaned completely to one side while wearing a lifebuoy in the water, the icecap completely tilted.
BANG!
Until it turned 180°!
The bear's body was now below the ice as its hind legs stuck out from the ice.
Alex gritted his teeth as the burning pain from his left side seared itself into his mind.
Alex heard a muffled roar from below the ice as the icecap shook with power.
When Alex landed, he used his sword to shoot himself towards the bear's legs.
CRACK!
Alex swung his sword at one of the legs, and it cut to the middle of the leg, only being blocked by the bone.
This was the first creature that managed to resist Alex's sword to some degree.
Alex immediately swung a second time!
CRACK!
The bone was broken, and with another swing, the bear's left hind leg was cut off.
A shower of blood shot out, coating Alex's entire body.
Alex could hear another terrifying roar beneath the ice, but he couldn't get distracted now.
BANG!
Alex hit the bear's other leg before it managed to free itself.
BANG!
However, suddenly, something shocking happened.
The bear's other leg was pulled below the surface of the lake with terrifying speed!
Alex's eyes widened.
'This couldn't have been the bear! That yank was too powerful!'
Silence.
Only the blizzard roared.
The lake was completely silent.
Alex slowly walked forward and looked through one of the two holes.
Red!
The water beneath the hole was blood red!
This wasn't right!
For Alex, the atmosphere on the lake changed.
From a natural calm to a terrifying calm.
Alex didn't feel like he was on a lake but on the roof of a terrifying creature's domain.
The way the bear had been pulled underwater had been unnatural.
It was like a giant hand had simply yanked the bear out.
Suddenly, the silent sound of something small coming out of the water could be heard.
Alex's body shuddered, and he quickly jumped away from the two holes.
What had he just seen?!
A long and thin tentacle had silently come out of one of the holes!
The tentacle directly went to the middle of the lake, towards the ethereal ice spire in the middle.
The tentacle seemingly didn't end as it extended for over 20 meters!
When the tentacle arrived beside the ethereal spire, it moved around it, seemingly inspecting it.
After some seconds, the tentacle pulled back into the water.
CRRRR!
Then, the two holes in the ice quickly got repaired.
It was like the ice hadn't been damaged at all!
Alex had completely stopped breathing as he watched all of this unfold.
He didn't want to make any sound.
After a bit, Alex noticed something else, and what he saw shook him to the core.
The ethereal spire in the middle of the lake.
It had grown bigger and more powerful!
Immediately, Alex combined several clues into a terrifying picture.
'This is not some natural Mana phenomenon,' Alex thought.
'This is bait!'
'This… thing created this ethereal spire to lure in a powerful creature! Then, it would consume the creature after a while!'
'This is a trap!'
Alex took a deep breath.
If it were another creature like the bear, Alex wouldn't feel so distraught.
However, the power with which this thing had pulled the bear down had been too frightening.
It was like a grown man that had yanked on a mere piece of grass!
The yank had been so powerful that it was probably harder to not accidentally tear the bear apart than to pull it out of the ice!
The bear and this thing were not on the same level at all!
'Maybe the hedgehog actually isn't the most powerful thing in this forest?' Alex thought with terror.
'What if the hedgehog isn't the reason why there are no powerful creatures here?'
'What if the reason is that thing in the lake?'
Suddenly, Alex felt something pull on his coat, and Alex nearly jumped back.
However, he realized that it was only the lizard that had climbed down.
The lizard seemingly wanted to pull Alex towards the ethereal spire in the middle of the lake.
The lizard looked at Alex's frozen left arm, then at the spire, at Alex's arm again, and at the spire again.
Alex also looked at his arm and gritted his teeth.
'My arm is basically destroyed,' he thought with pain.
Alex's entire arm had been frozen solid, and the cold even started to invade his torso.
Alex knew that his left arm had already completely died.
Alex looked at the ethereal spire.
Just like before, ice formed around the spire continuously, and it danced around it in a calm manner.
Alex's instincts were telling him that there was a ton of Mana in there!
'However, this is that thing's bait,' Alex thought. 'The lizard thinks that this spire can help me. Maybe its ice powers can heal my dead arm?'
Alex looked at the calm lake, and he felt the overbearing pressure in the air.
'But if that thing notices me, I'm dead.'
Alex looked at his left arm again.
'However, I already lost an arm. This will severely cripple my fighting ability,' Alex thought.
Then, he looked back at the spire.
'Should I try getting the spire or not?'
Silence.
A minute passed.
And then, Alex made his decision.
Alex turned around and left the lake.
'I can't risk it. There is probably a way to heal my arm on the outside, but I can't revive myself from the dead,' Alex thought.
pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ 'It's too risky!'
CREEAAK!
However, Alex suddenly heard the sounds of trees being bent from the shore of the lake.
Alex knew that sound!
Sure enough, just a bit later, the hedgehog had appeared at the edge of the lake.
Alex looked at the hedgehog, and the hedgehog looked at Alex.
Then, the hedgehog looked at the spire in the middle.
Then, it looked at Alex again.
It seemingly looked at Alex with expectation.
Alex looked at the hedgehog's actions, and he felt like he could understand its intentions.
'Does it want me to grab the spire?'