Alex looked at the hedgehog, unsure if he was judging its intentions correctly.
Alex pointed towards the spire with his sword and looked at the hedgehog.
The hedgehog didn't react.
It continued looking at Alex with expectation.
'Fuck! Does it want me to get this ethereal spire for it?!' Alex thought.
'Is it forcing me to retrieve it?!'
Alex started sliding towards a different direction of where the hedgehog was.
CREEEAK!
The hedgehog followed Alex's new trajectory, and it quickly arrived at the spot where Alex was sliding towards.
'Fuck! It won't let me go! It will probably kill me if I exit the lake!'
Alex was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
He either had to go against the hedgehog or the thing in the lake.
Both of these creatures were far beyond his capabilities to deal with!
Alex felt stifled and frustrated beyond belief.
Others were deciding his fate!
He hated that!
Alex looked with hate at the hedgehog, but its demeanor didn't change.
It still looked at Alex expectantly.
After a while, Alex clenched his fist.
'If I have to choose, I'll choose to help the hedgehog,' Alex thought. 'The hedgehog has at least rewarded me when I gave it something. Instead, that thing in the lake will probably just ignore or consume me.'
'Sadly, I'm not powerful enough to make demands. I'm completely at the mercy of the hedgehog's whims.'
In the end, Alex shooed the lizard away.
He didn't want it to get hurt.
Alex turned to the ethereal spire, and the lizard understood what Alex meant.
Without hesitation, the lizard shot towards the shore of the lake, vanishing into the forest.
The hedgehog didn't even look at it.
'Sure enough, the lizard only cares about me as long as I'm of use to it. It will abandon me at the first sign of weakness. It might even kill me when I'm showing weakness,' Alex thought.
However, he had already expected something like that.
The lizard wasn't Alex's pet.
It was a wild animal and a reptile on top of that. Reptiles weren't known for their affection towards other animals.
pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ Eventually, Alex moved around the ethereal spire and stopped behind it.
Right now, the spire was in front of Alex, and behind the spire, on the edge of the lake, was the hedgehog.
Alex would speed towards the spire, absorb it, and continue rushing towards the hedgehog.
This was the best method he could come up with.
Alex took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself.
SHING!
Then, Alex put his sword into the ice and shot himself forward.
Alex accelerated as much as he could.
And then, Alex's frozen arm hit the ethereal spire!
WHOOOM!
It was like the spire had been disturbed!
The ethereal spire became deformed.
The spire's form changed, and it started to curl around Alex's arm.
It was like a soft band made of paper that was being pulled along.
SSSHH!
The sound of sizzling could be heard as the ethereal form of the spire wrapped itself around Alex's body in an instant.
Alex felt like he was touched by something of terrifying coldness!
Yet, Alex's body wasn't being frozen or injured.
Alex felt a cold sensation creep into his body. However, the outside of his body started to warm up again.
It was like the cold sensation was moving through his body.
Alex felt the cold sensation enter his head of its own volition.
Yet, there seemingly was a blockage that stopped it from advancing.
After a moment, the cold sensation gave up trying to get into Alex's head, and traveled towards his frozen arm again.
Suddenly, Alex's left arm regained feeling, and he felt like his arm became even colder than before.
Alex barely managed to jerk his left arm in panic.
WHOOOM!
Suddenly, a terrifyingly cold wind came out of Alex's left arm.
The cold wind hit the ice cover beneath Alex, and an additional layer of ice formed on that spot.
Yet, something shocking happened at the same time!
Alex's arm instantly warmed up!
In actuality, Alex's arm felt quite hot suddenly!
It was like Alex had gathered all the cold in his body and had expelled it.
Even the ice spear, which was stuck in his shoulder, was melting away.
It was like Alex's left arm had worked with the same principles as an air conditioning unit!
In order to make a room cold, an air conditioner needed to transport the heat somewhere else.
If the inside of a room was as hot as the outside and the air conditioner was turned on, the inside would become colder, and the outside would become hotter.
The hot temperature was gathered and expelled.
Alex's arm had seemingly done something with the same principle but reversed.
Alex had cooled the surroundings, resulting in his left arm becoming hotter.
However, Alex had far bigger problems right now and didn't have any time to analyze this right now.
All of this had happened in just three seconds.
And three seconds after Alex absorbed the ethereal spire…
BOOOOOOOM!
A gigantic, brown… boulder-like thing broke through the middle of the lake.
It was over ten meters tall and nearly three meters wide.
A line went through the boulder-like thing.
Alex knew what this was, and his heart beat fiercely in his chest.
'That's the beak of a gigantic octopus!' he realized.
If already the beak of the octopus was ten meters long, how huge was the entire creature?!
The beak had punched through the middle of the lake, and it had closed around it.
The octopus had probably assumed that Alex was still there.
Luckily, Alex had grabbed the ethereal spire while sliding.
Alex looked with terror behind him.
BOOOOOOOM!
Suddenly, the entire lake exploded!
The gigantic octopus had realized that it had caught nothing, and its entire body broke out of the lake.
It couldn't let go of its bait!
It cost too much Mana to condense something like that!
Tentacles nearly 50-meters-long stretched across the lake as a gigantic head came out of the water.
The eyes of the octopus quickly looked around, and they immediately spotted the running Alex.
BOOOOOM!
The tentacles all punched down at the frozen lake.
Surprisingly, the ice didn't break.
That was because the octopus had used its ice powers to increase the hardness of the ice.
As the octopus smashed its tentacles down, its body left the water and flew towards Alex.
It had thrown itself over 50 meters into the air, right towards Alex!
Alex's heart nearly stopped.
This octopus was too fast!
It would catch him in an instant!
'I'm dead!'
The tentacles of the flying octopus stretched towards Alex.
It would catch him in a second!
Alex looked forward with desperate eyes.
Yet, what he saw made him despair.
The hedgehog had turned around!
It wasn't even looking at him anymore!
Alex's eyes opened widely with terrified eyes.
And then, everything changed!
BANG!
It was one loud, explosive sound.
It was like a grenade had gone off!
Suddenly, Alex felt a storm hit his body.
A terrifying wind had suddenly picked up, and Alex's body was hurled across the lake uncontrollably!
As Alex was thrown around, he managed to catch a glimpse of the octopus in the air, and an image was burned into his mind!
Over 20 extremely long, green needles had buried themselves into the octopus' body!
This was the reason for the explosive sound and the terrifying storm!
The needles had exploded off the hedgehog's body, had passed by Alex's body with unimaginable speeds, and had buried themselves into the octopus!
The wind of the needles had thrown Alex across the lake!
The sheer power of the needle-explosion had stopped the massive octopus in the air!
Then, Alex saw the hedgehog quickly peek behind itself.
After that, it turned away again.
BANG!
Another terrifying explosion and another twenty needles shot through the octopus!
The ground beneath the hedgehog broke due to the unimaginable force, and the octopus was thrown across the lake.
BANG!
Another explosion and the octopus was thrown even farther away!
Alex quickly lifted himself off the ground again and ran towards the edge of the lake.
The hedgehog turned around, and then it exploded forward.
BOOOOM!
The hedgehog exploded with absolutely terrifying speed!
It was racing around the lake, avoiding the ice. It knew that the ice wouldn't be able to withstand its weight.
Alex's eyes opened in shock as he saw the unreal speed of the hedgehog.
How could he have thought that the hedgehog was slow?!
That thing was moving with over 200 kph!
All the trees around it were utterly annihilated, creating a terrifyingly long trail of destruction.
BANG!
Meanwhile, the octopus landed outside the lake, inside the forest.
Its tentacles were violently flailing around, destroying everything in its surroundings.
Some seconds later, the hedgehog arrived near the octopus.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Alex couldn't see, but he heard the sounds of two gigantic beasts fighting in the distance.
This was not a fight he could get involved in!
However, the sounds vanished in less than ten seconds.
The fight was already over!
Alex took a deep breath.
Then, he slowly made his way to the fighting area.
Alex could see some green needles peeking over the trees, and they were moving around.
He couldn't see any gigantic tentacles above the trees.
This meant that the hedgehog had won.
'Sure enough, the Hegemon is the Hegemon,' Alex thought.
Alex slowly calmed down as he realized that he had managed to avoid death.
'I wonder if the hedgehog will reward me? I hope so. Fleeing now makes no sense. If the hedgehog wants to kill me, there's nothing I can do.'
Alex only hoped that the hedgehog's personality wouldn't suddenly change into a cruel one.