-Break-

  Φ Walkio a merry smiling Anouk, I say, “It looks like you had a rather fun time while I was unscious.”

  Cheerfully, she says, “I really did boss, the nap I took really woke me up. I am sure I will be able to hahe cold today thanks to that.”

  Turning my head around I look at a beaten and battered Guāng and say, “Is that all that happe night?”

  “Of course, it is! Isn’t that right Guāng?” She says whilst giving Guāng an evil stare.

  Shaking his head up and down Guāng says, “Yesh!”

  He barely talk!

  “See boss he is fine so let’s tinue on.”

  Christopher says, “Truly a demonic path you have chosen Anouk.”

  “What am I ever going to do with you guys.”

  -Break-

  Φ Sitting down against a fallerunk, Anouk says, “I am so tired!”

  “You’re so insistent you might as well be mercury.”

  Gring at me, Anouk says, “Guāng you dare speak bae, did I not beat you enough st night?”

  “Sorry!”

  Hitting me against my back, Thrim says, “You really have a big mouth, I like it!”

  Sitting down as well, dra says, “Suys but we rest for a bit, I am feeling a bit weak.”

  Looking down, I say, “Sorry.”

  “Don’t worry, I am the one who wao e to Fimbulwinter in the first pce.”

  As I sit down, Anouk says, “Why did you even accept this mission in the first pce? I know the reward was good but none of us are exactly strapped for money.”

  “Well let’s just say I have a reason to believe the rumours about Fimbulwinter.”

  “Eh, really. What is it?”

  Putting her fingers against her lips, she says, “I will tell you if we find anything.”

  Anouk says, “That isn’t fair boss.”

  “Too bad then, that sounds like a you problem.”

  Under my breath, I mutter, “You really are a child.”

  Grabbing me by my colr, Anouk says, “I fot when dead weight gaihe ability to speak.”

  Getting iween us, Christopher says, “Anouk, you know violence isn’t the answer.”

  “Christopher she is going to hurt you too!”

  Rexing Anouk says, “Ok then, whatever.”

  Shocked, I say, “That worked?”

  Turning to me, Christopher says, “It seems Anouk now has a certain amount of infatuation with me since I saved her.”

  Embarrassed, Anouk says, “NO I DON’T!”

  Looking at her in disbelief, I say, “This guy really does it for you?”

  As Anouk is about to scream at me Christopher puts his finger against her lips and says, “o be abashed Anouk, I mean how could you eve. But I am sorry this body of mine is fod first, so until it is the same for you I ’t give it to you.”

  Pung him in the face with a fist infused with spirit energy, she says, “SHUT UP!!!”

  The punch sends Christopher through the forest.

  Standing up, dra says, “Did you just punch the man we are supposed to be esc!”

  “Umm, it was a mistake?”

  “YOU IDIOT! Everyo’s go.”

  As we all ruo him, Anouk says, “But I wao rest my legs.”

  “Then you should have used your head.”

  “Boss I believe you are setting unrealistic expectations for someone of Anouk’s mental capacity.”

  Dodging Anouk’s kick, she says, “I will kill you bastard!”

  “Why, I was defending you?”

  “Don’t pretend like that was some sort of pliment.”

  “Well, maybe I would have phrased it nicer if you didn’t beat me so hard.”

  “I ALMOST DIED!”

  “I APOLOGISED!”

  Turning her face, to us dra says, “BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!”

  After running for a little bit, we e across Christopher lying on the ground. Going over to him Anouk shakes him awake, and says, “Sorry!”

  “Don’t worry I know your love for me was just to of course you wouldn’t take the reje well!”

  Smming him bato the snow, Anouk says, “In your dreams!”

  “ANOUK,” dra shouts.

  “Sorry boss but he started it.”

  “I don’t care who started i-; ANOUK DODGE!”

  Grabbing Christopher, Anouk jumps out of the way. Then seds ter a rge ice projectile nds where she was.

  “What the hell was that?”

  Thrim shouts, “OVER THERE.”

  Looking where he points, I see a reptile-like quadrupedal wonderbeast, about 5 meters, and is quite ky with a sharp bde-like head. But most notably it has tall ptes through its entire backside that are made of ice, about a quarter of its face is ice as well.

  Christopher says, “It’s a Razordon!”

  From its back, it shoots four more of the ice pte projectiles towards us, so Thrim immediately gets in front of us and blocks all the shots, then he says, “I don’t remember hearing about any Razordon’s being here.”

  dra says, “It’s probably another Wonderbeast from further up Fimbulwinter.”

  “Still don’t they normally just shoot scaled projectiles, not ies? In fact, it looks way too different with all that ice around its body, this ’t be an adaption.”

  Christopher says, “Thrim is right, an adaption will usually help a wonderbeast for survival this is something else, it must have been cursed. Guys robably dealing with a cursed beast.”

  Scared, I say, “It’s that really bad then.”

  Suddenly I see a smile appear on all three of my panions' faces.

  Thrim says, “Lucky aren’t we.”

  “I always wanted some ice projectiles.”

  “Looks like we have to maintain the body as well as possible.”

  “What are they smiling about?”

  Christopher says, “Cursed and Anamtaised beasts, are the best ones when it es to crafting armour and ons out of them. So, I guess these three are just happy.”

  “No, they're insane.”

  “Well, you must be a little crazy to be an adventurer anyway.”

  Suddenly the beast shoots more projectiles which Thrim blocks, and from that dra starts to move forward trying to reach the beast.

  The Razordon tio shoot more and more projectiles towards dra, but then Anouk starts to shoot them out of the air as they approach.

  Φ Good it has used up all its ice ptes, so I should be able to cut it down now. Holding my sword tight, I say, “Four beast battle arts; Predator fang,” Then I strike the nape of its neck.

  Feeling my sword stop halfway, I try to pull it out, but it won’t move. Looking down towards it, I say, “It’s frozen within the beast.” Then seeing the ice spread up my sword towards my arm I let go and jump backwards.

  Anouk screams, “What are we going to do?”

  Pulling out my other sword, I say, “I will just have to try a sed time.”

  “Don’t kid me, you’re already out of breath after that st attack, you're still injured.”

  Taking a moment to g Guāng, I say, “We have no other choice we need someoh enough instantaneous power to strike its neck, so now let’s g-.”

  In disbelief, I freeze for a moment, because all of the ice ptes on its back have grown bad the moment, they do we are assaulted with a barrage of shots.

  “DODGE!” I scream as they e towards us.

  As we barely dodge the shots, Thrim says, “I thought Razordon’s had to naturally regrowth their ptes over time.”

  “It looks like sihe ptes are now made out of ice, that isn’t a factor anymore.”

  Jumping to the right to dodge a shot, I see that after the shot hit where I was standing it sprouted up into a mass of id froze my leg that was trying to escape.

  “BOSS!” Thrim shouts as he moves towards me, but he is too te; 4 different shots are heading towards me.

  But they all vanish moments ter, and then in front of me, I see Guāng.

  Seeing him shake, I say, “Go back, this is too dangerous.”

  Still shaking, he says, “I know it is. But I will believe in the skills I cultivated and the effort I put in.” Taking a deep breath Guāng stops shakiirely and faces the Razordon.

  Φ “Boss just watch me.” Finishing my sentence, I instantly dash forward, and in respohe Razordon fires off more shots, so I cut them all down while keeping my form.

  Φ In disbelief of Guāng movements, I hear Christopher say behind me, “In the kingdom of Dá, there lies a crimson lotus that protects the kingdom and the ti, and those that pray to the lotus do so with a sword in hand. Over time that prayer, no that dance evolved into a battle art and was named.”

  Φ “Bloody lotus battle arts; Diverging blood.” Just like the roots of a tree 1 ssh leads to 2 sshes which leads to 4 sshes which lead to 8 sshes which leads to 16.

  In front of me, the Razordon tio shoot more and more shots directly at me, but they are all cut down again and again. As my daensifies so do my sshes, again and again until I reach the beast.

  While still in my dance I lock eyes with the beast, and in that moment, I say, “Look at all the oints, you really are just like a human.” Moments ter I carve sshes all through its body.

  Standing behind it, I say, “But it does seem you are sturdier than we are.”

  With its tail it tries to swipe me, but I say, “Too bad for you that I wasn’t going for the kill shot.”

  Φ With my shield, I smash it directly into the gash that dra made and scream, “ARGHHHHHHHHH!”

  As it ys on the floor dead, I walk over to Guāng and hit him on the back, saying, “Good job boy.”

  After receiving my hit he falls over into the snow.

  “Are you alright!?”

  “Yeah, I am fi is just that the Bloody lotus uses up most of my stamina instantly so I just have to rest for a moment.”

  Looking around, I say, “dra and Guāng are both exhausted, Anouk is zy, not to mention we have to carry this big beast.” Walking past the Razordon, I say, “And the path in front of us is a rather slippery slope, it seems we aren’t going anywhere for a while.”

  Christopher hoping beside me says, “I believe I have an answer for all these issues.”

  “Now what would that be?”

  “First the only part of the Razordon we need are the parts that create ice, so if you would rip it open for me.”

  Following his instrus, I do. “Now we see the part that creates the ice ptes, and if we were ter them to activate like so.”

  From its back, all the ice ptes appear again. “We take these specific parts to lower our burdens, and the bonus is that the ptes we just made ow be used for transport all we got to do is stick them together.”

  -Break-

  Φ Sitting on cobbled-together ice ptes directly on the edge of a slope, I say, “Christopher are you sure this is safe?”

  “It has about a 35% ce of death for us all if it breaks apart.”

  “I DON’T FEEL SAFE WITH THOSE ODDS.”

  dra says, “That feeling shows you're now a true adventurer, now let’s go.”

  She pushes all of us down the slope with her, and I start to freak out. But as I scream, I look around ahat everyone else is screaming, but they have smiles on their faces.

  Seeing that the slope ends with an upward curve I say, “Christopher where the hell does that lead.”

  “WHO KNOWS!”

  “YOU BASTARD!”

  As we fly high into the air, I see Fimbulwinter from high up with all of the golden trees lying around on the ground and a smile falls upon my fad with everyone else I start to smile.

  But suddenly instead of going forward our cobbled-together sled starts to fall towards the ground.

  “LOOKS LIKE WE ARE FALLING!!”

  “I WILL SEE YOU IN HELL CHRISTOPHER!”