Snow. Lots and lots of snow. The three of us knew that climbing this mountain would mean facing off against the cold snowy weather as we go up but it looks like we kind of underestimated our tolerance to the cold. Good thing my fountain pen can literally write this entry by itself but then again, I haven't completely acclimated to this world's mana so I'm forced to keep holding my staff lest I suffer feedback. Despite that though, we're all still having the time of our lives. The urgency of our current quest aside, I'm amazed that me, Panda, and Azeroth could maintain our high spirits even when we're literally freezing to death up here with only the scattered lit torches and Azeroth occasionally using his fire spells to keep us warm.
Azeroth. Panda. To think I've only arrived in this world 8 months ago and yet these two have become my greatest friends and it feels like we're more childhood friends than three people who happen to meet after going on a short excursion with a short wolf boy mercenary from the freelancers guild.
Azeroth. A red-haired demon who came to this world from hell or at least that's what he calls it. I wonder which hell does he mean though since I've been into so many worlds, including several hells, that I'm kind of curious if I had visited Azeroth's world before but his descriptions didn't really narrow down the worlds since every hell I've been to is exactly how he described his world is so I guess I'll never know if I ever visited Azeroth's world before. Nonetheless, for a demon, he's quite the quiet individual and works well with us in team fights. That and he has quite the sense for style judging from the clothes he wears. A collared shirt, denim pants, rubber shoes with a dark brownish coat over all of it. I must say, he looks like he's ready to dance in a ballroom but it looks like it's not effective at keeping him warm in this mountain. I guess his world doesn't have a frozen lake in their domain, well that's one hell I know he can't be from.
Panda. This pink-haired guy with a face of a "waifu" while bearing his six-pack abs to the world. Honestly, I was impressed how this guy loves to flaunt his love for anime and "weeb" culture to the point that he was bold enough to read certain "sophisticated doujins" during poetry night in the guild. He always talks about how he took the form of an "anime girl" while maintaining his deep voice. That and his choice for clothes is interesting to say the least. I mean, I haven't seen that many people wear what I can only describe as a sports bra and jogging pants with an open jacket let alone in a cold mountain. If I didn't know any better, I'd say Panda loves to flex his six-pack abs on random people. Another of note, I find the circumstances on how he ended up in this world to be quite intriguing. He said that he was a simple human from Earth (World #5-1-18-20-8) who managed to find a device that allowed him to take the form of an "anime girl" and come to this world. His story seems to be the simplest out of everyone I've met so far though I must say, his powerlifting background makes him quite the fighter in battle. I wonder what this device he used was. Looks like it did more than just give him the appearance of a girl.
"How much further to the top?" I asked
"We should be close" Azeroth answered as he snaps his fingers and a flickering flame manifests on top of his thumb "Just up the path ahead and a few turns, we should be able to reach their hideout"
"Oooh… warm" Panda said as he places his hands near the flickering flame
The mountain breeze intensifies just as we were about to walk further up the path. I instinctively had my left arm shield my eyes though that didn't really mitigate the cold. "Mountain wind's getting intense… Do we continue walking up the front door?"
"I got a better idea!" Panda interjected as he runs to the side of a cliff "We can climb through here and get to the top faster!"
I look up the cliff and, by the Art Student, it's gonna be a long climb up. I'm not worried if we can climb it since we've done this sort of thing before. No. Rather, I have a feeling the cold will get us before we could even reach the top.
"It's risky" I said positioning myself near Azeroth's flame for warmth
"It'll be fun!" Panda replied "And we can catch them off-guard if we go off the beaten path!"
"What do you say, Azeroth?"
"Yeah. I think it's worth a shot" he answered
Looks like we're heading up through this cliff. Panda leads the way as he climbs the cliff like an experienced rock climber. Gotta say that I'm pretty impressed with this guy's grip and arm strength as he's able to maintain his hold onto the cliff while the mountain winds continue raging.
Azeroth is the next one. He whips out his dual swords and uses them as if they were ice axes. Despite his stature, this demon demonstrates quite the strength since he moves at a relatively decent pace then again, why should I be surprised on the physical attributes of a demon?
As for me, my invisible vectors should be enough to carry me up this cliff. To the untrained eye, I look like I'm levitating but the truth is that there are several "hands" that do the carrying ang climbing for me though it still requires a notable amount of concentration on my part to properly control my movements.
With our own set of individual skills and abilities, climbing this cliff would have been child's play if it wasn't for these mountain winds. The cold air really gets to you no matter what you wear, not even my cloak can keep the cold at bay and Azeroth's fire magic only keeps us warm for so long before the cold sets back in. Nevertheless, this isn't the first time we three homies we faced with such adversity and this won't be the last. I didn't survive so many wars and world-ending incidents to die in a cold mountain.
Panda called from above us. "How are you two holding?
"Fine" I replied "But I'm starting to get really cold"
"Same here" Azeroth added
I noticed Panda was almost to the top. Boy is he fast. The cold didn't even deter him that much. I wonder if this is cuz he lifts.
"Alright!" Panda said as he grabs on the ledge "I'll wait for you-"
Before Panda could finish his sentence, a giant hand grabs him by his face and pulls him up the cliff.
"Panda!" me and Azeroth shouted before I whistled to the demon
Azeroth turns to me as I give him a nod. Without a hint of hesitation, the demon pulls his swords out of the cliff, causing him to fall towards me with his back turned to the ground.
I quickly had my vectors grab him. "Ready?"
Azeroth nods. "Let's go!"
Using my vectors, I threw the demon upward like a ball. Within seconds, he reaches our powerlifting friend, who is being crushed by what I can only describe as a gigantic yeti with what looks like "ice armor" covering its body, and quickly stabs both his swords on the creature's head.
The damage forces it to let go of its captee prompting it to attempt to grab the demon. Acting fast, Azeroth pulls his swords out and lands next to Panda as the powerlifter charges towards the creature. With one punch to its seemingly unarmored gut, Panda unleashes a jolt of electricity from his fist.
The creature jumps back and roars defiantly at the two as Azeroth coats his dual swords with his demonic fire and charges towards the creature with Panda in tow.
The creature punches the ground, causing several icy spikes to erupt from the ground in different directions. Azeroth runs ahead and, with graceful swings of his swords, unleashes several crescent shaped fire waves, melting the spikes in their way.
Panda then rushes ahead and unleashes a flurry of punches while dodging several attacks from the creature, he even manages to break part of the ice armor in the creature's arms. After a few more exchanges, the creature suddenly steps back a bit before lifting its right leg. It was about to stomp the ground but Panda is far from it.
I noticed this scene play out just as I got to the top. Knowing it was about to unleash a different attack, I used my vectors to grab both Azeroth and Panda and pull them towards me just as the creature stomps the ground. Almost immediately, icy spikes erupted in a large circular radius around the creature.
"Thanks for the save" Panda said while Azeroth gave me a reassured nod
"Thing looks tanky" I said as some of its ice armor seems to be regrowing around its arms "Looks like we gotta destroy the armor and then attack the soft bits inside before it regrows"
"So what do we do?" Azeroth asked as the creature fires a barrage of icicle shards at us
I quickly conjure a shield in front of us. "Panda? Care to do the honors?"
"Yeah!" Panda replied with much enthusiasm before he began jogging in place "Lezz go!"
"Azeroth. Flame on"
The demon nods as he coats his swords with his demonic fire. Seeing this, I immediately undid my shield, prompting Azeroth to charge forward and gracefully slash his way towards the creature.
The monster attempts to punch him but he blocks the attack with both swords. It responds with another punch but Azeroth quickly spews fire from his mouth, hitting the creature's head. The attack causes it to step back a bit, giving the demon enough room to push the creature's fist away before quickly drawing a pentagram on the ground. Upon finishing it in seconds, the demon stabs the center with both swords just as the monster was about to crush him like a mosquito.
Demonic fire quickly erupts around Azeroth like a volcano and consumes everything within a small radius from him. The creature recoils in pain as its armor is stripped away. Meanwhile, Panda had been charging up his attack with electric bolts coursing around his body.
"Panda!" I called
"YEAH!" Panda shouted as he charges forward
Within a split second, he reaches the monster several meters away and unleashes several punches on it at literal lightning speeds. The creature could barely keep up with Panda and with one powerful punch to its head, it falls to the ground.
"Nice one!" Azeroth said as me and him approach our powerlifting friend
Though it wasn't over. While Panda and Azeroth were high fiving, I noticed the creature get back up. It looks like this is its last-ditch attempt at killing us.
Of course, with me noticing it, I had my vectors quickly stab the creature several times in different parts of its body. Good thing its armor was still down or my vectors would have had a limited effect on it. They can be sharp when I need them to be but not that sharp. Nevertheless, the danger has passed.
"Thanks for the save, bro!" Panda said as me and him high five
"That was great teamwork" I added
"Yep!" Azeroth added "We make a great team"
"Yes. Yes, we do"
"So what now?" Panda asked as the cold winds picked up again
"Our objective should be just up ahead" I replied as we continued forward.
The objective in question is a cave though thick ice blocks the entrance and, to make matters worse, the mountain winds picked up again, further lowering the temperature to the point that Azeroth's flames aren't enough to warm us up.
"Looks like we got a time limit!" I said as we all began attacking the ice with our respective abilities
We hit that block of ice with everything we got but it didn't look like it was going to break any time soon. The combined power of Azeroth's flame swords, Panda's electric fists, and my vectors could barely even dent the thing, I'm more amazed that Azeroth's flames couldn't even get some part of it to melt. Is it because of the snowstorm? Or… Is this block of ice artificial…?
I didn't have enough time to ponder as a snowstorm descends on us. The temperature was getting lower by the second with Panda being on the brink of losing consciousness.
"Damn it's getting cold!" I said as I involuntarily tighten my grip on my staff "We have to find shelter!"
"Agreed" Azeroth replied
"Yeh!" Panda added
Facing the cave, we went east though I could barely see a few feet in front of me thanks to the snowstorm. I never really liked the cold… My thin body is built for more tropical environments and I very much prefer warmer climates anyway.
Luckily though, we managed to take shelter in another cave. It doesn't lead anywhere and is pretty small but at least it provides enough shelter from the elements. On another note, I have no idea how far we trekked to get here but I was happy to be out of the storm.
Azeroth didn't waste a second. He immediately conjured up some of his demonic fire. A bit bigger than usual but understandable. The heat warmed us up but I could see both of my friends were tired, most likely because of the cold.
"Let's go find a tree" I proposed
"What?" they both said in unison
"Firewood. Much easier than depending on Azeroth being conscious and constantly conjuring"
"Yeah" Panda responded "Great idea but let's warm up a bit longer"
"Yes. Yes"
After a few minutes of warming up, we went back into the storm, hoping to find at least one tree. Good thing they're not scarce here. Despite the limited visibility, we managed to find one rather quickly. We wasted no time to cut down a couple of branches before running back to the cave.
With a warm campfire finally upon us, we decided to take a short nap. Of course, I conjured an invisible barrier by the cave's entrance so that no unsavory individuals and wildlife wouldn't stumble upon us. And with that, we all took a nap.
Some time later, I was the first to wake up. I looked at the sleeping faces of my friends. Couldn't help but crack a smile. It's only been a few months but, my goddess, these two feels like lifelong friends. We fought many battles together, brought each other up through the guild ranks, and, most importantly, we were always there for each other especially in our lowest moments. I couldn't ask for better friends.
Friends… Nah… I can't let paranoia get the better of me again… For my sanity.
Actually… Now that I think about my paranoia… That ice block's ability to resist our combined attacks is highly suspect…
Acting on my suspicions, I quietly left the cave and looked for our original objective. It took a while since I have a pretty bad sense of direction but thanks to some trees, I was able to climb on top of them and spot the ice-covered cave. It wasn't that far too. Really funny how last night's trek through the snowstorm felt like we travelled quite the distance.
Nevertheless, I made my way to the cave. The sun was shining brightly and the temperature was much more bearable this time which allowed me to further examine this block of ice.
My vectors could barely scratch it even if I sharpen them to their maximum efficiency. I even tested it on some trees and rocks to make sure and my powers are able to damage these objects fine. This is no ordinary block of ice…
With that established, I moved on to step 2 which was to use the crystal on my staff to measure the mana levels. The brighter the crystal's light, the more mana that was used to conjure the spell. More mana means a higher tier spell was used.
As I predicted, it seems quite the amount of mana was used in conjuring this ice block. But something is wrong here… They said that the ones we're tracking don't have much magical abilities, hell they can barely conjure a simple flame spell… So how is it that these same people managed to conjure this ice block? Something isn't making sense…
It may be my paranoia once again but I need to address this feeling or else, it'll constantly be buzzing in my head in the next few days. In order to do that, I returned to the others. They were still asleep when I came back which is good. I need to look back to my previous entries in the last few months. I hope I'm wrong and this is just paranoia…