(Zack)

"Why are we moving quietly?" Gavin whispers.

"It probably has to do with the monsters up ahead," Braden whispers. "Though considering what they are, I doubt they have ears?"

"You never know," Max whispers, Luca looking at them from his back. "All sorts of weird things can hear. Me have seen flowers that turned at sound. They be flowers. No ears at all!"

"What's up ahead?" Gavin asks.

"An Ice Lord and some slimes," I answer without whispering, and Gavin gives me a worried look, though I know it's at the sound.

"Also," Luca says, speaking normally. "We were doing it to see how long it would take you to ask."

"We're crunching the snow under our feet," Braden says. "As we walk. Lots of noise."

Gavin groans as he finally understands why we had to be quiet when we were walking through thick snow, making noise just by taking steps. He is just way too fun to prank. And too easy.

"Aren't Ice Lords notoriously powerful?" Gavin asks. "More so than the stuff we've fought before?"

"Oh, definitely," I nod. "They're the main reason we're in the special zone, actually."

"He did mention that," Braden says.

"When?" Gavin asks.

"Awhile back," I answer. "Remember? The reason I wanted to come here was to fight some stuff here that I'd fought back when I was weaker?"

"Oh, right," he says. "The Ice Lord was one of them. I remember hearing about the blizzard it made."

"Yeah," I nod. "The four of you wouldn't be able to do anything to it, but that's not why we're here. We're here so I can kick its ass."

"You do that, Lord Zack," Luca mumbles sleepily.

"Don't worry, Luca," I tell him. "We'll reach the next City before nightfall."

"I'm not worried," he yawns. "Just tired."

"Let's keep moving," I nod.

It takes only a few more minutes before we reach the clearing with the Ice Lord in it. This one resembles the other one, with an ice-like body, two arms, two legs, and head. Its head and shoulders have spikes of ice jutting out of them, and it's watching us intently.

Ice Lord Level 25 Health: 832,529 Mana: 543,284

So this one's more powerful than the previous one. Nice!

"You guys take care of the slimes if you want," I say. "I'll deal with this fucker."

I approach the Ice Lord as Max decides my instructions mean 'Flame Lance the hell out of the slimes'.

"So," I crack my knuckles. "Are you a blizzard fucker, or just a fucker?"

It screeches in response, reminding me about that attack of theirs. My team reacts to it, Gavin and Braden most affected due to their lower Willpowers. Luca's able to mostly resist, but he still falls off of Max's back as the mage-like Dark Knight yelps, covering his ears and shaking hard.

I stop the screech with a well-placed fist to its stomach, taking out a fair bit of its Health and cracking the fucker. Several spikes immediately jut out of it as it attempts to impale me, but I withdraw my hand too quickly, then block its kick.

The Ice Lord and I begin sparring. It's way slower than me, though, so most of our sparring involves it attempting to strike me, me blocking, and its ice cracking, then repairing. Every time it repairs, its Mana drops a little, even if its Health doesn't increase.

This one performs more attacks than the other one. I'm guessing being out of its domain had caused it to act in an inferior fashion to its norm. As we spar, this one begins to create spikes anywhere I'm to hit, only to find my limbs moving to avoid them. So it gets smart.

Well, smarter. I actually have a high enough Endurance that the spikes aren't actually hurting me, and that's when they strike my flesh. I'm so glad I sent my tunic away, though, or I'd have a serious sewing job to do.

The beast even noticed that anytime it struck my armor – anywhere on my body – its spikes broke, so it's begun aiming at the fleshy parts. I'm assuming it's trying to pierce harder, though it's failing.

We continue to trade blows, the Ice Lord losing more Health even as it repairs the cracks, and the monster even starts using Ice Spike against me. It's a stronger attack, and not just a part of its body. It surprises me when it pierces my stomach. That's one disadvantage to the armor on my torso covering only my chest, but whatever. The pierce itself wasn't that much, and only took out a few Health.

Definitely manageable. As I recover from the shock, I feel the wind pick up, snow beginning to pelt us.

Crap. It used the moment of shock to activate its blizzard-summoning ability.

I definitely need to end this quickly. I place a hand to my stomach and generate flames, burning away the blood that came out before I'd healed, then I charge forward as I take on Eidolon Form. My next punch strikes the beast in the face, and its head pops up.

The pair of messages for killing it and my loot appear, and I'm pleased to see that I received the full amount this time, rather than the half amount I got when Normar helped me.

It takes a few seconds for the Ice Lord to melt away, leaving behind its core, which I grab, then hurry over to my team as I turn off Eidolon Form. I open up my Inventory and pull out a rope and my tunic, and instruct my team to tie themselves into a line with some slack between them. As they do that, I remove my breastplate and pull on my tunic, then the breastplate again. A minute later, it's my turn to tie myself into the line, and I tie myself to the front, before activating Eidolon Form again.

"Everyone, gather up," I instruct. "And hold onto the rope as much as you can."

They do as I instruct, then I soar upwards, before taking off towards the next City, flying at a speed all four of them can handle without taking damage from the air friction or whatever the hell it would be. The speed of the wind against them.

We reach the next City relatively quickly, the blizzard still picking up, and I have Aura of Heat active to ensure my team is warm. Max seems to like it, but the strange response is Luca feeling comforted by it.

It's only as we land that I remember that when Luca's weak, he can sense my inner flame, and that had helped him with his brother's death. Feeling my Aura of Heat must be reminding him of that.

I land in the Fallen City and drop my team off at a house that seems in good condition, then head to the altar to restore the City Barrier. As soon as it's back up, I zip around the City and kill everything I can, including Alexander's avatar, because I really don't have time for it right now.

Once that's done, I rush back to the house, where Max, Gavin, and Braden are covering up what holes there are in the walls with thick blankets, Luca sitting by a Heat Lamp in one of the bedrooms, which had already been secured. I wasn't even aware they'd gotten those stones. At least we know we'll have warmth for awhile.

In this house, the kitchen can be accessed both inside and outside, and it looks like Max and Gavin worked together to cover up its entrance. It's only as I'm looking around do I realize there are no monsters at this house.

Did I really get that lucky?

Well, whatever.

With our camp for… awhile set up, I make sure everyone is warm, and we gather around the warming stone. I pull out food for us to eat and set it out, then we eat in silence.

"The blizzard can last anywhere from a few hours to a few days, right?" Gavin asks, and I nod. "Why didn't you just punch its head off at the start? Wasn't the whole point of that to show just how much stronger you were than the last time you fought one?"

"I would have failed," I shake my head. "It had too much Health. The less Health it has, the weaker its body becomes. As its Health dropped, the ice which made up its body weakened. Every punch cracked it more. Plus, I hadn't expected to take damage. Had I not stopped in shock for a moment, it never would have been able to cast the blizzard summoning spell it has. It takes it a few moments, which it can't get if it's constantly attacking or defending. Just a bit of luck on its part."

"So we'll be stuck here for awhile," Gavin sighs.

"Just until the blizzard ends," I say. "Maybe a day or two longer. A week at most, once it's over. The monsters will start clearing paths on their own, and that happens rather fast. Trust me on that."

That's also when the fun begins. I'll have to remind the team about Snow Wolves, since my sight says there will be enough snow for us to encounter them.

I could just fly us out of the arctic forest and the range of the blizzard, once it's over, but there's something else I want to kill here. Plus, we're just here for an adventure, killing time until Bryce kills the Shadow of Life.

As I think about Bryce, we finish our dinner, then put everything away as the team, exhausted from our trip into Lost Territory so far and having extra time to rest, sets up blankets and pillows on the floor for bed.

The four of them change into their nightclothes, then crawl onto their makeshift beds and cover themselves with blankets, passing out almost immediately. I watch them as I think about Bryce, just in time to feel his gaze upon us.

This time, his projection of sight is a point at the entrance to the room, and I can tell he wasn't expecting this. I wave to him, then shut him out and activate my own sight to look at him.

Bryce is still in the hot region, his hair sticking to his head from the heat. When I push, I can see that he's even higher in Level than he was the other time I looked at him. Right now, he's sitting under a tree, drinking water. He holds up a finger to tell me to wait a moment. I guess he's got some sort of message.

Then he points down, and I notice markings on the ground, drawn in with the nearby stick, no doubt. Not words, but images. It only takes me a few moments to decipher them and realize what he's saying. He wants to meet up, face-to-face. It's not something to rush, based on the location he wants to meet us. If I remember the maps I'd seen correctly, he wants us to meet up after the forest ends here, past a swamp, actually.

There's no way he'd make it there quickly, which is how I know it's not a rush. We have a few weeks. A month or two, maybe, depending on how our own trip goes and how his trip goes.

My brother gives me a full minute before shutting me out, and once he does, I stand and stretch, then change into my own nightclothes. We both have sound with our sight, so he could have just told me whatever it is he wanted to meet up about. I know he's feeling a little lonely, but he's also dealing with it by looking at us.

If he looks at us again after I shut him out, I know he's coping with traveling all alone. If he doesn't, then I just look at him to see what he's doing, and he gives me a cheeky response.

It's nice pattern we have, even if it's not really all that old. Just like me, he can handle being alone as long as a minor condition or two is met. Whatever he wants to meet up with us about, it might not be important, or if it is, it's something which can wait.

With anticipation for what the future brings, I crawl under my own blanket and allow myself to fall asleep.