“Senior Helia, I spotted Ashtarh team leaving the Thunder Region.”
“I knew it!” Helia read the message on her comm and said.
“Phew. Thanks to you, we escaped.” Caleb teleported beside her and looked at her with gratitude.
“Haha. Don’t mention it.” She waved her hand, but her lips curled up in a smug smile.
“So, what do we do now?” Caleb asked.
‘You can’t even think and give me an opinion yourself. Hmph! Pathetic. But well, that’s why you’re a perfect teammate for me.’ Helia thought and said.
“We’re in the snow mountains range, aren’t we? These mountains have a structure on their peak filled with monsters.” She pointed to the snow capped mountains in the distance.
“Clear those monsters and hide there?” Caleb asked.
Helia rolled her eyes. “If you want to be further injured, sure. If we provoke even the top of one mountain, the beasts in all mountains would descend.
Essentially, a beast tide.”
“Gulp” Caleb swallowed his saliva and shook his head. “So, what do we do?”
“No one will dare to disturb the beasts, so let’s stay on a mountain, but far away from the beasts.”
“Ah, I see. As expected of you.”
“Hm. Let’s go.” Helia disappeared and teleported into the distance.
Caleb followed.
*** *** **** ***
“Achoo!” Maissa sneezed as she rubbed her hands.
Looking at the endless whiteness—white land, white sky and even foggy white air, she said. “I hate coldness.”
“…but aren’t you covering yourself with space armor, how come you are still cold?” Tiama asked.
His body flashed a golden light as he moved forward at a great speed, causing ice under him to break in the process.
Ashtarh led the team as he tried to find the traces of Helia.
They were seen by several messengers, but they didn’t care and moved forward.
The best course of action now was to eliminate the heavily injured Helia team.
Ashtarh wasn’t inclined to fight Sarah team.
They were weaker than his team, but were stronger than Helia’s. Besides, there was no guarantee they were heavily injured.
But more importantly, they might not be in the Ice Region at all!
Maissa teleported and appeared in front of Ashtarh, only to be overtaken by him again.
“Achoo!”
Tiama caught up to her and raised a brow. “I get it. It’s psychological. You had a bad experience with ice in the past?”
“Shut up!” Maissa yelled, though she kept her voice in a reasonable range.
“Guys…” Ashtarh’s solemn voice called them. “Get ready.”
Tiama was taken aback and carefully sensed the ground.
He found two pairs of light but fresh footprints.
Ashtarh ‘heightened’ his perception and carefully sniffed the faint scent.
“Follow me.”
He said and shot forward.
Soon, the trio reached a small mountain and concealed their breaths.
“What’s the building above? It looks like a pagoda.” Maissa said, her eyes flashing. “It’s full of monsters.”
Her lips curled up as she tried to stifle her laughter.
“Don’t even think about it.” Ashtarh’s voice came from the front. “If we attack that one building, beasts on every mountain will descend.”
“Then isn’t it too dangerous? What if Helia is pushed to the brink and attacks the pagoda herself?” Tiama asked.
“She can totally do it. That’s why, Maissa, stay on guard and stop them. Tiama and me will attack.”
“Alright.” Maissa nodded.
Even though she liked to fight, she still understood the priority of things.
Ashtarh and Tiama glanced at each other and nodded.
Their bodies blurred and leaving after images, they shot up the mountain.
“Wait, what?” Suddenly, they heard a scream and the next moment, Helia and Caleb appeared outside a cave.
Their expressions were full of shock and horror.
“You…did you come alone?” Helia asked, watching Tiama racing towards them with his lightning wings.
Tiama didn’t answer and conjured two lightning bolts and shot towards them.
“Fuck!” Cursing, both Helia and Caleb teleported and escaped from the attack, appearing almost a mile away.
Caleb’s instincts suddenly screamed at him and he wanted to teleported right away.
But his injuries delayed him for a split second and that was all it took as Ashtarh’s fist connected with his neck and a silver light flashed from his body.
It was a fatal hit and Caleb was eliminated.
“Y-You! Ashtarh!” Helia teleported far away as she exclaimed in fear.
“H-How did you find me?! Dammit!”
Ashtarh and Tiama didn’t care about her words and sprinted towards her.
“Don’t come! Don’t come!” She yelled hysterically as she teleported indiscriminately, barely avoiding Tiama’s lightning bolts and Ashtarh’s punches.
‘How? How did they find my location? Wait, is this all a plan by that bitch Ahri?’ Helia suddenly thought of everything that transpired and widened her eyes.
“Fuck! You and your sister are both cowards. You had to—”
Zap!
Boom!
A lightning bolt greeted her and Helia realized she couldn’t even afford to speak freely.
Due to her injuries, she wasn’t in an ideal condition.
She didn’t even try to attack and only tried to escape. But they were quickly catching up to her.
From the mid section of the mountain, they were now on the top of the mountain.
Helia saw the pagoda filled with beasts and her eyes lit up. “Go! If you dare to attack me, I’ll attack the pagoda and we’ll all go down together.”
The expected response didn’t come.
All that greeted was the same old lighting bolts and deadly fists.
Helia’s eyes turned red and she clenched her fists.
“F-Fine! You’ll get what you fucking deserve!” She disappeared and appeared beside the pagoda.
Channeling her space power, she was about to create a huge space explosion inside the pagoda.
Once it happened, the beasts regardless of the mountain would be enraged.
Not just the beasts on the top, but also those below and also on the other parts of the mountain.
Eve though she was losing, she wanted to see the look of despair on Ashtarh’s face who brought her to this loss.
But all she saw was calmness.
Then suddenly, the space around her solidified.
In that moment of shock, Ashtarh appeared in front of her and punched at her chest.
“NO!!!”
A silver light flashed and she was eliminated, leaving behind the flag.
Ashtarh caught the flag and glanced at the pagoda.
He heaved a sigh of relief.
“Let’s go to the Vine Forest now.” He said.
Tiama and Maissa nodded and they descended down the mountain.
When they were half-way down, Ashtarh’s eyes widened and he turned to his right, and stared into the distance.
“…an explosion?”
All he saw was a small flash of gold and then…
The earth started to shake.
“Earthquake?” Maissa paused and frowned.
“…doesn’t feel like it.” Tiama also paused and glanced around.
Ashtarh suddenly turned to the peak of the mountain and exhaled. “Look at the top.”
Maissa’s jaw dropped and she rubbed her eyes.
Then she spread her space sense and saw the whole picture.
“Run!”
The trio dashed down the mountain.