SB: Chapter 212 – Danger On The Horizon

AN: Delete me.

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“Hmmm,” I hummed lightly, rejecting a Humming skill. My Danger Sense had increased. There was a touch of light. The dark season was almost over. It would be time to leave soon.

Going back inside, my Danger Sense hadn’t decreased. The only beings that could be approaching now were either beastkin or demons. I would put my money on demons, since it was still the dark season. Beastkin wouldn’t be traveling.

“We have trouble approaching,” I said after going back inside to the room with Lanner, Wild Tail, and Ozy. Ozy didn’t like to train up Cold Resistance with me and I didn’t force him. That could incite him to rebel and I didn’t want that.

“Your Danger Sense?” Lanner asked and I nodded. I had adjusted the Compass of Desire to target the nearest demon. And it was moving slightly. Combined with the small increase in Danger Sense, we had a day or two, depending on the strength of the demon. The weaker the demon was, the closer it was.

“But it is still the dark season, how will we travel?” Wild Tail asked with concern.

“We can’t stay here. It will be cold, but we have to move. I don’t plan on fighting multiple demons or even one demon. The risk is too great,” I said.

“You know how bad it is out there. Our blood will freeze before get a kilometer from here. The best option is to hide our presence. I can hide and we can cut down on Mana use. Then once it is time to leave, we make a run for it,” Wild Tail said. I gave him a long look and he closed his mouth and shrunk in on himself.

“Will running be better than hiding?” Lanner asked. I could tell he didn’t want to travel during the dark season.

“Yes. If it is a strong demon it will be a longer period of time before it arrives. If it is a weaker demon and catches up with us, we can defeat it. But even if we hide and prepare traps, the risk is high. Too high,” I said. I had killed two demons already, but I didn’t like either of those fights.

The only reason demons could be returning here was to check for survivors or losing to the Wolf Clan and deciding to come back here. It was better to avoid a conflict if possible. Both Wild Tail and Lanner didn’t understand risk management.

There were six possible outcomes. We stay or leave, and we either fight the demon or we get away. If we fought, could we win, was I stronger than the demon or demons? Staying increased the chances of having to fight. While fleeing now decreased the chances of a fight.

I would be able to easily see an attack coming from a distance if we fled and be ready ahead of time. Hiding in this room in this settlement, would be asking for death, and giving a chance for the demon or demons a chance to prepare.

It was ceding the initiative to them and increasing the chance of a fight. I wasn’t afraid of a fight, but I had won the previous fights because the demons were close combat idiots. If there were two demons then we could easily be overwhelmed.

“How will we travel?” Lanner asked.

“Wear everything you have. I know you found extra clothing around this place,” I told Wild Tail who nodded. He didn’t look happy about leaving, but he could fight whatever showed up if he was that interested in fighting.

Against thinking opponents, especially superior opponents, each fight was a huge gamble. A gamble that I didn’t want to take. It took us half an hour to pack everything up. I wasn’t going to wear armor and Ozy was wrapped around me under the clothing.

I used Clean twice in our room to make sure we left as few traces behind as possible. My Danger Sense was constantly increasing. We set off towards the closest dungeon entrance. It was going to be a trek across the mountains at the End of the World.

As we slowly walked up towards the ridge of the settlement, the wind, the cold all became much worse. This felt like a bad idea, but we needed to get out of here. At least we were headed slightly away from the demon or demons that were approaching the settlement.

Ozy used Greater Refresh a couple of times on all of us to keep our stamina up as we made the trek. We got off the ridge, before I was forced to call a half. We had barely gotten 2 kilometers from the settlement.

Thankfully Ozy was awake this time and made an igloo next to a boulder. Wild Tail heated up the inside with Solar Orb, but even that struggled against the intense cold. I used Fireblade to help things along and to let heat return to us.

The spells ran out as I prepared dinner. Even with the heat turned to max, the portable cook set struggled to cook the stew. It was barely warm coming out of the pot. “This is miserable,” Wild Tail muttered.

“If you don’t like it, you can fight the demons. But I prefer to avoid that kind of fight if possible,” I said. Sleep was cold and miserable. When I woke up, we heated ourselves up again, before setting off.

The cold felt even worse this second day. We managed to put a mountain between us and the settlement before being forced to stop again. We were barely making any progress due to the intense cold, dark, and wind.

But some progress was better than no progress. My danger sense was increasing. The demon behind us was strong. Or there was a group of them. I knew it was a demon, since we left the settlement, I checked with my Compass of Desire on the nearest demon.

The position was rapidly changing and moving towards the settlement. It was a good thing we left, or we would have been wiped out.

The third day of walking through the cold, we didn’t make much progress, but added another 2 kilometers between us and the settlement. My Danger Sense decreased slightly. I didn’t think the demon was pursuing us, which was a good thing.

The fourth day, I felt my Danger Sense rising. Checking behind us as we reached a ridge, I saw a figure behind us on the previous mountain. The amount of Mana the figure had was a lot. It was a strong demon and it was pursuing us.

“Ozy, make a sled,” I ordered as we made our way to the top of the ride. Ozy knew what I wanted from my mind.

“How. Bad?” Lanner asked in between breathes as he tried not to breathe too much.

“Strong, stronger than the previous demons and pursuing us,” I said through the cloth covering my mouth. We all had pieces of cloth covering our faces, but each breath still hurt with how cold it was. Ozy finished crafting an ice sled.

I sat in the front, Lanner in the middle, and Wild Tail in the back. Ozy was still hidden inside my clothing, leaching off my body heat. We took off down the mountain. The cold got even worse as the wind slammed into us. “Left!”

We leaned left and the sled adjusted course. “Right. Center,” I called out over the wind. My companions didn’t say anything with how cold it was. What would have taken at least a day to cross, we covered in a matter of minutes.

We reached the bottom of the mountain. Ozy broke the ice sled apart so the demon didn’t get ideas. We kept going, until Lanner collapsed in exhaustion.

He woke up as he had some warm stew, but none of us were doing good. “How is the demon still alive out there?” Wild Tail muttered.

“Cold Absorption maybe? Some strong skills?” I suggested. My Danger Sense had decreased during the sled ride, but it was going back up.

“We can’t keep up the pace from today,” Wild Tail said while glancing at Lanner.

“I know. When we reach the top of this mountain, the demon will be climbing up. I have a plan. It has a lot of ice and snow,” I replied.

“Like the sled?” Wild Tail asked me.

“Something like that. I have read quite a bit. This is our best chance to avoid combat. We just need to make it to the top of the mountain tomorrow,” I said.

“It will be hard, but we can do it,” Wild Tail said. Lanner was already asleep after eating. The cold was too much for all of us. The dark season was truly brutal.

The next day we set off. I ended up carrying Lanner up some really steep portions, since his little legs were struggling. We reached the top and the demon was rapidly closing in. My companions retreated inside an igloo that Ozy made while I got to work.

Moving along a portion of the ridge, I set up a metal plate with several Mana cores. I pushed my dwindling Mana into the runic circle, which began to draw more snow in front of it. I took out a Mana potion and used it. I then took out two more metal plates, and pushed in the last of my Mana into them. I tossed the metal plates into the snow. “Now,” I told Ozy. My pet unleashed Quake.

The ground shook. And the large snowdrift that had built up began to move down the mountain. It took more and more snow as the avalanche swept up all the snow, ice, and rocks in its path, the route we had climbed up the mountain, and the route the demon was following.

A huge pillar of fire shot upwards as the avalanche reached the demon. It last for a few seconds, before the massive amount of snow pushed forward, snuffing out the spell skill. The demon was buried in the snow.

The metal runic plates I had tossed into the avalanche exploded. Only one was slightly near where the demon was. A shame they hadn’t hit, but it was worth a shot. I retreated to our igloo and began to warm up.

“Did you get it?” Wild Tail asked me.

“Yes, but it is still alive. It won’t die so easily. It will break free eventually,” I said.

“You can’t attack it, while it is trapped?” he asked.

“That would likely free the demon. And it is strong. From what I can see, it is at least as twice as strong as the demons I fought before. That means it is impossible to defeat it. All we can do is keep running,” I replied.

I prepared partially warm stew to eat. There was no way we could keep going right now. At least Lanner couldn’t and my reserves were quite low as well. Wild Tail was hanging on, but I could tell he was exhausted as well.

There was no choice. As the gnomes and the beastkin liked to say, we had to endure. Fighting a demon that strong was asking for death. I was hoping it would deterred or slowed down enough from the avalanche it would give up on its pursuit. That was unlikely, but getting away otherwise would be insanely difficult with the speed it was pursuing us at.