Knives & Levels - Chapter 106

Nick huffed in the corner of the cavern. To Nate’s eyes, the man was far too pale and light-skinned. Thankfully, he had Julia next to him. A small but refined water barrier was drawn close around the two of them to help Nick regain whatever strength he could. Deep down in the cavern, it was easier for her to use her spell without the cold leeching away its power.

Without a healer, this method was the only way to give him some semblance of a chance of living.

But the crux of the issue was that Nick had expended so much of his mana and vitality, sealing his foot from bleeding, and then somehow struggling his way after Nate. And now this was the consequence of that act. He was barely surviving and praying that his Endurance would be enough to recover from the injury.

Nate felt pride as he looked at the man, even though he was struggling on the ground, half alive. They all knew now that Nick had finally chosen the right thing at the end of the day. It was unfortunate, though, that it had happened at a time like this, with his damage and the danger it now put them all into. They couldn’t run.

He supposed the sacrifice would’ve meant nothing without this kind of danger.

Sarah let out a puff of frustrated air next to Nate. Like him, her eyes were locked on the entrance to the cave. She was alert to the very real possibility that this brief 20-minute rest might be the last rest they ever had.

There was no sign of Colt; equally, there was yet to be a sign of a Yeti.

Several times, when Nate heard the shifting of ice outside, as he heard the storm raging far above, it sounded as if something might be stepping into the cavern—a beast of a man clinking down to where they hid, with the intent to kill and devour them all. Several times, he thought that this was the end, that despite their best efforts to flee, they were doomed to die at the hands of the Yeti. But that hadn't happened, just like another fake version of the Yeti hadn't formed after they’d defeated those two.

He’d been so sure another would pop into existence and stress them further… But instead, they’d gotten a reprieve and their chance to retreat and hide.

It was possible, he supposed, that by destroying the Yeti and then fleeing, it hadn't been able to track them any further. They might have been able to outrun its ability to detect. Nate had run quite far, as far as he could manage with Nick. When he got tired, Sarah took the burden of carrying their ally, as she was the one with the second-highest strength.

But it wasn't an exact science—how could fleeing blindly through a blizzard, then finding a cave, going down in it to hide, be an exact science? It was an act of faith. They holed up and hoped against all hope that a monster wouldn't be able to find them. Not too far from a prayer, the trust in faith and luck that reminded him of their early days cowering in the kitchen. And Nate didn’t like that one bit.

"Right now, Donnie would be telling us to make some soup if we were back in the kitchen," Nate grumbled to Sarah, trying to lighten the mood as the girl next to him rocked back and forth.

"I couldn't even punch it," Sarah said, shaking her head. "If I just got one punch in, I would have gotten stronger and been able to hit it and then break it, and it would have been nothing." She brushed past his joke as if it didn’t exist at all.

Alright then.

"One punch on any of us would’ve been trouble. That isn’t a surprise. So, it countered you. As much as we look at Colt's weaving around, death-defying with his Edicts and tossing around slashes of destruction, you have to remember that even he could be against a bad matchup. You’ve heard about it with the phantoms. That’s the strength of working with a team,” Nate tried to reassure her.

She sighed. "You think he got out?"

Nate looked at the darkness above. "Even if he did, we won’t see him for a few days."

"What do you mean?" Sarah asked.

"Well, it's simple," Nate explained. "Considering the danger we just ran across and the fact that we fled for our lives, if Colt made it out with his life, he'd be keeping a low profile. Just like we'll be doing until we agree to meet at the Academy. Get as many levels as possible, and keep our heads low.”

“Shit." Sarah shook her head, and stopped rocking for a second, her eyes glancing to him. "If you're still thinking about the Academy...”

"Yes, we really don't have a choice. We got the quest. If we don't kill that thing before the deadline, then God knows what will happen to us. So we have a time limit, and that time limit is going to lead us to the academy." He rolled his shoulders. "We'll rest here for now for a good five hours. And then we'll make our way down the slope as far as possible. We'll assume that the Yeti will probably spend the next day hunting where we were, assuming that it doesn't just come down this tunnel right now and end us. If we make it out of here, we go back to hunting as much as we can."

"That's crazy." Sarah shook her head, and tightened her fist. There wasn't any other alternative, Nate knew. It wasn't necessarily the best plan, but in a situation like this, it was the only plan that they could have. She gave a tired sigh as she rocked back and forth, watching the entryway, waiting just like he was to see if all their running had been meaningless or not. Knowing, just like he did, that even if the Yeti were to appear, he and she would go down fighting.

Nate flexed his hand, feeling that blue fire form once more. Its warmth was like that of the cosmos. He let it linger for a second. The warming sensation combated the cold around him, putting him into a state of equilibrium. With it, he didn't need Julia's power to conjure a protective barrier.

This was enough to sustain him, with all the rest he could hope for. He waited, watching the dark, hoping against all hope that Colt had managed victory somewhere above.

###

Colt stared at the slope above him, putting at least 10 miles between him and the Yeti with as many pulls of Movement as he could dare to muster. His body was shivering from the cold, his breath with every puff condensing into a white cloud of mist. He felt, above all, tired.

He could see the blizzard raging miles away, the wall of white shifting on the slope. Every now and again, he heard a wail of anger behind him as the Yeti continued to protest there, searching, he knew, for the one who had cut half of its hand clean off. Colt smirked at that, his free hand gripping the claw.

In it, he felt the latent properties of ice, blizzard, and rend lingering within the offending limb. The laws that governed what the Yeti was capable of held on to the detached weapon, infusing it with a sort of not exactly magical strength and a physical weight that felt not too dissimilar to the dagger that Nate had forged for him.

A weapon like this could potentially do well against other creatures here. The ability to cleave through ice felt like something that might be graspable to a person like him with such a versatile wield of his soul and the Edicts around them. At least, he hoped. He might just be clinging to it as a sign of his victory against an unconquerable foe.

The fight against the Yeti had drained him. But it hadn't been for nothing. Putting his life on the line and straddling the edge of death to delay and buy time for his allies had resulted in a couple of noticeable advancements.

———

Knives/Daggers Proficiency (Advanced) has gained a level!

Olympic Physique (Intermediate) has gained a level!

Phantom’s Gambit (Intermediate) has gained a level!

Soul And Mind Fortitude (Intermediate) has gained a level!

———

Despite not getting a ‘kill’ to advance his overall level, the sheer results driven by pushing himself to his limit against the Yeti were their own reward. There was something to be said about the overwhelming power that levels and stats brought, but they provided limited returns without the correct skills and Edicts to back them up.

He felt good about it, and was surprised too that he saw Olympic Physique gain as well—maybe ‘surviving’ against the Yeti or accomplishing his goal had been enough of a victory to make that too tick over to the next level.

Colt kept trudging downward, still moving toward the Academy far below. Though he'd sworn to his friends that they’d meet up there in three days, things had changed. That Yeti had put things into perspective, and it would be some time before they could see him again—he needed to change tactics.

That Yeti had been strong. Too strong. He needed power if he had any chance at all to tackle a foe like that. It wasn't the sort of power that he could gain sitting there hunting barely present monsters. Knowing their time was limited, he had to advance and push harder.

This meant the best path to victory was to reach the Frozen Academy and start targeting whatever might call that place home. There was a simple fact of life: people and things tended to congregate near buildings. Sitting here in a wasteland tundra and expecting an abundant experience from hunting down monsters under these conditions, where things were hiding the best they could, was a fool's errand.

Worst-case scenario, he would end up dead just like he was liable to do up here anyway, with a Yeti far above him and pissed off and trying to hunt him down. 

So instead, he’d go down there, pray that there were more monsters he could fight and actually stand a chance against, and then maybe—if he was lucky, skilled, and determined enough—manage to stack on enough levels to actually fend off the Yeti next time he ran across it.

There was only one issue… Despite being out of the fight, his breath was still hard to come by. His body was still strained. The supernatural recovery he’d grown used to wasn’t here. Leeched away by the environment around him, stealing his strength and making it impossible to return.

First, he’d have to solve that problem before he got in a fight.

Colt spun the new knife in his hand. It wasn't exactly a knife, considering it was the removed claw of a Yeti, but it would function well enough for him. 

As weak as he was, this would be a good weapon against any ice-based creatures in this world. There appeared to be two very effective methods for dealing with Edicts. Overpower similar Edicts with more powerful edicts, or destroy them with an Edict that opposed it or had a weakness against it.

With that in mind, this claw might just be his key to victory, donated so kindly from a level 99 monster that had been hellbent on killing him.

Colt rolled his shoulders, looking down below at the blackened Academy. He was going to jump ahead on their plans, but deep down he knew it was what he had to do. He could only hope that his allies would meet him down there in three days and somehow find enough levels in themselves to keep up, or come to the same conclusion as him and try to get the hell away from the Yeti up here.