The three walked for a while longer through the forest of dead trees hidden by the blizzard.
Following Elisa's directions, they could avoid most of the trouble.
"Anything on our way or getting closer?" Mark asked as his face turned back.
"Nothing as far as I can tell." Elisa answered.
She was seated on a fallen tree trunk. Krista was by her side.
"Mm. Too bad..."
'Tsk. Wish he would kill them quicker.' Elisa thought to herself while watching the white-scaled Monster pulling its arm out of a huge polar bear's neck.
Mark walked towards the two.
"Do you enjoy making them suffer or...?" She asked.
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean? It's-" The look in Elisa's eyes changed, and Mark knew something was up.
Before he could realize it, she stood behind him.
"RUN!" Elisa shouted.
"Huh?"
The next second, something pierced through the snow a couple of steps away from Mark.
It slowly emerged to the surface.
"That's it?" Mark whispered.
His eyes went back on forth from the emerging Monster to Elisa's back.
"I SAID RUN!" She shouted again.
Mark walked closer.
[Draugr, [F+] Ranked Monster:
Draugrs, also known as Frost Skeletons, are creatures mostly found in regions covered by snow and ice. They can also be found in certain caves and...]
'Do we really have to run away from this...?' He asked himself.
The distance separating him from the emerging Draugr was a couple of steps.
'It looks the same. Similar...'
The Frost Skeleton struggled to push itself out of the snow.
Just like its name suggested, it looked exactly like Skeletons did.
The Skeletons Mark had seen inside the Dungeon.
The Skeleton he used to be. The only difference being that most of its bones were covered by ice.
He lay a hand on the Draugr's skull.
The Frost Skeleton grabbed his forearm with both hands, but despite struggling, it couldn't move it one bit.
'Mm.'
The skull was crushed.
[You have defeated one Draugr.]
"No Experience Points, huh? To be expected, I guess."
Mark looked around him.
A dozen other Draugrs were emerging from below the snow.
'Since Elisa uses the Wind to locate enemies, seeing so many air pathways being created below the snow must have worried her. I guess it's good that she's so careful...'
The next second, Mark realized that the number exceeded his expectations upon seeing multiple Draugrs exiting the same spot at once.
"Dozens... No..."
He was surrounded by slowly emerging Draugrs.
"Hundreds..."
Mark immediately started crushing skull upon skull, hoping to, perhaps, acquire a new Skill by Devouring so many.
But in the distance,
'What's that...?'
Shapes hidden by the blizzard started emerging from the snow.
Monsters much different from those Mark had been decimating.
He couldn't see them in the distance.
But one of them opened its mouth.
Immediately, a freezing mist was emitted and traveled in a straight line.
'If I must...' Mark turned around.
The dozens and dozens of Frost Skeletons separating him from that Monster were frozen solid.
Mark ran in the direction that Elisa had taken.
Due to the snow, he couldn't move as freely as he wanted to.
But that wasn't enough to make the Frost Skeletons that were emerging in front of him a problem.
Plus, snow or not, his speed could not be compared to that of [F+] Ranked Monsters.
It didn't take a while for him to spot Elisa's back.
She ran while holding Krista between her arms.
The Moonlit Feline's eyes glowed in the blizzard, as they stared from above Elisa's shoulder.
"Kind of you to wait for me." Mark said upon catching up.
"If you had run when I told to, I wouldn't have had to."
She upped her speed, and so did he.
They ran forward through the blizzard while Krista stared at what was behind them.
A sea of Frost Skeletons, followed by huge Monsters that had an appearance suitable to be the Draugr's overlords.
"That went well." Mark commented as he ran.
"Could've gone better."
"I guess." Mark chuckled.
"That's not funny. When I say run, you run."
"I'll remember that next time, hahaha."
"Stop..." Elisa jumped over an emerging Draugr. "Laughing. How large is these guys' territory??"
"I guess it's pretty large but..." A Forst Skeleton's skull emerged in front of Mark. "Ah." He didn't slow down or move away. The skull was crushed as he stepped on it. "But... But... Bfahahhaaha!"
Seeing his lack of grace, Elisa couldn't help but crack a smile.
Two Frost Skeletons started emerging in front of them.
Elisa gracefully leaped over the one in front of her.
Mark's crushed the skull of the one in front fo him.
She fought back her smile.
Elisa sidestepped a fully emerged Draugr and kept running.
Mark ran into a Frost Skeleton, immediately blowing it out of the way.
She couldn't fight it back any longer.
Elisa laughed nervously as she ran.
Mark laughed wholeheartedly as he charged into another Frost Skeleton.
'Tsk. So childish...' Elisa thought to herself.
On the other hand, a look of horror was on the Moonlit Feline's face as it stared at the hundreds, if not thousands, of Monsters running behind them.
Noticing that look of horror, Mark's laughter grew stronger.
This ignited Elisa's curiosity, who decided to check that look of horror for herself.
Her nervous laughter continued.
One laughed wholeheartedly.
The other laughed nervously.
The reason behind that difference, was probably that one knew this wouldn't last much longer.
That it wouldn't be possible to laugh this way for much longer.
That, soon, the three wouldn't be together anymore.
The three would soon get separated.
Or rather, would separate.
He knew that, because it was his decision.
And because it was his decision, he could laugh this way.
Genuinely and wholeheartedly.
The journey was a long one.
The remaining distance was still gigantic.
But that didn't matter.
An ending point had been set.
An ending point had been decided.
"Think we lost them." Elisa said.
Still, they continued running for a bit.
"Oh." She suddenly stopped.
"What is it?" Mark stopped a couple of steps further.
"Found a cave."
