The cold bit into their skins, making their blood run cold on spot.
"What is going on... wasn't it sunny outside..?" Mattie asked as she hugged herself, letting out cold breaths.
Levi though quick and immediately put the bag down and got out three coats out of it and handed them out to the girls. He himself put one on too. The coldness was still severe, but the coats loosened it.
"Did we get transported to another place again..?"
Levi examined the trees nearby, and then turned to look at them.
"No, we are still in the same place. But it seems the view we always saw was an illusion..." His eyes narrowed as he looked upwards, the suns were obscured by the clouds. Most importantly though, there were birds.
"It explains why we never saw any kinds of life-forms despite the The Traveler saying this place had many different species."
Saranda walked forward and tried to look around, however the thickness of the blizzard made it very hard for one to see.
"Talk about luck...."
"So, are you regretting leaving the sanctuary?" Levi jabbed.
"Certainly not. I was tired of seeing the same scenery every day."
Levi's eyes narrowed as he saw a black dot in the distance through the blizzard. He did not think much of it, but when he realized that the black dot was getting bigger, he was immediately alerted as he took his stance with the spear.
"Something is approaching... get ready to fight! Or run..?"
The black dot approached at high speeds, and then suddenly it was right in front of Levi in the blink of an eye, who dodged the collide by throwing himself to the side and landing on the ground ungracefully.
Then he heard sword whistle through the air and something drop on the snow, getting up immediately to see what was going on, Levi was... conflicted.
Saranda was the one who had slashed the black dot, which turned out to be a dark skinned flying fish.
"Uh.."
Everyone stared at the fish that was laying on the snow. It was certainly dead after having its body get cut in two.
"Congratulations on your first kill..?"
"I... don't think that is something worth celebrating, Levi."
Saranda said as she poked the dead fish with her sword. Levi bent down to check its body, the fish was like a normal one, the only difference was that it had a sharp blade on its head, which was nothing unusual, they also had fished that had blades on their head back at earth.
"Its a good thing that you threw yourself, with no grace."
Levi's eyes narrowed as he heard Mattie's words.
"It has been only a minute, yet we are already encountering monsters. By the way, Mattie, can you deduce what ladder it is on?"
"This beast has no magical power from what i can sense. So, it is just a normal animal around here."
"Lets hope it is just an animal."
As he turned to where the black fish had come from, his eyes widened. Out there in the distance, there were many dark dots that were approaching their way.
"Guys... run!"
Levi ran the opposite way, the girls did not get why he was running, but when they saw the black dots in the distance, they realized why and did not waste time on running after Levi.
"Shit! This was not how I imagined out first day! I thought we would kill some epic creatures and return to a civilization easily! But now we are running away from a swarm of fishes!" Mattie screamed as she ran.
However the only answer she was given was the howling of the wind.
The wind was slowly picking up as they ran. Levi felt the small particles of snow fall onto him, sticking to his face and hair. His shoulders already white with snow.
All sounds were muffled other than the sound of his own breathing and the violent sounds of the wind. With each breath he took and let out, white mist would form out from his mouth. This was certainly not the way he wanted their first day out to be.
Behind them, a hundred shapes sliced through the air, each carrying a hiss that drowned the wind itself. It was as if a dark tide was coming towards them, wanting to drown them inside it.
Even if each was a normal animal with no magic power, a hundred of them would be enough to overwhelm a first ladder.
Their steps were getting slower due to the thickness of the snow beneath them. It either kicked up whether they ran, or their feet sometimes sank into it, slowing their progress.
After some time of running, Levi had lost track of time. He did not know how long he had been running, however he knew that his lungs were burning and his legs were begging for a break. They had not lost the swarm, however they had put a great distance between them.
It was only thanks to Saranda's sight that she could tell that the fishes were still chasing them, although it would take them a long while to catch up, perhaps about then minutes.
When she looked forward once again, she realized that Levi was slowing down, intentionally, and then completely stopped. Mattie and Saranda did too.
Snow sticked to his hair, and his coat's shoulders were covered in snow and each time he let out a breath, his breathing would be visible thanks to the white mist forming in front of his mouth.
He was looking forward with cautious eyes, when she looked forward, what awaited her was not pleasant at all.
"Its.. second ladder..."
The thing in front of them was an infected wolf.
The wolf looked completely normal at first, just a white wolf. However the hair on top of it was much longer, like a horse's hair. Additionally its spine had grown some sickly spikes, and its claws were much longer than a normal wolves.
Its eyes burned an unnatural shade of gold, looking directly at Levi.
Levi's skin prickled, fighting a second ladder infected was not something he would appreciate just when he had gotten out into the wilderness. The gap between human ladders was not that great according to the guidebook. However between the infected, the power levels between ladders were great.
The wolf lowered its head. Steam curled from its breath, hot against the freezing air.
Then it moved.
***
The wolf lunged towards Levi, snow kicking upwards as it did so. Its claws slashed through the air towards him.
The wolves movements were a tad bit too fast. The only thing Levi could do was to bring up his spear and enhance its durability and his feet with mana to block its attack. However even then, once its paw clashed against the shaft of his spear, Levi was forced to take several steps backwards just from the force of the attack.
While he was trying to regain his balance, the wolf was already preparing to launch another attack. But it was immediately forced to dodge backwards as it sensed Mattie slashing her saber downwards to cut its head off.
The wolf was about to lunge once again, but Mattie acted first and dashed towards the wolf and slashed her sabers against it. The wolf weaved through her attacks and even parried one with a slash of its claws. However it immediately ran out of her attack zone and lunged towards Saranda, who immediately conjured a water ball and shot it.
However the ball simply blew up in her hand, because due to her stress levels rising the mana did not listen to her commands and failed her. The wolf was about to slash against Saranda, however Levi rammed into it from the side, sending himself and the wolf skidding down the snow.
The first to get up was unfortunately the wolf.
It immediately lunged towards Levi who was in the process of getting up, and opened its mouth to bite into his shoulder. But fortunately before it could sink its teeth deep, a blinding light flashed, blinding it momenterily.
Levi took the chance to enforce his leg with mana and kick the wolf away from himself.
"Are you okay???" Mattie asked worriedly as she stood next to Levi.
"Yes, focus on the fight."
The wolf was getting up once again.
"I have an idea. We are running, follow me."
He took Mattie's wrist and started running away, and as they both began running with Saranda joining them, Levi let go of her wrist.
The fact that they did not ask what his plan was and followed him blindly baffled him. But, that only meant that they trusted him, making him feel things he never felt before.
However it was not the moment to think about these things...
They were on the run once again, with the wolf following right behind them with furious barks and growls. Even if it was slightly bigger than a normal wolf, Levi felt as if a gigantic one was sprinting towards them.
And as for the direction they were running towards...
Levi was leading them towards the swarm. From what he had seen, these fish could not change their flight trajectory easily, and they were not far spread out, so dodging them would be easy if they were fast enough.
As they ran, the dark tide was finally in sight. It was advancing towards them in high speeds. The wolf did not seem to be worried about the fish as it seemed to kept chasing them. It was either not scared of the amount of fish, or simply did not care.
"Levi... what is your plan! We are going to die if he clash with the fish!" Saranda shouted beside him, her voice almost too distant due to the wind.
Then Levi looked at Mattie, who was looking back at him. He pointed at the tall rock just within the zone where they would eventually clash with the swarm. Mattie looked reluctant as she understood his plan, but she eventually nodded.
And then finally it was time to collide with the swarm. Levi's plan was simple, he had seen the tall rock along the way when they ran from the swarm. He was going to use that rock to dodge the advance of the swarm and eventually make it collide with the wolf. This all needed to happen at the last moment.
So when they eventually reached the dodging point, the world around them seemed to slow down. He could see the hundred flying fishes swarming towards them in high speeds, they were so close to each other that it seemed like a dark tide was coming against them.
Mattie coated her legs with mana. With her all around enhancement, she was guaranteed to dodge the swarm.
As for Levi and Saranda, none of them had a good enhancement ability other than Levi's racial ability. So he suddenly pulled Saranda close by holding her waist and activated his racial ability.
Immediately his left eye was suddenly cloaked with a blue fire. As he coated his legs with mana and prepared to lunge behind the rock, as he stepped down blue fire emanated from beneath his feet as he dashed towards the rock while pulling Saranda with himself.
Almost at the same time they hid behind the rock, the fish swarm swept past them and collided with the infected wolf.
Levi's mana reserve was already down to less than half of it due to the high expenditure of the skill. But they had survived, now they had to wait until the wolf killed all the fishes and was weakened, so then they would ambush it.
A deafening howl echoed through the snowstorm, angry and almost pained. What followed it was the sounds of claws whistling through the air and sounds of blood splattering on the ground and bones snapping. The wolf had turned into a hurricane of claws and teeth as it fought against the flying fish.
It was not even long before it became victorious, although with some prices. The wolf had lost a lot of blood and had deep stabs throughout its mighty body. The snow was painted red, a carpet of blood and broken fishes beneath the wolf.
That was when two arrows whistled through the air towards the wolf, which it sensed before they hit it and dodged successfully.
Saranda had finally brandished her bow, standing on top of the rock and challanging the wolf to climb up to her boldly. Which the wolf seemed to take it personal as it prepared to lunge against her, but it was forced to stay back because a spear whistled through the air to stab into it.
The wolf dodged, however the blade still grazed its skin, drawing blood. It was having a hard time reacting to the attacks as fast as before due to blood loss and injuries.
So when the spear stabbed into its side, the wolf did not even have time to react, letting out a pained growl. Before it could pull itself out the blade, its sight was suddenly flipped down.
Because two twin sabers had slashed through its head and was met with no resistance whatsoever.
"Phew..." Mattie let out a breath as she looked at the dead creature in front of her. Looking around, all around her was infested by death and blood. A sight that she could not take very well.
However despite her unease, she played strong and offered a high-five to Levi, who gave it to her without much thinking.
Levi bent down to observe the wolf. Its eyes slowly left its colors, meaning that mana left its body, absorbed by Mattie.
"I feel a little hot... is the snowstorm ending?" Mattie asked as she put a hand on her forehead.
"No, you are advancing towards second ladder. It will take a few minutes for your body to adapt, although it wont be the best experience of your life. I read it in one of the books, your body will get extremely hot."
"If you say so..."
After taking the mana shard of the wolf, which could be sold for money, they decided to get away from here.
And when they had departed that scene, Levi had taken a fish with him.
Although this one was different, instead of being black, it was...
Pink.