A levitating magic sword ferried Kus rapidly across the ground as he passed Crest Way and entered the Wilds. His arrival was anything but quiet—flying so low to the ground kicked up dirt, grime, and dust, alerting many of the forest's inhabitants, who quickly retreated into hiding. Thankfully, it mattered little, as his prey was in the wetnds deeper into the Wilds. He continued in a straight line, weaving between the sea of trees. Before going too far, he ascended past the canopy and into the open sky.

  "Hmmm. The wetnds are... wet..." He rolled his eyes. "That's not helpful. They're in the west." The sun cast a shadow on the canopy below. He waved his hand to confirm he was tracking his own shadow, then observed it for a few minutes. "Yep, it's growing eastward." With that, he flew in the opposite direction of his shadow’s growth. Now above the canopy, the sun’s rays hit him in full. He formed small chunks of ice around his skin to cool off as he continued toward the wetnds.

  As he travelled, he began contempting. "I've never been out hunting on my own for this long before. I'd spend the whole day out here and barely bring back enough for the three of us."

  He stopped in his tracks when he spotted a boar running across the forest floor through an opening in the canopy. He considered hunting the boar and perhaps a lion or two as backup instead of going all the way to the wetnds for a columbolisk. Keeping his eyes locked on the boar, he began forming a cluster of ice above his shoulder. It started as a sphere before growing in length and fttening—he was molding a projectile. However, he abandoned the idea as the boar disappeared beneath the canopy. The ice construct instantly shattered as he resumed his journey westward. "Have more confidence," he muttered to himself.

  Turning back, he could still see the Merchant Alliance's main building, though only the very tip of it. "Prime Way is that far in? How did Aurora get home at nightfall? It would take me far longer!" He tracked his path with his eyes, noting the small huts at the edge of Crest Way. Realizing it would be embarrassing to give up so easily, he pressed on.

  By high noon, he reached the wetnds. A few crocodiles lounged in the mud, basking in the sun—no doubt there were many more hidden beneath the murky water. He dropped a small chunk of ice into the stream. Nothing happened. Still, he had no intention of lowering himself to the water’s surface to confirm his suspicions.

  Venturing deeper into the wetnds, he finally found it--a columbolisk, basking in the sun on the surface of the ke. Its bright yellow scales stood in stark contrast to the murky depths. When something wants to be seen, it’s never easy to take down. But Kus was paranoid—he never fought fair, and he never would. As a rule: If it wants to be seen, it cannot be killed easily. The columbolisk's unique trait? The ability to use wind magic, with its innate mastery, it constantly maintains defensive yer of rotating air, anything that comes into contact with it turns to dust.

  Clusters of ice began forming high above the columbolisk, the sound of crunching ice filling the air as they fttened and molded into swords, their tips all aimed at the target. He extended his hand, signalling his icy infantry to stand ready.

  "How am I going to break through its defence?" A direct assault would simply get its attention, it is more than capable of fighting from a distance. But, Kus doesn't want to give it a fighting chance.

  "If she can do it, so can you." He psyched himself up.

  Aurora's simple and effective advice of "Fight smart", is too generic. How can he be smart about it? As he continued pondering, his eyes widened when he saw his own breath. He gnced at his quartet of magic swords, mist pouring out from it. He never cut off their magic supply, it kept lowering the surrounding temperature. Immediately, he created a yer of rotating air and unched two of his swords into it. The yer froze over instantly, and fell towards the ground. He reformed three magic swords and brought two of them to the same chilling temperature, and made an additional cube of ice.

  The pn is simple: The swords will freeze the water around it and the defensive yer. Freezing the water traps the columbolisk, a stationary target is far easier to hit. The cube to shatter the frozen air and do as much damage as possible before sending the final sword to pierce the skull and destroy the brain.

  Kus' lips dried up and his heart was pounding. This was something that could pose an actual threat. If he fails to deal with the columbolisk, there are two outcomes. One involves fleeing and taking home a boar. Another involves getting help, and is far more humiliating. He told no one of what he's hunting, bringing back a boar meant that he would shame himself, no one else.

  He swung his arm down and his infantry responded with no dey. Two of them flew straight into the water around the serpent freezing a small area around it. It's trapped and a hiss boomed throughout the area, the countdown has started. Waves of wind pulsated across its frozen binds, and cracks spiderwebbed across them. The two bdes moved towards the defensive yer, the cube followed suit. The bdes made contract and failed to freeze the air completely. However, the cube was not completely destroyed and the impact rocked the serpent to its core, the serpent's survival instinct granted it permission to use its limited magic pool to generate a pulse of wind, stronger than the rest. Shattering the frozen bonds, shattered ice and water unched in all directions.

  The serpent hissed, baring its razor sharp fangs and unched a column or air straight at Kus. He narrowly dodged it, but, didn't account of the side effects of the attack. The force generated by the air shoved him off his bde. He was babbling incoherently, attempting to negotiate with gravity, but, she declined his offer and pulled him towards the ground head first at increasing velocity. He snapped his fingers, and a bde rushed towards him.

  The water rocked once more as the serpent unched itself upward with a burst of air, its maw wide open, gale winds wrapped around them. Those fangs would sink into him, the gale winds would churn his flesh from the inside. Even if he did get out, he wouldn't be coming out with something missing. His mind was scrambled, he had no idea what options were avaible to him. He had to act, and he had to do it now. The serpent steered by instinct honed by its many years in the Wilds had no need to ponder what to do, it simply did and it knew what to do.

  The distance between them was less than a meter, and the sword finally reached Kus' hand and he grasped it tightly. Using the sword's momentum, he rushed towards the serpent. There was no precision involved, as ice quickly formed around the sword and his arm, turning it into a massive block of ice, a shield that covered his entire body. The shield smmed into the serpent's maw, it couldn't bite into it, it was too big. But it can definitely unched a column of air. Winds gathered in its open maw as it prepared to attack. The shield glowed as more and more magic was poured into it the air around them began freezing, the winds in the serpent's maw was frozen solid, a ball of ice lodging itself in its throat, choking the serpent.

  A wave of air erupted from the serpent, only to be instantly frozen over by absolutely chilling temperatures from the shield. From the corner of his eye, Kus saw something freeze and he accelerated himself towards the stream by pouring more magic into the shield. The two smashed into the ground at high speeds, the serpent shattered into pieces. The shield's chilling aura froze a small patch of grass around them.

  The shield's best attribute, it's sturdiness was turned against him. The impact travelled through the shield and into his arm which was encased in it, the bone snapped. For better or worse, his entire body smmed into the shield moments ter, knocking the air out of his lungs. One of his ribs snapped, and his scream was soundless. His breath raspy and rapid as he tried to catch his breath.

  Then, a reply from more columbolisks. More booming hisses spread throughout the Wetnds. The ck of a reply meant one of them is struggling or has fallen. Serpents would soon bnket the area, they would either find a heavily wounded survivor to prey on, or to help their fellow columbolisk. Kus had two things to count on to survive. First, fellow hunters who would go to his aid. Second, he had to hide. But how would he hide? He couldn't move, his arm was still trapped in the ice. Clusters of ice formed and shattered, formed and shattered, and formed and shattered. He couldn't focus through the pain, he couldn't conjure anything.

  He knew he couldn't y there. But the pain, the pain robbed all of his focus. His infmed muscles cried out in pain, heat spread throughout his entire body, reddened slightly from the increased blood flow. Waves of pain spread with every difficult, arduous breath, and wet his face with pain. Then he poured more magic into the shield, lowering its temperature future. Frost travelled further, creeping into every nook and cranny, and painted the flora in a gentle sky blue. The cold began to numb his body, dulling his sense of pain. While he waited for his body to fully numb, he covered the area in spikes, jutting out in random directions, preventing direct access to him.

  Finally, the cold completely numbed him. Ice crawled up his shoulder, then his back and eventually covered his entire body. The encasement acted as a shield and camofuge, what reason would a snake have to attack a block of ice? None. They were animals, they had no greater reason behind instinct. His focused returned, clusters of ice formed and were moulded into words, which asked whoever that stumbled upon him for help.