I’ve drawn my spear from my bag, gripping it tighter than usual.

The laughter hasn’t gotten any quieter, but I’m slowly growing accustomed to it. Anya is ahead of me, and has been since we left the gate. She’s flying through the forest at an incredible speed, far faster than I would’ve ever thought. It seems as though she has quite the affinity for magic. No wonder she hasn’t died yet.

On that note, I still have no idea what is threatening the adventurers in Ochseid. The most I know is that the Ice Elves have been terrorizing the people leaving through the north gate, but so far we haven’t encountered them yet. They’re either beyond the forest or waiting for their chance to strike in an area we can’t see them.

Other than that possibility, we’ve flown past several white wolves. They look vicious, and just as hungry. Fortunately for us, we’re making such a pace that they couldn’t follow us even if they tried. I can only imagine how terrible this area would be for people who don’t have any sort of movement abilities.

The forest is thick with mist and low greens, neither of which obstruct our running, but make the path ahead of us uncertain. I’m sure that if I didn’t have Anya here, then I would have no idea where to go.

We run like this for some time with no problems other than the constant vibrations.

I’ve seen no monsters that could possibly have made these noises, so I’m constantly wondering how this horrendous sound is being emitted. In fact, we’ve run into such little obstruction that I begin to take the liberty of taking in my surroundings while absentmindedly following behind my guide. This was an extremely uninformed decision, because as soon as I turned my attention away from her, she stops suddenly and starts to channel a wind spell. A current of mana flows into her right palm, gathering the air into a compressed blast.

She fires it into the forest ahead of us in a wide cone, and the mist clears. With the scene ahead of us, I almost wish she didn’t just do that.

There’s several ice yeti crouched in a circle, taking turns reaching down into the middle. I can’t see what’s in the circle, but I don’t need much of an imagination to know what it is. There’s enough red staining the yeti’s white fur for me to know.

It’s the last party. Looks like the elves didn’t get them after all. I’m sure I could’ve heard the crunch of metal armor if I wasn’t completely deaf right now.

The yetis don’t notice us at all, and continue to devour their meal wholeheartedly. For the first time, I’m glad that the laughs are so loud. I didn’t think that I’d ever be thankful to have such an invasive cacophony to hide our whereabouts.

While I think this, Anya decisively opts to avoid beasts entirely. She darts to our immediate left, and then continues in a straight line past the yetis, and I’m right on her tail. She doesn’t seem very surprised at all. Was this really the same experience she explained to me before?

From her explanation of how she generally went about these missions, I had imagined her shyly following behind strong adventurers, waiting for them to kill weak monsters, and then healing their minor flesh wounds. This was absolutely nothing like that. This was bordering on warzone levels of brutality. Anya was hardened, if nothing else.

This whole time, I thought the adventurers in Ochseid were at an advantage. It seems as though I was mistaken. They were being slaughtered out here, all for the chance to achieve money and fame. Lots of good that did them.

Was this what Kralbed adventurers had to look forward to after leaving their easy-ass town of boars and harpies? If this was common, the ones I killed should be grateful.

I spared them from a fate like this one.

We continue running through the forest with no end in sight. The mist only gets thicker, and the greens become less and less abundant. Anya stops more and more often to clear out mist, and we narrowly avoid encounters with yetis because of it.

Some of them are within twenty meters, so I get a very close look at them. They’re extremely large primates with long white fur, about six meters in height and two in width, and muscled from their head down to their toes. Their faces are gray and wrinkled, shaped into a permanently angered expression, with their eyes carrying a hollow and shadowed look.

Their intimidating appearance is not lost on me. With no way to communicate with them through the mother tongue, I doubt they’ll be very friendly with a creature that looks like a human. That means I’m just as fucked as Anya is if they decide that we’re worth enough to chase. Here’s to hoping that they don’t.

We run for about five more minutes, and Anya fires one more blast of wind into the forest. It clears out the road ahead of us and reveals the edge of the forest briefly before the mist replenishes itself. Beyond it, there is only snow and small sprouts of purple.

Our targets. We should get them as quickly as possible and then leave.

Or so I thought.

Instead of sprinting, Anya opts to crouch down into a stationary position, despite the flowers being so close. She grabs my arm and pulls to prevent me from moving forward. It’s a good thing she does, too, because I almost sprint full-speed ahead like we’ve been doing this whole time. I stumble backward into a crouch next to her. I look at her questioningly.

She puts a finger to her mouth and creeps forward. We do this until the edge of the forest is visible through the mist. Anya covers her eye and begins to channel a new spell, holding her right palm upward. A very small ball of wind floats above it, and after enough time, a black spot forms in the middle. Anya, still covering her eye, sends it up into the sky.

We sit there for a while, completely unmoving. After a short time, the ball returns to Anya’s hand. She grips her hand into a fist, and the ball dissipates. Her figure is lined with a green light, and she pokes my forehead with her pointer finger.

An image of the landscape from above immediately fills my mind. There are fifteen purple spots in the snow, but amongst them, very noticeable blotches of a dirtied white.

Yetis, and this time we don’t have the cover of the forest to hide us.

Most of them were on the left side of the clearing, while the purple spots were on the right. This was probably the best case scenario. Anya seems to think so as well, visibly relieved.

She points to her right, and we slowly stalk to the right side of the forest clearing. After what seems like forever, Anya seems to be satisfied with the spot we are in. She stops, takes a deep breath, and looks me in the eyes. They’re filled with determination.

She holds up three fingers, signaling a countdown. I nod to acknowledge her intentions. She turns back around to face the clearing, still holding up her fingers.

She lets one drop.

Cold sweat wets my brow.

And another.

Anya shakes in anticipation.

Her hand closes into a fist, and we sprint out into the clearing with no hesitation.