The violent humming of the bike scared away all the creatures as we raced towards the snow biome. Cold stiff air and the sight of snow scattered across dirt and grass patches of ground. A sobering sign we were approaching our destination.

“Here’s good enough. Eris get ready.” I absorbed the bike into my ring once we got off.

“Ready!” Eris walked a good fifty feet distance away and shouted.

I never found the right opportunity to absorb the minotaur's beast core until now. This was the second non-attribute core that I’ve been able to acquire. The first time caused an explosion followed by Eris ending up intimate with a nearby tree. This time I retrieved the core from inside my ring making sure not to focus too intently on it. It wasn’t until I trained my eyes on the dark reddish tint of the core. It was like staring in an endless bloody abyss.

The color of the core swirled in my hand until it became dull and lifeless. There was no explosion this time and only the revolting stench of gamey meat being dispersed into the surrounding. I struggled to hold down vomit as the smell of rotting corpses dispersed over time.

Eris waited a good chunk of time before coming over while pinching her nose in disgust. “I hope you don't smell like that from now on. Notice anything different?” Eris kept blocking her nostrils from the smell.

“No, nothing. We probably won’t find out until we get into a fight.” I crouched down ready to carry Eris up the snowy mountain. She made it awkward by insisting on keeping her nose plugged with one hand. Once she was holding onto my back I forced her to use both arms by bolting forward into a quick sprint. It was these silly interactions that I enjoyed the most.

Our speed dropped dramatically the moment my feet fell a good foot or so into the snow. We never ran into this issue last time. It was like the weather was preventing trespassers. This reminded me of the frost wolves creating that blizzard to stop us from going in any further.

My head swiveled restlessly, unable to spot a single monster. That didn’t mean much since the increasing fog reduced our visibility to twenty meters out. My instincts told me we were being watched and any farther up we would be attacked by the wolves.

The fog morphed into a deadly blizzard with sharp pieces of hail being flung around. It wasn’t long until I saw the first pair of floating blue orbs. The eyes of each frost wolf appeared one after another. I counted around eight and that didn’t include the ones remaining hidden.

Eris created a barrier after dropping down from my back to avoid the shards of ice cutting us up. Loud thumping of hail bounced off the barriers leaving a smidge of ice at the point of contact. This made it easy to see the outline of her forcefield.

“Eris, let me out.” I held both unsheathed daggers by my side. Speed was my best option against these wolves.

Charging through the deep snow reduced my movement in half. Still quick enough to stab one of the wolves in front. All of the wolves focused their attention on me after failing to penetrate Eris’s barrier. Things became a breeze with her support as she blocked every attack potentially lethal with a barrier. Five wolves were slain until they started retreating to a safe distance.

The blizzard and fog’s intensity lowered to the point that we could now easily see the retreated wolves. Not only them but the large Siberian tiger from before took center stage and approached us head-on. This time I didn’t have to worry about protecting anyone. It was our long-overdue rematch.

The flared fur and crystal blue fangs shined with a growing brightness. A pulsing heatwave radiated from its blue claws causing the surrounding snow to melt away. Eventually clearing out all the snow to the rocky ground beneath our feet. Its strange power didn’t stop there as steam, slowly expelled from the tiger’s body.

I could feel the attack coming any moment now as I tensed up from the ridiculous movement that brushed past, ignoring me altogether. “Eris!” Before I had the chance to turn around, the tiger had already struck through the barrier.

Blood splattered the ground with Eris’s arm torn cleanly off in the jaws of the beast several meters behind her. I ran over not wanting the situation to get worse and saw the confusion plastered on Eris’s face. She was using her only remaining arm to feel for the missing one in disbelief. It was easy to see the pain in her eyes as the realization sunk in. All it took was one swift motion to render her barrier useless and cause a fatal injury.

By the time I reached Eris, the tiger chomped and swallowed her arm whole. The steam from earlier dispersed rapidly, turning into a heavy mist. It looked like the burst of speed had something to do with the steam releasing from its body.

My hands tensed holding the daggers, trying to devise a plan of attack against an opponent I couldn’t touch. Its target was Eris meaning I knew its trajectory. All I needed to do was intercept its path. Eris’s strained expression recovered the moment her limb started to grow back. This happened in a matter of seconds and felt way faster than her normal recovery speed.

Maybe the tiger felt even more stupefied thinking it won already as it charged more energy throughout its body. The same pulsating heatwave from before burst outwards. This time I got into a defensive stance holding my daggers out front, in hopes of blocking her from any further harm.

Within a fraction of a second, the tiger reached within arm's length intending to plow through both of us. My muscles flexed with as much strength possible to endure the oncoming collision, being the only thing I managed to do in such a short time. I ended up crashing and bouncing into Eris’s barrier, ricocheting like a ping pong ball from the heavy impact. The sudden force felt like my body had turned into a noodle as blood spat out of my mouth. I landed on all fours digging into the snow for purchase to regain any form of stability, unaware of Eris's situation.

I managed to block the tiger’s fangs with my daggers and slow his momentum. If it wasn’t for the barrier's rubbery property, I’d have broken through it with ease. I thought we had a chance until the tiger flashed again after swiping at me. Doubling up by using more than one instantaneous burst of movement. It had all intentions of finishing Eris, regarding me as fodder. The moment I got a good look from lifting my head up from the ground, I saw Eris bounce away like a speeding pinball.

She changed the structure of her barrier after the first attack. The reason why I bounced off her barrier instead of breaking a few bones on impact. She used its elasticity as an advantage to avoid another collapse and injury. Her quick thinking saved both of us and now that she flew like a catapult, I had nothing to worry about anymore. The perfect opportunity had presented itself for some much-needed testing.