Montarg turned back to check on the first Yeti. He had time to see it falling headless forward, collapsing on the ground. Not wanting to waste another moment, he turned and launched himself into the air once more. No time to admire his work, he needed to move.

  Over the course of the next dozen minutes, Montarg tore through two more packs of wolves, one of them before they even noticed he was in their midst. The other group was resting under a heavy rock overhang. Montarg deactivated his boots and, with a stomp from above, sent the overhang and a chunk of the mountainside crashing down on top of them.

  Two more Yetis, both alone, were added to his tally of destroyed Riftspawn with little more effort than a passing glance. He hadn’t been able to notice any elementals as of yet, which was a good sign for the expedition; part of him selfishly itched to find one simply to challenge himself.

  Still, as easy as it had been so far, the information was very useful. Reading reports and figures was important and better than going in blind, but there was no substitute for lived experience. He needed to learn more about these enemies, which was why, when he saw a cluster of heat signatures, he smiled to himself.

  He slowed his approach, moving at a jog rather than a powerful bounding leap. He still raced across the snowy ground quicker than most land vehicles could do. He slowed his approach slightly with the help of his suit and got a better grasp on the situation.

  Three large Yetis were lumbering towards the rift entrance, hauling themselves through the deep snow. Time to test some theories. Montarg reached down and picked up two scooped handfuls of snow; he compressed it and shaped it into a ball. He toned his power down and folded another layer of ice over the top of his ball, compressing it again. He repeated the process a few more times until he had an unnaturally heavy, deep blue ball of ice held in his hand.

  Three was more than he needed to test his theories, and while he was confident, he wasn't reckless. Pitching his arm back he launched his snowball at the closest of the Riftspawn. He held back a little, but he was still gauging the thickness of their hide; the ball left a gaping hole in the creature's head. Its head fell slackly to one side as its momentum carried its bulk forward. The rest of its body collapsed into a limp pile of limbs as it crashed to the ground.

  Montarg maintained a fair distance between the remaining creatures. With the assistance of his visor, he could easily see through the falling snow across the distance; he wanted to know if they could as well. They looked at the corpse of their brethren and glanced around behind them. Throwing their heads back and roaring, they sniffed at the air.

  They looked in this general direction, but at no point did they seem to be able to directly see him. Good, scent-based tracking but vision is impacted by the environment at thirty metres. He dashed to the side to check how quickly they would track him, maintaining his distance. It took a second, but they eventually began to follow his general position.

  He began to approach as the two Yetis spaced themselves out and slowly moved forward, scanning the area and tasting the air and snow. At about fifteen metres away, they noticed his approach. Slowly, and as he zigged and zagged a little, he noticed a delay in their following him.

  He needed to know what sort of threat they might pose to the Turtle when it was constructed. He hoped they never got close enough to try, but he wanted to know their raw power. Moving carefully to place the closest one in the path of the furthest, he moved forward.

  His boots meant his movement was not impacted at all by the snow. Standing on top of it put him almost in line with the beast's shoulders. He kept his eyes peeled for any sign of an ice barrier, but none appeared.

  He calmly approached and the rank breath of the Yeti hit him full in the face. An enormous thick arm rapidly arced towards him, bringing a massive paw towards his face. The claws started thick and sharp but tapered down to a needle-like point, deep, dark, ice-blue blades on course to tear his face to shreds.

  Trying to hold back on his power and speed, he stepped back, ducking his head under the descending blow. He lightly deflected the arm with an open palm and sent it back towards the Yeti as it continued its arc. At least, that was his intention.

  As his palm impacted the arm, even holding back, the force caused a loud crack that must have shattered the bone in the forearm. Instead of adjusting the blow's path, the top half of the arm was pushed towards the creature's body. The paw and claw half snapped back in the opposite direction, flopping uselessly in the air.

  Sighing to himself as he dashed backward a few metres, he was either rusty with his strength moderation or they were weaker than he had assumed. The one he had observed on Zerra looked much sturdier than these did. Granted, they were only physical projectiles—the ballista bolts were heavy and sharp. It was in the process of evolving, so maybe that made it stronger?

  Still, they trudged towards him, pulling their bodies through the deep snow to get to him. The rear one was jostling to pass the now-injured one as it howled at its limp arm. Too slow; he needed them to move faster so he could assess the threat more.

  He held a hand out in front of him and once again channelled a shockwave away from his body. It exploded underneath the snow and cleared a huge area, revealing the solid ground beneath. He jumped down into the cleared area and stood at the back, giving the Riftspawn some space to adjust as they broke into the ring with him.

  Still no shields had appeared; it seemed as if it may only be something they used against projectiles. Either that or the wind and snow itself might break the barrier; he kept his mind alert regardless.

  Montarg needed to take a hit, or at least partially take a hit, to gauge their power. While his body was strong enough that there was little chance he would be injured by it and he could heal any damage immediately, his equipment was another case. It was strong, but if it was damaged now, that would be a major setback.

  He would prefer to avoid taking any damage at all, but his hands were free at the moment; that would have to be the sacrificed limb. The uninjured one had pushed ahead and, now out of the snow, burst forward with a surge of energy.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  It lunged towards him, trying to spear him on the long tips of its sharp claws. He braced himself with one foot outstretched and thrust his hand palm-first towards the oncoming attack. There was a crystalline crunch as two of the four ice-like claws shattered when they collided with his skin, hitting bone as they tried to pierce through him.

  Two of the claws managed to clear the maze of strengthened bones in his hand and emerged on the other side. Braced as he was, however, that was as far as they travelled. As the fingers of the creature collided with his hand, they met a wall of immovable force. A bone-crunching sound rose above the roar of the storm as its paw was shattered by its own momentum.

  The sharp claws snapped off as the paw ground into his hand and was pushed down by the weight of its body pressing forward. Montarg stood his ground and, as part of the Yeti slid underneath him, he lifted his rear foot and stomped down, not holding back his strength. The creature burst apart like a ripe melon. He had only one more test to conduct.

  He reached forward and, sliding the sharp tips of the protruding claws on either side of his middle finger, he yanked them through his hand. Now he had projectiles to test his shield theory with.

  He hopped back about five metres just as the injured Yeti entered the circle. He dropped one of the claws into his injured hand and gripped the other as if he was about to throw a knife. Not being confident he could limit its power, he cancelled his [Body Enhancement], his strength dropping down to only ten times his original.

  Trying to still limit his power, he half-heartedly lobbed the severed claw at the approaching creature. It still whistled slightly, leaving his hand. As expected, the Yeti had seen the approaching threat; holding a paw up, it caused a small rectangular barrier to appear in front of it to intercept the claw. It crumbled away into tiny shards of ice as it pierced the barrier.

  Montarg had really wanted to know if he could shatter that barrier with a shockwave, but it seemed like it would be difficult to test. Not one to quit without trying, he threw the last claw up to his throwing hand while the Yeti watched him warily.

  He cocked his arm back and, with a large and overly exaggerated movement, snapped his arm forward, claw held tightly in his hand. His fingers never released the claw as he faked out the Riftspawn enough to bait a barrier out of it on reflex.

  He stared at the floating rectangle of ice for a moment, inspecting it as he waited for it to fall out of the sky and shatter. It didn't. It remained floating in the air, shimmering slightly as the snow flowed through it without breaking it. Interesting, he noted to himself. Knowing he needed to move on, he pointed a finger at the barrier and channelled a tightly controlled shockwave through it; this one he didn't aid with his own momentum.

  It would probably be around the same power as one of Jack’s shockwaves with his new focus. If he considered the amount of mana Jack put into them against the improvements that came from a Tier 10 ability, that was the closest Montarg could get to replicating that.

  The wave of controlled force shot forward and collided with the barrier. The barrier shattered. The shockwave was sent rocketing off in a completely different direction than he had aimed it. He stroked his chin as he pondered that, flicking the claw at the Yeti with his full force at the same time.

  It tried to react, but before it could raise its arm, the claw was already embedded into its skull. It fell to the ground with an outstretched hand. He wondered what happened to that shockwave—the barrier seemed to deflect it. Some sort of frequency of vibration on the barrier, maybe? Something to mention to Turrel.

  He reactivated his [Body Modification] and checked over his gear; he only remembered his hand was injured as he saw the blood on the snow. He held it up to inspect the two holes in it; the other claws had pierced the skin, but that was all. He shook his head and activated [Heal], focusing it on his hand. It repaired itself from the inside out; Montarg barely looked.

  The last thing he did before moving on was check his mana reserves. He had not been holding back at all, and it showed. He had burned through a third of his mana reserves already; a large chunk was from that last heal, but he was burning through it quickly regardless.

  It would have been a problem if Jack wasn’t coming with them; securing the entrance was worth using the mana for. He would have had to hold back and pace himself for the rest of the expedition, but now, he could keep everyone safe without having to worry about preserving his mana reserves.

  He launched himself high, scanning the area again from a higher vantage point. He blasted through two more solo Yetis and another pack of wolves. On his way back to the entrance, he saw more heat signatures than he had expected.

  As he crashed into the compound without slowing in the slightest, his panic receded as he took in the scene around him. A dozen wolves were smoking and charred, pressed up against the walls of the inner compound. One Yeti was face down in the snow just out of range of the environmental stabiliser; the lower half of its body was damp and starting to frost over.

  The last standing creature was another Yeti. It was stationary, its arms braced in front of its face, while hundreds of fist-sized orbs of water shot towards it. Amira was standing with her hands held high above her head. Floating in the sky was a massive, rapidly swirling ball of water. Every moment, smaller spheres shot out towards the creature, dozens at a time, drenching it as the snow and cold solidified and hampered its movement.

  Axel pointed his index finger at it while a small flame grew at its tip. It grew, swaying back and forth as threads of flame raced down his arm and curled around his shoulder. Rings arced between the two threads, forming a series of flaming rings along the length of his arm.

  “Ready!” Axel called out.

  Amira threw her arms forward and the entire massive ball flew forward and exploded into a wave of water that completely encompassed the Yeti. At that moment, a surge of heat that Montarg felt from across the clearing filled the area. Each ring on Axel's arm expanded and contracted in a line, racing down his hand towards his finger. As they shrunk, their flames changed from red to a bright orange, then yellow, and finally, as it left his finger, a thin blue beam of flame flashed across the clearing.

  A loud sizzle filled the air and a burst of steam expanded outwards from the Yeti. By the time the steam had cleared, the Yeti was face down on the ground, the hole left by the flame no longer visible.

  “Good work, you two,” Montarg said as he approached, confident he wouldn't be getting in the way now the fight was over.

  Shocked, the two turned to look at him and awkwardly smiled.

  “Th-Thank you, Lord Montarg,” Axel stuttered as he glanced between the device and Montarg.

  “I will hold the perimeter for now. The immediate area should be mostly clear. You amplify the device if you can, I want to get everyone in here as soon as possible. Amira, can you head back and advise them to start the transfer sequence?” Montarg said as he walked to the edge of the slowly expanding dome.

  The device would keep the snow away and reduce the impact of the snowstorm. It wouldn't completely negate it, but it would do enough that they could get the Turtle through and loaded up and be on their way. He was confident now they could manage this fairly easily once they started moving. If he could go all out the entire time, it should make things much smoother. Jack coming along was a bigger boon than he thought the man realised.