“Miss!”
Anna hurriedly ran towards Silbern Caldias, calling out to her.
But Silbern quickly straightened her posture and clenched her teeth.
“I’m fine!”
Though she couldn’t exactly call herself unscathed after being hit by the Yeti’s throw, Silbern shook off her hand and defiantly gripped her spear with both hands again.
“Tingling, tingling.”
The Yeti played with human skulls as if they were balls.
And then.
“Kyaaaah! Aaah! S-save meee!”
Sharen Helmunth, being consumed by the black liquid oozing from Polu Blackson’s body.
“Sharen!”
In the sudden, dire situation, Isaac was the quickest to move.
“Stay still!”
“A-ah, Aaah! Aaah!”
Sharen grabbed Isaac as he approached her. The black liquid writhing on her chest was spreading rapidly.
Isaac tried to calm the panicked Sharen, who was desperately pleading for her life.
“Save me! Save meee!”
“Ugh! I got it, so calm down and let go of my hand!”
Even though she was just a 17-year-old girl, the grip of a Helmunth direct descendant was something Isaac couldn’t withstand.
No matter how much he tried to shake off her hand, Sharen was already in tears and completely out of her mind.
“Calm down!”
*Whack!*
Finally, Isaac swung his hand and punched Sharen in the face.
It wasn’t like it hurt much or left a wound, but…
“A-Isaac?”
Sharen, unable to believe he had hit her, momentarily loosened her grip.
“Stay still!”
In that brief moment, Isaac grabbed the back of the spear’s blade and pressed it against Sharen’s nape.
*Whoosh!*
Sharen’s clothes were torn in a straight line, revealing her pale skin.
Isaac tore off her top and threw it away, and the black liquid clinging to it writhed as it devoured the fabric on the ground.
“Done! Sharen! It’s done!”
“Huh, huh?!”
Sharen frantically felt her body with both hands. Confirming that the black liquid was truly gone, she burst into tears and clung to Isaac.
“Waaah! Isaacc!”
“Snap out of it and let go! It hurts!”
This wasn’t the time for this, and with the strength of a Helmunth, Isaac could easily break a bone.
While Isaac was dealing with Sharen, Meladik Drakemore was watching Polu Blackson, who was trembling on the ground.
“Polu?”
The black liquid continued to pour from Polu’s mouth and wounds.
Meladik watched helplessly as the liquid began to engulf Polu.
“Don’t get close!”
Isaac warned Meladik while still trying to detach Sharen from him.
He then immediately checked on the Yeti, where the battle had already begun.
*Clang!*
“……”
Silbern silently swung her spear, deflecting the Yeti’s bone club.
In the rapidly changing situation, Silbern, with her lips tightly sealed, looked as calm as a veteran, but…
‘This is bad.’
Isaac knew better.
She was pretending to be calm, but she was acting more emotionally than anyone else.
Just moments ago, she had agreed that it was time to retreat.
But as soon as she clashed with the Yeti, she was swinging her spear as if her life depended on it, trying to kill the creature at all costs.
“Anna! Grab Silbern and Sharen’s greatsword!”
“Yes! Understood! Miss! Snap out of it!”
Isaac finally hoisted the trembling Sharen onto his back.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have the strength to carry Polu as well.
“Meladik, leave Polu for now and let’s escape-!”
“A-ah, Isaac?!”
Meladik’s voice was filled with confusion.
As he turned his head, he saw Polu, now engulfed in the black liquid, slowly rising as if being lifted by it.
“Forget it, just run!”
As Isaac started running, the others followed suit.
Silbern bit her lip hard enough to draw blood and turned her back to the Yeti.
Meladik shouted an apology to Polu as he took the lead.
“Let’s gooo!”
The Yeti, following behind, didn’t pass Polu.
To the Yeti, Polu was just another human, and it swung its massive bone club sideways, but…
The black liquid blocked it, and the battle between the Yeti and the black liquid began.
The two threats turned their attention to each other.
Silbern’s scouting party managed to escape.
* * *
*Crack!*
By the frozen stream.
A sharp noise echoed through the snow-covered ground, startling a rabbit into fleeing.
Silbern’s head turned to the side as she was slapped, and she looked at the man who had hit her.
“That was the worst.”
Isaac’s words pierced Silbern’s heart like a dagger.
For a moment, Silbern was overwhelmed, but she couldn’t say anything.
She was the leader.
Silbern had no choice but to admit that everything had gone terribly wrong.
“…I’m sorry.”
“Sir Isaac! Miss did her best too!”
Anna desperately defended Silbern, but the sharp gaze didn’t waver.
“I clearly said we shouldn’t fight the Yeti there, and Silbern agreed. But the moment you took your eyes off, you got distracted by the Yeti and couldn’t even judge what was happening with Polu and Meladik!”
“That’s…”
“If the fight had dragged on? Even if it was just a regular Yeti, with a named beast like that, if more monsters had come down from the mountains, we would’ve been wiped out!”
“Anna, Isaac is right.”
As a leader, she had failed in her role.
The certainty that her comrades from the Malidan Wall had died at the hands of the Yeti grew stronger, and she had been consumed by the desire to not let the creature go.
“For the sake of the dead comrades, I forgot about the living ones beside me.”
“…”
“I’m sorry. There’s no excuse for that.”
Silbern bowed her head.
A quiet moment.
Sharen, wrapped in a coat, shivered and tugged at Isaac’s sleeve.
“A-ah, Isaac. I-I’m so… c-cold.”
“…”
Sharen had almost died.
If she had been fully consumed by the black liquid, her survival would have been uncertain.
It was a stroke of luck that the scouting team had worn leather armor.
‘If it had been plate armor…’
It would have taken forever to remove, and Sharen would have been completely consumed by the black liquid.
Isaac hugged Sharen to warm her up a little.
Sharen, her trembling subsiding slightly, buried herself deeper into Isaac’s embrace and sniffled.
‘She’s still just seventeen.’
Earlier, she had acted confidently and unfazed, but after all, she was an age that had never truly faced the brink of death.
The moment she realized she could actually die, she must have been terrified.
Because the sword I’ve trained with all my life is now completely useless in this situation.
“Helplessness must have turned into terror and come rushing at you.”
“I, I messed up too. I should’ve run toward the barrier, but I just… I don’t know what happened…”
At that moment, Meladik awkwardly apologizes.
Suddenly, the atmosphere turns into a competition of admitting mistakes.
Meladik, who was leading the way, panicked and ended up going wherever his feet took him.
If they hadn’t found the stream, they might still be running.
“It’s okay. We just took a detour. We’re not that much farther from the barrier.”
Anna forces a smile, looking at the map, trying to reassure everyone.
“Hey, can we make a campfire or something?”
“That might be tough. Technically, we’re still in the monsters’ territory.”
Anna shakes her head at Meladik’s suggestion.
They need to conserve energy to make it back to the barrier, but they can’t even start a fire.
The cold is unbearable.
Sharen’s teeth are chattering, and she looks freezing.
Isaac unbuttons his shirt and hugs her again.
“Skin-to-skin contact will warm us up.”
“Ah, Isaac…”
“It’s for survival. You’re the second strongest here after Silbern. We need you at full strength.”
Sharen’s eyes well up with tears, but she hides her face, trying to hold them back.
“Okay, got it.”
Amidst the sound of everyone’s breathing and the white mist in the air, Sharen whispers softly.
“But Isaac… how are you so calm?”
At her question, everyone else also looks at Isaac.
No one can deny that the man with the least combat experience is, ironically, the calmest and most decisive.
If Isaac had hesitated even a little, a few of them might not be here right now.
“I’ve had a lot of near-death experiences.”
He mutters with a bitter smile.
Before the regression, he couldn’t fight due to a leg injury.
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t on the battlefield.
The Transcendental Tribe’s relentless attacks made life-threatening situations brutally fair for everyone.
‘At least that’s something.’
Isaac had worried that holding a sword might cloud his judgment.
But the recent situation proved that fear was unfounded, and he felt relieved.
“Achoo!”
Instantly, everyone’s gaze turns to Silbern.
She looks startled herself, making a flustered expression.
“Are you cold too, miss?”
“No, I’m fi-.”
Silbern stops mid-sentence.
She remembers Isaac’s words and her own judgment from earlier.
“Yeah, I’m cold.”
Realizing that her condition, as the strongest here, directly affects their survival, she nods.
Then, Silbern strides over and hugs Isaac and Sharen together.
“Let me rely on you for a bit.”
At her words about staying close to maintain body heat, Isaac smiles faintly.
“Of course.”
He makes the best decision without worrying about appearances.
‘Silbern learns quickly.’
She’s the type to act faster than she thinks.
“You guys come too. We need to preserve body heat.”
At Silbern’s command, Anna quickly runs over and joins the hug.
Meladik awkwardly approaches and wraps his arms around Isaac’s back.
Huddled together to endure the cold and conserve energy.
It’s not just about sharing body heat; a warm, emotional feeling rises, making them feel warmer.
However, it doesn’t last long.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The ground shakes with footsteps.
“Screech! Screech!”
The stretched-out voice of the Yeti, different from before.
The repellent smell hasn’t fully dissipated, so it must have tracked them down.
As Silbern moves urgently, Isaac asks her.
“Silbern, can I trust your judgment this time?”
At Isaac’s testing question, Silbern nods without hesitation.
“Trust me.”
Amidst the approaching noise, Silbern calmly examines Anna’s map.
Then.
“We’ll intercept.”
She declares, gripping her spear.
“Running is impossible anyway. With our current stamina, we can’t shake off a named Yeti.”
Everyone nods.
Even though they’ve warmed up a bit, their frozen bodies still creak.
“So we kill it before it calls other monsters. We need to end this quickly.”
“Are you confident?”
Silbern, who has already fought the Yeti once.
If it were a normal Yeti, it wouldn’t stand a chance against Silbern.
But this one is named.
A monster with intelligence.
Such creatures are several times harder to deal with than regular monsters.
“I’ll make up for it.”
Silbern says just one word.
She declares, gripping her spear.
That’s enough.
As the others prepare to face the approaching Yeti.
Sharen, who was in Isaac’s arms, slowly steps back and takes a deep breath.
“……”
Isaac stares at her.
Can she really fight?
He wonders.
“I’ll definitely save you.”
Sharen mutters, gripping her greatsword with determination.
“That way, I can sort out my feelings now. And have a chance to say something.”
They say children grow up in an instant.
Isaac feels like he’s witnessing that moment.
In the face of death, Sharen seems to have realized something that changes her life’s values.
“We have to avenge Polu!”
“Yeah! We absolutely have to!”
As Meladik and Anna agree and prepare.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
From the direction of the Yeti’s footsteps.
“Kuhahahahahahahaha!”
Polu’s maniacal laughter echoes through the air.
