It had been a few hours since the three of us had left the village. Nizhoni grabbed some food for us so that in case we needed to camp out, we wouldn't go hungry. As for where we were currently, I had no idea. We were surrounded by snow.
"It's just snow as far as I can see. It's seriously hard to walk with how high up this snow goes." I groaned, trudging through the snow.
Nizhoni let out a small exhale, "there's other landmarks too. There's the icicle valley where the icicles reach high into the sky. Supposedly there's also an ice fortress somewhere that houses all the monsters but I've never seen it. In some journals belonging to past hunters, I did see some writings that did describe a fortress made of ice. Could just be illusions caused by the severe cold."
Stories like that never tended to be true so I wasn't gonna let it get to me. I highly doubt that we'd just randomly encounter a giant fortress made of ice within like the two hours we've been walking. It's just not possible, right?
"Well if it is real, that would certainly make dealing with all the monsters a whole lot faster." I shrugged.
The three of us continued on through the seemingly endless snowscape. If there were any monsters out here, they were certainly good at staying hidden.
"Nizhoni," Akari spoke up, "how far have you explored on your own?"
Nizhoni thought for a moment, "The furthest I've gotten was actually where I ran into you two. Icicle Valley as I like to call it. I knew it existed from previous hunters but that was actually the first time I ever made it there."
"So it's possible that the ice fortress might actually be real?" I asked.
Nizhoni shrugged, "potentially. It would have to be beyond Icicle Valley though."
That was… worrying. I mean it would definitely make dealing with the monsters on this island a whole lot faster. The problem is we'd have to do it with just the three of us as none of the people back at the village really looked like fighters. Looks can be deceiving though so it wouldn't be fair to come to that conclusion just yet.
We continued marching forward towards Icicle Valley. Taking into account how long it took us to get from there to the village, we would probably be there maybe within an hour? It was hard to tell with how thick this falling snow was. Regardless of how long it would take, I was just glad I wasn't alone out here. I don't know how Nizhoni could withstand being out here by herself for so long.
After what felt like an hour of walking, Nizhoni stopped moving and motioned us to get down. Akari and I dropped low instantly and used the snow as makeshift cover.
"What's wrong?" Akari whispered, keeping her eyes forward in case something emerged from the thick snow.
Nizhoni remained silent, taking out her crosshow and using the snow lump as a mount for it. I turned forward to see if I could find out what caused Nizhoni to do this.
Two figures emerged from the snow. At a glance, it looked like a human who was riding a horse. On closer inspection, that "human" looked nothing like one. Its proportions were all wrong, almost like it was trying to mimic one.
I shifted a little which caused a very quiet sound. Despite how quiet I was, the creature jolted its head over in our direction which caused a wave of dread to course through all of us. The creature didn't move towards us though. Instead, it stood there and stared in our direction for a moment.
The creature murmured to itself for a moment before finally turning away and hopping back on its horse. At least I think it was a horse. The monster finally rode off into the thick snow, allowing us all a moment to breathe.
"Is that a normal monster you hunt?" I asked, my heart still beating.
"No… I've never seen something like that before." Nizhoni looked just as pale as I did.
"Why don't we head in the direction it went in? It might lead us somewhere interesting." Akari suggested as if it was the most logical thing to do.
It might actually be smart to follow it. If we were lucky, maybe it would lead us to wherever the monsters resided. The only issue was that there were three of us and no one here knew any helpful heal spells. The only healing spell I had healed small cuts. I didn't have the power to restore fatigue or anything a nature magic user might have.
"Let's go now while the tracks are still here." Nizhoni said, finally getting up from the snow.
"To attack it?" I gave Nizhoni a shocked look.
Nizhoni nodded with a bothered expression, "If we go back after finding the lair, if there is one, I don't think I have the skills to find it again. It took me ages to get to where my predecessors last reached."
"I mean, with how cold it is, I can create a trail of ice shards to lead us back. No wait… that wouldn't work since if the monsters find it, they could follow it back to the village." I slumped my head.
Nizhoni sighed, "I hate to do this but we might just have to go there, create a plan on the spot, and attack. Sorry that I can't be more useful."
Akari and I exchanged glances, "are you kidding? Without you we wouldn't have even got to this point. Besides, if John were here he'd probably do the same thing even if he had a chance to return to the village." I laughed.
Nizhoni's eyes widened at my response, "is that so?"
I nodded, "yep. That's just the kinda person he is."
"Let's get going then." Nizhoni, tightened the belt holding onto her crossbow.