The cold air was bracing, but the snow flurries… less so. It wasn’t the chill that bothered Velik. It was that they were obstructing his view, and the damn yetis knew it. He was almost certain they were doing it on purpose. They’d hardly be the first monster to use some sort of magic to bend the weather to their advantage.

While the first few days of their journey had been easy and relaxing, the trip up the mountain had been anything but. The climbing wasn’t so bad, especially since Torwin had been able to pick off any flying monsters stupid enough to get close to them, but now they were near the peak and the snow itself was a worse hazard than any monster. It was six feet deep pretty much everywhere, and worse in the crevices and ridges that littered the top of the mountain.

Walking on top of it wasn’t really an option, not without some skills or enchanted equipment Velik didn’t possess. Torwin was fine, though. He had some enchantment on his boots that he said spread his weight out to keep him from collapsing into the snow. Velik had no choice but to bull his way through it, which frequently resulted in a sudden drop when the ground disappeared in front of him.

That was where the yetis liked to hide, buried in the snow—or rather, digging through it as they found ambush spots—and waiting for him to stumble. Even when there were no ridges, the wind swirled the snow around in blinding screens that were almost too deliberately timed. It was possible the yetis were just lurking about, waiting to take advantage of each gust of wind, but Velik didn’t think so.

They were ugly things, eight to ten feet tall and covered in white fur that caught the snow and held it. Even with his high mental, Velik’s eyes couldn’t spot them when they held still. It was only when they struck that he could pick them out of the background, and by then, clawed hands were already reaching out to drag him under the snow.

It was too bad for them that they weren’t nearly strong enough to outmuscle him. He’d already torn apart twenty of the monsters, but there seemed to be no end to them. Worse, Torwin was not well-equipped to handle the threat. He’d killed his fair share of yetis, but it was far more dangerous for him. If he got dragged under the snow, he couldn’t manhandle the monster like Velik could.

“Maybe we should go in a different direction,” Velik suggested, pitching his voice to be heard over the wind. He pointed off to the side, where the slope angled back down. “Around the peak instead of over the top.”

The old [Ranger] considered that for a second, then shook his head. “They’re expecting it. Look at that mound of snow over there. It’s disturbed. A whole group of them dug their way over there to surround us. If we cut to the side, we’re walking into their ambush.”

“So what? I’ll go first and kill them. They’re barely level 50.”

If it wasn’t for the fact that they had places to be, Velik might have considered hunting the peaks for a day or two. Yetis were plentiful and strong. He might pull another level out of wiping them out. With Torwin here and a time-sensitive job to complete, however, that wasn’t an option.

“You think you can win against ten of them at once?” Torwin asked.

“Easily.”

He hadn’t used [Dread Lance]

or [True Form] yet, and he’d already defeated ambushes by groups of three or four several times. The yetis were strong, but they weren’t able to properly coordinate with each other. Each time, it was just a mass of shaggy limbs tearing at him and getting in each other’s way. He just cut them apart with wild, blind swings, only stopping when the kill notifications came in.

“Are you sure?” Torwin pressed. “Don’t do something stupid just to show off how brave or strong you think you are.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“I’m sure. Going higher up is just going to make it worse. I’ll bust this cluster of yetis for you to slip through, and we’ll circle around their territory.”

Velik surged forward, sending snow flying up in great tufts as he pushed through it. Every kick of his legs knocked a hundred pounds or more of heavy, wet snow into the air. Every swipe of his spear, the tip shaped into a wider, flat paddle, carved out chunks of snow while seeking the yetis hidden within.

He struck the first one, drawing blood and a pained roar from the creature. It ascended out of the snow, despite its great bulk and weight, to loom over him. Snow came crashing down, perhaps the natural result of its sudden movement, or perhaps some aspect of the monster’s power. Either way, it wasn’t enough to stop Velik.

The snow broke against his body as his spear darted out, digging into the yeti’s chest. Clumps of snow-caked white fur fell loose and blood spurted out. Even that was frozen the instant it left the yeti’s body, making it look like it had a cluster of black icicles growing out of its chest. It tried to hold Velik’s spear in place, but he savagely ripped it free and whipped it around to slash open its throat.

That wasn’t enough to kill it, unfortunately. Yetis seemed to be immune to bleeding out since their own blood instantly patched any wound they took. Velik had the best luck with dismembering them, which wasn’t really a task a normal spear was up to. Luckily for him, the [Shape Shifting] enchantment on his spear was versatile enough to reshape the tip into something resembling a halberd.

[You have slain a frost blood yeti (level 48).]

[You have been awarded 3 decarmas.]

Velik stepped over the corpse, which sunk two feet into the snow when he put his weight on it. Definitely some sort of snow manipulation skill. It’s the only thing that makes sense.

He killed two more yetis that came at him from either side in an attempt to flank him, then climbed on top of one of them and leaped into the air. His cloak flared out behind him, visible and solid for just an instant as it billowed outward, then it vanished again. His foot came down on solid air, giving Velik the solid ground he needed to redirect his momentum.

Then, spear leading, he plummeted into the snow where he’d seen it shift in place. A yeti bellowed in pain as the weapon plunged through its leg. The tip punctured straight through, coming out the back side, and Velik’s feet slammed into its groin. That wasn’t enough to trigger a kill notification, but he did drive the monster so deep into the snow that it closed over Velik’s head.

Suddenly, the yeti slammed into something hard. Velik’s first thought was that they’d hit the mountain stone under the snow, but a cracking sound quickly dispelled that notion. The next thing he knew, the ground gave way beneath him, sending him into a freefall with an extremely pissed off yeti and several tons of snow coming down on his head.

[Shape Shifting] reworked the head of his spear so that he could disengage from the monster, and he was more than happy to kick off its body to adjust the angle of his fall and escape the majority of the snow. [Air Walk] pushed him the rest of the way, though it took far more magic than usual to compensate for the weight of the snow crashing down on him.

Velik leaped clear of the miniature avalanche, but pulled up short when he realized where he was. They’d crashed through some sort of crystalline barrier—shards of it were scattered everywhere—into the lair of something far more dangerous than a yeti. At first glance, it looked like a giant pillar of ice at least ten times taller than he was. Fractal patterns of branching arms radiated out from it, some of them twenty feet long.

Ah, fuck. That’s a big ice elemental. No wonder the whole mountain is locked in a perpetual blizzard.

The arms started breaking off with a series of deafening snaps, like trees exploding in deep winter. The fractal patterns separated, each one floating in the air under its own power while Velik watched them warily. When the first one started spinning and flying in his direction, one of his throwing knives intercepted it. The ice shattered, but he still got pelted with a hundred tiny slivers.

At the same time, snow exploded behind him as the yeti he’d injured unburied itself. It roared and barreled forward, an ungainly mountain of fur and rage. More ice wheels swooped through the air, spinning and deadly sharp.

This was not what I was expecting to fight over here. Why couldn’t it have just been a bunch of yetis?

As if on cue, six more of the monsters dropped through the hole in the ceiling of the cavern to thump into the snow. Not a single one of them hesitated to bellow as they rushed to join the battle. Velik was caught, the ice elemental in front of him, and a small horde of angry yetis at his back.

His hands blurred as he threw the rest of his [Telekinetic] knives into the air and set them to defending him, then he spun in place and presented his spear to the charging monsters.

At least I’ve got some room to move without all the snow everywhere. This should be fun.