The snow yetis had been an anticipated hazard of the climb, but Torwin was still surprised to be attacked in such numbers. Yetis were tribal creatures, usually consisting of two to four families that shared territory. Including the young, there shouldn’t have been more than fifteen of the monsters at most.

This pack was at least thirty strong—every one of them an adult. That meant it wasn’t bad luck that they’d stumbled across the yetis’ hunting grounds. This was a war party. Multiple tribes were cooperating for some reason that probably had nothing to do with Torwin and Velik. That wouldn’t stop them from trying to kill the two humans anyway, of course.

Torwin still would have put money on this being an easy victory for them right up until the ground beneath the snow had collapsed, dropping Velik and the leading edge of the yetis’ rush into a hole of some sort. That was unexpected, but it didn’t stop the yetis that were left from coming at Torwin.

Velik would survive the fall, no doubt, but it did make things awkward up top. A bow wasn’t the greatest weapon for the current environment, especially against an opponent that could swiftly slip through the snow, making them hard to track and harder to shoot.

Harder wasn’t impossible. The disturbances in the snow as yetis slipped beneath them were discernible even if they were masked by the perpetual shifting of the wind. Something that big simply couldn’t displace that much space without leaving a trail, and Torwin’s keen eyes caught the patterns. The next issue was determining how far down they were, but even that was a matter of experience and informed guesswork.

The final issue wasn’t much of one, normally. Torwin was more than powerful enough that a few feet of snow wouldn’t even slow down his arrows. Unfortunately, the same sort of elemental telekinesis that allowed the yetis to glide through the snow also imbued it with a measure of resilience that strengthened it to the level of thick ice. He could still penetrate the defense, but breaking through what was essentially several feet of ice ate away much of his shot’s power.

Those were handicaps, for sure, but he’d dealt with worse. Torwin quickly figured out which yetis were close to the surface—the ones closest to him, almost always—and exactly how far down he could reach the monsters. Anything that got close died, and the ones stupid enough to fully reveal themselves died even faster. The only real problem was that he was running low on arrows. Relying on his bracer to produce more was a stop-gap measure. The enchantment simply couldn’t make ammunition at the rate he needed it.

Things were still going well for the first two minutes or so of the fight. Velik was doing whatever he was doing down there, obviously still alive judging by the pain-filled yeti roars coming out of the hole. Some snow collapsed down there, probably the result of the yetis still fighting. That was fine. They’d link back up once the threat was ended, a feat they were well on their way to accomplishing.

Then a group of four yetis popped out of the snow a quarter mile up the side of the mountain and power swelled around them, so thick that it seeped into the snow a few hundred feet in every direction.

Oh shit.

In one great rush, snow swept down the side of the mountain. The casting yetis stood tall on the snow, their power holding them all steady while the slope beneath them was washed away. There was no dodging that and no outrunning it. The best he could hope for was to survive. Normally, he wouldn’t worry about that. It was just mass and weight. He’d beaten that plenty of times.

It was the magic that was mixed in that concerned him.

The leading wave of snow slammed into Torwin hard enough that he barely kept hold of his bow. Yetis were swept away with him, some injured and some not, but all of them ready to keep fighting. In a small stroke of luck, a significant number disappeared into that hole Velik had opened up in his fight, where hopefully he was in a good position to fight back.

The rest cut through the avalanche like sharks through water, easily navigating the rushing snow as they closed in on Torwin. His greatest defense at the moment was simply the speed at which the avalanche carried him away from the fight.

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Something hard slammed into his back—not a monster. A tree? Whatever it was, the avalanche ripped it away an instant later, burying it out of sight. He spun from the impact and dragged his bow through the snow to pull it close to his chest. It fought the whole way, but he won out in the end.

That surge of satisfaction at overwhelming the strength of a magically-inspired natural disaster lasted all of a single second, then the snow roared over the edge of the cliff. Torwin went into a freefall, completely blinded by the snow all around him. That lasted for ten endless seconds, just long enough for him to start to get his bearings.

Then he hit the stone, hard, and everything was dark.

* * *

The underground chamber filling with snow was a bit of a problem. It shoved Velik into the ice elemental and pinned him there, which wasn’t a good position to be in, but at least it trapped the yetis, too. He could hear them, growling and bellowing as they were caught in the flood. Considering how well they’d navigated the snow topside, Velik had to assume that the elemental contesting their control was the source of that problem.

Velik didn’t really have a good solution to being buried in snow, but he had plenty of raw stats and a spear that could blow up on command. That was a good place to start, especially since the cold radiating out of the ice elemental was starting to overpower the [Elemental Drain] enchantment on his shirt.

Light sparked down the length of his spear, throwing shadows through the snow where the yetis struggled against the elemental. A muffled boom ripped through the snow, releasing a flash of steam, followed by a deluge of icy-cold water as the snow at the outer edges of the skill melted. Compared to the ice elemental, that was nothing, and Velik ignored it.

He had a fraction of a second while the snow above him started to fall, dislodged under its own weight, and he used that time to jump as hard as he could. Snow parted, pushed aside by sheer muscle, and Velik crested the top like he was leaping out of a pool. It wasn’t much room, but it was a start.

This fucking elemental needs to go first.

He jabbed his spear into the ice pillar and triggered a second [Dread Lance], tearing away a huge chunk of where it connected to the ceiling, as well as part of the nearest ‘branch.’ Immediately, the elemental manifested another glass person, but Velik wasn’t about to give it time to fight back. He whipped his spear through it, breaking the figure to pieces.

Another [Dread Lance] hammered into the pillar, but it wasn’t going where Velik needed it to. Too much of the attack was wasted blasting apart snow. Usually, it wasn’t an issue. He could just position himself where he needed to be to ensure he hit his target. Here, his freedom to move was sharply limited. He needed to control the shape of the blast, which wasn’t something he was sure he could do.

One way to find out, he thought to himself. Rather than just let the energy flow down the length of his spear to explode out into a sphere, he tried stretching it out. When he’d first gotten the skill, he’d attempted to detonate it farther away from himself so he wouldn’t get caught up in his own attack, which hadn’t worked at all. But here, it was more like squishing a loaf of bread between his hands, flattening it out.

Maybe it was just the result of having higher stats, or from the skill being a higher rank. Maybe it was something else entirely. Whatever the reason, it worked this time. Instead of exploding out in every direction, [Dread Lance] came out more like a flat disc twenty feet wide and a foot thick. It tore through the top of the pillar, cutting it free from the roof of the cavern.

[Dread Lance has advanced to rank 6.]

That wasn’t enough to tip it over, unfortunately. It was still connected at the base, in addition to being buried in several tons of snow that helped hold its weight upright. But it was a start. If needed, he’d destroy the whole damn pillar in chunks until he worked his way down to the base.

That was the plan until the whole cavern started vibrating. Spears of cold shot through the snow, crusting it over into ice that shattered into a million tiny shards. The ice whirled through the cavern, carving through the snow—or maybe just collecting it in their wake as they absorbed more material and grew bigger—in a great spinning column.

Velik shielded his face with his arm and winced as thin slices appeared on his exposed skin. At the same time, the yetis bellowing turned pained and frightened. Black streaks of blood started appearing, almost smeared across the air as it was dragged out of the monsters.

A deafening crack rolled through the ice storm as the roof of the cavern burst upward. It exploded into a storm of ice, jetting a mile up out of the mountain and hurling Velik with it. He got a single look down at the cavern, suddenly cleared of snow, and realized that the pillar wasn’t the elemental. The whole cavern was a geode made of ice. They’d been fighting inside its body.

Then, a mile in the air and surrounded by deadly sharp spinning shards of elemental doing their best to spread him across the sky, Velik started to fall back down.