CHAPTER 334: STALKER ALERT

The air was thin and piercing like broken glass.

Every breath Victor drew stabbed at his lungs, frosting his throat with every exhale. His body trembled due tothe creeping exhaustion that clawed at his insides.

What was left of his attire which barely covered up to half of his body were stiff with frost. His lips were cracked, and his limbs were starting to feel heavy due to his depleting qi.

Yet he stood crouched behind a spiky pillar of blue-white crystal, staring into the nest of a creature that looked like a nightmare carved from winter itself.

The nest was an enormous sprawling bowl of gleaming shards and bones cemented by ice. And at its center lay four whitish offsprings that were smaller but no less terrifying than the one that brought them food. Their hides were scaled with frozen plates that shimmered like mirrors in moonlight, and their eyes glowed faintly with an eerie, cerulean hue.

Victor had followed their mother all the way to this frost tunnel that was a whole new underground icy terrain.

This particular nest was located at the edge of a crystalline cliffside underground.

The surface was incredible smooth, and his qi reserves were running dangerously low.

More than once, he had to use Wind Glide to double-jump off the cliffs, barely catching a ledge each time before gravity could claim him. When he finally reached the edge, he had almost fallen to his knees from sheer exhaustion.

Now, he hid there, watching as the mother of the offsprings who happened to be the serpentine creature with wings made of translucent frost, drop the spoils of her hunt into the nest.

A mangled corpse of some beast landed with a wet thud with steam rising as the heat of its body met the icy air. The younglings tore into it with ravenous hunger as their shrieks echoed through the icy canyon.

Victor’s stomach growled loudly in protest.

He pressed a hand against it, muttering under his breath, "Shut up, damn it. I’m trying not to die here."

He watched for what felt like hours. The sky above shifted from pale blue to gray, then to the deep, cold hues of twilight as he waited... and waited... and waited...

He didn’t know how long he’d been up there, but it felt like an eternity.

Not only was he hungry, he was also dehydrated...

His body screamed for sustenance and his vision was starting to blur as every movement sent waves of fatigue through his bones.

After what felt like ages, the mother creature finally stirred again.

She spread her vast crystalline wings, shaking off a flurry of snowflakes, and let out a low, resonant growl that rolled through the air like thunder underwater.

With one powerful sweep, she took off, nearly throwing Victor off the ledge due to the air from her wings.

Victor would have loved to follow but right now he didn’t have the energy.

He steadied himself while squinting as the massive shadow vanished into the distance.

"She’s gone..." he muttered. "Good."

His hunger overrode his caution. The moment he was sure she wouldn’t return immediately, he climbed up onto the rim of the nest and leapt inside.

The ground was sloppy beneath his boots as layers of frost and frozen blood mixed into a gruesome mosaic. The younglings hissed while snapping weakly at him, but Victor’s glare alone was enough to make them retreat.

They could sense his strength even though it was faint.

"Sorry, kids," he voiced with an hoarse tone. "But it’s survival of the hungriest out here."

He reached for the remnants of the spoils... the raw meat.

Although, it was tough and sinewy... it was still fresh.

He tore off a chunk, sniffed it, grimaced, and muttered, "This smells worse than Kairo’s burnt noodles."

’God if I eat anything raw again... I’ll puke my entire guts out...’ he cried internally while staring at the flesh in his grasp.

His first attempt to start a fire was pitiful. The moment he sparked a bit of flame from Dragon Breathing Arts, it got snuffed out instantly.

"*sigh* as expected..."

He tried again, channeling qi into lungs and spitting out a sloppy fire ball fingertips, but the bitter cold consumed every ember.

"This is hopeless..." he groaned.

In the end, he had no choice. He tore into the meat raw.

The taste was revolting... metallic, oily, and cold enough to make his teeth ache. He gagged almost instantly, doubling over as bile rose to his throat.

"Oh man, I’m gonna be sick..." he mumbled with watering eyes as he forced another bite down.

His entire body convulsed in protest, but hunger was stronger. Circumstance was a bitch.

When he finally finished enough to quiet his stomach, he collapsed against a crystalline wall, panting.

The cold was biting into his back, but he was too drained to move. His mind drifted in and out of clarity, thoughts hazy and sluggish.

Time slipped by. He didn’t know how long he’d rested there before the faint sound of wingbeats reached his ears again.

He bolted upright instantly with his heart pounding. Through the frost-glazed opening of the nest, he saw the mother returning.

Victor instantly slipped through the small icy crystalline openings behind the nest and slid down a sloppy pillar sized icicle.

He proceeded to hide by backing against a icy wall. The massive creature landed with a thunderous impact that shook the nest, sending shards of frost flying.

And this time, she wasn’t carrying meat.

She opened her jaws, and a stream of water poured out, glittering like liquid silver as it cascaded into the nest.

Some of it she passed to her younglings literally mouth to mouth and the rest she poured into a shallow basin made of frost. Then she drank deeply as her throat throbbled with each gulp.

Victor’s eyes widened. "So I was right," he whispered. "She’s fetching it from somewhere nearby..."

A spark of hope ignited in him.

Water.... that was all he needed right now.

The only reason he wasn’t completely dehydrated was due to some of the blood from the raw meat he consumed.

But that wasn’t enough liquid in his system. If he was an ordinary human, he would have been long dead.

Now all he had to do was wait.

And so, he crouched there, muscles locked, barely breathing, waiting for the next time she’d head off again.

"Alright, Momma Frostzilla," he said softly. "When next you go get your water, I’ll just... follow behind like the world’s most desperate stalker."

He slumped back against the icy wall with exhaustion pulling at his eyelids again.

However, he couldn’t sleep right now... he needed to stay away.

This place was way too dangerous to be falling asleep... not just because of the beasts but also due to the murderous temperature of the region.

...

...

Days had gone by already and fortunately, Victor didn’t have to wait for too long before the stored water emptied out due to the sepentine winged mother offsprings

Unfortunately, he was never able to sneak up there to steal any but on the bright side, the mother was on the move again.

Snow clung to Victor’s boots like hungry spirits as he followed the mother beast for nearly half a day.

The enormous serpentine creature left behind deep furrows in the snow so massive, that they looked like trenches carved by ancient giants.

It would occasionally fly and sometimes it would descend to walk for a bit. It was unknown why it did this.

Victor pressed onward, clutching his tattered coat closer to his chest.

His lips were cracked, his tongue dry, and every step sent a jolt of pain up his legs. He had burned more qi in the last three hours than he did while he was hiding away at the icy tunnel.

But he couldn’t lose her.

The environment around him was hostile... a realm of unending frost and pale mist. The world seemed drained of life and color.

Victor had not spotted a single tree and for good reason. Could life exist on a terrain such as this? It was a wonder how these beasts made this place home.

Victor wondered how the mana defense corps were supposed to reclaim such regions... It wouldn’t even be conducive for living.

Each breath Victor exhaled froze midair, turning into tiny shards of frost scattering like dust. Even the sound of his boots crunching against the snow felt muted, swallowed by the endless white expanse.

The serpent soared ahead, cutting through the sky like banners of mist with her vast wings. Occasionally, she descended to the ground to slither through the ice-crusted canyons before taking off again.

Victor’s qi reserves were waning fast. His legs trembled. His vision flickered at the edges.

"Damn it," he muttered, dragging in a shaky breath. "At this rate... My qi will be depleted completely before I find it."

Still, he kept going.

He had no one to rely on... not the Academy, not his friends... no one except himself...

The mother serpent suddenly halted abruptly near a ravine where the ground was uneven and cracked like broken glass.

Victor crouched behind an icy boulder and watched with a keen gaze. He noticed her wings spreading wide as if preparing for something.

That was when the air trembled.