Pip's eyes widened in sheer disbelief as he unexpectedly encountered an acquaintance, while Ellarish merely tilted her head, her cold eyes flashing with a mix of suspicion and confusion.
"H-hey... could you please lower your sword a little bit..?" Pip stammered, his voice trembling with genuine unease.
"Fine." Ellarish replied, her voice blunt and emotionless, though she did lower her blade, the lingering aura of killing intent hadn't fully faded yet.
Rustle.
A dry, unsettling sound tore through the thick silence of the night. Pip and Ellarish snapped their heads toward the source of the noise instantly. Pip braced himself, his muscles tensing for a potential fight, while Ellarish sharpened her senses, ready to catch any movement. Just as they were at the peak of their vigilance, Kael stepped out from the dense bushes, holding the lighter he'd just "borrowed," a cigarette dangling from his lips as he exhaled a cloud of smoke with chilling nonchalance.
Seeing him, without a moment's hesitation, both Pip and Ellarish lunged toward Kael. Ellarish's silver blade pointed straight at his throat, while Pip unleashed a powerful punch toward his chest. Kael looked mildly startled by their aggressive reaction, quickly raising both hands in a gesture of surrender:
"Whoa, calm down, I surrender, okay?"
"OH, IT'S KAEL!" Pip shouted, his face lighting up with wild excitement.
"Ah, so you're the guy who was sleeping like a log back at the first exam?" Ellarish smirked, her tone dripping with mockery.
"Hey, don't say it like that." Kael grumbled, his cigarette trembling slightly with annoyance.
The tension in the air was palpable. On one side, Kael stood there, grumpy with his cigarette; on the other, the icy Ellarish still refused to fully sheathe her weapon. Seeing the situation on the verge of exploding into a real fight, Pip jumped right into the middle.
"Stop it, both of you!!!"
Kael deftly dodged to the side, causing Pip to lose his balance and face-plant hard into the dirt. Pip clutched his throbbing head, standing up with a pained expression:
"Aggh, that hurts! You two, just let it go, we're all friends here."
The word "friends" made Ellarish freeze. She went completely silent, her blank, icy eyes showing a flicker of hesitation. Friends... right? she thought, a strange, warm feeling she had never experienced in her cold world. Kael flicked the ash off his cigarette onto the ground, his expression returning to his usual indifferent self, and sighed:
"Forget it."
"Wait for me, you two!!" Pip yelled, frustrated as he scrambled to his feet to chase after them. The sound of their footsteps rustling through the dark forest was enough to startle the birds, causing them to fly off in a desperate panic.
"Stay in this cave for now. Just wait until the time is up, and we'll be safe." Kael said in a detached tone.
"Yeah, whatever." Ellarish replied coldly.
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Kael glanced sideways at Pip, then curiously looked at Ellarish, his brow furrowing:
"Hey, do you have any idea what that guy Pip is plotting?"
"Beats me." Ellarish answered with a shrug.
"HEY PIP, WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING?" Kael shouted loudly.
Hearing the call from deep inside the cave, Pip, covered in layers of mud, turned back with a grin:
"I'm crafting a legendary trap!!" Pip said, proudly pointing to the shallow, muddy hole he was digging.
"Yeah... and what is this supposed to do exactly?" Kael asked, walking closer, looking utterly baffled.
"I'll cover it with some bushes, scatter some dirt around, and that's it. Whoever steps in, or any monster that comes wandering in here, will get caught immediately!!" Pip said, laughing with triumph.
"Oh my god... what an idiot." Kael muttered, feeling completely helpless.
The three eventually decided to get some sleep. In the middle of the night, Click... Rumble... A dry, eerie sound echoed from the cave entrance. Pip jolted awake, his groggy, sleep-heavy eyes looking toward the entrance to investigate the strange noise. Kael also woke up just in time. The two headed outside to the "stupid" trap Pip had set, and he cheered happily:
"SEE? MY TRAP ACTUALLY CAUGHT A MONSTER, HAHA..."
"Pip, HEY PIP..." Kael called out, his voice filled with urgent worry.
A monstrous creature, over 13 meters tall, stood blocking the entire cave entrance, its massive, grotesque body completely obscuring the edge of the forest behind it. Its mouth was packed with jagged, irregular teeth, and thick, foul-smelling drool dripped continuously onto the ground, sizzling upon contact. Its purple skin and three glowing, blood-red eyes stared intensely at Pip, who was still laughing joyfully.
Kael glanced back into the cave. Ellarish was still lying there, snoring soundly like a pig. The first bad habit of the Ice Princess: She never wakes up, no matter if the world is ending.
Kael picked up Ellarish, who was still fast asleep, slinging her onto his shoulder as he called out:
"PIP, TRY TO LEAD IT AWAY FROM HERE! RUN!"
Pip bolted away, his heart racing as he thought: "WHY IS MY LUCK SO TERRIBLY BAD!!". He looked back over his shoulder, his cloak fluttering to reveal his two arms glowing with a fierce red light.
"CUBIC CHAIN - ACTIVATE!" Countless red cubes manifested from thin air, swirling around the monster and binding it tight like a trussed-up parcel. The monster let out a guttural, earth-shaking roar. Its cavernous maw gaped wide, and within the pitch-black throat, a swirling orb of violet energy began to coalesce. The air around the beast started to warp and crackle, charged with unstable mana, as the purple sphere grew rapidly, humming with a high-pitched, piercing vibration. It wasn't just energy; it was a condensed singularity of destruction. As the orb pulsated with a blinding, lethal hue, the monster's eyes locked onto Pip, dripping with pure, bloodthirsty malice, ready to unleash a blast that would erase everything in its path. Pip vaulted to the side just in time, the violet beam streaking past him and obliterating everything in its path, carving a scorched trench into the earth and tearing the very air asunder. He gasped for breath, his chest heaving, his cloak soaked in sweat. As his eyes locked onto the beast, a flash of reckless defiance sparked in his gaze—a daring idea igniting in his mind. He wouldn't just dodge; he would force the monster to choke on its own cataclysm.
"Wait... what if I try to make it taste its own power?"
Pip stopped dead in his tracks, his cloak fluttering to a halt. He wore a triumphant, daring smile. He thrust his hand forward just as the monster was forming a second orb, turning its grotesque face toward Pip to fire. Pip shouted with everything he had:
"ANGEL CASE - ACTIVE!!"
Pip's hand surged with a massive concentration of shimmering white mana. With a pained grimace, he fired the raw energy straight at the monster. Just as the blast neared its target, it splintered into countless beams, instantly manifesting into a glowing cube that locked the creature's head in a death grip. The monster fired its energy, but because Pip's "Angel Case" locked it in, it was effectively bombing itself from the inside out. BOOM! A deafening explosion echoed through the heavens. The massive orb collided with the walls of the cube, detonating instantly and obliterating the monster's entire head. The creature collapsed, purple blood gushing out like a violent waterfall. Pip stood there, eyes staring blankly at his own victory. He smiled slightly, looked up at the vast night sky, and shouted:
"WE WONNNNN!
Kael was carrying Ellarish on his shoulder. He smile:
"Kid...not bad."