Chapter 90: Avalanche
“They’re above!” shouted a mercenary from the Iron Cross.
Everyone looked up and saw countless Snow Monster figures emerging on the cliffside to the left of the mountain path.
Without hesitation, the Iron Cross gunmen raised their rifles and fired upwards.
Bullets flew, and the Snow Monsters roared in fury. Asker, staring at the carnage above, suddenly frowned.
Snow Monsters, as social creatures, weren’t completely mindless like Thornbirds. Since they lacked long-range attack capabilities, why would they deliberately expose themselves and get shot for no reason?
Thinking in reverse, if there was a reason they had to expose themselves, it meant… the Snow Monsters were trying to lure the mercenaries to shoot?
Shooting…
Asker’s expression suddenly changed. He remembered a dungeon plot from the game forums of his previous life.
It wasn’t on Mount Taygetus, but on Mount Gaerhalm, the northernmost peak of the continent. Two player teams clashed during a dungeon run. Because they were far apart, the gunmen and mages attacked first.
Then, the intensive gunfire triggered a greater disaster.
An avalanche.
“Everyone, gather around me!” As Asker shouted, the ground beneath their feet began to tremble.
The Snow Monsters on the cliffside had all fallen to the ground, frantically digging and burrowing into the snow, using the snow layer to bury themselves.
And from higher up the mountain, a torrential flood of snow and mud cascaded down. Worse, to shoot the Snow Monsters above, most of the mercenary gunmen had gathered together and were now right in the path of the avalanche.
In just three or four seconds, the avalanche reached them, and many mercenaries were caught off guard and swallowed by the torrent of snow and ice. The chaotic scene was filled with shouts, gunshots, and the monstrous grinding sound of snow and ice against rock.
Azure Longsword reacted the fastest – to be precise, Asker was the first to realize the danger and give the warning. Although the girls didn’t understand what was about to happen, they still quickly rushed towards him.
By the time Andrea and Hermann also realized what was happening, the avalanche was already upon them, too late to react.
On the inner side of the mountain path where they were, was a nearly 90-degree rock cliff.
Theoretically, by clinging to the base of the cliff and hiding in the dead corner, they could avoid being swept away by the avalanche.
However, the danger of an avalanche wasn’t just being swept away, but being buried alive. If the scale of this avalanche was large enough, the base of the cliff could quickly be sealed by a 5-10 meter layer of snow.
In this world, there were no mountain rescue helicopters. Being buried in the snow and unable to get out meant a slow and certain death.
On the outer side of the mountain path was a gentle slope, about a 30-degree incline, dropping about 100 meters before becoming steep.
Teleporting back to Furnace Island was too risky at this time, with so many Iron Cross mercenaries present, too many eyes.
If anyone witnessed the team teleporting away en masse, Asker would have to turn against the Iron Cross and silence them.
Otherwise, if this kind of thing spread, it would inevitably attract unwanted attention – mass teleportation, even if it wasn’t a semi-plane fragment, must be some kind of high-level and rare transcendental item.
His gaze swept across the outer slope in a split second, and Asker finally found a protruding rock.
He quickly led everyone to hide at the base of the rock, but Asker realized that this place wasn’t as safe as he had expected.
The rock could block the avalanche – only within the small area beneath it.
And Eleanor and Sidlipha were both wearing heavy armor, taking up most of the space.
The other girls had almost no room to stand, they could only desperately squeeze under the rock, hugging each other to hold themselves steady, their faces pale with fright.
Asker and Medea stood on the outermost side. The former grabbed Eleanor’s arm armor. The latter was about to grab Asker’s arm when she suddenly hesitated.
Her androphobia acted up.
In that instant, before she could bring herself to grab Asker, Medea’s feet slipped, and she was swept away by the avalanche.
Damn it! Amidst the girls’ screams, Asker decisively let go of Eleanor’s arm armor and jumped down into the snow flow below.
His mind was stretched to its limit, his gaze scanning the area below like a hawk.
The snow flowed down at an incredible speed, but Asker’s downward charge was even faster. Each time he leaped and landed, it was on a faintly visible bulge in the snow layer – beneath it was a rock not yet completely covered by snow.
The friction of snow was much less than that of rock. If his next landing didn’t penetrate the snow layer and land on rock, there was a risk of his boots slipping and losing his balance.
He was still more than 20 meters away from Medea. Asker raced down the slope, his gaze locked onto the fiery red hair in the snow flow below, when his feet suddenly slipped.
It wasn’t that he had misstepped, but the surface of the rock he had landed on happened to be covered with a thin layer of ice, causing his boots to lose their grip.
At the moment his body tilted and he was about to lose his balance, Asker swiftly spun and drew his sword, the blade piercing through the snow and into the soil below, allowing him to quickly regain his balance.
The next second, he let go of the hilt and kicked off the slope forcefully with both feet.
In the brief moment he regained his balance, Medea was swept further down by the avalanche, more than ten meters away, so he had to adopt a more aggressive pursuit strategy.
He changed from running to jumping, using gravity to accelerate.
Asker, leaping in the air, was like an eagle gliding over the snow, his body almost curled into a ball, only his arms outstretched for balance.
Just as he was about to land, his feet slammed into the snow, propelling him back into the air.
After three or four consecutive leaps, he quickly approached Medea, even able to see the expression on her face – like a small animal facing a natural disaster, full of fear, despair, and unwillingness.
Then Asker pounced, catching Medea in his arms.
“You!” Medea, dizzy from the avalanche, was stunned for a few seconds before realizing that it was Asker holding her tightly.
Flames of fear erupted from her body, instantly scattered by the surrounding snow and ice.
“Let go!” Medea shouted.
“If I let go, you’ll die!” Asker roared back.
Don’t let him go! Medusa also screamed from within. She could feel a surge of pain pouring out.
Medea’s fear and terror of being held by a man, and Asker’s pain from the flames and high temperature, were rapidly increasing her power.
“You’ll die if you don’t let go!” Medea watched in horror as the flames rising from her skin quickly spread up his arms.
Asker’s cotton armor was burning, the chainmail underneath glowing red hot. The flames licked at his cheeks like snakes, battling the surrounding snow and ice.
His hair was on fire, his eyebrows singed, sparks dancing in the air like fireflies.
Yet, the man’s expression remained resolute and calm, as if the flames had no temperature, as if he felt no pain. He just held her tightly, preventing her from being swept into the abyss of death by the avalanche.
Damn it! I have to… suppress…
This damn fire!
Medea screamed hysterically. She couldn’t even hear her own screams, her consciousness soaring into the clouds, while below was a vast mountain range of endless fear, disgust, and hostility.
Massive clouds pressed down rapidly – it was her will, her powerful resolve, desperately suppressing the negative instincts surging from her body with a force that felt like her soul was burning.
Finally.
Asker’s body suddenly jolted, and Medea felt a tremor within her as well.
The moment they landed at the bottom of the valley, the man twisted his body, using his back to absorb the impact that would have been fatal to her.
Then, a boundless wave of snow and ice crashed down, engulfing them in a world of white.
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