Kibishi's POV

  The gust of wind was blowing.

  I could see the snowfkes getting pulled along with the wind as I started to see stars due to my adrenaline wearing off.

  Panting, I slowly forced myself to stand up once more.

  I tried to raise the knife to get ready for battle, but my left hand wasn't trying to cooperate with me at the moment. All I could do now was stare down the monster before me.

  Damn.

  Seems like before the pain appeared, my body had already given in and stopped functioning how I wanted it to. Just because I was standing now didn't mean I could handle many commands at the same time. Like a robot, I had to do things at a pace.

  "Damn it..." I curse to myself and then try to lift my knife once more.

  And lo and behold, I managed to do such a simple function.

  Good.

  I was still in this!

  Though there was another problem that had arrived from the surface. And that problem was the monster itself.

  Staring at it dead in its one remaining eye from the left side of its face, I tried to bring my thoughts together.

  Right.

  Let's see....

  The distance between us was 15 feet. A safety space in case of any danger. That would mean that the monster sensed something and gained some space between us. But that would also mean that this thing saw me as something dangerous. If I could put my finger on the 'what' that made me dangerous, it would be that I was the only one who could possibly kill it. That meant that my theory about my powers being the only thing that could destroy the monster was true.

  That was good to know, at least.

  So, here was another thing to worry about.

  How did it 'know' about my powers being dangerous?

  Did it sense it? Did it sense me wanting to kill it? But Tao and the others had the same idea, yet it attacked them with no problem.

  That could mean that the monster itself was losing its edge as we continued on.

  That was good news for us and bad for the monster.

  The only problem was that, despite having its power drop in half, it was still faster than any of us could keep up due to the weather.

  And there was the third problem as well.

  This weather.

  The snow hadn't stopped despite my taking away the dark clouds that were protecting it. I doubted this weather was created by Kuma or David, so it must have been that monster's magic.

  And in that case, why hadn't it disappeared alongside its cloud? Couldn't it use magic to make this weather disappear?

  No.

  That couldn't be right.

  The reason was simple. So simple that I hadn't thought of it sooner. It wasn't that it didn't 'have' the ability to stop, but that it couldn't stop it. By that, I meant the monster could not take away the other advantage it had against us.

  The cold.

  Indeed.

  This pce was the only reason why it still had its advantageous state. Without it, we could even the pying field.

  Evening the pying field, huh. I thought.

  I looked around. I could hear some water dripping here and there. But it froze over and turned into ice and hit the floor. Luckily, it seemed to have ONLY just started, so we shouldn't worry just yet.

  That was good news, though.

  But still, having this igloo around us would spell doom for all of us since water could change the air of the room. At any rate, one thing was certain: this battle was coming to an end. The question was, whose end would it be for?

  The monster growled at me and seemed to be looking me up and down.

  Analyzing. This monster was analyzing me like it was some kind of intelligent life form. The reckless monster that I had seen before had been repced by this new monster, which seemed to be reading its enemy and trying to see how to approach without getting harmed. The monster growled some more, and I could feel myself getting more nervous as we stood there.

  I took a step forward and continued to stare at the monster.

  Am I here waiting for its next move? I'd better close the gap and try something!

  Dash!

  I leaped forward and made a mad dash towards the monster who had been standing there like a statue. But the moment I was halfway there and readied my knife to swing at it—

  Whoosh!

  In a blink, the monster moved away once more. Another 15 feet apart at that.

  "Damn it!" I curse once more as I slow down and wobble a bit.

  The monster growled at me again.

  This was getting a bit annoying. The monster wasn't attacking anymore, but avoiding me altogether. Though it wasn't running away, the monster seemed to be avoiding any more conflict.

  This is bad! Why are you running now, of all times?!

  I could feel my eyes shake as I got the feeling that it would be like this until either the igloo melted and all the cold air escaped, or all of us would freeze to death, and that would give an opening for the monster to nd the final blow. The more I thought about it, the more my mind wasn't thinking straight.

  Crap.

  Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap!

  Why?! Why was it starting to do this?! Why?! Out of all times?!

  The monster grunted and then slowly picked up a pile of snow. It took a deep breath and sucked some oxygen into its mouth. Once its cheeks puffed up, it blew at the pile of snow, and it was coming in my direction. Soon, the snow turned into sharp ice that could burst through your skin and impale you. With that impalement, you could die at any given moment.

  Ssh! Ssh!

  I sshed to the left and then the right. Two ice sickles got sshed in half as I stared daggers at the monster.

  Ssh! Ssh! Ssh!

  Up. Down. Horizontal. Vertical.

  Every angle you could think of, I was doing with my knife in my now darkened palms, thanks to frostbite. I could see tiny bits and pieces of ice that were meant to impale my friends.

  Ssh! Ssh! Ssh!

  Twisting and turning my own body, I used it as a way to control the tool within my palms.

  Ssh! Ssh! Ssh!

  One. Two. Three. Or maybe more.

  There were too many ice shards to count. Too many to counter all at once. I inhaled and exhaled after every ssh I made.

  Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

  Breathing was starting to be hard at this rate.

  With all of my energy wasted on defending not only me, but my friends, I could tell this was its pn.

  Of course.

  Why hadn't I thought of it sooner? Or wait. Had I thought of it?

  My head was beating so loudly that I could practically hear it from my ears. It could also be my heart I was hearing. Either way, I had to keep moving.

  Ssh! Ssh!

  Two more ice shards were sliced in half as I started to move a bit forward.

  Step. Step.

  I could use this time to at least—

  Snap!

  "Ngh!" I closed my left eye as I suddenly felt an intense pain in one of my legs.

  Thump!

  I fell down face-first.

  It didn't take long before I saw white. This must have been the ground that was covered with snow. I slowly pushed myself up and sat on my butt. I aimed my attention toward the pain...

  "Wha-?!"

  I saw an ice sickle stabbed through my wounded leg.

  But that wasn't the worst part of all of this.

  This leg... the pain... it hurt.

  "....It hurt?" I widen my eyes in fear.

  No. no no no!

  My nerves were returning very slowly. Jir's magic must have been wearing off!

  No. No, no, no! Not now nerves! I can't feel pain right now! I slowly looked back and saw the monster slowly picking up another pile of snow.

  Oh no.

  This COULDN'T be good.

  No. This wasn't good at all. First, my nerves were returning to me, and now the monster was loading up a second round of those ice sickles and aiming it in my direction. I forced myself to stand, but I ended up on my knees instead. This frightened me. If I couldn't even stand, then how was I supposed to defend my friends and me from this upcoming attack?!

  Damn it... damn it!

  "Shit!" I slowly go onto one knee to at least try to stand up to protect those I hold dear. But to no avail, this was as far as my body could go. Now with the nerves returning, it was functioning as it should. And since one of my body parts was hurt, it wouldn't let me put pressure on it anymore. If I did, then it would cry out loud for me to stop.

  I knew this. I knew all of this, yet I was angry that I could not do anything to defend anything or anyone.

  "No... Not now, damn it!"

  Toss!

  This time, the monster tossed the whole pile of snow and aimed it at me. I gasp as I see it speeding towards me without any sign of slowing down.

  With this speed, I might be taken out even if I don't die from the impact!