The Wolfrezon's severed arm hit the snow.
Thud.
Blood splashed dark across the white. For one heartbeat, everything held still.
The beast lowered the Snow Monarch from its remaining arm, crimson eyes fixed on the empty socket where its other limb used to be.
Then pain caught up.
ROOOOOOOOAAAAARRR!!
The whole forest shook. Snow cascaded off the pines in sheets. The Wolfrezon staggered back, clutching the ruined shoulder, dark blood pouring onto frozen ground, its furious gaze locking onto the one person still standing in the clearing.
Zekai spun Null Drakular once and rested it against his shoulder.
"...Sorry."
"Wasn't aiming for the arm."
"Was aiming for your neck."
The Wolfrezon's lips peeled back off rows of razor fangs. Blue light started gathering deep in its throat.
"...?"
His grin faded. "What now?"
The light built. Not Grave Energy — something else. It felt different. Colder. Denser, like it had weight.
"Holy—"
Its jaws snapped open.
BOOOOOOOOOM!!
A sapphire beam tore out of its mouth. The snow underneath vaporized on contact.
"Oh, crap!"
He barely got the blade up in time.
SHHHHHHHHHHHH!!
The beam slammed into white steel. Blue light exploded around him, and the impact drove him backward, boots carving two trenches straight through the snow.
The beam split around Null Drakular, energy scattering wide. Trees detonated into splinters behind him.
"...It has a laser?!"
His arms trembled beneath the pressure. "So that's the real weapon."
The beam finally cut off. Steam rolled off the blade.
He exhaled hard. "My hands." A beat. "...are numb."
He'd barely finished the sentence when the Wolfrezon vanished.
"...!"
A gust of displaced air slammed into him. He dropped before he'd decided to. His body moved on its own, throwing him sideways before the thought finished.
A claw the size of a car door swept through the space his skull had occupied a half-second earlier.
WHOOOOSH!!
The force alone split three pines behind him clean in half.
He twisted, boots skidding sideways through the snow, the claw passing his face close enough to feel the wind off it.
"...Too slow."
He used the momentum. One hand hit the ground, body rotating under the beast's remaining arm, snow blasting out around him. One motion, and he was already behind it.
"Heh."
"You thought—"
"—I'd just stand there?"
The Wolfrezon started to turn.
Too late.
Null Drakular flashed. A silver crescent cut straight through the falling snow.
SHHHHK!!
Nothing happened, for a second.
The Wolfrezon stayed standing. Its crimson eyes widened. Then a thin red line opened across its throat.
Blood erupted skyward. Its massive head slid off its shoulders in one clean motion.
THUD!!
The gigantic skull rolled across the snow and came to rest beside the corpse it had been eating an hour ago. Its body stood for one more heartbeat before it collapsed, the impact shaking the whole clearing.
Silence came back. Only snow, drifting.
"...Oof." Zekai leaned on the sword with both hands. "That was stronger than I expected."
He looked at the corpse. "So you're definitely not the weakest thing running around out here."
Zekai let the sword dissolve back into black ash and looked around.
A weak groan sounded behind him. The Snow Monarch struggled to its feet, breath shallow, claw wounds torn through its once-pristine coat, white fur stained dark with blood.
"...Easy." He held both hands up. "Not your enemy."
The stag lifted its head slow. Icy blue eyes met his — no hostility in them. Just caution.
Then something happened he wasn't ready for.
Pale blue light spread across its body. The wounds started closing on their own — flesh knitting shut, blood vanishing under freshly grown fur. Within seconds the Snow Monarch stood there whole again. Healthy. Every bit as majestic as it had looked when it first stepped into the clearing.
"...You're kidding." He blinked. "You can just — regenerate?"
He glanced at the Wolfrezon's corpse, then back at the stag.
"If you can heal like that — how were you losing?"
The ancient deer said nothing. It didn't need to. Old scars hidden under its coat answered for it — regeneration always cost something, and against raw strength like the Wolfrezon's, that cost was never going to be enough.
The Snow Monarch stepped toward him, graceful, antlers catching the winter light. It didn't walk like a king coming home from victory.It walked like something old, carrying a weight only it understood the shape of.
Its eyes lingered on him far longer than made sense. Not gratitude. Concern.
His grip tightened on the hilt. "...You're not about to fight me too. Right?"
The stag stopped a few meters off. Neither of them moved for a long stretch of silence.
Then it lowered its head. A gesture of respect.
He blinked. "...Uh. No. You really don't have to do that." A pause. "I only jumped in because—" He scratched the back of his neck. "—well. He was kind of a jerk."
The corner of his mouth twitched up.
The stag lifted its head again. What little strength it had clawed back from healing itself, it spent anyway — antlers igniting with soft azure light.
"...?"
Snow began swirling around him, frost particles catching the light.
"What are you doing?"
The light gathered into a single thread of icy-blue energy and flowed straight into his chest.
His whole body shivered — warmth spreading through every muscle at once, nothing like the cold. Every ache from the fight melted out of him. The numbness in his arms burned off completely.
"...Whoa."
Zzzzsup.
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ARCANA STATUS
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Special Blessing Received
Source: Snow Monarch Deer
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Skill Acquired
Frost Heal
Rank: Rare
Type: Blessing / Support
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Effect:
• Continuously regenerates physical injuries.
• Restores damaged muscles, bones, and internal organs.
• Greatly reduces fatigue and accelerates stamina recovery.
• Grants exceptional resistance to cold environments.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
He flexed his injured hand open, closed. The numbness was already gone. Even the claw marks torn through his forearm were knitting shut in front of his eyes.
"...That's—" He blinked. "—fast."
His breathing came lighter, steadier than it had all fight.
"So this is—" A grin broke across his face. "—actual regeneration."
He looked back at the stag. "...Thanks."
It watched him for a long moment, then lowered its head one more time.
Then its gaze drifted past him. Toward the deepest stretch of the frozen forest, somewhere hidden behind countless white trees.
Its pupils contracted. Its whole body went rigid.
For the first time since he'd laid eyes on it, fear surfaced in the ancient creature's eyes — not of dying, not of another fight, but of something even a king of this forest knew better than to challenge.
The fear lasted one heartbeat. Then it folded itself away, gone.
The Snow Monarch looked back at him one last time, its expression softened. Almost as though it were entrusting something precious to him.
Without a sound, it turned and broke into a run across the frozen plains, snow kicking up behind it, and within seconds the white forest had swallowed it whole.
Only drifting snow left behind.
"...Guess that's goodbye, then."
He never caught it — right before the tree line swallowed the deer completely, it looked back one final time.
Not at him. At the same stretch of distant forest — like it was praying the gift it had just given would be enough.
"...Alright."
"Now."
"Let's see what else this place is hiding."
He raised a finger. "Arcana Status."
Zzzzsup!
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ARCANA INTERFACE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Authority Title: The Fool
Authority Level: 35
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Authority Bearer: Zekai Krystan
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HP: 100%
AP: 100%
STR: 16 AGI: 18 DEX: 17 VIT: 17
PER: 20 WIL: 29
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1. Authorities 2. Armament 3. Arcana Path
2. Unbroken Ledger 5. Condition 6. Records
7. Observation
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He studied the readout. "...Interesting."
"Stats barely moved."
His finger drifted toward the lower tabs. "Still haven't touched half of this."
"Wonder what—"
Instinct fired before the thought finished.
His body moved on its own, throwing him sideways.
BOOOOOOM!!
A pine tree the size of a building slammed into the exact patch of snow he'd been standing on. Snow blasted skyward in a wall.
"...What?!"
The ground shook underneath him.
THUD.
THUD.
THUD.
Heavy footsteps rolled in from every direction at once.
The forest wasn't quiet anymore.
It was waking up.
✦ Chapter 55 — The First Pack ✦