Though her main element was ice, this assignment didn't ask for anything too crazy. It wasn't like the exploratory expeditions from her rookie days. She only had to scan for strange elemental or magical activity.
When it came to ice spells, simple detection and rough readings were enough. What really mattered was stamina. And that, she had plenty of, especially when she treated each day like it had forty eight hours.
"Monster activity... What's going on up here?" She whispered to herself as the wind fed information back through her spells.
With a flick of her fingers, several small ice spells took shape and launched forward, turning into needle-sharp spears that skewered the approaching beasts like meat on sticks. In seconds, the frozen plain turned into a brutal sculpture garden, each monster frozen mid-charge.
But as she walked closer, she saw something off, their heads were still twitching. That wasn't right.
Monsters didn't behave like this. They weren't mindless things that fought anything on sight.
Most species knew when to retreat, when to avoid a fight they couldn't win. But lately? They'd been acting like they were under some sort of frenzy, pushing forward even if it meant dying.
And it wasn't just the predators, everything was acting hostile toward humans now. No matter what type of monster it was, they all seemed to be aiming for people specifically.
Up here in the north, humans felt like outcasts, surrounded by beasts that saw them as enemies. To make things worse, monster numbers were rising fast. Rumors were already spreading about full-scale monster waves targeting cities.
It sounded like the kind of stuff you'd hear around a bar and laugh off. But now? It was starting to feel a little too real.
"Still, what does any of that have to do with me?" Syltra sighed.
She wasn't from this region. Once her current assignment wrapped up, she was planning to bolt back home. If some monster army decided to flatten the local cities later, well, that was someone else's problem.
It was all just a possibility anyway. A tiny one. After all, when had idle monsters ever united just to storm a city for no reason?
Documenting the flow of magic and elemental activity was way harder than writing research papers or essays. At least with papers, you weren't trying to explain complicated arcane theory to regular folks who barely understood how spells worked.
The real challenge was making it sound useful, like their money was being put to good use. If you couldn't convince them of that, you'd be stuck dealing with that awkward gap between contractor and client, both speaking entirely different languages. Syltra dreaded dealing with those "half-learned" types more than clueless ones.
Total beginners could be guided. But the ones who thought they knew something? They were the worst, constantly jumping in with baseless opinions and doubling down even when proven wrong.
"Sigh... two more zones left. Let's just get this over with." With a groan, Syltra closed her thick bundle of notes and muttered tiredly. She probably looked like a dried-up fish on display at a market stall.
Once upon a time, she was confident in her looks, even called herself a beauty. Now? She looked like someone who hadn't slept in days and spent too much time freezing in the snow.
"Huh?" A surprised sound slipped out as she picked up two life signals through her elemental sensing spells. Not exactly strange, life still existed out here, even in this frozen wasteland.
What grabbed her attention wasn't just the two signals, but the crowd of faint, nearly lifeless auras trailing behind them. Something about it didn't feel right.
There was no surge of magical energy, but she definitely caught a whiff of blood in the air. That was enough to raise her guard.
"Did someone get attacked by wolves or something?"
With new migration orders issued by the local lords, lots of townsfolk and merchants had started moving toward larger cities. That kind of movement always attracted trouble, bandits, smugglers, and all sorts of unsavory types.
Syltra tapped her staff against the frozen ground and began chanting, her voice low but firm. Several magic arrays bloomed beneath her feet, lifting a wide stone platform that surged forward, carrying her through the snow at impressive speed.
But even moving that fast, the scene ahead still managed to catch her off guard. Riding on top of a large, shaggy, camel-like beast were two cloaked figures.
Despite the heavy coverings, a streak of icy blue hair peeked through one of their hoods. Two girls, Syltra figured. But that wasn't what made her heart race.
A group of armed figures, just as heavily wrapped in winter gear, was following closely behind them. She caught the gleam of metal in their hands, clearly weapons.
"Wolf bandits..." she hissed under her breath.
Without a second thought, she raised her staff. Magic circles spun to life, the chime of her bell nearly lost in the roaring wind. Her voice cut through the storm. "Earthquake. Earth Wall."
The ground rumbled violently, and an earthen wall several meters high shot up behind her, cutting the attackers off from the two girls. Without missing a beat, she swapped elements.
"Let it freeze."
Using the spell structure she'd cast earlier, she reshaped the storm itself. Snow became her weapon.
Razor-sharp shards of ice filled the air, turning the wind into a barrage of slicing frost. Each flake cut with the sharpness of a blade, slashing through the bandits' thick coats, tearing open flesh, and freezing blood before it could hit the ground.
One by one, they fell. No resistance. No struggle.
Syltra hadn't killed them. Not because she couldn't, but because she thought a slow, miserable end working eighteen hours a day in an icy prison cell was a better fate. Scum like that didn't deserve an easy death.
She stepped down from the platform and approached the two girls. "Are you hurt? I'm on assignment from the local lord. My name's Syltra. You're safe now."
One of the girls, the one still standing, seemed to relax a bit at her voice. The other, unconscious, Syltra now realized, was slumped over the beast.
The dark-haired girl looked out of place against the white snow, like ink spilled on paper. She stared at Syltra for a moment, clearly overwhelmed. "Not really okay, but thanks for stepping in," she said, her voice soft but sincere.
Syltra watched her carefully, noting the way her guard dropped just slightly. The girl took a cautious step forward. "Are we Safe now?" she asked.
"That's right. You're safe now."
The girl seemed to breathe a little easier. But even as her expression calmed, Syltra noticed the way her eyes flicked toward the ground, like she was hiding something.
Syltra learned the truth soon enough, just as she had suspected, the girl with the rare black hair was the daughter of a merchant traveling with a trade caravan. She had joined her father on the journey for business reasons.