From the stone jaws of the dragon. Cold mist flowed like a waterfall to the ground, freezing the trees in the vicinity into glaciers.
The cold caused Cale's body temperature to drop significantly.
Stone parted ways and revealed the void inside the dragon's maw, sparks flew, cackling with each other until one struck the frosty mist.
Fwooosh!
Its jaw caught ablaze with pale blue fire, chunks of it fell and landed a good distance away from Cale.
"This....it's not fire?"
As its light dimmed, the flame condensed and turned into an icicle, big enough to cause serious injury if dropped from a few feet in the air.
Sensing that staying for any longer could cause serious harm, Cale silently hid with the trees hugging his presence.
Far away, he could see the jaw of the dragon creaking open.
"....."
Bad.
It was bad, like real bad.
'I need to go'
For the first time in a long while, he could feel whispers of anxious warnings clamping down on him.
He ignored them, after all, he knew well enough that it was dangerous too.
Clenching his jaw tight, he moved back, each step making him more and more impatient.
Seeing that the dragon did not even notice him, he took a deep breath before turning tail and sprinting away.
The jaws of the dragon stopped as Cale's figure retreated to safety. However, it didn't stop there, its head began to slowly tilt up.
Facing the ball of fire threatening its territory, blue flames danced in its mouth to a song.
When the song reached the chorus, pale flames skyrocketed outwards, reaching the ball of fire in mere moments before engulfing it all in one big munch.
However, the newborn wasn't done, it wouldn't accept being felled like that when its wings still awaited to be flapped with vigor.
Cra Crack!
The ball of fire stretched and cracked, its shape now resembling an egg.
Under the immense pressure, it broke, shell shattering as it revealed a majestic bird on fire.
It roared as it flapped its wings, causing a heat wave to span through the entire area at once.
A hurricane of flames formed and shielded it from the cold wave of fire.
Although the phoenix was undoubtedly strong, being capable of causing a natural disaster with just a singular flap.
The sheer number of enemies surrounding it made it a perfect meal for all.
Nevertheless, to the dragon, it was enough to make it stop its carnage.
Pale-Blue flames dimmed as they turned rock solid, momentum shearing through the wind and crashing into the hurricane.
Thwack!
Being too large of a glacier to whip around to its will, the phoenix could do nothing but watch as its defenses crumbled right in front of it.
And like a hammer, it crushed the bird in an instant, sending it down to press it against the earth.
Like glass, upon impact, the glacier shattered, icicles flew in every single direction.
A long icicle flew and struck down a tree, which coincidently was right next to Cale.
The sudden rip in the wind made Cale's heart leap out.
'D-Damn, will I ever get that kind of firepower in the future?'
Just thinking that he could have died if he stood in the wrong place made him paranoid about everything.
While the tree fell down, Cale recovered from the scare and ran to wherever he could get a breather.
At the moment, no black threads littered his view, for some reason, it just wasn't there anymore.
'Maybe because my insight or whatever changed?'
Different abilities did mean different effects after all.
His thoughts were disturbed as the shearing sound of sharp edges came high above him.
Head rotated to the sound.
And features contorted at the inhuman speed.
'Too fast!'
Bang!
The icicle grazed his cheek as it passed and boomed its kinetic energy to the ground, flipping the snow over him.
"Puh!"
Cale coughed and spat the snow out, freeing himself in the process.
His eyes flickered at the multiple spears of ice rushing to him at crazy speeds and at the edge of his vision.
A fine strand of white thread rippled.
At the sight, his body moved before he could even think.
Like artillery, the snow upturned under the immense energy each time an icicle shattered upon impact. However, Cale dodged masterfully against the barrage, not a single pound of snow slowed him.
'So following the white line means it's the best route!'
With how he was dodging under a hair's breath, it seemed likely to be the case.
However, there was a hard limit to it, he could feel it vividly under the shrieking grate in his mind after each dodge.
He was dodging now for sure, but not for long.
Bang!
Each crash of ice placed more and more strain on him.
He needed to find something fast, an alternative.
But, how could he?
Each explosion ate away at him, there was nothing he could do but hope that it ends.
'No'
Another vein popped open, painting one side of his face with blood.
'I have the solution in the palm of my hand'
Truly, he did.
"Ha!"
Drip!
Blood dripped to the floor as the blood vessels in his eyes popped and trickled out.
Planting a foot down to the snow, he thought.
'How can you deflect every projectile coming at you?'
How was it possible to apply a degree of force into each one of the projectiles to make them all stop?
Was it by throwing the same number of projectiles and hoping for the best?
No.
What if you prayed you'd dodge it all?
What kind of moron would do that?
There was one sole answer and method that would work.
Explosions.
And Cale had a bomb right in his grasp.
Vision blurred as he flung a dagger at incoming ice.
It spun in the air and upon contact.
The dagger released all of its heat and exploded, it boomed and ripped through the space, though slightly weaker than the last, the shockwaves culled the momentum of the next wave.
Proving its use more than enough.
"Ug!"
Heat rashly returned to his body, face flushing under the dizzying warmth.
He looked around, icicles like arrows rained down and littered on the floor and on wood, trees fell with gaping holes blaring.
If even one icicle had made direct contact, he would have died in an instant....Like the corpses of charred animals lying around him.
"....?"
Upon second inspection, he frowned while huffing breaths.
'Strange...why are they burned?'
He moved on from the rain of ice and focused on the surrounding corpses.
One whiff of the smell and he raised a brow.
"Is it recent?"
It didn't make sense though, how could a corpse possibly burn under the onslaught of fragments of ice?
The dagger was the first to come to mind, but throwing it only once the whole time crossed it first thing.
A tree off in the distance flew down, and like a lightbulb humming back to life, the shape of the open terrain struck Cale like a swift hammer from behind.
Triangle, it was shaped like a triangle.
Behind him, a trail of destruction followed, but if one looked really close, they could see the occasional unnatural charred craters where heat and steam emitted.
'A kill zone!'
Someone veered him to where they would want him to be, using the loud bangs from the icicles to mask it.
In other words, they lured him to the zone where it was easiest to kill him, like the previous ones that were trapped.
'I have to get out of here!'
Upon the realization, he ditched where he stood and ran to the trees as fast as he humanely could.
'Come on, just a little more!'
From where he stood, a spark of bright fire wagged its tail erratically in the cold.
It flailed around till it broke down and faded into mere mist.
In its place, bright orange sparks flew in a small sphere, condensed and constricted in an instant.
They stopped, silence feeding them.
Every spark that stopped grew angry at their world abruptly stopping, so angry that they boiled.
Steam rose from the sphere before condensing to a single spark in the stagnant air holding its breath.
At last, being incapable of properly containing fury, the single, condensed spark exploded like a bright star on its last stand.
Shockwaves recoiled, heat melted snow and Cale barely escaped its area of effect and got out fairly unscathed thanks to his sharp judgement, a couple of pebbles did swoop in and crash into him, but he shook the pain off.
Before long, he reached the forest and hid, running away from any eye that pried to locate him.
"Tsk, branch eyes, prey fled"
From a high vantage point where two figures stood, one grumbled.
They looked like a green bush unsuitable for the environment while the other had branches of grotesque eyes of all creatures forming in every part of his body.
The green bush addressed to the 'branch eyes' next to her with a haughty tone.
"No matter"
He answered without looking back, eyes fully scanning the area.
"As long as we work together, we can get the prize for passing with the greatest marks"
The bush shifted her gaze toward the distant bombings she caused.
"Ho? Do you believe I need you? My insight is far more incredible than whatever you can do"
For a moment, he wanted to maul her to death, but without her firepower, he would get strangled in the center like the other humanoid monsters in no time.
Her strength was needed to ensure he could live.
So for now.
"Now tell me vulture! Where is our prey fleeing to! I want to get both him and that swift armored dude!"
He would stroke her ego.
"Ahaha, while my ability for surveillance is top notch, we risk getting spotted if I expand the area of search too much"
Like this.
"Of course, with your presence blessing my survival, we are bound for greatness"
"Hohoho! You know how to compliment me servant!"
And her little walnut-sized barbaric mind would salivate at the pleasure of being complimented.