"What's with that face again, James?", Ivan yawned and stretched his arms up high.

"Oh? Nothing, I'm alright.", James smiled in respond.

"Really, then why is your face pale?", Ivan narrowed his eyes at James, suspecting the latter was sick right now.

"It's really nothing, I'm fine.", James replied, but this time, he was nudging both of his hands at each other.

Ivan noticed his actions and said, "Stop lying! I know that you're lying!"

"No! I'm not lying!", James nudged both of his hands again.

Ivan rolled his eyes and said, "Well then, I'm going to tell Mr. Morgan about it."

"No! Don't tell him anything!", James grasped Ivan's shoulders and started to shake him like he was a lifeless doll.

"Stop! I won't tell him then!", Ivan forcefully removed James' hands from his shoulders.

"Thanks!", James' mood lighten up a bit and they continued walking.

However, inside Ivan's mind, his inner self was chuckling in a mischievous way.

"Have you noticed that it got much colder today so suddenly?", Ivan rubbed both of his arms, he was already wearing gloves, yet, he could still feel that coldness entering his thick clothes.

"Huh? No, not really.", James shook his head.

"What kind of a body do you even have?! I want that kind of resistance!"

...

After a while, they finally arrived at Allen's shop.

"Good morning, Mr. Morgan!", James and Ivan simultaneously greeted as they entered the shop.

"Morning.", Allen greeted back.

"Good morning to the both of you.", Anna yawned, she was still tired after she woke up too early today.

"Good morning..."

"Hey Mr. Morgan something's wrong with Ja...", Ivan blurted out, but before he could finish his sentence, his mouth was covered by James.

Ivan immediately removed James' hand from his mouth and tried to finish his sentence, but the latter still got to cover the former's mouth again.

"What is it?", Allen noticed what was happening and asked.

James' face instantly became gloomy and glared at Ivan, but the latter mockingly stuck on his tongue to the former.

Ivan replied to Allen, "Mister, something's wrong with James today."

Hearing what the kid said, Allen approached James and held the his hand, afterwards, the former felt spiking coldness enter his hands which instantly spread throughout his arm.

The Erchian Dagger inside his consciousness then spinned and let out light which dispelled the coldness.

'How could it grow this severe in such a short time?', Allen thought.

"Am I alright, mister?", James asked, he didn't have to hide anything now.

"Mhm, your body's fine.", Allen replied. Well, he was technically still telling the truth because the one causing the coldness was his soul.

"See, I told you I'm fine!", James glared at Ivan, but inwardly, the former heave a sigh of relief, because he thought that Allen didn't see anything wrong.

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Ivan shrugged in embara.s.sment and said, "Well, I got to go now, see you later." After which, he left the establishment.

As James was about to go to his usual spot, Allen interrupted him, "You should go home kid, I might be closing early today because of the sudden drop in temperature."

"What?! Alright mister.", James was surprised at first, but he still reluctantly left the building in the end.

Obviously, the real reason why Allen made James go back home wasn't because of the sudden drop in temperature, but because the kid might affect the plants in the shop with his condition.

Even if there was the array set up by Allen, it could only block the Magic Frosbite outside shop.

Allen turned his head at Little Salad, who was as if trying to say something as it waved its tiny leaves at him.

Of course, Allen knew that Little Salad's reaction was because of James.

***

In the Monarch Forest...

Edwin swiftly jumped over a small creek and pa.s.sed by crocodile and ran after landing on the other side.

The crocodile tried to chase after Edwin, but before it could even get out of the water, the ground started to rumble.

The trees, rocks, and snow shook in unison while the water on the stream swayed back and forth.

From the direction where Edwin came from, numerous deers charged forward without any hesitation, trampling rocks, plants and small living beings on the way, and even a few trees were occasionally uprooted!

When the charging deers got closer to the creek, the crocodile tried to bite one of the deer.

It got hold of a deer with its jaws, but soon, more deers stomped and stampeded on the top of the crocodile.

When the stampeding herd left the area, what was only left on the location where the crocodile once was, was snow smeared with blood!

...

Edwin ran as fast as he can while using Burst Steps from time to time to escape the herd of angry deers, but whatever he did, he couldn't shake off the animals!

"How fast and strong are these beasts?!", Edwin started to leap over the trees, he didn't stop for a second, because even if he was atop a tree right now, the deers could just bring it down with their sheer number and momentum.

"I just couldn't kill them, right?", the boy started to think if he should start killing while running away.

Suddenly, the alpha deer, who was in the near front of the herd, neighed and its antlers glew and a beam of white light shot out of it towards Edwin.

-boom-

The tree where Edwin was currently standing was cut in half by the explosion.

Luckily, he had already jumped on an another tree before the other tree he was standing on earlier collapsed.

"What the...!", Edwin was frightened by the power that the beam of light produced. Its power could almost be comparable to a strike of the demonic crocodile he encountered last time, albeit faster.

The alpha deer shot out an another beam of light from its antlers.

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!", Edwin jumped down from the tree and avoided the beam of light.

-boom-

The beam of light hit a tree and exploded which caused the tree's upper part to either fly away in pieces and some of it got disintegrated.

When Edwin touched the ground, he rolled first due to his momentum then stood up and started to sprint away again immediately.

Now, he felt that he was getting tired because his internal energy was running out after using Burst Steps for many times!

Edwin took out a pill from his satchel and swallowed it and in an instant, his internal energy was replenished.

Meanwhile, the alpha deer didn't dare send out an another beam of light because it might hinder its kin's momentum from the damage it would cause on the ground.

The boy heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that the deer wasn't attacking with its antlers again.

Edwin kept running forward followed by the herd of angry deers, until the boy was stopped by some sort of an almost flat cliff face.

Hearing the incoming deers about to catch up onto him, Edwin started to climb the cliff face while initiating Shadow Steps from time to time to make himself swifter.

When the deers arrived at the area, Edwin has almost fully climbed the cliff face.

However, the deers didn't seem to have noticed him yet, and taking that chance, he started to climb faster while he was still not spotted.

But Edwin accidentally slipped his foot from a step, making pebbles fall from that height.

The alpha deer noticed the pebbles which made it look up, when it saw Edwin, it started to neigh and its antlers glew again.

"Oh no.", Edwin noticed what was happening and climbed even faster, however, he was heard by the whole herd, but he didn't even care if he has been heard anymore.

Another beam of light then came from the alpha deer's antlers, going towards him!

-boom-

The beam of light hit the cliff face and exploded, launching rocks and dust everywhere in the location.

When everything settled down, a crater was formed on cliff side by the attack of the alpha deer!

Meanwhile, Edwin was already on top of the cliff, he got on the top in time by a second earlier the beam of light hit the cliff face.

"That was too close." With an exhausted sigh, Edwin laid down on the ground. He made a deep breath and relaxed his body.

After a few seconds, he crawled towards the corner of the cliff and took a peek on the deers.

What the boy spotted were contrary to the situation earlier, as the animals were now eating peacefully on the herbs and gra.s.s that they were digging out of the snow.

Some were even sleeping while the younger ones were playing freely. It was as if, the chase didn't even happen.

However, he couldn't see the alpha deer anywhere. He kept looking and looking but saw no sign of it.

Some time later, he heard sound of hooves behind him.

Edwin froze, then mustered his courage as turned around and saw that it was the alpha deer!

The antlers of the alpha deer were already glowing brightly, much brighter than before, it has already prepared a powerful charged attack!

A dumbfounded look appeared on Edwin's face as he saw the deer.

'Guess I have to use my only Flicker for the day?', he thought.

As he was about to initiate Flicker, the next thing that happened made him even more stunned.

"What's with that dumbfounded look? Do you really take all animals as stupid creatures?", the alpha deer sneered.

"Well, not really.", Edwin muttered. He already saw the Winter Wolf back at the Monarch Stone Patch, so even if this occurrence was surprising, it wasn't that stunning than the first time.

"Hm? And how could you say that?", the alpha deer asked, even if the boy only muttered the sentence, the deer could still hear it with its above average abilities.

"Because I met a Winter Wolf once in the Monarch Stone Patch who could talk.", Edwin said.

"So you met Avram. How lucky of you to be alive until now.", the alpha deer said.

'This guy seems to be reasonable, maybe I can talk my way out of this?', Edwin inwardly pondered.