*Tick!! Tick!!! Tick!!!

The echoes of metal hitting stone traveled through a tunnel.

And there wasn't just one of such sounds being made in that certain tunnel.

But it wasn't before long that a different sound appeared in the tunnel.

*Ting~ting~ ting~~

"Haah~haah~haah...so hot..." A man with haggard breathing said as he felt his body burning from the inside.

"Hey! What are you doing!? Pick up your pickaxe before they come!" The voice of the girl that was not far from him spoke with a harsh voice.

The man briefly looked at her before nodding.

"I-I know..." The man said as he stared down at the pickaxe that he dropped.

His gaze was dizzy and he was thoroughly exhausted.

But he knew that the girl was right.

He bent his waist, reaching out with his two arms to pick up his pickaxe to continue, seemingly aimlessly hitting the rocks that they assigned him to hit.

But once he slightly raised the pickaxe, suddenly like thunder, he felt all his strength leaving his body, making him fall to the cold ground.

And despite the man wearing barely any clothing, having little meat on his bones, and no shoes whatsoever. The man was feeling like burning alive even after touching the ice-cold ground.

Seeing the man collapse, the girl near him cursed out loud.

"You piece of shit! What are you doing collapsing to the ground! Hey, wake up!" The girl cursed before leaving her own pickaxe and running to the collapsed man.

Just like the man, she wore little clothing, just enough to cover her private areas. Highlighting her fit body. Unlike a delicate noblewoman, her muscles were clear to see with her abs despite the lack of meat in her body.

She had a few black-lined tattoos on her right arm, but the most noticeable of her was the several large fox tails behind her.

One could mistake her for the same race as those "fox people" that Danzel knew. But the fox ears on her head begged to differ.

Also, her long, white and black hair with those gray eyes was quite uncommon to the Vashara village.

Grabbing the man's shoulder, the white-black-haired girl shook the man to the ground.

"Hey! Wake up you idiot! You will get me in troubl- huh?" Only now did she notice the man's red face and the amount of heat that his body was generating.

"This prick! Get up already!" The girl cursed as she noticed the fever of that guy.

Seeing the man not listening to her, she gritted her teeth in anger. Looking like she was about to throw a punch at the guy.

The next moment though, her fox-like ears twitched as they caught a sound coming to them.

'Shit! They are here...!' She cursed internally as picked the man off the ground and place his pickaxe in his hand.

Alas, the man collapsed back to the ground, aimlessly looking at the ground.

"You bastard-" As the girl was about to end her curse, loud footsteps appeared in the same tunnel.

The owner of those footsteps was from beings taller than 2 meters with muscular and robust bodies. They had pale blueish skin and tattoos running through their shoulders and chest.

"What is this?" One of the huge figures said, clearly being off the ice troll race.

"Ghhh, it seems the fox meat's have been slacking off, brother." The other ice troll said while staring at the man and the woman that are to the ground.

Hearing what the other ice troll said and looking at the two, the ice troll referred to as brother gnashed his teeth.

"You useless fox meat! Take your stick and continue your work!!! The chieftain is awaiting the stone spears! Get up!"

The girl with the white and black hair and tail picked her pickaxe, but then she stared at the man who was struggling to even rise up.

Cursing at the man's weakness, she tried to help him up.

Alas, the man was in no condition to do as the ice trolls commanded.

Seeing that the two of them weren't doing as he commanded, the ice troll's frown grew much worse as he walked toward them.

"Pick you sticks fox meats! NOW!!!"

"He can't! His head is burning hot! Any more and he will-" Before the girl could finish, the ice troll swiped his hand the girl with such force that send the girl flying toward the stone wall of the tunnel

"Kyaaagh!!!" Screaming in pain, the girl fell to the ground with her head bleeding.

The ice troll then kicked the man to the ground in the stomach, sending him a few meters of rollings.

Seeing no response except for a light-grown of pain, the ice troll walked to the man.

"Tch! Broken like a tool, this fox meat is. There is no need of him anymore."

Reaching out with his hand, the ice troll picked up the man from his hand to his eye level.

And in the next second, the ice troll opened his mouth and dug his tusk and teeth into the flesh of the man. Making the man's eyes focus for a brief second with his mount opened, though no screams came out.

The ice troll only took two bites, and those 2 bites alone devour 1/4 of the man.

"Dammit, only bones and no meat. Even as food those fox people are useless." The ice troll said as he gazed at the girl who was bleeding from the head.

"I guess this one is useless too by now." He stepped towards the girl before picking up her hand and dragging her to the floor.

'You piece of shit, I will have you had your head with an axe...' The girl thought internally as her eyes stared at the ice troll ice full with ferocity of a wolf ready to leap and take a bite of someone's neck.

Seeing how the girl looked at him, the ice troll frowned before smiling at the sudden idea that he got.

"Hehe, little brother, you can have the rest of the useless meat. I will take that one and have some fun."

Walking over to the dead man, the other troll picked him up and started to take a bite at his throat.

"Don't kill her brother, the chieftain might take a bite out of us if those fox meat delays the stone collecting."

"Gghgh, I know. I just don't have to kill her right? She looks useless anyway." The ice troll said as she dragged the girl through the ground.

As they walked through the tunnel, many like her and the man were seen, with their pickaxe in hand and swinging at the walls.

Most of them had way more filial traits than the people of the Vashara.

Those people who watched one of the ice trolls drag the girl out of the tunnel gridded their teeth and clenched their pickaxes.

Letting out killing intended towards the ice troll, alas, they all knew that it was useless to go against the ice troll hunters.

Those who were capable or wanting to object to them were already dead. Each of them knew and saw how they died.

Raised up to the air while the tusk and teeth of the ice troll hunters eat their bodies like some wild beast.

While most of them were quite strong, the bodies of the ice trolls were gifted with strong bodies full of vitality.

All of them were from different tribes deeper into the territory of the primordial of the Wild Hunt. Many of them were great hunters, but now they were merely reduced into slaves to mine till they die or be eaten by a hungry ice troll hunter.

That was all that they were reduced to.

The girl dragged by the ice troll tried her best to hold to something on the ground as she knew exactly her fate awaiting outside the mine.

And soon enough, they came out of the mine.

"Y-You bastards...I will kill you all." She said as she was suddenly lifted and thrown to the side of the stone wall with great force.

"Ghighi, as if you fox meats can go against us. You are to be slaves to the chieftain, and tools for us." The ice troll said while putting his axe to the ground.

"And tools are meant to be broken, ghighi." He said as the ice troll slowly tried to undress his pants.

Seeing that, the girl gritted her teeth.

Despite her injury, her hands flew strength while her nails extended and became sharper than a dagger. Using her strength, she directly cut a part of the stone behind her and grabbed it with all her strength.

Awaiting for the chance to smash the ice trolls' hunter head.

But before the ice troll hunter could pull his pants down to begin the deed.

A sudden sound of an explosion appeared.

*Boughh!!!!

Surprised, the troll pulled back his pants and turned to look where the sound come from.

"W-What are those!?" The ice trolls shouted in shock with many others coming to watch the shocking sighting in front of them.

The gate that they have built, was destroyed and spewing fierce flames of a dark green color, slowly spreading and devouring the rest of the wood walls.

And at that moment the ice trolls were in shock at the sight of the strange flames, suddenly 6 lances of the exact dark green flames were shot out at an incredible speed, aiming at 6 ice trolls.

The ice trolls were too slow to react to the lances of the dark green flames, letting the lances pierce their bodies.

Killing 2 immediately while the others were left to suffer in the dark green flames.

They tried to put out the flames, but they couldn't.

The only thing that they achieved was revealing that the lances of fire were actually ice spikes, on fire by the dark green flames.

"KGwaaaagh!! Why won't they go out."

"It burns!!! It burns!!! Stop it!!!"

"It hurt!!!!"

The 4 ice trolls were yelling in pain as they tried their best to put out the fire.

As futile as it was in reality.

And among those screams, a sound of metallic footsteps was to be heard.

The girl with black and white hair was the first to hear them inside the dark green flames.

How the ice trolls were able to notice the sound wasn't with their great hearing, but from the death aura coming from the flames.

And slowly, a tall figure wearing dark plate armor, from the gaps the dark green flames coming out.

But the most noticeable thing was that his head was a skull with the same flames as his eyes.

"Quite the pathetic wall that you got, to be broken by just this." An ice-cold voice came out of the undead wielding 2 swords.

Swinging one of the swords in front of him with a lack of vigor.

A dark green wind blade flew at the ice trolls while carrying the flames of the sword that the wind blade was swung by.

The wind blade cut through a few ice trolls while letting their remains be eaten by the flames.

A few of the ice trolls dashed with their weapons up high.

The undead second sword then briefly touched the ground.

Resulting in the next second, making ice travel through the ground and raise sharp spikes to impale the few dashing trolls.

"For only to die by just that...pathetic." The undead like all the ice trolls finally reacts to the flow of events.

"Call the others! Bring on the slaves too!" One of the ice trolls commanded as it looked at the ethereal flames of the undead.

Who was none other than Rue Danzel.