Avalanche Ride and the Beast Graveyard
Ian and his party attempted a swift descent from the mountain. Having confirmed that the Mountain King was hostile to humans, lingering on the sacred peak any longer was too dangerous. The phoenix would surely understand their situation.
...Better to summon it quickly, though. Ian thought as he stroked Winnie. The phoenix's soul had mumbled something in words only it understood, right in front of him. What? An evil presence? Something ominous haunting the mountain? If Winnie's body had been destroyed and the phoenix revived, that curiosity would have been satisfied. But Ian was the one who had delayed the revival...
For now, he had no choice but to shelve his curiosity.
[Ian. I think I understand the meaning of 'my' warning. The Mountain King... is anxious.]
"Anxious? About what?"
[That's...]
Winnie fell silent. Ian awkwardly stroked it again. He hadn't delayed its death just to make it suffer.
"Sorry. I wanted to show you the great view."
[No. Like I said, I'm just happy to spend time with you and Kira like this.]
Ian and his party steadily made their way down the mountain. Meanwhile, Phaira tore at her hair in torment.
"Ugh... The Grendels will come back. We should've wiped them all out back then!"
"That was physically impossible," Ian said, soothing her. Even if everyone here charged with swords drawn, exterminating a Grendel pack would take ages. It was impossible in theory, let alone in practice.
"The single path will appear soon. If they attack then, we're really in trouble!"
"But you said there was no other way."
"...Maybe we went too deep from the start!"
Phaira rolled her eyes back and frantically drew cards, wailing to herself.
"Aah...! Ominous, so ominous!"
"..."
Ian suddenly understood why Ragnar didn't like Phaira much. This woman had wild mood swings. And she was way too reliant on her divinations.
"Shaman! Can't you shut up for a bit?!"
Takarion himself bellowed. Ian was genuinely impressed. Wow... How bad does it have to be to make Takarion snap?
"God watches, but man makes it happen! Acting without shame according to God's will—that's the priest's role, isn't it?!"
"Ooh." Ian clapped. As expected of a writer—Takarion had a knack for crafting sentences. More importantly, it was solid orthodoxy. Orthodox truths are hard to argue against. Phaira said nothing, just hung her head.
"Yeah... Gotta push on." Ian sighed at the narrowing path ahead, which seemed to constrict like a vise. They'd passed it slowly on the way up without issue. But crossing with enemies on their tail? It gave him hives just thinking about it.
No choice, though. Like it or not, they had to go through the single path.
"Let's go."
But when Ian was halfway across, a monstrous silhouette poked its head over the cliff above.
"...Fuck."
Ian cursed the monster on sight. Those smart bastards!
"Ambush!"
Subordinates of the Mountain King—the Grendels. Having faced Ian before, they didn't approach rashly. Instead, they exploited the terrain.
"Kyaaak!"
"No, who's calling who a monster...!"
Ian felt the Grendel's intent and was dumbfounded, but there was no time for stray thoughts. Snowballs hurled by the Grendels were raining down from above!
"Those goddamn freezing bastards!" Phaira roared.
Truth be told, they weren't much on their own. Snowballs couldn't kill a person. But this was a snow-packed mountain. The Grendels' frantic throws disturbed the massive snow piles on the slopes, which soon cascaded into a gigantic wave crashing toward Ian's party.
Rumble...!
"Avalanche!"
The Grendels had aimed for this from the start. Slow the party down, then sweep them away with the avalanche!
"Damn...!"
If Ian were an ordinary traveler, his remaining time would be best spent scribbling a will. Generally, there's no surviving an avalanche on a mountain.
But Ian wasn't ordinary.
"Ian!!!"
Hearing Belenka's voice tear through the air like a scream, Ian took a deep breath. He calmly scanned his surroundings with steady eyes.
An overwhelming mass of snow pouring toward him. If he could just handle that snow... they'd definitely survive!
Hrundal. If you want me showing up on two healthy legs, give me a hand!
Like the northern shamans, Ian prayed to the ice god and drew a card.
You drew an Arcana card...
Chariot Card!
Arcana magic shared much in common with Divine Magic. Borrowing a god's power... and the random results.
Rumble...!
Staring at the descending snow, Ian recalled a certain intuition.
'Ride... it?'
It was absurd, but this was a form of divine revelation. Hrundal had given Ian the answer. Whether to heed it was up to him.
No time to deliberate. Ian decided instantly.
"Everyone! Around me!"
Phaira, Kira, and Belenka quickly gathered near Ian. The problem was Takarion. He rushed toward Ian but slipped and fell!
"You fucking idi—...!" Ian swallowed his curse with superhuman restraint. No time to savor his self-control. A colossal wave of snow was crashing from the sky.
Takarion, sprawled on the ground, looked up at Ian with teary eyes...
"S-sorry! Ian!" And slammed his head into the snow.
Why the hell are you sorry? Ian gritted his teeth. Takarion was the one dying, not him. And yet he apologized... probably for being a burden. What a total loser. Saying sorry before even begging to be saved.
Ian stared straight at Takarion. He'd found the elixir, and no more getting eaten. But dying like this? Way too pathetic.
Ian drew an Arcana card and tossed it to him.
"Survive, Takarion!"
"..."
"If we meet again, I'll get you back to the Empire for sure!"
May Hrundal's blessing be with you.
Ian couldn't hear Takarion's reply. The avalanche hit.
Ian shouted to his comrades.
"Everyone! We're going up on the avalanche!"
"???"
Ian had drawn first, so Phaira trusted his magic. All divinations worked best once—repeating dulled the effect. So she'd put her faith in Ian's...
"O-oh, ride it up?"
A situation that could short-circuit anyone's brain. But only Phaira panicked. Belenka and Kira calmly prepared to leap onto the avalanche.
"Don't try to understand Ian, Shaman. Just accept it."
As Phaira floundered, Ian hopped lightly onto the avalanche. Belenka and Kira followed suit.
"This is insane!"
She said that, but Phaira moved anyway. Ian's party ascended the surging snow like mounting a cushion. The mystery of snow accepted the humans. The result of Arcana magic.
Phaira, suddenly snowboarding out of nowhere, was shocked too—but nothing beat the Grendels' dismay watching from above. They'd sent an avalanche to bury them, and the idiots were riding it!
The Grendels slumped their shoulders and moved to devise the next plan.
#
Ian thought he'd blacked out for a moment. But it was an illusion.
...Blinding.
The sun shone so brilliantly it could blind him, stimulating his eyelids. Ian rubbed his eyes and focused ahead.
What he saw: a sky so blue it stung. Icy wind clawed at his cheeks as it whipped past.
Ian was standing atop the avalanche.
Rumble...!
With his comrades, he rode it down the mountain like mounting the back of a colossal beast!
This feels fucking awesome.
All complications vanished from his mind. It was like the world's biggest thrill ride—pure exhilaration.
Ian whooped without realizing it.
Whoa!
His shout was utterly drowned out. The avalanche's roar defied imagination.
Shhh...
As the snow pile halted, Ian carefully descended to solid ground.
"Phaira! Where are we roughly?"
"...No clue. Feels like we slid deeper in..."
Ian scowled. So they'd slid inward, not toward the outer slopes. To reach the village, they'd have to loop all the way around...
What a pain in the ass, seriously.
Ian and the others were all unharmed. They began assessing the situation.
"Ian. Over here a sec."
The goal was, naturally, finding a path. But Belenka, scouting around, spotted something bizarre and grotesque and called Ian over.
"Any idea what this is?"
"..."
Ian was speechless. He couldn't even guess.
"A graveyard...?"
A massive valley. Its floor was piled with countless beast corpses. The beasts northerners called yagon.
"Graveyard..."
Belenka didn't agree with Ian's guess. Truth be told, neither did he. It wasn't a graveyard. More like a dump.
"Lord Hrundal..."
Phaira sighed upon confirming the eerie sight. This was unmistakably the cause of the failed Great Hunt Festival. The prey the northerners should have hunted lay massacred and frozen in the sacred mountain's deep valley.