I dashed forward into the frozen greenery and smashed the first ice shadow I saw with my weapons blunt side. It shattered before bursting into smoke that flowed into my body. I snatched up the stone before it hit the ground before moving on to the next ice shadow while the others rushed over to attack the things as well.
"What the hell are these things!?" Bete roared as he knocked one back after it almost ambushed him.
"Ice shadows! Think War shadows but made of ice and level six!" I called which left everyone but Ottar looking uncomfortable with that information.
Even if they were pushing level seven fighting level six monsters was no cakewalk for them. They only managed it individually because like War shadows these things were brittle and died if you hit them where their stones were. They were assassination based monsters with no real defense at all and thus something they could handle. Ottar and I on the other hand had no trouble at all with these things. To us they were as fragile and slow as glass pigeons. One hit from either of us reduced them to smoke that flowed into my body.-
We ended up running ahead as the others took too long killing theirs and we were in a hurry. Soon enough we cleared out the frozen jungles inhabitants and waited for the others to arrive at it's opposite side.
"You left us to die!" Finn accused.
"Did you kill them without us? Better yet did you see even a single other one on the way here?" I asked with a raised eyebrow at him.
"You expect us to think you just assumed we could handle it!?" He spat.
"I don't care what you believe. If I didn't expect you to be able to handle at least that much I wouldn't have let you come, period. The fact of the matter is Ottar and I cleared out the entire frozen jungle while you were left to challenge yourselves for what might be the first time in years. Are you going to balk now or can we move on?" I said challengingly.
"This isn't over." he said before getting quiet.
I snorted at the empty threat before we moved on down the stairs to the next floor. It was filled with that swirling blizzard that was thankfully nonmagical this time and no doubt had a bunch of ice shadows in it as well.-
"Cold cloaks now if you don't want to freeze to death. Watch your flanks as we move since Ice shadows are nearly imperceptible in a snowstorm like this." I advised seriously and handed Ottar his cloak I had in my bag.
The others tightened their cloaks around themselves while I cloaked myself in flame to fend of the chill. Like I expected Ice shadows were lurking within the storm and being devious little fuckers they were avoided me and Ottar to target the weaker prey in the form of Riveria and the other level sixes though she was a particular favorite as a mage.-
The sneaky buggers would flee into the storm when Ottar and I would try to attack them and I flat out grew annoyed by it and chose to flip the proverbial board in response. I exploded outwards with my flames around us and upwards literally burning away the storm itself that was concealing these little shits. With nowhere to hide we counter attacked ferociously and quickly cleared out the floor. I gathered up all the stones and we wordlessly moved on. -
On the sixty third floor we finally had our first encounter with a Snow badger and it did not go well. By that I mean Ottar and I stood aside while the others ganged up on it for a good three minutes before Riveria killed it with a spell.
"That fun little teddy bear is a Snow badger and much like you've no doubt realized they are peak level six monsters. That's to say one of those is roughly equal to one of you." I said before preceding to murder a second Snow badger near effortlessly "Get the idea?" I said with a smirk.
They REALLY didn't like that but could only glower and mald in silence as evidence spoke for itself. I took point on this floor to wipe out the Ice shadows but unless there was more than one like them kill the Snow badgers. They even showed signs of improvement as they adapted to this level of combat. That didn't mean they weren't absolutely dog tired by the time we entered the sixty fourth floor. Calling them dead on their feet wouldn't be an exaggeration as the only reason they weren't dead or in as many scraps as their armor from the hits they'd taken was because I kept them in one piece even after they'd been put into more than one.-
"What's up with the big ass floor with nothing in it?" Bete asked as he frowned at the surroundings.
"Monster rex floor, was a mountain sized giant shaped like the Goliath but created ice and wind. Peak level seven or maybe new eight. I killed it and used it's skin to make those cloaks you lot are wearing." I said casually.
"Explains why it held up better than our actual armor." Gareth muttered as he looked at the barely scratched cloaks.
"Alright so quick forewarning since I don't want anyone to bitch about me not saying this before hand but I have no fucking clue what's past this floor. If any of you die because of that I want to make it abundantly clear it's not my fault since I have no info to work with either. That said if you want to turn around now before we step into that fuzzy probably not so warm unknown speak now or forever hold your gods damned tongues." I said seriously.