The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

'I smell humans ahead. Rend them apart! Rip their flesh off their bones!' Gnar drooled, the wolf's eyes bloodshot as a ravenous growl escaped its clenched fangs, already slick from saliva. While the wolf's readiness was to be admired, Oscar dared not cause a commotion so close to their destination where others certainly waited. He retrieved a beast core from his dimensional cube and dangled it before Gnar, who stopped growling and fixated on it, gulping from the sweet scent that even Oscar felt his stomach grumble for. The white wolf snatched the core off his hands with a swipe of its jaw and gulped it down, licking its lips in deep satisfaction.

"I'll give some to the others, but first, settle us down." Oscar got off Gnar and landed on the firm snow, relieved his legs didn't lose strength. Fenu and the ten division captains followed suit, their steps thudding softly on the tundra. A few glanced around, turning their heads over the vast cliffs overlooking their position. They nodded to Fenu, who nodded to Oscar, relaying that no one was watching them. He tossed a core to the other wolves, not minding the fact he used them as pet feed. A small mountain of cores still rested in his dimensional cube. Never mind a dozen; he could give away fifty and not care.

"How many are out there?" Oscar sniffed but could not catch a scent. His enhanced senses lacked the sheer acuteness of a wolf's nose. Using Ignyres' heat sensors also failed since the humans were too far away. Fenu and the others huddled in defensive stances, readying themselves for an ambush.

'Four ahead and one strange scent. Not a beast. Not a human. But it moves like one.' Gnar drew in air through his nostrils, his fur perking up as he closed his eyes, seemingly ruminating on the scent. 'I can't tell. It's too unknown.'

"A golem?" Oscar asked.

'No, we've smelled those ghastly golems. Their scent is the most foul of all. This scent is something we've never met.' Gnar's answer only posed more questions. If it wasn't a beast, human, or golem, then what was it? Oscar wished Gnar could pick up Avril's scent, but he had no item that carried her soothing fragrance, and he couldn't describe a smell for Gnar to know. He sighed, knowing the best method was to search through everyone. Gnar nudged on his face and asked, 'My pack is your pack. Where will you guide us?'

"We walk from here on out. Pair up with your wolf and always check up on each other. Signal quickly at signs of danger and approach with caution." Oscar led from the front, sweeping his gaze every so often at his surroundings. No shadows lurked on the edges of the snowy cliffs or hid beneath the thick show. They passed between frozen waterfalls of thousands of icicles, the winds shaking them into a cacophony of clear tunes, the icicles ringing clearly in tandem for a song. It seemed peaceful, a wonderland of snow and ice, but he grimaced, spotting a few frozen bits of red. Obviously, it was blood, and it left a trail like scarlet breadcrumbs toward a corpse.

"Strange," Magnus Steele, the ninth division captain, studied the corpse. Upon receiving Oscar's nod, he continued, "I've fought many battles against the glacial tribes. Fenu would know. This corpse may deceive others into believing it had been left here for a while, judging by the extent to which it froze. But, I can say for certain, young lord, a person had done it. An ice user is up ahead."

Gnar neared the body, prompting Magnus to back away in fear. The wolf sniffed the corpse and growled, 'This body is one of the four I smelled.' He practically jabbed his nose into the ground, following a scent he apparently caught. After a few minutes, Gnar exhaled sharply on a mound, blowing away the snow to reveal another corpse. 'That's the second one. Two more remain, then the strange scent.'

With Gnar leading, Oscar found the other two corpses, his frown deepening as he turned their faces around to see them. The four bodies all shared a common trait: that crumbled look as if they couldn't express their shock in time before an icy death claimed them. It happened faster than they could shift expressions but slower than an instant kill, hence their disturbed faces, half caught in shock, the other half lingering in obliviousness of what happened to them. The snow covered the tracks, but Gnar held onto the strange scent that waited directly ahead.

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"Desmond, Magnus, watch our backs. The other Greater Marshal Exalts position to the sides. The rest will support everyone else from the center." Oscar shook his fur coat, snow piling near his feet as they fell.

"And you, young lord?" Fenu acted swiftly and guided everyone to their positions. "Your steer is not here."

Fenu's worry was not without merit. Erden was Oscar's Meld and reliable partner in many battles, known to most of his Azure Sea Company. Erden's absence was a huge loss to his fighting capabilities. Oscar shook his head and didn't answer Fenu, striding forward at the front as he always did. He lacked a shield and Erden, but he knew he was the strongest of everyone here, even without the two. The snow carried on, lazily falling in an endless pour, renewing the tundra in a clean sheet of white, their footprints all but gone behind them.

'The scent is everywhere now. I can't determine its location,' Gnar panted, licking the snow from his nose.

"Here…." Oscar crouched by some footprints not yet claimed by the snow. He traced his finger along the edges, from the tip to where the heel sunk deep. The footsteps interested him. Their length and curved inner side suggested they belonged to a woman. A woman and an ice user, he had suspected it from the start when he saw the first corpse, but the possibility was very real now with the discovery of these prints. He adjusted his helmet, brushing off bits of snow. His eyes scrutinized the white land, seeing past the obscuring sprawls of falling snow.

"You hid yourself well, Astrid. Come out. Or are you planning to kill me for betraying your trust?" Oscar sat on the bed of snow, his white robes blending in well. Out of everyone else, he had to run into her. Not Santen, Marcus, or Auren, but her. Well, it wasn't a bad thing. He needed to resolve this little trouble before moving on to the eleventh land; the earlier, the better. A faint breeze rose, carrying snow as it quickened into gales, swirling in an icy storm. In the center, where the snow gathered, a hand broke out like a reborn chick from an egg.

The winds halted as the gathered snow spread and fluttered in a slow sway downward. Astrid stepped out, her light-bluish hair draped down her back and white eyes opening to stare at him. She didn't seem too pleased to see him as her lips formed a frown, and her gaze narrowed sharply. Clad in armor crafted from white ice as the sunlight split on its edges, Astrid scoffed and stomped her ice greaves into the ground. The long training certainly worked well for her, the power and control over the elements outstripping her previous self.

"Do you want to speak to him?" Oscar wondered if Demon might be the one she wished to speak to. At least unload her grievances on Demon and leave him out of it.

"He made the decision, and you don't care." Astrid glared and pointed at him with a pale finger. "Auren wrote to me that you gave up revenge. But why?"

"Why what?" Oscar held back the others who looked at her with hostility, stretching his arm to signal them to stop. They clearly disliked her rudeness.

"I heard of your past from the old King Exalt. He told us everything the New Dawn had done to you. Your entire life was their plaything from the start. So why? Can you give up revenge that easily?" Astrid raised her voice, gnashing her teeth. "Is it so easy to toss aside everyone? To forget what they had done? Tell me! How can you forget the pain they inflicted?"

Oscar breathed deeply, relaxing his hands that unknowingly clenched earlier. "No, I can't forget. Every night, they haunt me. Every day, I think of what I had lost. But…I still have a chance at a different life. She's waiting for me. I can't dissuade you from revenge, nor can you convince me to crave it. The one who started it all is already dead. I have no desire to spend the rest of my years killing every single one."

"All because of that woman!" Astrid shouted. Ice speared from below, expanding to the area around her. One blade of ice stabbed an inch before Oscar's forehead. "Everyone else is fine and willing to follow you, but what about me?" She pounded her chest, the icy gauntlet clanging on the thick breastplate. Her eyes grew more frantic, her lips quivering as her voice diminished. Lowly, she said almost in a plea, "You promised me revenge. It's not fair."

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