Ruler Of Iron And Flesh

Inian had taken off his extra layers and was now just in a simple short-sleeved shirt and long pants. He had been creating icicles in the air and then melting them for some practice.

Burt was shivering behind him, "you can't look that happy when you're now immune to the cold. You know the phrase 'misery loves company?' I need someone to be miserable with me."

"It's not that bad. We haven't run into another tribe for a while, but we should here soon, considering there are hundreds of tribes within the region."

Burt sighed and wiped his runny nose.

Inian chuckled, then heard the sound of clashing weapons and energy guns.

"Do you hear that?"

"You're the fricken king Inian! I don't have your hearing, sight, smell, or ability not to feel the cold, so please elaborate!"

"Well, it sounds like there is some fighting up ahead."

"Well, let's go find out."

Inian quickly ran ahead while Burt trudged behind in the snow. Soon, Inian came upon two large groups fighting one another in the open snow.

A man viciously stabbed his spear into another's stomach and pressed him back into the ground. Bloodstained snow was around him, melting it some.

Inian ducked down so that he wouldn't get involved. He needed to find Janae, so he couldn't risk getting involved in the middle of tribal warfare.

The two tribes continued slaughtering one another until a rumbling stopped them. It shook the ground and caused them to lose their balance.

Suddenly, a hand appeared out of the snow and slammed down on the ground, crushing a couple of the tribes' warriors.

The tribes shouted out and stopped fighting one another to face the monster arising out of the ground.

The monster was ape-like with extremely long limbs. Its bottom jaw stuck out, giving it a prominent underbite.

It roared and began knocking warriors aside.

'A mid-tier monster,' Inian thought to himself. He suddenly had a great idea.

Burt was huffing and puffing when he caught up to Inian and then saw the monster, "oh great! Another one. As the last monster, we faced wasn't enough."

"I'm going to go to help these people."

"Of course you are."

Inian sprouted his wings and jumped into the frigid air. A few tribal warriors saw the wings and faced their weapons towards him as well. Inian smiled and waved, confusing a few warriors down below.

Inian charged the ape-like monster, who swung at Inian approaching him.

Inian didn't even need to use his abilities and knocked the ape's hand aside. The ape-like beast was very confused and went to bite Inian, who shot an uppercut at the monster's jaw.

The monster fell to the ground as a tree would. The snow puffed around it and cascaded back down onto the warriors.

The warriors stood silent and began shaking as Inian landed on top of the monster's corpse. They aimed their spears at him, and one big warrior with a Warhammer stood forward. "Who are you beast with wings?"

Inian replied, "I'm someone who wishes to help you. I'll give this mid-tier monster core to whoever has seen this woman."

He then held up the picture of Janae and hopped off the monster. He walked around, showing it to each warrior.

Each warrior intently stared at the image and shook their heads. Inian's hope was dashing away as he heard each answer.

However, one warrior observed the picture longer than the others, then he spoke, "I have briefly seen this woman before."

Inian's eyes sparked, "really?! Where?"

The warrior scratched his beard, "I was on a lone hunt and found an animal corpse. I was tearing off the remaining meat when a bunch o' howling came from behind me. I hid, and the group of monsters passed me by without any hesitation. I remember the strange thing though, and that was that one monster was carrying this lady in their hands. A beast was even speaking! It said, 'we must hurry! Master requires her soon!' They headed in the direction of High Rock."

Inian tossed the monster core to the warrior without hesitation and beckoned for Burt to follow him.

Burt ran behind quickly as bickering over the monster core soon ensued when they left.

"Inian, we need to think for a moment."

"But we know where she is! We can go get her now!"

"Stop! Inian!" Burt ran in front of Inian to block his path.

Inian glared at Burt, "What?!"

"You've told me before about how these Dragons are the masters of any monsters that don't serve you, right? Those monsters were talking about getting back to their master, and I can assume that does not mean you. That means that one of the dragon's descendants has her. You've told me they are on the Titan level or even behemoth level! How can you fight that?"

Inian's face scrunched together, and then he turned around to yell at the sky. He kicked at the ground, knocking a ton of dirt and snow a hundred meters out.

"I know I'm not strong enough to fight them! But if they have her, they can do whatever they want to her."

"I understand Inian, but it won't matter at all if you die in the process."

Inian g.r.o.a.n.e.d and put his hands on his head, "okay, we're heading back to the Aysel Palace. I need to talk to someone there."

"Let's do it."

Thus, they began heading back to the Kotus Empire.