[Last Bonus Chapter for Last Month Golden Ticket Goal!]
Having regained a bit of strength, Nox staggered to his feet. "I'm...fine, I guess. Thank you."
"So, you were after the Elemental Beast too, huh? Why didn't you tell me? We could've worked together," Jack said.
"Let's talk about this later," Nox replied, waving off the conversation as he focused on the frozen statues. His eyes scanned for Fluffington and Thirteen, and after spotting them, he rushed over, using his split daggers to carve them out just as Jack had done with his odachi.
It was a bit tasking, but Nox persisted, eventually freeing his two companions. Seeing how cold they were, he hurriedly placed them in his taming space. Though it was an extremely boring place, it was the best option for them to recuperate.
After handling that, Nox turned his attention to Reyes and the rest of the Mavericks Guild. The Elemental Beast was still at large, and though Nox didn't know why it had spared them, he knew he still needed the guild's help to hunt it down.
In fact, he needed the help of everyone here. The Elemental Beast was immensely powerful, so much so that the others couldn't even see its level, only its name, just like Nox. Though they didn't know its exact level, they could tell it was above the King Tier... some even suspected it was at the Emperor Tier, which explained why it was so difficult to deal with.
'Master mentioned that Elemental Beasts are unusually powerful... Is that why Dragon Requiem failed to inflict any damage?' Nox wondered.
Little did he know, Thirteen's skill had caused significant damage to the Elemental Beast, but its powerful regenerative abilities had saved it. Half of its body had been blown off by the attack, but the beast had stayed back, only bringing out its head to show that it was perfectly fine while it regenerated its injured body.
The beast knew the threat it posed would be greatly diminished if the Awakened had seen it in that state. However, this was something Nox might never learn. Pushing all thoughts aside, he approached Reyes's statue.
But before he could start carving, the frozen statue began to crack. Nox was alarmed at first, knowing how fragile human skin was when frozen, but he noticed that Reyes was still somehow conscious. An armor made out of earth was slowly covering his body.
Once fully covered, the ice shattered, and the blue-haired youth fell to his knees, the earth armor slowly fading away. Just like Nox, he was out of breath and needed time to recover.
'As expected of this man, he broke free easily,' Nox thought. Due to the Elemental Beast's unusual strength, the guild master hadn't been able to demonstrate his full power, but Nox knew that wouldn't be the case if he were facing a normal magical beast.
Seeing that Reyes was fine, Nox moved on to the other members of the Mavericks Guild and began carving them out.
"Let me help you with that," Jack offered, rushing over.
Before Nox could finish, Jack waved him off. "I insist." He then started carving Brenda's statue. Nox narrowed his eyes, noticing Jack was taking longer on the chest area, but he didn't dwell on the thought for long.
At first, when Nox had encountered Jack in the tunnel, he didn't know his intentions, so he always kept his guard up around him. Now that he knew the youth was also after the Elemental Beast, his guard had only heightened.
Yes, he needed to be vigilant. Who knew when Jack might stab him in the back? Honestly, Nox would've preferred to distance himself from the talkative boy, but the latter was like a persistent pest.
'And I thought I finally got rid of him in that tunnel,' Nox sighed. He was grateful for Jack's help here, though, and promised himself he would repay this favor.
Soon, Reyes recovered enough to join them in carving out the others. During the process, a few more people broke free on their own. To no one's surprise, it was Captain Bofan and the leader of the Silvermist Guild.
Then, the cloaked figure. Nox narrowed his eyes at the person, but his gaze didn't linger long. That person's aura was very similar to his master's.
Though it would have been a good time to take out the rest of the frozen statues to reduce the competition, Captain Bofan and the leader of the Silvermist Guild were wise enough to understand that one group alone couldn't take down the beast. They needed all the help they could get.
A few hours later, everyone was finally freed, and they began to leave the Iceborn Forest one after the other.
"Captain, are we just going to let them go?" one of Bofan's men whispered in his ear as they watched the Mavericks Guild leave.
"If you want to, go apprehend them. As for me, I'm very tired and need to think about a lot of things... I need to find out why that Elemental Beast spared us." Saying these words, Captain Bofan took to the air and flew off.
The soldier's gaze alternated between the Mavericks' disappearing backs and then the captain before he shook his head and started to leave as well. This wasn't a family job; if the others weren't serious, then he wouldn't be serious either.
As they exited the forest, Nox turned to Jack, who was lagging behind them. Shouldn't he be heading in a different direction? Why was he following them?
"Look, I appreciate what you did for me back there, but can I know why you're following us?" Nox asked.
"Who is he? Are you both related?" Reyes asked.
"We're brothers," Jack exclaimed with a smile.
"No, we're not," Nox stated flatly.
"Of course, I didn't mean biological brothers, silly—brothers in arms. Remember how we took down that spider? If I had a recording crystal, I'd rewatch that moment over and over again. That was peak! We should do that a couple more times."
'This talkative... we're back at this again,' Nox frowned.
"You still haven't stated your reason for following us." Reyes halted and looked at Jack, who started scratching his head.
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