Moku looked up, staring at the sky now completely shrouded in gray clouds and thick snow-laden mist.

Even with Inner Eyes, he couldn’t pinpoint Cryonix’s location. The ice dragon had vanished, soaring deep into the storm and darkness.

All that remained was the sound of snow brushing against itself and the shrieking winds in his ears.

The sky above stretched like an infinite void of shadow.

Yet the alarm from Inner Eyes continued to ring in his mind, signaling an imminent and overwhelming threat.

"Has he retreated?... No, impossible," Moku thought, shaking off the notion.

He didn’t know what Cryonix was planning, but one thing was certain: whatever it was, it wouldn’t bode well for him.

Moku steeled himself, every sense honed and locked onto the sky. His eyes searched, his ears strained, and every fiber of his being remained on edge.

A sudden silence descended, as though the world had momentarily ceased to turn.

Moku’s breathing slowed, matching a deep and deliberate rhythm.

His grip on the Dawnshadow Blade tightened. The dragon prana coursing through his body surged, readying him for the unknown.

And then, the sound came.

A thunderous explosion tore through the heavens, shaking the air like a nuclear blast.

In an instant, a vivid blue silhouette burst through the storm clouds, descending at an incomprehensible speed. Cryonix’s form, engulfed in an icy aura, transformed into a deadly blue meteor.

The air around the dragon swirled violently, colliding with the freezing aura radiating from its body.

What should have burned instead froze, creating a clash of extreme temperatures so intense it generated an oppressive atmospheric pressure.

Moku felt his body crushed under an invisible force. His knees trembled, threatening to collapse beneath the growing weight of the air around him.

"What is that?!" he thought, panic gripping his mind.

If the pressure from this distance was already this unbearable, he didn’t want to imagine what would happen if Cryonix struck him directly. But this wasn’t just a meteor—it was a living, intelligent creature.

Cryonix adjusted its trajectory mid-flight with precision, ensuring that Moku remained squarely in its path.

Moku tried to move, but the overwhelming pressure made every step feel like dragging a mountain. His body felt impossibly heavy, yet he refused to give up.

"Padakacarma: Shadow Form!" he shouted.

Instantly, Moku’s body dissolved into shadows, alleviating a fraction of the crushing force around him.

Even so, the pressure was still immense, and his movements remained sluggish. With sheer determination, he managed to stagger out of Cryonix’s direct impact zone.

Time seemed to slow, though only three seconds had passed since the initial wave of pressure. In that brief window, the blue meteor collided with the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro with cataclysmic force.

BOOM!

The explosion shook the world. The earth quaked violently, as if a colossal hand had struck it with unimaginable fury.

Mount Kilimanjaro, once the tallest peak in the Bog Forest, disintegrated like a mound of sand smashed by a massive iron ball.

The shockwave from the impact swept everything away—forests, animals, even the air itself—hurling them far into the distance. For a fleeting moment, the world was consumed by absolute emptiness, as though time itself had been suspended.

Amid the devastation, Moku stood, his breaths labored. His eyes fixed on the dense mist now enshrouding what remained of the mountain’s peak.

Beyond the storm and the debris, he knew the battle wasn’t over. Cryonix was still out there, and Moku would need to find a way to survive.

"Cough! Cough! Ugh... What the hell was that?!" Moku groaned, his voice hoarse and utterly pitiful.

His body lay sprawled on the ground, half-destroyed. From the waist down, there was nothing—only emptiness.

What remained of his body was riddled with frostbitten burns, their icy sting cutting straight to the bone. His vision was blurred, his ears rang incessantly, and his head throbbed as if it had been struck by a hammer repeatedly.

Moku didn’t even know where he was.

But his survival instincts—sharper than those of any beast—forced him to focus on the one thing that mattered: staying alive.

Using what little dragon prana remained, Moku began to force his body to regenerate the severe wounds. Yet the impact of Cryonix’s attack far exceeded his expectations.

Although he had dodged the direct hit, the explosion’s shockwave still reached him. To save his life, he had expended most of his remaining prana to form a protective barrier. Without that shield, it wouldn’t just be half his body gone—his very life would have been snuffed out.

Moku grimaced, contemplating the grim possibility. "Would I reincarnate again? Who knows? But I’m not ready to throw this life away just yet," he thought, clenching his teeth.

The cost, however, had been steep. His dragon prana was nearly depleted, hovering dangerously close to critical levels. Full recovery was out of the question.

But there was still enough for him to access Pandava, his reserve of stored resources. Without hesitation, he summoned all the spare meat he had stashed away.

Moku ate ravenously, chewing as quickly as he could, even with only half a body. The pain coursing through him, the icy burns, and the panic of being flung so far away couldn’t diminish his resolve to recover.

He had no idea how far he’d been hurled or what Cryonix might be doing now. But one thing was clear: if he stayed like this, even a hobgoblin could easily kill him.

Unfortunately, his supply of meat in Pandava was nearly exhausted. Most of it had been consumed earlier to prepare for unlocking the next stage of his evolution.

He was only one step away from reaching that milestone, but it was the hardest step yet. That was why he had taken the massive risk of hunting an adamantite-grade mutated beast like Cryonix.

After some time, his body began to recover. His legs reformed, and part of his shattered skull mended.

However, his left arm, from the shoulder down, was still missing.

Moku decided against using more dragon prana to regenerate it. The fight wasn’t over, and he would need every ounce of energy to keep going.

With great effort, Moku stood. His hearing returned to normal, and his vision cleared.

He scanned his surroundings, realizing he was in a completely unfamiliar area.

The devastation left by Cryonix’s attack was unmistakable—the shattered ground, the hollow-feeling air, and the dense mist that hung in the atmosphere.

But one thing above all captured his attention: Mount Kilimanjaro was gone.

The tallest peak in the Bog Forest, which once towered majestically, was now reduced to a third of its original height.

From his position, Moku realized he’d been flung so far that he was now halfway to Bitter Maja. Swallowing hard, he paled at the thought.

"Cryonix... is completely insane," he muttered.

The battle they had just fought was supposed to be nothing more than an introduction.

Moku had only intended to test the ice dragon’s abilities and gather more information.

Who would have thought his greeting would be met with an attack equivalent to a nuclear bomb?

Moku regretted choosing Cryonix as his first target. In the Bog Forest, there were four other adamantite-grade mutated animals on par with Cryonix.

Yet he had chosen the ice dragon because its territory was closer to Bitter Maja.

He had never anticipated that Cryonix, with its overwhelming power, would also possess an unstable mind—obliterating two-thirds of Mount Kilimanjaro merely as a response to his greeting.

The question now was: should Moku continue this fight or retreat?

The chaos that had just unfolded was bound to attract the attention of the Human Alliance. Their headquarters weren’t too far from here. Although they were preoccupied with their war against the demons, an uproar of this scale in their backyard would almost certainly provoke a response.

True, Moku could argue that he was here under King Arion’s orders to hunt. But that wouldn’t erase their suspicions.

Even though the Bog Forest was officially recognized by the Human Alliance as part of the Wilwatikta Kingdom’s territory, their relations had never been truly harmonious.

The Human Alliance didn’t fear Wilwatikta; they simply preferred not to stir up trouble by creating another enemy—especially when they were already struggling against an invasion from another continent.

For this reason, if Moku wanted to avoid further human scrutiny, retreating and covering his tracks was the most logical choice. At the very least, it would buy him enough time for Nevare to complete her plan before everything was exposed.

But...

That last attack by Cryonix was different. It was undoubtedly its ultimate move.

While adamantite-grade mutated animals were the strongest among their kind, their power had limits. Generally, their strength was equivalent to that of a Level 6 Constellation Mage, with the strongest among them possibly brushing the threshold of Level 7.

This wasn’t about fairness—though yes, the world was unfair—but about natural constraints. To surpass Level 7 and step into the realm known as the Realm of Law, one needed more than a vast mana reserve. Something called Recognition was required.

For this reason, mutated animals that lived solitary lives, without a group to cultivate Recognition, almost never managed to breach the Realm of Law. They remained stuck at Level 6, becoming prime targets for human hunters, especially for colony-based species like Quadruple Arachnids.

As for Cryonix, Moku was certain that its freezing meteor attack could not have been executed without severe consequences.

That explosion had destroyed two-thirds of Mount Kilimanjaro—the tallest peak in the Bog Forest. Such destructive power was beyond the reach of ordinary mutated animals.

Based on their brief skirmish, Moku estimated Cryonix to be in the range of a Level 6 Constellation Mage, with its battle power perhaps skimming the edge of Level 7.

However, to obliterate Kilimanjaro like that required raw strength equivalent to mid-Level 7.

Furfur might have such power, but Foras, who was far weaker, clearly didn’t. This meant Cryonix must have paid a steep price to unleash that attack.

Whether it was drained stamina or even internal injuries severe enough to leave it temporarily incapacitated, the aftermath created the perfect opportunity. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

This was the best time to strike Cryonix—when it was at its weakest and most vulnerable.

And so, the central question returned: Should Moku pursue the fight, risking the attention of the Human Alliance?

Or should he retreat, wasting this golden chance to subdue and consume an adamantite-grade mutated animal?

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