n

n

nAlex looked at the hedgehog, unsure if he was judging its intentions correctly.

nAlex pointed towards the spire with his sword and looked at the hedgehog.

nThe hedgehog didn’t react.

nIt continued looking at Alex with expectation.

n‘Fuck! Does it want me to get this ethereal spire for it?!’ Alex thought.

n‘Is it forcing me to retrieve it?!’

nAlex started sliding towards a different direction of where the hedgehog was.

nCREEEAK!

nThe hedgehog followed Alex’s new trajectory, and it quickly arrived at the spot where Alex was sliding towards.

n‘Fuck! It won’t let me go! It will probably kill me if I exit the lake!’

nAlex was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

nHe either had to go against the hedgehog or the thing in the lake.

nBoth of these creatures were far beyond his capabilities to deal with!

nAlex felt stifled and frustrated beyond belief.

nOthers were deciding his fate!

nHe hated that!

nAlex looked with hate at the hedgehog, but its demeanor didn’t change.

nIt still looked at Alex expectantly.

nAfter a while, Alex clenched his fist.

n‘If I have to choose, I’ll choose to help the hedgehog,’ Alex thought. ‘The hedgehog has at least rewarded me when I gave it something. Instead, that thing in the lake will probably just ignore or consume me.’

n‘Sadly, I’m not powerful enough to make demands. I’m completely at the mercy of the hedgehog’s whims.’

nIn the end, Alex shooed the lizard away.

nHe didn’t want it to get hurt.

nAlex turned to the ethereal spire, and the lizard understood what Alex meant.

nWithout hesitation, the lizard shot towards the shore of the lake, vanishing into the forest.

nThe hedgehog didn’t even look at it.

n‘Sure enough, the lizard only cares about me as long as I’m of use to it. It will abandon me at the first sign of weakness. It might even kill me when I’m showing weakness,’ Alex thought.

nHowever, he had already expected something like that.

nThe lizard wasn’t Alex’s pet.

nIt was a wild animal and a reptile on top of that. Reptiles weren’t known for their affection towards other animals.

nEventually, Alex moved around the ethereal spire and stopped behind it.

nRight now, the spire was in front of Alex, and behind the spire, on the edge of the lake, was the hedgehog.

nAlex would speed towards the spire, absorb it, and continue rushing towards the hedgehog.

nThis was the best method he could come up with.

nAlex took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself.

nSHING!

nThen, Alex put his sword into the ice and shot himself forward.

nAlex accelerated as much as he could.

nAnd then, Alex’s frozen arm hit the ethereal spire!

nWHOOOM!

nIt was like the spire had been disturbed!

nThe ethereal spire became deformed.

nThe spire’s form changed, and it started to curl around Alex’s arm.

nIt was like a soft band made of paper that was being pulled along.

nSSSHH!

nThe sound of sizzling could be heard as the ethereal form of the spire wrapped itself around Alex’s body in an instant.

nAlex felt like he was touched by something of terrifying coldness!

nYet, Alex’s body wasn’t being frozen or injured.

nAlex felt a cold sensation creep into his body. However, the outside of his body started to warm up again.

nIt was like the cold sensation was moving through his body.

nAlex felt the cold sensation enter his head of its own volition.

nYet, there seemingly was a blockage that stopped it from advancing.

nAfter a moment, the cold sensation gave up trying to get into Alex’s head, and traveled towards his frozen arm again.

nSuddenly, Alex’s left arm regained feeling, and he felt like his arm became even colder than before.

nAlex barely managed to jerk his left arm in panic.

nWHOOOM!

nSuddenly, a terrifyingly cold wind came out of Alex’s left arm.

nThe cold wind hit the ice cover beneath Alex, and an additional layer of ice formed on that spot.

nYet, something shocking happened at the same time!

nAlex’s arm instantly warmed up!

nIn actuality, Alex’s arm felt quite hot suddenly!

nIt was like Alex had gathered all the cold in his body and had expelled it.

nEven the ice spear, which was stuck in his shoulder, was melting away.

nIt was like Alex’s left arm had worked with the same principles as an air conditioning unit!

nIn order to make a room cold, an air conditioner needed to transport the heat somewhere else.

nIf the inside of a room was as hot as the outside and the air conditioner was turned on, the inside would become colder, and the outside would become hotter.

nThe hot temperature was gathered and expelled.

nAlex’s arm had seemingly done something with the same principle but reversed.

nAlex had cooled the surroundings, resulting in his left arm becoming hotter.

nHowever, Alex had far bigger problems right now and didn’t have any time to analyze this right now.

nAll of this had happened in just three seconds.

nAnd three seconds after Alex absorbed the ethereal spire…

nBOOOOOOOM!

nA gigantic, brown… boulder-like thing broke through the middle of the lake.

nIt was over ten meters tall and nearly three meters wide.

nA line went through the boulder-like thing.

nAlex knew what this was, and his heart beat fiercely in his chest.

n‘That’s the beak of a gigantic octopus!’ he realized.

nIf already the beak of the octopus was ten meters long, how huge was the entire creature?!

nThe beak had punched through the middle of the lake, and it had closed around it.

nThe octopus had probably assumed that Alex was still there.

nLuckily, Alex had grabbed the ethereal spire while sliding.

nAlex looked with terror behind him.

nBOOOOOOOM!

nSuddenly, the entire lake exploded!

nThe gigantic octopus had realized that it had caught nothing, and its entire body broke out of the lake.

nIt couldn’t let go of its bait!

nIt cost too much Mana to condense something like that!

nTentacles nearly 50-meters-long stretched across the lake as a gigantic head came out of the water.

nThe eyes of the octopus quickly looked around, and they immediately spotted the running Alex.

nBOOOOOM!

nThe tentacles all punched down at the frozen lake.

nSurprisingly, the ice didn’t break.

nThat was because the octopus had used its ice powers to increase the hardness of the ice.

nAs the octopus smashed its tentacles down, its body left the water and flew towards Alex.

nIt had thrown itself over 50 meters into the air, right towards Alex!

nAlex’s heart nearly stopped.

nThis octopus was too fast!

nIt would catch him in an instant!

n‘I’m dead!’

nThe tentacles of the flying octopus stretched towards Alex.

nIt would catch him in a second!

nAlex looked forward with desperate eyes.

nYet, what he saw made him despair.

nThe hedgehog had turned around!

nIt wasn’t even looking at him anymore!

nAlex’s eyes opened widely with terrified eyes.

nAnd then, everything changed!

nBANG!

nIt was one loud, explosive sound.

nIt was like a grenade had gone off!

nSuddenly, Alex felt a storm hit his body.

nA terrifying wind had suddenly picked up, and Alex’s body was hurled across the lake uncontrollably!

nAs Alex was thrown around, he managed to catch a glimpse of the octopus in the air, and an image was burned into his mind!

nOver 20 extremely long, green needles had buried themselves into the octopus’ body!

nThis was the reason for the explosive sound and the terrifying storm!

nThe needles had exploded off the hedgehog’s body, had passed by Alex’s body with unimaginable speeds, and had buried themselves into the octopus!

nThe wind of the needles had thrown Alex across the lake!

nThe sheer power of the needle-explosion had stopped the massive octopus in the air!

nThen, Alex saw the hedgehog quickly peek behind itself.

nAfter that, it turned away again.

nBANG!

nAnother terrifying explosion and another twenty needles shot through the octopus!

nThe ground beneath the hedgehog broke due to the unimaginable force, and the octopus was thrown across the lake.

nBANG!

nAnother explosion and the octopus was thrown even farther away!

nAlex quickly lifted himself off the ground again and ran towards the edge of the lake.

nThe hedgehog turned around, and then it exploded forward.

nBOOOOM!

nThe hedgehog exploded with absolutely terrifying speed!

nIt was racing around the lake, avoiding the ice. It knew that the ice wouldn’t be able to withstand its weight.

nAlex’s eyes opened in shock as he saw the unreal speed of the hedgehog.

nHow could he have thought that the hedgehog was slow?!

nThat thing was moving with over 200 kph!

nAll the trees around it were utterly annihilated, creating a terrifyingly long trail of destruction.

nBANG!

nMeanwhile, the octopus landed outside the lake, inside the forest.

nIts tentacles were violently flailing around, destroying everything in its surroundings.

nSome seconds later, the hedgehog arrived near the octopus.

nBANG! BANG! BANG!

nAlex couldn’t see, but he heard the sounds of two gigantic beasts fighting in the distance.

nThis was not a fight he could get involved in!

nHowever, the sounds vanished in less than ten seconds.

nThe fight was already over!

nAlex took a deep breath.

nThen, he slowly made his way to the fighting area.

nAlex could see some green needles peeking over the trees, and they were moving around.

nHe couldn’t see any gigantic tentacles above the trees.

nThis meant that the hedgehog had won.

n‘Sure enough, the Hegemon is the Hegemon,’ Alex thought.

nAlex slowly calmed down as he realized that he had managed to avoid death.

n‘I wonder if the hedgehog will reward me? I hope so. Fleeing now makes no sense. If the hedgehog wants to kill me, there’s nothing I can do.’

nAlex only hoped that the hedgehog’s personality wouldn’t suddenly change into a cruel one.

n