('ωˉ) So Hateful~
The frozen lake was like a giant mirror, reflecting the increasingly dazzling, scorching morning sun. But the powerful ice magic still held the lake firmly frozen into one massive sheet of ice. The sun's warmth alone wouldn't melt it for days.
Not long after the temporary alliance of six—Annie, Feren, and the others—left, another team of three quietly arrived at the camp they had just abandoned.
"!!"
The young mage Laofen looked at the empty camp and the enormous, alarming frozen lake in the distance. Worry crept across her face.
She hurried over to the calm, bespectacled old man at the front of the group and asked anxiously:
"Uncle Duncan, what do we do now?"
She glanced uneasily back toward where Annie's alliance had gone, her expression torn.
"It looks like those two teams joined forces, and there are only three of us. We might..."
"Not be able to beat them."
Duncan didn't answer right away.
"..."
His gaze, visible through his monocle, slowly swept over the abandoned camp. Then, with steady steps, he walked over to the dying campfire, where a few embers still glowed.
He crouched, took off his leather gloves, and gently sifted through the small bird bones scattered beside the ashes. They had been picked nearly clean.
It only took a moment for his brow to furrow.
Then he stood and headed back toward the frozen pebble beach by the lake.
When he saw the pile of carelessly discarded feathers, their yellow metallic sheen glinting in the light, along with some bird innards and a large pool of brown blood, the pupils behind his lens contracted almost imperceptibly.
"Ahem!"
"It's not that we might be unable to beat them. We..."
Duncan slowly straightened and brushed the grime from his hands, then shook his