Mag-log inThe Giant Ice Wolf roared, a deafening sound that reverberated through the snow-covered valley.ROAAAAAAAAR!Jagged ice armor along its spine glowed with a blinding light, shattering the glacial trap holding its front legs into a shower of blue sparks!CRACK-SHATTER!"The ice trap didn't hold it!" Kai yelled, ducking behind the wall parapet as a wave of freezing air swept over the observation platform. "That thing has a natural counter to cold attacks!""Then we blast it with physical kinetic force!" Leo shouted, stepping forward to hurl a boulder the size of a kitchen table straight at the beast's head!THUD-CRASH!The heavy boulder struck the wolf's shoulder, but the crystalline armor deflected the stone instantly, leaving only a faint white scratch on the dense ice plates."My rocks are bouncing off!" Leo grunted, wiping sweat and frost from his forehead."Watch the breath attack!" Adrian warned, his thunderous voice cutting through the whistling winter gale. He lunged forward, thr
Cold mist swirled out from the iron tray in the central medical tent, coating the brass diagnostic tools in thin white frost. "That glowing blue crystal looks like an evil snow globe, and I am telling you right now, bad things happen when Mia touches glowing evil snow globes!" Ethan yelled, taking four giant steps backward until his back hit the canvas wall, still wearing his fuzzy duck socks over his boots. "Ethan, stop vibrating like a laundry machine on spin cycle," Kai barked, adjusting his thick winter parka while leaning against a wooden crate. "She absorbed a fire core two chapters ago and only melted three target dummies. What's the worst an ice core can do? Turn her into a popsicle?" "Turning into a popsicle is a major medical complication, Kai!" Ethan shouted back, holding his wooden ladle like a protective shield. "Quiet, both of you," Nora ordered, her dark eyes sharp behind her glasses a
Frost crystallized across the metal hood of the primary transport truck with a sharp, crackling hiss. CRACK-HISSSSSSS! "My teeth are clicking together so fast I sound like a mechanical typewriter!" Ethan shrieked, wrapping three wool blankets around his shoulders until he looked like an oversized rolling carpet. "The soup froze! The water canteen froze! My tactical ladle is stuck inside an ice block!" "Ethan, stop vibrating and help me clear the frozen exhaust pipes!" Kai barked, wearing a thick fur-lined parka and using an iron crowbar to chip away heavy blue ice from the secondary truck's engine block. "The temperature gauge just hit minus twenty-five degrees Celsius! The diesel fuel in the secondary tank turned into grey sludge!" "Minus twenty-five?!" Ethan squeaked, his nose turning bright red as white steam puffed out of his mouth with every word. "That's not winter, Kai! That's a deep-freeze me
"If a hailstone the size of a cabbage hits my head, I am holding global warming personally responsible!" Ethan screamed, ducking behind a heavy wooden workbench while holding his flour-dusted apron over his skull. BANG-CRASH-THUD! Giant, jagged chunks of ice—some as big as bowling balls—plunged out of the pitch-black sky, smashing through the greenhouse glass and cratering the wooden courtyard planks! GLASS-CRASH! "Ethan, stop complaining about cabbage-sized hail and help me haul these emergency grain sacks!" Kai shouted from the central barn doorway. He was shielding his face with a sheet of corrugated tin while pulling two heavy canvas bags into the shelter. "The wind just blew the roof off Sector Four's storage shed!" "I am hauling! I am hauling!" Ethan yelled, grabbing a sack of dried beans and sprinting across the dirt path like a caffeinated jackrabbit while dodging falling ice blocks! THUD-CLATTER! "Clear the central path!" Leo bellowed, striding through the freez
"If you burn one more target dummy into radioactive charcoal, Mia, I am going to make you weave new ones out of mountain straw by hand!" Kai shouted from the edge of the ruined training grounds, holding a clipboard covered in soot.SZZZZZZT-KABOOM!"Kai, target dummies are built to be destroyed! It is literally in their job description!" I yelled back, lowering my hands as the thick violet smoke cleared from the scorched dirt path.A three-inch-thick steel practice plate, set fifty yards away, now had a razor-thin, perfectly smooth diagonal slash right through its center. The edges of the cut were glowing white-hot, but the rest of the metal frame remained completely untouched."Look at that cut!" I cheered, pointing proudly at the severed steel plate with my dark blade. "No massive collateral explosion! No setting the kitchen on fire! Pure, razor-sharp efficiency!""It's impressive, contractor," Adrian said, stepping out from behind the
"That glowing red rock looks like a tiny angry sun, and I am ninety-nine percent sure it wants to melt your face off!" Ethan shouted, retreating three steps behind a metal medical screen.HISSSSSSS!"Ethan, stop shouting and hold the diagnostic monitor straight!" Nora ordered sharply, adjusting her magnifying lens as she hovered over the metal worktable. "The thermal output on this mutated core is off the charts. The internal energy density is three times higher than any beast core we've harvested so far.""Which means if I absorb it without blowing up, my dark fire gets a massive power upgrade," I said, leaning over the table with my hands resting on my hips. My dark purple eyes locked onto the pulsating crimson crystal sitting in the center of the iron dish."Or it burns out your existing elemental channels and turns your internal organs into charcoal, Mia," Nora warned, raising her voice with stern medical authority. "Your body hasn't fully rec







