Kibishi's POV

  "No!" I shouted as the pile of snow drew near.

  It seemed like it was too te for me. I protected my face and got ready for the impact-

  Ssh!

  Which... never came?

  Thump!

  I heard a loud noise followed by something hitting the ground. This made me stop covering my face and see what it was that had made those sounds.

  I looked at the ground and saw the pile of snow melting and merging with the snow on the ground. I then looked up and saw a pair of legs in front of me.

  Wait.

  Those legs were a bit feminine. A weird thing to think about if I was being honest, but it was the truth. Who was-

  "Ha. I can't let the newbie get all the glory, now can I?" I heard a very familiar yet pyful voice.

  My eyes slowly widened. I recognized who it was.

  The person who seemed to like teasing people around when she had the chance! The person who always wore a hoodie during missions!

  This person was no one other than Kuma!

  Wait... Kuma!?

  She was walking around?!

  "Kuma?! What are you-?!"

  "Save the reunion for ter!" I heard a voice from behind me. I gnced back and saw Jir walking right next to me with an annoyed look.

  "I can't believe you were still trying to fight that monster all by yourself, Kib. I mean, have you SEEN how fast it got?" Jir compined to me.

  "So then, the reason for me gaining the pain was-"

  "I deactivated my spell. Though, in hindsight, I should've waited until you were a bit further away from the monster. That's on me... oops..." Jir scratched the side of her face in embarrassment. I could tell by how her cheeks showed a hint of red.

  Before I could say something else, I felt a hand resting on my shoulder. I looked in the direction of said hand and saw David standing right next to me.

  "Good job buddy! I knew you had it in you to fight back!" David grinned at me.

  I wasn't sure if I should be happy or conflicted by that statement. But either way, I was gd that he was alright.

  "Hey, Kibishi!" I heard another voice and saw Riley and Tao running towards me and the others. This made my heart skip a bit. The sight of seeing Tao being healthier than before really warmed my heart.

  "Riley! Tao!" I beamed a smile at them.

  "Kishi! Are you okay?!" The first thing Tao said to me. Her follow-up action was checking to see if I had any wounds. And truth be told, I did.

  The impaled ice sickle is still stuck in my leg.

  With all of this happening at the same time, I had briefly forgotten about it. Tao saw this and fear appeared in her eyes.

  "Kishi! I'm sorry! I should've been here sooner!"

  Tao slowly grabbed a hold of the ice and gripped it tightly. Tao then pced my free hand on her shoulder and looked at me in a serious way.

  "I'm sorry. Bear with the pain for a brief moment. Feel free to dig your nails into me if the pain is sharp!"

  Smash!

  "Ngh!" I closed one eye as I felt an intense pain. I had never felt anything like it before. It was like a knife dug into my very bone and twisted it every 2 seconds. Making sure that I felt every single bit of pain with every twist.

  "It's small now. So I just need to pull this out..." Tao whispered as she gently pulled out the rest of the ice.

  It seemed the ice sickle was as big as my own hand. Tao had smashed the bigger part, which was at the edge, and it was small enough to remove freely.

  Once the ice was out, Tao quickly took out a scarf or something simir and wrapped the wound tightly. With another tie, Tao slowly helped me up from the ground.

  "Thank you, Tao."

  "No problem, Kishi!"

  I felt my body suddenly becoming light. I looked back and saw Riley healing me with her magic. Thinking about it now, I had a lot of questions about that. But that could wait until ter.

  "I told you, didn't I? I won't let you die..." Riley said in a serious tone. This was the first time I had heard her speak like that in a long time.

  With her hands pointing towards me, her expression now showed grief and not the happiness that was shown moments ago.

  "...I'm sorry." I apologized to Riley.

  Of course, she didn't accept it so easily. Riley simply lowered her brows at me. But it didn't take long before she sighed and smiled again.

  "Just this once, I'm willing to overlook your recklessness."

  "Hey! Takes one to know one!" I pointed at Riley pyfully.

  "Hehe!" Riley grinned at me.

  Everything seemed to be going my way-

  Wham!

  Until David smmed into me. Very hard, mind you. He followed up by putting his arm around my neck and lowering his brows at me.

  "Dude! I know it's great that you love us and all that jazz, but we STILL got a job to do!"

  "...Who gave you a job application?" I raised my right brow.

  "I'm serious. Look." David pointed at the monster.

  Ah.

  With all of this fun moment, I realized that the monster wasn't moving at all.

  It was no wonder we were having these moments without any interruptions. Almost like those moments in TV shows or manga where the writers don't let the vilins attack until the moment is over for character development.

  But I knew that thing wouldn't just stand there to see us have a moment with one another.

  Thinking about it now, I remembered something very important.

  It was adapting.

  And since it was adapting, despite everyone being back on their feet, none of us had a chance of beating it. Well, not alone, that was.

  "Based on what Jir and Riley told us, the monster was reading your movements, am I right, Kishi?" Tao spoke as she came towards me and David let go of me to let Tao come my way.

  "That's right." I nodded.

  "Then it's adapting." Tao firmly stated with her index finger under her chin.

  "Then even if we all attack it at the same time, it'll be pointless and a waste of energy..." Jir folded her arms and frowned.

  "...And this igloo seems to be melting even faster than before. And with every water droplet hitting the floor, the colder it gets." Kuma commented while pcing her hands in her jacket.

  "And the waiting must be BECAUSE of that." Riley added.

  "So that means it's waiting for either the igloo to fully melt and uses that to kill us or the cold will get to us first and then it'll have the chance to kill us." Tao scratched her orange hair.

  "This doesn't look good at all..." Riley whispered.

  I looked at the monster some more and saw it slowly grabbing the snow in front of it. It then pced the snow beside itself and waited some more.

  It seemed like it was getting ready for when we decided to attack.

  I had to say, if THIS was what the first yer monster was capable of, then the road ahead seemed challenging.

  That was if we made it out of here alive....

  No, we WILL.

  We just needed a pn.

  "...Hey!" I heard David's voice.

  I looked at him and saw him smiling at me.

  "It's not over yet. We still have a chance of winning!"

  "And how do you expect us to win this without having someone dying, David? We cannot even scratch it if it keeps falling back." Jir said in a cold voice.

  I guessed that side of Jir was back now that everyone was alright...

  "Think about it. It's smart. A little TOO smart. That means it'll think about many things." David pointed at me.

  "...Wait! Of course!" Tao turned to me with a smile. "Kishi's powers! It'll be thinking of ways to counter them!"

  "Yeah... yeah! And since no one here can y a hand on it..." Kuma began saying.

  "Then it'll prioritize its attention to Kib the most!" Jir joined in.

  Good point.

  If all the attention came towards me, then we could figure out a way to counter it and deliver the final blow.

  But.

  If we did it and it failed, then it wouldn't happen again. The monster would simply adapt and we would all die. For real...

  So we had to do it and make sure it was successful.

  But how would we do it?

  ...................

  ................ Ah!

  I got it!

  "Hey guys!" I called out to my friends.

  They all looked at me curiously.

  "Ever wonder how many times the monster countered while being under the weather?"

  "What? What are you talking abbboo- oooh." Jir beamed with a hint of a blush. Jir smiled at me. "Kib, you're one risky person."

  "Wait, I'm actually lost. What are we talking about?" David scratched his head.

  "Hmm... under the weather? Wait... wait, you mean the times when it kept dodging every third time?" Tao asked with curiosity.

  "And what else was happening at the time to MAKE it do that?" I lowered my brows in satisfaction.

  They all thought about it for a moment.

  And-as if a light bulb had lit up inside their heads, their faces beamed up in unison.

  Yes!

  They all understood what I meant!

  And since the monster wanted to use this igloo for its advantage, why didn't we do the same to it?

  "Alright. I've got another idea!" I smiled brightly. I used my right index finger to tell my friends to draw near and they did.

  "Okay, here's another favor I want you all to do for me!"