Chapter 86: Ice Range Phantom

"Una, we really should've gone after the treasure," Howard frowned and crossed his arms, "Anyways, can you explain to me where we are?"

Una nodded her head, and pointed at a large forest that had appeared in front of them.

She went on to explain that each gate that they enter takes them to one random location. The Varlen developed a technology 100 years ago specifically for the battle in Jarlon Valley. To avoid teams facing an unlucky situation because they had less teammates, each team had to go into a gate to get randomly transported to another area.

In those areas, there would be some type of danger lurking. This could be an Authoritarian, another team, or even some type of obstacle.

"So… what do we do now?" Howard sighed and crossed his arms, "How do we know we win?"

"We just win, idiot," Monica rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand. "Now… how do you feel? Did that weirdo hurt you? Should I kiss you somewhere?" Monica nervously fumbled with his hands, gently placing her pink lips against his wrist. She sighed, gently feeling his warmth before seeing Reece staring at them in disbelief.

"Ugh, stop it!" Reece slammed her foot. "I-I'm so tired of this! Howard, you have one week to find me someone or me and Monica are going to have a talk!" Reece crossed her arms and looked over at a white wall of ice that seemed to be growing in the jungle ahead of them.

A small figure that looked like a piece of crystalline glass stood on top of it with three men next to its side. The Varlen and a Dream Beast. Even though it had a small form, it seemed to be in control of the horizon.

Compared to the way Monica could control ice, it seemed superior in every way. Except, of course, that's if the old Monica had been here. After training with Howard, her mind had grown clearer and her ability to sense Ki had increased! She held out her hands, creating a vortex of ice crystals that slowly began to turn into ice spears.

With a flicker of her hand, the thousand ice spears instantly shot out, attacking the Varlen.

"I got this. Howard, no flirting!" Monica smiled and jumped into the air. With another wrist movement, thousands of more ice spears shot forward, crashing towards a wall of ice that erected itself in the distance.

"It's a shame,"

"Total nightmare for her," Two Varlen laughed, and smiled before turning to their prodigious dream beast. "It's too strong for her. Much too strong!" The two men continued to banter while their dream beast suddenly shimmered and burst forward into the expanse. "It will kill her! Kill her in five minutes!" The two Varlen laughed one more time. "To death tear her apart!"

The Dream Beast landed on the ground a few feet from Monica as the voices of the men trailed of. It had a long body that seemed to be made of crystal with carved markings for eyes. They looked like two deep valleys that absorbed the light around them and caused its face to seem almost unreal.

Opening it's mouth, dozens of ice shards began to coagulate from the Ki in the air as Monica ran towards it. In roughly 10 seconds, the two had went from being mountains apart to inches from each other's attacking zone.

Stepping forward, Monica's body seemed to turn gigantic, an ice sculpture that looked exactly like her appearing that struck forward towards the Dream Beast. Using Ki Transformation, Monica seemed to extend herself outwards and used her movements to cause the gigantic ice surrogate to attack!

Boom!

The Dream Beast replied by instantly splitting and jumping in three different directions. Where the gigantic ice statue's hand was supposed to attack, it instead ended up striking a large grass patch. Dozens of small pieces of grass flew into the air, flickering with shades of blue from the omnipresent frost.

Immediately, the Dream Beast rushed towards Monica, splitting one more time into three, causing nine dream beasts to appear that seemed to be accelerating faster and faster.

Swoosh!

All nine dream beasts seemed to combine into one and dodged dozens of ice spears that appeared from Monica's hand. She turned her wrist in the air, her ice mark glimmering, before a gigantic ice wall burst forward and pushed into the incoming attack of the Dream Beast.

To be more precise, this wasn't any dream beast, but an Ice Range Phantom. Phantoms referred to Dream Beasts that specialized in speed, but in addition this one had the power of ice! With a simple movement of its paw, the ice wall in front of Monica shattered.

She could only try and duck before a gigantic force pushed her back, causing her to slide against the grassland touching against her feet. Blood shot out of her nose and fell down on her beautiful green and white stripped top as her pants rubbed harshly against the floor.

Looking up, she saw the Ice Range Phantom inches from her face.

'Damn it! Am I still not strong enough?' Monica, seeing a claw coming towards her throat, watched her own tears float into the air. She could feel her sadness, and her desire to get stronger. She felt an extremely terrifying need to just belong.

'I-I can't keep holding back that part of me! It has to come out!' Monica heard Howard screaming her name in agony. However, she suddenly no longer felt afraid. 'Howard! Howard is getting stronger! Come out and help me!'

"Hoh? You finally asked?" A voice appeared in Monica's consciousness. "How long has it been? How long have you run away from the Dark Ki inside of your veins. Your own heritage! You want my power! You'll have it!"

Boom!

An extremely strong force from the Ice Range Dream Beast's claws struck against Monica. However, a black sheet of ice had appeared around her body. It seemed brittle, but at the same time possessed an almost endless strength.

Boom!

The Dream Beast attacked Monica three more times before she looked into its crystal gleaming eyes with her irises now completely dark. It seemed like a madness had come over her. A Dark Ki had appeared on the surface.

"Nice to meet you! I'm not Monica!" She laughed and gently moved her hand towards the Dream Beast before its body got sent flying into the distance. "HAHAHAHA! LOOK AT THAT! SUCH A GOOD BOY!"

"HMMMM, and look at Howard. SOOO CUTE!" Monica tilted her head and smiled before her strength seemed to surge. Something inside of her seemed to click before her power seemed to surge.

A moment later, she appeared in front of the Dream Beast and grabbed its throat, a black armor appearing around her body that made her look like the new moon frozen in ice. Picking up her hand, thousands of ice spears appeared behind her before she swung down, causing the Dream Beast to shatter into thousands of pieces!

Boom!

The world seemed to be cut in half by the massive power that Monica controlled, but at the same time, a black flame had started to burn around her body, and she began to completely lose herself to the flames.

The three Varlen, looking at their strongest Dream Beast laying against the grass floor of the jungle looked like they'd been completely shattered.

They tried to run before Reece appeared behind them, three flames spiraling around her.

"Sorry, but you put your cards on the table and lost," Reece ignited each of them with her flames, causing them to scream and jump down to the depths below. Hitting the ground, only ash remained of the three Varlen.

At the same time, in the distance, Howard slowly and carefully walked over to Monica. In his entire time working with her and Zack, he'd never felt such a nefarious energy birthed by either of them.

"Ha,if it isn't my boyfriend. You-you brought this out of me. Aren't I perfect?"