After taking all this in, Alicia asked: "Is there any special traits about the Frost Flower that we should know about? What I mean is, is there any special handling we should know about? Do we need to keep it at a certain temperature or anything?"
Sue smiled and nodded: " Those are all good questions. The Frost Flower must not be handled with bare hands. From picking to storing it must be wrapped in magic. The container for the Frost Flower must be made of the earth around it and then kept at the same temperature as its environment or colder."
Getting the information she wanted and seeing how Sue was done explaining things, Alicia called a planning meeting with the three girls. "Starla how good is your Ice magic?" Although Alicia could do everything herself, she knew that if she did there would be no benefits for the rest. So it was best to make sure everyone was involved. She did not care about completing this training mission, she wanted her squad to learn and get the experience they should get from this training mission.
"Umm, It is pretty good since it is part of water magic. I think I can make a container that is as cold as, negative one hundred celsius." Starla replied.
"Okay, we will do this then. Annelia and Starla will work together creating the container. Annelia we need the container made out of the strongest rock you can find in the area. A metal of some kind would be best. But it has to be taken from the area the Frost Flower is in. Strala will encase the inside and the outside with ice magic. Rose and I will be the ones to retrieve the flower and will defend you two while you work on the container. What do you all think of this plan?" Alicia was not sure if there would be any demonic beast within the ring and from what she understood this ring was very cold. That meant between keeping their bodies warm with magic and working as fast as they could to make everything. They would be expending a lot of magic power.
"Sounds good to me." "Same here." "I do not see any issues with the plan."
All three answered, giving their okay.
The next morning was just as cold as the day before. Alicia once again took up her spot on Blakes back as they made their way deeper into the frozen forest. So far they had not seen a single demonic beast. Alicia really had no idea how any demonic beast could live in such extreme weather but this all changed about three hours later.
*Roar!*
The ground shook violently as the Frozen trees in the distance seemed to part as a large creature pushed its way through the forest. "A disaster ranked Ice Gorilla!" Bridget was the one to yell out. Her eyes showed a bit of fear as she looked at the white haired, blue skinned Ice Gorilla, that stood even taller than the trees themselves.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I think it has sensed our presence!" Rose exclaimed. The Ice Gorilla was heading right towards them!
"What should we do?" Annelia was panicking. She had never experienced fighting anything of this size before.
"We will be fine. We have two people here that can deal with such monsters." Starla tried to console Annelia. But Annelia only looked up at Starla with a look of disbelief. Which was not surprising because normally you would need an S rank plus adventurer to take on such a monstrosity. There had been cases where small kingdoms were wiped out due to a disaster class going on a rampage.
"Alicia, what do you think?" Blake asked.
"Mmm… A little troublesome, mainly because gorilla demonic beasts normally already have a high amount of intelligence. As a disaster class, I am sure it is even smarter than before. With me and you as main attackers, Rose, Starla, Annelia, Sue, and Bridget as back up it should be possible. My only issue is that I think I feel a second vibration..." Alicia couldn't shake that something else seemed off. Although the Ice Gorilla was huge she felt like the vibrations after each step it took was a little too long. Which could indicate a second set of footsteps.
"Then your final conclusion?" Blake asked.
"We fight the one. If there is more than one, we run. But just fighting the one would require hit and run tactics. If we get caught up in even one of its attacks it could be fatal. Bridget do these things have any ranged attacks besides throwing things?" Alicia turned and asked Bridget.
"I am not sure. But from what I read there haven't been any reports of such things." Bridget answered.
"Then that settles it then. Annelia, come with me we need to flatten a very large area so we can walk around!" Alicia said as she jumped off Blakes back right up over his head. She used a bit of wind magic to slow her fall while also casting fire magic to melt the snow all the way to the frozen earth underneath. She then went to work melting the snow in the area with Annelia right behind her flattening the ground making sure there was nothing to trip on.
Alicia did not hold back her magic as she quickly melted a few hundred meters of snow in front of her. Annelia was having a hard time keeping up so Blake, Bridget, and Sue also pitched in to help. Time was slim so everyone rushed to make sure they were prepared for the upcoming fight. Starla and Rose checked their gear to make sure they had healing potions handy just in case.
Right as they finished their preparations a large foot landed just outside the treeline in front of them.
*Boom!*
*Roar!*
***
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