"Rhys. Rhys. Rhys, gods damn it! What do we do!?"
The drumming of the cenleons' hoovesteps were causing the field of white beneath Rhys's feet to bounce as the halflings approached closer and closer. But while Dominique and Talia had their guards up, they were not really focusing on the cenleons, but rather the Ice Warden following behind them.
The Ice Warden is among the most dangerous and most powerful creatures in the Underworld, categorized as Threat Level 10, capable of erasing an entire country in the span of a single day. There have been many records of Ice Wardens roaming around the Underworld and completely altering its Region, as well as the central element of the creatures in it.
How it was able to affect the wildlife, the researchers, once again, all just attribute it to the mysteries of magic.
There have been no records, however, of the Ice Warden ever digging its way to the Surface — it was not capable of doing so due to its inherent traits. It freezes anything that is unfortunate enough to be in its path — fortunately, an Ice Warden's path is random, and so are its actions. It seems to not be capable of thought or have a desire.
The Ice Warden was not a creature per se, but rather an entire element by itself; perhaps a personification of snow — not a golem, but a wisp overgrown. Its entire body is made of ice; extremely thick and compressed, but still almost translucent to the point one could see what's behind it. It is literally a walking calamity.
It was in the shape of man, or perhaps a stickman with very long legs and arms. And as it turned bigger and bigger as it got closer, the thick blanket of snow that Rhys removed as they burst through the Underworld instantly returned even more bountiful than before; completely burying their knees.
Due to this sudden veil of snow, the cenleons who were galloping toward their direction slowed down; the exhaustion on their faces, absolutely pronounced as they lifted their tired legs, only to once again feel the resistance of the thick snow blocking their path to salvation.
"Rhys, we should go!" Dominique grabbed Rhys's wrist and tried pulling him away so they could dive back to the Surface before the Ice Warden completely buried them in ice. She was not able to pull him away, however, and even almost tumbled back as Rhys actually stepped toward the rushing cenleons.
"I'm helping the half lion people," Rhys caused a mist to form in front of him as he breathed out.
"Help...? Why!?" Dominique could really only blink in confusion before staring at Rhys's face to see if he was serious, and unfortunately for everyone, he was, "I didn't take you for an animal lover, Rhys. Those things will kill and eat us when they get the chance, don't you know that!? And even if they don't, it's not okay to risk our lives down here — we're not in the corps anymore, brother!"
"We need them," Rhys then glanced at Dominique, "We're taking them to the Surface."
"Hm. You found your monsters," Talia smirked before shaking her head, "As much as this is a lucky development for us, this is an even more unlucky development — the imbecile is right, we're going to die here if we stay any longer...
...but I suppose if we don't get them, we'll just be prolonging the inevitable."
And with those words, Talia suddenly waved her arms — causing the snow the was slowly building up around them to split; the crevice crawling all the way toward the cenleons before just stopping right in front of them, creating a path that led straight back to her and Rhys.
"It does not matter! Let us just follow the human for now!"
"Let's go," Rhys then turned around as soon as the cenleons once again started running. Dominique, although still shocked about the situation, was the first to run and dive into the hole, followed by Talia who leaped while her eyes were still fixated on Rhys.
As for Rhys, he stopped right just short of diving into the Hole and gestured to the cenleons to jump. The cenleons, however, once again stopped in their tracks as soon as they saw the Hole.
"That's... that's human territory! This might be a trap!"
"How many times must I tell all of you it does not matter! We stay here and we are dead! At least we might alter our fate by leaping to the abyss!"
Once again, however, their hesitation was short-lived as the one who seemed to be their leader leaped straight into the Hole; his screams, slowly fading away along with his figure.
"That..." Edissa and the other dozen cenleons looked at each other, before beating their chests 3 times and then leaping into the Hole at the same time. Edissa was the last to leap; her eyes, observing Rhys like she was some sort of hawk.
Edissa had long gray hair; dry and clearly unkempt as it barely even moved as she leaped, almost completely covering her breasts — as other than the leather strap and fur bag she was carrying, Edissa was completely bare and naked even with the snow. Her lower body, which was similar to that of a lion had fur the same color as her hair, which only started to fade around her human belly.
Rhys could not really get a good look, but her hair probably extended to the mane that trailed down across her entire middle back. He also couldn't get a good look at her face, as she and the other cenleons were wearing some sort of face makeup. Her eyes... Her eyes, however, almost reflected Rhys's — silver.
Rhys watched Edissa's silhouette disappear into the Hole before turning to focus on the Ice Warden.
This... walking calamity, Rhys can't really imagine how he would even begin to start fighting such a creature. And yet...
...Arachnea is supposed to be stronger than it?
Just... how stronger does he need to become?
And so, with one last look at the Ice Warden, Rhys just let out a small breath before nonchalantly falling back first into the Hole; kicking the wall a few seconds later and pushing himself down to hasten his dive — and not even seconds later, he caught up with Edissa and the other cenleons...
...only to see all of them flailing their arms and legs, panicking violently.