"I guess the fall was that bad," he mumbled to the bird who flew and landed on his shoulder. "Thankfully, we didn't die," he added with a sigh. He knew why he made that statement, anyone who fell from that height would have probably been dead or had their ribs and bones broken but he was perfectly fine, not just him but the bird also.
He looked around and saw how thick the trees there were and ahead of them was the foot of the mountain, so he began to make his way to it.
Upon reaching there, he saw a cave and decided to go in. It was empty so he planned to occupy it for the meantime as they were going to stay there for two days.
"I hope I find the snow-petal flower and return before the fight," he said and sat down on the ground. He had grown the habit of meditating any time he was in a quiet place. The cave and the entire mountain were oddly quiet but he didn't think too much of it and decided to meditate, thankfully, the necklace given to him by Kia's father seemed to be effective as he had yet to encounter any monster.
"You stay here and keep watch while I meditate," he said to the bird and closed his eyes to begin.
After a while that he began to meditate, he tilted his head to the right and furrowed his brows, and just then the flying beast growled. Alex was forced to open his eyes and the first thing he saw was a monster standing outside of the cave. It had red smoky eyes and black smoke rising from its body.
The first thing that Alex thought was the necklace, so he touched his neck and found out that the necklace was still there and intact.
"Is the necklace no longer working?" He asked himself but he had no time to figure out the answer as the monster began to make its way into the cave.
The flying beast could feel the aura of other beings and know when his life was being threatened and as such, he quickly rose to his feet and was about to transform to his full size but Alex stopped him.
"You are gonna pull down the cave if you do that," he said to the flying beast who growled. Understanding his worry, Alex patted him on the head. "Don't worry, I'll handle it," he said to him.
Getting reassurance from Alex, the beast withdrew and went behind him to watch as things unfolded, though he was ready to take action once things went south.
In the meantime, the monster had walked into the cave and was standing a short distance from Alex. It was keenly observing Alex— his movement, aura, and every other thing, and when it was certain that it could defeat him, it made its first move.
Alex saw it coming at him and smirked, though the monster was strong, it was nowhere near the demon dog he fought before. He watched it close up on him and then he immediately moved out of the way, as soon as the monster went past him, he grabbed it by the tail and flung it away.
The monster got up from where it had fallen and shook its body, it glared at Alex before coming at him again.
"This one seems dumb," Alex muttered and did the same thing he did before— he flung the monster away and it slammed itself on the wall and fell. As it tried to get up again, Alex ran to it and forcefully stomped its head into the ground countless times before stopping. He waited for a while for it to move again but as it didn't move, he picked it up and went outside the cave to dispose of the body.
After throwing the monster's body away, he turned to return to the cave but just then, he felt something pierce him from the back and when he looked down, he saw the edge of a sharp snow-made arrow protruding from his belle. The arrow was forcefully pulled back and Alex's blood gushed down from the hole that was made in his belle.
Turning around, he saw a man-like monster standing there and staring at him. The monster stood on only two legs, he looked just like a typical man but it had no eyes, a snow-made horn on the center of his forehead, and also had four arms; two on each side.
"Intruder! What are you doing in my place?" The monster asked Alex.
Alex was taken aback because the monster understood and could speak normal language. To him, it will be easy to communicate with the monster — he won't have to bother himself unnecessarily.
"I don't mean to trespass your dwelling, I am only here in search of a flower called snow-petal which will bloom tomorrow. Once I obtain it, I will quietly leave," Alex replied.
"Impossible!" The monster said. "The snow-petal flower you are asking for is something I use for refining my soul. I can not let others take it," he added.
"Since it's impossible to talk it out with you, I will have to kill you," Alex said and got ready to fight. His wounds healed while he was still talking with the monster so right now, he was ready to fight.
Seeing that he was determined to fight for the snow-petal flower, the monster scoffed and opened his four palms. Sharp long objects made out of ice formed, hovering in the air, and the moment he moved his arms, the twenty or more ice objects danced into action and made their way toward Alex.
Alex was unarmed, as such, he was in a disadvantageous state. He could only try and dodge the sharp objects and not allow any of them to pierce him.
But as he kept running in circles, he noticed that they didn't melt away like any ordinary ice would so trying to dodge them would do him no good, as such, he stopped and waited for them to come to him and when they were near, he raised his hands and spread them apart, and as he did that, a gust of wind blew all the ice objects, breaking them into tiny particles.
The monster saw how Alex easily took care of his first attack and decided to go in person, he took his first step and in the next second, he was next to him. He grabbed Alex by the neck and pushed him backward, slamming him into the hard wall of the cave. He didn't just stop there, he began to throw punches on him and each punch he gave was enough to make the cave vibrate.
'Am I going to die here?' Alex thought as the monster continued to throw punches at him. He was inside the wall of the cave and there was no how he could move his body, almost all his bones had been destroyed by the monster so even though he was able to come out of the cave, moving his body would still be difficult.
Meanwhile, the flying beast who had been inside all this while could not take it anymore. He knew that the opponent they were currently facing was far stronger than the first one and as such, he didn't want to join in the fight but after seeing how Alex was defeated and was about to be killed, he just couldn't stand by and watch it happen. That is why he flew out of the cave and the moment he transformed, he spread out his wings, and sharp feathers were released from them.
The monster saw the attack coming and had to stop punching Alex to protect himself.
"It won't take me anything to deal with a bird," the monster spoke and created more ice arrows, and then sent them to go after the flying beast.
The flying beast knew just what to do so he lured the ice arrows toward the upper part of the mountain and when they were about to start attacking him, he dodged all of them and they ended up being stuck in the body of the mountain.
He flew back down and increased his speed, the monster was about to start attacking Alex again and when he saw the flying beast coming at a great speed, he thought he could stop him on time but that only caused the both of them to collide with each other and then fall and began to tumble for a while until one of them hit his back on a boulder that was blocking the path. They were quite a distance away from Alex and this was partially what the flying beast had wanted.
Alex saw everything that happened and slowly crawled out of the hole in the mountain. He fell face down on the ground and lay in that position for many seconds. He was trying to gather his strength but it seemed as though nothing was happening; the mountain monster had severely damaged all his bones, rendering him immovable This is the worst thing that could happen to anyone, especially in a place prone to dangers.
And just as he feared, a few minutes later, Alex began to hear wooshing sounds all around him. He felt as though countless objects were passing over him at high speed but that wasn't what really scared him.
To see what was it that kept giving him chills, he struggled painfully until he turned around and when he looked up, he saw a dark floating shadow and it had smoky eyes and long hair that reached the ground. At first glance, it looked like a shadow belonging to a female because of the long hair that swept the ground but it was just a shadow formed out of thick fogs.