Eternal Winter's Reign - Book 2 - Chapter 46 - Bon Appétit (Patreon)

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Alexander North

The girls end up doing an excellent job against the frozen ones. With Alexia focusing her attention on the Tier 2 leader while Cynthia focuses on the smaller bats, keeping them all off of Alexia as she deals with the leader. Which doesn’t turn out to be that difficult for her from the looks of it thanks to her gun.

I tap my finger on the crook of my arm as I watch with my arms crossed, briefly wondering if I should at least consider using guns again. But then I remember that these are the weakest frozen ones. And a gun wouldn’t work on the higher Tier frozen ones that I normally fight.

So unless I want to waste a bunch of time and ammo, it’s best not to bring one. Unless it’s an incredibly powerful gun or something like that.

I could still see myself using a sniper rifle against a powerful frozen one. So long as I shoot it in a vulnerable place like its eye or something.

It could work.

As for the way Alexia and the Tier 2 are fighting, that just plain reminds me of two wolves going at it. Leaping at each other and attacking once before backing away and circling the other again. Then leaping again, attacking again, and backing away again.

Which is ironic since neither of them are actually wolves.

I glance at Snow, who is a wolf, only to find her just sitting next to me and watching the battle play out with her tongue hanging out of her mouth like a dog.

Then again, she used to be a dog. Before being infected, that is.

Maybe she still has some of her instincts from back then?

I turn back to the battle again as the bullets keep firing. Killing off one of the Tier 1 bats after another. And when they’re all finished off, the Tier 2 bat tries to rush towards the crystal. Only for Alexia to jump at him and stab her claws into its wings before dragging it down to the ground.

Where she finishes the thing off for good.

“Good job, you two,” I tell them with a nod of my head while stepping forwards as Alexia quickly begins going around absorbing the energy from the frozen ones. “You did better than I was expecting, but there are still some areas you need improvement in.”

I wait until Alexia finishes absorbing the frozen ones’ energy before I continue, “Alexia, you need to focus more on each individual frozen one if you’re going to be going in close like you’re doing. You need to try and sniff out what sort of ability they may have and then work around it. Make sure they don’t surprise you with a power you weren’t expecting.”

Alexia hurriedly nods her head as she stands a couple meters away from me staring directly at me without even blinking.

“Other than that, I noticed you were targeting the frozen ones with more energy in them,” I tell her with a slight frown on my face, making her twitch slightly in an involuntary admission. “You were leaving the ones with more energy, regardless of whether they were weaker or not, all to Cynthia as you targeted the ones with more energy for you to absorb. Which is not something you should be doing.”

She droops a little, so I walk up to her and place my hand on her head as I finish, “Remember that their energy isn’t an exact determination of their power. Some frozen ones have very little energy and focus entirely on the physical side of power.”

The twelve-year-old raises her head again and nods with a determined look in her eyes.

Then I turn towards Cynthia and move on to her post-battle report, “Cynthia, you did pretty well overall. The only thing I have to comment on is that you’re clearly not used to fighting against flying creatures like these bats. So I’d suggest you go ahead and undergo training against frozen ones that are unlike the enemies you’ve fought until now.”

She nods her head once before we all turn towards the crystal.

“Now we just wait for the crystal to finish maturing,” I state while putting my hands in my pockets. And after several seconds of silence pass, I add, “This could take a while. You should get comfortable.”

Cynthia moves to a corner of the large room and sits down by the window, turning her head to look outside past the blizzard. Meanwhile Alexia moves directly beneath the crystal hanging from the ceiling, staring at the thing rather hard. As if her staring could make the crystal mature faster.

I almost chuckle at that but manage to stop myself. Instead I walk over towards the entrance and sit down at it.

Just my presence here alone is enough to stop any frozen one nearby from entering. Probably the entire radio tower and not just this room in fact. But you can never be too careful.

We continue sitting around for a few hours before I sense the crystal finally finishing its maturation. And when it does, I get up and walk over to Alexia, telling her, “It’s mature. Go ahead and take it down.”

She immediately jumps up to her feet before proceeding to jump into the air to grab the crystal and yank it from the ceiling. Then she simply stares at the crystal for a few seconds, only to look up at me and ask, “How do I absorb this thing?”

I can’t help myself as a slight smirk stretches across my face and I pat her head, making her smile a little.

The smile on her face vanishes the moment I say, “You eat it.”

Silence fills the radio tower’s observation deck for several seconds.

“Eat it?” she asks, glancing between me and the crystal.

I nod my head. “Eat it.”

The silence returns.

It doesn’t take long for Cynthia to start muffling a laugh and trying to look away, ignoring the dirty look Alexia sends her way.

“Well, bon appétit,” I tell Alexia before giving her a thumbs-up and adding, “Tell me when you’re finished.”

And the look she gets on her face at that is priceless.