The all-knowing Player (Solo Leveling)

Ice means death (2)

"Jin-Woo, can you give me that stone?" I ask.

"I can do it," he reminds me but still lays the small rock in my open hand. "You just woke up."

"Unfortunately for him, I'm awake enough to hit him from that distance. I could even do it with closed eyes with how loud he is."

I glare at Kim Chul, who freezes. One movement is all it takes. I throw the stone at his head. It hits him in the middle of his forehead. He tips backwards with a yelp of pain and surprise. His body crashes into the snow, sending some white powder flying around him. In a flash, I am standing next to him, watching him stare up at me with terrified eyes. Blood flows down his forehead, obstructing his vision and staining the clean white of the snow.

"I think you forgot the 'three'. Or maybe you found out the answer to your question. Isn't that right," I bend over to him, ending my sentence with all the spite I felt the moment he announced wanting to abandon a part of the group, "Mr. Left-my-comrades-to-die?"

He doesn't answer. He opens his mouth, but all that leaves his crackled lips is a faint cloud of mist. I kick him in the side, sending him rolling into a tree. Some snow falls off the branches at the impact, covering him in the cold white substance.

"Not to mention that he came with dead weight," I add, lifting my gaze towards a source of power that sends shivers down my spine.

"What dead weight?" the hunters ask with furrowed eyebrows.

Jin-Woo joins me, his eyes focused on the forest, too. Or rather on what is hiding among the trees. "How about you guys undo your stealth? Due to your powerful energy, hiding is pointless."

Slowly, a white hoof appears, followed by the leg of a horse, then the whole body of the animal and the one that is riding it. Baruka, the chief of the hyakki tribe. His long disheveled hair flows in the wind like a majestic mane and he sits with lifted chin on his mount, staring down at us with cold white eyes. 

"Those... Those are!" Park gasps.

"What a chilling energy," the player comments.

I squint my eyes towards him. "Was that supposed to be a pun?"

He shrugs but can't hide his smile.

"Ice elves!" the hunters behind us realize as more appear beneath the trees. "And with those numbers? There must be over twenty!"

"There really were two. Two useful people among trashes," Baruka comments.

"What? Did you just call us trashes?" Jin-Woo frowns.

"You're quite rude for someone who can't even hide his magic energy," I fire back.

The elf opens his mouth but pauses, disturbed by our answer, before raising his voice again. "You know our language?"

The hunter's eyes widen as he realizes that he just spoke to a monster. He understood the magic beast and the magic beast understood him. Shock paints his face as Park, not noticing his surprise, wonders if we can also speak with monsters.

"We're able to converse... How splendid. There's someone I want to introduce." Baruka signals an elf to step forward. The hyakki smirks at Jin-Woo. "You're already acquaintances. He's the one who notified us that there's someone strong among the humans. This guy wanted to face off with you, so-"

The elf chief doesn't get to finish his sentence. His protegee's head is already falling to the ground, cleanly cut off by Jin-Woo.

"Anything else to say?" the player asks as droplets of blood rain around him.

Baruka's face twists itself into an ugly grin. His eyes glow with excitement as he observes the human in front of him with newfound interest. Neither regret nor anger for his fallen soldier clouds the glimmer in his eyes. "You're an amusing guy."