Chapter 69: Sudden Spread

"Wait, wait! I wasn't the one who disturbed your herd earlier, it was somebody else!", Edwin slowly backed off towards the edge of the cliff.

"Oh? I already know, it's just that I really want to kill a human right now." Hot air came out of the alpha deer's nostrils as it replied and kept charging its antlers.

'So much for being reasonable.', Edwin inwardly complained.

As he was about to prepare to initiate the Flicker technique to escape, the alpha deer suddenly stopped charging its attack and the antlers went back to normal.

The alpha deer look in a certain direction and narrowed its eyes.

Then Edwin took this chance to sneak away from the beast, but before he could even get a few meters away from his original position, the alpha deer suddenly asked, "Kid, I change my mind, ride on my back."

The beast went in front of him and crouched down, which made Edwin stunned by the immediate change of situation.

"What are you waiting for? Hurry up! I might need your help.", the alpha deer urged.

Hearing the tone of the beast, Edwin climbed up the animal's back, then the deer stood and looked down the cliff to its herd.

The powerful beast started to neigh down to the other deers; when the neigh reached them, all of them, including the ones sleeping, playing, and eating looked up the cliff, then in an instant, the herd moved and swiftly rushed away from the location, opposite to where their leader has looked earlier.

Without warning, the alpha deer jumped down from the top and followed the herd from behind.

Meanwhile, Edwin was almost scared to death by the alpha deer's sudden action, the boy felt that his heart was left behind on the top of the cliff after it jumped down from a very high place.

However, those thoughts didn't last for long and he couldn't help but ask what was happening, but the beast didn't answer and kept running, though it limited its speed to be behind the herd.

Due to his curiousity and because the beast wasn't answering his question, Edwin took a peek behind him.

An arising sense could be felt by Edwin as the feeling that a layer of frost came from that wilderness that he was facing and covered everything, but there wasn't seem to be any change that happened.

"That spreading power that you probably sensed right now is called Magic Frostbite, everything, including animals, plants, and humans who could utilize internal energy and mana will get negatively affected by it, even those toothpick-wielding humans who can use the element of ice will surely get affected.", the alpha deer said.

The toothpick-wielding humans that the deer was talking about were the magicians.

"Oh.", Edwin replied.

"But this is much more severe than a normal. I need your help on spotting if there are any deers that will stray from our original path, I'll be busy paying attention on the front of the herd if there are any obstacles, got it?", the alpha deer asked.

"Yes, I got it.", Edwin replied.

As soon as Edwin answered back, the alpha deer's antlers glowed, and the antlers of the other deers also glowed, albeit faintly.

After which, the animals sped up, as if they got a boost.

Due to their current speed, Edwin was forced to hold tightly onto the alpha deer while maintaining his vigilance in case of a deer straying off from the original path.

Also inwardly, the boy was caught off guard by the sudden boost of the herd's speed, if this happened earlier, he knew that he could've been caught.

On the other hand, Edwin also heard other animals around their location as he focused internal energy to his ears to temporarily boost his hearing.

He heard different kinds of beasts of the wild such as apes and gorillas swinging on the trees; snakes slithering; frogs hopping; also numerous kinds of birds such as eagles, hawks, owls soaring on the sky, and many more animals going at the same direction, which was away from the Magic Frostbite.

"There are actually so many beasts that could use internal energy and mana.", Edwin muttered.

"No, actually, internal energy is always present in anybody's bodies, the only ones that can get affected by this are the ones that can utilize it.", the alpha deer explained.

Though Edwin actually already knew that every living being has internal energy within their bodies, he still nodded as a form respect.

"Huh?", Edwin looked at the corner of the herd, he saw a deer stop running to catch its breath.

"There's a deer over there that stopped.", Edwin informed the alpha deer about it, and the latter neighed then a beam of light shot towards the resting deer from its antlers.

Rather than exploding on impact, the beam of light entered the deer, renewing it of its vigor; then it rejoined the herd.

The herd rammed down the trees, bushes, and rocks on their way, leaving a mess on their wake, however, the other animals didn't seem to mind it as it was for their survival.

However, a giant boulder could suddenly be seen from far away on the oath of the herd, it was too big for their momentum to destroy it by force.

But the alpha deer's antlers glowed and a beam of light came shooting towards the boulder, destroying the obstacle and letting the deers pass the area without stopping.

They encountered other kinds of obstacles on the way, but they were either destroyed by the momentum of the herd or were all obliterated by the alpha deer.

Meanwhile, Edwin spotted and reported the deers that were straying from the original path or the ones that stopped running so that the alpha deer could easily take care of it.

By now, they reached the side of another cliff, but they still didn't stop along with the other animals, because the Magic Frostbite was still on their tail.

"There's an another deer there that stopped.", Edwin pointed at a baby deer at the side of the herd who took a stop to eat grass.

As the alpha deer was about to approached the baby deer, the cliff face rumbled and a rockslide occurred.

The herd leader's antlers glowed much brighter as ever, even brighter than the time when the alpha deer was about to kill Edwin earlier, after which, a ball of energy formed above the head of the said beast and turned into multiple beams of light that went towards the falling rocks.

-boom-

A loud explosion occurred and the ball of fire formed by the beams of light swallowed all the falling boulders, incinerating them into ashes.

The herd didn't stop even once and continued running, but because the alpha deer dragged its attention towards the rockslide earlier, the baby deer was left behind and the Magic Frostbite reached it.

"No!", Edwin widened his eyes and tried to jump off the herd leader's body to save the baby deer, but he couldn't get off, it was as if he's glued to the body of the alpha deer.

"Human, don't you dare do something stupid, I still need your help in spotting the straying deers!", the alpha deer warned.

"But..."

"You can't save everybody. Now go focus on what I told you to do or else more will be swallowed by the incoming Magic Frostbite!", the alpha deer coldly silenced Edwin.

The boy zippered his houth and complied to what the alpha deer told him to do so.

Finally, the herd and the other animals finally stopped running away when the Magic Frostbite stopped spreading.

All of them were now in a wide plain surrounded by trees. If there wasn't any snow on the ground, this place would've most likely been a grass patch.

Edwin got off from the back of the alpha deer and looked at the direction where the Magic Frostbite was.

The Magic Frostbite couldn't be easily seen with the naked eye, even when Edwin redirected some of his internal energy to his eyes to enhance his eyesight, he still couldn't see the Magic Frostbite clearly.

Although it couldn't be seen on his perspective, he could faintly sense its existence.

"Human, I'll be right back, don't go away yet.", the alpha deer said.

Edwin only nodded in response, then the herd leader's antlers faintly glowed, and some sort of faint translucent barrier appeared around it, then it rushed towards the Magic Frostbite in a whoosh.