บท 41: Frost Spirit
As Raynor was carving arrows, he was wondering what kind of souvenirs he would want to take with him when he returned home.
He is not confident he could make a territory in this place. There is nothing here, and it would take him ages to build stuff from ice.
No, instead, he should make something more practical and at a smaller size.
His eyes eventually went to his sheathed sword placed next to his bow. He had his conduit sword ready.
For a second, he stared at it. Stopping with carving and just looking at it.
'Oh— that could work.' He recalled Shaman King, the main antagonist, had Fire Spirit, a gigantic existence.
'I will make Frost Spirit!'
"Raynor, are you okay?"
"Yes. I just got an idea." He didn't clarify. Instead, he returned to his work.
As he was carving, his mind was designing his next conduit. This will be a banger. The Shaman doesn't need a weapon; jewellery could work as well!
For now, he decided to make around 45 arrows of pure ice.
As he was doing that, Ullr left, and the God of Hunt went to get some game. The God had his honour. He can't munch on the hunter all the time.
Around five hours later, the carving was done, and Raynor proceeded to work on the jewellery he wanted. He decided to make a necklace.
So, he cut a small piece of ice and started to make a form of the frost spirit he wanted. He decided to carve it how he remembered the Fire Spirit from Shaman King.
With horns and bulky arms, devil-like existence.
It will be awesome. Raynor can imagine seeing Rias' face when he pulls it out.
'If I am going to make a spirit from a piece of Niflheim, I should make something from Muspulheim.'
As he thought about that, he made a finger-sized pendant in the shape of the Frost Spirit he wanted. Next was to create a chain. Once again, he decided to make it from ice.
Because that would look cool and a complete set!
"Are you making a pendant?" Ullr returned with a fox-like game he was carrying on his shoulder.
"Yep, I need a souvenir from this place."
"Hah! I thought Skadi would be your souvenir?" The Hunter God commented with a grin.
"Well, she is a gift this plane will give me, but I still need a souvenir," Raynor explained as he handed over a quiver full of ice arrows.
"That was quick. It takes a while to make arrows." Ullr dropped the carcass on the ground and started to inspect the arrows.
He inspected them individually; he felt souls inside of them, and they were ready to detonate, as well as how solid they were. The magic weaving with already present mana made these arrows as solid as wooden ones.
"Impressive work. With this, we can hunt them in far bigger quantities than I originally thought." Ullr realised that with how many souls Raynor had, they could hunt thousands of them. Maybe even more.
"Raynor, how long do you intend to stay in this plane?" The God of Hunt asked him after placing the quiver down and then started to render the animal to pieces.
For a second, the hunter looked at the animal. He was confused as fuck. The animal has blood! And its meat is red! B-But how!?
"... That's a silly question until you are here." The Shaman rolled his eyes.
"I see. In that case, we might shave those souls you have around you. If Hel were to see you, you would become her next source of fascination."
"Is that bad?"
"Depends on what you see as bad." Ullr proceeded to remove the organs. He froze them and then started to remove fur.
"She is the Goddess of the Underworld. She could drag you into her realm. If she sees that many souls, she could make you her champion. A lot of things depend on her mood."
"One thing for sure, you would have less time for yourself." As Ullr said, Raynor walked over and collected liver from the frozen pile of organs.
He then placed it on a stick and started to cook, bringing out several spices and spreading them on the liver.
"So I would get her affection or 'affection'? Depending on the mood?" Raynor air quotes the second one.
"Yes. As I said, it's better to keep it to yourself. Find a way to hold those souls in some sort of container. A god or anyone with powerful mana can see what you carry around yourself."
'He is right. A hunter has to be as stealthy as possible. It was not an issue in Westeros, but here.'
"Hmm, I suppose a container is possible." Raynor pondered on what the God of Hunt said to him.
"Good. Since you are staying around for a longer time, you can keep this pelt. I suggest redoing your fur clothes. Better protection will keep you alive for longer." Ullr gave him the white fur.
"Nice. I have a tannery as well." With several hand motions, he pulled out a tannery rack.
"It will take a while to process this fur, so I suggest we hunt around this area," Ullr said as he saw the tannery rack.
"That's the plan."
~~~
After eating, it was time to rest. Raynor ended up lying in his bed. He closed his eyes and proceeded to consume the souls he had around him.
He quickly noticed that he could eat over 20 at once. It appears his method of using Leviathan to drain his reserves is working.
His soul is gaining weight to it.
The Shaman realised that this method was similar to this place. In this place, souls get weight from extremely thick mana saturating the realm.
Those souls grow so thick that they eventually become gods.
Another thing he noticed is that this plane of existence is linked directly to Earth and has a strange perception of seeing animals who originally were living elements becoming 'animals' and bleeding in red blood— it is bizarre for him!
He can't even explain how this works! Pure energy became flesh and blood! So where does it get all those nutrients to keep it running afterwards!? Eating others!? But there is no drinking water here either unless they eat ice.
All he can say is it's magic and shelve this bizarreness to the edge of his mind.
After consuming those souls, Raynor proceeded to get some shut-eye. Tomorrow will be another exciting day!
~~~
Once he recovered his mana and soul energy, the Shaman was ready to do some hunting!
The pair left their cave, and Ullr used some of his divine energy to conceal the cave with his snow powers.
With their base secured, the pair and a ghost proceeded to explore.
"We shall visit places where Frost Giants usually gather. In between, we might have some prey to hunt."
As they proceeded to travel with their skiing slides, Ullr taught him a couple of things about how to notice animals in this place.
All of the beasts here are predators. However, the recently born ones are useless; they are living ice. They are ignored, but the ones who are much older they become 'alive'.
Flesh and blood.
Truthfully, the more Raynor heard this, the more he realised that this was like Bleach with the hierarchy of evolution. The peak existence was a God, like in Bleach, a Vasto Lorde or an Arrancar.
Then you have animals with blood and flesh, which were, according to Ullr, much stronger than usual animals. They are thick with mana and taste good, just like that fox-like creature they had eaten before.
However, the issue is— they are all stalking predators.
With a roar, the ice under them cracked, and a massive mouth rose from the ground.
The pair jumped away.
The creature rose from the destroyed ground. It was a mix between a crocodile, a snake and an eel. The mouth was of crocodile, the slender body of a sea serpent/dragon and the tail was that of an eel.
"Do you have a name for this thing!?" Raynor asked loudly.
"I don't name them!" Ullr said with a shrug as he landed and pulled his bow.
"However, its teeth will make nice knives!" He replied to Raynor while taking his aim.
"On that much, I can agree!" The Shaman pulled out his ritualistic arrow and softly whispered to himself.
"Boar pierce!"
The hunter's totem manifested behind him, and the boar part glowed. The spiritual energy flows to the arrow, and its carving starts to burn.
With steady aim, he released the arrow.
Arrows from Hunter God and Shaman flew with a loud whistling sound.
Ullr noticed a ghostly silhouette of a boar surrounding Raynor's arrow.
'Just how many tricks does this kid have?'
The more he watched this, the more he thought of becoming a shaman, too!
The arrows slammed into the face of the ice beast. The force of those arrows made the beast's head bend backwards.
'Durable! My arrow could have left a hole in a regular beast!' Raynor thought to himself as he proceeded to pull another arrow.
'I can't use boar for another ten minutes. That sucks; I should return to Westeros and improve the totems.'
The shaman proceeded to pull out one of the carvings of a stag he had stashed away and imbue the arrow with it.
This time, the arrow turned on spiritual fire and let loose. There was a trail of flames as it slammed into the struggling beast's face. The explosion of the ritualistic arrow smashed the ten-metre-long beast away.
It struggled for a while before it stopped.
"Impressive use of animal souls. So this is the power of a shaman." Ullr commented casually as once again he observed instead of assisting.
The Hunter God quickly realised that he didn't need to do anything. Raynor can swiftly deal with these things.
Raynor slid over and inspected.
"Damn, this is like from Jurassic Park. A crocodile head with a snake-like body. How do these beasts form? Do they have habitats?" The Hunter asked with an excited voice.
"Don't get excited. All of them are different."
Ullr's explanation deflated the shaman. If this is the case, he won't be able to form a totem of this animal.
'However… it's a different thing if I pull this beast's soul to feed the Frost Spirit I am creating.'
The Shaman placed his hand on the carcass and activated this inventory, sucking in the dead creature.
"That is a convenient hammerspace thing you have there." From carrying his tents, now he can take carcasses? That's just amazing! Ullr decided that he should invite Raynor more often for extended hunting trips! It's just so convenient!
"Yeah, I will render it later."
"Good, then let's continue. There is quite a bit of distance we need to cross."
With a nod, the group continued to advance.
~~~
Apart from that crocodile-like creature, Raynor killed a couple more wolf-feline creatures.
They were weird, like mixed parts of a Hyena and sabre tooth lion. Front limbs were stronger than hind ones.
Thankfully, they had white fur so he could continue to improve his clothes.
Eventually, they arrived at a place between two mountains; it was like a canyon.
"Mana concentrates between those mountains." Raynor swiftly noticed that.
"That's why you can see those jotuns over there," Ullr said as he switched to another quiver full of ice arrows.
"I see, so Jotuns are like dragons on Earth?"
"Yes. Midgar gives birth to dragons, which people see as power. But here, it's giants." The Hunter God explained as he finished with his preparations.
"Are you ready, Raynor? This time, there are more developed Jotuns. The one leading looks like it's quite a developed one."
The Hunter followed Ullr's gaze; he saw a Frost Giant with more furs and an ice club.
"Do they develop an ability to manipulate ice as they develop greater self-awareness?"
"Precisely, you saw yourself what a fully developed Jotun can do." Ullr reminded him of Skadi, who was gorgeous and extremely strong.
"True, now let's start, shall we?"
Raynor pulled out his bow and arrows, and with a nod, the pair proceeded to shoot.
Soon enough, soul-based explosions followed, and Frost Giants started to drop like flies. They shatter and turn into slabs of ice.
However, the leading giant started to run towards the pair. Not only was he a head taller than regular ones, but it had more protection and a thicker aura.
'Not wonder Ragnarok is a big thing. If an army of these invades, it's game over.'
Raynor pulled out another stag carving and an explosive arrow. He transferred the stag's soul into the arrow. The arrow started to glow, and on top of that, he softly whispered the words.
"Boar pierce."
The arrow started to tremble with the overload.
Once the giant was close, he released the arrow.
With a streak of light, the arrow slammed into the giant's face. A three-layered explosion followed as ghostly flames consumed the giant, turning into a pile of ice.
The leader's death caused the giant to lose whatever sense of command they had.
Some of them even started to run away.
'So they already had self-preservation instincts.'
Raynor noticed this peculiar sight. The first group he met had the urge to eat and nothing more.
While fascinating observation, the hunter rushed forward with his slides and cut them down with his knives. He was, after all, running low on explosive arrows. It appears he will need to create the ones with ice.
Around ten minutes later, the last one was cut down by Raynor. The Shaman started to check the piles of ice.
'This is not normal ice.'
He inspected the ice in his hands.
'I can sense wisps of—'
His eyes widened as he activated the tattoo on his left hand. He started to manipulate the wisps of soul in the ice.
Instead of an orb the size of the fist he has with Tsufaame, it was just a few particles around his fingers.
Not much, but it was something!
Once he gathered that, he guided the wisps to his pendant.
The Frost Spirit pendant absorbed the wisps of the soul.
With the new objective in mind, the hunter proceeded to do the same with other piles, adding all those wisps of souls to the pendant.
The leader gave the biggest amount, which was four times the particles.
"How interesting, so your left hand can do rituals. I was wondering how you can manipulate souls like that. You know that druids of old would need to dance around the fire for hours just to do what you do with your left hand."
"I know. So I carved a tattoo on my left hand to skip that phase."
"...skip? That's like saying that you skip loading ammo and just shoot." Ullr replied with a deadpan look.
"Well, it's not actually skipping. It's more like streamlining the process."
"I thought as much. Regardless, we killed this group, and Skadi didn't appear, so I guess she is still recuperating.
We can use this to kill more giants."
To Ullr's suggestion, Raynor grinned with a nod.
His Frost Spirit is coming along. Still, he needs at least a few digits of Frost souls, maybe a few more leader Giants.
~~~
After the first skirmish, the pair attacked another two locations. They could have visited third, but Raynor needed to recover his strength and make more arrows.
So, the group returned to their camp.
"How many arrows do you have?" Raynor asked Ullr.
"Still have 8. I switch to my regular ones to conserve." The Hunter God replied as he saw the Shaman motioning with his finger. The Norse God has already gotten used to this. He knows that Raynor is checking his hammerspace.
"Same."
"Oh…I guess I won't need to make stuff from ice. Have an entire chest of arrows."
With a hand motion, the hunter pulled out a wooden chest and opened it.
"You had this all the time?"
"Yeah, at one time, I raided a massive city that included visiting barracks." Raynor sheepishly commented he forgot what was in most of these chests.
"I see. Well, then, you won't need to carve them from scratch."
"Yes. Only inscribe the markings and prepare a soul." The Shaman explained as he opened the chest, which was full of arrows.
"... that's a lot."
"Yes, you can refill your regular ones."
The Hunter God accepted the offering and proceeded to take some and fill them up with his divine energy.
While Raynor went to work, he needed to prepare his arrows. It would take a while; he wanted to ensure he was ready for the next trip.
As they were doing their thing, the Leviathan was bored out of her mind. The hunt was fascinating at first, but now— it's boring!
~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~
Black-haired and white fur-dressed Goddess was inspecting the locations of the hunts.
"That aura. It is the same human." Skadi had an annoyed frown. She realised that with this human, Ullr's hunts were more dangerous than ever.
*Tsk!*
"That greedy human took remnants of the souls. With this, it will take ten times longer for Frost Giants to reappear." She softly said to herself as she was inspecting the blocks of ice.
'His shamanistic magic is a threat. I need to kill him!' Skadi thought to herself as she recalled that battle. It has been ages since someone wanted to engage her in close-range combat.
Apart from that, his reckless flirting with her.
'Pity you have to die, human.'
The Goddess has to kill him, but it doesn't mean she can't enjoy the process of hunting. He wants to hunt her down; she wants to do the same.
"Let the best hunter win." With that in mind, she created her slides and proceeded to rush away towards where she suspects is their lair.
~~~
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