Chapter 179: Retarded dew ree.

Zyra and her team had ended their rest two hours ago and continued their journey, marching through the white shifting terrain, until they finally reached a point where heavy, thick snowflakes were falling from the sky.

It was almost dark, but at least they had arrived at their destination, or so Beauty declared. Zyra wiped a flurry of ice off her brow and announced to the rest, "We’ve arrived! Now we just need to find the dew trees and get out of here."

Yanxi squinted, looking all around the frozen white landscape, but her vision came up completely empty. "I don’t see any fruit trees," she said, tapping her chin in confusion. She pointed toward a row of strange, spiraled wooden trunks they had been passing for a while. They looked just like a group of pretzels with tree trunks. "Perhaps these are the dew trees, and we have been circling them all along."

Everyone turned their heads at the exact same time to look at Zyra for answers. These were the only trees in the area that they could see, after all.

Zyra twisted her lips. Much like them, she was having the same thought, "Beauty, a little more help here. Are these the trees?"

Beauty immediately scanned the area and pinpointed a big, rounded spot completely buried under a heavy mound of white.

[Host, the tree seems to be covered by the snow.]

Zyra sighed and motioned toward the big heap. "That is where the tree is, it’s time to dig the giant snow hill."

Achilles groaned, dragging his feet like an old man." Nobody said anything about digging." He mumbled.

Bianca glanced over at him, frowning. "Are you okay brother? You look a little pale."

Achilles dismissed her with a weak wave of his hand, leaning his weight against his knees. "I’m fine, I’m fine! Just go help the others dig so we can hurry up and return to the valley."

"Digging with our hands will take way too long," Tessi said, shaking her head.

She exchanged a quick look with Yanxi. Both soul maidens stepped forward, channeled their spirit energy, and launched a combined wind technique. A powerful gust of pressurized air blasted forward, blowing the giant pile of snow away in a single second. It was a way of healing many people at the same time, but over time, the move and energy had been honed into a battle skill by Soul maidens.

Beneath the mound sat a gorgeous, shimmering plant sitting alone. Zyra’s eyes lit up when she spotted the bluish, grape-like fruits hanging from its branches. "Found ya!" she shouted happily.

Before she could reach out to pick them, Beauty’s alarm chimed loudly in her head.

[Host, you have indeed found the dew fruits, but these ones are retarded in growth! Send them to the beast Dominion where they can mature to their fullest potential. A truly ripe dew fruit is supposed to be bright glassy purple and glowing__ you will be able to feel its energy just by being in its presence.]

"Retarded! You have got to be kidding me." Zyra muttered out loud, her voice dripping with sheer frustration.

"What? What, what now?" Achilles asked, leaning his heavy body against one of those weird, pretzel shaped trees behind him.

Suddenly, Achilles felt a strange shift in the bark against his spine. He froze, turning his head slowly to look at the tree just to be certain.

A round, feather-covered head popped directly out of the middle of the closed wooden wings. Two massive, glowing yellow eyes blinked directly into Achilles’ face. His mouth swung wide open in sheer horror as the tree transformed right before his eyes into a giant owl made completely of solid ice.

"Uhm__ guys__" Achilles squeaked, his voice cracking. "We’ve got a problem."

Everyone stopped grumbling and turned to look at him. They followed his trembling finger, gazing up at the icy owl monster.

"Oh-oh," Yanxi whispered, taking a step back.

The ice owl let out a sharp, piercing screech that echoed across the basin, instantly waking up the entire forest around them. Dozens of wing-like trees began to twitch and uncurl.

Beauty didn’t even wait for Zyra to ask before scanning the beasts in a panic.

[Host! This is a parliament of sleeping glass owls! Never in my database have I seen them awakened from such a deep slumber. They were sleeping, which is why it was so hard to detect them! I say get out now before they cause a disaster!]

"What kind of disaster?!" Zyra yelled in her mind.

[They use their massive wings to stir up a catastrophic avalanche to bury intruders alive under the snow!]

More glass owls were waking in the trees, and they were already flapping their huge crystal-like wings, creating a roaring vortex of wind that sent the surrounding snow flying into the air like a rising white tidal wave.

"Tessi, take us back!" Xavier yelled over the deafening roar of the wind.

"Get the dew fruit first!" Yanxi shouted back, trying to reach for the plant.

"Forget the fruit!" Tessi screamed. She slammed her palm together, instantly opening a portal right behind the squad. "Jump in!"

Zyra quickly waved her hand transferring the dew fruits into the beast dominion.

Without another thought, everyone dove headfirst into the rift just as a big wall of snow crashed down where they had been standing seconds before.

They tumbled out of the portal, landing hard on the warm, dry ground of the valley. The portal snapped shut behind them. For a moment, all five of them lay in a heap, laughing hysterically from pure relief and adrenaline. They had made it out alive!

[Ding! Reward of 5000 resonance stones for acquiring a dew plant for the beasts.]

Zyra sat up, dusting off her fur clothes, and quickly looked around to do an accountability check on her team. Her eyes scanned Bianca, Tessi, Xavier, Yanxi__ and finally dropped on Achilles.

The words died right in her throat.

Achilles wasn’t laughing. His skin was deathly white, his lips were completely blue, and frost was visibly forming over his eyelashes. Before Zyra could even scream his name, Achilles closed his eyes, completely unconscious.

"Achilles!" Zyra and Bianca shrieked together.

The Soul maidens rushed forward in a panic, hands glowing with white healing light as they pressed their palms against his body. But they got no reaction.

"What is wrong with him?! Why isn’t the healing touch working?!" Yanxi cried.

Xavier screamed for Malia, ordering the beasts to go and call her.

Meanwhile, Zyra poured some of her beast healing serum into his mouth, but Achilles’s throat seemed clogged. The liquid could not go down.

Malia came running over from the nearby pavilion, dropping to her knees to check his pulse. She touched his icy cheek and gasped.

"He’s in an extreme hypothermic state! His body is almost completely frozen on the inside! Quick, bring warm blankets! Bring everything we can use to warm him up. If this continues, his organs are going to shut down within an hour."