Chapter 580: Blizzard

"Ugh... Told you flying wasn’t a good idea in this place..." digging himself out of the snow after having fallen off Scaly after the crash landing, Verdell quietly scolded the reckless little dragon whose head was buried in the snow. Earning little more than a reluctant snort of approval from beneath the snow.

I had no idea the icy wind would be that powerful...

Silently thinking this to herself as she slowly dug out of the snow that had buried her large body, Scaly decided against sparing Verdell a glance. Instead deciding to focus her attention on her new surroundings following the emergency landing.

Although she hadn’t managed to fly for long before being taken down by the icy wind of the northern region, she had managed to cross a massive distance in that short time. Even crossing a smaller mountain range that had been close to the edge of the northern region and had only been small hills from where she had been standing just after taking her first step into the northern region.

Thinking back to the icy wind that had downed her and her small passenger, she remembered that the icy wind had hit her almost the second she had crossed over the mountain range. Almost like the mountains themselves served as some kind of barrier or gathering point for the icy wind.

In the end, there was only one way for her to find out about it- and that was to fly back into the sky to see if the icy wind was still around even after getting away from those mountains.

And...

After what she had just gone through. Almost turning into a dragon popsicle, she decided against recklessly ascending back into the sky to investigate this.

Deciding that it was far smarter to just stay on the ground like a good little dragon and stop using her wings for a bit. Once again becoming a landbound dragon that couldn’t fly.

Ehm, well not exactly landbound, just a dragon that didn’t want to risk her life trying to fly again...

"Hey! We need to get going, a blizzard is already starting to form behind us and if we don’t get out of the way, we won’t be able to survive- and don’t look down on the blizzards in this place, they are even deadlier than the icy wind from earlier!" Seeing a certain someone still deep in thought, Verdell called out to her from the side, a look of fear having slowly made its way onto his face.

Hm? Blizzard...?

Confused hearing what Verdell said, Scaly slowly turned around. Only to see what looked like a swirling mass of ice and snow moving in the direction of the two of them.

The sheer scale of this swirling mass of ice and snow was downright terrifying, as it stretched from one end of the horizon to the other. Having already swallowed up part of the mountain range they had flown over not long ago.

Such a massive blizzard had formed out of seemingly nowhere behind them.

Even worse, as someone sensitive to mana, she could also clearly feel the chaotic mana currents within that terrifying blizzard.

With or without Verdell’s reminded, she would have still understood just how terrifying this approaching blizzard was. Meaning he didn’t need to remind her again as she quickly followed him into escaping in the opposite direction of the approaching blizzard. Making sure to get him back on her back as she was the one who stood for running alone.

Not because she felt like lending Verdell a hand, but more so because it was far more comfortable to move through the icy wasteland with a warming unit strapped onto her back, but also because Verdell himself didn’t weigh anything in her eyes.

It was only as she set off trying to escape the approaching blizzard that she realized the scenery before her wasn’t as desolate as she had originally imagined it to be. Instead, she spotted several large and small mountains throughout the snow-white landscape alongside what should be some kind of crystal tree forest compromised almost entirely of unique crystal-like trees that reflected the light of the sun above.

"Go towards the forest over there, the blizzard won’t be able to exert its full strength inside the forests here." And just as she was feeling curious about these crystal tree forests, the dwarf on her back called out for her to rush towards the closest of these crystal tree forests, something she was more than happy to agree with-

Whoosh~

Almost flying across the snowfield as she dashed forward at great speed. Dashing forward using all her strength while at the same time making use of her wind magic to enhance her speed even further. Not wanting to end up getting swallowed by the blizzard chasing them from behind that was by no means slow.

On the contrary, the blizzard was moving at a scary speed that outpaced her even in the sky and was seemingly still increasing in speed. The mountain range itself serving to slow the blizzard down just that tiny bit, as it gave her and Verdell the chance to escape before it was too late and they ended up getting caught within the swirling mass of ice and snow.

But just escaping from the blizzard and getting to the crystal tree forest wouldn’t be enough, as the crystal trees would only be able to weaken the effect of the blizzard according to Verdell. For them to safely get through the blizzard, they would have to find somewhere within the crystal tree forest to hide themselves from the blizzard.

A cave, a burrow underground or even a densely covered tree crown could work to some extent if it was thick enough. The problem was not just finding such a place, but also finding one that wasn’t already inhabited, as Verdell also decided to share with her that these crystal tree forests were teeming with life that was far from friendly to someone like them.