The girls stood within the snowstorm, their vision only reaching a few meters. The deafening wind suppressed their voices, forcing each girl to shout out their words. Within the white void, dozens of glowing blue eyes opened, one after another, piercing towards their targets.
Petra grinned, her little eyes glowing green.
A large wolf lunged out from the snow, attacking with a monstrous momentum.
Petra clenched her fist and braced her mind. Green energy flowed around her figure like a wave, swelling up and manifesting into a blade that was only about twenty centimetres long.
The glowing green blade pierced through the air and sliced the incoming wolf in two.
Following the fall of the wolf, a series of howls filled the air.
Dozens of wolves shot out one after another. They were like blue blurs, streaking through the snow like a flash of light.
Petra manifested dozens of blades, each shooting out and meeting an incoming wolf. Whenever a wolf would dodge, Petra used her mind to conjure a box around the wolf and crush it flat.
Petra took a step forward and extended her mental energy along the ground like a pool of water.
The wave of mental energy extended past her line of sight, reaching deeper into the snowstorm, and allowing Petra to get a better feel for the size of the wolfpack.
When Petra understood the true size of the wolfpack, she was slightly taken aback.
The three maid girls saw Petra's face turn a little serious.
"There are a lot of them, be careful."
The girls all nodded.
Petra originally planned to experiment by using little polygon people to fight, but she suddenly changed her mind.
Petra waved her hand and the dozens of mental blades expanded into hundreds. The hundreds of blades shot into the snow, each one meeting a target without missing.
This wasn't because Petra was extremely accurate, instead, there were just too many wolves.
The dozens of glowing blue eyes suddenly bloomed into thousands.
Even Nebula felt a chill down her spine.
She had underestimated the snowstorm's ability to dull the senses. Not only that, but she also underestimated the ice elemental's ability to hide.
A storm of green light flooded out, meeting the sudden onslaught of wolves.
Because the ice wolves were unable to break Petra's shield, they began to resort to different tactics. Some would block her vision by throwing ice and snow, and others would shadow their kin just to sneak attack. Some targeted the maid team, and a handful attacked from below. There were even some wolves that lay prone in the snow, waiting for Petra to walk over them.
The battle continued for 20 minutes before something changed.
"Awooooo!"
A loud and low vibration shook the battlefield.
Petra turned, only to see a massive wolf, over 10 meters tall, emerge from the snowstorm. Like the other wolves, this wolf had a pure white body (Similar to all Ice Elementals). But unlike the other wolves, this Wolf King had an icy blue mane and a dark blue tail. White fog escaped from the gaps in its maw, and its black-tipped ears stood tall, pointing to the sky. Its eyes glowed with a neon blue light.
Petra could feel the bloodthirsty killing intent in the Ice King's eyes.
A normal person would feel fear and apprehension when facing this monster, but the silly little girl just grinned from ear to ear.
"Got you!"
Then…
The surrounding situation changed in an instant.
The mental energy that had been fighting the wolf pack suddenly went berserk, condensing and then exploding around the wolves one after another. The surrounding battlefield was engulfed in a series of small and precise explosions, completely slaughtering the wolf pack in moments. It was like an array of green and white fireworks.
As for the wolf king, a simple green box suddenly appeared around its towering figure.
Petra saw a very human-like expression on the wolf king. It flashed from fury, confusion, then alarm, then realisation, and finally depression.
No matter how the wolf king attacked the simple green box, it was impossible to even scratch it. He looked at Petra, a pair of sad dog-like eyes glistening with tears, seemingly trying to ask for forgiveness. It seemed like he understood his situation quickly.
Petra skipped over and grinned.
"I got a new doggy! Teeheehee~."
Wind and Rose felt their lips twitch.
Nebula just nodded. She had felt like her master's way of fighting was very weird. She was too... 'reasonable'. Now she understood, so it was all to lure out this big doggy.
The girls looked at the massive beast.
"Wuuuwuwuwu~"
The 'big dogs' ears drooped.
"Hehe he, now we have a guide! The big ones should be smarter, right?"
The girls all nodded, feeling that it was possible.
But…
Looking at the big beast trapped in… what was slowly transforming into a dog kennel, it seemed that they might have to rethink that.
-
Ten minutes later, Petra and the girls dragged the big dog back to its den.
Unlike normal wolves, Ice elementals didn't have any attachment to the pack, despite hunting together. They were elementals, not real wolves. They only mimicked the appearance and behaviour of the wolves, not their instincts. This meant that the wolf den was empty, nearly beckoning them in.
Petra stood at the bottom of a cliff, looking up at the massive cave that the wolves had carved into the cliffside.
Although the ice elementals had not been here for long, the den that they had dug was very Impressive. It was likely that this part of the forest was their territory, giving them enough time to build and expand.
Petra couldn't help but think, 'Are these guys dwarves? How did they even dig such a huge stronghold?'
The reason Petra was sure that what she was looking at was newly dug and not an ancient ruin was because she could still see the claw marks.
The wolves' den was a massive 20 meter tall hole that was carved out from the cliffside and stretched back around 200 meters. It was a twisting structure, a bit like an inverted screw, but with thousands of small rooms breaking off and disappearing into the rock bed. Petra could even see a poorly made throne all the way in the back.
Petra peeked at the wolf king from the corner of her eye, wondering if this cowardly dog really had such vanity. This guy was acting like a docile puppy, but she felt like he was actually a lot more intelligent than he looked.
Petra and the girls entered the cave and slowly took over the wolves den. They casually set up camp atop the stone throne, much to the caged king's dismay.
Well, Rose and Wind began setting up a makeshift kitchen, and Petra turned her attention to the big dog.
She picked up a stick and poked it through the cage.
The wolf looked down at her, somehow looking even more miserable than he originally was.
Petra felt like it was a shame that this wolf wasn't a poisonous beast. If it were, she really wanted to keep it as a pet. Looking at that fluffy white fur that was as soft as snow… Well, maybe it was snow. Petra felt like it could be perfect to sleep with. As a connoisseur of the fluffy, she felt like she had found a treasure.
The little devil suddenly had an idea.
Could you transform an ice elemental into a poisonous beast? Did ice elementals even count as beasts? Petra was still unsure about the exact criteria a poisonous beast needed before it could be registered by her physique.
She suddenly wanted to try.
Petra was a poison master, but as one of those people who scraped along that grey line like it was an art, of course, she had some experience in uh... You know, the less ethical things.
Petra thought back to the ice poison that transformed the surrounding environment into ice.
She felt like she wanted to play.
Petra trotted over to her massive bag and began taking out the miniaturised alchemy lab she had packed. Petra believed that she would eventually be able to use her body as an alchemy lab, but this level of control over her physique was still too far away.
Petra quickly covered the cave floor with a mixture of modern lab equipment, Pillomal's alchemy equipment, some unique tools recorded in the old man's book, and a few unique tools she had personally invented in her past life.
The little girl sat lazily on her knees, in the center of this mess, wagging her little butt and synthesizing a variety of unknown substances. Using various plants and poisons she had collected along the way, Petra created a variety of drugs that should have a strong effect on the body of an ice elemental, even if they weren't considered 'alive'.
When it came time to eat, the busy Petra didn't even look over.
The little girl had become extremely focused, constantly mumbling to herself in an unknown language. She repeated a series of unknown formulas and unprecedented calculations so quickly that it almost blended into a single sound. Although none of the maids understood her, Nebula felt like Petra looked like one of those corrupted madmen from the….
The moon slowly reached the center of the sky.
Although the storm concealed its light, Petra still understood that it was late into the night.
After an unknown time, Petra suddenly jumped up.
The lively girl skipped happily past the big dog that was pretending to sleep, and out of the cave.
When she returned, Petra was carrying a few green cubes, each containing different sized ice elementals.
The wolf secretly watched this annoying brat from the corner of its eye. One must know that as an ice elemental, it had no care for its fellow wolves, much less other ice elementals.
At least, that's what it thought...
What followed made the wolf king feel like he was in a 'little bit' of trouble.
Petra threw the caged ice elementals to the side, only taking the smallest one back to the experimental table that she had quickly made out of stone.
The wolf king watched the little green haired devil inject a glowing cyan liquid into the small beast.
The small beast let out a shrill cry, then fell down, dissipating back into snow, and died.
Petra frowned.
"Is it too small, or is it a problem with the structure of an ice elemental?"
Petra kicked her little feet while thinking.
"I've read that ice elementals are supposed to reform after they die, but all the ice elementals we've encountered so far have just died."
"This is weird, are these not real ice elementals? Could they just be a semi elemental creature created artificially through the curse of winter, a half complete creature?"
"No... that doesn't seem like the style of the high elves, I should be missing something..."
The wolf king watched Petra inject the same serum into five more ice elementals, only for the same thing to happen again and again.
Petra pursed her lips.
"Are they just too weak?"
Petra rummaged through her satchel and pulled out a small bottle with a corked lid. Petra popped the lid and dripped the blue liquid onto the next test subject. She would try strengthening them first. This blue liquid was a complicated mixture of many medicines, some poisons, and the liquid from the blue pool at the bottom of the Emerald Ghost Tree.
Petra had just finished this 'drug' and didn't have time to test it. She knew it worked, but she didn't know how much it would strengthen a target. When she was sure, she would use it on the six beasts back home.
The little girl watched with shining eyes as the small ice bird on the table began to violently react.
The ice wolf watched in horror as the 20cm tall ice bird expanded and bulged, like a mutating monster.
After a few seconds, the ice bird had doubled in size, looking slightly more intelligent. It raised its wings up high and let out a deafening screech, like a rising phoenix! Then....
Petra stabbed it in the butt.
The ice bird turned around and looked at the injection sight.
"Caw...?"
BOOM!!
The ice bird's body exploded in size to look like a massive snowball. If you looked closely, you could still make out the stubby little legs and tiny beak that were weakly twitching in the overflowing 'fat'. The big ball looked like it could explode at any moment.
Petra completely sealed the mental container, watching closely.
The small particles that made up the ice elemental looked like they were 'fighting' desperately with the medicine Petra had just injected.
10 minutes passed.
After a while, the big ball of ice and snow began to shrink. It shrank and shrank until it was only about 4cm in diameter.
Petra watched closely to see if the experiment was successful.
The ball of ice began to slowly reform over the course of the next 20 minutes. When it finally took shape, what stood on the table was a beautiful little bird with snow white feathers, a dark blue mane, black feet, and deep blue eyes.
The ice bird raised its wings up high and let out a deafening screech, like a phoenix returning from the ashes! Then....
Petra stabbed it in the butt.
The ice bird turned around and looked at the injection sight.
"Caw...?"
The ice bird was confused, then terrified.
"Caw!!"
It jumped around in a panic, fearing the upcoming explosion.
After a moment, nothing happened.
It looked over, only to find Petra recording something in her notebook. It felt like she mumbled something about a 'new species' and 'retaining its memories.'
Petra didn't inject it with any more medicine, she just wanted to see if it was the same bird as before.
After confirming that this new bird was the ice elemental from before, she recorded her findings.
"Next..."
Petra threw in a squirrel to join the small bird.
The small bird instinctively attacked the towering fluff. With a mere peck, the squirrel froze, collapsed, and over the next ten minutes, Petra recorded the process of the squirrel turning into an ice statue.
Satisfied with the results, Petra continued her biological experiments.
She had no idea that these beasts had stopped being ice elementals after she injected them with her strengthening drug, but even if she did, she wouldn't care.
As for those guys who had studied elementals for all their lives, they would probably lose their minds, then accuse Petra of heresy in a maddened rage.
The wolf king watched its fellow ice elementals continuously mutate. Cold sweat ran down its forehead.
There was a three-legged ice crow, a six-armed monkey, a cat with three tails, a snake with two heads, and a fish covered in fur. The thing that all of these beasts had in common was that they were all extremely poisonous.
The poison ranged from turning a target into ice, freezing their senses, shattering their hair, making them only feel cold, turning them blue, making a person crave ice, and halting all respiratory functions.
Petra was once again satisfied with her experiments.
If it wasn't for this uninvited guest, Petra would want to keep playing.
She looked at the wolf king, feeling that it was lucky.