Desperate Situation

"Grrrhh… What is happening to me?" He slowly said.

'It couldn't be… Sheer Cold? So far from the mountain?'

"Damnit! I have to… find a… heat source…"

The three normal hilichurls danced around him for a moment, before resuming their attacks.

Sai looked around for maybe the third time so far, but this time he was desperate. If he couldn't find a heat source he would surely die.

"Hey, what is this blue thing? Did he catch a cold?"

"Oh no. That happens when you are in Dragonspine. You have to find a torch or something. It won't stop til' all your characters die."

"Oh damn, how ruthless. But a torch? I don't see any around. Is it a drop?"

"Oh wait, just go back to the teleport waypoint and you'll be fine."

'That's right! The waypoint could be used as heat source. But where is it again?'

Sai soon found it, but in its way was a Frostarm Lawachurl. Easily 5 meters in height and an imposing figure. Sai instinctively knew that if he fought that monster, the only outcome would be his death.

'How did it get there? What do I do? If I go there, Aether won't make me fight him too right?'

As he waited for the weird force to send a command, Sai decided to try to incapacitate the Mitachurl. But his body hurt too much, and his stamina was not regenerating quickly enough. He didn't manage to get close enough for a hit. He could only slowly move towards the waypoint.

At that moment, he felt something telling him to run to the waypoint, which Sai did without thinking.

The cold was hindering his thought process, or the pain was simply too strong to continue bearing Sheer Cold. Or perhaps he was just afraid of dying from it.

Regardless, he sped through the hundred meters that separated him from the waypoint. The Lawachurl had started to climb back up into the mountain, opposite to the direction Sai was coming from.

"Yes!"

He finally reached the waypoint as another slime exploded behind him, sending shrapnel and a warm gust of wind in his direction.

Immediately upon arriving, Sai felt like he entered a hot shower on a really cold day. His skin got its healthy luster back and he could breathe better.

Sai barely had time to do anything when the strange force sent him to fight again. But having come so close to death changed his mind.

"Heck! I'm about to die here! It's me or you guys!"

He dashed towards the closest hilichurl, swinging his sword that once more appeared in his hand out of nowhere, and with another normal combo, killed the monster.

"Kyaaa!"

'Puff!'

Sai only had time to see it vanishing in smoke before he had to avoid an axe strike. He didn't feel much from it.

He turned his sights to another hilichurl, this one completely uninjured, and hacked it to death.

"Kyah!"

'Puff!'

"Look! He killed them on his own! Sia is good!"

"His name is Sai, and this is really weird… is it actually auto-attacking them? Why is no one else talking about this?"

"Just one more…"

Sai repeated the winning methodology, and successfully sent the normal hilichurls to the afterlife.

When Sai looked at the remaining Mitachurl, he couldn't help but feel dread. Why?

Because the giant bull-like monster was paralysed (probably in fear) looking behind Sai. A huge roar resounded with a wave of cold air:

"ROOAARR!!!"

The ground shook.