"Sssthhrreee—" the creature hissed, its voice an unholy mix of shattered crystal and grating metal. It hurt to hear, slicing invisibly at my eardrums, pulling a cold shiver up the back of my neck. I flinched, eyes narrowing as it stepped further into view. Its movements cracked the ice beneath its feet, splintering the ground with each measured stride.

Then the mist stirred with soft, pale light that flowed around its form like living frost. For a brief moment, it resembled liquid nitrogen spilling into the air, instantly freezing the space around it. The haze distorted its body, swallowing its shape into eerie blue smoke. Chilly tendrils wrapped around my arms, tightening like a promise.

I didn't hesitate. My hand curled, and the {Surgeon's Scalpel} manifested at my fingertips. A razor-thin blade of blood, sharp and trembling, born of my own veins. My heart pulsed, pushing crimson along its edge.

I steadied my breath.

Whoosh

It attacked without warning.

The skeletal wolf-head lunged past my shoulder with a motion so sudden I barely had time to react. A cold wind rushed beside my cheek. Instinct ruled. I twisted my body, slippered feet sliding cleanly over the frost-coated ground. My pulse thundered, sharp and relentless, like a steam engine fed with too much fire. My hand came up, blade ready, and I slashed at what I could see: the jagged bone, gleaming with frost.

The scalpel scraped across its ribcage, but it was useless. It was like trying to cut down a glacier with a kitchen knife meant for spreading butter. The impact sent stinging vibrations back through my arm.

It landed on all fours behind me, pure grace in motion, and spun with precision that belonged to something that had been hunting long before I ever existed. The mist parted just enough for me to see its jaw open, teeth grinding and cracking.

I felt a wave of dread pressing down on me.

Am I going to die? No, I can't...

Chup! Suddenly, Beelzebub bit me on the ear. It hurt, but it snapped me awake. Just in time.

A flash of freezing blue light burst from the monster's mouth. I jumped forward, knees folding under me, and the world behind me detonated. The boom struck my spine like a fist. The walls shook. Ice rained down from the ceiling, crashing in thick sheets and shards sharp enough to split skin open like paper.

The air behind me popped violently. A balloon of pressure had burst, sending shards flying like shrapnel. I twisted midair, using my body as a shield. Beelzebub curled under my collar as I braced for impact.

Pain shot through my arm. A long shard of ice buried itself into my left hand, pinning it through muscle and skin. I hissed, feeling the wet warmth beneath the cold. But I didn't stop moving.

My feet skidded across the ice, breath ragged, one hand slick with blood, the other gripping the scalpel tightly.

I tilted my head slightly, eyes never leaving the creature.

"You're going to regret that."

The wolf-creature's skull angled, glowing eye sockets narrowing with a cold intelligence.

A second hiss escaped its throat.

"Sssthhrreee—"

This time, I stepped forward. My feet carried me smoothly, shadows curling beneath me as if guiding my movement. In that brief flicker, I vanished, and materialized beneath the creature with surgical precision. There, deep in its chest, nestled behind the jagged ribs, pulsed a crystalline snowflake, glowing blue and cold as death itself. I knew immediately that was its core, the one thing keeping this horror alive. If I shattered it, this thing would finally fall.

The beast still did not perceive me. I felt its icy breath as I rose, scalpel in hand, Beelzebub pressed close against my collarbone, silent but alert. The weapon moved like an extension of my arm, guided by instinct, by training, by rage. I aimed for the glowing heart. The scalpel sliced between the ribs, sliding through the frozen air, so close I could feel the chill of the core against my fingertips.

And then, everything warped.

What had been solid bones became liquid nightmare, its skeleton shimmering and dissolving into the mist. The core flickered, then dissolved into nothing.

The beast vanished, the sound of its existence sucked out of the room like a dying breath. For a moment, there was nothing. I could no longer hear the cracking bones. The frost stopped shifting. Only the stillness of death remained, waiting to consume me. My lungs expanded, the frozen air tasting like metal and silence. My fingers tightened around the scalpel, warmth bleeding back through the handles as if reminding me I was still here, still fighting.

"Where are you?" I said gently, barely louder than a whisper. The voice somehow carried through the frost. I could feel it watching. Calculating. This creature was intelligent, not some mindless monster made of bone and ice. Something like this could think. Could plan...

The world bent in front of me, as if someone grabbed reality and twisted it in both hands. My eyes narrowed against the shift, and then I saw something horrifying: I expected one skeleton, but five welcomed my eyes. The frozen mist split apart, and they emerged from it like phantoms tearing through a veil.

Their knees moved with strange elegance, claws clicking lightly against the ice surface as if they were gliding. Their hollow eyes burned blue, each skull fixed on me as if I were the only thing that existed in this world of ice and silence.

Five sets of claws dragged across the frozen floor, slow at first, then speed up. The scraping sound echoed in the chamber, sharp and uneven, sending shivers down my spine. The sound was wrong. Too brittle. Too jagged. It felt like someone dragging knives across glass. It felt like someone playing a concerto of terror.

Beelzebub pressed closer into me, his fur standing on end. I could feel that he wanted to fight too, even though his little heart trembled with fear. I reached up and touched his paw gently, keeping my gaze fixed on the circling skeletons.

"Stay on my shoulder for now," I whispered. "They have no flesh, so there's not much you could do. Just trust me, alright?"

His tiny paw tapped my cheek in reluctant agreement.

Without warning, the first one leapt, drawing my attention back to the battle.

Its claws elongated mid-air, slicing through the cold. I ducked beneath it as it passed, the skeletal form spinning with inhuman grace. My hand lashed upward, the scalpel cutting beneath its ribs. The blade scraped bone and nothing more. Useless. I needed another strategy, but for now, this was all I had: an aggressive defense, and the hope it would hold for just long enough.

Another rushed me from the left, jaw wide open, crooked teeth sharp like frozen knives. My muscles coiled and reacted, the body I had inherited from Beatrice moving faster than any human body ever could. My foot twisted on the ice, stabilizing me, as I pivoted out of reach. A trail of frost wind followed its snapping jaws.

Three more skeletons encircled me, each pausing for just a second as if calculating the best moment to strike. I counted them breathing, alive only through breath and will. The ice crackled beneath me as I exhaled, focus breaking into sharp layers.

My blood boiled in my veins. The scalpel vibrated lightly between my fingers, hungry for a target.

"You act like you already won," I said, smirking.

They lunged.

Their teeth snapped, claws clashed against my scalpel in sharp, rapid sparks. Air filled with the cracking sound of ice fracturing. I dodged, spun, and slid across the glassy ground, momentum carrying me through the cold fog.

A skull came close enough for me to smell the death inside it. I broke it with a strike of my knee, then moved toward the next. One scalpel, ten fingers, and too many targets. But I refused to back down.

They came again, all at once. I dodged like a cornered cat, one flying past me, then another. I twisted, ducked, rolled... My body moved on instinct alone as all five pursued me without a breath of mercy. But I didn't waste energy dancing with them. I was watching, scanning, waiting. Each skeletal wolf was identical, yet I knew only one could be real. The system said kill the monster, not monsters. That meant four were clones, shadows meant to confuse me.

Now the question remained, which one carried the true core? I could not afford a wrong guess. Not here. Not with the cold closing in from all sides. I narrowed my eyes, refusing to blink, refusing to let even one movement escape me. I had to strike faster than it could react. And I would.

And then, when my focus narrowed to a single point, I saw that one of them carried a faint blue light deep within its ribcage, dim enough to go unnoticed unless you were searching for it. As if it wanted to hide from me.

There it is! My thoughts sharpened, and my fingers closed tighter around the scalpel.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.