I am an Eldritch Entity

Eryndor messaged Paulina his current location and the situation with Ice Oxen.

"I'm going to investigate it."

Paulina: "Huh? Weird. I've been here for far longer than you people. How did I not notice it?

"Just until a few hours ago, there were all kinds of beasts, not just Ice Oxen, you can even check the group chat where we put all the battle history."

Eryndor: "Makes it all the more strange."

Paulina: "Shouldn't we wake up more people so that you aren't investigating alone?"

Eryndor: "I don't think it would matter, I have the largest range out of anyone here.

"If anything, they might only be able to help me escape by carrying me in case something goes wrong.

"Even in that, only Valentina or Edward can outrun me, both of whom just had their night watch rotation, it would be unfair to wake them up from their sleep again."

Paulina: "Well, you can take the meat shield with you. His turn is coming up soon anyway."

A small chuckle escaped Eryndor as he replied to her.

"I'm going to snitch on you hehehe."

Paulina: "Go ahead, traitor. Hmph."

Eryndor: "Joking, alright, I'm going off."

Paulina: "Be safe."

He didn't respond, simply slipping the phone into his pocket and marking the spot where he stood.

It was a system his team had agreed on earlier—used whenever someone needed to wander a little farther from the group.

After a moment of thought, he expanded his range, it wasn't yet his maximum range but still high enough.

Ughh…might've as well stop the music.

The following situation was about to be a serious one, one where he couldn't afford for mistakes.

But then again, the situation turned creepy again.

Eryndor thought while moving in silence. He mentally began humming a tune as he searched for unusual traces.

A minute later, he found another Ice Ox.

There really are only these beasts around.

He furrowed his brows, and quickly ended the life of that beast. It was at the mid stage of Latent realm.

The process continued for around ten minutes, and there was no unusual clue yet.

Just what is going on here?

A while back, after walking some distance away from the camp, he had changed his direction so as to not stray too far away from his group.

He kept making changes to his direction, and by now he had already made a circle around his camp.

Are they surrounding us?

He didn't waste any time in contacting Paulina. It was still her turn on the watch.

If the Ice Oxen were surrounding them, it was entirely possible that a few had already slipped past. After all, he couldn't be everywhere along the perimeter of the camp's circle at once.

"Did you encounter any Ice Ox?"

Paulina: "Nope, not a single one."

Eryndor's mind struggled to come up with speculations about their current scenario.

These Ice Oxen were always found at a certain distance away from their camp, but they never went past it.

Wait… could it be?

Bracing himself, he expanded the range of his extended vision once more before receding quickly to not expend his Energy of Consciousness too much.

As expected, he found a few more deeper into the tundra, but none in the direction of his camp.

I should stop trying to stay close to the team.

Eryndor marked a nearby rock, and moved in the opposite direction.

This time two Ice Oxen charged at him as soon as they sensed him.

Readying his mace, he closed the distance with one of them in particular.

Both of them were at the mid stage of Latent realm.

With higher speed, he reached the one he was aiming for earlier than the second one, with still plenty of distance between them.

He swung his prepared mace at the open mouth of the Ice Ox, but probably because he was running this time, compared to when he was always staying still, his calculation fell short.

Rectifying his mistake quickly, he detached the head and controlled it with Telekinesis to hit the beast's back while his Sovereign's Cloak bore the brunt of its bite.

A crack resounded through the silent air as its back caved in from the blunt force of the spiked head.

The beast wailed loudly, but Eryndor was quick to deliver a sharp upper cut on its lower jaw using Internal Fist.

Its jaws crashed into each other with a heavy impact, inflicting a serious internal damage to the skeletal structure.

The armor on its body was as good as paper in front of Eryndor who was at least three stages above it.

Without losing the momentum, Eryndor used his second hand to deliver another Internal Fist to hammer down on its skull.

A sharp crack was heard once again as the armor and bone both broke down.

To seal the deal, he used the handle of his weapon and drove it straight down the cracked opening his recent punch made.

All its movements ceased within a couple seconds after being impaled by the handle of the spike mace completely through its skull.

With disgust visible on his face, Eryndor removed his weapon, and swung it hard on the incoming second Ice Ox's face.

Crunch.

One shot kill.

This time a few brain matter splattered on himself as well, as he didn't cover himself with Sovereign's Cloak fast enough.

He first checked the two beasts if they were truly dead, then gave himself a once over.

First, he dropped the weapon beside him and gazed at his hands in disgust.

Jeez, I drove the handle down its skull in the heat of the moment. I ended up having to hold that same handle, with the blood and brain matter all over my hands.

While thinking of that, he inspected his clothes, which had a hint of pinkish gray and white color substance now.

Eryndor was aware of the mild OCD he had related to hygiene and cleanliness, and his current situation had successfully creeped him out quite a bit.

Fuck it, life happens, gotta move on.