Hello Little Beauty

The hand that just pushed through the snow was quickly followed by another. The snow quickly turned to ice under the hands' touch. With both of their hands on the surface, a thin ice monster pulled itself out of the snow. The slush and snow froze into solid ice underneath it.

One after the other more ice monsters climbed out of the hole. Each was icier than the last. By the time that the last one crawled out of the snow, the Nafriton professor arrived with Aayla. The professor motioned for Aayla to start helping.

"How was it? Did you enjoy your time playing in the snow?"

The first snow monster scraped the ice off of its face to reveal the face of Aubrey Parlow.

"… No professor."

"Good. Is anyone hurt? What are our loses?"

"Nothing major aside from mana contamination. The ice element mana is compressed to the lower layers. The barrier absorbed most of it, but we had to shut it down to get out. So, we lost the defensive formations, tents and most of our rations. The horses were alive when we left, but now…"

The professor rubbed her temples. Was it too much to ask for a smooth, disaster free week?

"I'll have one of our doctors come out next time, just in case. If the horses are alive, I'll save them but I'm taking all of them with me since they should have died. Aubrey, what were you thinking?! Where are your officers? I need to give them a piece of my mind, too."

Aayla went from student to student to treat a few minor cases of frostbite. The professor's furious scolding went on for a while before the professor rescued the horses and left. With the last of the professors out of the way, Aayla decided to try something.

"Joel, right? How are you feeling? Can you handle fire magic? That should help dispel the ice element mana faster."

"I can handle a bit of fire magic, but it will take me a while to get rid of the mana contamination."

"Okay, then do you mind if I try something?"

Joel looked at her with more than a hint of suspicion.

"Try what?"

Aayla held up her wrist with the New Moon Bracelet.

"This artifact helps me regulate my mana. I can use it to store some of the ice element mana. Ah, my godmother taught me how."

The suspicion in Joel's eyes diminished, but didn't disappear. Deputy Heston's name was powerful after all. He looked at Aubrey. She thought for a moment then agreed.

"Just make sure that you don't hurt yourself or make things worse. Stop if you think something is going wrong."

"Not a problem."

Aayla put her hand on the fourth-year's back. She closed her eyes and used her own mana to tug on the ice element mana in his body. Unlike the time with the burn victim, there was another type of mana in her patient. This was Joel's own mana.

The ice element mana had wormed its way inside Joel's body, and was only held back by his own mana. This was an example of mana contamination, when outside mana remains in the body without proper absorption. Aayla had first seen it with during the last incident with Lysander Foryl.

Like detangling two pieces of thread, she had to carefully pull out the ice element mana. The New Moon Bracelet was very picky. It didn't like another person's mana at all. However, at the rate that it liked to eat mana it could accidentally swallow some of the patient's as well. Half an hour later, Aayla removed her hand from his back.

"I've done all that I can. Take care of the rest yourself or get a teacher to help."

Joel stretched a bit then stood up.

"Joel, how are you feeling?"

"A lot better than I was expecting to be honest, Captain. There's still a bit left, but that's nothing I can't handle. I should be fine in a few hours."

Aubrey's tensed shoulders relaxed.

"That's better than a couple of days. Ms. Glowery, can you do that again?"

Aayla nodded. "Sure, but just a few more times, and their conditions can't be too complicated."

"Iva, could you bring over the those who stayed down the longest? They should have the worst contamination. We'll start from the last out."

"Could we move to my place first? You're going to need to claim a spot before the other teams show up."

Instantly, all eyes were on Aayla. Aayla shrunk a bit from the intensity of their gazes.

"Apparently, something happened to the Tigurum team, and almost happened with the Olafssey team. Both are probably going to move nearby for safety reasons. To be clear, I'm not helping you. I'm only relaying what the professors mentioned and decided on."

The faces of the Nafriton team darkened. Sharing a camping area with two other teams would make things much more complicated. All of the teams could spy on and interfere with others more easily. Moreover, the teams from Tigurum and Olafssey were particularly difficult to deal with.

They had just lost most of their camping gear. Aubrey gritter her teeth. Under no circumstances could they show any weakness in front of the other teams. Those vultures would take advantage of their lack of supplies then mock them for years.

"We need to speed things up. Some of us will grab what we can while the rest will follow Ms. Glowery to her campsite. Those with the most mana contamination will stay there to get treated. Those not getting treated or salvaging what we can of our gear will locate and start setting up a new campsite."

The Nafriton team worked double time to find and claim a new campsite. They had to block the other teams from invading their space. Fortunately, the hill top was only so big. The Nafriton team claimed the entire central portion of the hilltop. No one else could set up camp there even if they wanted to. Aside from Aayla, who was already there.

An earthen wall rose around the center of the hill. Aayla's campsite was only a few feet away, yet she had no idea what was going on inside. The students treated at her campsite took a bit of an interest in her snow cave, so Aayla had an idea of what they would build.

By mid-afternoon, Aayla finished helping the Nafriton team, from whom she received a large haul of ice elemental mana. Aayla spent the rest of the afternoon the New Moon Bracelet. Unfortunately, the Nafriton team sealed off their exit passage, and the ice element mana that flowed out of it.

The ice element mana resting in the depths of the avalanche's remains provided an excellent opportunity for her to study the New Moon Bracelet. Aayla had received a big hint during the incident with Lysander Foryl, and received another hint that day. Clearly, the New Moon Bracelet could store different types of mana.

She was itching to fill it up as much as she could. By sheer luck none of her classes had serious magical requirements this semester. However, her hard work over winter break wasn't wasted. Aayla could now barely touch the feet of the lowest ranked Nafriton students. She still needed to catch up with the average students at the bare minimum.

Aayla quickly arrived at the end of the hilltop, where the two hills formed a small valley. She carefully peered over the edge. The slush hadn't started to melt at all, and was only a few feet down. Aayla carefully tossed down a small rock.

It slowly sunk into the snow without creating a large splash. Only hints of ice element mana flowed out from the new hole on top of the snow. Aayla checked her makeshift harness. Ready to go, she grabbed her makeshift chisel from earlier and started her descent.

The sides of the hill were slick with ice. Aside from a couple of rocks on the side, Aayla had no traction for her boots. The ice refused to crack with her makeshift chisel. She nearly slipped several times as she worked her way down.

Aayla was covered in bruises by the time she discovered how to manipulate the ice element mana to create foot and hand holds. Fortunately, no one was watching. When her feet almost touched the top of the snow, Aayla created a small ledge to stand on.

She could feel the ice element mana below her. Some of it was close to the surface, but most of it was buried deep under the slush and snow. No matter how hard she tried, the mana would barely stir when she attempted to pull it up.

Almost two hours later, Aayla's legs started to feel numb from sitting on ice for so long. There were several days left in the week. She had plenty of time to investigate. Several minutes later, Aayla pulled herself up to the top.

When she looked up, a shadowy appeared a mere few inches from her face.

"Hello little beauty~!"

"KYAAA!"

POW!

WHOOSH!