[Bonus chapter]Winter Wonderland

Gate break.

A term used to describe an event where monsters that lurk inside of gates suddenly enter the real world.

They are generally pretty rare, and usually only take place when a gate has been left unattended for a long period of time.

Once Malachi heard the blaring alarm that signaled the appearance of such a catastrophe, he immediately became serious.

"Sei, I'm sending you home right now." Malachi said.

He immediately began to manipulate the shadows at her feet to send her right to their bedroom, and she knew that she only had a limited amount of time to say goodbye.

"Honey, please be careful..."

In the face of Sei's compassion, Malachi could not help but smile warmly at her. "Always am... You know I have to come back to you."

As Sei sank into the floor, she clutched her heart and finally said the words that had been buried within all of this time.

"I love you..."

As the shadows returned to normal and Malachi was once again left alone, a massive grin formed on his face.

"That's just not fair... You can't just say something like that in a situation like this."

He made a silent vow to make her say it again later when they were alone.

'It's a good thing I bought Serana those headphones.'

Exiting the bathroom, the first thing that Mal noticed was that the mall was not the same as when he had left a minute ago.

For starters, he was now fully immersed within a thick blizzard the likes of which a southern boy like him had never experienced.

Everywhere that he looked, snow had started to pile up on the tile floors and created a true winter wonderland.

"R-Run!"

"T-There's a gate break!"

"Outta my way!"

A large horde of people ran past Mal in a panicked frenzy.

It didn't take him long to realize that everyone he saw was going in the opposite direction of the parking lot, which meant that was where the danger was.

He immediately became worried about Serana and Anna, and his body changed on it's own once again.

Just like in his first dungeon, Malachi wanted the best characteristics of both man and feline.

Only this time, the form he took changed to suit his environment.

His height grew and his body expanded, yet instead of being 7'3 and littered with muscles, he became 7'0 and the muscles on his body compacted to make him look more lithe than normal.

His traditionally sleek and black coat of fur became fuller and warmer, and it turned a silverish color with black spots.

Only when his movie star good looks were replaced with the head of a snow leopard, was his new transformation finally complete.

Mal hadn't noticed these changes yet, and right now he couldn't really care less.

All that mattered was that he find Serana and Anna at any cost.

Dropping onto all fours, Mal's clawed hands and feet gouged out the ground beneath him as he bounded throughout the mall like a mad beast.

It seemed like the mall had become mostly deserted, and the few people still rushing to get out could barely recognize what Mal was before he rushed past them.

It didn't take him long to come across a group of the invaders.

Icy giants that were over eight feet tall whose bodies were packed with sturdy muscle underneath bright blue skin.

They wore nothing but animal pelts and ornaments made out of bone, and each one was currently preoccupied with the unfortunate humans they had caught.

While the men were already being gnawed on as a snack, the women were being knocked out and piled up in the corner for gods know what purpose.

"Ru gra natte!"

The largest giant suddenly sensed something approaching at a very high speed.

Its underlings stopped what they were doing and whirled around to see what their leader was pointing at, only to find… nothing?

Bang!

Just as the giants were looking for the source of their leader's worry, his body hit the ground with a loud thud.

They immediately went to his side to check on him, only to become alarmed when they realized he had no head.

His body simply lay on the ground twitching as his neck spouted dark blue blood like a faucet.

"Yekla!"

The four remaining ice giants all formed a circle and pushed their backs against each other in a protective formation.

Their eyes could only see so far with the blizzard ensuing around them, so even though they were aware that they were being hunted, they weren't sure what exactly was hunting them.

Every now and then, they would see two tiny orange lights flash past them at a blinding speed before

It seemed like they were going to continue this stalemate for forever, until there was finally a change in the battle.

Shinng!

All the ice giants heard was the sound of a sharp object whistling through the air before their legs and shoulders were suddenly pierced by silver knives.

While their bodies were too dense for them to go terribly deep, that didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell.

"Grah!"

"Argh!!"

In the blink of an eye, the formation of the ice giants had been destroyed as they all attended to their own individual injuries.

With a roar, Malachi finally revealed himself as he leapt into the mass of blue bodies.

Reaching out for the nearest giant, he took a large furry fist and punched him in the back of the head so hard that his skull exploded from the impact.

Before the body could even hit the ground, Mal had shifted his focus to the rest of the invaders.

Mal landed on the back of a kneeling ice giant and took it's massive head in between his paws.

With a sickening wet crack, Mal twisted the neck of the giant and snuffed out it's life with minimal effort.

Kicking off it's back, Mal performed a somersault in midair that carried him in front of another giant who was slowly recovering.

Before it could even get back onto it's feet, Mal pierced through it's chest and pulled out an egregiously large dark blue heart.

Aubrey would never believe that this beast that was capable of such carnage was her older brother who used to be freaked out by raw turkeys on thanksgiving.

With one giant left, Malachi watched as it shakily got back to it's feet.

Unlike the others, this one had seen it's kin annihilated at the hands of Malachi.

It knew full well just how monstrous this beast was, and yet it understood that if it could rise to the challenge and slay such a creature, it could easily become a tribe leader.

The ice giant picked up it's weapon, a large club that looked like it was made out of ice and bone. With a harrowing war cry, the beast rushed forward into what was sure to be a legendary battle.

"Guuoooohhh!!"

The giant raised it's club high in the air before bringing it down to smash Malachi's head in.

Bang!

Mal caught the attack with unfair ease and held the giant's hand with an unshakeable grip.

As Malachi opened his mouth wide, the ice giant was able to get a good look at his enormous and sharp teeth before he bit into his arm.

"GRAAHHHHH!!!!"

The ice giant let out a monstrous wail of pain as he struggled in pain to pull away from the still chewing Malachi.

The giant raised it's free hand to deliver a swift punch and hopefully break Mal's grip, but Malachi caught that attack even easier than the first.

"You taste like shit..." Mal muttered as he spit out the remnants of flesh from his mouth.

Other than the strange influx of power he felt from eating this beast's flesh, this was an extremely unpleasant experience.

"Get back."

Before the ice giant knew what happened, Mal had raised his leg and delivered a powerful kick to it's midsection.

Since Malachi was still holding onto his arms so tightly, the ice giant's limbs were ripped free from it's body as the force behind Malachi's kick sent the rest of him flying into the air.

Malachi threw the discarded limbs over his shoulder and immediately continued with his search.

Taking a knee beside the bodies of the women, he quickly analyzed them to see if Serana or Anna was among them.

When he realized that neither were present, his worries increased tenfold.

With the ice giants and the freezing cold temperature inside the mall, he had to get to the girls quicker if he wanted to make sure they were okay.

But first, he used the darkness surrounding him to teleport the unconscious women outside where they would hopefully warm up under the august sun and receive some help.

After they were out of harms way, he recalled all of his knives and slid them into the belt of his tattered pants.

'Wait for me girls, I'm coming as fast as I can.'

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Huge thank you to Scott_Berry_3382 for sending me a massage chair and sponsoring this bonus chapter!