The napalm was the item responsible for making the fire cling to everything, while the thermite made everything burn several times hotter than normal. It could even be used to weld metal if you knew what you were doing.

  In this case, Nate wasn’t using it for anything of the sort. All he wanted it for was the extreme heat it could produce. The thick layer of ice began to run, creating rivulets and streams down the side of the igloo as it attempted to carry the fire away. Some of the napalm was washed to the floor, creating a ring of burning fire, while the pieces that contained the thermite had already burned deeper and refused to be washed away.

  The magma spear continued to grow above Aura’s tail while Angie began to lazily spin her sling. It wasn’t time to use it, not yet, but she wanted to be ready.

  The yeti woke with a roar, its angry yell sending cracks throughout the walls of the weakened igloo. A piece suddenly fell without warning, exposing a portion of the inside, and Aura launched her attack. It didn’t need to be a direct hit, though obviously, that would be ideal. Since the magma spear was a mix of fire and volcanic rock, it did considerable splash damage, among other things.

  Being burned by molten rock and glass that then became brittle enough to shatter and cut your insides if you didn’t remove it in time just sounded like an overall unpleasant experience to the entire group.

  The large glowing spear shot through the hole that had formed and clipped the beast’s side, sending it spinning. It screamed in agony and crashed against the far wall of the igloo, destroying the entire weakened structure and sending it tumbling down in fiery blocks.

  The behemoth was injured, but it wasn’t dead, it was pissed off.

  Chunks of ice were thrown aside as the furry hulk stood, its chest huffing and puffing from the exertion. It was barely putting any weight on the side that had been directly hit. Before hauling itself out from underneath the remains of the igloo, it had covered its damaged side in a layer of ice.

  They could still see that much of it had been burned black, but the full extent of the damage was hidden from view by the ice itself.

  It glared at them and roared in angry defiance.

  Angie, having seen that her chance was coming, had already spun up her sling. So, she was ready when the opportunity presented itself and launched her ball-bearing directly into its mouth, shattering the upper jawbone.

  It choked and coughed, stumbling backward at the unexpected pain.

  Lindsay charged forward, her halberd cleaving overhead to dig into its shoulder. The attack drew blood, but the mix of its thick hide and coat kept the heavy axe head from digging in further.

  She clicked her tongue and ripped the weapon free before it could grab hold of it. “I should have used the spike!” She growled angrily.

  Halberds, depending on their configuration, would have an axe-blade on one side and a spike on the other. Some, like hers, would also have a second spike sticking out the top that could be used for stabbing. In this case, the spike would have had better penetration ability than the axe-blade.

  Aura used a basic ability of her fourth tail and tripped the big guy using wind.

  Over the next several minutes, they worked to whittle down the yeti bit by bit. It had a strong defense, but once it was off balance and had suffered enough damage, it was left to their mercy. Unfortunately, their own ability to finish it off was not particularly strong, and it ended up suffering more than needed as they tried to kill it.

  If they hadn’t started the fight in the way they had, with the yeti being caught unawares, the fight would have been much tougher. As it was, by the time it finally vanished into the floor of the dungeon, all four of them were huffing and puffing from exhaustion.

  “That… was… harder… than… expected…” Lindsay huffed out, her salty sweat freezing to her skin, leaving thin icicle trails. As the group’s frontline fighter, she had been by far the most active among them.

  Each of them nodded wearily.

  The yeti hadn’t been able to attack them too often, though the few attacks it had gotten off had been strong. The real problem was just how dense its fur had been. The big beast had been a mobile tank, just soaking up the damage.

  Unfortunately, that characteristic had only made its suffering worse in the end.

  Still, they had gotten what they needed, as a large rainbow core appeared on the floor of the dungeon. More than that, the fight had given them the opportunity to further refine their party's tactics. They had been fighting as a party for a while now, but never against anything as strong as this.

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  “Go on, Aura, take the orb. We’ll keep watch over you.” Nate told the kitsune as he nudged her in the side. “I chose this dungeon for a reason; let’s see if it was worth it.”

  The main reason had obviously been for the stronger rainbow core. However, there was also more qi inside the dungeon than in other areas.

  That would ensure that the process proceeded without any problem. The qi inside the rainbow orb should be more than enough, but having more qi in the environment was never a bad thing.

  Tiredly, Aura slithered along the ground, too exhausted to properly stand up and walk over to the orb.

  Seeing her actions, Nate snorted and flicked the tail closest to him. “You’re such a weirdo, Aura.”

  Her tails flipped about and tickled his nose.

  Stretching out her tongue, she tapped the orb and slowly rolled it into her mouth. The kitsune momentarily stiffened and then curled in on herself as she began absorbing the energy and cultivating.

  They could sense the ambient qi moving through the freezing room as she began absorbing everything possible. The three humans huddled together for warmth, while they watched and waited, keeping one eye on the dungeon cameras and the other on Aura.

  The other yetis in the dungeon were mostly sleeping, though a few were moving around. The closest was several rooms away and in the middle of forming hard-packed snowballs.

  Judging by the activity they had accidentally glimpsed inside a few of the igloos, it was likely that this particular yeti was looking to get his revenge for losing his girlfriend. At least he wouldn’t be coming after them.

  Regardless, they maintained watch over the next several hours. Even as Aura curled up tighter on herself as the fifth tail gradually began to form. It was initially colorless, but as the minutes passed, it took on a mottled brown color.

  Lindsay leaned across Nate and whispered conspiratorially to Angie and him. “Her first tail is a pale watery color. The second is greenish blue. While the third is a deep red mixed with streaks of black. The fourth is a beautiful deep blue of an evening sky, and now the fifth tail is dirt brown…” She sighed. “Poor Aura, her tails clash horribly with each other.”

  Nate snorted and rolled his eyes. “Sure, because that’s what she’s actually worried about.”

  Angie flicked his ear with her gloved hand. “Every girl wants to look pretty, and clashing colors aren’t pretty. Err, well, they aren’t to us at least. Who can say when it comes to the standards of kitsunes? Maybe to them, a rainbow-colored tail is the epitome of beauty.” She finished thoughtfully.

  Her tail continued to grow for another minute until it matched the others.

  Once the process was finished, Aura groaned as the muscles throughout her body rippled and contracted. With the creation of this new tail, she was entering the third stage, ‘Domain Body’. As such, it was now finishing what most experienced during their first realm upgrade. The first time, the changes were relatively minor. It brought a few enhancements to the body, maybe cleaned out some toxins.

  What she was experiencing now was the next level of body restructuring. Her muscles compacted, and grew denser, increasing in strength, even as each of her bones fractured and reformed dozens of times over. She whimpered in pain, having no choice but to maintain focus and push through. If she lost control now, then the qi restructuring her body would run rampant and destroy her.

  There was a small chance that she might survive since they were inside the dungeon. However, it not only wasn’t something she wanted to test. It was a bad idea overall to depend on it while upgrading her core, let alone going through a stage upgrade.

  Several minutes later, the poor kitsune looked as though she was on the verge of starvation. Much of her mass had been compressed, leading to her current image.

  Aura spent a few seconds coughing up mouthfuls of dark, foul-smelling blood, before letting her head collapse weakly back onto the icy floor. “Just one more step now. At least it will be short.” She told them, a weak chuckle sounding in each of their minds.

  Her hair and fur, which had lost much of its luster over the last few minutes, started to fall out in patches as a new, more luxurious, and silky hair took its place.

  When it was all done and finished, Aura was stronger than before, had a new tail, and her coat was even softer. Lindsay’s hand was already reaching for her despite her efforts to hold it back.

  “I’ll head back first; I need to eat some food,” Aura told them, giving Nate a discreet wink after glancing at Lindsay’s gloved hand. If the girl wanted to pet her, then it needed to be without a glove; that would be far too rough on her new silky-smooth hair.

  Nate rolled his eyes and waited for the girls to use him as a portal to leave the dungeon before exiting his avatar. If he hadn’t waited, then they would have needed to use the portal itself.

  ***

  In the morning, they were all woken up early by the noise Mika was making. The little weasel was hopping all about Aura inspecting her and rubbing against her tails and silky-smooth hair. Mika was chattering noisily, talking in only the language that she and Aura understood.

  Lindsay grabbed a pillow from beside her head and tossed it weakly at them. “Mika,” She cried out in exasperation. “Quiet, it’s too early for this kind of noise.”

  The weasel spun around and chattered at her angrily, before spinning back and running up onto Aura’s back and sitting on her head.

  “Ugh, Aura, can you tell her to shut up? Or better yet, just help her to form her core already and then teach her to speak telepathically.” Angie said, covering her face with a pillow.

  “Beep, you have reached a recording, Aura is currently -Unavailable- Please leave a message and she will return it at a more reasonable hour.”

  Nate snorted at the kitsunes’ common answering machine message that she sent into their minds. He snapped his fingers. “Mika, come here.”

  The weasel continued to chatter but did as she was asked. As soon as she was close enough to him, Nate rolled her into a blanket burrito and tapped her on the nose, prompting her to lick his finger before he could withdraw it.

  “Now, hush. We still need some more sleep. There will be plenty of time to get excited about Aura’s changes later.” He yawned and pulled the burrito closer. “Why don’t you get some more sleep as well? You were up, guarding us, while we were inside the dungeon. I’m sure you must be tired, too.”

  Mika grumbled softly, and wiggled around, getting comfortable, before closing her eyes, and doing exactly as he had suggested. A minute later, the sound of soft, even breathing filled the room as everyone drifted off back to sleep.

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