The Russian Frost

Russia was cold. Incredibly cold. Even as I was using hellfire to warm us, Ulric's clones were still being crippled by frostbite. To make matters worse, we were relying on those clones to carry all of our supplies. 

Cain began thinking to himself, "maybe the weather was a good enough excuse to stay behind."

As we stumbled across the plains, shivering, we came across yet another foe. 

A large, Russian man appeared, wearing a massive fur coat, looking nearly as big as his supporter - being an abominable snowman. 

Just when we thought it couldn't get any colder, he saw us and activated his skill, lowering the temperature even more and sending even more snow in our direction. 

I felt like every bit of me was frozen solid. Even the fire moving around my body seemed to be frozen. There was not a single point on my body that had any feeling left in it. 

The same likely applied to Cain and Ulric, who'd even given up shivering they were so cold. 

Unable to move by normal means, Ulric activated summersault cloud, instantly crashing into the Russian. While it surely hurt the man, it clearly hurt Ulric more. His frostbitten limbs were on the verge of falling off. 

Realizing this, he quickly activated his skill, propelling himself into my hellfire to warm himself up. Normally, he'd be burnt to a crisp standing in it, but now, it was just enough to get him shivering again. 

Now that fighting on his own was out of the question, he sent his level 4 clones to attack the man. 

They used the same strategy as him, using summersault cloud to pounce on him, and then retreating. Putting all his energy into moving, Cain barely managed to shoot a round at the man. 

Eventually, the abominable snowman was defeated, but we still needed an hour or two to warm up before setting off again (and that was after stealing his coat).

 When we did so, we found something strange. 

On the cold, empty, lifeless land, we spotted a lion, running past. Of course, there was no reason for a lion to be in Russia, and, even if it was there, it shouldn't've survived. 

Surprised, confused and deluded, we followed it, praying that it would take us somewhere warm. 

In pursuit of this lion, we wandered miles from our starting point, too cold and lazy to keep track of our position, and got lost. Completely and utterly lost. 

Our only solution was to keep going. 

It definitely saw us. Maybe I was just delirious - okay, I definitely was delirious - but I could swear I saw it turn around just to say, "Screw you."

We kept going, relentlessly following this vague hope. It didn't matter how far it went, we kept going. 

I'll never know how long we wasted following that lion, but I do know that, eventually - and I do mean eventually - we reached a city. 

Abandoned, as I'm sure most were, but it was still an appreciated view. 

The lion wandered into a nearby building, and we dragged our frozen corpses behind it. 

Little did we know, we weren't the only ones following the lion, and some people held more malicious intentions towards it that we. 

The moment we settled down, someone came in.

Well over ten foot, covered in scars and bandages, he was an absolute giant - literally, his supporter was a frost giant. 

I hoped he would just ignore us, we were in no condition to fight, and we hadn't done anything to him. Obviously, nothing ever went my way. 

He smashed his fist into one of Ulric's clones, shattering it like glass. We tried to muster enough strength to fight it, but none of us could've survived an impact like that. luckily, we didn't have to. 

The lion stood up and changed shape. It was no longer a lion, but a man. A fully grown man, slightly overweight, in an ill fitting t-shirt and a fedora. Behind him, he too had a supporter. 

He had a handsome, deceitful face, with snake like eyes hiding some sort of plot, and a barbed tongue, repeatedly flicking from his mouth. 

Loki hissed at the frost giant, and his vessel took action. 

With a flick of the wrist, flames appeared all over the intruder's body. The frustrated giant's vessel ignored the fire and launched a punch at him, only to hit the wall behind, after watching his hand pass through the illusion. 

The wall crumbed, letting the cold in, nearly sending us all unconscious. Flames burst up behind the giant, burning it. 

I watched, feeling useless, and therefore tried to contribute with my hellfire. It would be nice to say that I helped, but really, my flames were so cold that they were closer to ice. I did wonder how Loki's flames weren't as cool, but was too busy chattering my teeth to ask. 

Cain also 'contributed', firing a few shells at it. Quicker than expected, the giant was dealt with. As Loki's vessel's real body emerged, Ulric introduced himself, "Hello, dear fellow, I'm Ulric Wycliffe, what would your name be?"

At first, I didn't think he'd reply, after all, not many Russians speak English. Fortunately for Ulric, this one did, "Vladimir."

"And what would your surname be?", Ulric continued his dignified gentleman charade, even though he'd been crying out for salvation just a moment ago. 

"Belarussiya", Ulric was convinced that Vladimir was lying, but didn't want to offend him, and definitely didn't want to accuse him of lying if that was really his name. Especially, as he wanted to recruit him. 

"We're going on a journey. A journey to the east, and I'd like you, young sir, to join us. What do you say?", Ulric invited Vladimir, even stretching out his half-dead hand, in his state, he was even grateful for the very enthusiastic response of "Meh."

While he was indifferent, Loki wasn't. "We'll join you. On one condition, I can see your skills first."

We agreed and showed him our skills, as we did so, he chuckled nefariously, before getting Vladimir to show us his. 

[Vladimir's skills (4)]

[Illusion Lv 2]

[Can create short illusions (2 minutes)]

[Shapeshift Lv 2]

[Can shapeshift into certain animals]

[Cryokinesis Lv 2]

[Can control ice and coldness]

[Pyrokinesis Lv 1]

[Can control and create fire]

With Cryokinesis, we'd be in a far better position crossing Russia. Besides, four people would always be better than three. I didn't quite know what Loki was plotting, but I could only hope that he'd be using us, and not killing us. 

And so, Vladimir joined our group on our journey to the east.

...

When it began, Vladimir had a different experience to most. Many people blindly followed their supporters, but Vladimir didn't. 

This would've been impressive for anyone, but, when his supporter was Loki - the trickster God, great at persuading people to do his bidding - it was even more so. 

Vladimir was so stubborn that no one could ever get him to follow an order. Occasionally, on a whim, he'd do something someone else wanted, but that happened so infrequently and unpredictably that no one could rely on it. 

When Loki told him to look for victims, he refused. When Loki told him to track down Heimdallr , he refused. Not because of morals or fear or anything like that, but simply because he didn't see a good enough reason to. 

Then, when Loki threatened him and told him to kill himself, he refused to - and survived just out of spite. 

With illusions and shapeshifting, he hardly had to worry about fighting and could just escape from anyone who threatened him. He robbed shops for supplies and managed to stick around the scarcely populated regions of Russia. 

...

Once he'd joined our group, our trip through Russia became far more comfortable, with the cold kept away and the fighting burden being spread among more people. 

As things got calmer, I got a chance to ask Yama about the message floating in front of my head.

[Dependent inheritance will take place in 0h, 2m, 13s]

"Well", he explained, "dependents are characters from our myths that serve no role other than pets or transport. You'll be inheriting Paundraka, Shyama and Sharvana."

"Who were they again?", I ignorantly asked. Rather than answering, he waited for the timer to run out. 

[You have inherited your supporter's dependents]

[Paundraka has been summoned]

[Sharvana has been summoned]

[Shyama has been summoned]

From nowhere, three animals appeared. First was a massive, black water buffalo. Next, were two identical hounds, both with reddish-brown fur and four eyes. 

I looked over to see that Cain had inherited a horse from the dullahan. A beautiful, black horse. I couldn't help but be a little jealous. Then again, Paundraka, my buffalo, had its advantages. 

Between the mounts and vladimir, our journey was getting easier - at least, it seemed that way.