We lingered in my mindscape for another two days in realm time. I watched each split as they focused on their assigned tasks.

  The defender split, now named Fender, was hard at work creating the perfect monster of the depths. He'd mix body parts, morph features into weapons, and then add as many skills as possible to the beasts.

  Fender's latest creations, lurks, were tiny terrors with blades for hands that could wisp in and out of existence. They hardly had a presence and blended in with the ocean perfectly. It was almost like the ocean was attacking the intruders.

  Tack, the attacker split, honed into his assignment of improving our sword skills. While he wasn't able to beat Purity outright, he wasn't exactly getting whipped either. Tack cut through much of the skill gap, by creating several instances of the dual at once and learning from them. In a sense, he turned one fight into hundreds. Oddly enough, I could sense the tiniest experience gains with each fight.

  Similarly, but more noticeable than Tack's efforts, Cult's cultivation efforts were already improving the mana flow through my channels. The constant focus on perfecting the skill allowed Cult to make great strides. And Cult was focused. Unlike Tack, who split his mental processing power in several ways to gain experience, Cult dedicated every spectrum of his focus on improving my channels.

  I left my mindscape to find the Bloodwoods dripping in water. A storm caused by an imbalance of mana had drenched the ground and trees, leaving a damp atmosphere that felt more like water than air. The wetness didn't bother me; rather, it was an abundant source of cyan energy that would help Cult in his efforts.

  With a wave of my hand, I created the basic form of a large falcon, solidifying the summon with a push of mana and will. Water molded to my will froze solid and came to life. Cal opened his dark eyes, twisting his head and stretching his wings.

  "Aw," Cal said, exaggerating his stretch further. "There is nothing quite like the physical realm after a long break playing god in one's head." The bird landed on my shoulder where he was content to perch.

  "You didn't think I was going to leave?"

  "The thought might have crossed my mind. However, I did not doubt that you would escape your domain. I just did not know how long you were planning to spend there. I will admit I was bunkering down for the long haul.

  "There's too much to be done."

  "That is what you said in your realm as well; then you find a way to speed up the process in your mindscape."

  "It's different." I reached for the bird's neck and gave it soft scratches using the side of my index finger. Despite the bird being made of ice initially, the runes and willpower invested in the configuration made the bird practically life-like, and as my finger scratched the soft feather, I couldn't tell it was a creation of ice. Cal tucking his head into the scratches only furthered the illusion. "Besides, only two or three days have passed."

  I continued to scratch Cal's tufts as I got acquainted with the forest. It didn't take long. I knew this forest well from the thousands of simulations we ran from this spot. Despite being damp, everything was as it should be.

  I took the first heavy step out of the mud and poured water on my boots to clean them. Once they were clean, I froze the ground beneath my feet to prevent further sinking.

  Rain dripped off my hair and down my face. Another push of mana and I pulled all the water off of me. A small bubble formed around us, keeping the rain away. Cal voiced his discomfort, prodding me to pull the water from him as well. I did as he prompted, receiving a thank you masked as a screech in return.

  "So, how do we find Tom?" Cal asked.

  "Besides destroying the forest? I don't know. Tom can wait, though. We've got a wolfbear problem."

  Several miles north of where I stood, there was a clearing in the forest where several corpses lay. Among them were my friends' frozen bodies. Most of the dead had already been consumed by the scavenging beasts, leaving only my frozen corpse to be devoured. The greedy beasts waited for the ice to melt, hoping for a fresh feast.

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  Had this been earlier in the loops, the beasts and rain would've broken through my frozen barrier and do what beasts do to things they want to eat.

  Times were different. The ice shrouding my corpse, or as we now called him, Icy was thicker and colder than the ice that protected me before. Even fire would struggle to melt the barrier around Icy.

  We set our path due north. Cal took to the air, and I set my water anchor into trees ahead and launched across the ground. The two of us covered the distance with practiced skill and familiarity. We didn't bother with our fastest technique but still moved fast.

  A few minutes later, we reached the clearing. As expected, the wolfbears were gathered around Icy. Several bears had altered as their cores increased in size from consuming the flesh of mages. I sensed nearly three dozen beasts, a dozen of which were at the greater rank. They were bigger, jaws larger, and rippling with muscles. Hunger emanated from their core.

  I walked across the clearing unarmed. Snowpiercier was in my ring, ready to be summoned if needed, and I could always summon a sword of ice. I was confident I wouldn't need either of them. As I neared, the bears took more notice of me. They took a heavy interest at a hundred and were sizing me up for a kill. Whether it was my confidence or ranking that drove the beast to caution, I was unsure. It didn't matter.

  As the wolfbears surrounded me, I kept walking towards Icy. From what I could see, my frozen corpse wasn't under any threat of thawing out. I actually couldn't perceive any melted ice from the block. It was as if the black ice was a self-contained freezer. The bears upped their aggression with each step as I got closer. They swallowed their reservation, closed the circle around me, and started yapping their bravado. It was the same high-pitched laughing cry I'd heard dozens of times.

  Despite the frantic nature of the beasts, I remained calm. Cyan energy pumped through my channels, adding to my calmness and boosting me with power. In a way, the serene nature of water was bleeding out of the channels and seeping into my being. Power flowed through me, and I was one with it. With a push of my willpower, I connected to the water all around me. Between the storm and damp air, it felt like I reached into an ocean of power.

  The connection to the external water mana was made with little show. For all the angry bears could tell, was that a confident meal was foolishly walking toward his dinner plate… The expression was lost. It didn't matter. None of these wolfbears mattered; if they pressed the issue, they'd find out why. Unfortunately for them, it was only a matter of time. They were a boiling kettle about to reach the... boiling point?

  Selene's moldy mouth. Another terrible expression... What was getting into me?

  Cal flew high over my head, inspecting the fight, so it wasn't him. A quick inward look showed that all my splits were still focused on their tasks. Perhaps it was just another off-loop? I hadn't had one of those in a while, and it was about due. This one had started out so productive, though.

  The distraction dug into my calmness, pushing out thoughts of danger. I didn't panic, but I was more alert. I watched the bears and the clearing with a sharper eye, trying to find what I might be missing.

  The wolfbears sensed my unease and took it as their sign to attack, smelling my weakness like a wounded pig, bleeding out.

  A pack of five attacked first. These were normal-ranked beasts that hadn't splurged on the dead.

  The leader of the advanced pack stepped into my domain and let out a yelp. It tried to retreat, causing a collision with the hunter behind it. The collision pushed the leader further into my domain, where it froze. The wolfbear pushing the leader skidded to a stop before it was too late, though it suffered a bite of frost.

  The rest of the pack took it to heart that their leader had been dealt with so quickly and rushed into my domain. All three froze. Skids, the only remaining wolfbear from the initial attack party, growled and attacked the domain that had claimed the lives of its mates. Anger and hatred filled its howls. The wild cries enraged the rest of the wolfbears, creating a new frenzy of violence.

  All at once, the remaining two dozen wolfbears charged, forgetting that the bears that attacked before died before they could get within twenty yards of me.

  The beasts tried all manner of cunning, attacking from my back and side while showing brute force and aggression in front of me. It didn't matter. As they entered my domain, they froze.

  The stronger beasts, most likely the ones that feasted the most on the dead, could make it further into my domain. One particularly angry wolfbear, which looked much more bearish than it did wolf, tried throwing its frozen pack members at me as it sauntered forward on its hind feet. The bipedal wolf tosser made it ten yards closer than any others. Each ice chunk thrown my way was caught in the air and thrown back.

  I wasn't a weak, bleeding pig. I was a water templar, and the wolfbears were in my domain.

  As I reached Icy, the battle was nearly over. Most of the wolfbears were frozen, while a few retreated. I was surprised to see that Skids was one of the retreating survivors. I thought the careful beast got lost in the frenzy it started. Maybe its anger was directed at the rest of the wolfbears for pushing its pack against me, and it found no merit in wasting its life in a pointless fight. Smart bear.

  With the wolfbears out of the way, I retrieved Lana's ring, Light's Edge, and Icy and left the battlefield.