The ice dragon snapped open its eyes and glared at the two little girls in front of its nose who were trying to crawl in its face, causing them to shrank back into the corner with a scream.

These imps have been getting more and more brazen lately, and even the screams are more like excitement than real fear. It felt like they were making it a game to successfully climb on it. But it's not fun at all!

The ice dragon shook its head in annoyance and crawled to its feet. It woke up when they had already touched it, and a dragon shouldn't have lost its vigilance like that, even in its own lair, and who knows when the idle and bored adventurers would suddenly touch it? like its mother......

――It's better not to think about her.

The ice dragon stretched its aching wings. It slept too deeply, but it was a little tired. After flying back from the Kastan Forest, it circled around the ice field almost every day, trying to find traces of necromancers and undead...... It reminded it of months ago when it ran around in a rage after the bald mage.

Today's ice fields are much more inhospitable than they were then.

It's not just because of the change of seasons. The barbarian camps were also much smaller than before, and they often flew for most of the day without seeing a single figure.

The Ice Dragon, who had been hunting only in the vicinity since he had captured the "fattened and fed" creatures in the cave, did not expect the situation to become so serious...... It had no interest in interfering in the conflict between the necromancer and the barbarian, but the situation was still very unpleasant to it.

Even barbarians are much better alive than the undead. It didn't want to see dead people waddling across the ice field one day, and it didn't want Ed and Narya to crash into a horde of undead and end up dead, or worse......

It's already dark, it's the time for the undead, and it hopes to get some out of it today. It didn't know if the necromancers were deliberately avoiding it or whatever, but there was no trace of them for the past few days, but the barbarians had a lot of movement.

The originally scattered barbarians were gradually gathering together to form several large camps, and if they were going to fight the undead instead of fighting each other, they were not completely out of the question, at least for now, they should still be much more numerous than the undead.

The ice dragon walked out of the cave, but was hesitantly stopped by the thin woman.

"That...... If you go out to find something to eat, can you bring some vegetables back? Turnips will do the same...... Kids can't just eat meat......"

The ice dragon blinked and stared at her almost blankly—what the hell was she? Did she think it would come back with the eczema medicine for the dead imp?

Probably understanding its vicious gaze, the woman shuddered.

"Actually...... Don't also ...... Okay......"

She fled quickly.

The ice dragon snorted and walked out with heavy steps.

The cold night breeze made the ice dragon feel very comfortable. It spreads its wings and glides downwind. The stars and moon were hidden behind the heavy clouds, but the silvery white earth still glowed faintly in the night, and even a snow rabbit flying on the snow could not escape the eyes of the ice dragon.

It flew eastward. Necromancers began their activities on the eastern seaboard, which is now almost deserted. Last night it found a larger camp set up in the southeast near the Central Plains, and on the banner fluttering in the camp was a huge white wolf on the run.

It was the banner of the Winter Wolf Tribe.

It wandered a little, wondering if it could grab vegetables or something...... Then suddenly realized that he was pathetic. Dragons are always looking for treasures, gems, coins, or beautiful and noble girls...... It was a habit that had only begun thousands of years ago, but at least it lived up to the dragon's name—if not a good one, but was still revered.

What's the deal with running to grab vegetables!

It let out a growl of chagrin at itself.

As it approached the camp, it saw a huge campfire.

Winter firewood is hard to come by, and there is only one reason for the barbarians to light such a large bonfire.

They prepare to hold sacrifices and summon the spirits of their ancestors.

The ice dragon vaguely felt that now was not the right time to hold such a ceremony. Although the form and purpose are different, summoning spirits is also a specialty of necromancers...... The souls of the barbarians have a unique power, intimately connected to their people, to the land. It's not been a year or two since necromancers wandered the ice fields. Hundreds of years ago, necromancers who had been chased by people had no way to escape, but they had never been able to control the souls of barbarians, let alone turn them into undead.

And now......

As he flew closer, the ice dragon heard a chant accompanied by the sound of drums. Thousands of years ago, its ancestors listened to the same song on this ice field, and thousands of years later, the ancient melody has not changed in the slightest.

For a moment, the ice dragon fell into a memory that didn't belong to it. In the distant past, savages with weapons in high arms roared and rushed together, the blood of brothers of the same ancestor was sprinkled on the snow, the sudden blizzard was like the wrath of the gods, and in the confusion, in the huge city, the black towers pierced the sky, the only city of the giants, but it was never finished, and the herds of reindeer ran through the endless sea of flowers, and the melted snow flowed through the vast plains, shining like silver ribbons in the sun......

Its ancestors inhabited here, fought here, and died here...... Now, only it remains, looking at its own shadow on the snow, not knowing how to spend this long life.

It flew a little lower imperceptibly, but no one on the ground noticed it. Everyone fell to the ground and chanted softly, perhaps like it at the moment, sharing those long-ago memories through the connection between souls.

Hopefully, their ancestors would tell them how to survive the crisis they faced.

The ice dragon looked at the huge fire and realized that something was wrong—the flames were still yellow. Its memories don't fool it, and if the ritual performed by the shaman is successful, the flame should turn blue.

There is something at the edge of the field of view that attracts its attention. It climbed upwards and looked at the group of figures running towards the camp.

Barbarian...... However, as the little boy in the forest of Kasdan described, they ran in strange postures, hunched over, leaning forward, swinging their arms unusually small, and looking more like snow apes than people.

Undead.

The people in the camp were equally unaware of their arrival. There is an unwritten rule among the barbarians, even if two tribes are at war, if one of them needs to perform a sacrifice to summon an ancestor, the other will never take the opportunity to attack. And any beast would be careful to stay away from that large pile of fire.

Barbarians are actually the most vulnerable at this time, and they will not have any defenses at all. And the necromancers are clearly aware of this.

The ice dragons did not find any human figures among the undead, and the people who controlled them must have been hidden in the distance.

It hesitated for a moment.

It could have waited for the undead to attack and returned to the place where they had hidden during the day, quietly following them high in the sky to find their master......

A huge roar exploded in mid-air like thunder, and the ice dragon sprinted downward, the wind from its wings raising a cloud of snow mist. The barbarians, lying on the ground, could no longer wait peacefully for the return of the spirits of their ancestors, they jumped up with a scream, and fled in all directions in a panic,

From west to east, the ice dragon flew low above everyone's heads, and the breath condensed into small snowflakes that fell on people's heads.

The men quickly picked up their weapons and roared after the ice dragon. The spear was hurled at the back of the ice dragon, and although it did not penetrate the scales, it caused a sharp pain.

The ice dragon roared angrily and burst into the sky again.

Its roar caused many barbarians to involuntarily drop their weapons and clutch their heads and scream. By the time they broke free from their fear, the ice dragon had flown beyond the reach of their weapons...... But in front of them is another, more formidable enemy.

The ice dragon hovered in midair, looking down at the bloody battle.

The barbarians were indeed more numerous, but they were caught off guard. Even if it alerted them to the arrival of the enemy, it was still too hasty. And those who have the same face as them, but no longer have the breath of the living...... There may be relatives or friends among them.

That would be a huge shock even for the barbarians. They quickly collapsed, and a large number of them lost the courage to fight and fled in all directions.

The Ice Dragon doesn't intend to help any side anymore, it's the barbarians' own battles, and they always have to fight for their own survival. And the faint pain in its back is also reminding it that nosy things are not going to end well.

In the eyes of the barbarians, it may be a more terrible monster than the undead.

The necromancer will probably be disappointed by this harvest as well. Too many people fled, and not many actually died in the fighting.

The Ice Dragon noticed that a young barbarian was organizing a more effective resistance, holding back the enemy and allowing more people to escape. They fought and retreated, little by little to the south.

But the undead also began to gather and besiege the group of those who had not yet fled.

The ice dragon spun silently around their heads a few times, then rushed down again, falling heavily among the undead, no matter how much it overwhelmed, and roared at the barbarians on the other side.

They fled.

The ice dragon flicked its tail in satisfaction and swept away a few undead.

The undead don't run as fast as the living, and as long as the barbarians are willing to flee, they can always save their lives.

The surrounding undead didn't attack it, and it was probably not in the orders they were given. They didn't even chase after those who had fled.

Instead, they stopped almost simultaneously and began to run in different directions almost at the same time.

The ice dragon was stunned for a moment, then roared in exasperation.

It had wanted to follow the undead to their hiding place, but now, it didn't know who to follow!

The necromancer hiding in the shadows apparently guessed its intentions...... But where is he? He must be able to see all this in order to judge the situation and give new orders, but it does not find him at all.

- Is it possible for a barbarian to become a necromancer?

The ice dragon roared in frustration and flew high into the air.

It always finds something!