"Don't bother," Angelica from the side guessed what William was trying to do, "according to the rumours spread about this area, no one can tell which ice would break next moment and which wouldn't."
"Then…"
"We have to pray to be lucky," she paused, "and if… If cracks appear, we have to move fast, getting away from the deadly hole that will follow."
William didn't like placing his life in the hands of luck, "then how can we look for this exit? Don't tell me we have to be lucky to find it!"
"Well… The area with the densest redness, the place with most of these Nachies is where the exit lies."
"..." William looked again towards the area where these monkeys died, "do you know how we can kill any of these Nachies?"
"You are the miracle making person," she bitterly smiled, "if you managed to kill one, then you'll be the first to ever do such a thing."
William didn't dream about doing something like this. If these Nachies were on the surface, then he'd try his luck with them. But fighting underwater? He'd not grow insane and aim to do something like this.
The first hour they started to walk slowly and with utmost care. They feared they'd break the ice with their weight, yet nothing happened.
William then changed into his spirit form, giving Angelica a scare. He knew if anything went south, then he'd get forced to change into his heavy body shape. And so, he wanted to see if doing this would break the ice or what.
But nothing happened, except for Angelica to run fast away from him. Yet when she did that, William noticed fine cracks spreading at the ice under her feet.
"Watch out!" he instantly dashed forward, grabbed her by one tail and dragged her away from the area of danger. It was just fine cracks, not spreading over a large area or anything. And yet a hole appeared in the span of a few seconds, and the terrifying turbulent water appeared again.
"Phew! That was close!" she laid herself on the ground, soaked entirely with cold sweat, "how come the ice broke under my feet and not under you?"
"That's indeed a bit weird," William paused, while watching the hole getting closed again by ice. Going by logic, his body was the heavier one and so cracks should appear where he was, not at where Angelica was.
Yet when he was thinking about this weird happening, another hole appeared, then another, and another. He looked in weirdness before something strange appeared in his mind.
"Let's walk away slowly," he grabbed her using one tail, "don't try to run, just walk normally."
"This…"
"Just do it!" his shout told her that something was wrong, and it was indeed. The holes that appeared hundreds of metres away from them weren't random, they appeared and formed a long line from the place where they moved from.
William knew if he waited long enough, then the area he crossed would get filled with holes, including the spot they were lying on right now. Angelica didn't get this, and kept walking like he told her, slowly, heading away for tens of metres from the area they were in.
"This…" after a few minutes, the series of holes reached the area they were at before. There were no cracks appearing at all, and holes just opened up without any warning. "What's going on here?!!"
She didn't have the spirit sense to see the far away holes, but she noticed the lack of cracks for the nearby holes. Yet she didn't notice anything else, not like how William saw how this all happened.
"So, it's not related to weight, but to the number of creatures walking on top of the ice…" William muttered to himself, while realising that he cracked the mechanism behind this.
"If so…" as he learnt the secret behind the appearance of the deadly holes, he grew more courageous and daring, wanting to test something else.
Without even hesitating, he took out a few grenades and threw them towards the series of holes that were tens of metres away from him.
He wanted to see if he could kill or wound these Nachies, wanted to see the true nature of these creatures.
"Walk away slowly," as he threw the grenades towards the holes, he said, "don't run!"
"We can try…"
"Don't run, ok?" William stressed again, and she got the message without realising the point behind doing so.
As they started to walk away, the grenades exploded once they touched the water surface. William was watching everything using his spirit sense, and he noticed the water surface didn't let the grenades fall inside like he expected.
He felt like the surface of the water wasn't made out of fluid but from a solid substance. The moment the explosion happened, pillars of fire erupted and expanded, engulfing the water zones that appeared from the holes, in addition to other areas covered with ice.
"Is that…"
"Just keep walking," William was totally focused on watching what was going to happen and didn't want to disturb himself by explaining things to Angelica right now.
He felt like he was going to see something unbelievable, and that was indeed the case.
The grenades exploded and released thick pillars of fire. William thought that ice would melt down, and most of the pillar's devastational effect would be lost in the water. Yet none of this happened.
The ice didn't melt, instead it showed many cracks. What was weird though was that these cracks seemed to appear from deep, not from the surface touching the fire.
"What's going on?" he muttered, and before he'd even continue his words, a terrifying rumble echoed from the direction of his grenades. Angelica stopped and looked at the direction of the pillars of fire, watching the scary rise of the water surface, cracking more ice around, showing something that didn't resemble any water at all.
"This isn't water… It's a monster!" William got what was going on the moment water rose high in the air, taking a stable form, acting against what water should be.
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