"Huff…"Gritting my teeth, I deflected another of my opponent"s strikes, his icy blade grazing my cheek and drawing a thin line of frozen blood.
I could hardly feel the pain. My senses had almost gone completely numb from the cold. I was only reacting on instinct now, fending off the ice mage"s sword as desperately as possible with my Gemini twin swords. Even the black and white blades were becoming increasingly encrusted in s.h.i.+mmering frost, which shattered every time they collided with Jie Bing"s frost sword.
"Hu…"
My next exhalation was expelled in the form of a thick, dense white mist in front of my face. As I almost failed to parry Jie Bing"s next attack, his blade coming millimeters within my nose and gla.s.ses before my Gemini twin swords stopped them cold, I realized how sluggish my movements had become, how slow I was to respond.
Jie Bing"s chilling frost energy had finally taken effect.
My opponent seemed to have noticed it as well, for he was taking advantage of my dull movements to launch his next round of attacks. Circling me, he timed his strikes perfectly and thrust his ice sword from my blind angle. This time, it wasn"t his usual slashes, but a lethal killing blow toward my neck!
At the same time, Jie Bing"s sword glowed brightly as azure magical energy enveloped it, its user infusing it with his soul power. Its firepower increased by over a hundred times, this time if I got grazed by it, it wouldn"t just end with a single shallow scratch!
I realized once again how terrifying of a genius Jie Bing was. No wonder he made it to the top fifty. At this rate, he would break into the top ten within the next six…no, three months!
That was just speculation on my part and it was irrelevant to me at this point, so I focused on defending. Bringing both my swords up, I crossed them and parried Jie Bing"s lethal strike, just barely, stopping the point from reaching my throat. Slightly s.h.i.+fting my body so that I could put more of my weight behind my defense, I desperately made to shove Jie Bing off.
The ice mage"s eyes narrowed, his eyebrow raising in astonishment at my successful defense, but he had still somehow prepared for this eventuality. His already bright blade glowed brighter and blasted me at pointblank range.
"Ugh!"
I was thrown back from the immense force, hurtling across the arena and cras.h.i.+ng into the frozen ground. Coughing out blood, I struggled to crawl to my feet, only to realize that the majority of my body was entombed in rapidly expanding ice. Both my Gemini twin swords had shattered from the impact as well, and I was currently unarmed.
Not that I could wield a weapon when my hands were frozen in huge blocks of ice.
Jie Bing advanced toward me silently, but I could read his intentions from his expression. He didn"t need to say a word – as I mentioned before, Jie Bing believed more in talking with our fists – or our weapons in this case – than with words.
I knew that he was wary of my Vermillion Phoenix, and thus sought to finish me off before I could summon my trump card. He was aware that his current level of power was not strong enough to defeat my Vermillion Phoenix. My soul beast would just turn the entire frozen landscape into an inferno, rendering all of his ice useless, and melt through any defense he could conjure. Therefore he was holding nothing back, giving his all to finish me as soon as possible.
Kicking off the ground, he dashed toward me and swung his sword down to deliver the finis.h.i.+ng blow. With this, he could safely finish me off before I could spring Vermillion Phoenix on him.
Unfortunately, my Celestial Guardians were no longer the only soul beasts I could summon.
Crack!
"?!"
Jie Bing spun around when his ice shattered and a gigantic serpent darted out of the ground, snaking forward to capture him in his wide open maw. Fangs dripped with corrosive venom, and a forked tongue the size of his arm extended out like a stabbing p.r.o.ng.
"Serpens!" I shouted. A whip materialized in my hand as I broke free of the ice. "Ophiuchus!"
However, Jie Bing spun around and threw out his left hand, materializing an ice s.h.i.+eld in front of the advancing Serpens. The gargantuan serpent just smashed through the ice s.h.i.+eld and made to swallow Jie Bing, but the slight delay in shattering his ice s.h.i.+eld meant that he was able to flip about in midair. Using one of the shattered fragments of ice as a foothold, Jie Bing kicked off and streaked toward an opposite direction, completely evading the pursuing Serpens.
However, my whip uncoiled and snagged him, forcing Jie Bing to cut at it with his sword. Instead, Ophiuchus coiled around his sword, wrapping tightly around his blade and crus.h.i.+ng it into frosty fragments. Jie Bing immediately enveloped himself in frost armor as Ophiuchus wrapped around his now armored hand, and clamped down tightly. I pulled, my Jie Bing"s increased ma.s.s and weight from his armor made it difficult for me to budge him.
Jie Bing then materialized a spear while using his own boosted strength and weight to yank me off my feet and drag him toward me. At the same time, he thrust his icy lance toward me.
Unfortunately for him, I wasn"t going to just let him jerk me around.
"Rasalhague!" I shouted. Lightning crackled through Ophiuchus and streamed into the heavily armored Jie Bing, who cried out and dropped to his feet, convulsing. His ice cracked and broke under the superheated electric currents, but he managed to hold onto his spear, which remained intact somehow. Don"t ask me how.
Not that I cared. I saw a chance, and I was going for out.
"Serpens!" I commanded, and linked to me telepathically, my Constellation spirit was aware of what I wanted. He darted forward again, his maw yawning wide to swallow the kneeling Jie Bing whole. At the same time, I continued to electrocute him with Ophiuchus"s Rasalhague.
Jie Bing gritted his teeth, but his eyes seemed to glow an ethereal sapphire. Clenching his right hand into a fist, he punched the ground. Immediately super-cold air billowed outward, s.h.i.+mmering in an arcane azure aura. To my amazement, the lightning from Ophiuchus actually stopped cold, almost as if it was literally frozen. A five-meter radius around Jie Bing turned into ice, and Serpens literally froze, his gargantuan form entombed into ice. I was forced to let go of Ophiuchus by reflex and jumped backward, watching in horror as my Constellation weapon froze and shattered into countless fragments.
If I hadn"t retreated on reflex, I would have been caught by Jie Bing"s spell as well and frozen solid. The match would have been over.
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Serpens slowly disappeared, his frozen form vaporizing and falling apart into powdery snow. I had recalled him, knowing that he would no longer be able to fight.
Jie Bing regarded me warily, his breathing a little heavier than before. He frowned in irritation, and I understood why even though he didn"t say anything.
I had forced him to use his trump card. This was no doubt the legendary Absolute Zero. Jie Bing had been saving it to use against the top fifty…no, the top ten mages of our academy, but he was forced to use it against me, a mere 500+ ranked student. He felt a little aggrieved, not to mention remarkably impressed by my display.
"Hmph."
He snorted coldly, and then drew his spear back, getting ready to attack me. before I could react, he was suddenly lunging at me, his spear streaking forward in a deadly arc as it sort to pierce my chest.
"GUOOOOH!"
Taurus materialized beside Jie Bing and slammed into him with a furious charge. Jie Bing was barely able to respond, twisting around and forming yet another gigantic s.h.i.+eld. As his s.h.i.+eld cracked and broke, he jumped from one fragment to another, bounding upward and avoiding Taurus"s charge by sailing above him. He directed another blast of Absolute Zero onto Taurus, freezing the gigantic bull, but I didn"t dismiss him as I did the frozen Serpens earlier.
"Taurus!" I yelled. "Keep fighting!"
With a bellow, Taurus broke out of the ice, his form glowing crimson, almost as if his body had been immolated. Flames ran around his thick hide, and blazed particularly ferociously at his horns. He turned to growl at a stunned Jie Bing.
Why was he so surprised? Did he not know that the element of Taurus was fire? Naturally Taurus would have a higher resistance to ice techniques if he enveloped himself in flames. I rarely did it because it expended too much of my magical energy.
But under this cold, it was pointless to conserve my strength. My energy was gradually getting sapped away by the ice. If that was the case, I might as well heat things up. Like Jie Bing, I didn"t see a point in holding anything back.
My opponent was already meeting Taurus"s charge, surprisingly meeting his charge head-on and lancing through Taurus"s thick forehead with his spear, only for the weapon to melt. Clicking his tongue, Jie Bing materialized a gigantic hammer, holding the huge weapon with both hands and smas.h.i.+ng it into Taurus, causing the giant bull"s head to whip backward.
Even with the flames wreathing him, the sheer ma.s.s of Jie Bing"s hammer was enough to faze Taurus. Jie Bing then transformed the hammer into an axe and cleaved through Taurus. My Constellation spirit was able to avoid getting decapitated by pulling his head back, but the deadly immense blade cleaved through the metallic armor plating on his shoulder.
Grunting in pain, Taurus kicked out with his hooves, forcing Jie Bing back, even as the latter created an ice s.h.i.+eld with his left hand to absorb the blow. Skidding backward, he then hurled an ice spear at Taurus.
The giant bull snarled and pawed the ground before charging Jie Bing. Like a matador of old, Jie Bing deftly avoided Taurus"s charge, deftly dancing to the side. This time, he had switched his weapon into an ice bow and was launching volley of icicles at him. Most of them shattered against Taurus"s armor plating, but a few got through and peppered his hide, drawing some blood. Those that did hit immediately froze over, expanding rapidly across Taurus as if to try and entomb him in ice.
Taurus"s movements increasingly grew sluggish, and he dully spun around to try and track the evading Jie Bing.
"Taurus, Aldebaran!" I ordered. Taurus"s jaws slightly opened and a tremendous torrent of flames washed over the frozen arena, instantly melting all the ice. In an instant, the pseudo tundra had turned into slush water, flowing downward to form a shallow pool that lapped at our heels. Jie Bing"s eyes widened briefly as he tried to raise his s.h.i.+eld to defend against Taurus"s sudden attack, but the flames overwhelmed him and incinerated him.
Or so I thought, but I could briefly detect his st.u.r.dy life-signs from behind the inferno.
"Taurus, finish him off!" I commanded. The giant bull obeyed immediately, kicking off the ground and ramming into Jie Bing"s last known position.
"!!!"
"Guh?!"
Taurus grunted in surprise as a huge ice spear pierced through his chest and exited through his back, the lance possessing enough power to penetrate his armor plating. As the smoke and flames cleared, slowly frozen away by Jie Bing"s second Absolute Zero, I saw how my opponent had achieved the effect.
He had braced his ice spear against the ground, using the power of the earth to fuel his strike like the hunting African tribes from ancient times, using wooden spears to use the lion"s or leopard"s own pounce against them.
Taurus disappeared slowly with a grunt. Jie Bing"s ice spear crumbled slightly, turning into a much smaller ice spear, but it somehow still remained intact. He then threw it in my direction. I slightly dodged it, only for Jie Bing to cross the distance between us while I was distracted, freeze a new ice sword in his hands and slash downward. I couldn"t even bring up my newly summoned Gemini twin swords up for a parry.
Swis.h.!.+
My gla.s.ses were knocked off my face and blood streamed from my eyes. Blinded, I desperately unleashed Castor and Pollux, the black and white destructive energies blasting Jie Bing backward, but he landed unharmed on the ground some distance away.
I could feel the blood around my eyes freezing as Jie Bing activated his ice spells again. Without Taurus and his flames, there was no way for me to reverse the environment and heat it up, not unless I summoned another Constellation spirit.
Even though he was aware of that, Jie Bing couldn"t help but be polite. Raising his ice sword, he pointed it at me.
"Do you still wish to continue?" he asked. If I didn"t, he would respect my wishes and grant me a dignified loss. If I did, then he would continue to do his best to defeat me.
I merely smiled warmly despite my forcibly closed eyes, my excitement boiling uncontrollably inside my chest. "Of course. This match isn"t over yet."