stjorthotic Chapter 471: Full Health, Roaming Everywhere; Low Health, Still Roaming!
Chapter 471: Full Health, Roaming Everywhere; Low Health, Still Roaming!
Chapter 471: Full Health, Roaming Everywhere; Low Health, Still Roaming!
It was earlier than the scheduled meeting time!
Esdeath led a light cavalry force, whose mobility was far superior to that of a large army like theirs. Being caught up was something they had expected.
Roy stared at the Ice Queen in front of him.
The other side was also watching him. Upon seeing Roy, Esdeath did not continue the pursuit, allowing Najenda's main force to escape. Her objective was very clear!
So what if Najenda joins the Revolutionary Army? Esdeath doesn't care at all. In fact, she'd be happy for it. The more chaotic the world becomes, the better, so she can keep enjoying the thrill of war and tormenting the weak!
Her current target is the boy in front of her.
"Giggle—giggle giggle!"
Esdeath listened to Roy's complaints about not wanting to see her, and the boy's bitter face. Her long, icy blue hair spun in the wind, creating tiny silver glints. She rested her chin on her hand and let out a clear, bell-like laugh.
But deep within those icy blue pupils, a near-savage hunting desire was surging!
Bang!
The earth exploded with a deafening roar. Esdeath suddenly exerted her power, transforming into an icy blue afterimage that tore through the void. She instantly arrived in front of Roy, her sword tip, as thin as a poison needle, piercing out with a chilling glint that sent shivers down one's spine.
Roy raised the fine iron longsword that Najenda had given him to parry. Its quality was close to that of high-grade equipment, though not as good as divine armor, but he preferred to use this inanimate object.
The blades clashed, sparking brilliant fireworks.
Under the astonishing force of the collision, the ground beneath their feet collapsed layer by layer, forming a spiderweb-like crack, shattering the soil and rocks within a radius of tens of meters into dust.
The blades clashed, the ear-piercing metallic scraping sound filling the air. Esdeath pressed her delicate face close to Roy's, her breath mingling with a frosty mist as she whispered excitedly, "You say you hate me, but aren't you already prepared to face me!"
Roy laughed, "I can't just sit here and wait to die!"
In the very first exchange, Roy sensed a change in Esdeath's power; she was at least LV.7! No wonder she's a bug-like existence in this world.
Esdeath's situation is somewhat special. Unlike normal training and leveling up, it's more like she's under immense external pressure, which stimulates the super dangerous blood within her, causing her to rapidly increase her strength in a short period of time.
Roy felt a sense of relief. Through his careful recuperation during this period, his combat strength had recovered considerably. If he had encountered Esdeath now that night, it would have been very troublesome.
They say a player with full health can play the erhu, while a player with low health can roam freely. He roams freely when he's at full health, and he still roams freely when he's low health!
"That's more like it!"
The immense pressure emanating from the contact between the blades caused Esdeath's icy blue pupils to blaze with fierce light. A violent power surged into the rapier in her hand, pushing it further towards Roy.
Just as the immense force was about to crush Roy, the handsome young man's lips curled up, as if he had foreseen the future, and he dissipated all the power, his body retreating.
"What?!"
The stalemate suddenly vanished, and Esdeath looked astonished. Her sword suddenly found no ground beneath her, and the inertia caused her to lose her balance, stumbling forward in a disheveled manner.
Roy spun around, gathering his strength, and his longsword drew a cold arc in the air as he slashed diagonally towards Esdeath, who had revealed an opening.
A deadly chill spread throughout Esdeath's body!
Sweat beaded on Esdeath's forehead as she forcefully twisted her body, relying on her honed fighting instincts to barely manage to keep her rapier positioned in the path of the slash.
clang!
A piercing metallic clang was accompanied by a burst of sparks.
Esdeath's rapier had a noticeable nick, her body was knocked back, her whole body felt slightly numb, and the skin on her small hands cracked, oozing a trickle of blood.
After Esdeath blocked the attack, she only fell into an even more terrifying abyss. Roy's swordplay immediately changed, slashing, cutting, parrying, thrusting, and slicing—each sword strike was exquisitely precise, and each move was deadly.
The sword light continued unabated, like a sudden storm!
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Esdeath was no longer able to relax and was forced to make difficult blocks. Under Roy's airtight suppression, her body could not stop retreating.
With each step, spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the frozen ground beneath his feet, sending pebbles flying.
Perilous! Walking on thin ice!
Her face was replaced by an unprecedented solemnity, but even more so by resentment and humiliation.
"Lady Esdeath—is being suppressed?!"
The nearby Imperial soldiers stared wide-eyed, filled with disbelief, horror, and bewilderment at Esdeath, whom they considered an invincible goddess.
They were actually being defeated by the young man's sword.
Little did the soldiers know that Esdeath, who was engaged in battle, was experiencing a far more turbulent inner storm than they could have imagined. Roy's sword slashed her arms, thighs, chest, and shoulders, and blood splattered everywhere. In the blink of an eye, she had more than a dozen wounds.
Despite dodging fatal attacks countless times, she was always at a disadvantage and suppressed.
Every time she tried to retaliate, Roy's blade struck her like a blow to the head, forcing her to jump around wildly.
"What terrifying swordsmanship!"
Esdeath's face was extremely ugly. Roy's seemingly simple moves contained the ultimate simplicity of returning to nature. Every time they clashed, she felt as if she were standing on the edge of a dark abyss.
One wrong move and you're doomed!
"Which school of swordsmanship do you use?" Esdeath asked, struggling to parry the incoming blade.
"The Astrea-style swordsmanship!"
Roy smiled calmly, announced his goddess's name, and continued his movements without slowing down, his moves becoming even more fierce, making Esdeath breathless.
Esdeath frowned. She had never heard of this school of swordsmanship, but its exquisite techniques were astonishing!
Professor Astraea's swordsmanship, far from becoming outdated as Roy's level increased, actually became even more formidable. Combining her own skills and experience, she mastered the art, making her invincible in one-on-one combat!
With this incredible swordsmanship, even if Roy lost all his stats, he could still fight against a level 5 adventurer with the physique of an ordinary person.
Of course, this is on the premise that the opponent insists on close combat.
Esdeath was clearly not a fool. Knowing that she was no match for Roy in close combat, she stepped back and decisively created distance, playing to her strengths and avoiding her weaknesses.
"Crush him!" Esdeath's lips curled into a cruel smile as she snapped her fingers crisply.
hum!
In mid-air, the terrifyingly cold air, visible to the naked eye, stirred at the sound, gathering wildly and instantly condensing into a towering ice mountain that blotted out the sky, its enormous shadow swallowing up all the light and temperature below.
The massive iceberg crashed down on Roy.
Looking up at the seemingly collapsing, devastating iceberg, Roy sighed, "Was it really necessary to be so dramatic? We uphold martial ethics, determining life and death with swordsmanship—isn't that wonderful?"
Upon hearing these words, Esdeath wished she could drown Roy in her spit. Her skills, honed through countless battles, were completely overwhelmed by Roy's Astrea-style swordsmanship. Close combat would be tantamount to suicide!
Afterglow!
Faced with such a massive iceberg falling, no sword technique would be of any use; only magic strikes could be used, combining the abilities of Overpower Strike and Overpower Light. The slender blade trembled slightly as Roy swung his sword upwards.
A devastating slash suddenly appeared!
call out!
Silently, Roy's sharp slash swept across the massive iceberg in mid-air without any obstruction.
Time seemed to stand still for a moment!
Then, to everyone's horrified gaze, the entire iceberg was split in two, the cut surface as smooth as a mirror, before it exploded with a deafening roar.
Splash!
As if the sky were shattering, billions of ice stones collapsed wildly in all directions, and the entire battlefield was submerged by a violent rain of ice crystals, with dust billowing up.
Esdeath's soldiers were terrified and fled in disarray. When gods fight, mortals suffer; it was a battle they couldn't possibly participate in.
These soldiers wished they had two more legs, and ran for their lives to avoid being caught in the fighting.
Esdeath had already given orders to ignore her and for the soldiers to prioritize survival; in this respect, she was indeed the best leader.
But the seeds of hatred she sowed dragged the soldiers into endless war.
"Thanks for your hard work."
Roy released his grip, and the longsword he had used to unleash the Afterimage Slash slowly turned to dust and scattered in the wind.
If it were a full-force strike from him, even an epic-level sword couldn't withstand it. For him, low-level equipment had become disposable.
"He's gotten stronger—no, his strength has returned!" Esdeath murmured, the power of this slash even greater than that night.
Through her previous undercover work, Esdeath knew that Roy had been in a state of serious injury.
"Hahaha, that's awesome!"
Esdeath's eyes were filled with excitement, and her shoulders trembled as she watched the other person surprise her with so many things.
Bang!
Roy took a step forward with lightning speed, like a dragon. His arms were taut, and his bulging muscles bulged wildly as if they were alive. Veins throbbed under his skin, and all his powerful strength was gathered in his clenched fist.
A breathtaking punch was unleashed!
The overwhelming pressure of the fist seemed to crush the entire world into dust, and Esdeath's icy blue pupils suddenly contracted as she sensed the danger to her life.
Her response was equally swift. She used her rapier to block in front of her, and a chilling blue light burst forth from her body, forming a crystal-clear yet indestructible ice armor.
clang!!
First, Roy's fist collided with the rapier, but instead of the expected blade cutting through flesh, a crisp sound of metal clashing rang out.
Roy's extreme durability is comparable to a LV.9 physique. Even when severely injured, he still retains an extremely terrifying strength. When Esdeath's rapier slashed at him, it was as if she had struck a piece of steel rather than flesh and blood, leaving a faint white mark.
Bang!
The rapier that had accompanied Esdeath through countless battles was bent by Roy's fist.
Immediately afterward, the force of the punch had not yet dissipated!
The twisted blade slammed heavily into the ice armor that Esdeath had temporarily conjured.
Snap—Bang!
Esdeath's protective icy armor shattered instantly, and she felt an indescribable force coursing through her body, her bones emitting a chilling wail.
His entire body transformed into a blurry, icy blue afterimage, shooting backward at a terrifying speed that surpassed the sound barrier. Wherever he passed, the frozen air was forcibly shaped into a vacuum channel, and the ground was torn into bottomless ravines by the dissipating shockwaves.
Go!
Esdeath noticed Roy chasing after her out of the corner of her eye. With great willpower, she suppressed the excruciating pain in her body, raised her hand slightly, and the cold air erupted again, forming countless ice needles as thin as cow hair.
Under the sunlight, the needle tip gleamed with a dangerous, chilling light, colder than the stars and more piercing than a blade!
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
With a whooshing sound, a dense rain of ice needles shot out, raining down on Roy.
Faced with such a powerful attack, anyone would hesitate to continue forward, as the rain of ice needles might pierce through them, leaving countless bloody holes.
Roy, however, showed no fear and did not stop. His arm muscles bulged again, his palm transformed into a blade, and he slashed down in the direction Esdeath was flying backward.
hum!
The familiar afterimage slash flew out of his hand.
A death arc of light, capable of devouring everything, swept across, easily tearing space apart like fragile cloth, and causing all the ice needles in mid-air to explode.
While both Esdeath and Esdeath unleashed afterimages with a hand chop, Esdeath clearly sensed the difference. "It's definitely more powerful now; even I would have a hard time dodging it!"
A desperate shadow of death loomed over Esdeath. There was no doubt that being hit by that slash would mean instant death, but she had already obtained a new trump card!
Since we can't avoid it, let's freeze it!
"Before me, even time and space will be frozen!" Esdeath smiled confidently, her long, ice-blue hair dancing wildly without wind, her eyes burning with an almost manic cold light.
Mahapadma!
A terrifying chill that could freeze everything erupted from Esdeath, a chill that transcended the laws of physics—absolute zero.
All molecular motion, all energy transfer, and all life activities ceased!
As a result, the entire world lost all color, turning into a suffocating, deathly gray, and the area within several kilometers became a frozen time prison, where everything—whether it was the howling wind, the falling dust, or the birds about to take flight—came to a standstill.
The slash was also fixed in mid-air.
Everything is frozen, time and space stand still!
Even Roy was no exception; he remained frozen in place, his charging posture from a moment before, the look of surprise on his face fixed on his face.
Boom!Boom!Boom!
In this absolutely frigid world, only Esdeath is able to move freely. A smile, a mixture of regret and satisfaction, curls at the corners of her lips. This is the strongest secret technique she developed for Roy!
Like an ice queen proclaiming final judgment, Esdeath strode with elegant and noble steps.
Long, shapely, pale legs encased in military boots, on the deathly silent earth, like a death knell counting down.
It produced a clear, lonely sound.
"I won!"
Esdeath stepped forward, slowly approaching Roy, her icy blue eyes fixed on the boy as if admiring a work of art.
In those eyes, there was the joy of victory, the pleasure of conquest, the mutual respect of a worthy opponent, and the cruel pleasure of killing Roy with one's own hands!
Without hesitation, without pity!
A chilling aura surged from Esdeath's palm, condensing into an ice sword. She gracefully raised her slender arm and plunged it fiercely into Roy's heart.
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