Chapter 165: Ice Wolf General
After the massive bolt of lightning swept across the battlefield, the space fell into an eerie silence.
The cold wind still howled. Snow still fell. But the group of ice monsters in front of the apartment complex stood still like statues.
The ice Goblins at the rear opened their mouths wide, their eyes wide open. In their hands, they still held ice projectiles that they hadn’t yet placed into the catapults.
The ice Wolves on the two flanks lowered their bodies, baring their fangs, but their bodies were stiff. As if their instincts were frantically warning them, do not charge forward.
Even the massive ice Golems in the front line didn’t budge. On their thick ice armor, small bolts of blue-white electricity still crawled about chaotically, emitting a crackling sound that made one’s scalp tingle just from hearing it.
The scene stretched on for nearly three seconds.
Three seconds isn’t long. But in this cold and suffocating battlefield, it was enough to make everyone feel as if time itself had just been distorted.
Then, the group of ice monsters seemed to wake up from a nightmare.
Ear-piercing screams rang out in succession. The ice Goblins threw away everything in their hands, fleeing in all directions, only to be loudly barked at by the ice Golems, forced to return to their positions.
The ice Wolves retreated to the two sides, their bodies tense, growling while circling outward as if searching for new targets.
The ice Golems still alive began to move, trying to fill in the massive gap that had just been swept clean by the lightning.
The formerly complete formation of the Ice Tribe was like something that had just been crushed in an invisible hand and thrown to the ground. There was chaos everywhere.
The ice surface in front of the apartment complex had a large area punched through it. Melting water mixed with pale blue blood, steam rising thickly.
While the Ice Tribe was still frantically reorganizing their formation, the general chat channel suddenly erupted.
[Goddamn it! What the hell just happened?!]
[Was that a defense tower? Tell me that was a defense tower!]
[Impossible! A single blow leveling such a wide area, is that thing a war cannon or a natural disaster?]
[Fuck! I thought a level 6 Survivor had stepped in.]
[No! That lightning bolt was fired from a room. I just saw it on the surveillance camera.]
[Which room? Say it quickly!]
[What the hell are you asking for? Are you looking to pick a fight? Are you tired of living?]
[No wonder those ice monsters froze. If it were me, I’d stand still too.]
[Fuck! If that room is an ally, great. But if they’re an enemy, aren’t we guaranteed to die?]
[Goddamn it! Only now are you scared?]
[I just saw an entire row of Ice Tribe catapults wiped out. Is this a joke?!]
[Which room? Who is it? Hurry up!]
[Shut up! Worry about fixing your own door first. The ice monsters aren’t all dead yet.]
In another room, Rossie stood in front of the monitoring screen. Her face, which always carried a hint of arrogance, was completely blank.
Her mouth was slightly open. Her purple eyes stared intently at the area that had just been swept through by the lightning, as if she couldn’t believe that such terrifying power truly existed.
A long while later, she finally swallowed with difficulty and muttered: "Goddamn it... what tier is this?"
Narok standing beside her was even more exaggerated. His eyes shone brightly like two lanterns. His face was both afraid, excited, and euphoric to a slightly distorted degree.
He pointed at the screen, his voice trembling: "Big sister... big sister... if Selina really is in that room, then isn’t she... isn’t she living together with a pack of monsters?"
Rossie: "..."
She turned her head, coldly looking at Narok.
Narok swallowed his saliva and hurriedly corrected himself: "I mean... a group of very powerful people."
Rossie took a deep breath, her gaze returning to the screen once again, softly saying: "Powerful?"
"No..."
"It’s too powerful. Unreasonably powerful."
In another room, Bardi was crouching in front of the Mecha that had retreated.
It lay tilted on the floor, its appearance extremely pitiful. The left shoulder section was almost completely torn apart. The armor at the waist was ripped open, exposing gears, conduit wires, and a mana core that was flickering on and off. The right calf was barely held on by a few twisted metal joints.
Bardi frowned, but his movements weren’t slow at all. He continuously pulled materials from his backpack.
Cold metal. Mana conduit wires. Pieces of intermediate core. And a small amount of repair powder glowing a silvery-gray color.
He placed both hands on the body of the Mecha, his ability beginning to activate, causing those materials to quickly melt and then find their way on their own to the damaged positions to patch them up.
Crack! Crack!
The sound of metal self-joining rang out continuously.
But right at this moment, in the corner of the surveillance screen mounted on the wall, the lightning bolt from earlier was automatically slow-motioned by the camera to be displayed.
Bardi unconsciously lifted his head to look up.
The moment he saw Thunder Dragon on the door of that room open its mouth, converge thunder light, then fire a massive bolt of lightning that leveled the entire battlefield, his eyes couldn’t help but contract.
"Legendary..." He muttered.
In his voice, there was no jealousy. Only a trembling excitement and a hint of fervor, like a blacksmith seeing a divine weapon.
He lowered his head again to look at the Mecha in the process of being repaired. Looking at the torn-up shoulder section. Looking at the components that were slowly closing back together.
A thought slowly emerged in his mind.
’If I can modify the energy-conducting armor layer... if I can attach an additional lightning-absorbing component...’
’Then... one day, could my Mecha take another step forward?’
Bardi took a deep breath, his gaze gradually becoming fiery. He no longer continued to look at the camera but focused his entire spirit on the Mecha before him.
Outside, the battle was still continuing.
In Rover’s room, Morie only glanced at the general chat channel once before dismissing it. The cries, astonishment, fear, and demanding questions did not cause her expression to change in the slightest.
Her fingers lightly twitched.
"Thunder Dragon is on cooldown." She softly said: "We continue."
Elith stood beside her. Seeing Morie’s calm expression, her own heart, which had still been pounding erratically, gradually stabilized as well.
Morie operated very quickly. Her right hand adjusted the firing angle of the Archer Ballista. Her left hand controlled the Bouncing Ball Launcher.
Two magical control panels appeared before her, the symbols constantly changing, reflecting a faint blue light onto that pale yet beautiful face.
Just as the ice Goblins began to gather to fill in the gaps at the middle line, the Archer Ballista fired first.
Vwoosh! Vwoosh! Vwoosh! Vwoosh!
Its firing speed was so fast that on the screen, only slender black streaks shooting straight outward remained visible.
Each arrow was sharp to the extreme, piercing through two, three, four, even five targets in succession. The ice Goblins, which had just gathered, had no time to raise their shields before having their heads, throats, and chests pierced through.
Their bodies collapsed like logs that had their support pillars yanked out.
The Bouncing Ball Launcher also immediately opened fire. Each jet-black ball shot out, striking an ice Golem, then bouncing to the second, the third, the fourth.
Every time it bounced, it left a strange layer of cold frost on the bodies of the ice monsters.
The ice Golems, which had been moving to reorganize their formation, immediately slowed down noticeably. Their steps grew heavier. Their mace-swinging motions also became distinctly sluggish.
A few ice Goblins even suddenly turned their heads, their eyes looking madly at the allies beside them before swinging their spears to stab straight into each other.
"The Frenzy effect has activated." Elith said softly, her voice carrying a hint of astonishment.
Morie nodded gently, not stopping at all.
Each order she gave was incredibly well-coordinated. The Archer Ballista took responsibility for tearing apart the middle line, cutting off the process of reorganization for the ice Goblins and ice Wolves. The Bouncing Ball Launcher continuously slowed the ice Golems while simultaneously causing chaos in areas where the monsters had gathered too densely.
Not a single beat wasted. Not a single blow missing.
Whenever a group of ice Goblins just managed to find their footing, the arrows of the Archer Ballista had already pierced through their throats. Whenever a row of ice Golems had just raised their shields, the bouncing balls struck their legs, their knees, and the joints on their shoulders, making them so sluggish that they became living targets.
The entire process flowed so smoothly that it gave the illusion that it wasn’t a single person controlling three defense towers, but rather three perfect gears rotating in perfect mesh with each other.
The ice Golems, which had still intended to rebuild their defensive line, had it shattered repeatedly as soon as it formed. Heads burst open. Shoulders were pierced through. Knee joints froze then exploded into fragments.
Those massive bodies, like stone statues, collapsed one after another, shattering into countless fragments of ice that filled the air.
The ice Wolves trying to circle around to the two flanks fared no better. The Archer Ballista only needed to adjust its aim slightly for the arrow to pierce through three or four of them in succession, pinning them straight to the ground.
The Bouncing Ball Launcher continuously bounced among the pack of wolves, causing their speed to decrease drastically. Even their pouncing strikes became sluggish and distorted.
The ice Goblins fared even more miserably. With small bodies and weak defenses, facing two towers that had been upgraded by Rover to rank S and rank A, they were practically unqualified to resist.
All across the battlefield, low, muffled explosions rang out continuously. Howling screams. The sound of ice breaking. The sound of metal friction.
And right in the middle of that chaotic chain of sounds, Morie remained calm to a frightening degree.
She timed each beat precisely. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds...
Elith could clearly see that in the mind of this girl who had once sat in a wheelchair, the entire battlefield seemed to have been constructed into a massive chessboard. Every time an enemy moved a step, she already knew what to use to kill them.
Suddenly, Thunder Dragon outside the door raised its head once again.
The magic circle beneath its feet lit up. Morie softly said: "It’s time."
Electric sparks began to crawl all over its small body once more.
Krit... Krit...
Sunako’s voice, which had been rambling outside, immediately fell silent. She looked toward Thunder Dragon, swallowed dryly, and didn’t even dare to breathe heavily.
Right after...
BOOM!!!
The second lightning bolt shot out once again.
It swept horizontally across the area where the ice Golems had just been trying to regroup, directly detonating an entire defensive line.
The ice Golems, which had just been slowed by the Bouncing Ball Launcher, their bodies still covered in frost, facing this lightning strike had even less ability to resist. They exploded in succession like blocks of ice thrown into a furnace.
The ice Wolves at the rear were struck by the spreading electric current. Their bodies convulsed, tumbled, then exploded. Some ice Goblins didn’t even get a chance to turn and flee before being turned to ash right where they stood.
This time, the Ice Tribe’s formation wasn’t merely in chaos. It was almost on the verge of collapse.
But right at that moment...
An ice-cold voice suddenly rang out from deep within the curtain of snow.
That voice wasn’t loud. But it seemed to carry a strange kind of power. The moment it rose, the entire battlefield suddenly grew a few more degrees colder.
"Enough."
Just two simple words.
But the moment they rang out, the previously chaotic ice monsters simultaneously fell silent.
The ice Goblins immediately knelt down on one knee. The ice Wolves that had been growling also lowered their heads. Even the still-living ice Golems slowly stepped to the sides, leaving a wide path in the middle of the battlefield.
From within the pure-white curtain of snow, a figure slowly emerged.
It was a woman.
No... more precisely, it was a female warrior general carrying the aura of a wild beast and ice.
She sat on the back of a massive ice Wolf nearly two meters tall. That ice Wolf was silvery white all over, its mane long like upright ice spikes, its two eyes a deep azure blue like a frozen pool of ten thousand years. Each time it exhaled, white frost spilled out like cold clouds.
On its back, that female warrior general wore a silver-white battle dress that hugged her body, with lightweight armor sharp as bird wings draped over it.
Her long hair, white as snow, flowed behind her, soft yet carrying a cold feeling like ribbons of ice.
On both sides of her head grew a pair of tall wolf ears, covered in silvery-white fur, the tips turning a dark gray.
Her face was extremely beautiful. Her skin was so white it was almost translucent. Her nose was high and delicate. Her thin, pale lips were slightly pressed together, carrying an expression of coldness and arrogance to the extreme.
But what was most unforgettable were her eyes.
Her azure blue eyes glowed brightly like two burning ice crystals, both cold, sharp, and carrying a kind of dignity that made others not dare to look at her directly.
In her hand was a long sword of deep azure. The blade was transparent, within it as if a flowing current of ice were circulating. Just by looking at it, one was enough to feel a sensation of their throat being sliced cold.
Elith stared intently at the screen, unable to stop herself from taking a deep breath.
"She..."
Morie also narrowed her eyes.
For the first time since the start of the battle, on her calm face, a trace of genuine seriousness appeared.
That woman slowly advanced forward on the wolf.
Every step the wolf took, the ground beneath it was immediately covered with a layer of pale blue ice.
When she raised her sword, the sword tip pointing straight toward the apartment complex...
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The ground suddenly began to freeze.
The new layer of ice wasn’t like ordinary snow and ice but a deep azure color, spreading in all four directions at a speed visible to the naked eye. It crawled over corpses. Crawled over the fragments of ice Golems. Crawled over the pools of water still steaming.
Inch by inch, it spread toward the apartment complex like a cold declaration of war.
On the screen, that wolf-eared female warrior general slowly opened her mouth.
The corners of her pale lips curled up slightly, but in that smile, there was no warmth at all.
Only killing intent.
Only a cold ice that left others suffocating.
The Ice Wolf General... had finally appeared.