Chapter 166: This is bad...
The moment the Ice Wolf General appeared, the entire battlefield was as if gripped tightly by an invisible hand.
The ice Goblins that had been in chaos immediately knelt down flat. The ice Wolves on both sides lowered their heads, emitting low, deep growls as if welcoming a ruler.
Even the massive ice Golems still alive stood still, silently stepping aside, opening up a wide road covered in ice fragments and corpses.
She rode on the back of the ice Wolf nearly two meters tall. Her gaze was cold as a frozen pool, her silvery-white hair flowing amid the snow and wind.
The ice sword in her hand lifted slightly.
Just a simple movement.
But at that moment, the temperature on the battlefield seemed to drop yet another layer.
The already cold ice surface suddenly emitted dense sounds of cracking.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
A massive magic array slowly appeared beneath the feet of the ice Wolf.
No, more precisely, it was a magic array carved into the ground itself.
Each vein pattern, a deep azure blue like coagulated blood, spread out, interwove, and layered upon one another, forming a design so complex that just looking at it made one’s scalp numb.
At the center of the magic array was a massive wolf head with its mouth open, howling toward the sky. Each ring of ice-type runes continuously rotated around it, emitting a cold and dignified light.
Elith’s eyes widened.
Morie’s eyes also narrowed slightly.
The Ice Wolf General slowly opened her mouth, her voice ice-cold, clear but not loud at all.
And yet, that sound pierced through the curtain of snow, pierced through the distance, as if being transmitted directly into the minds of everyone.
"Freeze."
Right after, the magic array beneath her feet erupted.
BOOM!!!
A massive current of cold wind suddenly burst out.
It wasn’t wind in the ordinary sense. It was more like a tsunami formed of ice and death, taking the Ice Wolf General as its center, thunderously sweeping across the entire battlefield.
The air was torn apart. The snow in the sky was pulled into a swirling vortex, transforming into a frenzied blue-white tornado.
Ice fragments, monster corpses, shattered weapons, even the remaining steam on the ground was sucked into that wind, then ground into countless tiny particles.
Where it passed, the ground immediately froze into a layer of dark azure ice. Sharp ice pillars continuously rose up from beneath, like the fangs of a massive monster that had just awakened.
Even the exterior walls of the apartment complex began to be covered in ice.
Floor by floor, window by window, every corner of the wall was covered by a layer of frost spreading at a speed visible to the naked eye. The entire apartment complex seemed about to be swallowed whole into a massive block of ice.
That scene was so grand that it made people forget to breathe.
Sunako, hanging outside the door, saw that gust of ice wind sweeping in. Her face immediately turned pale as a corpse, her body trembling violently.
"Aghhhh!!"
She screamed shrilly, her eyes wide open, tears immediately pouring out.
"Goddamn it! Goddamn it! The General! It’s really the General!"
"I’m done for! I’m done for! Hurry and open the door to let me in! Save me!"
Even Thunder Dragon, which had been arrogantly sitting beside the door, was startled into straightening up.
Its two small wings opened up behind its back, each of its scales standing on end, its purple-black eyes visibly contracting. It watched the gust of ice wind sweeping in, emitting a low, rapid cry from its throat.
Krit! Krit! Krit!
That was no longer the mischievous cry from before.
It was wariness. It was unease. It was the instinctive reaction upon seeing something with enough power to threaten even itself.
Elith took a deep breath, her face tense: "Morie..."
"I know." Morie coldly replied.
Her fingers twitched slightly.
One of Thunder Dragon’s control panels immediately lit up.
"Stop it!"
Kritttttt!!!
Thunder Dragon opened its mouth wide.
This time, it didn’t wait for the right beat like in its previous attacks. It poured almost all of the remaining thunder light within its body outward.
A blue-white electric orb frantically converged in front of its mouth, then was compressed to its extreme limit.
BOOM!!!
A massive bolt of lightning blasted out.
It didn’t sweep down onto the battlefield like before but shot straight into the incoming gust of ice wind.
The two currents of power collided in mid-air.
In that moment, the entire space seemed to twist and distort.
Thunder and lightning danced madly amid the ice storm. The ice howled, spun wildly, wanting to swallow all the thunder light.
Distorted rings of energy shockwaves exploded one after another, creating ear-piercing sounds that made everyone’s eardrums feel like they were about to rupture.
BZZZT!!! CRACK!!!
That gust of ice wind was finally blocked in the middle of the battlefield.
It didn’t completely disappear, but had been severely weakened. What remained was only enough to cover the exterior of the apartment complex with another layer of thick frost. Only Rover’s room was not invaded by the ice.
Seeing that scene, Sunako was first stunned, then her body slackened as if all her bones had been pulled out.
"Phew..."
She panted heavily, her tears and snot mixing together, her whole body trembling violently.
"I thought it was over... I really thought I was dead for sure..."
Even Thunder Dragon slowly relaxed its body.
It closed its mouth, exhaling small streams of electric smoke, its appearance clearly showing it had also just gone through a stressful moment.
Sunako struggled, but her limbs were all bound. Her mouth wouldn’t stop rambling.
"Damn it... damn it... why did the General have to appear too?"
"I must’ve been crazy to take on that damned side quest..."
"If not for that side quest, if not for me being stupid, I wouldn’t have been captured by that bitch... and wouldn’t be tied up in this godforsaken place waiting to die..."
"It’s over, this time it’s really over. That wolf-eared bitch is definitely going to kill everyone..."
The more she spoke, the faster she spoke. The more she spoke, the more panicked she became.
Her complaints linked together continuously, like a female duck that had been stepped on the neck, ear-piercing to the degree that it made others want to stuff something into her mouth.
Thunder Dragon, which was readjusting its breathing, listened to her ramble for a long while before finally being unable to endure it anymore.
It turned its head, coldly glancing at Sunako.
Before Sunako could even realize what was happening...
Zap!
A small bolt of lightning shot straight into her face.
"Aghhhh!"
Sunako screamed, falling backward.
Her porcelain-white face was immediately burned a small patch of black, her bangs sticking straight up, white smoke rising thickly.
She sat there stunned for a few seconds, her mouth agape, then her tears immediately flowed out even more fiercely.
"You... even you are bullying me..."
Thunder Dragon turned its head the other way, its small tail lightly whipping the floor, its appearance extremely contemptuous.
Inside the room, the general chat channel was now in complete chaos.
[What the hell was that magic just now?!]
[Goddamn it! It almost froze the entire building.]
[I’m on the 10th floor and I can still see the exterior wall covered in ice.]
[Is this really a monster of the third round? Is this a joke?]
[No! This difficulty level is way too far beyond normal.]
[Even the fourth round at my place back then wasn’t this over-the-top.]
[Fuck! I’m a level 6 Survivor, but I feel like there’s no difference between me and you all.]
[I’m also level 6, but if I directly took that magic just now, I’d definitely die.]
[This is not something a level 6 Survivor can handle alone.]
[Is that bitch a Boss?]
[Boss? I feel she’s more terrifying than a Boss.]
[If not for the lightning bolt just now, the entire complex would’ve been a block of ice already.]
[What the hell kind of game are you guys even playing? Why is there an Ice Tribe?]
[That’s right! I’ve never encountered this kind of monster at my place.]
[Has anyone ever seen an Ice Wolf General in the third round?]
[Never.]
[No.]
[Absolutely not.]
[There’s something wrong with this apartment complex.]
Morie’s eyes swept across those messages, her gaze sinking slightly.
But what caught her attention wasn’t the fear of those level 6 Survivors.
It was the final line.
There was something wrong with this apartment complex.
Morie had also had similar thoughts for quite some time now.
From the very second round, they had encountered a terrifying type of spirit monster that no other apartment complex had encountered.
Then came the Zombie Angels.
An existence so eerie that it almost shouldn’t have appeared at this stage.
And now... was the Ice Tribe.
Not just ordinary Ice Tribe members either, but even an Ice Wolf General had appeared.
Layer upon layer of danger was stacking on top of one another, pushing the difficulty of this round up to twice, or even more than twice, the normal level.
’Is it really because of Rover?’ She silently thought.
’Or is it because of something else that’s inside this apartment complex?’
’Or... both?’
Many thoughts surfaced in Morie’s mind.
But in just one second, she resolutely cast them all aside.
Because now wasn’t the time to think.
Now was the time to kill.
She turned her head to look at Elith.
"It’s your turn."
Hearing this, Elith nodded gently.
She stepped a little closer to the monitoring screen, her eyes gradually turning cold, her pupils seeming to contract into small black dots.
"Okay."
In that very moment, Elith’s spiritual force immediately spread out.
Out there, in the cracks of the ground, beneath the thick layer of snow, beneath the monster corpses, behind the shattered ice blocks, and even on the surface of the apartment complex...
Countless small pairs of eyes opened simultaneously.
Spiders.
It was countless tiny, almost transparent spiders that Elith had silently deployed everywhere before the round began.
They were very small. So small that if one didn’t intentionally observe, they were almost impossible to detect.
But each one of them was silently awaiting Elith’s command.
That was how she had once survived in the underground city of the Spidary race.
Hide. Observe. Control the spiders in place of her own hands.
On the battlefield, those spiders simultaneously began to move.
Spider silk shot out. From the left. From the right. From beneath the ground. From on top of the debris.
Strands of silk as thin as gossamer, yet tough and sharp to a terrifying degree, simultaneously wrapped around the legs, waists, wrists, and even throats of the ice Goblins.
Many ice Goblins didn’t even understand what had happened before being dragged to the ground.
The ice Wolves that had been trying to move to the flanks suddenly froze when their front legs were tightly bound by silk.
A few roared, struggling to break free, but the more they struggled, the deeper the silk cut into their hardened ice fur.
Even a few ice Golems had large bundles of silk crisscrossing around their knees and shoulder joints, causing their movements to slow down noticeably.
Elith didn’t stop.
She continued to control the swarm of spiders.
One group was specifically for dragging and binding. Another group specifically climbed onto the bodies of monsters to find openings. Another group quickly wove out large nets of silk, turning the area in front of the apartment complex into a pure-white trap field.
"Well done." Morie softly said.
But the Ice Wolf General was not panicked at all.
She only slightly raised her brow, looking toward the silk strands spreading everywhere.
Then... she swung her sword.
Swish!
An azure sword line cut horizontally through the air.
The layers of silk that had just been laid out were simultaneously severed.
Not just severed. The portions of silk that the sword line had brushed past were frozen solid in mid-air, then shattered into tiny ice particles.
Elith frowned and immediately controlled another group of spiders to charge forward.
The Ice Wolf General lightly pressed her heels.
The ice Wolf beneath her body shot forward.
So fast that on the screen, only a stretched-out white blur remained.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Three sword lines flashed in succession.
Spider silk shattered. Spider nets tore. A swarm of small spiders that had just managed to crawl onto the ice Wolf’s body was frozen solid by the cold aura from her sword, falling to the ground with clacking sounds like small pebbles.
Elith gritted her teeth, her hands unconsciously clenching.
"That bitch..."
"She’s very strong." Morie said for her.
"I know." Elith replied, her gaze growing even colder: "But I haven’t lost either."
As soon as she finished speaking, she immediately changed her method of control.
No longer massing the spiders in one place. But splitting them up. Spreading them out. Launching stealth attacks from multiple different angles.
One group of spiders crawled beneath the ice, suddenly emerging to wrap around the hind legs of the ice Wolf.
Another group leaped down from the walls, shooting silk at the sword-holding arm of the Ice Wolf General.
A few dozen smaller spiders focused on her neck, ears, nape, and the joints in her battle dress armor.
The battle immediately became more intense.
The Ice Wolf General continuously swung her sword. Elith continuously changed her angles of attack.
Spider silk and sword light interwove amid the curtain of snow.
The massive ice Wolf roared, biting apart each cluster of spiders that crawled close. But Elith’s spiders knew no fear. One layer died, and another layer charged in.
The ground, the exterior walls of the apartment complex, the monster corpses lying scattered about... all of them became their battlefield.
For a moment, the Ice Wolf General was truly held back.
Her advance slowed. Her gaze also gradually grew colder.
Clearly, she had begun to feel annoyed.
"Alright..." Morie stared at the screen, softly saying.
"At least we managed to delay her."
But right at that moment, the Ice Wolf General suddenly raised her head.
Her brightly glowing azure blue eyes pierced through the chaotic battlefield, pierced through the corpses, pierced through the layer of snow and countless strands of silk flying in disarray...
And precisely locked onto the position of their room.
Elith suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.
"She..."
The Ice Wolf General slowly raised her sword.
The sword tip pointed toward the apartment complex.
A thin layer of ice frost immediately spread along the blade, then burst outward.
Swish!
An invisible wave of ice swept across the entire area in front of the apartment complex entrance.
Elith’s spiders, which had just been crawling, leaping, and shooting silk, simultaneously froze in place in the blink of an eye.
One. Ten. One hundred. Then thousands...
All of them were covered in a thin layer of azure ice.
Their legs were frozen solid. Their silk was frozen solid. Even their motions were held in place, as if their time had just been completely frozen.
Elith’s eyes widened, her face turning noticeably pale.
"This is bad..."
The Ice Wolf General stared intently at their room, the corners of her pale lips slowly curling up.
Then, she spurred her heels hard.
The massive ice Wolf roared, its four legs shattering the ice surface, transforming into a beam of cold white light, charging straight toward their room.