Chapter 252
Chapter 252: My People—You Won't Be Taking Her
Livi sat astride his horse. Beneath the moonlight, his silhouette carried an air of extraordinary authority.
A blue glow of Magic Power flowed through his eyes like a stream, and a mysterious yet powerful aura radiated from his body.
The breeze stirred his robes, and blue ripples surged across the fabric—like wisps of mist lifted off the crest of a wave—drifting slowly upward into the sky above.
The Mage-soldiers heard Livi's command and turned their gaze toward Safirose's blood-stained body.
The magical implements in their hands began to shimmer with a soft radiance as Magic Power was poured into each one, activating them gradually.
Mage-soldiers who had survived countless battles of life and death could sense it plainly: the mysterious figure before them was extremely dangerous.
At that moment, Safirose slowly raised her head beneath the dim moonlight, fixing those emerald-green serpent pupils upon the assembled group.
Her pupils contracted sharply. A faint green light swept from the top of her irises down to the bottom, as though she had conducted a full scan of every person present.
When her gaze shifted to Vladimir, Safirose's serpent pupils quivered slightly.
【Scanning target. Threat level—High】
Before she could direct her scan toward Livi, she saw one of his arms sweep swiftly through the air as he issued a calm command:
"Attack."
The Mage-soldiers—already primed and ready—received the order in an instant. Their expressions hardened, and Magic Power flooded furiously into the implements in their hands.
Countless streams of blue light blazed to life, flooding the pitch-black night sky with something approaching daylight.
Dense clusters of luminous points burst into dozens of blue beams. The high-velocity magical beams surged forward, solidified, and converged in unison toward Safirose.
A wall of blue light gathered at the very heart of the forest—and then shattered apart.
The biting cold released by the explosion devoured the entire forest in an instant.
Violent white vapor rose from the center and swallowed everything in sight.
The forest for a radius of 10 miles was encased in a sheet of ice, the earth blanketed in a translucent azure armor of frost.
Jagged ice spikes jutted abruptly from the frozen ground, gleaming with piercing ferocity beneath the moonlight.
Bone-chilling white mist drifted among the trees—radiating absolute dominance with every passing second.
White frost clung to the towering branches and leaves, gradually breaking loose in the breeze.
Safirose twisted and dodged between the streaks of glacial light, but she was unfortunately struck by 1 high-speed ice shard.
Her cloak was pinned to the frost-laden ground. Her footing slipped, her garments were torn completely apart, and her body was left exposed beneath the night sky.
In the pale white moonlight, the wings on her back stood out in stark relief.
The instant the Mage-soldiers caught a clear look at Safirose's body, every last one of them froze in shock.
Disbelief filled their eyes. Some even forgot entirely to keep channeling Magic Power into their implements.
Even Vladimir—upon seeing clearly—was stunned for a moment, rubbing his eyes in disbelief.
"Hssss... a Magical Creature?"
Though the moonlight made it somewhat difficult to see, it was unmistakable: she possessed a figure that would put most women to shame.
The muscles of her limbs were exceptionally well-developed, and the black-and-white wings at her back were all the more striking for it.
No one had ever encountered a humanoid Magical Creature this convincingly lifelike, yet the distinct aura of a Magical Creature that radiated from Safirose was beyond any imitation.
The Magic Power in Livi's eyes moved like flowing water, and the winding current—like a ribbon of moonlight—showed no sign of stopping.
"As I thought. A genuine Magical Creature."
Vladimir vaulted off his horse with agile ease and loosened the heaviness of his wrists in a casual roll.
The moment his feet touched the bitterly cold frozen ground, his soles abruptly sprouted snow-white ice spikes that drove deep into the earth of the dense forest.
His thick arm rose slowly, and a sliver of cold air curled from between his fingers, coiling above his head like wisps of smoke.
In almost the very next instant, a gleaming ice battleaxe dropped from the sky, caught cleanly in Vladimir's steady grip.
The heavy frost battleaxe radiated a frigid luster in the night air, as though the very atmosphere around it had been frozen solid—countless glittering ice crystals drifting down slowly in its wake.
He swung the massive axe in a powerful arc and charged at Safirose, cleaving a streak of razor-sharp cold through the air.
Safirose's pupils snapped shut. She nimbly sidestepped the waterfall-like descent of the ice battleaxe, rolling swiftly to the side.
Her slender feet seemed to sprout sharp claws without a sound. A single step was enough to gouge deep fissures into the earth.
Shattered ice crystals scattered in all directions like broken diamonds, kicking up white sprays that billowed like snow.
The moment the battleaxe struck the ground, a burst of ice and frost dust erupted upward—like white waves surging and crashing.
When the surge settled, the once fertile earth was blanketed in thick white snow, studded with glittering transparent crystals.
【Frost Lock—Ten Thousand Miles】
Seeing Vladimir take the field personally, the Mage-soldiers let out a collective breath, the tension in their chests finally easing.
Vladimir straightened his back, rested the massive ice battleaxe across his shoulder, and exhaled a puff of white mist.
"Tch. I thought I'd get to rest when we got back."
Safirose stood warily on the thin ice, head lowered, eyes blazing with light as she locked gazes with Vladimir from across the divide.
She remained rooted in place, her body faintly rigid, unwilling to charge recklessly into the enemy's encirclement.
Vladimir, seeing this, broke into a laugh.
"You Magical Creatures never think to use your heads, do you?"
Safirose's heart lurched. Her mind raced.
But in almost that same instant, the ground beneath her feet began to tremble violently.
Cracks spread like a spider's web, splitting wider and wider, surging directly toward her.
Ice pillars shot up from the fissures like arrows—at a speed that barely gave her time to react.
Safirose had just taken a step when the enormous ice pillar slammed into her and sent her flying.
The shattered pillar exploded on impact. Her body plummeted toward the ground like a kite with a snapped string.
Pain crashed over her like waves. Safirose used every last ounce of strength to push herself up onto just half of her body.
At the sight, the Mage-soldiers broke into excited expressions.
"This is why he's the General!"
"He injured the Magical Creature in a single blow!"
Vladimir drove the battleaxe into the ground, leaving a deep gouge, then walked slowly toward Safirose, his gaze appraising.
"A Magical Creature that looks exactly like a human."
"She'll need to be dealt with on the spot."
Outside the Royal Capital, merchant caravans came and went in busy streams every day. A Magical Creature this indistinguishable from a human could easily bewitch unsuspecting passersby.
And with a Cloak to conceal her, she could move through even the bustling Royal Capital without drawing much more than a passing curious glance—her true form nearly impossible to detect.
Which made eliminating her right here and now the only correct course of action.
Just as he was about to close in on Safirose—in almost an instant—the nimble white figure vanished like a phantom.
Vladimir stared at the ground where the figure had disappeared and immediately snapped to full alert, alarm bells ringing loudly in his mind.
He spun around and the ice battleaxe in his hand flashed like lightning, raised in a block before him.
A blade wreathed in cold light lunged in fast, colliding with the massive axe and sending a bone-shaking reverb ringing outward.
The 2 figures held their ground against each other on the frozen earth, both arms trembling at once as force clashed against force in the air between them.
Vladimir felt the immense strength bearing down through his arm—and was genuinely surprised.
"Well, a Magical Creature that plays dead and goes for the sneak attack?"
He kept his tone easy, but Vladimir could sense it clearly: the opponent's raw physical strength was on par with his own.
A Magical Creature that could actually match him—a Mage-soldier—in brute force?
Vladimir could even see it now—a hint of wild, deranged glee spreading across Safirose's face.
Paired with the dark blood at the corner of her mouth, it made her look all the more unsettling.
But she didn't linger. She pulled back immediately, retreating into the treeline.
The next second, she burst through from the other side of the dense forest like a ghost.
Vladimir, with his exceptionally sharp perception, pinpointed exactly where the attack was coming from and wheeled around with a swing of the battleaxe.
The ice battleaxe and the blade clashed again. A shockwave of force detonated outward, shattering every last crystal of frost in the surrounding air.
The clanging of metal on metal rang out without pause, leaving every Mage-soldier present genuinely stunned.
What kind of Magical Creature was this?
To fight the General to such a grinding stalemate—and even put him on the defensive.
The 2 exchanged blows rapidly several times over. Vladimir felt the massive battleaxe in his hand beginning to tremble—just barely, but unmistakably.
At the 7th strike, Vladimir barely managed to get the battleaxe flat across his face to block the incoming cold gleam.
But to his shock, the axe head slowly cracked—and rapidly splintered apart.
Safirose, breaking from the cover of the dense forest, lunged forward and brought the 8th blade strike down upon Vladimir.
Every onlooker stared at Vladimir, now stripped of his weapon, and felt their hearts shoot up into their throats.
But even disarmed, Vladimir showed not a trace of fear.
He turned to face Safirose head-on, threw a fierce punch, and slammed his frost-laced fist directly against the blade—holding it back through sheer force.
The 2 forces met and refused to yield, locked in a frozen standoff.
Vladimir looked at Safirose and burst out laughing.
"Fists—now that's more my style!"
The words had barely left his mouth when the other fist shot forward in a blur, aimed straight at Safirose herself.
In the critical moment, Safirose threw a punch of her own—a direct counter against Vladimir's.
But without years upon years of accumulated training behind her, her strength naturally fell short. She was sent flying back by the blow.
Yet at the very last instant before Safirose went airborne, her hand released a burst of crimson light.
【Fire Serpent's Brand】
A jet of flame coiled into the shape of a tongue-flicking fire serpent—writhing and whipping as it coiled tightly around Vladimir's arm and sank its fangs in deep.
The fire serpent clambered up Vladimir's body with the speed of lightning and then detonated, engulfing him entirely in a blazing inferno.
Meanwhile, Safirose spun once in the air and landed on the ground with the easy grace of a cat.
She stared at Vladimir, consumed by the flames, her breath ragged—eyes flickering with exhaustion and vigilance.
Every onlooker watched the fire raging furiously. Hearts seized tight; the tension was absolute.
Then, all at once, Safirose's eyes went wide.
Before everyone's eyes, the flames slowly receded from Vladimir's body—as if he had been reborn through fire.
He emerged completely unscathed.
His clothing bore nothing more than a faint dusting of ash where it had been singed.
He gave his hand a casual shake, expression entirely composed.
"Not bad fire."
A freshly lit Cigar appeared between his lips.
Smoke curled upward.
"Shame it couldn't have been just a bit stronger."
Safirose's eyes shot wide open. In the same instant, she felt an intense surge of danger pressing in from behind.
She spun around—and what met her eyes was an enormous great white shark, cloaked entirely in liquid, lunging straight for her with its jaws open wide.
Savage teeth flashed with cold light. The colossal shark swallowed her whole.
Safirose, completely submerged in the liquid, thrashed her body without stop, desperately trying to break free.
The shark slammed her hard into the ground, pinning her down against the earth.
The ground shook. Dust and debris erupted into the air.
【Ember Burn】
The next second, flames erupted from Safirose's body and scorched the surrounding liquid into vapor.
A burst of steam rose into the air as the shark slowly dissolved away.
She lay pressed against the frozen, ice-wrapped earth, feeling the bone-piercing cold seep in.
The icy ground stood in stark contrast against the searing heat of the flames.
She forced herself to stand. Even her vision felt slightly blurred at the edges, exhaustion crashing over her like a tide.
At some point, Livi had dismounted from his horse. Countless water bubbles floated in the air around him.
"My apologies. We don't do 1-on-1 fights."
Countless bubbles rose into the sky—like a scattering of stars.
The first raindrop fell slowly from above.
Then the rain grew heavier and heavier, until at last it poured down like a waterfall.
Droplets fell continuously against the ice, and they also soaked through Safirose's body—drenched strands of hair plastering against her cheeks.
And they extinguished the Cigar in Vladimir's mouth.
"Hey, you..." Vladimir went briefly blank, staring at the Cigar in his hand.
In the rain and gloom, Livi walked unhurriedly toward Safirose.
His steps were steady—like a hunter closing in on prey.
Safirose's eyes widened as she tried to break away, but the rain-slicked ice surface held her feet fast.
Watching Livi close the distance, Safirose let out a sharp, piercing shriek—a blast of pressurized air aimed at forcing him back, her voice reverberating through the forest.
【Banshee's Shriek】
Livi's figure twisted and was pierced through by the sound wave, dissolving into flowing water.
At the same moment, in the midst of the downpour, a shark leaped up from the rain, carved a sweeping arc through the air, and crashed violently into the ground.
The water that burst and scattered all around gradually converged—and Livi reappeared directly in front of Safirose.
Safirose's gaze swept across Livi. Then a red warning flared before her eyes:
【Scanning target. Threat level—】
【—Extreme】
Livi's eyes carried a faint trace of rising steam. He looked at Safirose, his gaze cold and unwavering.
"You're under arrest."
All of a sudden, on the frozen ground not far away, a mass of black smoke rose up and began to spread outward in every direction.
The onlookers saw the surging black mist and had no time to think. The instant danger registered, every face hardened into a state of full alert. Magic Power was poured back into their implements; faint fluorescent light shimmered in their hands.
The black mist coiled and wound through the air, and a strange, shrill voice rang out alongside it:
"My apologies."
"My people—you won't be taking her."