Chapter 35: Envious gazes
Just when Lucas thought he had read all of her patterns and rhythms, Princess Nyx made a move that shattered his expectations.
In the blink of an eye, she leapt into the air—her movements now fiercer, more erratic, more desperate to draw out something deeper from him. As she ascended, a fresh surge of icy spiritual energy erupted around her, crackling like frozen lightning.
Lucas’s eyes widened.
In that moment, her grace vanished—replaced with a raw, volatile burst of force.
She raised her ice spear high above her head, the surrounding air turning bitterly cold in an instant. The weapon pulsed with condensed frost energy, almost glowing as if responding to her resolve. Then, with a high-pitched whistle that tore through the air, she descended at terrifying speed—a falling comet of ice.
Lucas didn’t have time to dodge.
Her speed had crossed the limits of what his current rank could predict. She wasn’t just moving fast—she was blurring, the air itself distorting around her descent.
He instinctively crossed his arms over his head and activated the runes stitched into the sleeves of his robe. A quick shimmer of golden light flickered across the fabric—the defense array etched into the robe igniting at full power.
BOOM!
The impact shook the dueling platform.
Cracks rippled across the marble floor beneath Lucas’s feet. The spear, empowered by Nyx’s brute strength and Expert-ranked cultivation, smashed down on his arms with brutal force. The defensive rune glowed brilliantly for a heartbeat—and then shattered.