Ice and Fire (1)

The block of ice hit the duke with a heavy thud. Since his feet were frozen to the ground, he could do nothing but take every hit. “Ye Lanyu, hit his chest, don’t waste your hits on his limbs! Hurt him!” said the seventh princess very calmly. Her words didn’t match her tone at all.

“His chest, his stomach, and that part… Yep, they’re the best parts…” nodded Ye Lanyu, aiming the ice block at the three points. The three vulnerable points.

“You’re a lady, you still need to be a little gentler! His chest will be enough!” said the seventh princess.

“Why do you care?! I’ll do what I want!” Ye Lanyu was still smashing ice into the duke.

“Ah…” It was unbearable to watch now. The duke was crying both on the outside and inside. He deeply regretted provoking this monster of a woman. But first, he still had to wait for his men to arrive.

Oh fuck, why aren’t they here yet?! Are they going to wait until I’m dead?

He was furious at his own men, for they hadn’t arrived after so long. He seemed to have forgotten that he’d left his guards outside the city because he didn’t want anyone to know he was sick.

Boom!

A wave of qi hit the ice block. It exploded. The source of this wave of energy now stood in front of the duke. This middle-aged man looked like a swordsman.

He wasn’t old, but he wasn’t young either. Mastering the skills of a swordsman was the same as any other career. The older you were, the more skilful at it you would be.

A few magicians and fighters arrived behind the swordsman. While they seemed subpar compared to this swordsman, they were still powerful enough to defeat an expert fighter together.

This duke was still a duke, his subordinates would naturally be very powerful!!

“My lord, are you alive?!” shouted a man, panicking. The martial artist shook the duke, who was barely breathing by now.

The duke was still alive, but his reply was a little odd as he pointed at Ye Lanyu, “I’m still alive!! I’ll deal with you later, catch that bitch first! And I want her alive!”

“Understood!” nodded the swordsman. When he was about to attack, he realised Ye Lanyu was already prepared. Magnificent ripples of ice magic formed as she attacked him.

Fuck, this girl isn’t giving anyone any chances!!

“Frostbolt storm!”

A brewing vortex of mist in the sky suddenly rained arrows, and every arrow was made out of ice. Its sharpness and harness could rival a metal arrow.

“Hut! Aargh…”

The swordsman shouted a few times, swinging his long sword around. Every stroke he made would send a wave of douqi, and when the wave touched the arrows, the arrows would disappear while the ripple would still push forward.

The swordsman’s dance quickened, waves of douqi now exploding from himself like blades hurtling towards Ye Lanyu.

In the end, the swordsman was moving so fast he was only a shadow. The space around him sizzled with powerful douqi- it was the fire dance technique used by fire attributes!

Douqi coupled with fire felt like a hot sandstorm, now coming directly at Ye Lanyu. While it was a common douqi technique, it was still a powerful one.

“Ice shield!”

Ye Lanyu waved an arm, a thick wall of ice immediately materialising before her. The wall blocked all attacks, including the douqi.

The fire douqi smashed against the ice wall. You could hear the sound of ice and fire colliding, but the ice wall did not weaken because of it. Its thickness and size remained.

This ice shield technique was one of the best techniques for defence magic. And since Ye Lanyu had the unique ice attribute, that enhanced the strength of this ice shield.

And at this point, Ye Lanyu didn’t rest. Another type of magic was now brewing in her other hand-- of course, it was an attack technique.

“Swirling blizzard!”

Ye Lanyu had released an ice weapon shaped like a spinning ninja shuriken. It spun in a huge arc yet it was heading towards the swordsman- that was the unique characteristic of a spinning ice blade, something not easy to control.

Its path wasn’t a straight line, that made it a very difficult technique to master in the magical world. Only someone who’d had a lot of practice could even hit their target.

Usually, people would use many spinning blades at the same time for a greater effect. Of course, the more blades there were, the difficulty of controlling them would increase.

Soon, the number of spinning ice blades flying in the sky grew to almost ten. They were all heading towards the swordsman, a very impressive scene indeed. However, we all know that a deep danger lurked beneath this beauty.

The swordsman noticed this too. His douqi immediately flew towards the spinning blades, he didn’t want the number of blades to grow, it would be very dangerous to himself.

Thump. Thump…

The blades disintegrated when they collided with douqi, but new blades appeared before their eyes- now faster and deadlier than ever.

The swordsman felt like he should run for his life now, for he couldn’t put any time into attacking Ye Lanyu herself. She was protected by her wall of ice, and he was very distracted by all the spinning blades. If he didn’t destroy them in time, he was likely to be killed by anyone of them.

The battle was now for speed. It all depended on who could attack or defend quicker than the other!

Both of them was equal in skills, neither could take advantage of the other. Many people were very surprised by Ye Lanyu’s capabilities.

They were all thinking, ‘She’s so young and so pretty, I wouldn’t have known she was so scarily powerful.”

The most shocking part was that this wasn’t Ye Lanyu’s limit. Very soon, the number of blades increased- and not by a little, it increased many folds.

“?!”The swordsman was now frantic. Did this mean that she was only testing the waters before this?

No, of course now! That was already Ye Lanyu’s actual capability. Don’t forget she was using the other hand for holding up her defence!

The swordsman had now stopped attacking altogether, for all his energy was put to blocking her spinning blades. Ye Lanyu didn’t need a defence anymore, so she could use both hands and all her attention. The force of her attack naturally increased many folds.