Chapter 568: Frozen Lake (VI)

The dazzling meteors crashed onto the Ice Devil's body heavily. In an instant, ice fragments splattered and the immense spiritual powers tore the Ice Devil's tough shell. The spiritual powers were as though lightning bolts releasing glaring brilliance in the Ice Devil's body. The meteors set off a series of deep explosions and the Ice Devil flinched.

It was no wonder the Ice Devil had such reactions. As a pure elemental creature, it wasn't afraid of physical attacks because it was formed by spiritual powers and its physique served no other purpose than to bear its weight. Due to this reason, it lacked the nerves and flesh that other living creature had and ordinary physical attacks were harmless against it.

However, it was also due to this that the elemental creatures were extremely sensitive to the disruption of spiritual powers. The purer and stronger the spiritual power, the more damage it would be dealt with. Although Rhode had merely transcended into the Master Stage, his swordsmanship had reached the Legendary Stage. Surely the Ice Devil couldn't resist his all-out attack.

Swish! The Rangers released their fully drawn bowstrings and projected scarlet arrows from their bows. Shortly after, the miserable Ice Devil was engulfed in a series of ear-deafening explosions. Although the Rangers weren't as powerful as Rhode, the conflicting elemental attribute was able to obstruct and restrain the Ice Devil up to a certain extent.

"—!" The Ice Devil grew increasingly angry from the continuous attacks.

As an elemental creature in the Chaos camp, it detested all kinds of lives. And now, these lowly ants actually caused it to be so miserable. The Ice Devil couldn't hold its wrath in any longer. It lifted its head, bellowed, and a green elemental radiance emerged around its body intensely.

At the same time, a dazzling light column descended from the sky and struck the Ice Devil like a gigantic hammer. The Ice Devil sensed the infiltration of a sacred aura that disrupted the spiritual powers that it was coalescing. The pitiful Ice Devil winced and almost fell to the ground.

"Now's the chance!" Marfa yelled.

The mercenaries lifted their weapons and struck the Ice Devil's hind legs with all their might. At the same time, the Clerics standing behind Marfa chanted their spells and extended their hands forward. In the blink of an eye, beams of radiance shrouded the mercenaries and the flames on their bodies burned even fiercer, lighting up their blades in a fiery scarlet. Under Marfa's lead, the mercenaries pierced their blazing swords into the Ice Devil's body and white steam spurted out from within. A thick layer of the Ice Devil's hind leg had as though peeled off and chunks of ice layers fell to the ground. This was the final move to overwhelm it.

The Ice Devil whose elemental powers had been disrupted lost its balance and collapsed sideways on the ice surface. Fortunately, the mercenaries rolled away in time and avoided the tragedy of being crushed by its massive body.

Rhode's eyes brightened at this scene as though an idea had come into his mind. He kept his daggers and retreated, gesturing with his left hand. Shortly after, the Spirit Bird screeched and dove down with a dozen lightning bolts around its body, striking the Ice Devil's massive body heavily. Then, the Spirit Bird discharged electric arcs and bound the Ice Devil like a cage. At the same time, Rhode clenched his left hand and the Hell Hound roared as it made its entrance. After spotting its enemy, the adorable 'kamikaze death dog' pounced forward without any hesitation.

However, the Ice Devil wasn't that easy to deal with.

Although the Spirit Bird's Lightning Cage had restrained the Ice Devil's movements, the Spirit Bird's level was still too low to effectively restrain the Ice Devil. Moreover, the Wind and Water element attributes didn't conflict with each other and as a result, the Lightning Cage vanished after lasting for a few seconds and a large portion of the Ice Devil's hind leg was distinctively recovering at a quick pace. The Ice Devil flipped over and stood to its feet and the damage that the mercenaries had dealt were voided by a thick layer of ice as though it wasn't harmed at all.

However, the mercenaries didn't feel dejected. They were well aware that this creature possessed a terrifying recovering ability. There were many times when they had given up all hopes during the training sessions and they naturally wouldn't harbor such thoughts now.

Moreover, everything that the Ice Devil had done up until this point was exactly the same as the simulation which brought a lot of confidence to the mercenaries. Furthermore, Rhode also shared a huge portion of their pressure. After all, Rhode didn't join in their attacks during the training sessions and the mercenaries didn't imagine having him as such a powerful main attacker and the Spirit Bird to contain the Ice Devil now. Therefore, the mercenaries felt that this battle was much simpler than during the training. They retreated slightly and circled around the Ice Devil to avoid its frontal attack and flinging tail.

Roar... The Ice Devil spotted the ants roaming around its feet which infuriated it even further. It turned around and snapped its mouth forward at the mercenaries.

At this moment, violent flames burst out from the side and engulfed the Ice Devil's head. The Hell Hound sprung up and slashed its razor-sharp claws at the Ice Devil's head, slowing the Ice Devil's movements to a halt. However, the Ice Devil jerked its neck to fling off the Hell Hound that was tearing its head apart. Then, it lifted its right front claw and swatted at the Hell Hound that had crashed to the ice surface.

"—!" A massive explosion blasted across the horizon.

The powerful impact and fiery blaze blasted into the sky. The Ice Devil had been caught off guard and it was too late for it to avoid the surprise. The burning explosion of the Hell Hound's self-destruction had spread along the Ice Devil's front claw and arm and shattered them abruptly. The shockwave tore everything in its path like an enormous meat grinder.

This sudden explosion ruptured the forelimbs of the Ice Devil and the blast impact lifted its body upward. In an instant, the Ice Devil revealed an opening that Rhode had been waiting for. Rhode darted forward with his dagger in a dazzling brilliance like a meteor that streaked across the horizon, puncturing heavily into the Ice Devil's chest.

Boom! Rhode gritted his teeth and the twin daggers in his hands erupted in shimmering spiritual radiance, penetrating deeply into the Ice Devil's chest. Berserk spiritual powers discharged from the razor-sharp blades as Rhode slashed continuously.

The Ice Devil knew that it was in a life or death situation. And now, it had made a decision. It lifted its head and snarled at the top of its lungs. Shortly after, the surrounding flat ice surface trembled, crumbled, and projected huge ice chunks to the Ice Devil.

On the other hand, Rhode had also decided. He twitched his brows slightly and raised his arms to drag out his daggers. Rhode criss-crossed his arms and brandished downward. He flew back swiftly in a string of afterimages using the blast recoil to dodge the flying ice chunks. Then, he landed on the ice surface dexterously and looked up at the Ice Devil.

At this moment, the Ice Devil was battered. More than half of its chest had crumbled due to Rhode's spiritual blast and the ice chunks below its neck had been shattered completely. Countless ice chunks that had lost their spiritual powers fell off from its body and revealed ghastly scars. Perhaps it would've been dead if it were another living creature. However, this was nothing more than another injury to the Ice Devil.

However, this didn't mean that this was ineffective against it.

"Eyes on the target!" Randolf ordered.

He drew an entirely scarlet arrow from his quiver and pulled it fully against his bow. The other Rangers standing around Randolf also aimed their bows at the Ice Devil. "Release!"

Boom! Boom! Boom! Flame sparks exploded continuously. The explosive arrows had struck the Ice Devil's body where Rhode had blasted an opening and exploded in an unprecedented formidable force. The Ice Devil failed to repair its body using the ice around it. To the Ice Devil, it had sunk into a dire situation. The mercenaries' continuous attacks left it panting and this was what Rhode wished to see. Facing an elemental creature, especially one like a fish in water, the best method was to diminish its strength using continuous attacks and shatter its chances of recovering itself. Although the Ice Devil came from the Water Elemental Plane and was considered a pure elemental creature, it couldn't possibly possess pure elemental powers since this place wasn't the Water Elemental Plane. Due to this reason, even if it needed to repair itself when it faced ambushes, its recovery speed wouldn't be as quick and convenient as it was in the Water Elemental Plane.

This was the reason why Rhode seized the chance to strike relentlessly. As long as he relied on his strength and the mercenaries' non-stop attacks, it would be possible to destroy the Ice Devil since it couldn't repair itself. And now, the Ice Devil's miserable plight had proven that Rhode's plan worked!

As for the mercenaries, they didn't consider the situation like Rhode did. But it was apparent to them that just a little more effort and the creature would be doomed!

But the Ice Devil wouldn't be standing idly and accept its fate. It struggled to lift his body and swept its eyes emanating with spiritual radiance to the side. Then, it let out a long cry and struck its powerful tail skyward!

This attack from the Ice Devil could be said to be extremely fast. The tail struck the Spirit Bird soaring in the sky and the Spirit Bird crashed to the ground before it even reacted. The Spirit Bird shattered into speckles of bright dust and vanished into thin air.

But this time, the Ice Devil wasn't simply targeting the Spirit Bird. After striking off the Spirit Bird, it swept its tail toward Lize and the others standing by the perimeter!

Although Lize and the Clerics didn't cause direct harm to the Ice Devil in the battle, they had been silently supporting the mercenaries. Even though the mercenaries were able to dodge the Ice Devil's attack most of the time, there were also instances where they had to resist due to various reasons. This was where the Clerics' protection and blessings had shown their values. No matter how close the mercenaries' strength was to the Master Stage, the mercenaries were still in the Peak Elite Stage. If it weren't for the Clerics' blessings and defense assistance, how would they even deal such high damage to the Ice Devil even with the Elemental Badge?

On the other hand, the Ice Devil was extremely sensitive to the flow of the spiritual powers as a pure elemental creature. After exchanging blows with Rhode, this cunning creature had sensed that Rhode's spiritual powers weren't any weaker than it and it wouldn't yield good results if it continued to meet force with force. On the contrary, although the humans by the perimeter didn't possess strong spiritual powers, they had annoyed the Ice Devil exceptionally. Therefore, the Ice Devil instantly swung its long tail at them after striking off the Spirit Bird. The razor-sharp ice splinter extended from the tip of its tail and lashed at the Clerics like a gigantic thorn.

"Oh no!" Lize swiftly changed her hand gestures and pushed her hands forward with her palms facing up. In the blink of an eye, countless golden runes emerged and revolved to form various circles. Lize pushed her palms forward and formed a sturdy barrier.

At this moment, the Ice Devil's tail struck heavily on the barrier.

Pow! Pow! Pow! After a few attempts to break the barrier, the Ice Devil used all its might to swing its tail with an irresistible force and finally shattered the barrier that Lize had cast.

"Aaah! Lize flew back from the immense force and collapsed to the ground. She looked on frightenedly as the razor-sharp ice splinter got increasingly closer. The spotlessly white ice splinter shimmered a terrifying radiance under the beaming sun as though it would penetrate the young lady's body in the blink of an eye. However, at this moment, a figure stood before Lize.

"Dream on!" Anne raised her shield high and a burst of white steam spurted out from a gap in her shield. Anne plunged the triangular shield downward and expanded it hurriedly to protect Lize and herself.

At this moment, the ice splinter had arrived.

Clang! The thick, gigantic ice splinter collided heavily against the steel shield. Anne grounded her feet and clasped to her shield as the powerful impact pushed her back by up to 10 meters. The ice splinter couldn't tolerate the recoil any further and it came to an abrupt stop.

"Uncle Marfa, it's all up to you!" Anne stabled her footing and yelled forward.