Cantia let out a soft chuckle and took an elegant step forward.
The moment her toe touched the ground, a layer of crystalline frost instantly solidified over a hundred-meter radius. “Isn't it only natural? But I’m more curious about… exactly what gave you the courage to face me alone?”
Crack!
The ice beneath their feet suddenly shattered as countless sharp ice spikes erupted from the ground.
This time, Starlight reacted instantly. The moment he sensed the disturbance in the surrounding water elements, he teleported Little Gold, Lian, and Imira a hundred meters away.
Meanwhile, Wu Hua’s figure vanished into a cloud of white mist, leaving the ice spikes to strike nothing but empty air.
“Oh?” Cantia’s beautiful eyes shifted. “Impressive speed. I suppose you’re right here?”
Wu Hua suddenly appeared directly above her, descending head-first from the sky as her dagger traced a brilliant arc of light.
But Cantia didn't even lift her head; she simply waved her hand with casual indifference.
Boom!
An ice wall rose from the earth, precisely blocking the lethal strike. Shattered ice crystals sprayed in every direction, refracting the sunlight into a rainbow of colors.
“Still too slow~” Cantia chuckled as she turned around, only to find that Wu Hua had vanished once again.
Suddenly feeling a chill at her back, she immediately stepped to the side. Despite her reaction, Wu Hua’s dagger still managed to slice through the hem of her skirt.
“Oh? So you were hiding even more speed. It seems you held back a card earlier~ but that only makes this more interesting.” The laziness in Cantia’s eyes gradually faded, replaced by a flicker of battle intent.
“You talk too much!” Facing Cantia’s provocation, Wu Hua swung her arm again. The tip of her dagger abruptly changed direction in mid-air, lunging toward Cantia’s chest like a venomous fang.
Against an ordinary mage, Wu Hua’s fluid chain of attacks would have been enough to throw the opponent into total disarray or even end the battle instantly.
But her target this time was one of the Dragon Kings standing at the very peak of the continent. Even You in his prime wouldn't have dared to claim he could definitely suppress her, let alone a newcomer like Wu Hua, who had only recently reached the Saint Rank.
Cantia lightly snapped her fingers, her crimson lips parting slightly. “Frost-Glow Domain!”
In an instant, a terrifying cold wave centered on her swept across the entire rocky beach, transforming it into a frigid purgatory. Even the air became thick and viscous.
Under the control of this freezing air, Wu Hua’s vaunted speed was severely restricted. Her flickering silhouette became clearly visible within the cold mist.
“Next, it’s my turn~” Cantia licked her lips as a translucent ice sword condensed at her fingertips, and she swung it down toward Wu Hua’s head.
Before the blade even reached her, the bone-chilling cold caused frost to coat Wu Hua’s eyelashes.
Seeing the blue sword light closing in, Wu Hua was forced to abandon her half-finished offensive. She poured every ounce of her strength into bracing her dagger in front of her, barely managing to block the strike.
The moment the ice sword collided with the dagger, a thin layer of ice spread over Wu Hua’s entire arm.
The massive impact sent her flying backward, leaving a long trail in the frozen earth.
“I think you’ve misunderstood something~” Cantia yawned elegantly, covering her mouth. A long dragon tail had emerged from beneath her skirt at some point, lazily thumping against the ground. “Even in human form, the Dragon Race is not something you can contend with.”
“Like I said, you talk too much!” Wu Hua raised her left hand and slammed it into her frozen arm, shattering the thin layer of ice into powder.
“Then I’d like to see how you plan to counterattack...”
Before Cantia could finish her sentence, Wu Hua performed an action that completely caught her off guard.
With a violent flick of her wrist, Wu Hua hurled her dagger like an arrow released from a bow, aiming straight for the Dragon King.
“Hmm? What is this? Throwing away your weapon… have you given up?”
The thought flashed through Cantia’s mind. Before she could figure out what Wu Hua was planning, she instinctively raised her ice sword to block the dagger’s path.
In the next second, her movements froze as if she were suspended in time.
“Wh—”
Cantia looked down and discovered that, at some unknown moment, a giant silver hand had appeared in front of her, clutching her tightly so she couldn't move an inch.
“With just this thing...”
For the first time, a look of panic appeared in Cantia’s eyes. Her vertical pupils contracted sharply as she gritted her teeth.
A terrifying strength belonging to the Dragon Race erupted from her seemingly slender body as she tried to break free from the giant silver hand’s restraint.
To Cantia’s surprise, even when she exerted ninety percent of her human-form strength, the silver hand showed no signs of dissipating.
By then, the dagger Wu Hua had thrown was only tens of centimeters away from her brow. She could even feel a stinging sensation at the point of impact.
Clang!
The dagger, which should have been a guaranteed hit, was swatted away by Cantia’s dragon tail. It veered off its original trajectory and flew high into the air.
“You won’t get another chance like that!”
Having neutralized the lethal strike, Cantia let out a roar. Her body began to swell; she clearly intended to return to her true form to end the battle.
However, in that single moment of hesitation, Starlight’s figure suddenly appeared in front of her.
To her shock, she watched as the young human held an old book right before her eyes.
“Huh?”
Before another thought could form, a powerful shock hit her sea of consciousness like a sledgehammer.
Her half-completed dragonization was forcibly terminated by Noah’s direct strike to her soul.
It had to be said that, up until now, Noah had been an unfailing trump card for Starlight. No one would ever expect a seemingly weak mage to be accompanied by a soul at the peak Saint Rank.
Furthermore, without specific defensive measures, an attack on the soul was almost impossible to block.
Even with the soul strength of the Frost-Glow Dragon King, she fell into a brief daze under Noah’s assault.
While Cantia was stunned, Wu Hua’s figure suddenly appeared by the dagger above her head. She snatched the weapon and used the momentum of her fall to drive the blade into Cantia’s brow.
At the same time, Starlight slammed his pre-prepared Power of Destruction into her waist. The terrifying Transcendent Power burrowed into her body like a venomous snake, forming a lethal pincer attack with Wu Hua’s dagger.
“AAAAAAAH!”
A heart-wrenching scream tore from Cantia’s throat.
Her body began to expand uncontrollably, instantly breaking free from the giant silver hand’s grip. The domain surrounding her shuddered violently.
Countless ice spikes erupted from the ground, forcing everyone back dozens of meters.
By the time Starlight and the others managed to steady themselves and look forward, the surrounding ice mist had begun to dissipate, revealing the Frost-Glow Dragon King once more.
Cantia no longer looked like the seductive and beautiful woman from before. She was now in a half-human, half-dragon form, bearing some resemblance to Little Gold’s previous transformation.
However, spiderweb-like cracks now spread across her entire body starting from her brow. She looked like a shattered ice sculpture on the verge of total collapse.
On the other side, at the wound on her waist, the Power of Destruction continued to erode her flesh, turning large patches of dragon scales to ash every second.
Despite such heavy injuries, the aura emanating from Cantia did not diminish in the slightest. She continued to walk toward them, step by step.
“You... you people...”
Her voice had become a dual-tone, blending her previous charm with the low, resonant rumble characteristic of the Dragon Race.
Wu Hua wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and whispered, “Careful... she might be planning a final desperate struggle. I’ll buy time; you all get out of here.”
“No, she has already reached her limit.”
A calm male voice suddenly came from behind the group.
Starlight whipped his head around to see a tall, silver-haired man standing behind them, quietly gazing at the crumbling Cantia.
Rate on N.U.
