Midnight in Valentine (15)

Pakak.

As red blood sprayed upward, Aslaksha’s face was colored with shock and astonishment.

Pain gradually invaded her expression, and Aslaksha screamed with her brow deeply contorted.

“AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!”

Aslaksha, with her face twisted like a demon, raised her left arm.

Feeling the massive amount of mana gathering at her fingertips, Evangeline muttered.

“As expected, your reactions are quick.”

Evangeline shrugged and glanced at Aslaksha’s severed right arm.

“But how far do you think you can go with just one arm?”

Evangeline swung her greatsword.

A straightforward strike from top to bottom.

Toward the descending greatsword, Aslaksha poured out mana with all her might.

Like most mages, Aslaksha uses mana through her fingertips.

All acts of pouring out concentrated mana, drawing magic circles, modifying them, and adjusting output are performed through the fingertips, considered the most delicate parts of the human body.

And now she had lost five of her ten most useful tools.

Yet even with her output instantly halved, Aslaksha was still evenly matched against Evangeline.

-Jjeojeojeojek…!

An unseasonable cold swirled around Aslaksha and Evangeline.

Aslaksha fluttered her lips, chanting spells in a whispering voice.

A high-speed incantation of more than ten phrases within 0.1 seconds refined and materialized the mana gathered at her fingertips.

“Shaaaaaaak!!”

Dozens of snakes covered in snow-white ice scales suddenly emerged.

Before Evangeline could react, the snakes covered with ice pieces instead of scales bound her entire body like ropes.

The largest one among them crawled toward Evangeline’s nape.

Just as its wide-open teeth were about to pierce her neck.

-Peoseok.

A blue arrow that flew in an instant split the ice snake’s mouth in half.

“Lady Evangeline!”

Oscar, half-consumed by the cold swirling around Aslaksha, exhaled roughly and extended both hands.

His fingertips drew dozens of small, sharp magic circles in the air.

Some of them soon transformed into small but sharp and fast arrows.

The remaining magic circles that didn’t transform into arrows bestowed dozens of enhancement spells onto the blue arrows.

A bombardment of glowing arrows poured toward Evangeline.

The arrows, flying in elegant curves, tore apart the snakes binding her.

Some of them grazed Evangeline’s skin as they passed, inflicting small cuts, but none of them caused a fatal wound to her.

It was a remarkable precision for magic used in a state consumed by cold.

“Interfering till the end…!”

Toward Aslaksha grinding her teeth, Evangeline kicked the air and charged.

Though irritated, Aslaksha responded immediately. The blood gushing from her severed right forearm gathered, writhing into one mass.

The swirling cold gathered around her right arm, freezing the pouring blood together.

The frozen blood transformed into a long, sharp blade, and Aslaksha, as if it were natural, overlaid it with aura.

“What the hell?!”

Evangeline, startled, cursed and twisted her sword path.

It was because Aslaksha had raised her right arm made of blood and swung it toward Evangeline.

-Chwak!!

Aslaksha’s strike cut through the air futilely, and Evangeline’s sword tip deeply slashed Aslaksha’s side.

“Tsk.”

The blood spurting from the deeply cut side froze white and scattered. Aslaksha clicked her tongue and readjusted the cold.

As before, cold gathered around the wound area, immediately freezing the flowing blood.

It was like the principle of a scab forming over a wound. The difference was that the speed was absurdly fast.

“Weren’t you a mage?!”

Evangeline shouted incredulously.

“What’s the problem? Your mage fellow is also using circulation breathing techniques as if it’s natural.”

Aslaksha responded calmly, concentrating mana in her left hand again.

“To win, you use all means available. Isn’t that the same for both your side and ours?”

“Stop being so smug…!”

-Kaang!!

Each time the bright red ice blade and Evangeline’s greatsword collided, Aslaksha frowned and murmured.

“Your brute strength is still the same.”

Despite having aura overlaid, the blade broke halfway with each collision, forcing Aslaksha to continuously consume cold energy.

Aslaksha briefly clicked her tongue, then created distance from Evangeline and extended her left hand forward.

The cold that had been swirling around her until just before gathered in front of her left hand in an instant, as if being sucked in.

The cold compressed into a single point, soon transforming into a small spherical lump of ice.

-Jjeojeak.

Before she could do anything, a soft sound like ice cracking echoed.

-Jjeojeak, jjek. Jjeojeojeak.

It resembled the sound of ice cracking, but also sounded similar to an eggshell breaking and falling off.

“…Dodge, Lady Evangeline!!”

Oscar shouted urgently. Evangeline reflexively raised her greatsword vertically to defend, and simultaneously, the small ice lump caused a white explosion.

-Kukwaaaaaaaaaang!!!!!!

A cold that felt like it was tearing apart skin swirled around. Evangeline gritted her teeth and overlaid heat on the mana circulating throughout her body.

It was a simple trick learned from Lord Scabbard.

Though it was a basic magic that merely imparted attributes to mana, this kind of application was entirely possible.

“Oscar!”

As soon as the cold subsided, Evangeline looked around frantically and shouted.

When no answer came, Evangeline frowned.

“This isn’t the time to worry about others, is it?”

At that moment, Aslaksha’s voice struck her ear. Looking up abruptly, Evangeline saw a giant dragon charging with its mouth open.

“KAAAAAAAA!!!!”

The giant dragon, made entirely of ice, screamed sharply. Through its transparent body, Aslaksha could be seen making a strained expression, as if she had consumed almost all her energy.

If she were to ambush Aslaksha now, she would surely be unable to respond at all.

If only the huge body in front of her wasn’t there.

-Kadeudeudeudeuk!!!

Evangeline urgently extended both hands and grasped the upper and lower jaws of the ice dragon.

Her fingertips dug into the ice mass with a crunching sound. The extraordinary cold surrounding the entire body of the ice dragon stimulated Evangeline’s bare skin.

Within minutes, Evangeline’s fingertips turned blue. At this rate, her fingertips would not only freeze but rot and fall off.

“Uggh…!”

To make matters worse, due to her body becoming dull from the cold, the effect of her circulation breathing technique began to diminish.

Evangeline’s arms slowly began to yield to the dragon’s jaw strength.

-Hwareureureureuk!!!

At that moment, bright yellow flames fiercely swirled beside Evangeline.

“Oscar!!”

Evangeline shouted with a brightened expression. However, the momentary joy soon turned to despair.

Despite Oscar’s flame magic, which squeezed out his last strength, the ice dragon remained intact.

At best, the cold swirling around the dragon had slightly thinned. The dragon’s main body was not affected at all by the heat of the flames.

“This is an artificial familiar created by squeezing out all the power left in this avatar.”

Aslaksha, who had somehow descended from the sky to the ground, murmured quietly.

“It means it’s not an opponent that can be dealt with by mere magic equivalent to a lighter flame.”

-Kwadeuk!!

The ice dragon made a low growling sound.

Evangeline’s elbows touched each other. The dragon rolled its transparent eyes and concentrated all its nerves on its jaw to completely devour her.

“Of course, it would be the same if you pounded it with your greatsword.”

The prosthetic hand supporting the upper jaw creaked and screamed. The frost coating the joints crackled, scattering ice powder.

“Well… that is, if you could escape from there at all.”

Evangeline’s eyes slowly closed. Oscar’s voice calling her seemed to echo distantly.

-Kwaaaang!!!!!

At that moment, a snow-white sword strike swirled in front of Evangeline.

Aslaksha’s face, which had been certain of victory, was instantly colored with shock, and the mouth of the ice dragon pressing down on Evangeline instantly lost its strength.

The huge body of the ice dragon, cleanly cut in half diagonally, collapsed with a thunderous sound.

“…One strike, you say.”

With a face turned pale white, Aslaksha stammered.

“That’s impossible. Leviathan’s ice armor is invincible…”

“Invincible, you say.”

A familiar voice roused Evangeline’s consciousness.

“The most futile word in this world.”

“…”

“There’s no such thing as invincible in this world, miss.”

-Cheolkeok.

The man said indifferently as he sheathed his sword.

“It’s a fact I realized only after losing one eye in the war your side started.”

“…”

Evangeline exhaled a white breath and raised her head. Looking down at her, Raymond Scabbard grinned.

“It’s been a while, Princess.”