“Elementalist!”
Looking at the undisguised burst of ice magic power emanating from Igor, a knowledgeable mercenary cried out in alarm, his voice filled with horror.
Igor didn’t even glance at them.
His gaze, like a snowy plains eagle locking onto its prey, was firmly fixed on Blood Wolf on the main seat.
The young man’s figure moved. 【Frost Resilience】 had already silently circulated throughout his body, causing him to leave behind a slowly dissipating mist of ice at his original position as his true self closed in like a phantom!
Blood Wolf’s expression changed drastically. He hastily drew his blade to block, water-like light swirling on the saber’s surface.
“Boom!“
A fist covered in frost clashed fiercely with the curved blade.
Amidst the exploding ice shards and water spray, that fine steel curved blade was visibly covered and frozen over by a layer of ice, then shattered into pieces with a series of ear-grating crackling sounds!
“You…!”
Blood Wolf held the remaining hilt, stunned into speechlessness.
The other party hadn’t even used any complicated spells, merely throwing a casual punch, and had actually destroyed his weapon enchanted with water elements!
‘Orthodox! It’s… an Orthodox Elementalist!’
‘Damn it! How could there possibly be an Orthodox Elementalist among the wandering mercenaries?!’
Blood Wolf’s face showed shock and rage.
Igor remained silent.
His steps didn’t pause, as if he had only done a trivial thing, continuing to press forward.
“Arrogant!”
Blood Wolf was thoroughly infuriated by his attitude.
With a roar, he held his hands out as if gripping something. A huge water blade formed from rapidly spinning water currents materialized instantly, cleaving down with a momentum to tear everything apart!
‘This is… Condensed Water Blade…’
Igor’s eyes flickered slightly.
The main elemental spirit of the Orion Family was the water element.
Although he wasn’t a water elementalist, having often seen the family’s elementalists fight in the past, he was quite familiar with this common water-based spell.
These high-speed water blades were incredibly sharp, capable of cutting metal and tearing through armor.
Facing this strike powerful enough to sever metal, Igor’s mind stirred slightly. The innate spell 【Frost Resilience】 silently reinforced him once more.
A layer of crystal-clear frost rapidly spread over his arm, flowing with a beautiful luster under the dim light.
The next moment, he actually raised his frost-covered left arm directly to meet that sharp water blade!
“Klang—!“
A piercing impact sound rang out. Water spray wildly splashed but was unable to penetrate that thin layer of frost.
Igor’s arm didn’t budge an inch, while Blood Wolf himself staggered back.
Immediately after, Igor clenched his five fingers together, and the frenzied water blade was instantly caught by its front end in his bare hand!
Extreme cold ice energy spread along the water blade, instantly freezing its front half into a fragile ice sculpture. Then, with a gentle shake from him, it snapped and shattered, dispersing into a sky-full of ice crystals.
“How is this possible?!”
Blood Wolf’s eyes almost popped out of his head.
His full-power strike had been caught and dismantled so effortlessly with a bare hand!
The corner of Igor’s mouth lifted in an almost imperceptible mockery.
Wind, Ice, Water, Dark, Earth, Thunder, Fire, Light…
According to the 《Luminous Moon Meditation Method》 records, the Eight Great Elements have their own cyclical systems, and within these cyclical systems, adjacent elements can transform into each other!
Ice and Water were like this.
Under this transformative relationship, whichever side in a battle possessed stronger magic power found it easier to form a power suppression over the other!
And without a doubt, as an Orthodox Elementalist, the quality of his magic power far surpassed his opponent’s!
Not to mention, his contracted spirit, First Snow, was a retainer of the High-Level Spirit Ale, and was extraordinary in its own right!
Igor took a step. The ground instantly condensed into a smooth ice surface. His entire body slid forward as if gliding, closing the distance again at a speed that left afterimages.
“【Water Prison Cage】!”
Blood Wolf was completely panicked now. Regardless of magic consumption, he slammed both palms on the ground, also unleashing his own innate spell.
Countless turbid water currents burst from the ground beneath Igor’s feet like giant serpents, coiling around his legs, attempting to imprison him on the spot.
Igor glanced down and circulated his magic power once more.
The moment those surging water currents came into contact with his body, their galloping momentum came to an abrupt halt. Centered on the point of contact, they rapidly took on a cold, frosty white color, transforming in the blink of an eye into two twisted, fragile ice shackles.
“Crack…“
The ice shackles shattered accordingly, turning into a pile of ice fragments.
“Monster… You’re a monster!”
Seeing his own always-effective innate spell instantly shattered, Blood Wolf’s psychological defense line finally collapsed, the blood draining from his face.
He panickedly laid down several layers of defensive water screens, then suddenly slapped his chest, roaring with all his might in a hoarse voice:
“Blood Wolf! Come out! Tear him apart for me!”
As he finished speaking, a dark red light erupted. A ferocious, illusory wolf head formed from turbid water and bloody energy materialized with a roar. It was precisely his Lifebound Elemental Spirit!
The moment the elemental spirit emerged, the magic fluctuations around the Blood Wolf Captain suddenly surged violently. His entire aura skyrocketed linearly. Amidst the permeating water vapor was a bloody madness and ferocity.
“Useless struggle.”
Igor finally spoke, his voice icy, without the slightest ripple of emotion:
“First Snow!”
A clear, phoenix-like cry rang out gracefully.
Accompanied by swirling, dancing ice flakes, a stream of ice-silver light elegantly slid out from behind Igor, unfurling in the air—
It was an ice-crystal snow eagle with slender wings, its entire body as if carved from ten-thousand-year-old glacial ice. Every feather refracted pure ice radiance, its posture noble and austere.
It was precisely Igor’s contracted spirit, First Snow!
The moment First Snow appeared, it seemed as if even time stagnated for an instant.
All the water vapor permeating the air, including the ominous red light around Blood Wolf’s spirit, was instantly frozen and purified, turning into fine ice dust that fell down with a rustling sound.
The originally damp, stuffy, dark and humid courtyard transformed in an instant into a hall of boundless frost.
The roar from the Blood Wolf spirit came to an abrupt halt, as if throttled by intangible ice, instinctively feeling fear.
For a moment, it actually stopped its charge and began to retreat subconsciously.
“Screech—!“
First Snow let out another clear cry, its wings beating once as it transformed into an ice-blue lightning bolt that tore through space, heading straight for the wolf-head spirit.
The ice-blue eagle shadow and the dark red wolf head passed by each other.
The next moment, before the wolf-head spirit could even let out a complete howl of agony, it was as if a flame thrown into an extremely cold abyss. Its massive body instantly solidified, then from within burst forth with countless cracks.
With a dull thump, it completely exploded into a sky-full of red ice crystal powder, falling with a rustling sound!
“No—! My spirit!! My Blood Wolf ah—!!”
As if suffering a heavy blow, the Blood Wolf Captain violently spat out a mouthful of blood, his aura rapidly withering like a deflated balloon. In his eyes remained only boundless terror and despair.
One exchange…
Merely one exchange!
In this one exchange, the Lifebound Spirit he had nurtured for nearly twenty years had been instantly killed in seconds by the other party!
The Lifebound Spirit was connected to the contractor’s source.
With the spirit instantly killed in seconds, Blood Wolf also suffered destructive backlash. His entire body’s aura plummeted. Even his appearance had visibly aged.
First Snow’s figure returned gracefully, circling down to land on Igor’s shoulder.
The young man looked down at Blood Wolf from his superior position.
After losing his Lifebound Spirit, the elemental power on this Inferior Elementalist began to visibly collapse. The gaze he directed at Igor was full of sky-high resentment and bone-deep hatred.
But he gritted his teeth, quickly retracted the venomous gaze, hid within the not-yet-dispersed water screens, turned, and fled.
Igor watched Blood Wolf expressionlessly, his mind pondering the bloodthirsty, greedy expression the other had when first seeing him.
‘This Blood Wolf might be related to the missing persons case. He needs to be kept alive for interrogation.’
With his mind set, he casually raised his right hand.
A half-person tall, sharp-edged 【Ice Barrier】 shimmering like diamonds instantly materialized before him!
As if brushing away dust, he casually swung it forward.
The spinning ice shield, with a low whistle, flew like the wheel of death, easily tearing through the several layers of water screens Blood Wolf had hastily laid down. Finally, under Blood Wolf’s terrified gaze, it slammed into his crossed, blocking arms with a crash!
“Crack!“
The sound of arm bones breaking was clearly audible.
Blood Wolf screamed as he was sent flying by the tremendous force, heavily falling to the ground.
He still wanted to struggle, but saw that Igor had somehow appeared before him as if teleporting, looking down at him from above.
The young man extended a finger. At its tip, a point of extremely condensed ice-blue starlight was emitting lethal coldness.
Blood Wolf’s pupils contracted to their extreme limit.
“Wai… Wait…!”
He wanted to beg for mercy, wanted to flee, but the extreme cold had already frozen his thoughts and movements.
Igor’s finger gently tapped onto his forehead. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
A layer of beautiful yet lethal ice-blue color, centered on the young man’s fingertip, spread soundlessly and instantly, covering Blood Wolf’s entire body.
His entire person, maintaining his frozen expression of terror, was completely sealed within a block of transparent cold ice, as if a lifelike ice sculpture.
With everything settled, the young man slowly withdrew his finger.
At this moment, less than ten breaths had passed since he made his move!
Igor slowly raised his head.
Those piercingly cold blue-grey eyes, like two streams of tangible cold currents, slowly swept over the remaining mercenaries in the courtyard who had long been terrified stiff and rigid.
That cold and indifferent gaze, as if looking at ants, became the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
“Ugh ahhhh—! Run! Run away!”
Extreme fear instantly detonated the mercenaries’ last shred of rationality.
They let out inhuman howls, throwing away their helmets and armor, pushing, shoving, and trampling over each other, rushing desperately towards the manor’s exit like headless flies, wishing their parents had given them two more legs…
Igor did not pursue.
He simply stood there quietly, feeling the circulation of magic power within him, his mind reviewing the just-concluded battle.
This was his habit.
After every battle, Igor would recall, review, and see if he could have done better if it happened again.
The terrifyingly cold aura gradually subsided. His slightly curly black hair stirred gently in the breeze.
That earlier crushing battle, which demonstrated the vast chasm between an Orthodox and Inferior, seemed to him like merely a warm-up exercise.
He no longer paid attention to those fleeing mercenaries.
First Snow stood lightly on his shoulder, tilting its head and observing this newly cleared territory with its ice-blue eyes.
Outside the village, the sounds of battle cries timely arose. The ambushing guards blocked the escape routes. The fight quickly turned into a one-sided mop-up operation.
The Baron’s mansion guards were professional soldiers to begin with, far from something these already-terrified wandering mercenaries could withstand.
Approximately twenty minutes later.
When the last fleeing mercenary was captured by the guards, the village finally regained calm.
“Lord Bolo, the Blood Wolf mercenary group has been destroyed. We captured twenty-three mercenaries trying to flee!”
The guard captain approached the young man, his respectful and excited voice faintly trembling.
The other city lord’s mansion guards also looked at Igor with awe, their gazes full of shock.
Just now, they had witnessed with their own eyes how, not long after the other entered the village, the notorious Blood Wolf mercenary group directly collapsed. All the mercenaries in the village desperately fled in all directions. Now, they further saw that captain who was frozen into an ice sculpture on the ground, clearly killed in seconds in just a few moves.
That… was the “Blood Wolf,” the powerful transcendent mercenary captain who had killed the previous knightly lord!
He wasn’t even slain, but frozen alive and captured!
Igor gave the guard captain a slight nod.
His gaze fell upon the tightly shut doors and windows around them. His cold expression gradually softened. His clear voice, amplified by magic power, spread throughout the entire village:
“Fear can be set aside now, my people! Those mercenary bandits who ran rampant here have been eliminated!”
“I, Bolo Leslie, the newly appointed Knightly Lord of the Leslie Family, shall wield the authority of this land. The shadows of the past end here, you are free!”
The anticipated cheers and gratitude did not appear.
The doors remained tightly shut one after another. Occasionally, a window was pushed open a crack, revealing eyes no longer numb as before, but now containing more complex emotions—
Indifference, fear, wariness…
A few children curiously peeked out, but were immediately panickedly pulled back by adults, who firmly shut the doors and windows. Suppressed crying and scolding sounds came from inside the houses.
A deathly silence.
Only the moaning of the cold wind scraping past the dilapidated eaves.
Igor’s brows slightly furrowed. His heart, which had just been relaxed, instantly sank.
He attempted to walk towards the nearest house, looking at the old man watching him warily from behind the window. He spoke as gently as possible:
“There is no need to be wary any longer, elder. I swear by the peace of this land that the bandits who plundered this place have been eliminated. You are safe.”
Pausing for a moment, Igor then tested tactfully:
“Also, by order of Baron Leslie, I am investigating the previous missing persons case…”
“Sir Knight…”
The old man interrupted the young man.
His turbid eyes looked at Igor.
“We are fine here…”
His voice was dry and hoarse, yet unusually clear:
“No one is missing. There never was before, and there won’t be in the future.”
“Please leave. Our Frostwhisper Village… has no wealth, no benefits to be squeezed, and no… loyalty that you seek.”
“This… is also for your own good…”