64 Chapter 64: Fire and Ice (1/2)

”Huff…”

Gritting my teeth, I deflected another of my opponent's strikes, his icy blade grazing my cheek and drawing a thin line of frozen blood.

I could hardly feel the pain. My senses had almost gone completely numb from the cold. I was only reacting on instinct now, fending off the ice mage's sword as desperately as possible with my Gemini twin swords. Even the black and white blades were becoming increasingly encrusted in shimmering frost, which shattered every time they collided with Jie Bing's frost sword.

”Hu…”

My next exhalation was expelled in the form of a thick, dense white mist in front of my face. As I almost failed to parry Jie Bing's next attack, his blade coming millimeters within my nose and glasses before my Gemini twin swords stopped them cold, I realized how sluggish my movements had become, how slow I was to respond.

Jie Bing's chilling frost energy had finally taken effect.

My opponent seemed to have noticed it as well, for he was taking advantage of my dull movements to launch his next round of attacks. Circling me, he timed his strikes perfectly and thrust his ice sword from my blind angle. This time, it wasn't his usual slashes, but a lethal killing blow toward my neck!

At the same time, Jie Bing's sword glowed brightly as azure magical energy enveloped it, its user infusing it with his soul power. Its firepower increased by over a hundred times, this time if I got grazed by it, it wouldn't just end with a single shallow scratch!

I realized once again how terrifying of a genius Jie Bing was. No wonder he made it to the top fifty. At this rate, he would break into the top ten within the next six…no, three months!

That was just speculation on my part and it was irrelevant to me at this point, so I focused on defending. Bringing both my swords up, I crossed them and parried Jie Bing's lethal strike, just barely, stopping the point from reaching my throat. Slightly shifting my body so that I could put more of my weight behind my defense, I desperately made to shove Jie Bing off.

The ice mage's eyes narrowed, his eyebrow raising in astonishment at my successful defense, but he had still somehow prepared for this eventuality. His already bright blade glowed brighter and blasted me at pointblank range.

”Ugh!”

I was thrown back from the immense force, hurtling across the arena and crashing into the frozen ground. Coughing out blood, I struggled to crawl to my feet, only to realize that the majority of my body was entombed in rapidly expanding ice. Both my Gemini twin swords had shattered from the impact as well, and I was currently unarmed.

Not that I could wield a weapon when my hands were frozen in huge blocks of ice.

Jie Bing advanced toward me silently, but I could read his intentions from his expression. He didn't need to say a word – as I mentioned before, Jie Bing believed more in talking with our fists – or our weapons in this case – than with words.

I knew that he was wary of my Vermillion Phoenix, and thus sought to finish me off before I could summon my trump card. He was aware that his current level of power was not strong enough to defeat my Vermillion Phoenix. My soul beast would just turn the entire frozen landscape into an inferno, rendering all of his ice useless, and melt through any defense he could conjure. Therefore he was holding nothing back, giving his all to finish me as soon as possible.

Kicking off the ground, he dashed toward me and swung his sword down to deliver the finishing blow. With this, he could safely finish me off before I could spring Vermillion Phoenix on him.

Unfortunately, my Celestial Guardians were no longer the only soul beasts I could summon.

Crack!

”?!”

Jie Bing spun around when his ice shattered and a gigantic serpent darted out of the ground, snaking forward to capture him in his wide open maw. Fangs dripped with corrosive venom, and a forked tongue the size of his arm extended out like a stabbing prong.

”Serpens!” I shouted. A whip materialized in my hand as I broke free of the ice. ”Ophiuchus!”

However, Jie Bing spun around and threw out his left hand, materializing an ice shield in front of the advancing Serpens. The gargantuan serpent just smashed through the ice shield and made to swallow Jie Bing, but the slight delay in shattering his ice shield meant that he was able to flip about in midair. Using one of the shattered fragments of ice as a foothold, Jie Bing kicked off and streaked toward an opposite direction, completely evading the pursuing Serpens.

However, my whip uncoiled and snagged him, forcing Jie Bing to cut at it with his sword. Instead, Ophiuchus coiled around his sword, wrapping tightly around his blade and crushing it into frosty fragments. Jie Bing immediately enveloped himself in frost armor as Ophiuchus wrapped around his now armored hand, and clamped down tightly. I pulled, my Jie Bing's increased mass and weight from his armor made it difficult for me to budge him.

Jie Bing then materialized a spear while using his own boosted strength and weight to yank me off my feet and drag him toward me. At the same time, he thrust his icy lance toward me.

Unfortunately for him, I wasn't going to just let him jerk me around.

”Rasalhague!” I shouted. Lightning crackled through Ophiuchus and streamed into the heavily armored Jie Bing, who cried out and dropped to his feet, convulsing. His ice cracked and broke under the superheated electric currents, but he managed to hold onto his spear, which remained intact somehow. Don't ask me how.

Not that I cared. I saw a chance, and I was going for out.

”Serpens!” I commanded, and linked to me telepathically, my Constellation spirit was aware of what I wanted. He darted forward again, his maw yawning wide to swallow the kneeling Jie Bing whole. At the same time, I continued to electrocute him with Ophiuchus's Rasalhague.

Jie Bing gritted his teeth, but his eyes seemed to glow an ethereal sapphire. Clenching his right hand into a fist, he punched the ground. Immediately super-cold air billowed outward, shimmering in an arcane azure aura. To my amazement, the lightning from Ophiuchus actually stopped cold, almost as if it was literally frozen. A five-meter radius around Jie Bing turned into ice, and Serpens literally froze, his gargantuan form entombed into ice. I was forced to let go of Ophiuchus by reflex and jumped backward, watching in horror as my Constellation weapon froze and shattered into countless fragments.

If I hadn't retreated on reflex, I would have been caught by Jie Bing's spell as well and frozen solid. The match would have been over.