Ye Chuxue was about to once again shake the Dragon Wing, when a dark shadow suddenly plummeted from above her head.
Her reaction speed was extremely fast, almost instantly making the corresponding move as soon as the shadow descended. Being a formidable figure on the battlefield, she made the right choice; she did not lift her head to distract herself but simply controlled a bullet already shot out, guiding it upwards as it connected with the air.
A loud "bang" was followed by the sound of shattering, with a large amount of cold fragments dropping towards her head; feeling the chilling moisture, she understood what it was.
Not just from above, and after the previous preparation, Wang Xiaole was able to, right after finishing the incantation, manipulate several chunks of ice to attack, directly surrounding the target from all four sides.
Without piercing the ceiling or destroying the floor, there was no doubt that Ye Chuxue had no way out at the moment.
In order to prevent Ye Chuxue from shooting again, Wang Xiaole swung a sword towards the front, using the arc-shaped attack to force her to dodge.
Just as she dodged sideways, the ice from four directions completed the blockade, leaving her no time to shoot; and soon, she would be frozen by the endless cold, turning into an ice sculpture in the blink of an eye.
To prevent this scene from becoming a reality, she pointed her fingertips at the void and rapidly constructed a square-shaped protective shield around her body.
The shield was formed by the holy power within her.
Not only was that power extremely pure, but it seemed inexhaustible, with no sign of running dry until now.
The ice pressed against the surface of the shield, visibly changing shape at a rapid pace until it formed a sphere of standard shape; thus, Ye Chuxue was truly trapped inside the ball.
Attempting to further strengthen the round constraint through incantation, at that moment, the ice elements were suddenly out of control due to the girl's interference with her own power.
In order to regain control of the elements in the area, Wang Xiaole dispersed some of his power around; at the same time, Ye Chuxue, pretending to obstruct, revealed her true purpose.
She covered a larger holy power on the outer edge of the sphere, taking control of the ball from the outside.
Following this, she flapped her Dragon Wing, driving the ball to smash towards Wang Xiaole's position.
Having just regained control of the surrounding elements, he reflexively made the most advantageous move, leaning aside to avoid the onslaught of the ice ball.
With a thunderous boom, a corner of the room was instantly struck with destructive force, and several wood chips brushed past Wang Xiaole's clothes in the aftermath.
Not stopping there, five bullets perforated through the melting ice ball towards the outside.
Facing the imminent threats, Wang Xiaole's choice was simple; first, he swung his sword to cut off the two bullets closest to the front; then, he turned his body to temporarily dodge the third bullet; next, he exchanged his hands, lifting the sword held in his left hand upward to shatter the fourth bullet; and in the next moment, the third bullet suddenly changed direction, attacking from behind.
The advantage of switching to the left-handed sword was further demonstrated at this moment; Wang Xiaole twisted his left wrist, allowing the sword hilt to point forward and the blade backward so that, after the bullet "turned around," he could immediately counter it by piercing it with the blade.
But there was still one bullet left, the fifth one.
There was no time to switch hands again, so Wang Xiaole glanced at the wall behind him and immediately took action.
He lifted one leg backward, stepping on the wall with the sole of his shoe, using that point of contact to push off, rotating his body sideways and completing a turn from the ground to mid-air.
At some point during the rotation, his face was aimed at the ceiling, while his left hand behind him pointed the sword tip upwards, stabbing at the bullet moving upwards.
Snap!
That sound marked the result.
In a split second after landing and switching hands, Wang Xiaole couldn't help but analyze the situation:
The curse the girl possessed made the bullets "neutralize defenses," but the function of the ice layer was definitely not meant for defense until he trapped her.
Therefore:
Due to the intentional actions of the girl, the purpose of the ice underwent significant change.
She dared to use her body to collide because she treated the ice as armor and even a weapon of devastating power. And afterwards, indeed, the ice helped her negate the damage.
After the ice block took on a defensive role in reality, the bullets could pass through it.
The curse couldn't effectively counter magical defensive attributes, but the distinction between "magic" and "physical" definitions could sometimes become extremely blurry. For example, ice, formed through magical means, could still be touched and was not a nonexistent illusion from the natural world.
The girl exploited this ambiguous definition to use the curse's second effect.
Underestimating the opponent's intelligence, Wang Xiaole found himself narrowly counterattacked; thereafter, he grew more admiring of his opponent.
Upon being surrounded by ice, the girl's first thought was not how to break free but to maintain the current state and further exploit the disadvantage.
At the moment of switching mindset, she saw the ice as perfect armor covering her body and an astonishingly destructive weapon to use.
The girl did not plan everything in advance; Wang Xiaole could see that she indeed experienced a brief moment of panic when trapped by the ice.
However, shortly after that emotion appeared, she quickly calmed down, swiftly turning passive into active in the shortest time possible, and then transforming disadvantage into advantage.
Though lacking any magical ability, her on-the-spot reaction during combat indeed surpassed anyone Wang Xiaole had encountered to date.
To break the current deadlock, the protective layer must be destroyed.
Wang Xiaole did not boast, but the voice echoing in his mind now was definitely saying:
It is because it was created by me that it cannot be destroyed by ordinary means!
With his thoughts set, he infused fire magic into his sword, allowing every swing to unleash a fiery red blaze.
In this state, he was like a powerful magic swordsman.
The flames engulfed the room in an instant, twisting and deforming furniture and all four walls in the intense heat.
"Sorry to burn down your lodging tonight," muttered Wang Xiaole whenever he had a spare moment to clasp his hands in apology to the girl.
"Plenty more rooms where that came from. But without familiar faces drifting in from time to time, a good dwelling becomes meaningless!" he continued.
Even though the ice was gone, Wang Xiaole couldn't see the girl's expression at that moment.
Hiss hiss hiss!
Despite not directly coming into contact with the flames, the ice ball gradually melted in the high-temperature environment; a portion of it had already turned into falling water droplets.
Through the crack, the fox mask worn by the girl could faintly be seen.
Realizing the ice ball was no longer usable, she wasted no time and swiftly escaped from within with agile movements.
Wang Xiaole raised his sword wrapped in fiery serpents and made several slashes towards the front.
With a piercing sound cutting through the air, Ye Chuxue felt her ears ache, but that was all.
She couldn't resist the opponent's attacks, but she still had the option to evade them.
While she remained unscathed, her ice ball behind her was shattered into several pieces; the larger chunks dropped to the ground, maintaining the size of goose eggs.
In her almost unilateral evasive actions, she was getting closer and closer to the target.
At that moment, Wang Xiaole stopped moving, standing still in place and only utilizing his right hand.
Pointing the sword edge forward, he displayed a cutting stance; from the sword's edge, a red arc extended, driven by the finger roots striking towards the front, elegantly hitting the magical spear.
"This is how it should be done!"
After a blink, hundreds of threads entangled and wrapped around Wang Xiaole's held sword, preventing him from continuing his previous actions.
"Where did these threads come from…" Wang Xiaole's tone seemed to be asking the girl, but he was actually seeking the answer within himself.
After a few glances, he understood:
These threads were different from before, to distinguish between them, it could be understood as follows:
Ye Chuxue had two types of threads on her, one being the real "solid threads"; essentially some thin threads she carried with her, strengthened by holy power to form the product.
The other was purely "illusory threads"; the "illusory" here, relative to the former, did not mean untouchable, but rather that it represented the lack of reality from the power, which was holy power and lacked a tangible presence.
The threads that had been depleted by Ye Chuxue before were indeed of the first type.
Although his sword movements were temporarily restricted, preventing the young man from freely delivering a strike, remember:
He was never just a swordsman.
Although the weapon could not sway freely, this did not mean he was inferior in terms of skill; rather, the situation where the black long sword was entangled by threads placed Ye Chuxue in an unprecedented passive position.
When the boy stopped his movement, the girl similarly couldn't move elsewhere; her location, though not completely fixed, was at least confined to a certain area.
Turning a disadvantage into an advantage was what he learned from her!
Because he sensed what was about to happen, Ye Chuxue's attitude was extremely calm.
She poured all the power she could summon for a period into the magical spear, then later completed a breakthrough for herself, actually achieving it—
—Bang bang bang bang bang bang!
A six-shot burst!
Like a berserker willing to risk it all, Ye Chuxue knew she couldn't evade the next attack, so she took the initiative to move towards the target before she couldn't launch an offensive.
There was no time for incantation; the options in front of Wang Xiaole were limited.
