"That's it? You two keep trading the same three insults. Got any fresh words?" Tangxue asked, head tilted like a fox listening in the snow.

"You beast! Don't think that cage saves you; once I crack this ice shell, I'll slice you to ribbons, cut by cut, like winter knives."

"Oh, I'm listening..." Her voice drifted like falling snow.

Boom!!!

"Strange. Why is someone attacking the city now? Didn't Priestess Kuilan block all enemies hundreds of miles from Starfate City?" Fan Chen asked, face dark as a stormfront.

Elder Guishi spoke lazily, voice drifting like a dry leaf. "A ninth-rank Snow Wolf King. Looks like a planned strike, arrow straight to the gate."

"Snow Wolf King? Why would a beast army hit a city..." Fan Chen turned to Tangxue, gaze cold as sleet. "Seems it's here for you."

"...What’s that got to do with me?" Tangxue feigned calm like still water over a whirlpool.

"Well, you locked down Heavenly Melody Academy like a sealed hive. Anyone coming to sting you feels normal, right?"

"Heh." Fan Chen smiled, a blade’s glint on water. "Could you go deal with that Snow Wolf King? Bring back its core. I want to see if this little beast still laughs with that core in her face."

Tangxue's smile went out like a candle in wind. Her right hand drew tight like a bowstring. "I think you'll all die under the Snow Wolf King's claws."

"Oh?" An elder of the Flower of the Other Shore laughed, gravel in his tone. "I'd like to taste a ninth-rank Snow Wolf King. Think its meat beats Flame Wolf?"

Tangxue glanced at the gray-haired man in a black-red coat, eyes cold as frost, etching his face like a knife in stone.

"If you've got the guts, try it. Just don't become that dumb wolf's side dish on a snowy plate."

"Relax. I've eaten more beasts than you've eaten meals," he barked, laughter drumming like hollow wood.

I haven't eaten much rice in more than ten years, Tangxue thought, the memory a thin rain on dust.

"In that case, I'll open the barrier. Please handle the Snow Wolf King outside," Fan Chen said, like opening a gate to a storm.

"Quit dithering like an old aunt. If we're doing it, move. My fists are crawling like fire ants!"

Fan Chen gave the gray-cropped man a flat look, then shut down the barrier like snuffing a lamp.

As they readied to sally, Big White burst in like a blizzard, catching everyone flat-footed.

Awooo!!!

A massive wind blade scythed the square, scattering Flower of the Other Shore cultists like chaff. The pressure dropped like a mountain; minds reeled like kites in a gale. Linyue Yao didn't hesitate; she drew a two-handed greatsword veined in pale red from the void, and swung hard toward the pool like a falling comet.

Tangxue snapped awake like ice cracking. That familiar face chilled her like moonlight on a tomb. Realizing what she meant to do, she screamed, fear spiking like a spear, "Don't!"

Her cry made Linyue Yao falter like a step on thin ice, but she set her jaw and struck. On a battlefield you don't waste breath; she came to save her child, so all else could burn away like morning mist.

The greatsword hit the cage with a humming wave, a hornets' nest of sound that made everyone clutch their heads. But Tangxue couldn't care; she had to stop Qing Feng Yuelian before it struck the mother who had raised her, like a blade turning on warm hands.

Why—why did Mom Linyue Yao come back here? I'd hidden like a pebble under snow so she'd never know I existed... sob... The last person who should be here is you, Mom Yao...

Inside the cage, another ice wall stood like a white cliff—Tangxue had raised it to keep that bastard Fan Chen from hurting her.

Now that same wall became a cold dam, blocking mother and daughter like a river split by stone.

When her strike couldn't crack the cage, Linyue Yao gave the mermaid girl behind the ice a rueful smile, then slipped back like a swallow, dodging the cultists' blows.

"Everyone, focus the woman. Don't let her leave alive!" The order fell like a knife into water.

"You dare! Anyone who hurts her, I'll never spare you!" The always-composed little girl showed panic like a crack in glass. She was calm caged and cursed, but with her dearest in danger, she was helpless, wings knotted like a net. She roared like a tiger, yet she was just a big cat behind bars.

"Yo, cub, weren't you cocky? Think I can't touch you? I finally found your soft spot," Edgar purred, smile oily as lamp soot. "I'll drain her dry in front of you, and let you watch, like moonlight leeching from a corpse."

"Feeling powerless?" Fan Chen smiled, eyes thin as sickles. "Heh, this is just the start. I've got a dozen ways to work you over, drop by drop."

"Then try me," Tangxue snarled, gaze a knife over ice.

"You'll be crying soon," he said, voice cold as sleet.

Though outnumbered like waves on rock, Linyue Yao didn't falter; the Li-Fire greatsword in her grip was a divine blade, carving space like sunrise and holding many at bay.

The Snow Wolf King's side looked bleak; at least two elders pinned it like iron stakes, with others circling like crows to harry it.

"Tch, why are there so many! That brat Fangzhe lied again," Big White grumbled, anger rumbling like distant thunder. "Once I'm out, I'll beat him like dust from a rug!"

"Sunlit Radiance... Flame Sovereign Slash!" The shout rang like a temple bell.

Linyue Yao swung; the white ends of her hair bled red like dawn. A massive fire arc walled her off like a burning river. She dashed toward Big White like a streak of wildfire.

"Hey, dumb wolf, we go guerrilla. Quit trading your life with this mob!" Her voice cracked like a whip over snow.

Big White huffed, disdain sharp as frost, hating the nickname like a burr. With her help, he slid the noose like a fish through reeds.

Woman and wolf were strong as steel, but the enemy was a tide. Before they could flow into guerrilla rhythm, the tide closed and stopped them again like a reef.

"Sky-Locking Stone Shade." The spell name dropped like a boulder.

"Now you can't run..." The promise hung like a chain in fog.

A black-robed man stood atop a boulder like a crow, stone shadows circling woman and wolf like walls.

"So it's you. I remember—you're Kerlinveil Xuewei's adoptive mother, Linyue Yao, right?" said the man who'd boasted of eating the Snow Wolf King, voice slick as oil.

"Didn't expect you to fish these muddy waters. I don't want that crazy woman eyeing me like a hawk, but if you came courting death, we won't be polite."

"I think you should take my advice," she said, calm as a winter pond.

"Take your advice?" a hot-tempered orcish cultist barked, voice like a drum. "You want us to let her go? Truth is, our strongest priestess is here. Even the lord of this plane couldn't save her today!"

"Quit yapping. Grab the woman alive. Tsk tsk... I haven't tasted a young woman in ages... I wonder what this white-haired miss would taste like?" His words slithered like eels.

"She's over three hundred, and you call her 'miss'..." Elder Guishi sneered, his tone a rasp on slate.

"What? An old crone? Ugh... whoever wants her, go. I'm out," the man gagged like he'd swallowed a fly.

"Why do you talk so much..." Linyue Yao lifted her head slowly, eyes dull as ash, her whole body exuding cold like a winter grave.

"Ahhh—why'd this woman suddenly go berserk—help!" His scream tore the air like a split drumskin.

Laughter rustled around like dry leaves. "Serves him right—arguing age with an older woman is like poking a hornet's nest to get stung."

"Hey, hey... he looks about done. Should we go help?" Voices rolled like low thunder.

"No rush—let's see his tricks," someone hissed like a snake in grass.

"Help already!" The shout cracked like flint on steel.

"Hahaha, he's panicking!" Laughter bubbled like boiling water.

"Ahhhh!" The orc's wail rose from below like a dying horn.

"Well... that's a problem. Didn't expect a ninth-rank Bull Demon Elder to fold that fast," someone muttered, face pale as chalk.

"How about... we sheath our edge for now?" The suggestion drifted like a reed on current.

"...He-nan no wisdom teeth," someone mumbled, mangling a proverb like a broken reed.

"Enough. If she runs, won't the priestess flay you?" The warning snapped like a lash.

They thought of that blue-haired demoness and shivered like reeds in frost.

"I think that guy was right. We should team up and take her down first," someone said, voice clanging like a gong.

"Good! Well said! So, who's first?" The question hung like a drawn bow.

Silence pooled like shadow.

"Damn! She's bolting—go after her!" The alarm rang like a bell at dusk.

"Sigh. Didn't think they'd catch up so fast. I thought we could slip away like smoke..." Linyue Yao muttered, breath a thin cloud.

"In the end, we still have to fight. Pity... my Berserk hasn't cooled," she said, mood like banked embers.

Linyue Yao's subclass was Berserker, a storm that ignored rank with a percent-boosting skill. She'd used it to cut down stronger foes like wheat. The flaw was a heavy recoil; the flame-red tips of her hair were a warning ember. Cross the line, and heartfire would burn her from within like a furnace.

As she muttered, a red line sliced past like a comet.

"Hiss... good thing I react fast, or I'd have eaten another ambush," she said, breath curling like frost.

"Hmph... I missed. You're Kerlinveil Xuewei's adoptive mother, right?" The voice was thin as a blade of ice.

"Another one begging for death?" Linyue Yao asked, patience fraying like old silk.

"You're the one dying!" Edgar roared, face twisted like a storm. "Before that damned woman arrives, I'll send her a gift. Your head fits the box like a ruby on velvet."

"A pure-blood Vampire... that vile breed isn't extinct yet?" Her disgust curled like smoke from pitch.

"I thought Xiaohan finished the last one back then..." Her memory stirred like old snow underfoot.

"What did you say?" Edgar's pupils shrank like pinpricks under frost.