"What?!"
Inside the main villa of the village recently recaptured by Bai Zemin and his troops, he abruptly stood up and his eyes flashed with a hint of surprise as he looked at the young man in front of him.
"Are you telling me that halfway there appeared a dozen of goblins?" He asked as if to confirm that he hadn't misheard the previous report.
"Y-Yes!"The young driver and the rest of the drivers in the caravan led by Shangguan Bing Xue nodded immediately.
One of them exclaimed worried and frightened, "Leader Bai, one of those goblins was really big and looked powerful! Miss Shangguan Bing Xue told us to go ahead to report the situation to you but she was left fighting alone against those strange creatures!"
"Damn it!" Bai Zemin couldn't help but curse and quickly disappeared from his position charging towards the northern road.
He hadn't expected the goblins to suddenly attack someone in his group when he had only just learned that these creatures existed!
* * *
In the same clearing within the forest, Shangguan Bing Xue was engaged in a fierce battle against the fat goblin.
Each of them had their respective advantages and disadvantages, so from an outsider's point of view, it might appear that they were evenly matched. However, the reality was that Shangguan Bing Xue's situation was quite complex at the moment.
Swoosh!
She slashed with the ice sword in her hands and a new wound appeared on the fat goblin's back that was now riddled with light cuts from which green blood was constantly spurting out.
"Kii kekekeke!" The fat goblin laughed and swung its bone stick backward causing the air around it to blast unable to withstand the pressure.
Shangguan Bing Xue's beautiful face was as cold as the personification of the ice itself. She muttered a few words and a thick ice wall rose up between her and the fat goblin as she jumped backward in a hurry.
Boom!
When the white bone stick slammed into the ice wall, the force contained by the attack made by the fat goblin caused the mighty defensive wall to withstand no more than a second before breaking into thousands of tiny pieces of ice.
Shangguan Bing Xue's silver hair danced disorderly with the shockwave resulting from the previous explosion. Her face was almost as white as a sheet and her ample bosom rose and fell steadily as a small bead of sweat slid silently down her small nose.
Shangguan Bing Xue's total Mana was just over 220 but even though the battle against the fat goblin had barely extended for about five minutes since it erupted, her total Mana had decayed to just over 70 total points.
The constant activation of her First Order Ice Maker skill to make vines, thorns, bullets, ice pikes, and ice walls to contain the enemy's explosive movements and attacks before her as well as the creation of the ice sword charged with mana and magical power had drained her Mana relentlessly.
Moreover, to maintain her only weapon she needed to administer Mana charges constantly and practically without rest. At this rate, she could barely last a few more seconds before losing most of her battle power.
"Kiii kikiki kekekeke!"
She looked over and saw the fat goblin laugh. Even though the creature's body was plagued with cuts and blood had stained its entire body as well as the ground beneath it, it was still laughing loudly as it looked at her and licked its broken lips.
She gritted her teeth and charged forward again, engaging in a dangerous hand-to-hand battle in which the slightest of mistakes could cost her dignity as a woman if not her life.
Shangguan Bing Xue launched ice bullets, striking the fat goblin's body again and again. Although her attacks clearly had no effect, she continued to perform the same action relentlessly.
The fat goblin had a mocking smile and charged like an unstoppable locomotive as it defied the ice bullets and swung its bone stick fiercely in all directions.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Ice wall after ice wall were destroyed by the goblin's fierce blows and Shangguan Bing Xue was forced to retreat repeatedly until finally her Mana fell dangerously.
She looked at the enemy goblin and dropped the ice sword. With a pale face, she observed how the weapon she had created after consuming much of her Mana disappeared at the same time as she stopped losing Mana to maintain it.
The goblin laughed out loud and took a step forward when suddenly its fierce and lustful expression froze completely. For the first time, the monster's eyes glittered with a tinge of fear as stared in front of it and its entire body quivered.
"No! Wait!"
Bai Zemin, who had traveled ten kilometers in the blink of an eye and had been searching for Shangguan Bing Xue through the forest, stopped his movements when he heard the delicate cry behind him.
The Xuanyuan Sword shone coldly with the sun's rays reflecting off the blade and a bead of sweat slid down the goblin's face.
The fat goblin could feel death, absolute death coming from the dark eyes of the human before it. It was like when the sun was covered by the moon and the night seemed to descend unexpectedly after the appearance of the eclipse that blocked the light.
"What?" Bai Zemin jumped back to make distance between him and the monster and looked at Shangguan Bing Xue as if he were looking at a crazy woman.
Did she want him not to kill the goblin? Her face was terribly pale and her breathing was irregular which clearly indicated excessive consumption of Mana and Stamina. Besides, Bai Zemin had arrived just in time to see the ice sword fall from her hands.
"You'll act arrogant even now?!" he couldn't help but rebuke with a frown.
Shangguan Bing Xue shook her head and looked at him with clear eyes, "It's not that. This goblin is just what I need to evolve to the next stage. Just look carefully and you'll understand."
Bai Zemin frowned and nodded before jumping towards a tree behind him. His eyes fixed on the goblin, waiting to kill it in case she couldn't do something about it. Though he hoped she would become stronger as that way she would be more useful, if she died nothing he had done so far would make sense.
The fat goblin suddenly roared and charged forward. Its lustful eyes had disappeared and turned bloodshot.
Due to the appearance of a much more powerful enemy with such a horrifying Soul Power, the fat goblin had decided to kill the woman to absorb some of her Soul Power and evolve to have a chance of defeating the human man.
Shangguan Bing Xue smiled. Her smile, though exhausted, was bright and warm like the rays of the sun that illuminated the entire world. For a moment, Bai Zemin could not help but even compare her to Lilith's smiles; that's how beautiful her current smile was!
She raised her flawless right hand and whispered, "Burn."
The Blazing Ring on her index finger glowed and a mighty burst of crimson flame shot out, enveloping the goblin completely.
The creature roared in pain and the skin on its body began to vibrate. Surprisingly, after a couple of seconds, the crimson flames burst outward and disappeared into midair. The beast had managed to shake them off with its strange skill!
The goblin's body had some burns, but the most striking thing was the amount of hot steam coming out of its skin. This hot steam was burning the monster's body little by little and its source was, surprisingly, all the water that had been left in its pores.
Water that had formed from the ice bullets launched by Shangguan Bing Xue since the beginning of the battle!
"What happens when something cold collides with something extremely hot?" Shangguan Bing Xue looked at Bai Zemin with her smile still imprinted on her exhausted face. "Then what happens when an extremely hot object comes into contact with something extremely cold?"
"You..." Bai Zemin's eyes flashed with realization and he couldn't help but feel admiration towards the woman in front of him.
Shangguan Bing Xue turned her eyes to the goblin in front of her and said indifferently as she pointed her wand at it, "Freeze."
Spending her remaining 30 Mana points, a blast of freezing air struck the goblin's body and encased it in a statue of ice. However, the beast did not give up and fought.
Its body vibrated strangely and cracks began to spread through all the ice that was holding it back. A few seconds later, the ice broke completely and the goblin roared once more before stepping forward.
However, just as it had just lifted its foot to move forward, the beast's eyes widened.
Crack... Crack... Crack...
Tiny, minuscule cracks appeared on its right leg that in a matter of milliseconds spread throughout its entire body. Bai Zemin could clearly see how the goblin's entire body was riddled with cracks as if it were a vase about to shatter into pieces.
Indeed, the comparison was not too far from reality.
Bang!
At the same time as a big orb of Soul Power entered Shangguan Bing Xue's body, several messages flashed in her retina. However, there was one in particular that fascinated her.
[You have successfully evolved to First Order and obtained the unique class Charming Ice]
It was then that her smile widened even more and as the sun's rays hovered over her, Bai Zemin couldn't help but think that perhaps, angels really did look that beautiful.