Sylas’ voice boomed, Runes forming in his throat and emitting from his mouth. Despite the fact that doing something like this wasn’t normally within his personality, he seemed perfectly natural at it. There wasn’t a hint of discomfort on his face as he roared with all his might.
Let alone the city ahead—even from hundreds of kilometers away—he could be heard clearly, the power of his voice so strong that the snow around him rippled wildly.
Though, that was more in relation to it reacting to his Will than anything else.
As soon as he succeeded, Sylas knew that step one was complete. Now it was just a matter of weathering the rest of the storm and hoping that his goal was properly achieved.
If it wasn’t, there would certainly be trouble on the horizon. Well, he wasn’t afraid of trouble. What he was really afraid of was getting caught with nothing to show for it.
Almost the moment Sylas’ voice boomed, several powerful figures leapt out from the Frostbane Encampment. The walls were outfitted with tall watchtowers that could keep an eye on both the outside and the inside.
Most of the time, these sentries placed the bulk of their attention on monitoring movements within the city, especially any suspicious activity near the walls themselves. But that didn’t stop them from spotting Sylas the moment he appeared in their line of sight.
Sylas had left the smoking vessel far behind him, his movement swift as he cast a familiar ice-surfing Skill to accelerate forward at an even faster pace.
However, while this Skill looked familiar, its implementation seemed to have received a complete buff. Delicate Runes of icy blue and smoky, silvery white took shape, quickly fusing the flakes of snow into currents that Sylas’ feet slid upon.
An arrow whizzed by Sylas’ ear just as he curled the path of ice down a new route, spiraling through the air with unmatched confidence.
His feet suddenly tilted up, and the path of ice shot right into the skies.
BANG!
An arrow meant for him slammed into the trail, causing the path of ice to shake and crack, almost shattering on impact before sapping the arrow dry of all the Frostbane Aether it had and reforming itself.
It works, Sylas thought silently to himself before raising his head and roaring again.
“COME OUT AND FIGHT ME!”
Sylas took another deep breath after his voice echoed, a tornado of ice shards and spiraling crystal blades taking form before his mouth as he roared again.
A cyclone of icy blue took shape, ripping through the air and wind, slicing apart the next volley of arrows that came. They were all silently stripped of their Frostbane as well, the breath of ice growing more powerful as it spun forward and slammed into the first watchtower.
BOOM!
A formation took shape. From an invisible barrier unknown to man, it rippled like a thin icy surface—almost akin to the first layers of frost forming on the surface of a calm lake as Fall gave way to Winter.
Sylas’ eyes quickly scanned it, bouncing back and forth between Runes he both recognized and didn’t. He took note of everything he could in that flash.
Usually, he would be able to see formations without forcing them to activate first, but only he knew why he had taken this approach instead. His plans were solid in his mind, and the more he caught his enemies off guard, the greater chance he would have.
By this point, Sylas had closed the distance from just over two kilometers to less than half of one. Even so, at this distance, being able to attack and land such a heavy blow most definitely caught the Sylphs off guard.
Though they successfully blocked the strike with ease, the level of seriousness with which they took Sylas ticked up a notch.
This wasn’t a normal F-Grade. This seemed to be a genius of the Clypsians with exceptional strength and power. They had to deal with him accordingly.
[Charless Bremm]
[Level: 57]
[Kaique Bremm]
[Level: 62]
[Malopes Aujo]
[Level: 61]
One powerful E-Grade Sylph after another leapt from the walls. Sylas didn’t use his Scouting Skill to scan them, instead feeling out their general strength with his Will. The gap between their Wills was so large that he was confident they wouldn’t sense it.
These Sylphs, despite being in the E-Grade, didn’t even have the lowest Tier of Flexible Will.
For a moment, Sylas was even surprised by this until he realized…
This was the face of most of the world.
He had always been aiming high, trying to measure himself by his own measuring stick and shooting for the stars—not to land on the moon, but to blast right by those twinkling lights.
But sometimes, it was also nice to take a pause and smell the roses…
Even while he was holding back like this…
He was still pretty damn strong.
BANG!
Sylas landed on the snowy plain, his road of ice shattering to pieces as Charless unleashed an arrow. By the time it landed, though, Sylas had already long accelerated forward, the soft snow beneath him having already become a stream of ice.
The claws of Sylas’ feet suddenly hooked down, and his forward momentum came to an abrupt stop.
There was a twinkle in the air by his side, and an illusion ahead faded away as Kaique—a female Sylph—vanished from in front of him and appeared to his side at some unknown time.
However, Sylas’ abrupt stop caused her to miss, her spear lunging past Sylas as her body overextended. It was almost like she had presented the side of her body directly to Sylas…
Something he immediately took advantage of by driving a knee right through her chest, compressing what softness there was there so violently that her ribs shattered through the contact nonetheless.
The Sylph woman was sent flying into the air, a projectile of blood practically being ejected from her mouth.