Chapter 103: The Prolonged Deadlock of Battle

“Crack, bang, crack!” accompanied by the demon’s howl, the ice sealing the fiend, once reinforced by the cold air, began to thaw as the chill dissipated. The demon finally broke free from the icy prison.

The freshly unfrozen demon immediately fixed its blood-red eyes on Zhuang Xiaoyuan. After enduring a long imprisonment in ice, this earth-burrowing level demon had gone berserk. It no longer obeyed the commands of the distant unknown evil god, nor did it charge toward the south gate. Instead, it charged directly at Zhuang Xiaoyuan, who stood beside Wen Hui.

“Is this the one who injured Xiaoyuan?” Wen Hui asked, controlling the gentle breeze as she flew into the sky, her gaze tracking the earth-level demon rushing beneath her.

“Ice Lance Pierce. Xiao Hui, be careful, this is an earth-burrowing level demon,” Zhuang Xiaoyuan warned, firing sharp ice spears from her side. The spears collided with the demon’s whipping scorpion tail, deflecting the attack. Sitting astride an ice-formed puppet that also ascended into the air, she both attacked and cautioned.

“Eagle Scythe,” Man Yutong called out, flapping the wings on her back. A series of scythe-like wind blades shot toward the cracked armor on the demon’s shell. Passing by Wen Hui, she added calmly, “I think you should be careful, Wen Hui. This is an earth-burrowing level demon.”

“Ah! You two, when did you start teaming up? Don’t leave me behind!” Wen Hui shouted in protest, raising her Hurricane Spear and thrusting it forward. “Hurricane Spiral Spear!”

A miniature storm swirled rapidly atop the spear, shooting out like a concentrated tempest aimed at the demon’s head.

“Ahroar!” Under the combined assault of the three, the earth-burrowing demon turned aside slightly. Wen Hui and Man Yutong’s attacks struck its back, leaving no visible mark. The demon could not reach the airborne trio with its body alone, but if it could not strike effectively at aerial foes, it would not be an earth-burrowing level demon evolved from a siege-level one.

With a furious roar aimed at the trio above, the demon suddenly raised its forelegs and stomped the ground violently. A rumbling roar like an earthquake echoed as sharp stone pillars erupted densely from the earth, aiming to impale the three in the sky.

None of them had seen an earth-burrowing demon use such a tactic before. Had it been hiding its true strength all along? Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s pupils contracted sharply. Without proper defense, the three would be pierced like a hornet’s nest in an instant.

“Ice Puppet, change form, Frost Armor!” At Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s command, the ice puppet beneath her fragmented into shards of white armor that melded onto her small frame. The green-clad girl transformed into a pure white ice maiden.

The transformation completed instantly. Turning around, Frost Armor Zhuang Xiaoyuan placed herself before Wen Hui and Man Yutong. “Spiral Ice Shield!”

Facing the dense assault of stone pillars, Zhuang Xiaoyuan intertwined her fingers before her, conjuring a blunt, conical ice shield that appeared and began spinning rapidly clockwise.

The incoming stone spikes struck the spiral shield and were deflected by its rotational force. The spinning not only repelled the attacks but also prevented them from concentrating in one spot, greatly enhancing the shield’s defensive capabilities.

Though the shield blocked the demon’s attacks, the powerful impact still forced Zhuang Xiaoyuan to retreat rapidly. When the stone pillar assault ceased, she and the two behind her had been blasted nearly a hundred meters away. The spiral ice shield was battered and uneven, the thinnest part barely resisting collapse.

“Huh? Is it... running away?” Wen Hui, the first to recover from the demon’s assault, looked toward the demon’s former position with surprise.

“Running?” A question flashed in Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s mind. She dropped her shield and watched the demon, once frenzied, now sprinting away with its back turned, fleeing toward the distance.

“Idiot, chase it! That thing is heading toward the south gate again!” Noticing the demon’s direction, Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s face darkened. She nudged Wen Hui and took the lead in pursuit.

“Oh, right.” Hearing Zhuang Xiaoyuan, Wen Hui snapped back to reality and dashed forward. Man Yutong quickly followed, flapping her wings in pursuit.

“Hurricane Spiral Spear!” “Eagle Scythe!” “Ice Lance Pierce!” Their attacks struck either the demon’s armor or were dodged, barely causing any harm. The demon’s retaliatory stone pillars were swiftly avoided, or blocked by Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s spiral ice shield.

As the battle continued, the demon drew closer and closer to the south gate. The three could not halt its advance. Moreover, having learned from earlier hardships, the demon now dodged Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s attacks immediately, never allowing her the chance to freeze it.

Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s Freezing Storm was essentially a defensive skill, forming an icy tempest around herself. Without close proximity to the demon, it was ineffective. But approaching the earth-burrowing demon while it was alert was suicidal—even Chloe, the astute one, could not evade its sneak attacks, let alone the inexperienced Shino. Without freezing the demon temporarily, they could not get close; without getting close, they could not freeze it—a vicious cycle.

“What do we do?” Man Yutong flapped her wings anxiously beside Zhuang Xiaoyuan, her gaze fixed on the looming south gate.

“Tsk, is there really no other way? If I could get close, I could use that move to trap it briefly,” Zhuang Xiaoyuan grimaced, frustrated as the gate drew nearer. It seemed their efforts were on the verge of collapse.

“There’s no other choice. Xiaoyuan, I’ll charge in to stop it for a moment. You wait for the right moment to use that move,” Wen Hui said with equal severity, her eyes flickering with a strange resolve as she turned her back on Zhuang Xiaoyuan.

“No, that’s too dangerous. Charging an earth-burrowing demon head-on is suicide,” Zhuang Xiaoyuan immediately rejected the plan.