Child of Destiny

…

Frost Palace

This was the famous technique that made the Frost Goddess known in every game that she took part in. It was her signature technique that overpowered almost all of the top-ranking players of the virtual world.

In a sense, it was a domain skill that almost had everything. It was granting her a lot of advantages during the battle.

First, it was restricting the movements of her opponents due to the cold temperature of the field. On top of that, she could also cast her spells much faster and easier because of the frost flakes that were lingering in the air.

With ‘Frost Place’, defeating the Frost Goddess was nigh impossible.

It was her domain, her territory!

…

Bang!

Zero was struck by yet another spell and sent him towards the wall of the training ground.

‘How come the gap is so huge?’ he thought to himself as he raised his head with difficultly and looked at Shiella.

He was fighting her for quite some time already yet she was not even showing any signs of slowing down, her casting speed was still as fast as ever.

But the main problem that really gave him a lot of trouble was her godly control over her spells and her extreme precision. She would never miss a skill at him, or even if she did, it was actually a setup for her next attack.

Zero was forced to block all of the spells with his skills since he couldn’t afford to let even a fraction of their mana touch him. Or else, he would surely freeze to death slowly but surely.

He didn’t even have the time to take a break nor gain a proper breathing space for himself. The series of attacks were raining down at him continuously without showing any sign of stopping.

To make the matter even worse for him, his wind elemental mana was also currently useless against his opponent’s frost power. He was currently facing the worse possible opponent that he could face.

Hu~!

Zero quickly regulated his breathing the moment he saw Shiella pause her attacks. But despite that being the case, he still kept his guard up since he knew that this was going to be dangerous if he let his guard down even for a brief moment.

‘Why did she stop? Did she finally run out of mana or her spells are now in cooldown?’ he thought as he stared at his opponent with extreme caution.

But it didn’t take long for him to erase those thoughts inside his head. ‘No, that is impossible. Given her precise control over her skills, it is impossible for her not to be able to control the cooldown of her spells. Their rotations are almost been perfect up until now.’

And sure enough, Shiella didn’t stop because of the reasons that he was currently thinking. “Are we going to continue like this? How about your ‘Elemental Possession’? I heard transcendent races can make a contract to Elemental Spirits and turn them into their personal companions.”

She paused for a brief moment and squinted her eyes before continuing. “And if I am not wrong, it must be those floating specks of lights circling around you.”

Zero was suddenly taken aback after hearing those words. It was not because of the fact that she was aware that he had a Transcendent Race since he didn’t bother to hide his identity this time. Instead, it was because of the fact that she could see his Elemental Companions.

From what he knew, only a player with a Transcendent Race like him could see them. And given that he could see that Shiella’s race is a Half-Elf, she was supposedly not able to see the specks of lights around him.

‘Looks like I really can’t avoid this. Tsk! I should be blaming myself since I asked for it,’ said Zero to himself with a bitter sigh.

After that, he suddenly sheathed both of his swords and put them away. “Then I guess we should start over.”

He then took out a Heath Potion from his inventory and drank it to recover his hp back to full. Shiella didn’t even stop him and just waited patiently in the distance.

A few moments later, the look on Zero’s face suddenly changed as he looked at his opponent who was confidently waiting for him.

“Balin!”

Then he shouted the names of his first Elemental Companion to initiation an Elemental Possession.

Right after he called out that name, one of the specks of lights circling around his body suddenly broke away from the group before appearing behind him in its humanoid form.

It was a knight with two swords while wearing a knight’s armor that seemed to have a pattern of a dragon scale. It was not wearing a helm which was why its long hair was fluttering along with the wind.

That Elemental Spirit stayed floating behind for a couple of moments before turning into a pair of lights that suddenly flew on each of Zero’s hands.

Not long after, a pair of swords with similar style and patterns appeared on each of his hands while enhancing most of his stats.

‘Elemental Sword Materialization (Balin): Knight of the Two Swords’

Right after the twin swords were formed, the aura surrounding Zero instantly changed. Not only did the air around him become heavy, but the pressure that he was giving up earlier also became more powerful.

A single look at him alone was more than enough for Shiella to know that the boost that Zero had received through the Elemental Possession was huge.

On top of that, she could also feel that he received some magical resistance the moment that pair of swords appeared.

But despite being threatened, Shiella started grinning from ear to ear instead. “Yeah, that is right. If you want to win this fight, you at least need to give your all and do not hold anything back.”

After that, she did a couple of taps on the ground with her staff, activation a spell. And within an instant, the frost on the ground started to climb at her and covered her entire body.

A huge block of ice was formed with Shiella being hidden within it.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Not long after, small cracks started to appear on the surface of the block of ice before spreading everywhere.

Bang!

Then it suddenly exploded and revealed Shiella who was now donned with an elegant armor made of ice.

‘Epic Combat Technique: Queen of Winter’

Aside from the armor that she was wearing, her staff also took a slight change. Instead of a simple magical staff, it now transformed into a spear with a sharp and pointed triangular tip.

Alongside all of that, the Froze Palace seemed to resonate with her transformation. It was as if the palace itself possessed an ego and recognized its owner.

Seeing everything right after his own transformation, Zero couldn’t help but smile bitterly before saying to himself. “I guess I am still way too far from reaching the summit. These monsters from the previous ranking list kept on popping out one after another.”

He was now starting to feel that he looked like a frog in the bottom of the well.

Regardless, he still felt excited. It has been a while since he met someone this strong, so strong that they could make him feel small.

After that, he erased all of the useless thoughts inside his head before focusing his mind solely on this fight.

Hu~!

With a deep breath, Zero started gathering his mana and infused all of them on both of his swords. And this time, instead of jade-colored wind elemental mana, both of his swords were emitting a radiant yet evil glow.

He didn’t hesitate this time and initiated the attack all of a sudden.

Swoosh!

He threw a cross slash in the air in front of him while releasing the accumulated mana on both of his swords. A cross-shaped sword wave was sent towards Shiella which was carrying a very strong destructive power.

Hmph!

But Shiella didn’t get intimidated and casually waved her hand in the air, summoning a series of walls made of ice to block the path of the incoming attack.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

It only took three ice walls to completely exhausted all of the energy behind that sword wave. But not long after it dissipated in the air, a streak of silver light suddenly pierced through the blockade of ice walls, destroying the remaining ones in the process.

Swoosh!

Boom!

And within an instant, Zero suddenly arrived right in front of Shiella, ducking and currently in the middle of swinging his swords.

This was his first time getting near his opponent since the start of the match, so he would definitely not let this chance slip away from him. He even cast a territorial skill that would silence his opponent to prevent her from using Blink.

But to his surprise, Shiella didn’t attempt to use any teleportation skill to escape nor took a step backward to retreat.

Instead, she took a brief step forward before vertically swinging her staff-turned-spear.

Swoosh!

Being greeted by such a precise counterattack, Zero was forced to abandon the idea of continuing his attack and decided to defend himself. 𝒃𝙚𝒅𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝒍.𝙣𝙚𝙩

His rich experience in battle was definitely telling him that he was going to die from this attack if he didn’t defend against it.

Having that thought, he was forced to cross his sword above him and lowered his stance, preparing to block the falling ice blade.

Boom!

-155,562

Despite being able to block the attack completely, the damage that he received was still no joke. In fact, his feet even sank on the ground as a huge spiderweb crack instantly appeared.

It was at this moment that Zero realized how strong was the player who previously held the top spot of the absolute ranking list alongside the King of Games himself!

…