Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Maria wasn't able to waste any time trying to heal herself as the Light Drake came charging at her, full-speed.

"Sigh… Stupid lizard, can't you at least take responsibility for injuring me by giving me a bit of time to heal?" Maria glanced at her dangling arm and asked the Light Drake.

*ROAR*

The Light Drake felt a blood vessel pop on its forehead listening to Maria's idiotic request. Meanwhile, the others watching weren't sure if they should praise Maria's bravery or comment on her shamelessness. The only thing they could do is sigh and pity the Drake.

The only thing on the Drake's mind now was to destroy this shameless human!

Celaine, who was nearing the Drake, was now being left in the dust and was forced to put in more effort into catching up to it.

The Drake was charging up an attack and when it neared Maria, it shot a massive Light Beam at her. Aaron's group was unable to even notice the Light Beam before it actually hit the ground, it was so fast.

*BOOM*

An enormous explosion appeared where Maria previously stood followed by a dust cloud that covered an area of around 50 meters in diameter.

The Light Drake wanted to think that this shot killed this annoying human, but he couldn't as he still sensed her presence. Not only that, but the weak human behind it was catching up.

It didn't delay so as not to allow Maria the chance to counterattack so the Drake lept towards the direction it sensed where Maria was.

Suddenly, before it could even reach Maria's location, it was bombarded with a myriad of attacks. These attacks mainly consisted of much smaller, weaker Light Beams and Light Swords, but they were all aimed at its eyes.

The Drake shut its eyes to block these attacks as it didn't have any time to dodge, but this, unfortunately, gave Maria enough time to close in on the Drake.

"I think it's about time I punish the naughty lizard. You didn't even welcome us properly when we came knocking on your territory! I mean, what kind of host attacks its guests out of nowhere?! Who taught you your manners? Mira? Hehe~" Maria giggled as she appeared on top of the Drake's neck.

Her attack was already charged with her Triple Draws, Light Sword, and Seven Stars Strike. Her sword resembled a shining star as she swung it down towards the Drake's neck. The strike left a nasty gash on the back of its neck, but it wasn't enough to kill.

Maria didn't panic and continued with her Seven Stars Strike, trying to slash the Drake as fast as possible before it regains its senses after being cut in the neck.

2 Hits!

3 Hits!

4 Hits!

5 Hits!

6 Hits!

The light surrounding Maria's sword had now condensed into and although it wasn't as bright, the power emanating from it was truly terrifying.

The Drake had a sudden sense of crisis and overwhelming dread when it felt the aura of the next strike and woke up from its daze, moving immediately.

Maria had already predicted something like this to happen so she had already jumped off of the Drake and into the direction she predicted the Drake to go in.

ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ

She was slightly off in the exact direction, but the Light Drake was so big that it hardly made any difference.

*ROAR*

The Drake roared in anger as it was determined to live and if it couldn't live then it was going to take this pathetic human down with it.

It swung its tail and claws at Maria, but she was just a bit quicker as her swing had already fallen down onto its neck.

She wasn't able to perfectly strike the same gash she made with her previous six strikes, but she also knew that this strike would kill it.

*SNAP*

And kill it she did as Maria heard the satisfying sound of her chopping through its spin, killing it instantly.

"Haha! Gotcha, stupid liza- Blergh!" Maria ended up celebrating, but this momentary lapse in judgment caused her to get punctured by one of the Drake's tail spikes.

The spike entered the side of her body and reached at least 15 centimeters deep inside her stomach.

"Maria!" Celaine yelled in fright when she saw Maria getting stabbed by that spike and brought to her knees.

Luckily, Celaine was nearby and could still calmly assess the situation. She knew Maria wouldn't die from something like this, but it's still not a good thing to see your best friend getting stabbed and was currently bleeding out.

"Hehe… Cough *Splurt*... I got it!" Maria giggled while throwing up more blood and gave Celaine a thumbs up.

Celaine didn't bother dealing with Maria and decided to treat her. First, she cut the spike off of the Drake, leaving it inside Maria's body with a portion of it sticking out. This will prevent her from bleeding out any more than she already was and will give her an ample amount of time to heal with minimal loss.

She then popped in a few Rank 5 Healing Pills and proceeded to dig out the Beast Core from inside the Light Drake.

After digging out the bowling ball size Beast Core from inside the Light Drake, she handed it to Maria in hopes of aiding her recovery.

Maria decided not to play around anymore and sat down to focus on healing her body while Celaine collected the Light Drake's corpse.

After Celaine finished collecting all the loot, she walked over next to Maria in order to guard her until she's healed.

Not much longer after that, she heard noises near her and sensed 5 people walking towards them, in other words, Aaron's group.

"Wow! I can't believe you actually killed that thing! I knew you and Maria were strong, but I didn't think you were this strong! That battle was amazing! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch most of it due to how fast you guys were moving, but I could feel just how intense everything was!" Flint exclaimed with shining eyes.

Aaron nodded as well.

"That was surely an eye-opening fight. I don't think most of our elders would've been able to fight that beast head-on and kill it. You two must've really gotten lucky throughout your time here in the Secret Realm, huh?" Aaron said while still trying to prod for a bit of information. Unfortunately for him, Celaine wasn't stupid and caught on to what he was trying to do.

"Hmm… Well, I didn't do much of the fighting, it was mostly Maria. If I were to try and fight that beast alone, although I might not lose, I don't think I'd be able to win either." Celaine humbly avoided the question.

"As you can see, Maria got a little injured so we are going to take a break here. I don't know if you guys want to continue following us or not since these are the types of battles and enemies we are hoping to face. I'm sure you understand that although you might encounter treasures that can assist with your cultivation while grouping up with us, the likelihood of death is incredibly high. And it most likely won't be the kind of death where you died valiantly in battle, but the death where you get crushed like in ant caught up in the midst of our battle." Celaine cautioned them. She didn't particularly care whether they joined or not, but due to this group of people being surprisingly kind to them, she didn't want to see them dying by some random attack that wasn't even meant for them.

Aaron's group sobered up after hearing Celaine's warning and also got a better look at Maria. She was covered in blood, her chest was partially caved in, one of her arms was dangling, and she had a spike stuck in her side.

This was the cruel reality of the situation. Even with how strong Maria was, she still ended up in this state. They could easily surmise that they didn't even need to get hit by the Drake's claw or tail and the wind pressure alone created by its attacks was more than enough to deal with the likes of them.

Aaron's eyes narrowed as he contemplated whether he should prioritize the safety of the group over the possibility of treasures or vice versa and will he be able to deal with the guilt if one of his teammates died due to a decision he made by a momentary lapse in greed.