Chapter 312 Evolved Ice Wings
Listening to the enraged roars around them, Mira and Robin immediately took out their weapons and prepared for battle.
"Protect Rhydian until she can finish her breakthrough! I can guarantee you that she will be several times stronger once she wakes up!" Mira said to Robin who also thought the same thing.
She knew how strong Rhydian was without forming her Beast Core and becoming a Rank 6 Beast. She can only imagine just how strong she'll be after she breaks through.
Just a few seconds after the two of them prepared for battle, they were surrounded by all kinds of beasts. From Crystal Golems to giant frogs and everything in between. Hell, Mira even noticed a few sentient plants approaching them!
Mira quickly formed an Ice Dome around Rhydian as a preventative measure and took a defensive stance.
Normally, Mira would want to be a bit more proactive and jump into the middle of the army of beasts, but she figured that might not be the smartest move this time considering she has to protect Rhydian.
She also knew that doing so would only make things more difficult for Robin which in turn would make things harder for both her and Rhydian.
There's just a slight problem with being on the defensive and it's that she's more vulnerable and open to attacks than if she were to take the initiative.
Mira wasn't too bothered by this though because with her new body she's not only a harder target to hit, but her body is more suited for high-level fights after its pseudo-evolution in the F.LD.I.L.
That, along with her already strong body, quick regenerative traits, and the dense amount of Qi in the atmosphere that allows her to spam high-damage AOE abilities makes her a truly frightening person against a bunch of beasts who have nearly lost their minds.
She quickly formed a dense set of Battle Armor around her with her ice and Qi. This armor was much different than the usual Ice Dress she makes as this one looks more like a knight's suit of armor. The only piece she left out was the helmet as that would affect her field of view.
She also formed a small ice shield to hold in her left hand. Mira contemplated on whether she should use some sort of shield or not, but in the end, she felt like she should if she was going to be playing on the defensive. At least, until Rhydian wakes up.
Sure, the shield will limit how well she can use her scythe, but for this kind of battle, she felt like it'd be more practical in the long run. A shield will allow her to protect her vitals much easier.
On the other hand, Robin was sweating buckets. She doesn't have the combat experience that Mira has nor is she as flexible as her when it comes to abilities and weapons that she can expertly use.
In these types of situations, Robin's field of expertise is more of a backline character who attacks from afar using her wind affinity. As for close-range battles, short swords and daggers are her primary weapons, but those aren't exactly useful in this situation.
As for her affinity, well let's just say that wind isn't quite as versatile or destructive as the ice element. At least, not in her hands. Though it wouldn't be wrong to say that's how most people in the Cultivation World feel about the wind affinity. Cultivators often see it as an affinity that's great at doing swift attacks and having extremely quick movement speed.
Of course, that's not necessarily wrong, but most people fail to understand the full potential of the wind element.
Mira has seen this commonality in both Celaine and Robin, but even if she knows there's not much she can do about it. Especially in a situation like this. It would do Robin more harm than good to be trying out new techniques that she's never used or heard of before.
Still, as the one who has much more experience when it comes to large-scale battles like these where she's at a large disadvantage, Mira couldn't let Robin just run around blindly.
"Robin, just try and dodge their attacks as much as possible. Don't focus on retaliating just yet! You should first get used to fighting in such a chaotic battle! Once you get comfortable, only then should you think about taking the initiative! For now, just try and distract them as I try to deal with the beasts who aren't paying any attention to me!"
Mira didn't know how well Robin would be able to deal with situations like this because on their way down the chasm, they've only been dealing with rather weak beasts and it doesn't take a genius to know that fighting hordes of weaklings is much easier than fighting a horde of opponents of similar or equal strength.
"Alright! I'll do as you say!"
Robin wanted to say more, but she knew this wasn't the time or place. Though she had to admit that Mira's words did calm her down a bit.
With that said, the battle between them and the beasts erupted as soon as Robin's words fell.
Robin, who was being attacked from all sides did as Mira said and only focused on dodging for now. The battle was simply too chaotic right off the bat for her to focus on anything else.
She had beasts who were more inclined for physical battles chasing after her trying to beat her to a pulp meanwhile, various plants and other beasts who could use long-range attacks shot at her from afar!
There were even attacks coming at her from above and below as well! The grass beneath her feet extended, trying to grab onto her while aerial beasts dive bombed from above trying to take her head off!
There were just too many things for her brain to focus on and she didn't have the time nor the experience required to unleash any attacks without being severely injured in exchange.
Well, that's not exactly true as a true expert would be able to attack, defend, and dodge all at the same time, but that's only the case for those battle-hardened warriors who have lived for thousands of years.
Robin is neither a battle-hardened warrior nor a thousand year old monster…
Needless to say, she's going to have a rough time in this battle.
That being said, things weren't much better on Mira's side either. While she may be used to large scale battles like this, even she's not used to battles as messy as this! From her point of view, these beasts have truly lost their mind. The ranged attackers don't care if they hit or kill their allies as long as they can get to her and the front-liners don't care if they get hit by their allies as long as an attack can reach her.
Another thing she noticed is that the beasts seemed to be a bit more enraged than they were in the upper section of the chasm. However, they also seem to be stronger than what they should be at the cultivation level in exchange for the berserk state.
As for how she knows, well she can easily tell that her ice attacks don't cut nearly as deep as they used to and the damage done to her body when she's hit with an attack is slightly worse than what it would be against beasts in the upper levels of the chasm that have the same cultivation.
Unfortunately, she wasn't as quick as Robin nor could she soar into the air so it's inevitable that she would get hit with a few attacks. Even with her sharp instincts and incredible battle experience, Mira still couldn't grasp the entirety of the situation and ended up taking a few hits from behind and underneath her.
Luckily, Mira already guessed that something like this might happen and had already started preparing for it ever since she entered this cavern.
Actually, this is something that Mira has thought of for a while now, but she's been unable to put it into practice due to several factors, the main ones being the mental burden and the cost of using this new ability.
This ability is actually derived from her Ice Wings ability, but instead of the wings being attached to her body as a singular entity, these wings will hover around 30 to 50 centimeters away from her back.
Not only that, but these wings won't be considered as a single entity or, in this case two entities since there are two wings. No, these wings are merely hundreds of ice feathers laid out in a way that they look like wings.
In theory, this ability is the same as her normal Ice Wings ability, but in practicality it's much different. In this way, Mira has to control each individual ice feather with her mind as each ice feather is a separate entity. Doing so may put a large strain on her mind, but the tradeoff is that it allows for much more versatility.
She can disassemble the ice wings into hundreds of small ice feathers and have them revolve around her as some sort of shield or she can shift these feathers into a weapon and use it to both defend and attack. She can even control the feathers to block her enemy's path and many other things.
Essentially, this new ice wing ability can be whatever she wants it to be. However, the Qi consumption of such an ability is vast as she has to wrap each individual ice feather in its own Qi thread so she can control them and use them at her will.
Of course, she can create them without having to wrap them with Qi and attach a thread of Qi to them, but her reaction speed won't be nearly as quick, the power and defensive capabilities will drop, and the range of motion for each ice feather won't be as large or quick without it.
Naturally, doing something like this takes a bit of time, but luckily Mira started preparing ever since she heard the first beast roar.
So, after about a minute since the battle started, thousands of small ice feathers began gathering above Mira's back forming two huge ice wings with a wingspan of about 3 meters!
Mira also decided to pump each feather full of her Yin Lightning, Fire, and Magma as well, essentially creating a bunch of mini bombs on her back that she can use in case of emergencies! This only further enhanced the beauty of her wings as lightning crackled around each feather, magma flowed through them making it seem like they have veins, and a cold blue fire intertwined with the lightning.
Luckily she started creating each feather ahead of time or else she would have needed to wait for her Qi to replenish several times before creating more. However, that's not to say Mira's done with the creation of these wings.
No, she's only just finished creating them. Right now, these wings are rather weak and can only protect her from weaker beasts and abilities. However, all she has to do right now is stay alive and continuously pump more Qi and ice into each feather making them denser, sharper, and more powerful.
Only after that's done will she be able to unleash the full potential of her Evolved Ice Wings! Only then will she be able to go crazy amidst the sea of Rank 6 Beasts!!