After he nullified Eviscerate and Swamp, Qin Ruo followed up by killing seven non-Elementalist players in one fell swoop. This forced the remaining Demon Faction players to retreat immediately. All these were completed in less than five seconds.

Even a champion player like Cruz trembled at such a dominant display of power by the Aquamancer who was now coming through the tunnel. He gave up his resistance and commanded his clan members to fall back. They had to get away as far as possible from the horrible Aquamancer while the temporary blockade created by the Frostburst was still in place.

Meanwhile, those backup players from Twelve Zodiacs and Maverick Vatican were not as decisive and thus reacted half a second slower. Until they decided to run, one of the Elementalists felt something sprung out from the snow and hit his barrier. The Elementalist was then informed by the system that his barrier had been breached.

Following a tragic shriek, the first Elementalist fell.

“Bastard!”

Another Elementalist and two Bandits from further away as well as the Radiant Priest nearby hoped Cruz would turn back and give them a hand. What they saw instead was a rapid fleeing group heading towards the opposite tunnel. They, too, surrendered and resorted to a desperate escape.

The two Bandits activated Stealth without further delay. The other Elementalist, meanwhile, was blocked a few steps forward as if he had run up to a wall. He looked down in horror and found the cold Frostlake water under him had somehow turned into a solid ice layer which rooted him rigidly on the spot. He could not advance any further no matter how hard he tried.

“F*ck! F*ck! F*ck!”

The entrapped Elementalist was not an idiot. Bracing the enormous snow with no sign of the enemy, his face turned purplish as he realized how frightening the enemy they were facing was. The Elementalist could only howl in despair and watch helplessly as the brownish Pet completely dismantled his Darkfrost Shield and finished him off.

‘Elemental Perception…’

This was truly an Elementalist’s mightiest weapon. It would be a nightmare for the enemy if it was used against another Elementalist.

***

“Where is he?”

The two Bandits hidden within the Frostlake could see the hollow perplexity in each other’s eyes. The frost that filled the sky had disappeared after the second Elementalist was killed, yet the overwhelmingly powerful Aquamancer was still nowhere to be found.

‘He is still in the tunnel?’

This might be good news to those Demon Faction players who were fleeing across the Frostlake, but not so for the Bandits…

This was because one of the Bandits was facing towards the tunnel, and there he saw nothing inside. Worse, the little monster that leaped out from the tunnel was now targeting him like a phantom after it slew the Elementalist.

“Shit!”

‘How did it find me?’

The Bandit hopelessly raised his dagger. He then saw a brown figure flash in front of him, and in the next instance, he was knocked back flying horizontally, which stunned him!

“Squeak!”

Poochie seemed to enjoy assassinating players with higher level than itself. After it knocked the Bandit back, Poochie re-gathered momentum and caught up to him as quick as a lighting bolt once again. This time, it smashed the Bandit into the Frostlake.

“Damn!”

The death of the Twelve Zodiac’s Bandit greatly disturbed the other Bandit from Maverick Vatican. Realizing that his disguise might have been exposed, he no longer held back and yelled hysterically toward the besieged battlefield, “Run now! It’s the scary ice demon! He is the one who fought evenly against a Tier 5 pro…”

He figured it out! At last, he managed to associate Poochie’s attacking pattern and its ability to break through the Elementalist’s Barrier with the trending thread that ran wild in the forum.

‘This is the guy—the Aquamancer who had fought on par with Dark Dragon while carrying Poochie.’

The Bandit’s warning came a little too late. The situation on the Battlefield had been long overturned when he screeched out the warning.

***

Qin Ruo activated his Aquamorph when he realized the Demon Faction party had lost their will to fight. He quickly immersed himself into the Frostlake and swam toward the Vampire Leech battle zone at a speed comparable to a Bowmaster with full Agility. Along the way, he provided a push to hasten the extermination of the Elementalist.

Qin Ruo soon reached the Vampire Leech in mere seconds. He first took some time to examine the Boss that had held on and survived for such a long time under its besiegement. The Vampire Leech looked like a dark-colored giant cobblestone with a smooth surface.

The leech was three-meter-long and had no eyes. It had high Magic Resistance, thus most of the spells hitting the Vampire Leech’s visage seemed weakened. The Vampire Leech was more fearful of the Summoner and warriors who attacked it in close distance, as well as the Bowmaster’s skill. These few classes would leave an obvious wound on the monster’s body, and the damage inflicted was far greater than that of an Elementalist.

The Vampire Leech would then counter using the black and smooth tentacles protruding from its body. The tentacle reached out to catch attacking players in the Frostlake and drained their blood.

Qin Ruo deduced that this creature possessed the same ability as the Bloodthirsty Tree. It could absorb HP from any living creature and turn those drained energies into their own.

Perhaps it was due to this unique ability that the Vampire Leech could sustain the attack from more than thirty Demon Faction players with a close to champion-tier Berserker among them for such an extended period.

Well done. Qin Ruo praised the Boss monster in silence. His Elemental Perception had reflected all the details of this boss fight back to him.

At the moment, several Elementalists from Demon Faction had retreated from the fight while their dual defense remained activated. They gazed at the Poochie’s direction as well as the dark tunnel behind it. All the attacking duty was now fell on the Summoners, warriors, and Bowmasters; while two Priests provided support from the periphery.

They were not willing to give up just yet. They planned to let the Elementalists delay the intruder so they could annihilate the Tier 4 Elite Boss for good.

‘Just as I’d hoped!’

Qin Ruo spotted the weakest link in the battlefield and made a move without hesitation.

“Freeze!”

The water zone controlled by Qin Ruo froze under his light roar.

***

“Argh!”

“What the…”

“F*ck! I was frozen! Who did this?!”

Frosty aura ascended out of nowhere. Right after their exclamations of surprise, more than ten Twelve Zodiacs and Maverick Vatican players found that a large area under them had been turned into solid ice. It locked all the main fighters in the besiegement and rendered them immobile.

Before they managed to figure out who was behind all this, their worst nightmare had begun.

As a Tier 4 Elite Boss, although the Vampire Leech did not have eyes or a nose, it could still sense its surroundings using its sensitive receptor. Aided by the rich Water Element in the Underground Frostlake, such sensory system was more efficient in perceiving the world than using the senses.

This Underground Frostlake was a natural battlefield that best suited the Vampire Leech. In conjunction with its vampiric ability, the Vampire Leech was close to invincible in this region. If not because of the number advantage and the opponent’s cunning strategy, it would never be placed on such a tight spot.

Thus, as soon as the Boss felt the rise of the frostiness, it grabbed the golden opportunity.

More than ten tentacles snaked out from beneath the Frostlake and climbed above the ice layer created by Qin Ruo. These tentacles sneaked onto the now frozen warriors and Summoners who had attacked it a few seconds ago and tangled them up.

Once the players were entangled, a sharp black shard was seen drilled out from the smooth tentacle surface and planted into the body of those trapped players.

If they were not frozen, they could fend off the tentacles through evasion or attack. However, the sudden appearance of Qin Ruo had stunned them and they were caught off guard. None of them managed to escape the entanglement this round.

Once the shard was planted, a dose of paralyzing venom was injected into the players’ bodies.

“Priest! Purify!”

“Purify me, now!”

“The Aquamancer is here! What the hell are you all doing!?”

All of a sudden, everyone shouted in panic, but it’s all too late now.

When the Frozen status took effect, which resulted in the Vampire Leech’s tentacles wrapping more than ten players, the Demon Faction players around the peripheral knew at that exact instance they were doomed.

They knew better than anyone what the Vampire Leech was capable of doing.

Once it wrapped tight on a person, the monster would first inject them with a paralyzing venom and then it would suck the player’s blood. Throughout the process, the paralyzed player would not be able to move or do anything about it. They could only lie there and provide HP to the Vampire Leech at the rate of 50 per second.

Prior to this, some of them would be accidentally caught by the leech; it would be a number or two. However, now the monster had taken hostage of more than ten of them. Those melee fighters had all lost their ability to fight, while an overwhelming Aquamancer from the rival faction was still lurking somewhere close to them.

‘It’s simply pointless to continue the battle. No wonder Cruz and company ran away in such a hurry!

‘Damn!’

“Retreat!” One of them growled. The Bowmasters and Elementalists not trapped by the ice turned to flee in haste. They left their paralyzed party members to the Vampire Leech to distract it while they escaped the scene.

“Running away?”

The Demon Faction party’s decision to surrender so easily dissatisfied Qin Ruo.

“I will not allow this!”

He forwent the frozen manipulation near the Leech and controlled the formation of several Frostramparts out from the Frostlake. His sole purpose here was to harvest Honor Points from these people. How could he allow them to get away so easily?

“Stay, every one of you!”

Qin Ruo’s movements in the Water was quick. This was also true for the Aquarampart he cast. The rampart surpassed the fleeing group and blocked the path of the few front most Bowmasters. Then…

“Freeze!”

At the same time, Poochie who had just killed the second Bandit chirped excitedly and dashed over to the next target at Qin Ruo location.

“Dark Cyclone, it’s your turn, guys!”