‘Brilliant!’

Qin Ruo’s brain cells were rejuvenated thanks to the timely suggestion by the two ladies.

With his usual composure back, he instructed Poochie to return to him and began to accumulate the Water Element on the spot.

The daring and confident Qin Ruo had returned. He totally ignored the Misty Beast and Umbra Swordmaster who still stood against him twenty meters away. He was busy draining the Water Element from the surroundings of Kane Jungle at an insane rate, rapidly condensing one Aquarampart after another in front of him. His Condensation Speed got faster and faster as more and more ramparts were constructed.

Outside the ring, some were cheerful while others, were not.

Qin Ruo’s change of stance was rather apparent. He had suddenly turned the tide around as if he had mugged the advantage of the fight away from the Umbra Swordmaster’s grip. Qin Ruo who had been belittled at the earlier stage of the fight was now completely gone.

In truth, the Umbra Swordmaster still held a distinct advantage over his opponent. Not only that, he was immune to Qin Ruo’s Water Element Spell, and Poochie’s strong attack was unable to hurt him. Moreover, his powerful sidekick, the Misty Beast, had shaken off the Frozen Effect too, so Buttcold definitely still possessed the upper hand.

Yet…

When the sixth Aquarampart rapidly formed in front of Qin Ruo while he was still creating more, everyone from Netherspirit’s Claw held their breath. They could tell that Qin Ruo was preparing some ultimate skill.

Altos was especially concerned, and he could not help but furrow his brows.

His anxiousness grew as he watched the increasing number of Aquaramparts in front of Qin Ruo. ‘This must be the famous Twelve Frostramparts Formation.’ He took a glance at Buttcold and feared the worst.

Qin Ruo had used that skill multiple times in the Graveyard of the Gods. The overwhelming frost spell once rendered a Level 49 Elite Boss Vampire Leech immobile. In another instance, it also efficiently aided two Tier 5 Minibosses to take down a Tier 5 Megaboss.

‘Is the Winter Demon planning to use that spell here?’

***

Buttcold paced cautiously. Like Altos, he understood the intention behind Qin Ruo’s series of actions straight away. But he could care less about Qin Ruo’s extraordinary skill.

Under Black Dragon’s arrangement, all of his Dark Gold Equipment were specially forged to conveniently weaken all incoming Water Element Attacks, while also resisting against Status Effect: Frozen. That, on top of his four Waterproofing Potions, basically made Buttcold invincible against all Water-Type Spells and their associated negative buffs. This meant that he need not worry about Qin Ruo’s Attacking Spell for a whole eighteen minutes.

No matter how powerful Qin Ruo was, it would not matter much before his double protection.

He was actually more afraid of Poochie now. The seemingly inconspicuous creature actually possessed two deadly skills—Laceration and Spell Break.

He realized that they had falsely underestimated Qin Ruo’s Pet. That Shadowfox was definitely not some random, ordinary monster. It possessed a terrifying attack attribute and was also equipped with a resilient defensive trait. Coupled with its lightning quick speed, the Shadowfox was certainly one of the most powerful existence in the Pet Class. It seemed funny now that he was planning to kill the Pet for good earlier and force Qin Ruo to look for a new Pet. Now it seemed foolish to even assume that Qin Ruo would ever give up on the Shadowfox.

Poochie’s existence was the exact reason why he had struggled to close out.

Poochie’s powerful attack, though not life-threatening, still hurt a lot. Buttcold was unsure if he could get past Poochie and draw close to Qin Ruo when his Shadow Demonseal was still in cooldown.

As for the Misty Beast, its attack was also not very effective against the cunning Qin Ruo. The Aquamancer took no risk and ordered Poochie to return to him after the swift attack. The Shadowfox was protected by Qin Ruo’s Frostbarrier so that Buttcold would not be able to use the Misty Beast to target it.

Without any feasible target, the Umbra Swordmaster could only watch helplessly and nervously as Qin Ruo surrounded himself with more and more Aquaramparts.

“Watch out for his Frostburst!”

Finally, an Elementalist saw the difficult situation Buttcold was in and decided to warn him through their Party Channel.

“Frostburst?”

The impression of the Twelve Frostramparts Formation was too profound that Buttcold had overlooked such a simple technique. The warning came a little too late, though.

More than ten Aquaramparts turned into Frostramparts with a loud bang. The Twelve Frostramparts Formation was activated, and it began to “march” on towards the Umbra Swordmaster.

The magnificent icy aura almost froze the air in the entire Kane Jungle. Fallen leaves all around were instantly turned into fragile ice sculptures. Shattering sounds were heard as Qin Ruo stepped on the frozen leaves, leaving footprints of crystal powder from the crushed iced leaves along the way.

As he dashed towards the helpless Umbra Swordmaster and Misty Beast, Qin Ruo did not stop, and he created more Aquaramparts.

Buttcold finally reacted following his comrade’s warning. He lost his cool and instructed the Misty Beast to attack the Frostramparts from afar like a mad man.

Unfortunately, the Frostramparts were well dispersed. The Misty Beast’s ranged attack could only destroy a maximum of two to three pieces at one time. Despite disrupting the formation, the Frostramparts’ forward charge did not slow down. Those cold, mirror-like Frostramparts were about to crush Buttcold and his Pet.

“Bastard!”

Buttcold now recognized that Qin Ruo’s target was the Misty Beast and not himself. He hastily jumped into the formation and flung out every skill he had to help the Misty Beast destroy the Frostramparts one by one.

Qin Ruo was waiting for this moment. Schhwaff! Poochie sneaked in swiftly between the ramparts. One hop and a jump later, it appeared before Buttcold with much agility. Bam!! Before Buttcold could destroy the third Frostrampart, Poochie caught him by surprise and sent him flying straight out of the formation. He cursed angrily, “For f*ck’s sake!”

The Misty Beast, which was summoning multiple Shadow Element Bullets to corrode the Frostrampart, immediately switched its target to Poochie and launched a spell.

Boom!

Disgusting black ink suddenly blasted upwards from under Poochie. The sticky fluid immediately engulfed the little creature.

Poochie received 634 damage.

Poochie has been affected by Demon Goo; Movement Speed reduced by 90%; lasts for 5 seconds.

The battle stat was reflected in Buttcold’s mind, and the Umbra Swordmaster was immediately encouraged. He rebounded handsomely from the floor the moment he touched the ground and rushed towards Qin Ruo at full speed with little hesitation.

‘Poochie’s trapped for five seconds! This is my chance!’

The distance between them was only ten meters more or less, and it was further shortened by the Umbra Swordmaster’s dash.

“You’re going to die now!” The Umbra Swordmaster poured out his skill as he laughed ragingly.

However, Buttcold did not realize that the moment he flipped himself up and got back on his feet, those Aquaramparts summoned by Qin Ruo earlier had subsequently turned into ice as well…

Eleven Frostramparts—this was the number of ice walls that sneakily circled the Misty Beast and Buttcold after the Pet collision.

After Buttcold released a quick Shadow sword skill, Qin Ruo sneered at him and chanted arrogantly, “Burst!” As if the button of a time bomb was just pressed, a vibrant shockwave immediately blasted out beside the Swordmaster—Boom!

Thick frost erupted and soon covered the entire battlefield.

***

The battle was set the moment all eleven Frostramparts exploded at the same time.

Outside the ring, the more than twenty Netherspirit’s Claw members turned white due to the shocking loss. They looked on at the frozen battle zone in utter disbelief.

Slayer’s Heart, Violet Orchid, and the gang were the exact opposite. They could not hide the joy in their eyes when they received the final update on the battle situation. Some of them could help not stop peeking at the awful atmosphere on the Netherspirit’s Claw side.

‘Misty Beast, huh… So what? Even at Level 42, it was still instantly killed by our Qin Ruo’s Frostburst!’

Two seconds later, a loud thump could be heard within the fading snow. Two shadows first overlapped before they retreated simultaneously. One of them had a pale, dejected look while the other leisurely played with the little creature on his shoulder. The outcome of the fight was pretty obvious.

The Umbra Swordmaster clasped his weapon tightly and glared hatefully at Qin Ruo as well as his Shadowfox. He gritted his teeth and decided not to invite any further insult. Although Qin Ruo’s attack would not be effective against him, he could do nothing about Poochie defense.

“You’ve won!” the Umbra Swordmaster admitted his defeat reluctantly. He could not complain about Qin Ruo killing his Pet since he was the one who enacted the rule before the fight.

Qin Ruo nodded coldly and accepted Buttcold’s request to cancel the PK. He turned around without a word.

“I’ll return and fight you again one day.” The Umbra Swordmaster’s determined vow was audible behind him.

Qin Ruo stopped and turned back slowly. He spoke to the Umbra Swordmaster for the first time, “I hope you’ll face me with your own strength next time. Using such a cheap trick will never help you grow.”

“I will.”

Qin Ruo immediately regretted his big mouth after Buttcold’s response. ‘Doesn’t this somehow encourage him to continue picking on me in the future? Haih, what am I doing? I’m not very fond of violence, to be honest…’