Arriving at the third node site, Shiro scanned the ground below her to map out the layers.
"Hmm… this o-"
However, before she could finish what she was going to say, she felt danger from 4 sides and quickly entered the rift the moment she had the feeling.
*BOOM!!!
Four separate attacks missed as they frowned.
"Where did she go?" One of them asked.
"Keep an eye out. Get the guys below to focus as well. We've already lost 8 nodes."
"Understood!" Three of the assailants replied in sync.
Shiro, who had entered the rift earlier, was hiding near a cement column.
'Seems like our actions were noticed. Not too surprising, but I don't like people sneak attacking me." Shiro thought with narrowed eyes.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom.
Her body flickered to the closest grunt who was near her. Dragging him by the collar of his shirt, Shiro manoeuvred her body nimbly around his that it almost made her seem like a snake.
*CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK!
Dislocating all of his joints, she slit his throat without much hassle.
*BOOM!!!!
A fireball suddenly hit her spot as Shiro just barely managed to enter the rift once more to dodge.
"Che, ruthless." Shiro clicked her tongue.
If she had been any slower, at least an arm would have been blown off.
Frowning slightly, she knew she had to take care of the leader of the group first. He had the best reaction and was also the one who had fired the fireball.
Leaving the rift while in cover, she peeked out slightly.
Her eyes widened when a fire spear was already about to strike her head.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom + Faded Snow Movement.
Quickly bending her body back, Shiro gritted her teeth feeling the heat of the spear that narrowly missed her head. Since she was a snow girl, she had a 25% vulnerability to fire damage.
Seeing her HP drop rapidly, Shiro slammed her palms into the ground.
*KRRRR!!!!!
Ice expanded out at an outrageous pace, covering the area and turning it into an icy tundra.
The captain frowned seeing her almost instantons reactions.
"Tsk, troublesome." He scowled. Flicking his wrist, fire columns lit up around the area and melted the ice.
Choking from the heat, Shiro made a slightly painful face.
'Of course I'm against a fire type mage.' She cursed.
Breathing out cold mist, Shiro surrounded herself in ice to relieve the heat.
'With my 25% vulnerability to fire. I need to deal with the surroundings first.'
"Blizzard it is." She muttered. Clasping her hands, Shiro opened them to reveal a small orb of neon blue light.
Pinching the light with her right hand, she made three more orbs of light.
'Now!'
Yin Style Phantom Art: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom.
Jumping up, she twisted her body and threw the four orbs in four different directions.
*BOOM!!!!
Blizzard appeared near each of the fire columns as it fought for dominance.
"Futile actions." The captain scoffed before snapping his fingers. The fire columns morphed into fire giants and wrestled the blizzards before destroying them.
Shiro frowned as she decided to give it one more try.
'If I don't kill him this time, I'll retreat.' Shiro thought as she wasn't too bothered about the fact that she needed to run away if things didn't turn out well. She wasn't a headstrong idiot who'll charge into a battle she couldn't win whilst also having the option of running away.
If running away wasn't an option, only then would she fight it out.
Making a magic circle, Shiro suppressed the pain she was feeling inside her body. She gritted her teeth whilst cursing at the one who destroyed her broken links.
'I don't know who this body belonged to but you can bet that I'll skewer the killer. They broke the links and I'll break something else in return!' Shiro cursed in her mind whilst resisting the pain to activate her elemental armour.
Crystal ice armour formed on her arms, legs, shoulders and head. Seeing her MP drop down rapidly, Shiro got to work.
Jumping out of her cover, she saw the captain being surrounded by the remaining two grunts.
'Three… this might be pushing it a little.' Shiro thought.
Twisting her body, she dodged two attacks whilst lashing the spiked chains at the three.
*DANG!
The two grunts activated their elemental armour as well and blocked the chains. While it wasn't True Elemental Armour like what Helion has, it was still a pain to fight again.
However, Shiro had already taken this into account since she wanted them to block her attack. Making an ice spear, she controlled it to shoot towards the captain.
Grabbing the spear effortlessly, the captain looked at Shiro with disdain.
*BZZZ!!!
Before he could speak, lightning erupted out of the spear. He frowned when he felt the numbness.
"Die!"
*BOOM!!!
A sudden beam of energy covered Shiro's vision as she entered into the rift in a state of panic. She had felt the danger but was barely able to react when she saw the attack.
"What the f*ck was that?!!" She cursed out loud.
Retreating roughly 10 meters away from the area, she exited only to see 3 pairs of legs without an upper torso.
"Huh?" Shiro muttered out in surprise.
"You looked like you were having a bit of trouble little snow. Thought I might help out a little." Nan Tian smiled whilst appearing behind her.
Shiro frowned as this meant that she lost out of three potential kills along with a potential level up.
She turned off her elemental armour before pulling out her phone.
[I had it under control.]
"But why did it seem like he was about to unload a face full of fire bullets at you?" Nan Tian raised an eyebrow seeing her stubbornness of not wanting help.
[Look at their location.] Shiro rolled her eyes and gestured at the three pairs of legs.
Looking over, Nan Tian saw three ice spikes locked and ready to shoot upwards.
[Their guard was focused in front of them. I could have escaped their attack while the ice skewered them.]
"They had their elemental armours. How were you so sure that it'll even work?"
[Does it look like the elemental armour had an ass plate? You think their ass cheeks would be tensed whilst they defended in front of them?] Shiro shrugged.
Nan Tian only chuckled slightly at her logic. It was indeed correct since no one clenches their rear whilst fighting. It would limit their leg movement.
So, her logic of redirecting their focus of abuse this natural weak point was indeed a prime strategy that will work.
[There are 5 layers, tens of level 50's guarding each layer.] Shiro typed out her findings from before.
"Alright. Stand back, time to show you what your future sect master can do." Nan Tian smiled and walked over to Shiro.
Mana gathered into his palms instantly as a concentrated ball of energy could be seen.
As much as she found the stalker annoying, she had to give praise to his control over mana.
Condensing the mana until it was as small as a green pea, Nan Tian let go of the ball and watched it drop onto the floor.
*SIIIII!!!!!!
Before the ball even made contact with the floor, the floor started to evaporate
The ball of condensed mana released a pulse of energy at each layer of the underground base, evaporating everyone that was there.
Watching this happen, Shiro widened her eyes as new possibilities surfaced in her mind.
'What if I added one of these condensed mana balls on the tips of the spears. Even if they had protection, the moment the ball exploded inside of them, they'll be long gone! This will work even for bosses!' Shiro thought with some excitement.
"I am not going to put one of these on the tip of your ice spear if that's what you're wondering." Nan Tian said seeing her excitement.
[Close but no sugar. I wasn't thinking of letting you do it for me. It'll take the joy out of it.]
"Joy… huh. So… you don't just pierce them because it's a great weak point???" Nan Tian asking with a raised eyebrow along with hidden fears.
[I mean, it's a good weak point don't get me wrong. But life is about enjoying things no matter what you do. If I didn't enjoy fighting, I wouldn't be fighting. If I didn't enjoy piercing their asses, I wouldn't be piercing their asses.]
'I wish you good luck and don't provoke her.' Nan Tian prayed for the Winter's Grace disciples.
"How did this joy even come about?" Nan Tian asked with slightly conflicted feelings.
[Not for you to know.] Shiro shut him down immediately.
In truth, after the hero had handed her the scientists that experimented on her, she had paid them back for everything they did to her and she never expected the feeling of seeing their faces wretched with pain and tears after being probed would be so invigorating. Especially when they pleaded for her to just kill them normally. Her sadistic heart told her to ignore them and continue with what she was doing. A push here, a twist there and before she knew it, they were already dead.
'Good times.' Shiro smiled.
"Every fibre of my being just told me to not ask about what you just thought so, I won't. Would you like to destroy the node, or shall I?" Nan Tian asked whilst feeling a slight shiver running down his spine.
[You can do it. I'll start pinpointing the next node.] Shiro typed out.
Nodding his head, Nan Tian hopped down the hole that the condensed mana ball made whilst Shiro parkoured up some buildings.
Looking at the light that was still shining so brightly and instead, seemed to get brighter, Shiro had an ominous feeling rise up in her heart.
'A totem ritual shouldn't react like that…' She thought with narrowed eyes.
Making a short run-up, Shiro jumped over the gap between two skyscr.a.p.ers. During this, she decided to look downwards and saw people being evacuated with surprisingly good efficiency.
'Seems like he was right about the fact that the governor was prepared.' Shiro thought. However, her thoughts drifted back to Lyrica and Madison.
'Crap, I've never told them where I was.'
Opening her text messages, which she made silent, in case the noise warns her enemies, she saw over 100 messages sent from Lyrica.
[Shiro: Sorry, I was in a Dungeon before. Evacuate with everyone else, I'll come find you later.]
[Lyrica: Oh thank god you replied. I was so worried! Where are you right now?]
[Shiro: Not too sure. Don't worry. Just focus on evacuating first.]
[Lyrica: Alright. See you soon.]
[Shiro: See ya.]
Putting away her phone, Shiro arrived at the final node.
"Is this the final place?" Nan Tian asked, appearing next to her.
[Yeah. Once we destroy this node, the ritual should stop. But why is the light becoming stronger?]
"Hmm… Indeed. This is rather unusual." Nan Tian muttered, narrowing his eyes at the light.
"Let's destroy the final node and see what happens then." He suggested.
[Alright, let's smash through it quickly.] Shiro accepted his suggestion.
Stepping back slightly, she ran to the ledge of the building and jumped towards the node site.
Understanding what she wanted, Nan Tian followed behind her.
Seeing that Nan Tian was behind her, Shiro continued her fall.
'What is she doing?' Nan Tian thought, seeing that Shiro made no action to readjust herself.
Entering the rift just before she hit the ground, Shiro phased through it without a problem.
Surprised, Nan Tian quickly flicked his wrist as the ground crumbled allowing him safe passage.
'She can go through walls now???' He thought with surprise.
Meanwhile, Shiro, who was phasing through the floors, narrowed her eyes the moment she got to the floor where the final node was.
Exiting the rift, her eyes instantly scanned the area for the location of the enemies. Time seemed to move at a slow pace as she locked onto the closest target.
Making a nanotech dagger in an instant, she made sure that it was extremely thin whilst also being sharp.
When she appeared, her target had tilted his head upwards to look at the disturbance. Little did he know, it just made Shiro's job easier.
Slashing her dagger, it cut through the side of his mouth, through the neck and severed his left arm.
Landing on her feet, she grabbed the man's corpse and used it to defend against an incoming attack.
Since she made the dagger as quickly as she could, not only did they not see the dagger, but the dagger also broke with one attack.
She was about to make an ice weapon when she stopped. Looking at the remaining enemies being erased by a beam of energy, Shiro dropped the corpse in her hands onto the ground.
[Party pooper.]
"Well maybe. But they were about to fire everything they had at you." Nan Tian shrugged.
Shiro only rolled her eyes before walking over to the node. Destroying it with ease, they jumped out of the underground base.
However, what she saw only made her frown.
"Seems like the totem is a little different than we had thought… How strange." Nan Tian said, voicing out Shiro's thoughts.
'This is too strange. The totem should be destroyed… Why is it stronger than before?' Shiro thought with a frown.
"Let's get back to Huan Er first. We'll check out the readings and see what's happening." Nan Tian said seriously. Shiro could no longer hear the playfulness in his voice and knew things were going south.