Chapter 219: Giants Never Retreat

Chapter 219: Giants Never Retreat

The frost dragon Ulyssan charged to the spot where the ascetic Snowman had originally stood, but it struck nothing. It slid straight past, dragging out a long trench behind it.

Behind it, fireballs exploded one after another, rising like successive bursts of fireworks. Klein, his body still somewhat stiff, used them to Flame Jump again and again, not allowing the King of the North to pull away. He remained within five meters of his target the entire time.

When Ulyssan came to a stop, Klein, still invisible, suddenly had a bad premonition, and the corresponding image appeared in his mind. He hurriedly lunged forward, practically贴ing himself to the ground as he burrowed beneath the frost dragon.

At the same time, Ulyssan’s thick, powerful tail lashed out. It swept sideways toward the elven singer Siatas and the Solomon Empire noble Mobet, who were both nearby.

Woo!

The wind suddenly roared. Mobet was thrown into the air, avoiding the frost dragon’s tail. Siatas was half a beat slower. Although she borrowed the wind and retreated along with the sweeping force to dissolve part of its strength, she was still struck on the side. The thick illusory scales that had appeared on her body shattered and disintegrated. Her ribs broke one after another, and she was sent flying backward. Supported by the wind, she fell into the snow not too heavily.

Had it been Mobet, Anderson, or someone similar, that one blow would have been enough to kill them on the spot. Fortunately, the Storm pathway possessed corresponding illusory scale protection, and every Sequence brought appropriate physical enhancement. Siatas was only gravely injured. She did not lose consciousness, and not even all of her ability to move was gone.

At that moment, the King of the North Ulyssan swung its neck, opened its mouth, and spat a sweep of pale-blue rippling light.

The ripple passed over Snowman, freezing the ascetic into an ice sculpture. Edwina, Longzel, and Anderson were either blocked by the enormous dragon body, using other Beyonder abilities, or too far away. None of them could rescue him in time.

Bang!

The frost dragon made a low leap and turned, shaking the ground beneath it.

At that very moment, its condition had clearly declined. The wound on its right shoulder was terrifyingly savage. Although frozen pale-blue blood barely prevented the injury from worsening, the corresponding foreclaw was nearly paralyzed and no longer convenient to use.

Many of the dreamlike scales over its body had also broken, becoming extremely dim, as if it had lost a great amount of life force.

But no matter what, it had gravely wounded or restricted three opponents. Its situation had improved considerably from before. In particular, the giant Groselle’s severe injury meant it would no longer be entangled in melee and could attack at will.

Witnessing this, Edwina’s pale-blue eyes once again became deep black. Thick evil thoughts flowed slowly within them.

Her right hand suddenly clenched. The King of the North Ulyssan again lifted its head and shrieked in extreme pain. Pale-blue liquid flowed from the corners of its eyes and mouth.

At that instant, the frost dragon’s mind was filled with explosive emotions battering its spirit body.

Seizing the chance, Edwina’s eyes brightened and became exceptionally pure. Around her, dawn-like radiance rapidly appeared and condensed into a sword.

She intended to play the role of a Guardian and step forward to block the King of the North.

She believed that since Gehrman Sparrow had gone invisible and approached Ulyssan, he surely had a purpose. What he lacked was only time!

Just then, a figure shrouded in dawn radiance rushed before the frost dragon.

It was the giant Groselle!

His chest was caved in, his gray-blue skin had turned pale, and spiderweb-like cracks had appeared across the broad sword in his hand. Yet he still bravely advanced to meet the enemy.

Groselle was like a man burning away his own life, radiating light and heat as he swung his sword at the target.

“Giants never retreat!”

Amid his furious roar, Groselle blocked the frost dragon’s swipes again and again. And because one of its foreclaws had been crippled, he even had enough spare strength to dodge its ice-blue breath.

“Imprison!” the Punishment Knight Longzel shouted as he rushed over, beginning to restrict the King of the North’s movements. Edwina also found the proper rhythm. She waited until Ulyssan furiously broke free of the restraint, then detonated its emotions, making the control effects continuous and preventing another high-speed charge. Anderson, meanwhile, sometimes threw blazing white spears and sometimes created compressed fireballs, injuring the enemy to the greatest extent again and again. After Mobet recovered, he continued stealing thoughts and abilities, interfering with the frost dragon’s attacks.

Ulyssan twice attempted to spread its wings, stir up the ice and snow, and fly into the air, but each time, Longzel stacked another “flight is prohibited” command onto it, making the attempt difficult and sluggish until it could only give up.

Klein, constantly changing positions near and beneath the dragon’s feet, deepened his control over its Spirit Body Threads bit by bit. He had long since crossed the twenty-second threshold, but he still had not succeeded, because the King of the North’s spirit was too powerful and too mad!

After some time, a loud clang rang out. Groselle’s broad sword, after being touched by the frost dragon’s breath and then struck by its foreclaw, completely split apart. It turned into countless fragments that flew in every direction.

Amid a series of puffing sounds, the already nearly exhausted invisible wall before Groselle was pierced through. Several fragments stabbed deeply into his head and chest.

The closest person, the Punishment Knight Longzel, likewise failed to dodge in time. The armor on his side was shattered, and the flesh beneath was mangled.

“Giants never retreat!”

Groselle roared again. Dawn radiance blazed from his body, and a sword formed purely of light appeared in his palm.

Dark-red blood, almost black, flowed down his face, yet he blocked another strike from the frost dragon.

At that moment, Klein plucked at the Spirit Body Threads as though strumming strings, and finally saw the first signs of initial control.

Three seconds. Two seconds. One second!

The King of the North Ulyssan’s movements suddenly jammed, as if every joint in its body had grown over with rust.

The frost dragon immediately became alert and sensed that the source of danger came from beneath it. While its thoughts had not yet become completely sluggish, it instantly decided to sit down.

It would sit that sinister, vicious bastard into meat paste!

Suddenly, its mind turned hazy, and it actually forgot what it had just wanted to do. More than twenty meters away, Mobet Zoroast’s legs went weak, and he strangely sat down onto the snow.

Seizing the chance, Klein moved his feet. Neither too quickly nor too slowly, he walked to the outer side of the frost dragon’s hind leg.

His invisibility began to fade. After all, an imitation would never match the original. His hands extended slightly, and his spirituality leaped as if he were manipulating an enormous puppet.

Bang!

Ulyssan, whose thoughts had already slowed, recovered its previous decision. Its hind legs slowly bent, and its mountain-like body collapsed downward. But it only kicked up spreading snow and dust.

No… bad… must… do that… Its thoughts flashed one after another in clear sequence. With a bang, its heart contracted, condensing a terrifying light that was nearly white with a faint blue tint.

This was a Beyonder ability originating from its life itself. It could create a freezing hell of extreme cold. Earlier, it had relied on this to stiffen Klein and the others entirely. If not for the ascetic Snowman’s experiences and abilities countering that state to a considerable degree, the number of Beyonders who had died earlier would absolutely not have been limited to one or two.

However, at this very moment, under Klein’s manipulation, everything Ulyssan did had been clearly slowed. Edwina keenly detected the dangerous source she had previously been unable to grasp. She immediately clenched her right hand again, detonating the frost dragon’s violently fluctuating emotions once more.

The King of the North’s body shuddered in slow motion. The nearly white, pale-blue radiance that was about to condense scattered out of control, failing to affect the surrounding environment.

“…Ah…”

The frost dragon’s mouth slowly opened, releasing a broken, stuttering scream.

The elven singer Siatas had recovered slightly and barely stood. Seeing this, she immediately endured the pain and drew her bowstring.

Her hair spread out once again. Heavy leaden clouds reappeared in the air. Two different kinds of silver-white lightning reflected one another, surging into the bow and forming a terrifying arrow wrapped in layers of electric serpents.

Siatas’s face twisted once. Then she released the bowstring.

The silver-white lightning shot into Ulyssan’s chest and abdomen, tearing open a ghastly wound. Inside the wound, sparks burst, and lightning serpents writhed wildly, causing even more damage.

At that moment, Anderson’s eyes lit up. A layer of blazing white flame covered his body, and he transformed into a streak of light that accurately shot into the wound.

Black marks rapidly appeared across the frost dragon’s chest and abdomen, as if someone had scribbled there at random. Under the intense stimulation, Ulyssan’s thoughts became less sluggish. It struggled to flap its wings and rise into the air.

“Flight is prohibited here!” The Punishment Knight Longzel promptly added more restrictions.

Bang!

The King of the North fell back down. The black marks on its chest and abdomen all split open, and pale-blue blood and damaged organs poured out like a waterfall.

Anderson used the momentum to jump clear of the dragon’s body. The flames on his body had gone out, and a thin layer of transparent ice covered him.

“So cold… so cold…” he said, holding Death Knell Short Fang and stiffly hopping outward, his body constantly trembling.

Klein, who had nearly lost initial control when the frost dragon struggled free, recovered the feeling again, making Ulyssan’s thought of dragging everyone present down with it become sluggish. At the same time, that thought was stolen and detonated.

The dragon’s long neck slowly tilted upward. It released a slow, mournful cry, and its body fell inch by inch.

During this process, Klein did not try to stop Siatas and the others from continuing their attacks, because he knew very well that turning the frost dragon into a marionette would take far more than five minutes, and during that time, there would be far too many possible accidents.

Panting, the Punishment Knight Longzel straightened. Even with the flesh on his side mangled, he once again pushed out the palm not holding a sword and declared solemnly in ancient Hermes:

“Death!”

Ulyssan’s body shook once, then crashed to the ground like a small mountain made of snow and ice.

Beams of nearly white, pale-blue light erupted from within its body, churning flesh and blood and rapidly traveling everywhere. Soon, the enormous dragon corpse transformed into a thick, tall, snow-covered double door.

Without needing anyone to tell them, every Beyonder present knew that this was the door leading back to the outside world.

“Finally… finally… we succeeded…” The giant Groselle laughed aloud, his voice growing lower and lower.

Bang!

His nearly four-meter-tall body suddenly pitched forward, one knee bracing against the ground. The dawn radiance around him rapidly faded, and his aura instantly became almost nonexistent.

“Groselle!” Siatas and the others, some with difficulty, some swiftly, gathered toward him.

Groselle slowly looked around once. Clenching his fist, he gave a simple, honest smile.

“We… succeeded!

“Giants never… retreat…”

His voice stopped abruptly, and his head, with its single vertical eye, lowered.