CLASSHHH!!!
A devastating landing into the ruinous ground was caused by a teen and a kid, forcing the ground to crumble and scatter into bits in many ways.
From ice shards to flower petals, it stretched far with a pierce to those it touched, slicing a cut to Mya and Noelle when they were clashing.
"Erkk!" Mya groaned by the frostbite forming on her hand where Noelle's frost thread was.
The thread was the 'Crystal-line' skill.
Beside that, Mya is caught within a disadvantageous situation where she and Noelle are in hand to hand combat.
With Mya using a bow, it won't do anything good against a weapon like a Chakram, and Mya knows that.
But..
CLING..!
Noelle with her Chakram was surprised by Mya who had pulled out arrows from her quiver and was using them to stab onto Noelle's Chakram.
Amazed by Mya, Noelle admired her even more as she thought with bliss. 'She's so amazing..!'
Enough of admiration, Noelle yanked the crystal like sting on Mya's hand, causing Mya to stagger which gave Noelle the chance to land a strike on Mya.
By letting go of the arrows, Mya's hands easily pulled Noelle's arm after grabbing it firmly, tossing Noelle aside to avoid getting slashed by the Chakram.
'The frostbite hurts even more after just grabbing Elle's hand..Ouch!' Mya groaned.
With this chance, Mya took out her sharpest arrow and sliced off the thread that was wrapped around her.
WHOOSH!
Without a delay, Mya dispersed a cloud of poisonous gas to Noelle while sprouting a thorny wall underneath Noelle.
Up Noelle went, she shielded herself with frost as she suddenly noticed walls popping in to block and imprison her.
'This is..!' Noelle thought while stepping back from the thorns of the walls.
Expecting there to be poisonous clouds emerging to suffocate her, Noelle immediately covered her body with a layer of frost.
FWOOSH!!!
"..Hm?!" Noelle gasped, noticing the walls rushing in.
It was as though those walls were planning to crush Noelle inside there, and aside from that, there were thorns shooting out back and forth to penetrate Noelle's defenses.
Not just thorns, Noelle could hear the faint sound of a melody playing outside, feeling a little sleepy after listening for a few seconds.
Noelle stood for a couple of seconds, gathering her thoughts together before canceling her skill, 'Crystal Clear' that had helped her hear better.
Since Noelle is deaf, she has a way to stop hearing Mya's melody where one can fall asleep upon listening to it.
Fwoosh..
Sooner or later, Noelle's hands beaming with frost clenched onto the thorns, froze them and shattered them into pieces.
With those pieces, Noelle manipulates the ice on the thorns she broke, firing them straight back where it's originally from.
CLATTER!
The closer the walls closed in on Noelle, the more deadly it was to have thorns launching from point blank range as shown by Noelle getting a cut from one of those thorns.
Poison would have instantly spread if it weren't for Noelle freezing the wound right after the cut.
Noelle muttered quietly. "It.. hurts.. a little.."
Not being able to hear the noises made in battle is a disadvantage Noelle has long since had in her childhood days..
BOOM!!!
..and that disadvantage is already coming into play when she didn't hear the sound of a blast shooting through a wall.
A seed with many seeds gathered together was penetrating at an unbelievable speed to the point where it shocked Noelle who saw it at the last second from behind.
Defenses up, Noelle did her utmost to put up every defense skill she ever had, panicking when she unleashed multiple defenses as well as offenses.
Was it a stupid choice to let out a ray of offenses toward a charging seed?
BANNG!!!! BANG!
Because from what Noelle could witness behind her ice sphere and plenty of defenses was that the seed blasted and bursted into dozens upon dozens of seeds to terminate Noelle's offenses.
Shooting right into Noelle's offenses, it exploded, spreaded out the smoke to push most of the frost away and started to puncture through Noelle's defenses.
Rumbling!!
As the thorny walls crumbled by the sheer forces of the explosion, the seeds crackled onto Noelle's shield while screeching noises resounded from the impact.
It happened all too fast for Noelle to react properly, but she was able to compose herself after she had witnessed the outcome of the ice sphere shattering like glasses.
CLATTERING!
Even before Noelle could do anything, Mya had already gotten the upper hands by bombarding Noelle with hundreds of seeds and petals.
And the moment Noelle laid eyes on her surroundings when the walls had fallen, she was aware that she was cornered..
Whoosh~
Flowers ticking in self-destruct mode were at every nook and cranny, baffling Noelle as the flowers were already set to blow up at this point.
'I get it now..'
Noelle thought with a realization. 'You trapped me, then made me shut down my hearing aid skill by using the melody..'
'I knew it was strange when you used that melody skill even though you know I'm deaf..'
'It was all because your set-up consisted of self-destructing flowers.. you wouldn't want me to hear the sound of flowers ticking and bursting.. right, Mya?' Noelle thought with cold sweat creeping down her cheek.
KA-BOOM!
Fazed and dazed by the sight of flowers ready to explode, Noelle formed a restless smile as her defense crumbled away like melted snow by the might of the explosion.
Noelle spotted and uttered toward Mya who had shot countless arrows from behind the explosion.
"..You're amazing…"
Instead of smoke, there was poisonous gas swarming around Noelle, slipping through everything as she felt the poison spreading on her body.
"I lost.." Noelle spoke regretfully.
Even though Noelle did her best, she didn't think she would lose this easily even after the times she spent and trained for this moment.
Swoosh…
In that everlasting second, Noelle looked back at the contestants so far, and she was reminded of them not giving up at the very end.
So it's obvious that..
"Oh.." Noelle spoke before turning her body into ice to prevent the poison from progressing. "I..will give it my all!"
SWOOOSHHH!!
…
Greeting Mya with a surprise..
..A chilly gust unraveled throughout the vicinity, freezing and decreasing the atmosphere.
The seeds and the explosion froze, yet the frost wasn't enough to put a stop to Mya's attacks.
Even Mya's arrows continue to strike through the chilly gale and pierce Noelle's frozen body, imploding her body as Mya's rose arrows disintegrated the ice like it was nothing.
"Urk.." Struck by the rose arrow, Noelle felt the sensation of her body frozen solid not by her ice but as if she was stunned.
'My bow's effect worked!' Mya thought.
Mya, who was waiting for this chance, slammed down plenty of walls straight down onto Noelle.
As though to crush Noelle flat, Mya leaked some poisonous gas to the walls while the thorns were wishing to poke holes into Noelle's body.
Whoosh!!
Northern light to protect her, Noelle barely summoned them forth to push back the walls while waiting for the stun effect to die out.
'Ow..! Ugh..!' Noelle grunted.
It took a while for the stunned effect to cool down, but the damages were already done after being brawled by Mya's arrows in her stunned state.
Painful as it was, Noelle froze her wounds like she always does, stepping back from her spot to watch as the walls crashed down after the northern lights disappeared.
SLAM!
Looks like it was back to square one with Mya and Noelle standing apart from each other and being patient of their opponent's next move.
What a nerve-wracking moment for these two…
———
Fluttering..
On the other hand, there was a certain clone who was waiting casually on the ice ship.
It was a clone of HwanGi who was leisurely fishing by himself with a bucket by his side to store his catches.
Currently, there were several fish in the bucket and obviously, a question would arise when one wonders why clone HwanGi isn't using his inventory.
"Just feel like it." Clone HwanGi muttered, watching closely for the fish to take the bait.
Fishing can be quiet and boring sometimes, however for clone HwanGi, he's just a clone connected to JoonChul.
As a result, JoonChul was spectating a match between Noelle and Mya as well as having a carefree time fishing.
Splash!
After immediately hearing the splashes, clone HwanGi pulled his fishing rod back, using quite a lot of strength to yank his fish out.
It was a considerable amount of strength to use when it's supposed to be a fish, but clone HwanGi managed to fish out the fish.
"..?"
"Cotton..?" Clone HwanGi mumbled in a bit of a daze when he took a glimpse of his prey.
Thud!
Landed on the deck, the 'prey' that clone HwanGi caught was a mermaid. No, more accurately, it was a..
"Siren." Clone HwanGi's eyes narrowed when he noticed the fin-like ears. "How did you get past the safe zone's shield?"
Mobs shouldn't have been able to enter the safe zone, an exception is made for the mermaid, Etheldreda, considering mermaids aren't classified as dangerous and supposed to be kind to players.
The reason being is that JoonChul was one of the causes of it.
"..!"
The siren was surprised, yet shivered after having been caught by a human like how a fish would. "A..Ah.."
Confused by the inaudible siren, clone HwanGi sighed and acted like a gentleman to the siren by lending her a hand, carrying her and leaving the ice ship.
Startled at first, the siren looked back and forth from clone HwanGi to the steps he took to get off the ship, feeling a little shy from being lifted by a man.
Fwoosh…
"You can't speak?" Clone HwanGi asked, glancing at the siren to see what she'll do.
Since the siren was mute, she nodded her head excessively which gave clone HwanGi his answer.
'Her tongue..' Clone HwanGi thought after a glimpse of the siren's mouth. 'None.'
Clone HwanGi pondered, gazing at the siren for a moment before looking at his front. 'A siren losing her voice is equivalent to being an outcast from the rest of the siren.'
'She's just a harmless person without the bewitching voice of a siren. Is that why the safe zone didn't think much of an outcast siren like her?'
'Isn't that cruel?'
Clone HwanGi scowled. 'Designing such a function really is what those 'Helpers' would do.'
'Not that I care for a mere siren. There's no need for pity because it's a ridiculing emotion for certain people like this siren.'
All of the sudden, clone HwanGi felt a grasp on his chest, averting his eyes there to discover the siren was holding tightly onto him.
"Is there something wrong, miss?" He asked nicely as the real HwanGi would do.
Even as clone HwanGi was alone, he wouldn't dare to reveal himself as someone who isn't actually HwanGi by letting down his guard.
Clone HwanGi thought. 'Eyes can be everywhere, after all.'
Eventually, the siren looked anxiously with her eyes shaking a bit as though she was having trouble locking eyes with clone HwanGi.
"I understand. You don't want to go back to the ocean."
Dumbfounded by clone HwanGi deciphering and observing, the siren dazed before she snapped out and nodded to him.
"You must be wondering how I understood you, aren't you?"
The siren nodded again.
"That's a secret." Clone HwanGi smiled.
Then, the siren finds it a bit mean but only pouted a little until she found herself to be laid on the sand gently, gazing at clone HwanGi still.
Before he could leave, he was halted by the touch of the siren's hand holding onto his. "Is there anything you need?"
The siren shakes her head, pulling clone HwanGi little by little which left him sighing.
Clone HwanGi apologized. "Sorry, it was ungentlemanly of me to leave a lady by herself."
He pondered before shrugging it off. 'I wonder if I'm roleplaying HwanGi right.'
Slowly but surely, the siren was doing something with the sand as she was trying to write.
It was puzzling at first to see whatever she was writing, but soon, clone HwanGi became aware of it.
"Is that your name? Idelle Melody?" He asked the siren to confirm it in which she nodded.
"What a beautiful name, Idelle. It really suits you very much." There goes clone HwanGi's genuine grin.
If he was JoonChul, he would have scared Idelle immediately with his villainous looks, but when in HwanGi's disguise, he appears more handsome than ever.
"..?!" A reddish rush came like a wave to the cheeks of Idelle, the siren. Quickly her hands went to cover her cheeks up despite looking all so shy and startled.
At the same time, Lucifer by JoonChul's side commented. 'Another lady added to the group, I suppose.'
'Master is such a womanizer..'
No wonder JoonChul got ladies by his side.
From Frostina to Mirai to a new lady named Idelle. Granted, while in the form of HwanGi, of course.