" I had a thousand daughters. A thousand bright lights, a thousand little minds...slowly awakening, blinking and shining...and you snuffed them out. Maybe you're just Jean Grey, gone insane. Or maybe you're the Phoenix. Obeying cosmic laws we'll never understand. All I know for sure is that when you come back...you're going to have to deal with me."
Emma Frost..
X-Men Phoenix Warsong #5
.....
She looked as Jinwoo landed on the ice sphere with no trouble. With that, Jinwoo ran towards Esdeath as she did the same. When they got close, they both delivered a hard punch to each other's faces.
Jinwoo was quicker to shrug off the attack and grabbed the ice general's legs. He then lifted her in the air and slammed her down onto the icy ground. The hunter then took both her legs and began spinning her around faster and faster until he threw Esdeath. The sadist was about to be thrown off the ice sphere but managed to stop herself. "You bore me!" yelled the God of Death as he dashed towards Esdeath to punch her, but the general was prepared for that as she summoned an ice shield to block the attack. She then summoned an ice pillar that hit Jinwoo directly on his chin, which made him stumble back. Esdeath took this opportunity and attacked with a newly created ice sword, slashing the hunter multiple times while dodging the fire lance that appeared in his hands.
"Bbbbboooooommmmmmmmmm!!!!!"
As the ice general was about to strike her ice sword on Jinwoo's head, the ice sphere had hit the ground, destroying whole mountains and shattering upon impact. The impact caused Jinwoo and Esdeath to be thrown off the ice sphere. As Esdeath was falling, she used her ice to stop herself from hitting the ground.
The ice general lowered herself to the ground and looked at the destruction her ice sphere had caused to the area. While everything was destroyed and crushed underneath the ice chunks, Esdeath didn't care about any of that. She only cared if her opponent was taken down for good, but she had a feeling that Jinwoo was still alive. And right she was, as one of the big ice pieces was thrown to the right, crashing into another mountain and revealing Jinwoo as he walked towards the general with a neutral bloody smile. He was enjoying the chance to go all out with his mana constantly being drained and replenishing.
Esdeath smiled at the fact that her opponent was still alive as she wanted their fight to continue. "I'm glad you are still alive, Jinwoo. Now our fight can continue on. After all, this has been the most thrilling battle I have ever had in a long time. Even Night Raid has never pushed me to this degree! You should feel proud knowing that you are deemed worthy, in my eyes, to be considered strong! And furthermore..." "Bebe, you are far from forcing me to use my full strength!" yelled Jinwoo, interrupting Esdeath.
"You may be enjoying this, but let me tell you what I think of this fight," Jinwoo said as he got close enough to Esdeath. "This battle, you in general... this is boring," Jinwoo stated firmly to the ice general. "What?" said Esdeath, surprised.
"You heard me, Esdeath. There have been many opponents I have faced that have entertained.
"Me more than you. That have given me some sort of thrill. That actually managed to knock me out! You have done none of that. Hell, you've taken more damage than I have and I've taken way more hits than you!" stated Jinwoo.
Esdeath tried to contradict this, but Jinwoo continued his rant, "And to top it all off, you are just a glutton warlord, who's extremely upset with war to the point that you'll cause war yourself to satisfy your never-ending hunger. Like a wild animal that won't stop killing unless it's put down. And I am going to tame you. So what say you?"
"These very words pierced Esdeath emotionally, as not only was she insulted by this man, calling her a wild animal and tarnishing her beliefs, but the fact that he said this fight was boring made her extremely uneasy. There have been times where she would be bored in fights when her opponents barely gave her a challenge or their spirit broke easily.
But the fact that this man was bored fighting her of all people was something unheard of to her. Even looking back to the beginning of the fight and now, Jinwoo had not shown a single hint of excitement or care in their fight. This made her angry at the fact that she is not being taken seriously in their brawl, but also determined to make sure that Jinwoo would show either the emotion of excitement in this fight, have him take this seriously, or show frightening pain when she tortures him.
Esdeath looked at Jinwoo with an angry look and gave him her answer, "You really don't get it, do you? There is no option of giving up. This is a fight to the death. A fight where we determine who is the strongest in this battle!" And then, she grinned maliciously, "Those are some big words! Let's see if you can back them up!
"I don't care anymore! The weaker of us is dying today! And I will make you care about this fight or at least make you feel pain and suffering! Even if I have to freeze this whole continent in the process!"
Jinwoo looked a little confused by what the general meant by her sentence but decided to play along. "Alright then, by all means, make me feel something," he said with some sort of glee and anticipation.
Esdeath placed her hand on the ground and, all of a sudden, all the broken pieces of ice from their battle and snow from the environment flew straight behind her and into the sky. When this happened, a blue and white pillar of light appeared as snow and ice circled around it. Then Esdeath yelled out her trump card, "Ice Storm, Commander In-Chief!" With those words screamed, the pillar of light exploded into a massive energy blast throughout the place, hitting everyone caught in it, including Jinwoo. The blast was so massive, it covered a land that was bigger than a whole country that the Empire ruled over.
As the energy blast faded away, we see that the entire place and the land that surrounded the small cities were now in a raging snowstorm. The winds accelerated at high speeds as they carried snowflakes within them, the entire landscape and buildings were covered in snow, and the entire sky was covered with black clouds, completely obscuring the sun.
Esdeath looked at the environmental change she had brought forth with pride as this was something she could only do with days' worth of preparation. With this, she would expect Jinwoo to have a shocked reaction to her feat.
"What do you have to say to this, Jinwoo?! With my ice abilities, I was able to cover a massive portion of this place with a raging snowstorm that will kill the weak! Surely, this must make you shiver and freeze just being in this storm of my mighty power!"
Jinwoo just looked at her with the same neutral face as before. Despite the snowstorm being summoned, he didn't care. "This is it? I'll admit that this is impressive, for you, and may be more than I could do with ice, but it's taken a long time. Not only that, but this storm is nowhere near as cold as it should be. Look around."
Jinwoo's simple response ticked off Esdeath as she looked around and saw only things that were still standing. Were those back beasts as cold doesn't seem to have any effect on them?
And those who were frozen seemed to be trying to come out of the ice case, but she kept her cool and summoned an ice rapier to her hand. "Even if you are not impressed, I still want you to fight as if your life was on the line. Come at me like you're ready to die," she said sadistically as she pointed her weapon at Jinwoo.
Jinwoo simply got into a fighting position as pink energy surrounded him. "Don't tell me what to do. I'll only fight you seriously if you actually make me feel something in this fight."
"I plan on doing that," Esdeath replied as she ran towards Jinwoo.
"Well then let me show you something I just made," said Jinwoo as Esdeath jumped as high as she could with all the pink energy around Jinwoo flaring as he grinned. "Great Fire Annihilation!"
As those words came out of his mouth, his mana turned into a raging fire. The skill that took all the effort of the shadows to even repel was unleashed, like a raging fire from Hell, about to engulf the whole place. The shadows felt their limbs tremble from fright at the simple sight of it!
"If nothing stops this skill, this place is going to burn! This is just how strong the man was! Yet, one person was even more excited, rejoiced, and elated! 'Great! I would expect no less from God, and I see you finally using it!'"
Under the feet of the flying Esdeath, an enormous mass of ice formed, large enough to counter the size of the fire. The two techniques clashed against each other in a standstill as the ice continued to resist the unrelenting assault of the fire. One side of the place was volcano hot while the other was blizzard cold.
When Esdeath judged that she was close enough to engage, she jumped with a super solid rapier in her hand. The man smiled and said, "Interesting…"
The two of them clashed in the air, with the hunter constantly analyzing each aspect of his movement. The two monsters continued to clash again and again. Even after beating each other this badly, it looked like the true fight had just begun. Now they were ready to reveal every card to their slaves.
Their sharp instinct guided their movements, and with every passing second, Jinwoo learned something new. They landed on separate platforms, facing each other.
Esdeath, who felt the tingling of excitement for the first time in decades, smiled meaningfully and said, "Are you ready, Jinwoo? Once we are done, you will be mine…"
Jinwoo remained silent.
Esdeath marched with a wild smile and arrogance, saying, "You are not fighting some worthless tool user this time."
Her smile grew wilder as she struck a signature rapier wielder pose, resembling a dancing ice demon. "Love, I live for the dance!"
Esdeath jumped in the air, using shards of ice to attack him. Jinwoo skillfully avoided her unrelenting assault. The silhouettes clashed again, with Jinwoo using his EMS at full power, analyzing every aspect of her fight. Esdeath relied on her near-animal instinct to keep up with Jinwoo's insane speed, which was eight times faster than his stat.
Jinwoo was impressed by her raw strength, though he never expressed it directly, often behaving like a prick. He had never faced this kind of physical strength, even from Gorr. If he wasn't using his full strength to offset her strikes, he would need to rely on his defensive skills to tank her slashes.
Esdeath was completely overwhelmed by his speed, relying solely on her senses to keep up with his movements. The daggers versus the ice rapier, strikes from the daggers kept coming at her from all angles, and wounds started appearing on the Ice Queen. Despite that, her strikes only grew fiercer. The cold wind heeded her call, slowing the movement of her opponent. However, Jinwoo had gained cold resistance and complete immunity to any kind of cold weather, which contributed to his great performance in this dance.
As she became more accustomed to his fighting style, Esdeath's strikes grew more vicious. Jinwoo felt the cold penetrating his body with each of her strikes, slowing his movement. Despite the short openings, for Esdeath, this was still an opportunity. The melee continued as the curved blade of the Ice Queen clashed with the daggers again and again, completely taking them out of the barren lands.
The blue-white light and the pink light kept clashing against each other in never-ending confrontations, leading them to a great distance away from their original location. As they followed his shadows, Esdeath smirked, preparing for another slash, but then she stopped as she saw an arrogant smile on Jinwoo's face.
"Do you think your puny strength impresses me?" he taunted.
"Let me show you… "
"His eyes shone brightly in the middle of the snowstorm!
'What real strength looks like!'
'Sharding Cyclone!'
Suddenly, the wind sped up to a fierce level as a cyclone appeared in the middle of the battlefield, pulling everything inside, even huge chunks of ice that weren't able to escape its pulling power.
Esdeath's sixth sense became violent as she realized that if she was pulled into this thing, it would be over for her. It wouldn't kill her, but it would be enough to take her out of combat.
Realizing the danger it posed, she knew she had to stop that thing before it grew bigger and pulled her inside. She already felt the pressure, and it descended on Esdeath like the apocalypse.
To the surprise of Jinwoo, and even his shadows, she didn't evade at all. Her long rapier, imbued with ice, transformed into a horrendous ice blade. With her freakish lifting strength, she wielded it to tank the storm of glass that was spinning faster than sound, striking from above.
The clash between the two attacks completely shattered the ground. Still standing in a deep crater, Esdeath smiled widely, her ice blade breaking apart.
"Good strength!" she exclaimed.
Jinwoo couldn't even believe his eyes. An enormous ice blade formed again as she jumped up, propelling herself with the monstrous blade cutting through the air and the glass storm.
"Let's see how much your little toy can take!"
The crazy witch's attack continued to clash with the Sharding Cyclone. The Sharding Cyclone entered a cycle of destruction and regeneration.
Jinwoo sneered, "Your strength is able to cut through the Sharding Cyclone. Not bad."
Wielding the gigantic ice blade like an extension of herself, Esdeath continued to propel herself time and again. The Sharding Cyclone was getting slower and colder, yet she never broke through because every impact kept regenerating. Her attacks were still too slow to break through.
Jinwoo narrowed his eyes and said, "Is this all?"
Esdeath stopped her attacks as she landed on the ground.
"What a grumpy guy. I like to enjoy myself before getting serious."
She smiled lightly as she touched the ground with her snow-white hand.
"Nevertheless, it seems I need to switch gears too."
With blinding speed, a huge ice pillar grew from under her feet, elevating her to the same height as the enormous death storm.
The snow that had invaded the mist previously raged here again. On top of the tall pillar, her high heels made a clicking sound as she jumped up, embracing the snow and the tempest. Her beautiful hair danced with the winds.
Jinwoo narrowed his eyes and saw two enormous blocks of ice, each the size of his Sharding Cyclone, forming on her left and right.
Esdeath caressed the calamities with a sadistic smile.
"Here is a little gift of mine!"
Descending onto his Storm like natural disasters, Jinwoo's face filled with condescension.
"Not enough!"
The storm grew even bigger as they tore through the blocks, creating an aftershock that shook the whole place. Slowly, a weird shade appeared in the sky, obscuring the little sunlight that the Land of Ice had.
Esdeath responded with panache.
"Oh! But it's only the beginning."
Numerous ice calamities appeared behind her in the air, threatening to engulf the whole area. This woman was a monster in human skin, and the world was too weak for her, and she was only starting to get to know her.
The whole sky was riddled with ice projectiles, each the size of Jinwoo's Sharding Cyclone.
"If two is not enough, what about 20?" More ice monstrosities appeared behind her. "What about 30?" Their number grew again! The woman was a walking disaster! "What about 40?"
"Huh? Sung Jin-Woo, my babe!!!" Jinwoo had a surprised expression as he looked at the sheer volume of the incoming attack. 'She's really going all out. So I shouldn't hold back.'
Esdeath snickered. Her smile was vicious like a snake, yet undeniable beauty could be seen in it. She finally saw a reaction.
"It seems it's your turn to dance," she said.
By her order, the ice rocks descended on the storm like a punishment from heaven. His glass storm tore with difficulty through each one as the ice blocks became harder and harder.
The storm grew bigger as it cried in rage, with billions of sharp hot glass and wind blades slashing through projectile after projectile in a frenzied dance. However, the sheer volume was so big that it quickly overwhelmed it, and ice calamities started lending to the storm, making it slower.
Slow winds cracked the land, but most importantly, signs of frostbite appeared, and it was getting colder. The ice started eating away at the Mana Monster, infecting its every joint.
Finally, the Sharding Cyclone was eclipsed by the endless ice meteorites, completely rewriting the scenery of the battlefield.
The battlefield looked like a scene from an apocalyptic world, as if an ice calamity had destroyed humanity, leaving only two monsters alive.
A deep, calm voice resonated within the snowy battlefield.
"Such an amount of ice projectiles is quite impressive," the voice said.
"It seems you are not as bad as I thought, babe."
The mythological fight was only just beginning.
Suddenly, a quarter of the glass storm spurted out and created five more different types of cyclones that spawned from it: tornado, sandstorm, butchering winds, glass storm, and something new—a storm of pure raging flames, Fire Cyclone.
Jinwoo was creating new skills while fighting his opponent, which was something that had never happened before.
He parried and evaded all the deadly strikes. The six storms spun like crazy, a terrorizing cry, and ran like a mythological beast in Esdeath's direction.
As they moved, they pulled the earth with their power. The raging storm monsters were unstoppable in their tracks.
Esdeath felt her heart pound more and more, like never before.
"So you could do that from the beginning!" she exclaimed. "This is the best!"
Back in the Empire, 10,000 ice soldiers disappeared, returning their stored power to their creator. Esdeath felt her power grow exponentially. Her whole body started getting covered in frost as she propelled herself into a close-range fight.
The six storms now clashed with the Ice Queen, resulting in a standstill. Power-wise, they were equal. Jinwoo narrowed his eyes.
"So those little puppets are not only your army but your stored energy," he remarked. "Interesting ability."
Her rapier clashed with the huge storms without her losing out in the slightest. The clash unleashed ice, winds, flames, glass, sand. Each blow could change the scenery, and each slash could cleave the earth.
The shadows who watched the whole thing unfold gulped up and down. This was the first time they saw him cast and control this many spells simultaneously. This was the true might of the man they called master, and each of them was sure they couldn't even stand in front of that man for a second, even with all their boosts.
Esdeath, in this state, was casually exchanging blows with the raging storms of elements.
"Jinwoo was even in a difficult position due to the spells' speed disadvantage! The blue silhouette of the Ice Freak kept attacking the storms, freezing them multiple times from all sides, completely outspeeding him! The power-up was evident. Esdeath was getting even freakier by the second. Her speed was monstrous, but her strength was much more than that! The storms started to slowly break apart!"
Jinwoo laughed as his face distorted with lust for blood and for her. "Interesting! Very interesting!"
Her gorgeous silhouette sometimes fused with the snow, sometimes leading it on. Her attacks were fierce yet filled with a sort of barbarian grace that only those who lived to hunt could understand. The Partas Clan within her was awakened when she saw 'a Big Beast' to hunt. She was back in those blissful times when she wrestled each day with life and death. Once again, Esdeath was back to hunt, the greatest beast ever. If anyone of the shadows could describe this, they could have only one word in their mouths: "Monsters!"
Jinwoo had a big smile on his face as he clenched his hands together. "Release the Raging Storms!" Numerous more storms appeared from his side, with some new elements like lightning, Circle of Storms, All-Consuming Winds, encircling her. Jinwoo then smirked, "You could take on six..."
Suddenly, all the cyclones spun at a rate that would tear the ground and pull it inside. "What about 16?" The beast became a flock. "What about 20? What about 20?!! And the hunter became the hunted! What about 30?!!" The woman looked up at the 30 monstrous storms encircling her, taking a deep breath. Jinwoo was grinning in anticipation. His lust was at its peak. "Tell me, love!"
....
I don't know why readers think mc is not going all out he is going all out putting all his strength and even using his boosts.= Remarks
And the chapter is much bigger than usual just because readers were complaining.
Keep the power stone train going...