Luke used time rewind to bring Bernie, who had evaded him, back under the swing of his blade.
A single swing.
Like chopping firewood, he split this three-star hero dwarf into two halves.
After slaying Bernie, Luke advanced with his blades raised, swirling the two icy wheels amidst the terrified members of the Mad Axe Gang.
Startled, the gang members retreated and huddled together in the narrow corridor. The icy wheel formed by the Stardust Chen Zhan spread out, resembling the spinning disc of a meat grinder, as it plunged into the crowded gang members.
Dampness froze into drifting white frost and snowflakes.
Large quantities of red blood splattered like explosive bursts, staining part of the snow crimson.
White and red snow danced in the swirling airflow caused by the spinning wheel, burying the unrecognizable limbs beneath them.
The corridor's walls became encased in ice, and the splattered blood froze upon contact, forming coral-like ice sculptures.
In this oddly aesthetic corridor, Luke walked forward, and there were no more standing figures ahead.
Stardust Chen Zhan flew back after reaching the end of the corridor, shattering the layer of ice on its blade and returning to the scabbard on Luke's back.
Luke arrived at the entrance to the second floor.
According to the raid records, below was a spacious hall, and the room of the giant tree was at the end of the right corridor in the hall.
From above, sounds of chaotic footsteps and commanding voices could be heard coming from the second-floor hall.
Presumably, some Mad Axe Gang members had managed to escape downstairs and informed the remaining gang members about the situation upstairs.
They knew they couldn't take advantage of their numbers in the narrow corridor, so they set up their battlefield in the second-floor hall to stop the intruders.
Luke leaped over the third-floor railing and descended.
A deafening explosion followed.
The Mad Axe Gang had actually set up a cannon in the second-floor hall!
The cannon was an 18-pound muzzle-loading smoothbore cannon discarded from naval battles, capable of firing solid projectiles and grape shot.
The cannon's muzzle was directly aimed at the staircase leading from the third floor to the second floor.
Upon sighting the intruder, a gang member holding a torch immediately lit the fuse.
The confined environment of the building made the cannon blast even louder. With tongues of fire and thick smoke belching from the muzzle, a barrage of spherical pellets shot out.
The fan-shaped barrage enveloped the entire area around the hall entrance.
This naval artillery weapon, employed in this environment, demonstrated its invincible power.
The barrage swept forward in a fan-shaped spread, collapsing the staircase in an instant.
Shattered stones and wood chips flew amidst the billowing smoke, and some Mad Axe Gang members who were too close were hit, emitting cries of agony.
Did they manage to kill the intruder?
It was still unknown.
However, the temperature inside the hall suddenly dropped.
Every breath exhaled turned into white mist, and the walls and ceiling quickly frosted over, as if plunged into the depths of winter.
Exposed skin felt a cutting pain in the frigid cold.
"The intruder is still alive. Find her and kill her!"
Someone shouted.
At that moment, a giant ice wheel soared in the midst of the crowd.
Several dismembered gang members were propelled upward by the ice wheel and crashed into the ceiling. The blood they sprayed quickly solidified, sticking them to the ice layer on the ceiling.
The ascending ice wheel carved a deep groove in the ceiling before descending, spinning forward.
It only stopped after crashing into a wall.
The ice layer on the wheel shattered, revealing a curved blade inside.
The curved blade, following the path carved by the ice wheel, flew back and was firmly caught by a hand.
Only then did the Mad Axe Gang members realize that the infiltrating elf had been hiding among them.
In her left hand, she held a reversed grip on the curved blade, with the surface of the blade freezing due to attached energy.
Her other hand held a cleaver, with white holy flames enveloping the blade.
Blooming ice mist filled the air.
The freezing cold pierced into their bones.
Some Mad Axe Gang members became rigid and unable to move.
Then, a white halo with icy spikes expanded outward from the elf as the center, instantly freezing the nearby gang members into ice sculptures.
Following that, a shockwave carrying divine energy spread outward from the elf as the center.
The powerful impact collided with the human-shaped ice sculptures, which instantly shattered and shot outward with the shockwave.
In a short time, the hall that was just filled with people was left with only a few survivors.
The remaining Mad Axe Gang members dropped their weapons and scattered throughout the hall, trembling in fear or cold, unsure of which was the cause.
Clang, clang, clang...
A strong gang member pushed the cannon to change its direction.
His expression was extremely impassive, unaffected by the corpses frozen into ice all over the floor. He aimed the cannon at the elf, then proceeded to clean the barrel following the procedure, pouring a bag of gunpowder into it.
Methodically.
Just like a well-trained sailor during a naval battle, as long as a person was alive and the ship had not sunk, they had to continuously fire upon the enemy from their assigned cannon.
The other crew members responsible for this cannon were all dead, so only one person handling the loading process slowed them down.
Luke approached and beheaded him with a single swing of his blade.
Jaburrales, a three-star hero.
His entire ability was focused on operating cannons. If it were a naval battle, he would definitely be an exceptional hero-class gunner.
His other abilities were mediocre at best.
Jaburrales' body slumped onto the barrel, and the surviving Mad Axe Gang members fled as if their lives depended on it.
Luke paid no attention to those terrified cowards and proceeded with his blade towards the chamber of the giant tree.
He passed through a not-so-long corridor.
At the end was his target for this mission.
In front of an exquisitely carved large door stood a woman wearing a black robe.
The woman's appearance was exceptionally beautiful, with light purple hair and a headband adorned with a circle of gemstones. As the elf drew nearer, the gemstones on the headband began to emit a shimmering light one by one.
"Elf, your ability to reach this point shows that you're strong. But this is where it ends for you."
Luke gripped the curved blade in reverse with one hand and carried the cleaver in the other, continuing to advance.
"Brenda, is the giant tree inside?"
Brenda, a dark magician, specialized in curses, poisons, and corrosive magic.
She was the mistress of the Minotaur demon giant tree.
Her power was evaluated as three stars, but players agreed that Brenda belonged to the supermodel category, so her actual strength should be considered three and a half stars.
Facing a cunning three-and-a-half-star dark magician, he should be a bit cautious.
Brenda said, "A dead person doesn't need to know the answer."
The corridor darkened, and mournful groans echoed from all sides. Countless ghostly hands extended from the walls, reaching out to grab Luke. Behind Brenda, a black mist rose, and a giant cobra emerged.
Incantations reverberated within the narrow
space.
Black energy enveloped Luke, threatening to consume him.
Ignoring the imminent threat, Luke positioned his cleaver in front of him, his right arm emanating a white light.
"Brenda, it seems nobody told you what kind of power I just used."
Divine intervention!