Chapter 230 - Instead Of One, Ten

Frigus diverted the attention of monsters and Dark Elves to himself and took more than half of the warriors to the Snow Desert. There began a large-scale battle between Wain's monsters and Sharp-Eared Traveler's monsters.

They were considerably smaller, but they were winning in quality. The monsters from Magical Forest of Azure Rivers were mostly of the tree or plant type. They were slow but quite strong and had good deterrent abilities.

However, this was of no use to the fast ice monsters, all of whom had sharp blades in their arsenal. They could easily cut through tree bark and slice through vines and leaves.

The ice monsters lost in numbers, but otherwise, they had the advantage. Moreover, their leader, Frigus, was a killing machine. 

Every time he swung his ice swords, several monsters were turned into sliced pieces of meat.

Blood poured out all around him, and he looked like a demon from hell. However, Frugis' actions were not based on rage or cruelty. 

He was calm and focused. His movements were honed and cold, and in fact, it was even more terrifying.

Frigus felt no emotion at all. To win this war was his main mission, and to do so, he had to kill as many enemies as possible with the fewest casualties.

The other monsters followed his example. They had recently learned to value their lives truly. They also have, to some extent, learned what teamwork is. Unlike their enemies, they acted cautiously and cooperatively.

Their enemies were many, but they didn't know what to do. The tree and plant monsters tried to make attacks, but they dodged them and launched a massive counterattack in response.

Massive ice beasts tore their enemies apart. Lizards and scorpions attacked from afar. 

Trolls took advantage of their tougher bodies than steel to press their way through. Goblins acted together and threw blades carved from ice at enemy monsters.

This was only a small part of what was happening in the Snow Desert.

"First, we need to deal with him!" Said the Dark Elves and surrounded Frigus.

Frigus took his time. He put his swords out in front of him and watched his enemies closely. Frigus directed energy to his swords and waited for a good moment to counterattack. 

He had been training hard lately and had honed one move previously difficult for him.

It was not a skill of his soul. It was a skill he had developed on his own over long training periods. Skills could not only be acquired through the Skill Book. They could also be created on their own.

However, for that, he had to know exactly how the skill was supposed to look and act and how the process of energy transformation would take place. It was something like creating a spell.

In fact, it was complicated, long, and unprofitable to develop skills on one's own. Most often, such skills were weak and had many defects. 

It was only necessary to develop a skill yourself if someone was sure of the result and understood what he wanted.

Frigus had no opportunity to get a Skill Book in the near future, so he decided to trust his instincts. 

Nothing worked for him at first, but when Wain gave him a name and Frigus went through Awareness, his progress shifted.

He didn't know if it was because he got the name or because Wain did it, but it didn't matter. Frigus created a skill, a fairly simple but effective one. The most important thing was that this skill was perfect for him.

"Let's go!" Said one of the Elves, and they all attacked Frigus at once.

At that moment, Frigus decided the time was right and used his move. The ice swords shone brightly, and then Frigus swung them sharply in different directions. 

The next instant, long ice blades resembling crescents flew out of the swords, and ten Elf heads simultaneously fell to the ground.

The monsters and the Elves were shocked. They had not expected Frigus to be capable of something like this. 

They had thought that the masked stranger was the only serious opponent, but now they realized how wrong they had been.

Frigus exhaled icy steam and muttered, "It's still not enough. I could have done a lot better, but I guess for a first combat experience, it wasn't bad."

Whooooooosh.

Frigus turned into a blue flash and proceeded to destroy his enemies.

This war was more complicated than they could have imagined. Their only hope was that their leader would prevail.

...

At this time, Wain was preparing for battle with the enemy leader. Besides Sharp-Eared Traveler, there were several hundred other monsters and dozens of Elves, but none of them were in a hurry to attack. They were afraid, and it was understandable.

The enemy they thought was weak turned out to be incredibly strong, but they still had not lost hope. Their leader was might, they had had several wars before, and they had won most of them because of their leader.

"Nameless, you are powerful. Why is your zone still Rank-E? Given your power, you could easily do better." Said Traveler.

"I've been busy, but as you can see, it's my time to increase my territories. You will be the first."

"Oh, I'll take the honor. However, it is unlikely that you will succeed. Strength alone is not enough to defeat me!" Shouted Traveler and put his curved blade to his chest.

The outline of his body glowed violet, and suddenly the Elf split in two. Then again, and again. In the end, sixteen Travelers slowly walked around Wain.

'Illusionist? How interesting. I've never encountered anything like that before.' Wain pondered.

"Well? Can you figure out who to attack now?" Smiling, Traveler said.

"Huh, like I need to."

Wain clenched his sword tightly and thrust it into the ground with all his might. The second of the three lightning spheres exploded, and an electrical pulse burst around it. It struck everyone within thirty meters.

The Dark Elves and monsters didn't have time to retreat and suffered serious wounds, but Traveler was perfectly safe. 

He succeeded in reacting, and sixteen illusions simultaneously jumped up and past the electric ring.

Traveler then attacked Wain sharply. He was right, Wain couldn't tell who was real and who was fake, which was a big problem.

He had to block sixteen punches at once. Even despite Wain's speed, he was not capable of it. 

Illusions were not tangible and could not deal damage, but sometimes Wain missed attacks from the real thing.

Wain's cloak and his high stats protected him quite well, but there were many shallow cuts on his body after a while. It wasn't a critical situation, so Wain wouldn't use one of the forms.

He understood that some of the territory and forest would be destroyed if he used either form. Therefore, Wain was not going to use his most destructive skills yet.

He still had one lightning sphere and was going to use it.

When Traveler once again attacked simultaneously, Wain jumped high and threw his sword down. 

There was an explosion, and black lightning destroyed most of the illusions. Only two survived, and one of the Elves rippled strangely in space.

Wain realized it was an illusion, so he quickly headed to the real Traveler. Wain grabbed him tightly by the neck and said, "That's it, you were pretty arrogant, but you turned out to be weak."

"Huh." Barely said Traveler, "We're just getting started."

Snap.

Traveler snapped his finger, and suddenly there was an illusion in Wain's grasp, which disappeared a second later like a mirage.

Wain looked back and saw Traveler in the distance, trying to catch his breath.

'I see, he switched places with the illusion. What an annoying force. Illusionists are really a nuisance to fight.' Thought Wain and reached forward.

The platinum sword returned to him, and he was ready to continue the fight.

'Don't you want to give up? You and your mates will survive. That's quite a bargain, isn't it?" Suddenly Wain suggested.

Wain had no intention of killing every creature in the Magical Forest of Azure Rivers. He would do so if it were necessary to win, but that was not his primary goal.

Wain's goal was to take over the territory get new lands and resources so that Lui Bu and Edena could start doing alchemy. 

There were only two ways: he would kill all the creatures in the enemy Void, or they would surrender and bow their heads to him.

In fact, the second option was even preferable. In this case, Wain would lose fewer soldiers and gain new ones, and the war would end faster. Right now, efficiency was paramount.

"Surrender? I admit you're strong, but I can no longer respect myself if I surrender after just one lost round. Don't you agree with that?"

Wain nodded weakly, "Yes, your words make sense. I doubt a coward could achieve the same results as you."

Traveler answered nothing. He stared at Wain, and his eyes shone brightly. The next moment he began to create illusions, but this time there were far fewer, only four.

'Hmm? Only four? Has he run out of energy? No, there's something wrong here...' muttered Wain to himself. 

The Elf swung his curved sword, and Its blades glowed brightly. The same thing happened with the other illusions. 

At that moment, Wain understood why there were so few illusions. Every one of them was now capable of inflicting damage on him.

Whoosh.

Five Travelers attacked him simultaneously. Though he could barely block attacks from five directions at once, Wain was having a hard time doing so. 

He felt that gradually he was being squeezed, and his defenses would be breached in an instant.

Crackle. 

The Elf's sword sliced Wain's leg. The next moment another illusion left a cut on his shoulder. A third illusion wounded his back. 

Wain realized that the situation was getting worse by the second, and he was about to use one of the forms, but suddenly an idea came to him.

He threw his sword aside and put his hands together. Then he dropped a powerful blow on the ground like a hammer. The Storm Gloves increased his speed and gave his attacks a wind burst effect.

Therefore, after such a crushing attack, there was a whirling explosion. The wind ripped the illusions apart like blades and also inflicted several cuts on the Elf. 

Wain extended his arm, and a platinum sword flew toward him.

He turned into a white flash and swung the sword sharply from top to bottom. A deep cut was left on Traveler's chest, and blood gushed from it in a torrent.

"Argh!!!" The Elf clenched his teeth in pain and bounced aside.

Wain began to pursue him. He wasn't going to pass up such a chance to end this fight. 

However, just as he was about to strike, the Elf suddenly dipped his finger in his blood and ran it across his forehead, leaving a streak-like mark.

The next moment a large amount of darkness erupted from Traveler's body. It was like a wave that tossed Wain aside.

"Bitch, that hurt!" Shouted Traveler, "But, it doesn't matter anymore. This field will be your grave!"

Then a large amount of darkness appeared behind Traveler, which turned into a dark silhouette. It looked like an Elf, and in it also was armed with a curved sword.

This illusion was huge and looked like a giant. It was the powerful skill Traveler was capable of. He realized that now was the time to open the trump card he had used to win past wars.

Wain was wary, but he was not afraid. As soon as he saw that the illusion was created from darkness, he knew victory was his.

"Huh, darkness and light are always fighting each other. It's pretty weird, but it looks like I'm not on my usual side this time.." Proclaimed Wain and held out a hand with a gold ring in front of it.