When the commander realized that he had missed his chance, he quickly looked at the three Adepts.
"You three get the reward for your mission. I get the open bounty for his head!" the commander shouted.
'Open bounty?' Shang thought.
'Open bounty?' the Adepts thought.
None of them knew of any open bounties for Shang's head. They were here because of a mission, which wasn't an open bounty.
Missions were an individual commitment, and only one group of people could accept them at a time, while an open bounty was open to anyone. As long as someone had proof of the kill, they could collect the bounty.
However, there was no open bounty on Shang.
What was the commander talking about?!
"Deal!" the Ice Adept shouted.
At this moment, Shang was weighing his options.
Should he retreat?
Should he call for help?
'You know what? It's been a long time since I had a decent fight. Also, I don't want them to escape.'
BANG!
The commander and Shang both accelerated at the same time.
But they were not charging at each other.
The commander was charging at the Ice Demon while Shang charged at the three Adepts.
Shang wanted to deal with the weakened Adepts first. If they got a chance to recover, they would be even more threatening than the commander.
The commander had a similar idea. "I distract the Ice Demon!" he shouted as he charged at the Ice Demon.
The Earth Adept and Wind Adept still had to survive until the commander arrived, which made them preoccupied.
But the Ice Adept quickly focused on Shang.
Three huge icicles appeared above her.
This was a very advanced Spell called Icicle Rain.
An instant later, her Focus lit up.
SSSHHH!
A cold wind shot over the ground and reached Shang's position in an instant.
It was so fast that Shang couldn't even react.
'Freeze Spell!' Shang thought as his feet were immediately frozen to the ground.
Immediately after, the three icicles shot at Shang.
He couldn't possibly evade, could he?
Suddenly, the ice around Shang's feet vanished.
It didn't melt or break.
It simply vanished like it had never been there.
The Freeze Spell created a dense field of Ice Mana around someone's feet, which essentially froze them to the ground.
However, as soon as the Spell was finished, the will of the user was no longer on the Spell.
Usually, that didn't matter. After all, it didn't make a difference if there was a will on the ice or not. The target would remain frozen.
But Shang's Affinity was special.
Shang still remembered how he had accidentally absorbed the Ice Mana from the Ice Wood he had been transporting.
As long as there was no will on the Ice Mana, he could absorb it.
Shang looked at the three icicles shooting at him.
'Sadly, not every Spell has this weakness.'
In order to keep the icicles in their dangerous shape, the will of the Mage remained on them, which meant that Shang couldn't absorb them.
The icicles shot at Shang in a triangle formation, making it impossible to evade them.
In an instant, Shang did three things.
First, he put one hand on the hilt of his big sword and the other on the flat side of its edge.
Second, he positioned his sword in front of him, the flat side facing forward.
Third, he jumped forward, keeping the sword in front of him.
BANG!
Two icicles passed below Shang, and the third one hit Shang's sword.
The power behind the icicle was far stronger than the force of Shang's jump, and he would soon be thrown several tens of meters away. Even if the icicles failed to deal any damage to Shang, the Ice Adept would still gain two seconds of preparation for a new Spell.
However, things didn't go according to her plan.
As soon as the icicle hit Shang's sword, a small black lightning bolt washed over it.
Shortly after, the icicle lost its shape and turned into a dense fog of Ice Mana.
The Darkness Element had destroyed the will on the icicle!
Suddenly, the dense Ice Mana vanished, and Sword turned slightly blue.
Sword had no issues in absorbing willless Elemental Mana.
BANG!
Shang's feet exploded with Ice Mana.
Originally, Shang would have been thrown back, but the Ice Blast countered the force, essentially making him stationary in the air.
An instant later, Shang's entire body began to release steam as his sword turned pure white.
BANG!
Blood exploded out of Shang's legs as he released a Fire Blast. Luckily, he still had enough Mana to regenerate his legs in an instant.
In just a second, Shang arrived at the height of ten meters, and he readied his sword.
For a second, the Ice Adept became confused.
Too much had suddenly happened with Shang and even more than that, why did he go so far up in the air?
But then, she remembered that new technique a couple of warriors were starting to use, and she realized what was happening.
In an instant, she summoned a huge wall made of ice.
This Spell was called Ice Barrier.
It cost a ton of Mana and was supposed to be a last defense when the Mage was about to die.
Shang slashed forward with his large sword.
And a huge wave of white Ice Mana left his sword.
However, it wasn't shooting at the Ice Adept.
BOOOOM!
The wave hit its target.
About a hundred meters away, a brown-haired man had turned into an ice statue.
The commander was still about twenty meters away from the Ice Demon, and the Earth Adept had been fully focused on the beast.
Because of that, he hadn't seen Shang's attack.
Shang was a Late General Stage warrior, and he couldn't possibly focus on the Earth Adept over a hundred meters away while being besieged by the Ice Adept, right?
CRUNCH!
Just a second later, the Ice Demon jumped to the ice statue and swallowed it whole.
As soon as the ice statue entered the Ice Demon's, its body began to release steam as its injuries closed with more speed. It wasn't nearly as fast as a warrior's body, but the regeneration was definitely quite fast.
The bodies of beasts were very peculiar. As soon as anything was swallowed by them, it would turn into its basic components.
The entire Earth Adept had turned into his individual components just half a second after entering the Ice Demon's maw.
Beneath the ice, the Earth Adept had still been alive, but as soon as he entered the beast's maw, his Mana and his life energy were absorbed by the beast.
The life energy was the reason for the beast's expedited recovery while the Mana refilled quite a bit of its reserves.
BANG!
Just after swallowing the ice statue, a saber hit the Ice Demon's right front leg and severed it.
In pain, the Ice Demon jumped to the side.
The commander had arrived, but he wasn't happy.
One of the Adepts was already dead, and the Ice Demon had recovered. Sure, it had lost a leg, but it had healed several other parts, and it had regained quite a bit of Mana.
Earlier, the commander was certain that he could kill the Ice Demon, but now, the fight was about even.
If the Ice Demon were at its peak, the Commander would be helpless.
But with only three legs and some injuries, the Commander had a slight chance at victory.
"Deal with Zero!" the commander shouted at the Wind Adept as he kept charging after the Ice Demon.
At that moment, the Wind Adept, the Ice Adept, and Shang realized what had happened.
The Ice Adept looked at Shang with shock.
'He's Zero?' she thought in shock.
'He called me Zero!' Shang thought with narrowed eyes.
'Seems like the cat's out of the bag.'
Sadly, Shang didn't have the time to think about these things right now.
The Wind Adept had readied a Spell with his Focus, and the Ice Adept was casting another one.
