Shang took a deep breath and waited.
"Level nine: Powerful Mid Commander Stage beast," the mechanical voice said.
The wheel spun again, and Shang looked at it. He knew that the next fight would be very difficult.
"Let's make this one more interesting," the jester on top of the wheel suddenly said as he snapped his fingers.
Everything inside the wheel vanished and was replaced by a single picture.
It was a Powerful and graceful blue lion sitting on a throne.
Surprisingly, this image didn't appear as kid-friendly as all the other ones.
Shang quickly guessed the identity of his next opponent.
SHING!
And when Shang's opponent appeared, he got his guess confirmed.
The lioness from before was probably part of this magnificent lion's pride.
It was a male lion, and it was absolutely massive.
It was over five meters high and over ten meters long. Its entire body was filled with long, glistening hair, and its mane was impressive beyond belief.
Its head was encased in some form of icy armor that mimicked a crown, and its four legs had thick and powerful armor made of ice covering them.
Its tail was over five meters long and graceful. The sheer power and majesty this lion gave off just by standing there were shocking.
"That's an Ice King, and I want to know if you can beat it," the jester said with a smirk.
Ice King.
Shang had never heard of these kinds of beasts before, but he guessed that this beast had to be powerful if humans called it a king.
Shang could already guess that the Ice King was very powerful. After all, this Ice King probably had several of these lionesses serving it. To rule over so many beasts with quite impressive power required even more impressive power.
At this moment, Shang felt a feeling of pressure he hadn't felt since fighting Vice-Commander Wilbury. The Ice King might not be as powerful as Vice-Commander Wilbury relative to Shang's power, but it was definitely very dangerous.
As Shang readied his sword, the jester lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
DING!
The Ice King slowly opened its eyes and glanced at Shang with pride.
It barely paid any attention to Shang.
For some reason, Shang felt like the pride wasn't misplaced.
BANG!
Nevertheless, Shang charged forward with an Ice Blast.
As Shang reached his full speed, the Ice King only kept looking at him calmly.
When Shang reached a distance of about 50 meters, the atmosphere changed.
The clear sky above Shang was replaced with dark-grey clouds. An instant later, white wind shot down from the skies and violently whirled around the Ice King.
It was essentially a powerful blizzard, which had the snowflakes and icicles replaced with powerful Ice Mana.
CRK! CRK!
Shang's body froze almost immediately!
At this moment, Shang received a massive shock.
He had been frozen at such crazy speeds?!
His body was just a bit weaker than a Peak Commander Stage warrior, and this Ice King was only at the Mid Commander Stage!
Did that mean that the Ice King could freeze warriors two levels above it without even getting serious?!
It was almost like this Ice King was as powerful as a Mage!
The lioness's usage of Ice Mana was basic, only being able to summon some icicles on its body.
But the Ice King summoned a gigantic attack that required terrifying control and a great amount of Mana to pull off!
This was not just a powerful Mid Commander Stage beast!
Something like the metal tiger Shang had fought before was a joke against that!
Even the Serpent Shang had fought earlier would lose easily if it were on the same level as the Ice King!
And that attack obviously wasn't even its full power!
After all, its entire body was encased by powerful icy armor, and its body was gigantic!
Its close-combat abilities were probably ridiculously strong as well!
BANG!
Shang released several Ice Blasts, filling his body with Fire Mana. The Fire Mana counteracted the Ice Mana, unfreezing Shang's body and transforming the ice on his body into steam.
'This is not something a normal warrior can fight against,' Shang thought as he accelerated again. 'I can only fight it due to my Affinity.'
'It's like there is a fundamental difference between this beast and a warrior, a difference that can't be overcome with only training!'
'You can be the most talented, experienced, and knowledgeable warrior in the world, but you will get frozen anyway. The only way to get through this attack is to have an extremely powerful body or be a Mage!'
This was the first opponent where experience, hard work, creativity, and training weren't enough to beat.
This enemy demanded all these things, but it also demanded higher inherent qualities. Qualities someone couldn't get by training or fighting.
But that was as things stood right now.
A really powerful Mage could probably beat the Ice King, but Shang guessed that an average Mage wouldn't be able to win.
Usually, an average Mid True Mage could play with all kinds of Mid Commander Stage beasts. They were not a danger.
But this thing was different.
This thing could probably beat an average Mid True Mage!
In a way, Shang got reminded of himself.
Beasts were considered to be beneath Mages.
Warriors were also considered to be beneath Mages, but Shang had managed to break out of that stereotype and actually jump levels against Mages.
Shang was part of a group of beings considered far weaker than Mages, just like beasts.
And if warriors could have such an outstanding member like Shang, who could jump out of that classification, why couldn't beasts?
This Ice King might be one of the very few beasts that could actually put up a fight against the truly powerful Mid True Mages.
Just like Shang, it was an extremely outstanding member of its group.
'But I can still fight it!'
Shang released one Ice Blast after the next to keep his body from freezing, which had the positive side-effect of increasing Shang's speed by a lot!
Shang was at his most powerful when he fought in very hot or very cold environments!
