Shang slashed toward the serpent.
CRK! CRK! CRK!
Yet, an instant later, powerful icicles shot out of the serpent's body, and Shang's sword broke through them.
CRACK!
Suddenly, a wall of spiky icicles shot toward Shang, but Shang managed to finish his slash.
CRACK!
The wall broke apart, but no blood appeared.
Suddenly, the world around Shang started to change.
Black clouds gathered, and water seemingly exploded out of the sky in a torrential downpour.
Some isolated bolts of lightning illuminated the surroundings, which had suddenly turned dark.
As soon as the drops of water reached a certain distance, they transformed into terrifying icicles that seemed to break through anything they touched.
At the moment, the serpent was several kilometers away from Shang.
It had created a tyrannical armor made of icicles, transforming its exterior into a rough and jagged meatgrinder.
One small part of its body had no icicles on it, which was the part that Shang had tried to attack.
Earlier, the serpent had just exploded that piece of icy armor off its body and shot it right toward Shang.
Shang knew that this move could prove to be a problem in the fight.
The serpent gathered its power, but Shang wouldn't give it the time to fully prepare itself and shot forward again with another Shock.
Yet, just when Shang arrived, he felt the pressure in his surroundings intensify.
The air around him became frighteningly cold, and the serpent opened its maw.
A moment later, a terrifyingly cold stream of Ice and Water Mana exited its maw, and it began to circle the serpent's body.
Shang had to stop his advance at that point since the stream had created a domain of absolute cold, and the added Water Mana made it even worse.
Usually, a Dual-Affinity of Ice and Water wouldn't seem very dangerous, but that couldn't be further from the truth.
Ice couldn't easily change its form, but water could. The serpent could summon a chaotic storm of water, which changed its shape continuously while also taking up much more space.
And then, as soon as anyone would get hit, the serpent would transform the Water Mana into Ice Mana.
Right now, such a stream of terrifyingly cold water was between the serpent and Shang.
The Water Mana was far below freezing, but the serpent's control of both kinds of Mana stopped it from transforming into Ice Mana.
Shang knew that this domain could prove to be difficult to penetrate.
Shang readied his Addum, and it began to burn violently.
Then, he slashed forward.
WHOOOOM!
A humongous burning crescent shot out of Shang's Addum.
This was a new variant of Hidden Sun.
Hidden Sun was optimized for rapid deployment in the Saber State, but with the Addum's greater size, such an attack wouldn't be that useful anymore.
By using the Concept of Addition together with the World Connection, Shang managed to gather more Mana into the slash while also borrowing the world's power.
Hidden Sun was no longer a simple attack weaved into a combination of other attacks but its own full-scale attack.
The Hidden Sun hit the storm of ice and water.
BANG!
A huge amount of steam appeared in the surroundings, but the stream of icy Mana still continued.
Shang had used a powerful attack, but he hadn't managed to get through the stream.
And then, the serpent attacked.
A wall of water shot right at Shang, who had to use Shock to retreat to the side.
The wall of water continued to travel for several kilometers, creating a 200-meter-wide line on the ground.
As soon as the water touched anything, be it plant, beast, ground, metal, or whatever, it froze over in an instant and then broke apart into tiny snowflakes.
The serpent had created an icy wasteland filled with nothing but cold and desolate death in an instant.
A two-digit number of beasts had died just by being a couple of kilometers within the range of the fight.
After seeing that attack, Shang knew that he couldn't possibly allow himself to be hit. The sudden transformation of the Water Mana into Ice Mana was so violent that it completely tore anything it touched apart after freezing it.
This was the power of an Ancestral Beast, a Zone Beast.
It could completely transform the climate for several kilometers around just by existing.
'I already used two Shocks. If I keep using them just to dodge attacks, I will lose in the long run.'
Shang's legs angled while he was in the air, almost like he was readying himself to jump off something.
'I have to fight with all my Affinities if I want to win.'
'I can't use this with anyone present, but there shouldn't be anyone watching me right now.'
Shang gathered power in his legs, and the air behind his feet seemed to warp by a bit.
It was almost like a transparent sheet of plastic was being bent by something, making the world behind it seem distorted.
BANG!
An explosive sound reverberated throughout the surroundings, and the world behind Shang seemed to vibrate as waves rapidly passed through it.
Shang shot forward at unreal speeds, and just a moment later, his entire body was hidden behind a chaotic storm of ice and fire. Shang was so fast that most Archmages wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Shang's current speed and using Mana Step.
Shang had transformed into a comet of ice and fire as the world behind him vibrated.
This was a new kind of movement technique he had created after obtaining his World Connection.
With World Connection, Shang could gather the majority of Mana in the surroundings and compress it.
Just now, Shang had gathered a huge amount of Mana and had compressed it behind him, creating a solid object of dense Mana. Then, he used that object to catapult him forward by jumping with all his power. This made the gathered Mana behind him vibrate and scatter, creating these waves that seemed to go through the world.
The speed Shang achieved with that was incredible since he could actually use his physical body to move forward in the air instead of his World Connection.
Ancestral Beasts exclusively fought in the air since the power of their bodies ruined the ground below them whenever they released some power.
One could imagine two Ancestral Beasts fighting on the ground as two Olympic sprinters having to sprint through thick and deep mud.
But by condensing his surroundings, Shang managed to create a surface hard enough to resist the full power of his jump.
Of course, using this technique would show the world that he had the ability of Ancestral Beasts.
If Shang were in the Sixth Realm, this wouldn't be a problem, but Shang had this ability in the Fifth Realm.
Some people might decide to get rid of him before he joined any major power.
After jumping off the world itself, a storm of ice and fire appeared around Shang, completely enveloping him.
This had been created by manipulating the temperature inside his body with insane accuracy.
If one could look at Shang through an infrared camera, one would be surprised by what one saw.
Shang's temperature looked like a rotating circle.
As his head grew colder, his legs grew hotter. Eventually, Shang's head would become the coldest part of his body and his legs the hottest parts.
Then, the legs would cool while the head heated up, and eventually, they would switch temperatures.
This created a terrifying amount of Ice and Fire Mana for Shang to use as he wished outside his body.
Of course, he was using that power to increase his speed.
He used the solid Mana to accelerate to a terrifying speed in an instant and used the Ice and Fire Mana to further increase his momentum.
Shang named this new kind of movement technique Comet.
Comets were celestial objects made of ice and water, but if they traveled through Earth's atmosphere, wouldn't the friction still cause them to burn like a meteor?
An object of ice and fire, just like Shang.
That was why he called this technique Comet.
Shang shot rapidly at the serpent, and he readied his sword.
He shot through the stream of water and ice.
SSSSS!
All the water that touched him turned to steam, but a big part of Shang's body nearly froze over.
Using Comet was a delicate act of balance, and the sudden drop in temperature in the surroundings managed to throw off that balance.
Comet was far more sophisticated than simply using Ice and Fire Blasts, but Shang hadn't perfectly mastered it yet.
Nevertheless, Shang managed to pass through the wall of icy water.
