“Who do you think you are? You think your powers ever exceed my mother? You yellow freak!” Maeve did not know what kind of monstrosity that human had become to have such an ugly face and body structure. Or maybe it was one of those Animal People that she never saw before.
“I know your species…you are an Orc, aren’t you?” Queen Mab squinted her eyes though she could not believe that an Orc had survived in this world for generations. “But you are more civilised than the ones I last remembered. Although I was very sure the humans had annihilated all of you and the …goblin race from existence.”
“Aren’t you happy that the eyesores had come back to haunt you?” Frost Echo inferred that the Feys were probably the ones who incited the humans to kill the Orcs and Goblins judging from Maeve’s behaviour.
Maybe it happened in their world too since the Dark Elves said they had encountered similar Feys before.
“Not particularly. Usually, Orcs and Goblins are beneath me and powerless compared to what I possess. But out of amusement, I am going to erase you permanently out of this world. You should be glad you get to taste my powers firsthand.” Mab clenched her right fist and loosen it, creating a ball of ice in front of her.
She then used her magic to flatten it into a sheet and subsequently rubbed the ball of ice until it looked like an icicle spear. With a flick of her finger, the icicle flew towards Frost Echo but the armour he wore, dissipated the icicle into dust.
“Damn, looks like I am not as fit as I was.” Frost Echo said to himself when his intention was to dodge it at first. But even if he did avoid it, Queen Mab’s icicle spear was something similar to a tracking missile. It would not stop until it hits the target.
“Probably eat less of those Royal dishes with those buffalo meat. Might also help to change your diet! And more exercise!” Flame Ripper blurted out, and the Black Masked Cultivators who were leaning at the door chuckled softly behind their masks.
“Yeah yeah, I will tell Cross to watch for my diet and exercise.” Frost Echo waved his hand in a manner to shoo them off before he turned his head to notice an icicle ten times larger was pointing towards him.
“Try dissolving this into ice dust.” Queen Mab was reluctant to use her powers against such a puny insignificant being when she released the projectile. She assumed that the armour was the one that was protecting him from the attacks. But from her perspective, the ‘magical’ armour plates were only skin thick, and they could be pierced through with sufficient power.
“You are not the only one with ice powers.” Frost Echo said as he grabbed the thrown giant icicle spear by the tip with just one hand and eventually broke it into pieces. For the first time, the Avatar of Shiva was having fun, and his Shaitan was on the standby to come out any time whenever he needed to. It was a long time since they scratch their itch for battle.
“You should have gone and not that bitch,” Ifrit said to Flame Ripper in his head.
“Nah, do not have to worry much. Her avatar would still interfere, and we can join in the fun later. Besides, Shiva’s your elder sister, give her some leeway.” Flame Ripper tried to calm the Fire Shaitan in him.
Queen Mab raised an eyebrow seeing that she underestimated the Orc and clasped her fingers. In an instant, her cold snap froze Frost Echo into a bulk of ice. “See, stop wasting my time already. Because of his interferences, I shall let do the Maeve killin-“
An Ice Shard flew from the back and attempted to pierce Maeve, but Mab’s barrier blocked it. However, that was enough for Queen Mab to turn her head, lowering her guard momentarily. This split second distraction gave Frost Echo the opportunity to do the same towards Queen Mab as she was frozen in a bulk of ice for a second before breaking out. (Obviously, it was not a projectile based magic but rather a pinpoint type of magic, allowing Frost Echo to bypass her barrier and perform the Ice Prison spell.)
Though Frost Echo was still in the ice block, his retaliation made Queen Mab ticked off, enough to magically create spears of ice into his direction. But to annoy her even more, the ice block Frost Echo was in, shot out the same number of ice spears against her, breaking it at a tie.
“You! You are no normal Orc! There’s no Orc that could wield magic, much less with finesse like yours!” Cracks started to appear on Queen Mab’s face.
“Why thank you! Don’t be too shocked that an Orc can perform such feats. I mean, I am also surprised how awfully sadistic you let your daughter to be. How about you let us kill her, and then we train her to be a good person?” Frost Echo replied with glee as he broke the ice block cleanly into two with his imprint still in it.
“What? Don’t test my limits. I know you are cahooting with some magician that is currently performing a large scale movement to this ruined kingdom. Don’t think that I knew nothing about the situation happening outside. While I might not have any idea what your magician friends are plotting, but it looks like you are just a pawn in his books. How about you join me? And I will spare those people out there.” Queen Mab seems to have taken an interest in high level Orc Magician.
“Ehhh, that is a problem. Apparently, it’s a death contract I signed without much of my will, and now I could not break out of it. Besides, I can’t make promises with you since we Orcs value honour and trust the most.” Frost Echo said but at the same time hoping that Jin was listening in to their conversation.
If Hell did freeze over the entire ruined kingdom, it would spell trouble for the current rescue operation. “Then all we have to do is to weaken her to the state that she’s not able to cast such a large scale spell…or maybe distract her enough until its meaningless for her to cast it.” Kraft who was watching at the side in the dungeon Maker said via the System Channel. “Don’t pull your punches, Orc King.”
“Heh, why don’t you come and try it for yourself!” Frost Echo’s thoughts were full hateful remarks for that Fox. Suddenly a fire arrow flew right behind him, and Queen Mab managed to create a partial ice barrier to block the ice. But she noticed that the fire was strong enough to melt the ice in front of her before it extinguishes.
Not to mention, the moment she blocked the arrow attack, Mab saw a shadow at the side causing her daughter Maeve to immediately called a Valg out to act as a Meat Shield.
Happy to be out of the hellhole it was in, the Valg roared out for the freedom it was bestowed in before it roared in pain, being burnt violently by an attack it did not anticipate.
Flame Ripper had decided to take action since Kraft was right. If her concentration was with the fight, her threats would not be an issue even though it did hit a nerve. Even Dark Elf Reregot had decided to help by taking out the inverted cross and wrapping it around his hand. Even though it might not damage the Fey Winter Queen much as she had warned, he believed it should still inflict some damage to them.
It was solely a battle to buy time for the rescue operation to succeed but to the cultivators in his shop, what they saw were the other cultivators struggling to fight the remaining Valgs in the castle. Some who manage to reach the throne hall found that there was a large hole right in front of them. There was also a layer of treacherous ice at the far end of the hole, making it almost impossible to land properly should one jump across the massive gap. Most thought it was just a dead end and turned away to search for other Valgs.
The only ones who happened to know that something was still going on in the Throne Hall were the Zi Dan, Xia Mao and Kong Xian who wrapped up their drinking session. While they did catch a glimpse of the intense ice fight scene between Frost Echo and Queen Mab from a distance, it instantly clicked on them that surrendering was the equivalent version of knowing their limits.
Thus, the ‘real’ boss battle was shrouded with mystery and not known to the cultivators.
