Close Combat Mage

Chapter 344 - Advancing Forwards

Everyone watched as all movements seemed to continuously slow down. The last warrior approached Suo Jia inch by inch in midair. On the other hand, Suo Jia expressionlessly watched the weapon gradually nearing his chest, showing no signs of evading or dodging.

“Whoosh…crunch!” The instant the weapon was about to pierce Suo Jia, a large blue figure flashed…and the warrior’s body mysteriously disappeared in midair.

One Eyed Bald Dragon stood in shock for a while. Finally…he discovered that the warrior’s legs were sticking out of the Diamond Dragon’s large mouth. The rest of the warrior was already inside.

“Crunch…crunch…crunch…” One Eyed Bald Dragon watched as the Diamond Dragon mercilessly began to chew. Every crunch would cause an entire strip of the Life Protection to disappear. After just a few rounds, the warrior’s Life Protection was completely drained. With the final chomp, the warrior was completely crushed on the spot.

At the same time, the Diamond Dragon’s claws continued to tighten. Finally, under this powerful force, the two warriors in the Diamond Dragon’s claws began to frantically release their battle qi in attempt to break free from the dragon’s grip.

The Diamond Dragon suddenly lowered its head to coldly stare at the two small things in its hold. Then…it raised its right claw, tossing the warrior in its grasp into its mouth, and the crunching sounds could be heard once more.

Everyone watching couldn’t help but be absolutely horrified at this cruel scene. How was this a battle? It was clearly a massacre, torturing people to their deaths!

As if for the sake of further proving everyone’s thoughts, the Diamond Dragon clasped its two claws together as it continued to rigorously chew. Its sharp talons condensed from Mysterious Ice tightly grasped the last warrior in its hands, and it suddenly exerted strength outwards towards both sides…

“Yah!” A choked cry of misery was all that could be heard before the warrior’s body was ripped apart into two even halves. The Diamond Dragon looked at the broken and badly damaged corpse in its hands, and seemingly losing all interest, tossed the two halves to a side without giving it another glance.

“Whoosh…” A piercingly chilly wind blew across the square. At that moment, the Diamond Dragon was still standing proudly there, its mouth and talons full of blood. Suo Jia’s body was firmly planted on the dragon’s shoulder, his wide mage robes dancing around in the air behind him.

Suo Jia stared intensely at One Eyed Bald Dragon and stated, “We’ve already restrained ourselves. I didn’t want to become enemies with you, but…if that is Heaven’s decision, we must become the enemy. That’s why…you should go ahead and die without any regrets. If reincarnation exists, don’t ever come to the Greater Trade Routes again!”

With this, Suo Jia slowly reached forwards with his right hand. In that instant, the crimson ice stream that had been restlessly circling around him immediately left his side and leapt towards One Eyed Bald Dragon with a shriek.

As he watched the ice stream jump towards him, One Eyed Bald Dragon obviously wasn’t willing to just wait for death. He tightened his grip on his greatsword and his eyes flashed wildly. No matter what, he had to give it his all until the end. A wild beast being pressured towards death was when it was fiercest!

“Sfx…” Just when everyone had thought that a bitter struggle was about to unfold, the Diamond Dragon tilted its head in disdain and breathed outwards, freezing One Eyed Bald Dragon to the ground he stood on.

Although the Diamond Dragon’s Ice Seal couldn’t really seal One Eyed Bald Dragon’s movements, this small delay was enough for Suo Jia’s ice stream to arrive. Instantly, it wrapped itself around One Eyed Bald Dragon’s body several dozen times until it covered everything, even his head. Suo Jia and the Diamond Dragon’s coordination had reached a nearly perfect level.

With his right hand holding the tail of the ice stream, Suo Jia silently activated Freezing Touch, activating four Ice and Snow Pacts. Finally, Suo Jia let go of the stream, allowing it to drop to the ground.

On the surface, it didn’t seem like Suo Jia had done anything. The scene was completely calm. But within this calm, a life full of vigor had already unknowingly left.

Although Freezing Touch and Ice and Snow Pact didn’t look like they’d have any extreme effects, directly using them on the enemy’s body or even inside their body would be extremely powerful. Although one couldn’t say it was guaranteed that the victim would die, but the four Ice and Snow Pacts, in addition to Freezing Touch, on the human body would, at the very least, have the strength of 10 Ice Roars.

Under Suo Jia’s commands, the Diamond Dragon walked up to Xiang Yun, Nicole, and Roger, and then lifted them up to its shoulder as well. It then swiftly jumped 4-5 meters into the air, and with a slight flap of its wings, began to soar towards outside the city.

While in the air, Suo Jia’s party crossed over several streets before landing at a wide cross-section. Then…under Suo Jia’s control, the Diamond Dragon landed and left its combat state, before heading towards Suo Jia’s residence with them.

Upon entering the luxurious living room, Suo Jia’s party finally relaxed tiredly on the fur carpet. Suo Jia had used up all of his ability in that battle just now. If he still hadn’t been able to kill off the opposite party, then Suo Jia would’ve been completely powerless. That was also why Suo Jia had so hurriedly fled the scene.

Seeing the still somewhat panicked three companions, Suo Jia let out a sigh and turned to say to Roger, “Roger, now you should understand why I had so much self-restraint and tolerance, right? If it’s just exchanging a few words of argument, we needn’t be that bothered. After all…it’s not like we’re the murderous demon king!”

Still feeling some lingering fear, Roger patted his chest and sincerely replied, “I understand now; exercising forbearance doesn’t necessarily indicate weakness, it simply prevents situations from being too troublesome. In reality, if we went around doing these huge fights to death all day, our image to others would definitely be reduced to a murderous demon king that viewed others as mere weeds!”

Gratified, Suo Jia nodded. Just as he was about to speak, Xiang Yun cut in, “That’s right, real experts aren’t people that wouldn’t refuse to let someone go just because of a few upsetting words. If that were the case, their lives would be too exhausting. We have no qualms about killing others, but it’s not like we enjoy it either.”

“Mhm…” Bobbing her agreement, Nicole earnestly added, “That’s right, every life is precious. Unless we have absolutely no other option, we can’t kill people, and preventing that from happening is still best. In order to avoid these predicaments, we should all learn to be more patient in the future.”

After some discussion, they finally restored their spirits. Although their strengths hadn’t recovered, moving around was no longer an issue anymore, especially after Suo Jia had treated their wounds with the Moisture Technique. Only their physical strength, spirit power, magic power, and battle qi hadn’t yet recovered to their best states.

The four people all crawled up, and comfortable leaned against chairs. At the same time, Suo Jia said in a heavy voice, “Everyone has already trained for half a year, and I’ve already passed the first checkpoint’s task. Is there anything else you guys have to do? If not, I think we should advance to the second checkpoint!”

In response to Suo Jia’s question, Xiang Yun and Roger simultaneously shook their heads, indicating they didn’t have any other matters to attend to. Only Nicole looked at Suo Jia excitedly. “I think there’s a place we definitely need to visit. I believe…this location will definitely have pleasant surprises for us!”

“Oh?” Suo Jia glanced at Nicole questioningly, and asked, “Tell me, where exactly is this place? Is it in some special area?”

Nicole firmly replied, “If we head out east about 1000 kilometers, there’s a hidden valley. There are prehistoric remains that Giant Icebears are currently guarding. I believe…that if we can defeat the Giant Icebears and enter this area, we can definitely gain profit!”

“Giant Icebears!” Suo Jia abruptly stood up, and looked at Nicole in excitement. After confirming that Nicole had personally seen the Giant Icebears, Suo Jia immediately decided that they wouldn’t try to pass the next checkpoint at the moment, and would instead advance towards this hidden valley…

***

The next morning, the four of them left Enchanting Village, and following Nicole’s lead, rushed towards the direction of this hidden valley. However, the more they walked, the more Suo Jia felt that something was strange; why did their surroundings look so familiar?

Finally, the air around them gradually turned chillier. As the cold winds shrieked past, Suo Jia recognized the place; wasn’t this near Icebound City?

Doubtful, Suo Jia hesitantly asked Nicole, “Um…Nicole, exactly where is this place you want to go to? What is it called?”

“Mm…” After some thoughts, Nicole’s eyes lit up and she happily replied, “Aiya, I just remembered. Outside the valley entrance, I seemed to have seen a stone tablet that had the words: Icebound Valley!”

“Mother of…” Upon hearing Nicole’s reply, Suo Jia couldn’t help but grow dizzy. Without saying another word, he turned around and walked in the direction they’d come from. Seeing this, although they didn’t know what Suo Jia was doing, the other three hurriedly chased after Suo Jia.

The party headed west and rushed to Blazing City. This time, since all four people were present, Suo Jia took out all the junk from his 9 interspatial rings and his main ring to store 3000 barrels of Blazing Liquor, enough for all four of them.

Then, under Suo Jia’s lead with the Diamond Dragon opening up their path, the four managed to rush to Icebound City in just four days. Aside from Suo Jia, this was the first time the other three had visited a city in the north.

After unloading the liquor at the tavern that Suo Jia had personally set up, Suo Jia chose a direction and led his group members back to Icebound Valley. Only then did Nicole suddenly realise that the path Suo Jia had taken was actually the easiest one.

After stowing enough liquor, the group of four left from the other side of Icebound City, and headed towards Icebound Valley from the detailed path marked on the city map.

It wasn’t very far, and the four soon encountered a large amount of magical beasts. These were different from other beasts; the magical beasts outside Icebound City were all ice elemental. When scanning around, there was absolutely no way of distinguishing what was snow and what was a beast.

In addition, Suo Jia felt powerless because, while the magical beasts here weren’t completely immune to ice elemental magics, the freezing and sealing effects were entirely ineffective.

However, although these effects had disappeared, the destructive power of the magic hadn’t. Ice Roar, the ice blades, or the rain of arrows from Hailstone still had their physical attack power. Although Suo Jia’s strength had been weakened, it was clear that it hadn’t been completely eradicated.

They pushed forwards with difficulty for an entire day, but when they stopped, they realised that they had only just moved a small distance. At the sight of the densely packed ice monsters, they couldn’t help but sigh.

In admiration, Roger praised Nicole, “Heavens, I really can’t imagine how you were able to charge through alone. Don’t tell me…these magical beasts saw that you were female, and lowered themselves to your level?”

“Tch…” Nicole rolled her eyes in disdain and arrogantly replied, “Did you think everyone was like you, and only know how to barbarically charge through? Let me tell you…getting through this place alone is the simplest thing in the world for me. As long as I conceal myself, I can advance thousands of meters at a time. The distance we reached after traveling for an entire day is something I could’ve crossed in just an hour by myself.”

While Nicole and Roger were in dispute, Suo Jia knit his brows together. If they continued on like this, based on Nicole’s analysis, they wouldn’t be able to reach the destination even after 2 weeks, and Suo Jia didn’t have the luxury to waste so much time here.

Suo Jia resolutely made his decision and first ordered everyone to rest up properly. Then…the next morning, Suo Jia gathered everyone together to begin explaining the plan’s details. action

After breakfast, the Diamond Dragon entered its combat state and charged through the crowd of snow monsters in the distance. As for Nicole, Suo Jia, Xiang Yun, and Roger, they just eagerly watched in fascination at their surroundings while sitting on the Diamond Dragon’s head.

The Diamond Dragon’s head was abnormally gigantic, the size of a bus, and could fit 20-30 people without a problem. If a head this large were placed on another animal’s body, it would definitely seem too big. But atop this 9 meter tall, incomparably sturdy Diamond Dragon’s body, it was clearly just right.

There were four depressions on the Diamond Dragon’s head. They were all shaped like seats, and at the moment…Suo Jia’s party members were each sitting on one. They could advance while also enjoying the scenery; it could even be said that they had reached their destination with extreme comfort to some extent.

As the Diamond Dragon continued to plow through like a tank, more and more snow monsters gradually began to gather from various directions. There were six rings of monsters surrounding the Diamond Dragon. In the beginning, the Diamond Dragon could still jump and glide past, but as time passed, Suo Jia’s party realised that they’d seemed to entered a sea of magical beasts. For as far as their eyes could see, their vision was filled with the figures of magical beasts running back and forth.

With lack of better option, Suo Jia stretched out his right hand. Immediately…with a flash of blue light, Hailstone Technique was activated, and sharp ice arrows pierced downwards from the sky, falling within a 40 meter circumference around the dragon. Any magical beasts in the Diamond Dragon’s proximity suffered from this devastating attack.

Originally, if he was outside the Greater Trade Routes, this kind of attack would decimate a large amount of magical beasts. But one couldn’t forget that the magical beasts in the Greater Trade Routes all had Life Protections, and couldn’t be wiped out so easily.

Only after the first Hailstone had ended did the snow monsters gradually collapse within the attack perimeter. But at the same time, magical beasts continued to fearlessly rush forth.

Faced against the snow monsters rush over like a flood, the Diamond Dragon grew angry. As the king of ice and snow, how could it tolerate the provocations of all these lower level ice elemental creatures? In an instant, it swung its tail, stamped its feet, and wildly began to fight as well.

Finally, after Suo Jia had released 10 Hailstone Techniques, the surrounding snow monsters were completely wiped out. At the same time, Suo Jia tiredly retracted his right hand, and swayed before weakly falling back into his seat, his face deathly pale.

His eyelids closed in exhaustion and he said in a low voice, “Xiang Yun, Roger, I leave the reste to you guys while I focus on recovering my spirit power and magic power. No matter what, you guys have to hold on!”

Roger and Xiang Yun solemnly nodded. Xiang Yun then replied, “Don’t worry, Captain, just relax and rest. No matter what happens, we’ll definitely be able to protect the party until you awaken!”

Suo Jia gave a relieved nod, and then shut his eyes, entering a deep layer within the meditative state to focus completely on restoring his magic power and spirit power. At the same time, the Diamond Dragon rushed forward at full speed. In front of them, crowds of snow monsters could be seen appearing again.

They hadn’t advanced far before finally…the Diamond Dragon was surrounded by snow monsters once more. Looking down at the snow monsters frenziedly attacking the Diamond Dragon and back at the meditating Suo Jia, Xiang Yun gritted his teeth and took the lead, jumping down from the Diamond Dragon’s head.

In midair, Xiang Yun pulled out his Holy Crossblade once more, his hands tightly gripping the hilt, and he roared as he descended from the sky. The next instant…a flaming blade qi swept across, and Xiang Yun’s slashing ability split all the snow monsters around into halves, leaving behind countless casualties!

“Hehe…” Seeing Xiang Yun wrapped in a violent battle, Roger’s eyes lit up excitedly. He wiped his nose and Roger loudly declared, “****, how can I miss out on something so enjoyable! I’m joining…”

Following this…Roger suddenly flipped, his body somersaulting several times. In midair, Roger’s body straightened, and his legs unfolded outwards into a dance, the afterimages flashing past repeatedly. One by one, the bodies of snow monsters in the air exploded into pieces! The shattering effect of Roger’s combat boots were not something the snow monsters could possibly resist!

Seeing how busy Xiang Yun and Roger were, the Diamond Dragon’s eyes glinted. It continued to sweep its nine meter long and extremely thick tail outwards, knocking over all the lower level snow monsters. Although the beasts weren’t immediately killed, they were rendered helpless in front of Xiang Yun’s and Roger’s attacks.