Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Unfortunately, Celaine hasn't received as much of Mira's 'special treatment' as Maria has, so she was a tad late in reacting to the white blue. Instead of being struck directly in the chest, the beast only hit her left leg.

*Crack*

Celaine could feel her bones breaking as her body somersaulted through the air.

*BOOM*

Her body slammed into one of the walls of the canyon and immediately knocked her unconscious.

"Celaine!!" Maria yelled as she just watched her friend nearly die. In fact, she would be nothing more than a clump of meat right now if not for the Magma Dragon Body she cultivated a few months back.

Maria was just about to run over to Celaine when…

"Get your head out of your ass! If she's dead then there's nothing we can do about it and even if she isn't we still have this shithead to deal with! I don't remember teaching such a weakling!" Mira yelled as she readied her scythe.

She didn't even spare Celaine a glance which started to cause Maria's blood to boil seeing Mira's indifferent face. She couldn't even see any change in her expression which caused some complicated feelings to enter her heart.

"But…"

She didn't even have time to say another word as the white blur, or now that they can see what it looks like, some sort of White-Ice Tiger charged at her next.

She didn't even have time to defend herself and she could feel death staring at her right in the eyes. This is one of the first times she's felt like this where she feels so helpless. She's unsure if her friend is dead or alive, Mira doesn't seem to care at all, and now she's about to die herself.

Just as she was about to resign herself to her fate, a scythe entered her view that threatened to chop off the Tiger's head.

"Mira-"

*BAM*

Mira kicked Maria in the stomach which sent her flying then turned back towards the beast.

"Since you're so fucking useless then get out of the way! I have no intention of dying here today so you either wake up and help or stay out of it! See if I don't beat your ass after we survive this ordeal!" Mira yelled and charged at the Tiger.

*ROAR*

The Tiger felt somewhat offended that this puny human decided to challenge it and darted towards her at supersonic speeds.

Maria was dazed for a second before she eventually looked up and started to get a better look at the situation.

Mira was fighting head-on with the Tiger, which seemed to be a Mid-Stage Rank 6 Magical Beast, which equates to the cultivation of around Stage 5 Core Formation. Only, this beast is obviously a bit stronger than what its actual cultivation is and its actual combat prowess is probably close to the Late-Stage Rank 6 or somewhere around the Stage 8 Core Formation Realm, plus or minus a stage or two.

Then she looked over towards Celaine, who looked like a ragdoll, laying on the ground. However, if she looked close enough she can see a faint rise and fall of her chest indicating that she's alive.

She sighed in relief and looked towards Mira's fight. She could tell that Mira was far more skilled in actual combat than the Tiger, but the difference in strength between the two is hindering her quite a bit.

For the most part, Mira is keeping her distance while using any ice attacks that she knows. Her Ice Domain has come out at full force and is much stronger than it was before.

Every time the Tiger gets close to the domain, things don't exactly end up well for him. The shards of ice flying around along with her Yin Magma start shredding it to pieces. Also, every time it loses a bit of blood Mira's Ice Elemental Essence starts to suck as much of it out of the Tiger as it can.

Sometimes, the Tiger will charge at her with full force, but Mira will simply just keep backing up and whenever the Tiger does end up getting close she uses her scythe to attempt chopping off its head.

Nevertheless, Mira's condition also doesn't seem to be that amazing. Although it's hard for Maria to tell at this distance, she can see a large gash on the side of Mira's stomach, a dislocated shoulder which Mira just popped back into place, problem a few broken ribs, and most likely a few broken bones in her arms and/or legs as well.

Maria gave one last look at Celaine before firmly grasping onto her sword and pushing her Light Dao to the max.

The Tiger wasn't expecting the other ant to charge at its flank and started to become enraged.

Mira let out an evil grin which caused Maria and even the Tiger to shiver.

She cancelled her ice domain, stepped away from the fight, and crossed her arms.

"Why?!" Maria noticed this and immediately understood Mira's intentions.

"This is your punishment for being completely useless and causing all of my training to go to waste! How about this? You have 10 minutes, if you can't kill it in this timeframe or if you make me intervene, then I'm leaving you and Celaine behind while going on my own. But if you can kill it within the timeframe, I'll give you a reward after we leave this Secret Realm. Hmmm… I'll even let you decide what you want." Mira said to Maria causing the latter to feel wronged.

Just because she cared about her friend and hesitated for a split second she now has to go through a solo life-and-death battle with this Mid-Stage Rank 6 White-Ice Tiger. She was unsure if even she and Mira can kill it let alone herself!

However, seeing Mira's pissed expression along with all of her cursing is enough to make her understand that she is clearly very displeased with how she handled the situation just now.

"Fine! But you better give me an explanation about all of this after I kill this bastard!" Maria cursed at Mira and decided to go all-out from the start.

The muscles in her arms and legs flexed to the max, light wings appeared on her back, she used her Light Sword to extend her reach a bit as well as using her Triple Draws Sword Art.

The Tiger roared at her and ice particles started to condense around its body. It had a hard time using any of its ice abilities while fighting Mira due to her Absolute Ice Dao, but Maria clearly doesn't have such an ability.

Right as the two of them got close to each other, the White-Ice Tiger aimed for her heart, but Maria dodged and surprisingly she didn't swing her sword yet. Right before the Tiger lunged at her, she took out a spare sword with her free arm and stabbed it into the side of the Tiger's head.

The sword was unable to pierce through the tiger's head, which was rather obvious considering the sword wasn't even Earth-Grade and the extra layer of protection around its body. But the sword was able to stagger the Tiger for a second which was all of the time she needed.

Mira's other sword came crashing down onto the Tiger's neck at full force, nearly decapitating it. Unfortunately, Maria doesn't have the strength to completely decapitate, but this was a full-power attack that used up over half of her Qi while pushing her muscles to the max.

The battle between the two was over as soon as it started, which wasn't that surprising to Mira, but Maria seemed quite surprised by the results. She looked down at the now-dead Tiger and couldn't help but comment.

"How… did I kill it so fast?"

"There are several reasons why you were able to kill it so fast. First, it clearly underestimated you. This Tiger seems to have a lot of useless pride in itself which immediately gave you an advantage. Second, it seemed like it wasn't used to combat or at least it hasn't fought anything in a while. Third, it was already somewhat injured by me which dropped its power by probably around 10-20%. Fourth, you are much stronger than you think you are with your physical body, in fact, I bet you are probably much stronger with your physical body compared to your Qi and Dao. Also, that's just how life-and-death battles are. They can be over in an instant. There are more reasons, but I don't think I need to keep going, do I?" Mira explained.

"I see, but how come you didn't kill it before I could come help?" Maria asked.

Mira just looked at her but didn't answer.

"Ugh! I know, it's because you were already put in a disadvantageous position while saving me. Not only that, but you probably saved it just for me as well!" Maria pouted, clearly unhappy with the results.

Mira nodded.

"Correct! But also, that thing is quite the pain in the ass to deal with due to its speed. That's not my specialty so it was really annoying to deal with. I also had quite a few abilities I wanted to test out as well, which I was able to."

"That makes sense. Ah! Celaine!" Maria got up and ran over to Celaine. She immediately shoved a Healing Pill into her mouth and started to help her digest it.

Mira looked over and just shook her head then started sucking the blood out of the White-Ice Tiger with her Vampyric Ice Elemental Essence. This is what she really wanted to test and this just happened to be the perfect test subject.