Chapter 12: Time of Sughter

  Lucas activated his time reversal ability, yanking Bernie, who had dodged, bader his desding bde.

  One ssh.

  With a single, powerful stroke, he cleaved the three-star hero gnome in half like chopping wood.

  Lucas then advanced, his sword in hand, as two icy wheels spun towards the frightened members of the Mad Axe Gang. They backed away in terror, huddling together in the narrow corridor.

  The Ice Dance Garden spread out, and the icy wheels created by Starlight Radiance whirled into the gang members like merciless meat grinder bdes.

  Moisture in the air froze, creating drifting white frost and snowfkes. Crimson blood sprayed out explosively, staining the snow a vivid red. White and red snowfkes danced in the air currents stirred up by the spinning icy wheels.

  When they fell, they buried the mangled limbs beh them.

  A yer of ied on the corridor walls, with blood sptters freezing into intricate coral-like ice sculptures.

  Lucas walked forward through this corridor of strange beauty, with no o standing ahead.

  The icy wheels of Starlight Radiance flew to the end of the corridor, theurned, shattering the i the bde and slotting bato the scabbard on Lucas's lower back.

  Lucas arrived at the entrao the staircase leading to the sed floor.

  Acc to the strategy guide, there acious hall below, with Jumu's room at the end of the right-side corridor.

  From above, chaotic footsteps and shouting ands could be heard from the hall on the sed floor. Some Mad Axe Gang members had mao escape and inform the others below about the situation.

  They khey couldn't leverage their numerical advantage in the narrow corridor, so they chose to make their stand in the sed-floor hall.

  Lucas leapt over the third-floor railing and jumped down. A loud explosion immediately followed.

  The Mad Axe Gang had set up a on in the sed-floor hall!

  The on was an 18-pound muzzle-loading on deissioned from naval warships, capable of firing solid shot and grapeshot. It was aimed directly at the staircase leading from the third floor to the sed floor.

  Seeing the intruder appear, a gang member holding a torch lit the fuse.

  In the enclosed space, the on's roar was deafening. As the muzzle spewed fmes and thick smoke, a rge volley of grapeshot was discharged. The fan-shaped barrage covered the eaircase area. This on, designed for naval bombardments, dispyed its unstoppable power in this enviro.

  The barrage swept through, instantly colpsing the staircase. Debris and splinters flew in the swirling dust, and some gang members who were too close were hit, screaming in agony.

  Was the intruder dead? It was unclear.

  But the temperature in the hall plummeted suddenly. Everyone's breath turned into white mist, and frost quickly formed on the walls and ceiling. It was as if winter had arrived. Exposed ski a cutting pain from the cold.

  "The intruder is still alive. Find her and kill her!" someone shouted.

  At this moment, a massive icy wheel rose among the crowd. Several severed gang members' bodies were flung up, hitting the ceiling, their blood quickly freezing and stig them to the ice yer above.

  The rising icy wheel carved a deep groove in the ceiling before sshing down and spinning forward. It only stopped when it crashed into a wall. The i the wheel shattered, revealing a curved bde inside.

  The curved bde spun along the groove cut by the icy wheel, finally being caught steadily by a hand.

  Only then did the Mad Axe Gang members realize that the invading elf had somehow hidden among them.

  He held a curved bde in his left hand, the bde's surface beginning to freeze from the energy emanating from it.

  The other hand held a machete, which was covered with white holy fmes.

  In the air, icy mist flowers bloomed. The extreme cold pierced into the bones.

  Some members of the Mad Axe Gang were paralyzed and uo move.

  Then, a ring of white light with ice crystals spread out from the elf as the ter, instantly freezing the nearby gang members into ice sculptures.

  Following this, a ring of holy energy shockwave spread out from the elf.

  The powerful impact shattered the humanoid ice sculptures, sending shards flying outward with the shockwave.

  In a short time, the hall, which had been filled with people, was now nearly empty.

  The few remaining members of the Mad Axe Gang scattered around the hall, trembling as they faced the invading elf, unsure if it was from fear or the cold.

  g, g, g...

  A strong member of the Mad Axe Gang ushing the on, adjusting its dire.

  His expression was very dull, ued by the frozen corpses around him. He aimed the on at the elf, thehodically ed the barrel and poured in a bag of gunpowder.

  He was meticulous.

  Like a well-trained sailor in a naval battle, as long as he was alive and the ship was not sunk, he had to keep his assigned on firing at the enemy.

  All the others responsible for the on were dead, so handling it alone was much slower.

  Lucas walked over and, with one ssh, decapitated him.

  Gabiru, a three-star hero.

  All his abilities were focused oing ons. If it were a naval artillery battle, he would be an excellent hero-level gunner.

  His other abilities were mediocre.

  Jabulres's body slumped over the on barrel, and the surviving gang members dropped their ons and fled in terror.

  Lucas ighose cowards, carrying his sword as he headed toward Jumu's bedroom.

  He passed through a short corridor. At the end was his target this time.

  In front of a finely carved door stood a woman in a bck robe.

  The woman's appearance was very beautiful, with light purple hair and a headband inid with a circle of gemstones. As the elf approached, the gemstones on the headband lit up one by one.

  "Elf, the fact that you made it here shows you're strong, but this is as far as you go."

  Lucas gripped his curved bde in one hand and his machete iher, tinuing to walk forward.

  "Brenda, is Jumu inside?"

  Brenda, a dark sorceress, specialized in curses, poisons, and corrosive magic.

  She was the e of the ox-horned demon Jumu.

  Her power rating was three stars, but pyers universally aowledged that Brenda was overpowered, so her true strength robably three and a half stars.

  Fag a treacherous three-and-a-half-star dark sorceress, one should be cautious.

  Brenda said, "A dead perso o know the answer."

  The light in the corridor dimmed, and eerie wails sounded from all around. tless ghostly hands reached out from the walls towards Lucas, while a cloud of bck mist rose behind her, and a giant cobra's head emerged.

  Intations echoed in the narrow space. Dark energy surged towards Lucas.

  Lucas ighe immihreat, setting the machete in front of him, with his right arm glowing with white light.

  "Brenda, it seems no oold you what kind of power I just used."

  Holy Guardian!

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