Close Combat Mage
chapter-260

“Clang bang…” Nicole stared at the source of the blue light in complete shock. In her daze, she didn’t even notice that the half of the sharp metal blade that had been right next to her neck had fallen to the ground and disappeared.

From the beginning to the end, Nicole hadn’t believed that anyone would come and rescue her. Although she hadn’t lived for very long, Nicole clearly understood the reason for this; nobody would be stupid enough to rescue someone at this kind of place. Wasn’t that just courting death?

Of course, Nicole had also fantasized about Suo Jia coming to save her before. But this was just a delusion; Nicole knew that the thought of this becoming a reality could only happen in her dreams. She and Suo Jia weren’t that close to each other, and their relationship vaguely seemed like that of master and servant. She was a captive as well. Suo Jia had absolutely no reason to come rescue her.

But now, Nicole was shocked to discover that her dreams had actually come true. The blue light just now had been Suo Jia’s Ice Arrow Technique. Nicole saw Suo Jia standing where the blue light had originated from. He stood there, warmly smiling at Nicole.

Nicole was stunned for a moment, before she suddenly shouted, “Don’t be stupid, Suo Jia. I’m just your captive, there’s no reason for you to come save me. Hurry up and leave this place, or else you’ll die.”

Suo Jia lazily smiled and rubbed his head, “Girl, didn’t we already agree that you have to bring me to the border before leaving me? How could you flee halfway through? I refuse to accept that.”

Nicole’s body shook, and her tears quickly blurred her vision. She looked intently at Suo Jia, and unconsciously murmured, “It’s not like I wanted to run away, you idiot. If you wanted to save me, you should’ve come up with a better excuse.”

Seeing Nicole’s emotion-filled face, Suo Jia chuckled and replied, “You shouldn’t feel too touched, I’m just really bored to the point where I really wanted to find a person and save them for fun. How could I not participate in something so exciting? You’d better coordinate well with me.” Suo Jia stretched his arms out to split the crowd, and began to charge towards the stone platform.

Seeing Suo Jia approaching, the guard captain’s expression changed. Since he didn’t know the strength of the enemy, he didn’t yet dare to be careless. Who knew if there were other enemies hiding in the darkness?

The guard captain suddenly turned to his side to tell the two soldiers holding Nicole down, “One of you two, go stop that brat. The other one, hold this girl down and immediately execute her.”

Following his command, one of the soldiers holding Nicole down immediately charged out, drawing the large sword on his back as he jumped off the platform to welcome Suo Jia. The other soldier reached out to press Nicole down with both hands. At the same time, the executioner with the broken blade borrowed another steel blade and lifted the glittering edge up once more. At this moment…Suo Jia was still 30 meters away from the platform.

Actually, Suo Jia had arrived ages ago. But this whole time, he hadn’t managed to push his way through the extremely packed, crowded environment. Actually, Suo Jia was the only one that could’ve gotten through, since his physical strength had been greatly increased by the Endurance Potions. Even a normal warrior, without the aid of battle qi, couldn’t have possibly made his way though.

Suo Jia panicked when he saw the soldier on the platform raise his blade once more. Although…Suo Jia could activate Diamond Charge and freeze all the people within a 10 meter radius, then shatter all of the ice, mass murdering wasn’t in his nature after all. He was still unable to do such a merciless thing.

Powerless, Suo Jia could only take the risk and jump up. He stepped on the air, and his body rose up strangely. Only after reaching the sentinels 10 meters away from the platform did he descend to the ground again.

Of course, Suo Jia had considered directly leaping onto the platform. However…if he really did do such a thing, Nicole would definitely die. That guard captain wasn’t just there for appearance; once Suo Jia was intercepted, Nicole’s head would instantly fall off.

Suo Jia raised his right hand. With a blue flash, a Mysterious Ice Arrow whizzed out and instantly crossed the empty space, flying straight at the steel blade in the executioner’s hand in attempt to stop the executioner’s downward slash once more. But this time, Suo Jia clearly hadn’t been able to achieve his goal; the guard captain had long since noticed Suo Jia’s actions, and he quickly pulled out the double-edged sword at his waist. In an instant, the guard captain’s battle qi erupted outwards, and the Mysterious Ice Arrow was instantly crushed into dregs of ice.

Seeing his shot be intercepted, Suo Jia’s expression abruptly changed. But without waiting for him to attack again, the approaching solder assigned to obstruct Suo Jia had already charged over and swung his large sword at Suo Jia. At the same time, the executioner had already gathered enough energy, and he grunted. The dazzling steel blade was clearly about to descend once more.

“Tch…” Suo Jia’s body turned oddly, and leapt towards the warrior’s right side. However…just as the warrior waved his sword to attempt to block Suo Jia, he was shocked to discover that Suo Jia had instead appeared on the other side. The warrior’s lightning fast sword only passed through empty air instead.

The warrior quickly turned around to intercept Suo Jia. Just then…Suo Jia faced the guard captain, who was currently gripping his sword as he warily watched Suo Jia. Behind him, the executioner had finally swung down his blade with all his might.

In that moment of imminent peril, Suo Jia’s eyes suddenly grew extremely wide. With a wave of his right hand, an arm-thick, crystal blue ice stream shrieked as it leapt at the guard captain like an arrow. But everyone knew that this was of no use; even if it harmed the guard captain, Nicole, who was behind him, would inevitably be decapitated.

Faced with Suo Jia’s attack, the guard captain confidently brandished the sword in his hand. He already knew what Suo Jia’s level of strength was, a mere Great Mage. This kind of attack was something he could still block. After all…Suo Jia didn’t dare activate any advanced, AOE attacks that could possibly doom Nicole as well. Magic didn’t have eyes, after all.

The double-edged sword effortlessly swung down. He was confident that this was definitely enough to deflect the other party’s attack, as he understood both himself and his enemy.

Countless people watched as the ice stream arrived in front of the guard captain at lightning speed. But…the ‘clang’ sound of a collision that everyone had been expecting, didn’t happen. Just as the two sides were about to come into contact, the ice stream had suddenly changed into an agile snake, and with a swift turn, bent around the captain guard and continued charging forwards.

“Ding.” Finally, the clang that they had waited forever for rang out. But…this clang wasn’t from the guard captain; the ice stream had managed to block the blade of the executioner behind him just in time. The sound of collision had been generated by the steel blade and the ice stream.

The steel blade had been less than a centimeter away from Nicole’s neck. The dazzling steel blade that had been swung down with all of the executioner’s strength was sliced in half by the ice stream, making the blade unable to continue its descent. Firstly, because the warrior’s strength had been completely exhausted, and secondly…because he had been completely frozen.

Originally, the warrior’s strength in addition to the energy he’d stored for so long just now should’ve definitely been enough to deflect the arm-thick ice stream. But…the instant the two made contact, Suo Jia had activated Freezing Touch from the ice stream. Thus, when the two had touched, the executioner’s hands had been completely frozen. Unless those solid ice layers were broken, there was no way the executioner would be able to budge at all.

Had the matter ended just like that? No…Nicole was still in the grasp of the other warrior. Having anticipated this long before he’d acted, Suo Jia had already thought of a countermeasure.

The lightning fast ice stream’s incomparably sharp, pointed end instantly pierced the throat of the warrior holding Nicole down. Because of the ice stream’s extremely low temperature, the warrior’s head instantly froze into an ice cube, freezing the blood before it had even gotten the chance to flow down.

From the beginning until now, everything that Suo Jia did had undoubtedly been a complete success. He’d first controlled the ice stream to circle the intercepting guard captain, then immediately seized the executioner’s blade, using Freezing Touch to freeze his hands. At the same time, the sharp, pointed end of the ice stream had penetrated the warrior’s throat.

In a single assault, Suo Jia had successfully achieved three things at once. In addition, skill and strength hadn’t been the only things necessary to achieve this; wisdom and impromptu reactions were even more important. Suo Jia hadn’t known how many enemies would be present before arriving, nor did he know how they planned on killing Nicole. All his actions had been come up with on the spot depending on the situation; there was no way he could’ve prepared beforehand.

However, although everything had gone smoothly, there was still a long way until Suo Jia could successfully rescue Nicole. The warrior that had been passed by Suo Jia activated an attack from behind. At the same time, the guard captain seemed to have also sensed something happening behind him. He turned his body and brandished the sword in his hand, prepared to personally deal with Nicole. No matter what, this matter couldn’t be ruined; this was related to Endless Clouds City’s reputation.

With a deep breath, Suo Jia instantly materialized the Water God’s Shield, allowing the warrior from behind continue to attack heavily. At the same time, Suo Jia controlled the ice stream to first push Nicole aside. Then, the ice stream curled up and quickly rolled out towards the guard captain.

Originally, the ice stream was supposed to circle around from the guard captain’s left side, then go back from the right and encircle him. Like a python, it attempted to coil around his body.

The guard captain couldn’t help but feel astonishment and fury at the ice stream closing in on him. This was the first time he’d ever seen such a strange and troublesome mage in his entire life. He finally realized that whether or not he could successfully kill Nicole wasn’t important; he first needed to preserve his own life.

The guard captain suddenly extended his sword to deflect the coiling ice stream. However…as soon as the sword touched the ice stream, a bone-chilling, cold air invaded and attacked the sword. Luckily, the guard captain had noticed it early, and used battle qi to disperse the freezing air. But despite this, he was unable to come out unharmed; Freezing Touch activated, and instantly formed a solid, 2 meter tall ice cube, imprisoning the enemy inside it. Unless the ice cube was shattered, there was no way he’d be able to escape.

For a moment, the guard captain could only stay confined in the cube. His eyes widened as he saw Suo Jia leap up to the platform, scooped Nicole up in his arms, then shoot a few Ice Arrows to force that last warrior back. He then leisurely leapt off the platform and blended into the crowd. Finding him at this point was pretty much impossible.