Close Combat Mage
chapter-345

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.

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.