Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Chapter 927: Lair (Part 3)

Mira looked around, curious, unbothered by the sounds of battle right next to her. 'Seems like around half the worms are dead.' She nodded in approval. Even with her Qi limited, Yanira was quite strong.

'However, it looks like she's running out of gas.' She turned her attention to Yanira, fending off six giant worm Wardens. The flames around her Divine Sword weren't nearly as potent as they were before, likely having drained themselves. Divine-grade weapons couldn't be used perpetually, after all.

'...Well, that's probably not entirely true.' Mira thought. 'It's just this environment isn't suited for that, and Yanira's ability to produce Qi has been severely hindered.'

Other than that, Yanira was spending a considerable amount of effort to rid herself of all the poison entering her body. Her movements were more sluggish, her aura wasn't quite as radiant, injuries had covered most of her body, and she was covered in sweat.

Perhaps the woman wouldn't last another hour before she eventually collapsed.

'...Should I just kill her?' Mira seriously considered it. After all of this was over and they left this cave, her biggest problem would be escaping Yanira's wrath. Everything was fun and games right now when she was weakened, but afterward...

Well, there wasn't anything particularly fun about being burned alive.

However, glancing at the giant cocoon, followed by the rest of the worms, she gave a resigned sigh and shook her head. 'As much as I hate to admit it, I need her strength.'

Nevertheless, she couldn't pass up the opportunity to mock her while she still had the chance. Waving her hand with a smirk, Mira shouted, "Hey! Need a hand?!"

"And here I thought you kicked the bucket! Tch!" A cold response came back, causing Mira to chuckle. "Now that you're free, why don't you deal with that big guy?!"

That was all the invitation Mira needed. Hell if she was going to attack that cocoon!

After ensuring that Hana was still alive, she shot over toward the battlefield and sliced through one of the worm's thick, icy exoskeletons, piercing its skin. The damage was limited, but Mira grinned at the sight. 'Heh~'

With one hand holding her scythe, she struck the worm with the other, sending it skidding across the floor and finally catching its attention. Without hesitation, she did the same to two others, taking half of the burden off of Yanira.

Dents and cracks had formed in their icy exoskeletons. Seeing that, Mira's smirk widened. 'I didn't spend all that time in those thing's stomachs in vain!'

"Hey, woman!" Mira called out. She jumped up in the air to dodge attacks from all sides before landing on one of the worm's heads. "I got a plan."

"You're just now saying that?! After I've taken care of half these bastards?!" Yanira barked back, but the faded light in her eyes seemed to brighten.

Mira chuckled, saying, "I'll create weak points in their bodies. All you have to do is stab that sword of yours into them when I say the word and unleash as much Fire Qi as you can throughout their bodies, hitting those weak points."

"..." Yanira fell silent, not because she was contemplating, but simply because she was dodging.

Mira saw that her situation was actually worse than she originally thought and jumped over to help. "When I give the word, you attack!"

Without receiving a response, she landed on the head worm attacking Yanira, activated her Scythe Manifestation, and slashed an 'X' on it. Then, she raised her scythe and penetrated it with the 'spear' end of it. She did this a few times, ensuring that the stab went deep enough, then filled it with Destruction Qi.

While the worm screeched and hissed in pain, releasing plumes of poison and shooting out ice spikes like a porcupine, Mira continued doing this all over its body.

During her time spent in the previous worm's stomach, she had learned through intense observation that the worms weren't perfect. They could be systematically killed as long as certain parts were cut off from the rest of their body at the same time.

However, it had to be at exactly the same time. Their regenerative powers were so strong that if even one part remained intact, they could duplicate.

"Now!" Mira suddenly yelled.

Without hesitation, Yanira descended upon the worm and stabbed her sword straight through one of the holes Mira had made. A torrent of fire surged through its body, connecting to the rest of the holes. At the same time, Mira stabbed her scythe into it and fully unleashed her Scythe Manifestation into it, letting the death and destruction energy merge with the fire.

"Yeah. Pray to whatever god you believe in and hope you can live a better next life."

"..."

Obviously, Mira wasn't satisfied with that answer. "Don't you have some defensive treasure or something? Don't tell me a Sect Master is so poor!"

"Yeah, I do, but I would rather not waste it on you!"

"So, it's shit. Got it."

"Oi! This armor is the best defensive treasure I could have! Using anything more than that simply means I'm already dead."

"..."

Mira pinched her nose, taking deep breaths. This old hag annoyed her way too much but now wasn't the time.

"Can't you cut these defenses open?" She asked, but Yanira shook her head.

"I could, but then what? My sword is already running out of energy, not to mention my Qi is limited in this room. With it focusing on defense like that, even if I chop it in half, we're still dead!"

Mira fell into thought. She certainly couldn't do anything. Even with her Aboslute Ice Dao, there was only so much she could do. First, she'd have to wrestle control over the ice from them, then, while doing so, kill them in under a minute. At least, from what she could tell, that's how long it'd be until they exploded.

Since that wasn't much of an option, considering there were two of them, she started looking around the room. Maybe there was a hole or room they could throw them in? Unfortunately, no.

Stuffing them in a cave would take too long, so that wasn't an option.

Finally, her gaze landed on the giant cocoon.

'That thing should be able to take the brunt of the explosion, right?' She speculated. A Rank 10 beast couldn't be that weak to die from something like this, right?

So, without hesitation, she grabbed hold of the worms, sinking her fingers into the ice, and, using all her strength, hurled them towards the giant cocoon.

"What're you doing?!" Yanira yelled, but Mira had already taken off.

"RUNNING!"

"Dammit! I swear, I'm going to kill you after this!"

With no other choice, she dashed after Mira, who was running in the opposite direction, into the cave they came through.

As they sprinted through the various caverns, they could feel the energy skyrocket behind them.

There wasn't any more time.

"Get down!" Mira shouted. Using every ounce of Qi in her body, she carved out a foxhole, jumped in it with Yanira and Hana, and created an Earth Barrier. Something fell out of her-

All the surrounding Qi was swept into the lair they were just in. Then, silence.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!