CHAPTER 675: SPECTATING: WINTER VS. PYROBLAST (I)

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Beowulf won the match, to nobody’s surprise. His bloodline proved to be too much for his enemy to handle. Cedric would even dare say that it wasn’t even a close match at all.

But whether Beowulf completely relies only on his bloodline or not was something Cedric wasn’t all too interested to know. It’s none of his business, and despite his anticipation, the match turned out disappointing for him since he couldn’t learn anything.

As if to make up for that, though, a chance to spectate a potentially incredible match presented itself to him.

Unlike before, instead of a ranker against a nobody, this match was a ranker against a ranker.

The first ranker he recognized was called Winter. A female ranker who sits at the 6th spot on the top 10 of the Immortal League.

Codename: Winter

History: 4500 Matches

Ratio: 4325 Wins, 175 Losses

Against her was a male ranker called ’Pyroblast,’ one that took the 7th spot in the top 10 of the Immortal League.

Codename: Pyroblast

History: 5000 matches

Ratio: 4750 Wins, 250 Losses

Cedric will admit that their names were a little bit obvious in pointing out their specialties. Their brief introductory profiles on the ranker’s page also exposed some of their abilities there, so there wasn’t much guesswork to be done here.

Nevertheless, this is still an opportunity to watch an exciting match, so he immediately spectated. He went in with hopes and anticipation for this match to be exciting and to be a great learning opportunity.

The battlefield chosen for these two was very thematic for the participants. It’s as if the AI was doing it on purpose.

Half of the battlefield was filled with ice, snow, and frost. While the other half was hot, filled with pools of lava and ash.

Before anybody could even say anything, Pyroblast’s voice went ahead of them.

"Hey, Winter. Long time no see, I guess?" Pyroblast grinned and wore a cocky smile; one of his hands was placed on his hips, while the other flared with a little bit of bright orange flames.

Standing at the opposite side of him was Winter, who refused to say anything. She just stood there, her hands hidden beneath her long silky white sleeves, glancing coldly at her opponent.

Winter reminds Cedric of his wife, Isabella. In fact, they’d even pass as sisters now that he thought about it. And if Winter’s body language was anywhere close to Isabella’s, then she’s basically screaming, ’Not this guy again.’

"Tch. Still giving me the cold shoulder, huh? And here I thought we’ve got something going on here."

It’s clear that Pyroblast couldn’t understand Winter’s body language. If he does, then he decidedly ignored it anyway, probably to annoy her before the match to make her reckless. Though, Pyroblast doesn’t look that smart or scheming to think that far.

Winter literally didn’t waste even an ounce of saliva replying to him. She just stood still on her side of the map, gazing coldly and indifferently at Pryoblast.

Seeing this, Pyroblast sighed. He then scratched his head, feeling a little annoyed and helpless. However, he also knew that this isn’t the time for this. The countdown was ticking fast, and he had to prepare.

Winter wasn’t known to show mercy to her enemies nor give them a head start.

And as soon as the countdown was over and the match began, this was confirmed.

Winter immediately called out to the world, releasing hoarfrost that blanketed her side of the map with a fog so dense that she seemingly disappeared within. Moments later, crisp sounds of crystallized ice echoed from within, and out of nowhere, condensed glacial spears rained down on Pyroblast.

Seeing this horrific greeting, Pyroblast’s grin twitched, but he responded in his own way. He transformed, seemingly turning into a humanoid torch. He grunted, and volcanic eruptions occurred from his side of the map. The eruptions swallowed the glacial spears whole, melting them in a blink of an eye without any hiccups.

It wouldn’t be a greeting if he didn’t reply in kind, so in turn, he conjured a massive fireball and threw it at Winter’s side of the map, bombarding it with a ball of packed heat.

Usually, extreme heating and frost cause an even more extreme reaction when they clash. That’s the natural way of things in nature, after all.

But when the fireball landed on Winter’s side of the map, instead of a huge explosion or a terrifying extreme reaction, something incredible happened.

Before the massive fireball even landed anywhere near the core of Winter’s side, it paused in the air as if grasped by an invisible hand, then was immediately frozen over.

Winter froze a fireball solid, and when she was done with it, she just dropped it like some ice to add into the coldness of her area even more. Nobody even saw her doing anything; even those who are sensitive to motion wouldn’t be able to sense anything within that thick fog of hers.

There was no surprise on Pyroblast’s face when he saw this, but inwardly, he commented,

’She improved. Previously, that would’ve taken her some serious effort to do. It seems that she hasn’t been idle since the last time we fought.’

’But does she really hate me so much that she won’t even let me see her? What did I do to make her dislike me so much? ’

It’s the idea that Winter doesn’t seem to be interested in anything that has something to do with him that bothers him more than her apparent progress.

But really, now is definitely not the time for him to be distracted. Especially since Winter just sent an army of Glacial Golems to invade his side.

The golem looked weird, though. Their appearance doesn’t surprise him in the slightest, though it did look like an invitation for him to say something.

"Really, Winter? White teddy bears for golems? I thought you’d outgrown this."

Yes, the glacial golems she sent were in the shape of white, fluffy, and harmless-looking giant teddy bears releasing a white breath as they charged forward.

One of them paused, seemingly glitching out of control, then it harshly glared at Pyroblast and hissed:

"Stop slandering Mr. Teddy!"

That same giant teddy bear then puffed out its chest, exposing a pristine white ice crystal from within. It then sent a beam of pure ice and frost towards Pyroblast, causing all the hairs on his body to stand on end.

Cursing, Pyroblast dove into one of the lava pools, barely evading the trail of pure white and frosty destructive beam that drastically lowered the temperature on his side of the map.

’Ah, I wish she was just as protective of me as she is with Mr. Teddy,’ Pyroblast sighed to himself. He then laughed at himself for being jealous of a teddy bear of all things.

But he just couldn’t ignore the strong army of teddy bear-shaped golems marching to his territory.

And so, with a grunt, he summoned an active volcano in response. It belched ash and smoke, also meteorites that accurately landed on each one of the marching golems, incinerating them to nothing. Even the pure ice crystals embedded within them couldn’t save them from the burning wrath of the meteorites he sent.

But Pryoblast wasn’t done. As much as he liked Winter, losing to her wasn’t within his plans. So, he sent his own attack after this.

With a fierce grunt, he summoned a tsunami of lava to push towards her side of the map. Had he left it like that, it’s almost certain that Winter would just freeze them again before they could even do anything worth noting. So, to prevent that from happening, Pyroblast added some more oomph to it but laced it with his own will.

The tsunami of lava looked and felt like a world-ending calamity. It recklessly invaded Winter’s space, melting through the ice and snow sheets without being affected by the freezing temperature.

Crack! Boom!

As expected, Winter didn’t take this lying down. The ice sheets trembled for a bit, then a tall wall rose from beneath, stopping the tsunami from further engulfing more of Winter’s domain.

The ice wall was tall and sturdy. Even the scalding temperatures of the lava tsunami were incapable of melting it. Instead of ice, this ice wall seemed to be made out of treasure metals instead, with how durable they were.

Once again, this didn’t surprise Pyroblast at all. If he could lace his attacks with his will, so too could Winter, perhaps even better than he could.

He could even sense that the will he left on the lava tsunami was being eroded by Winter’s cold will; this was evident by the fact that the tsunami was freezing, despite it being composed of mainly lava.

More and more golems marched to his side, forcing him to continue making the volcano erupt behind him to cull their numbers.

With a grim smile, Pyroblast realized that this match wasn’t going well for him. If this continues, then he will be pushed to a corner eventually. He has to do something, and he must do it soon, or else it’ll be too late.

And so, an idea struck him.

He then turned into a flaming meteor himself, shooting towards the core of Winter’s domain.