CRuuUNCH!
With a resounding crunch, Evalyn's black military boot touched down on a crystal platform the size of a dinner plate. It cracked under pressure, imprinting the tread pattern of her boot, leaving the crystalized surface a milky white.
Although seemingly delicate, the floating ice withstood her weight, allowing her to spring off it and soar five feet into the air before it plummeted to the earth.
CruuuUNCH! CRuuUNCH! CruuuUNCH! CRuuUNCH!
Successive ice platforms materialized beneath her feet as she raced upward, each cracking under her weight. Her ascent was swift and unyielding: five feet became ten, then twenty, and by the tenth step, she had reached a lethal height for any mortal and ran further still.
Evalyn channeled adrenaline through her spirit technique, ignoring the vast ocean and pier below. Her sole aim was to kill the brunette flying toward her people in a desperate race against time.
"W-What the hell are you!?" Wanda shouted, her vengeful fantasies shattered as she caught sight of the blonde behind her.
Ignoring her, Evalyn increased her speed, her movements becoming a blur as she closed the distance between them. Wanda's eyes widened, and she waved her hand in defense. "Razor Leaves!"
Dozens of small Wind Scythe attacks hurtled toward Evalyn, who navigated them with eerie precision. She waltzed through the air, her movements synchronized with the discs she formed, avoiding the onslaught effortlessly.
Wanda's arms flexed with tension, her confidence shattered by Evalyn's display of skill. Desperation clung to her as she continued her flight, muttering, "She'll run out of Qi soon… she has to… I refuse to believe she's using magnetism for all of this!"
Focusing on evasion, she zigzagged through the air, ensuring no stray attacks could hit her from behind. But soon, an icy wind raised raised the fine hair on her arms, triggering her to glance back in panic. "What is that thing!?"
Evalyn had a massive ice javelin in her hand, white gas spinning around it like a hypnotically slow vortex. Primal instincts told Wanda to stop to prevent the attack or ensure she could dodge it, so she stopped and turned. "Needle Flurry!"
Solid needles of solidified Qi formed and shot at the blonde like guided arrows.
"Foolish," Evalyn declared, hurling the foggy javelin at ghostly speed as the three-foot needles shot into her left shoulder, gut, and thigh. The pain threatened to overwhelmed her, but she gritted her teeth and bared it, focusing on her attack.
WHoooOOooOoSH!
Wanda evaded the javelin by a few feet, but it didn't help. "AGHhhHHhH!" she shook, seeing frost sizzling on her bright red skin. "How—"
Snap! VROoooOOOooSH!
Her eyes widened in terror as a chemical trail of boiling oxygen ignited, triggering a flamethrower aimed at her. "AHHHhhHHHh!" she screamed, narrowly dodging the attack before freezing in horror. "WHA—GAugGH!"
Choking on blood, Wanda looked down to find a machete-length blade impaling her abdomen, freezing her organs in its wake. "A trap?"
The javelin was a flashy diversion to distract her from the dozen floating blades waiting to her left. As they shimmered in the sunlight, falling into the ocean lifelessly, she turned to the blonde for answers, "You didn't dodge those!?"
Wanda turned and saw Evalyn shaking on an unsteady platform of ice. She was impaled by multiple three-foot needles, each sizzling and smoking within her body. Her state didn't bring the cultivator comfort—it was the opposite.
"How didn't they pierce you!?" Wanda screamed in fear, waving her hand. G-"Guided Arrow!"
CrrreeeaackKkkkKkkKK! Her frozen intestines cracked as her body moved involuntarily, desperation driving her to act. "AGhhHHhhHhHH!"
WHOooOooSH!
"Che," Evalyn scoffed, dodging multiple arrows. However, when her foot touched down on a new platform her thigh wound exploded in pain, causing her to fall. "Ice Wall!" she yelled, free-falling twenty feet before summoning a massive platform under her.
SHhhHAAaaaAHhhHTER!
Her body crashed through the platform, sending her hurtling toward the ocean alongside the falling prisims.
Wanda's eyes closed in pain, a grim smile of victory eluding her. "I should've listened and gone left, over the ocean," she smiled wryly, "Then I could've ascended to the clouds without her suicidally chasing me. At least she's—"
Thu-dump!
Wanda's heart skipped a beat as she spotted a blue glimmer below. Gazing downward, she saw a second crystalline platform suspended 120 feet in the air, with the blonde flickering in blue light. "It's risky, but I need to leave!" she muttered, goosebumps forming as she soared toward the clouds.
Upon reaching a higher altitude, she looked back, expecting another attack. Instead, she found the blonde missing. "Where'd she go!?" she screamed, panic-stricken.
Crunch… crunch….
Icy dread showered over her when she saw the blonde racing westward. An image of a militia waiting for her flashed across her mind. She looked around, her expression dripping with desperation, "They have me surrounded, and I can't keep flying!"
With her strength waning, she couldn't fly much longer, so she had to fly lower and closer inland to avoid dying in a crash landing. But in a ironic twist of fate, Evalyn's troops were behind her, aware of her position, and the people she sought to destroy lay ahead.
"If the blonde doesn't alert her people, they won't know I'm flying past them!" Wanda gasped, adrenaline and endorphins narrowing her pupils. "Forget the risk!"
CRaaACK! CReeeaKkkKkkK!
Grimacing through the pain and cold, Wanda twisted her torso to grind the ice sword within her. The sensation was like glass shards slicing through her organs, but she pushed through, fighting for her life. "NEEDLE FLURRY!"
WhooOOoOOoSH!
Wanda mustered her remaining strength to guide a dozen needles toward the blonde, who ran straight ahead 120 feet in the air as if on an invisible bridge. Unlike before, Evalyn wasn't looking and couldn't dodge. Jumping would leave her frozen and running to the side was too slow. It was costly—but it was checkmate.
—One Minute Before—
As Evalyn dodged a Guided Arrow, her high exploded with pain, buckling while touching down on an ice platform. Her platforms had no safeguards, so tripping sent her hurdling two hundred feet toward the ocean below. "Ice Wall!"
Sacrificing precious non-magnetic Qi, she waved her hand, creating an ice platform fifteen feet below. She plunged face-first into it.
CRAaaCK!
Evalyn's body shattered the ice and continued to plummet, disoriented by the impact. After falling another twenty feet, she managed to erect another barrier.
CracKkkKk!
"GuuUhhH…." she groaned, reeling from the impact. The ice began to crack, but she pressed her fingers against it.
CrrreeeaackKkkkKkkKK!
White fog spread across the surface, mending the cracks as if by a healing technique. Though it would have caused instant frostbite for anyone else, Evalyn's body had endured far worse.
Gritting her teeth, she peeled her frostbitten body from the platform, tearing her skin like a tongue stuck to a frozen fence post. "I just need to warn them," she groaned, pressing her fingers against her chest, "Heavenly Restoration."
Her mind grew hazy from the significant loss of Qi as a radiant blue gas swirled around her body. The gas entered her wounds like liquid down a drain, leaving none to dissipate.
SizzzZzzZzzZLE!
"AGHhhHhHH!" Evalyn cried out, feeling the gas corrode the remnants of the needles. The gas returned, expelling black and brown sludge from her wounds, leaving the muscle pristine.
Bone, organs, and muscle fibers regenerated at the wound site, growing and reattaching like a 3D printer. The healing was more like replacing parts with generic substitutes rather than intricate repair, but it effectively restored her body and regrew her frostbitten skin.
"Only a few more miles," Evalyn whispered. They just needed to be prepared. She stood and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as she envisioned a running pattern in her mind, extending the remaining three miles. "I just need to warn them, so I'll hold nothing back."
The blonde raced ahead, ice platforms materializing in front of her like an invisible bridge. She sprinted at top speed, quickly covering two miles. "I can see it!" she gasped, her vision blurring as she approached a few miles from the shipping yard.
WHooOOooooOooSH!
"A murder-suicide!?" she exclaimed, hearing the haunting whistle of the needles behind her. "How do I dodge this? I'll be a sitting duck if I jump, and running to the side is too slow. It needs to be sharp…"
Something in Evalyn's brain clicked as she listened to the homing attack. She let herself miss the next foothold and plunged toward the ocean from 120 feet above like a skydiver.
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