"Gaahhhh!"
"!!!" Noel could hear the scream coming from the other side of the sandhill. That was the signal from Dimitri. Without hesitation, he circulated his Spiritual Energy to the Enhance Forward Rune and launched himself forward.
That action obviously didn't escape Qiel's surveillance.
"He is speeding up now?" She hurriedly turned around, trying to aim the bow at the sky to make it curve again. But she was hesitant to shoot it.
After all, the brief moment she required to form the next arrow would expose her vulnerable state. And Dimitri was someone strong enough to exploit all that.
Additionally, a half-baked arrow wouldn't be able to break through Noel's defense. She could finally see what their plan was.
It seemed that Noel was confident in stopping her arrows. Even if she pursued him directly, it would mean that Nelfer would be in danger.
All of a sudden, another explosion echoed from behind her. It was Nelfer's punch that struck the ground, causing Dimitri to flee to the left.
"Nelfer?!" Qiel widened her eyes in surprise.
"Go. I will definitely stop him here." Nelfer shouted, showing his determination in his gaze.
In that split second, Qiel had to make a decision. Helping Nelfer would mean Noel escaping, and Dimitri wasn't so weak that they could defeat him. On the other hand, if it took too long, Nelfer would definitely die in Dimitri's hands. In the worst case scenario, Nelfer dies and she fails to capture Noel.
This would definitely be a big blow to the organization. And Noel would definitely be hailed as a hero from the Demon Banner Army, which would be smooth sailing to become a noble. In other words, this was Noel's real plan.
Qiel gritted her teeth and hurriedly shot a few arrows into the air. One arrow flew upward and exploded in the sky, creating a blast that could be seen from far away. In that instant, a few Spirit Masters and Grandmasters from another position started moving toward the signal.
At the same time, the remaining arrows curved and approached Noel.
Noel waved his hand, sending forth the Snow Shield and Ice Mirror to stop the incoming arrows.
While running, Noel couldn't help but glance at the sun, measuring the time and the distance he needed to cross to reach the Greenwood Kingdom.
"The sun is almost on top of my head. I'm not sure how many more minutes for the sun to be directly above our heads. But Tristan should know about it." Noel recalled Tristan's speed and muttered, "I can cross the border easily, but I have to stop the enemies for Tristan and Sandra."
"…" Obviously, the person, who had been observing the city, noticed Noel's movement as well. He couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows, wondering what Noel planned to do.
"He doesn't glance at this town even once… it seems he is not worried about this city. Is it because the other target is not within this city? If that's the case, is he hiding that kid in another city and rescuing him later, or did he tell him to go straight to the Muivell Kingdom?"
He might be the scout, but he was also an observer, making sure he took note of Noel's every action. This way, he could get some information.
However, Noel didn't leave any clues in his actions, making him doubtful. Still, he had to follow orders and remained in the city.
Different from him, Noel didn't bother to look at the city because he had complete confidence in Tristan. His memory was his biggest talent and weapon.
Hence, all he had to do was create an opportunity.
Noel continued on his way. As he was about to completely pass the city, he noticed a few more arrows as well as a cloud of dust in the distance.
"Reinforcement… Qiel is going to capture me seriously, which means…" Noel glanced at the original location where the scream came from. "…she has left Nelfer behind. I'm counting on you, Dimitri."
He waved his hands again, freezing the arrows.
But the moment the ice crystals formed in order to reduce the energy within the arrow, a powerful shot was released, directly blasting all the ice crystals. As a result, the arrows were freed from the ice crystals without too much loss in their energy. They pierced through the ice mirrors and continued flying toward Noel.
"Seriously?" Noel didn't expect that Qiel would launch that explosive arrow just to save the other arrows. That explosive arrow was the one she used to inform other people from the organization. To think it could be used that way.
Noel let out cold air from his body as clapped his hands. The cold air came in the form of a mist, bursting in all directions.
This was one of the techniques Heisk had learned after absorbing the energy from the ice jade, Ice Burst.
The arrow entered the ice mist and froze the energy itself.
"!!!" Qiel was surprised when her energy was frozen. "What? He could actually affect the Spiritual Energy itself?"
There was a reason why Qiel was so shocked. Normally, the Spiritual Energy within a Spirit Ability was so violent that they ended up striking it down as a Spirit Ability instead of pure Spiritual Energy.
There was a big difference between Spiritual Energy and Spirit Ability. Spiritual Energy was the pure form of energy, while the latter was a condensation of that energy by using the human's body as well as infusing their element.
The Spiritual Energy had already existed before the Spirit Ability, but the Spirit Ability couldn't lose its fuel, Spiritual Energy. In other words, when Noel froze the Spiritual Energy, the remaining element and condensation couldn't release their might as there was nothing to fuel them anymore.
The frozen Spiritual Energy was covered in a thick layer of ice and dropped to the ground before it burst, breaking apart the ice crystal and returning to the air.
Of course, Noel had been able to do it the whole time with his Undying Fire. In fact, this was the unique ability of the Undying Fire and why it was so fierce.
However, due to the influence of Ardagan on Heisk, it seemed that Heisk had created this technique, which was not possible normally.
After witnessing that power, Noel couldn't help but smile. Still, using ice mist in the middle of a desert was bound to lose its might almost immediately. The temperature of the desert made the ice mist warm, causing it to turn into normal water droplets and fall to the ground.
During that time, Noel could also feel a surge of power coming from the coldness. It seemed that the ice mist also allowed him to activate the Cold Empowerment.
As the name implied, the Cold Empowerment would strengthen his body in the cold temperature. It was similar to the Empowerment Rune to the point where he wondered if the runes were created by using Spirit Abilities as a basis so that normal people could use Spirit Abilities as well.
Unfortunately, he didn't have much time to think about it as the cloud of dust was about to reach him. Additionally, for the first time since the ambush, Qiel had finally revealed her location. She was standing atop the sandhill, aiming her bow at him.
"Tsk." Noel could see how serious Qiel was.
The arrow flew like lightning, carrying a tremendous amount of energy.
Noel waved his hand, shooting out a black phoenix from his finger.
The Undying Phoenix soared to the sky and engulfed the arrow. However, the latter was so fast that it managed to pierce through the phoenix in a split second.
This was one of the reasons why Noel didn't want to use his fire against Qiel. It was true that if his ability exploded and engulfed the arrow, it would burn the Spiritual Energy completely.
However, Qiel's arrow had so much speed that it was hard to time it right. That was why he preferred using his Ice Mirror.
But the sliver of Undying Fire that stuck on the arrow kept gnawing the Spiritual Energy, weakening the arrow.
This arrow was much more powerful than what she had released the entire time. It seemed that Qiel had known that a normal means couldn't defeat Noel. Hence, she treated him as a killing target and used this lethal arrow, fully knowing that Noel might still survive from a few arrows.
"Khhh…" Noel had a hard time. The Undying Fire didn't burn enough, so he added the Snow Shield and stacked all the Ice Mirrors.
Boom!
There was a huge explosion at the impact and all his ice was shattered into pieces. Fortunately, the arrow had lost most of its energy. Noel struck his blade at the arrow with the help of Spirit Weaponry and split it in half.
"Seriously? It took everything just to stop a single arrow?" Noel was confident he could win if he had to fight one or two normal Spirit Grandmasters. But that was the exact reason why Noel could clearly see the gap between a normal Spirit Grandmaster and a peak Spirit Grandmaster like Qiel.
The battle might be far harder than the one in his imagination.
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