After Aurelia's unique skill had revied her and landed a good hit against the ice devil the chilling and slowing effects that had been engulfing the entire area lifted.
With it gone both Zareen and Aurelia felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted off them.
Their aching joints and ragged breathing began to easy, and they were able to dash around mostly unburdened again.
"You fucking beasts! What the hell was that!?" The ice devil shouted when she got back to her feet.
However, she had to pull herself up with her spear and her once pristine body was marred by numerous burns from taking the backlash of Aurelia's unique skill.
It was clear that the skill's attack was in no way inferior to its ability to bring the user back from a fatal blow.
Now that their opponent was injured the two golden lionesses bounded back into action and kept the pressure on.
The sound of metal and claws resounded throughout the ice cavern and blasts of cold clashed with light and fire.
Despite her injures the ice devil put up an impeccable fight and kept both Aurelia and Zareen at bay while her regeneration fixed the damage she had taken.
Nevertheless, while the physical damage she might have taken was restored, her oppressive unique skill had been shut down and could not be used again. Along with a large amount of her mana begin depleted.
"Don't think this is going to be enough to beat me. I still have ways to deal with the two of you." The ice devil said while breathing heavily and bleeding from multiple claw wounds.
She then opened up an item box which she had not used so far and reached into to grab something.
Alarmed by this, both Aurelia and Zareen rushed forward to try and prevent the ice devil from using whatever she was aiming for.
Except, this move on their part was a mistake.
The ice devil smirked when they recklessly rushed towards her, and she switched the grip on her spear and tossed it at Zareen.
Like a bullet the spear came flying towards her head, and while she did her best to dodge her full speed charge made it impossible to fully evade and she took it in the shoulder instead.
With a sickening sound it pierced through her golden fur and dug its way deeply into her body.
Aurelia seeing her sister get injured paused for just a moment and the ice devil took this chance to jump back and create some distance.
She had not actually been trying to pull something out of her item box in that moment and simply wanted her two opponents to make a rash attack against her.
Now Aurelia had to make a tough decision. Whether to help her sister, or chase after the currently unarmed ice devil.
In the end, she prioritized going to help her sister who had suffered a terrible wound.
Using her teeth, she ripped the appear out and applied all of her balls of light created by her unique skill to healing.
"Hehe. You made a big mistake there. You should have kept coming after me." The ice devil said with a snicker.
In her hands she had a tiara made of ice that was as black as the night sky.
It was the item she had pulled out of her item box when Aurelia gave up on pursuing her.
"I did not want to use this since it only has one use. But without my unique skill, I do not think I can beat the two of you unless I use this."
Placing the dark crown on her head the ice devil became filled with greater power than before.
Dark ice began forming around her body and took the shape of an armored dress.
"Ice Devil Queen Armor. It is only a replica, but its power is still close to that of the original at the cost of only being usable once."
With her final trump card in effect, the ice devil who was nearly beaten had recovered stronger than ever and was ready to begin the next round of battle.
Clad in flames Zareen jumped forward to attack while Aurelia sent the balls of light created by her unique skill to support.
Without her weapon the ice devil even with her new armor was unable to deal much damage and had to fend off Zareen and Auria's vicious assault with her lower martial arts skill.
Claw swipes and bites clashed with punches and kicks as Zareen fought in close quarters with the unarmed ice devil.
She now had much higher defense and strength thanks to her new armor, but her offense was lessened due to the loss of her weapon.
This allowed Zareen to go toe to toe with her without needing to worry about taking any serious damage.
And while her sister was in close combat, Aurelia was firing of attacks from afar and making sure the ice devil never got in a good hit.
It seemed they had once again reached a stalemate of sorts with neither side begin able to deal a decisive blow.
That was until the ice devil retrieved her spear.
Slowly and carefully while the battle was going on she had extended a thin stand of ice to her fallen weapon and when an opening presented itself, she yanked it back.
Her spear suddenly back in her hands the ice devil caught Zareen off guard and with lighting fast movements.
"Fivefold sonic thrusts."
One, two, three strikes form the ice devils' spear pierced into Zareen before Aurelia could switch over her unique skill to defense and create a barrier to protect her from the next two strikes.
Unfortunately, the damage had already been done, and Zareen collapsed onto the ground with the muscles in her front two legs severed and a deep wound in her chest.
She was not dead yet, but it was only going to take one more good attack to finish her off.
Aurelia did all she could to protect her sister from the distance she was at, but the ice devil broke through the barriers she had erected and lifted her spear high to deliver the final blow.
Her feet were bounding into the ice and snow and time seemed to slow down for Aurelia as she tired to reach her sister. But she knew that she would not make it in time.
All she could do was watch in horror as the ice devil jammed her spear into Zareen.
Yet by some miracle this never came to happen.
"Boreas' Shield."
Right before the spear tip sunk into Zareen's head, a hemispherical shield of golden wind formed around her and a loud metallic clanging sound echoed through the area as the ice devil's spear was knocked back.
"Looks like the two of you are having a bit of trouble. Mind if I help out?"
Dropping down from a white portal was Alaric.
After easily defeating his opponent, he searched for the exit to the area he had found himself in and made his way to Aurelia and Zareen's battlefield.
This place was still the special dungeon even if it was the devils' layer, and when one fight ended the victor was able to join another.
"So, Yarissa lost. Figures. She was certainly the weakest of all of us despite her level being higher than mine."
The ice devil being wary of Alaric's intrusion jumped back away from Zareen who he had protected with his tier seven spell her had learned from the first king of Borealia.
"Aurelia heal you sister while I keep her busy." Alaric said as he stepped up to take the lead in the fight.
"Ha don't think a feeble magician like you is going to defeat me." The ice devils aid as she shot off towards Alaric.
'Dense Smoke Cloud.'
Casting a tier three spell, he created a burst of smoke all around him that swallowed him up before the ice devil could reach him.
When she arrived where he had been and launched multiple attacks, all she found was an afterimage of smoke.
Her danger sense then went off from behind her and she found wave of death magic coming for her.
Alaric had cast the tier six spell horrid withering which decayed all life that it came in contact with.
The ice devil found her skin beginning to shrivel up and rot when she was engulfed by the spell.
"This weak spell won't work on me!" She shouted as she created thick mana barrier.
With a layer of defense around her and her immortality giving her resistance to death magic she was able to mitigate the effects of Alaric's spell.
'Access spell storage. Tier seven tornado fist.' Quickly conjuring another spell, Alaric sent a colossal spinning hand made of wind crashing down on the ice devil.
To block it she began twirling her spear in front of her while increasing the power of her mana barrier and activating the full power of her armor.
The tier seven spell that boasted the strongest power of any of Alaric's magics crashed into the ice devil and crushed down on her.
The ice around her began to shatter and be whipped away, but she held strong until the very end.
Her mana barrier cracked and shattered, and she was clearly out of breath from using so much power all at once, but she had managed to block Alaric's strongest spell.
'Smoke Serpent.'
Her mana barrier now gone, Alaric activated the spell he had cast and left in waiting, and wrapped up the ice devil.
With impeccable reflexes she slashed away the smoke serpent with her spear before it could bite into her, and if she had only been battling Alaric, she would have been fine.
However, Zareen now recovered enough to rejoin the battle leapt into the fray with her mouth wide open and her gleaming teeth aimed to pierce into the ice devil's neck.
"This is the second time you have foolishly exposed your weak point." She said while thrusting her spear directly towards Zareen's mouth.
It seemed she would score a clean hit and pierce the golden lioness right through with a solid thrust. If only it were not for her sister that had been lying in wait.
With all six of her balls of light focused on attack she fired off two concentrated rays of light and each one hit the ice devil's exposed hands. Blasting them right off.
Her hands no longer attached to her body went along with the spears momentum and flew off into the distance.
Zareen, her path cleared and enemy stunned, pushed her jaw in close and clamped tightly around the ice devil's neck.
Cold blue blood began pouring out of her body, and with a powerful jerk Zareen ripped out the ice devil's throat.
She tried gasping for air and reached her stump hands up to her profusely bleeding throat in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding.
Even this terrible injury was something she could survive thanks to being a high-ranking devil and having a high regeneration skill level.
Of course, that was if her opponent would give her time to recover.
'Annihilation ray.'
With his staff outstretched Alaric fired off his only tier seven death magic spell and hit the injured ice devil square in the chest.
Her barely hanging on body was bathed in a dark aura after being hit by the spell, and she quickly withered away into dust. Leaving behind only her amor that shattered into black ice and her silver spear.
Th𝗲 most uptodate novels are published on free(w)ebnov(e)l.𝒄𝒐𝙢