I backed a few steps before calling out to Murong Mingyue. “Sis, feed me!”

Candlelight Shadow also nodded. “We’ll fight again once we’re at full health!”

Holy light surrounded me, and I was back to full health in less than 10 seconds. No one was stronger than Murong Mingyue in Floating Ice City when it came to healing power.

On the other side, Candlelight Shadow had also returned to full health. He pointed his sword at me and said, “Let’s go!”

……

I walked toward Candlelight Shadow while watching him calmly. I would have to find a way to bait him into a death trap, or this fight could go on and on endlessly. It would be terrible if the seventh wave began, and I was still tied up with Candlelight Shadow.

Looking as proud as ever, Candlelight Shadow gripped his burning sword with his right hand and opened his left palm. A hexagonal magic formation suddenly appeared on the ground as the growl of a tiger came from the center. Then, a gigantic black figure suddenly leaped out into the open.

“Roar roar!”

It was an armored tiger about half a person tall. It looked big enough to swallow a goat whole!

Candlelight Shadow said indifferently, “This is the Heaven-devouring Tiger. It has 8-star Attack, 7.5-star Agility and 112 BN. Where is your pet?”

I gritted my teeth. I never thought that he would use his pet, and this Heaven-devouring Tiger was as good as He Yi’s Firelight Mouse. As of now, it was the strongest single-target physical-type pet that we knew of. Earlier, Candlelight Shadow and I were about equal in strength. Now though? My chances of winning had just dwindled to almost nothing!

Still, I wasn’t the kind of person who gave up without a fight. I opened my own palm and summoned the Dark Wasp.

Swhoosh!

The Dark Wasp appeared from the hexagram and buzzed around excitedly until the moment it saw the enemy Heaven-devouring Tiger. The coward actually flew behind me and hid itself from view!

"Fuck!"

I glared at my pet. I knew that it wasn’t good enough to match the Heaven-devouring Tiger, but this was just embarrassing!

Inside the party channel, Beauty Chaos Moon said, "Candlelight Shadow hadn’t caught this Heaven-devouring Tiger in the wild. The pet egg dropped when a guild at Dawn City killed a Level 90 Purple Gold Rank boss, and Candlelight Shadow spent 1.5 million RMB to buy it off their hands. I didn’t think its level would be this high though…"

He Yi asked, "How confident are you of beating Candlelight Shadow now, Lu Chen?"

I shook my head before replying, "My chances of winning are less than thirty percent, to be honest…"

Murong Mingyue said, "The disparity of strength between pets is just too huge! What should we do? Should I ask Gui Guzi and the others to coordinate with Snowy Cathaya and attack them? Maybe we could beat them back if we catch them by surprise?"

I replied without hesitation. "Absolutely not. I would rather die fighting than resort to such a tactic!"

"..."

Murong Mingyue looked speechless. "This is for your own good, you brat! If you die and lose only a level then whatever, but what if you also lose your Purgatory Sword? It would be terrible, wouldn’t it?"

……

I never got to answer her because Candlelight Shadow was already charging toward me. Emboldened by his pet’s superiority, he kicked off our second battle with a powerful Blazing Purgatory Slash!

I guarded it immediately!

347!

412!

386!

Thankfully I managed to Guard in time. While we were fighting one another, the Dark Wasp charged the Heaven-devouring Tiger in an attempt to buy me some time. However, it only took one hit for the tiger to swat it to the ground! A 5-hit Flurry later, my poor pet was wiped from the surface of the Heavenblessed Continent!

Candlelight Shadow started laughing loudly, but I seized the moment of distraction to launch my counterattack! The Purgatory Sword glowed brightly with red light!

"Heh!"

Candlelight Shadow did the right thing and assumed a Guard stance. However, it was a bluff! The red light was just the visual effect of undead energy, not Desperate Gambit! The color of the energy surrounding my blade turning yellow, I immediately executed a Crushing Blow!

Shocked, Candlelight Shadow canceled his Guard immediately!

But I canceled the skill again and executed Pardon and Desperate Gambit instead. This time, he had no time to react to my attack at all!

MISS!

3702!

……

Candlelight Shadow’s face turned deathly pale. The only reason he didn’t die to my follow-up attack was because he backed away in time to drink a health potion.

He dropped his carelessness completely now that he had witnessed the true power of Pardon. Instead of attacking me himself, he let his Heaven-devouring Tiger do the dirty work while he moved around to recover his HP. The worst part was that the tiger had a ridiculously high Attack, and every hit deleted about 500 HP or so from my health bar. In less than half a minute, the tide had completely turned to Candlelight Shadow’s favor!

"This is the end, Falling Dust!"

Candlelight Shadow charged me again and swung his sword. It was the Earth Shattering Slash!

The AoE skill threw me back and deleted yet another chunk of HP from my health bar. I could die at any moment!

Thud...

Suddenly, I felt my back touching something soft and warm. By the time I turned around to look, a beautiful figure had already moved past me!

Moon Gaze! Extreme Break!

The combo plus one basic attack hit the Heaven-devouring Tiger right in the head and deleted over 75% of its HP! The Fruit Knife Goddess’ burst damage was terrifying to say the least!

……

Candlelight Shadow hurriedly recalled his pet to avoid it being killed. But not only was he not frightened by Lin Yixin’s intervention at all, he laughed like a madman and said, "Hahahaha! It is you, Wind Fantasy! You and Falling Dust are the two strongest players in Floating ice City, am I right? Very well, come at me so I can defeat you where you stand!"

Everyone looked shocked. What an arrogant man! He actually wanted to 1v2 Broken Halberd Sinks Into Sand and Wind Fantasy! It would be utter madness if he didn’t have the skill and confidence to back it!

……

The fight was climbing toward a whole new climax. Of course, we weren’t going to turn down his arrogant offer to fight us one on two because his pet had put us at a severe disadvantage. He was the one who insisted on challenging our golden combo, so it would be a shame not to meet his expectations!

I asked, "Do you think we can win, Yiyi?"

Lin Yixin’s eyes looked like pools of water. "No?"

"What? Why do you think the two of us can’t beat him together?" I exclaimed in shock.

Lin Yixin giggled. "You are the reason that we might lose."

"Fuck!"

I glared at her, stupefied.

Lin Yixin giggled at my reaction. "Alright alright, less bullshit, more fighting. You did pretty well just now, so as long as you don’t fall off we’ll definitely win!"

"Yeah!"

……

Before we started, I spent some time to remake my Ghost Deity Armor. That fight just now broke my skill; it was a testament to Candlelight Shadow’s strength.

I used Wild Roar again to buff Lin Yixin’s Attack by 15%. Besides that, Lin Yixin joined my party and activated her own Encourage, buffing both our Attack by another 7%. Finally, Snowy Cathaya’s bard wisely applied all her buffs to Lin Yixin while Murong Mingyue healed me to full health again.

Now that everything was ready, it was time to begin!

Lin Yixin asked inside the party channel, "Should we kill Candlelight Shadow first or his pet?"

I replied, "That Heaven-devouring Tiger is extremely powerful, and when you fight Candlelight Shadow you can’t afford to be distracted too much. How about this: you keep him busy while I take out his pet!"

"Okay!" Lin Yixin blinked and smiled at me. "I promise to keep Candlelight Shadow busy for 15 seconds, but you absolutely must kill that Heaven-devouring Tiger during this time. Any longer than that and you’re dead, get it?"

"Fuck, 15 seconds only? Have a bit more confidence, will you?"

“...”

It wasn’t that Lin Yixin wasn’t confident in her abilities, of course. There just weren’t many people who could survive 15 seconds facing Candlelight Shadows at all.

……

"Come!"

Candlelight Shadow shouted and pounced toward us with his pet.

Lin Yixin and I split up before we charged toward our respective targets. As if we had discussed this beforehand, Candlelight Shadow was also targeting Lin Yixin specifically because he knew that it was impossible to one-shot me. Our earlier duel had more than proven that fact. Not only did he need his pet to kill me, he wouldn’t be able to do it in 60 seconds flat!

Ding!

Lin Yixin spun 360 degrees around and parried Candlelight Shadow’s attack almost perfectly. Despite knowing how powerful her opponent was, she stepped closer toward her opponent and slid to his right. Then, she stabbed him in the back with her dagger like lightning!

Extreme Break!

3365!

Shocked by the amount of damage she caused, Candlelight Shadow hurriedly backed away and swung his weapon twice to force Lin Yixin to cancel her follow-up attack.

While she was keeping Candlelight Shadow busy, I slapped the tiger with a Pardon + Desperate Gambit combo and a basic attack!

MISS!

5784!

2240!

The Heaven-devouring Tiger dropped to almost no health in the blink of an eye. At the same time, Lin Yixin’s Fire Blade flew over from the distance and plunged into it like a bloody lightning, dealing over 700 damage and completing the one-shot!

Shocked, Candlelight Shadow launched a Blazing Purgatory Slash at Lin Yixin in an attempt to kill her immediately!

Lin Yixin made a snap decision in that moment. Instead of guarding, she dashed toward the right in an attempt to avoid the attack! She still got hit twice though!

1784!

1873!

MISS!

The third strike was a MISS not because she dodged it, but because Candlelight Shadow canceled his skill halfway to use Crushing Blow! That was how he was planning to kill Lin Yixin! But the girl saw through his intent completely and survived with a sliver of health! Shit, what a smart girl!

"Quickly, I can’t hold on any longer!"

Lin Yixin retreated while drinking a health potion!

I quickly took her position and swung at Candlelight Shadow with a Slayer Slash. Then, I lowered my center of gravity and thrust forward into an Ice Ray!

Fast-paced PvP was always a sight to behold. Candlelight Shadow reacted lightning-fast by parrying the Slayer Slash and assuming a Guard stance to block the Ice Ray. As a result, my double strike only managed to delete around 1000 HP from his health bar. But no matter how fast he was, he couldn’t escape my third skill, Crushing Blow!

It was a premeditated move, and there were no signs that I was going to use the skill at all. Even better, its cooldown was practically nonexistent, like Guard’s. It was a zero-delay skill that a player could use anytime.

2104!

Crushing Blow was always a refreshing skill to use when it connected. Before Candlelight Shadow could recover from his shock, Lin Yixin crept up to him from behind and hit him with another basic attack. It was our turn to be surprised, however. Despite being pincered from both directions, he was able to drink a potion, maneuver to a suitable position and unleash his AoE skill!

Earth Shattering Slash!

1764!

1983!

I was fine, but Lin Yixin almost ran out of health again. I had no choice but to take up her spot and send Candlelight Shadow backing away with a swing of my sword.

……

Suddenly, Candlelight Shadow put his sword away and said, "This is where we end our fight."

I couldn’t help but laugh. "Oh no you don’t, not until you give us your life!"

My nemesis clearly hadn’t come here to enjoy the sights, but I didn’t care one way or another. After all, the plot would unravel itself if he was dead! What Martial God, what number one player in China’s server?

You show your face in Floating Ice City, I’ll blow you to kingdom come!