Phew!
A gentle surge of magic cushioned the landing for Melina and the Mimic Tear before Frieren dispelled the spell. All three of them smiled.
The view was certainly beautiful, but to be honest, it had been quite a thrilling descent. It was the first time for them to jump into such a deep chasm, as if they had arrived at the other side of the world, its exact depth impossible to calculate.
For Frieren, however, it was a regular occurrence, as previous worlds had no shortage of similar terrain. That was why she dared to leap so brazenly; no other reason was needed.
She then slowly knelt, grabbing a handful of earth. "It's ooze, and there's a lot of it. It's already formed a topsoil layer and integrated with the environment."
"Are these flowers growing on the ooze?"
Melina couldn't resist reaching out to touch one. Nothing special happened. The petals were soft and beautiful, their dark purple hue not at all garish but rather complementing the dim surroundings, creating a dreamlike aesthetic.
The damp, sticky feeling underfoot wasn't just from pooled water, but from liquid seeping out of the mud, making the air very humid as well.
Logically, they should symbolize the ghostflame of death, yet there was no chill, only an all-encompassing embrace.
A hypnotic aura!
As they carefully sensed the free-floating energy in the air, they finally discovered it. It was as if it had been deliberately deployed here, making one yearn for a deep sleep, and it also served as a natural line of defense.
"We've reached the so-called Purple Velvet Garden."
The Mimic Tear raised a hand to its brow, gazing upwards, finding it hard to imagine that the path led all the way here from the lower reaches of the Ellac River. It had been quite a long journey.
She then proceeded forward in their standard formation, acting as the vanguard. Suddenly, a tremor ran through the ground beneath her feet, and ripples spread across the water's surface, originating from a corner ahead that looked like a stone pillar.
A centaur-like monster slowly emerged, its body seemingly composed of ooze.
It tilted its head, two asymmetrical points of light on its small head staring fixedly at the trio. The ooze on its neck writhed, forming a roaring sound, clearly harboring ill intent and determined to let no one pass.
"Hello there. It seems you're the last one."
The Mimic Tear smiled and took a step back to make way, knowing that her mother would certainly prefer to handle the subjugation personally.
Sure enough, Frieren stepped forward immediately after, staff in one hand and Dark Moon Greatsword in the other.
Since arriving in the Land of Shadow, this was the first time she had gotten serious. This loadout was a clear sign of how seriously she was taking this, because her opponent held an absolute home-field advantage—
Gurgle, gurgle!
As the Ooze Knight advanced, the entire ground began to bubble and surge; the area covered in a layer of ooze soil was its perfect source of support.
"Be careful. Its mana reserves should be quite large," Melina advised.
"It's about to attack. Spread out."
Frieren, with her foresight, detected the Ooze Knight's wind-up. In its centaur form, its charge was unstoppable, initiating and accelerating in an instant, its momentum like a thunderbolt, crushing everything in its path.
At the same time, it raised a massive, crescent-shaped blade high. One look was enough to tell it was heavy enough to tear through defenses with ease.
The ooze surging on its surface was as lively as flesh and blood.
"Orphan of Kos?"
The similar fighting style reminded Frieren of an old friend, but her hands moved without delay, swinging the Dark Moon Greatsword for a head-on clash to test its strength first.
An instant before impact, the Ooze Knight changed its horizontal sweep to a downward slam, bringing its full weight to bear.
With a tremendous boom, the silver-haired girl was pushed back, her stance unshakable and her poise intact, but her feet plowed a furrow more than ten meters long in the ground.
The force of the impact was far greater than expected.
A single centaur monster possessed the power of an elite cavalry unit; its combined formation-breaking ability was staggering. Even though Frieren had just reinforced her strength attribute, she couldn't withstand the disparity in impact force from the size difference and nearly lost her balance.
After gaining the upper hand with a single blow, it tried to charge towards Melina and the Mimic Tear behind her.
However, the two showed no particular reaction, instead observing calmly, their faith in their teammate absolute. Sure enough, Frieren drew a greatbow in a parabolic arc, followed by a magical activation: Radahn's Rain of Arrows.
Gravity arrows descended from the sky, cutting off its path and preventing the Ooze Knight from easily breaking through, forcing it to halt.
In just a short moment, its body was already studded with arrows.
She chose this move because its high-angle trajectory was fast enough to provide the quickest support. Furthermore, it could add gravity damage, and that magic was sufficient to tear apart the Ooze Knight's shell.
Unfortunately, it simply shook itself and regained its stance.
Its resilience was also stronger than imagined, and its ooze body had no vital points, making it difficult to target weak spots.
A few rounds of exchange had already given Frieren a rough estimate.
Comet!
A continuous barrage of Glintstone sorcery flew forth, its trajectories encircling the Ooze Knight, relentlessly bombarding its body and preventing it from charging.
To deal with cavalry, one must neutralize their momentum, yet Frieren didn't believe this was enough to suppress it. At the same time, she cast Crystal Barrage and Meteorite of Astel, dual-casting and chanting to further increase her firepower.
She wanted to force the enemy to change its tactics first so she could counter.
To the observers not far away, all that remained were the traces of magical bombardment, from an energy source so bottomless it seemed impossible to exhaust.
As a fellow mage, the Mimic Tear knew best: this was her mother using simple, brute-force mana to pin down the enemy. The fundamental skills, judgment, and reaction speed behind it were impeccable.
Melina, on the other hand, was more focused on the ooze underfoot, which had been active since the start of the fight...
Whoosh!
A surge of magic suddenly rose from the soil to empower the Ooze Knight, and in the next moment, it leaped high into the air.
The centaur actually separated.
Frieren raised an eyebrow, momentarily unsure which part to pursue. The horse was charging, the man was falling—was this going to be a two-on-one fight?
In that moment of hesitation, the Ooze Knight had already plummeted, hurtling down with its full weight. What awaited the impact was even faster high-speed magic, but while in mid-air, it actually managed to spin around its greatblade to dodge the attack.
This time, there was no dodging; it had to be a head-on clash.
Remaining calm in the face of danger, Frieren activated the weapon skill of her Dark Moon Greatsword, colliding with the Ooze Knight at point-blank range.
Moonlight Wave.
A highly upgraded legendary weapon, with an attack that emphasized poise breaking, combined with the dual effect of the weapon skill and the blade itself, sent the Ooze Knight stumbling, nearly causing it to fall.
Her free staff immediately followed up with a sweeping Adula's Moonblade.
It inflicted more damage and coated the Ooze Knight in frost.
The sound of hooves followed close behind. The loyal mount, braving the magical bombardment, reunited with its master.
The moment their forms crossed, they merged into one. Although both had sustained varying degrees of injury, at least they weren't killed outright by the sorcerer's combo.
Frieren was about to give chase but frowned slightly and stopped, sensing the ghostflame hidden deep within the soil stirring restlessly.
"This place is about to ignite."
As she turned to warn her companions, pale blue flames erupted from the ground. The squad was now standing in a living furnace.
The Ooze Knight was about to leverage its home-field advantage.
Chaos Flame!
Frieren unhesitatingly chose to fight fire with fire, using the demon's corrosive flames to in turn surround the ghostflame, erecting a defensive wall in a single breath to block the incoming energy.
She also despised this type of death-aspected power—chilling and illusory.
Fortunately, her teammates didn't need to divert too much of their attention. Specks of golden light began to appear in the dimly lit velvet garden.
Melina's holy protection was spreading. Even a single wisp was enough to dispel the discomfort Frieren and the Mimic Tear felt from the ghostflame.
"Thanks."
On the other side, the Ooze Knight didn't just blindly expand the ghostflame's range but began to concentrate it inward to enhance its power, especially focusing it under its own feet in resonance. This space would provide a continuous stream of backup support.
The two sides returned to a standoff, both wary of each other.
Since that was the case, Frieren simply dispersed the Chaos Flame. It wasn't anything good, after all, and the protection was enough to defeat the enemy.
She had tried mixing in soul magic earlier, but the effect was poor.
This meant the centaur before her was a creature born from ooze, possessing only instinct, driven by a scattered collective consciousness.
This, in turn, allowed it to evade mental-aspected attacks. A simple mind has few worries.
"Next, I will use magic on the largest possible scale to destroy the terrain."
"Understood!"
Her two companions answered in unison. After all, it was more efficient to destroy the soil where the ghostflame's power was rooted.
Of course, that was for Frieren. Other mages didn't have such a luxurious option and would be forced into a battle of attrition.
They retreated a certain distance, back to the Site of Grace, to avoid interfering with the battle.
A battle between a Lord of Cinder and an ooze creature was indeed a rare sight. In a way, the latter's life form was a product of natural derivation, perhaps similar to the Ancestor Spirits?
The new round of combat had already begun.
Frieren soared into the air, transforming into two chalk-white moon-wheels. The cold air first froze the pools of water on the ground, sealing the ghostflame.
Twin Moons!
The first moon struck the ground, unleashing a blue shockwave that made the Ooze Knight's steed whinny in pain, its four hooves frozen solid, as brittle as porcelain, certain to shatter if it moved carelessly.
The second knocked the knight itself from its mount, the shockwave causing its ooze body to tremble.
It wasn't over. The third moon was the caster herself.
When Frieren came crashing down, the Ooze Knight and its mount were thrown into the air together. The shockwave tore their forms apart and even shattered the pools of water.
The surface water was rapidly evaporating!
While it wasn't enough to abruptly change a natural environment that had accumulated over years, it was sufficient to interrupt the ghostflame's energy supply.
At this moment, the Ooze Knight lost the terrain advantage it had been so proud of.
With a Miriam's Vanishing-like teleport, the silver-haired girl was already in front of it.
Its head still spinning, the Ooze Knight never expected its opponent to be so fast.
It immediately used its crescent greatblade to block Frieren's Dark Moon Greatsword, but it still underestimated the power of Caria's ultimate treasure. The force penetrated through, causing it to stagger and half-kneel on the ground.
Time for a critical hit!
The Dark Moon Greatsword violently pierced through the white body, and the frost shockwave blasted it away.
She could feel the enemy's condition plummet.
At the critical moment, the steed broke free from the frost. It opened its great maw and spat a glob of ooze mixed with ghostflame, enveloping Frieren's small frame.
Simultaneously, it dove into the pool, half-submerging into the ground and sliding at incredible speed.
It reached its knight in time, continuously creating distance to buy a moment to breathe, because it knew the formidable enemy was far from finished.
Sure enough, the ooze peeled off the silver-haired girl's body, revealing her completely unscathed.
The Twisting Light Wall easily nullified it.
As soon as she sensed the attack getting stronger, Frieren would preemptively boost this personal barrier. Even if the ghostflame was somewhat special in nature, it couldn't break through so easily.
"It even has a mechanic like this? Faster than Torrent," she marveled.
The steed's sprinting speed when rescuing its master was not bad.
It also proved once again the exquisite coordination between the enemy and the ooze in the soil.
Focusing solely on attacking the two monsters would easily lead to being constrained. Fortunately, she had held back, and now it was difficult for them to quickly draw energy from the ooze to resupply.
Despite having the upper hand, Frieren remained unhurried, instead beginning to circle and observe the situation.
She had come all this way for Trina; there was no need to rush now.
She could sense a dense, sinister magic from the Ooze Knight, yet it didn't seem to be mind-controlled, which was strange.
It seemed to be a special symbiotic relationship, originating from nature itself.
She estimated that killing it would be like the Ancestor Spirits; it would revive sooner or later. However, this one was heavily influenced by Trina and had become a guardian.
It had to be eliminated.
Frieren held her staff with both hands, raising a purple-white magic. Vortexes tore open in the air above.
Meteors leaped out from them, peeking out as they aimed at the enemy. The terrifying pressure made the instinct-driven creature sense that something was terribly wrong, forcing it to retreat.
Useless. Meteorite of Astel has sufficient range.
With a thought, a vast meteor shower rained down towards the Ooze Knight, instantly followed by a series of thunderous explosions.
Due to the water vapor and muddy swamp, no dust storm was kicked up, so one could clearly witness the white monster's form collapse and disintegrate under the cover of countless meteors, even becoming shriveled like a hollow stick.
If the bombardment continued at this level, it would eventually be reduced to ashes.
Ghostflame Breath!
Suddenly, a ghostly blue flame shot from afar towards Frieren's position, but she immediately held her staff with one hand and used Golden Parry with the other.
As expected, it had no effect. The real attack was something else entirely—
The path carved by the ghostflame actually swept up hundreds of tons of ooze chunks. The entire landscape was overturning, attempting to crush the enemy with absolute mass.
Mountains rolled like waves, hills rose from flat ground, an overwhelming force.
Frieren decisively canceled the meteor spell and took flight.
She had time to glance back and see that Melina and the Mimic Tear were also taking measures to evade, so there was no need to worry.
Thanks to her taking the pressure on the front line, the outer areas were not affected too much, and the two demigods were strong enough to protect themselves.
Meanwhile, the Ooze Knight below was continuously absorbing magic from the soil, its form partially restored.
Lightning Spear!
A probing strike was launched, but unfortunately, the effect was not significant. It was hard to say if a pile of mud would be paralyzed and convulse, and the electrical energy was conducted away and dispersed.
It seemed that greater force was needed to solve this.
While she was pondering, the Ooze Knight took the offensive, continuously spitting ghostflame balls from the ground.
However, it was all useless. These simple energy attacks were all absorbed by a gravity vortex. It resembled the magic-absorbing property of the ancient darkness, yet also possessed the pulling effect of gravity. The entire ground trembled faintly, as if brewing a dangerous omen.
Crack!
Only when the first fissure appeared on the ground did the Ooze Knight realize a sense of weightlessness had come; its foothold was actively breaking away from the ground.
Frieren's gravity magic had become strong enough to pull the very ground up into the sky!
____
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