52 Ice and Poison

The Venomancer's hydralisk body slowly slithered towards the main battlefield, where the two lines of forces are clashing with each other and engaging in a battle of attrition.

Kael knew what this meant; all of the Herald Ranked cultivators were engaged in a fight with the Herald Ranked demonic beasts at the moment. The Guardian Rank Principal of Myriad Fledgling Institute was nowhere to be seen as well. The Venomancer, who was at the highest cultivation level in this place, was free to do whatever he wanted, including massacring the lower ranked human cultivators.

That was something that Kael didn't want to see. Hence, he made a resolute decision in his heart from that moment. He was going to stop the Venomancer.

"Vuelo!" Kael became as light as a feather as he floated down the city walls, instead of climbing down the stairs. He floated into the front of the middle of the clash between the two lines of army and demonic beasts.

"Spirit Steps!" Kael's figure became a blur as he meandered through the individual melee fights in the clash with a sword in his hand. Everywhere his figure went past, blood of the demonic beasts would be spilled and they would fall down dead.

None of these Commoner Ranked demonic beasts stood a chance against Kael. In the first place, they were all focused on their individual fights, so an additional element in the form of Kael took them by surprise. By the time they realized what was going on, their lives were already taken from them.

This killing continued on as Kael made a beeline straight for the Venomancer, who was right at the center of the opposite side of the two lines of forces.

About 40 demonic beasts were killed in a short span of a minute as Kael made his way through the melee clash and appeared in front of the Venomancer.

Kael was panting slightly as he stared at the Venomancer in a face-off. Kael purposely sped up and quickened his pace in order to reach the Venomancer before he could cause the balance of scales to tip in the favor of the beast horde.

The noise of the battlefield dimmed down at the moment. In Kael's vision, there was only the Venomancer. Any other external elements were removed from his five senses. As a Commoner Rank Middle Phase cultivator, he understood that it was almost akin to suicide trying to pit himself against a Guardian Rank Lower Phase monster.

However, he also knew that this was the path he had to take. If not for anything else, the cataclysmic event, the Defense of the Ancients, was going to be much harder and tougher than what he was going to face today. If he couldn't even overcome this obstacle today, how was he going to pass through all the future trials and challenges before he could stand at the apex of the Hundred Realms once again?

The Venomancer sized Kael up and he sneered. "A mere Commoner Rank Middle Phase brat dares to stop me? I admit you do have some capabilities. However, you are still far off dealing with me. Begone."

Upon speaking, the Venomancer spit out a ball of poison from within his hideous mouth towards Kael.

"It's just a Venomancer's normal attack… without the Magic Art Poison Sting." Kael thought to himself. However, even just a normal attack from the Venomancer was very tricky to deal with. That was because the ball of poison was extremely deadly and corrosive in nature, secreted from the poison glands in the Venomancer's mouth.

Kael summoned a wooden shield that was fully inscribed with defensive arrays out from his item bag. The ball of poison arrived and made contact with Kael, who blocked the attack with the wooden shield.

Instantly, the wooden shield's defensive arrays dimmed and disappeared. The shield was then corroded by the poison. Kael threw the shield on the ground and the shield soon disappeared into nothingness, leaving only traces of poison behind.

Kael's face was grim. The upgraded armor was of no use at all. If he was even hit once by the poison attacks, his life might be at stake here.

Seeing Kael's expression, the Venomancer cackled. He then shot two successive balls of poison against Kael. Actually, these 'normal attacks' was actually a form of Spirit Art that a Venomancer could learn inherently, replacing any form of melee attacks, since a Venomancer without any limbs wasn't well suited for close combat.

Kael didn't dare to go head on against the balls of poison again. He used Spirit Steps to evade the two balls of poison, which then struck the forces that were right behind them. Instantly, two demonic beasts wailed and were corroded by the poison till only half of their corpses were left.

Kael frowned. It was lucky that it were the demonic beasts and not the human army that suffered the attack. However, they might not be so lucky the next time.

He couldn't clash head on with the poison, neither could he dodge as he was concerned about the lives of the City Lord army behind. If the Venomancer was allowed to shoot the balls of poison as he pleased, the whole army might be decimated.

As such, Kael was only left with that option.

"It's time to end this farce! Die!" The Venomancer shrieked. He then shot out five successive balls of poison towards Kael, covering any possible angle that Kael could try to escape the poison from.

Kael circulated spiritual energy through his meridians and a glint of blue light appeared in his eyes.

"Frost Bolts!" Three bolts of cold energy shot out from his right palm and two bolts shot out from his left palm. The Frost Bolts clashed head on with the balls of poison.

The poison seemed to have met its nemesis as it stopped flying and was hovering in mid-air, engaged in an intense battle to corrode the Frost Bolts. However, neither attack gained an advantage. The ice was trying to freeze the poison while the poison was trying to corrode the ice.

In the end, both forms of energies dissipated in mid-air. Neither side gained an advantage in the earlier confrontation.

Kael looked at the Venomancer and said calmly, "Enough with the probing attacks. It's time for you to take out your Magic Art…"