60 Chapter 60: Ace vs Doma II

Chapter 60: Ace vs Doma II

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"Die, human!"

Doma declared as he rose up in the air, fully opening his golden fans and slashed multiple times at Ace.

Witnessing those frosty slashes coming his way, Ace began rotating his body midair to gain more momentum before clashing with Doma with his glaive, whose attacks were reinforced with his frost powers.

CLANG!!!

Ace felt his body shake from the vibrations released during the clash and the force of the attack. Tensing his muscles, he used the gathered momentum to amplify the strength of his strike. With a burst of power, he overcame Doma, landing a forceful blow on Doma's chest, leaving a long gash in its wake.

This sent Doma crashing to the ground while Ace landed with a controlled pace.

Just as he landed, he quickly bent his body backward, narrowly dodging an ice-cold breath. Without a moment's hesitation, Ace had to swiftly jump to his side again, evading another breath of ice aimed at him.

Mid-jump, Ace observed the chilling effects of the ice breath – everything it touched was completely frozen. Even the ground beneath, now transformed into an icy terrain.

'I can't let those ice breaths touch me; they would freeze my limbs in a matter of seconds.' Ace thought while dodging another ice breath coming his way as he sprinted around the area, evading the continuous icy onslaught.

Looking over, he saw three female figures with only their upper bodies composed entirely of ice, continuously releasing frozen breaths at him.

'I need to destroy them asap,' Ace thought, dashing at one of them. The icy figure seeing him quickly unleashed a far larger and faster ice-freezing breath than her previous attacks, followed by the other two icy figures.

But it was still not faster than Ace.

As he manoeuvred skillfully to evade their attacks, leaping at the precise moment when the icy breaths were about to land on him landing on a nearby tree, which was frozen from their previous assault, and used it as a jumping platform. Tensing his muscles, Ace launched himself like a cannonball towards the figures with so much force that the entire tree was shattered into pieces of icy shards.

With precision, he aimed his glaive and pierced through the first icy figure before it could even react. The frozen female shattered into icy fragments, dissipating in the air.

As Ace landed, he swiftly turned to face the remaining icy opponents, dashing towards them without any delay. Quickly reaching the second one, it attempted to release another freezing breath, but Ace slid under it with his high agility, dodging the attack before piercing its back and destroying the second figure.

Swissshhh.

Feeling an alarm ringing in his mind, Ace quickly jumped backward, dodging another ice breath that was at least double the speed, coming from the last figurine and attempting to freeze him.

'Shit!' Ace thought as he felt his shoulder aching with burning pain. Even though he dodged it, the ice breath still managed to graze his shoulder.

Rubbing his shoulder, he quickly scratched off the frost that had piled on it as he gazed at his surroundings.

Instead of immediately rushing towards the last figurine to destroy it, Ace squinted his eyes for a second and then shouted in a certain direction, "You should come out now, there's no use trying to ambush me."

"Tch. That's quite a crazy perception you got there, human. I am surprised! I'm sure I hid myself perfectly in my fog of darkness. How did you even find me? No, how are you even seeing in this fog?" Doma said calmly, though the frustration in his voice was evident, even if he wasn't aware of it himself.

"I have good eyes," Ace said, looking at Doma, who had covered his body with an ice armour, concealing the long gash on his chest.

"Then I should gouge them out first!" Doma said maliciously, dashing towards Ace.

[DarkFrost : Barren Hanging Garden]

As he sprinted, Doma executed a total of twelve consecutive slashes using his golden fangs. Dark freezing shards of ice were generated, hurtling toward Ace's body with chilling precision.

Ace swiftly responded, using his glaive to deflect and parry each freezing shard with agile precision.

As Ace completely destroyed the ice shards, Doma blinked behind him, slashing at his neck with his remaining hand. Ace, displaying keen reflexes, ducked at the right time, evading the potentially fatal blow. With a swift countermove, Ace using his glaive slashed at his Doma's torso bisecting him right into two pieces, completely destroying his ice armour in the process.

Seizing the opportunity, Ace attempted to deliver a finishing blow by slashing at Doma's neck. However, Doma was able to create an ice spear from his hand and with deft precision, used it to deflect his attack while simultaneously using the counterforce to propel his upper body away.

As Doma propelled away, Ace noticed that his lower body had started to regenerate. And by the time Doma landed on the ground, his form was completely restored.

"Ooh! That was quite a close call. You almost got me," Doma gave a cheery laugh.

Ace frowned as he observed Doma's body regenerating, even after being cut. The surprise on his face shifted to understanding after a moment of contemplation.

"You are quite smarter than you look. You knew that your ice armour was not enough to protect you from my attacks and would easily be shattered from a strong attack. So you never planned to use them as a defence."

"But rather, you used them to cut your own flesh, by manipulating the ice armour on it before my attack could land. Quite clever indeed."

"Ah~Bingo! You got me!" Doma said, raising his hand flashing a smile but internally, he thought, 'He took only a few glances to instantly see through my trick, and what are those eyes of his! He was even able to react to my speed blink.'

'And what are those marks growing on his hand? They keep spreading, and it almost reached his forearms now. It doesn't give me good vibes. Need to kill him fast' Doma couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling as he observed the mysterious marks spreading across Ace's hand and forearms.

Doma then lowered his stance lightly, tightening his muscles as his body seemed to blur, accelerating from zero to seemingly a hundred in an instant, leaving a trail of ice in its wake.

In a blink of an eye, he covered the distance between them and mercilessly swung his golden fan aiming at Ace's neck.

Feeling the chill on his neck, Ace hurriedly brought his glaive to block the attack, and a resounding sound reverberated around the surroundings from their clash.

Despite successfully blocking the attack, he felt his knees bending under the immense power behind it. Every muscle in his body screamed in tension from the pressure.

Suddenly, Ace saw Doma taking a deep breath to launch an ice breath at point-blank range, causing him to panic. So he quickly bent his body backwards, tilting the angle with which Doma was applying pressure, and then used both his legs to give a kick to his torso, launching him away and barely dodging the ice breath.

But before he could relax for a moment, he saw Doma, still in the air, raising his only hand into the air, ice began to form on it, and Ace immediately understood what he was attempting. Without hesitation, Ace rushed towards Doma before the ice could complete its formation.

However, it was a little too late.

[DarkFrost: Crystalline Divine Child]

The ice on Doma's palm transformed into a dark ice sculpture, a replica of Doma himself. Then, with precise precision, the clone launched a swift and coordinated attack on Ace as soon as it was formed.

Ace hurriedly blocked the vertical slash at his neck by the ice clone with his glaive, then gave a roundhouse kick to its chin before thrusting into its body to destroy it. However, he was intercepted by two more ice replicas materialised next to him, launching twin X-shaped slashes at Ace's chest. In a quick response, Ace retrieved his thrust and blocked the attacks with his own vertical slash, successfully destroying the ice weapons of both replicas.

[DarkFrost: Barren Hanging Garden]

However, despite countering their attack, due to them being able to use Doma's technique albeit at a low level, shards of ice had pierced his body during the assault.

'Urgh!!' Ace grunted at the pain coming from his torso and arms as he quickly removed the large ice shards from his body. Thankfully, no organs were impaled.

'It's too late to rush now; he most likely completed his technique,' Ace thought. And as if to confirm his conjecture, he saw Doma surrounded by a total of seven dark ice sculptures of himself.

"Go, my children!" Doma announced with a sinister smile as all seven ice replicas attacked Ace from various positions and angles.

Gazing at their charge, Ace stood his ground, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Clone #1 lunged forward with a ferocious slash at Ace's neck, but Ace parried it with precise movements. With swift retaliation, Ace slammed the clone hard onto the ground using the side of his blade, destroying at least one-fourth of its icy form.

As he slammed Clone #1 into the ground, Clone #2 had already charged forward, its fan elongated to the length of a sword as it swung in a wide arc. Ace dodged the attack by backstepping a bit and, taking advantage of the opening, stepped forward doing a powerful slam to its neck using the shaft of his glaive, breaking Clone #2 into two pieces.

Clone #3 attempted to strike Ace's flank with its large hammer made of dark ice, but Ace anticipated the attack and dodged it by spinning around it. Then, in a burst of speed, Ace countered back at Clone #3 with a powerful strike. However, the attack was intercepted as Clone #4's fans blocked the incoming blow.

Before he could switch to new targets, Ace felt a chill on his back and neck. Instantly, he executed a sidestep and ducked at the same time, narrowly dodging a lethal attack from Clone #5 on his neck. However, despite his swift evasion, the attack from Clone #6 still grazed his waist, leaving a medium gash. Ace hurriedly used his breathing to stop the bleeding and prevent it from spreading further.

At that moment, a large hammer struck him directly on his chest before he could even react with so much force that he was sent tumbling through the air far away. It was Clone #3, who had been waiting for the right moment and capitalised on it.

Ace felt his lungs screaming as all the air was forcefully expelled, and his body ached with pain. Several ribs felt broken, and he could taste the iron taste of blood in his mouth yet he couldn't even draw a breath of air due to the pervasive black fog. His body screamed at him to breathe, but through sheer willpower, he resisted the urge and stood up. He couldn't stay grounded; otherwise, he would be dead.

Clone #7 suddenly came flying at Ace, slashing at his face. It was launched by Clone #6, who threw it in Ace's direction. Ace executed a quick duck by bending his body, allowing the ice clone to fly past him. However, the clone suddenly switched its direction mid-air by tying an ice whip to a nearby tree and used it to halt its speed, launching an attack on Ace's legs.

Ace knew that he couldn't move his upper body so soon, so he allowed the clone to reach towards his right leg as bait, exploiting its limited intelligence. And the clone grew right into it and attacked, but just before it could slice his legs, Ace bore down his left leg with immense force using his lower body.

The impact created a resounding boom, and cracks filled the clone's body as Ace pinned it to the ground. Without hesitation, Ace slammed his spear right into its head, breaking it apart into just shards of pieces.

Clone #5 charged at him again from the back, this time wielding a katana sword in a reverse grip. It leaped, executing a downward thrust at Ace's back. Ace, sensing the attack, twisted his body even when his body gave a cry of pain, narrowly avoiding the thrust. Seizing the opening, Ace back-thrusted his glaive, utilising its long reach and pointy end to pierce the ice clone's head, destroying it.

Just as he destroyed the clone he suddenly felt a tremor in the ground, and his [Combat Intuition] sent repeated warning bells to his mind, signalling if he didn't do anything he would absolutely die.

So he didn't dare delay and leaped right away from his current position. As he leaped, he could feel the pressure from his back and the cold air touching his back, sending a chill down his spine.

[Dark Frost: Malevolent Sleeping Bodhisattva]

BOOM!!!

Looking back, Ace saw a massive dark Bodhisattva made of ice slamming its palm on the spot where he previously was, completely destroying the ground. He felt the shockwave travelling and hitting him, throwing him quite far away. Ace quickly had to thrust his glaive into the ground to stop himself from being propelled even further.

Huff. Huff.

Ace finally managed to catch his breath of relief as the shockwave dispersed all the black fog from the area. Previously, he had been fighting with a limited amount of oxygen, and the temporary reprieve allowed him to replenish his breath.

But looking over to the towering Buddha, Ace realised that just being able to breathe again was not going to be sufficient to face the towering opponent he was confronting.

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