42 Chapter 42: Ice Palace

The ice sickles fly through the air rapidly approaching Mute until they freeze, becoming motionless. The cursed spirit skates under the ice sickles before leaping towards Mute, throwing a spinning kick.

Mute ducks under the kick, as the cursed spirit goes flying past him due to his momentum. The spirit's feet slide across the snow before he springs forward with his left hand stretched. A rough spikey ice hammer forms in his hand as he wildly swings toward Mute. Mute raises his right leg up before shrinking the distance between the cursed spirit and his heel, slamming a powerful kick into the spirit's face making him drop the hammer. The cursed spirit's body is flung back, as his hammer slowly falls out of the air until it suddenly shines a bright blue and explodes, shooting out ice sickles. 

Mute is caught off guard as several ice sickles pierce his body. Mute stares at the ice sickles embedded into his body slightly concerned until he hears a laugh. 

" HAHA, that look on your face suits you. I was getting tired of your bland poker face. "

Says the cursed spirit. Purple blood leaked out of his mouth until the wound in his mouth healed. Mute watched as the spirit waved his hand shooting a massive wave of spikey ice toward him. Mute stared at the ice approaching him until it all froze. The spirit leapt over the ice as five snow halos followed him. 

Mute sidesteps a punch from the leaping cursed spirit before ducking under the halos. The cursed spirit drags his hand across the snowy ground creating a massive pillar of ice. The pillar is dodged by Mute as he twirls. The pillar slams into the birch tree splitting in half and making a thunderous impact. 

Mute stares at the broken tree falling out of the air before it suddenly appears next to him, floating in the air. Mute slams his palm onto the tree increasing its size. The cursed spirit's eyes widen in surprise as the enlarged tree approaches him. The spirit taps his right foot on the ground creating a massive wall of ice. The tree slammed into the wall making a loud bang. The spirit smirks until he senses Mute behind him. He twirls around crossing his arms, barely blocking a powerful kick that slams him through the wall he created. 

The spirit's body rolls onto the ground before he rolls onto one knee. The spirit stares over the broken wall and locks eyes with Mute who glares at him until his body flickers and reappears towering over the spirit. Before the spirit could react a powerful kick slammed into his neck sending him launching into the air. The spirit body repeatedly bounces off the ground until the air around the spirit warps. 

The spirit's body disappears and reappears being held by Mute. Mute tightly gripped the spirit's neck as he picked him up and slammed him into the ground. Mute is about to throw a punch when five large ice spikes shoot toward him causing him to dash back. The spirit gingerly stands back up with purple blood leaking down his face. The wound quickly heals as the spirit talks in a deep voice. 

" You aren't half bad, but your cursed technique isn't able to kill curses well. I'm sure you know this already. "

What the cursed spirit said isn't necessarily false. Mute can kill sorcerers far faster than he can cursed spirits but it wasn't that his cursed technique wasn't suited for it. It was simply a lack of experience in battling curses. Mute scoffed at the spirit's comment before the snake wrapped around his wrist grew in size. 

Mute reached into the snake's mouth before pulling out a small metal chain. The snake quickly shrank back to its normal size before the small chain in Mute's palm grew rapidly in size. Mute started to wrap the chain around his forearm as the spirits watched with a grin on his face before talking.

" What is that puny chain going to do? "

The smirk on the spirit's face didn't last long as he watched the chain start to glow a hot orange. The chain was a cursed tool gifted to Mute by his sister on his 14th birthday. The chain ability is heat. The chain is well over 1000F.

The chain starts to melt the snow on the ground while turning the falling snow into rain. The rain would fall onto the hot chain evaporating into steam. 

The cursed spirit glared at the cursed tool until it flickered. Mute shrinks the distance between the spirit and the chain, slamming the chain onto the spirit's face like a whip. A burn mark appears on the curse's pure white skin as his feet slide across the thick snow. The spirit grits his teeth angrily before swinging his hand forward firing a barrage of ice spikes toward Mute. 

Mute swings his chain. The hot chain crashes through the barrage of ice. The ice melts into the water as Mute lunges toward the spirit. The spirit watches Mute run towards him with the steaming hot chain dangling behind him. Mute swings the chain. The spirit tracks the chain before narrowly ducking under it. The spirit extends his hand forward and creates an ice sword.

Mute stares at the spirit before he twists his left forearm. The spirit notices this and looks around confused, until in the corner of the spirit's left eye, he watches the hot chain wrap around a birch tree. The chain starts to burn through the tree as the chain propels toward the spirit. The spirit raises his sword and blocks the chain. The spirit's blade starts to melt until his sword snaps in half.

The chain inches closer to the spirit's pale body until he dashes back narrowly avoiding the chain but as the spirit dashes back, Mute slammed a right elbow into his mouth staggering him. The spirit's legs locked and he could only helplessly watch as the chain slashed into his body like a whip. Sharp pain rippled through the spirit's body as Mute repeatedly whipped the chain into the spirit's body. Burn marks covered the spirit's body until Mute spun and slammed a kick into the spirit's chest launching him off his feet. 

Mute bends his knees and is about to lunge towards the spirit until a sharp pain engulfs his side. Mute looks down and sees that an ice sickle has pierced his side. Blood leaked down the ice sickle. Mute painfully grunts before he slams the chain through the sickle, destroying it. 

Mute starts to look around before suddenly five ice sickles shoot towards him out of thin air. Mute effortlessly dodges the spikes until abruptly behind one of the ice sickles the cursed spirit appears throwing a kick that slammed into Mute's face rocking his head back. 

Blood leaked out of Mute's nose as he swung his chain towards the spirit that grinned before creating a massive wall of ice. The chain slammed through the wall, melting it easily. Mute yanks his arm pulling the chain back towards him. Mute senses the spirit appear behind him. He twirls around and watches the spirit throw a punch at him. Mute freezes the punch making the spirit's arm freeze in the air. 

Mute stared at the spirit in front of him before he yanked his arm up sending the chain flying up into the air. The chain hovered high above the spirit and as soon as Mute was about to slam his chain down, his eyes widened watching the cursed spirit bend his finger oddly before cockily speaking. 

" Domain Expansion: Ice Palace"...