One person: Starting with the Snow Drinking Blade

The troll's corpse lay sprawled about seven or eight meters from Catherine, covering a large area of ​​the ground. Its body was mostly broken, with grayish-white fragments piled up into a small hill, but the remaining shell was still covered with a thick layer of keratin with a wavy texture, casting large shadows in the light of the emergency lights.

Fujiwara Sousuke's figure disappeared into one of the shadows.

That shadow looked no different from the shadows next to it—the same grayish-black, the same indistinct, the same deathly stillness. But if you stared at it for a while, you would feel that the shadow seemed to be wriggling slightly, as if it were breathing, or as if it were observing.

"Um?"

Catherine frowned.

The opponent's tactics were completely unexpected. Instead of a direct assault or a head-on clash, they used the environment and shadows to carry out stealthy infiltration and surprise attacks—this was precisely the fighting style that ninjas excelled at.

She dared not be careless.

Her hands moved rapidly in front of her, leaving trails of white, icy energy wherever her fingertips touched, as if someone were painting with frost in the air. Those trails of icy energy quickly solidified, forming layers of ice shields around her—one, two, three layers, each thick and dense, like layers of ice armor.

At the same time, her mental energy spread out like a spider web, carefully sensing every slight movement around her—the subtle tremors of the ground, the direction of airflow, changes in temperature, and the reflection of sound. Her mental energy was like an invisible hand, groping in the darkness, trying to find the enemy hiding in the shadows.

The hall fell silent again.

The only sounds were the faint "crackling" of ice blocks falling after the ice wall shattered, and the suppressed breathing of the crowd in the distance.

The tense atmosphere returned.

Like a taut string, it could snap at any moment.

"This old man... he's got some skills."

Zhang Chulan watched intently, his eyes practically glued to the arena. He whispered to Wang Zhenqiu, his voice very low, as if afraid of disturbing the ninjas in the arena.

"That stealth, that clone technique, that earth-遁 (earth-遁 is a type of technique used in martial arts)—it's way cooler than that swordsman from before! He's just a bit old, not handsome enough."

"Can being handsome put food on the table?"

Wang Zhenqiu pursed his lips, but his eyes remained fixed on the field. His hands unconsciously clenched, his knuckles turning white.

"This old guy has too much combat experience; he calculates every move meticulously. That American girl's ice-type ability is quite powerful and has a large range, but it must consume a lot of energy. Moreover... she's somewhat countered by this elusive assassin-type opponent. If she can't force him out quickly and instead engage in a protracted battle, she can't afford to waste time."

He paused, then added, "Look at her face—it's starting to turn pale. It's not from fear, it's from the excessive energy expenditure. Although ice-based abilities are powerful, each release consumes a large amount of Qi and mental energy. She's like a high-powered machine right now; if the cooling can't keep up, she'll eventually overload."

This seemed to confirm Wang Zhenqiu's words.

As Catherine maintained her ice shield and mental perception, her brow furrowed deeper and deeper. She could feel her vital energy being consumed at a visible rate—not a trickle, but a torrent. Maintaining three layers of ice armor required continuous output, and her mental scan was like a high-powered radar, consuming a significant amount of her energy every second.

The opponent's stealth skills are extremely advanced.

Fujiwara Sousuke blended almost perfectly into his surroundings, especially into the chaotic and dark aura left behind by the giant's corpse. That chaotic aura acted as a natural cover, completely swallowing up his presence.

Catherine's mental scan was like throwing a stone into the sea—she could only vaguely sense an obscure malice lurking in the shadows, like a snake hiding under seaweed, but she couldn't pinpoint its exact location. That malice shifted left and right, forward and backward; sometimes it came from the left, and just as she shifted her attention there, an even stronger sense of threat would come from the right.

This is a ninja's psychological tactic—constantly and continuously applying pressure to the opponent, keeping them in a state of high tension at all times. Like keeping a hawk awake and prevented from relaxing, it wears the hawk down.

Time passed second by second.

Catherine's face gradually turned pale.

It wasn't a sickly white, but a porcelain-like, bloodless white. Her lips were slightly bluish, and a thin layer of frost even formed on her eyelashes—a sign of the coldness seeping out of her body, and also a manifestation of excessive energy expenditure. Her breathing became more rapid; although she was still trying to keep it steady, the rise and fall of her chest was much greater than before.

Maintaining a large area of ​​frost and mental perception is indeed very taxing on her.

She knew she couldn't go on like this.

We must change our strategy.

To force the other party to show themselves.

She took a deep breath.

"Ice Age——"

Her voice wasn't loud, but each syllable had a metallic quality, like something being dragged across ice.

He slammed both hands down onto the ground!

Centered on her, the biting cold swept out in all directions like a tidal wave!

The chill didn't spread slowly; instead, it exploded outwards instantly! The ground, walls, and even the residual moisture in the air condensed into thick layers of ice at a visible speed—not the thin frost of before, but solid ice half a foot thick, as transparent as glass.

The ice spread outwards from beneath her feet at an incredible speed, accompanied by a continuous "crackling" sound, as if something was freezing rapidly. Wherever the ice passed, everything was encased in ice—rubble was frozen inside, bloodstains turned into dark red ice sculptures, and even dust in the air condensed into tiny ice particles.

In the blink of an eye, the area within a ten-meter radius of her became a crystal-clear world of ice and snow!

The temperature plummeted to tens of degrees below zero.

How cold was it? The closest spectators had frost forming on their eyebrows and eyelashes; their breath condensed into white mist in the air before quickly turning into tiny ice crystals that drifted down. Someone sneezed, and their snot froze instantly into ice shards.

This is a skill that controls a large area of ​​the battlefield.

Although the consumption was enormous—Catherine could feel nearly a quarter of her vital energy being drained in that instant—the effect was immediate. A thick layer of ice covered the ground, rendering any means of stealth or burrowing ineffective. Moreover, the ice layer would transmit her ice-based sensory abilities; as long as someone moved on the ice, she could instantly pinpoint their location through the subtle vibrations and temperature changes of the ice.

The ice spread rapidly, soon covering the area around the giant's corpse.

"Click click click—"

The ice layer overflowed the edges of the monstrous fragments, freezing the grayish-white powder beneath the surface. A corner of the hall was transformed into a silver-clad world, reflecting a chilling light under the stark white glow of the emergency lights.

however.

Fujiwara Sousuke still hadn't appeared.

In Catherine's mental perception, that obscure malice vanished.

"Isn't it outside this area?"

Catherine felt a chill run down her spine.

She instinctively expanded the area of ​​the ice—but it was too late.

The icy ground behind her exploded without warning!

"boom!"

It didn't break through the ice from a distance, but rather burst open from less than two feet behind her—below the ice!

A blurry shadow shot out from under the ice like a venomous snake emerging from its hole! It was incredibly fast and completely silent—only making a slight sound as it broke through the ice, but that sound was completely masked by the cracking of the ice.

It's Earth Release!

No, not Earth Release—it was a more advanced Five Elements Escape Technique. Fujiwara Sousuke never used Earth Release to infiltrate underground from the beginning. He used a more covert method: first, he concealed himself with Stealth Technique, and then, taking advantage of Catherine's focus on the spreading ice, he silently circled behind her and used ninjutsu to blend into the soil beneath the ice—the ice only covered the surface, and below was still frozen ground. He lay motionless in the frozen ground, even deliberately lowering his heart rate to less than twenty beats per minute, and his body temperature dropped accordingly, almost becoming one with the surrounding frozen ground.

This is the moment he's been waiting for.

After Catherine unleashed her wide-range skill, her mind relaxed slightly, and in that brief window of opportunity—a mere fraction of a second—she shifted her Qi.

He's out!

His withered fingers were clenched together like knives, and the tips of his fingers were enveloped in a layer of extremely condensed, gray-black "qi". That layer of "qi" was as thin as a cicada's wing, yet it was exceptionally sharp, forming a blade at his fingertips that was almost invisible to the naked eye.

It pierced Catherine's back!

The angle was tricky, the speed was astonishing, and it was a fatal blow launched from her absolute blind spot—directly behind her!

"behind!"

The suit-wearing elite couldn't help but speak up to remind him, his voice even changing tone.

But it was too late.

Catherine didn't even have time to turn around—her body was still in the position of her hands on the ground, her center of gravity shifted forward, and it would take her at least a fraction of a second to turn around. Those fractions of a second, in the face of Fujiwara Sousuke's blade, were the distance between life and death.

She only had time to do one thing.

He frantically concentrated all his ice-based powers towards his back!

It's not defense—it's attack!

Instantly, a thick layer of ice armor covered with countless sharp ice spikes appeared on her back. Each of those ice spikes was about the length of a finger, with a sharp, needle-like tip, densely covering her entire back, making her look like a hedgehog with its fur standing on end.

But the moment Fujiwara Sousuke's fingertips touched those ice spikes—

"laugh--"

A soft sound.

Like cutting butter with a hot knife.

Those sharp ice spikes were like tofu before his fingertips, which were covered in gray-black "qi," shattering at the slightest touch! Not breaking, but vaporizing directly—the ice spikes turned into a cloud of white mist the moment they came into contact with the gray-black "qi," not even having time to melt.

His fingers moved with unstoppable force, piercing through layer after layer of ice armor.

The first layer is broken.

The second layer shattered.

The third layer—Catherine's last line of defense, the ice armor clinging tightly to her back, the thickest and densest layer—also began to crack under his fingertips.

"Click—"

A small crack appeared on the ice armor, then rapidly expanded. The crack spread outwards like a spider web, emitting increasingly dense cracking sounds.

Catherine could already feel the chilling killing intent emanating from that finger in her back—not a physical cold, but a bone-deep, bone-chilling cold that sent shivers down her spine. It was the taste of death.

A hair's breadth away.

Catherine made a decision that surprised everyone.

She didn't dodge.

There was no flash.

There was no attempt to create distance.

Instead, at the very last moment before the ice armor was pierced, he suddenly leaned back—actively facing the stabbing finger!

At the same time, slap backward with your right hand!

In the palm of his hand, a highly compressed, deep blue ice crystal, only the size of a fingernail, yet radiating extreme cold, instantly took shape—the ice crystal was not transparent, but a deep, almost black blue, like a piece of ice taken from the bottom of the deep sea, containing a chill enough to freeze the soul.

Then--

Explode!