On the desolate ice plain, the ice beneath their feet let out a mournful, cracking sound.
Kaiser's aura suddenly surged, his tiger claws instantly erupting with icy scale armor, and every single hair solidified into sharp ice thorns.
Seeing this, Gray quickly retreated half a step, his ice boots scraping out brilliant blue sparks on the ice, and at the same time, three spiraling ice cones quietly formed at his right fingertips.
"Roar—!" Kaiser struck first, charging forward on all fours like an arrow shot from a bowstring, the ice crystals trailing behind him carving a meteor-like path through the air.
Gray flung out the ice cones, which suddenly split into hundreds of ice needles mid-flight, showering towards Kaiser like a pear blossom storm.
However, the White Tiger Warrior showed no fear; he directly shattered the ice curtain, sending shards of ice flying in all directions.
His right claw, accompanied by a howling blizzard, slammed towards Gray's face.
In the nick of time, Gray's left hand slammed onto the ice, "Ice Make: Rose Garden!"
Instantly, the ice layer exploded open, and countless thorny ice roses shot up from the ground, intertwining to form an impenetrable defensive barrier.
Kaiser's fist heavily smashed into the flower stems, and even the hard stems were slightly bent by the impact.
At the same time, the petals transformed into sharp blades, cutting his forearm, and blood instantly gushed out, dripping onto the ice in crimson drops.
But Kaiser, instead of retreating, advanced, his left hand suddenly condensing a serrated ice wheel, its edges glinting with cold light, spinning at high speed, emitting a sharp whistle: "Break!"
The ice wheel spun rapidly, cutting through the flower bed, and wherever it went, the ice roses shattered.
Gray could even smell the blood emanating from Kaiser's fangs.
In a critical moment, Gray pressed his palms together and pushed forward, a powerful chill rapidly constructing five layers of hexagonal ice shields in front of him.
The ice shields were layered, exuding a biting cold aura.
The ice wheel finally stopped after crushing four layers of defense, and the powerful impact caused both the ice wheel and the ice shields to shatter simultaneously, turning into countless ice shards floating in the air.
Gray took the opportunity to leap backward, his boot soles solidifying into ice footholds in mid-air.
"Don't even think about escaping!" Kaiser opened his blood-red maw, and an icy blue light glowed deep in his throat.
The extremely compressed ice breath shot out in a conical shape, freezing even the air it passed through into a solid state, forming a vast expanse of white ice mist.
Gray continuously created Ice Walls in mid-air, but each Ice Wall turned to dust upon contact.
"Cough!" Gray's left shoulder was grazed by the aftermath, and ice crystals instantly covered half of his body.
He fell heavily onto the ice, his right fingertips digging deep into the ice layer, trying to steady himself.
Kaiser strolled over with elegant tiger steps, and ice crystals bloomed into lotus-shaped cracks beneath his feet.
"Do you know why you failed?" The Orc Warrior's tail swept across Gray's cheek, the ice thorns drawing blood, "Because we are a superior race, New Humans above humans!"
Gray suddenly grabbed the tiger's tail, and the cold air spread wildly from the point of contact: "I don't think you've won yet!"
"Ice Make: Gallows!"
With a loud shout from Gray, six spiraling ice spears pierced towards Kaiser's vital points from different angles.
The ice spears spun, carrying a biting chill.
Kaiser roared suddenly, and a dense, icy blue cold burst from his body, shattering the ice spears.
But Gray had already taken the opportunity to create distance, blood dripping down his pant leg, blooming into eerie red plum blossoms on the ice, yet his eyes remained resolute.
A faint icy blue cold emanated from Gray's body, and the wounds on him quickly crystallized under the cover of the cold, temporarily sealing them.
Kaiser licked the wound on his front paw, his pupils narrowing into two vertical slits: "Very good, I like prey that struggles."
The White Tiger Warrior suddenly burst forward, his right claw condensing a spiraling blizzard, a piercing shriek tearing through the air and stinging the eardrums, as he charged towards Gray.
The massive consumption of magic power and blood loss had already blurred Gray's vision, but in the face of a life-and-death crisis, the young man forced himself to slam his hands onto the ice: "Ice Make: White Sakura!"
Countless ice crystal petals, wrapped in a blizzard, shot skyward, but were frozen into powder by an even more biting cold three inches from Kaiser's body.
Ice drills pierced through the snow curtain, and Gray rolled to avoid the fatal blow, his left shoulder still losing a large patch of flesh.
A large amount of blood from his shoulder dripped down his arm onto the ice, and Gray's vision went black for a moment.
At that very instant, Kaiser's tiger claw was already upon him.
Gray instinctively put up an Ice Shield, but he was sent flying, shield and all.
He crashed through seven ice pillars before he managed to stop, the blood beads he coughed up blooming into tragically beautiful red plum blossoms on the ice.
Gray collapsed to the ground, the White Tiger Warrior's shadow falling over him, icy blue magic power flowing over his fur, his ferocious face like a demon god.
"Farewell, human brat." Kaiser overlapped his claws like a hammer, and extreme cold magic power collapsed within it into a dazzling white point.
The ice within a hundred-meter radius suddenly swelled like boiling water, transforming into countless ice tiger heads that bit towards Gray.
The cold of death permeated his bones.
Gray's pupils contracted violently; in his current state, there was no time to dodge.
"White Tiger Funeral!" Kaiser's roar shattered the ice plain.
Thousands of ice tigers exploded simultaneously, and the extreme cold domain froze the air into a chilling white mist.
Gray's figure was instantly swallowed by ice crystals, turning into a gleaming ice sculpture.
Kaiser took a deep breath, exhaling white mist from his mouth, and looked at Gray's frozen face from afar: "A decent tombstone."
Kaiser twisted his neck and turned to leave.
Inside the ice, Gray's consciousness grew increasingly hazy, yet beneath the extreme cold, he felt his body gradually warming up.
This was not a good sign.
Gray knew this was a premonition of death.
Countless images flickered before his eyes, and those blurry memories now became clear.
He saw his younger self being led through town by Ur, who was dressed in neat attire.
The tsundere, white-haired Lyon walked coolly ahead of the two, his arms crossed over his chest.
Passing through the market, Ur took the two little ones to a small restaurant and ordered some food.
The two little ones competed at the dinner table to see who could eat more, bowl after bowl of rice going down, their eyes sparking with rivalry.
Ur, who had only eaten a few bites, leaned against the bar, casually chatting with the restaurant's female owner.
The two seemed very familiar.
The owner, holding a large bag of bread for packing, smiled warmly at Ur, "You have another apprentice by your side now."
Ur looked at the apple in her hand; she didn't want to watch the two brats compete over who could eat more, so she came to the bar for some peace, "That child's name is Gray."
The owner looked at little Gray, who was devouring his bowl of rice, and smiled, "He looks quite rebellious. Children are truly a headache. The other one is named Lyon, right?"
The owner said with a smile, "I believe they will both grow up to be very handsome men."
Ur munched on her apple indifferently, "Really?"
The owner covered her mouth, joking, "When they grow up, give me one of them."
Ur took another bite of her apple and said casually, "I'll give you both of them."
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