Chapter 46: Orario in an Uproar
Esdeath felt that Ottar was magnificent, not because she fancied him.
Rather, it was because she felt this man was exceptionally strong and could make her unleash her emotions to her heart's content.
Ottar was capable of enduring her power, wouldn't fall in a single strike, and moreover, wouldn't kneel from one blow or stare at her with a repulsive look of terror before begging for mercy like a dog.
Ottar was silent, resilient, and unyielding, like a piece of iron that had been forged repeatedly yet never shattered.
An opponent like this hadn't been encountered by Esdeath in a very long time.
Therefore, she decided to fight to her heart's content.
"Your strength surely isn't limited to just this, right?" Esdeath tilted her head slightly, her ice-blue eyes locking tightly onto Ottar's eyes. "Show me what your true strength looks like."
Ottar remained silent, but his aura of power grew even mightier.
A deeper, more rampaging strength surged from within his body—the scent of a wild beast that had been cooped up for too long and was finally breaking out of its cage.
His muscles expanded slightly, blue veins throbbed beneath his skin, and each beat of his heart sounded like a struck war drum.
His gaze grew sharper, like a knife blade that had its final dull layer whetted away.
Esdeath sensed the change, and her smile grew even more uninhibited.
"Yes, just like this."
She also began to release her true power. The temperature in the surroundings began to drop drastically. With her as the center, a thick sheet of ice froze over the ground within a fifty-meter radius, and fine snowflakes began to drift through the air.
Her long ice-blue hair danced wildly in the gusting cold wind, and her two eyes shone brightly like two blazing frost stars.
"Show me where the limit of your capability lies."
The next second, the two moved simultaneously.
Their speed was so fast that not a single spectator at the scene could catch their movements clearly.
They could only see two blurred silhouettes colliding, separating, and colliding again in the plaza.
Every time contact was made, deafening explosive rumbles and shockwaves would erupt.
Ice shards and rock fragments flew to fill the sky, and the ground of the plaza beneath their feet looked as though it were repeatedly overturned by a massive plow until its original shape was no longer visible.
The speed at which Ottar swung his sword became faster and heavier, each impact carrying enough force to split a hill.
His fighting style was simple and unadorned, devoid of any unnecessary extra techniques, but every swing of the sword was perfectly positioned.
This wasn't mere talent, but the result of forging the body and instincts to the absolute limit, then gathering experience from battle after battle.
Meanwhile, Esdeath possessed a different style.
After mastering Ice-Make Magic, she could be said to be infinitely versatile in combat.
The cold air and ice transformed into her weapons.
Sometimes freezing into an indestructible shield wall, sometimes changing into ice needles that pierced through every gap, sometimes becoming a long whip that shattered the air, and sometimes turning into chains that coiled around Ottar's four limbs.
Each of her movements carried a cold elegance, and every attack was full of imagination and creativity.
Yumesaki, who was watching, couldn't help but praise her in his heart. It had only been this long, yet Esdeath could already wield Ice-Make Magic so extraordinarily, reaching such a high level of proficiency.
This was already akin to Gray.
Furthermore, Yumesaki also discovered that the battle between the two was not only exceptionally fierce, but also a direct head-on clash.
There were no flanking movements, no evasive maneuvers, no tactical feints—only the hard clashing between strength and strength, as well as will and will.
Simply put, both of them were battle maniacs.
They didn't know the meaning of the word retreat at all.
Or it could be said that they simply had no need to retreat, nor did they want to.
To retreat meant to lose.
Ottar's greatsword shattered layer after layer of ice walls.
Meanwhile, Esdeath's ice also left more and more wounds on Ottar's body.
Blood flowed out from his body, only to be frozen the very next second by the cold air into dark red ice crystals hanging off his bronze skin, looking incredibly gruesome.
At least Esdeath wasn't looking nearly as battered, which also left the surrounding adventurers dumbfounded one by one.
That was a Level 7 adventurer, the strongest person of the Freya Familia, and the Formidable One of Labyrinth City Orario.
Yet now he was being pressed by a woman of unknown origins; this joke had gone a bit too far.
Where on earth did a monster-like woman like this spring from?
Just when the vast majority of people couldn't make heads or tails of this and were consecutively trying to find out which Familia this woman belonged to...
The battle between Esdeath and Ottar was entering an extremely fierce stage.
Ottar suddenly let loose a low, beast-like roar. His body was abruptly lowered slightly, his center of gravity pressed to the absolute lowest, both hands gripping the sword hilt, his entire self like a bow drawn to its absolute limit.
Then, he unleashed a thrust that completely defied common sense. The massive sword blade, under the propulsion of a terrifying force, turned into a blur of light, piercing straight toward Esdeath's chest.
The speed and power of this sword strike had reached an unbelievable level. The air in front of the blade's tip didn't even have time to be pushed aside and was forced into a dense, blinding ball of white light, unleashing an ear-piercing sound explosion.
Esdeath naturally wouldn't retreat; she didn't even put up a defense.
She merely extended her right hand, her five fingers spread open, her palm directed at the greatsword that was fully capable of impaling her.
Then, she uttered a single phrase. Her voice was very soft, yet it sounded as though it echoed in everyone's ears:
"Ice Age!"
Time seemed to freeze at this very moment.
An extraordinary cold that could not be described with words erupted from her palm, spreading forward at a speed that surpassed the understanding of physical laws.
The temperature of that cold air was low to a horrifying degree—so low that the air itself began to freeze, so low that light experienced a subtle distortion as it passed through the area.
Under the gaze of everyone who was shocked into speechlessness, Ottar's greatsword began to be wrapped in layer after layer of ice crystals starting from the tip of the blade.
The freezing surged up the blade, the speed so fast that people didn't have time to react.
Ottar wanted to pull his sword back, but the cold air had already traveled up the hilt to his arm, then to his shoulder, then to his chest.
His body began to lose the ability to move in an instant.
The surface of his skin was coated with a thin layer of frost, each breath he took would spew a large plume of white mist from his mouth, and the sound of his heartbeat became incredibly slow, as if pressed by a slow-motion button.
Realizing that the situation was dire, Ottar suddenly erupted a heat never seen before from his body.
A hissing sound rang out, and white steam evaporated up from his frame.
He seemed to want to use this method to resist Esdeath's Ice Age.
However, it was futile.
The cold air released by Esdeath was simply too frigid. Even though Ottar struggled frantically, the final result didn't undergo any change whatsoever.
The only thing he was capable of doing was just one point.
Remaining standing.
With his body already mostly frozen, Ottar still tightly gripped the sword hilt, standing desperately in his original spot, and staring desperately into Esdeath's eyes.
His teeth chattered, his lips were bitten by himself until they split, and the moment fresh blood flowed out, it instantly froze into ice beads.
He still remained standing, and still refused to fall.
Esdeath looked at him, and her gaze flashed with a hint of admiration.
This man did not disappoint her.
She knew very well that her ice could even freeze iron until it cracked, and could even freeze fire until it extinguished, yet it did not freeze that man's will.
"You are very good."
Esdeath looked at the opposing side with a praising gaze. There was no hint of mockery in her voice; there was only acknowledgment.
"You are truly very good."
She walked slowly to the front of Ottar, reached out, and her fingertips pressed gently against Ottar's frozen chest.
A light nudge caused Ottar's massive frame to finally lose its balance. He fell backward, slamming into the ground and unleashing a heavy rumbling sound.
Shards of ice tumbled off his body. His eyes were still open, still staring toward the sky, and the rise and fall of his chest proved that he was still alive and still breathing.
Esdeath looked down at him and said with satisfaction: "Today's fight made me very happy. I look forward to you becoming stronger. Come back and find me to wash away this shame. Remember, my name is Esdeath."
Leaving these words behind, Esdeath turned and left.
The only thing left behind was a boiling Orario, as well as the disbelieving adventurers.
...
In less than half a day, the news that the Formidable One of Labyrinth City Orario, the Warlord Ottar, had been defeated directly from the front by a woman named Esdeath, had spread throughout all of Orario.
From the ordinary humans at the bottom tier to the gods at the top tier, everyone had heard of this incident.
At first, everyone didn't dare believe their own ears.
When these things were confirmed, the gods became excited.
Ever since the Zeus Familia and Hera Familia were driven out of Orario, the Labyrinth City welcomed the era of the two kings from the Loki Familia and Freya Familia.
Even though in a structure like this, Orario would have countless pieces of news popping up every day.
However, massive news like today's was a first.
The Warlord Ottar had lost.
And he had also lost to a woman.
This was incredibly, incredibly massive news. The gods residing within Orario instantly became hyped up.
Furthermore, within the Denatus, they constantly tried to find out where exactly this monster named Esdeath had sprung from.
Some gods opined that this was an adventurer trained secretly by a certain Familia in Orario, but it was quickly refuted by the other gods.
Because they discovered that prior to this fight, not many people had ever seen Esdeath.
This meant that the words "trained secretly" were completely nonsensical.
Moreover, for the adventurers in Labyrinth City Orario, once they ranked up to Level 2, they would be given an alias by the gods during the Denatus—for instance, Sword Princess for Ais, Nine Hell for Riveria, and others.
Of course, these were just aliases that fell into the normal category.
Aside from those, there were also many aliases that made people burst into hearty laughter—for example, Little Rookie for the male protagonist Bell, and so forth.
Rather than calling it a bestowal, it was more accurate to describe it as entertainment material put out by the gods.
And if one wanted to rank up, a person absolutely had to achieve a grand feat in the Dungeon. With so many people inside and outside the Dungeon, it was impossible for no one to have ever seen Esdeath.
Therefore, under these conditions, it was extremely difficult for a Familia to be able to secretly train an adventurer sufficient to match Ottar.
Yet Esdeath herself had appeared, and there still wasn't anyone who had ever seen her before.
This meant Esdeath wasn't trained by Labyrinth City Orario.
It was highly likely she was an adventurer trained from somewhere else.
It should be known that not all gods who descended to the Lower World would gather in Labyrinth City Orario.
For example, the God of War Ares, Artemis, Vira, and other gods all operated in the world outside Orario.
So everyone guessed that this Esdeath was actually a Familia member of a certain god located outside.
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