45: Say it

"Evil Axe, take care of Ash Leaf and the others first."

Ronan instructed Evil Axe, then turned to fire a row of Ice Arrows from his hand, dispersing them one by one around the Altar.

These Ice Arrows weren't meant to cause freezing, but were focused on lethality.

By firing in different directions simultaneously, he aimed to eliminate as many Polluters as possible.

The square was already densely packed with Polluters, a dark mass like a thick layer of asphalt.

Ronan didn't even need to aim; any Ice Arrow he fired at random could pierce through two or three Polluters, while simultaneously freezing a small area.

But there were too many Polluters, and the freezing effect was negligible.

Once an "Elemental Flying Arrow" was fired, it was no longer under the control of the caster's Spiritual Power.

Ronan couldn't control a single Ice Arrow to weave back and forth through the crowd of Polluters to maximize damage.

Evil Axe's ultimate move was fine for dealing with distant Polluters, but if they were too close, it risked damaging the Altar... this put him in a difficult position.

He finally realized the importance of area-of-effect attacks, but unfortunately, there were no area-of-effect spells available in the Adventurers Guild's zero-circle magic exchange list.

If he had to count something, "Fireball" could barely be considered an area-of-effect attack in this situation.

Polluters were weak to fire; powerful flames could cause a series of indirect damage among the dense crowd of Polluters.

Like the Mercenary Vice Commander's Flame Black Dog; although its attacks were powerful, the large-scale Black Flame burning it caused was the most lethal factor for the Polluters.

Wait, Black Flame?

Ronan continued to fire Ice Arrows rapidly, but his gaze fell upon a Polluter's severed limb that had been burned off by the Flame Black Dog.

He immediately cast "Mage Hand."

Ronan had looked down on this zero-circle spell because it couldn't be used for combat, so he had only learned it cursorily and could barely use it.

Then, an invisible giant hand lifted a small segment of the severed limb covered in Black Flame from below the Altar, floating it up onto the Altar to hover before Ronan's eyes.

The power of this Black Flame was clearly much higher than ordinary fire, carrying a touch of wickedness and possessing great lethality against Polluters... As Ronan watched, a bold idea formed in his mind.

He quickly said to Evil Axe:

"Evil Axe, use your ultimate move to hold them off for a bit, and tell Drill Mouse to come down and take care of Ash Leaf and the others."

"Captain, aren't you afraid the Altar will explode?" Evil Axe asked.

"Attack the Polluters further away." Ronan gave him a slight smile. "Leave the ones near the Altar to me."

"Captain, there are a lot of them near the Altar too..."

Evil Axe glanced at the dense black asphalt below and said,

"How about you save some Ice Arrows for the Polluters around the Altar? I should be able to kill the ones further away with just my ultimate move."

Ronan shook his head. "They still need to be frozen."

Pure physical attacks weren't very effective against Polluters.

Evil Axe nodded, walked to the edge of the Altar, looked up, and shouted, "Drill Mouse, get your ass down here!"

Ronan then turned around and began condensing rows of Ice Arrows, preparing to coordinate with Evil Axe.

"Boss, I heard everything from up here. Rest assured, I'll take care of the two ladies."

Drill Mouse leapt down from the cavern ceiling, using the "Hidden Stab" skill midway to counteract the impact,

and landed steadily beside Ash Leaf and the other woman.

Evil Axe looked down at the dark mass of Polluters, took a charging stance, and began preparing his ultimate move.

By now, Ronan had condensed over thirty Ice Arrows.

As the killing intent built up, even the Vice Commander in mid-air couldn't help but glance over.

Combining the scene before him, he recalled Ronan's words, 'My magic is exceptionally effective for anti-air attacks'... In a daze, he seemed to see these Ice Arrows all firing toward him at once, and alarm bells rang in his heart.

Ronan had no idea what the Vice Commander was thinking.

After condensing the fortieth Ice Arrow, he divided them into several groups, adjusted the angles toward different directions in the distance, and fired them instantly.

The volley of Ice Arrows broke the Vice Commander into a cold sweat.

But so many Ice Arrows weren't aimed at him, nor did they pierce a single Polluter.

Instead, after flying over the Polluters, groups of two or three Ice Arrows collided with each other, shattering into a rain of ice flowers.

As the ice flowers fluttered down, the area below was instantly frozen.

"Boss, quick! The Captain has frozen all the Polluters,"

Drill Mouse urged, seeing Evil Axe still charging,

"Use your ultimate move, quick!"

"What ultimate move?" Evil Axe said calmly, without even lifting an eyelid.

"That ultimate move of yours, the enhanced flying axe!"

"Oh~ you mean the enhanced skill I improved based on my own conditions, the 'Super Powerful Invincible Spinning Flying Axe', right?"

"Yes, yes, that flying axe thing!"

"What flying axe?"

"Your Super... whatever flying axe."

"Say it."

"Super Power... ful Invin... cible Spinning Flying Axe."

"Good, no problem."

Evil Axe finished charging, and the two short axes in his hands were stained with a layer of bloody light.

He threw them out quickly with a specific posture and technique.

In an instant,

two bloody afterimages whistled, spinning rapidly in the air as they headed straight for the crowd of Polluters below.

Before these two bloody wheels could even reach them, the group of frozen ice sculptures was sliced into pieces all over the ground by rapid wind blades.

The bloody wheels transformed from the flying axes were like lawnmowers, ruthlessly harvesting the Polluter ice sculptures.

Even the Polluters that hadn't been frozen couldn't withstand the bloody wheels' attacks, losing their means of recovery against physical attacks one after another.

Seeing this, Ronan realized that Evil Axe's claim of being able to kill them with just his ultimate move was no exaggeration.

With Evil Axe's large-scale harvest, a huge swathe of Polluters in the square vanished instantly.

Taking advantage of this gap, Ronan finally completed his own experiment.

He assumed the same posture for condensing Ice Arrows, pressing his palms together and then pulling them apart.

Only this time, between his palms, the main body of the flying arrow was no longer hard ice, but a flickering Black Flame.

"Elemental Flying Arrow" - Black Flame Arrow Form!

Compared to the crystal-clear ice-attribute flying arrows, after absorbing the Black Flame from the severed limb, the arrow's element had transformed into fire.

This not only gave the arrow a fire-attribute burning effect but also the unique spreading intensity of the Black Flame.

Ronan walked to the edge of the Altar and aimed the Black Flame Arrow in his hand at the Polluters climbing higher and higher below.

With a slight thought, the Black Flame Arrow shot rapidly toward the Polluter at the highest point.

Immediately after, the Polluter at the highest point was enveloped in Black Flame and fell into the dark crowd of Polluters below.

Boom.

Like a spark falling into black grease, the falling Polluter instantly ignited its kind throughout the entire area.

Raging Black Flames rose abruptly, and in the blink of an eye, the area on one side of the Altar became empty.

"You, what did you do?!"

The mercenary Kane was controlling the Flame Black Dog to slaughter in all directions when he suddenly felt a power identical to his own appear behind him.

He turned around abruptly,

and saw the scene of Ronan's single arrow igniting a soaring Black Flame, clearing a huge area of Polluters.

The commotion was too great, and everyone present turned their gaze toward it.

Evil Axe and Drill Mouse craned their necks to look toward the other side of the Altar.

Red Star froze in place, his gaze sweeping over Ronan again and again in disbelief.

No one noticed.

On the ground, a translucent phantom suddenly appeared on the unconscious Annual Ring.

Like a Guardian Spirit, the phantom controlled the unconscious Annual Ring, slowly making him stand up from the ground.