Witnessing the aura of the Zamor Ancient Hero continuously rise.
Bai Shi's blood boiled in turn, dispersing the cold from the wind and snow as his fighting spirit soared.
This was the most satisfying battle he had encountered since arriving in this world.
Yes, satisfying.
It was one-on-one, with no interruptions. His opponent's martial prowess was the pinnacle of what he had witnessed since coming to the Lands Between.
Bai Shi was no longer the novice who could be wounded by a few Godrick soldiers; he had completely mastered the techniques of the Banished Knights.
And it was precisely for this reason that Bai Shi could truly appreciate the exquisite martial artistry of the Zamor Ancient Hero.
Her agility, in particular, was terrifying.
It was less like combat and more like a dance.
Whether attacking or dodging, all she seemed to need was a light leap.
She could spin continuously without losing her balance, and each strike grew progressively stronger.
When their weapons clashed, she could even use the recoil to pull back and create distance.
Despite her tall, three-meter frame, she moved like a butterfly in battle. Often, all one could do was watch her flutter about in the storm of combat.
Bai Shi had already consumed one Flask of Crimson Tears and one of Cerulean Tears, restoring his condition to a near-perfect state.
Meanwhile, the Zamor Ancient Hero had stanched her bleeding and covered herself in a thick armor of pristine ice.
The second round of the battle was about to begin.
The Zamor Ancient Hero struck first; she could not afford to drag this out.
She had been imprisoned for a long time, and her condition was poor to begin with. Now, she was considerably injured.
Although her wounds were temporarily frozen over, it was only a temporary measure.
The Zamor Ancient Hero lunged with all her strength, instantly closing the distance to Bai Shi.
Her curved sword carved a deep gash across the frost, from which icicles swiftly grew.
Bai Shi crossed his twin swords to block the thrust, but the icicles erupted at the same moment, shooting up from the ground toward him.
Although his armor deflected them, the impact and the cold left Bai Shi reeling.
Before Bai Shi could react, the Zamor Ancient Hero seized the brief deadlock, unleashing a blast of frost from her left hand.
The impact sent Bai Shi sliding backward. The environment had now been completely transformed by the Zamor Ancient Hero.
For now, the ground was only covered in frost, but with the relentless wind and blizzard, it would soon become a true snowfield.
Bai Shi quickly considered his options.
As the terrain changed, it would gradually become her home ground, and the scales of victory would tip further in her favor.
If the terrain were to be completely transformed, not only would his mobility in the snow be drastically reduced, but the frigid temperature alone would be enough to cripple him.
His opponent's injuries were not light. Even frozen, they would surely continue to drain her focus and magic.
*Should I keep wounding her to tie her down, preventing her from freely using magic to alter the environment?*
*But if her magic reserves are plentiful, that would only drive me into a corner.*
No, there's no need to overcomplicate things.
Bai Shi smiled. All he had to do was defeat her quickly.
He wouldn't give her the chance to stall. He would crush her as fast as possible.
The Zamor Ancient Hero charged again. Bai Shi summoned a storm to temporarily clear the frost from under his feet, ensuring he wouldn't slip.
He blocked her slash with one sword and swiftly thrust the other at her ice armor, creating a spiderweb of cracks.
But the ice armor was double-layered. When the outer layer shattered, it exploded into a thick cloud of icy mist, obscuring Bai Shi's vision.
*Damn, it's a trap!*
Bai Shi deflected her curved sword, immediately crossed his blades in a defensive posture, and retreated from the mist. His vision cleared, but when he looked to where the Zamor Ancient Hero had been, she was gone.
A cold sweat broke out on Bai Shi's back. Without hesitation, he spun around and slashed both swords behind him.
The Zamor Ancient Hero's curved sword sliced into his side, but at the same time, Bai Shi's twin swords sank deep into her waist.
His Banished Knight armor was pierced. The blood froze the instant it trickled out, and a deep chill traveled up through his veins.
Bai Shi instantly unleashed a storm. He had to pull away from her immediately, or the freezing blade would turn him into an ice sculpture from the inside out.
The Zamor Ancient Hero, for her part, did not want the swords to remain in her waist, as they prevented her from freezing the wound shut. She, too, unleashed a blast of frost.
As the two forces collided, they were both sent flying backward, their weapons dislodged from their wounds.
Bai Shi scrambled to his feet, assessing his wound.
The gash must have been deep, but since it was frozen, he couldn't feel a thing.
The ice also seemed to have stopped the bleeding.
He was injured, but it wasn't a vital blow.
The flying snow began to solidify into small pellets of hail that rattled against Bai Shi's armor. A thick layer of snow now blanketed the ground.
Bai Shi knew the decisive moment was at hand.
In the distance, the Zamor Ancient Hero staggered to her feet. She was in worse shape than he was.
Her numerous wounds had hampered her agility. Though she could freeze them, the sealed flesh could no longer twist with the same freedom.
Her magic was nearly exhausted, unable to intensify the blizzard further. At best, she could only maintain its current state.
She took a deep breath, and the freezing wind and hail ceased.
Watching Bai Shi charge toward her, she once again held out her left hand.
Bai Shi recognized the move—it was the cone of frost breath she had used before. He changed direction, circling to her flank.
But suddenly, Bai Shi felt something was off. If it were the breath attack, why wasn't she turning to track his movement?
Realizing his mistake, Bai Shi quickly backed away, but it was too late.
The Zamor Ancient Hero crouched and slammed her left hand onto the ground. A maelstrom of ice and snow erupted, sweeping up the accumulated drifts and shards of ice, engulfing Bai Shi.
She sustained the blizzard until the very last of her magic was spent.
Her ceaseless transformation of the terrain had all been to empower this final storm.
Since her melee combat was compromised, she would bury her opponent with the magic that was her pride.
The raging blizzard lasted for more than half a minute before gradually subsiding. In this confined space, her opponent had nowhere to run; he could only be frozen solid.
*It's over.*
The Zamor Ancient Hero knelt on the ground, thinking to herself.
"It's over!"
A powerful voice echoed as Bai Shi's figure burst through the last vestiges of the storm.
The twin swords danced in his hands, as swift as a startled swan, as graceful as a roaming dragon.
Sweeps, thrusts, slashes, and leaping overhead strikes—he unleashed one technique after another in a relentless barrage.
The Zamor Ancient Hero's desperate blocks were swiftly broken, and Bai Shi's swords shattered her hard ice armor again and again.
Finally, as another twin-bladed Lion's Claw slammed down on her shoulders, the last of her ice armor shattered.
The force of the blow drove the Zamor Ancient Hero to her knees.
Bai Shi sheathed his swords. In his fight against the Zamor Ancient Hero, he had finally performed the Banished Knight's ultimate combo—the Lightning Cyclone Slash.