At the sa ti, Lesser Frost, channeled directly through Glacial Vector Impalent, was performing exactly as intended. The freezing force continuously sought to suppress Aphryne’s movents, and with the superior concept of Glaciomancer further enhancing and amplifying every aspect of the ability, its effectiveness increased severalfold.
Aezaleon flowed seamlessly between the two superior concepts. One mont, Lightning Vector dominated his movents; the next, Glaciomancer reinforced his offense. The transitions were so smooth that it almost appeared as though he were utilizing both concepts simultaneously. Yet despite all of that, it still wasn’t enough. Within ten seconds, Obsidian Edge had moved over a hundred tis. Its attack trajectories shifted even more frequently: horizontal slashes beca thrusts, thrusts beca upward cuts, and upward cuts beca deceptive feints followed by sudden directional changes.
Despite that relentless assault, Aezaleon failed to land even a single strike. The grassy plains had long since been devastated. Countless scars carved through the earth, and deep trenches stretched across the battlefield. Purple lightning crawled over the ground like living veins, crackling and snapping with violent energy, yet none of it touched Aphryne. She always moved with perfect precision. Her speed was always slightly higher than his, her position was always slightly beyond his reach, and his attacks were always just slightly off target. The margins were incredibly small—almost insignificant—yet in battle, those tiny differences were everything.
As the exchange continued, Aezaleon’s eyes narrowed. With his heightened senses, he imdiately noticed sothing unusual. In just ten seconds, he had grown slightly weaker. The change was minute, almost imperceptible, yet it was undeniably there.
"How botherso..." He clicked his tongue and disengaged, retreating after another strike missed its mark by the narrowest of margins. Across from him, Aphryne smiled cheerfully.
"Ah, you have already noticed, husband?" There was unmistakable delight in her voice. "I would expect nothing less from you."
Aezaleon imdiately recognized the familiar conceptual fluctuations. Even though his wife wasn’t using any of her actual abilities while he was actively employing his own, the superior concept of Calamitous Darkwind alone was already troubleso enough. Coupled with the inferior concepts of Energy Corrosion, Grave Currents Erosion, Hollow Gale, Burst Acceleration, and Paralysis, all expressed through her elent, Darkwind, the result was nothing short of infuriating. Every exchange seed to favor her, and every second worked against him. The darkwinds continuously eroded his energy, weakened his defenses, disrupted his movents, and created countless subtle disadvantages that accumulated over ti.
The worst part was that none of it was overwhelming; it was gradual, relentless, and precise, like a predator patiently wearing down its prey.
Even setting all of that aside, there was another problem. Although their base prowess was relatively similar due to their comparable ascension ranks, their maximum prowess was an entirely different matter—the gap there was enormous.
As the battle continued, Aezaleon gradually ca to a realization: the fight had entered a stalemate. He couldn’t hit Aphryne, and Aphryne wasn’t actively trying to defeat him either. However, unlike him, she was not the one being slowly worn down. His stamina was decreasing, his endurance was being eroded, and his defensive capacity was steadily declining.
The darkwinds never stopped working, and because they never stopped working, Aezaleon knew exactly where this battle was heading: his defeat was only a matter of ti.
At that point, he finally decided to activate his newly acquired ability—Frostsword Executioner. Though, if he was being completely honest with himself, he wasn’t entirely confident that even this would be enough to defeat his absurdly powerful wife.
Then again, it wasn’t like he had been confident before, either.
The mont he issued the activation command, five floating frost blades materialized beside him. They resembled sleek crystalline longswords with razor-sharp translucent edges, each emanating a pale azure radiance and a chilling mist that lingered in the air around them. Their appearance was striking, as though they were execution weapons forged from condensed winter itself. Aezaleon imdiately felt the connection. The swords were clearly autonomous in nature. They possessed the ability to independently assault targets, intercept incoming attacks, dynamically reposition themselves, and relentlessly pursue designated enemies under his command. More importantly, he could sense that they were directly linked to his cognition, responding almost as naturally as his own limbs.
With a single thought, all five frost blades shot toward Aphryne. Their speed was astonishing. At the sa ti, Aezaleon layered Lightning Vector into their movent. Instantly, trails of crackling purple lightning appeared behind the swords as their trajectories beca sharper, faster, and vastly more responsive to his commands. The five blades approached from five completely different directions. Simultaneously, Aezaleon himself advanced from the front. The assault was imdiate, coordinated, and relentless. Yet despite finding herself targeted from six different vectors at once, Aphryne remained completely unperturbed. If anything, she looked amused. Even now, she made no attempt to launch a counterattack. Instead, a teasing smile appeared on her lips as she activated one of her own abilities: Umbral Slipstream: Zero Veil.
The ability had evolved alongside her, becoming even more refined after her growth and the acquisition of true sentience. At its core, it was a speed-defense hybrid ability with a deceptively simple function: through the manipulation of her darkwinds, it allowed her to move with such fluidity and precision that attacks naturally missed, slipped past, or failed to connect properly. She moved. The five frost blades were already within striking distance, and Aezaleon himself was only monts away from reaching her. Yet sohow, every attack seed just slightly too far away. The distance separating them was almost nonexistent, and yet it may as well have been infinite. Aezaleon quickly discovered the frustrating reality of the situation. Without the active support of Lightning Vector upon himself, there was little he could do against Aphryne’s bizarre yet strangely graceful movents.
Every adjustnt he made seed to arrive a fraction too late, every strike missing by the narrowest possible margin. However, the sa limitation did not apply to the frost blades.
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