Chapter 1346: Flowers Beneath the Scales

At the same time, an ice lotus bloomed beneath Vaelor’s feet.

It grew from within the frozen surface, its petals spreading outward one by one as the flower rapidly expanded. Petals of dark ice crystal closed around Vaelor’s feet, revealing the hidden stamen at the center.

Behind him, the blood swords continued advancing through the columns of water.

The closer the currents came to the center, the colder they grew. Frost formed across the blood swords and spread down their blades, freezing them one after another inside pillars of ice.

Namyanna twisted and hurled her trident to the right.

The weapon’s momentum pulled her sideways, carrying her clear of Vaelor’s sword point. The snow-white blade grazed her clothes before plunging into the water column behind her.

It sliced through the frozen current, freeing the blood swords trapped inside.

Vaelor was about to pursue when the ice lotus’s stamen touched his scales. Tiny ice crystals seeped from it, slipping through the gaps between his scales and entering his body.

Seeds of ice scattered inside him.

Vaelor didn’t notice at first. All he felt was a brief chill in his legs. In the distance, Namyanna had already stopped and was quietly observing him.

Another ice lotus rested in her palm.

She closed her fingers and crushed it.

A crisp crack came from her hand.

The seeds inside Vaelor sprouted at once. Ice lotuses burst from his shoulders, arms, chest, and dragon wings, their crystalline petals swiftly covering most of his body.

Vaelor froze in place. Even the hand gripping his sword refused to move.

A second crack followed.

Every ice lotus across his body exploded. Their petals dissolved into pure freezing energy that invaded his flesh from the outside in. White frost rapidly spread over Vaelor’s body, while the cold slowed the flow of red power within him.

Vaelor finally recognized the danger.

Gritting his teeth, he forced the snow-white sword upward. Its edge split the ice beneath him, and he dropped through the opening into the sea, sinking toward the ocean floor.

The moment the surrounding water touched him, Vaelor released a surge of cold and froze the currents nearby. A shell of ice enclosed his body, temporarily suppressing the freezing energy spreading through him.

Namyanna looked down at him without the slightest surprise.

She shattered the ice beneath her feet and entered the sea as well. Her trident turned in the current, locked onto Vaelor, and shot forward with an icy-blue trail behind it.

Vaelor’s stiff arms wouldn’t rise, but the blood swords gathered on their own.

Clang!

Several blood swords crossed in front of him and blocked the trident head-on. The trident’s blades kept driving forward. Cracks spread across the blood swords, but they refused to break completely.

The remaining swords swept around the collision and flew past both sides of Vaelor, stabbing toward Namyanna.

Only then did she confirm that the blood swords weren’t Vaelor’s own. The power they radiated was different from his. Thalvyr had merely granted him the use of them.

The swords were already closing in.

Namyanna shot upward through the sea and into the sky. Several blood swords followed close behind, their blades slashing repeatedly to unleash arcs of blood-red sword energy.

The attacks cut through the water without losing much speed.

Namyanna held her trident horizontally behind her back as freezing energy spread from beside her shoulders. Layer after layer of ice shards formed around her, then turned downward and rained upon the pursuing blood swords like a dense volley of arrows.

The tip of her trident blazed with light.

A sphere of water launched from beside Namyanna and traveled downward along the path of her ascent. Inside it was a small, clearly defined empty space—a region from which all water had been removed.

The leading blood sword struck the sphere head-on.

Instead of bursting apart, the water raced across the sword’s surface, spreading from its tip to its hilt. The surrounding seawater was drawn in, forming a new sealed area around the sword before the water inside was extracted.

A vacuum formed.

The blood sword slowed, then stopped completely. The others flew into the expanding sphere and were covered by the water as well, leaving them suspended at the center of the vacuum.

Namyanna finally stopped rising.

She had just turned when Vaelor appeared behind her.

The snow-white sword swept through the water toward her neck. Only a foot remained between the blade and its target, its cold white sheen already illuminating the skin along her throat.

The trident behind Namyanna split apart.

One became ten, then ten multiplied into countless trident images. They descended on Vaelor from above, their overlapping shafts sealing off every direction around him.

At the same moment, Namyanna’s body lost its shape.

She dissolved into flowing water and slipped beneath the snow-white sword. Vaelor’s attack passed through her, severing only a few scattering sprays.

The countless tridents came down, forming a tightly woven cage around him.

Namyanna re-formed outside the cage. A gleaming golden trident appeared in her hand, its radiance compressing along the shaft and gathering at the tip.

She drew back her arm to throw.

Inside the cage, Vaelor pointed toward the blood swords trapped in the vacuum.

Answering his summons, they all began to vibrate. The sphere surrounding them was torn open from within, shattering the vacuum. The blood swords regained their speed and slammed into the trident cage a moment later.

They smashed through its side.

Before Namyanna could throw the golden trident, Vaelor charged through the breach and appeared in front of her. He swung the flat of his snow-white blade into her, knocking her away.

Namyanna tumbled repeatedly through the air and threw her trident behind her. The recoil from the weapon tearing through the air counteracted part of the impact, gradually slowing her retreat.

Vaelor didn’t pursue blindly.

After several exchanges, he had figured out Namyanna’s combat pattern. The snow-white sword would force her to move, while the blood swords cut off her escape in advance. The two attacks began working together.

Once Namyanna had been knocked high into the air, their battle briefly paused.

The trident in her hand was still trembling, the vibrations running up her arm and into her shoulder. Only when her feet touched the ice again did she regain her balance, and the weapon’s trembling gradually subsided.

The ice beneath her shattered.

Vaelor burst from the opening as several blood swords flew past him and continued toward Namyanna.

Everyone in the air immediately realized something was wrong.

Ataneya’s fox tails reached them first. The massive tails crossed from different directions, surrounding Vaelor once more.

Andona appeared in front of Namyanna as well. She raised a hand, spreading a golden shield before her to meet the oncoming blood swords.

The swords struck the shield one after another, sending rings of golden light rippling across its surface, but none managed to advance.

Andona casually lifted her hand.

Golden light extended from the shield’s edges and formed a sacred cage around the blood swords. Holy radiance converged toward the center, continuously suppressing the blood-red power coating their blades.

Meanwhile, Vaelor thrashed inside the cage of fox tails.

Gripping his snow-white sword, he hacked repeatedly at the overlapping tails around him. Blade collided with fur, scattering sparks through the gaps.