Chapter 13

Dong! The sword bounced back. The fire formed a solid blue shield above the Balrog. The shield took the light blade. The wound on its chest had completely healed by this time. The Balrog slowly stood up from the ground.

With a roar at the sky, the Balrog’s fire great more intense than ever. A white marble floated out from its mouth then moved to the top of its head. Suddenly, its blue fire began gradually changing its color toward white. The temperature of the area jumped again. There were signs of the ice melting.

“Zheng! I am going to burst the last of my power! I can manage another thirty seconds before I lose the ability to maintain this form. Cut it down to pieces. I will freeze it with the coldest air from Ice Age!” Gungnir’s shout sounded more like a wail.

He was the ice at this point and the ice was him. When the fire grew and melted all his ice, he would die. This was the only method of killing him once he entered Ice Age and this was what the Balrog was doing.

Zheng could feel that intense heat from the fire despite protecting himself with the light blade. The light blade could defend against physical attacks but didn’t isolate the temperature from him. The high heat pushed him back just then. Hearing what Gungnir just said, he had no choice but to head back to where ice still remained. Then he dismounted.

Zheng spent less than three seconds doing this. The Balrog made its move again. It roared. Mystical rune words and symbols faded into existence at the air in front of it. These rune words were formed by strings of blue fire and looked ethereal. However, Gandalf’s expression changed as soon as he saw the rune words.

“Stop him! It’s the Roar of the Fire Spirit! The ability releases its essence of fire all at once. We won’t live through it!” Gandalf shouted.

He spent all his effort maintaining the barrier so he didn’t have the power to do anything else. The hall outside the barrier began exploding after his words.

Zheng made his decision. A red flame burned from his body. He instantly felt the temperature returned to a comfortable degree. It wasn’t as high as before. He stepped heavily and charged up to the side of the Balrog’s head with lightning speed. He kicked his leg across. The huge force blasted the Balrog’s head. A big cloud of white fire flared on its place.

Zheng felt burning pain on his leg as soon as he kicked. His red flame could not fully neutralized this white fire and it burned his leg in an instant. He was in Destruction at this point. By the time the pain registered, he already jumped up with Geppo. He reached ten meters above the Balrog. When he looked down, his leg was full of bloody blisters.

(That heat is scary. Is this really only 30% strength of the original Balrog? No wonder they were called nemesis of humans. They were nemesis of all living beings.)

Zheng thought to himself but he didn’t stop moving. He slammed Tiger’s Soul downward. He wasn’t using the light blade with this attack but the sword itself. The sword slashed right through the Balrog’s chest. The Balrog along with the rune words and symbols were cut in halves.

“Still not enough! Cut it up further then throw the parts over! I won’t be able to freeze it at such a high temperature!”

Tiger’s Soul smashed into the ground heavily. Bang! It blasted large crevice on the ground. Hearing Gungnir’s words, Zheng jumped again. Tiger’s Soul slashed across horizontally at the center of the Balrog, further cutting it into four pieces. These pieces were connected by a whitish blue fire. And more white fire spewing out from its head. It looked like the Balrog’s head was reforming. Zheng kicked a piece of the body off the connecting fire.

Knowing how strong he was during Destruction, this kick would crush even the pillars into powder. But the Balrog’s body was much tougher than he thought. The kick only sent it flying. It was no where close to crushing the body. However, this was good enough. As the body part disconnected from the linking fire, everyone heard a bellow.

This was the moment Gungnir had been waiting for. As soon as the Balrog’s body part flew away, a small blizzard surrounded it. The collision of fire and ice created heavy steam that gradually spread outward. Gandalf’s barrier couldn’t block off steam and so everyone experienced a sauna. The steam hadn’t ended yet when the remaining three parts of the Balrog flew in three different directions. At the same time, several blizzards whirled toward the body parts. Steam filled the hall and no one could open their mouths within that heat.

Zheng had exited Destruction by now. The fight lasted less than seven seconds. He was bleeding blood all over but he still retained 40% of his power. About ten seconds later, the steaming stopped. He slowly walked toward the glowing marble on the ground. He wasn’t weakened to a degree than he couldn’t walk.

“Damn, that was almost too dangerous, but thankfully.” He muttered to himself as he walked. He had received the notification just then. That was why he felt assured to he let Gungnir handle the four body parts while he walked toward fire energy stone.

The energy stone gave off a powerful aura. It seemed like it should at least be a rank A energy stone. If he was lucky, this might even be rank AA. So Zheng wanted to get the stone in his hand before anything else. The real danger was over after all.

“Careful!” Gandalf yelled.

He released the barrier when he saw the Balrog got killed. However, seeing that Zheng was walking toward the fire energy stone, and the stone was glowing brighter and brighter, he immediately yelled. At the same time, he rushed toward Zheng.

Zheng just exited Destruction so he was at his most feeble period. He could only walk for now but Gandalf’s words shocked him. He turned his head to see Gandalf ran past him and toward the energy stone. Gandalf picked up the stone while he was still spacing off and chanted a spell in a difficult language.

The energy stone glowed brighter and brighter that even Zheng knew something was off. By the look of it, it seemed to be going to explode. A silver flame from Gandalf’s hand tried to wrap over the energy stone but it suddenly flashed in a dazzling light. When the group got their gaze back to Gandalf, his body had ignited. A blue fire was coming out from the energy stone. This fire looked like it was growing in size as if it wanted to form a new Balrog.

“I am the servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you! Protect Frodo, Zheng!” Blue fire enveloped Gandalf but he was still chanting. The silver flame kept trying to contain this stone. At the same time, Gandalf held the stone in his hands then jumped down the chasm. He and the blue fire disappeared from their sight along with his final words.

“No, no!” Frodo yelled, followed by the rest of the movie characters. The players were standing there in shock. Everything that just happened left them stunned. A loud thump and tremble came up from the abyss. The bridge collapsed. The land they were standing on began to fall off inch by inch. The energy stone obviously exploded at the bottom of the chasm. The shockwave trembled the cliffs, including the land they were standing on. And standing nearest to the chasm was Zheng. He fell along with the falling rocks. Then the movie characters and several players fell.

The cliffs on both sides of the chasm collapsed. The collapses only spread twenty meters in but they caught several movie characters and players. These people rolled down along with the rocks. Beneath them was a burning blue fire and a smaller silver flame revolving in the center.

“Argh!” Zheng responded faster than anyone else. He was also the one nearest to the cliff. He fell further than the rest of the group and was near the fire. A few seconds after he began falling, the heat forced him to leap upward with all his strength. He could still use Instant Destruction despite being exhausted. Geppo pushed him up several meters. He leaped onto land that had yet to collapse.

The others weren’t so lucky. First, the three Hobbits fell then Legolas and Aragorn followed. Four of the players also fell right after them, the archer girl, Neos, Heng, and YinKong.

All of these happened in just a moment. The difference in everyone’s physical abilities were apparent in this situation. Legolas and Aragorn both brought out their close range weapons and stabbed them into the cliff. They put out a hand to reach for the falling Hobbits. Yet, they only had two people. One caught Frodo and the other caught Merry. The third Hobbit kept on falling. He fell into the still burning fire at the bottom right in front of everyone’s eyes. And then he vaporized without a sound.

On the players, YinKong was the fastest. She was five meters away from the cliff. She curled herself up then kicked a falling rock right behind her. The force pushed her toward the cliff like a rocket. Heng was in her path. He fell unconscious after using charged so he wasn’t reacting at all. Thankfully, YinKong’s reaction and ability saved him from the fate of the Hobbit.

The archer girl was also several meters away from the cliff. She didn’t have the agileness of YinKong and fell into the fire. She vaporized in the blink of an eye. Neos was lucky to be near the cliff. He grabbed a protruding rock and hung himself there. He wouldn’t have made it otherwise with his ability.

Zheng got his feet on the ground then turned around just in time to see the Hobbit and archer girl vaporized. His heart skipped a bit. Seeing the people hanging by the cliff were still in danger, he immediately tried to enter Instant Destruction to save them. Yet, any movement of Qi and blood energy would put his whole body in excruciating pain. He might fell before saving these people if he were to try.

Zheng immediately yelled. “Gungnir! Turn into ice form and save them!”

But he instantly knew it wouldn’t work as he turned to Gungnir. Gungnir was sitting on the ground with a pale gray face. He returned to human form. It was clear that freezing the Balrog’s body parts used up all his energy. There was no way for him to save these people.

“Fuck!” Zheng panicked. He shouted to the people below. “Hold on!” Then rushed to the Nightmare.

It was ten seconds after the first explosion by this time. Zheng had gotten near the Nightmare when the ground trembled again as if a second explosion occurred. He cursed again but he didn’t have the time to think further. He mounted on the Nightmare and charged at the cliff.

The cliff began to collapse for a second time as expected. Large pieces of rock fell off. Zheng reached the cliff to see the rock holding Aragorn’s sword was falling. He grabbed Aragorn’s arm then threw him and the Hobbit toward the top. The people up there would catch the two. Without pausing for a moment, he charged downward.

The collapse proceeded quickly. By the time he grabbed Legolas and threw him up, he turned to fear as he saw YinKong and Heng fell off the cliff again. A falling rock hit her hand and knocked her off.

The Nightmare couldn’t catch up to the falling speed. Furthermore, the fall would become faster with each second. Redness saturated Zheng’s eyes in his panic. These two people were comrades he would exchange with his life. He could stay calm with the death of others but his comrades’ death would put a layer of guilt and sadness on his heart for the rest of his life. So he leaped off the Nightmare toward the two without a moment of thought.

The temperature rose as he came down the chasm. It was fortunate that the blue fire had fallen further than before so YinKong and Heng didn’t get burned so fast. Zheng accelerated with Geppo twice. He caught up to them before they fell another hundred meters. He seized the two with an arm and held YinKong close to his chest while he gripped Heng under his triceps. He began another round of Geppo.

Zheng’s body had reached a limit by this time. He used so many seconds of his allowed time in Destruction and multiple instances of Instant Destruction. The strength of Geppo could only lift him up less than seven meters now when it would be over ten meters normally. A few more Geppos later, the height of his jump decreased further. His legs convulsed violently.

Zheng almost crushed his teeth from clenching so tight. Blood leaked out from the corner of his mouth. Just then he saw another figure falling down from above. He looked more closely to see that was Neos who was horrified. The rock he was holding on finally broke off. There were several cries following Neos’s fall. They came from two girls in team Africa.

Zheng subconsciously reached out with his arm. YinKong was now hanging on him and Heng was under his arm. So he had an arm he could use. But he hesitated the moment his hand reached Neos. Neos was definitely a top tier strategist. He wasn’t a rival to Xuan but he was much better than the rest of the people in the three teams. Having someone like that alive would cause huge uncertainties in this world. If he let Neos die here, the rest of team Africa would lose their threat and become a force they could use.

These thoughts crossed his mind in the blink of an eye. Neos was about to fall past him. He closed his eyes with a bitter smile. At the same instant, Zheng grabbed his collar. The momentum dragged Zheng down several meters. Geppo’s height also fell to under five meters at this point. Those standing on the cliff saw this with their eyes.

(Argh! Fuck it!)

Zheng squeezed the last bit of his strength to enter Destruction instead of relying on Instant Destruction. He used Geppo one after another to push himself up while carrying the weight of three people. At the end of the last second he had, he got himself onto the back of the Nightmare. The sudden weight of four people bended the Nightmare’s legs slightly but the anti-gravity attribute saved them. Once all four people were seated, Zheng grabbed the lead rope. The Nightmare slowly ran up the cliff.

“I applaud your bravery and strength for saving everyone.” Xuan sat on the ground with a few fruits in hand. He looked down at Zheng looked crippled. “But I am curious. It was understandable for the first half of your actions. Since the Sky Stick wasn’t fast enough to save so many people and the movie characters will turn it off. But why didn’t you use it after you saved these three people and was jumping up?”

“Eh?” Zheng opened his mouth wide. He stared at Xuan dumbfounded. Xuan was eating his fruit as though Zheng’s idiotic expression was invisible.

“It was such a dangerous moment. I…” Zheng tried to justify himself. After a while without words, he gave a bitter smile. “I am an idiot.”

Neos walked over to team China with the support of Aya. He calmly said. “I know you hesitated when you saved me but you did it. There isn’t much to be said. I will repay you for this! I will repay you in this movie!”