Head to Head

Now that a thick earthen wall covered with ice had risen from the ground, Li Jiye and the others were suddenly located on the edge of the battlefield.

They quickly stood back-to-back according to Li Jiye's arrangement. Li Jiye was on the alert now as he surveyed his surroundings. After the mentors of Polar Star Academy joined forces to divide the battlefield, several Taurens had been dragged by the vines or affected by the earth movements and were scattered around. In the wake of the war cries coming from not far away, the four students saw a few strong men in fur armor shouting loudly and launching an attack on a few Taurens.

"They're mercenaries! Most likely from a frontier mercenary group."

Alice seemed very familiar with the clothes of the brawny humans. She was about to say something to the group when her words instantly turned into exclamations.

A human warrior had charged at a Tauren, his whole body shining with cold light as he brandished his long sword with one hand. But when he was about to approach the targeted Tauren, it suddenly turned and stared at the opponent with its blood-red eyes. In the next second, the Tauren slightly lowered its body and charged at the warrior with its incomparably hard horns.

"Oh no!"

Li Jiye immediately saw the mercenary's strength in his eyes. He was only a Tier 2 inferior-grade warrior with a C-level swordsmanship skill. On the other hand, the enemy Tauren was at the Tier 2 intermediate level. This mercenary didn't have the least bit of an upper hand in this confrontation.

"John! Use the Ice Frost skill on that Tauren!"

Uttering a shout among the sparks of fire, John was swept up by the turquoise hurricane beneath his feet, and he flashed in front of the mercenary and Tauren in an instant.

Having studied combat strategy, John didn't hesitate for a second. Frowning in concentration, he turned to the Tauren and suddenly threw a brilliant blue ball towards the Tauren with a thrust of his palm.

"The Ice Master…"

The blue ball reached the Tauren's body and immediately formed a layer of ice over its muscles. Right after, its movements seemed to become several times slower. The horns that were supposed to hit and pierce through the mercenary's chest fell under the influence of the Ice Frost skill and missed the opponent by an inch, clashing instead with the long sword and causing a resounding clash of metal and bone.

Li Jiye rushed over with Shadow Wind Steps, his right fist suddenly igniting in a cloud of blue and white air. This explosive punch hit the Tauren's abdomen with great force.

Storm Fist under the force of Divine Blessing!

Divine Blessing doubled the damage of Li Jiye's Storm Fist, and his punch had flown as fast as a stream of light.

Hit by the double blow, the Tauren's body was engulfed in blue and white lightning streaks. In the blink of an eye, the Tauren warrior on the Tier 2 intermediate level snorted and flew several feet away.

"That's amazing!"

"How could it be so powerful?!"

Daphne's team was incredibly shocked to witness this scene. They never imagined that Li Jiye's punch was so strong it could severely injure a Tauren with a single blow.

"Don't be too careless! The other Taurens have noticed us!"

Although astonished by Li Jiye's explosive strength, Alice only raised an eyebrow and took note of the other Tauren warriors nearby. She whispered something to her other two companions and then summoned an orange fireball in her palm.

With such a battle going on and the participation of not only the teachers but also the students of Polar Star Academy, the lonely frontier mercenary group seemed like they had taken a cardiac stimulant and were rushing forward, filled with adrenaline. The human army was now launching a counterattack on the Taurens.

At this time, Li Jiye summoned Shadow Wind Steps and sped toward the Tauren who had been knocked out by him. He clearly saw that the Tauren was only severely injured by his punch and not directly killed.

Storm Fist was only a C-level martial art, and its attack power wasn't very impressive. Even though his punch had been boosted by Divine Blessing, he didn't expect the damage to be so light on the Tauren warrior.

Sure enough, when he turned its body over to attack the Tauren, it glared at him while vomiting blood. "Human… Die!"

Despite suffering Li Jiye's powerful blow, the Tauren warrior in front of him still had strength and was struggling to stand up from the ground.

But Li Jiye wasn't about to give it a chance.

"Stay down!"

With dark blue light flashing on his legs, Li Jiye did a flying roundhouse kick accompanied by the howling wind generated from Godspeed Steps. The Tauren could only gurgle before dying.

Now that the Tauren's neck had been broken by Li Jiye, the mercenary immediately let out a sigh of relief. He knocked the hilt of his one-handed sword against the left side of his chest twice, seemingly paying tribute to Li Jiye.

"This is a healing potion. I could tell that your wrist was injured from the previous confrontation. There's a tough battle ahead of us. You have to recover soon," Li Jiye said.

After taking out a primary healing potion from his storage bag and handing it to the mercenary, Li Jiye once again ran into another place of battle on the battlefield.

The battlefield was in chaos at this time. After all, many students of Polar Star Academy had never personally experienced such life-and-death struggles. Against a Tauren of the same level or even on a lower level, they were lacking actual combat experience by comparison. Thus, the students were overwhelmed and suffered heavy losses in the battle.

Under Daphne's special arrangements, Li Jiye's area didn't have a Tauren of too high a level. Li Jiye now swept across the battlefield like a gust of wind and rain, due to him having gone through the ordeals of Demonic Beast Mountain Range and taken enough of the body-building potions that could be taken to build up to his current state.

His physical strength at this time was rare among Tier 2 martial artists. Furthermore, the greater the physical strength, the greater the power of Godspeed Steps. Thus, few Taurens on the battlefield at the moment were worthy opponents.

Ten minutes later, almost all the hostile Tauren warriors in their zone had been eliminated.

Just as Alice filled her palm with an orange-red fireball, at almost the same time, the last Tauren warrior facing Daphne's team raised his sword and rushed towards them.

"Burn!"

The orange-red fireball had condensed into a short crimson knife, and she threw it directly into the center of the Tauren's eyebrows. It stumbled forward and staggered a few steps before falling over and dying.