Chapter 163: The Final Trial of the Royal Family of Goa (3)
"The invaders are in that direction!" A large number of kingdom soldiers were rushing towards Esdeath.
"I'll infiltrate the palace first," Scáthach said to Perona. "Take me to the king of this country."
"Hey, master!" Perona also started calling Scáthach by the nickname Eric used for her.
Then, Scáthach 's figure vanished before everyone's eyes, and Perona's spirit form also dove into the ground.
Luffy, surprised, said, "They disappeared!"
At that moment, Akemi spoke to a ghost Perona had split off: "Take me around the enemies and head to the homes of the nobles."
"OK."
Akemi turned back and told Esdeath, "Look after them both," before quickly disappearing from their sight.
Esdeath, trying to conceal her own nervousness, said, "Esdeath, those soldiers are almost here, what are you planning to do?"
"As long as we take care of the incoming kingdom soldiers, everything else will be resolved," Esdeath replied.
"!" Ace immediately lost his composure, shouting, "Don't joke around! Do you have any idea how many people are in this country's army?!"
"Only a few thousand, I think."
Ace and Luffy: "Only a few thousand?!"
Ace lowered his head, anxiously thinking about a plan, 'I've been too careless, I actually agreed to help this "maniac" take on the entire army of the kingdom.'
He looked behind, 'The escape route's been cut off, looks like we'll have to hide in a noble's house with Luffy.'
"Oh, right," Esdeath suddenly snapped her fingers as if remembering something. "Eric seems to really like you two, I have to protect you both."
"Ice Wall!"
Ace and Luffy's location was surrounded by five ice walls, trapping them tightly inside.
Ace: "Hey! What are you doing?"
"Stay here and watch, it'll be fine soon," Esdeath turned and walked toward the front, where large numbers of soldiers in gray uniforms from the kingdom could be seen running toward them.
Ace gripped a steel rod and struck the ice wall.
"Bang!"
The same powerful rebound nearly made Ace lose grip of the rod.
"So hard!" Ace exclaimed.
"Watch this, Gum-Gum Fist."
"Boom!"
Luffy blew on his fist hard. "Ouch, that hurts!"
Ace sat down on the ground helplessly. "Given the hardness of this ice, we can't break it. We can only hope this guy can handle the kingdom army alone."
'But there are tens of thousands of soldiers in the kingdom army. Can she really handle them all on her own?!'
Ace gritted his teeth. If Esdeath lost or was killed, they would be caught by the incoming kingdom soldiers, and who knew what awaited them after that. He didn't want to think about it anymore.
"Raise your hands! Don't move!" The kingdom soldiers stood about ten meters away from Esdeath.
"Are all your people here?"
A soldier, confused, replied, "What?"
"I'm asking, is the entire kingdom army here?"
"Impossible, to capture a few invaders, how could we send everyone..."
At that moment, one of the officers in the kingdom army finally remembered who this woman was who looked familiar.
She was the "Ice Queen" Esdeath, who had tortured the world noble, the Celestial Dragon, Char Marco Saint, who had come to their country for an inspection last year!
The officer immediately shouted, "Shoot! Fire at her!"
At the officer's command, the soldiers opened fire, a continuous barrage of gunshots like a torrential downpour. The black bullets collided with the ice wall, causing chunks of ice to shatter.
A burst of white mist erupted from the spot where Esdeath stood, and in the low visibility of the blizzard, the enemies lost sight of Esdeath.
"Stop! Stop!"
The gunfire gradually ceased, and many of the soldiers, who had been tense, let out a long sigh.
"Such dense bullet fire, no one could survive that."
"Hahaha, her body must be torn apart! What a waste of such a beautiful woman."
"Heh." A cold snort echoed from the ice mist, a sound so chilling it froze the soldiers' hearts and made their bodies shudder.
It was impossible to tell whether they were trembling from the cold or from the fear of a more terrifying monster closing in on them.
"Fire…!"
Before the officer could finish his command, a thick ice spike, about four or five centimeters in diameter, pierced through his mouth and out the back of his head.
The beautiful crystal-clear ice tip was stained with a striking red.
In the ice mist, more shadows, the size of cannonballs, appeared, "White Ice Shards!"
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"
The sound of these objects cutting through the air reached Ace and Luffy's ears, and they couldn't help but be relieved. Esdeath hadn't died.
Ace: "I can't believe it. That dense attack didn't kill her?"
Luffy: "Ace, didn't you used to call Esdeath 'Lady Esdeath'? Why are you calling her 'that guy' now?"
"Of course, it's because she's the one who locked us up! If she dies, we won't have any way out!"
Ace gritted his teeth and glared forward. Due to the low visibility from the snowstorm, he couldn't see anything clearly. His Observation Haki was also hindered by his emotions, making it impossible to use properly. Now it was as if he was blind. The only thing he could be sure of was that Esdeath was still alive.
The sounds of screams and sporadic gunshots gradually subsided, and silence returned, only the large snowflakes still falling.
"Tap, tap."
The sound of high heels clicking against the ground grew louder, clearly approaching. Ace and Luffy's hearts tightened, and what felt like a long time passed in just ten seconds.
"They're all taken care of." Esdeath's cold voice finally made them relax. Luffy even collapsed to the ground.
The ice walls that had trapped them began to change under Esdeath's control, creating a hole so they could exit.
"Lady Esdeath," Ace regained his manners. "Luffy and I won't cause any trouble. Please don't lock us up again."
Luffy: "But Ace, you just called her 'that guy'... uh."
Ace slapped his hand over Luffy's mouth.
"Is that so?" Esdeath said indifferently. "If you get hurt or die, it has nothing to do with me. Can I understand it like that?"
Ace nodded; he didn't want to feel the sensation of being locked up again.
"Stay close," Esdeath said, walking ahead without looking back.
"Luffy, stay close to me."
"Okay."
As Ace and Luffy followed Esdeath, they didn't realize what had just happened until they had walked over thirty meters.
The ground and walls were covered in dense bullet holes, and as they walked further, the shattered ice blocks became more frequent.
"Ugh!"
The two children, Ace and Luffy, suddenly saw the hellish scene before them, and the acid rose in their stomachs. One couldn't help it and vomited all the food they had eaten earlier.
The ground had turned red with blood, countless severed limbs and legs scattered across the path, some soldiers were bisected at the waist, their intestines spilling out onto the ground.
Countless bodies had ice spikes protruding from them, the red blood mixed with the white ice, creating a shocking sight in the eyes of the two boys.
Ace whispered, "Ice Death?"
(END CHAPTER)
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