A Demon's Journey

In Training Ground 2, Ralph was trying to stay balanced on the Icy Floor while he fought against the Ice Trolls.

Ralph's main skills were to use his Flame Element together with his close combat skills and use his superior physique to reign supremacy over his opponents.

However, he realized that he couldn't use his speed or his physique to fight against these Ice Trolls.

The whole floor was frozen with Ice. He couldn't even stand properly, let alone launch an attack at the Ice Trolls.

The Ice Trolls continued to try and catch Ralph. Once they caught him, they would launch multiple Ice Shards or other kinds of Ice Skills at him.

Ralph had already used his beast-transformation mode and found that it wasn't much help to him.

He couldn't even use it to avoid the Ice Trolls' blows, let alone strike them. Moreover, Ardor consumption was extremely high.

As a result, far from being beneficial, the Beast Transformation had more drawbacks.

Ralph lacked Noah's Enlightened Sword Heart, which allowed him to keep his cool and to actively think of methods to counterattack.

He was extremely anxious and couldn't calm his raging heart. All he could focus on was to not get hit by the attacks.

Ralph was jumping from one location to another. However, soon, he found that his leg had actually been trapped by the ice.

It seemed as if the Ice Trolls were ready for Ralph to land on the ice and had purposely weakened the ice in that area so that the ground would break and Ralph's feet would fall in the water underneath the ice.

Ralph felt his body growing colder as his legs contacted the icy cold water.

He used his arms to apply the force on the ice to get his body out. However, the ice he was applying force broke as well.

Soon, his body began to submerge in water as he struggled in water to get out.

The Ice Trolls soon approached his location and immediately sealed his ability to move by lowering the temperature in water and turning it back to ice.

Ralph felt his body temperature decreasing at a quick rate. He was getting more anxious. He couldn't even turn his head.

What should he do? How could he complete this mission if he couldn't even get out of this ice?

Ironically, this cold ice that had fixed him to a spot was exactly what he needed to cool off.

It gave him the time to actually stop and think. All this while, his body was on the move while his mind remained fixated on trying to dodge or run.

But now, his body was fixed while his mind was running at full force to find a way to free himself.

And soon, Ralph found the answer.

Just when the Ice Trolls were very close to him, Ralph's body began to increase in size.

This was his Beast Transformation Skill along with a minor shapeshifting technique.

He was attempting to grow in size to burst through the ice that had trapped him.

The ice began to fracture slowly but steadily.

"X Slash."

Ralph used this technique and threw it out towards two Ice Trolls that were coming from the north direction.

The two Ice Trolls saw an X-shaped pure Ardor attack that charged towards them.

Ahead of the Ice Trolls, a robust Ice Wall was quickly formed, easily dispersing the X Slash.

However, the X-Slash wasn't Ralph's main attack. When the Ice wall was raised, he used another skill, "Blazing Claws."

With that, he immediately charged over and broke the Ice Wall and slashed the Ice Trolls behind it.

Once the two Ice Trolls ahead of him were destroyed, he quickly turned around to focus on the other ones.

However, he found out that he was showered with a lot of Sharp Icicles.

Ralph muttered, "Blazing Arms."

Soon, both of his arms erupted in flames, and he made a hasty cross with his arms in front of his chest to block the approaching Icicles.

Ralph felt the Icicles strike his arms and winced in pain.

He could feel that his flames were somewhat weaker because of the surrounding so it was harder for him to block his enemies' attacks.

~~

In Training Ground 3, Sargan was fighting against some gnomes.

He had already tried out his petrification ability and found that it had no effect on those gnomes.

It seemed that Azaroth had already planned for his eye powers while designing this array. Unlike Ralph though, Sargan remained calm.

He knew that the very ground he stood on was perhaps his enemy. It could suddenly attack him at the worst possible moment.

He gazed at the gnomes formation and noticed that they were in 6-4 formation. Basically, 6 gnomes were behind the 4 gnomes.

Clearly, the 4 gnomes ahead were to intercept any attack he released and once these 4 gnomes dealt with that attack, the 6 gnomes would each unleash an attack at him.

There was no point in trying to attack them from the sides. The ones in the center kept their directions covered.

Sargan understood that taking them out with a cheap trick was unlikely. Azaroth had clearly designed them with basic intelligence.

He created a small lightning ball in his hand and threw them on the ground.

Dust cloud suddenly rose up and covered up.

Some might consider this move foolish. Because even if Sargan had hidden from the gnomes' eyes, the gnomes should still be able to find him with their affinity to earth.

However, the gnomes sensed nothing from Sargan's spot. They increased their search radius yet they found nothing.

Soon, a couple more lightning balls were shot towards them. The gnomes reacted quickly to the attack and raised an Earth wall to block it.

As the Lightning ball crashed against the Earth Wall, it raised another dust cloud. This time the dust cloud very near to the gnomes.

A couple of lightning balls were shot near the gnomes but none of them struck them. However, the dust cloud was growing denser and soon it was no longer possible to see more than 10 meters with a naked eye.

Naturally, it wasn't a problem for the gnomes as they could sense each other using their affinity with Earth.

However, it had to be known that the gnomes could only sense the opponent if his feet were on the ground.

And the gnomes had still no idea about Sargan's location. This clearly meant he wasn't standing on the ground.

The dust cloud around the gnomes was rather dense and it was quite difficult to see through it.

At that moment, Sargan suddenly appeared in between them. Within a short time interval, he turned towards the 6 gnomes at the back and shot his 6 lightning balls at them at the same time.

He had decided to eliminate these 6 first.

The lightning balls were fast enough to eliminate his targets. Another reason was that the gnomes didn't sense Sargan's attack until it was too late. The timing and distance he chose to launch his attack were perfect.

But a second later, Sargan's feet touched the ground. As soon as that occurred, all the 4 gnomes ahead of him turned around to face him.

Sargan was sure they would be ready to face any attack he launched at them. However, he had no other choice than to attack them head-on. He was too close to them and if he remained here, they could attack him in any way as they pleased.

He quickly made his decision and his entire body released purple lightning sparks. Four of his fingers were completely enveloped with his purple lightning.

'Four Lightning Fingers!'

He immediately thrust out that arm with all his might.

However, before he had even thrust out his arm, four extremely sturdy-looking Earth Walls were raised.

Sargan felt his attack pierce those Earth Walls but the gnomes had somehow managed to dodge it.

A robust rock struck his body and threw him far away.

While he was flying, he was thinking about what had just happened.

'Those Earth Walls' purpose wasn't to block my attack but to deflect it. It slightly shifted the direction of my attack towards the ground. These gnomes are actually crafty.'

While Sargan landed on the ground, he noted that the 6 Gnomes he had destroyed had already been recreated.

They looked completely fresh and they soon raised their hands.

Sargan immediately rolled away from his sport and he was right to have done so at that moment. Because multiple Earth Spikes were raised at the spot he had fallen.

Sargan had no time to even check on those Earth Spikes as he immediately jumped as high as he could and caught the branch of a tree with one hand.

He began thinking of another way to attack those gnomes on the ground.

The gnomes this time weren't blinded by that dust cloud. They looked at Sargan and immediately hurled several rocks at him.

Sargan swiftly swung his body around and let go of his grip on the branch. He was soon perched upon a limb of another tree.

The gnomes shifted their targets but Sargan was also quick in climbing the tree.

Sargan quickly climbed to the summit of the tree. With such a massive gap between them, the gnomes couldn't assault him.

This was Sargan's original idea, but he observed how swiftly the gnomes gathered.

He had no intention of fighting them over their plans. It was preferable to counterattack with his own onslaught.

Sargan leaped from the top of the tree not long after. He clasped his hands together, bracing himself for the collision with the earth. His position was similar to that of a swimmer diving into a pool from a great height.

Except, he was going to crash against the hard ground.

Something similar to an aura construct formed around his body. It was thin in width but it possessed a lot of Sargan's Ardor.

"Asura Avatar."

"Flying Press."

As he neared the ground, Sargan's speed increased. The power of his attack also increased.

Once he crashed into the ground, he created something akin to a giant explosion that destroyed all the gnomes around him.

Sargan was delighted as he laid on the ground. There were multiple injuries on his body that occurred because of the fall. Currently, his Asura Avatar wasn't perfected.

If it had been flawless, he wouldn't have been hurt while falling from that height.

His delight was short-lived though. Because he saw several gnomes regenerating around him.

There was a sour look on his face as he thought 'Let me rest a little, damn you!'