Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Mira looked around her only to find an almost identical-looking arena, only this one was slightly bigger and had a few more purplish-black veins on the ground.

"Sigh… What is this? Can't whatever's in charge come up with something a bit more… original? At least give me new enemies to fight! Or maybe you could seal my strength and make me fight beasts that would normally be impossible for a mortal to defeat! But this… This is just annoying!"

Believe it or not, Mira really didn't want to fight another one of those Bone Chimeras. She gains pretty much nothing out of fighting them except for tiring herself out. They are big, stupid, relatively slow for their size, and every move of theirs is telegraphed. Basically, as long as she's strong enough to break their bones then fighting them isn't a problem.

However, if it ever gets to a point where she can't easily break its bones, or worse, she can't break its bones then it merely becomes a game of cat and mouse.

Unfortunately, complaining won't get her anywhere nor will trying to forfeit in order to leave this place. It's kill or be killed. That's the way it's going to be until she reaches the end of this.

It didn't take more than a few seconds for a giant bone monster almost identical to the previous one to leap into the arena. It was slightly bigger and the bones were slightly denser but that's it.

After a few attacks, Mira gauged that the Bone Chimera was around 10% stronger this time around, but that didn't mean it was more difficult to beat. The thing was still an idiot with no combat sense. However, it did take Mira a bit longer to defeat it as she was trying to conserve as much energy as possible.

She has this nagging feeling that this shit isn't going to end anytime soon… Much to her dismay.

Oh, how right she was.

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7 Days Later

Mira fell to the ground gasping for air as sweat and blood covered her entire body. She's been fighting nonstop for the past 7 days and Mira can confidently say that this was definitely one of the most annoying 7 days she's ever experienced.

She can only hope that the Bone Chimera she defeated was the last one until she moves on to whatever torture this place has come up with next.

The Bone Chimera that she just defeated was her 50th Bone Chimera and although that one might've been the shortest battle, it was by far the worst.

She had shattered bones, ruptured internal organs, and many torn muscles. Honestly, she should be dead right now. She's not only lost too much blood but most of her internal organs have decided to switch places.

However, it seems she's not allowed to die unless it's from one of those monsters. Although she knew that her life and death were no longer under her control the moment she entered this place, she didn't think it was to this extent. She's literally alive with barely any blood left in her body and most of her internal organs aren't working. Even her heart is beating weirdly, almost like it's being forced to beat by an outside force.

After getting to this point, Mira knew she had no strength left in her body. No, that would be overestimating herself. Right now, she can't move at all. In fact, even if she wanted to move, she wouldn't be able to. Her limbs have basically turned into mush at this point to where even wiggling a finger or a toe is simply impossible.

She placed all of her bets on winning that last battle in hopes that one will be the final Bone Chimera.

As she was starting to lose consciousness, let's go back to the second Bone Chimera battle.

That fight was pretty much the same as the first except she took a bit more time to conserve her energy.

It only took her a few hours to defeat it with minimal effort, but things kept getting worse from there.

Every subsequent battle after that had the Bone Chimera getting around 10-20% stronger than the previous fight so by the time she reached the 10th fight, the Bone Chimera was ridiculously strong. Its bones were basically made out of metal at that point and the fight lasted for almost 12 hours since just breaking a single bone took Mira several swings.

Mira thought that fight would be the last, but before she knew it, she was transported to a similar arena except this time she had to fight two Bone Chimeras. The only caveat was each Bone Chimera had the strength of half a single Chimera from the 1st round. Honestly, they weren't that strong, but Mira had to pay a bit more attention to her surroundings since even if they were only at 50% strength, each punch could still deal some major damage to her.

Luckily, Mira's battle sense is amazing so dealing with these Bone Chimera wasn't too difficult. In fact, it was easier than the first 10 rounds because they only had half the strength.

So she blew through rounds 11-20, but things only got more difficult from then on.

Round 21 was exactly the same as Round 11 except one of her senses was blocked, her sense of touch.

That wasn't so bad, but it was still extremely annoying since she wasn't able to gauge her power accurately nor was she able to gauge how much she was straining her body. However, Mira has swung her scythe too many times for something this trivial to do much to her. Sure, sometimes she might've used a bit too much strength or a bit too little, but the results were marginal.

What Mira was dreading were the next rounds. Round 22 took away her sense of taste which didn't obstruct her at all.

Round 23 took away her hearing.

Round 24 took away her sense of smell.

And Round 25 completely closed off all of her senses, leaving her with only her intuition.

Luckily, the Bone Chimera's didn't get much stronger than before so she can take a hit or two and be… okay. Well, okay, as in, only a few fractured bones and maybe some damage to her internal organs.

Mira was a bit worried at this point, but it wasn't too bad since her Battle Sense is amazing. She can feel danger from kilometers away, much less when things are trying to beat her up.

However, she definitely fought more like a brute since she wasn't sure how strong the Bone Chimeras were nor could she really tell how much strength she had to put into each swing in order to break its bones.

This went on until Round 30 as the Bone Chimeras became progressively stronger. Mira also got hit 4 times and 3 of those were in Round 30. So she ended up with a few broken bones and damaged organs.

Once she was teleported to Round 31, Mira regained her senses and noticed that her body was extremely sore and worn out due to using too much strength with every swing of her scythe.

To make matters worse, she noticed that some of her strength was sealed. Not all of it, but a good chunk of it.

When a Bone Chimera showed up, Mira knew that the strength of this Bone Chimera was just below the limit of what someone of her strength could face.

Needless to say, the battle wasn't actually that difficult for Mira and was only a bit annoying.

But Mira didn't say that out loud. She was sure that her strength would keep getting lowered as her enemy's strength was rising.

That's exactly what happened except the only part she got wrong was that her enemy's strength wasn't necessarily rising, maybe only by a percent or two. It was her strength being lowered that was the real problem as she ended up facing enemies that were way out of her league for someone of her strength.

She ended up taking several beatings as more bones started breaking in her body, cuts and gashes were taking up more of her skin than actual skin, and her blood was no longer properly circulating. However, as long as her brain and heart remained intact, she still lived.

Honestly, it was creepy. She was constantly in a state of neither life nor death. Mira hated this feeling. If she's going to die then she'd rather just die. Being in a state where the state of her body doesn't matter and only her heart and brain matter? What kind of fucked up concept is that? Isn't this just another form of torture? Can it even be called a test at this point?

The first 20 Rounds could've been called a test. The rest? No, that's just torture in the form of battles.

However, that wasn't the end of it. At Round 41, Mira's body had the strength of a mortal and not a very strong one either. She couldn't even lift up her scythe as it was too heavy.

Luckily, this place has some form of conscience as the Bone Chimera she faced only had the strength of someone at Stage 1 Qi Condensation Realm. Also, the arena was tiny so she didn't actually need to break that many bones in order to defeat it, but still. A mortal killing someone in the Qi Condensation Realm is normally almost impossible.

It's not impossible as there are ways to do it, but it's pretty much certain death for those who are too stupid to make use of all their advantages.

For example, the Bone Chimera she's up against on Round 41 had a core in its body and if she destroyed said core then she wins the round.

That was Mira's saving grace. If these Bone Chimeras didn't have a core, then there would be absolutely no way she could kill one. She was just a normal girl at this point and her strength was limited. Just breaking a normal person's bones would be hard enough, much less a monster who has the strength of someone in the Qi Condensation Realm.

These battles were incredibly short as they were essentially determined by who landed the first blow. If Mira got hit, she was as good as dead. If Mira was able to land a hit on the Bone Chimera's core, then she'd win. If she hit anything other than the core, she was as good as dead. At the very least, she'd be severely injured just by the recoil of hitting its bones with her fist.

Mira kept progressing through these stages relatively quickly with only 'minor injuries'. Well, they weren't exactly minor since every time she hit the core, bones in her hand and arms would break.

She had also taken a few 'light' hits from these Bone Chimera throughout the stages, causing her body to be riddled with severe injuries. However, Mira always protected her brain and heart.

Over the rounds, the Bone Chimera also went up a Stage in strength so even a tap from these things was more than enough to shatter a few of her bones.

When Mira was on Round 49, she went in for the core, but the Bone Chimera was able to roar and let out a mighty punch right before she landed the hit. Its punch didn't actually land, but just the roar and the shockwaves were enough to break almost every bone in her body. Leaving her in a state of, well, what should be death.

However, Mira knew that the next battle, Round 50, would be nearly impossible. No amount of strategizing would work as she assumed that the beast would have the strength of someone in the Foundation Realm. Even if the Bone Chimera couldn't think or see anything and just ran around in circles, Mira still wouldn't be able to do anything without getting hurt or dying.

So what did Mira do when the 50th Round started?

That's right! She charged right at the Bone Chimera! She was going to sacrifice the rest of her body in order to get a hit on the core!

She knew that she wouldn't be able to fight anymore after this, but that didn't matter! This was the 50th Round! This place has already tortured her enough with all this nonsense! How many more rounds can it come up with to test her?! Mira can't think of anything! So she decided to put all of her eggs in one basket in hopes that this was the final round!

And just like she assumed, most of her body was flattened as she rammed into the Bone Chimera, however, she was able to get a solid hit on the core right before she almost died.

The Bone Chimera soon disappeared and Mira's body fell to the ground, essentially on her last breath.

She tried protecting her heart as best as she could, but it still took damage. It didn't take a genius to know that she was dying… and fast. She might be able to live for another 10 seconds or so.

Time seemed to slow down a bit for Mira as she started to think that she might actually die. Even if there isn't a next Round, she barely has any time left to live.

The only thing she could do at this point is either wait until she died or wait until she was teleported and hope that this place still intends to torture her.

Honestly, neither sounds all that good. If this was one of her past lives, Mira might've actually opted for the former. Yes, dying sucks but she'll get a new body and she also won't have to go through this shit anymore.

However, she didn't want to die in this lifetime. She has her favorite weapon, a solid cultivation foundation, a unique Physique, a Golden Empyrean Winged Wolf as her Companion Beast, a Frost-Fire Phoenix contracted to her, and decent friends.

Not only that but she's also made a few relatively strong friends along the way. Dying in this life would be such a waste. She'd be throwing away all of these once-in-a-lifetime opportunities! Actually, for Mira, these might be things she might not even receive after multiple lifetimes. Rhydian and Elenei are pretty much one of a kind. Her unique Physique was formed due to certain circumstances that are almost impossible to replicate.

She'll also lose all of her loot! Impossible!

Too bad that her life or death is not up to her at this point and even if it was, there's nothing she can do about it.

Those 10 seconds went by extremely slowly until she felt her consciousness slipping. Regret slowly started to seep in but it was already too late.

Her consciousness faded and everything went black…