Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Blood dripped out of the side of Mira's head as she lay on the ground, dazed. Her brain rattled inside her head after Ryuu's sword smashed into her face.

She wasn't severely injured, but the impact was enough for her mind to stop for a second and reset.

"Hmmm?" Mira mumbled, a hint of clarity shining in her eyes. Her state of mind was still muddled, but she was at least rational enough to understand that something was wrong.

"What… happened? Where… am I? Why is everything… red?" Mira muttered, trying to look around to understand what was going on, but before she could do anything, a mind-splitting headache hit her.

"Urgh!" She grasped her head with both hands as a torrent of raging emotions flooded her mind. She was starting to lose control again!

"Mira!!" Ryuu yelled out. He hurriedly put away his sword and ran to her side, seeing that she was regaining consciousness.

"Ry…uu?" Mira asked, trying to hold onto her last bit of sanity.

"That's right! You finally recognized me!" Ryuu bent down and put his hand on her shoulder, "Now, can you please explain to us what's going on so we can try to help?"

He wanted to help Mira with whatever she was going through, but unfortunately, he didn't know that touching her so 'intimately' would bring up past traumas. Her instincts took over once again as rage and hatred consumed her mind.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!*

Mira's fist slammed into Ryuu's chest, causing it to cave in as he shot into the distance, unprepared for that attack.

"...You dare touch me… you bastard?!" Mira growled; the last bit of rationality had left her mind entirely.

Gripping her scythe, she shot up from the ground and dashed at Ryuu, ignoring the wound on her head. With her immense vitality, the injury was already healing and would return to normal in another minute.

"I'll… fucking kill you!" Mira roared, hopping up in the air with her scythe raised above her head, then she descended onto Ryuu!

Ryuu felt immense danger approaching and rolled to the side.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*

Mira's scythe cut through the earth as if it was butter, creating a large crater in the ground.

Ryuu glanced over and noticed the deadly sheen of a black blade right next to his face. Cold sweat ran down his forehead as he realized he had almost died!

'This woman is fucking crazy!' Ryuu inwardly cursed. While he understood that Mira wasn't in the right state of mind, he didn't expect her to be so ruthless that she wouldn't hesitate to go for the neck.

'Why did I have to get myself into thi-' His thoughts were interrupted as he felt danger approaching from overhead once again. He circulated Qi through his body and disappeared from his position, only to reappear a few dozen meters away.

*BOOM!**BOOM!**BOOM!**BOOM!**BOOM!*

A flurry of punches rained down on where he just was as Mira's fists pulverized the ground into a fine powder. Unbeknownst to everyone other than Master Izaria, what Mira just did was the beginning of a new technique.

She didn't simply punch the ground where Ryuu was. No, each fist contained the power of several attacks. Meaning she might've attacked that one spot dozens of times with just a few punches.

"Dammit, Mira! Fine! Since you're deadset on killing me, don't blame me for being ruthless!" Ryuu shouted, frustrated. He raised his greatsword again, except this time, he wrapped it in thin golden thread, which was his [Sword Manifestation].

Pointing his greatsword at Mira, he thrust forward, launching a wave of sharp, golden threads at her.

Mira sensed an attack incoming and twirled her scythe, blocking most of the threads coming at her. A few made it through her defenses and effortlessly pierced her body, which was supposed to be tougher than any Earth-Grade metal.

Unconsciously, Mira focused on these threads, wanting to learn more about them. She felt that these threads would be a deciding factor of whether she won or not in the battle to come.

However, how could it be so easy to examine one's [Weapon Manifestation]?

The golden threads, which were really countless illusory tiny swords, threatened to pierce Mira's mind and rip it to shreds. But since she was technically unconscious right now, they didn't affect her.

"Hmmm?" On the other hand, Ryuu frowned. He sensed Mira trying to delve into the secrets of his [Sword Manifestation] and hurriedly retracted his golden threads from her body. Then, he sneered, "Hmph! You think you can gain insights into the [Manifestation] Realm by staring at my Sword Threads? You must truly be insane!"

Waving his greatsword, a torrent of golden Sword Threads flailed about wildly, slicing through everything they touched. Some of them would pierce Mira's body, but such injuries couldn't even make her flinch, much less bring her to her knees.

Mira acted like she didn't hear Ryuu. Seemingly understanding that her defenses meant nothing in front of his Sword Threads, she gave up on defending completely.

"RAAAAAHHH!" She released a thunderous battle cry and launched herself at Ryuu, not caring whether the Sword Threads pierced her body. She would regenerate most of the injuries in a few seconds, anyways.

Ryuu's expression changed as his Sword Threads threatened to rip her body to shreds and hurriedly commanded them to hold back. After all, he wasn't trying to kill Mira, just incapacitate her.

However, how could Mira not take advantage of this moment of weakness? Even if she wasn't conscious, her body's instincts, which she honed through countless battles, aren't something that the average person can contend with.

As soon as Mira entered within range of Ryuu, she swung her scythe at him, hoping to cut him in half.

Ryuu raised his greatsword and blocked the attack, but the impact was enough to make him step back. He then used this opportunity to counterattack, swinging the broadside of his sword at her hips again.

However, Mira was ready for it this time and used her scythe to block it, but something was different this time.

He was using his Sword Threads now!

Coming out of his greatsword, they wrapped themselves around Mira's scythe, holding it in place. Once he accomplished that, he dulled his Sword Threads enough to where they wouldn't dig into Mira's skin and began tying the rest of Mira's body in them.

"...I see you still… have a habit of tying people up… you scum!" Mira's choppy yet rageful voice resounded, causing Ryuu to freeze up for a second.

He didn't know why but through all that anger, he could sense resentment, pain, hatred, and desperation in Mira's voice. Yet, all of it seemed to be directed at this unknown man that she had conjured up in her mind.

However, the emotions he was feeling through her couldn't be faked. So, either Mira truly believed that some imaginary dude caused her so much grief and pain, or it was all real, and she was reliving a memory that her subconscious projected onto him.

'What… What happened to her?' He wondered, a little affected by her outpour of emotions, but he quickly shook his head and put that question aside, 'Now's not the time to be thinking about this. I can ask Mira what's going on after I incapacitate her!'

Understanding that something was going terribly wrong, Mira let go of her scythe and began raining down punches on Ryuu.

However, his Sword Threads had already latched onto her body, diminishing the strength behind each attack. It was only a matter of time before it reached a point where she could no longer move.

Of course, with Mira's strength now, if she wanted to remove the Sword Threads without ripping her body apart, she could, but since she wasn't in the right state of mind right now, finding the proper method was implausible.

Still, he didn't want to take her blows head-on, so he kept a Qi Barrier active to prevent any unwanted injuries.

Mira kept flailing about for another few minutes until Ryuu's Sword Threads wrapped her body in a tight golden cocoon, leaving her unable to move.

Then, with a few quick, hard chops to the back of the neck, he finally managed to knock her unconscious!

"Haaaa…." Ryuu dropped to the ground and breathed a sigh of relief. A trickle of blood dripped down the side of his lips, causing him to groan in pain.

"It seems she landed a few pretty good hits on you, Little Ryuu." Master Izaria descended from the air and stood next to her disciple.

Ryuu nodded, exhausted. He tried to put up a strong front while battling Mira, but the truth is she had done significant damage to him. He could feel numerous broken bones and a few internal injuries. Nothing life-threatening, but without someone or something to heal him, it'd take him a few weeks to return to peak condition.

He couldn't believe it took this much effort to subdue Mira, even when she couldn't form rational thoughts!

'If she had been in her right state of mind…' Ryuu shivered at the thought. While he doubted he'd lose or die, dealing any significant damage to Mira would be equally as hard. If anything, he'd be the one who'd end up with more injuries and would be forced to flee unless he could kill her in a single move.

Popping in a few healing pills, Ryuu shut his eyes and focused on recovery.

'Hopefully, she's not crazy when she wakes up.'