Rabbit Smells So Good

Damn it!

In the stream, the groggy Wang Wu choked down several more huge mouthfuls of water.

He felt awful, but this time he had learned his lesson. The moment the dizziness and daze eased slightly, he immediately rolled downward through the water, trying to pull away from his opponent. Surely that would give him a chance to attack.

Yet in the very next second, just as Wang Wu completed his roll and ended up belly-up—

He saw in horror that the evil Rabbit Bandit had gathered strength and leaped again, spun three hundred and sixty degrees in midair, then smashed down onto his stomach with a Thousand-Weight Drop kick. That bastard even used the recoil to spring back to shore, giving him no chance whatsoever to engage.

At that instant, Wang Wu nearly thought his stomach had been kicked apart and his organs blasted to pieces. The agonizing pain curled him into a shrimp, and he even had the illusion that he had lost control of his bowels.

It had dealt -100 damage to him!

It had nearly killed him outright. Luckily, the Health Points restored by level 6 Self-Healing had already become quite substantial.

But the good news was that he had not fallen into a stunned state this time. So despite hurting so badly he wished he were dead, he still took the opportunity to roll downward again, seemingly trying to widen the distance as he struggled desperately.

As expected, he had barely finished that roll when the shameless Rabbit Bandit sprang up again like lightning and stomped heavily toward his head!

But this time was different.

Because the instant Wang Wu finished rolling, regardless of whether that shameless rabbit attacked or not, he immediately released a bit of Ice Spirit Energy into the stream below.

At the same time, he slammed his head into the water like he was kowtowing.

A kowtow first, out of respect!

In an instant, cold spread out and the stream froze. Even Wang Wu's own body was wrapped in thick ice.

He had frozen himself.

Because he simply had no chance to launch a face-to-face attack against that nimble, cunning, shameless rabbit.

He did not even have a chance to dodge.

But this moment was different.

While the thick solid ice bound Wang Wu in place, it also covered him in a heavy suit of ice armor.

And the rabbit had already sprung into the air, flipped midair, and came crashing down with a heavy stomp. It had no time to change course at all.

Though that heavy stomp struck Wang Wu squarely on the head, this time the thick ice instantly shattered. Even the frozen stream cracked apart, its water splashing everywhere with a loud crash.

It worked!

That thick ice armor had absorbed at least sixty percent of the damage for Wang Wu, while also sparing him the fate of being stunned and controlled.

Otherwise, even level 6 Self-Healing would not have been able to save his life!

And he finally had the chance to launch his first counterattack!

"Ice Seal!"

Wang Wu roared inwardly. At the same time, a full five points of Ice Spirit Energy continuously slammed downward into the stream.

That was right. Even now, he still had no chance to turn around and strike the Rabbit Bandit head-on with Ice Spirit Energy. But the nature of Ice Spirit Energy, together with the battlefield they were currently on, had already determined the outcome.

The current was abundant enough to be stirred by Ice Spirit Energy, creating a wider freezing effect.

Wang Wu was betting that the Rabbit Bandit's Ice Resistance was not as high as his.

He could only gamble like this. He had no other choice.

There was another reason as well. He knew rabbits were experts at digging burrows. When winter arrived, they would, like rats, dig incredibly deep and incredibly hidden holes, stockpile enough food, and safely weather the cold season.

That meant that even if the Rabbit Bandit possessed some Ice Resistance, it definitely could not compare to Wang Wu's.

Then suffer the damage of cold burns.

"Whoosh!"

White mist suddenly erupted from the stream first, like liquid ammonia being sprayed out.

Right afterward, the air within a radius of ten meters froze and remained sealed.

Wang Wu himself was the first to become an ice sculpture, and the Rabbit Bandit did not escape either. Though the freezing effect it suffered had actually been weakened by one layer, the terrifying low temperatures now blanketed the entire ten-meter radius—above and below, left and right, leaving no corner untouched.

So the key was not whether the Rabbit Bandit had been sealed in ice, but the invasion of the cold.

At first, the Rabbit Bandit had merely been trapped by ice and temporarily lost its ability to move. It could still blink frantically inside the ice, trying to break free.

It truly could have done it, because its strength was simply too great.

Wang Wu's 12 points of Strength were nothing in front of it. A mere chain of heavy kicks could control Wang Wu to death from every angle.

This was not just a matter of technique. It also required surging, roiling, formidable power to support it!

This Rabbit Bandit was not weak in the slightest.

Wang Wu figured this thing had over 20 points of Strength—perhaps even as much as 25.

But Wang Wu had still won the gamble.

This Rabbit Bandit possessed explosive power, impressive attack techniques, and could be called the king of close combat. It might have had Ice Resistance, but it was far from enough.

When Wang Wu used 5 points of Ice Spirit Energy to seal the stream in ice, it could still endure it. The cold burn effect it suffered then was roughly comparable to what Wang Wu had suffered when the White-Haired Rats froze him last year.

Given a few seconds, it could even have broken free by force!

But now, as Wang Wu began releasing Ice Spirit Energy without regard for the cost, the cold burn effect began soaring madly in an extremely short time.

It was like ice formed at minus ten degrees and ice formed at minus thirty degrees. They looked the same, yet what changed was the surrounding environment.

Once Wang Wu released 20 points of Ice Spirit Energy in one breath, the temperature inside that ice had in fact plunged below minus sixty or seventy degrees.

Especially with the outer ice serving as restraints, trapping a vast amount of Ice Spirit Energy within and preventing it from leaking away, it naturally struck first at the Rabbit Bandit, which still had body heat.

So at this point, it was no longer a simple cold burn effect, but a deep invasion of cold.

Just like the nightmare-level experience Wang Wu had suffered last winter.

This was something that White-Haired Rat last year could never have achieved.

It might have made a great show of things, using talismans and ice spikes, but all the Ice Spirit Energy in its body combined would not have exceeded 15 points.

That could be calculated roughly.

What made that White-Haired Rat stronger than Wang Wu was its more exquisite control over Ice Spirit Energy.

But that also meant it had practiced extensively in ordinary times, consuming too much of the Ice Spirit Energy it had stored up during winter.

Though it sounded a little absurd—could superior skill actually lose to someone half-baked?

But this was precisely the key: quantitative change triggering qualitative change!

Wang Wu had released 26 points of Ice Spirit Energy in one go.

In truth, when 15 points of Ice Spirit Energy had been released, that rabbit was still lively and kicking, with three parts mockery and two parts teasing in its eyes.

After 20 points of Ice Spirit Energy were released, it merely became somewhat serious.

But once the total amount of Ice Spirit Energy broke through 25 points, its Ice Resistance defenses were finally breached!

Even though Wang Wu released only one additional point of Ice Spirit Energy afterward, it became the final straw that broke the camel's back!

It was truly unreasonable. Just like what Wang Wu had encountered last winter: one moment, victory was in his grasp; the next, everything collapsed!

The Rabbit Bandit's expression suddenly twisted. That was the intense pain brought by cold invading its flesh, blood, bones, and marrow.

No one could endure that!

In just one second, the muscles and blood vessels inside its body froze stiff.

By the third second, its internal organs had frozen as well.

By the eighth second, the cold had thoroughly invaded its heart and brain, and it was flash-frozen alive.

After sensing this—

Wang Wu began rapidly retrieving his Ice Spirit Energy.

This was probably one of the advantages of controlling Ice Spirit Energy. Ice Spirit Energy condensed into ice, so it dispersed slowly. As long as the ice had not melted, it was easy to retrieve.

Another three seconds passed, and Wang Wu swiftly recovered 21 points of Ice Spirit Energy. He could not quickly retrieve the rest.

And this also more or less caused the thick layer of ice over the stream to begin melting and cracking apart. The ice sealing both him and the Rabbit Bandit shattered completely as well.

"Bang!"

The Rabbit Bandit finally fell into the stream. A layer of ice still covered its entire body, leaving it utterly unable to move. Its frost-covered eyes, which could not close, had turned a strange dark blue.

But Wang Wu was not at ease. He pounced on it and slashed it several times with his claws, tearing open its chest and enjoying a serving of premium ice cream first.

Whether it had been completely dead before or not, it was truly dead through and through this time.

It did not even have time to leave behind any last words.

But damn, it smelled good!