After agreeing on their plan, the two walked back the way they had come.
The passage was dark. Lin En held onto the rock wall with one hand and held onto Ronava's wrist with the other, walking very slowly. Every now and then, he would stop to listen for any sounds and see if the Ice Empress had caught up.
After walking for a long time, the smell in the air became increasingly pungent, a mixture of gunpowder smoke, burnt wood, and a pungent sulfurous odor—remnants of a previous explosive explosion.
The passage ahead was half blocked by rubble, and a piece of the rock above had collapsed, but there was a narrow gap that was just wide enough for a person to pass through.
Lin En squeezed past the landslide area, and the passage became wider again, with fragments of wooden crates and torn oil paper mixed in with the rubble on the ground.
The previous explosion site, but nobody was there!
Lin En crouched down and cautiously looked around, then looked up at the passageway before and after him. It was empty; there wasn't a soul in sight.
He frowned; this wasn't normal.
The Tsaritsa sent pursuers in, and the footprints showed that they circled around and then withdrew. But a retreat always requires a backup plan. The teleportation array was unguarded, and the explosion site was also unguarded. It was all too clean.
"It's too quiet."
Ronava also stopped, holding her spear horizontally in front of her, her golden eyes sweeping across the rock walls on both sides of the passage.
Before he could finish speaking, a beam of icy blue light shot out from a crevice in the rock wall on the side, moving at incredible speed, heading straight for Lin En's face.
Ronava reacted even faster, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him to the side. The ice spike grazed Lin En's ear, flew past, and embedded itself in the rock wall behind him, exploding into a shower of ice flowers and freezing half the wall solid.
"Long time no see, Your Ruler of Death."
The Tsaritsa's voice came from the shadows, unhurried, as if she were greeting an old acquaintance.
She emerged from the shadows around the corner of the passage, her long white hair cascading down to her waist, the chill emanating from her freezing the surrounding pebbles with a layer of white frost.
The Jester followed half a step behind her, his chest wrapped in bandages, his face somewhat pale.
" Anastasia!"
Ronava held her spear horizontally in front of her, pointing it at her opponent, with black energy flowing through the spear.
What exactly do you want to do?
"After reassessment, Snezhnaya believes there is a risk of you resurfacing."
The Jester spoke, his voice a little hoarse than before.
" Arlecchino senses the presence of the Ruler of Death emanating from you. Though she doesn't know why she has regained her power, anything that poses a danger to Snezhnaya must be eliminated."
Lin En hadn't expected that some of the Authority of Death he used during his fight with Arlecchino would be detected.
"A resurgence?"
Ronava sneered.
"Are all you know how to do is resort to despicable tactics?"
"We knew you'd realize it, we just wanted to test your recovery."
"The Tsaritsa said calmly."
Lin En, who was listening nearby, was getting angry. She thought the commotion was like an experiment.
"However, you have another option."
The Tsaritsa glanced at the Jester, then turned back.
"I believe Zhongli has already told you about cooperation. I can provide resources and intelligence, and I can also take care of the aftermath."
You should be a wise person.
She added a sentence.
Ronava looked at her, remained silent for two seconds, and then the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.
"Yeah?"
Before she finished speaking, she had already moved.
The spear shot through the air, black energy condensing into a point at its tip, aiming straight for the Tsaritsa's chest.
The Tsaritsa dodged to the side, raised her hand, and a wall of ice rose from the ground. Ronava's spear tip pierced the ice wall, shattering it into pieces.
Lin En moved the moment Ronava made her move.
He had already discussed with Ronava their strategy for dealing with the Tsaritsa, and it all boiled down to one word: Charge!
We can't win by fighting them. The Tsaritsa and the Jester are at seventy percent strength each, and the Ice Queen has just finished a war of attrition. Fighting them head-on would be suicide.
Ignoring the Tsaritsa, Lin En accelerated and charged towards the Jester, slicing across him.
The Jester was injured, with the sword wound Lin En had inflicted on his chest, making him move much slower than before.
Lin En's longsword aimed straight for his ribs, but the Jester sidestepped to block, and the two clashed on the side of the passage.
Ronava attacked even more fiercely, completely abandoning defense. Her spear rained down like a storm, each strike leaving a trail of black energy, forcing the Tsaritsa to retreat.
The Tsaritsa's chill spread through the passage, freezing the ground, Ronava's spear thrust prevented her from unleashing an area-of-effect attack.
"Is that all you've got?"
Ronava swept her spear horizontally, but the Tsaritsa dodged to the side, the spear shaft striking the rock wall and sending shards of rock flying.
You're weaker than before.
The Tsaritsa remained calm as she raised her hand to conjure an ice shield, which she used to block Ronava's thrust.
The ice shield cracked, but she used the recoil to take two steps back, creating some distance.
Lin En and the Jester were locked in a fierce battle. Although the Jester was injured, his experience was invaluable. He controlled Lin En's rhythm with every move, preventing him from breaking away to help Ronava.
Lin En's longsword flew swiftly, the Jester dodged to the side. The two exchanged blows for more than a dozen rounds in the passage, but Lin En still couldn't break through.
"Don't worry about me, charge forward!"
Ronava called out.
Lin En gritted his teeth, Anemo spread out beneath his feet, and he sprang up, flipping over the Jester's head and landing next to Ronava.
Ronava grabbed his wrist, swept her spear to force back the Tsaritsa, and the two of them rushed into the depths of the passage.
"Want to leave?"
With a wave of her hand, the Tsaritsa created an ice wall that blocked their path.
Ronava thrust her spear into the ice, but there was no reaction!
"It seems this is the only way!"
She held the Delusion that Lin En had given her in her hand. If she used this, she should be able to fight the Tsaritsa head-on, but it certainly wouldn't last long.
She turned to look at Lin En and nodded.
Ronava held the Delusion in her palm, and gray-blue light seeped through her fingers, climbing up her arm and along her veins.
She frowned slightly, probably adjusting to the amplified stinging sensation from the Delusion, but her spear didn't stop. Black energy mixed with the light of the Delusion, and a dark blue vortex condensed at the tip of the spear.
You hold off that the Jester.
Her voice was strained.
"Buy me some time."
"Clear."
Lin En held his sword horizontally in front of him again, took two steps forward, and blocked the Jester's direction behind him.
The Tsaritsa looked at the Delusion in Ronava's hand, her expression unchanged, but the chill beneath her feet noticeably thickened.
" The Delusion? How do you have that?"
"The dead don't need to know!"
Ronava rushed forward, gun in hand.
Lin En didn't look in that direction again, and turned to face the Jester.
The Jester had already circled around from the side, trying to form a pincer attack with the Tsaritsa, but Lin En stepped in front of him, slashing diagonally with her longsword and forcing him back.
The Jester's chest was wrapped in bandages, and his movements were a beat slower than before, but his experience was there, and he timed each move perfectly.
Lin En slashed at his left shoulder, but he shrugged and dodged. He then retaliated by striking Lin En's chest with a backhand. He didn't dodge, taking the blow head-on. He staggered back two steps, his chest aching, but a slight smile played on his lips.
"Again."
The Jester frowned, probably sensing something was wrong with him.
Lin En charged forward again, this time not even bothering to defend, slashing with his longsword in wide, sweeping motions, deliberately leaving openings in his ribs and shoulders.
The Jester seized an opening and struck Lynn in the ribs with a palm strike. Lin En groaned, a trickle of blood flowing from the corner of his mouth, but he didn't retreat; instead, his smile widened.
"Again!"
The Jester finally realized something was wrong and tried to pull away, but Lin En was too tight, relentlessly slashing at him with his longsword, forcing him to fight back.
The second blow landed on Lin En's shoulder, causing Lin En to stagger but regain his balance, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.
The talent card on his body was burning hot, and the heat in his meridians surged upwards in waves. Although the Hydro circled the wound and healed it to about Qiqi, his health bar was still dropping.
The Jester was cornered by him and unleashed a third and fourth palm strike in quick succession. Lin En took four blows, two to his chest and two to his shoulder, spitting out blood more than once, but the power from his talent had already filled his entire body.
This is what he's been waiting for.
" Ronava!"
He shouted, holding his longsword horizontally in front of him, forcing the Jester back half a step.
Ronava heard this, and she poured all the power of the Delusion into her spear. Black energy and gray-blue light mingled together, and the vortex at the tip of the spear suddenly expanded. She transformed into a streak of light and rushed towards Lin En.
Lin En turned around, planted his longsword in the ground, clasped his hands together, and mobilized all the strength in his body.
The Anemo, the Geo, the Hydro, those few strands of Authority of Death, plus the doubled power of his talent, all mixed together, surging into his palm along his meridians.
The mantra of "One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones " swirled in his mind. He poured all his power into that palm strike and pushed it towards the Tsaritsa.
The moment the two forces overlapped, the entire passage began to hum.
The Tsaritsa's pupils contracted slightly.
She raised her hands, stacking ice walls on top of each other in front of her, while taking a step back.
But the attack had already struck the ice wall. The dark blue vortex crashed into it, the first ice wall shattered, the second cracked, and by the time the third cracked, the attack was already within reach.
The Tsaritsa dodged to the side, avoiding a fatal blow, but the spear still grazed her chest, delivering a heavy strike.
She took four or five steps back, and the ice beneath her feet shattered.
"Boom--"
The aftershock of Lin En's palm strike struck the side wall of the passage, blasting away half of the rock face. Fragments of rock and ice shards flew out, raising clouds of dust and filling the entire passage with a grayish-white mist.
Lin En couldn't hold on any longer; her knees buckled, and she knelt on the ground, panting with her hands supporting her weight.
His health bar was almost depleted, and the Hydro was desperately trying to repair him, but it couldn't keep up with the rate at which it was expelling the water. He looked up into the smoke and dust, trying to pinpoint Ronava's location.
" Ronava!"
"Exist."
The sound came from the smoke and dust. Ronava emerged from the grayish-white powdery mist, her silver hair covered with ice shards and ash. She had put away her Delusion and was using her spear as a crutch on the ground.
She was also breathing heavily, but she was still standing.
Where is the Tsaritsa?
The two looked towards the spot where the Tsaritsa had just stood. The smoke and dust slowly dissipated, leaving only a pile of broken ice and frost flowers on the ground. The Tsaritsa and the Jester were nowhere to be seen.
They got away.
Ronava swept the ground around, her footprints extending deep into the passage before disappearing, suggesting she had used some kind of portal to leave.
Lin En plopped down on the ground, leaning against the rock wall, panting.
"She probably didn't expect us to pull something like this."
Ronava walked over, squatted down to examine his injury, and pressed his hand against his chest. Lin En hissed.
"I didn't use my full strength; I only sustained some injuries."
Ronava withdrew her hand.
"You did this on purpose?"
"I can't breathe, "Lin En asked, spitting out another mouthful of blood.
Ronava wore an expression Lin En couldn't understand as she wiped the blood from his mouth.
"Yeah, you'd die if you used your full strength, so I only used 70%."
She added.
Don't play like that next time.