She Felt a Little Better Again
The first wave of monsters has already poured out of the crack.
One hundred and fifty Nightmare Buried Bones Skeleton Soldiers, level eighteen. With a thought, Ye Qingxue summoned the Snow Queen from her Dungeon Space. Her icy dress swept across the bone-powder ground, spreading frost wherever it passed.
The Snow Queen raised her hand, and a beam of icy blue light exploded from her palm, transforming into dozens of ice shards that shot towards the horde of skeletons.
The ice spikes exploded upon hitting their targets, freezing the surrounding skeletons into ice sculptures. The skeleton archers in the back row tried to fire arrows, but before the arrows could even leave the bowstring, they were engulfed by a second wave of ice spikes.
Several skeleton soldiers bypassed the icicles and charged towards the Snow Queen.
The Snow Queen slightly turned her body, and ice crystals spread beneath her feet, forming an ice wall that kept the skeleton soldiers outside. Then she raised her hand, and a huge ice spike shot out from the ice wall, piercing through the chest cavity of the first three skeletons.
Clean, efficient, and effective.
Ye Qingxue breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Fortunately, the monster's attributes weren't too abnormal.
Even without the advantage of Ice and Snow World, the Snow Queen can still handle it with ease.
Then she looked at Little Drill Wind.
The Little Drill Wind has already started moving.
The dark blue figure slashed into the horde of skeletons, drew his short sword, and cleaved the skulls of the first three skeletons in two with a single stroke. With a second backhand sweep, he snapped five skeletons in half at the waist.
Its speed was almost invisible; the blade flashed in the dark red mist, and each strike took away at least one skeleton.
One slash and one kill, occasionally two at once.
Ye Qingxue then looked at the White Bone Spirit.
The girl in plain clothes stood on the highest point between Flower-Fruit Mountain and Lion Camel Ridge, and with a gentle flick of her bone whip, gray-white flames spread out like a tide, covering nearly half of the battlefield in front of her.
The skeletons in the flames brittled and fell apart in large chunks.
With a flick of her wrist, the White Bone Spirit retracted her bone whip, and the flames narrowed into a thin line of fire, precisely sweeping across the horde of skeletons attempting to flank her.
With one lash, three or four skeletons shattered simultaneously.
Ye Qingxue looked at her Snow Queen self.
She had just cleared out about twenty skeletons, which took nearly thirty seconds. Meanwhile, Little Drill Wind and White Bone Spirit had already mowed down almost half of the monsters like grass.
Gap.
She felt her heart beat a beat slower.
In the time it took the Snow Queen to kill a few monsters, those two cards had already cleared half the battlefield.
She stared at the fighting styles of Little Drill Wind and White Bone Spirit, and suddenly understood where the difference lay.
The Snow Queen's attacks consist of ice shards, ice cones, and ice walls, relying on ice-based crowd control and burst damage. Each attack requires charging, and each release has a cooldown. As for Little Drill Wind...
It requires no charging or cooling; every strike is instinctive, a killing memory etched into its very bones. The White Bone Spirit is the same; when she swings her bone whip, there are no superfluous movements, and the range and timing of the flames are precise to the millimeter.
One is "skill," and the other is "instinct."
Ye Qingxue bit her lower lip, feeling a mix of emotions she couldn't quite describe.
Just then, Su Mu's voice came from the side.
"You're really strong Snow Queen."
Ye Qingxue turned to look at him.
Su Mu looked in the direction of the Snow Queen, his tone calm but sincere. "In my instance, without your Ice and Snow World buff, she can still kill monsters so easily. If she were in your own Dungeon Space, with the Ice and Snow World's domain buff, her strength would at least double."
Ye Qingxue felt a little better.
Right.
Your own Snow Queen is only truly useful within your own instance world.
The Ice and Snow World perfectly matches the theme of the Snow Queen, and both are SSS-level, complementing each other. No matter how strong Su Mu's special dungeon is, it cannot completely replicate the domain bonus of the Ice and Snow World.
She looked at Su Mu, and another thought crossed her mind.
Even with the dungeon bonus, Su Mu's two cards are still terrifying.
Special dungeons are indeed outside the normal range, but it's possible that the dungeon theme provides additional bonuses.
Thinking this made her feel a little better.
On the battlefield, the first wave has been completely wiped out.
The second, third, fourth, and fifth waves followed one after another.
In the first five waves, Ye Qingxue's Snow Queen was able to coordinate attacks.
Ice spikes shot out, ice walls blocked, and ice cones pierced through. Although not as efficient as Little Drill Wind and White Bone Spirit, they could at least stabilize an area, control the monsters on the flanks, and prevent them from approaching Flower-Fruit Mountain.
By the tenth wave, the situation had changed.
The tenth wave's boss emerged from the crack.
It was a Burial Corpse King that was over seven meters tall, its entire body pieced together from the remains of elite skeletons, with eerie green Soul Flames burning between its bones, and a pair of enormous bone wings spread out from its back.
It wore a broken, dark gold crown on its skull and held a spear made of twisted vertebrae in its hand.
Ye Qingxue unleashed an Appraisal.
[Name: Burial Corpse King (Nightmare Lord)]
[Rank: S]
[Level: 22]
[Blood: 580000/580000]
[Attack: 9800]
[Defense: 5600]
[Agility: 680]
[Combat Index: 286000]
[Skills: Bone Claw Rend, Domain of the Dead, Bone Storm, Corpse King's Command, Soul Drain, Death Gaze]
Combat Index of 286,000.
Ye Qingxue's heart sank.
This boss's stats have completely surpassed those of the 20th wave boss in the Goblin Nest Nightmare mode.
She was defeated by that boss yesterday.
This one in front of us is even stronger than that one.
Her Snow Queen was already struggling a lot in this wave.
The ice wall was shattered by the horde of skeletons, and the cooldown of the ice spikes couldn't keep up with the monster respawn rate.
She had to frequently call upon the Snow Queen to fill in for her, and after each ice spike was released, she had to wait several seconds before she could charge it up again. Meanwhile, Little Drill Wind and White Bone Spirit were still handling the situation with ease.
The Little Drill Wind charged back and forth through the bone tide, taking down one enemy with a single strike, occasionally two.
The White Bone Spirit's bone whip crackled and snapped, as grayish-white flames spread across the battlefield, and swathes of skeletons disintegrated within the inferno. Their monster-killing efficiency not only didn't decrease, but actually increased even more than the previous waves.
Ye Qingxue bit her lower lip.
She knew in her heart that if she relied solely on herself, even with the bonus from the Ice and Snow World, she might not be able to defeat it by the tenth wave. This BOSS's attributes completely overwhelmed her Snow Queen.
Just then, Su Mu's voice came from the side.
"Don't be fooled by this boss's high stats. If your Snow Queen can control it, defeating it solo is quite easy. And your Snow Queen's control effect is quite strong, making things much easier for White Bone Spirit and Little Drill Wind."
Ye Qingxue turned to look at him.
Su Mu surveyed the battlefield, his tone calm. "Ice walls block the flanks, ice shards slow down the front. The Snow Queen's crowd control is more valuable than her damage output. Without her control, Little Drill Wind and White Bone Spirit can still fight, but the pressure will be much greater."
Ye Qingxue was taken aback.
She glanced at the Snow Queen.
Indeed, the ice wall blocked the horde of skeletons on the flanks, and the ice shards slowed down the boss's frontal advance.
Taking advantage of the moment when the BOSS was slowed down, Little Drill Wind and White Bone Spirit had already reduced its health by nearly 30%.
Like...
That's absolutely true.
Her inexplicable inner turmoil was somewhat soothed by those words.