Blade light.
Like threads of burning flame, they continuously surfaced and vanished around Andrew, layer upon layer.
Windflower, Frostmoon, Cold Sparrow, Deep Snow, Flying Snow, Spring Arrival.
Beneath these poetic names lay an endless barrage of fierce blade lights, and contained within the burning flames was an extreme, biting cold.
The piercing sword qi was like threads of fate entangled upon a person—inextricably knotted yet following a trace. It was also like a carefully outlined net, attempting to firmly trap the target wrapped within its meticulously woven lines.
The long blade, imbued with cold flames, collided incessantly with the shield, emitting crisp sounds of interweaving impact that bystanders could hardly distinguish in detail.
Infinite chill attached itself to the shield during the collisions between the two. One moment, it condensed into an external shield made of ice; the next, it was shattered by Hoshimi Miyabi's fierce blade light.
Under the glint of the blade, the ice shield turned into ice crystals. Fine crystals, like drifting snow, danced around the two of them along with the sword qi.
With the sunlight shining through, the magnificent scene looked breathtakingly beautiful.
But this seemingly gorgeous scenery contained infinite danger.
If an ordinary person were to walk into it defenseless, the countless hidden strands of sword qi inside would shred the approaching person in an instant, staining these ice crystals with a touch of blood red.
Accompanied by the constant collision of sword and shield, the overflowing sword qi had long since rendered everything in the surroundings unrecognizable.
Sword marks.
Countless sword marks left intricate, crisscrossing traces on the originally smooth ground, yet they came to an abrupt halt right at Andrew's feet.
It was as if an invisible boundary separated the two.
On the unprotected side, even the high-rise building in the distance—where Hoshimi Miyabi and her team had stood to observe the battlefield at the start—was already crumbling, devastated by the deflected or stray sword qi.
It looked as if it would collapse in the next second.
The destruction caused by the battle between these two was already countless times greater than when Andrew hunted the Paolumu.
The duration of the battle continued to stretch on with Andrew's persistent resistance. And the more Andrew refused to cooperate with the investigation, the more the deeply ingrained Hoshimi Miyabi became convinced that Andrew was a potential threat to the city—an existence that must be uprooted.
As the Section Chief of Hollow Special Operations Section 6, following the creed of HAND was her duty.
Thus, facing Andrew's impregnable defense, Hoshimi Miyabi's attacks became increasingly fierce and serious. At the same time, in order to break through the defense line of Andrew's shield, the speed of Hoshimi Miyabi's slashes and movements constantly increased.
Until now.
Under Hoshimi Miyabi's speed, which had already been exerted to the limit, the afterimages left behind when attacking Andrew made it look as if, besides Hoshimi Miyabi herself, there were three other doppelgangers formed of dark blue hard ice attacking alongside her.
The blade light and sword qi looked as if they were about to drown Andrew.
But, facing this kind of attack—which could be said to have the absolute worst compatibility with him—Andrew showed not the slightest trace of panic.
The heavy, massive shield, which would be incomparably weighty in the hands of other hunters, seemed to turn into a thin sheet of paper in his hands.
With movements that lightly shifted angles and directions, constantly tracking and moving with Hoshimi Miyabi's attacks, and paired with the Charge Blade's companion longsword in his left hand, Andrew managed to keep almost all of Hoshimi Miyabi's attacks shut out.
Even when there were times he truly couldn't block in time, Andrew could manage to use the heavy parts of the armor, like the pauldrons and vambraces, to take the attack head-on, giving her no chance to find a gap in the armor.
In fact, the number of times he failed to block in time was decreasing visibly to the naked eye.
Even though Hoshimi Miyabi's current attacks had doubled compared to the start of the battle due to her constant acceleration, the number of times she could break through the shield's defense line had not changed from beginning to end.
Yes, in this battle, aside from scooping up materials, Andrew was rapidly adapting to Hoshimi Miyabi's combat rhythm.
Even though the enemy type was different, combat techniques themselves shared many commonalities.
And Hoshimi Miyabi's ladder-like constant acceleration actually allowed Andrew to adapt to her attacks even faster.
Small-scale dodging, blocking, parrying.
When hunting those draconic monsters, this level of defensive movement couldn't dodge any monster's attack at all—let alone the incomparably huge area-of-effect breath attacks or various Dragon Charges of the Elder Dragons.
But these movements, which were useless against the attacks of monsters in the Monster Hunter World, were actually able to play a huge role in New Eridu.
One could see Andrew's shield tilt slightly, and Hoshimi Miyabi's newly arriving slash was completely received by the shield.
At the same time, as the battle continued, Andrew's various defensive movements became more and more proficient.
Although he had never attacked, at least now Andrew could occasionally detect windows during Hoshimi Miyabi's attacks that could be used to counterattack.
He was improving rapidly through this actual combat.
Of course, Andrew wouldn't be arrogant enough to think that he could really win against Hoshimi Miyabi in this single battle just through the improvement of skills.
After all, attacks were one thing.
Your enemy wasn't some wooden stake; everything in battle could be said to change in an instant.
Defense was one thing, attack was another.
And to combine the two and use them freely in battle, achieving a unity of offense and defense—that was yet another matter entirely.
You could indeed launch an attack.
But after Hoshimi Miyabi dodged it with her speed, the opening revealed during your active attack would be a completely different story for Hoshimi Miyabi.
Although relying on the armor on his body, he could indeed try attacking to hone his offensive skills, Andrew couldn't do such a thing.
If it were a spar where Andrew was trying to learn, that would be justifiable.
But no matter what, this was combat right now.
Using a Dragon-hunting weapon for defense and parrying was already bordering on bending the rules. If he tried to attempt an offense...
Even if he returned without success, the nature of the situation would become completely different.
Moreover, from start to finish, Hoshimi Miyabi was not an enemy to Andrew.
After all, his current behavior was like a border police officer inspecting for contraband; he drove into the territory, not only refusing to cooperate with the inspection but also running the roadblock.
After the police attempted to intercept, it was as if he had even pulled out a gun directly to express a threat.
Even if he didn't fire, from the moment armed resistance began, the nature of the situation had completely changed for both sides.
Although it was a bit awkward.
However, regarding this situation, Andrew didn't have any other way.
He couldn't really hand it over to Hollow Special Operations Section 6 to investigate, could he?
What if they really found something?
As the flying ice crystals around him became more and more numerous, a chill began to surge continuously from within Andrew's body.
He had already felt this chill during the first clash with Hoshimi Miyabi, but because the effect was truly too weak, Andrew quickly tossed it to the back of his mind.
But as the battle continued to drag on, this chill began to constantly spread and grow within Andrew's body, becoming colder and colder.
For a moment, this bone-piercing chill gave Andrew a feeling of dreaming back to Iceborne.
If it weren't for the lack of opportunity during combat, Andrew would have even wanted to fix himself a Hot Drink.
He just didn't know if this Status Effect could be removed.
As the battle time grew longer and longer, the sensation of cold on Andrew's body also began to become more and more obvious.
For a time, Andrew even had the illusion that he would be frozen into an ice sculpture.
And if Hoshimi Miyabi knew Andrew's current feeling, she would definitely say seriously—it is not an illusion.
Starting from the moment her attacks returned without success during the first clash with Andrew, Hoshimi Miyabi's brows had already unconsciously furrowed slightly.
Since ordinary attacks couldn't subdue him...
Then she would choose a different method to deal with it!
Although Hoshimi Miyabi always felt there were many problems during this battle, now was not the time to stop and think carefully.
After all.
No matter what problems there were, she had to catch the person first. As long as she caught the person, even if there were problems, they would become non-problems.
The next moment.
The Ether energy in Hoshimi Miyabi's Ether Engine transformed into blue flames. Under her guidance, it wound around the 'Wuwei' in her hand.
With the adhesion of the cold flames, the blade body instantly began to radiate infinite chill.
Although everyone present might have forgotten, Hoshimi Miyabi's class had actually always belonged to the Anomaly category.
As a wielder of the Fierce Frost attribute, which was more cruel and unique than ordinary ice, when her blade attached with cold flames launched an attack, the cold flames would contaminate the enemy's body along with the attack.
That flame would burn quietly like maggots in tarsal bones, constantly stripping away the enemy's temperature and vitality, waiting until the elemental energy accumulated to a certain degree, at which point the frost would turn them into an immobile ice sculpture.
At that time, the immobile enemy would be the best target. No matter how strong the opponent's defense was, there would definitely be an opportunity to exploit.
Although it was a bit of a lucky hit.
But this method was actually, truly effective.
As equipment made using the production method of the Magic Diablos Set, its resistance to elements also perfectly inherited the excellent tradition of the Magic Diablos Set.
Meaning that apart from Fire Resistance, all other elemental resistances were negative.
Although it didn't reach the astonishing negative fifteen of Water attribute, negative five was still negative!
At least in terms of resistance to Ice attribute energy, this set of armor could be said to be purely a negative improvement.
However, the powerful raw defense value happened to make up for this.
So for tanking damage, there was no problem.
Hoshimi Miyabi did not successfully cause damage, but the Status Effect was successfully applied. And as Hoshimi Miyabi maintained the rhythm of her attacks, constantly attacking, the cold flames had already begun to penetrate steadily into the interior of the shield.
But even so, Andrew's own resistance to energy greatly exceeded Hoshimi Miyabi's expectations.
In the past, even when fighting a Level 7 Ethereal, that Ethereal's resistance to Fierce Frost attribute energy had never reached this level.
The current degree was already enough to make those Ethereals enter the Frostbite state several times over.
Yet Andrew was still like nothing was wrong, not affected in the slightest; instead, he began to fight more and more courageously.
It wasn't until the battle continued for quite a while longer that Hoshimi Miyabi finally felt the accumulated energy reach the point where it could make the person in front of her enter the Frostbite state.
Looking at the hard ice permeating Andrew's whole body, she couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief.
After all, not being inside a Hollow, exerting herself for such a long time without effective replenishment of Ether energy still made her involuntarily feel a trace of fatigue.
But it was finally about to end.
Just as Hoshimi Miyabi prepared to knock Andrew down with a single strike directly after he was frozen, something beyond her common sense happened.
She saw Andrew reach directly behind his waist with his left hand. At the cost of taking two of Hoshimi Miyabi's attacks hard with his chest plate, he directly shoved a blue fruit into his own mouth.
"Crunch, crunch."
Accompanied by the crisp sound of chewing.
The next moment, all the Fierce Frost Anomaly status attached to Andrew's body was swept away cleanly.
The ice crystals on his body also dissipated into nothingness along with this powder.
A scene she had never encountered before instantly sent Hoshimi Miyabi directly into a crashed state. Her face, which had always been expressionless, rarely revealed an expression of astonishment because of this.
Dazed, she looked a little cute.
If not for being in the middle of a battle, Andrew would have wanted to reach out and pet her. After all, he had never petted a fox before.
A pity he would get chopped, so he couldn't reach out.
And relying on the cover of those two blade strikes to his chest just now, the Paolumu materials on the ground had already been completely collected by Andrew into the System's material box.
Seeing that he was just one step away from completing the goal.
Just then, Tsukishiro Yanagi in the distance suddenly spoke up, shouting loudly with incomparable nervousness:
"Don't hold back anymore, Section Chief! He is devouring the corpse of the monster that died earlier!"
Hoshimi Miyabi, who was originally in a crashed state, immediately snapped back to reality, frowning as she subconsciously scanned the surroundings.
Although the surrounding ground was already unrecognizable due to the sword qi, after Hoshimi Miyabi carefully scanned the ruins where only debris remained, what could be confirmed was—
The corpse of that monster was gone.
Instantly, Hoshimi Miyabi realized the many abnormalities in the battle earlier.
For example, attacks that would have missed were suddenly forcibly taken by the opponent, or those rolling movements that were a bit illogical.
Looking at it now, it was all for the sake of devouring that monster's corpse completely?!
However, for Andrew, this was a bit baffling.
Devouring?
Who eats raw meat for no reason? That tastes terrible.
But very quickly, Andrew reacted—looking at the reaction opposite him, the other side had most likely misunderstood something.
After all, the System's material box was indeed quite absurd. The Sapphire Star and The Lone Wolf had misunderstood this before.
It was just that Andrew had absolutely no intention of explaining to Hoshimi Miyabi. After all, even if he explained, it would be useless; the fundamental reason for his non-cooperation was that he couldn't expose his identity here.
As long as this point of conflict existed, a clash was inevitable.
It just so happened that all the materials had been packed up, and it was time to cut his losses and run.
"Heh..."
Accompanied by a deeply low chuckle coming from under the helmet, Andrew slowly inserted the longsword in his left hand into the shield.
The sound like crushed rocks grinding against each other from before, as well as the sound of friction between bones when stretching the body, reached everyone's ears once again.
Subsequently, the deep voice, slightly distorted by the helmet, sounded again:
"Having fought for... so long... it should be my turn now, right?"
Shield raised.
The energy in the phials poured into the shield, lighting up the shield that had begun to dim to the point of extinguishing once again.
Crimson light shrouded the entire shield, and the axe blade hidden within the shield popped out along with it, looking incomparably dangerous under the illumination of the light.
A massive sense of oppression swept out once again, causing a drop of cold sweat to involuntarily emerge on Tsukishiro Yanagi's forehead.
Looking at Andrew in front of her, who finally seemed ready to fight back, Hoshimi Miyabi's fighting spirit—which had been worn down a lot compared to the beginning because she had been hitting a shield for half the day—began to burn fiercely once again.
Her hand tightly gripped the hilt of Wuwei. At this moment, the 'Frost Moon' that had never been charged and released was ready to launch from within the sheath.
____
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