This blatant provocation completely enraged the arrogant Other.
As a being far superior to wights, he possessed independent thought and will.
Faced with Linn's challenge, he was no longer composed.
His ice spear rose, and his steps quickened as he charged straight at Linn!
In this life-or-death situation, Linn's expert swordsmanship transformed into pure physical instinct.
He twisted his waist and turned his body.
The longclaw in his hand, moving from bottom to top, drew an extremely cunning arc, precisely meeting the incoming crystal ice spear.
"Clang—!"
A crisp sound, like shattering ice, exploded in the silent mountain hollow.
An unimaginable force surged along the sword, instantly numbing Linn's entire arm.
At the tiger's mouth, his skin and flesh tore open on the spot.
Warm blood gushed down the sword hilt.
"Damn it, what immense strength!"
Linn cursed inwardly.
Using the recoil, he quickly retreated several steps, creating distance.
He swiftly glanced at his sword.
longclaw, forged from valyrian steel, was completely unharmed.
The dark ripples on its blade still flowed.
Then he looked at the Other's seemingly indestructible crystal ice spear.
A tiny crack had clearly appeared on the spearhead!
It worked!
valyrian steel was indeed the bane of these ghastly things!
A surge of wild joy welled up in Linn's heart.
The Other evidently noticed this as well.
He lowered his head and looked at the crack on his spear, his face filled with disbelief.
He no longer probed.
The ice spear in his hand suddenly danced, creating a dazzling array of spear shadows.
The spear shadows were like a forest, exuding chilling cold.
Each thrust carried a sharpness that could pierce through anything, sealing off all of Linn's evasion space and forcing Linn to constantly retreat.
Linn pushed his swordsmanship to its limits.
His figure constantly moved and dodged within the impenetrable spear shadows.
"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!"
The sound of metal clashing with ice crystals was as dense as a downpour on banana leaves.
Sparks and ice shards flew together in the night.
Linn was completely on the defensive, able only to passively parry and dodge.
Each collision made his arm a little more numb.
Each dodge brought him a little closer to death.
Damn it!
This guy's combat technique was as if he had practiced for thousands of years, so perfect that no flaw could be found!
As creations personally made by the Night King, they possessed extremely high combat skills.
The strength amplification brought by the frostheart grass was simply insignificant before him!
If this continued, he would be shaken to death before the opponent even pierced him!
He had to find a way!
He had to find his weakness... Just as Linn struggled to hold on, his brain rapidly working to find a way out.
The Other seemed to lose patience.
The ice spear in his hand suddenly changed its attack.
It was no longer that fancy and deadly spear technique, but transformed into the simplest, most direct horizontal sweep!
This sweep carried an unparalleled terrifying might!
The range was too wide!
He couldn't dodge it!
Linn's pupils suddenly constricted to the extreme.
Damn it!
I'll risk it!
At this critical moment, a trace of madness flashed through Linn's mind!
A blue light flickered in his eyes, and a pure yet hidden Ice Magic power was silently injected into the snow beneath his feet.
Ice Magic!
As the new energy in his body was completely drained.
The patch of snow in front of Linn instantly became even slicker than the surrounding area.
All of this happened in a flash.
Apart from Linn himself, no one noticed this subtle change.
The Other also did not notice.
In his eyes, this resisting human was already a dead man.
In his perception, no living being, apart from the great Night King and himself, could master this mysterious and unpredictable Ice Magic!
His elegant and swift foot landed heavily on the patch of snow that Linn had tampered with.
Then... his foot suddenly slipped!
Although he instantly adjusted his balance, that deadly horizontal sweep still had a barely perceptible deviation and delay.
Now!
Linn's eyes erupted with unprecedented brilliance!
He did not retreat; instead, he stepped forward, facing the sweeping ice spear!
His body, in an inconceivable posture, almost brushing against the cold spear shaft, forcibly plunged into the Other's embrace!
The distance was too close!
So close that Linn could even clearly see the ancient runes on the Other's armor.
So close that he could feel the absolute zero emanating from him, capable of freezing flesh!
The Other's eyes were filled with clear shock.
He wanted to retreat, wanted to pierce this audacious human with his spear.
But it was too late.
Linn's sword moved.
longclaw, from bottom to top, slashed out with one strike!
It gathered all the strength in his body!
"Hiss—!"
It met no resistance.
The valyrian steel blade, like a red-hot knife cutting through butter, easily sliced through the Other's seemingly indestructible crystal ice armor.
From his abdomen, all the way up.
Until it cut open his entire chest!
The Other's body suddenly stiffened.
He lowered his head, looking at the huge wound on his chest.
In that wound, there was no blood, no internal organs.
Only a rapidly disintegrating, ice-blue crystal.
"Hiss... crack..."
A sound like shattering glass.
The arrogant Other, that perfect body composed of magic and ice, began to rapidly crack and spread from the wound on his chest.
Finally, with a "bang."
It burst into countless sparkling, translucent ice shards flying through the air.
Under the glow of the campfire, these ice shards refracted a dreamlike brilliance, then slowly dissipated into the cold air.
As if he had never existed.
The entire mountain hollow was deathly silent.
Linn leaned on his sword, gasping for breath, his chest heaving violently.