Far from the burning battlefield where the clash between Biggie and Zarvok against Commander Vorgath echoed, there was another, quieter part of the frozen forest.

In the sky, Varkhane hovered slowly with his large black wings, beating the air with steady strokes. He looked down at the two figures standing on the ground before him with a look of clear disdain.

He said, his voice drifting with the cold wind, "I don’t understand how humans get creatures like you to help them, but judging by the auras emanating from you, it seems you are being forced."

Then he gripped the hilt of his broadsword and continued in a dry tone, "Let’s see what you’ve got. Don’t disappoint me."

Varkhane descended rapidly toward the ground, launching a direct attack and pointing his long sword straight at Winter’s neck.

Winter did not move away or step back; ice energy condensed beautifully in his hand until a blade made of solid ice formed.

CLANG!

The two blades collided. Varkhane’s physical strength was far superior, forcing Winter back two steps as he felt the crushing pressure of the heavy blow.

Varkhane sneered as he pressed his sword forward, "It’s clear from your unstable auras that you entered the Fallen rank not too long ago."

"Do rookies like you really think you can face me?"

Varkhane raised his sword and brought it down with a heavy strike that hurled Winter backward for several meters.

But as Winter was being knocked back, his physical body dissolved in an instant, turning into a translucent figure floating slightly above the ground, no longer reeling backward.

Ice Ghost Form.

Winter’s body turned into a translucent frost phantom, causing Varkhane’s sword to pass through empty air without touching anything solid. The sudden loss of resistance threw Varkhane off balance from the sheer momentum of his strike, nearly sending him tumbling to the ground.

A few steps away, Lady Mushroom stood in her small frame, laughing sneeringly with mockery at his sight. Then her tiny lips moved:

Venom Mist.

A thick green toxic mist erupted from her body, surging directly toward Varkhane as he struggled to regain his balance.

Varkhane snapped his black wings sharply and dodged the mist at the very last moment, but the tip of his left wing brushed against the edge of the green fog.

In a single second, a phosphorescent green flame ignited on the feathers of his wing, emanating a toxic, searing aura that began spreading across the edge of his wing.

Varkhane felt a sharp pain piercing through his wing joint.

He paused in mid-air and looked at the injured wing, sensing that this green fire was by no means ordinary.

In a flash, the color of the injured black wing turned into a bright, beautiful white, releasing a milky energy for a fraction of a millisecond. The effect of the flame and the poison vanished immediately, and the wing returned to its original black color.

Varkhane hovered higher into the air, looking down at them from above, and said in a stern voice: "Even though you are novices, you are strong. If you were at my level, you might have been able to defeat me... but unfortunately, you will die now."

He gripped his sword firmly and called out:

"Law of Three Crows... First Form: Black Crow."

In an instant, darkness swept over his body.

It flowed over his skin like ink, then condensed into shiny black feathers that covered his head, face, and neck, extending down to his legs and sharp talons.

His massive wings snapped open all at once, sending loose feathers fluttering around him for a moment before settling, every feather reflecting a sharp black sheen under the light.

Even his eyes changed; they glowed crimson amidst that pitch-black darkness.

Then thick black energy flowed into his sword, coating its blade completely and making it gleam with a dark glow, as if it were a piece of the night polished until it became razor-sharp.

The transformation finished in the blink of an eye.

And as soon as Varkhane raised his wings, everyone felt that something entirely different had appeared before them.

Varkhane swooped down from the sky, targeting Lady Mushroom. This time, his speed was nearly double what it was before.

Winter tried to obstruct him immediately and fired several Ice Spears, but Varkhane sheared through them easily with his black sword without slowing down.

"Weak," Varkhane mocked.

Winter’s eyes flared with an intense glow, a cold green light spilling from them over the ice.

He raised his hand, and a massive amount of blue mana gathered before him, rapidly compressing into a colossal mass of ice. Then it lunged forward.

It was inaccurate to call it a spear.

It was a massive trunk of pure ice, gleaming with a sharp blue light, launching at a speed that made the air itself tremble around it. It carried a dense and terrifying icy aura, entirely different from any attack Winter had launched before.

Varkhane’s expression changed instantly.

He felt the hidden power within the attack and understood its nature in an instant.

What...does he have a High-Rank Law?

Varkhane decided to dodge the spear. But when he tried to pivot, he felt his body’s movement suddenly slow down, as if the air around him was beginning to freeze and become heavy.

He beat his wings as fast as he could, barely dodging the massive spear at the last second by centimeters.

He stabilized in mid-air, saying to Winter in muted shock, "So you possess a High-Rank Law... Well, I really didn’t expect this."

Before he could finish, a strange sound came from beneath his feet.

Varkhane lowered his gaze slowly and looked in the direction of the sound. Lady Mushroom was standing over the ice, calmly holding her staff. She raised it slightly, then struck the ground with it.

Spiteful Spores.

Suddenly, dozens of small mushrooms began emerging from the cracks, one after another.

Varkhane was bewildered by their comical appearance and the absurd situation he found himself in.

"Hehehehe!"

The creatures were ridiculously small, some not even reaching his knees, yet they ran toward him at full speed, waving their short arms and letting out wicked laughs that did not match their appearance at all.

Varkhane used his black sword in a swift strike, slashing the body of one of the mushrooms with a deep wound.

But he was surprised when the creature continued laughing as if nothing had happened, then suddenly leaped and clung to his foot with all its strength.

Varkhane looked down at the tiny creature in bewilderment.

"What are you doing?"

The mushroom’s grin widened, and then it exploded.

BOOM!

The explosion engulfed Varkhane’s leg in flames, and a cloud of poison spread across the ice.

"Damn it, what is this?!"

Varkhane didn’t understand what had happened or how this small mushroom blew itself up, but the rest of the mushrooms gave him no chance to think.

They rushed in his direction, bursting into laughter as they saw the explosion.

Then, some of them charged straight into the flames. Another followed, and instead of fearing the blast, the rest of the mushrooms laughed hysterically and threw themselves right into the rising fire.

"Hehehe!"

"I’m next!"

"No I’m next!"

"Hehehe!"

BOOOOOOOOM!

Tongues of fire and poison scattered across the ice as the remaining mushrooms continued charging toward Varkhane fearlessly.

The scene turned into a terrifying chain reaction of explosions. A green mist and scorching heat covered the sky completely, and the entire area erupted in poisonous flames.

Moments later, Varkhane emerged from the midst of the explosion cloud suffering from severe injuries: he was panting, one of his wings was completely missing while the other was charred, his left arm hung limply, his black feathers were scorched, and his eyes burned red with sheer fury.

Varkhane roared, all composure gone from his voice:"You too possess a High-Rank Law?! Fine... playtime is over."

He steadied his sword before him, and his aura suddenly shifted.

"Law of Three Crows... Second Form: White Crow."

The darkness faded from his body, replaced by a pure milky white extending from his head down to his wings and feet. In that exact moment, his wounds began to close gradually, and the torn flesh reformed as his body reclaimed its vitality.

But Varkhane soon knitted his brows, looking down at his wing in frustration, then clenched his fingers.

"Damn it, why is the recovery rate so slow...?"

He tried to push more of his power into his body, but the healing remained sluggish.

"Why the hell is this taking so long? And why is the mana consumption rate so ridiculously high?"

His hanging arm slowly began returning to its socket, while the broken wing reclaimed its shape bit by bit. The healing was working, but it wasn’t normal at all. Every time the healing energy tried to seal a wound, it seemed as if a hidden green presence clung to it and tore it apart from the inside.

Worst of all, his mana was dropping rapidly.

Varkhane cast a sharper look at his wing. Between the white feathers and the growing flesh, he caught sight of faint green residue, as if threads of a strange poison had fused inside his body.

His eyes narrowed.

"Damn it... those are traces of that mushroom-faced woman’s Law."

Venomous Flame Law.

At first glance, it seemed like nothing more than fire mixed with poison Law.

But that understanding was incomplete.

It wasn’t simply poison that burned the flesh, nor was it fire carrying poisonous properties. The two effects were fused together, creating something far more troublesome.

Lady Mushroom’s Law did not simply make flames poisonous, nor did it make poison burn like fire. The two forces were fused together, creating an effect that could not be separated into one or the other.

The flames did more than burn flesh, while the venom did more than spread through the body. Their effects overlapped, feeding into one another and continuing to interfere with the target even after the flames had disappeared.

That was why the green residue was so troublesome.

It had already seeped into his wounds and mana pathways. Whenever the person tried to restore the damaged flesh, the lingering effect disrupted the process, consuming part of the mana and corrupting the healing energy before it could fully take effect.

His recovery was not simply trying to heal an injury. It was trying to rebuild his body while fighting against the lingering effects of Venomous Flame at the same time.

He had to pour more and more mana to force his body to purge it first, then rebuild the tissue it had corrupted.

Varkhane glared at the wound.

"Damn it... what a troublesome Law!"

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