Noah's scaled armor had dispersed when the spells landed on him. A thin layer of ice had spread on his chest where a series of cuts had appeared. However, black smoke soon came out of his body and reduced the ice to ashes before turning him again into a fiendish figure.
He had never liked to be passive in a battle, and Icy Stare was able to push him back. So, he had simply decided to endure the might of her spells with his body and cast the second form of his martial art.
His physical strength was well known to the cultivation of the world by then, and no expert would ever allow him to get close. After all, even a single punch could kill them if they were careless.
However, Noah would only express a part of his power if he didn't use the incredible properties of his body. His martial arts were able to match spells because of it, but they alone didn't cover everything that his body was capable of.
In a situation where a melee battle was impossible, and his normal abilities weren't able to overwhelm his opponent, Noah had decided to rely on his innate defenses to launch his most potent attack right through her offensive.
'Why is the Black Hole spell affecting her spells so little?' Noah started pondering about the issue as he resumed his offensive. Icy Stare did the same, but she began to move to affect a wider part of the sky with her freezing aura.
There was something strange with her spells. The forms that she created were extraordinarily lifelike and didn't act according to specific patterns. Instead, they flew in odd trajectories and would even dodge some of the black lines launched by Noah.
It was as if Noah was facing a series of lifeforms rather than simple spells.
That peculiarity became more evident in the forms that imitated magical beasts. Those icy figures never flew in a straight line, and they even tried to encircle Noah at times.
'Dammit!' Noah cursed in his mind before activating the Divine Deduction technique.
He would generally avoid using so many techniques at once. The consumption of mental energy was absurd when he went all out, and adding the divine inscriptions worsened that already dire situation.
The drawbacks of being a cultivator of the darkness element were still there, even if his darkness had considerably eased that issue. It was merely his mental energy the fuel that was enduring them now.
The same problem didn't appear in cultivators with more common aptitudes, and the existences in the fifth rank could make up for the difference in power between their elements by using more spells.
Of course, not every expert in the fifth rank could obtain a large number of diagrams at the same level, but those that were experienced inscription masters had managed to create some spells through the centuries. Those attacks would even match their individualities most of the time, which made them stronger compared to those produced by others.
Icy Stare appeared to be one of those experts since her freezing aura worked perfectly with her icy figures. Also, she was even able to reduce the destructiveness of Noah's smoke, which meant that her ice wasn't ordinary at all.
Noah had a few plans to turn the situation in his favor, but only the clarity given by the Divine Deduction technique could put him always one step ahead of his enemy. He wanted to understand the nature of her ice too, so he could only sacrifice his mental energy in that battle.
Countless thoughts surged in his mind as an army of weapons and magical beasts flew in his direction through odd trajectories.
Noah saw a flock of eagles coming at him from below, a series of spears and shards rising in the sky only to aim for his head as they fell. Hundreds of small beetles sieged him from the front, and large axes occupied his sides.
He was surrounded, and the expansion of Icy Stare's ice wasn't stopping yet. In a matter of minutes, she would turn into ice all that part of the sky.
The number of attacks was simply too high for Noah to handle them with only his martial art and corrosive smoke. Even if those spells didn't have their peculiar traits and the Black Hole spell could affect them, he would still be in trouble.
However, he had a way to fight that offensive.
A series of saber shaped runes appeared in the sky and began to absorb the primary energy that his aura and the previous clashes had created since the beginning of the fight. The runes soon reached a threatening power, and Noah controlled them to stop the incoming attacks. Also, he created hundreds of Ghostly Sabers that he sent after the moving Icy Stare.
It was needless to say that the consumption of his mental energy increased further. Still, Noah didn't find the point in having a full sea of consciousness when you were dead.
The runes and black lines managed to fend off all the enemy attacks, and the Ghostly Sabers hindered the expansion of the ice as they chased after Icy Stare.
The number of spells in Noah's possession was incredible, and he was even able to overwhelm his opponent's offensive when he used all of them. Yet, the price to pay in terms of mental energy was absurd, which didn't allow him to fight in that state for long.
Icy Stare kept on flying away from the Ghostly Sabers, but she didn't notice how Noah was forcing her to remain close to his position. When she was close enough, he threw the Black Hole spell at here, detonating it when he was sure that she was in the area of the blast.
Icy Stare staggered for a second due to the explosion, but the Ghostly Sabers caught up with her and quickly aimed for her body to hurt her internally.
The ethereal sabers though froze mid-air as they were about to reach her.
'She puts a part of her life inside her ice,' Noah thought as he understood the reason why his Black Hole spell had worked so poorly. 'My spell can't absorb something carrying such a firm will. I would have to suppress it beforehand.'
Icy Stare seemed to use inscription methods similar to the Will-consuming runes. Her ice carried part of her will, and it even had precise orders since its creation.
'This is troublesome,' Noah thought as he evaluated the battle as a whole.
His attacks seemed able to overwhelm her for a few moments, but he had to decide if keeping on using all his spells, or just wait until she ran out of mental energy.
A torrent of green water though surged from the swamp and temporarily interrupted the battle. Noah found himself fighting against a series of poisonous water bullets coming in his direction while expecting Icy Stare to exploit that opening.
Yet, she didn't do anything, and she even began to retreat with the rest of her allies.