Icy Stare didn't commit a mistake. She didn't underestimate Noah, and she had even predicted that he would block her superior's attack.
Her problem was that Elder Julia had returned on the scene too soon, even after she had endured the shockwaves generated by the arrows. She didn't try to sneak up on the solid stage cultivator of the Empire either before rejoining the battlefield.
Icy Stare could only guess that Noah was so important to the Hive that even its higher-ups would ignore the possibility of taking a powerful opponent by surprise to help him.
The cultivators of the Empire didn't have that mentality. That organization had never been short on assets, and its members rarely valued themselves as more important than their mission.
They had learnt to sacrifice everything for the greater good of their god. The only real recognition they could get would arrive once they reached the sixth rank and became a powerhouse.
That was the reason for her flawed judgment. Elder Julia had come back as soon as she could to help Noah, which put Icy Stare in a troublesome situation.
Icy Stare left a trail of ice as she retreated to return to her allies. Countless shapes formed inside those frozen areas too, but nothing seemed able to stop the Demon Prince of the Hive chasing after her.
Noah waved his blades non-stop as he charged directly through the thick ice and half-formed figures. The Demonic Form gave him all the protection he needed, and his physical strength made him ignore any hindrance on his path.
Also, the corrosive smoke released by his figure and the black lines shooting from his weapons destroyed any form of defense that tried to slow down his advance. Icy Stare would be able to stop him only if she decided to go all out.
However, that would require her to freeze a larger part of the sky, which meant that she had to remain in the same area for a few seconds. That delay would be enough for Noah to catch up, so she could only resort to those improvised methods.
Noah kept on slashing and charging through the ice. Saber-shaped runes had appeared around him too and were already feeding on the primary energy created with his attacks.
Even if Noah had acted as soon as he found his opponent, Icy Stare still had a chance to reach a couple of her allies that were fighting against Daniel and Amos.
Noah didn't want his battle to end up in a group fight. It would be harder to kill anyone if he had to disperse his Demonic Form to avoid hurting his allies. So, he kept on chasing and pressing Icy Stare, waiting for a chance to appear.
Noah was faster than his opponent, even if he was flying through a frozen sky. He was slowly catching up with her, but her allies were drawing near too. Still, Noah managed to obtain a clear vision of Icy Stare at some point. His smoke had destroyed enough ice that he could see the back of his opponent and her head.
The walls of Noah's sea of consciousness trembled as soon as he caught a glimpse of Icy Stare. A long ethereal saber formed in front of him and shot toward his opponent.
The Mental Saber spell was an attack that Noah rarely had the chance to use. Most of the heroic assets of the world knew about that ability, and they would do their best to avoid giving him a clear shot.
Also, cultivators in the fifth rank were resourceful. They had ways to deal with mental attacks, even if they remained hard to defend against.
However, Icy Stare didn't have time to cast specific spells. She could only activate a generic defensive item when she sensed the ethereal saber coming in her direction.
A green vortex appeared behind her. It attracted any form of energy through its suction force and destabilized it in the process. When Noah's mental attack reached it, its body became even more ethereal, but part of it crossed that defense and landed on Icy Stare's head.
The walls of Icy Stare's mental sphere shook after the impact with the ethereal saber. The tremors weren't strong since Noah's spell had lost part of its power, and her mind was sturdy, but she still slowed down her retreat.
Also, the ice around her stopped spreading, which limited the creation of icy-figures.
Icy Stare's focus was on stabilizing her mind. She couldn't do anything to escape from the range of Noah's martial art.
Noah was already wielding the copies of the Demonic Sword and fusing them into one slash by the time Icy Stare's managed to stop the tremors. Her consciousness had returned only to make her aware of the immense danger behind her back.
It was in the instant right before Noah launched his attack that the central buildings in the districts near the floating structure lit up again and shot another series of blue arrows.
Noah had paid more attention to those areas after he saw the first series of arrows. That made him aware that one arrow was coming in his direction as soon as they left the shining buildings.
'Not now!' Noah cursed in his mind as he saw the giant arrow targeting him.
He had noticed the attack in time to dodge it while avoiding the shockwaves that it created. Yet, he would need to start the evasive maneuver now to do so. If he wanted to escape from that powerful attack, he had to stop his martial art.
Noah would be lying if he said that he didn't think about suffering an injury to kill Icy Stare. However, he was right in the middle of a battlefield filled with heroic existences.
That thought had arrived after he stopped his attack and flew downward to step out of the arrow's trajectory. It was needless to say that there was a lot of dissatisfaction in his mind too.
The arrow flew past Icy Stare without causing her any harm before disappearing on the horizon. The cultivators managing that defensive measure had protected her at the last second, giving her a perfect chance to regroup with her allies.
Icy Stare didn't hesitate to pick up speed again and fly toward the group fight. Her mind still felt a little sore, but she was overall fine.
Noah saw her reaching for the cultivators fighting against Daniel and Amos and dispersed the Demonic Form. He needed to help them now, and he couldn't do it with the corrosive smoke threatening to kill them.
However, a white light suddenly burst out of Daniel's figure and filled that area of the sky before Icy Stare could reach it. When the light dispersed, everyone could see how one of his opponents had become nothing more than a pile of bones.
Daniel had killed a rank 5 cultivator in the gaseous stage!
Still, a familiar red light surrounded the pile of bones and replaced it with a series of bones belonging to multiple magical beasts.