Chapter 22: You Damned Midget!
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
A small creature emerged from the ice, with a head of white hair and its face covered in frost. The weapon oil she'd prepared didn't seem to be having much effect: The glowing halo she'd traced in the air with it was barely able to hold the demon for a moment—then, its face contorted with fury and its mouth gaping wide, it dove straight for Zhe Huo.
Zhe Huo fuffed, her whip already lashing back around with unerring precision. She caught it without mercy as it bared its claws at her, the point of her whip-blade piercing through one of its fingers, and tearing a long talon clean off. The demon's face scrunched up in agony, and it exhaled a powerful blast of cold air, which became a whirling torrent of snow howling in to engulf her.
Despite being on her guard against this attack, she nevertheless inhaled a bit of this—a biting frost that made her teeth chatter. Noticing her lack of focus, the ice demon pressed the attack, roaring in fury about ripping off all ten of her fingernails.
Hearing this, Zhe Huo replied, "You damned midget!" Spinning through the air, she brought her whip back around and caught its razor-sharp claws again, but was surprised when the demon caught hold of her weapon in return. This was bad—but before she could twist the whip out of its grip, a line of frost was already snaking up along its length.
Drawing upon her inner strength, she twisted the handle, and countless minuscule little spikes suddenly emerged from the blade at the end. Violently, she yanked the whip back, and those spikes slashed across the demon's hand, shredding up skin and flesh in a bloody mess.
With a sharp cry of pain, the demon immediately let go. However, with eyes glaring red, the ice demon also threw wide both arms, as though to summon a great blizzard to consume her. Zhe Huo was forced to bring up her cloak to shield herself from the rising wind. It was overwhelming. She couldn't even keep her feet.
The ice demon's eyes were both red with rage now. Stomping down hard on the snow, it leapt into the air, spinning like a cyclone as it hurtled towards Zhe Huo.
Whether by accident or design, her cloak flew up at that moment, while the snow behind her cascaded down, so that she was all but blinded. The only thing she managed to see was a flash of golden light, which forced her to shut her eyes against its glare.
Before she could react, she heard the ice demon emit a cry of terrible pain. Then the blizzard ceased.
Bewildered, Zhe Huo pulled her cloak back down and scanned her surroundings. The ice demon had fallen to ground some distance away, blood splattering everywhere.
Instead of pausing to figure out what had happened, Zhe Huo immediately flew over and wrapped her whip around the demon, which was vomiting blood as it lay sprawled across the snow. She ground her heel upon the demon, flexing her jaw for a moment before haughtily declaring, "You want my fingernails? Try again in your next life!"
Trembling violently, the diminutive little ice demon gazed up at her in shock, its eyes wandering over to her billowing white cloak. Its mouth opened and closed, but before it could actually give voice to any questions, its whole body twisted and contorted suddenly, as though being sucked into a black hole—and it disappeared into the demon bottle Zhe Huo had produced.
She sealed the bottle once more, and then gave it a shake or two. Something odd had happened just now, but there was no one else in sight at the moment. Delighted at her easy victory, she was determined to show off to Wu Shan upon her return.
-- Gift
received