Blood Online: Evolving Endlessly-Chapter 172: New Favourites

Akhil still had his gaze on the being when he felt it... The abrupt change in the surrounding.

The temperature dropped.

Not gradually. Not with warning. Just a sudden, brutal plunge that transformed the arena’s atmosphere from warm to arctic in the span of a single heartbeat.

Akhil felt it immediately—that bone-deep cold that made breathing painful, that turned exhaled air into visible clouds of vapor. It wasn’t just uncomfortable. It was dangerous, the kind of cold that could kill if exposed for too long.

Around the arena, fighters shivered involuntarily. Even those still engaged in combat stumbled slightly, their movements disrupted by the sudden temperature shift. Breath came in sharp gasps, each inhalation feeling like drawing snowflakes directly through the nose and into the lungs.

’What—’ Akhil’s thought was interrupted as his combat instincts screamed at him to identify the source.

His head whipped toward where the cold originated, and his eyes widened in genuine surprise.

Nyla stood on a platform perhaps fifty feet away, and she looked nothing like the sister he’d been watching prepare for the past three days.

This was something else entirely.

Frost radiated from her in visible waves, crystallizing the very air around her platform. Ice formed across the stone beneath her feet, spreading outward in geometric patterns that looked almost deliberate in their beauty. Her dual blades—the ones Jerry had forged from advanced cores—gleamed with a light that had nothing to do with reflected illumination and everything to do with concentrated cold given physical form.

Her eyes had changed. Where normally they were warm brown, now they glowed with pale blue light, as if winter itself had taken residence behind her pupils.

And she wasn’t holding back. At all.

Her opponent—one of the ninja constructs, this one wielding a curved sword—was already moving, clearly recognizing the danger. But recognition meant nothing against what came next.

Nyla’s arm moved.

Not a wild swing. Not a desperate slash. A graceful, controlled arc so fast that Akhil’s enhanced perception barely tracked it. Her twin blade cut through the air, and from that movement emerged a wave of pure ice.

Not frozen water. Not crystallized moisture. This was ice as a fundamental force, cold given shape and velocity and murderous intent.

The arc expanded as it traveled, growing from blade-width to body-width in the span of three feet. It moved faster than the ninja could react, faster than most people could even register as a threat.

The strike connected.

For a moment—just a fraction of a second—the ninja’s expression showed shock. Understanding that he’d been hit but not yet comprehending what that meant.

Then the cold took him.

Ice spread across his body with terrifying speed, flash-freezing flesh and blood and bone. His mouth opened in a scream that never came, vocal cords crystallizing before sound could form. His eyes widened in horror as he watched his own body turn translucent, watched ice consume him from the outside in.

Within three seconds, he’d transformed from a living fighter into a grotesque statue—perfectly preserved in his moment of death, every detail of his final expression captured in crystalline clarity.

Nyla’s gaze was utterly indifferent as she looked at her handiwork. No satisfaction. No remorse. Just cold assessment of whether the threat was truly neutralized.

She shifted her weight slightly, the movement causing vibrations to travel through the frozen platform.

The ice statue that had been her opponent shattered.

Not cracked. Not fell apart. Shattered—exploding into thousands of fragments that scattered across the platform like gruesome confetti. Blood that had been frozen mid-flow became crimson ice crystals. Flesh became indistinguishable from the ice that had consumed it.

Within five seconds, a living fighter had become scattered debris.

Akhil stared, genuinely stunned. ’When did she—how did she—’

He’d been so absorbed in watching the tournament, so focused on the mysterious figure behind Jeren, so preoccupied with his own upcoming matches that he’d failed to notice his own sister appearing in the arena.

’She’s in my team?’ The realization hit him with the force of revelation. ’She was teleported to the same group I’m in?’

The divine chat exploded with excitement:

[God Poloneus: THAT’S what I’m talking about! Now THAT’S entertainment!]

[Goddess Jayne: Did you see that?! Five seconds from first strike to complete obliteration!]

[DaylithNight: The ice manipulation is incredible! That’s not just freezing—that’s weaponized absolute zero!]

[Goddess Vaydrix: I take back everything I said about these newbies being boring. THIS is worth watching!]

[God Verbraucht: The control required for that level of precision... she’s been holding back this whole time, hasn’t she?]

[Unknown: Blood and ice. Beautiful combination. More of this, please.]

[Goddess AuraNova: Finally! Someone who knows how to put on a show from the very first exchange!]

But before the divine audience could fully process what they’d witnessed, before the shock of Nyla’s display could settle—

The ground shook.

Not a tremor. Not a vibration. A full earthquake that made platforms rattle and barriers flicker. The kind of impact that suggested something massive had just struck with overwhelming force.

Everyone’s attention snapped toward the source.

An orc stood on a distant platform, and calling him merely large would be a criminal understatement. He was massive—easily eight feet tall, with muscles that looked like they’d been carved from granite by someone who didn’t understand the concept of restraint. His skin was a deep green that seemed to absorb light, making him appear even more imposing.

Long black dreadlocks fell over his shoulders, each one thick as a rope, decorated with what looked like bone fragments and metal rings. His face was fierce—angular features, a strong jaw, and most notably, thick canines that protruded from his lower lip like tusks.

In his hands, he held a war axe that made Nibo’s previous weapon look like a toy. The blade alone was the size of a grown man’s torso, and the entire weapon had to weigh at least three hundred pounds.

Nibo.

But not the Nibo that Akhil had known during their preparation. This was something primal. Something that had been compressed and contained, now finally released.

His opponent—or rather, what remained of his opponent—lay in two distinct pieces on opposite sides of the platform. The cut was so clean it looked surgical, as if reality itself had simply agreed to separate along that line.

But the devastation didn’t stop there.

The slash had continued beyond the body, carving through the platform’s stone surface like it was cloth. A chasm at least three feet deep ran from one edge of the platform to the other—a perfectly straight line that spoke of impossible sharpness combined with overwhelming strength.

Nibo stood at the center of that destruction, chest heaving, his axe resting against his shoulder. His eyes—normally calm and thoughtful—now burned with the kind of battle-fury that ancient warriors had sung about in legends.

This wasn’t just strength. This was something that went beyond physical capability into the realm of myth.

The divine realm erupted:

[God Poloneus: HOLY—did he just split the PLATFORM?!]

[Goddess Jayne: That’s reinforced stone! Enchanted to withstand divine-level impacts! And he CUT THROUGH IT?!]

[DaylithNight: The precision! One strike! One kill! And the follow-through was enough to destroy the arena itself!]

[God Verbraucht: I was wrong to doubt. I was SO wrong to doubt. These fighters are SPECTACULAR!]

[Goddess AuraNova: Two phenomenal displays in under ten seconds! This is what we’ve been waiting for!]

[Unknown: The ice queen and the green giant. Yes. More of this. MUCH more of this.]

[Goddess Vaydrix: Forget Seth and Ryan—we have new favorites! These two are INCREDIBLE!]