Dragged Into Another World Because of My Otaku Friend-Chapter 163: Absolute Zero

All three of us nodded.

"Wow, so serious. From the look on all of your faces, it seems like I need to get serious too," Azul said.

Bang! Bang!

I fired several shots toward Azul, initiating our fight. As usual, he dodged every bullet with ease. But I didn’t care about that, because Linus and Bob were already closing in from each side.

Bob crossed his two swords into an X, while Linus raised his staff high.

Ping! Ping!

Azul deflected both of their attacks as the three of them clashed in a tense exchange. Meanwhile, I used the opportunity to slip behind him.

"Iron Spike Bullet!"

I fired multiple enhanced Iron Spike Bullets toward Azul. The spikes shot forward at high speed. A normal person would’ve already died from this kind of point-blank attack, but this Azul guy was far beyond normal.

He twisted his body in mid-air, evading my bullets and, at the same time, managed to kick Bob and Linus in one smooth motion.

"Are you kidding me?! Is he some kind of kung fu expert?" I screamed in annoyance. This guy was absurdly hard to hit.

As I was still in awe at Azul’s performance, my eyes caught a glimpse of Beltimore. He noticed my glance and nodded. It seemed his preparations were finally complete.

"Now! Step back!" I shouted to Bob and Linus, who were still stumbling from Azul’s attack. The moment they heard my command, both of them instantly dashed away from the area. William and the others also grew alert and retreated.

The aura around Beltimore grew colder and more ominous. His eyes glowed bright light-blue. The book floating before him flipped its pages rapidly. Then he slowly raised his hand.

Suddenly, a small blue array appeared at the center of the roof, before expanding in an instant, spreading over the entire area.

"Absolute Zero!"

Pang!

The sound of ice forming echoed from the top of the building. Ice erupted from the array, shooting upward nearly five meters into the air.

There was no way that annoying guy could escape this kind of AoE attack.

"Pheew! So close! If I was late by a second, I’d definitely be frozen into an ice statue," Bob said while wiping his forehead.

"Are you sure? I think you ran faster than me just now. You really move that fast when your life’s on the line, huh?" Linus said, impressed.

Ignoring their conversation, I moved toward Beltimore and William, who were standing near the towering ice sculpture.

"It’s been years since I last saw this skill. Looks just as massive as before. Seems like you haven’t slacked off at all," William said.

Beltimore remained silent, staring into the sculpture. Inside it, all the black-robed enemies were frozen solid. He had timed his skill perfectly, activating it the moment his allies escaped the area and all the enemies were still trapped within.

I walked closer and looked at one of the figures in the white robe, Azul. He was suspended in the ice, motionless. But suddenly, a voice echoed out. All of us instantly snapped to attention.

The voice came from Azul, still trapped inside the ice.

"Good job. Good job, everyone. Looks like I’m fully trapped here and can’t go anywhere. But if you think you’ve already won, you’re wrong. I’m still at the top of the leaderboard in this battle, and everything is going exactly as I planned. I suggest all of you return to your base. Maybe your friends there have some news for you."

Suddenly, the inside of the ice turned whitish, as if a warp was forming. Beltimore narrowed his eyes and immediately melted the ice. A few seconds later, when the warp faded, Azul was already gone, leaving only the black-robed enemies, about twenty of them, lying on the ground.

"Damn it! He managed to escape even from that ultimate skill!" Bob said, disappointed.

"What did he mean by news from the base? Is he saying he attacked our base?" William asked, worry creeping into his voice.

Somehow, I felt uneasy about this. My mind suddenly flashed the face of Princess Reika. I shook my head. There was no way anything happened to her. She was well guarded. I forced myself to calm down.

"This kaoslith here, we don’t have any way to deal with it right now. So let’s go back to the base! Mark, bring Lee down," Beltimore ordered.

"So we just came here for nothing?" Selene asked.

"No. At least we found the culprit behind all this. I believe the only way to destroy the kaoslith is to defeat that man," Linus said.

All of us nodded. After that, we tied the black-robe enemies together and carried Lee, who was unconscious on the other side of the building, down. We rendezvoused with Evelyn and Alia below, told them everything, and then ran back toward our base.

---

Thump!

One of the pillars collapsed as it was punched by Reymond, who looked very angry.

Nearby him, hundreds of slain monsters lay on the floor, all with deep wounds or missing body parts.

The battle had just ended when a guard suddenly arrived and delivered very bad news.

Reymond clenched his teeth. "This is all my mistake! If I had been more firm, I would never have brought the princess together with me." He was disappointed in himself. He then turned away and grabbed his spear.

Dave immediately blocked him.

"Calm down, Prince. I know you’re furious. But you need to rest first. The enemy must be well prepared to fight you, and if you face them in this condition, you’re only running to your doom," Dave said.

"Then what should we do? Just wait, while I don’t know the current state of my sister?"

"No. We will, of course, help her. But first, we need to return to base and get as much information as we can."

Reymond tightened his grip on his spear. His eyes closed as he frowned deeply. He exhaled slowly and looked at Dave.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let’s move!"