Chapter 13-1
Dong! The sword bounced back. The fire formed a solid blue shield above the Balrog. The shield took the light blade. The wound on its chest had completely healed by this time. The Balrog slowly stood up from the ground.
With a roar at the sky, the Balrog’s fire great more intense than ever. A white marble floated out from its mouth then moved to the top of its head. Suddenly, its blue fire began gradually changing its color toward white. The temperature of the area jumped again. There were signs of the ice melting.
“Zheng! I am going to burst the last of my power! I can manage another thirty seconds before I lose the ability to maintain this form. Cut it down to pieces. I will freeze it with the coldest air from Ice Age!” Gungnir’s shout sounded more like a wail.
He was the ice at this point and the ice was him. When the fire grew and melted all his ice, he would die. This was the only method of killing him once he entered Ice Age and this was what the Balrog was doing.
Zheng could feel that intense heat from the fire despite protecting himself with the light blade. The light blade could defend against physical attacks but didn’t isolate the temperature from him. The high heat pushed him back just then. Hearing what Gungnir just said, he had no choice but to head back to where ice still remained. Then he dismounted.
Zheng spent less than three seconds doing this. The Balrog made its move again. It roared. Mystical rune words and symbols faded into existence at the air in front of it. These rune words were formed by strings of blue fire and looked ethereal. However, Gandalf’s expression changed as soon as he saw the rune words.
“Stop him! It’s the Roar of the Fire Spirit! The ability releases its essence of fire all at once. We won’t live through it!” Gandalf shouted.
He spent all his effort maintaining the barrier so he didn’t have the power to do anything else. The hall outside the barrier began exploding after his words.
Zheng made his decision. A red flame burned from his body. He instantly felt the temperature returned to a comfortable degree. It wasn’t as high as before. He stepped heavily and charged up to the side of the Balrog’s head with lightning speed. He kicked his leg across. The huge force blasted the Balrog’s head. A big cloud of white fire flared on its place.
Zheng felt burning pain on his leg as soon as he kicked. His red flame could not fully neutralized this white fire and it burned his leg in an instant. He was in Destruction at this point. By the time the pain registered, he already jumped up with Geppo. He reached ten meters above the Balrog. When he looked down, his leg was full of bloody blisters.
(That heat is scary. Is this really only 30% strength of the original Balrog? No wonder they were called nemesis of humans. They were nemesis of all living beings.)
Zheng thought to himself but he didn’t stop moving. He slammed Tiger’s Soul downward. He wasn’t using the light blade with this attack but the sword itself. The sword slashed right through the Balrog’s chest. The Balrog along with the rune words and symbols were cut in halves.
“Still not enough! Cut it up further then throw the parts over! I won’t be able to freeze it at such a high temperature!”
Tiger’s Soul smashed into the ground heavily. Bang! It blasted large crevice on the ground. Hearing Gungnir’s words, Zheng jumped again. Tiger’s Soul slashed across horizontally at the center of the Balrog, further cutting it into four pieces. These pieces were connected by a whitish blue fire. And more white fire spewing out from its head. It looked like the Balrog’s head was reforming. Zheng kicked a piece of the body off the connecting fire.
Knowing how strong he was during Destruction, this kick would crush even the pillars into powder. But the Balrog’s body was much tougher than he thought. The kick only sent it flying. It was no where close to crushing the body. However, this was good enough. As the body part disconnected from the linking fire, everyone heard a bellow.
This was the moment Gungnir had been waiting for. As soon as the Balrog’s body part flew away, a small blizzard surrounded it. The collision of fire and ice created heavy steam that gradually spread outward. Gandalf’s barrier couldn’t block off steam and so everyone experienced a sauna. The steam hadn’t ended yet when the remaining three parts of the Balrog flew in three different directions. At the same time, several blizzards whirled toward the body parts. Steam filled the hall and no one could open their mouths within that heat.
Zheng had exited Destruction by now. The fight lasted less than seven seconds. He was bleeding blood all over but he still retained 40% of his power. About ten seconds later, the steaming stopped. He slowly walked toward the glowing marble on the ground. He wasn’t weakened to a degree than he couldn’t walk.
“Damn, that was almost too dangerous, but thankfully.” He muttered to himself as he walked. He had received the notification just then. That was why he felt assured to he let Gungnir handle the four body parts while he walked toward fire energy stone.
The energy stone gave off a powerful aura. It seemed like it should at least be a rank A energy stone. If he was lucky, this might even be rank AA. So Zheng wanted to get the stone in his hand before anything else. The real danger was over after all.
“Careful!” Gandalf yelled.
He released the barrier when he saw the Balrog got killed. However, seeing that Zheng was walking toward the fire energy stone, and the stone was glowing brighter and brighter, he immediately yelled. At the same time, he rushed toward Zheng.
Zheng just exited Destruction so he was at his most feeble period. He could only walk for now but Gandalf’s words shocked him. He turned his head to see Gandalf ran past him and toward the energy stone. Gandalf picked up the stone while he was still spacing off and chanted a spell in a difficult language.
The energy stone glowed brighter and brighter that even Zheng knew something was off. By the look of it, it seemed to be going to explode. A silver flame from Gandalf’s hand tried to wrap over the energy stone but it suddenly flashed in a dazzling light. When the group got their gaze back to Gandalf, his body had ignited. A blue fire was coming out from the energy stone. This fire looked like it was growing in size as if it wanted to form a new Balrog.
“I am the servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you! Protect Frodo, Zheng!” Blue fire enveloped Gandalf but he was still chanting. The silver flame kept trying to contain this stone. At the same time, Gandalf held the stone in his hands then jumped down the chasm. He and the blue fire disappeared from their sight along with his final words.
“No, no!” Frodo yelled, followed by the rest of the movie characters. The players were standing there in shock. Everything that just happened left them stunned. A loud thump and tremble came up from the abyss. The bridge collapsed. The land they were standing on began to fall off inch by inch. The energy stone obviously exploded at the bottom of the chasm. The shockwave trembled the cliffs, including the land they were standing on. And standing nearest to the chasm was Zheng. He fell along with the falling rocks. Then the movie characters and several players fell.