The red-haired man, Ran Zhao, wiped the remaining alcohol from the corner of his lips with the back of his hand. A thin smile filled with predatory arrogance curved on his face as he stared at Haoran, who still stood there with a posture utterly devoid of intimidation.
"So there's still a station rat with the guts to challenge me," Ran Zhao muttered. His voice was hoarse, yet it carried a chilling vibration that caused the air around him to crystallize into fine snowflakes. "Before we truly dance with death, I'll give you one chance: run. I'm not in the mood to waste time in a place that's already nearly leveled."
Haoran burst into clear, ringing laughter—sincere in sound, yet deeply insulting to anyone who possessed power on the level of a General.
"What a coincidence," Haoran replied after his laughter subsided. "I don't want to linger here either. I've got a lot to do, and honestly, you're not my match. You'd be better off going home and sleeping it off so your drunkenness fades."
The thin smile on Ran Zhao's face vanished instantly, replaced by a trace of fury that caused the temperature around the station to plunge to an extreme freezing point.
"So this is how someone arrogant meets their end before death," he hissed.
He leapt down from the top of his ice golem with a light motion, as if gravity did not apply to him. While descending through the air, his fingers aimed precisely at Haoran's heart. An ice bullet instantly formed from the moisture in the air and shot forward at supersonic speed, creating a small shockwave along its path.
Haoran did not move. He neither dodged nor assumed a defensive stance. With a nearly lazy motion, he raised one hand and flicked the ice bullet away as if swatting an annoying fly.
Crack!
The ice crystal—capable of piercing ten centimeters of steel—shattered into worthless dust with a single flick of his palm.
Ran Zhao snorted in fury and began firing ice bullets in rapid succession. From above, Yan Shuo, who witnessed the scene, was utterly stunned. In his eyes, the attacks were no longer mere projectiles, but streaks of blue light flying at speeds comparable to heavy-caliber gunfire. Small explosions echoed as the bullets tore through the air.
Yet Haoran remained motionless. His expression was serious, but the calm on his face showed that he existed in an entirely different dimension of power. His right hand moved in an extremely efficient rhythm, deflecting every incoming attack with absolute precision. Not a single ice bullet made it past his defense.
Feeling mocked, Ran Zhao accelerated his firing until his hands blurred into afterimages. The speed was terrifying, turning the space between them into a deadly ice storm.
Haoran, on the other hand, did something utterly disrespectful: he let out a wide yawn while continuing to deflect the bullets with one hand, the other still tucked casually into his pocket.
"Enough!" Ran Zhao shouted, halting his attack as fatigue crept into his muscles. His breathing grew heavy, cold vapor spilling from his mouth.
"Gigant! Move out and crush this mutt!"
The giant golem behind him began to move. Each step made the ground quake violently. The ten-meter-tall creature broke into a run, its massive momentum generating terrifying kinetic force. Gigant clenched its ice fist—each as large as a minibus—and hurled it at Haoran with full power.
Haoran merely watched the attack approach with calm eyes, both hands now in his pockets.
BOOOM!
The golem's fist smashed into the ground exactly where Haoran had been standing. The resulting shockwave swept debris and rubble in all directions, leaving behind a deep impact crater with cracks spreading across the concrete like a spiderweb.
Ran Zhao grinned in satisfaction. He was certain that even a Stellar user specialized in defense would be reduced to pulp under such a blow. However, when the golem lifted its hand, the smile vanished from Ran Zhao's face. His eyes widened in disbelief.
Haoran stood there, at the center of the crater, completely unharmed. His clothes were clean, and his hair was perfectly in place. He remained exactly where he had been, as if the attack had been nothing more than a gentle breeze.
"What happened?! Why aren't you destroyed?!" Ran Zhao screamed hysterically.
"Attack him nonstop, Gigant! Don't give him time to breathe!"
The golem went berserk, unleashing a barrage of punches into the crater.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The impacts sounded like successive claps of thunder. Concrete dust and ice fragments filled the air, obscuring vision. Ran Zhao watched closely. Every time a fist landed, he saw Haoran vanish an instant before impact—and when the fist lifted, Haoran was once again standing in the exact same spot.
"What kind of Stellar is this? Speed? Or space manipulation?" Ran Zhao muttered, cold sweat forming despite the freezing temperature. He was beginning to realize he was facing a monster in human form.
"Looks like I'll need to call for backup…" he murmured quietly, though his ego still restrained him.
"Gigant! Keep going! Don't stop until I say so!"
Ran Zhao turned, intending to find an opening or call for help through his communicator, but his steps froze. His heart seemed to stop beating.
Right in front of him—only a few centimeters away—Haoran was already standing there with a deadly thin smile.
"Where do you think you're going?" Haoran asked casually.
Ran Zhao leapt backward with extraordinary reflexes to create distance.
"You… how is this possible?"
He glanced behind him, seeing his golem still pounding an empty crater.
"Gigant, stop!" he shouted.
Ran Zhao cursed inwardly, his face pale. What kind of monster is this? I thought he could only focus on one attack at a time, but he can relocate at an impossible speed even while being attacked. This man is truly not my equal.
"Truly fast. Worthy of praise," Ran Zhao said, struggling to regain his composure, though his voice trembled slightly. "If I may ask, what is your name? I want to know who I must take seriously in this battle."
Haoran tilted his head.
"Does it really matter to tell my name to someone who's going to lose?"
"If you won't say it, then let me introduce myself first… I am Ran Zhao, commander of the Freezing Division of the Black Frost faction," the man declared proudly.
Haoran smiled broadly.
"Nice to meet you, Ran—"
Before Ran Zhao could react, Haoran vanished like smoke blown away by the wind. His voice echoed again from an unexpected direction.
"—Zhao."
Ran Zhao turned, looking toward the top of the ice golem. There, sitting casually atop the giant's head, was Haoran. Even more infuriating, he was leisurely chewing on a piece of bread, as if enjoying a picnic in a park rather than standing amid a devastated battlefield.
Haoran gazed toward the horizon, taking in the sight of Laskas City now shrouded in smoke and ice.
"Look at this city," Haoran said with a hint of concern. "Do you think a city this beautiful can truly recover after the chaos you've caused?"
Above, standing on a floating golden book, Yan Shuo could not contain his awe. His mouth hung wide open.
"That guy… he's insanely fast. I can't even catch his movements with my eyes. Incredible!" he muttered excitedly.
"If only I had a speed-type Stellar like that, I'd never worry about being late for work. I could jump between cities in an instant without even paying for a train ticket!"
He smiled, imagining the ease of such a life, momentarily forgetting the danger lurking below.
Meanwhile, Ran Zhao had reached the limit of his patience.
"Gigant! Crush him now!" he roared.
His expression changed.
"I'll start getting serious from here!"
The ice golem raised both arms high, then slammed them down onto its own head with catastrophic force, intending to obliterate Haoran sitting above. Yet in the blink of an eye, Haoran had already relocated to the asphalt below.
Ran Zhao did not hesitate. He immediately fired ice bullets simultaneously while surfing atop an ice track he created from his palm.
Haoran dodged with extremely efficient movements, deflecting the remaining projectiles with his bare hands. The golem charged again, launching an overhead punch that made the ground tremble. Ran Zhao snapped his fingers, and instantly the golem's arm reshaped into a sharp, hardened ice cone, smashing into the ground exactly where Haoran stood.
Once again, Haoran vanished at lightning speed.
Ran Zhao, gliding along the ice track circling Haoran, continued to bombard him with ice bullets. Haoran deflected them all effortlessly, his expression never changing.
The ice golem turned and sprinted toward Haoran with overwhelming momentum. Ran Zhao paused his attack, his face intensely focused. He snapped his fingers hard once more.
CRASH!
Suddenly, the giant golem shattered into countless fragments.
From above, Yan Shuo was confused.
"Why did the golem break apart? Did that guy do it?"
The confusion was answered in the next second. The shattered ice fragments did not fall to the ground, but instead floated in the air and began to merge into a new form. The ice reshaped itself into a massive sword five meters long, radiating dark blue aura, hovering and pointing directly at Haoran's head.
Not stopping there, Ran Zhao directed one hand to the ground. The veins on his forehead bulged as he forced the surrounding moisture to freeze and take shape.
"Ice Dragon… Rise!" he shouted.
His hands trembled violently as he channeled his energy to construct the dragon's intricate body—from tail, to scales, to the head with crystal fangs. With a snap of his fingers, the ice dragon seemed to breathe to life, its eyes glowing bright blue as it began circling Ran Zhao as both shield and weapon.
As if that were not enough, Ran Zhao created two additional golems, each fifteen meters tall, each with four arms ready to crush anything in their path. On Ran Zhao's own body, four additional ice arms sprouted from his back, moving independently like real limbs.
In his main hand, he gripped a long ice spear radiating absolute-zero cold.
Ran Zhao stood at the center of this overwhelming battle formation—a commander of an ice storm ready to flatten everything. He stared at Haoran with eyes filled with hatred and swelling pride.
"Alright," he said coldly.
"Come at me."