Chapter 202: Shield of Frost

"Rayan, you villain! Get off your horse and face your death!"

Rayan almost burst out laughing at the fat knight's serious words, "You didn't even dare face my Emerald Fire Thunder, and now you're putting on an act about facing death? Fine, I'll oblige you."

With that, Rayan dismounted from the Emerald Fire Thunder. The horse neighed in protest at not being able to fight alongside Rayan. Rayan affectionately patted its neck, "Brother Thunder, don't be impatient. Watch me take him down with one sword strike."

Emerald Fire Thunder was quite satisfied with the term "brother" and nodded its head several times.

Rayan chuckled inwardly, not expecting the demon steed to appreciate flattery so much.

He turned around and strode towards the laurel fat knight, saying calmly, "Let's begin."

With that, the orange Apprentice Hero Battle Qi infused his Crow Sword, radiating a murderous aura.

The fat knight gritted his teeth, thinking to himself that as an Eighth Tier Fighter, there was no way he could be defeated in one strike. He adjusted his armor, tightened the Elite-level shield on his wrist, raised his curved sword, and shouted, "Long live the Laurel!"

Seeing this display, Rayan assumed he was about to charge. But instead, the fat knight, after shouting, shrank behind his Elite-level shield, only exposing his squinting eyes.

"Heh heh, villain Rayan, didn't you boast about defeating me in one strike?"

The fat knight laughed wildly from behind his round shield, "I won't make a move. Let's see how you can defeat me with one strike! If it takes you two strikes, you lose! Do you dare to accept?"

The audience booed loudly, cursing the fat knight's shamelessness.

Even Trevor and Imperius couldn't help but shake their heads. The arena always valued heated combat, not hiding to achieve one's goal. Moreover, setting "one strike" as the condition for winning was neither graceful nor fair.

Rayan didn't mind and responded, "Since I said one strike, it will be one strike. If I can't make you admit defeat in one strike, I'll leave the arena and join the Oath Knights of the Copper-edged group."

"Keep your word!"

The fat knight, afraid such an opportunity might slip away, quickly emphasized, "Don't forget, you're representing the Pisces family. If you don't keep your word, you'll disgrace the Pisces banner!"

A surge of anger swept through Rayan's heart, "You don't need to remind me. Worry about your own life first."

The fat knight laughed wildly, then smugly said, "You probably don't know the power of this shield in front of me, do you?"

Rayan glanced at the round shield on the fat knight's wrist. The shield wasn't very large, just enough to cover his throat, heart, and lower body—the three vital points. It seemed to be made of ancient oak, with a golden rim around the edge. The surface was embossed with a pink laurel crest, obviously added later with some showy craftsmanship. The shield also had a layer of deep blue glow, contrasting sharply with the laurel's extravagance.

Before Rayan could think further, the fat knight eagerly revealed the answer, "Haha, let me tell you, this shield was bought by my Laurel Madam at great expense from an auction. It's called: Oak Frost Shield!"

Rayan replied indifferently, "The name is quite ordinary."

The fat knight's face twitched. On the Auroria Continent, only items of Enchanted level and above had official names. Though the round shield in his hand wasn't personally enchanted by a grand magus of the Holy Light Sisterhood, it was enhanced with an enchantment scroll, making it far superior to ordinary Elite-level equipment, almost reaching the level of Enchanted items. The name "Oak Frost Shield" was well deserved.

He sneered, "Do you think this shield was only enchanted with one scroll? An Elite-level equipment can be enchanted with the same attribute up to twelve times, but only the first three times are guaranteed not to fail. From the fourth time on, any enchantment attempt might fail, and if it does, the equipment will shatter. You'd need to find an Expert blacksmith and spend a fortune to restore it, and even then, all attributes would be lost!"

"And this shield was already enchanted with ten layers of frost attributes when it was bought from the auction!"

The entire arena buzzed with discussions. Some spectators began to bet on the fat knight winning, as Rayan had promised to win in one strike, and the fat knight was hiding behind such a peculiar shield.

Imperius gently shook his head and whispered to Trevor, "Lord Trevor, could you pierce a shield with ten layers of added attributes in one strike?"

Trevor, with a grim face, half replied to Imperius and half muttered to himself, "How could such a strange piece of equipment exist? That oak shield looks like an ordinary fine piece, worth at most a hundred gold coins. Who would spend so many enchantment scrolls to enhance it?"

Imperius chuckled, "Maybe someone started as a gamble, seeing if they were lucky. They didn't expect it to survive ten enchantments without breaking, and when it reached the tenth layer, they were afraid to try again but found it too precious to use, so they put it up for auction—Lord Trevor, you haven't answered my question."

Trevor asked back expressionlessly, "What about you, Lord Imperius? Could you break a ten-layer enchanted frost shield in one strike?"

"Probably not." Imperius shrugged, his armor clanking, showing a relieved expression of "luckily it's not me."

"Neither can I."

Trevor admitted frankly, "Though my Battle Qi is at the Senior Hero level, my sword gang power is far from enough. For such an attack that requires concentrating all power at one point, I'm not confident."

Imperius' wrinkled face showed a rare smile, "If we both can't do it, that kid definitely can't."

Trevor stared at Rayan and spat out two words through his thin lips, "Not necessarily."

Opposite the Oak Frost Shield, Rayan's cold expression was even more chilling than the shield's icy aura. He had seen the power of frost attributes when he fought Crimson Thorn, whose darts had frost attributes.

Once touched by frost-attribute equipment, one could be frozen. The higher the attribute enhancement, the longer the freezing duration, depending on the Battle Qi level. Though it had no direct lethality, it was a highly troublesome attribute, both offensive and defensive.

As Rayan gazed at the Oak Frost Shield, his mind wandered to the similarly troublesome female robber leader, Crimson Thorn. Where was she now? Had her Battle Qi improved over the year? When would they meet again, and would she demand the Crow Sword back?

—No matter what, he would never return the Crow Sword. At most, he would compensate her with something else.

Lady Spring Rain on the noble stand saw Rayan standing still and thought he was in big trouble, her heart clenched with worry.

Phoenix Lady, however, leisurely waved her black silk fan, smiling at Rayan with increasing desire in her eyes.

The fat knight hiding behind the Oak Frost Shield thought Rayan was scared, and couldn't help but laugh, "Realize my Laurel family is not to be messed with? It's not too late to surrender now. Just admit I deserve to be in the king's group, and I won't trouble you. We can call it quits, and you won't lose. You can still challenge the other nine Oath Knights."

This was a big favor to Rayan, though it earned the ire of the other Oath Knights.

The fat knight knew very well that though he called Rayan a "villain" to bolster his courage, he was no match for Rayan or any Oath Knight there. But he had a ten-layer frost attribute shield. Even if he got beaten up, he wanted to drag the other Oath Knights down with him.

Hearing the fat knight's laughter, Rayan snapped out of his thoughts about Crimson Thorn and asked calmly, "Your shield, the Oak Frost Shield, had ten layers of frost attributes when you bought it, right?"

"Yes!"

The fat knight arrogantly stuck his head out but quickly ducked back behind the shield, smirking, "Heh heh, trying to trick me? No way!"

Rayan ignored the fat knight's smugness and continued, "So, how many layers does it have now?"

The fat knight hesitated, then stammered, "Still ten layers... what's the big deal? It's almost as good as true Enchanted-level equipment! I don't need to add more enchantment scrolls!"

"You're afraid of breaking the ten-layer shield, right?"

Rayan smiled faintly, "How much did your patriarch spend on this shield?"

The fat knight pouted, "No harm in telling you. This Oak Frost Shield cost a total of 160,000 gold coins!"

"Wow!"

The entire arena erupted. A shield worth at most a hundred gold coins, after surviving ten enchantments without breaking, had its value soar to 160,000 gold coins!