Northern, meanwhile, was earnestly searching, waiting, wondering:
'What the hell? She's not using her abilities?'
He washed his face with his hand,
'Are you telling me she has been fighting the might of a Catastrophic Hellion with pure skills all this while? No talents involved?'
Raven was matching the might of a Catastrophic Hellion with pure skills that had been ingrained in her, perhaps because she is—of course—from the Kageyama clan.
If Raven was this impressive, he couldn't help but think of how strong Shin would be.
Imagine this deadly blade art in the hands of multiple clones.
A truly deadly weapon of assassination indeed.
Shin was a Master Pretender, Northern was sure of it. At this point, he just had to admit that there were a lot of mysteries surrounding that guy that he never saw.
It was so easy to overlook because he was so laid-back, almost dim, in fact.
Northern didn't want to call his father dumb.
Still, he watched with intense focus, even if he wouldn't be able to copy it yet.
He was dying to see what ability the lady had, he wanted to see why she was so strong.
Krullgath's strength was failing. Blue blood streamed from his wounds, staining the icy ground beneath his feet.
His movements became sluggish, his swings losing their deadly precision. But still, he fought on, his eyes blazing with a fierce determination.
Raven gathered her strength, preparing for one final, decisive strike.
Her swords glowed with a faint white light as she channeled her essence into them.
With another loud cry of defiance, she launched into the final form of her art and shouted:
"Black Crow Dual Blade, Improvised Form: Raven's Wrath!"
Her voice echoed through the arena, and she moved with blinding speed, her swords slicing through the air in a deadly arc aimed at Krullgath's neck.
The White Walker, however, with all the injuries on his body and blood dripping down, stood there, his gaze fixed on the oncoming Raven's Wrath—an attack that enveloped her in a massive white crow, destroying even the iced ground as she ran towards her target.
Northern frowned slightly,
'What is he doing? Don't tell me he wants to use his...' Northern gasped internally.
There had been slight moments when Krullgath intercepted with his ability, but Northern didn't think those slight moments were all there was to the White Walker's abilities.
As Raven reached in front of the White Walker, with both her swords gliding towards his neck from opposite sides, a powerful blizzard suddenly exploded between them.
Instantly, enclosing every single thing on the battle ground with white fog.
Northern squinted his eyes; others might not have seen what happened, but it wasn't so hard for him.
Even though the shock of the blizzard had distracted him for a moment, so he indeed missed that moment.
The White Walker had used his ability, a crazy force to counter the force of Raven's attack, hence nullifying it.
The thud and explosion that resounded were the result of both forces clashing against each other.
That was probably what he thought of doing since the beginning.
Raven was standing, staggered, blood dripping down from her forehead.
But the White Walker had sustained more injuries than she did in the course of this battle.
Suddenly, a clanging sound was heard—it was the White Walker.
And took two steps backward, then crossed his hands over his face and raised a leg.
Immediately, the crowd began to murmur lowly.
Northern, confused about what was happening, turned to the person next to him and asked in the monster tongue.
"I'm sorry, what is going on?"
"Commander Chief. Yield. Woman. Strong. Very strong."
The White Walker with quite the short horn nodded seriously as he responded to Northern.
Northern breathed out in relief and watched Raven.
She probably didn't need to be told. It was already clear enough from him dropping his weapon.
That stance, however...
'Did he have to raise his leg?'
It was probably a part of their culture, which immediately prompted Northern to remember and ask the White Walker next to him again.
The White Walker looked at him for a second, then said:
"Sura Tal. Man. Woman. Come. Firewater. Drink. Drink. Stronger man, stronger woman don't sleep. Weaker man, weaker woman sleep." He laughed as he completed.
The others beside him also carried the laughter.
Northern stared into nothing for a couple of confusing seconds.
'So... Sura Tal is a contest of drinking? Firewater? Alcohol? Then the one that passes out is the stronger one?'
His mouth slowly fell.
'This was supposed to be a contest of alcohol? What the fuck did I cause?!!'
Raven slowly slumped to the ground but fell into the arms of the White Walkers' commander chief.
"Woman. Suffering. Woman need rest."
Northern, seeing her go down, quickly jumped into the arena and hurried to where they were.
Only after he had started running did he feel embarrassed and question himself why he ran in hurriedly like that.
But he couldn't just stop mid-way.
He collected Raven from him and carried her in his arms.
Exhaustion wore her face like an apparel, her skin was getting whitish; the cold had probably gotten worse since she had carelessly expended herself like that.
"Your Woman. Strong. Me. Sorry." Krullgath lowered his head a little bit.
Northern, in response, nodded his head.
"Thank you, you're such an honorable person?"
The White Walker tilted his head a little bit in confusion.
Clearly, he understood not what those words meant, even though he had no trouble pronouncing them in the monster tongue.
Northern stared at him, blinking for a few seconds.
He didn't quite know how to explain to him that they were an honorable species.
The only monsters he had come across that were anything close to being honorable were his hideous guardian angel and Night Terror.
Remembering those two suddenly made him feel melancholy.
Krullgath fell to his knee as the boy came towards them.
Northern lowered his head.
But the boy immediately bowed ninety degrees.
"Teacher! Name. Ulzred."
Northern was dumbfounded, as well as everyone in the arena.
'Crap... how can someone be so humble?!'
What leader before his people would bow down before someone else, even if they deemed them a teacher?
Or was he just naive?