On his way towards the Rocky Mountains region, or the Earth Elemental region, Kayn found a familiar face near the border of the earth region.
It wasn't really a familiar face that would bring a smile to Kayn's face, but after certain circumstances, a smile crept up his lips nonetheless.
"Good day to you! It's been a while!" Kayn shouted as he released his newly acquired ice mana ball from his mouth.
Just like how he used his fireball before, he used the ice mana ball to greet and prod his enemy first.
The familiar face, the ice demon that had defeated Kayn before, looked back at Kayn. The ice demon was already looking at him before Kayn even greeted him.
Seeing the familiar fireball- or the ice mana ball instead coming out of Kayn's mouth, the ice demon was sure that Kayn was indeed the demon that he had met before.
With the only difference being the demon had already passed the ice trial and became another ice demon, just like himself.
However, different from before when he just stood still and let the fireball freeze on its own, the ice mana ball was already made of ice, and he couldn't freeze it further.
So, the ice demon just took a step to the side and let the ice mana ball hit the snowy ground.
Kayn landed a distance away from the ice demon, just far enough that his spells could reach the ice demon.
But of course, it also meant that Kayn was within the range of the ice demon's spells. They're both ice demons after all.
"Why don't we start with some nostalgia!"
Kayn then opened up one of his palms and cast ice spears.
The ice demon did the same and cast his own ice spears. The two ice spears then shot towards each other, destroying each other in the process.
Seeing this, the ice demon raised his other hand and cast two simultaneous ice spear spells.
Double the amount of ice spears then materialized in the air before shooting themselves in Kayn's direction.
However, Kayn didn't intend to play the same game as the ice demon.
Still with only one of his hands raised, Kayn cast another spell to counter the double amount of ice spears.
"Ice Bullet."
With just one spell, Kayn materialized the same amount- even more projectiles towards the ice spears.
The hail of bullets went against the ice spears as they began to crash and cancelled each other out.
"I've learned a couple of tricks from the last trial, you know? I hope you did the same, or this will be boring." Kayn declared as he cast another ice bullet with his other hand.
Instantly, the number of ice bullets doubled. The ice bullets numbered the ice spears from about 1 to 7, and the ice spears could at most deal with half the bullets, while the rest made their way towards the ice demon.
But the ice demon wasn't unprepared like Kayn's reflection. The second he saw the ice bullets outnumber his spears, the ice demon cast an ice shield.
The barrier manifested in time as the bullets that weren't destroyed by the ice spears hit the ice shield instead of the ice demon's body.
But Kayn was able to guess that the ice demon would at least be this capable.
The second the ice demon stopped casting the ice spears, Kayn used his two remaining hands to cast another spell.
"Ice Spike Prison."
But the ice demon saw the runes that Kayn had drawn.
Feeling the mana gathering from the top of his head, his sides, even the ground around his body, the ice demon quickly made his move.
"Ice Prison."
Instead of aiming the prison to go around Kayn, the ice demon cast the ice prison around himself.
With a simpler spell and a shorter distance to travel, the ice prison manifested itself faster compared to Kayn's ice spike prison.
The ice dome covered the ice demon from head to toe, the ice spike prison soon followed just a beat later.
Ice spikes rose from the ground, materialized in the air, and the sides of the ice dome, stabbing themselves into the thick walls of the ice dome.
"Whew, that's one way to use that spell… But you can't just keep yourself holed in there!"
As if already knowing that, after the ice spikes finished manifesting, the ice dome cracked open as a pillar of ice rose from the ground, lifting the ice demon off the ground.
Seeing this, Kayn cast more ice bullets. It would be impossible for the ice demon to just run away since it had limited its own dodging patterns by raising a small platform into the air.
But the ice demon didn't plan to just shield against Kayn's ice bullets while remaining on top of the pillar.
The ice demon opened up both his palms and pressed them against the ice pillar beneath his feet.
"Ice Field."
When the spell manifested, the ice pillar that rose from the ground below began retreating into the ground.
But it didn't go underground. Instead, the ice spread all around the ground, making a layer of ice on the ground below.
And when the ice pillar was no more and the ice demon was back on the ground, or at least the ice ground that he had created, a pair of blade-like shoes made out of ice was on the ice demon's feet.
"Is that… How did you figure out how to ice skate in here…?"
The ice demon ignored Kayn's question as it began kicking the ground, and he easily slid through the ice.
When the ice ground was about to end, the ice demon cast another spell. Another ice ground then appeared right in front of the ice demon, while the ice ground behind him disappeared.
With that method, the ice demon slowly but surely got closer towards Kayn as it easily dodged Kayn's attack by moving at high speed with the ice skate on its feet.
Not only dodging, though, the ice demon also sent his own attacks.
"Rigid Ice Spears." The runes manifested and disappeared, sending more ice spears towards Kayn's direction.
Without the ice demon having to deal with Kayn's bullets with another spell, the ice demon was free to cast as many ice spears as it could while easily dodging the ice bullets.
Moreover, the ice spears that he had cast were different from the ordinary ice spears.
Instead of many ice spears, the rigid ice spear spell only summoned three ice spears. But less doesn't mean worse in this case.
When Kayn sent his own bullets towards the ice spears, the ice spears stayed intact even after crashing against three ice bullets. He needed to cast another set of ice bullets to finally stop the ice spears' advance.
However, the ice bullets only stopped the ice spear's momentum and destroyed some parts of its body.
Before, after a part of the ice spear was destroyed, the whole spell would crumble, but not this time.
The ice spears that had been stopped by the bullets stayed in the world. They either stabbed themselves onto the ground or just lay motionless after losing their momentum.