The Messenger of Death

-Boom!!

The powerful QI of a Heaven realm cultivator, exploded out of Kymani's fist as she threw a blow.

"Briirrrhh!!" The grating loud sound of sea horses crying out in pain filled the ears of everyone present.

Kymani's attack had killed over 12 of the sea horses that were ahead of them before it dissipated. Because of this loud cry, the rest of the sea horses that were in camouflage disabled this ability and showed themselves. Hundreds of sea horses with half of their bodies submerged in the water showed themselves.

"Kii!!! Briirrhh!!" The sea horses cried out in anger. They were furious at what just happened, their brethren had just been killed. 

The hearts of the prisoners present clenched at the sight of this. They had almost turned to food for the sea horses without even knowing. Some of them looked at Xander with more reverence now. They couldn't understand how he was able to tell where the sea horses were when they couldn't.

"God damn!" Kymani swore. 'This stupid sea horse was about to eat me, if this kid didn't warn, I would have been fish-horse food!!' Kymani thought in anger as she brought out a halberd from her storage ring. She started gathering the QI within her, putting her battle mode on.

"Kill!!" She gave out a battle cry and jumped off the ship that she was on, landing on one of the corpses of the sea horses that she had killed.

The rest of the prisoners also jumped off their ships and started throwing attacks at the herd of sea horses.

-Boom!

-Puutuck!!

-Boom!

The constant resounding noise of destructive power rang out as they battle the sea horses. The sea horses used their vicious tales to attack the prisoners and used their mouths to shoot water them. Water strong enough to kill them.

Xander and a few people remained on the ships, watching the battle in front of them. Their main objective was to protect the ships from attacks that could cripple or sink the ship.

['They wouldn't be able to win this fight.'] Al mentioned.

['Why do you say so?'] Lex questioned.

['Because-']

['Because the sea horses have the advantage of the environment. Even though each side has similar strength, to kill a single sea horse over 13 people have to work together on an alien terrain they cannot get a stable footing on, or fly.

The number of sea horses here is 3 times our number. If the sea horses go into a frenzy mode, they would be able to crush us easily, and once we fall into the water, we are as good as dead.'] Xander interrupted Al as he responded to Lex's question.

['Way to go, Xander, thank you for interrupting me, anyways, what Xander explained is similar to-'] Al started but he was interrupted once again… this time, by Lex.

['Then even Kymani might be overwhelmed by their number, she's already struggling to protect 6 ships from most of the sea horses.'] Lex said.

['Is today an interrupt Al when he's trying to speak day!?'] Al grumbled in frustration.

['Let me try something.'] Xander uttered in his mind, completely ignoring what Al said.

['Seems like the attention seeker is about to start throwing a tantrum.'] Alex chuckled at Al.

['Shut up or I'll screw you over the next time I take control.'] Al threatened and Alex quickly kept quiet…

Xander gathered his QI, using it manifest to 7 snowflakes, he then sent these snowflakes at one sea horse.

Like bullets, these snowflakes traveled and reached the sea horse. Upon contact with the sea horse, the snowflakes exploded and froze everything within its range of explosion, including the sea horses that were close by.

Although these sea horses were frozen to some extent, their eyes were still moving. Only the surface of their bodies had been affected by the explosion of the snowflakes. The snowflakes weren't enough to freeze them to the core.

The sea horses that had been hit by the snowflakes began shaking, trying to remove the ice that had restricted their movements, off from their bodies, and in a few moments, they were able to free themselves.

['With this much QI, the technique can only restrict them for about 5 seconds. This should be enough to help them reduce the pressure.'] Xander calculated.

['Assist those that are struggling to finish off a sea horse.'] Lex suggested.

Right after Lex's suggestion, Xander immediately produced 7 more snowflakes and shot them all at a sea horse that some of the prisoners were struggling to finish off.

-Boom!!

The sea horse's movement had been restricted by the ice that had now covered its body.

The prisoners that were fighting with this sea horse were surprised by the ability Xander used to attack. "Kill the sea horse while its movement is being restricted. The ice can only freeze its movement for about 5 seconds, don't dwindle around!" Xander ordered, and the 10 prisoners that were struggling to defeat the sea horse collectively attacked the sea horse with all they've got, killing it in one shot."

-Duum!!

Bloodied chunks of sea horse meat exploded and flew in random directions.

['Damn, that was overkill!!'] Alex exclaimed.

['With the snowflakes restricting their movements, I think 4 or 5 people would be enough to take down a sea horse.'] Xander thought.

['But that won't work unless you make the attack strong enough to cover a huge area, an AOE attack. Something similar to Nana's.'] Al pointed out.

['I know… I'm thinking of trying something, but I'm not sure if it going to work though.'] Ander replied.

['What exactly are you thinking of.'] Al questioned. He had a feeling that the desperado side of Xander was about to come to play once again, he could hear it in the way Xander spoke… metaphorically speaking.

['The density, quality, and quantity of QI are the main components that determine the strength and effect of the snowflakes, excluding the elemental affinity of the individual in question. If I am able to somehow use a large amount of dense QI as the catalyst for the snowflakes, then my attack would be able to do more than restricting their movements.'] Xander stated.

['Don't tell me it's what I think you're about to do, Xander.'] Al said, scared of the outcome of what Xander was planning to do.

['I plan on using a green HD-EC,'] Xander disclosed his plan.

['Have you forgotten what happened when I tried to absorb a green LD-EC? Our core shattered, although it was miraculously replaced with a bigger one, who's to say that we are strong enough to endure the density of the QI from a high-density green energy crystal?'] Al reminded.

['I didn't forget about that. I don't plan on letting the energy from the crystal reach my core, more accurately, I'm only going to be the bind between the source of QI and the technique. That way, the risk of having our core shattering again is null.'] Xander explained.

Hypothetically speaking, Xander's idea is plausible and possible. But only if he had the suitable resources that will not break under the pure, unfiltered energy of a green, high-density energy crystal, however, Xander wasn't aware of that, he only knew that he was taking a huge risk. Xander was basically saying that he would use the green energy crystal as a battery to power up the snowflakes.

['Reference to the Earth of back then, your idea sounds like you are trying to use a hovercar engine as the main component of a bicycle with a structure from the 20th century. You are aware that if the structure is not strong enough the bicycle will collapse… in other words, if our body can't handle the energy from the crystal, then we might collapse.'] Alex commented.

['I am also aware of that. Don't worry, the moment I feel like my body can't handle the energy I'll stop. And even if anything goes wrong, our regenerative ability is superhuman and we still have that serum from our side of the universe in the storage ring.']

['Using our one-time lifesaving trump card is not a wise thing to do.'] Al complained, still against Xander's idea.

['Then do you prefer we wait until many of the prisoners are dead? Even if we do manage to get out of here early without what I'm planning to do, the number of meat shields we have at disposal will reduce and that might delay our journey to the island some more. Losing one petal to those Midas seed carriers will reduce our chances of meeting the requirement for that deal with Mr. Guardian.'] Xander argued.

Al wanted to respond, but he kept quiet because what Xander said was more reasonable than his frugality. ['Ah! Am I the only one that's feeling our blood pressure rise?'] Al sighed.

['Definitely just you.'] Alex replied. ['Go ahead with it Xander.'] Alex gave his permission.

Immediately after getting permission from Alex, Xander brought out a green HD-EC from his storage ring and held it in his hand.

He then proceeded to create a single snowflake by using the QI from his core. When the snowflake had formulated completely, reaching the size of an egg, Xander stopped drawing energy from his core. Leaving the snowflake hovering in front of him, and then he started absorbing the energy within the green HD-EC.

Instead of drawing the QI from the energy crystal to his core, Xander held out his free hand and placed it underneath the snowflake, and transferred the QI from the green HD-EC to the snowflake.

In an instant, the egg-sized snowflake, grew until it was as large as Xander. It emitted bone-chilling mist that was also affecting Xander, making parts of his body get covered in thin ice.

Normally the cold wouldn't be able to affect him because of the fire and lightning bloodline in him, but due to his current situation, he couldn't divide his attention and try to warm himself up.

The mist froze the deck of the ship slowly, but steadily. Bringing the attention of some people over to Xander.

Xander wasn't even halfway through the green HD-EC and the snowflake was already this strong.

"Urgh!!" Xander grunted in pain.

From the moment he started absorbing the QI from the energy crystal and sending it through his arms, he felt the veins on his arms expand and entangle. The top of the palm that was holding on to the energy crystal was starting to deform, his fingers bent the opposite way and his elbow too, forcing him to drop the crystal to the ground.

"Argh!" Xander cried out lowly. He was in so much pain that he could feel his head split, and the chill from the snowflake wasn't helping matters too. Xander forced himself to stay conscious, aware that his healing ability was already starting to take action.

He couldn't let his effort go to waste. "This should be enough," Xander looked at the snowflake in front of him, it was now 2 times bigger than him…