Chapter 390 390: The Slap
Third Person's POV
Clearly, you are an imposter and a deceiver, someone with vile intentions toward this princess."
Her words fell with a finality meant to condemn him, and her arrogance rose like a crown upon her head.
Hearing her pompous declaration and the way she shamelessly referred to herself in the third person, Ethan's lips twitched.
The unshaken conviction in her eyes made it painfully clear to him that she wasn't joking, and from her words, she clearly believed the crap she was spouting so naturally.
Seeing her like this, only a single thought rang in his head.
'How could such an idiotic person exist in this world?'
As he pondered this disturbing truth, his gaze turned absent for a fleeting moment.
That vacant look was all it took to drive the young lady, the self-proclaimed "princess," into a frenzy.
Her painted smile froze on her face as his casual disregard for her and his silence was worse than any insult.
And then, when she noticed the faint, mocking sneer tugging at Velcy's scarred lips behind him, something inside her snapped.
In a heartbeat, she was airborne from her previous sitting position.
With a shrill, piercing screech that tore through the square, she lunged toward Velcy.
In midair, her nails elongated into half-foot crimson talons that gleamed with malice while leaving gleaming blood red trails in the air.
"How dare you look at me like that, you disgusting slave!"
Her shrew like voice cracked through the air like glass shattering.
Due to her action, the commotion in the square fell like a stone in water as the once-bustling square turned eerily silent.
Dozens of heads whipped around, and their eyes locked on the spectacle unfolding beneath the blood banner with the intent of watching a good show.
Though, as they were newcomers, confusion about why such a fight happened suddenly spread like wildfire, but not all were so clueless.
On the altar, two boys in ceremonial garb froze mid-step, and their expressions twisted into shock and then schadenfreude on Ethan's upcoming misfortune as they instantly recognized who this girl was.
They knew her, or to be exact, everyone in the Abyssal Sanctum knew her.
Like them, she was also a senior and an old timer who had joined the Sanctum one year ago, but those in the Sanctum knew that this girl was a calamity draped in silk.
Be it professors or acolytes, everyone had long since learned it was wiser to avoid her entirely than to suffer her wrath.
Yet here she was, about to strike someone in full view of the entire gathering.
They smirked darkly at Ethan's misfortune, or so they thought, and even looked forward to seeing it, but what came next stunned them all.
A few seconds earlier…
Just as her claws were about to rake across Velcy's scarred face, a hand shot out and closed around her wrist like a steel trap.
The red-haired girl gasped, and her shriek instantly changed into a growl of fury.
She started to twist, pull, and flail like a mad creature, but Ethan's grip remained unyielding, and he was totally calm and not at all anxious or disturbed about this girl attacking his group or the fact that he had become the center of attention in the square, which he had hoped to avoid.
But now that it had come to this stage, he sighed inwardly and resolved to teach the principles of good behavior to this girl so that she would never forget in her whole life.
As he thought this, his arm didn't so much as tremble, even though she struggled like mad with corrosive bloody radiance shooting in all directions from her body.
Only a thin layer of dark mana covered his body like a body suit, and the girls beside him, while his crimson eyes locked coldly on her as she fought like a cornered beast.
"Let go of me this instant, you mongrel!"
Her screech rang across the square, but her voice faltered as her gaze clashed with his.
His dark crimson eyes that were sharp as blades and utterly devoid of patience bored into her.
Instantly, a wave of instinctive terror, alien and suffocating, coiled in her veins.
She froze, and her mad struggles screeched to a halt.
Her breath was caught in her throat as she stared into those cold eyes.
Her heart thudded once, then twice, before her pride forced its way back to the surface.
She then started snarling with her sharp incisors shining in the dark that soon enveloped the square due to the sunset.
She was furious at her own hesitation, and to redeem her wounded pride, she lashed out again.
This time, her free hand arced toward his crotch, and her nails dripped with corrosive, blood-tinged mana that carved faint red trails in the air.
The attack was vicious, primal, and malicious as she clearly meant to maim.
Sensing her intentions, Ethan's patience finally cracked, and the thought of mercy vanished from his face.
His expression darkened, and his aura erupted in sharp streams of darkness.
Before her claws could reach him, his hand moved and with a swift twist, he seized her other wrist mid-swipe and caught both her hands easily in one iron grip.
She gasped and started struggling again like a trapped bird and with much greater strength as both of her hands were trapped by him this time, but even though she tried her best, her strength meant nothing here.
Ethan's gaze lingered on her defiant face and those wide eyes that were filled with both rage and the faintest shimmer of fear.
The sight of her manic stubbornness only soured his mood further.
In retaliation, his hand rose.
The air seemed to still for a moment, and then, with a sharp crack that echoed across the square, his palm struck her cheek.
He hadn't used his full strength and it was barely half of it but still the impact was enough to whip her head to the side and her crimson hair snapping like a banner in the wind.