Chapter 668: A Bitter Melee
Third Person’s POV
CLANG!
An enormous force erupted.
The sheep-headed demon’s body was actually thrown backward, and the bone blade in its hand was sent flying from its grasp.
Ethan didn’t give it even a moment to recover.
He immediately pursued.
His broadsword descended again and again, each slash carrying nothing but terrifying physical strength reinforced by dense ice mana.
BOOM!
CLANG!
BOOM!
The demon barely managed to defend itself as Ethan unleashed one consecutive and deadly slash after another.
After being caught off guard by the demon’s monstrous strength at the beginning of their confrontation, he had finally gained the advantage and had no intention of giving it back.
Every strike came faster and heavier than the last, forcing the sheep-headed demon into a desperate defense as Ethan relentlessly pressed forward.
His attacks weren’t particularly complicated.
There were no flashy techniques or elaborate spells.
Every strike simply carried overwhelming physical strength, leaving the demon no time to recover, much less find an opportunity to counterattack.
The dense ice mana coating Ethan’s broadsword seeped into the demon’s body whenever the blade landed, gradually slowing its movements while steadily accumulating damage.
The effect wasn’t immediately devastating, but with every exchange, the demon’s body grew colder, and its movements became increasingly sluggish.
Yet Ethan wasn’t unscathed either.
The sheep demon was far too powerful to be treated lightly.
The strange, corrosive demonic energy surrounding its bone blades seeped through Ethan’s defenses whenever their weapons clashed.
The wounds he had already suffered began turning black as the corrosive energy invaded his body, rapidly spreading through the damaged flesh.
Having experienced something similar on the Blood Veil Continent when he had fought the Bone Demon, Ethan frowned slightly.
However, the concern in his eyes quickly faded.
He was far stronger than he had been back then, and this sheep demon was not as powerful as the Bone Demon he had once fought.
Although the corrosive demonic energy was troublesome, it wasn’t enough to pose a serious threat to him.
With his current physique and the strength of his vitality, Ethan was confident he could withstand it long enough to finish the battle.
But then he noticed something even more disturbing.
The thick blood mist lingering throughout the ruined city was slowly being drawn toward the sheep demon.
Strands of bloody mist entered its body through its wounds and pores.
Every time the blood mist entered it, some of its injuries visibly recovered.
Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
The realization sent a chill through his heart.
’It can heal itself by absorbing the blood mist...’
So that was why the demon had slaughtered its own rabbit minions.
It hadn’t merely been attacking them indiscriminately.
It had been using their blood as nourishment.
Yet even after realizing this, Ethan’s expression didn’t change.
His grip on the ice broadsword tightened.
If anything, the discovery only made his fighting instincts burn even more fiercely.
Meanwhile, the members of both groups stood frozen in place as they watched the gruesome battle unfolding before them.
The violent clashes between the two monsters, or rather, between the monstrous demon and the seemingly frail young man, continued to shake the ruined city.
None of them had expected Ethan to engage such a terrifying Rank Four existence in direct close combat.
And even fewer had expected him to actually overpower it.
Even now, they could only see the two figures of bluish-violet and greyish-red repeatedly blurring across the ruined city, leaving behind trails of destruction wherever they passed.
Buildings collapsed under the force of their clashes, while shattered ice and chunks of stone were sent flying through the air with every exchange.
The sheer speed of their movements made it difficult for most of the spectators to even follow the battle properly.
Erius and Arlene’s eyes remained wide and unblinking as their hearts pounded with a strange mixture of fear and excitement.
Erius felt fear because he was finally witnessing just how terrifying Ethan’s strength truly was.
Yet alongside that fear was an even greater sense of elation.
His mother had been right.
She had acted at exactly the right moment and had somehow managed to turn such a dangerous and ferocious person into someone who was now forced to toil for him like a slave.
Just thinking about that fact caused a smile full of glee to appear on his face, and his frustration towards Ethan was a bit satisfied.
Even so, Erius wasn’t foolish enough to become complacent, as he understood that he was playing with fire.
Ethan was clearly not someone who could be controlled easily, and if he made even a single mistake, that fire could turn around and burn him into ashes instead.
As for Arlene, she couldn’t help feeling relieved by the decision she had made earlier.
Now that she had personally witnessed Ethan’s prowess, she finally understood the reasoning behind her master’s insistence that she pull Ethan toward her side.
Someone like him could bring unimaginable benefits to her in the future.
Misril’s eyes were similarly wide as he watched the battle.
The more he observed Ethan’s movements, the more his previous judgment of him was overturned.
This wasn’t some freeloader who had entered Prince Erius’s group and secured a place within the Elite Violet Batch through connections.
His strength was genuine.
Judging by what he was displaying now, Misril believed that Ethan was already powerful enough to fight against any of the top three rankers of the elite Violet Batch.
That realization made his expression increasingly complicated.
As for Eleanor and Aurelia, they were perhaps the most shocked by Ethan’s current display.
Unlike the others, they had only just reunited with him.
Even though eight years had passed since Ethan had disappeared, a part of their minds had still subconsciously held onto the image of the boy he had once been.
The Ethan they remembered was a ten-year-old boy.
Although he had always been more mature than his peers, to Eleanor, he had been nothing more than her lovable and adorable son, the innocent little boy she had cherished above everything else.