Chapter 414: Areadbhair, The Slaughterer Of Men, Beasts, and Deities [Part 2]
"The young sure are full of surprises."
Edmond\'s voice reverberated within the arena. Soon the blazing flames dimmed down before vanishing without a trace.
The Grand Archmage was completely unhurt by Ethan\'s attacks, but he was no longer as relaxed as he was a minute ago.
"Athibar."
Ethan once again recalled Areadbhair in his hands. He then glanced at the Grand Archmage, who was looking at him with a smile, and yet, Ethan could feel that the older man was now going to fight him for real.
Since that was the case, he decided to… fight for real as well.
The young man then unsealed the power of Areadbhair with the intention of using its full might against the Archmage of the Kingdom.
But the moment he did that, he felt as if all of the magic powers inside his body were being sucked out by the spear, whose entire body was now covered with blue flames.
"Ibar!"
Ethan chanted and the spear in his hands once again flew toward the Grand Archmage, who was no longer smiling.
The young man hurriedly equipped a Magical Battery in his wrists, for the magic power he gained from kissing Lilian had disappeared without a trace.
The Flaming Spear had devoured all of his magic power and single-mindedly flew toward the direction of the Grand Archmage, who was now starting to get annoyed.
Edmond was feeling annoyed, and it was not because Ethan was using the same style of attack over and over again.
The reason for his annoyance was that every time the spear flew in his direction, its strength and piercing power would have increased drastically, making it terribly difficult for him to retain his composed mannerism in front of the young man, who was many decades younger than him.
"He is really going to get serious this time," Professor Rinehart said. "To think that Ethan managed to push him this far."
"It seems that our boy still has many secrets that he hasn\'t shown us yet," Professor Barret commented.
"But this time, Edmond will also fight him seriously. Are you sure you already increased the magical output of the barrier?"
"Don\'t worry. I made sure to at least increase the magical output by five times. The safety locks are also activated. Ethan will be ejected from the arena if his life is in danger."
Professor Rinehart nodded before shifting his gaze to his close friend, who had once again raised his staff, to swat the annoying spear, which would follow him wherever he went.
This time, the explosion covered the entire Arena, and even Ethan skidded on the ground due to how strong the explosion was.
A faint blue barrier covered his body, protecting him from the damage of the flames that had spread out in the arena at the moment of impact.
Suddenly, the wind picked up, and before everyone knew it, a blizzard materialized out of nowhere, dropping the visibility to zero.
Nicole was shocked upon seeing this scene, knowing that this was the Grand Archmage\'s Trump Card.
\'He used his Partial Resonance on Ethan?\' Nicole looked at the arena in shock. \'Did Ethan piss him off that badly?\'
According to the rumors, the Grand Archmage only used Partial Resonance to people that he wanted to give a very slow and painful death.
Seeing this scene, she couldn\'t help but think that Ethan might have accidentally pushed the wrong buttons, which triggered the Archmage to activate his Partial Resonance.
From within the raging blizzard, Ethan\'s voice sounded, making Nicole breathe a sigh of relief.
"Athibar."
Areadbhair returned to the hands of its Master, and Ethan once again tapped into its power.
This time, he didn\'t order Areadbhair to attack. Instead, he chanted another spell, which caught everyone by surprise.
"Magna Flammae Exitium!"
Hellish blue flames erupted from within the Blizzard, threatening to overwhelm its entirety.
Due to the collision of fire and ice, water was created, causing the entire arena to be flooded with water.
Soon, steam rose up as the water in the arena sizzled due to the powerful flames that were coming from Arehadbhair.
\'This spear sucks up magic power like there\'s no tomorrow,\' Ethan thought.
He had just put on a magic bracelet that was fully charged with Luna\'s Moon Magic. However, at the rate that the magic was draining the magical battery, Ethan would at most only have a full minute before he ran out of juice.
\'I have to end it now,\' Ethan thought as he increased the power of the flames, making it spin around like a tornado around him.
Fire and ice collided, creating water droplets that evaporated within seconds due to its high temperature.
But just as Ethan was about to unleash the full power of Areadbhair, which could probably blow up the entire arena, he heard the sound of a flute.
At first, he thought that he was just imagining things, but a few seconds later, he found himself feeling drowsy, which alarmed him.
Ethan had a very strong body and mental strength, which would not easily be affected by mind-affecting spells.
However, as much as he tried to keep his wits around him, the feeling of drowsiness only increased, making the flames he was radiating slowly weaken.
Soon, the flames decreased to the point that it was only wrapping around Ethan\'s body, protecting him from the Blizzard which had grown in intensity.
But just as he was about to fully close his eyes, he heard a singing voice right beside his ear, which nullified the drowsiness that was being caused by the sound of the flute.
At first, Illumina didn\'t want to interfere because she wanted Ethan to fully understand what it was like to fight against a powerful Archmage, who not only knew Partial Resonance but was also able to summon the spirit of his staff.
The flute that was playing in the background was being played by a Tityroi or a Satyr who specialized in playing the flute. It had been said that Edmond puts his enemies to sleep with the sound of the flute, and freezes their body with his blizzard.
This was the true form of Edmond\'s Partial Resonance, which forced Illumina to appear to protect the young man from its influence.
The mermaid princess was fine if it were only Edmond fighting against Ethan, but the moment the Satyr joined the battle, she could no longer simply watch, so she joined as well.
Unfortunately, the magical power that Ethan possessed had almost been drained by Areadbhair, so Illumina knew that it would be hard for her to mount a powerful counterattack against the enemy.
As an alternative, she wrapped Ethan in a dome of water and teleported him outside of the arena to prevent him from falling asleep.
The power of the Tityroi was something that shouldn\'t be underestimated, for they were like Sirens who could beguile men and make them go crazy with their singing voice.
If not for the fact that using Areadbhair consumed most of Ethan\'s Magic Power, the young man would have been able to last longer if he had used his Sea God\'s Trident instead.
But Sebastian and his Other Half advised him that it would be best to use Areadbhair now to fully know what it was capable of doing.
It would be a foolish thing to experiment with using the Slaughtering Spear when fighting against people who wished to harm or even kill Ethan.
Since this spear was still shrouded in mystery, what better opportunity than to use it against a powerful Wizard in a relatively safe environment where dying wasn\'t an option?
However, after finding out that Areadbhair was like a bottomless pit that sucked out Ethan\'s Magic power in minutes, they decided that it wouldn\'t be safe to unseal its powers during real battles.
At most, Ethan would need to have plenty of magic power to draw upon before using this weapon, whose deadliness had forced the Grand Archmage to use his Partial Resonance in order to fight him.
Ethan, who had been teleported away from the arena, thanked Illumina as he sealed the power of Areadbhair.
Now that he knew a little more about the spear he had taken from the treasury of Dawnbreaker Academy, he decided to use it sparingly in the future to avoid being sucked dry by its insatiable hunger for magic and blood.