Chapter 100: Two Days to Live

The first lightning arrows hit the barrier, followed by the Solar Rays. The barrier shook from the attacks, but it didn’t break.

The masked man looked at Ethan angrily.

"You little bastard! If I hadn’t fought those people at the station and wasted so much mana escaping, do you think you could stand against me?"

He held his injured side and continued shouting.

"My mana is already below five percent! If I were in my normal condition, a Third Order brat like you would have died with one attack!"

Ethan didn’t answer him. He simply ordered his summons to attack again.

The Storm Archers drew their bows and fired another wave of lightning arrows. The Solar Elementals also used Solar Ray again, sending several golden beams towards him.

"YOU!"

The masked man was furious.

"Do you think these little attacks can kill me? I’ll show you what happens when you anger a curse user!"

He brought his hands together and clapped.

A dark red sphere spread out from his body, quickly covering the area where Ethan’s summons were standing. As it passed over them, red markings appeared above the heads of the Shadow Wraiths, Solar Elementals and Storm Archers.

The masked man looked at the army and laughed.

"Cursing so many summons at once has almost used up all my remaining mana! I only have about three percent left now."

He looked at Ethan again.

"Fortunately, this is only a basic curse. If I had used something stronger, I would have used up the rest of my mana!"

Ethan soon noticed that something was wrong.

His Shadow Wraiths were moving much slower than before. Even using Phantom Chains had become difficult for them.

The Solar Elementals were also affected. They were taking much longer to gather their solar energy, and their attacks were no longer as fast as before.

The Storm Archers were in the same situation. Their lightning arrows, which usually travelled at incredible speeds, were now moving so slowly that the masked man could easily dodge them.

The masked man looked at Ethan and laughed.

"How do you like that, little summoner? Let’s see what you can do now!"

Just like his legions, Ethan had also been affected by the curse. There were two markings above him. One came from the curse that sealed his mana, while the other was from the Slow Movement Curse.

But there was something else he noticed.

His Shadow Wraiths were moving much slower than before, but their movement through connected shadows didn’t seem to be affected.

The masked man looked at Ethan again. He was clearly unhappy with how things had turned out.

"Since you went out of your way to delay me, I’ll leave you with something to remember me by."

He raised one hand and pointed at Ethan.

A new marking appeared above Ethan’s head. Unlike the other two, this one looked much more sinister. It looked different from the simple red markings of the other curses.

The masked man watched it form before lowering his hand.

"With this, those people will have something else to worry about when they arrive."

He glanced at Ethan one last time.

"Enjoy the rest of your life, little summoner. It won’t be very long."

The masked man turned away and began moving from the battlefield. He had already wasted too much time here, and he wasn’t going to stay any longer.

Ethan watched him leave before checking his status.

He suddenly felt something strange in his body. A moment later, his HP decreased by one point.

HP: 2999/3000

Ethan’s expression changed slightly.

"So that’s what he left me with."

He checked the curse marking above his head again. It was different from the other two, and now he understood why the masked man had used it before leaving.

He was planning to use Ethan as a decoy.

When the people from the Aethernal Empire arrived, they would notice the curse and have to deal with it first. Instead of immediately chasing after the masked man, they would probably try to find a way to remove it. That would give him more time to escape.

Ethan looked in the direction the masked man had gone.

"That bastard..."

He checked his status again. His HP was still decreasing, and he didn’t know if the curse had any other effects.

"One HP every minute?"

Ethan looked at his current HP.

He had 2,999 HP remaining. At this rate, it would take another 2,999 minutes for his HP to reach zero.

He did the calculation in his head.

"Forty-nine hours and fifty-nine minutes..."

That meant he had a little over two days before his HP was completely depleted.

If nothing was done about the curse, he would die when his HP reached zero.

Ethan wasn’t too worried about losing one HP a minute. The damage itself wasn’t much, but the problem was that it would continue until the curse was removed. It was basically a ticking time bomb.

He needed to find a way to remove it. But his movement had become so slow that even walking was difficult.

Ethan decided to withdraw most of his summons first. He still needed to leave some of them outside to protect him in case something happened.

With a thought, he sent most of his summons back into his Legion Space, leaving a group of Shadow Wraiths around him.

Several minutes passed.

Ethan was still checking the markings above his head when he noticed that one of them had started to fade. Its red colour was becoming lighter, and the marking itself was slowly disappearing.

He watched it for a few more minutes.

Crack!

The marking suddenly shattered and disappeared.

Ethan immediately felt something change inside his body. The curse that had sealed his mana was gone, and he could feel his mana again.

Several more minutes passed before another marking began to fade.

A few more minutes passed, and the Slow Movement Curse finally shattered.

Ethan moved his arms and legs to test his body. His movements were back to normal, and he could move freely again.