Chapter 716: The Purple Serpent

Third Person’s POV

The yellow serpent was nearly identical in appearance, differing primarily in the color of its scales.

It, too, possessed a grotesque cluster of red eyes and a body of comparable size, and the way it had coordinated its ambush with the purple serpent made Ethan increasingly suspicious.

A sudden realization struck him.

"Be careful! These two are definitely being controlled by someone!"

His warning rang out across the frozen foothills, alerting the others to the possibility that they were facing more than a pair of dangerous magical beasts.

"I agree. These creatures aren’t recorded as inhabitants of the Glaciem Ice Abyss."

Edhan’s calm voice followed, carrying none of the panic that might have been expected after such a sudden ambush.

As he spoke, he raised one hand and summoned a slender white sword, approximately three feet long.

The weapon gleamed faintly beneath the dim light filtering through the icy clouds, its narrow blade appearing remarkably delicate compared with the enormous serpents confronting them.

Ethan glanced toward Edhan, his attention briefly shifting away from the purple serpent.

Until now, he had assumed that Edhan was primarily a mage who specialized in fighting from a distance.

However, the man’s swift reaction to the ambush, his effortless movement through lightning, and the way he had drawn his weapon without hesitation suggested that there was considerably more to him than Ethan had initially believed.

The slender sword in Edhan’s hand made that suspicion even stronger.

The moment Ethan and Edhan voiced their warnings, the two enormous serpents suddenly opened their mouths, releasing clouds of sickly green gas that surged toward the group.

Unlike ordinary fumes, which would gradually spread through the surrounding air, these poisonous clouds shot forward like streams of fire breath, their unnatural speed making them far more dangerous than they initially appeared.

The dense green vapor tore through the freezing air, leaving behind a faintly corrosive trail that made the surrounding atmosphere seem even more sinister.

Ethan immediately sensed the lethal poison contained within the gas.

His expression changed as he turned toward the two women behind him and spoke in a low, urgent voice.

"Don’t breathe that gas under any circumstances! Fall back, and don’t let the poison touch you!"

He didn’t wait for their response.

Trusting that both Eleanor and Aurelia would understand the seriousness of his warning and follow his instructions, he immediately spread his arms.

Twin wings formed from condensed darkness emerged from his back, unfurling with a powerful surge of dark mana.

With a forceful beat of his wings, Ethan shot into the air, grabbed both women, and hurled them toward a safer position away from the incoming poisonous clouds.

He had barely completed the motion when a gigantic snake’s head shot through the air toward him.

The purple serpent moved with astonishing speed, its enormous jaws full of sharp fangs hurtling toward Ethan while the poisonous gas continued spreading around them.

His eyes widened slightly at the sudden attack, but his combat instincts kicked in before the creature could close its jaws around him.

The Life Devouring Saber materialized in his hand.

Using the serpent’s snout as a pivot, Ethan flew back.

In midair, he flew in an arc in the opposite direction and performed a swift somersault over its head.

As he rotated in midair, he brought the saber down in a powerful slash, its curved blade coated in a dense layer of dark mana that shimmered with a sinister brilliance.

Dark mana possessed an innate ability to corrode and dissolve matter, much as fire burned, lightning numbed, and ice froze.

Although Ethan had yet to explore the full extent of this property, he knew that a direct hit could inflict considerable damage on the enormous serpent.

If his slash landed cleanly, he might even manage to cripple the creature’s movement and create an opening for a follow-up attack.

However, just as the saber was about to connect, the serpent’s massive head abruptly withdrew, as though some invisible force had pulled it away from the blade.

Its reaction was far too precise to be dismissed as a simple reflex, and Ethan’s eyes narrowed as he realized that the creature had managed to evade most of his attack.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t entirely successful.

A deep gash appeared along the serpent’s neck, exposing the flesh beneath its scales. Ethan also noticed that its scales had seemingly flowed over its body and gathered at the impact point of his strike, providing an additional layer of defence against his strike.

The wound was substantial, but the creature showed no intention of retreating.

Before Ethan could follow up, the serpent’s enormous tail whipped toward him from within the poisonous haze.

The attack came with such force that the surrounding air seemed to shudder beneath its passage.

Unfortunately, the dense poison fumes had begun interfering with his perception, isolating his senses from the movements occurring within them.

He couldn’t clearly see the approaching tail, and by the time he detected its trajectory, the attack was already dangerously close.

Ethan immediately twisted his body and dodged.

The thick tail swept past him with a violent gust, missing his body by a narrow margin.

Taking advantage of the opening, he beat his dark wings and rose higher into the air, escaping the immediate reach of the serpent before turning his body downward.

His crimson eyes fixed on the swirling poison below.

’If I can’t see through the poison, then I will simply blow it away!’

Ethan’s thoughts moved rapidly as he began gathering icy mana around his saber.

A tightly compressed swirl of ice energy formed around the curved blade, rotating faster and faster until the surrounding air began to howl.

He brought the saber down in a sweeping motion.

The concentrated ice mana burst outward, transforming into a powerful tornado that descended upon the battlefield.

Its freezing winds swept through the poisonous haze, forcibly dispersing the sickly green fumes and exposing the enormous purple serpent beneath them.

The creature was still tumbling across the frozen ground, its body struggling to regain stability due to the ice tornado.

Ice fragments and snow scattered around it as the tornado tore through the battlefield, clearing Ethan’s line of sight.

Seeing the opening, Ethan immediately prepared his next attack.

A surge of ice mana gathered in his free palm, rapidly condensing into a long, slender spear.

The weapon took shape from the tip backward, its surface gleaming with a cold blue light as the surrounding temperature dropped further.

Yet Ethan wasn’t satisfied with merely creating an ordinary ice spear.

An idea suddenly emerged in his mind, and he began applying his understanding of the Aspect of Twisting to the weapon’s tip.

The mana compressed around the point started rotating along a narrow axis, forming increasingly intricate spirals that forced the surrounding air to distort.

A faint humming sound emerged from the spear.

As the twisting force grew stronger, the air around its tip began to vibrate, producing a strange distortion that made the weapon appear almost unreal.

Ethan could feel the destructive force concentrated at its point, and his eyes brightened as he realized that the principle he had used to create Devil’s Eye could also be applied to a projectile.

He didn’t waste any time admiring his creation.