Chapter 652: Bloodcrazed Monsters

Third Person’s POV

Ethan had specifically created this area-of-effect spell after experiencing that dangerous battle against the dark goblin tribe in the Dark Forest.

After that battle, he had realized that he needed a powerful area-of-effect spell that could deal with large numbers of enemies without accidentally harming his own allies.

That was much easier said than done.

Most large-scale spells naturally affected everything within their range, and unless the caster possessed extremely precise control over their elemental mana, it was almost impossible to distinguish between friend and foe once the spell had been released.

But Ethan possessed something that ordinary mages didn’t.

His extraordinarily powerful soul allowed him to perceive the surrounding environment with astonishing precision, while his unparalleled affinity with the ice element allowed him to manipulate ice mana far more freely than ordinary ice mages.

By combining the two, Ethan had eventually developed a spell capable of controlling the ice spikes individually even after they erupted from the ground.

Each spike could be directed toward a specific target, allowing the spell to distinguish between allies and enemies with remarkable precision.

As for the massive ice-blue broadsword, it wasn’t merely a weapon Ethan carried for combat.

It served as an excellent medium through which he could concentrate and release an enormous amount of ice mana into the frozen earth in a single explosive burst.

The moment the broadsword pierced the ground, Ethan could channel his mana through it and spread the energy rapidly beneath the surrounding ice.

His monstrous physical strength also played an important role.

The force with which he drove the weapon into the ground amplified the initial burst of ice mana, making the resulting shockwave much more violent and allowing the spell to spread through the frozen terrain at an astonishing speed.

This combination of his physical strength, ice-element affinity, and powerful soul perception was what made Thorn Ripple so effective, and perfectly suited to him.

As they ran through the mountainous and rocky snow terrain, Erius suddenly pulled a yellow parchment out of nowhere and unfolded it while continuing to move.

Ethan noticed his actions but didn’t comment on it, as he had no idea what the parchment contained.

Even when he subtly spied on it with his soul sense secretly while running as he tried to make out its contents, the writing only appeared to him as a collection of strange, dancing symbols that seemed to shift and distort whenever he tried to focus on them, making it impossible for him to understand even a single word.

It was at that moment that Erius, apparently unaware of Ethan’s spying, suddenly frowned as he continued reading through the parchment that he, unlike Ethan, understood it clearly,

"There are no records of that creature appearing during any of the previous openings of the Glaciem Ice Abyss.

But considering how many of them were present, how is that possible?"

His words immediately caught Ethan’s attention.

Ethan’s expression also became slightly serious.

There had been far too many of those invisible herons for their existence to be some isolated coincidence, yet according to Erius’s records, they had never appeared during any of the previous openings of the Glaciem Ice Abyss.

That realization sent a faint chill through Ethan’s heart.

He immediately connected it with the unexpected opening of the Ice Abyss.

It was supposed to open fifty years from now.

Yet for some unknown reason, it had opened decades ahead of its stipulated time.

And now, creatures that apparently hadn’t existed within the realm during any previous opening had suddenly appeared in considerable numbers.

The more Ethan thought about it, the more strange and ominous this situation appeared to him,

His brows slowly furrowed.

Something was wrong with this place.

He couldn’t explain what it was yet, but his instincts were telling him that the expedition was far more dangerous than the academy or the royal family had anticipated.

And that realization immediately brought another thought to his mind.

Eleanor.

Aurelia.

The two most important people to him right now.

His jaw tightened.

He had finally seen them after eight long years, only to be separated from them again almost immediately after entering this realm.

If something happened to either of them...

Ethan’s eyes gradually became colder, as he didn’t even want to entertain that possibility.

Misril, who happened to notice the change in Ethan’s expression, couldn’t help lowering his opinion of him slightly once again.

From his perspective, Ethan seemed to be taking this anomaly far too seriously.

Although the appearance of an unknown magical beast was certainly strange, it didn’t necessarily mean that the entire expedition had suddenly become some unavoidable disaster.

At least, there was no evidence of that yet.

However, Ethan’s instincts told him otherwise.

And he had learned long ago never to ignore them.

Meanwhile, the very people occupying Ethan’s thoughts were currently running desperately through an abandoned city.

Aurelia’s face was stained with blood and ice, while Eleanor’s expression remained filled with determination as she hurried alongside her through the deserted streets.

Behind them, a group of pale humanoid figures pursued them relentlessly.

Their crimson eyes were filled with an unmistakable bloodthirsty hunger, while their movements were unnaturally fast as they leaped across rooftops and chased the two women through the ruined city.

At first glance, they looked almost like grotesque humanoid rabbits.

Their bodies were covered in thick white fur, while a pair of long, fluffy rabbit ears protruded from the tops of their heads.

Yet nothing else about them could be considered cute.

Their crimson eyes were completely different from the harmless red eyes of ordinary rabbits, instead filled with a savage hunger that made their intentions painfully obvious.

Their mouths were lined with sharp, serrated teeth, and thick saliva continuously dripped from between them as they chased their prey.

There were simply too many of them.

The entire street behind the two women seemed to have been occupied by these monstrous rabbit creatures.

Aurelia’s breathing had already become somewhat ragged, while even Eleanor’s expression had begun to show faint traces of exhaustion.