"The reason, huh..."
Ethan raised a brow at the scarecrow and said, "Scarecrow, let her go."
"Since she wants to know the reason, then let her experience it herself."
The reason Ethan wanted to release the woman was because he felt that even while being humiliated, she could still grit her teeth and continue acting alongside Nolan. That made her far too dangerous.
Ethan did not want to let her leave this place, but he also did not want to keep her around.
In that case, there was only one option left, kill her.
But when killing someone... it still had to be worthwhile.
Ethan believed that if the District Four Lord had sent these people into his territory, then they definitely had something special about them. Since that was the case, he wanted to test just how deep this Lord Orin's abilities really went.
As the saying goes, know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never lose a hundred battles.
["Oh,"] The scarecrow answered unwillingly.
It was the one who caught them in the first place, yet Ethan had been playing around for half the day while it did not even get a chance to speak. Of course it was unhappy.
Bang!
Sweety suddenly felt her whole body loosen, and the next moment she collapsed onto the ground.
Then she looked up at Ethan, her face full of disbelief, "You actually dared to let me go."
"Didn't you want answers?", Ethan said as he directly made a gesture inviting her to fight, "Then I'll let you experience it personally."
"Hehehehe!"
Sweety burst into laughter. Then she plucked a delicate white flower from her head and tossed it into Ethan's farmland.
In the next instant, the flower sprouted countless roots and vines. One of the vines rapidly shot toward Ethan, giving off the exact same feeling as the battle against the tree spirit back then.
Ethan looked at Sweety in surprise and said, "So you're a wood-element mage."
"That's right," Sweety laughed loudly, "Today, not only will I complete the mission, I'll also avenge Nolan!"
"Uh..."
Ethan casually waved the wand in his hand and instantly fired several Grand Fireballs, "Then you should know I'm a fire-element mage, right? This little bit of wood isn't enough for me to burn."
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Several Grand Fireballs exploded at the same time in front of the white flower beneath Sweety's feet.
Sure enough, fire countered wood. An eternal truth.
The moment Ethan's Grand Fireballs struck the white flower, its vines instantly caught fire, and the entire flower rapidly burned up at a visible speed.
Whoosh!
However, just as Ethan had destroyed one white flower, another white flower vine suddenly burst out of the ground behind him.
The white flower vines shot toward Ethan's back like several sharp spears.
"Shadow Guard."
But Ethan did not even bother turning around. He merely called out the Shadow Guard's name.
The moment Ethan spoke, Sweety saw the flower vines behind him suddenly snap apart all at once, as though they had been sliced through by blades, before crashing to the ground.
"What's going on? I didn't even see any attack!"
Sweety froze on the spot.
She had used this move to kill countless mages before, but never once had someone like Ethan dealt with it so casually.
He did not even turn his head.
Yet she could not even understand how he defended himself. What exactly had Ethan used?
"Sweety, look at the ground!"
At that moment, one of the others watching from the side finally noticed the problem and shouted, "It's the shadow! The shadow of that little stone statue!"
Hearing this, Sweety quickly turned toward an unremarkable stone statue sitting in the corner of the snowy field.
Because the statue was grayish-white, it blended into the snow almost perfectly, looking no different from a slightly larger rock. And shadows were already hard to notice on snow to begin with.
Without her companion's reminder, Sweety never would have noticed the statue.
Much less the statue's shadow.
"So this is the move you used to kill Nolan?"
A chill flashed through Sweety's eyes, but deep down she was utterly shocked.
'This already goes beyond the attacks of ordinary mages.'
'And his attack power is not low either. Not only can he use a wand, he can use a sword too. Someone like that... still relies on hidden sneak attacks.'
'Too sinister!'
"Yep!", Ethan tilted his head and looked at Sweety, "Got any trump cards left? If you do, hurry up and use them. If not, then you've already gotten your answer about Nolan's death, so now it's time for me to send you off to reunite with him."
"If your stone statue is the only thing impressive about you, then I'll destroy the statue first."
Before Sweety had even finished speaking, countless vines burst out of the ground again, and this time they emerged directly beneath the stone statue.
Ethan sighed and simply waved his wand at the white flower vines while saying, "Softy."
Then, everyone witnessed an extremely bizarre scene.
The white flower vines, which were originally capable of piercing armor and breaking defenses, suddenly became as soft as water. They gently lifted the stone statue, but because the statue was too heavy, the softened vines were instead crushed back into the ground.
"How is this possible? Why did my flower vines become like this?"
Sweety hurriedly waved her wand at the ground again, but strangely enough, not only had her white flower vines become soft, they had even lost the ability to break through the earth.
"So this is your full strength? What a disappointment," Ethan shook his head and said, "You can die now!"
"Wait—"
"Shadow Guard!"
Bang!
A muffled sound rang out.
Sweety's mouth was still open, her sentence unfinished, but her body had already been split cleanly in half from head to toe. Her organs spilled across the ground, staining the snowy field red.
As for the remaining few people, Ethan glanced at them before deciding to leave them behind with the scarecrow.
He planned to wait until the Honest Man delivered the gift to Shakun first and see what happened to Shakun.
Then he would decide whether to let these people bring a gift back to District Four Lord Orin for him, or send them down to reunite with Nolan and the others directly.
———
[District One, Shakun's Villa]
After enduring countless hardships, the Honest Man finally returned to General Shakun's villa. But the moment he reached the entrance, he was immediately stopped by two guards.
"0927, why are you the only one back?"
"Everyone else is dead!", the Honest Man shouted, "I have important intel for the General. Hurry and report it!"
"But..."
"But what? If military intelligence gets delayed, can you take responsibility for that?"
Although the two guards found the Honest Man suspicious, after exchanging looks, neither dared shoulder the blame for delaying military intelligence. One of them hurried inside to report to the General, while the other stayed behind to watch the Honest Man.
However, the moment one of the guards left, the Honest Man immediately took out the Seed of Misfortune Flower and held it in his hand.
Then he suddenly pointed somewhere outside the villa and shouted, "0423, look over there! What's that?"
"Huh? What?"
0423 immediately turned his head to look.
And the Honest Man seized the opportunity to quickly toss the Seed of Misfortune Flower into the villa garden.
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
[email protected]/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 40 advance chapter through P@treon.