Chapter 1495: Since When Was I This Strong?
Spatial Sever was one of the core offensive spatial-type abilities. It cut through space itself, inflicting devastating damage and potentially severing an opponent’s body outright.
Ethan had actually been offered the same ability when he advanced to Stage SS, but he had passed it up for Deadlock Dimension.
Spatial Sever was powerful, but too limited for what he wanted.
At Stage SS, it could probably let someone fight one or two Tiers above their own. Ethan, however, wasn’t satisfied with crossing only one or two Tiers.
Deadlock Dimension offered far more room for error. Combined with his other abilities, it could let him kill enemies three or even four Tiers above him.
So while others might consider Spatial Sever a God-tier ability, Ethan thought it was merely decent.
"By the way, Chris, how did your innate ability change?" Ethan asked.
"It changed a lot this time. You could say it evolved. I unlocked an Ethereal Form," Chris said excitedly.
"Ethereal Form? What does it do?"
"My old invisibility only kept people from seeing me. My body was still physically there, so attacks could hit me and obstacles could block me. But when I activate Ethereal Form, my body exists somewhere between the physical and the incorporeal. I can pass through walls and ignore physical attacks as well as most elemental attacks."
"What?!"
"Holy shit! That’s completely broken!" Everyone’s eyes went wide.
"Chris, you’re going to be unstoppable!"
Even Ethan stared at him in shock. That really was absurd.
"What’s the drawback?"
"There is one." Chris gave them a helpless look. "Ethereal Form consumes a huge amount of energy. And while I’m in that state, I can’t attack anyone either."
"Oh... So it’s just an escape ability." The others sounded disappointed.
"No. In Chris’s hands, it’s good for much more than escaping," Ethan said with a smile.
"As long as he can precisely control when he enters and leaves Ethereal Form, it’s absolutely a God-tier ability."
"Yeah." Chris nodded.
He knew better than anyone that Ethereal Form might become his true core ability.
"All right, Chris. You couldn’t have gotten Ethereal Form at a better time. I was worried you might run into danger, but now I don’t have to be."
"The rest is up to you." Ethan grinned.
"Boss, are we making our move?" everyone asked excitedly.
"Yeah." Ethan nodded. "Follow me."
He led the group cautiously in one direction.
After traveling for quite some time, they reached the base of a mountainside devastated by the fighting.
The powerful shock waves rolling through the area told them they were already extremely close to the battlefield.
Ethan motioned for silence, led everyone beneath a pile of collapsed rocks, and pointed into the distance.
They followed his gaze and soon spotted two figures fighting furiously high above the massive battlefield.
One of them immediately caught their attention.
"Boss," someone whispered, "isn’t that the peak Tier 41 unicorn that tried to kill us earlier?"
"Yep. That’s the one." Ethan sounded excited.
"..."
"Ethan, that thing’s at the peak of Tier 41," Chris said, swallowing nervously. "Are we really going after something that big right away?"
"If we’re going to do this, we might as well go big. Attacking anything else would only alert them and put them on guard. If you want to pull off an ambush, you only get one chance to catch them by surprise."
"That makes sense."
"Who’s the other guy? He’s pretty damn strong if he can fight that monster head-on."
"That’s Galeborn Patriarch Vaelor," Skinny Pete explained. "He’s the father of the Galeborn Patriarch’s son we killed earlier."
Skinny Pete had taken the memories of a Galeborn guard, so he knew quite a bit about the race.
"No wonder. He’s definitely strong." Ethan nodded.
"Boss, neither of them looks like they’ll win anytime soon," someone said. "Are we supposed to sit here and wait?"
Unless one Stage SS fighter had a substantial advantage over the other, settling a fight was extremely difficult.
Neither combatant was in good condition, but they could probably keep going for an entire day if necessary.
"They can’t decide a winner?" Ethan smiled.
"Then I’ll make it easier for them."
He motioned for everyone to remain hidden, then fixed his eyes on the unicorn Lord.
On the battlefield...
Vaelor’s expression was grave.
He hadn’t expected the unicorn Lord to be so powerful. They had been fighting for a long time, yet he hadn’t gained the slightest advantage.
Still, he had finally encountered a Tier 41 Outland Beast. No matter what it took, he was going to kill it.
After steadying himself once more, Vaelor raised a hand. A terrifying concentration of wind formed in his palm, expanding into a massive Wind Cutter.
"Tempest Cleave!"
With a low shout, Vaelor brought the enormous Wind Cutter down at the unicorn Lord.
The unicorn Lord’s eyes turned solemn. It clearly knew how powerful the ability was.
White light shone from its horn as vast amounts of light energy began gathering around it.
In the distance, Ethan smiled.
"Silencing Gaze!"
The light on the unicorn Lord’s horn abruptly vanished.
Before it could process what had happened, the massive Wind Cutter slammed into its body.
Boom!
The deafening impact knocked the enormous unicorn out of the sky.
Crash!
Its body struck the ground and carved out a massive crater.
Vaelor stared blankly at his hands.
"Since when was I this strong?"
It wasn’t the first time he had used this ability against the unicorn. Every previous Tempest Cleave had been blocked by the beam from its horn, leaving the beast unharmed.
So how had he knocked it out of the sky this time?
Wait. It never fired the beam!
Was it too slow to react?
As Vaelor tried to make sense of it, the unicorn Lord struggled to its feet inside the crater. A deep gash split its head, with blood pouring from the wound.
It had no time to worry about that now.
Its wings beat, lifting it back into the air. It immediately swept its gaze across the surroundings, searching for something.
But no matter where it looked, it found nothing suspicious.
The unicorn Lord turned its furious gaze back to Vaelor.
"Roar!"
You sneaky bastard! I’ll kill you!
It charged straight at him.
The unicorn Lord tried to activate an ability, but no matter how hard it tried, it couldn’t access its mental energy. With no other option, it could only try to ram the treacherous bastard to death.
Vaelor still had no idea what had just happened, but he didn’t have time to think about it. He flashed aside, avoiding the charge, then struck the unicorn with Cyclone Blade.
He expected it to block with an Energy Barrier.
It didn’t.
Cyclone Blade struck the unicorn’s body cleanly, tearing open another wound and spraying blood through the air.
Now Vaelor was even more confused.
What was wrong with this thing?
Had it run out of mental energy?
That couldn’t be right. It was a peak Tier 41 Outland Beast. There was no way its reserves were that pathetic.