Chapter 71: Not bad
Ethan picked himself up with a sharp look in his eye and his hand holding his side.
"I hope I broke a rib," Serena shouted.
Ethan grinned. "You will have to try harder than that."
And then they flew at each other. The first thing that Ethan did was force the giant ash to fight with only one hand by controlling its gravity in such a way that its other hand was too heavy to lift.
He concentrated all his energy on that hand alone, forcing Serena to use only one of the giant's swords.
From his place, Severin was already picking on what he needed to help them improve on later.
".....Serena needs to learn more Etherion control and how to stop making a lot of unnecessary details... maybe the visualization is helping her, but why make a giant armor when you can just make five big hands holding swords? Or fifteen small hands holding swords? Or control twenty swords? It's all in the control...."
Severin watched, and he noted down everything.
The two flew across the room, their attack generating winds that whipped up dust and debris from the stone floor that cracked beneath them.
Hammer and sword met again and again.
But Serena seemed to be having the upper hand as she forced Ethan into a defensive position.
What she was lacking in control, she made up for in creativity.
Each time she moved away from a place, she would leave behind a ball of ash that would grow into a spike that then shot at Ethan, or leave a trail of ashes on the ground that would mold around his feet and try to drag him down.
Those kinds of things couldn't hurt Ethan directly, but they weren't intended to.
They were done to split his attention and make him extremely wary. That way, his attention was split.
Suddenly, the giant armor slammed down, but instead of the clash-and-run they'd been doing, the armor kept hitting, slashing into Ethan again and again, giving him no breathing space.
Ethan gritted his teeth and had to create a shield above himself to stop the attack.
Severin frowned. Why is Serena trying to pin him down?
The answer became clear the next instant.
From under the armor, a blur darted out in a flash.
It was Serena herself, still coated in a layer of ashes.
She had used the giant armor's body as a hiding spot to get close to Ethan.
He saw her too late, and he got a slash to his cheek before he reacted, creating a shockwave of force around himself as he jumped away.
Julius shook his head. "I think he's going to lose."
Derrick nodded as well, too riled up to speak.
Severin shook his head. "He won't."
The gravity manipulation power is one of the strongest Talent Abilities one could have.
But not only that, Ethan hadn't used all his powers.
"First blood belongs to me," Serena grinned.
Ethan nodded, his eyes narrowed. "You are right. I must admit, you are strong, but not stronger than me."
He rubbed the small blood away from his cheek, then he dropped his hammer and clenched his fist. "Alright. Let's get serious."
If there was one thing that Severin had to say about the fighting style and techniques of Ethan, it would be that the guy didn't bother to learn the basics and just went straight to the advanced.
The pressure of surpassing his sister and being worthy of his family had put a strain on him. He used drugs, and he trained—hard, but only in some aspects.
Ethan fights with brute strength, more like Derrick. Two bullies trying to crush their victims as fast as they could.
That was why Ethan could create a gravity shield that was harder to make than knowing how to make gravity bullets.
Serena frowned. "You're giving up?"
Ethan smiled. "In your dreams."
He raised his finger and pointed. The space at the tip of his finger rippled and twisted, forming into a small orb the size of a golf ball. The ball rotated and spun gently, almost invisible to the eyes if not for the small ripples.
Serena took a step back and then she tore some ashes from the chest of the giant to form a shield, but it was too late.
Bang!
The gravity ball fired—so fast—and shot forward like a bullet.
Fortunately, he didn't fire at her directly, but at the giant ash, and the attack hit it in the chest before exploding.
The result was swift and dangerous.
The gravity ball exploded into a ripple of shockwaves that tore the ashes apart, and then the next instant the remaining force created some kind of twisting vortex that wrung everything into itself, completely destroying the giant, leaving only a few ashes in the air like smears.
Julius stared in shock. "What the fuck?"
Derrick sucked in a sharp breath. "That was dangerous."
Even Serena took several steps back with her hands raised.
Ethan was breathing hard, but he was grinning. It was as if he used all the strength in his body to fire the gravity bullet. It took a lot of Etherion to create, and at the moment he could only manage two, with the second being lesser in power.
"No shield can protect against that, especially not your own, Serena. I can still create one, but much lesser in power. What do you say?"
Serena scowled. With most of the ashes destroyed, it would take her time before she could regenerate them. "I surrender."
Ethan grinned, pure joy on his face. Maybe, just maybe, he would be able to do something with his life instead of living in his sister's shadow.
But Severin was there to shatter their illusions.
"Not bad," he said.
Serena was surprised to hear that because it was honestly the most high-level fight she had ever been in, and to her, it was worthy of high praise.
But, not bad?
She looked at the others for their reactions.
But to her surprise and shock, they didn't look angry or annoyed.
In fact.
Ethan looked at Severin with a concentrated look on his face. "Thank you. Where can I improve?"
Severin nodded in satisfaction. His training was working. "The basics. We are returning to the basics."