It was a trident.
The shaft of the trident was a full three meters long, completely covered in scarlet scale-like patterns. Its three prongs were a dark green, and the air around their tips warped as if something was constantly evaporating there.
The trident plummeted from the sky, falling so fast that it tore through the air.
Its target—was Elizabeth!
If no one stopped it, Elizabeth would be completely torn apart in the next instant.
Fortunately, Ethan was right there.
A ring of air exploded from the gravel beneath his feet as he instantly appeared directly above Elizabeth.
Holding the World Eater across his chest, its emerald shaft devoid of any flowing light, he blocked the path of the incoming trident in a seemingly ordinary manner.
The two weapons collided.
Boom!
A shockwave erupted from the point of impact.
The air was compressed into a visible white ring, sweeping outward in all directions.
The remaining flagstones on the plaza were ripped up by the shockwave, tumbling through the air and flying dozens of meters away.
The remaining half of the main castle keep's wall was sliced in two by the shockwave, scattering shattered stones like a torrential downpour.
Before the shockwave could reach her, the plant net beneath Elizabeth's feet had already finished weaving itself.
Every vine thickened threefold in an instant, its surface secreting emerald-green mucus.
Not only her, but Colin, Blake, and every Guard Knight were also covered in a layer of vine armor.
As the shockwave swept over them, they were blown off balance. Colin fell flat on his backside, and Blake stumbled back seven or eight steps before steadying himself, but not a single person was injured.
Ethan did a backflip in midair and landed steadily atop the heap of ruins.
The trident spun as it flew backward.
Atop the remaining half-wall of the main keep, a Red-Scaled Sea Snake reached out and caught the trident.
The shaft spun once in his palm before he slammed it heavily onto the rubble by his feet, smashing a bowl-sized crater into the stone.
This particular Sea Snake was much taller than his self-detonating kin from earlier, standing a full eight meters tall.
He wore no armor, and scarlet scales covered him from his neck down to his ankles, their edges gleaming with a dark gold luster.
His vertical pupils stared at Ethan, and his mouth split all the way to his ears, revealing three rows of interlocking sharp fangs.
“A newly promoted Second-Tier Sea Race?”
“Ethan Leo, I am Snake, a guest advisor under the Three-Thousandth Prince. Prepare to die!”
The eight-meter-tall Snake charged down fiercely.
The half-wall beneath his feet completely collapsed from the recoil, sending shattered stones shooting in all directions.
The trident in his hand suddenly expanded, its shaft exploding from three meters to thirty meters. Its three prongs tore through the air, creating a sharp, explosive screech.
Crossing a distance of a hundred meters in a single stride, he brought the trident crashing down toward Ethan's head.
Mana erupted from all over Ethan's body.
Countless plants erupted from the ruins beneath his feet, soaring into the sky.
Vines, thorns, and tree roots—each as thick as a barrel, their surfaces flowing with emerald-green light—wove into a dense, impenetrable torrent of vegetation that surged straight toward the Sea Race member.
Snake's trident slammed into the vegetative torrent.
The moment the dark green light on the trident touched the vines, they were dismantled at the molecular level, turning into drifting ash.
A second layer of vines rushed to fill the gap, followed by a third, a fourth, and a fifth.
The growth rate of the plants simply could not keep up with the trident's destructive speed.
It managed to delay the Second-Tier Sea Race member for less than five seconds.
But five seconds was more than enough.
Countless plants intertwined beneath everyone's feet, forming massive drills.
The vines twisted together into single shafts, the emerald-green light flowing across their surfaces growing brighter and brighter. Their wood fibers ground against each other during the high-speed rotation, producing ear-piercing shrieks.
The drills bored fiercely into the ground.
Flagstones shattered, and soil flew in all directions.
The plant drills advanced underground at an incredible speed. Ethan's parents, Colin, Blake, and all the Guard Knights and servants were swept up by the vines and pulled downward.
The soil closed over their heads, shutting out everything on the surface.
They sank one hundred meters deep.
Two hundred meters.
Five hundred meters.
The plant drills carved a shaft several hundred meters in diameter straight through the bedrock, its walls reinforced tightly by vines.
Everyone was gently deposited at the bottom of the shaft, where the vines automatically unraveled to form a soft cushion on the ground.
Now, he no longer had to worry about accidental friendly fire.
By this time, the trident was already crashing down right in front of him.
Ethan dodged to the side.
The trident grazed his shoulder and slammed into the ground. Flagstones shattered, rubble sprayed, and a deep crater five meters in diameter appeared on the ground.
The shockwave blew him off his feet. He flipped twice in midair, and the moment he landed, a patch of vines grew beneath his feet to catch him steadily.
Snake pulled back his trident, a flash of madness crossing his vertical pupils.
The trident crashed down once more. This time, it was even faster. The scarlet scale-like patterns on the shaft lit up completely, and the dark green light on the three prongs flared. The salty, fishy stench of seawater filled the air.
Every strike whipped up a violent gale, and the flying debris was ground into dust midair by the shockwaves.
Ethan dodged continuously.
Vines grew and exploded beneath his feet, while thorns wove into shield walls before him only to be torn to shreds.
The emerald-green light flowing on the shaft of the World Eater grew brighter and brighter.
The Thorn Blood Armor manifested on his body.
The moment the armor, woven from blood-red wood fibers, emerged from beneath his skin, the shockwave of the trident arrived.
The toxic wooden spikes on the armor's surface were shattered as soon as they formed. Its wood fibers peeled away layer by layer in the shockwave, only to regrow layer by layer.
Ethan used the shockwave to retreat thirty meters.
The moment he landed, he waved his hand.
The ground exploded.
Thousands of thorns erupted from the ruins beneath the Sea Race member's feet. Each thorn was as thick as an adult's arm, their tips gleaming with a dark green, toxic luster as they thrust toward the gaps in the Sea Race member's scales from all directions.
Snake neither dodged nor avoided them.
He swept his trident around him, dispersing a ring of dark green shockwave. The moment the thorns touched the shockwave, they dissolved into ash.
But before the ground beneath his feet could even close up, even more plants burst forth.
Vines crawled out from the cracks and squeezed through the gaps in the rubble, wrapping upward starting from his ankles.
Emerald-green mucus secreted from the vines' surfaces, producing a sizzling, burning sound the moment it touched his scales.
Snake glanced down at the vines wrapping continuously up his legs, a trace of impatience flashing in his vertical pupils. With a violent shudder of his legs, his scales stood on end, and a burst of dark green energy erupted from beneath them.
Every single vine was shattered into dust.
But this pause of less than a second was enough.
Ethan had already finished casting.
The sky darkened.
Countless leaves blocked out the sky.
Thousand Leaf Daggers. Each leaf was the size of a palm, their edges so sharp they gleamed with a cold light.
Illuminated by the sunlight, the leaves shimmered with emerald-green light, layering over each other until they completely blanketed the sky above the plaza.
Ethan pressed his hand downward.
The leaves fell like a torrential downpour.
Each leaf let out a sharp howl as it tore through the air, and hundreds of thousands of leaves shot downward simultaneously.
Snake looked up, the green light that blanketed the sky reflecting in his vertical pupils.
Griping the trident with both hands, he slammed the shaft heavily onto the ground. A ring of dark green energy shield emerged from his scales, enveloping his entire body.
The leaves crashed into the energy shield.
The first leaf shattered into pieces upon hitting the surface of the energy shield.
The second, the third, the ten-thousandth... The speed of the leaves shattering grew faster and faster, and the ripples spreading across the surface of the energy shield became increasingly dense.
The leaf fragments piled into a green ring of debris around the energy shield. The debris stacked higher and thicker, almost completely burying Snake's figure.
Yet, the energy shield remained completely unshaken.
Ultimately, the attack of the leaves still failed to break through Snake's defense.
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