Third Person's POV

Behind them, he found bushy and metallic gray wolf tails swaying with subtle menace, and suddenly recognition struck him instantly as he realized that they were werewolves, and unlike him, they had seemingly recognized him to be a member of the blood sucking vampires instantly.

Realizing this so late, Ethan's lips pressed into a thin line, and he didn't blame himself, as he was not a vampire in reality, and he hadn't seen a single member of the werewolves previously, so how could he recognize them?

As he thought this, their mocking gazes, the laughter, all of it dulled into background noise, and a singular thought rang in his mind that Velcy was alive and not in immediate danger.

For now, that was enough, as he would take her soon anyway.

The fruit, however, was another matter.

From the moment his eyes had fallen on the so called Blood Crystal Fruit, it had radiated an allure that had clawed at his very core, while seemingly whispering whispers of growth, of power, and of breakthroughs that he had been waiting for the last two years.

He exhaled slowly, and his eyes sharpened as he prepared himself to act.

He had confidence in his strength, and he acted upon it.

Yet, as the gazes of the beautiful petite wolf girl, the bamboo-thin Alrin, and that pair of blond man and woman settled on him, Ethan realized something.

Their eyes were sharp and focused on him, and they obviously weren't like the rabble around them.

They had already recognized his strength, unlike Alrin's dim-witted travel companions and the pack of death-seeking werewolves who were still howling provocations with unrestrained arrogance.

Knowing that it was time to act, his dark dragon saber slid soundlessly into his palm, its chilling weight giving him a familiar cool and comforting feeling.

Slowly, and deliberately, he drew upon the mixture of dark and ice mana coiled in his dimensional energy reserves.

It seeped through his veins and gave him a prickling cold feeling as it traveled along his arm and gathered in a dense and lethal mixture into his palm before being poured into the black saber.

Without hurry, he tilted the saber slightly and leveled its tip toward the crown of the magical mango tree that radiated multicolored elemental energy like a beacon.

Seeing his action, the idiotic werewolves started roaring in uproarious laughter while being totally oblivious to his actions.

"What is that fool doing?" one snorted.

"I think he is cracked in the head."

"Look at him struggling to lift that wicked black blade. Hah! The pretty vampire boy looks like he would have trouble butchering a chicken!"

A hulking, broad-shouldered werewolf boy stroked his bare chin with exaggerated seriousness.

"Poor thing's thin as a twig. I bet that he will snap before he cuts."

His companions erupted, and their laughter rose like jackals in the night, even though they were supposed to be part wolves.

But Ethan remained silent as their words, washing over him, felt totally meaningless to him, similar to the barking of stray dogs.

In fact, if he was being totally honest with himself, the longer they mocked him, the more detached he felt.

Their childish jeers only highlighted their inexperience in his eyes as they were fully blind to the growing tension coiling between the other groups.

To him, they weren't opponents at all, merely noisy children who were too foolish to sense the danger breathing down their necks.

Of course, that didn't mean he wouldn't carve their arrogance out of them later.

Once he made sure that Velcy was safe and the fruit was in his hand, he would gladly give them a lesson they wouldn't forget, which would definitely include a good pummelling.

Just then, the doll-like face of the beautiful, petite wolf girl twitched slightly, and her mask of silence and inaction broke away.

Without warning, her figure blurred and vanished into a streak of gray as she rushed at him, her speed frightening.

But Ethan was ready.

With a faint slide of his foot, the ground beneath him felt like frozen glass, and he glided backward across the grass in a silent retreat while leaving a strip of ice on the path he tread.

At the same time, his saber flared and from its tip, he launched a bullet of condensed dark-ice energy, so fast it whistled sharply through the air, and streaked straight toward the thin stem of the glowing fruit branch at the crown of the magical tree.

For an instant, it seemed unstoppable. But then—

TING!

A ting sound occurred like two utensils colliding as a thin, dark-brown needle hissed out of nowhere, and collided with his attack mid-air.

A violent but small burst of icy vapor, clashing with corrosive darkness and mixed with sizzling shards of bone-like fragments, erupted and scattered in the air while a wave of mist rolled over the clearing.

Ethan's eyes snapped to Alrin, who was already moving towards the tree with his thin frame darting forward like a snake.

He seemed to be determined to take advantage of the fact that he and the petite werewolf girl were involved with each other.

As this thought crossed Ethan's mind, another needle was already materializing between his fingers, and aiming squarely at the stem.

But fate seemed to play them all as the moment Alrin reached beneath the tree, the shadows from the magical tree's thick shade stirred.

From it, a black vine-like tentacle shot out from below silently and wrapped tightly around his leg.

Shock lit his face as he glanced down and saw his body jerking against the binding force.

Knowing that his dark tentacle would not be able to bind that thin fellow for only a small instant, Ethan wasted no time as he bolted toward the tree, dark saber gleaming.

But then, a blinding light erupted around him.

The sunlight around him flared unnaturally bright for a moment and almost forced his eyes to squint.