As the explosion ended, the scene at the cave’s entrance became clearer to the onlookers.
The magical shield was unharmed by the spells, protecting the cave resolutely. Elic and the others looked at each other with annoyed expressions.
They did not expect that despite their combined spell attacks, as well as the boost from Lilly’s spell, the enemy’s shield was capable of withstanding any damage.
As they were thinking about what to do next, a purple beam leaped from nowhere and shot at Naruv.
The purple light beam was quick, speedier than any of Nick’s usual attacks. Naruv had a passive magical shield spell protecting him at all times, but it was not strong enough to guard against this beam.
The purple beam penetrated the magical shield and went right through Naruv’s chest. Moments, later, there was a loud eruption. It had the same amount of force as a hand-grenade from Earth.
“Boom!!”
Naruv’s body exploded and scattered around with such force that blood drops splashed on the faces of Elic and the others.
Elic at this time whispered to herself.
“What kind of enemy is this!”
—
The purple beam was cast by Nick. He wanted to find a way to improve the Sonic Bullet spell’s power. As others prepared to attack the Electrical Domain Shield at the cave’s entrance, he was tinkering with what he could possibly do to improve the Sonic Bullet.
He remembered the Void Hunter Rat and also recalled the Ether Stones.
Ether Stones were stones that were created by magical energy or had magical energy inside them. These two facts made them invaluable to mages and to other energy beings who relied on some form of energy to improve their skills and their battle prowess.
Nick looked to do something different and ended up creating a new spell—Ether Bullet. The spell’s algorithm was the same as that of Sonic Bullet, with one little difference.
Ether Bullet had a basic rule:
‘Every time a spell was cast, one Ether Stone would be used as a bullet.’
Nick was not sure whether this would work, but he imagined using Ether Stones along with a spell was not strange. With the magical power residing inside the Ether Stone, it was strong and powerful.
Also, due to the existence of magic in the Ether Stone, Nick could control it with ease, and even enable an explosion.
Nick attacked the mage named Naruv because he was the weakest among them all. At the same time, he was the only one capable of understanding the mechanics of his shield and possibly even dismantling it.
After the five mages’ attacks ended, Nick targeted Naruv and whispered.
“Ether Bullet.”
In less than a second, one Ether Stone in his bag levitated in the air and turned into a Sonic Bullet. It then shot straight at Naruv. Easily breaking through Naruv’s shield, it penetrated his chest and then exploded him. In all, this killed the target with extreme ease.
Nick smiled as he observed all of this.
Ether Stone was created by magical energy naturally. Adding the knowledge and power behind the Sonic Bullet, as well as adding a rule of using one Ether Stone per spell made this version of the spell especially formidable.
The Ether Bullet spell was capable of penetrating low-level shields and exploding the target, or even hard ground for that matter, after hitting it once.
Nick now was in possession of a spell that could obliterate shields and attack at the same time.
There was also another aspect Nick noticed when he conjured the spell. He did not factor this in when he was creating the algorithm, but this spell seemed to be economical on energy consumption.
The Sonic Bullet spell was strong and consumed a moderate amount of magical energy every time it was cast.
According to the rule’s logic, Ether Stone should be consuming more magical energy as it was stronger and faster, as well created an explosion.
Adding all of these, Ether Stone should be a high-energy consuming, heavier spell to cast. But it was not like that after all. The magical energy consumed while casting the Ether Bullet was lesser than the ordinary Sonic Bullet.
The reason for this was simple—Ether Stone itself was a magical energy stone.
When Nick cast the Ether Bullet spell, he could manipulate the energy inside the Ether Stone to make it more powerful and faster, so that he did not need to add any additional magical energy.
The only thing Nick needed was targeting and propelling the Ether Stone according to introductions of the knowledge added to the Sonic Bullet.
Nick couldn’t help but laugh. Five more Ether Stones manifested as he did so, and Nick directly targeted Elic and the others.
Elic could already smell the danger. She yelled and ran far away from the cave’s entrance, clearly looking to escape. The others were following suit.
But there was no way for Prive Level mages to be faster than Ether Bullets.
Five purple energy beams of Ether Bullets struck towards five different targets.
Lilly, the healing leader, cast a strong magical energy shield. The spell was enough to block the Ether Bullet penetration but as it stopped the attack, it failed to defend from the explosion that came afterward.
“Boom!”
Lilly was on ground half-dead, half-alive. She probably was breathing her last.
Arimo and Verantil cast their respective defensive shields as well. But compared to Lilly’s shield, their magical shields were not enough to block even the first attack of the Ether Bullet.
Ether Bullets broke down their shields and penetrated their chests and abdomens respectively. Within less than a second, the Ether Stones exploded, and Arimo and Verantil’s body parts met the same result as Naruv’s.
Elic and Avir both used their shields to stop the blunt attack of the Ether Bullets and at the same time, they used movement spells to jump back, to escape from the explosion.
It was clear that they were both more experienced. However, they still fell short. They had no power against pure force and knowledge.
As they jumped back, they did not expect that each of them would be targeted by two more purple energy beams. Both of their shields were compromised and Ether Stones exploded in their bodies, killing both the Deep Water Organization’s leaders at the same time.
