**Disclaimer: This chapter has violent/gruesome content.**

A deep laughter sounded, interrupting Ethan's thoughts. 

A familiar deep voice was heard. "What's the matter? Losing your cool because of a mere single ability user? Have you not noticed that you would have sharply increased your chances of winning if you would just forget about that dispensable teammate of yours?"

Dispensable? Ethan's veins popped out at the side of his forehead in his anger. He recognised this voice as the one who spotted his bubble that was holding Alice earlier on.

"Violet, blast the strongest fire you can keep up at them." Ethan said with death in his voice.

Violet shivered instinctively while she immediately followed his instruction.

"Ethan, don't be taunted. He's one of the stronger three abilities user." Stephan warned.

"I have some beef with him." Ethan growled then activated his wind ability to create a fire storm. It forced their opponents a considerable distance back and caused them to split up. The intense heat from Violet's fire still caused minor burn wounds for those who reacted a tad too slow.

Since I can't seem to go against this goddamn force, I might as well quickly end it here so that I can go to Alice! Ethan made up his mind as he sped himself up along with the initial activation of his wind ability.

The moment his target's vision was cleared up of the fire, a fist was seen right in front of his face. It was too fast for him to dodge so he reflexively dealt a blow for blow and raised his knee upwards. His target flew downwards while Ethan flew upwards.

The unexpected thing was how hard Ethan's fist landed on his face. His gut told him that it was far from an equal exchange. He spat out blood and teeth. His veins began to pop out due to irritation. "That wasn't a normal punch, was it?" He asked through gritted teeth. If he had neglected his physical strength, he would likely have been knocked out cold by that punch.

Ethan replied with a kick from above. The speed at which Ethan's foot descended on him was now as expected. He easily dodged Ethan's kick with the help of his wind ability and blasted fire at him. Ethan did not bother with dodging and used water to negate the fire attack.

When he landed onto the ground, he created a crater bigger than expected and rebounded at a speed faster than expected. It's happening again! What's going on?!

Vines suddenly appeared out of nowhere to form a thick shield and surround Ethan. However, Ethan calmly spun around to kick the vines and destroy them into shambles then broke through a frosted over vine shield easily with a single punch.

Ethan could not find his target there though and instinctively flew to the side, dodging a kick to his back by a hair's breath.

He confirmed his suspicions and knew that he just had to break Ethan's momentum to break that mysterious acceleration. However, the strength behind his punches and kicks were still no joke. I should still work to avoid getting hit another time. Moreover, where did the frost come from? Are those guys not doing their jobs properly?!

On Violet's and Stephan's side, they were skillfully keeping the remaining four from interfering in Ethan's fight. However, this meant that they could not lend Ethan a hand either. They could only choose to trust in Ethan's capability. He did not seem to be struggling too badly anyway, which initially came as a shock to all the three ability users present.

Rosalyn continued to talk since Alice did not seem interested in looking at her friends. "I can guess how you informed the other three. You're different. Promising. I like you. I would ask you to join me if I could be sure of your loyalty..."

Alice merely raised an eyebrow.

Rosalyn sighed lightly. "You rather die?"

"Who said I would? I choose to live but not for you." Alice smiled mockingly.

Rosalyn finally frowned. "Who do you think you are? You're a mere single ability user from an even less outstanding background."

"And that's enough to go against you." Alice's smile deepened.

Rosalyn's lips twitched as her anger steadily rose at her blatant disrespect. 

"All you know is how to scheme. That's all you did from the start to the end." Alice continued.

Her temper finally flared which made her breathe harder. "I'll show you!"

Alice's fast reflexes ended up stunning Rosalyn because Alice acting first went against her expectations, even if it was by a mere split second.

Alice had ignored the spears about to pierce her and jumped up to escape. It caused more scratches on her and more blood flowed. Rosalyn quickly recovered from the shock and made the spears chase after Alice a second after she broke free. One successfully pierced her thigh. Alice hissed in pain but did not slow down her movements in running away from the spears.

Rosalyn has been chasing after Alice but very soon began to pant hard and got increasingly drenched in sweat. She felt like her actions needed more effort and her stamina was weirdly significantly lower than usual. She quickly realised that it was getting hard to breathe, like she was suffocating. She panicked. This was a first and she could not understand what was going on. The spears that were still chasing after Alice and the one embedded in her leg disappeared.

Alice knew that this was the chance to attack Rosalyn but she decided to play it safe. She guessed that it was likely impossible for her to win against the second female lead. She stopped running when Rosalyn was within her maximum range of effect. She avoided approaching Rosalyn so that she could return to the group as soon as possible if things went south.

Rosalyn was on all fours by now. Her hands in a tight grip with torn grass in it. She thought that she was perhaps having a panic attack from experiencing her first failure after so long but nothing changed even after she tried to slow her breathing and calm herself down.

Her eyes turned red in desperation and anger. Even if I die, I'll make sure to accomplish what I set off to do!!

She looked up and straight at Violet, activating a long and thin arrow that traveled insanely fast towards her.

Alice eyes went round as she ran desperately in the line of fire while activating her water ability then turning the layer of water closest to her into ice. However, the arrow was deceptively brittle. It steadily shot through the layer of water and ice. Alice dodged by reflex and the arrow shot through her shoulder. She made the instant decision to crush it to smithereens by brute force. She leapt up and flipped herself backwards to stomp hard on the ice with all the spiritual energy gathered in her foot. Unfortunately, this caused the controlled blood loss to flow freely again.

Rosalyn saw everything that happened and noticed how it had gotten slightly easier to breathe the moment Alice executed her moves to save Violet. Her eyes turned red in anger at the humiliation she suffered. She smiled crazily as she yelled at Alice, "I'll give you the glorious death you deserve! Count this as thanks for a good fight!"

She slammed her palms onto the ground and activated all three abilities consecutively, almost without a break between each activation. All the three abilities users who heard Rosalyn and saw her action immediately recognised impending doom. Among them, it was rumored that she was the next closest to Stephan who mastered almost simultaneous activation of abilities.

Their heightened sense of danger told them to move out of the area, which they did. Stephan took care of Violet while Ethan went after his fleeing target intending to deal the final blow. He had a feeling that he had to end it now or never. Just as he did, fire shot up from the ground where everyone was at. It blazed strongly and killed indiscriminately. The 2 two ability users died as a result of not catching on fast enough.

At the same time, Alice found herself being pushed against the ground by a great force of wind which prevented her from running. It took all the energy she had to push herself up.

An ice sword flew down from on top of Alice. With the momentum the sword gained from flying across a distance, it cleanly cut off Alice's legs at her knees. Tears sprung to her eyes as pain filled her senses and Alice stifled a scream that threatened to leave her throat. Her fingers dug into the ground as her arms gave way and she fell back down.

As soft as Alice's scream was, Ethan heard it and his heart ached to no bounds. His final spinning kick landed heavily on his target's chest. Sounds of bones cracking could be heard and blood spurted from his opponent's mouth. His body crashed into the ground and formed a small crater.

Ethan intended to go to Alice's aid immediately but his eyes went to Violet and Stephan instead. A thought of ripping his eyes out flashed in his mind. This mysterious phenomenon of being not in total control of his body was vexing him to no end.

Just as he took a step forward, vines wrapped all around his body and kept him restrained. A creepy cackle was heard. "What a softie. I see why Rosalyn chose to single her out. My heart should have burst from that kick and I would have certainly died but you got flustered and kicked the side of my ribs instead..." Crazy laughter was heard followed by a coughing fit. "Each and every time that girl got injured, you faltered. You'll never win like this." He said confidently. Fire blazed from the bottom of Ethan as if he was being cooked alive.

Ethan frowned deeply and clenched his jaw to bear with the pain while covering his body with thick frost to counter the heat. He also worked on freezing the vines like he usually would so that he could break out of it. However, new vines kept forming and restraining him. It was a matter of speed now.

Stephan got the initiative of the first attack after escaping from Rosalyn's attack. He immediately trapped the two remaining opponents within a ball of darkness followed by encasing them within a cube of ice. Violet only had to rain her light attacks on them coupled with his lightning to end their lives but he found her running off to Alice instead.

"Violet!!" Stephan yelled half in anger half in worry. His lapse in concentration allowed the two trapped to break out easily with their wood and earth abilities. They saw a stray Violet with her back towards them so focused their attacks on her.

Rosalyn eyes was filled with mirth when she saw Violet running to Alice. "That's right, go ahead, cover her." A whole plethora of ice weapons that were left waiting in the sky above Alice began raining down on her and an approaching Violet.

Stephan went into full defensive mode against the attacks that came from behind Violet.

Ethan experienced another rush of adrenaline and recklessly used water slicers on himself to cut the vines and set himself free. He ignored the self-inflicted injuries on his body and propelled himself forward, only to find himself flying towards Violet. He instantly paled at the realisation that he would not reach Alice in time.

Tears began to gather in his eyes as he refused to be controlled. My body may be held back but my mind shall not!

He disregarded the risk of weakening the shield due to size and expanded the water shield from covering only Violet to covering Alice as well.

Just as Ethan expanded the water shield, Violet's body flew back and crashed into him, knocking him back and onto the ground. This threw them out of the range of Rosalyn's ice weapons and caused Ethan's shield to dissipate.

In the next moment, ice weapons rained onto Alice.