The entire coliseum, and especially Stella Laurel, were taken aback to see the teen emerge in one piece. However, while the crowd began to cheer furiously, young Stella was getting slightly worried.
'Get him.' More so to combat her own nervousness than as a fighting strategy, she mentally ordered the fire spirit to resume its attack.
On Ethan's side, there was dead silence. The mage was livid with how things had progressed, so he shut down his thoughts and focused solely on the battle.
When the enemy was 50 feet away, he grabbed the knife by the tip and got into a throwing stance.
'Dodge when he throws,' Stella instructed.
However, even when it got to 30 feet from Ethan, the mage had yet to move. 20 feet before impact and the boy seemed frozen.
Finally, spirit reached his position and prepared to strike. At the same time, an enormous amount of energy gathered around the knife, yet Ethan was still waiting. Only when the monster's fist was halfway towards him did the boy finally throw his projectile.
Both blows struck at the same time. Ethan was sent flying with most bones in his body shattered. His knife entered the spirit's flames before a giant explosion of mana shook the monster as well as the entire arena.
'Found it.' With only one eye still functional, Ethan had finally located his target. However, before he could celebrate, his ruined body rolled on the ground 6 times before finally coming to a stop.
'This… sucks,' muttered Ethan having lost control of half of his body and feeling only pain in the rest. While struggling to stay conscious, he focused on his dimensional pocket and sucked out mana from the few cores Ana had basically forced upon him.
'I got to be less stubborn,' he noted to himself. Unfortunately, he couldn't activate the healing spells in his tattoos in fear someone noticing. Instead, after taking out a pile of healing scrolls from his ring, the mage manipulated his fingers like a puppet in order to grab hold of them.
However, before he could do anything more, his half destroyed body was once again sent flying across the arena. Based on the flames which now rendered him blind, it was pretty clear what had happened.
"Keep going!" shouted Stella not bothering to speak through her thoughts.
Fortunately, Ethan had ample experience with being crippled during fights. Despite being smashed to pieces, he did not let go of the scrolls.
Then, with a speed that almost made the audience think he was fine, the mage's broken fingers ripped them apart. In an instant, his flesh and bones were put back into place, and even the flames were extinguished. Seeing the monster spirit almost upon him, he pulled out another scroll which sent him flying into the distance.
"For crying out loud, would you just die already?" Not being used to such persistence, the 14 year old Stella was getting frustrated.
Unbeknownst to her, Ethan was ready to end the fight then and there. After ripping apart two more gravity bomb scrolls, he pulled out two thick stacks of papers and slammed them both onto the ground.
"No worries blondie. I'm almost done." While the giant Fire Spirit was dashing towards him, Ethan stretched out his hand. Suddenly, his knife burst out of the creature's stomach and flew into his palm.
'Best gift ever!' thought the boy happy to have added a return feature to his weapon. Only one soul was left inside it. If this one were to be used too, there was a good chance the knife would lose its properties.
"Do whatever!" shouted Stella upon noticing the piles of spell scrolls. "I'll still win."
With a grin, Ethan slammed the knife into the first set of 50 papers. A mana infused water cannon shot out smacking the spirit right in its center. The boy began manipulating the stream making it curl around the fire spirit until a giant water dome was formed.
"Break it!" shouted Stella.
However, before her creature could comply, a large lightning bolt shot out of the other scrolls complimenting the stream. After pulling the knife out of the second stack, Ethan was confident in his win.
"Ha, that won't do anything. You're wasting your time." declared Stella. In normal circumstances, she would have been right. Both spells were at most mid rank three in power. Soon, they would run out of energy and the spirit would be free.
"Then, why are you so nervous?" asked Ethan seeing how the girl was biting one of her nails. Instead of waiting for her response, he took on a throwing pose.
'One soul left. This better work.' Though he had an idea of what would happen, it was ultimately guesswork. Excited by his bet, Ethan threw the knife as hard as he could straight into the water dome.
For a few tense seconds, nothing had happened. Everyone just watched the water circling around and the endless lightning which seemed to pierce through it.
However, no spell could last forever, and soon, the mana which made them work had run out. In tandem, water and lightning stopped pouring out of the scrolls, and the dome abruptly collapsed. Revealed within it was a single eerie looking knife.