Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

Neither Ethan nor Hannah liked to fight in confined places. The reason was pretty simple. If they mess up, they might end up burying themselves in such places. Ethan wasn't strong enough to make a mountain collapse, and Hannah, at the moment, didn't have enough mana to do the same. However, the necromancer was there to give them a hand with that.

While walking through the cave, Ethan and Hannah confirmed that the island was man-made. They could feel a massive concentration of mana coming from the walls, ceiling, and the ground. That place really was a fortress. Still, instead of worrying about that, Ethan was more worried about what that indicated. It looked like, originally; the necromancer was an ice mage. Usually, Ethan couldn't care less about his foe's skills and talents. Still, ice mages were a bit more complicated than the others because they could cause a lot of damage while decreasing his status. As if that wasn't enough, talented ice mages could kill their foes by stealing their blood heat in mere seconds.

As such, Ethan began to consider buying another cloak. However, considering the durability of the item, it wouldn't last long since he was a close-combat fighter. In the end, Ethan would have to endure those hardships and force the necromancer to focus on him. Hannah seemed especially vulnerable to cold, so things might get disastrous if she fell for any of the enemies' spells.

It didn't take long for them to find the end of the cave, and as one would expect, they found a massive room at the end of it. Although everything was mostly covered in ice, Ethan found some luxurious items, ones that he only usually would find in castles and in the houses of filthy rich nobles. He sighed when he saw them. The necromancer was causing a havoc because he didn't get the recognition that he wanted, and now he surrounded himself with those expensive items. It has been a long while since Ethan had to fight a foe as pathetic as that.

The necromancer, as if he considered himself to be a king and above Ethan and Hannah, was sitting on a frozen throne and looking at them from above. As Ethan had expected, the necromancer was a man in his prime, probably the heir of a powerful noble family, given his delicate features. That being said, despite being good-looking, his black hair was a mess, and one could see some big bad under his silver eyes. It looked like Ethan's plans to harass through the night worked much better than he had expected. Still, despite everything, the man was looking at the siblings as if he was bored while resting his head on his left hand. Although that bothered Hannah, Ethan was more worried about something else… he was more interested as to why the necromancer was wearing an exact copy of Hannah's cloak. The one which Ethan gave her.

"Only two, huh," The necromancer said before closing his eyes and showing a bored expression. "I knew some heroes of the other world had come to a stop with my plans, but I didn't expect this pathetic number. As if that isn't enough, one of them is another brat, and the other is an exhausted mage."

Ethan and Hannah looked at each other for a second, but then they stopped when Ethan shrugged. It was better to let the fool talk as much as possible. That way, they would learn a lot and prevent themselves from making any mistakes.

"Your species really like to intervene in other people's affairs," The necromancer said, looking a bit annoyed. "I guess I shouldn't expect much from people who have eyes like yours."

Ethan crossed his arms and then began to think as to how weird that situation had become. It was crazy, but he was starting to miss how things were in the other world. He was the hero, the mortal enemy of the demon king and his army. That was all, there was no reason for either part to strike up a conversation. Ethan liked when things were as simple as that.

"What is wrong?" The necromancer asked. "Why don't you defend yourselves? Aren't the heroes a bunch of prideful brats?"

"I'm not sure. I don't have many heroes," Ethan replied. "Still, there is no way we would do as something as unreasonable as interrupting your gloating. Go on. You can continue."

In the next moment, the necromancer made a certain silver magic staff that had a tip in the shape of a skull appear out of nowhere and then pointed at Ethan and Hannah. A moment later, several stalactites began to fall over them. Classic. That was the only word that popped into Ethan's head. The troublemaker being a hot-blood fool, he attacking like that after a single taunt, the shape of his weapon… everything was classic. However, Ethan could only see him as someone that was lacking in many aspects.

Ethan swung his bastard sword and destroyed those stalactites with ease. At the same time, the shockwave made the other projectiles fly in other directions, and thus not a single shard fell on Ethan or Hannah. The necromancer didn't give up after just that much… even though he still had a lot of mana stored on his staff, the idiot wanted to deal with Ethan and Hannah while conserving his strength. Ethan felt an alteration in the mana right beneath them. Still, once again, Ethan stopped the attack by hitting the ground a single time.

"Even warriors can disperse the mana of wizards and stop their incantation like this," Ethan said coldly. "Don't make me lose more time than I already did. Come with everything you got, or you will regret it later."

The necromancer couldn't help but flinch after hearing those cold words. As if that wasn't enough, there was something in Ethan's eyes that made the necromancer feel a cold hand touching his heart. However, soon after, he bit his lips in annoyance… There is no way he would let a brat make him tremble. There is no way he would fear a kid, even if that kid was the hero who succeeded in saving another world.

Instead of using the ice of his fortress, the necromancer created a massive ice spear and then made it fly toward Ethan's head. Even Hannah was forced to react, given the speed and the size of that thing, but then she stopped when he saw Ethan stepping forward without a hint of hesitation.

A massive shockwave spread across the cave when the sword and the spear collided. However, Ethan didn't move a single step backward, and he held his position until the ice spear cracked into hundreds of pieces.

"Watch my back, Hannah and focus on defense," Ethan said. "I will deal with this asshole."