Chapter 41

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Ethan looked at Diego up and down before glancing at Harry and at the downed Miyuki. Although he already had a plan set in motion, he could not help but fidget with his wand nervously as he gibed, "You go on and on about arrogance, but you don't lack it yourself."

Diego rolled his eyes, pacing back and forth in front of the mirror as he huffed. "I hope you don't mean to use that piece of silver Quirrell gave you during the year."

Ethan narrowed his eyes before taking out a small chunk of silver. It was indeed what Quirrell had given him. The mere sight of it seemed to irritate Diego, but he did not jump into action, merely spitting out, "Please don't tell me you intended to use this against me. That would be dearly disappointing."

Ethan snorted before throwing the piece of silver over at him. As it reached mid-air, Ethan waved his wand, forcefully morphing the silver into small but sharp needles, sending them flying right at Diego.

This only caused the vampire to roll his eyes, however, as he disappeared from the spot, easily dodging the small silvery needles and gliding across the room.

With the needles falling harmlessly against one of the walls, Diego tilted his head and asked with a smile, "That was cute. But that wasn't a real attack. This is."

Diego disappeared from the spot, only to reappear right in front of Ethan, his clawed hand going for his face. It wouldn't be a deadly attack; Diego wasn't aiming to kill him after all, but it would hurt. Ethan was pretty sure Diego had slowed down to give him the time to realise what would happen as well, or maybe that was just adrenaline doing its job.

Still, Ethan fought against every instinct within him, and instead of dodging, he thrust his left hand forward. As he did, the blade hidden in his sleeve slipped into his hand. The runes on the blade were activated instantly, turning it into a blazing sun as Ethan stabbed it at Diego's chest.

The vampire had impressive reflexes, and even as his claws sliced into Ethan's face, he still managed to pull his body back to avoid the blade.

However, Ethan, before his body could even register the pain of having his face sliced into by the vampire's claws, suddenly took a step forward, using the leg that should have been useless.

Quirrell had never managed to hit Ethan. His mind had been shattered before he could reach him. However, with the help of Miyuki, Ethan created the illusion of his leg having been cut.

Speaking of which, as Ethan slashed his knife forward, Miyuki appeared behind Diego, her claws flashing with the cold reflection of the nearby torches as the two attacked at the same time.

In the next moment, Ethan suddenly felt like half of his face was on fire, and he could not help but scream from the pain. At the same time, he heard a painful yelp from Miyuki, followed by a loud thud.

The whole world turned blurry as Ethan heard Diego rasp, "Fucking kid!"

Ethan then felt a strong whip-like force strike both of his wrists, breaking them on contact and forcing him to drop both his knife and his wand, followed by another strong impact on his chest that sent him flying into a wall.

Half of Ethan's face was covered in blood, and he could not tell whether he was unable to see because his eye had been injured or if it had been blinded by blood, but it did not matter for the moment. In any case, he was half-blind for all intents and purposes.

The pain itself was horrible, but Ethan's mind was a trained one, and through sheer focus, he managed to keep himself tethered to the situation.

The world was different when seen through one eye, and while disorienting, Ethan managed to concentrate on Diego.

The vampire had lost all of his earlier countenances, his hair was dishevelled, and his entire chest was charred black. The blade had not gone very deep within, but it had still dealt devastating damage. Damage that wasn't healing. After all, it was an enchanted blade coated in silver.

Still, Diego wasn't down. Moreover, all of his vampire attributes were now on full display, making him look more like a wild beast than a human being.

Coughing from the pain he felt in his chest, Ethan forced a smile as he taunted, "If Dracula looked like you before dying, my grandfather probably did the world a favour by killing him."

Ethan felt a wave of pure, unadulterated killing intent emanate from Diego; his emotions were so strong they were easily picked up by Ethan's mind magic. His arms spread to both sides. Diego hissed as he approached Ethan, "You pathetic worm, I will enjoy crushing you under my foot! You think you have bested me? I am your better, and you owe me your reverence!"

As Diego stood over Ethan, he realised the vampire was holding his wand. The vampire traced his clawed index over its length and growled, "I will devour you and kill Potter with your wand. It might have been easier if I kept you alive, and seeing you chased all over the world would have been ambrosia to my soul, but congratulations; you have profoundly enraged me."

Blinking, Ethan raised one of his hands, but he found himself unable to control his hand. His wrist had been completely shattered. It didn't matter; he didn't need it.

Taking Diego by surprise, Ethan silently and wandlessly cast a 'Flipendo', sending the vampire flying back as Ethan struggled to his feet.

The spell had barely done anything to Diego, other than create distance, but it did allow Ethan to stand back up as he pointed his broken wrist at Diego and said, "Scared?" He would have beaconed him, but that was hard to do with a broken hand.

Diego let out an angry laugh. "You think you can fight me?"

Ethan took a martial pose, mimicked from the monks in Japan, and sneered, "I know kung-fu, bitch."

Diego screamed at his defiance and launched himself at Ethan. This time, however, he was considerably slower than before, weakened by the many attacks as well as the one thing he did not take into account.

As he arrived in front of Ethan, the boy strongly stomped his foot on the ground, sending a surge of magic into the ground, visualising a magical circuit made on the fly.

A silvery spike suddenly broke out of the already ravaged ground, erecting itself right in Diego's path. His eyes opened wide, and Diego tried to dodge, but his body failed him at the worst possible time.

Driven by his momentum, Diego impaled himself on the large silvery pike, which pierced straight through his chest, punching a hole clean.

Diego's eyes widened in disbelief as he looked down, and he finally realised why he had been so slow. The cracks in the ground allowed him to make a grim and late discovery. The entire underground had somehow been turned into silver, with only a thin layer left unchanged on top to cover it all up.

This was the last thing Diego saw before the properties of silver dispersed the last remnants of his undeath.

Unbeknownst to Diego, since the very start of the fight, Ethan had been slowly altering the ground, turning the stone into silver, only leaving the surface itself to stone. At first, Diego didn't feel anything, but once the ground was damaged, some of the silver was exposed, which weakened Diego even further.

The enemy finally vanquished him. Ethan felt a wave of exhaustion spread from his core, but he held on. Pain alone was not enough to put down the experienced mind.

As he holstered his knife and his wand back in their places, Ethan felt something brush against his leg, and looking down, he saw a feeble-looking Miyuki. She had taken quite a beating herself.

Glancing over at Harry, he asked, "He's not dead, is he?"

Ethan heard a snicker from Miyuki, and chuckling to himself, he crashed against one of the pillars in the room and closed his eye.