Although this magic was called Blizzard, it looked more like a meteor shower, except the meteors were condensed from frost energy.
"Fall back!"
At a time like this, there was no way to call out everyone's name to remind them to dodge.
Fortunately, Varian and the Stormwind soldiers had extensive combat experience and a solid understanding of how mages operated.
They had all trained in coordination with mages and knew what to do in such situations. As the Blizzard began to fall, everyone retreated to a safe zone in time.
The only one who didn't retreat was Bolvar Fordragon. The Grand Duke of Stormwind did everything he could to keep Onyxia occupied, preventing the black dragon from escaping the area covered by the Blizzard.
Of course, this also meant he would be caught within Jaina's magical attack.
Large-scale magical attacks in reality did not distinguish between friend and foe. Although Bolvar was mentally prepared to die here, he certainly didn't want to die under his own people's magic.
"The Light is with me!"
As one of the most powerful paladins in the Kingdom of Stormwind, Bolvar's Holy Light was pure and strong. At the critical moment, he activated Holy Shield. Shrouded in Holy Light, Bolvar completely ignored Onyxia and the Blizzard descending from the sky, allowing the attacks to strike him while he continued to wield his weapon, relentlessly slashing at Onyxia's vital points.
"Damn mage!"
Onyxia found herself unable to break free from Bolvar's entanglement and began mobilizing the magic within her to cast an Arcane Shield. With her abundant magical power, it wouldn't have been difficult to withstand a Blizzard head-on—if she could focus entirely on casting it, instead of being forced to punch back a man shining like a human torch just after gathering half her energy.
Large chunks of frost energy pounded Onyxia and the surrounding ground. The energy that struck the ground wasn't ineffective. The cold air that erupted upon impact created significant problems for Onyxia. It disrupted her perception, hindered her magic control, and even slowed her physical movements.
After the last burst of frost energy exploded, Onyxia and the area around her were shrouded in a thick white mist. The temperature in the cold mist zone was extremely low. Even Bolvar, protected by the Holy Light, had to retreat and wait for the mist to dissipate before engaging the black dragon again.
At this moment, everyone was praying that the black dragon had been severely wounded, or better yet, killed outright by the attack.
From the beginning of the battle to Jaina casting Blizzard and the spell finally ending, only about ten minutes had passed. Yet, in this short time, thirteen of Stormwind's elite soldiers had been killed, more than twenty were seriously injured, and the rest were all wounded. Not a single Stormwind soldier was unharmed.
Broll Bearmantle was using druidic healing spells to keep the seriously injured alive, while the young Prince Anduin stood in confusion, still unsure of what was happening.
Jaina, having just finished casting Blizzard, turned to look at Ethan.
"You're not going to make a move this whole time?"
"I will," Ethan replied.
Jaina didn't ask when. Mages had their own rhythm in battle. Often, it was impossible to tell whether a mage was spacing out or preparing a powerful spell behind the scenes.
She was concerned about something else. The child Laura stood out among this group.
"You should've left her outside."
Ethan saw Jaina's concern for Laura and gave a helpless smile. "Don't worry. She's much stronger than you think. Everyone else here could die, and she still wouldn't."
Laura's healing factor came directly from Wolverine, Logan. Among everyone present, these two were arguably the ones in the least danger. While Onyxia was powerful, she didn't appear to specialize in soul-related magic. If she only relied on physical or magical attacks, she simply couldn't kill them.
At this moment, the white mist on the battlefield gradually dissipated, revealing Onyxia's figure once more. The black dragon princess appeared unharmed. Aside from her expression looking worse, even her clothes weren't damaged.
However, Jaina's spell still drove her into a frenzy. Onyxia's body began to swell, black scales emerged on her skin, and in front of everyone's shocked eyes, she fully transformed into a massive black dragon.
"That was fast," Ethan muttered.
He had intended to sneak attack Onyxia during her transformation, but didn't expect her to complete it in an instant. The behemoth in front of him smashed nearby structures and even touched the edge of the Mirror Dimension.
"Hm?"
Onyxia finally realized why her teleportation spell wasn't functioning properly, and she instantly understood who was behind it.
"It's you!"
Her anger intensified, turning into a massive blaze that erupted from her mouth, engulfing Ethan's position in flames.
Faced with the oncoming flames, Ethan revealed a surprised expression, then turned to Loki beside him and said, "Beautiful illusion."
With a flick of his right hand, a scepter with a curved blade appeared in his grip. As it materialized, a stream of light swept across 'Ethan,' revealing Loki's form to everyone's astonished eyes.
Loki, who had been quietly standing there, transformed into Ethan amid shimmering light. He smiled at the real Ethan, who raised a hand as if to say, "Don't be shy. This is a great chance for revenge and to slap the black dragon in the face."
Seeing Ethan appear in a different location and realizing she had attacked the wrong person, Onyxia was momentarily stunned. Her fire breath paused, giving Loki the perfect opportunity. His scepter erupted with brilliant light, followed by a wave of bone-chilling frost.
Jaina's Blizzard had already lowered the temperature of the Mirror Dimension, but it couldn't compare to the cold energy released from Loki's scepter.
Blizzard simply summoned water elements from extremely cold regions, condensed them, and threw them down. The element density and quality weren't particularly high. It was great for clearing weaker enemies, but insufficient against a black dragon.
Moreover, casting spells in the Mirror Dimension created additional difficulties for Jaina, and the final power of her Blizzard was far weaker than usual.
The frost power Loki wielded, however, was a relatively high-level energy in the Marvel universe. Otherwise, with Loki's talent, he wouldn't have spent so much time just grasping its surface.
Perhaps Loki still couldn't instantly kill Onyxia, but the frost power he released was a genuine threat to her.
At the same time, Onyxia recalled that this man had previously approached her with a proposal to join forces.
Back then, she thought he was just a clown who appeared out of nowhere, didn't take him seriously, mocked him a few times, then sent him away. She even had SI:7 send agents to hunt him down, and she hadn't expected to meet him again under these circumstances.
What surprised her most was the fact that his power now made her feel a trace of fear. Only now did she realize that when he first approached her, he truly had the qualifications to team up with her.
Unfortunately, she realized it too late. Even if she had another chance, she would still refuse. After all, she was a proud black dragon. She didn't need anyone's help to destroy the Kingdom of Stormwind.
While Onyxia was momentarily stunned, she didn't notice the blue circle that appeared beneath Ethan, who had been quietly lying in wait. He immediately fell into it.
At the same time, an identical blue circle appeared above Onyxia, and Ethan dropped down from this portal.
This was the teleportation spell from Kamar-Taj. After studying spatial energy for quite some time, Ethan still couldn't open portals to specific locations at will, but within the Mirror Dimension, he could cast the spell freely.
The energy absorbed from the Tesseract was also highly compatible with the spell. It could be cast silently, without gestures or the circle-drawing motions of the Ancient One and others. A simple hand movement was enough.
This time, he used the spell to launch a surprise attack on Onyxia. His Battle Cross was fully charged. The light sword, condensed at maximum energy output, radiated blinding brilliance, like a miniature sun descending on Onyxia's head at incredible speed.
To increase the speed and impact force of the strike, Ethan immediately unfolded his Flame Cloak's wings. The powerful thrust instantly pushed his speed to the limit. In the next moment, the light sword in his hand pierced Onyxia's wing. The black dragon, sensing danger, blocked the strike with her wing, avoiding a fatal blow to the head.
"Roar!"
Getting a hole punched through her wing was far from pleasant. Roaring furiously, the black dragon flapped her wing, throwing off Ethan. Then, she unleashed another wave of fire breath at him, who was now unbalanced in midair.
As the flames surged toward him, Ethan stabilized his posture in the air, extended his left hand, and cast a spell he had recently developed.
"Dimensional Rift!"
(To be continued.)
***
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