His mind was too restless and he was overly eager, so the precision of Sectumsempra faltered. As a result, he kept slipping up while trying to correct his aim. He cast Sectumsempra multiple times in rapid succession but still couldn't land a fatal blow on the target, plunging himself into a perilous bind. This approach was reckless, and he needed to steady his nerves!
As he reflected on this, Sebastian triggered Apparition once more and vanished from the spot in a swirl, leaving the gravely wounded Frost Giant grasping at empty air before collapsing heavily onto the icy ground.
"Form a formation! Attack!" Laufey's command thundered across the battlefield.
As a race that dominates an entire planet, the Frost Giants weren't limited to crude, one-on-one brawls. Battle formations and coordinated assaults were well within their icy grasp.
Over a dozen Frost Giants swiftly arranged themselves into a tight formation and charged toward Sebastian under Laufey's booming orders.
Sebastian was just about to cast Apparition again to slip their attack, but at that moment, Laufey raised one massive hand, and a shimmering ice-blue glow pulsed within his palm. The next instant, Sebastian felt the air around him thicken, as if space itself had frozen, making Apparition sluggish and unwieldy. It was like sprinting through a sticky, clinging swamp, his entire body weighed down by an unseen force!
Ice authority can also be used in this way?
Though questions swirled in Sebastian's head, he didn't dwell on them, for the dire situation left no room for deep thought.
Without the swift mobility of Apparition, Sebastian's human physique would surely land him in grave danger against the towering Frost Giants. Luckily, Sebastian was always one to plan for the worst, and he'd prepared contingencies for scenarios where Apparition or portals might fail—otherwise, he'd be in serious trouble.
Seeing the formation of Frost Giants barreling toward him, the hooded robe woven from black smoke around Sebastian's body suddenly billowed wildly, and tendrils of dark mist coalesced into a pair of sleek, shadowy wings sprouting from his back. With a subtle flutter, Sebastian soared into the air. Though his speed and agility couldn't match Apparition's finesse, it was leagues better than dodging on foot.
After weaving past a barrage of jagged ice spears, Sebastian raised his hand and unleashed a vivid red flash of Stupefy.
Yet, to Sebastian's surprise, the Stupefy spell's power proved less potent against the Frost Giants than he'd hoped. As immensely resilient magical creatures, Frost Giants boasted a natural resistance to magic. A Stupefy that could knock a robust human soldier out cold only left the giants dazed, their movements sluggish. They needed only a brief pause to shake off most of the effect and regain their fierce combat prowess.
Realizing this, Sebastian understood that spells like Stupefy lacked the lethal edge needed against Frost Giants, so he didn't hesitate any longer. With the townsfolk of Puente Antiguo mostly evacuated, he had no reason to restrain his full power.
Hovering in the air, Sebastian brandished his wand at the Frost Giants below and intoned a dark incantation.
Fiendfyre!
With the utterance of the Fiendfyre Curse, a torrent of black-and-red hellfire erupted from the tip of Sebastian's wand. Fueled by the hellfire authority he'd unlocked through his magic, it morphed into a ferocious wave of flame, crashing down like a blazing tsunami, instantly engulfing the Frost Giants, who let out frantic roars and cries of terror!
The hellfire also surged toward Laufey, but before it could so much as singe him, an ice-blue aura flared from Laufey's towering form, forming a shimmering barrier that repelled the flames entirely.
As the king of the Frost Giants, his raw might had once rivaled Odin himself. Even without the Casket of Ancient Winters, his primary weapon, Laufey was no easy foe to topple. Through centuries of wielding the Casket, he had mastered a fragment of ice authority's chilling power.
Authority clashed against authority!
Even if hellfire burned with an inferno hot enough to consume anything, it couldn't touch Laufey when pitted against the frigid strength born of ice authority.
The icy power within Laufey's body radiated outward, shimmering like auroras and rippling across the battlefield, reaching the Frost Giants ensnared by hellfire. It swiftly banished the flames from their bodies, freeing them from the fiery grip!
The Frost Giant warriors Laufey had brought were his elite, each one a precious asset, and he couldn't stand idly by as Sebastian's flames threatened to annihilate them.
But Laufey clearly overlooked a critical detail: he wasn't the only one present who could wield the power of ice!
Sebastian's right hand firmly gripped his wand, maintaining control over the raging hellfire.
With a deliberate motion, Sebastian raised his left hand, and the Frost Ring on his finger glowed with a piercing ice-blue light. At the same time, the pupil of his left eye shifted to a stark, glacial blue. He extended his hand and pointed at the ice-blue auras cloaking the Frost Giant warriors. Those protective auras instantly shattered and faded into nothingness.
At that moment, the hellfire, no longer blocked by ice authority, roared forward with savage hunger, finally swallowing the Frost Giants whole in its searing embrace, reducing them to scattered ashes.
Though Sebastian yearned to study Frost Giant corpses, the chaos of battle left no room for restraint. Besides, with plenty of Frost Giants descending on Earth this time, he'd have ample chances to collect specimens later!
The Frost Ring could disrupt the ice authority within the Frost Giant warriors' bodies, but it couldn't touch Laufey, whose mastery of ice authority ran far deeper.
The shadowy wings of black smoke behind Sebastian quivered faintly, and he descended slowly to the frost-covered ground. Facing the enraged Laufey, he said: "Okay, now we can finally have a one-on-one duel, but before that, I want to ask you one thing: why don't you just live peacefully in Jotunheim? Why do you come to Earth to stir up trouble for me?"
"Hand over the Casket of Ancient Winters, and I will forgive you for slaying my warriors just now. Otherwise, I will rip you to shreds today as a tribute to my fallen!" Laufey growled, his voice rumbling like an avalanche.
As he spoke, the ground beneath Laufey's feet and the buildings around him rapidly frosted over with glistening ice. The air's temperature plummeted, soon hitting a bone-chilling dozens of degrees below zero. If Sebastian hadn't wielded the Frost Ring to shield himself from most of the freezing interference, the cold alone might have wounded him.
With a deft flick of his wand, Sebastian summoned the lingering hellfire, which surged upward and formed a blazing wall of flame between him and Laufey.
"Laufey, if I'm not mistaken, it should be Loki who told you that the Casket is in my hands, right?" Sebastian called out, his voice cutting through the crackle of fire.
"I don't want to waste time talking to you. Hand over the Casket!" Laufey roared, his patience fraying.
Laufey advanced step by thunderous step. As he drew closer, Sebastian could distinctly feel the air around him growing colder, the chill biting deeper.
Seeing this, Sebastian said no more. He raised his wand and unleashed a molten, lava-like bolt of Confringo, its fiery plasma streaking toward Laufey.