"Who are you? Why are you here?"
Prince Nuada demanded, his golden eyes narrowing. He reached over his shoulder and drew a short, metallic cylinder.
With a sharp flick of his wrist, the weapon telescoped outward, locking into a lethal, double-bladed spear.
He dropped into a careful, guarded stance.
Under normal circumstances, Nuada would have simply lunged forward planning to impale the intruder.
In his eyes, humans were mere ants; their short, greedy lives held no significance.
However, Nuada hesitated. He didn't know who this man was, what faction he represented, or how much he knew about the Golden Army.
More importantly, his centuries of warrior instinct were screaming at him. He sensed a deeply dangerous, oppressive aura radiating from the human, making him incredibly cautious.
In stark contrast to the visibly tense Prince, Ernst appeared completely relaxed. He looked at the expanding spear with genuine curiosity.
It was undeniably a magical weapon of exquisite craftsmanship, and Ernst felt a sudden urge to dissect it in his lab.
"You ask too many questions," Ernst sighed, dusting off his jacket.
"Frankly, I'm not inclined to answer them. Let's establish the reality of this situation: I am in control here. You are going to lead me to the Golden Army without any further ado."
"Silence! Insignificant ant!" Nuada roared, his pride stung.
"I am Prince Nuada of the Bethmoora clan, and you dare address me with such insolence? Answer my questions, or I will leave your corpse in the sand."
The sheer arrogance of the human only fueled his resolve to wage a genocidal war against them.
Ernst detected the absolute superiority in Nuada's tone and shook his head in mild amusement.
"You self-righteous dark creatures weary me," Ernst replied smoothly.
"You believe yourselves so noble, treating humans as lowly beasts to be slaughtered. But tell me, Prince: if humans are truly so weak, why were you the ones forced into the shadows? Why do you hide in the dirt while they build skyscrapers? Ultimately, humans are the true rulers of this world."
"You see their physical weaknesses, but you fail to recognize their boundless ambition. But enough talking. Let's see what a Prince of the Dark World can actually do."
Realizing he couldn't extract the information with words, Nuada decided to cripple the human first and ask questions later.
He spun his spear, the blades cutting through the air with a deadly hum, and lunged directly at Ernst.
Ernst responded instantly. He moved with liquid agility, weaving and swaying just millimeters out of the spear's deadly path.
He reached into his sleeves to draw his weapons, only to grasp empty air.
He remembered, with a brief flash of annoyance, that he had lost his Vibranium tactical knives during the brutal brawl with Wonder Woman on the beach.
'Bare hands it is', Ernst thought.
Dodging another vicious thrust, Ernst stepped inside Nuada's guard and launched a heavy palm strike aimed directly at the Prince's chest.
Reacting with elven swiftness, Nuada retracted the shaft of his spear, using it to block the strike.
BANG.
A resounding impact echoed across the dunes. A massive wave of kinetic force pushed Nuada backward.
Completely underestimating the human's physical strength, Nuada was sent skidding across the sand.
He executed a quick series of backward handsprings to bleed off the momentum, pressing his hand against the earth to finally stabilize himself.
Nuada's eyes widened. His initial flurry hadn't even grazed the man. This human's speed and raw power matched, or perhaps even exceeded, his own.
Realizing a standard melee approach might lead to his defeat, Nuada shifted his strategy.
A subtle, magical fluctuation emanated from Nuada's palm, traveling up the shaft of his weapon. The spearhead suddenly ignited with a blinding, silver light.
Nuada launched a second assault, altering his marksmanship to target Ernst's vital points with blindingly fast, erratic thrusts.
The glowing silver light on the blade trailed through the air, adding an unpredictable, highly lethal element to the weapon.
Sensing the sheer, cutting density of the magical energy, Ernst opted for a cautious approach.
To avoid a direct confrontation with the enchanted blade, Ernst tapped into his advanced footwork.
He moved with such extreme, localized speed that he seemed to fracture reality, leaving nine distinct, lingering phantoms of himself in a circle around the Prince.
Faced with nine indistinguishable Ernsts, Nuada found himself completely disoriented, forced to shift defensively to swat at the illusions.
He spun his spear furiously, but he couldn't track the true target.
Seizing the opening created by the confusion, Ernst materialized from the mirage. He delivered a brutal, sweeping kick to Nuada's side.
The impact sent the Prince airborne, crashing heavily into the soft sand and carving a deep trench in the dune.
Though his supernatural durability spared him from broken bones, the blow to Nuada's pride was catastrophic.
He, a royal of the Bethmoora, had been kicked into the dirt by a human.
As Nuada rose, his golden eyes burned with absolute, murderous intent. He no longer cared about interrogating the man. He just wanted him dead.
Gripping his spear tightly, Nuada channeled all his rage into the weapon.
The silver light flared brilliantly.
With a sweeping arc, he unleashed a massive barrage, thousands of sharp, silver energy projectiles shot from the spearhead, raining down toward Ernst like a magical meteor shower.
Ernst simply smiled. Recognizing the energy-based nature of the attack, he extended his arms and formed a circular void with his hands, fully activating his absorption ability.
The thousands of lethal silver lights struck the invisible barrier and were instantly swallowed, feeding directly into Ernst's cellular reserves.
He stood completely unharmed.
Nuada froze, utterly astonished to see his ultimate trump card neutralized so effortlessly.
That microsecond of hesitation was all Ernst needed.
He closed the distance, grabbed the shaft of the spear, and effortlessly ripped it from the Prince's grasp.
Driven to absolute madness by the humiliation, Nuada let out a feral scream.
He lunged at Ernst bare-handed, throwing a desperate, full-force punch aimed directly at Ernst's head.
Ernst didn't even try to dodge. He allowed the punch to connect with his jaw.
While the force caused Ernst's head to snap back slightly, his ability instantly absorbed the kinetic payload.
He immediately redirected that exact same kinetic energy back outward.
CRACK.
Nuada winced in agony as the bones in his own hand fractured from the counter-shock.
Before the Prince could recover, Ernst retaliated.
Using the energy he had just absorbed from the punch, Ernst drove his fist directly into Nuada's abdomen.
Nuada folded completely in half, gasping for air.
A second, casual backhand sent the Prince sprawling flat on his back.
Ernst stepped forward and planted his boot firmly onto Nuada's chest.
Humiliated and pinned beneath the heel of the very species he sought to eradicate, Nuada thrashed wildly, flailing his limbs in a desperate attempt to rise.
However, every ounce of kinetic energy he expended in his struggle was instantly absorbed by the sole of Ernst's boot, rendering the Prince entirely immobile.
Unable to move a muscle, Nuada could only vent his absolute frustration with frantic, muffled cries of rage.
Ernst looked down without a single shred of sympathy.
This was a tyrant who dreamed of slaughtering billions of innocent people. His sins were too vast for pity.
With his foot keeping the Prince firmly pinned to the sand, Ernst turned his attention to his newly acquired prize: the elven long spear.
As he ran his fingers over the cool metal, a thorough examination revealed the weapon's true value.
Runic Circuitry: The shaft was engraved with dense, microscopic magic runes that interacted to create various special effects.
Energy Conversion: He identified the specific rune circle responsible for converting the wielder's mana into the lethal "silver light" projectiles.
Self-Recovery: The weapon possessed an automated mending ability. If chipped or broken, it passively absorbed ambient magical energy from the air to repair itself.
Mechanical Shifting: A simple but elegant kinetic mechanism allowed the handle to automatically retract for concealment and extend for combat, while simultaneously enhancing its sharpness.
Ernst's eyes flicked back and forth as he meticulously memorized the runic structures, transmitting the visual data directly to the Red Queen's database via his neural link for future analysis.
Finally, he focused on the metallurgy.
The spear was an alloy, forged from a fusion of several highly conductive magical metals.
"Incredible," Ernst muttered to himself.
He could clearly identify the presence of both Mithril and Fine Gold.
Reflecting on his own tedious, secret efforts to extract trace amounts of magical gold and silver from ordinary precious metals in his lab, Ernst couldn't help but marvel at the sheer, concentrated wealth amassed by the Dark World.
The amount of pure magical metal contained in this single, disposable spear completely eclipsed everything Ernst had managed to synthesize so far.
It was a true testament to the legendary riches hidden in Nuada's ancient domain.
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