Chapter 402 The Tournament’s Result (Part 4)
The crowned prince wasn't in the mood to be acting as a gentleman anymore, he knew Daimon was planning something to humiliate him and he snorted.
"I'm not a battle idiot like you, why should I leave you cast your spell, go to hell!".
"Arsenal Tide!", he shouted.
The huge wave behind of him rippled and then many currents of water separated from the main body, and then soon took the shape of different weapons, spears, swords, hammers, axes of all kinds shapes and sizes formed.
Naturally there was too much water for the crowned prince to shape and manipulate as he pleased, he was using the whole reserves of mana six ninth star ranked water mages, as an external support after all.
Even then, the number of water weapons he created and controlled was around the six hundred in number, it was indeed a tide of weapons, the huge wave used around an eighth part of its size for that, since a great amount of water and mana was condensed into each weapon.
Outside of the maze, the spectators were going crazy at the incredible display of skill and talent that the crowned prince was showing.
At the judge's skybox, Tideus proudly laughed and then glared at Vincent.
"Look at that Vincent, that is the current representative of the younger generation of my Malleus family, even you when you were his age could at most control two hundred creations with Water Armament hahaha!".
Though Vincent didn't bother in answering Tideus's provocation, he was indeed surprised, there is a reason as to why the Malleus are elite of the armed forces of the kingdom, for example Tideus which is the captain of the royal guard leads the elite squad of royal guards, which are all members of the Malleus family.
Vincent during his active time was the same, he led a squad of Malleus soldiers through all the wars and battles that the kingdom faced back then, and was never defeated which earned him the position of the Trident Marshal.
But for that same reason he was suppressed by the royals, since he wasn't directly subordinated to them, as the army technically responds to the queen, a position which was empty back then, so Vincent had the highest authority at a given point.
The result was that his cousin which represented the vast majority of the Malleus, raised to power, took control of the Malleus and became the captain of the royal guard, only then the royals stopped bothering with Vincent, who from the very beginning wasn't really planning anything, he just wanted to bring peace to his homeland.
Anyway, the reason as to why the Malleus are so good in leading armies, is because their innate ability Water Armament, for the most outstanding members of the main branch, there is a change to develop the capacity of controlling the water created with the mana of other people, the effect becomes stronger if they members of the Malleus, but at the same time is harder to do so.
In the whole story of the Malleus, Vincent was the only one who developed that ability before reaching the Stellar rank, that's why his branch was considered the main one, the sight of two hundred weapons made out of mana and water flooding the battlefield along with a tsunami, imparted fear in the hearts of the people of that generation, of which only a few still survived up to this day.
But now Terry revealed he was capable of doing the same, and he could control more of the mana and water of the Malleus family members than Vincent, the number of creations he could shape tripled what Vincent was capable of too, which was indeed amazing.
The Minister was also taken aback, his information net didn't mention anything about this, some unpleasant memories of the Vincent of back then flooded his mind, making him grit his teeth.
'No, Walford won't be outshined like I was, while those two try to destroy each other, prepare and act when you see a change to snatch the victory!', he inwardly screamed.
The king was all smiles right now, even he didn't know his son was hiding such a trump card.
"As this king expected from my heir, I must reward that child later", he said with an approbatory gaze, while he also showed some affection towards Irma, for giving him such a talented son.
Norma on the other hand had a bitter expression, her sons were eliminated just before reaching the throne room, just a bit more and they would have gotten the recognition of her husband.
Which made the hatred she had for Annete to burn with passion.
'If it weren't for that arrogant bitch, I would have gotten Duke titles for them, and now the little bitch has also gotten in my way, even Valas has allied with her, unforgivable!', she swore in her heart.
Triten could notice the expression on his other wife's and he dragged her into his arms.
"Those two also did it well, I'll personally grant them some merits and allowance as a reward".
...
Leaving aside the public's reaction regarding Terry's advanced capacity to use Water Armament, back at the throne room in the maze, Daimon saw the tsunami accompanied by a rain of weapons, which was charging at him and he smirked.
What's the best way to crush someone, to defeat it in which he excels at of course, since Terry took pride into this lame excuse of an advanced team spell, then he will show him what a real team spell looks like.
Without having to say anything, Aisha and Leslie jumped out of the throne and landed next to Daimon, both in their strongest states already.
Aisha was covered in the pretty light purple shine caused by using Lightning Empress, while, a beautiful pair of large flame wings spread on Leslie's back, though for others weren't visible due to the bracelet of the god of mischief.
For Daimon not only they were perfectly visible, but they even seemed to be trying to get his attention, by brightly shinning in a pretty orange light.
Daimon placed one hands on those two's backs making them smile, Aisha's skin shone in a silver light and then her body exploded in silver and purple lightning, for Leslie her hair radiated a pretty orange light, making it look like flames dancing, Daimon could already foresee how her Manifestation Phenomenon will look like once she reached the Lord rank, her body was bathed in red-orange flames too.
Those two's mana outputs went through the roof right now, to the point that the mana which was being expelled out of their bodies had reached the ceiling of the throne room.
The lightning which was crackling around Aisha, had heated up to the point that the ground which was hit by it had crystalized due to the high temperature of the electricity, many forget that lightning can even outshine the sun in terms of temperature, because even the most skilled lightning users don't dare to carelessly use "hot lightning", out of fear.
"Silver Storm", Aisha's pretty lips opened and a couple of words, accompanied by a torrential wave of lightning echoed through the room, it was a literal sea of lightning, as to why it had the word "silver" on it, was because the lightning was combined with metal element, so that Aisha was able to manipulate its direction, instead of just shooting it frontwards, like her thunder arrow which she had no way to change its direction, due to the extreme speed of the laser-like attack.
That was Aisha's way to keep the hot lightning under her control, she was ruling its course and route using her metal mana, just like an Empress would do with her subjects, that was the origin of the name of her boosting original spell.
Leslie wasn't going to be left behind, all the fire mana she had gathered and mixed with Daimons mana, swirled around her body and then she casted the widest range spell she had in her repertory right now, which was also her strongest spell, that she didn't like to use as it will fully deplete the mana that Daimon gave to her, but right now she was given a blank check to use Daimon's mana, so she didn't restrain herself.
"Feather Massacre, Phoenix Flutter", normally this spell required her to use the fighting style Phoenix Dance of her family which focused on fluid movements, that made her look as if she was a gracious bird dancing, before she released all her mana in a wave of flames, but she changed it and now, she just flapped her pretty wings and a torrent of fire waves was casted "out of nowhere" for the eyes of the public at least.
"Booom!", the tsunami clashed with the lightning storm and the waves of fire and the result was an enormous amount of mist, as the water was evaporated by Leslie's fire, as for the water mana weapons that were mixed on it, they were extinguished by Aisha's lightning until there was nothing.
"Impossible!", outside of the maze, Tideus suddenly stood up and shouted, that tsunami used the mana reserves of six ninth star mages, and it was countered with just two girls using spells.
Naturally they supposed Daimon did something, since he earlier said that he was going to show Terry how does a real team spell looks like, but they didn't see him doing anything, a team spell requires a group to use the same spell, then the one who leads controls it, which is what Terry did, he added the usage of Water Armament to further increase the strength of the attack, and that was the difference between him and a regular mage using a team spell.
But what Daimon did was different, he didn't cast any spell and he guided mana into Aisha and Leslie's mana circuits, which they then mixed with theirs to cast an amplified version of their spells, that required both the caster and the one acting as a back up to be in the same page and trust each other at their fullest, because a mistake will harm both of them.
This is what Daimon called it a true team spell, since he wasn't just taking control of their spells, but actively participating in the cast from the very beginning, naturally this was possible for him, since his mana was able to complement the one of others without any clash, for some reason, probably it had to be with his magic core and the fact that he could learn all the affinities he wanted.
Terry whose figure came out of the mist, was gritting his teeth, he managed to block those two extremely strong spells but all the water and mana he got from his teammates was gone just like that.
"Humph, you got the help of two early-stage middle Mortal level mages, so what, personal strength is what truly matters at the end of the day!", shouted the crowned prince.
Aisha has always been using the bracelet to make herself look like a Mage Lord, since her battle prowess is at that level, and further increases when she used Lightning Empress, as for Leslie, with her wings spread she also had the aura of a Lord ranked, thus explaining why Terry confused them like that.
Terry's body suddenly grew a head taller, a line of yellow light appeared above his left eye, and his realm jumped a lesser level, from the middle stage Lord realm to the late stage, that was the innate ability of the White Royal Shark lineage, Bloodlust.
His previous gentle and elegant demeanor akin to a scholar was long gone, and now a cruel light shone in his eyes, which were bloodshot.
Daimon waved his hand and all the mist was dispersed to reveal the current Terry, who was exuding a mana pressure stronger than what Lance manage to do earlier, just for a bit though.
"Clang!", both the crowned prince and Daimon flashed and then clashed on the air just above Leslie, Terry wanted to eliminate the fire mage, since she could be a nuisance for his water spells.
But naturally Daimon didn't allow him to do as he pleased, the shockwave was quite something, to the point that even if they were a couple of hundreds of meters above them, Aisha and Leslie's pretty hairs waved due to the gusts of wind released after the impact.
Sparks flew all over the place, when Disaster clashed with the sword of the crowned prince, whose pupils contracted like needles, his blue mineral sword called Torrent, was actually chipped in the first exchange.
Not only that, if his attack was like a stream of water, Daimon's slash was like a limitless mountain, no matter how much he pushed forward he couldn't gain the advantage.
'What the hell, I'm using Water Armament on top of full Half Stellar equipment, while being at the peak of the middle Mortal level thanks to Bloodlust, why can't I push him back, even Lance had to take a few steps back, despite his monstrous physical strength!', he swore in his heart.
Daimon could almost read Terry's thoughts, based on his currently twisted expression, the crowned prince is the type of guy who has never suffered any setback, he was born a prince and a genius, praised by his father, raised, nurtured and admired by a whole kingdom, he grew with the idea of being at the top of the food chain since he had use of reason.
So now that his supremacy was defied another "alpha", he was about to lose it, it's not like Daimon isn't privileged having the system, not to mention Aisha and the girls who are his greatest treasure, but all of that is something he got in this life.
The sensation of going to sleep with hunger, the cold asphalt on which he had to sleep almost all his childhood, the burning pain of being hit with a metal tube by the scumbag of a father he had, and the desire for the warmness of a mother, those are things Daimon will never forget.
When he came to this world, he tried to deny his past and just enjoy this second chance he was given, but then his momentary happiness was shattered when Aisha died protecting him, it was then when he learned an important lesson, trued happiness isn't given to anyone, the sensation of peace that living under the roof another people bring is fake, happiness must be attained, if not by peaceful means, then by blood and the sword.
All what he has experienced forged the current Daimon, and while he knows he is way too far from his goal, he won't lose to a fake predator.
"Stop getting in my way and go to hell already!", shouted Terry, his already chaotic aura, increased a second time, and he actually set a foot in the Arch rank, Bloodlust was a boosting innate ability that could push him at most three lesser realms, naturally it had its own limitations, with each lesser realm, the rationality of the user will be lost, as they were resorting to the wild instincts of their lineage to increase their power.
Still the aura Terry was exuding caused distortions on the nearby area, he artificially reached the Archmage realm after all, still he was somewhat able to articulate his thoughts, and he extended his hand to gather his mana on it, until a blue sword appeared on it.
Outside of the maze, Vincent saw the current scene and he frowned, for those extremely talented members of the main branch of the Malleus family, once they reach the Arch rank, their strongest creation with Water Armament which is the Warhammer, changes to the weapon of their choose, for him it was a trident, apparently Terry chose a sword.
'It's still incomplete since he achieved it through artificial means, but it's not something a Lord rank as that kid call it, can block', he thought.
But seeing that Annete wasn't showing any trace of nervousness, Vincent remained silent, not only that, he noticed that there was a characteristic smile on the face of the silver haired youth, which has caused him too much exaltation for a day.
Back at the throne room, Daimon's smirked, his body exploded in white-silver lightning as he activated Core Synchrony, since his knight realm wasn't increased by it, he used his now stronger mage realm to pour in lots of mana into his martial art, this time he used light mana to be more accurate.
Unlike when he fought with Lance, the lightning surrounding him didn't make any noise, in fact it didn't look like lightning, it seemed more like thousands of threads of white battle aura, he noticed he couldn't give form to this power, but it was enough for what he needed for now.
He could feel Disaster trembling in his hand, as well as Narasha's excited state, they were raring to break the sword of the crowned prince.
'What am I going to do with these capricious girls', he thought, before he turned into a ray of white light.
"Haaa!", Terry swinged both his magic weapon and the blue sword he created through his innate ability at the same time, and just the air pressure created a strong current of wind, but right now Daimon fully ignored anything and just became a white flash that flew through the air towards the crowned prince.
He looked like a comet leaving behind a white trail, which gave the name to this ability, not even a couple of seconds later Daimon appeared in front of the crowned prince and swung Disaster at him.
"White Universe, Comet Sword".
"Crack!!!", the black one-edged sword first destroyed the blue sword created through Water Armament, by cutting right through it, what a joke it was a condensation of energy, and Disaster feasted on any kind of energy, even then it was just the aperitive, the main dish was that perfectly crafted sword Terry used.
What happens when an object with eighty tons of weight, is accelerated by light and then clashes against something, the answer is simple, it goes through it.
And that's what happened not only the sword of the crowned prince exploded upon contact, becoming countless of little shards that spread all over the place some were incrusted on Terry's arm, while others tried to harm Daimon just to be stopped by him using the gloves Thea gifted him.
Terry didn't even have time to process the pain of the pieces of his sword entering his arm, because that same arm was blown away by the twenty meters wide ray of white light shot by Disaster, that was Daimon's previous attack.
For a couple of seconds, the mirror plates only reflected a white world, until the ray of light clashed against the wall of the throne room.
"Booom!", for the first time since the beginning of the last round, the maze was affected enough for some of its intern components to be exposed, in this case, Daimon's sword attack left a crater of twenty meters of diameter and ten meters of depth on the wall of the throne room.
"Ahhh!", Terry who fell from the sky after losing his artificial Archmage rank, not to mention his right arm from its origin at the shoulder which was scalded due to the previous attack he received, screamed and rolled on the ground in pain.
The right side of his face was also burned just by the proximity to that previous attack too, but his sword managed to absorb some of the impact, which prevented the life-saving array from activating as this wasn't a life-threatening wound, though it for sure hurt him like hell.
Still his arm didn't disappear, as he was using an extremely sturdy armor, Daimon's attack managed to create a breach on the armor of the shoulder and Disaster cut through it, thus separating it from his body.
Daimon whose black sword was now radiating heat and steam due to that previous attack, stopped Core Synchrony and the white radiance that was cladding him earlier disappeared, he then approached Terry who was bleeding from his mouth and said.
"You are right, personal strength is really important, that's why I never loosen up, otherwise I wouldn't be qualified to have such good companions", Daimon looked back at Aisha and the other girls who were enjoying the show.
"Y-You... blegh!", Terry vomited blood, maybe because his words were sent back at his face or maybe because he suffered internal wounds in the previous exchange, in any case the array activated and took him out of the maze.
Daimon on the other hand stretched his body, even after using Core Synchrony and such a big move as Comet Sword, which used around ¾ of his mana reserves along with the physical impact of him swinging Disaster at a high speed, to release a highly concentrated slash, he was fresh as a lettuce.
The merit of this went to Jasmin, because now that Sanctuary allowed him to fully recover two aspects, and since Core Synchrony isn't related to his Knight cultivation, he just had to recover his mana and stamina to full, before deactivating Core Synchrony and it was as if he haven't used it to begin with.
Daimon turned around and saw the unsightly expression on Walford's face, when Terry's sword was destroyed, he heard a notification triggering, but he hasn't checked it, he has already crushed ten sword users, so he could simply eliminate Walford, but he wanted to test something, if overscore still counted after the mission was completed as long as the "battle" hasn't ended.
And right here, he had the eleventh sword user ready to become his guinea pig.
Daimon started walking towards Walford, with Disaster in his hand, the edge of the sword was still slightly red due to the remaining heat of the previous attack, it was to the point that with each step of Daimon, the air hit the edge and red sparks were produced.
'Fuuuuck, where is the damn opening!', inwardly cursed Walford, even if he were to use his trump card, he wouldn't be stronger than Terry just with that, and Daimon easily crushed him, he was suppressing the urge to runaway seeing the monster coming his way, he knew he stand no chance, but there was still a way to snatch victory.
As if Walford's prays were answered, he saw a coded message coming from his grandfather and a big smile appeared on his face as he jumped to the left side of the room, followed by his teammates.
'The fourth effect of the lake, left side, don't you dare to lose', was what the message sent by Raymond said.