Melinda chuckled lightly and looked at Hugh with an inexplicable expression before she composed herself,

"First off, it is none of your business as well, and second, do you really think I'll actually let this 'duel' happen?" Melinda asked.

"What if he agrees?" Hugh asked and grinned while his light gold eyes flashed.

Devon leaned forward at the dinner table,

"Yes. I mean you have been quite... verbal about how much this decision does not concern us and I have to agree that it will take a while before we can exact any form of right over you,

However, like it or not, your chosen man can never be a coward. I won't allow it."

Melinda wanted to retort but at that time the sound of footsteps sounded and Isabella returned to the dining hall and took her seat. Her arrival was followed closely by Hal who all eyes turned to.

Marla waved at him and Hal allowed a quick smile before frowning at that intensity of the golden eyed stares he was getting.

Even Damien's wife who mostly acted like this discussion had nothing to do with her was looking at Hal and eyeing him from head to toe,

"Um, hi?" Hal was not really someone to become uncomfortable easily but his Devil bloodline seemed to finally be reacting to that many golden stares.

Hugh stood from his seat and stepped closer to Hal,

"I challenge you to a duel" he said.

Hal's eyes narrowed his eyes at the pressure Hugh was letting show in that 'standoff',

"Are you sure?" He asked.

Hugh looked confused,

"Of course I'm sure" he said.

Hal shook his head slowly,

"No, I don't think you are. If you were, you'll be well aware that receiving genius portion resources for five years is far from enough to make you catch up to the geniuses If other families who have received it all their lives."

Hugh looked even more confused,

"I know that. It's why I spend most of my time in cultivation seclusion. I want to catch up with them. But you are not them..." He turned around to Melinda,

"Cousin, I see why you don't want to allow this duel. He's just trying to get out of it."

Hal raised a hand,

"Hold up, you did not want to allow the duel?" He asked Melinda who smiled and shrugged but said nothing.

Or at least she did not get the chance to say anything before Hugh cut in again,

"Enough of this. If you won't even agree to duel me and only waste time equating yourself to geniuses, you don't deserve my cousin" he said.

Melinda rolled her eyes while Hal said,

"I accept your challenge..." And then to Melinda, he said,

"I'm sorry, I tried"

Melinda shook her head,

"No you didn't" she told him with a smile.

How could Hal not know that the only reason Melinda claimed she would not allow the duel was because she felt it was unnecessary and was confident he would win.

He on the other hand felt it was perfect. He had done his best to call Hugh's attention to the fact that the title of genius the young man had been straddled with lacked the backup of the proper amount of strength.

After all, even after five years, Hugh had not yet surpassed the previous genius, Cirk.

If the 'genius' still wished to be adamant then Hal might as well make use of this and shut up some of the misconceptions about him.

That said, he knew he needed to be cautious.

For one, he was heading into this duel at a handicap in that he could not make use of the peculiarities of his Devil Bloodline.

There was no family who despised the Demonic and Devilish tendencies of those Dystopian tribes as much as the Dane family.

This was on account of numerous teachings and the feeling of animosity ingrained in their Bloodline and they were bound to feel his bloodline abilities for what they really were.

He was going to have to battle with only the use of his cultivation base and maybe a little bit of remastering.

But once again, not too showy...

...

And so we are now back at the Dane family courtyard where Melinda and Cirk only just battled with Hal and Hugh facing one another.

The crowd was not quite as large as before as only the most important who were present when the challenge was made were there to watch.

The most immediate family members were sitting and eagerly awaiting the start which was to be ordered by the Patriarch.

Hugh stretched his hand and summoned his sword Cosmic Armament while Hal summoned his Royal blue sword with one serrated edge and one straight edge.

"Begin"

The moment the order was given, Hugh was already sending a Cosmic attack at Hal who dashed right at it and split it but not without getting forced a few steps back before dashing forward through the partition.

Hugh had no intention of letting him continue on his path as he stabbed his sword into the ground and used his sword to channel cosmic energy into the ground...

"Fourth-grade skill: Tera-Morph"

A four circle ring was summoned and was about forty meters wide with Hugh as the center of that circumference.

The courtyard floor then began to twist and before long, spikes of earth were thrusting out of the ground and pointing directly at Hal who quickly changed his path of movement to evade the spikes but even then he fell into Hugh's trap.

He was now inside the four ringed circle of the Tera-Morph skill and Hugh used it to trap his legs in place as he grinned widely.

Hal made to break free with the use of his physical strength infused with Cosmic energy but found he could not overpower the skill.

"Don't bother trying to break free. As long as I keep concentrating, any strength with relation to Cosmic energy gets siphoned and is used to feed the skills abilities.

Hence trapping you even more." Hugh bragged.

Hal shrugged,

"I'll just interrupt your concentration then." He said and swung his sword to send a Cosmic attack at the Dane genius.

A slab of rock rose out of the ground and intercepted the attack, it was shattered and the debris fell on Hugh, but that was far from being enough to affect the concentration of an expert like him.

However, the same could not be said for multiple Cosmic attacks.

Not one, not two, not three but at the very least eight cosmic attacks were sent to Hugh by Hal who was actually enjoying how things were going so far.

Despite being trapped.

"Insane" was what Hugh yelled as Hal sent Cosmic attack after cosmic attack just to interrupt his concentration.

This was a wastage of the highest order.

Hal was bound to run out of Cosmic energy soon but unfortunately, it would not happen before Hugh was able to seal the deal.

More spikes rose from the ground and targeted Hal but by then his attempts were successful and Hugh's concentration was broken.

Yet, he did not attempt to evade the spikes which continued to move towards him.

A final act, it would seem.

Instead, Hal spent a second and condensed a Cosmic attack which he infused with a cosmic phenomenon and tossed towards the ground in front of Hugh, while clearing the spikes on the way, and he was left with two choices:

Either make use of the skill to create an interception and still suffer debris or simply abandon the skill entirely and completely evade the Cosmic attack.

He picked the latter and leaped backward just as the attack hit the ground and exploded.

Hal did what came naturally which was to use the explosion as a cover to pursue the Hugh so that by the time the Dane genius was getting his feet settled back on solid ground after his leap...

*whoosh*

... Hal was swinging his sword at him.